World of A1200/World_Of_A1200.iso/programs/text/textengine/textengine.doc

Text File | 1995-02-27 | 20KB | 460 lines

         TextEngine V4.1, Copyright Nicholas Harvey, 1991-93

INTRODUCTION
============
Welcome to TextEngine, a shareware word processing system for the CBM
Amiga. Some of the features of this latest version are as follows...

 - Brand new screen layout.
 - Text searcher facility.
 - 128Kb text buffer.
 - Built-in spell checker with 36,000 word dictionary.
 - Fully WB2 (and above) compatible with enhanced features on these
   versions of the OS (e.g. proper file requesters, & super hires
   display ability).
 - ASCII files can be loaded and saved with ease.
 - 12 text styles available for use with any preferences supported
   printer.
 - Up to 99 copies of a document can be printed at once.
 - Complete configuration options covering page margins, macros
   (function keys), and colour palette.
 - Both PAL and NTSC monitors are supported, with the choice of hires,
   super hires (WB2 or above only), and interlaced screen
   displays.
 - Full word wrap.
 - Various statistical information available such as the number of
   words, lines and pages a document contains.

TextEngine is shareware, and I give my permission for it to be freely
distributed. If you use it regularly, or are just feeling generous,
then please help out this poor student and register with me by sending
£5 (or equivalent) to the address below:

        Nicholas Harvey
        149 Manor Road North
        Thames Ditton
        Surrey
        KT7 0BQ
        England

I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone who uses
TextEngine outside the UK. So, if you live across the Channel, or
even the Atlantic, then I would be most interested to hear what you
have to say about the program!


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
===================
TextEngine should run on any memory configuration from 1/2 MB chip RAM
upwards, although at least 1MB is required if you want to use the
spell checker. The following files are required to be present on your
disk for the program to work (please note that the .gfx file is
now no longer needed).

  TextEngine4.1.cfg - This contains the user's prefered setup for
                      TextEngine which is loaded on startup and used
                      to configure the program to the user's needs.
                      This should be in the same directory as
                      TextEngine.

  TextEngine4.1.dct - This is the dictionary used by TextEngine's
                      spell checker, and this must also be in
                      TextEngine's directory.

   libs/asl.library - Only WB 2.04 users will need this if they want
                      to use file requesters with TextEngine.

devs/printer.device - This file is needed for printing, along with
                      your printer driver, which should be in the
                      devs/printers directory.

     l/port-handler - Also needed for printing.


HARD DISK INSTALLATION
======================
Installing TextEngine V4.1 on a hard disk is very easy. Simply create
a directory anywhere on your hard disk, and then copy the following
files into it:

        TextEngine
        TextEngine.info
        TextEngine4.1.cfg
        TextEngine4.1.dct

Alternatively, using workbench you can simply drag the TextEngine
drawer from your floppy disk into any directory on your hard disk.


LOADING TEXTENGINE
==================
From workbench: Simply double-click on the TextEngine icon and the
                program will load.

From the CLI:   Lets assume TextEngine is stored in a directory called
                WORDPROCESSORS. Firstly, type the following:

        cd wordprocessors (and press RETURN)

                Now, to run TextEngine, type:

        run TextEngine <filename> (and press RETURN)

                If you enter the name of a document in the filename
                option, it will be loaded automatically on startup.


SETTING UP TEXTENGINE
=====================
TextEngine can be configured to suit most people's needs by using the
following menu selections:

TEXT/WORDWAP  - Selecting this toggles the wordwrap on and off.

PREFS/PRINTER - Here, the paper margins can be altered by changing the
                values contained in the following boxes:

Lines per page: Here you enter the maximum number of lines that can
be printed on your piece of paper with no gaps at the top or bottom.
This is usually set at 70 for A4 continuous paper. If you are using
single sheets (like I do) then your printer may not allow you to use
the whole length of the page, due to the 'paper out' detector. In this
case, you will need to enter a smaller number in this box. For
example, my Star LC10 allows me to print 59 lines per page on a single
A4 sheet.

Top margin: Enter the number of blank lines you want placed at the top
of the page in here.

Bottom margin: Enter the number of blank lines you want placed at the
bottom of the page in here.

If, for example, you specified 70 lines per page with a 5 line margin
at the top and bottom, then the maximum number of lines on that page
would be 70 - 5 - 5 = 60 lines.

