Copyright: Copyright ® 1992-1993, Sanjay Kanade
Citation: (Help was generated using WhizNotes (TM) 1.2)


Advantages of Help Generation

The advantages of help files are obvious. You can independently author and distribute study material in the form of HLP files without any accompanying program. It is very convenient for the user to study a subject presented in the Windows Help form.

So even if you are not a programmer you may have a use for Help files. WhizNotes makes Help generation so simple that once you have the help compiler you can convert any of your WhizNote files into HLP files in a snap. Then you can carry them around on a floppy. Anyone can use them on any system where Windows 3.1 is installed. No special software is required to look at these help files. It is as simple as that.


Basics of Help generation

If you have the Windows help compiler, you can convert your WhizNote files into Windows hypertext help. Creating jumps from one topic to another is as easy as a drag and drop. In fact, what you are reading now has been created by exclusively using WhizNotes along with the Windows help compiler. No other word processor was required! If you have ever tried to create Windows Help then you already know how complex it is. WhizNotes makes this process incredibly simple.

To get a quick demonstration of Help Generation see Sample WZN file to demonstrate Help Generation.

You must have a Windows Help compiler

To take advantages of WhizNotes help generation you should have the Microsoft help compiler. If you already have a Windows SDK or an equivalent then chances are that you already have the help compiler. See your SDK documentation for more details.

If you do not have the help compiler then you may contact Microsoft Corporation to find out how you may purchase one.

Tips for a power user

Normally all your help text requirements will be met by just using WhizNotes and the help compiler. But, in case you want to use a help feature not provided by WhizNotes then you can always edit the intermediate output file (RTF format) produced by WhizNotes by using an advanced RTF editor like MS Word.

Even if you are a power user, beginning the help documentation is much easier with WhizNotes. WhizNotes does not restrict you in any way. Rather it compliments any help creation process which you may already be using.

Setting up the Help Compilation environment

WhizNotes now takes care of the following step for you. You may skip to the next point unless you are interested in the details.

Let us assume that the help compiler executable is HC31.EXE. Before doing help generation in WhizNotes, you must use Windows File Manager to associate the file extension HPJ with HC31.EXE. See Windows documentation for details. If the help compiler is not on your DOS path then it is better to type in the full path name of the help compiler in the File Manager association.

Once you have setup this environment, you are ready to generate Windows help from your WhizNote files.

Prepare your WhizNotes to take advantage of Windows help

If you have inserted Jumps or Refs from one topic to another then WhizNotes converts them to proper Windows Help jumps and references. This is very convenient. For details, see Inserting a jump to another topic.

Generating Windows Help

To create a Windows help file from your WhizNote window select menu Tools-Create Help. A dialog box appears which allows you to choose various options for generating Windows help file. For details see WhizNotes Help Generation Dialog Box.

After you have specified your preferences on the above dialog box then the help compilation is started in a DOS window. When the compilation terminates, your help file is generated with the same filename as your WhizNote file but with an extension of HLP. WhizNotes gives you an opportunity to test this generated help. You can also test this help at any time by selecting menu Tools-Test Help. You may also directly test the help file by double clicking on it in the File Manager. Please note that once you have created an HLP file it is ready to be distributed to your customers and can be used on any PC with Windows installed.

Note that WhizNotes encodes some information into your help files so that a WhizNotes generated help can be recognized for detecting unlicensed commercial usage of WhizNotes!

Also see

Advantages of Help Generation

Improving WhizNotes generated help

Please register to support the author.


Basics of WhizNotes printing facilities

WhizNotes gives you the following features for printing your topics:

Printing from an open topic window

This is the feature that you will use most often when printing a single topic , say a letter. No special headers or footers will be printed except for the page numbers which is exactly what you usually want when printing a single topic.

Printing from a WhizNote window

You will realize the convenience of WhizNotes grouping and printing when you print from a WhizNote window.

Printing one or more selected topics

In this case, WhizNotes introduces special headers and footers while printing which make it easy to look for a particular topic in the printout. That is not all! If you select and print multiple topics then WhizNotes will also produce a table of contents at the end.

Printing all the topics

You can also print all the topics contained in a WhizNote file. This is similar to printing multiple topics, but applies to all the topics.

Please note that WhizNotes always uses a suitable fixed size font when printing your topics.

Special note

Although you may feel that WhizNotes does not provide you any control over fonts, headers and footers; please remember that WhizNotes is a text organizer or PIM. Rather than focus on the document presentation features it primarily concentrates on topic management, document creation, and review faciltities in all its features. It gives you sufficient options to print one or more of your topics selectively for reviewing and provides better features in overcoming certain Windows problems, which other text editors do not address. For example, see Using Quick draft printing for convenience.

However, this version of WhizNotes is just a beginning. If you support the author by registering, you will see more and more of your valuable suggestions incorporated in WhizNotes. The author believes that the users will come out with innovative uses of WhizNotes and with their feedback WhizNotes will improve dramatically.

Please register to support the author


Contents

Short Description

What is new in this version

Introduction

Introduction

The philosophy of WhizNotes

Quick start tutorial

Please register to support the author

What you get when you Register

How to Register

Manipulating WhizNote files

What is a topic?

What is a WhizNote file?

Creating a new WhizNote file

Opening an existing WhizNote file

Saving a WhizNote file

Save WhizNote as.. menu option

Manipulating topics within a WhizNote file

Creating a new topic

Opening a topic for editing

Renaming a topic

Deleting a topic

Searching for a topic

New feature to search through topics

Inserting a jump to another topic

Operations on multiple topics

Making use of Windowing features of WhizNotes

Opening multiple WhizNote and topic windows

Manipulating external text files

Saving topic to an external text file

Copying topics from one WhizNote to another

Printing WhizNote files and topics

Basics of WhizNotes printing facilities

Printing from a topic window

Printing one or more selected topics

Using Quick draft printing for convenience

Generating Windows Help

Basics of Help generation

Advantages of Help Generation

More help generation commands

Sample WZN file to demonstrate Help Generation

Improving WhizNotes generated help

What you should know about temporary files created by WhizNotes

Temporary files created by WhizNotes

Export/import features of WhizNotes

Exporting Selected Topics to a Text File

Importing Topics from a text file

Appendix

Limits setup in WhizNotes

Trademarks

Did you get the original WhizNotes disk?

Other Shareware by the same author


Copying topics from one WhizNote to another

If you have one or more WhizNote windows open and you want to copy a topic from one WhizNote to another, do the following:

•	Bring both windows into view. For better visibility, you can iconfiy the unneeded windows and use menu Window-Tile for better view of the desired windows.

•	Select a topic in one window by clicking on it. Then, while keeping the left mouse button pressed, drag the mouse cursor onto the other WhizNote window and release it.

You will see that the topic gets copied to the other WhizNote file.

Dragging multiple topics

You can also use Windows standard key combinations with the mouse click to select multiple topics and drag them onto the other WhizNote. For details on how to select multiple topics, please see Operations on multiple topics.

This dragging feature is indeed very convenient

For instance, you can make one of your WhizNote files as a sort of wastebasket or archive. You can drag and drop old topics on to this basket and then delete them from the original WhizNote.


