PC Direct 1997 April

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Text File | 1996-04-21 | 34KB | 615 lines

~Printer Setup Keys: Press "P" key Mouse: Point at display [ P....] and press Right Button You can now select to either stay in STANDARD DRAFT Mode or Epson Mode. DRAFT is set to 10 Characters Per Inch. CASH items with their quantities will be printed on the next line down and on the far right. This was done as WhiteCat allows the Tagging and Pricing system to be any where along the line. Use DRAFT MODE if you have a old printer or if you can't be bothered to set up your printer to emulate, or be Epson. Epson Mode is set for 12 Characters Per Inch giving you a neat printout as one would get from a Receipt. Printer is set for LPT1, the default printer. Now you can choose between LPT1 to LPT3 + Printer to File facility. You are allowed to set up the type of printing required with, if wanted, your Name and Address. If you leave the Name and/or Address blank, then the program will decide that you have Headed paper. You can choose which side the Vendors Name and address should appear. If on the other hand you decide to fill in that section, then your Name and Address will always be placed on the top Right hand side of the paper, while the Vendors Name and Address will be on the top Left. Please SAVE your settings. These will be loaded when you next run Whitecat. Lines Per Page -------------- Keys: Cursor Right = Increases (->). Cursor Left = Decreases (<-). Mouse: Selects [->/<-]. Left side. 62 lines are for slightly smaller than true A4. 68 would be for A4. You can select between 30 and 99 lines per page. I suggest that you set the line count to 2 lines under the true line count per page, and switch on Line Feed. However, you will have to test things out on your printer, as printers are not always the same. Default is set at 58. Form Feed --------- Keys: ENTER selects YES or NO Mouse: When item high-lighted, move to the right "[" press Right Button If your printer is already set up to do a Form Feed after each page, then you should switch this to "NO", especially if you are printing out your ORDER or if there is only one Sub Category in the menu. If you are printing a Manual, and it has more than one Sub category, then it may be a good idea to switch this to YES. It is something that you will have to discover for yourself, as printers are not always the same. The default is set to "Yes", Formfeed. I have now set the Default to 58 lines per page with Form Feed for all types of printing! As before, you can alter the settings. May I suggest that you disable the Carriage Return and Line Feed actions on your printer. Set the Dip switches as per your printer manual and leave it that way for other uses. Fan Fold or Sheet ----------------- Keys: ENTER selects YES and NO Mouse: When item high lighted, move to the right "[" press Right Button If you have Single sheet printer, switch this to YES or else leave it for Fan Fold, Tractor Feed. Default is set to Fan Fold. Pause Between Pages ------------------- Keys: ENTER selects YES and NO Mouse: When item high-lighted, move to the right "[" press Right Button If you have an automatic Sheet feeder you will have to test this facility out. It depends on the printer. Default set to "NO". If your single sheet printer does not have an automatic feeder, then you should put PAUSE on YES. After each page has been printed, the computer will prompt you to press YES or NO to stop printing. This is quite good in-as-so-much as you can print on both sides of the paper like a book. Fan Fold users with a Friction roller facility can also use this facility. Vendors Address --------------- Keys: ENTER selects YES and NO Mouse: When item high-lighted, move to the right "[" press Right Button This will be set to NORM!, normal, if you have selected to fill in your Name and Address. This, therefore, will print your Name/Address on the Top right and the Vendors Name/Address on the Top Left side, with the System date on the right. If you are using Headed Paper, either Left or Right, not Middle!, you can switch this to print the Vendors address either on the Left if your Name Address is on the Right, or the Right, if your Name/Address is on the Left side. The system date will be printed on the Left if your Headed paper has your Name/Address on the Top Right. As there is no way to know how deep the Heading is, I had to decide to print the date on the left. Printer MODE ------------ Keys: ENTER selects Draft 10c.p.i or 12c.p.i Epson. Mouse: When item high-lighted, move to the right "[" press Right Button Select which "mode" you wish to print your Order. DRAFT = 10 c.p.i and 12 c.p.i = Epson mode. Only products that have CASH values will operate in these MODES. The Program BYTE pricing system uses 10 C.P.I without quantity entry and is set to Draft mode, no matter what mode you choose. Test them out and then SAVE the one you like the best! Printer PORT ------------ Keys: ENTER selects LPT 1 to 3/File Mouse: When item