A.C.E. 2

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Text File | 1994-11-27 | 15.5 KB | 289 lines

PAGESETTER REVIEW Typed in by ???. Edited by PARASITE. We recommend that before you begin using the program - read the manual! PageSetter is a complex, well thought out, multi-screened, but easy to use program. When PageSetter opens after double clicking its icon, you will find a large beige coloured screen with a garbage can in the lower left corner. At the right side of the screen you will see a column of gadget boxes filled with various hieroglyphics. Pressing the right mouse button reveals five menus. They are Project, Department, Art Board, Page, Box, and Preferences. It is not until you select a menu that you discover that there are indeed keyboard short cuts (Right Amiga key + keyboard letter) that enable you to activate some menu choices... Project/Rename Under the project menu is a feature called "Rename." As PageSetter is a memory intensive program, "Rename" allows you to name a document without bringing up the "Save as" requester which might use ust enough memory to bring a visit from the GURU... (If you find yourself in an out of memory situation, PageSetter will save your document under the title of "Emergency.save") Department The department menu allows you to enter the "Text Editor", "Graphics Editor", or "Let's you print your document!" by choosing "Press". Department/Text Editor Selecting "Text Editor" from the "Department" menu takes you to a new screen. There is a scroll bar on the right and in the menu bar you read... PageSetter: Editor.......Line 0, Col 0, Insert.......... with front to back gadgets that take you to the workbench window and screen, but not to PageSetter's main screen. Pressing the right menu button reveals three menus. They are Project, Edit and Block. The default colours for this screen are black with white text. This choice makes the text you enter easy to read, and lengthy sessions less fatiguing to the eye. The "Text Editor" is a powerful and easy to use word processor with many features. Project/Text Editor/Project/Load Selecting "Load" from the Project menu reveals a sub-menu that allows you to import Generic (ascii files), or files directly from TextCraft or Scribble!! The "Editor" automatically converts the codes used for Underline, Italic, Bold, Paragraph, etc., in Textcraft and Scribble, to the "embedded" text enhancement codes used by PageSetter's "Editor". This feature works real well. The only slight problem with importing some files from TextCraft was discovering some hidden carriage returns and paragraph markers. But, these were easily fixed with PageSetter's "Editor." Of the embedded enhancement commands. "A handful of easy to remember commands which begin with a "backslash" character followed by "b" for bold text, "o" for outlined text, "i" for italics, or combinations thereof make it simple to create interesting and readable text." It would have been nice if these commands and other "Editor" keyboard short cuts were printed on a pull out page or card for quick reference. The list of formatting commands on page 4-2 of the manual is not complete. The end of paragraph command "Backslash p" is missing. If you are using justified mode for text, this command is v e r y n e c e s s a r y! As I was editing this document, I accidentally hit F10 instead of delete and discovered a new edit command! You can "over type" a word to replace it! What other hidden delights are there????? Editor/Project/Print When you select "Print" from the Editor's "Project" menu you will discover an extensive sub-menu that will allow you to change your printer's preferences without loading the preferences program from the workbench window (another memory saving short-cut)!!! If you have ever published a newsletter, or printed a lengthy document of any kind, you know that you will need someone else to proof read the text! One feature in the print sub-menu will allow text to be dumped directly to your printer. You can even choose double spacing -for easy editing. Another nice feature! Editor/Edit The "Editor's Edit" menu reveals requesters for finding and replacing text. There are requesters for changing the direction of "Search" and for re-toggling the "Replace" mode. You can choose "Mark" and it will Mark" or remember the current location of the cursor in your document. Now you can continue moving through the document. When you want to return to your "Marked" postion, select "Exchange." You will automatically return to your previous position without having to scroll through the whole doc to find the spot. Now you can do your "edit" (block, cut and/or paste). The Text Editor works well and is an asset to the program. Using the mouse to change the position of the cursor sometimes triggers the block feature, but other than that there seem to be no major problems. Department/Graphic Editor Selecting "Graphic Editor" from the "Department" menu takes you to yet another screen. This screen appears blank, except for what looks like a calculator in the lower left corner. This is the "Graphics Editor" gadget selector. Each little