Creating a new topic

Creating a new topic is easy. Just bring one of your WhizNote windows in focus and either press Insert or select menu File-New Topic....

A dialog box appears which allows you to choose a name for your topic. Please note that embedded blanks and special characters are allowed in topic names. So you can even choose a phrase for your topic name.

Once you select a topic name for your new topic, an editor window opens up which allows you to enter text into your topic.


Creating a new WhizNote file

To create a new WhizNote file, select File-New WhizNote. You will see that an untitled gray window appears which contains an empty list of topics. This is called a WhizNote file.

Now you are ready to add one or more topics to this WhizNote file.

Please note that WhizNotes allows you to keep multiple WhizNote file windows open at the same time. You can even copy topics by dragging them from one WhizNote file to another.

Also see

Creating a new topic

Saving a WhizNote file

Save WhizNote as.. menu option


Delete Temp Files Help Generation Option

There are two cases, in which you may not want to delete temporary files.

•	When you want to edit the file with extension RTF by an RTF editor like Microsoft Word to enhance its appearance, or, choose different fonts.

•	You know how to use the Help compiler directly and you want to change some options in the help project file with extenstion HPJ.

In both these cases please remember that after changing these files, do not run WhizNotes help generation as it will overwrite your changes! Rather you should directly run the BAT file which has the same name as your WhizNote file from DOS.

For your information, the temporary files with following extensions are generated by WhizNotes. All these files have the same name as your WhizNote file but have different extensions:

•	HPJ	Help Project File

•	BAT	Batch file to run compilation

•	RTF	Rich Text Format (RTF) representation of your WhizNote

•	HPO	Output file for the help compilation


Deleting a topic

To delete a topic just select the topic in the WhizNote window, and select menu File-Delete Topic or just press the key DEL.

You can select multiple topics in the list of topics and delete them. For details on how to select multiple topics, please see Operations on multiple topics.


Did you get the original WhizNotes disk?

If you want to confirm that you got the original WhizNotes program files as packaged by the author then please follow this procedure at the DOS prompt.

•	Copy the files from your WhizNotes disk to an empty test directory on your hard disk. For example, to make a directory named VERIFY type these commands:

MD C:\VERIFY

COPY A:\*.* C:\VERIFY

•	Go to the above directory by DOS CD command:

CD C:\VERIFY.

•	Now type the following command:

PKUNZIP -o -en WHIZNOTE.ZIP >LIST.TXT

After the above command finishes execution, the contents of the file LIST.TXT should match the following information starting from the line "Inflating: AVEXTRA.TXT   -AV":

*********************************************************************

Searching ZIP: WHIZNOTE.ZIP

  Inflating: AVEXTRA.TXT   -AV

  Inflating: BWCC.DL_      -AV

  Inflating: FILE_ID.DIZ   -AV

  Inflating: LICENSE.DOC   -AV

  Inflating: ORDER.DOC     -AV

  Inflating: OTHER.DOC     -AV

  Inflating: README.TXT    -AV

  Inflating: SAMPHLP.HLP   -AV

  Inflating: SAMPLHLP.WZN  -AV

  Inflating: REGISTER.DOC  -AV

  Inflating: SETUP.EXE     -AV

  Inflating: VENDOR.DOC    -AV

  Inflating: WHIZNOTE.EX_  -AV

  Inflating: WHIZNOTS.HLP  -AV

Authentic files Verified!   # PRJ383

SANJAY KANADE

*********************************************************************

WhizNotes files have been successfully unzipped.

Please read the files README.TXT and LICENSE.DOC before proceeding.

You will find the WhizNotes setup program "SETUP.EXE" as one of the

unzipped files in this directory. Run this SETUP program from the

Windows Program Manager to install WhizNotes.

Thank you.

*********************************************************************

After the comparison you may purge the contents of the above test directory.

If the list of files or authenticity message does not match the one shown here then you received either a virus infected or a tampered copy of WhizNotes program. In such a case, please stop use of WhizNotes immediately and write to the author:

Sanjay Kanade

PO Box 3205

Santa Clara  CA - 95055

Please do not forget to indicate the source from which you received the Shareware version of WhizNotes. Thank you.


draft copy

A printout which is solely produced for checking the text content of a document. It is faster because it is usually produced by sending a stream of characters to your printer. There is no font selection involved.


Examples of WhizNote files

A WhizNote file is nothing but a collection of many topics. You create such files with the help of WhizNotes. Such files have the extension ".WZN".

It is upto you to group any topics you want into one WZN or WhizNote file. This way you do not have to remember each of your topic names. All you need to remember is the WhizNote file name which serves as a sort of folder name.

A topic within a WhizNote file can be any independent text note that you want to recognize by name. Please also note that topic names appear in sorted order in the list of topics so that you can easily organize them by choosing proper names.

Example

A WhizNote file "WEEKREPS.WZN" may contain various weekly reports as individual topics having the following names:

•	01/02/93 - Weekly report ( sent on 01/05 )

•	01/09/93 - Weekly report

•	...

As you can see, the ability to choose any topic name and, to group them makes WhizNotes extremely useful. You need not care about how the topics are kept or which directory they belong to. All you need to remember is the name of that particular WhizNote file which contains them-"WEEKREPS.WZN" in this case.

More examples:

•	A WhizNote file "LETTERS.WZN" keeps your letters as individual topics, with names like Martin - letter sent on Dec 14".

•	A WhizNote file "UTILSLIB.WZN" is used by a programmer to keep notes on various C utility functions or C++ classes that he is developing or plans to develop. Again the flexible naming allows topic names like:

int   getDelimitedText(  char *textBuffer)

•	A writer uses a WhizNote file "PHRASES.WZN" to quickly note any phrases or ideas he might find useful in a writing project, with topic names like Possible beginning para.

•	Two constultants developing a product, share ideas by passing a WhizNote file called "prodidea.wzn" and thus exchange information on related topics.

•	...

Isn't it wonderful to be able to identify all your information by such convenient topic names and, to group them together in WhizNote files?

It may be interesting for you to know that this WhizNotes help was developed by using WhizNotes. WhizNotes allows you to convert any WhizNote file into Windows hypertext help, provided you have the Windows help compiler.

To find out more, please see Basics of Help generation.

By the way, as the WhizNotes author, I myself have been keeping track of enhancement ideas and bug reports using WhizNote files. This way I never lose any single piece of information that I want to remember.


Exporting Selected Topics to a Text File

At a certain point after preparing your document in WhizNotes, you may want to export the text to a single text file, so that you may now use an advanced word processor to put in the features for enhanced appearance.

To do that select menu Tools-Export Selected Topics To Text File.... A dialog box appears which allows you to specify a delimiting line which you want to precede the start of each topic in the output text file. For example, if you enter /* TOPIC */ as the delimiter line then WhizNotes will put such a line in the output text file whenever it starts writing a new topic. Of course, if you want you may not choose to put any delimiter by leaving the line empty in the dialog box.

Delimiter is especially useful, if later you want to import the same file back into a WhizNote.

Also see

Importing Topics from a text file


Features of WhizNotes

WhizNotes helps you take maximum advantage of the random creative thought processes which occur when you are preparing a document, or, studying a new subject.

