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- CONFIGURING YOUR PRINTER
-
- When NYWord starts up, it searches your disk for a file named
- WPPRMENU. This file contains the default settings that will be used in the
- printer menu that is displayed whe you print a document. The first line of
- WPPRMENU contains the name of your printer. This name should be the same
- name as the PRT file you use, MINUS the ".prt" extension. For instance, if
- I have an EPSON FX-80 printer, I want to use the EPSON.PRT file which comes
- with NYWord. Therefore, the first line of my WPPRMENU file should be
- "epson". If you want to use a different PRT file, change the first line of
- the WPPRMENU file and SAVE IT IN ASCII!!!!
-
- A "PRT" file contains a list of control sequences which NYWord sends
- to your printer in order to print effects like underlining, boldfacing,
- etc. An entry in the PRT file consists of a two letter sequence, an equal
- sign, and a control string. If you modify this file, you must SAVE IT IN
- ASCII!!! NYWord comes with a file called SKELETON.PRT which serves as a
- template for creating new PRT files. NYWord also comes with a program
- called NYWPRT.EXE. This program is a form based program for modifying and
- creating PRT files.
-
- CONTROL STRINGS
-
- A control string is a list of one or more bytes which must be sent
- to your printer in order to have your printer perform certain actions.
- Because your printer often needs control bytes which are not printable on
- your screen, we use a certain notation to specify these characters.
-
- In addition to specifying regular characters, you can have the following
- codes in your control string :
-
- ^A-^Z - sends <CTRL> A through <CTRL> Z (ASCII 1 thru 26)
- ^[, ^\, ^], ^^, ^_ decimal 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
-
- \nnn - sends the decimal value nnn. For instance, \234 sends the
- value 234 to the printer. 'nnn' can be up to 3 digits,
-
- \E - sends the ESCAPE character (ASCII 27)
- \b - sends a backspace (ASCII 8)
- \Z - sends a zero (ASCII 0)
- \\ - sends a backslash
-
- As an example, let's examine the control string that NYWord sends to
- an EPSON printer in order to turn underlining on and off. We have the
- following two lines in the EPSON.PRT file :
-
- us=\E-\1
- ue=\E-\Z
-
- The "us" parameter means "underline start". The bytes we send to the
- EPSON to turn underlining on are an ESCAPE (\E), a minus sign (-), and the
- ASCII value 1 (\1). To turn underlining off, we send ESCAPE, minus, ASCII 0
- (\Z).
-
- As another example, the control string \E1G^F\237 would send to the
- printer a decimal 27, decimal 49 ('1'), decimal 71 ('G'), decimal 6
- (^F), and decimal 237
-
-
- FONT INFORMATION
-
- You You can have a choice of 26 fonts, labelled 'a' through 'z'. The two
- letter sequence for a font starts with the letter 'F' followed by the small
- letter label. For example, the sequence "Fb=\E&(Osl" defines the control
- sequence that's sent to the printer to change to font 'b'.
-
- If your printer is capable of less than 26 fonts, then just define the
- fonts needed. You do not need to label the fonts starting with the letter
- 'a'. For instance if your printer can only print italics and no other font,
- you can define "Fi" to be the control code to put your printer in italics
- mode. When you enable the font by using <EFFECTS> then respond with the
- letter 'i' when asked for the name of the font.
-
- HOW TO PRINT LINE GRAPHICS
-
- The <GRAPHICS MODE> command (the <CTRL> G key) puts you into a mode
- where you can draw line graphics. There are 11 different graphics charac-
- ters that you can print out. NYWord uses fonts A through K (that's capital
- A through K) to contain the control sequences which draws these line
- graphics on your printer. The following table lists the correspondence
- between the two letter parameters and the line graphic which the control
- sequence draws :
-
- FA - top left corner
- FB - top right corner
- FC - botton left corner
- FD - bottom right corner
- FE - horizontal line
- FF - vertical line
- FG - intersection
- FH - top tee
- FI - bottom tee
- FJ - left tee
- FK - right tee
-
- Some printers (or some memory resident programs) let you print the IBM
- extended ASCII character set. If yours does, then all that needs to be
- specified in each control sequence is the ASCII value of the graphic. For
- instance, the extended ASCII character 180 is the right tee graphic. In
- this case, you would have the line "FK=\180" in your PRT file.
-
- HELP
-
- If you are desperate, MAGMA SYSTEMS will configure your printer for you
- for a modest fee. Contact us for details.
-
-