ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 Shareware Freeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng) / ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I / UTILITY / MISC / PIVOT20.ZIP / MANUAL.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1990-07-05 | 33.9 KB | 1,063 lines

PIVOT! VERSION 2.0 USER'S MANUAL May 1990 TRIUS Inc. 231 Sutton Street, Suite 2D-3 P.O. Box 249 North Andover, MA 01845-1639 Tel. (508) 794-9377 (C) Copyright 1989, 1990 COPYRIGHT NOTICE The PIVOT!(tm) Product is NOT "Public Domain" and it is NOT "Freeware". PIVOT! is a copyrighted software product developed and owned by TRIUS, Inc. located in North Andover, Massachusetts, U.S.A. TRIUS, Inc. grants you without charge the right to reproduce, distribute and use copies of this version of our PIVOT! shareware software product, subject to the limitations specified below, and on the express condition that you do not receive any payment, commercial benefit, or other consideration for such reproduction or distribution, or change this license agreement or the following copyright notice which appears in the software, documentation, user interface, menus and magnetic media: (C) Copyright 1989, 1990 TRIUS, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. You may make and keep back-up copies of the software for your personal use, provided that you copy all the copyright, trademark, and other information indicated on the initial screen display on each backup copy label. You may distribute copies to other persons, but solely for their evaluation (i.e., to decide whether to continue using the product and therefore register) and solely for evaluation by such other persons during a thirty (30) day period. PIVOT! must NOT be sold or otherwise provided as part of a larger system, or as a part of a more inclusive product or service, without express written consent and licensing from TRIUS, Inc. The rights to receive any such financial or other benefit, and to modify the product or employ its components in any kind of derivative work, are reserved exclusively by TRIUS, Inc. Support from users enables us to develop additional features and future versions of the PIVOT! product. You may not reverse-engineer, disassemble, modify, decompile or create derivative works of the product. You acknowledge that the product includes certain trade secrets and confidential information, all of which is the copyrighted intellectual property of TRIUS, Inc. PIVOT! is a trademark of TRIUS Inc. and the TRIUS Logo is a trademark of TRIUS, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. The PIVOT! User's Manual is copyrighted and all rights are reserved. The reproduction of this document, in whole or part, or its conversion to electronic medium are prohibited unless prior written consent has been given by TRIUS, Inc. EPSON is a trademark of Epson America Inc. IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. LOTUS 1-2-3 is a trademark of Lotus Development Corporation HERCULES is a trademark of Hercules Corporation MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Additions and modifications to this program and the manual may be made periodically as needed and they should be considered additions to the material presented herein. LIMITED WARRANTY THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THESE PROGRAMS IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU (NOT TRIUS, INC.) ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY REPAIR, SERVICING, OR CORRECTION. IN NO EVENT WILL TRIUS, INC. BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THESE PROGRAMS, EVEN IF TRIUS, INC. HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS IN ADDITION TO LEGAL RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES SO THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT, UNDERSTAND IT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU FURTHER AGREE THAT IT IS THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN US, WHICH SUPERSEDES ANY PROPOSAL OR PRIOR AGREEMENT, ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATION BETWEEN US. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 WELCOME TO PIVOT! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 REGISTRATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 GETTING STARTED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 WHAT'S ON THE DISTRIBUTION DISK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 OPERATING REQUIREMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 MAKING A WORKING DISK/DIRECTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 STARTING THE PROGRAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 ORGANIZATION OF PIVOT!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 INSTALLING PIVOT! AS AN AS-EASY-AS ADD-IN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 COMMAND SUMMARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 FILE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 BROWSE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 PRINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 GRAPHICS CHARACTER EDITOR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 SELECTING A CHARACTER FONT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ACTIVE WINDOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 CHARACTER TABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 FONT CHARACTER (SETTING/RESET). