The Business Master (4th Edition)

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The Multimedia Workshop's Functions, In Detail This file has been greatly edited in order to fit in the shareware edition. The registered version has more information and a map of the menus and functions. To find a function quickly, press [S] to search for a word or phrase. The First Six Menu Items The first six features discussed appear at the top of nearly all menus: HELP This appears as a question mark on the upper left of most menus. MOVE This appears in the middle of the top of most menus. With MOVE you can reposition the entire menu so that it does not block your view of the current picture. Press [Enter] or the left mouse button. Move the menu to a new location, then press [Enter] or the left mouse button again. ESC Select ESC, press the [Esc] key, or click the right mouse button to escape to a previous menu level. From the main menu, this will end the program. VIEW This clears the screen and replays the current script file exactly as the end user will see/hear it. COLOR This changes the current color used for text, drawing items and most screen effects. Depending on which video mode you are using you'll have a menu with from 2 to 256 color choices. Select a new color with left mouse button or [Enter], or continue with same color by pressing [Esc] or right mouse button. UNDO Almost anything you can do, you can undo. This will remove the last item added to the current script file, clear the screen, and replay the file. There is no limit to how many times you can use UNDO. It is possible to UNDO all the way back to the beginning of a file, leaving nothing but a blank screen. UNDO is a smart function which will undo groups of lines from a script file when it is sensible to do so. For instance, if you have done a bit of PIXEL EDITing, and then select UNDO, the whole PIXEL EDIT session will be removed, rather than just the last dot you changed. This eliminates the need to select UNDO numerous times in a row to remove seemingly small changes. THE FILE MENU The functions within this menu pertain to file switching, building presentations, adding and creating .PCX and .GIF files, hyperlinking and more. HOOKS Hooks are links to other files on disk. You can hook programs (.EXE, .COM & .BAT), graphics (.GIF & .PCX), sounds and other script files into your presentations. PCX This function will put a line in your script file calling on TMW or MSHOW.EXE to display a chosen .PCX file. Once displayed, you can continue to draw over the .PCX image, add sounds, animations, etc. Although the .PCX format specifications are very loose, and interpreted differently by various programs which create them, The Multimedia Workshop can handle most .PCX files. Ideally, a .PCX file which you choose to display will match the current script file video mode. If it doesn't match, the program can still display it, but it will do it by automatically switching to the correct video mode. This means that if you display a mis-matched .PCX file, it will first erase the current screen. Normally this is no problem, since most scripts start with the .PCX picture, or the .PCX picture is full-size and overwrites everything on the screen anyway. You are asked whether you want to use "automode" or not. If you choose automode, the .PCX file is allowed to change the current video mode. This means that if you use a high-resolution monochrome CGA .PCX file, but your script starts out in low-res VGA 256-color, the video mode will be changed so that your whole .PCX image will be visible and in proportion. There are times when you might not want automode. Some .PCX files will display in your current video mode just fine, but would change the video mode to something you don't want for the rest of the current script. So, select automode unless you know you must preserve the current video mode. When using less than full-size .PCX images, because using automode may blank the screen in the video mode doesn't match, you may want to make sure NOT to use automode. If the .PCX file is less than full-screen size, a rectangle will appear on your current picture. You cannot change the size and shape of the rectangle, because it represents the exact size of the .PCX image. But you can move it to the location in which you want the image to appear. Click a mouse button or press [Enter] when the rectangle indicates where you want the .PCX image to appear. GIF This works exactly like the ADD A .PCX FILE function above, except that it is for .GIF files. .GIF files take longer to appear on-screen than .PCX files, but they usually take up less disk space. GRAB PROGRAM This puts a line in the script file which runs any standard .BAT, .COM or .EXE file. Because some RAM is required to keep TMW.EXE or MSHOW.EXE in the background, executable programs which require lots of memory may not work properly. MERGE A FILE This combines two or more script files into one. HOOK SUB-FILE When you want to do the same thing in several script files, you can save disk space by putting the sub-routine in a separate script file of it's own, then selecting Hook A Sub-File. This will cause the main script file to run the sub-file, then resume where it left off. Be aware that settings changed by one file will affect another when they are hooked together. In other words, if your sub-file has some rectangles, originally drawn in the thinnest line thickness and in red, but the main file is using a larger thickness and yellow when the sub-file is called, unless the sub-file