high-lighted, move to the right "[" press Right Button The default is set to LPT1. Just Highlight this section and press ENTER till required LPT port is shown. With the Mouse, you highlight this selection, move to the right of the open bracket [ and press the Right Mouse button to increase, as usual. Print manual (Please Print this out via WhiteCAT. You will need it !!!) ------------ Keys: ENTER selects YES and NO Mouse: When item high-lighted, press Right Button This will only display if you have loaded a Manual into memory. When displayed and selected another little menu will be displayed to the right of it. This will allow you to select to either:- a) Print "As Set" in the Printer setup menu OR b) Allow EACH Subcategory title to start on a new sheet, centered and underlined. If b) has been chosen, it will do a form feed when it finds a title and then start printing as setup. F8 Key will give this information for you. Print Order ---------- Keys: ENTER selects YES and NO Mouse: When item high-lighted, press Right Button This will only be displayed if you have selected items to purchase. The printout will be set to the settings that you have made. If you have Money items in your order, then they will be printed after the Program items. If no Programs have been ordered, then the Money items will be the first and last to be printed. Money items are called PRODUCTS. The title will be placed as a heading in the middle of the paper and underlined. NEW Features !! =============== You can choose direction of the printing to LPT1 to LPT3. You can also choose to printout any Order with CASH priced items, in Draft 10 c.p.i, Default, or Epsom 12 c.p.i modes. The Epson/IBM mode is for anyone that has set up their printer to emulate Epson, or is an Epson compatable device. Older Printers should stick to DRAFT mode. ----------- Special Mouse Keyboard Entry ---------------------------- If you can only use a Mouse for one reason or another, then there is a great little facility for you. To enter Name and Address all you have to do is select the little square located at the bottom right of the printer display. Press the Right Button and there you have it. You can still move around the Printer Menu as normal, altering this and that. The "SPACE" key is not between the ENTER and DELETE. It is located above DELETE, the two empty areas. If you need help select [F8-Help]. It is still there for you. Right Mouse Button can select any iten within the box area and execute it for you directly. This is a new feature. ~Search/Continue Keys: Normal Cursor Up/Down. ENTER selects or enters item. Mouse: When item high-lighted, Press Right Button for ENTER or press Left button to select item. Key F8: HELP Screen. Which can be designed on the out set. General Running =============== Enter the TEXT that you want to find and press ENTER or move the Cursor Down, its the same as ENTER. If the TEXT has less than 2 characters then you will not be able to select the way the Search is to take place. What you type in the area will remain, even if you use ESCAPE afterwards. When the Search has found an item of your choice, the high-lighted bar will be on that item. You can then either select "C" to continue or "S" do a different Search. If you want to carry on LOOKING, as normal, then just move the cursor Up/Down or select keyboard/mouse entries in the normal way, ENTER to Tag/untag etc. There is no need to press ESCAPE any normal action will do. I suggest the SPACE BAR to do the halting. After Tagging an item, just press "C" to continue the Search, or "S" to get the Search Menu to alter parameters, or press "T" to Tag/Untag and automatically carry on searching. You now have the ability to allow the search to either display only items that can be ordered, or to allow every word that matches the requested "word" to be shown. With the ORDER Only system, any words that match within the line of an order line will be displayed and allowed to be tagged. The other system allows one to find Anything and Anywhere so that one can decide if they fall within the aspect of what one was looking for. Main Menu SEARCH. ================= You can go and load any Main Menu Category and Search that. Just press "C" to continue the Search after loading or "S" to alter setups and required text. "C" to Continue when "Stop at each Section" has been activated, will a). Search the entire section, then when "C" is pressed, will take you to the next section and halt. This was done to give you a chance to decide if there was any other items that you may want, or if this section needs to be searched at all. Pressing "C" again will continue the search. b). If you moved around that section, when "C" is pressed, the rest of that section will be searched from the CURRENT cursor position and not from where it was. I did this so that you had the chance to look around if the need arose. c). On a normal search, without stopping between chapters, you can select the "C", for Continue, while the search is in progress and