Suzy B Software 2/Suzy B Software CD-ROM 2 (1994).iso/prntutil/mbook30/mbook.doc

Text File | 1995-04-25 | 28KB | 562 lines

     =======================
     Make*A*Book V3.00/ FRED                      July 10, 1991
     =======================

For Naomi Akazawa.  ( Thank you for everything ;-) )

This Version only became possible after many a late night over-
dosing on Diet Coke & Alice Cooper's newest album.

For Previous Owners
-------------------
You may use an old Make*A*Book MBOOK.INF file for use with this version
of Make*A*Book.

*NEW IN VERSION 3.00F* [The FRED Version]
----------------------
Here we are with Version 3.00F of Make*A*Book!  There are two big
improvements in Version 3 and a few minor touch-ups.

The biggest feature, is the new Font Chooser that now supports *all*
of the PostScript fonts you have!  Best of all, you have access to
those wonderful fonts in a scrolling viewer that automatially sorts
the fonts by name to make things manageble.

The second change is in the way Make*A*Book deals with your font files.
Because the program now supports all the PostScript font files (*.AFM)
you have, we couldn't have Make*A*Book read all of them at startup
time (for some it would take hours!) so a better way was found.  Please
read the section titled "Set Paths" in the portion of this manual
that deals with the OPTIONS menu.

The enhancements?  A lot of minor issues came up when expanded font
support was built into Make*A*Book.  Chances are you won't notice them
and maybe that's the best kind of change of all-- things get better
without you having to know what was wrong in the first place...

--Oh, I will tell you about the new "Paginate" option in the BODY TEXT
MENU section of this manual AND the fact that Make*A*Book now supports
keyboard short-cuts for many of the menu options.  I'd spell out all
short-cuts here but you'll seem them next to most menu entries.  They all
involve typing CONTROL and second key, depending on the command.

For Those Who Don't Read Manuals...
-----------------------------------
*BE SURE* to use the "Setup Paths" menu items in OPTIONS.  Make*A*Book
must be able to find UltraScript... or rather, must be able to find the
.AFM files that are associated with your Postscript/UltraScript fonts.
Make*A*Book can be told to look wherever you want it to for UltraScript,
but .AFM files are expected to be found in a UMETRICS folder inside your
UltraScript folder.

Some History... & An Introduction
---------------------------------
First, a little history.  Some time ago I bought Fleet Street Deluxe
(V2.0) that came bundled with UltraScript and a font set (PS-35)
from an Atari Dealer going out of business here in Montreal.

I was happy enough with the combo but UltraScript just wasn't supported
by enough things to make me happy.  For starters, I have a DeskJet and
was a big fan of Manual Maker-- a shareware program that uses GDOS to
turn the billions of ASCII files I manage to accumulate every day,
into a book.  However GDOS is slow on my DeskJet and I was anxious to
whip up a program that output Postscript for use with UltraScript
because it's fairly zippy in draft mode.

Enter Make*A*Book.  Make*A*Book will take ASCII files and turn them into
book form by printing sideways on a sheet of paper and printing two
pages on each side.  It will properly sort the ASCII file and place it
in the right order so that once printed, you simple fold the sheets in
half and presto, you've got a book.  These are a lot easier to store a
keep track of than having reams of single sheets of paper.

Make*A*Book will read your UltraScript .AFM files to get information about
font widths.  In this and other ways, Make*A*Book relies on some components
of UltraScript -- so be sure to set up paths properly.  (We'll get to this)

Make*A*Book works well in both Monochrome (640X400) and Medium (640X200) ST
resolutions.  The program isn't perfectly resolution-independent yet
(yet...) but at worst, the window size will be a little funny-- I can't
imagine any reason why it wouldn't work in any resolution.  (Let me know if
you experience problems)  I don't think I'd try using Make*A*Book in Low Res
(320X200) though.

Installation...
---------------
Installation is fairly easy.  You probably got Make*A*Book ARCed or
compressed in some form and should have the following files :

     - MBOOK.PRG
          The Make*A*Book program file.

     - MBOOK.RSC
          The Make*A*Book resource file.

     - MBOOK.INF
          The file Make*A*Book uses to save your setup

     - MBHEADER.PS
          The Postscript header information that Make*A*Book tacks
          on to the beginning of the files you print.  Make*A*Book
          will NOT work properly without this file.

     - MBOOK.DOC
          This file.