contains specific calls to make sure the lines are thin and red, they'll end up thick and yellow. Make sense? (Not to me, and I wrote it!) LINKS MENU This gives you access to the HYPER-LINK and related functions. Hyper-Linking is the process in which end users can move an arrow to indicate anything you have drawn or written on the screen. When the users press [Enter] or click the left mouse button, the presentation switches to another script. HYPER-LINK DEFINITE JUMP These are very powerful functions! See the chapter about Hyper-Linking for more information (HLINK.DOC) PERSISTENCE This function installs a code in your script file, so that screen will not clear when the next script file is played. This give a double-exposure effect. A useful example would be: A box in the middle of a complex screen in which you want to change the contents, without recreating the screen that surrounds it. GET OUT NOW There is a rare situation in which MSHOW.EXE can be run in batch mode to play a single script file, which contains a user input feature such as Live Text. When the user is done with the file, it does not drop out directly to DOS, but first displays a blank screen. To get an immediate return to DOS when [Esc] or the right mouse button is pressed, select this option. GET OUT NOW can be installed at any place in the script file. This has no effect in TMW, TMWTEST or in MSHOW when used in presentation mode. BUILD MENU This menu is for connecting several script files together into a presentation. A presentation is two or more script files chained together. This is done by listing them in a special file called MSHOW.CFG. When the run-time program MSHOW.EXE or TMW.EXE sees this file, it reads it to find out which files you want presented and in what order. You can list up to 132 files in a presentation. They will be shown one after another unless the end user selects options such as SEARCH, GOTO or BACK. BUILD PRESENTATION Use this function to build or modify the list of files to be presented. When selected, a full-screen spread-sheet like menu appears. If there is no existing MSHOW.CFG file, all cells will be empty. If there is a previous MSHOW.CFG file, then the menu will contain the files listed in MSHOW.CFG. You can delete existing files and add your own. Simply move to the cell where you want a file to appear, then type the name of that file. The program reads the first column from top to bottom, then moves to the next column, etc. Do not use drive and path designators with file names. The files which are to be displayed should all be in the same directory as MSHOW.EXE or TMW.EXE. When the end user gets a disk with your presentation on it, the script and MSHOW.EXE will all be on the same disk (or in the same Zipped BBS file). If you try to add drive or directory information here, and if the end user's computer is not configured like yours, Bloooie! Although you can leave spaces between files, it is not a good practice to do so. When done with the BUILD menu, press [Esc]. The new MSHOW.CFG file will automatically be written to disk. If you have an important version of MSHOW.CFG already, you ought to make a back up copy first. In addition to script files, you can also include .EXE, .COM, .BAT or .PCX files in this menu, and these programs/files will be executed or displayed properly. VIEW PRESENTATION A presentation is made up of two or more script files. When this feature is selected, your entire presentation can be viewed, almost as if you were an end user using MSHOW.EXE. It doesn't matter what script file is currently loaded, VIEW PRESENTATION simply looks for the file MSHOW.CFG, (created with the BUILD PRESENTATION option on the BUILD menu) and displays the files found there. Because VIEW PRESENTATION emulates MSHOW.EXE while The Multimedia Workshop is loaded in the background, some functions are not available which are part of MSHOW.EXE. Simply too much RAM is required. Most executable programs built into MSHOW.CFG (with BUILD option) will be ignored. SPEECH synthesis will also be ignored. While VIEW PRESENTATION is in effect, the main menu changes to emulate the menu in MSHOW.EXE. When you select QUIT from this menu, the normal main menu returns, and the script file previously loaded is replayed. CHOOSE .CFG FILENAME Normally TMW.EXE and MSHOW.EXE expect the name of the file which contains the script file itinerary to be MSHOW.CFG, but this is not set in concrete. You can use any other filename as long as the last 4 characters are '.CFG'. With this option, you set TMW.EXE to use a .CFG filename of your choice. To get MSHOW.EXE to display files from a .CFG file other than MSHOW.CFG, type MSHOW at the command line followed by the custom .CFG filename. LAYER This little menu contains two layer functions: LAYER Use this to create templates for precise alignment of animations or picture elements. A file can be made which continues outlines showing you where you want things to line up. You can double-expose this "template" file over your current file, add your picture elements precisely over the outlines. REMOVE LAYERED FILES This function will delete all layered files from within your current script file, thereby eliminating temporary templates, etc. MORE (extended File Menu) OPTIMIZE This option may make the current script file smaller and run faster. It does this by eliminating redundant lines such as blank lines, calls to change color or thickness to the current color or thickness, and by removing markers used by UNDO. Use Optimize as one of the finishing touches