halt the process. That also applies to MOUSE Users. You just stay on "C" and press the Right button as normal. Mouse Users can also, when in the Order display area, press the left button to halt. However, do not press the Right button within that area or you will Tag an item. If you do that, then you can always just untag it and continue. d). You can choose to STOP at the beginning of each Chapter when "Stop END of Chapter" has been set to YES. This was another feature that helps you to quickly see "What is What". e). When you have STOPPED at the beginning of a Chapter, you can go straight to the next Chapter without having to go through the process of searching the UNWANTED section. Just press "N", for the start of the next Chapter. [Next/Last] is displayed on the bottom command line. Mouse users select within the brackets. f). At any time you can halt the procedure and examine the document at any area. You can Tag/UnTag as normal, or you can continue the Search from where you are. I suggest that you use any key other than Escape. If you hold it down for to long, then you will be taken to the last called item/Menu or whatever. g). You can goto the LAST Chapter by pressing "L" and do a search from there, rather than going to the Subcategory menu and select from there. You can also SKIP the current Chapter by pressing "N" for Next, and do a search from there. The possibilities are near endless. Have fun with the SEARCH routine. Remember you can SAVE the setup to load again when you run the catalogue again. Methods of Searching ==================== Carry on from here.....: As it states, the Search will carry on from where you are in that Chapter. You can use this for CONTINUE Search. It will only work if you are in the Ordering menu. If this is selected in the Subcategory menu, it will act as a normal search from the beginning of the current high-lighted section. Start at very Beginning.: This will start the Search at the very beginning of the Sub-category. The very first Chapter. Start from this Chapter: Restarts the Search from the beginning of the current Section that you are in. Special User settings that can be saved. ======================================== Select Case............: You can decide if you want to Search for text as you have typed, or to make everything into Upper case characters and search every word that will match. This part will put both your text and the catalogues text into upper case, in memory, and compare words that way. If you typed in Upper case in the first place and choose to Search in the Normal way, the routine will only look for the text that matches your upper case text, nothing else. If you choose the second method, then it makes no difference in what case you type. Everything is automatically made into upper case in memory, although you will not see that happen. Just select to change option. Stop END of Chapter....: You can opt to have the Search routine to stop after each title END has been searched. This would allow you to select other Search options or to carry on looking through the catalogue as normal. Just High-light "NO" and press ENTER to change to "YES" and vise-versa. Default "NO". Allows automatic STOP at end of each Chapter. Pause NEXT Chapter.....: If "Stop END of Chapter" has been pre-selected, then by selecting this, the search will STOP on the first line of the next Chapter when told to Continue. If you do not want this Chapter to be searched, then press "N" to goto the next Chapter. "C" will continue the Search from where the cursor is, as normal. You will not be allowed to select this feature unless you have pre-selected "Stop END of Chapter", YES. Catalogue Search.......: When this is set to YES, the catalogue system will load the next Catalogue File and continue to Search, as setup in the Main Search setup Menu. You can do all the normal things that you did with Standard Search Facilities. You can Stop the search anywhere and examine the contents of that Subcategory and then continue, setup another method, start from where-ever you want or examine the entire contents of the catalogue. You can switch this facility OFF to allow normal searching through single categories. The choice is yours! In the Main Menu, place the inverted line to the point where you wish the search to begin. If you have stopped the search for some reason, then the file in memory is not necessarly the one displayed in the Main Menu. The Main Menu display shows you from where you started the search. You can alter this by selecting to go into the Main Menu and moving the high-lighted bar. Find ORDER Items Only : Default is set to NO, search for ANY Match. You can look for Ordering items only or have a look at any Match and decide if that/those lines are what you are looking for. If you selected to Find Order Items only, then the search routine will display the Matched Item with as much information on the screen that that Items has. When "C", "T" is pressed the search will look for the next MATCHED ORDER Item and