*PLUS NEW IN VERSION 3.00*

     - MBOOK.FON
          This file does NOT come with Make*A*Book.  Make*A*Book
          creates this file the first time you run it.  Instructions
          on how this file can be updated are included in "Set Paths"
          in the OPTIONS MENU section.

Simply copy all of these files to the same folder anywhere onto
a diskette or anywhere on to your hard disk.  Installation can't really
be considered complete until you've told Make*A*Book where to find certain
files.  (We'll get to this)

Using Make*A*Book...
-------------------
You should be able to get up and running in no time.  Make*A*Book
keeps a window on the screen at all times that keeps you up to date
on what it is doing.

     -The Menus-

     [FILE]
          [Choose File]
               Use this to choose an ASCII file that you want to print.

          [Add File]     *NEW in Version 1.9*
               This item is used to add ASCII files to Make*A*Book's Print
               Queue.  There are five "slots" in the Queue, and if you try
               to add more than five, Make*A*Book will put up a warning
               telling you it can't.  After selecting a file to add, Book
               Maker's status screen will show you what slot the file was
               added to.  as well, you can view the Queue or Flush (Empty)
               the Queue by using menu items in the Options menu.  (More
               on this later...)

               Essentially, you add the files you select to the Queue and
               once you're done, you select "Print To Disk" form the
               Body Text menu.  Make*A*Book will print all the files to
               disk.  If you've set Make*A*Book accordingly in Preferences,
               (details on Preferences are below) then the program will go
               right ahead and print all files, printing them in such an
               order that everything comes out nicely.  If you don't have
               Preferences set to automatically print, "Call UltraScript" in
               the Body Text menu will achieve the same result.

          [Call Editor]
               This item will call the editor you have set up in [Set
               Paths] (See below) and if your editor supports the option,
               Make*A*Book will load the current chosen file (see above)
               into the editor.

          [Print Everything]
               This item calls UltraScript and prints the cover page, then
               the front side of all pages and then the back side.  You'd
               use this option only if you haven't set up Make*A*Book to
               automatically call UltraScript after you print to disk
               (This will be detailed in [Preferences] soon).  This
               option assumes you've already printed the cover and ASCII
               file to disk.

          [Quit]
               Easy.  This exits Make*A*Book.

     [OPTIONS]
          [Set Paths]
               Choosing this brings up a dialog box that lets you
               set up paths for UltraScript and an editor of your
               choice.  Make*A*Book can call UltraScript directly after
               it has finished formatting a file.

               As well, you can set the path of the editor of your
               choice in case you'd like to do some editing.

               Be sure to set these paths.  You can do this either
               by typing in the path directly, or by clicking on the
               "Browse" button next to each option (which brings up
               GEM's file selector).  (See?  I told you we'd keep things
               simple!)

               Whether you type in your paths manually or let GEM do some
               of the work for you by clicking on BROWSE, be sure that
               each path includes a DRIVE and the FULL path-- including
               the file name of the UltraScript program file (probably
               USCRIPT.PRG).  Make*A*Book uses this info to find your
               .AFM files-- the files containing font width information.
               Make*A*Book expects to find these in a folder called
               UMETRICS in your UltraScript folder. (wherever that may be)
               UMETRICS is where UltraScript itself likes to find AFM
               so this setup probably reflects your situation.

               If you CHANGE the paths while in this dialog box then
               Make*A*Book will re-read the files it needs from the
               new paths you've selected.  This will likely happen the
               first time you set up Make*A*Book.

               *NEW IN VERSION 3.00*
               One of the things Make*A*Book will do when it sees a new
               path, is search for all of the fonts you have installed in
               the UMETRICS folder.  Depending on the number of PostScript
               fonts you have, this process can take awhile (well, I'm
               talking minutes so I guess we're talking in relative terms
               here...).  What Make*A*Book does is look for the fonts
               and then sorts thir names and generates a master font list
               which it stores in the MBOOK.FON file.  Now, everytime
               you start Make*A*Book, it need only read this one file that
               takes a second or two at the most.  (Chances are you barely
               notice Make*A*Book reading the font file at startup time)

          [Create Font File]   *NEW IN VERSION 3.00*
               After Make*A*Book creates its font file (MBOOK.FON) it
               uses it to recognize what fonts you have installed.  If
               you subsequently REMOVE or ADD fonts on your system and
               you want these changes reflected in the Font Chooser
               dialog, then you should choose this menu option.  It
               re-creates the .FON font file.