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 MENU. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 APPENDICES A. PAGE LIMITS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-1 INTRODUCTION WELCOME TO PIVOT! We believe that you will find PIVOT! an excellent program, full of features not found in other packages that cost many times more. PIVOT! uses a spreadsheet like interface which allows you to view and print the contents of a *.WKS or *.WK1 worksheet file created by AS-EASY-AS or other spreadsheet programs. It supports spreadsheets up to 8192 rows x 256 columns and has complete support for special string concatenation operations performed in the spreadsheet. PIVOT! prints the contents of a spreadsheet in either portrait or landscape directions using a wide variety of print control options. Six high definition character fonts are built right into the program (3 Portrait + 3 Landscape). They are COURIER, SANSERIF and TINY. Other special fonts are distributed on the diskette as binary *.TRP (Portrait) or *.TRL (Landscape) font files. A companion program GCHAR (Graphics Character Editor, See Section on GCHAR) permits you to customize any character or create a new character set with a variety of editing commands. It even lets you preview the interrelationship of characters (when used in words) by viewing them in a special typographic mode displayed on a graphics screen. Characters are sent to the printer as binary graphics information, NOT as ascii codes. The result is 18 different combinations of text quality that YOU control when printing a font. For example, a typical character is based on a matrix of 16 vertical dots by 24 horizontal dots. Choosing a high resolution output with four passes of the print head will result in the highest quality text that your printer is capable of producing. Of course, printing may be very, very slow. An alternate choice might be to select two passes of the print head which doubles the speed but slightly reduces the quality of the character printed. Note: Some older printers may not be capable of printing with high resolution. This program was developed for YOU, the end user, with special consideration given to the way it interfaces with you. REGISTRATION The complete PIVOT! package contains the following: The program diskette A bound User's Manual A Purchaser Registration Card Registration makes you eligible for reduced-price updates and protects you against program defects. Registered users will be notified when a significant update of the program has occured. Updates will be made available to the registered users of PIVOT! for a nominal fee. GETTING STARTED WHAT'S ON THE DISTRIBUTION DISK The files contained on the distribution diskette might vary from time to time, as more fonts become available. Typically, however, the diskette should contain the following files: PIVOT.EXE - The PIVOT! Program PIVOT.CFG - PIVOT! Configuration File (Not required) GCHAR.EXE - The Font Editor Program XXXXXX.TRP - Portrait Font Files XXXXXX.TRL - Landscape Font Files SETUP.BAT - Installs the Program READ.ME - Text files with latest information about the program, how to get started, etc. ORDER.ME - A form to order a registered copy MANUAL.DOC - Simple instruction manual for using the program CONTENTS - Listing of all files on disk SAMPLE.WKS - Sample AS-EASY-AS worksheet YESNO.COM - File used with SETUP.BAT Please refer to the READ.ME file on the diskette for any last minute changes, any new files added to the disk, etc. To view the READ.ME file on your screen, use the command from the DOS prompt: A>TYPE READ.ME [ENTER] To print the contents of the READ.ME file on your printer, use the command: A>COPY READ.ME PRN [ENTER] OPERATING REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE PIVOT! will operate on any IBM PC or fully compatible MS-DOS computer system. MEMORY PIVOT! requires a minimum of 256K RAM to operate. DOT MATRIX PRINTERS PIVOT! supports either a 9-pin MX/RX Epson printer, a 24-pin LQ- 2500 Epson printer or any printer compatible with the above Epson 9 and 24-pin printers. The Epson printers support the following graphics densities: MX/RX LQ-2500 Low: 60 120 Medium: 120 180 High: 240 360 Other similar printers may be used by installing the graphics control codes particular to that printer (Consult your printer manual for specifics). To change the setup control codes used by PIVOT! refer to the section on Settings Codes, in the Command Summary. LASER JET PRINTERS If you have a laser jet printer, you don't need the capabilities of PIVOT! because you can already print high quality text in landscape mode. Therefore, laser jet printers are not supported. MAKING A WORKING DISK/DIRECTORY Before you start using