@LManual Maker (ver. 1.00) @Rby Craig W. Daymon The Official Documentation@B@C for@B@C MANUAL MAKER (version 1.00)@B@C (c) 1988@B@C by@B@C Craig W. Daymon@B@C (9/18/88)@B@C Introduction:@U@B The main purpose of this program is to make manual size print-outs from ASCII (plain text) files using GDOS (or G+PLUS), GDOS fonts and printer drivers. Main Features:@B - Justified or Unjustified print-outs - Designate number to start page-numbering with - Separate Left and Right page headers - Up to 1000 (manual) page document capacity - Prints to both sides of paper - Tabs converted to 4 or 8 spaces - Printer paper alignment test - Imbedded commands for: - Centering a line of text - Printing a line in BOLD text - Printing a line of text Underlined - Force a Page-Break - Setting Page headers *Any combination of commands supported (except with headers) - Cover printing with: - 4 - 25 character lines of text - A different font/line - Installable application - See ST manual for help - Flexible page sizing - NEW FEATURE FOR VER. 1.00 GDOS permits the doubling of 'TRUE' font sizes. The use of these fonts is not permitted by many GDOS applications to insure that all print-outs are as clean as possible. The doubled fonts tend to be 'blocky' (especially in the larger sizes). MANUAL MAKER makes no distinction between 'doubled' fonts and actual fonts. So, for the cleanest print-outs, know what font sizes you have available. A walk through MANUAL MAKER:@B@U *MANUAL MAKER uses a series of dialog boxes to take you through the creation of your manual. No access to accessories is permitted and to create another manual, you must re-run the program. Since GDOS takes a while to print, this was assumed to be reasonable. Let me know if you would like to see this change. *This file, MANUAL.TXT can be used to run through the program. The first dialog you will see is one giving a brief overview of the program, my name and address, etc. Click on this with the mouse or hit the carriage return to continue. Following this, the printer fonts will be loaded into memory and the mouse will appear as a bee. The next dialog you will see is for selecting the 'Main Text Font'. The names and sizes are selectable, but there is NO display of how the font will look. This was to avoid the loading of the screen fonts and the disk space the screen fonts would require. Also, since GDOS and the needed fonts and printer drivers must come from another application, it was assumed that the user would know how the fonts looked. Following this is the dialog for setting the page and sheet size. A printer test pattern can be printed from this dialog to test your choices for size. You may also save this configuration to disk or load in a previously saved configuration. If an inappropriate value is entered, a dialog will appear containing the equations for maximum and minimum values in a larger text. Hit the return or 'click' on this dialog with the mouse to return to the page configuration dialog. *** !! IMPORTANT !! ***@B@C WHEN USING THE PRINTER ALIGNMENT TEST, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE PRINT-OUT APPEARS CENTERED TOP TO BOTTOM ON THE PAPER!! THIS WILL INSURE PROPER ALIGNMENT OF THE SECOND SIDE WITH THE FIRST. (In other words, the 'FOLD-LINE' should appear in the center of the the paper when the paper is folded in half.) *** !! IMPORTANT !! ***@B@C **This dialog is NEW for version 1.00 and should greatly help those people who found difficulty using Manual Maker with a laser printer or HP Deskjet. It may also expand the possible applications of the program. If you have NOT used MANUAL MAKER as an 'Installed Application', you will next be presented with the familiar 'File Selector' box. (Selecting CANCEL from the selector will exit the program.) You will no longer need the program disk, so it may be removed and the text file disk inserted at this time. Use the file selector to choose the file you want to use to make the manual. This disk must remain in the drive until the program is finished printing both sides. Nothing is ever written to the disk, but the file is 'read from' between the printing of each page. After selecting your file, you will be presented with the 'Printing Options' dialog. From this dialog you can: 1)Enter a Left and Right Page header ex. Left header : MANUAL MAKER_________ Right header: by Craig W. Daymon_______ 2)Justified or Unjustified (ragged-right) printing. 3)Value to start numbering pages with. (Clearing this field will result in NO page numbers.) 