to a script file, since UNDO will run less efficiently after OPTIMIZE is selected. Available only in the registered version. ENCRYPT Script files and live text (ASCII) files can be encrypted so that no one can modify them. This protects your software so that end users cannot change your data and then pass modified copies to others. Encrypted files run exactly the same within The Multimedia Workshop, MSHOW.EXE and TMWTEST.EXE, but when examined with a word processing or text editing program, they are unreadable. Encrypt is available only in the registered version. CHANGE MODE You can switch to another video mode at any time. Super-VGA is available in the registered version only. MAKE PCX/GIF Whatever is currently displayed on the screen will be made into a .PCX or .GIF file when this is selected. THE DRAW MENU This menu contains the standard graphics creation tools. Special effects, and file handling functions are in other menus. LINES Use this function to draw straight lines. If using a mouse, click the left button to start a line, then click the left mouse button again to 'set' the line, or click the right button to cancel the line. When done with LINE, click the right mouse button again. If using the keyboard, use the [Enter] key to simulate the left mouse button and the [Esc] key to simulate the right mouse button. When using the mouse or the keyboard, it might be desirable to float a partially completed line to a new location. You can toggle FLOAT MODE by clicking the spacebar. Then click the spacebar again to return to STANDARD MODE. This can lead to confusion. If a line misbehaves, try clicking the spacebar to toggle to STANDARD MODE. If you have a three-button mouse, you can hold the center button to toggle FLOAT MODE. DASHED LINES Dashed lines are available in the registered version. EMPTY BOXES Using the mouse, hold down the right mouse button to change the size or shape of a rectangle, then click the left button when done. SIZE MODE can also be toggled with the spacebar. Using the keyboard, click the spacebar to toggle SIZE MODE to change the size or shape of a rectangle, then click it again to return to MOVE MODE. Click [Enter] when done. When SIZE MODE is toggled (with the spacebar or the right mouse button) the coordinate display in the lower left corner will reflect the dimensions of the rectangle. Rectangles can be canceled with [Esc]. FILLED RECTANGLES These are drawn just like rectangles (above) with the only difference being that the rectangles are entirely filled with current color. BLOCK MENU Block operations involve a rectangular region of the screen. COPY BLOCK This function gives you a rectangle on screen. Move/size it to enclose an area to be copied and click the left mouse button or press [Enter]. When you move the mouse or press arrow keys, a flashing copy of the selected area will move across the screen. When satisfied with the new location, press [Enter] or click the left mouse button again. MOVE BLOCK This function works just like COPY BLOCK (above), but the original area disappears, leaving background color. FLIP With this function you move/size/shape a rectangle to enclose an area. Then the area will be reversed from left to right. FILL PAGE This function simply fills the whole screen with the currently selected color. PIXEL EDIT When this function is selected, a rectangle appears on screen. It's size cannot be changed, but you can move it to surround an area you want to work on in close detail. Move the rectangle to the area you want to edit and press [Enter] or click the left mouse button. Then the original area will be pictured in it's normal size in the upper left corner, and the rest of the screen will be a very blown up version. You can point to any enlarged pixel and click the left mouse button or press [Enter] to change it's color to the current drawing color. Press [Esc] or click the right mouse button when done. To change many pixels to a new color, toggle GO MODE with the spacebar. To change to another color, press the [C] key. Once a pixel has been changed, you cannot immediately change it again. Another pixel must be changed first, even if you have pressed [c] to change color. This prevents runaway iterations of changing a pixel to the same color over and over again if you move the mouse slowly and therefore saves disk space. PIXEL EDIT is disk space-intensive and should be used sparingly, especially in ASCII-Vector-Graphics scripts. If converted to .PCX image, extensive PIXEL EDITing will usually not affect file size as much. THE TEXT MENU Text operations, of course. CHOOSE FONT The shareware version comes with a few fonts which can be used by TITLES, REGULAR TEXT, LIVE TEXT, and BLOCK IMPORT. DEFAULT Font is built into the program. The others are provided as *.MMF files on disk. You can keep or discard as many of the *.MMF files as you wish. When CHOOSE FONT is selected, it looks at the current disk and directory for the *.MMF files and shows those available. You can select any one for use. If you do use any besides DEFAULT Font, make sure to provide the corresponding *.MMF file on disk with your finished presentation. The registered version comes with 41 fonts. TITLES This is a menu of text operation involving only one line of text at a time. If Shadow options are set, CENTERED TITLE, LEFT TITLE and FLEXI-FONT will project shadows on the screen. To set Shadow options, see MORE, then SET SHADOW, within the TEXT MENU. CENTERED TITLE When selected, an arrow appears. Move it to the desired location and press [Enter] or