PIVOT!, you should make a working copy of the program either on your hard disk or on a different floppy diskette. The SETUP.BAT file provided on the PIVOT! diskette makes the process simple, transferring the necessary files from the original diskette. There are no copy protection schemes or hidden files with which to wrestle. CREATE A WORKING DISK - TWO DISKETTE SYSTEM At the DOS prompt, place the original diskette in drive A, and enter the command: SETUP X:\Dir1\Dir2 where: X - Identifies the drive where the working copy will be placed, and Dir1\Dir2 - Identifies the directory on the specified disk (directories are normally used only on hard disks). For example, to make a working copy of PIVOT! on a floppy disk in drive B: you should enter (the diskette should be formatted first): SETUP B:\ (.. and press ENTER ..) CREATING A WORKING SUBDIRECTORY - HARD DISK SYSTEM If you are installing PIVOT! on your hard disk, you must first create a new subdirectory for the program by typing MKDIR PIVOT [ENTER] from the root directory. To make a working copy on drive C: in a directory named PIVOT, you should enter: SETUP C:\PIVOT (.. and press ENTER ..) After the above operation is completed and the DOS prompt appears on your screen, place the original diskette in a safe place. If your working diskette gets damaged, you can repeat the above process to make a new working disk. STARTING THE PROGRAM PIVOT! has no installation process, no external device drivers, etc. The various configuration options that are available can be invoked by a number of switches (option commands) when the program is started. The general form to start the program is: PIVOT /switch1/switch2 The various switch options are described below. They can appear on the command line in any order: E - ENHANCED GRAPHICS ADAPTOR Starts the program on an EGA monitor. This switch specifies an IBM Enhanced Graphics Adaptor or equivalent available for graphics (otherwise a CGA is assumed). The resolution on the EGA screen will be 640x350 pixels with multiple colors. Quick display mode is automatically assumed. P - PANEL MENU Starts the program with panel (rather than pull-down) menus. Setting this switch allows you to select a horizontal panel menu. When invoked, the commands menus will appear in the top two rows. If the option is not invoked, then the default is the window menuing system (see later section on menus). Q - QUICK DISPLAY MODE Quick screen updates (flickering on some monitors). This switch speeds up screen I/O by writing directly to video memory. NOTE: This switch is only required on color graphics video boards (CGAs). When the program has been loaded into memory, the opening screen will be displayed and a prompt will be displayed on the bottom line of the screen. After the opening screen, a split screen will be displayed. The top half shows the current contents of the spreadsheet and the bottom half status information and font settings. ORGANIZATION OF PIVOT! MENUS PIVOT! uses either a pop down menu or a horizontal panel menu. You can choose the panel menu by starting the program with the /P switch (see section on starting the program). The Pull-Down menus provide you with a useful reference trail through the different levels of submenus in the program. The first option in the menu will be highlighted by a moveable pointer, and the panel area, on the top of the screen, will display additional information about the highlighted option. The menu pointer can be moved by pressing the cursor arrow keys. Pressing LEFT, UP or BACKSPACE will move the selection bar up. Pressing RIGHT, DOWN or SPACE will move the selection bar down. To select a command or sub menu, use the cursor keys to highlight the option you want and press the ENTER key OR press the key corresponding to first letter of the desired option. For example if the following menu is displayed: ┌────────┐ │ FILE │ Press the letter [ F ] to select File... │ BROWSE │ or │ PRINT │ Press the letter [ P ] to select Print... │ EXIT │ └────────┘ The panel menu uses two lines to display the menu choices. The top line displays the menu commands and the second line displays a description of the command which is highlighted. We believe that the Pull-Down menu is an intuitive interface and suggest that unless you feel strongly about it, do not use the /P switch. The display position of the menu window can be toggled between the left and right side of the screen by pressing the period (.) key. The type of menu can be toggled from window to panel by pressing the exclamation mark "!" . INSTALLING PIVOT! AS AN AS-EASY-AS ADD-IN PIVOT! has the ability to operate as a stand alone program or it can function as an AS-EASY-AS spreadsheet ADD-IN. To install PIVOT! as an ADD-IN perform the following commands when running the AS-EASY-AS spreadsheet program. /Wsheet General Install Addin Create PIVOT [ENTER] To save the setting permanently, you must then select the WSheet, General, Install, Save command. NOTE: The PIVOT! program must reside in the AS-EASY-AS subdirectory otherwise it will not be