Print-A-Matic Ver 1.0 --------------------- Written By: Michael H. Douville ------------------------------- Purpose: To enable a easy way to control your printer. These features include : 1. Sending control codes to your printer to enable certain features. 2. To be able to group these features together as macros and use them. 3. To be able to save the configuration for repeated use. 4. To enable printing of a text file from the program. 5. A TEST option that allows you to see what text will look like on your printer, BEFORE you print the file. Credits: I have to admit that this program was not entirely an original idea. I had purchased a program called Max-Pak, which had a very nice printer handler. Well, the company is no longer around, and I didn't really need all the other stuff the program had so I decided to use some of the ideas in that program as well as some of my own to come up with this program. Also much thanks goes to ICD for their great program Personal Pascal, which enabled a novice such as myself to come up with this program. About the program: The first version of this program is TOS based. However I do plan to further enhance this program with additional features and also design a GEM version. The first version is Public Domain. However I do plan to make the other versions shareware. More information can be found on this later. On to the program itself ....... In the main portion of the screen you notice a bunch of letters with brackets to the right of them. These are where the control codes for the printer are held; inside the bracket is where the title of that code also goes. Just to the lower left of the main screen is the Function key selection menu. This menu allows you to send the codes to the printer, print a file, do a test print etc. To the lower right of the main menu is the macro menu. This is where your printer code macros are stored. In other words, you may set up several codes you want to send to your printer and label it under one of the ten macro keys. These keys are also saved along with all your other definitions. Below these two menus is your print format menu, which unfortunately is not available in this version. Last to come is the information and entry line. This is where you enter your control codes etc.. Using the program. First be sure that PRINTA.TOS and PRNCONFG.DAT are in the same folder. Creating Control Codes Before you can start using this program you will need to enter some information so that your computer can control your printer. These usally consist of an escape code followed by various other codes that allow your printer to print in bold, underline, condensed print and much more. The format that Print-A-Matic uses consist of the decimal eqivalants of these with each code being seperated by a comma, example: 27,19,34. To enter or edit a code first select the letter (A-X) you wish to use and type + (Letter Selected) at the same time. stands for control key. Your cursor will then move to that letter and prompt you to enter the title for the control codes you are about to enter. For example if you were to enter the codes to turn bold on you might want to call the key [BOLD ON ]. You may use just about any keys on the keyboard for your title. If you make a mistake just hit your Backspace key to correct (Delete will not work). After doing this you will be prompted to enter the control code sequence for that feature. If you already had control codes there, these will be displayed and may be edited. The codes entered MUST be in decimal form separated by a comma. This can be up to 20 characters in length, if longer you will get a beep, you will also keep a beep if you type in an illegal character. To enter this information just hit return. Turning Codes ON and OFF To activate or deactivate a code simply type the letter associated with that code. When a code is activated it will have a "tag" character just to the left of the letter. Creating and Using Macros The macro feature of Print-A-Matic simply allows you too store a "set" of tagged or untagged codes with a key stroke, instead of mannually having to turn each code on and off. To activate a macro first select which codes you wish to have on and which you wish to have off. Then select a number from the NUMERIC KEYPAD plus the control key at the same time, example + (0-9 on KEYPAD). You have up to ten macros to define. The macro feature can be real handy for sending a group of codes to the printer. Say for instance you have a group of codes that change your margins, use condensed print, and print in letter quality. This can all be done using one macro key! Sending Codes Once you have selected the codes to send to the printer, press F1 one your keyboard. Be sure your printer is turned on! Test print Test print which can be accessed by F3 on your keyboard and comes in real handy if you would like to -see- the results of the codes you have sent to the printer. When F3 is hit 4 lines of text are sent to your printer so you can see the results. Save Configuration Once you have entered all your printer codes you plan to use, you will probaly want to save them. This is accompished by hitting F5 on your keyboard. This will save all your printer codes and macros. Next time you use the program these features will automatically be loaded. Load Configuration To reload your printer and macro configurations hit your F4 key. Clear All To clear all your printer codes and macros hit F6. Clear Tags To clear all of your printer codes which you have -tagged- to be sent to the printer hit F7 Features NOT Implimented The features toward the bottom of the menu (Left Margin, etc...) Are NOT used in this version of Print-A-Matic. I do plan to use them in the future. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Future Updates and Questions All questions concerning this program can be e-mailed to me on GENIE. Please send to M. Douville. My next planned upgrade will be either a GEM based version or to further enhance the TOS version. I also have a PC version in the works. These upgrades though will be shareware.