Let us look at the features of WhizNotes at a glance.

Choose any name for your topic

Flexibility in choosing topic names is one of the most convenient features of WhizNotes. After using this facility of descriptive and clear names, you will never go back to keeping your text in cryptic named files on the disk.

With WhizNotes, you can make topics having very long names, upto 254 characters long. Also there is no restriction on the set of characters that you can use in topic names.

This flexibility in choosing names can be put to hundreds of different uses. For example, if you are a programmer you may as well make function prototypes as your topic names to facilitate direct access to the documentation for your function library.

Easily create topics of your choice

With WhizNotes it is a snap to create a topic with its own editor window.

Easily group related topics together

There is also a convenient grouping facility. You can combine related topics into a single file. Such files are called WhizNote files. One WhizNote file may contain many topics and you can have different WhizNote files for different subjects.

Easily locate a topic

The WhizNote file window lists topics in a sorted order. This makes it easier to locate a topic.

Search functions are also available to quickly locate topics.

Drag and drop topics from one WhizNote to another

You can have multiple WhizNote files open at the same time and you can copy topics from one WhizNote file to another WhizNote file by just dragging and dropping them.

You can drag single or multiple topics.

Use flexible Multiple Document Interface

WhizNotes provides the standard Multiple Document Interface similar to many applications. Thus you can learn it quickly and start using it immediately.

Help Generation

If you have a Windows help compiler then you can convert your WhizNote files into Windows hypertext help. Creating jumps from one topic to another is as easy as a simple drag and drop. In fact, this WhizNotes help has been created by exclusively using WhizNotes along with the Windows help compiler. No other word processor was required! If you have ever tried to create Help files then you already know how time consuming it is. WhizNotes makes Help creation incredibly simple.

Although there are other help authoring tools available, there is a big difference. They have been created primarily for Windows help generation and most of them require the use of a separate RTF editor like Microsoft Word. But with WhizNotes it is different. WhizNotes primarily addresses text organization and topic management. Help generation is a side-feature for WhizNotes, and moreover, it does not require the use of any other RTF editor.! Of course, you can use one in addition to WhizNotes to improve upon your work by using WhizNotes export capabilities. WhizNotes does not restrict you in any way.


Fixes and improvements

The following features of WhizNotes have been improved. These are for information only. You need not understand them. You automatically get their benefits when using this version.

•	Printing related

•	Left and right print margins for generic text driver now allow more text on a line.

•	Printout from "text file" windows has been flushed left so that more characters are accommodated in a line.

•	A printing bug related to printout for text file windows has been fixed.

•	Previously when viewing text files created with DOS editors, a block character appeared at the end of the file. This has been removed.

•	Mouse click on multiple-select items has been improved. Now you no longer need to keep control pressed when dragging multiple selected items.

•	Now when you move from one editor window to another, the previous caret position or selected text for the second window is retained for your convenience.

•	Current directory during Help compilation is now handled correctly so that 'Help file was not found due to unknown error' bug is solved.

•	The name of the temporary directory used by WhizNotes has been changed to WHIZTEMP.

•	A problem has been found to occur due to a particular version of Borland's BWCC.DLL distributed with some other products. WhizNotes does not replace it with its own DLL because it is a later version file. However, this is not backward compatible and causes WhizNote windows to retain some garbage when the topic windows are closed.

To fix this, WhizNotes now distributes an even later version of BWCC.DLL which is supposed to be backward compatible. However, WhizNotes only recommends you to install it by replacing the older BWCC.DLL file. WhizNotes does not actually install it as it may be in use.

If you see the garbage problem as mentioned then please follow WhizNotes setup instructions to replace the BWCC.DLL with the one distributed with WhizNotes. Stop all other applications, or preferably, exit Windows and do it from DOS. Be sure to preserve your old BWCC.DLL file by renaming it, or, moving it out of your path. ( Just in case, you face problems with any other products that use it and want to restore it ).

Also see

Known problems


How to Register

You can obtain a registered version of WhizNotes for only $49.95 + $4.50 for Shipping and Handling ( within USA ). ( Shipping and Handling is $9.00 for outside USA ).

If you are not satisfied with WhizNotes registered Version for any reason,  you can return it within 30 days for a full refund.

TO REGISTER BY PHONE

Please call Advanced Support Group, Inc. at:

1-800-788-0787 (ORDER ONLY)

  	or,

(314) 965-5630

You can make your payments with Mastercard, Visa, American Express, purchase orders, or, at ASG's option, C.O.D.

TO REGISTER BY MAIL, FAX, or, COMPUSERVE

Please use the order form in the file order.doc. You can also print the order form by pressing the button 'Print order form...' on the registration reminder screen ( also available in menu Help - Registration reminder... ).

Please send the order form to:

Advanced Support Group, Inc.

11900  Grant Place

DES PERES, MO - 63131

FAX :  (314) 966-1833

Compuserve ID : 70304, 3642

Send questions/suggestions to the author

If you have any questions or face any problem then you can mail your questions/suggestions to the author at the following address:

Sanjay Kanade

P.O. Box 3205

Santa Clara, CA - 95055

Also see

What you get when you Register


Importing Topics from a text file

In order to import topics from a text file, it is necessary to understand that the text file must have a unique identifier line preceding the line which contains the name of a new topic. Otherwise it is not possible for WhizNotes to make out the end of one topic and the beginning of next one.

For example,

Your text file may look like this:

/* A TOPIC */

First Topic Name

...

...text for the topic...

/* A TOPIC */

Second Topic Name

...

...text for the topic...

Thus the line /* A TOPIC */ identifies that a new topic is starting, and the next line contains a topic name. Such a line is called a delimiter line. In above example the line containing /* A TOPIC */ is a delimiter line. A delimiter must be present in the text file to use the import facility.

Also, since WhizNotes imposes a limit on the number of characters for the contents of a topic, the text for any topic in your text file should not exceed the maximum allowed topic size. For latest information on limits please see Limits setup in WhizNotes.

If you have such a text file then you may select menu Tools-Import Topics from a file to import it. A dialog box appears which prompts you to specify a delimiter line. Once you enter proper delimiter line from your text file, the import feature will import topics into the WhizNote window.

Please note that if a WhizNote has already been exported to a text file with delimiters then it is ready for import automatically. Try it out. See the topic Exporting Selected Topics to a Text File for details on how to export.

If you are taking an external text file and want to break it into topics then , and only then, you need to do some extra work to insert your delimiter and topic names at proper points in the file where necessary.

Currently there is no way for WhizNotes to identify the word-wrapped topics from the imported text. So if you have any, after the import is over, you will have to open up their topic windows one by one and explicitly put the word wrap on by using the Edit menu. This problem will be solved in WhizNotes version 2.0.

Also see

Exporting Selected Topics to a Text File


Improving WhizNotes generated help

To make help documentation and generation simple, WhizNotes hides a lot of details from you. Hence, as can be expected, there are certain limitations in the WhizNotes generated help. Of course, you can expect one or more of these limitations to be removed in future versions of WhizNotes.

