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GREDIT (tm) Version 4.3A ------------------------------ A display screen editor for use with the GRABBER (tm) screen capture programs DOCUMENTATION January 31, 1992 Copyright 1991, 1992 by Gerald A. Monroe All rights reserved. CompuServe Mail ID # 72321,1257 YOUR LICENSE TO USE THIS SOFTWARE ---------------------------------- GREDIT.EXE and this documentation are copyright 1991, 1992 by Gerald A. Monroe. All rights are reserved except those expressly granted here. The GREDIT program and this documentation file are distributed as part of the GRABBER(tm) screen capture package under the terms of a shareware license that is fully set forth in the file GRABBER.DOC. (GRABBER.DOC is the reference manual for GRABBER.EXE, the main program module in the package.) The shareware license terms in the GRABBER.DOC file are incorporated here by reference. This license permits you to copy and distribute the files GREDIT.EXE and GREDIT.DOC (this file) freely, provided that: these files are always distributed together with each other and with the GRABBER.EXE and GRABBER.DOC files; none of the files is modified in any way; and no fee, premium or donation of any kind whatsoever is charged or requested for their distribution except as permitted on the terms described in the GRABBER.DOC file. Continued use of the GREDIT program for more than a 10-day trial period requires you to register your use of the software with the author. For more information about the benefits of registration and how to go about registering, please refer to the full licensing and ordering information in the GRABBER.DOC file. GREDIT (tm) Documentation and Technical Notes Page 2 of 7 GREDIT.DOC TABLE OF CONTENTS -------------------------------------------------- Overview of GREDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Hardware & software requirements . . . . . . . 3 Starting GREDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Editing the GRABBER offspring file . . . . . . 4 Cursor movement keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Help screen, Alt-H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Quit GREDIT, Alt-Q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Save image to .EXE file, Alt-S . . . . . . . . 5 Save image to ANSI file, Alt-A . . . . . . . . 5 Set colors, Alt-F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Toggle blink, Alt-L . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Border color, Alt-B . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Clear screen, Alt-K . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Erase line, Alt-E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Wipe screen, Alt-W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Toggle ruler, Alt-R . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Set tabs, Alt-T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Import text file, Alt-I . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Load new image, Alt-N . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Copy to clipboard, Alt-C . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Cut to clipboard, Alt-X . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Paste from clipboard, Alt-P . . . . . . . . . 7 Line-drawing help, Alt-D . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Graphics character help, Alt-G . . . . . . . . 7 Query colors at cursor, Alt-Y . . . . . . . . 7 Turning off GREDIT's beep sounds . . . . . . . 7 GREDIT (tm) Documentation and Technical Notes Page 3 of 7 WHAT IS GREDIT? ---------------- GREDIT(tm) is a utility you can use to modify the screen images which are generated by the GRABBER screen capture program. Throughout this document, these screen image files are referred to as GRABBER "offspring." If you are not familiar with GRABBER and how it works, please read the program manual GRABBER.DOC before attempting to use GREDIT. Only text images captured with GRABBER may be edited. GREDIT does not support GRABBER's graphic images. REQUIREMENTS ------------- GREDIT has the same hardware and software requirements as GRABBER. These are: a) an IBM-PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or 100% IBM-compatible personal computer; b) PC-DOS or MS-DOS, Version 3.0 or later; c) at least one diskette drive; and c) at least 128Kb free memory. You will also need the program GRABBER.EXE in order to use GREDIT. You can use GREDIT with either a color or monochrome display. STARTING GREDIT ---------------- To start the program, simply type GREDIT at the DOS prompt, optionally followed by the name of the GRABBER offspring file you wish to edit, then press <RETURN>. The correct syntax is: GREDIT [filename] If you omit the filename, the program will ask you to supply one. GREDIT assumes that the file you wish to edit has the extension ".EXE" in its name. Therefore, you can omit the extension when specifying the file to be edited. For instance, entering "GREDIT SCREEN00" is the same as entering "GREDIT SCREEN00.EXE". GREDIT (tm) Documentation and Technical Notes Page 4 of 7 EDITING THE OFFSPRING FILE --------------------------- You are now inside GREDIT, with the cursor at the upper left-hand corner of the screen. You may use your keyboard to edit the image inside the GRABBER offspring file, including its text content, layout and color scheme. At your disposal are all of the alphanumeric and cursor-movement keys, the function keys <F1> through <F10>, plus 17 special Alt-key functions which are described below. CURSOR MOVEMENT ---------------- GREDIT supports the following keys on your PC keyboard to help you move around inside your GRABBER offspring image. Except for the backspace key ( <X] ), none of these keys alters the image on the screen; they merely move the editing cursor to the desired location. [UP ARROW] . . . . . . cursor up one line [DOWN ARROW] . . . . . cursor down one line [LEFT ARROW] . . . . . cursor one space to the left [RIGHT ARROW] . . . . . cursor one space to the right [HOME] . . . . . . . . cursor to upper left corner of display [PAGE UP] . . . . . . . cursor to upper right corner of display [END] . . . . . . . . . cursor to lower left corner of display [PAGE DOWN] . . . . . . cursor to lower right corner of display [RETURN] . . . . . . . cursor to left edge, next line down [TAB] . . . . . . . . . cursor right to next tab stop [SHIFT-TAB] . . . . . . cursor left to previous tab stop [BACKSPACE] . . . . . . cursor one space left, erase char. there The [INSERT] key deserves a special mention. This