found when requested by the spreadsheet. The new add-in will be visible in the /USER submenu and when executed will share whatever spreadsheet data is currently loaded. NOTE: To run the add-in successfully you must have at least 150K of memory remaining in the spreadsheet, otherwise an error message will be executed by AS-EASY-AS which says "CAN NOT EXECUTE PIVOT". COMMAND SUMMARY FILE File (F) Enter the File access menu. File commands allow you to list files present on a specified disk, change the default directory, etc. File, Retrieve (F R) When this command is invoked, you are presented with a list of available worksheet files on the current default disk drive/directory. Using the arrow keys, highlight the file you want to retrieve and press [ENTER]. File, List (F L) Lists selected files on the current default disk drive/directory. You are presented with three possible choices: w?? - List all files with "w" as the first letter of the file extension, regardless of the second and third extension letters, (i.e., files with WK1, WKS, WLL as a file extension would all appear in the requested listing). P?? - List all files with "p" as the first letter of the file extension, regardless of the second and third extension letters, (i.e., files with PRN, PRT, P1Q as a file extension would all appear in the requested listing). Other - List all files on the current default disk drive/directory. File, Dir (F D) Specify a new default disk drive and directory. When PIVOT! first starts, it uses the logged drive and the default directory to search for all file requests. This option will allow the user to access files in other drives and directories. File, Quit (F Q) Exit the File access menu and return to the main menu. BROWSE The browse command allows you to scan the contents of a spreadsheet to locate information and print ranges. While in browse, the cursor movement keys have the following results: UP - Move the cursor one cell up DOWN - Move the cursor one cell down LEFT - Move the cursor one cell to the left RIGHT - Move the cursor one cell to the right PGUP - Advance one page upwards through the spreadsheet PGDN - Advance one page Downwards through the spreadsheet TAB RT - Move one page to the right TAB LT - Move one page to the left HOME - Place the cursor at cell A1 END - A toggle key which when followed by a direction cursor key causes movement to the end of the data range in the indicated direction. PRINT Print (P) Enters the Printing menu. The commands available in this menu are displayed below: Print, Range (P R) Define the range of spreadsheet to be printed. This operation must be performed before any portions of the spreadsheet can be printed. If no range has been selected and "Print, Go" is selected (see below), the program displays an error message and returns to the menu. Print, Borders (P B) Define those rows or columns which you want as a permanent border on the printed output. i.e. This is especially useful when a large table of information is being printed and can be used to duplicate the table headings on each successive page. WARNING: You must make sure your Print Range does not include ranges defined by Print Borders or you will get information printed twice, once for the border and once for the print range. Print, Linefeed (P L) Advance the printer one line up. Useful for spacing printouts without disrupting the printer's line counter. Print, Pageadv (P P) Advance the printer to top of next page, (Page eject). Print, Adjust (P A) Reset line counter to the top of page. If, for some reason, the printer is manually interrupted, use this command to line up the printer top-of-form (top of page) with the program top-of-page. NOTE: Make sure that the paper sheet perforation is lined up with the top of the print head in the printer when selecting Print Adjust. Print, Options (P O) Set different printer options according to the menu choices which follow below. Print, Options, Margin, Left (P OML) Set the left Margin, (0 - 240 spaces). Print, Options, Margin, Right (P OMR) Set the right margin (0 - 240 spaces, i.e. you can print up to 240 characters per line). Print, Options, Margin, Top (P OMT) Set the top margin (number of lines). Print, Options, Margin, Bottom (P OMB) Set the bottom margin (number of lines). Print, Options, Pglines (P OP) Set the number of lines per page, default 66 for portrait orientation. NOTE: The page length should not exceed the calculated number of printable lines. The maximum allowable number of lines is calculated by the program and is displayed in the summary window. This value is based on the LPI (lines per inch) setting that you select. Print, Options, Header (P OH) Set a single line for header message which will appear at the top of each printed page. Print, Options, Footer (P OF) Set a single line for footer message which will appear at the bottom of each printed page. Print, Option, Quit (P OQ) Exit the Print, Option menu and return to the main Print menu. Print, Go (P G) Selecting this command causes a settings window to be displayed in the center