Wayzata's Best of Shareware PC/Windows 1/Wayzata's Best of Shareware for PC-Windows - Release 1 - Wayzata Technology (1993).iso/mac/DOS/EDITORS/IRDRV15/MANUAL.DOC

Text File | 1993-02-12 | 16KB | 316 lines

                   SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND STARTING

                      The Illustrated Reader will run on any IBM or
                   100% compatible PC with an EGA or VGA monitor and
                   graphics card.  Although the program will run from
                   a floppy drive, a hard drive is almost necessary if
                   you intend to read illustrated documents, due to
                   the graphics overhead.  You should also have at
                   at least 256K of RAM (512K recommended) and DOS 2.1
                   or higher.  If you run Microsoft Windows, go to the
                   File Manager and click twice on the IREAD.EXE file.
                   Consult your Windows manual for other options.

                      To start the Reader from DOS, just type IREAD
                   and press the ENTER key.

INSTALLATION

   If you received the IR from a disk vendor or a BBS, it should have
a file called LOADME.COM that will automatically set up the program on
your hard disk.  LOADME will suggest making a subdirectory called "IR"
on your C: drive.  You can accept this, or overtype any other drive or
subdirectory.  It will then check to see if you have enough free space
on the drive, then unpack and install the program files.

   The IR actually needs only one file, the executable or program
file called IREAD.EXE, to run.  All the other files are documents
(.DOC files), pictures (.PCX files), figure information (.FIF) files
or character information (.CIF) files used by the IR for information.
To start the IR, just type "iread" and press ENTER.  (If you typed
"go", then you ran a special batch file that loads README.DOC.)  But
normally, you would just give the IREAD command.

THE CONTROL PANEL

   Let's start our "tour" of the IR with the control panel, the area
visible at the bottom of your screen.  The control panel, as the name
implies, displays the program's controls.  It also lets you know which
document is currently loaded and which page you are viewing.

   Starting from the left, under the ILLUSTRATED READER title is a
handy date and time display.  Then there are graphic representations
of the ESC, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, F1 and F2 keys.  If you have a
mouse (you can tell if it's operative by checking to see if the arrow-
shaped mouse cursor is visible) you can "click" on the pictured keys
by moving the mouse cursor over the key, then pressing (and releasing)
the LEFT mouse button.  Only the left mouse button is used in the IR.
You can also press the corresponding key on your PC keyboard, which,
of course, is your only option if you don't have a mouse.

   The ESC key is used to quit the program.  It is operative on the
Load a New File screen as well.  Since it's very annoying to be kicked
out to DOS unexpectedly, a small yellow box will appear and display the
question: "Want to quit?  Y/N".  If you still want to quit, then press
the 'Y' key.  (It doesn't matter if it's a capital or lower-case 'Y'--
either will do.)  Pressing 'n' or any other key will cancel your quit
request.

   Use the Page Up or Page Down keys (PgUp/PgDn on some keyboards) to
page through the document.  Some readers allow "scrolling" one line
at a time with the up/down arrow keys. This is very hard on the eyes,
especially in graphic modes, as the text tends to "roll" down the
screen.  The IR "pops up" each page in sequence, which is more like
turning the pages in a traditional book.  The same method is used with
the HOME and END keys, which take you to the first and last pages of
a document respectively.

   Finally, the F1 key presents a brief help screen (F1 accesses help
in most PC programs) which summarizes the information in this and the
last two paragraphs.  Pressing F2 brings up the Reader Options Menu,
shown to the right.  This can be
considered the "main menu" of the
IR.  All "pop up" menus in the IR
operate the same way.  You can
"click" on your choice with the
mouse, or press the number key that
corresponds to the selection you
want.  Every menu also has a "Quit
This Menu" option, in case you
change your mind, or brought up the
menu by mistake.  There are also instructions for each menu in a
window just right of the options (not shown here).


LOAD A NEW FILE

   When you select "Load a New File", the control panel disappears
and a title screen appears with instructions for loading a document
into the IR.  This screen varies slightly, depending on whether or
not you have a mouse.  A list of all the files with a .DOC extension
will appear on the right side of the screen.  If there are more than
19 of these files in the subdirectory where the IR resides, then a
message saying either "More files--show them" or "More files--press
a key" will be shown in reverse video (highlighted with black).