box, filled with an hieroglyphic, allows you to select a drawing tool. The most important gadget in the "Graphic Editor" gadget box is the "Frame" gadget. You must "Frame" your graphic before you can paste it down on a page. Pressing the right mouse button reveals five menus: Project, Frame, Shades, Text, and Preferences. The entire PageSetter program runs in medium resolution 640 x 200 pixels. The Graphic Editor only supports black and white pictures with shades of gray represented by dot and line hatchings in different arrays. The manual states that any graphics imported to PageSetter should be in this resolution (Med-res) to reduce distortions by bringing in pictures from 320 x 200 (Lo-res) or 640 x 400 (Hi-res) resolution modes. Forget about trying to bring in graphics from Hi-res! PageSetter loads the graphic from Hi-res with each second line blank! We were able to import Lo-res pics with no problem and found that drawings made on Apple's Macintosh looked real good. Clip-Art PageSetter incudes some "clip-art", however, we were not very impressed with the enclosed selection. The enclosed "clip-art" was at best primitive... Frame/Clip/(5:4 or 1:1) The "Frame" menu contains a very useful tool that allows you to clip your art so that when it is printed, the image will be corrected for distortion. The distortion is caused by the the difference between what you see on the screen (the pixels are not square) and how your printer interprets what is on the screen. A circle on the screen will be printed by your printer slightly elongated or oval in shape. PageSetter allows you to clip your art so that, "what you see on the screen -is what you will get from your printer." By selecting "Clip" from the "Frame" menu and "Scale 5:4" from "Clip's" sub-menu, you can paste down art that will not be distorted by the printer. BUG... In the "Graphic Editor." - when selecting different modes from the "Text" menu, you also wind up toggling "Graphic Editor/Preference" menu choices! It was very disturbing to select from the "Text" menu, "Fg only" (Fore ground only), and a have the workbench window pop up. The gadget selector disappears when you choose "Fg + Bg" (Fore ground + Back ground). The coordinates turn off (or on) when you click on "compliment"... If you use Dpaint or Images as a graphics program, you will find PageSetter's "Graphics Editor" quite primitive, and frustrating. However, do take advantage of being able to adjust your graphic for distortion. You might find the (Fg + Bg) Text mode very useful for placing text into your art where the text overlaps the art and the background colour changes. Try the different embedded text commands. The entire graphics screen represents a page size that measures only 5.325 by 3.455 inches (31.95 by 20.729 picas). In other words, when you place a graphic on a page, it will be a lot smaller than you think... As a result if you want larger text, make it in one of the other IFF graphic programs and import it over to PageSetter. 3]PageSetter/Art Board Returning to the main screen we find that the "Art-Board" menu lets you set ruler margins and grid size on the paste-up page. You can choose inches or picas (a pica is almost 1/6th of an inch and the manual states that as far as PageSetter is concerned a pica is 1/6th of an inch). Page/Create When you choose "Page/Create" from The PageSetter main screen menu, you are beginning the creative process of "typesetting" a page. Selecting "Create" brings up a requester that allows you to choose Standard (U. S. Letter size) or a Legal sized page. There are two mysterious boxes marked A4 and A6... with no documentation as to what those choices stand for... we were told something vague about Canadian Standards (other than USA?) and you can read the strange page sizes below the page size gadgets (A4 = 8.25 x 11.694 and A6 = 8.25 x 6.000). You can type in the exact page size if you so desire... from 1 x 2 inches up to legal size. Choosing "Page/Default" allows you to set the same format for every page. However, you cannot rotate or turn a page sideways. In the "Create" requester you can also choose page margins (top, left, right and bottom) and the number and size of the columns you want on the page. Once a page is created, you cannot delete it from the program. When you click ok, a page appears on the screen. You are now ready to "pour" graphics and text on to the page... Boxes.... Boxes, we got boxes, small, large, overlapping... that's the secret that makes PageSetter so powerful, and so easy to work with. Any time you want to put text or a graphic on a page you either make a custom box or use the "auto-box" function. You also have to make a "Box" before you can activate the "Box" menu. To make a box, select the box gadget on the right hand side of the screen. Now drag your mouse across the page making the box any size you want. You can also place boxes on top of each other, or make them over lap. The boxes can be moved around on the page the same way you can move windows around on the workbench screen. You can draw a series of boxes on several different pages. By using the link gadget, the boxes