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Text File | 1991-06-21 | 23.5 KB | 631 lines

************************************* * THUMB PRINT SOFTWARE'S * * TP-ET * * (Electric Typwriter) * *Copr. (C) Thumb Print Software 1989* * All Rights Reseved * ************************************* DISCLAIMER: These program/s are provided on an "AS IS BASIS". All risks are with you the "USER". At no time will Thumb Print Software or Duane J. Schnur 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 Thumb Print Software or Duane J. Schnur have been advised of the possibility of such damage. You acnowledge that you have read this agreement, understand it, and agree to be bound by its terms and conditions. (1) Files needed: Your Shareware version of TP-ET should contain the folowing files: TP-ET.EXE TPET.SLB TP-ET.DOC PRINTMAN.BAT READ.ME (May or May Not be present. Depends on bugs fixed or updates not in the Manual. File Usage: TP-ET.EXE: This is the program file. Bring it up from the Dos Command line ie: TP-ET [Enter/Return] TPET.SLB: This file MUST be on the same Drive/Path as TP-ET.EXE. This file is a binary file and contains the help screens used by TP-ET.EXE. If this file is missing TP-ET.EXE will display an error message and return to DOS. TP-ET.DOC: This documentation file (manual). PRINTMAN.BAT: The Batch file used to print this manual. READ.ME: This file may or may not be present. It is it will contain any updates or bug fixes. WHAT IS TP-ET? TP-ET is an electric typewriter program. It turns your computer and printer into an electric typewriter. All margins are programmable. You can adjust how far from the top of a page your first line of text starts. Both left and right margins are adjustable. You decide how many blank lines are at the bottom of each page after your last line of text. You set your tab stops; whether you want an end of line bell. If your printer is IBM/EPSON compatible you can pick from 6 printer font/quality settings. If not you can input your own printer codes. TP-ET will (if you choose so) save a configuration file to disk. Every time you bring up TP-ET the configuration file will be read. You can edit an entire line of text before it is sent to the printer and disk (if you chose the save option). This way you can read over a line for spelling errors or syntax errors before pressing Enter/Return. From the Main Menu (1-2-3 type) you can select Doc.Settings to adjust any parameters (tabs,margins,etc). Start will use the current settings and begin your document/letter. Help will pull down 9 Help windows. Each window has a brief explanation of the adjustable settings of the Doc.Settings function. These windows are brought in from disk from the file TPET.SLB. This is a special file that contains 13 help screens. It is a highly compressed file. (2) It is mandatory that this file exist on the same Drive/Path that TP-ET.EXE does. If it doesn't TP-ET.EXE will display an error message and abort to DOS. This system of keeping Help Screens was used to greatly reduce the overall size of the program. If conventional methods would have been used the size of the program would have been more than 30K larger than the combined size of the TP-ET.EXE & TPET.SLB. When you select the Start function from the Main Menu and are at the work screen pressing F1 will pull down another Help Screen listing all the Word Processor functions available. A second Help Screen is available by pressing the Tab key. This screen lists all the ALT-FKEY combinations used to draw double horizontal double vertical boxes. You can call on these Help Screens at any time from the work screen. Your document screen will be saved in a reserved buffer. When you press the ESC key your screen will be restored as it was and your cursor will be right where you left off. You may program Auto Insert keys. You have 4 auto insert keys to program. F2-F5 will automatically insert whatever you have programmed in them. Such things as your name - address - city state zip - telephone number etc. F6 will automatically insert the current date. Of course if you don't have a clock/cal board or chip you will have to set the date at boot up. F10 ends your document. Work Screen: The work screen is loaded with information. The top four lines remind you of what keys to press for the auto insert. It also tells you if F9 is active. In the Shareware version F9 is never active. See the section of the manual that tells you what you get in the Registered version that is not available in the Shareware version. The fifth line is a ruler line. You will see a capital L at the left margin and a capital R at the right margin. As you type a moving cursor will follow on the ruler line to tell you where you are on a line. The next 14 lines are were you type in your document/letter. When all 14 lines are full they will clear and you will have 14 blank lines to use. The bottom 4 lines tell you the line you are on; the page number; the documents disk name if you are saving it to disk. It also tells the printer font/quality in effect; how many characters in the document (minus spaces); how many actual words; and how many bytes of disk space the document will take. You will see how many available bytes of disk space found by TP-ET when you started the document. This gives you a gage to go by so you don't let your document become larger than you have room to save it. At the top of the screen is a real time clock in 12 hour format. Once again if you don't have a clock/cal board chip you will have to set the actual time at DOS for this clock to be accurate. If you are using a CGA/EGA color board TP-ET will be in color. White on Blue. If you have a Mono system TP-ET will be White on Black. Only a color board is checked not the type of monitor. If you are using a Mono Monitor with a color board you shouldn't have any problems with White on Blue. This combination was checked with a Mono Monitor and it is perfectly legible. (3) Minimum Requirements: PC/MS DOS compatible PC. 256K memory 1 disk drive DOS 2.X or higher Printer (IBM/EPSON compatible to use the built in printer fonts. Or user supplied printer codes) Installation: TP-ET is very easy to