   If you are using a mouse, you can click on any of these filenames
and that file will be loaded, with the first page displayed.  If the
"More files..." message shows, this means there are more than 19 .DOC
files, and clicking on this message will display them.  So you can
easily find the file you want in this manner, move the arrow over
the filename and "click" the left button.

   If you don't have a mouse (or have disabled the mouse driver),
then a small white box will appear at the bottom of the screen,
and you must type in the name of the file.  Since all the files
displayed have a ".doc" extension, you don't have to type that part.
You can use the backspace key if you make a mistake.  After typing
the name, just press the ENTER key and the file will be loaded.  If
the "More files--press a key" message shows, then you will have to
press a key and bring up the next list until there are no more .DOC
files shown.  The box will not appear until the end of the list has
been reached.

Command Line File-loading

   There is another way to load a file into the Reader.  When you
start the IR with the "iread" command, you can leave a space and
type the full filename (name and extension) of the file you want
to read, then press ENTER.  For example, to directly load this file
you could type:

         iread manual.doc       (and press the ENTER key.)

   The IR will load and display ANY text file, whether or not it
has a ".doc" extension.  Say you have a file named LETTER.TXT.  To
read it, start the IR with the command "iread letter.txt" and it will
be loaded, ready to read.  ("Mouseless" users can use this method or
type the entire filename in the box that appears on the Load a New
File screen.)  Remember, if you use this method you must type the
ENTIRE file name (name and extension) after the "iread" command.
Otherwise, the IR will not recognize the file.

A Word of Caution

   The IR was designed to read ONLY pure (ASCII) text files.  If you
try to load binary files (those with .COM or .EXE extensions, for ex-
ample), the results will be unpredictable!  Usually, there will just
be "garbage" characters filling the viewing area, and you will still be
able to exit to DOS by pressing ESC and the 'Y' key.  The IR was tested
with all types of files, but there are so many different PCs, file types
and versions of PC BIOS, it's impossible to test them all.

   All files with a .DOC extension are listed when you select LOAD
A NEW FILE.  However, not all files with a .DOC extension are pure
text files (also known as ASCII files).  Many word processors save
your files with a .DOC extension, but they have special "headers",
or blocks of coded information at the beginning of the file telling
the word processing program about underlining, bold print, column
formats, and so on.  Most of these files will load, but they will
have "garbarge" characters mixed in with the text, or they may be
cut off prematurely if one of the special characters is one that DOS
uses to signal EOF (end of file).

   If you plan to use your word processor to prepare documents for
viewing for the IR, be sure to save your work in an ASCII format.
Most word processors offer this option.  The best way to prepare
IR documents, however, is to use a text editor (see the AUTHOR.DOC
file).

The Bookmark Feature

   The IR lets you set a "bookmark" if you get interrupted while
reading, or just want to leave the IR but come back to the article you
were reading when you quit.  Just press CTRL-B (hold down the CTRL key
and press the 'b' key), and that's it!  The next time you run the IR
it will load in the file you were reading, and take you to the exact
page where you set the "bookmark"!  The IR does this by writing a small
file called BOOKMARK.DAT when you press CTRL-B.  Only one bookmark can
be set.  The IR deletes this bookmark file after you use it, thus it
avoids unwanted trips back to files you've already finished.


PRINT CURRENT PAGE/ARTICLE

                                       The first real submenu,
                                       PRINT CURRENT PAGE/ARTICLE
                                       gives you several options
                                       for printing.  Here "page"
                                       refers to that part of the
                                       document visible on the screen.
                                       The first two options produce
                                       graphic prints, which will
                                       include any illustrations on
                                       the page.  Be sure  to select
the correct type of printer.  Option 1 is ONLY for laser printers.
All others should select Option 2, if you want a graphic print.  Color
printing is not supported.  The third and fourth options will produce
a text-only printout, which is quicker and uses less ribbon or toner.
Option 3 prints only the text on the current screen page, which would
be handy for getting a bibliography, addresses or other info. very
quickly.  The fourth option prints the entire .DOC file.  (In fact,
you could print this manual right now by selecting this option!)