          [Preferences]          *NEW in Version 2.30V*
               In this version there is one setting to be concerned
               about.  You can tell Make*A*Book whether or not you
               want it to automatically call UltraScript after formatting
               a file.  If you tell it not to, you'll have to call
               UltraScript after the formatting with a separate menu
               item (we'll get to it soon).

               The second option in the dialog box lets you tell
               Make*A*Book whether you want the file name of the file
               and the date included next to each page number at the
               bottom of every page.

               The third option is for some laser printer owners.
               By choosing "Yes" for Reverse Collating, Make*A*Book
               will print the first side of every page in reverse
               order to make feeding the pages back in, easier.

          [Show Widths]          *NEW in Version 2.0*
               This item will throw a dialog box up on the screen that
               displays the widths of the various ASCII characters in
               whatever Postscript typeface and style is currently
               selected as Body Text and Style.  There isn't much practical
               use for you in this dialog.  Make*A*Book uses this
               information to do centering etc.  I use this dialog for
               testing and debugging and figured maybe you'd find it somehow
               interesting.

          [Show Print Queue]      *NEW in Version 1.9*
               This item will throw a dialog box up on the screen that
               displays the files you've got in the Queue.  Any slots that
               aren't filled will be marked "Empty".  The full pathnames
               of the files are shown.

          [Flush Print Queue]     *NEW in Version 1.9*
                This option will let you remove all files from the Queue.
                An Dialog box will come up asking you to confirm that
                you'd like to do this.  Make*A*Book DOES NOT automatically
                empty the Queue after printing, so you'd need to use this
                option when printing for a second time.

          [Body Text Font]
               This option lets you choose font, style and size for printing.
               Please see the section devoted to the Font Chooser that
               appears later in this manual.  Whatever selections you make
               for Body Text will be remembered next time you start
               Make*A*Book.

          [Body Text Size]
               This option sets the size of the text when printing the body
               text.  Default in both Times and Lucida is set to 8 points.
               If you change this, Make*A*Book will remember your new
               selection each time you boot Make*A*Book-- until you change
               it again.  Because of the new Font Chooser box (that lets you
               select pointsize and font -see above-) this menu item is
               redundant and will disappear in the next Make*A*Book version.

     [BODY TEXT]
          This menu contains the items relevant to the body text of the
          ASCII file you're working with.  In this version of Book
          Maker, body text comes set to a default of 8 points, but you can
          change this and the font (Lucida/Times) in the Options menu.
          (See above)

          [Print To Disk]
               This will take the file you've chosen and will format it
               (involves translating some characters and paginating)
               and will then output the Postscript code to disk.
               This operation will create TWO files.  The first file
               contains the FRONT side of all of the sheets to be printed
               and the second contains the BACK.  File 1 is titled
               "MBPRINT1.PS" and file 2 is titled "MBPRINT2.PS".  Both
               files will be stored in whatever directory you set up
               as being UltraScript's so that UltraScript can find them
               easily.

               This operation will automatically call UltraScript if
               you've told Make*A*Book to do this.  (See PREFERENCES)

          [Call UltraScript]
               Use this menu item to print "MBPRINT1.PS" & "MBPRINT2.PS".
               Under normal circumstances, [Print To Disk] will do this
               for you unless you've told Make*A*Book not to.
               (See PREFERENCES)

          [Paginate]               *NEW IN VERSION 3.00*
               Ever wish that you could find out ahead of time how many
               pages a huge document will run without first printing it
               all to disk?  Well, here you are.  This menu item, will
               sort through the file to find out how many pages are
               necessary and won't bother with mundane stuff like
               printing to disk or outputing to UltraScript....

     [COVER TEXT]
          What would a book be without a cover?  Make*A*Book lets you
          create a three-line cover, and lets you specify the point
          size that the text in each line will be.

          [Make Cover]                 *NEW IN VERSION 2.30V*
                Select this and a dialog box pops up.

                On the extreme left there are buttons that let you
                bring up Make*A*Book's standard Font Chooser.  As has
                been said a number of times, see the section on the
                Font Chooser that appears later in this manual.

                In the middle of the dialog, you enter the text you want
                to appear on the line.

                Set any size you like for each line of the cover text.
                (As long as the text will fit on a single line-- more
                about this soon)  Make*A*Book saves whatever sizes you
                used the last time and you'll get the same choices you made
                the next time you start Make*A*Book.

                Additionally, there are three buttons along the bottom.

                    [CANCEL] will forgo printing a Postscript file.