display as before. With the ANY Match method, anything that matches your requested Word will be displayed "As is". SAVE SETUP.............: You can save the last Five settings including Find ORDER. Those items are for your personal setup requirements. They will be loaded up every time you load the catalogue. You can change them and Save them whenever you want. Same feature as the Printer Setup/Print routine. Do not forget to fill in the details in the Printer/Setup menu and save those as well!! If you can not use the Keyboard for one reason or another, the same facility for ASCII Keyboard Entry is available to you as with the Print/Setup Menu. Select the block within the brackets, [■]. This will pop up the ASCII Chart for other device Users. Mouse Users, remember that you can select everything displayed on the screen, in either brackets or within the keyboard display. Everything is as it should be. When selecting "S" to Search, the buffer will NOT be cleared. This allows you to Continue the Search from this menu, if you desire. To Clear the TEXT, press the <- backspace, delete, key. Special Notice ============== If you want to Search for the word "WHITE" only, an absolute search, then put a space before and after it. If you want any word that has the word WHITE within it, then just type in the word without spaces before or after it. If you want any word that ends with the word WHITE, then type in the word WHITE followed by a space. These are only examples. Remember you have the ability to do an ABSOLUTE Search. This allows you to type in the word in any format and then switch the CASE to UPPER. Although you do not see it, your text will be converted into upper case in memory, then everything else is compared with that word or sentance as Upper Case Characters. Everything, no matter in what CASE it is stored, will be compared with, displaying ALL matches. Good Vendors will make their catalogues either have Products named in Upper or Lower case. This makes the search easy from your point of view. Please let me know if there are any other facilities that you would like to see within WHITECAT. ~Keys and Mouse Keyboard. --------- This program can be used via the Keyboard in the normal way. All keys assigned are displayed with the exception of ENTER. I took this for granted that all customers will automatically press ENTER to select the current High Lighted item. Mouse ----- Must be (T)(C)Micro soft compatable or any device that can emulate those facilities. That includes Track Balls. Left Button ----------- Used to point and click on the item wanted. You can keep the button ON and drag Up and Down within the box. The Top Line of the designed box will allow you to scroll upwards, while the Bottom line, before the key function display, will allow you to scroll downwards. Right Button ------------ This emulates the ENTER key. Pressing on this will allow you to select the current high Lighted item. A NEW feature has been added to allow ANY item to be selected/deselected without it being high-lighted from within the Main Ordering section. The Cursor arrows, when selected, will only move the high-lighted line Up or Down one item at a time. You can, at any time, select the Function Key displays. All items that are enclosed in these [ ] brackets, as displayed for Keyboard Users. ~Main Menu This is the first menu that appears on the screen,located on the bottom left of the screen. Just select the item of interest. Only one thing though. You can not select this section if you are in the sub-category menu section, the next display that pops up when you have selected an item from the Main Menu. Mouse Users can, by pressing the Left Button, close the Subcategory Menu. This saves you from having to select ESC on the Subcategory Menu bottom command line. This speeds things up. The High-Lighted bar will always remain in its position no matter where you go to within the cataloging system. You can view a current order at any time by pressing Function key F3. You can choose Search/Cont, set it up and continue to Search from here. Where-ever the cursor is, will be the position the search will start from. If you have selected to do a Catalogue Search, then after each Subcategory has been completed, the catalogue will load in the next Menu item and continue to search. You can STOP at any time to examine, Tag/Untag, Setup any facility. The choice is yours. I do not think that there are any limitations on how you use the SEARCH facilities. ~Sub Categories This is the next Menu that you are presented with. This contains all the Sub information on the Main menu. They can be referred as Chapters on each main category. If the category has not been loaded, it will load into memory and you will be taken into the ordering section. If it has been loaded and you have not loaded anything else, then you will be immediately transported to it in the ordering section. If it is a Manual, then you will not be able to select items for ordering. A manual is a manual and is setup to