click the left mouse button. You can then type a line of text centered around where the arrow was. The current color, and font will be used. To center a line of text in the exact middle of the screen, use the coordinate display in the upper right corner. In most video modes, 320 is the middle of the screen. In VGA-LO and CGA-LO, the center position is 160. LEFT TITLE This is just like CENTERED TITLE above, but this one starts the text at the arrow and builds a line of text to the right, centered vertically at the arrow. FLEXI-FONT A new option built into The Multimedia Workshop is Flexi-Font. This font is a stroked character font, which can be adjusted for height, relative width, position, color, boldness, and angle. Using Flexi-Font, you can arrange text around circles, along curves, you can have text which starts large on the left and ends up small on the right end of a string, and you can make it fit exactly where you want it. You can even have it upside down if you wish. Flexi-Font is available only in the registered version. REGULAR TEXT When this function is selected, a rectangle appears on screen. You can change it's size and shape by holding the right mouse button or by toggling SIZE MODE with the spacebar. Move it to the desired location and press [Enter] or click the left mouse button. Once the text area is selected, you can simply type text. Word wrap is automatic when you reach the right hand edge of the chosen text area. You can use the backspace key for deleting mistakes. Press [Esc] when done entering text. If you try to select an area smaller than 2 characters wide or one character tall in the current font, the function will cancel and return you to the main menu. You can, of course, select an area larger than you need. IMPORT TEXT This menu offers several ways to incorporate normal ASCII text files into your presentations. LIVE TEXT This is a really neat feature of The Multimedia Workshop. You can design a script file so that somewhere in your picture you have some lines of text which are scrollable, just like as if you were using Writer's Dream, See, List, View, or any other text presentation program. The difference is that you can do it as any size portion of a graphics screen, and using any font or color! This hooks any ordinary ASCII text file. So, first create a text file that you want displayed. Then, from within in TMW, select a font and color, then choose this function. You will be asked to size and shape a rectangle to define the area you want the text to occupy. Then, name the file you want displayed. You are also presented with two other choices: You can have AutoScroll start automatically. AutoScroll causes the text to scroll line-by-line without the user pressing any keys. Autoscroll can be run at any one of nine speeds. 1 is very slow, allowing approximately 2 seconds between lines. 9 is very fast. AutoScroll's speed changes if the user presses any key from 1 to 9, and stops if any other key is pressed. Whether or not AutoScroll starts automatically, it can be started or stopped while Live Text is in effect. If AutoScroll continues to the end of the text file, Live Text quits automatically. The last option is a "hint bar." Live Text will give the end user a bar at the top of the screen, indicating that the user can use the arrow keys to scroll, press [F1] for on-line help, or press [Esc] to quit Live Text. If you do not select this option, it is usually a good idea to write your own brief instructions into the picture so that the users know how to use Live Text. Live Text also has a built-in SEARCH function. When a user presses [S] (for Search) or [F] (for Find), they will be prompted to type a word or phrase. If that word or phrase is in your text file, it will be located and highlighted. End users who try SEARCH from the MSHOW menu will be pleased to find that SEARCH will extend into hooked LIVE TEXT files, and take them to the script file and the portion of the live text file containing a match. If AUTO is selected from the MSHOW menu, AutoScroll starts automatically, so that the presentation does not get stuck at Live Text. Live Text can also be scrolled by moving the mouse up or down. The left mouse button has no effect, but the right button will end the Live Text session, just as if [Esc] were pressed. Live Text has a print function. The end user can press [P] from the keyboard to get a paper copy. NOTE: Don't forget to copy the ASCII files used with Live Text onto your finished product disks. AUTOMATED LIVE (Text) If, having read about Live Text, or perhaps even trying to use it, you find it quite complicated, you'll be happy to note that AUTOMATED LIVE TEXT was made to simplify the process. When this feature is selected, you are asked to type a filename. Then a rectangle appears. You cannot change the size of this rectangle, it indicates the area required for a Live Text box using the currently selected text file and font. Move the rectangle to the area you want to contain the Live Text, then press [Enter] or the left mouse button. Live Text will occur there. (Press [Esc] or the right mouse button when done previewing the Live Text.) Automated Live Text will let you know if you are trying to do something impossible. It will issue a warning and not let you use a non-existent file, or one which contains lines of text wider than the screen (in the currently selected font). To make the function as easy-to-use as possible, you cannot change the colors of Automated Live Text. The text will always appear in white, within a blue