can be joined together so that text poured into box "one" will spill over into box "two" on the next page, and if there is still text left over, it will spill into the "third" box... until you use up all your text... (to be continued on page ?) PageSetter/Box/Current Once you have made a box, and you have clicked on it once to "activate" it, you can choose the "Box" menu choice "Current" and set the following characteristics for that box. Transparency: Toggles whether the box will be transparent or cast a shadow (you can hide text or part of a graphic by drawing a box on top of it) Justification: Sets justification left, right, left and right, or centered. Margins: Sets margins for text ithin the box (this helps keep the text away from any borders you might draw around the box). Background: You can set Background colour ranging from white to black with total of 16 choices (if you want to use the reverse type option for a word, you have to make the page beneath the reversed word opposite the colour of the text). Borders: Six choices, but nothing fancy. Border postions: Three choices, a box, column lines, and a line for the top and bottom of a column. Leading: Sets the separation between lines of text. Tracking: Sets the maximum letter separation for micro-justification in flush (left and right) justification of type. Fonts: Unfortunately this requester does not allow you to access another disk drive, it will only read what is in PageSetter's workbench font directory. To access fonts - before you boot up PageSetter, you will have to use the CLI and the assign command. (Assign fonts df1: fonts). Boxes/Default You can set a default value for all the boxes, on every page. If you open a New Pagesetter program, it will open with the programs original defaults. Gadgets To help you align boxes on a page, gadgets are available for turning on and off -rulers, grids, margins, and the outlines of the available boxes drawn on the page. The Pudding... You are now ready to place text and graphics into their boxes. "Now go to PageSetter's "Text" or "Graphic Editor" and "bring back" a graphic or text to the layout page. If you are bringing in text, click the "write" gadget. Your pointer will turn into the pencil icon. Now click anywhere in the active box. Text will fill the box. If all the text from the Editor cannot be displayed in that box, "Chain" or "Link" the active box to another box and the "unused" text will spill over into the chained or linked box." "If you notice an error or want to change some text, make the box that contains the error the active box. Then click the "Edit" gadget. This takes you directly into the Text Editor along with the text you wish to change. This means you don't have to go back to your word processor, make the correction or change, save the doc, and then import it back into PageSetter." "If you bring back a graphic, click the "Paint" gadget, and your pointer will turn into a brush. To paste down the "clipped graphic" you are bringing back, click the brush anywhere in the active box. At the bottom of the gadget box on the right hand side of the screen are four compass arrows. These compass arrows are for adjusting the position of the graphic inside the box. That's all there is to it " Additional Features There are gadets for zooming in on a page to read text, or check for grammatical style or to examine a graphic. You can zoom out and see how the layout on the whole page appears. An additional gadget allows you to scroll around on the close-up page, as you can only see one-eighth of a page at a time in close-up mode. PageSetter:Preferences The "Preferences" menu allows you to change default colours for the paper, ink and grid lines. However, when you are ready to print your docs, the printer routine will force you change back to the default settings. (the page must be white and the ink black). (The Amiga Utility/Notepad forces you to do the same thing when you try to print the page as a graphic). Preferences/Quickmove When you toggle Preferences/Quickmove the current box only displays the outline of the box. When you are organizing a page this is a handy feature. Every time you move a box, the text is deleted from the box and then "poured" back in to the box after you have repositioned it... It is quite time consuming to wait for the text to get into place. The Preferences menu also allows you to toggle some memory management tools, that may save the day when you are working with a large document. However, as stated in the manual... save often... (Trust no one... ) Additional BUGS PageSetter comes with two extra sub-routines. A routine called PageIFF that allows you to save your PageSetter doc as an IFF graphic. And a routine called PagePrint,for printing your document without booting up the larger memory intensive PageSetter program. The PageIFF page saving routine does not work! If you have Dpaint or Images, the routine appears to work because these programs only show you the top part of a page. With Dpaint II you can load the whole page (width = 960 x height 792) pixels. The top 272 pixels are okay, but the rest of the page is a mess.