be read and/or printed out. You can view a current order at any time by pressing Function key F3. If you would like to, you can Search for an item or what ever. Once setup, you can continue a Search from there or load up another Main Category and do a quick single/multiple topic Search. It is really up to you, how you want the Search to take place. All the facilities are there for you, including the Catalogue Search section. ~Make an ORDER When you load something and decide to look at it through the Sub category menu, you will be allowed to TAG or UNTAG items, providing that you have loaded an ordering catalogue. Manuals can allow ordering, providing the vendor has set it up to do so. The bottom of screen will inform you. "Documentation File" will be the message if it is a manual. To TAG or UNTAG just press ENTER on the high-lighted item. What you have tagged is what you have. You can still go into the other screen to see all ordered items. You can delete from either section, but only select, TAG items in the main ordering section. The display on the middle right shows "Items Ordered" at any time. If you want to see the previous Chapter, rather than go into the Subcategory Menu and select it from there, you can just press "L" for LAST Chapter. You will be transported to the very first item in that Chapter. Likewise, you can goto the next Chapter by pressing "N". Selecting either continuously, will advance or decrease the Chapters for you. If you want to order in bulk, ie set quantity values, then you can order through BOTH the Main Ordering area as well as Reviewing Order section. CASH values will allow quantity ordering. "Q=Quantity" will be displayed ready for you to select "Q" and then enter in the amount required. Mouse Users can select [Q=Quantity] and press on Right Button. Default value is set to 1. If 1 is wanted, then you DO NOT have to select the "Q=Quantity" option. Searching --------- You can Search and Continue, providing you have entered the phrase in the main Search Menu. Selecting "S" to search for the Main Menu or "C" for continue. It really is simple but very effective. An added feature that I thought to be nice, is the ability to Tag/Untag and Continue the search, just by pressing one key, "T". Mouse users must select the [ T ]. This will only display if there is an item that can be tagged. Normal Text line are not allowed to be tagged, therefore the Mouse:[ T ] will not be displayed. The Wording within the "Found Match" display will tell you "Whats What". You can go and load another file at any time. The order in memory is still there. You can add to it from any file, or delete items at any time. It you decide to terminate from Whitecat and you still have an order in memory, you will be warned and given options. Help is available at all times, just press Function F8 key. ~Review Order At any time you can see and alter your order. Press the Function key F3. Mouse users just have to point and press the Right Button. The display of F3 can be selected from the bottom of the screen or from just below the advertising screen. If no order is present, you will be informed. Once into this section you can view and or remove items. All the figures will be altered either while in this section or in the Main Order section. ENTER will select the item to delete. A menu will pop up requesting an input from you. You can Delete the item by pressing "Y", or not by pressing "N". If you do not want to be prompted again then you select CTRL and D. This means; Don't ask me again, I want to delete what I select in future. If that is the case, every time you press ENTER on an item it will be removed from the order. You can select "A" for "ALL". You are then prompted to delete. Choose very carefully. Say "YES" and everything goes!!!. The program will show you it deleting. You can not stop it ! It is for show only. Mouse users can select from that menu all items in [ ]. If you change your mind at any time while in this menu, just press CTRL and A. This will switch the Prompter ON. Mouse Users can select the Top Left [■] item where the state of request is displayed. This displays : [■] DELETE : "Auto" or "Ask!". Once again you can select the printer option at any time by pressing "P". Moving around the section is child's play. CASH items can have quantities. "Q=Quantity" and the current total is displayed when the high-lighted cursor is over an item with cash. Select "Q" and type in the amount required. ENTER and ESCAPE are to except the amount. The minimum quantity is always 1. Mouse users can select 0123456789 and the enclosed [Enter]=Accept within the entry window. Default is set at 1. If 1 is needed, you need not select Quantity. Once all items have been deleted, you will be returned to the last area. Help is always at hand by pressing Function F8 key. There are up to 400 items maximum to order in any one go. As the program is fast, moving around 400 items is good. Page-Up and Down have been added as requested. ~Ordering Quantities Only items