This discussion will explain these limitations and also the work arounds which will require some extra effort on your part. But overall, you will still save considerable time over the process which you would have used in the absence of WhizNotes. Most of these work arounds have one common procedure to follow: to preserve the temporary files ( RTF, HPJ, BAT) generated during help creation. You will choose this option when generating help and will edit the RTF or HPJ files created by WhizNotes using a text editor or an RTF editor as directed. Then you will run the BAT file from DOS or File Manager and your customized help will be prepared for you by the BAT file. If you follow these procedures then please do not "create help" for this WhizNote file from WhizNotes as it will overwrite the changes that you made.

•	Text attributes

Currently WhizNotes provides you a set of text attribute commands which are enough for most of your help generation requirements. For details see More help generation commands. Also, by default WhizNotes selects appropriate font type, size, and, color for your help topic titles and contents.

But if you need to use a different font or text attribute not provided by WhizNotes then you can always edit the RTF output of WhizNotes using an advanced RTF editor like MS WORD and enhance your document. After you have edited this RTF file then you can run corresponding BAT file from DOS or File Manager to create your help file.

•	Project file options

WhizNotes uses certain commands in the Help project file to control the your generated help. Currently from WhizNotes you can directly control the "Copyright" statement and decide to use compression or not. If you study your Windows SDK's documentation then you will find more advanced project options that you can use in your project files. To do this, edit the HPJ file produced by WhizNotes using a text editor and add or modify the statements. Then run the corresponding BAT file.

•	Browse Sequence

By default WhizNotes makes the browsing sequence for your help topics such that it will start with the "Contents" and then go on in the order of topics in your WhizNotes file.

If you do not like this and want to disable the Browse buttons then remove the BrowseButtons() statement from your HPJ file and run the BAT file produced by WhizNotes.

On the other hand, if you want to have different browse groups then you can edit the RTF file using any simple text or RTF editor and change the browse sequence numbers to get the desired affect. Consult your SDK documentation for more details on Browse sequences. For searching and changing Broswe sequence ids, search by the name of the WhizNote file followed by a :.

For example, if your WhizNote file is named SAMPLHLP.WZN, and you choose "Not to delete the temp files" when generating HLP for this file. Then you will edit the RTF file SAMPLHLP.RTF and search for "SAMPLHLP:" string. You can change the number following the : to change the browse sequence for that topic. But if you want entirely different groups of sequences for different topics then you have to make the part before the : same for a group. See your SDK documentation for more details. After you have edited this RTF file then you can run SAMPLHLP.BAT from DOS or File Manager to create your help file.

•	Keywords for topics

WhizNotes puts only one keyword for each topic: its topic name. If you want additional topics then follow this procedure. Edit the RTF output using a text editor and search for statements like 'K{ ..}'. You will find the topic name before the closing braces. This is the keyword put in by WhizNotes. To add more keywords simply add a semicolon and insert more keywords separated by semicolons. Note that a keyword can consist of one or more words, even a phrase. If you use an RTF editor then you will find have to use the procedure described in your SDK documentation. After you have edited this RTF file then you can run SAMPLHLP.BAT from DOS or File Manager to create your help file.

•	Context strings

WhizNotes generates the context strings for topics and this is sufficient most of the time. In some cases, you may need to know the context string assigned to a topic, for instance when defining hot spots in bitmaps. To do that choose to generate C header file when creating help. This generates a file with extension INC which you can examine to find out the context string. The context string for a topic is the word that follows the corresponding #define in this file.

In certain cases, you may want to change the context string for a particular topic. You can do this by a globally replacing the context string in RTF file using a text editor. After you have edited this RTF file then you can run SAMPLHLP.BAT from DOS or File Manager to create your help file.

This covers most of the advanced usage information.

Please note that I am working on providing an easy way to provide these advanced features directly in WhizNotes. Registered users will get a free upgrade. Your support will greatly speed up this development, so I urge you to register soon.


Insert Jump Dialog Box

When you drag a topic from a WhizNote window onto one of the open topic windows then this dialog box appears. If you choose a Jump option then a jump to the dragged topic is inserted in the open topic at the caret position. On the other hand, if you choose a reference, a reference jump is inserted.

What is a Jump?

In WhizNotes a jump is a hypertext jump statement which allows you to double click on the jump and go to the topic window indicated. This is a very convenient feature of WhizNotes.

A WhizNotes jump statement looks like this:  [~JUMP topicname].

Also, when you generate a Windows help file from WhizNotes then this is translated into a Windows Help jump. Try and see how it works. Then you will understand it better.

What is a Reference?

This is mainly for Windows Help generation. A reference is a statement which allows you to control whether the generated Windows Help file will contain a jump or a reference at this place.

A WhizNotes reference statement looks like this:  [~REF topicname].

As far as WhizNotes is concerned, it provides a jump even if you double click on a reference. This is very convenient when developing a help document with WhizNotes.

Printing and above statements

However, during printing WhizNotes converts both the above statements to double quoted topic names for your convenience.


Inserting a jump to another topic

When you drag a topic from a WhizNote window onto one of the open topic windows then a dialog box appears which allows you to insert a  WhizNotes Jump.

Also, when you generate a Windows help file from WhizNotes then this is translated into a Windows Help jump. Try and see how it works. Then you will understand it better.

For your information, when you print topics containing jump statements then the jumps are converted into double quoted topic names so that your printout does not look strange.

For details, see Insert Jump Dialog Box.


Introduction

•	Do you often feel overwhelmed with the bulk of information that you have to deal with?

•	Do you constantly come up with new ideas but have trouble recalling them later?

•	Do you find it difficult to reorganize your thoughts when you decide to write up that new document you have been thinking about?

•	Do you wish that you could create your very own electronic reference notes on your favorite subjects; that too in the Windows hypertext help format?

Well, do not blame yourself for any of these situations as they are indeed the manifestations of your creative mind. Don't lose those precious thoughts away! Give your imaginative mind the proper writing tool that it deserves. Give it WhizNotes and see your productivity soar as never before!

Welcome to the world of WhizNotes

WhizNotes is a Windows program which can be used on Windows version 3.1 or later. Once you start using WhizNotes, you might wonder how you ever managed without this versatile tool. After knowing more about WhizNotes, you will find that it does not fit into any single category of programs that you have known so far. It may look like a PIM ( Personal Information Manager ) at first glance. But, it is also a document creation tool, Windows Help generation tool, an organizer, a study aid, a thinking aid, and so on. It's variety of uses are only limited by your imagination.

Let us take an example of a document preparation process which is starting from scratch. We all know how painful it can be to prepare that first draft of a document. You may have all the ideas on how to go about writing that document but all your thoughts seem tangled to begin with. WhizNotes helps you overcome this inertia effectively and easily. How? It lets you classify your information into separate topics instantly. WhizNotes provides convenient topic management facilties. Therefore you can concentrate on the subject matter of the document without worrying about its structure.

WhizNotes' information management facility is also a great help in making notes of any kind, whether you are a student, a writer, a programmer,...

Also a Help generation tool

To top it all, WhizNotes allows you to turn your notes into Windows hypertext help, provided you have the Windows help compiler.

The philosophy of WhizNotes

Want to know more about the concepts behind WhizNotes? Why not take a look at The philosophy of WhizNotes.

To mention a few of the more important features, WhizNotes gives you an ability to:

•	Put any type of text in one or more topics.

