                              GRAPHIC CHARACTERS

    There are 255 characters available on the PC with which you can do
    many things.  Unfortunately, without specialized programs (or a lot
    of patience), it is difficult to use them easily.  PC-TYPE+ has a
    number of built in functions which takes a great part of the pain out
    of designing screen displays.  These tools, in conjunction with the
    printer translation table, will allow you to draw your character
    graphic screens and easily print them out on your printer.

    This HELP file discusses the following subjects:

    The FILL CHARACTER                DEFINING A BOX
    The DRAG TOGGLE                   DRAWING A LINE
    The FILL COMMAND                  MAKING A TABLE
    DRAWING A BOX                     ERASING BOXES and LINES


                              Press the PgDn Key

                           USING CHARACTER GRAPHICS

    Usually on your PC you may enter any of the 255 ASCII characters on
    your screen by holding down the Alt key and typing the decimal number
    of the character on the number pad, (e.g., 225 for BETA "ß").

    In PC-TYPE+, since the number pad keys on the right of your keyboard
    are used so frequently for cursor movement, you can accidentally hold
    down the Alt key, and when you think you are pressing an arrow key, or
    Home, or End etc., you will get a character printed on your screen
    instead.  To keep this from happening, we have made this method of
    entering characters into an optional toggle setting turned on and off
    by pressing the Scroll Lock key.

    Press the ScrollLock key a few times and you should see the letter "G"
    appear and disappear on the Command Line.  When the "G" is present,
    you may use the Alt key plus the number pad to create characters.

                              Press the PgDn Key

                          The FILL CHARACTER (AltG)

    Move the cursor into the text area, turn the Graphics enable toggle on
    with the NumLock key, hold down the Alt key and press the 2 twice and
    then the 5 and then release the Alt key.  You should see "ß".

    To make the selection of characters much easier, we have provided you
    a menu of all the allowed characters (PC-TYPE+ reserves a few
    characters for its own special coding).  When presented with the menu,
    you move the cursor (using the Arrow keys, Enter, Home, End, etc.)
    over the character you want and press F10.

    You may get this menu by pressing AltG (or alternatively F7-F3-F6).
    Press AltG, move the cursor over the  and press F10.  You have just
    selected a "Fill Character" and the heart should be displayed on the
    Command Line.  Now move the cursor over the asterisks to the right and
    press CtrlG.  * * * * CtrlG (or F7-F3-F7) will place the Fill
    Character at the cursor location.
                              Press the PgDn Key

                  The DRAG TOGGLE (Ctrl 5 on the number pad)


    Move the cursor to a corner of the box to the right.   ┌────────────┐
    Now press Ctrl5 on the Number Pad and you turn on the  │            │
    Drag Toggle.  You should see a "D" on the Command Line │            │
    in reverse color.  This indicates that the Drag Toggle │            │
    is on.  (The bell is sounded to warn you in case you   │            │
    press Ctrl5 accidentally.)  Move the cursor around the │            │
    box.                                                   └────────────┘

    When the Drag Toggle is on, the selected Fill Character will be placed
    at the screen location vacated by the cursor when any of the 4 arrow
    keys are pressed.  Turn it off by again pressing Ctrl5 on the number
    pad (or F7-F4).



                              Press the PgDn Key

                      The FILL COMMAND (AltF and CtrlF)

    ┌─────────────────┐ Assuming you still have the heart character as
    │                 │ your Fill Character, move the cursor to a corner
    │                 │ of the box to the left and press AltF (or F7 F1
    │                 │ F1).  Then move the cursor to the opposite corner
    │                 │ of the box and press AltF again.  The Fill Char-
    │                 │ acter should have filled the box.  (If you select
    │                 │ a Space as your fill character, you can use this
    │                 │ command to erase blocks of areas on the screen.)
    │                 │
    │                 │ An alternative method to fill an area with ┌─────┐
    └─────────────────┘ the Fill character is to first define the  │     │
    box using CtrlB and then press CtrlF (or F7 F3 F8).  Mark two  │     │
    corners of the box to the right with CtrlB's and then press    │     │
    CtrlF.  This method gives you the opportunity to see exactly   └─────┘
    where the Fill Characters will go but takes one more keystroke.

                              Press the PgDn Key

                          DRAWING A BOX (Alt[ Ctrl[)

    x      Move the cursor to the x at the left and press Alt[.  Then move
           the cursor to the other x and press Alt[ again (or F7-F1-F5).
           It's that easy to draw a box!  Alternatively you may define the
        x  area to be boxed first by marking the area with CtrlBs  y
    and then pressing Ctrl[ (or F7-F3-F2).  Move the cursor to the
    "y"s at the right and press CtrlB - then press Ctrl[.               y

                            DEFINING A BOX (Alt#)

    Perhaps you don't want a single lined box.  You may redefine the box
    lines by pressing Alt# (or F7-F3-F1), selecting the appropriate
    character with the cursor, and then pressing the Alt key plus the
    desired location on the number pad.  (You only need to define opposite
    corners for the true graphic characters.)  Define a double-lined box
    and go back and redraw one of the boxes on this screen.

                              Press the PgDn Key

                         DRAWING A LINE (Alt[ Ctrl[)

    Drawing a Line is identical to drawing a box except:              *
    (1) Your two marks are on the same line or in the same column
    (2) You must select the character for drawing the line.

    Move the cursor to each asterisk at the right and press Alt[,
    and F10.  Inside the line character selection box, the cursor     *
    will always begin on the character you previously selected.


    Move the cursor to the "><" characters below and press Alt[ on each
    and select either the 3rd or 4th horizontal line character and press
    F10.  As you can see, there are some interesting possibilities here!


                            >││││││││││││││││││││<

                              Press the PgDn Key

                                MAKING A TABLE
           v        v
                            Move the cursor to the two "" characters to
                             the left and press Alt[ to draw a box.  Then
      >                  <   place the cursor ON THE BOX LINES inside the
                             "><" characters and draw 3 horizontal lines
      >                  <   using the 3rd or 4th characters in the line
                             selection menu.  Finally place the cursor ON
      >                  <   THE BOX LINES inside the "v^" characters and
                             draw 2 vertical lines using the 1st or 2nd
                            characters in the menu.  Making tables is now
           ^        ^        quite simple.

    As long as you have the table drawn, move the cursor to the edge of
    the box positioned at one of your vertical lines and press AltE.  Move
    the cursor to the other extreme position of the same vertical line and
    press AltE again.  Try it with a horizontal line.

                              Press the PgDn Key

                        ERASING BOXES and LINES (AltE)
         v     v
     ┌───╥─────┬────┐   Remove both vertical lines in the box to the left
     │   ║     │    │   by placing the cursor at each end of the line and
    >╞═══╬═════╪════╡<  pressing AltE (or F7-F1-F6).
     │   ║     │    │
    >├───╫─────┼────┤<  Then move the cursor to two opposite corners of
     │   ║     │    │   the box and press AltE on each.  AltE may be used
    >├───╫─────┼────┤<  to remove boxes or lines in case you should draw
     │   ║     │    │   draw them in the wrong place.
     └───╨─────┴────┘
         ^     ^        Alternatively, you could mark the location for
    erasure with CtrlB's and then press CtrlE (or F7-F3-F3).

    AltE is also effective in your Text Area for removing part of a line
    or column of letters.


                     Press F4 to Return to the HELP Menu

