This file is a special BLACK MAGIC Hypertext document. To read me
obtain MAGREAD.ARC from a local bulletin board, free of charge, or
send $7 to:
NTERGAID
2490 BLACK ROCK TPK SUITE 337
FAIRFIELD, CT 06840
to receive, a disk copy of MAGREAD.ARC.
You'll also get some of the latest documents written with BLACK MAGIC.
Thank You
NTERGAID, Inc.
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F ////////////////////L ////////////////////M ////////////////////N ////////////////////O ////////////////////P N N ////////////////////Q ////////////////////R ////////////////////S ╫Q 7N î╪6+ X├εå─Bε ╫Q 7N î╪6+ X├εå─Bε ╫Q 7N î╪6+ X├εå─Bε ╫Q 7N î╪6+ X├εå─Bε ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ HELP │ │ NEXT │ │ PREVIOUS│ │ CONTENTS│ │ QUIT │ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ Chapter 2. Files ... The use of organized sets of computer data called files is central to the use
of Black Magic. Files are stored on disk, and contain all the data that
relates to a document or program. Along with files go two other concepts, the directory and the
subdirectory. File Types
File Commands The Directory A directory is a data organization on a disk containing groups of files. Disks
can have one directory, or many directories. Most floppy disks tend to have
just a single directory, due to their small size, whereas most hard disks tend to have many directories. Typically each directory on a disk has a
specific purpose. Examples Benefits The subdirectory is just what it sounds like. It is a directory within another
directory, hence a SUBdirectory. Subdirectories allow you to organize your
disk even more. Examples For example there might be one directory used for your word processor and its document files, and one directory used for your spreadsheet and its files. Benefits This manner of setting up directories by application is an easy way to organize your disk storage. It benefits you by neatly segregating your different applications and their data files from other applications and their data files. File Types Black Magic uses several different types of files, each identified by its own
unique file extension. Text Files Magic or .MAG Files Graphics Macros Bookmarks Text Files Text files are just that, files that contain only text. There are no
formatting codes or anything else in these files besides plain text. Text
files are generic, they are generally transferrable between different
programs, and they owe no particular allegiance to any one program. Problems Occasionally a word processor that claims to work with ascii files correctly
does not do so. The area that they usually have as error in concerns their
handling of tabs. Tabs can be saved in ascii as either a group of five spaces
(correct) or a special tab character (incorrect). For the text files that have this problem, there is a file called FIXTABS.BAS on the system
disk. This program will strip the tabs from a document. Magic or .MAG Files It is for this reason that Black Magic has its own default file format, that
of the .MAG file. Black Magic always saves files with a filespec of:
filename.MAG, i.e. the ".MAG" extension is always appended to the name of any
file saved from within Magic. It serves to indicate that the file is a special
hypertext file created by Black Magic. Black Magic's file format is designed
to facilitate the future changes that will be made in Black Magic such that
there will be no file format incompatibilities between existing Black Magic files and newer versions of Black Magic. DOS Type Command When .MAG files are looked at using the DOS type command, the following
message is displayed: This file is a special BLACK MAGIC Hypertext document. To read me obtain MAGREAD.ARC from a local bulletin board, free of charge, or send $10 to: NTERGAID 2490 Black Rock Turnpike Suite 337 Fairfield, CT 06430 to receive, a disk copy of
MAGREAD.ARC. You'll also get some of the latest documents written with BLACK MAGIC. Thank You NTERGAID, Inc. MAGIC and MAGREAD are products of NTERGAID, INC. This above message is a part of all .MAG files. The MAGREAD.ARC file is a data
compressed file that contains the reader
programs to read Black Magic files without a copy of Black Magic. Graphics Graphics Black Magic's screen grabber, GRABIT.COM, creates graphics files in a format
that Black Magic can load and display on screen. This format has the
extension of ".MGR". Macros Creating Macros Another type of file is used to hold user defined macros, and bears the
extension ".MAC". Bookmarks Black Magic also uses a file format of .BKM to hold bookmarks in files.
Bookmarks are simply pointers to a location inside a file which are generated
uypon exiting from Black Magic. They allow you to reload a document file to the exact spot that you left it at.
File Commands Keyboard ShortCuts Notes On Using File Commands To handle the concepts of files and directories, Black Magic includes a full range of file commands. File commands are issued from the file submenu (<F10> F). When this menu is displayed, it offers the user the following choices: Open Save Change Dir Files Dos Shell Import\Export Print Exit These commands have the following meanings. Open is used to load files into Black Magic. Save is used to save files to disk. Change Dir is used to change the active directory. Files is used to display the files in a directory. Dos Shell shells Black Magic to DOS. Import\Export brings up a menu for the import and export of ASCII text files and for the import of Graphics files. Print is used to print out files. Exit is used to exit from Black Magic. Keyboard ShortCuts Black Magic has keyboard shortcuts for most commonly used commands to bypass the menus. The following is a list of such commands related to file operations. Command Function <F9> Save <Shift><F9> Load Graphics <Alt><F9> Load <Ctrl> <F9> Text in <Ctrl> E Export Text Notes on Using File Commands Open When the Open command is issued, it displays the current directory setting with the filename. To change any of it is done with <Del>, <BackSpace>, and the <ArrowKey>. Files The Files command displays a directory mask (*.*) first for you to change and only displays a directory after <Enter> is pressed. Change Dir Change Dir displays the current drive/directory for you to change. HELP C3 C1 CONTENTS d cls C10 C11 C10