Chars per line: Here you enter the maximum number of characters that
can be printed across the page from left to right with no gaps either
side. This is usually set at 80 for A4 paper.

Left margin: This defines the width of the left margin in characters.

Right margin: This defines the width of the right margin in
characters.

Clicking on the DOUBLE SPACING gadget toggles double line spacing on
and off. Please note that the double spacing effect only becomes
apparent when your document is printed.

PREFS/PALETTE     - Here you can change the colours of the editor
                    screen.
 PREFS/MACROS     - Here you can assign each of the ten function keys
                    a string of 100 characters which is entered into
                    your document each time they are pressed. This
                    can be very useful when you repeat a word or
                    phrase many times.
   PREFS/NTSC     - Using this option will toggle between PAL and
                    NTSC screen modes.
PREFS/INTERLACE   - This will toggle the screen between interlaced
                    and non-interlaced displays.
PREFS/SUPER HIRES - If you have WB2 or above, a decent monitor, and
                    eye-sight to match, then selecting this will put
                    TextEngine into super hires mode!

To save this setup to disk, select PREFS/SAVE PREFERENCES. This writes
all of the above information to the TextEngine4.1.cfg file (N.B. the
ability to save the macros in this file is a new feature of V4.1).

However, every time you save your edited document, (except as ASCII
text) the macro and margin information is saved with it, so that every
file has its own individual set of macros and margins. This, however,
does not affect the setup saved in the .cfg file.


DISK FUNCTIONS
==============
TextEngine V4.1 uses its own file format which is different to that of
ASCII files, and of older versions of TextEngine (V4.0 and lower).
However old TextEngine files and ASCII files can be loaded without
conversion, and are detected automatically when loaded using the
FILE/LOAD menu option.

N.B. Files saved from TextEngine V4.1 (excluding ASCII files) cannot
be loaded correctly into earlier versions of the program.

In the FILE menu, there are the following options:

      LOAD - Lets you load a file. Both ASCII and TextEngine format
             files can be loaded.
    APPEND - Lets you merge a file with the current document. The
             file is loaded into your document at the cursor position.
             Only TextEngine format files can be appended.
      SAVE - This writes your file back onto the disk under the same
             filename as it was loaded. No file requesters are
             displayed so this is a quick way of re-saving a file
             after it has been loaded and amended.
   SAVE AS - Lets you save your file in TextEngine format via a file
             requester.
SAVE ASCII - This saves your file in ASCII format via a file
             requester.
     ERASE - Lets you erase a file.
       DIR - This feature is only available if you are using WB
             1.2/1.3, or if TextEngine fails to open the asl.library.
             It displays the contents of a given directory, and is
             useful for locating files on the disk.

When using TextEngine with WB 2 or above, proper file requesters are
used to select a file name for the above functions. Unfortunately,
these are not available when using WB 1.2/1.3, but instead the user
must simply type the file name in at the LOAD/SAVE/APPEND/ERASE
prompts.

If TextEngine fails to carry out a file function for any reason, then
an error message is displayed. These errors are explained fully in the
section 'AMIGADOS ERROR MESSAGES'.


EDITING A DOCUMENT
==================
There is a text buffer of 131200 bytes available, which should be
large enough for most purposes. If you want to write larger documents,
then it might be a good idea to separate them into smaller sections
and edit these individually. When the text buffer is full, an error
message is displayed. To see how much room there is left in the
buffer, select ABOUT from the PROJECT menu.


Keyboard input:
Text is entered in the normal way with the keyboard, with the
following extra keyboard functions being available:

 SHIFT+LEFT CURSOR - Start of line.
SHIFT+RIGHT CURSOR - End of line.
   SHIFT+UP CURSOR - Page up.
 SHIFT+DOWN CURSOR - Page down.
            CTRL+T - Top of file (also available in the TEXT menu).
            CTRL+B - Bottom of file (also available in the TEXT
                     menu).
            CTRL+C - Centre line (also available in the TEXT menu).
            F1-F10 - The ten function keys will each insert a user
                     defined string of text (as defined in the MACRO
                     editor) into the file.

The cursor can now also be positioned using the mouse. Simply click
anywhere on the screen with the left mouse button to reposition the
cursor.