•	Choose any descriptive topic name, even with embedded blanks and special characters.

•	Group all these topics together in a WhizNote file which serves as a sort of folder for these topics.

This way you can create as many groups as you want by simply using different WhizNote files. To get a better idea of the grouping flexibility provided by WhizNotes, please take a look at the Examples of WhizNote files.

•	Print a neat listing of one or more topics including a table of contents. An option of quick draft printing is also supported.

•	Generate Windows hypertext help, provided you have the Microsoft help compiler.

Features of WhizNotes

To look at the complete list of features that WhizNotes provides, please look at the Features of WhizNotes.

Please register to support the author

WhizNotes is a Shareware program. That means you are expected to pay a registration fee to the author in order to continue using this software beyond the initial trial period of thirty days. Remember, the author is not compensated for his efforts unless you register. With your support, it is possible for the author to continue providing enhancements for WhizNotes.

Registered version of WhizNotes gives you several benefits.

Find out more about what you get in the registered version of WhizNotes by clicking on the following topics:

What you get when you Register

How to Register


Known problems

The following are known problems/limitations. An attempt will be made to fix them in future updates.

•	This is a problem related to the search for a phrase only, that too on word wrapped topics. When searching for a phrase through text of topics, if a particular occurrence of the phrase happens to be word wrapped then WhizNotes is not able to find it.

There is a work around: you can export all the topics to a text file and perform a search there so as not to miss any occurrence.


Limits setup in WhizNotes

At present WhizNotes has the following limits:

•	A topic can contain upto about 30,000 characters of text. However, since WhizNotes encourages you to divide your document into topics of managable size, this is not really a limit. In fact, you can have very large WhizNotes files made up of these topics.

•	The topic name can be upto 254 characters in length. However, there is no restriction on using special characters, even blanks, embedded in topic names. However, you can not use character ']' in the topic names.

•	WhizNotes allows you to keep maximum 25 windows open at the same time.


Manipulating external text files

Although, when working with WhizNotes you never need to worry about managing actual text files on your disk, all the standard features for viewing and editing external text files are provided in case you need them.

The following points can be noted:

•	You can create a new text file by selecting menu item File-New Text File. Then you can save it by any name of your choice by selecting File-Save As...

•	You can open any text file for editing or viewing by selecting File-View/Edit A Text File.... You will notice that the File menu remembers the last 8 WhizNote or Text files that you visited. You can just click on one of those file names to reopen them quickly.

•	Similarly you can also save one of your topics to an external text file. See Saving topic to an external text file.

•	Currently WhizNotes only allows you to view text files upto a certain file size. For latest information on these limits please see Limits setup in WhizNotes.

•	Word-wrap feature is not provided for external text files as they can not remember it properly. However, WhizNotes 2.0 will allow you to link topics to external text files so that all the features of topics, and their printing will also be available for them.


More help generation commands

Now your help text can have certain special attributes as explained in the following commands:

How to specify bold text

 [~BOLD  text]

When you use such a command, the enclosed text appears as bold in the generated help. The text can even be a whole paragraph.

How to specify italic text

 [~ITALIC  text]

When you use such a command, the enclosed text appears as italic in the generated help. The text can even be a whole paragraph.

How to specify bulleted lists

To make up the bulleted lists in the generated help, you use the following commands, each on a separate line by itself:

•	 [~STARTLIST]	To start the list.

•	 [~ITEM]	Before each item.

Item can be as long as you want even with multiple paragraphs. The indentation will be retained for the whole item.

•	 [~ENDLIST]	To end the list.

For example, the above bulleted list was created by using the commands as described. You can even nest lists within lists! Although it is not WYSIWYG, you will like this way to prepare lists once you start using it. There are no irritating hidden control characters or indentation markers to deal with and the text you type as items is free format text.

How to indent text

Sometimes you would like to indent text just by itself without using lists.

For doing that use the following command on a separate line by itself:

•	 [~INDENT+]	To indent one step to the right.

Any paragraphs that you type after this will remain indented. You can repeat this command to move further by one step at a time.

•	 [~INDENT-]	To move back the indent one step to the left.

•	 [~INDENT0]	To remove all indentation.

Use this command when you want to make the text appear as it was originally without indentation. Note that a zero has been used instead of + or -.

If you have used indentation in a help topic then at the end of the topic it is better to give this command so that subsequent topics are not affected.

Armed with these commands you can make your Windows help look much better. If you want more features than those available here then please edit the intermediate RTF file using an advanced RTF editor like MS Word.


Multiple Document Interface

WhizNotes uses the standard Multiple Document Interface ( MDI ) as used by many Windows applications. This helps you to learn it easily.

If you have used Program Manager or File Manager then you are already conversant with MDI whether you are aware of it or not.

WhizNotes MDI allows you to:

•	Keep multiple topics as well as WhizNote windows open at the same time.

•	Use a menu located consistently at the top of the main window regardless of the current window being used. Also, what menu options you see are all relevant and applicable to the window which you are working with.

•	Easily locate a window by the Window menu.

•	Minimize or maximize windows for convenience in organizing your desktop space.

•	Tile and cascade windows.

•	Arrange icons for minimized windows.

•	In addition to standard MDI features, WhizNotes implements some enhancements. For example, you can close all topic windows without closing the WhizNote files.

For more information, please look at the description of the document windows in the beginning of your Windows manual. "Document window" is another term for MDI which is used frequently by non-programmers.


New feature to search through topics

When you begin a search by choosing menu item Search-Find... in a WhizNote window then you can choose the option "Also Search Topic Contents".

If you choose this option then the search goes through each topic name and the topic contents. The topic window is opened for you if it contains the search text and the search text is automatically selected. If you continue the search by pressing F3 then it continues through the rest of the topics in the WhizNote file. Try it out. You will like it.


Opening a topic for editing

To open a topic you have to first select the topic in the WhizNote window. Then you have three choices available to open a topic for editing:

•	Double click on the topic name.

•	Press RETURN key.

•	Select menu File-Open Topic....

If you look at the WhizNote window, then you can recognize the open topics by a red pen that appears on topic names.

You can always close all the topics by selecting the menu Window-Close All Topics.


Opening an existing WhizNote file

To open an existing WhizNote file select File-Open WhizNote.... A standard file open dialog will be presented where you can select the desired WhizNote file to open.

Once you select a file and press OK, you will see that a gray WhizNote window appears, which contains the list of topics contained in this file.

Now you are ready to open, delete, and add topics to this WhizNote file.

Please note that WhizNotes allows you to keep multiple WhizNote file windows open at the same time. You can even drag topics from one WhizNote file to another.

Also see

What is a WhizNote file?

What is a topic?

Creating a new topic

Opening a topic for editing

Renaming a topic

Deleting a topic

Creating a new WhizNote file

Saving a WhizNote file

Save WhizNote as.. menu option


Opening multiple WhizNote and topic windows

One great advantage of WhizNotes is that it uses Windows Multiple Document Interface which gives you many features for managing your open windows, whether they are WhizNote file windows or topic windows.

You can go on clicking on topics to open them and you can go on opening other WhizNote files. The Window menu gives you many features by which you can move between the windows, can iconify, tile or cascade them or even close all windows or only the topic windows. For details, see Multiple Document Interface.