                    [PRINT] will print your creation to disk (to a file
                    called "MBCOVER.PS" in your UltraScript folder.
                    and will automatically call UltraScript to print it
                    if you've told Make*A*Book to do this.  (See
                    PREFERENCES)

                    If one of your cover lines is too long to fit on the
                    page, Make*A*Book will warn you and will send you to
                    the dialog box mentioned in the next paragraph.
                    Shortening a line, adjusting pointsize and making the
                    width smaller will help fit a line.

                    [SHOW LARGEST] will put a dialog box up on the screen
                    showing the largest pointsize that will fit on a line
                    for each cover line.  This pointsize will be
                    calculated from the current font, style, and width
                    for each line.  While Make*A*Book is calculating the
                    larget pointsize, you'll see the "Thinking" dialog
                    which simply indicates Make*A*Book is hard at work for
                    you.  On the right of the dialog that then appears, are
                    three "Set" buttons-- one for each cover line.
                    Clicking on these tells Make*A*Book to automatically
                    set the pointsize for that line to the largest possible
                    pointsize.


          [Add Cover]          *NEW in Version 1.9*
               This option is for those times that you are queuing up files
               to print, and you'd like to create several covers at once.
               Selecting this option brings up the same dialog as above
               (Make Cover) except that when you decide to print, even if
               you have Make*A*Book to automatically call UltraScript, it
               will not do so.  You can keep making covers, and they'll be
               appended to the file Make*A*Book normally uses to store the
               cover on disk.  (MBCOVER.PS in your UltraScript folder)
               When you've finished making up all your covers, select
               "Call UltraScript" and they'll all be printed.

               IMPORTANT : See the next section on [Erase Cover(s)]

          [Erase Cover(s)]    *NEW in Version 1.9*
               This item is used in conjunction with "Add Cover".  Because
               The ADD COVER option APPENDS to Make*A*Book's Cover File, you
               don't want to append to some old covers you've done.  So,
               before using ADD COVER to create covers, use this item and
               Make*A*Book will erase the old Cover file.

          [Call UltraScript]
               Use this item to tell UltraScript to print a cover you've
               already done.  Normally [MAKE COVER] would have done this
               for you unless you've told Make*A*Book not to.  (See
               PREFERENCES -- this is getting repetitive huh?)


     -Printing With Make*A*Book-

     Here's the fun part.  Make*A*Book prints four pages on each
     physical sheet of paper-- two on each side.  When UltraScript
     starts to print, it will print the first side of all the sheets
     after which Make*A*Book will prompt you to re-load the paper and
     continue.

     The only thing to remember is to feed the paper back into the
     printer so that the second time around, print will end up on the
     second side (how to do this will vary depending on whether you've
     got a dot matrix, laser or DeskJet printer).  Also, remember that
     the first sheet to go back in, should be the LAST sheet that came
     out on the first pass, and arrange the paper so that top of pages
     are the same on both sides of the sheet.  (If I had more patience,
     I'd explain this better)

     For DeskJet owners (F.B. ;-), the job is very easy.  Just grab the
     sheets from the output tray, and WITHOUT turning, twisting or
     otherwise doing ANYTHING, just put them back into the paper feed
     tray.  Many laser printers will work in this fashion as well.

     The cover page only gets printed on one side of the sheet.


Make*A*Book FONT CHOOSER          *NEW IN VERSION 3.00*
------------------------
This dialog is the most comprehensive in Make*A*Book and provides
access to most of the program's typographical features.  The current
"mode" will be indicated in the upper right hand corner of the dialog.
That is to say, Make*A*Book will tell you whether you're making changes
to Cover Text or Body Text.

TYPEFACE : Arranged vertically on the left hand side, are the typefaces
    available for selection.  On the right hand side of this list, are
    scroll bars that allow you to scroll through the list to view/choose
    whatever fonts aren't immediately visible.  Any PostScript font you
    have installed on your ST should show up in this list.

POINT SIZE : Next, you can select point size.  This will affect the height
    of the printed text.  In theory, this can be any size right up to 999
    points.  (72 points = 1 inch)  However in practice, you'll find that
    8 points is often ideal for body text because it will almost always
    allow 80 characters to be printed along one line of a Make*A*Book page.
    For Cover Text, Make*A*Book will tell you if a certain line of text
    won't fit on your cover.  You can make the point size smaller or
    change the width.  (Explained next)

WIDTH : The width of the text actually refers to the spacing between each
    individual letter in a word (and in fact spaces between words).  Here,
    Make*A*Book expects to find a number between 1 and 100 (inclusive)
    that represents a percentage.