box, with a black shadow. You cannot change the height of the Live Text box, it is always approximately half of the total height of the screen. Well, actually, you can change the colors and dimensions, if you edit the script file, since Automated Live Text simply writes all the ordinary lines necessary for Live Text within a shadowed, bordered rectangle into the script file. NOTE: For best effect you might want to edit the Automated Live Text script lines to make the bottom of the text box better line up with the bottom line of Live Text, but this is quite easy to do, simply let the Live Text run deeper (increase the last number in the line which starts with "tv". Even if you are an experienced user ("Power User!") of The Multimedia Workshop, you may still like to use Automated Live Text rather than Live Text, because you can set up a Live Text box faster by simply using Automated Live and making some specific changes, rather than by successive approximation of box sizes with regular Live Text. ANOTHER NOTE: Don't forget to copy the ASCII files used with Live Text onto your finished product disks. BLOCK IMPORT This option will transfer text from an ASCII file verbatim, except it will use the currently selected typeface and font size. You must first prepare your text. It must be in standard ASCII format. If your text file contains more text than would fit in a single picture, you must break it up into several smaller disk files, each containing the text for one picture. Each of these files must have the text formatted into a block which will fit on the screen. Lines of text 75 columns wide, will not fit in a space half as wide as a whole picture, for example. Each block must contain no more than the number of lines a picture can contain. How many columns and lines are allowable? There is no easy answer, because different graphic modes and different fonts require different amounts of text space. Generally, using DEFAULT font, the graphics modes with 640 pixels horizontally - CGA-HIGH, EGA, Hercules and VGA, can handle lines of text up to 76 characters wide. In the case of 200 vertical pixels, such as CGA-HI, and EGA-LO, you can fit as many as 18 lines of text when using the smallest font. To get your text block sizes to fit really well, you'll have to experiment a bit. HIDDEN NOTE Use this to create a note in the script file which will never appear on screen. MORE (extended Text Menu) SET SHADOW This sub-menu is for controlling on-screen shadows cast by CENTERED TITLE, LEFT TITLE, and FLEXI-FONT. SHADOW ON/OFF When this is set to OFF, (menu box unchecked) no shadow will occur. SHADOW SIDE When set to right (default) the shadow will occur to the right of the text, as if the light source was over your left shoulder. SHADOW COLOR The default shadow color is black, but can be changed to any color you wish. VERTICAL You can control the offset of the shadow in the vertical dimension. If you select a vertical offset of 2, then the shadow occurs two pixels lower than the main text. The most common selection is 1, but a range of 0 to 20 will work. HORIZONTAL This is just like VERTICAL, above. SET JUSTIFY You can choose right justification for use with REGULAR TEXT. Right justification puts extra spaces between words so that the right-most character in each line of text aligns with the right-hand edge of the text area. CUSTOM TOP BAR You can enter a line of text which will appear at the top of the screen in place of the standard menu bar or instructions. This is available in the registered version. QUESTION & ANSWER You can create full-fledged multimedia multiple-choice or true/false tests with The Multimedia Workshop! This is available in the registered version only. SOUND MENU This menu contains the functions for sound effects. All these effects except SOUND BLASTER VPLAY and OTHER SOUND CARD can be played through the standard IBM-Pc speaker. The timing of the sounds will be the same whether played on a 4.77 mhz XT or a 50 mhz '486. MELODY When MUSIC is selected, a graphical menu pops up. It allows you to compose melodies using standard music notation. You can pick any note (representing timing) from the lower staff, and move it to the upper staff in a position corresponding to the frequency of the note. You can add as many notes to the top staff as you like up to 2000. You can also select rests and naturals, flats and sharps. If you put flats or sharps at the very beginning, then all notes on the same lines or spaces will be flat or sharp unless specifically changed by a natural sign. Any flat, sharp or natural after the very beginning will affect only one note, the one following the flat, sharp or natural sign. You can move the pointer to the area marked, "Click here for menu" and will be offered several other choices including changing the attacks and the tempo. For more information, press the [F1] key at any time for pop-up help. Melody has a limit of 2000 notes. If you ever manage to reach this limit, you will be notified. However, if you are creating a long song, you should save it and work on it in pieces, since MELODY does not write to disk each time you add a note, but saves it all in RAM until you EXIT & SAVE. PC SPEECH Good, intelligible-quality speech is possible from most standard IBM-PC speakers! The Multimedia Workshop provides two systems which present digitized speech. The first uses stand-alone .EXE files which speak by themselves. The second system uses a sub-program called PC-TALK.EXE which plays .SP files. The first .EXE system has higher-resolution