CURRENT NOTES ST LIBRARY #175: ST WRITER TEXT VERSION 1.90 Here is the latest version of the popular ST WRITER word processing program. We have combined the English, Spanish, and German versions all on one disk. The docs in the DOC folder have been extensively revised from the original ST WRITER manual. Also included in the DOCS folder is Bruce Noonan's articles on "ST Writer Secrets" which appeared in the winter 1986 issue of START and my article "ST WRITER TRICKS: Fine Tuning Two Column Output" from the July/August issue of CURRENT NOTES. The "semi-GEM" version of ST Writer (version 2.03) is available on CN disk #176. Bruce Noonan's 'README.DOC' file outlining some of the features available in version 1.90 is reprinted below. --- Joe Waters. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This disk contains the latest (Nov.'87) revision, 1.90, of ST WRITER. If you currently have a version prior to 1.07, a NEW PRINTER DRIVER IS REQUIRED. We also increased the number of control bytes to 8 to accommodate the new laser printers. There is a type-over/insert toggle available by using the Insert key. Also, the alternate characters can be obtained through an Alternate X toggle. For a listing of the control characters available, print the file STWCODES.DOC to screen after loading it into ST Writer. Your printer may require the use of character substitution in order to print many of the codes. Use the config.txt file for customizing your printer driver. Another function, the "deadkey", toggled on and off by [Control][Clr Home], allows direct access to accents, umlauts, tildes, circumflex, etc. of foreign vowels. Hitting a quote signals umlaut. A single quote is a normal accent. A slash [/] followed by O (oh) produces the scandinavian slash O. To get a normal quote while in this mode, hit quote twice in succession. The [Control W] function in "print-to-screen" mode allows the screen to fill, then halts scrolling until a key is pressed. A bug in print preview of a selected range of pages caused all following pages to be formatted before returning control to the user. This has been fixed, as well as a problem with underlining spaces between words in outdenting. The config.txt and xyzzx.dat files included on this disk are for the new 432 byte data file which includes the ability to select double strike (FINAL) quality by means of the Install Printer accessory from the GEM desktop OR from the program itself when PRINT is selected from the menu. The CONFIG.TOS file reads the config.txt file (vide infra) and creates the xyzzx.dat printer driver file customized for any printer. It will work for wide carriage printers as well as 80 column printers. A bug in ALL previous ST Writer programs prevented merging of non-ST Writer files without messing up the current file in memory. This has now been fixed. STWRITER.PRG is the ST Writer program -- double-click on its icon or filename to run ST Writer. You can then load and print the documentation files in the DOCS folder. To load a file, simply press L from the main ST Writer menu, then enter the filename. To print, make sure your printer is connected and online, press P, then press [Return] four times. You should also load and print out the template for the function keys, TEMPLATE.STW. To print this template, your printer must be capable of condensed print (and understand the Epson code for condensed). SECRETS.TXT is a reprint of Bruce Noonan's article "ST Writer Secrets" which appeared in the winter 1986 issue of START and is reprinted here by permission of ANTIC publishing. If your printer is not an Epson or Atari then you must edit the CONFIG.TXT file using STWRITER.PRG. The escape sequences for each printer specific function are defined in up to EIGHT characters and each character value is represented by a decimal number between 0 and 255. A value of 255 represents the end of the string or a "place holder" value. You may also enter hex values, but be sure to prefix them with '0x' (e.g., 0x21, which is decimal 33). When you have edited and SAVED the CONFIG.TXT file from ST Writer, exit to the desktop. Double click on the file CONFIG.TOS. This program will execute and write a file XYZZX.DAT which is used by ST Writer whenever you print to your printer. The file XYZZX.DAT is included and saved as a "READ ONLY" file in case you screw up the CONFIG.TXT file. In that event, load XYZZX.DAT and re-save it under the name CONFIG.TXT and start again. If you find other bugs, let me know. I may try again if there is sufficient interest. --Bruce D. Noonan, M.D., [72407,504] 5/30/87 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NOTE: to get everything to fit on a single-sided disk, I had to ARC the German and Spanish versions. You need to use ARC.TTP to deARC these files before you can use them. If you don't have ARC.TTP, it is available on CN #73.