   When selecting any of the print options, always be sure your
printer is on line and has a good supply of paper.  When you select
a print option, the mouse cursor will disappear and you will not be
able to page or do any other program action for a few seconds while
the program formats the data and sends it to the printer.  (This
generally only happens when you select a graphic print.)  Soon a
message box will appear with a "Printing..." message, and printing
will begin.  Depending on the size of the printer's buffer, you
may have to wait before resuming reading.  The length of this wait
will depend on how much there is to print.  One-page jobs are
shorter than whole-document dumps, and graphics printing takes
longer than text-only.  When printing is complete, the IR sends a
"formfeed" code which will eject the last page printed.

   If you should accidentally select the laser graphic option when
you have a dot matrix or other non-laser printer, just turn off the
printer.  The printing data stream should "time out" after a while
and return control to the program.  If somehow you lose complete
control, just power everything down and try again.


CHANGE TEXT/BACKGROUND COLORS

                                       The next submenu lets you
                                    select from seven different color
                                    combinations for the text display.
                                    The normal or "default" text and
                                    background colors is Option 1,
                                    black text on a light cyan (a sort
                                    of blue-green) background.  This
                                    provides a nice high-contrast color
                                    scheme that mimics paper documents,
                                    but avoids a bright white back-
                                    ground, which would be too bright
                                    for a PC screen.

                                       The other color combinations are
all high-contrast combinations that have been used with many popular
PC word-processing programs.  Color is a highly personal issue--each
of us reacts differently to different combinations, so the IR offers
some options to the default display.

   When you select a color scheme, the program redisplays the same
page of the document you were reading in the new color scheme.  One
nice feature of the IR is that it remembers your current color scheme
when you load in a new file, so that the first page of the new file
will be displayed with the same colors used with the previous file.
One word of caution is in order about changing colors:  often the
pictures in an IR document are designed to "blend in" with the cyan
background, so rectangular "borders" may appear when you select a
different color scheme.  The borders are always there, of course,
you just don't see them with the default color scheme.


SEARCH FOR A WORD/PHRASE

   The last option is the word/phrase search.   This is not a submenu,
but a "pop-up" input screen.  (It will be shown on the next page.)
This feature is one of the biggest advantages of an electronic book
over hardcopy editions.  Say you're reading about lakes and want to
find all references to Lake Michigan.  It would take a LONG time to
skim through a book or even an article and mark each occurance of
the phrase "Lake Michigan".  But the computer can do this in a split-
second, making such research actually pleasant!

   To enter a word or a
phrase you want to search
for, either press the F2
key or click on the F2
icon below, then select
Option 4 from the Reader
Options Menu.  The box
shown on the right will
appear.  Like all sub-
menus and input screens
in the IR, it has in-
structions provided on
the screen itself.  Just type in the word or phrase you want to
search for, then press ENTER.  (You might want to press the HOME
key first, to start your search from the beginning of the file.)
You can correct mistakes while typing the word or phrase with the
backspace key, or toggle insert and typeover modes with the insert
key.

   When you press ENTER the IR searches for the word or phrase, and
takes you to the page where it first occurs.  It finds the line con-
taining the word or phrase occurs and "highlights" it in reverse colors,
as if someone used a colored marker to highlight the line in a book.
(The only difference is that this highlighting isn't permanent!)

   Word/phrase searches are limited to 24 characters maximum, which
is an arbitrary limit that should suffice for most searches.  If you
need to find larger strings, e.g., "antidisestablishmentarianism",
just type in the first 24 characters and this should work just as
well.  Searches are case-sensitive--so a search for "Lake" would
ignore occurences of "lake".

   Often you want to repeat a search.  It would be very annoying to
have to call up the Reader Options Menu each time, so the IR has a
handy "hot key" combination that will repeat the last word/phrase
search.  This is the ALT-S combination, which is activated by pressing
the "s" key while holding down the ALT key.


REGISTRATION AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT

   The Illustrated Reader is shareware, which is not free software,
but a method of distribution that gives you a chance to "try it
before you buy it".  You may register at three different levels
starting as low as $25.  Read the LICENSE.DOC file for full details
on registration, licenses, warranties, etc.  If you are considering
authoring illustrated books or documents, be sure to read the AUTHOR
and IDEAS .DOC files, which give full details.  Finally, if you need
to contact me personally, write to:      Joe Kretschmer
                                         Tea Time Software
                                         92 Acorn Circle
                                         Oxford OH 45056
You can also call [phone] after 6 PM Eastern time, or contact
me on CompuServe by sending E-mail to 71020,1350.

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