You can also drag a topic from one WhizNote window to another by using the mouse. See Copying topics from one WhizNote to another


Operations on multiple topics

WhizNotes allows some operations on multiple topics. For example, you can delete a number of topics at once by selecting them all and choosing delete operation.

How to select multiple topics

To select multiple topics use standard Windows guidelines. For instance, you can select multiple topics by pressing the control key along with mouse click. You can also select a range of topics by selecting the first topic in the range and then moving to the other end of the range and pressing the SHIFT key with mouse click. For more details on how to select multiple topics in the list box please refer to your Windows documentation.

WhizNotes currently allows the following operations on multiple selected topics:

•	Delete topics.

•	Print topics.

•	Copy topics to another WhizNote by dragging them.

•	Export selected topics to text file.


Other Shareware by the same author

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Please register to support the author

WhizNotes is a Shareware program. That means you are expected to pay a registration fee to the author in order to continue using this software beyond the initial trial period of thirty days. Remember, the author is not compensated for his efforts unless you register. With your support, it is possible for the author to continue providing enhancements for WhizNotes.

Registered version of WhizNotes also gives you several benefits

Find out more about what you get on registration by clicking on the following topics:

What you get when you Register

How to Register


Printing all the topics of a WhizNote file

If you select menu File-Print All Topics... then the following actions will take place:

You will be asked for a title for your printout. Then all the topics in your current WhizNote file will be printed, and proper headers and footers will be inserted by WhizNotes. In addition, a table of contents will be printed at the end. After printing finishes, you can move this table to the front.


Printing from a topic window

This is the feature that you will use most often when printing a single topic , say a letter. No special headers or footers will be printed except for the page numbers which is exactly what you usually want when printing a single topic.

To print from a topic window, open the topic window by double clicking on it. Then select menu File-Print....

A standard print dialog will appear which will allow you to choose standard printing options or to setup a printer.


Printing one or more selected topics

If you select menu File-Print Topic... then the following actions will take place, depending on whether you have selected a single or multiple topics in the WhizNote window.

Printing a single selected topic

The topic will be printed and proper headers and footers will be inserted by WhizNotes when printing.

Printing multiple selected topics

You will be asked for a title for your printout. Then the topics will be printed and proper headers and footers will be inserted by WhizNotes. In addition, a table of contents will be printed at the end. After the printing finishes, you can move this table to the front.

You can also print all the topics by choosing menu File-Print All Topics. The action will be same as printing multiple topics, but all the topics in the WhizNote will be printed.


Quick start tutorial

Perform the following steps for a quick flavour of working with WhizNotes. It would be better if you keep this help open and use Windows standard Alt-TAB key combination to switch back and forth between WhizNotes and this help.

•	Select menu File-New WhizNote to open a new WhizNote window. You will see that a gray window appears which contains an empty list of topics. When you start for the first time, such a window will already be present.

•	Now to add topics to this empty WhizNote window select menu File-Add Topic or simply press Insert key. You will be asked for a topic name. Enter any topic name, for example, "This is my first topic".

You will see that an editor window appears which allows you to enter the text for the topic. Try entering some text. You will see that the text wraps around when it reaches the right side of the window. This is for your convenience but you can turn it off by Edit menu.

Now close this topic. Add a few more topics this way. You will see that they are automatically sorted when they appear in the list of topics.

•	You can open one or more topics for modification. Just select the topic. Then either press the Return key, or, double click on the topic name. Also try using the Window menu. You can see the list of all open windows using this menu and can go from one window to another. Also try tiling, cascading, and, closing all the topics.

•	Now select menu File-Save WhizNote. You will have to select a name for this WhizNote file. Select name "TUTORIAL.WZN". Now close the WhizNote window "TUTORIAL.WZN". All your topics are now saved under the file TUTORIAL.WZN.

•	To reopen the file TUTORIAL.WZN, select File menu. You will see that the name TUTORIAL.WZN appears at the bottom of the menu. Just click on it to open it. Or, you can also select menu File-Open WhizNote... to open the WhizNote file TUTORIAL.WZN.

•	Now we shall see how to drag topics from one WhizNote file to another.

While keeping TUTORIAL.WZN open, select menu File-New WhizNote to open another new WhizNote window. Select a topic in TUTORIAL.WZN by clicking on it with the mouse. While keeping the mouse left button pressed, drag the mouse cursor. You will see that it changes to the shape of a note. Move this note on top of the other WhizNote window and release it. You will see that the topic gets copied to the other WhizNote file.

You can select multiple topics by using CONTROL key along with the mouse click. Try dragging these multiple topics to the other WhizNote window.

•	Now we shall insert a jump from one topic to another.

Open one of your topics in TUTORIAL.WZN. Position caret ( blinking cursor ) at a place where you want to insert the jump. Now drag a topic as described earlier but this time drop it on the open topic window. You will see that a JUMP statement gets inserted in the topic. Double click anywhere on this JUMP statement and see what happens. You will instantly go to the topic window indicated in the JUMP.

•	Try printing the topics. You will see that JUMP statements are converted into quoted strings when printed.

•	Now if you have the Microsoft Help Compiler try to create help from Tools menu. Just enter a title for your help when asked and press OK. This should go through successfully unless WhizNotes is unable to locate your help compiler. If that happens associate file extension HPJ to the full file name of your help compiler and retry.

You should also see Sample WZN file to demonstrate Help Generation to get a quick demonstration of Help Generation.

This is enough to get you started. After that look at the contents in this help and explore other features as you go.


Renaming a topic

To rename a topic, just select the topic in the WhizNote window then select menu File-Rename Topic...

A dialog box appears which allows you to change the name of the topic.


Sample WZN file to demonstrate Help Generation

You will find a file named Samplhlp.Wzn in the directory where WhizNotes program is installed. This file contains examples of all Help generation commands that we discussed.

To use this WhizNote file, simply open it and read the first topic "read me first". After reading the topic, close it and choose menu option Tools - Create Help. If you have the Help compiler on your path then you should see the compiler invoked in a Dos window and then a message "Help was successfully created". Answer yes when asked to test this help and see how it looks. You can also test it any time from menu Tools - Test Help. For your information the file that is generated has the same name but a different extension HLP. You can even directly click on such HLP files from File Manager to look at the contents.

Now compare the generated help with the formatting specified in the Samplhlp.Wzn file. Consult online help for these commands, experiment a little, and you will understand how to use these simple commands.

For those of you who do not have the Microsoft Help compiler, I have included the generated help file Samphlp.Hlp. You can directly click on it from the File Manager to see how the Help looks. This will assist you in deciding whether you want to invest in the Help Compiler. Please see Advantages of Help Generation. Also, I have purposely named the supplied help file a little different so that you will not erase it if you try help creation for Samplhlp.Wzn.

You may ask, how to know whether the help compiler exists on your system? The answer is simple. If you purchased any of the Windows Software Development Kits in C, C++, Turbo Pascal, Visual Basic or other languages, then you most probably already have the help compiler. The file name is "HC31.EXE". Try finding it by the File Manager. Please also note that WhizNotes is smart enough to locate and use it provided it is on your Dos Path.