sound, but will not run on older XT-class computers or on those slower than 8 mhz. (Virtually all computers made today are faster than 8 mhz.) In fact, if you try to use these .EXE speech files on the older computers, they will lock up! The second system uses .SP files which are smaller and run on old as well as new computers, but have a lower sound quality. When you select PC SPEECH from the SOUND menu, a sub-menu asks whether you want to use the .EXE files or .SP files. .EXE SPEECH FILES There are a few useful example .EXE speech files on this disk. Each one is a stand-alone word or phrase. You can test any one by typing it's name at the DOS prompt. For instance, to hear a file called HELLO-.EXE, type HELLO- and press [Enter]. Each of these speech files has a dash (-) at the end of it's name so that you'll know that it is a speech file, and not some other executable program. To further reduce confusion, you might want to store unused speech files in a separate disk or directory. To use a speech file, go to the SOUND menu, then select PC SPEECH, and then select .EXE files. You'll be asked to type a filename. Type the name of any speech file that you want to use. Remember to type the dash at the end of the filename. Whatever speech files you have used must accompany your finished product files on your distribution disks. More speech files are available. To get the whole 3-disk, compressed speech library, send $29.95 to Another Company. As usual, there is no charge for postage to anywhere in the world. IMPORTANT NOTE: The .EXE speech files require at least an 8mhz '286 computer. They should work ok on all '286's, '386's, and better. Laptop computers (at 8mhz or faster) will play the files, but they won't be as clear as on computers with real speakers. This means that you can fairly safely create presentations in VGA graphics with .EXE file sound, because it would be very rare for a VGA-equipped computer to be slower than 8 mhz. However, if you create for the CGA market, some older, slower computers may lock up with any .EXE speech file. PC-TALK and .SP FILES If you want your digitized speech to run on XT-class machines, or want to use smaller files, the PC-TALK system is also provided. This is an option made possible by PC-TALK.EXE, a product of C.S.S. Inc. In order to use this option, you must purchase THE SPEECH LIBRARY, a collection of over 1,000,000 bytes of digitized speech and sound effects. The price is a very reasonable $29.50 including postage within the United States. The SPEECH function works like this: TMW.EXE or MSHOW.EXE runs a sub-program on disk called PC-TALK.EXE which runs one or more .SP speech files from the disk. There are some speech files included with The Multimedia Workshop, so you can experiment with this function and see whether you might want to incorporate .SP speech into your presentations. To use one, select PC SPEECH from the SOUND menu, then select .SP FILES and type the name of one of these files, then press [Enter]. The speech is now a part of the script file, and will play when the script files is played. REMEMBER: PC-TALK.EXE plus the .SP speech files you are using must be copied onto your final disk. Another Company does not provide any other .SP files. C.S.S. does. To order THE SPEECH LIBRARY send check with order for $29.50 to: C.S.S. Inc. 3005 Glenmore Ave. Baltimore, MD 21214 (410) 665-0193 Credit card orders, phone: 1-800-847-0309 C.S.S. can also supply custom phrases at $20 per phrase/sentence. Write to them for details. SOUND CARD This menu contains accesses to optional hardware sound card programs. SOUND BLASTER VPLAY The Multimedia Workshop now supports standard Sound Blaster .VOC files which you can create if you have a Sound Blaster card. These are generally used for synthesized speech, but may also be used for excellent, multi-instrument music and sound effects. A Sound Blaster card is required to replay these sounds. If attempted on a computer without a Sound Blaster card, nothing will happen. To use this function, simply type the name of the .VOC file you want played. The .VOC file must be copied along with your script files onto your finish product disks. The end-users' computers must have have a path to VPLAY.EXE, which comes with the Sound Blaster card. OTHER SOUND CARD With this function, you can run most sound programs for sound cards other than Sound Blaster, as well as other programs for the Sound Blaster card. It simply puts a sort of hook into the script file, which will run the program of your choice, along with the parameters of your choice. The picture being developed by your script is unaffected, unless the sound program tries to write to the screen. Most sound programs have a way to prevent this, such as passing a "/q" as a parameter along with the sound file to play. This function will ask for a program name, a sound file name, and finally ask whether you want to add parameters. For instance, let's say that you have a program called SOUND.EXE which plays a bit of music in a file called GUITAR.XXX. Furthermore, we'll imagine that SOUND.EXE can take /n to make sure it does not upset the current screen. You'd enter SOUND.EXE for a program name, then GUITAR.XXX for the sound file name, and finally /n as a parameter. That ought to do it! SOUND LIBRARY This is a top level menu to the Sound Effects Library. SOUND LIBRARY This is a menu of pre-created sound effects which will play on all ordinary computers (Sound Blaster not required). TIME MENU This menu is something you'll never see in a typical paint program! Because of the nature of ASCII-Vector-Graphics scripting, you can partially develop a picture, then alternate some delays with additional picture development, making custom animations and presentations that evolve at the speed a viewer can comprehend. 