4)Tab conversion - Either 4 or 8 spaces. The next dialog is for the creation of a 'Cover'. You will be allowed 4 lines of up to 25 characters each that will be printed so they appear centered on the cover. You are permitted to use a different font for each line. A font MUST be selected if the line is to be printed. If a font is NOT selected, that line and ALL LINES FOLLOWING it will not be printed. A blank line may be inserted by selecting a font for a line with no text. The font selector is the same as that used for the 'Main Text' font. After all fonts are selected and the text inserted, you may send the cover to the printer. *The paper should be aligned accordingly. The program will immediately follow with the printing of the manual. A dialog will be displayed showing the current pages printing. The order of printing is not a sequential one. The first pages printed will be those at the middle of the manual, with the right side increasing and the left decreasing. When the printing of the first side has finished, you will be prompted to flip the paper for the printing of the second side. If using a dot-matrix printer, it is adviseable to form-feed an extra sheet for alignment of the top-of-form for the second side. The paper will be going through the printer in the reverse order it went through for the first side. (The last sheet printed will be the back of the first sheet printed for the second side.) The text for the second side is printed with the same text rotation as the first side. Remember the way the first side printed and, looking through the paper, the tops of the characters already printed should be facing the same side of the printer they did when printed. (This should be the right-hand side for dot-matrix printers.) Now that the paper is in the printer correctly, use that extra sheet of paper you form-fed at the end of the first side printing to align the top-of-form for the first sheet as you did before printing the first side. (Sorry, no more alignment options. Memory should be good enough.) Turn the printer back on and hit the carriage return or click on the dialog to begin printing the second side. (This paragraph is for dot-matrix users.) (For laser printers...) Your only real concern is reordering the sheets so that the last sheet out is the first sheet in, with the opposite side up that was up going through the first time. Again, looking through the paper, the tops of the characters should be aligned with the same side of the laser. Best bet is to experiment with a small document. Hit the return or click on the dialog to start printing the second side. You will see the same dialog as before with the right hand side increasing and the left decreasing. Finally you will be presented with a dialog talking about future plans for the program and making a request for a $10 donation to be used for further development of this program and ones like it. (I would like to get the Atari Developer's Package to make use of the information it has that the many books I have don't cover. - .IMG ? ) Most importantly, I am interested in comments and suggestions - including whether you think $10 is too much and why. I hope you find this program useful. The $10 is REQUESTED and NOT required. Imbedded Commands:@B@U There are 6 imbedded commands currently supported and all effect the entire line being generate when they are found in the text. Examples can be found throughout this file. All imbedded commands begin with an ampersand, @, followed by: 'B' : -To print the line in BOLD text.@B 'C' : -To Center the line.@C 'U' : -To Underline the line.@U 'P' : -To set a FORCED page-break. (NEW for ver. 1.00) 'L' : -To set the Left-page header from within the file. (NEW) 'R' : -To set the Right-page header from within the file. (NEW) ***IMPORTANT NOTE FOR USING IMBEDDED HEADERS***@B@C The imbedded commands for headers ALWAYS begin the line, followed by no more than 25 characters that will make up the header. These two commands are intended to be used as the first two lines of the text. The best placement of the other imbedded commands is at the end of the line to be affected. A blank line should precede a line with an imbedded command, OR the preceding line should also have had an imbedded command, OR the line with the imbedded command should begin with 1 or more spaces or a TAB. Additional Comments:@B@U To force a new-line, begin the line with a TAB or space. New-lines are converted to spaces unless: - followed by another new-line, a space or a TAB. - the line contains imbedded commands@P Send All Comments/Suggestions/Complaints to:@B@U Craig W. Daymon@B 33 Chestnut Valley Drive@B Doylestown, PA@B 18901-2216@B [ GEnie Address: C.DAYMON ]@B *** $10 Donation requested. ***@B I will be releasing all updates through the GEnie information service. On the GEnie Roundtable, Manual Maker is in CATegory #2, TOPic #21. If you don't have a GEnie account, send me a letter with your name and address (AND the $10 - In this case, it's required.) and I'll keep you posted about updates. I will be keeping a database of all those who have written with suggestions,comments, complaints and/or donations. G+PLUS is a complete replacement for GDOS from: CodeHead Software P.O. Box 4336 N. Hollywood, CA 91607 ...and a trademark there of. *G+PLUS comes highly reccommended for improving the performance of any GDOS application. GEM & GDOS are registered trademarks of Digital Research, Inc.