install. Simply copy TP-ET.EXE & TPET.SLB to a system disk or a sub-directory on your hard drive. It is strongly suggested that before you use the program you make a backup disk. DON'T use your master disk as your program disk. TP-ET will run off of a formatted only disk. Be aware that if you are using only 1 disk drive and you run TP-ET off of a formatted only disk when you exit the program DOS will look for a copy of COMMAND.COM. I suggest you keep TP-ET on a system disk on a 1 drive system. To create a system disk place a blank disk in drive A: From the DOS prompt type in: FORMAT A:/S [ENTER/RETURN] This will make a bootable system disk. You now can copy TP-ET.EXE & TPET.SLB to this disk. Using TP-ET: To load TP-ET from DOS enter the following on the command line at the DOS prompt: TP-ET [Enter/Return] As TP-ET loads it will look for the file TPET.SLB. If it finds this file it will load the opening logo screen. If this file is not in the same Drive/Path as TP-ET you will be returned to DOS with an error message. The logo screen contains the copywrite notice and registration info. By pressing any key you will be at the Main Menu Screen. The Main Menu uses a 1-2-3 type menu. You can use the arrow keys to move the Highlighted bar or press the first letter of any of the 5 Menu functions. Doc Settings: Use this function to change any of the parameters of TP-ET. All parameters are selected by pressing the appropriate letter that appears in the front of each parameter. You can use the Doc Setting function to check the parameters or change them. When the parameter window opens up each parameter's current setting is displayed. At the bottom of the window you are asked if you want to change any settings or accept the current settings. Press C to change A to accept. If you elect to change a setting once you have inputted your answer the bottom of the window will ask to change any other parameters or quit. (4) By pressing Q to quit the bottom of the window will ask if you want to save these changes to disk in the file TP-ET.DEF. You may answer (Y)es or (N)o to the question. Depending on your answer if yes your changes will be saved to disk. If no then you will be returned to the Main Menu. When TP-ET first loads it looks for the file TP-ET.DEF. If it finds it it uses the parameter settings from this file. If the file does not exist it uses internal default settings. The first time you use the program you should take a look at the default settings. If they are not to your liking then you should change the parameters to what you want. When you have all parameters changed save the parameters to disk. From now on every time you use TP-ET it will use these settings as the default. There may be times when you want a special set of parameters for a particular document/letter. Simply change the parameters you want by using the Doc Setting function. DON'T save the settings to disk. When you are finished with this document/letter use the Reset function from the Main Menu to re-load the default settings. Re-Set Function: The Re-Set function serves only one purpose to reload the default settings. This may be from the disk file TP-ET.DEF or from the internal defaults of TP-ET.DEF cannot be found. Help Function: By pressing H from the Main Menu or moving the highlighted bar to Help a window will open. There are 9 Help Screens available. They describe the various parameters that are adjustable from the Doc Setting function of the Main Menu. All of these help screens are contained in the file TPET.SLB. As you press the up/down arrow keys the next or preceeding help screen is loaded. If you are using a Hard Drive these screens will seem to load instantly. Using a floopy drive you will have about .75 of a second between screens. You should study these 9 screens. They explain in detail what effect changing a parameter has on the docoument/letter you are working on. To return to the Main Menu press the ESC key. Exit Function: Use this function to leave TP-ET and return to DOS. Entering Printer Codes: There are two situations when you may want to enter a special printer code. 1: If you have an IBM/EPSON or compatible printer and want to use a font/quality not available from the print selection of the Doc Settings function. 2: If your printer is not IBM/EPSON compatible. In either case you must follow some rigid rules of entry. (5) To change fonts/quality select from the Doc Settings screen the printer fonts selection. Once you do a window will open up with 7 selections. The first 6 are for IBM/EPSON compatible printers. The 7th selection (USER) can be used if you do not know the printer codes for you printer; you know the printer code your printer uses; or you want a special font/quality for which you know the printer code. In the first case where your printer is non IBM/EPSON compatible you should select USER. Another window will open up asking for the printer code. Just press Enter/Return without entering a code. TP-ET will not send any printer code to your printer and your printer should print in it's normal turn on default state. You will be asked for a name for this font. If you just pressed Enter/Return for the printer code you can give any name you want ie: Normal or whatever. In the second and third case it is assumed you know the printer codes required by your printer. For instance lets say your printer manual says for condensed print you must enter a code of ESC 18. ESC always 27 (CHR$ 27). Unless your printer manual says different. TP-ET recognizes four different CHR$ numbers directly 27 - 18 - 15 - 14. It is always a good idea to reset your printer to it's normal turn on state before entering a new code. In an IBM/EPSON printer this ESC @. This would translate to 27 @ before the code in the example above. The entire entry would be 27/@/27/18 Notice the slant bars (/) after each code entry. These should be there. TP-ET strips all codes and recognizes the / bar as a separator. Now suppose you have a real strange looking code to enter. This is easy to do. Suppose for the font/quality you want the manual says 27 "x1" 27 CHR$(140) 27 "P" First of all notice the codes inside the parens. These codes are entered as is. Notice the CHR$(140) this is a special case. Now assuming the reset code is 27 @ the entire code would be 27 @ 27 "x1" 27 chr(140) 27 "P" This code is purely fictional and doesn't represent any code just for display purposes. How would we enter this code ? 