5, 10, 20, 50, 200 MILLISECONDS, 1, 5 SECONDS As soon as you select any of these functions, a delay is written into the script file. 1000 milliseconds equals one second, so, for instance, 50 milliseconds is 1/20 of a second. ADJUST PRESET With this function you can select a number of milliseconds for Use Preset Delay. The number you have selected remains in effect until you again select ADJUST PRESET. USE PRESET If ADJUST PRESET has been previously selected from this menu, when USE PRESET is selected, a delay of the amount of time you specified will be added to the script file. For instance, you can specify 15 milliseconds, then make a small block move, select Use PRESET, make another small block move, select USE PRESET again, and so on. Then you'll end up with smooth animation that waits 15 milliseconds between steps. CUSTOM DELAY When this is selected, you are asked to enter a number of milliseconds to delay the development of the script. 1000 milliseconds = one second. The allowable range is 0 to 30000. If you need more than 30 seconds delay, select this function several times in a row. For numbers larger than 3 digits, do not use commas. WAIT FOR USER This is a neat, but also a tricky function. When selected, a halt is written into the script. The computer then waits for the user to press any key before continuing. This is useful in cases such as this: Let's say you are demonstrating the four strokes of a four-cycle engine. First you picture the intake stroke. In your picture is a caption, "Intake Stroke" plus the words, "Press any key to continue..." After the WAIT FOR USER, you erase the position of the piston and contents of the cylinder and draw the compression stroke. You also erase the caption and replace it with, "Compression Stroke." So, when the user presses a key, the picture changes to show the compression stroke. And, you repeat this with two more WAIT FOR USERs and two more changes to illustrate the firing stroke and the exhaust stroke. The reason WAIT FOR USER is "tricky" is that it may fool end users, and even you, the author, if you forget to put the words, "PRESS ANY KEY..." or something similar in your pictures. The presentation will stop until a key is pressed, and the end user may think the computer has locked up or broken. I've been fooled several times by this myself as I was developing scripts with WAIT FOR USER in them. BREATHE IN This function makes your large script files run better from slow hard disks and floppy disks. When a script file is larger than 16,384 bytes, the program runs to that point, then reads more data from the disk before continuing. This may make an undesirable pause if it occurs while playing sound effects, music or an animation sequence. You cannot prevent this pause in long script files, but you can control when it occurs. If you select the BREATHE IN option just before sound effects or animations, you guarantee that there will be no interruptions in the next 16,384 bytes of script file read. LOOP You can cause a portion of your script file to play over and over again, until the user clicks a mouse button or presses any key. This is available in the registered version. THE SFX (Special Effects) MENU REGULAR FADE This function fades the current picture to black. This function works only in VGA, XGA and SVGA modes. GRANULAR FADE This function installs a pseudo fade out into your script. The granular fade will cause the whole screen to become the current drawing color. So if you first change the color to green, the fade will fade out to green. The granular fade can be quite pretty. SWIPE This function clears the screen from left to right, changing the whole screen to the currently selected color. CLOSE CURTAINS This function clears the screen from left and right edges to the middle, changing the whole screen to the currently selected color. OPEN CURTAINS This function clears the screen from the middle to the right and left edges, changing the whole screen to the currently selected color. ROLLER SHADE This function clears the screen from the top to the bottom, changing the whole screen to the currently selected color. EXPANDING BOX This function presents a rectangle on screen. Move and size it to indicate an area in which you want an EXPANDING BOX to grow. You will be asked to type a number representing the amount of time required for the effect. 0 will make the fastest possible expanding box, while a large number like 20 will work slowly. An expanding box will grow to the dimensions you have indicated in the currently selected color. EXPANDING BOXES run at nearly the same speed on different computers, but vary from one video mode to another. MORE (extended SFX Menu) CHANGE PALETTE In EGA-HI mode, although only 16 colors can be shown on screen at one time, these 16 can be any of 64 possible colors. In VGA, XGA and Super-VGA modes, the 16 or 256 on-screen colors can be chosen from 262,144 possibilities. When CHANGE PALETTE is selected, you are prompted to pick a color to change. A menu pops up giving you a choice of choosing the color from the picture, or from the palette. To choose from the picture, point to an area containing the color you want to change and press [Enter] or click the left mouse button. By choosing from the color palette, you can change