key does not allow you to insert characters into a line as you would expect using a word processor. Rather, holding down the [INSERT] key while pressing another alphanumeric or function key 1-10 causes the editing cursor to advance backward from right to left. This can be helpful when drawing boxes with the <F1-F10> keys. GREDIT (tm) Documentation and Technical Notes Page 5 of 7 GREDIT ALT-KEY FUNCTIONS ------------------------- KEY FUNCTION ----- -------------------------------------------------------- Alt-H Help. This function pops up a list of all of GREDIT's special Alt-key functions and a brief description of each. Press any key to resume editing. Alt-Q Quit. This function exits GREDIT, and gives you the option of saving your changes to disk before leaving. Alt-S Save. This function saves your changes to disk without exiting the program. Alt-A Save to ANSI file. This function saves the current image to an ANSI-encoded file. ANSI files are text files which contain special control codes that preserve all of the colors in the image. The Alt-A function performs the same task as the separate GR2ANSI(tm) program, a command-line utility which is also included in the GRABBER package. Alt-F Colors. This function lets you change the global color attribute. To adjust the foreground color, press the up and down arrow keys. To adjust the background color, press the left and right arrow keys. To resume editing, press <Esc> or <Return>. Users with monochrome systems should also read about the Alt-Y function below. Alt-L Blink. This function toggles the "blink" attribute on and off for characters typed at the keyboard. Alt-B Border color. This function lets you adjust the color of the screen border on color systems. Border color is not available on monochrome systems. Alt-K Clear screen. This function erases the entire display, and fills it with the last color you specified using the Alt-F function. Alt-E Erase line. This function erases the line on which the cursor is currently located. To avoid accidental erasures, Alt-E must be pressed twice. The erased line will be filled with the last color you specified using the Alt-F function. GREDIT (tm) Documentation and Technical Notes Page 6 of 7 Alt-W Wipe. This function lets you change either the foreground or the background color of ALL characters on the screen at once. After pressing Alt-W, press <F> to wipe the foreground, or <B> to wipe the background, or any other key to cancel. The foreground or background will be wiped to the last color you specified using the Alt-F function. Alt-R Ruler. This function toggles on and off the ruler display at the top of the screen. The ruler shows all of the currently defined tab stops. While the ruler is being displayed, you cannot make changes to the top line of the image. Alt-T Tabs. This function lets you adjust the tab value. The minimum tab value is always 2. The maximum value equals the number of character spaces per line, minus one. Alt-I Import. This function allows you to import plain ASCII text files into your image. Imported files are overlaid onto whatever image already exists on the screen, using the foreground and background colors you specified with the most recent Alt-F function. GREDIT reads in only as much of the text file as will fit on the screen, starting from the top of the file. Alt-N New offspring. This function lets you load and edit a new GRABBER offspring image. Alt-N does not remind you to save the current image before loading another, so you may want to invoke Alt-S first. Alt-C Copy to clipboard. This function allows you to specify a rectangular area of the image to copy to GREDIT's off-screen "clipboard" storage area. First, move the cursor to one of the four corners of the area to be copied, and press Alt-C. Then, use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the *opposite* corner of the area to be saved, and press <Return>. To confirm the area selected, press <Return> again, or press <Esc> to cancel. Please note that GREDIT's clipboard can fit only one item at a time; when you copy something to the clipboard, you erase the clipboard's previous contents. Alt-X Cut to clipboard. This function works exactly like the Alt-C function described above, with one difference. Whatever portion of the image you select will also be erased from the screen after it is moved to the clipboard. GREDIT (tm) Documentation and Technical Notes Page 7 of 7 Alt-P Paste from clipboard. This function can be used to paste the contents of the clipboard back to the screen. First, move the cursor to the upper-left corner of the area you wish to fill from the clipboard, and press Alt-P. GREDIT will show you the outlines of the area saved on the clipboard. To confirm the Paste operation, press <Return>, or press <Esc> to cancel. Alt-D Line-drawing help. This function pops up a list of line- and box-drawing characters, and the function keys (F1 through F10) which are associated with them. To access these characters in GREDIT, press the function key indicated in the list, either alone or together with the <Shift>, <Ctrl> or <Alt> keys. Press any key to exit the list and resume editing. Alt-G Graphics character help. This function pops up a table showing all the special graphics characters in the IBM-PC character set. The numbers at the left and top of the grid are added together to determine the ASCII code of any character in the table. To access these characters in GREDIT, first hold down the <Alt> key, then type the character's ASCII code on your keyboard's numeric keypad, and then release the <Alt> key. Alt-Y Query attribute at cursor. This function is available on monochrome systems only. It allows you to determine how a certain character will appear if the offspring screen is later shown on a color display. Move the cursor to the character you want to check, and press Alt-Y. The top line of the display will tell you the "foreground-on-background" color scheme for this character if it were shown on a color system. ELIMINATING GREDIT's BEEP SOUNDS --------------------------------- To eliminate the beep sounds which GREDIT normally makes when you invoke any of its special Alt-key functions, include the /Q command-line switch when you start the program at the DOS prompt. For example: GREDIT /Q or, GREDIT screenxx /Q If you omit the /Q switch from the command line and later decide to turn off the beep sounds, you must exit the program (don't forget to save your work) and restart the program using the /Q switch on the command line. * * * End of GREDIT.DOC * * *