On-screen displays:
Along the top of the screen is a ruler with each of the small
divisions representing one character, and the larger ones
representing each of the 9 tab positions. The blue 'Y' shaped marker
represents the maximum width of the page. The position of this marker
is calculated from the values entered in the PRINTER PREFERENCES
window and represents the horizontal limit of your paper.

Along the bottom of the screen is a status bar which displays the
following information:

     LINE - The current line at which the cursor is situated.
PAGE/LINE - The current page, and line on that page, which the cursor
            is located on.
       WW - Word wrap status (ON or OFF).
     CHIP - The amount of system chip ram currently available.
     FAST - The amount of system fast ram currently available.

The PAGE/LINE numbers are calculated using the values entered in the
PRINTER PREFERENCES window (including the double spacing status), so
that they represent the limits of the paper you are using.


Word wrap:
When the current line becomes longer than the width of the page (as
defined in PRINTER PREFERENCES), the word wrap comes into action.
There are two different ways in which the word wrap takes effect:

1) If you are editing the last word on the line, then when the word
wrap takes effect a new line is created below the current one, and the
last word is pushed onto it.

2) If you are editing elsewhere on the current line, then when the
word wrap takes effect the last word of that line is pushed onto the
beginning of the line below, if there is room for it. If there is not
room for the word on the line below, a new line is created and the
word is pushed onto that.

When the word wrap is turned off (by selecting the TEXT/WORD WRAP menu
option) the full width of the screen is available for editing, and
text input stops when the cursor reaches the right hand edge.


Merging 2 lines with the backspace:
Lets imagine you had the following two lines in your file:

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after.

You can merge the two lines by placing the cursor at the start of the
second line and pressing the backspace key. The result in this
instant, assuming that you are using a 70 character wide page, would
be the following:

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water, Jack fell
down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after.


Cut/copy and paste:
Up to 70 lines can be cut or copied into a buffer and pasted elsewhere
in the document. The procedure for this is quite simple:

1) Place the cursor at the top of the block of text and select MARK
   TOP from the BLOCK menu.
2) Move the cursor down to the bottom of the block, and either select
   CUT TEXT or COPY TEXT from the BLOCK menu. This will either cut
   the block of text from the file into the cut buffer, or just copy
   the block into the buffer whilst leaving it intact in the file.
3) Move the cursor to the position you want to paste the block you
   have just copied, and select PASTE from the BLOCK menu.

Please note that only whole lines can be cut, copied, and pasted.


Printer styles:
In the STYLE menu are a number of text styles that can be used in your
document. Selecting an option from this menu inserts the corresponding
control character into your file which, when the file is printed,
tells your printer to turn on that style. The next time the same
character appears, the printer is told to turn off that style. This is
true for all styles except for PICA and ELITE, which cancel each other
out. Take the following line of text, for example:

There's simply no match for °TextEngine's° user friendliness!

When printed, the first five words are printed normally, then the word
"TextEngine's" is printed in italics, and the rest of the sentence is
printed normally again. Please note that not all printers support all
of these styles, but try them out and see for yourself.

If you use many styles at once, and want to cancel them together, then
why not use the CANCEL STYLES control character? This cancels any
styles which are currently selected and returns the printer to normal
draft mode.


CHECKING YOUR SPELLING
======================
TextEngine has an English spell checker built in which, despite its
simplicity, can be very useful if you want to double check your
typing. You may, however, find it a good idea to have a dictionary to
hand in order to check those words which TextEngine hasn't seen
before!

Operating the spell checker is very simple. Firstly, you must open the
dictionary by selecting OPEN DICTIONARY from the SPELL menu. This
reserves a block of memory and loads the file TextEngine4.1.dct into
it. Having done this, you will find that three more options have
appeared in the SPELL menu, CLOSE DICTIONARY, UPDATE DICTIONARY, and
CHECK DOCUMENT.

When you select CHECK DOCUMENT, the spell checker window is opened and
it begins to check your file. When a potentially incorrect word is
found, it is displayed in the string gadget and seven suggestions are
shown in the box on the right (which can be scrolled using the up and
down arrow buttons). If the word is correct, you can either click on
ADD which will add the word to the dictionary and continue on to the
next word, or NEXT which will ignore the word and carry on to the next
one. However, if the word is incorrect, then you can correct it using
the string gadget and then click on NEXT to continue.