of the screen. To change any of the settings at this time, move the scroll bar, highlight the option, and press ENTER. Each time ENTER is pressed the choice will cycle through its permissible settings. Press the letter [ G ] to start printing. Press [ Q ] or [ESC] to cancel and return to the main print menu. NOTE: You must define the print range before issuing GO or an error message will be displayed and no printing will be performed. MODE Specify the print (character size) desired. Two modes are available. Full mode: Uses the basic 16 x 24 bit definition of the character. Half mode: Merges the bits into a 16 x 12 bit definition. The effect is similar to regular condensed mode because fewer bits are used to define the character. You can use HALF to print twice as many characters per line (portrait orientation), or twice as many lines (landscape orientation). The different modes may be combined with other options to produce a wide variety of print styles. DENSITY Three print densities are available in PIVOT!. Low density: Results in very wide characters because the bit information is spread out at 60 dots per inch (120 dpi LQ2500 printers). To reduce the width of the characters, you can select HALF mode printing. The result will be a draft quality font which prints very fast. Medium density: Result is somewhat slower but produces a better quality print. High density: Produces near letter quality (NLQ) print, on most printers. PASSES Specify the number of passes the printhead is to make over the same line. One pass: Fast but produces rough characters. This method merges even and odd bit rows in the 16 x 24 matrix to produce an 8 x 24 character. Two passes: Twice as slow but produces much better print. Four passes: Slower but may be required on some printers, especially those that are incapable of printing adjacent dots (i.e. the high density 240 dpi graphics mode on RX/MX printers). You should experiment with Mode, Density and Passes option combinations to find the ones that produce acceptable print at reasonable speeds for you. Print, Default (P F) This menu controls all the settings that are required for the desired type of printing. Once this menu is accessed, the user is presented with options to select fonts, specify the print mode, etc. Print, Default, Font (P DF) Select one of the external disk fonts. NOTE: To customize the appearance of a font see the GCHAR program which is distributed as part of the PIVOT! package. Print, Default, Width (P DW) Set the width of the print page in inches. This information is used by the program to determine the maximum number of characters permitted per horizontal line. The default width is 8 inches. Print, Default, Codes (P DC) Use this menu to customize PIVOT! for your own printer. Once in this menu, you can set your printer control codes for the following: Default codes for: MX/RX LQ-2500 printers Single Density Graphics \027\075 \027\075 Double Density Graphics \027\076 \027\089 Quadruple Density Graphics \027\090 \027\090 LineFeed Spacing \027\051 \027\051 Reset \027\064 \027\064 Adjust 1 or 2 1 or 2 NOTE: For each control string, only the static part of the string is defined by you. The program will insert the variable part of the string by itself. For example the single density graphics string, defined by your printer manual may be: \027\075\n, where "n" is the number of bytes of graphic information that follows. The value "n" is supplied by the program. Control codes are specified using a three digit decimal ASCII number and are separated by a backslash "\". For example \027\090 represents respectively the ESCAPE character (\027) and the capital letter Z (\090). Print, Default, Output (P DO) Specify the parallel port to which your printer is connected. You are given the choice of LPT1 or LPT2. NOTE: The default parallel port is LPT1. Print, Default, Printer (P DP) Select the type of print driver to use when sending graphics information. Choices are the MX/RX which uses 8-pins or the LQ-2500 which uses 24-pins. Print, Default, Save (P DS) This command saves all current settings, so that next time you start PIVOT! (from the same drive and sub-directory) it will remember them for you. GRAPHICS CHARACTER EDITOR INTRODUCTION The second program of the package is GCHAR (for Graphic Characters). This powerful package allows you to define your own complete character sets with very little effort. These character sets, in turn, can be used to print your documents either in portrait or landscape orientation using the PIVOT! program. The GCHAR system is made up of the GCHAR.EXE program and a number of XXXXXXX.TRP font files. To run the program, put the diskette with GCHAR.EXE and the XXXXXX.TRP files in the logged disk drive (or log on to the directory containing these files), type GCHAR, and press [ENTER]. After you read the opening screen, press any key to continue with the program. SELECTING A CHARACTER FONT GCHAR will display a pick list of all XXXXXX.TRP files on the logged drive. To select a font file, move the file cursor (with the arrow