This software is a copyrighted work, it is not and never has been in the public domain. You may use this software to evaluate its usefulness if your evaluation is strictly for private and non-commercial use. You may give a copy of this software to another individual if you include the software's README file and all other related software materials. This software may not be sold, incorporated into other products, or in anyway commercially exploited without prior written consent of the author. If you want to continue using this software beyond your evaluation, please send $20.00 to the address listed below.
TWO BITS WORTH MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE SOFTWARE PACKAGE DESCRIBED BELOW, ITS MERCHANTABILITY, OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. YOU ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF DATA OR MATERIALS RESULTING FROM ITS USE. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS YOU HAVE WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.
Written by Tim Herzog
Produced by Two Bits Worth
45 South Avon #20A
Saint Paul, MN 55105
AOL: Hertim
Shareware: $20.00
Make checks payable to Two Bits Worth
Background
It seems that traditionally printed letterheads are fast becoming cumbersome and too expensive. In my case, I’ve got a great-looking two-color letterhead on nice paper, and I’ve used it about six times in the past four months. Why? Everything I write these days is FAXed. There’s little point in using my expensive letterhead for faxes since the recipient can’t enjoy my wonderful two-color printing or my nice paper. And since the FAX reduces everything to about 216 DPI anyway, even my nice Linotronic output gets lost.
So my solution has been to keep my logo and letterhead in a scrapbook file. When I type a new memo, I just go to the ScrapBook, copy my letterhead, and paste it in at the top of the memo. Presto! No more wasted letterhead! But woe is me, for instead I waste precious disk space. For since I save all my correspondence on disk, and my letterhead graphic is about 45K, I instantly add 45K to each piece of correspondence. Multiply that by about 200 memos, and you’ve quickly chewed up about 1.5 Meg just to get your letterhead on the page--the same graphic over and over. There HAS to be a better way.
And now there is. LetterHeader lets you keep a collection of letterheads in the Control Panel. Then when you print a document, you get two extra checkboxes and a popup menu in the Print Job dialog box. You can print your letterhead on the first page and/or on the rest of the pages. The popup menu lets you choose which letterhead you want to print. Then, as the document prints, LetterHeader pops your letterhead on to the hard copy. Quick, easy, simple, and fast. You’ll wonder how you did without.
Of course, LetterHeader is limited to just printing letterheads. Use your favorite illustration software to create whatever you want--party invitations, wedding announcements, valentines, whatever. Then just paste them on the page when you print.
Installation
Install LetterHeader by dragging it to your System Folder and restarting your machine. If you use an INIT manager such as INITPicker, you may have to inform it that there’s a new INIT out there. In any case, you did everything correctly if you see the LetterHeader logo appear on startup.
If you bypass LetterHeader (see below), or if LetterHeader couldn’t install itself (for instance, it ran out of memory or you are not running System 6.0.4 or later), LetterHeader displays its error icon.
Directions
Before you do anything, you must first open the control panel, scroll down to LetterHeader, and click on it to get the LetterHeader control panel.
The On/Off buttons control whether LetterHeader is active or not. If it is off, you get no extra options in the Print dialog box, and your letterheads won’t print. You can still use the Control Panel, though.
LetterHeader will also ‘turn itself off’ if you haven’t designed any letterheads yet, or if you delete them all.
If Show Startup Icon is selected, the cute icon will display itself when your Macintosh starts up. If you already have too many cute icons displaying themselves, you can turn this off.
Startup bypass keys lets you hold down a key combination while your machine starts to prevent LetterHeader from installing itself. Click the checkboxes of the keys you want to hold down. If you hold down that key combination while LetterHeader tries to load itself, it will abort, and you will get the error icon shown above. If you don’t turn on any keys, you can’t bypass LetterHeader.
The About button displays the credits page.
The list below shows the letterheads you have created. A letterhead consists of the PICT file for the first page and an optional PICT file for the second and subsequent pages (if you don’t designate a second PICT file, you won’t get a letterhead on the second or subsequent pages). You must supply the letterhead for the first page before you can design the second (you don’t have to print the first one if you don’t want, but it must be there). Click on the add button to create your first letterhead.
LetterHeader now asks you to select the PICT file that will be your letterhead. Select a PICT file to get to the letterhead designer dialog box.
You get a mockup of the page along with your letterhead in the upper-left corner. Enter a new name for your letterhead in the space provided. To move the letterhead around, click and drag it. You can also move the letterhead in tiny increments by holding down the option key and using the arrow keys. The letterheads placement (its top left corner) is shown in pixels in the bottom right corner of the dialog box.
You can change the PICT graphic used for your letterhead by clicking the PICT button. Clicking Print lets you print a sample of your letterhead. Page Setup lets you change the size and orientation of the page. This is just for use in this dialog box: the actual page size is set by the application's Page Setup command.
Reduce or Enlarge lets you set a reduction (numbers less than 100) or an enlargement (greater than 100) for your letterhead.
Finally, Overlay and Underlay control when the letterhead is printed: before or after the program prints. If you select Underlay, LetterHeader prints your letterhead before the program gets to print. Overlay means that LetterHeader prints your letterhead after the program has finished printing the page. This is important because some programs erase parts of the page as they print, in which case, your letterhead might be 'whited out' if you don't select Overlay. On the other hand, if your letter covers a good part of the page, it might print on top of what the program prints, unless you select Underlay. Use your best judgement and some experimentation to determine which setting works best.
When your done, click OK to return to the Control Panel, or Cancel to forget your changes. You will notice that your new letterhead has been added to the list.
If you want to add a secondary letterhead, to be used on the second and subsequent pages, shift-double-click your letterhead in the list, or shift-click the Edit button.
To delete a letterhead, click the delete button.
Now, when you print a document, you will see three additions to your Print dialog box: two checkboxes and a popup menu.
To print your letterhead on the first page, click 1st Pg. Letterhead. For the second and subsequent pages, click 2nd Pg. Letterhead. Then select which letterhead you want to print from the popup menu.
EPS Files
A lot of you probably wish that LetterHeader supported EPS files, since your logo was designed in Illustrator or FreeHand. Fortunately, there's a cure for that. It's called PICTuresque, and it's a DA that converts EPS graphics (as well as MacPaint files) to PICT format, leaving all your high-resolution PostScript intact. Two Bits Worth happens to make that one too. If you would like a copy, check your bulletin board service or drop me a note (and an additional check for $20.00) at the address listed above.