that are marked with CASH can be ordered in multiples ie 5.89 and the like. Default is set to 1. No need to select if only 1 wanted ! You can order upto 99 items through the Order/Print section(F3 key). The Main Order section will allow quantity entry. "Q=Quantity" will be displayed ready for selection. Gross values per item will not be displayed. Those can been seen in the next Menu. The Order/View/Alter and Print section, second Menu, will show values when a CASH item is under the high-lighted Cursor you will see that current Quantity and the Total Cash value. "Q=Quantity" and the display will POP up only on Cash values. Select "Q" and type in the amount required. Escape will accept the current value. The screen will update to give the TRUE Totals of Gross order, Quantity of item and Total Item costs. Mouse users can select 0123456789 and the enclosed [ <═╝ ]=Accept within the entry window. ~Mono-Composite This program will work on your machines. You will get a Black page with White high-lighted words. Let me know if there are any problems with your machine. Give details of your computer with type ie XT,AT etc, and the Dos you are running. If you have a machine that, although Composite, displays in Black and White or shows colour as White Screen, type the catalogue name with a space and then a hash, #, and press enter. You will have a true Black and White Catalogue display. Amstrad 5286 and the like with VGA composite monitors, seem to go into MODE 7 which is Black and White MONO only, when it should be truly MODE 3. Therefore, the hash "#" was added just incase you have problems. There are Shareware Programs/Utilities around that can change the MODE of display for you, both in Dos or as TSRs, Memory Resident Routines. If you have sight problems, then there are utilities that will MAGNIFY areas of the screen for you. These to are TSR, Memory Resident Routines. Ask your Vendor to assist in this matter. ~No Printer ? Selected via the Printer Port Setting: ====================================== Mouse Right Button on left bracket. Left Button to Point. Keyboard. Cursor Up/Down to move. ENTER To Select PORT. This feature was added to accomodate those who still do not have printing facilities. It is not a full system, it only writes information to the file named MYORDER.ORD as if it was a Printer. There are no special operations within the routine, it is a true Redirection system ONLY! Each Order that you make, is added onto the end of MYORDER.ORD file. If you decide to alter the Order from within memory after writing to the file, you will have to reorder. Totals are not added or subtracted in any way. You will have to CUT the file to the correct order using any Text file editor. Remember not to Delete the Order from memory untill you are absolutely sure that all is correct and Printed out or has been Written to the MYORDER.ORD file. You must ensure that you have plenty of FREE disk space and that you have the Write Protect Tab OFF/Disabled. If there is not enough room on the diskette or the Write Protect Tab is ON, then you will have to wait while the BUFFER empties. It could take some time, depending on the amount of the Order and the speed of your machine. If you can not wait, you will have to reboot the system with CTRL/ALT and DEL keys. IF Using WINDOWS, that is not a good idea, as files could be left open and cause problems later. Be patient, once back into the Menu System, put in a new formatted diskette into the drive, and select to Print Order as normal. Do Not Clear The Order from memory untill you exit, or untill you decide to restart. You can Save the settings as usual with the SAVE SET UP selection. Suggestion ========== Once you have finished and dropped back to DOS or the calling program, it is a good idea to examine the MYORDER.ORD file, trim it if necessary, and then save it as the current date, ie, 12-12-96, and delete the orignal file MYORDER.ORD file. As the file is always ADDED onto from each order made, it could get very large and take a lot of disk space. It makes sence to do it this way, as you will have a DATED record of each order made rather than having to examine a massive TEXT file. It also ensures that if problems do occour, you do not loose the entire file. ~Viewing Files ( if set up to show ) Picture files have extensions of GIF, PCX, PIC, TIF, BMP and so on. The description section of the product should state if you can view it. By high lighting the item and pressing F10, it will be shown. If the picture viewing program and / or the picture file are missing, nothing will happen. EXE and COM running files can not be selected in this area. Mouse or other Device users will use the Left Button to high light the item wanted, and then move to the bottom left of the screen and select F10 by pressing the Right Button. Not all pictures will display for a number of reasons. If not present. If the wrong format for the Picture viewer. If there is not enough memory and if your machine does not have that colour adaptor.