27/@/27/x1/27/HOLD THE ALT KEY DOWN AND TY[E 140 ON THE KEYPAD/27/P As stated above the CHR$ numbers 27 18 15 14 can be entered as numbers. TP-ET does not recognize CHR$(140) in the example above. Therefore NOTICE the instruction for entering it. HOLD THE ALT KEY DOWN AND TYPE 140 ON THE KEYPAD. DO NOT TYPE 140 ON THE TOP ROW OF KEYS. This is not the same as the Keypad. The "x1" and "P" were entered as is minus the quatation marks. Any code in quatation marks are entered in this fashion. If your manual shows lower case enter it as lower case. If upper case enter it as upper case. If you follow these rules you will have no problems producing the effect on the printer that you want. (6) Whats left. Once you have changed all the parameters you want changed you can save them to disk in TP-ET.DEF or not. If you do save them to disk TP-ET will always use these parameters when it loads from DOS provided that TP-ET.DEF is on the same directory. If this is a special document and you don't want these as your default settings simply answer no to the save question. These settings will be in effect only for this session. At any time you can reload your disk defaults by using the Re-Set function from the Main Menu. Start Function: You use this function when you are ready to start the document. If you have the Append parameter set the first thing TP-ET does is check the current directory for any files with the .LET extention. It then looks for a matching file with the extention .APN. This file contains all the parameter settings you were using for this document. If it finds a matching .APN file you will be able to Append to it. If not and you choose this file you will receive an error message. If you are not appending to an existing document TP-ET will list all files with the .LET extention. This is so you can see what is on your disk. If you try to name the new file the same as an existing file you will receive an error message. This safeguards against overwritting an existing file. Once you have entered a name for the new document you will be at the action screen (for lack of a better name). From here it is up to you what you type. You may edit the line of text you are working on until you press Enter/Return. Once you do that line of text is printed and sent to disk (if you have the Save parameter set). You cannot correct any text once you are off a line. You will have 14 lines of text on your screen before the screen clears. You have a Help Screen available at any time during the text entry. By pressing F1 a pop up screen will appear. The first screen tells you all the editing keys available while you are entering text on a line. By pressing the Tab Key a second help screen will appear. This will have the keys to press to draw double line boxes. There 11 box characters available. You can draw as complex a box as you want. By pressing the ESC Key the Help Screen will disappear and you will be back to the work screen right where you left off. The top and bottom of your monitor screen contains a lot of information. All the auto-insert keys are shown; the current time of day. The bottom of the screen tells you what page you are on; what line you are on; the current printer setting; the file name etc. When you are finished with your document simply press F10. The document will be concluded and you will return to the Main Menu. If you had been appending to a existing document your parameter settings would have been re- set to whatever they were before you started appending to the document. TP-ET is very simple to use and at the same time quite powerful. The best way to learn the program is to use it. (7) What is the difference between the Shareware version and the Registered version ? The Shareware version does not support the Screen and Page modes. These are powerful editing features. Screen Mode: In the screen mode you may edit the 14 lines of text on your screen. In other words you can move up and down among the 14 lines and correct or add to any line. The only thing that you can't do is split a line or combine lines. Also there is no word-wrap feature. The reason for this is in the Line mode you may have made a mistake on a line. If there was a word- wrap feature you would be on the next line with no way of getting back to the previous line to correct it. Page Mode: In the page mode you can scroll through the entire page and make corrections or additions. For example: If your parameter settings allow you 54 lines of text per page you would be able to scroll from the 1st line to the 54th line. This is called a virtual window. In either case when you where ready to print the text you would press F9. All the text would then go to the printer and the disk file (if you have the Save parameter on). If TP-ET is accepted by you the user a word-wrap feature will be added to the Screen and Page modes. The Registered Version also comes with a printed manual and 4 months of telephone support. You are also notified of any updates to the program. You also receive a defective disk replacement form Why register TP-ET ? Mainly to have the Screen and Page modes and receive DATASCAN as a bonus. BE ADVISED: The Registered Version of TP-ET now includes TPLABEL and TPED plus several other utility files. See the READ.ME file on disk for the latest updates. TP-ET Registration form: Name: ____________________________________________________ Address: _________________________________________________ City: __________________________________ State: _________________________________ Zip: ___________________________________ Tele: ________________________________________ Date: ________________________________________ Price: $19.50 plus $3.50 shipping $2.00 Additional for 720K disk Michigan residents add 4% sales tax Total Amt enclosed: $ Personal checks will be held 14 days to clear. Mail to: Thumb Print Software 1570 Colwood Rd. Caro Mich. 48723