Save WhizNote as.. menu option

You will use this option when you want to save an "Untitled" WhizNote file by some name. However, you can also use this option to save a WhizNote file by another name.

Also see

Creating a new WhizNote file

Saving a WhizNote file


Saving a WhizNote file

To save a WhizNote file, first bring that window into focus by clicking on it. Then select File-Save WhizNote. Note that saving does not close the window.

If the window is "Untitled" then a standard File save dialog appears which allows you to choose a name and location for the WhizNote file.

Please note that all the attributes of the topics, that is, their wordwrap and auto-indent attributes are remembered in the WhizNote file along with the topics. This is very convenient, so that once you create a topic with a certain attribute, it stays that way.

Also see

Save WhizNote as.. menu option


Saving topic to an external text file

To save a topic as an external text file, open the topic window by double clicking on the topic. Then select menu Save As Text File....

Special WYSIWYG saving for word-wrapped topics

Please note that the file will be saved in exactly the same format as you see it on your open window. For example, if you have word wrap feature ON for a topic then the lines will be split exactly as you see them on the window. So it is usually better to first maximize the topic window before saving it as an external text file.


Searching for a topic

You can search for a topic by two methods:

•	If you remember one or more beginning letters or words of a topic name then you can select menu Search-Select Topic Beginning With.... A dialog box appears which allows you to select a topic by typing the beginning characters. For more details see Select Topic Dialog Box.

•	If you remember an embedded word or phrase within a topic name then you can search for it by selecting menu Search-Find....

Also see

New feature to search through topics


Select Topic Dialog Box

In this dialog box, as you type the beginning characters of the topic name, it selects the corresponding topic in the WhizNote window that matches the beginning characters. When you press OK on this dialog, the topic that is selected is opened for editing.


Short Description

Here is a super-notepad for Windows that you would like to use all the time. Give WhizNotes to your imaginative mind and see your productivity soar as never before! WhizNotes gives you convenient topic management facilties which aid you in thinking clearly. You can write better, think better, and, study better using WhizNotes. Use WhizNotes to prepare documents; to make your own hypertext reference notes; to organize your tasks; to take down random notes in meetings and conferences; to study any subject; or simply to reorganize your thoughts.

And, that is not all! WhizNotes is also a Help authoring system. Turn your WhizNote files into "Windows hypertext help" easily and effortlessly.

Hardware/Software requirements:

WhizNotes runs on IBM compatibles and requires the use of Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later. For Windows help Generation additionally requires Microsoft Help Compiler 3.1 or later.

Also see

Introduction


Temporary files created by WhizNotes

It is good to know that WhizNotes creates temporary files in a subdirectory of your working directory. Hence it is best to ensure that the working directory that you specify for WhizNotes in your Program Manager or other shell is on a hard disk. By default WhizNotes Setup sets up the working directory to the same directory where WhizNotes executable program is installed. You can always change it.


text content

The subject matter or thoughts expressed in a document.


The philosophy of WhizNotes

When you start writing, what seems to be more important to you? The  text content of your document? or its appearance: fonts, margins, heads, subheads,...?

You will agree that the text content is more important in the initial stages of the document preparation. After all, the text content is the soul of a document. If it is not thought out properly, then no matter what you do with the document's appearance, it would not be effective.

When you begin to create a document, your foremost aim is to put your creative thoughts into words. You are not worried about the appearance of the document at this point. Rather, you want an uninterrupted flow of thoughts to your text.

This is also true when you are learning a new subject and making notes;  planning something; or just involved in creative writing, or thinking.

Creativity and randomness

Preparing a document from scratch is a creative process. You must have noticed that these thoughts occur to you in a random manner.

For instance, when you are working on one part of the document you suddenly get an idea about the same or an altogether different subject. Also, while studying a particular topic, in a flash, you may solve an earlier problem that had been nagging at the back of your mind. Well, the ways of a human mind are mysterious. It seems to work in the background; that too on multiple problems at a time. How can you cope with this train of random ideas effectively?

First of all, it is important that you are able to record these ideas as and when they occur. That is not enough! You should also be able to group, identify, retrieve and print them easily. Most of us resort to bits and pieces of paper when dealing with such problems. Isn't it an era to expect more from your computer?

Do word processors really help you in thinking or outlining?

You will notice that most of the modern writing tools and sophisticated word processors tend to concentrate on only one aspect of documentation: its appearance and appearance only.

A number of excellent word processors and writing tools are available on PC today, especially in Windows environment. But, unfortunately, there is not much help when it comes to preparing the document's soul: its subject matter.

When recording the random pieces of information or ideas, we may often take help of the good old 'pen and paper'. Why don't we use a simple text editor like NotePad? There may be many reasons:

•	Because the underlying operating system supports limited number of characters in the filename and we won't be able to recognize our ideas if we keep each one in a different file. Moreover, certain special characters are prohibited in the filename.

•	It is even more of a problem to group these cryptic file names and remember where we kept them.

•	Printing or looking at all of them at once as a single entity also requires more effort.

•	The methods to organize these pieces of information are not very convenient under the operating system, especially when you have to link one information with another.

•	Even if you use some of the file system utilities which allow you to assign a descriptive text to your files, it does not help when all these windows are open for editing in a program. You still have to manage these windows by recognizing file names in titles which is a pain.

Interestingly, certain Bulletin Board programs give you file cabinets to store your email. They allow longer names and are closer to what we want but they have been designed mainly for use with email.

So what we end up doing? We usually give up and try to work in a single large document file. This forces us to think in a way which is just not the way we think.

Why doesn't your computer help you when it can do more? Certainly, it can do better than those pieces of paper! Well, you need not be frustrated any more. WhizNotes comes to your help with convenient topic management capabilities. It gives you maximum flexibility in organizing your thoughts.

Also see

Features of WhizNotes


Tips for the Power User

It is suggested that you read this topic after using WhizNotes for some time, as it assumes a working knowledge of WhizNotes features. Registered version help contains more tips for the advanced user.

Use keyboard accelarators for convenience

Almost all the WhizNotes menu items have keyboard accelarators associated with them. You should use it to your advantage by memorizing the accelerators for the most often used functions.

Some of them are pretty intuitive. For example, for adding a topic, simply press INSERT key. For deleting a topic, simply press DELETE key.

Use "Window" menu to unclutter your desktop

The MDI features available in Window menu are indeed very convenient. You should try them and use them whenever possible. For example, when you are dragging a topic from a WhizNote onto a topic editor, you should minimize the unneeded windows and then "Tile" them. This is more convenient for dragging.

You may use Window menu to quickly get to a another window.

Also, similar to ALT-TAB to step through applications, you can use CTRL-TAB to step through windows in WhizNotes.

Controlling order of topics

Currently, the topics are always displayed, processed, and printed in the sorted order of their names. If you want to reorder them then you can add numeric prefixes to force the order, for example, 01.00, 01.01, etc. WhizNotes version 2.0 will give more features for controlling sequence of topics if enough users demand for it.


Trademarks

In this help document the following words have been used:

•	Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

•	"Windows" refers to the Microsoft Windows operating system. "Windows" is a trademark that refers only to this Microsoft product.