After using the spell checker, you may have added some words to the
dictionary which you want kept there. In this case, select UPDATE
DICTIONARY from the SPELL menu, which saves the dictionary with your
additions back to disk for future use. Also, if your system is running
low on memory, you can remove the dictionary from RAM by selecting
CLOSE DICTIONARY.


OTHER FEATURES OF TEXTENGINE V4.1
=================================
A new feature in the TEXT menu is FIND TEXT STRING. When this is
selected, you are asked to type in the text you want to look. Having
done this, click on the FIND gadget and TextEngine will look through
your document for the next occurance of that string. Having found it,
you can continue searching by selecting the TEXT/FIND NEXT menu item.

To print a file, select PRINT from the PROJECT menu. A requester will
appear asking you how many copies of the file you want printed. Up to
99 copies can be made, and if you enter 0 as the value, then printing
will not go ahead. If you need to stop printing for some reason,
simply click on the CANCEL gadget.

Selecting SLEEP from the PROJECT menu returns you to the Workbench
and reduces TextEngine to a small window at the top of the screen. In
doing this, about 50kB of chip RAM is released and TextEngine will let
other tasks get on with what they are doing without taking up valuable
processor time. To return to the editor screen, make sure the small
TextEngine window is selected, and then press the right mouse button.

In the TEXT menu is the WORD COUNT option. Not only does this count
the words in the document, but also the lines and pages too.


AMIGADOS ERROR MESSAGES
=======================
If an error occurs when accessing a file with TextEngine, an AmigaDOS
error number is displayed. Here is a list of the meanings of most
errors that might occur.

        Error | Meaning
        ------+--------------------------------
        202   | Object in use
        203   | Object already exists
        204   | Directory not found
        205   | Object not found
        212   | Object not of required type
        213   | Disk not validated
        214   | Disk write-protected
        218   | Device not mounted
        221   | Disk full
        222   | File is protected from deletion
        223   | File is protected from writing
        224   | File is protected from reading
        225   | Not a DOS disk
        226   | No disk in drive


FINAL NOTE, THANKS, AND HELLOS
==============================
Well, as usual I hope you enjoy using TextEngine. Not bad for a
fiver's worth of software, I think!

Many thanks for the support I have had from the following people:
John Reece, Michael Amoah, Paul Burnham, M Rhodes, C Ralfe, Ian
Rawlings, G Lambert, S May, Stan Davey, R Evans, P Sullivan, David
McClay, E Berney, John Ellis, J Jarret, Gary Shaw, R Chambers, P Berg,
Peter Stubbs, Graeme McGibbon, D Simons, Len Mullenger, Alan Lingard,
Christopher Jones, Sheila Walsh, Pauli Hietala (hello Finland!),
Andrew Chambers, A Gravener, C Wellman, R Minns, Ken Spry, 17 Bit,
Deltrax, David Aslett, Bill Sloan, Keith Pang, D Davies, Victor Hunt,
J Bryer, B Wyatt, Ernest Wilson, Larry Cashill, Dennis Brunskill, Roy
Pearson, N Peters, Colin Curtis, W Davies, Tony Campbell, T Dullage,
Frank Mitchell, Jim Finney, Graham Adair, Tony Davies, R Robertson,
Marcus Ong, Ian Ridehalgh, Cyril Stacey, Adrian Nudel, Paul Hayball,
M F Sheard, John Perks, P L Hammour, P R Thomas, Gillian Beton, Denis
Pycroft, Geoff Bowell, Richard Dockett, Mr & Mrs Dickinson, J
Rimington, Jagdeep Lall, Piers Kurrein, Russell Tippett, Ian Seth, R
Blayney, George Johnston, Peter Hind, Robert Iveson, J E Standley,
Geoff Thomas, Rocky Daly, Adrian Back, William Mutch, Roger Coleman,
Dave Hawley, Colin Standley, Archie Allison, Ricky Clarke, G M
Nicholas, Turtle Lightning Amiga Software (Texas, USA!), Kate
Simmonds, Michael Taylor, M Newsham, Colin Coomber, Alex Kane, Tony
Green, Robert Lake, and Jen Allen.

Usual hellos go to: Mark Higgins, Martin Guy, Warren Saunders,
Gary Taylor, and Amanda, Lucy, Susan, and Sophie. Also hello to
everyone at JS Surbiton including Scott (graphic artist extrordinaire)
Lewis, and anyone who drives a Mini!

Signed: Nick (21/8/93)