keys) to highlight the font name and then press [ENTER]. Once selected, the font will be loaded into memory and the first character in the data set will be displayed. The screen is made up of an ascii character table on the right, a character definition on the left and a menu of editing commands displayed in the top control panel. ACTIVE WINDOW A highlight bar is displayed on top of the active window, above either the character or the ascii table. To move from window to window, press the TAB key. CHARACTER TABLE The characters are arranged in 16 rows of 16 characters, the order proceeding from left to right and from top to bottom. The current character is indicated by a blinking highlight. The character font definition will be displayed on the left side of the screen. NOTE: Any changes made to the font character on the left will NOT appear in the ascii character on the right, but will be placed into the font definition. The character highlighted in this table will appear on the left in whatever bit pattern it might have. When the window highlight bar is over the top of the ASCII table a new character may be selected by using the cursor keys to move up, down, left or right. FONT CHARACTER (SETTING/RESET) A font character is displayed as a matrix of 16 bits vertically by 24 bits horizontal. Any bit in the character can be set or reset by pressing the SPACE bar. This is the simplest form of editing. For more sophisticated manipulations use the menu commands. MENU The editing menu is displayed in the top panel of the screen. Each choice in the menu may be selected by pressing the first letter of that choice. For example to clear the current font definition press the letter "C". The following list of commands are available: COPY, (C) This command prompts for the ascii character which you wish to copy into the current character position. i.e. the entire bit pattern for that character is duplicated and can now be used as a starting point for modification. This technique is useful for foreign language characters which are similar to those used in the English language. ERASE, (E) This command erases the contents of the current bit character, i.e it creates a totally blank character. (Use UNDO to restore character). PIVOT, (P) This command performs an approximate 90 degree rotation of the character and is useful when creating font characters with landscape orientation. NOTE: Because the character bit matrix is 16 x 24 (which is not square) some bits may be lost after the rotation. DEL, (D) Deletes the pixel at the cursor position and then moves the pixels to the right of the cursor one space left. Continue to press the DEL command, until the row is shifted to the position you desire. This command is very useful when generating italics character sets. INS, (I) Inserts a blank pixel at the cursor position and moves all pixels to the right of the cursor one space to the right. REVERSE, (R) Inverts all bits in the character. The effect is to produce a reverse video character, i.e., any bit that is set becomes a bit which is not set and vice versa. MIRROR, (M) Flips the character about vertical axis of symmetry. VIEW, (V) When view is invoked, the program prompts you for a color choice. Then, if your system is equipped with a monitor that can support graphics, subsequent typing will display the characters of the current font as a graphics image. To exit from the typomatic mode, press enter to return to the main screen. Typomatic graphics is only supported on CGA or compatible monitor/card combinations and Hercules Monochrome Graphic. SAVE, (S) This command prompts for a new filename for the font. If none is assigned the default name FONT.TRI will be assigned. The font file will then be saved in the current subdirectory. GET, (G) Selecting this command displays a pick list of all font files residing in the current subdirectory. To pick a file highlight it with the cursor (use the up, down, left, right keys) and then press ENTER. The font will be loaded into memory. UNDO, (U) This command restores the original character definition. It may be used to undo or cancel the last editing command that was performed. QUIT (Q) When Quit is selected, a message appears in the center screen and asks if you really want to quit. To select a dialogue choice press the first letter of that choice. If you press "N", GCHAR returns you to the main screen. If you press "Y", GCHAR asks if you want to save the font file. Answering "N" to this prompt, will bring you back to DOS and the font file you were working on is not saved. If, on the other hand, you answer "Y", then you are asked for a font file name. Type the name and press ENTER. If you do not type a name and just press enter, then the font file is saved under the name FONT.TR? NOTE: If a file named FONT.TR? already exists, then it is overwritten by the new file. APPENDIX A: PAGE LIMITS The following is a listing of limitations for PIVOT! Options. Minimum Maximum MARGINS LEFT 0 240 RIGHT 0 240 TOP 0 30 BOTTOM 0 30 PGLINES 1 1024 LPI 1 92 CPI 1 92 WIDTH (Inches) 1 14