•	"MS Word" refers to "Microsoft Word" which is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

•	Microsoft Help Compiler is a product of Microsoft which is distributed with many Windows Software Developement Kits ( SDKs ).


Using Quick draft printing for convenience

Have you ever used Generic Text Driver for printing? If not, you are missing considerable savings in printing time, especially if you are using slower printers. Usually, when printing a  draft copy of your text, you want the quickest possible printing. The Generic Text Driver is the answer. If you setup your printer to use Generic Text Driver as an additional option, you can choose it for quick draft printing. But wait... if you use Generic Text Driver with Notepad or other text editors, you will see that the printout spills over from one page to the next.

WhizNotes works around this problem

For your convenience, WhizNotes takes extra care to implement a work around for this problem. With WhizNotes you will never see wrong page breaks when using the Generic Text Driver. Start using it and save valuable review time.


What is a topic?

A WhizNote topic is any block of text that you want to keep and identify by a descriptive name so that you can easily retrieve it later.

WhizNotes allows you to keep related topics in a single WhizNote file where they can be easily identified and accessed.

WhizNotes does not restrict you in any way to choose names for your topics. They can be very long names with embedded spaces and special characters. Once you get this flexibility to choose the names that you want, you will never want to be without it.

Also see

What is a WhizNote file?

Creating a new topic

Opening a topic for editing

Renaming a topic

Deleting a topic

Operations on multiple topics


What is a WhizNote file?

A WhizNote file is a collection of many topics. You create such files with the help of WhizNotes. These WhizNote files have the extension ".WZN".

It is upto you to group any topics you want into one WZN or WhizNote file. This way you do not have to remember each of your topic names. All you need to remember is the WhizNote file name which serves as a sort of folder name.

A topic within a WhizNote file can be any independent text note that you want to recognize by name.

Also see

What is a topic?

Examples of WhizNote files

Creating a new WhizNote file


What is new in this Version

The following Help topics and related features are new and are listed here for your convenience.

New feature to search through topics

More help generation commands

Sample WZN file to demonstrate Help Generation

Improving WhizNotes generated help

Fixes and improvements


What you get when you Register

What are the advantages of registering? If you have registered any Shareware program before, then you know it already. Here is a list of benefits:

•	Legality: Your license to use the software without registration expires after 30 days.

•	Timeliness: You will receive the most recent version of WhizNotes.

•	Support: Free support is included with your registration; please see the support policy later in this topic.

•	Free updates: As a registered user you will get free updates for any bug fixes. See details later in this topic.

•	The Registration Reminder screen is removed wherever it appears. This gives you many advantages. You can double click on a WZN file in the File Manager or some other Shell and directly go to WhizNotes for looking at the file. You can also use Drag and Drop features of Windows 3.1 to drop files on the WhizNotes icon to open up these files. Nothing prevents you from using these features also in the Shareware version, but the interruption by the Registration Reminder screen takes the charm away.

•	The message "This help file has been created with unregistered copy of WhizNotes" will not appear when you generate help files with the Registered Version. In other words, you get the license for unlimited commercial usage of WhizNotes to generate help files. You also get the license to distribute any WhizNote files that you create using WhizNotes. Note that WhizNotes encodes various levels of information into your help files so that a WhizNotes generated help can be recognized for detecting unlicensed commercial usage of WhizNotes!

•	The Registered version's Online Help is more detailed with many  topics related to advanced usage. For example, in the Registered Version help, you get more "Tips for the Power User" and "Tips on how to include bitmaps and hotspots in the generated help". I am adding more and more tips to make you a power user of WhizNotes.

•	I am also working on providing more control on some advanced features, like Browsing-sequences and keyword-associations. You will get a free upgrade when they are available.

Free technical support for first three months

For Registered users, technical support will be provided for by Advanced Support Group, Inc. on the following phone number:

(314) 965-5630

There is no charge for technical support for first three months for a total connect time not exceeding 30 minutes. After that some charges may apply. For details, please contact Advanced Support Group, Inc.

Of course, you may always correspond with me by mail at the address given later. I shall be happy to solve your problems.

Get free updates directly from me

You will receive a Registration Card with the registered version. Please be sure to complete and mail it to me. Once you do that I will make sure that you continue to get free updates for any bug fixes. I also promise to send you the next upgrade to WhizNotes 2.0 FREE whenever it becomes available.

Also, you will continue to get subsequent major versions of WhizNotes at special upgrade prices. It is also important to know that WhizNotes will always support the older version WhizNote files so all your data in WhizNote files will always be usable.

WhizNotes is just a beginning

If you find WhizNotes useful and register for it then you can take pride in the fact that you are promoting the cause of Shareware. Shareware means user can try the software before actually investing money to buy it. Think of what the future means to you and thousands of users like you. When you buy Shareware then it means that you really care for the software and its usefulness. You don't care for the shrink-wrapping or advertising which only tends to increase its cost.

It is important to understand that this version of WhizNotes is just a beginning. Let me tell you that it is easy to enhance this product as it is based on object oriented technology. Even as you read this help, I am working on improvements based on valuable suggestions from users like you. Chances are, that by the time you get this Shareware Version, the Registered version may have many many extra features. It is in your best interest to Register.

I have ambitious plans to improve WhizNotes. But again, all this is not possible without your support. So if you like WhizNotes, please register as soon as possible.

Send your questions & suggestions to me

If you have any questions or face any problem then you can mail your questions/suggestions to me at the following address:

Sanjay Kanade

P.O.Box 3205

Santa Clara, CA - 95055


WhizNotes Help Generation Dialog Box

This dialog box appears when you select menu Tools-Create Help... to generate Windows hypertext help from a WhizNote file. It allows you to select the following options for help generation:

Title for Help Window

The title that you choose here will appear as the title in the generated Windows Help.

Copyright Notice

You can put your Copyright Notice here which will appear in the about box of the generated Windows Help. For example, please look at the About Box of this help which you are reading. Please note that you can enter a Copyright symbol by typing 0169 while keeping ALT key pressed.

Type of font

Even though, in topic windows you enter your text in Fixed font, WhizNotes allows you to generate an attractive help using a proportional font. Usually it is best to use this 'Proportional font' option unless your help really depends on the fixed font.

You may want to use fixed font rarely. For example, if you are a programmer and want to create your program text into topics, then better choose a fixed font.

Options

Compress Help file

If you check this box then you can generate a compressed Help file which requires lesser space but needs more time for creation. It is best to use this option when you are finally generating a help file to be distributed to your customers.

Note that WhizNotes encodes some information into your help files so that a WhizNotes generated help can be recognized for detecting unlicensed commercial usage of WhizNotes!

Delete temp files

The default is to delete temporary files used in Help generation. Please note that these temporary files have the same filename as the WhizNote file, but a different extension. For more details on this option see Delete Temp Files Help Generation Option.

Generate C Header file

This option is for the programmers who want to integrate calls to the help topics in their program. A C language header file is generated which contains the #defines for context strings used by WhizNotes. For details on how to use this information for integration, please look into your Help compiler related documentation.


WhizNotes Jump

In WhizNotes a jump is a hypertext jump statement which allows you to double click on the jump and go to the topic window indicated. This is a very convenient feature of WhizNotes.