a color which is not yet incorporated into your picture. Once the original color is selected, you can change it by moving the mouse up or down, or by pressing the up or down arrow keys. In the case of EGA-HI (mode 4), you can choose from among 64 possibilities. In VGA modes, you can change the amounts of red, green and blue which make up the color. If you start with any color and turn the red value all the way up, then turn the green all the way up, and finally turn the blue all the way up, you'll end up with white. If you turn all three values all the way down, you get black. Click the left mouse button or press [Enter] to finalize a color and save its change into the script file. RESET PALETTE If you have manually changed palette colors, or have imported a .GIF or .PCX image which has changed the default colors, but you want them back, this puts a line in the script file which will cause the colors to return to normal. HOLD ENDING There are times when you might not want the Another Company copyright notice at the end of an MSHOW.EXE presentation. We have another, invisible copyright notice buried in the .EXE file, so you can turn it off with this function. Use this function once, anywhere within any script in your presentation, and the copyright notice will not appear. This is available only in the registered version. DOOR MENU This is a multi-faceted menu containing The Multimedia Workshop adjustments and several important sub-programs. UNIVERSAL CONVERTER The UNIVERSAL CONVERTER is a bonus program packaged with The Multimedia Workshop. It offers a menu of 85 choices, many with sub-choices totalling over 600 mathematical and other types of conversions. For instance, you can convert metric to inch, frequency to musical notes, and Fahrenheit to Centegrade. To use the UNIVERSAL CONVERTER, simply select a menu item with mouse or arrow keys then press [Enter] or the left mouse button. For more instruction, press the [F1] key within the converter. For even more instruction, see the Universal Converter chapter within the electronic owner's manual (DREAM.EXE). The Universal Converter can also be run as a separate DOS program by typing UC at the DOS prompt. If you like the Universal Converter, you'll love the DELUXE Universal Converter, which contains many more functions such as Goal Attainment Function, Bicycle Conversions, See (a file viewer), Text Count (which tells you how many lines, characters and words are in a file), Chart of the Elements, Typo Trap (for programmers) and more, more, more. The DELUXE UNIVERSAL CONVERTER is available from Another Company for $29.95, postage included. LINE EDITOR With this feature, found in the registered version only, you can fine tune and troubleshoot your script files, line by line, go backwards, forwards, skip to specific locations, and change the lines to suit your needs. You can edit a line, and see its effect on your finished product immediately. You can go to any line, and see it's graphic effect while you edit it. ADJUSTMENTS This menu offers variables you can adjust to customize The Multimedia Workshop to your preferences. ADV (Advanced) COLOR MENU CHANGE COLOR Use this function to change the current drawing color. The chosen color will be used for pictures elements such as lines, circles and rectangles, as well as for text, until another color is chosen. In 16- and 256-color modes, simply point to a color and press [Enter] or click the left mouse button. Press [Esc] or click the right button to cancel. In other video modes with fewer colors, a menu will pop up with the available options. PICK UP COLOR When this function is selected, an arrow appears on the screen. Move it to point to anything on the screen containing the color which you would like to become the current color and press [Enter] or the left mouse button. From this point forward, text, drawing items and special effects will use the color you have selected. MORE SHOW ICONS When this box is unchecked, most of the icons on the menus disappear, leaving text-only descriptions. This makes the menus faster, but less colorful, and makes items harder to find for beginners. PUZZLE The Puzzle function can take any on-screen image and turn it into a live, on-screen puzzle composed of 32 random pieces. The end user can reassemble the picture with the mouse or arrow keys. This is easy, fun and addictive. You'll find yourself playing with it for hours! The puzzle function is available only in the registered version. ABOUT THE MULTIMEDIA WORKSHOP, REGISTERED VERSION The registered version of The Multimedia Workshop is $99.95. It gives you everything in the shareware version including a royalty-free license to make as many products as you like. (including right to distribute MSHOW.EXE, *.MMF files, etc). It has many more features than this shareware version including: * Super-VGA support * File Encryption * Puzzle creation from any on-screen image * Flexifont * Multiple-choice & true/false test creation in full multimedia * Zoom * Block Animation * Author-configurable Menu Colors * Dotted Lines * Triangles * Custom Top Bars * Line editor * On-Line Tutorial * More On-Line Documentation * 400k of .EXE speech files The registered version is also the latest version, and may incorporate new features and bug fixes beyond the shareware version. NOTE: The extensive owner's manual is entirely on-line, a paper version is not provided. This saves trees, makes rapid updates possible, and keeps the cost low. _____________________________________________________________ end of chapter.