    Lets say that the letter "E" when printed in the Postscript typeface
    Times-Roman, measures 40 points across.  This 40 points actually
    includes some white space on either side of the "E" so that when
    printed there is some space between this "E" and the letters on either
    side of it.  100% width then, is 40 points.  If you enter 80% width,
    Make*A*Book will print the "E" and then calculate the 20% you wanted
    "chopped off" and move the pen back 8 points.  (20% of 40 = 8)  The
    end result will be text that is spaced more closely together. Fool
    around with this-- you normally won't want to go below 75% width
    which means Make*A*Book will take 25% off the end).

    In this version, width will only affect COVER TEXT and *not* BODY
    TEXT.

STYLE :  Versions previous to 3.00 had style options allowing you to
    select Bold and Italic styles.  Because you now have access to all
    of your PostScript fonts, this is no longer necessary.  You must
    choose fonts that incorporate the style you want.  (i.e. Times-Bold
    or Helvetica-Oblique)

COLOUR : Here you can a percentage of black that text will get printed
    out at. 100% is black and as you select a lower percentage, the
    printed text will be lighter.  (100%, 75% and 50% are good ones to
    work with.)

NOTE : Because you have access to all of your Postscript fonts, (and
there can be quite a few of them!) Make*A*Book only actually reads in
font information as you need it.  Thus you'll see Make*A*Book's "Thinking"
dialog come up when Make*A*Book pauses to read in font information.
Ususally this will take place just as Make*A*Book begins composing a cover
or the main body text.  As well, if you choose "Show Widths" from the
Options menu, you'll get the "Thinking" dialog if Make*A*Book is computing
the widths for a font it hasn't loaded yet.


What Make*A*Book Doesn't Do...
-----------------------------
Alas, no computer software is ever finished.  I plan on doing more
(in a timely fashion).  I'll use this section to mention those things
I want to add, and to make a plea to ALL who use this program to get
in touch with me (see end of document for details) and let me know
what new things YOU'D like to see in future versions.


     -Make*A*Book preserves line feeds in a document.  This suits
      me just fine but I'd like to add an option that destroys single
      line feeds so that documents get printed with line lengths that
      match paper size.  This would also allow Make*A*Book to print
      fully justified text.

     -And more.  I get ideas all the time, and I'm sure you will too.
      Let me know what they are... I'm very good with suggestions, and
      I almost never bite.


Last hints...
--------------
Try using Make*A*Book with UltraScript set up in draft mode -- especially
if you own a DeskJet or dot matrix printer.  I've found the quality
very acceptable and the speed is MUCH improved over final/best quality
output.  You can set print quality in UltraScript by choosing 300dpi
(best) or 150dpi (draft).

As a first exercise, print out this manual, and create a cover page.
Setting body text to Times or Lucida in 8 points will work best.

Tech Notes...
-------------
Make*A*Book is written and compiled in GFA BASIC.  The program uses about
150K for its use and releases the rest to GEM.  (Hey, we try to be friendly)

Who I am...
-----------
Basically I'm an Atari Junkie.  I'm a computer consultant and work
all day with Macs, IBMs and NeXT machines.  Every night I go home
to my Mega ST2 -- and love it to bits.  (Waiting for an SST)

I want to hear from you and here's how you can do it :

GEnie : J.H.CARROLL

Mail  : Jonathan Carroll
          15 Commercial Centre, Apt #102
          Roxboro, Quebec
          Canada.  H8Y 2N9

Voice : [phone]   (Please keep hours reasonable)

Plus, you can keep up with program support.  I can be found in the
UltraScript topic or in the new Make*A*Book topic in the Atari RT on GEnie.
(And many other places as well...)

What does Make*A*Book cost?
--------------------------
Nothing.  Maybe in future versions I'll ask for a ShareWare donation
but for now, have fun.  I've made TREMENDOUS use of ST PD and ShareWare
programs and here's how I return the favour.

While it doesn't cost anything, I'd like to hear from you and let me know
how well -if at all ;-) Make*A*Book works for you.  An email or postcard
would be great.  (Consider that the shareware fee)

Last Words
----------
Buy the commercial software you use-- Don't steal it.

Pay for the shareware you use, keep the shareware wizards happy and
let them know you enjoy their products!

Have fun,

Jon