Cream of the Crop 1/Cream of the Crop 1.iso/MONITOR/NAB16.ARJ/NABBIT.DOC

Text File | 1991-03-10 | 22KB | 453 lines

                 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                 *                             *
                 *  Nabbit (tm)   Version 1.6  *
                 *  Copyright 1991 by RSE Inc  *
                 *       March 10, 1991        *
                 *                             *
                 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

***  Welcome! ***

Nabbit lets you grab ASCII characters off your screen and send them to
your printer to print envelopes, labels, or partial screen dumps.  In
addition, you can store the captured characters in a buffer and insert
them through the keyboard whenever you press the insert "hot key".  This
lets you easily exchange data between different programs.  It's an
extremely useful tool, one that you will constantly find new uses for.

Nabbit is copyrighted by RSE Inc.  It is user-supported shareware.  As
such, you are encouraged to freely distribute copies of the NAB16.EXE
file to whomever you please, as long as you don't charge anything for the
copies.  Please don't distribute the individual "extracted" files as it
defeats the virus check, and causes other complications.  Only distribute
NAB16.EXE.

If a fter evaluating Nabbit you decide to continue using it, then you
must register by sending $10 to:

     Nabbit                         Visa or MC customers:
     1157 57th Drive SE             [phone]
     Auburn, WA 98002               Compuserve: 72371,1557

Add $1 extra for 3.5 disk and $5 extra for overseas orders.

A book containing printed documentation for all of our shareware products
(including Nabbit) is available for an extra $5.

Registered users receive the following benefits:

    1.  Our "Sampler Disk" which contains the latest versions of our 10
        shareware products, including Hide-It, PC-Directory, Playback,
        PC-Images, PC-FileNotes, BriteLine, Conjecture, Remind Me! and
        Trash-It.
    2.  Technical support, the latest version of Nabbit, and a "decoder"
        which converts all future versions to registered versions.
    3.  Our sincere thanks for supporting our efforts.
    4.  No more annoying "please register" messages.

Those using Nabbit in a commercial environment must register within 30
days.  Site licenses are available. Please write for details.

***  Nabbit Instructions  ***

Nabbit is a small TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) program.  You load it
once at the beginning of a session and it stays hidden until you press
its "hot key".  Then it goes to work.  When you're done with it, your
original program continues as tho nothing had happened.

When I said it was a small program, I meant small.  It only takes up
about 1.6K of memory, plus whatever you allocate for the insert buffer
(more on that later).  To keep it tiny I left out some of the niceties
you'll find in our other programs.  Things like pop-up windows and menus.
But because the program is so simple, you won't need them.

** To load Nabbit into memory **

-- Go to the disk or subdirectory where NAB.COM is and enter NAB at the
DOS prompt.

You'll notice the information displayed when Nabbit is loaded contains a
menu of all the keys you'll use to operate it.  If you're familiar with
TSR's you could probably just use this information to figure out how
things work.  However, there are a number of things you will miss if you
don't read these instructions, so please continue on.

** To remove Nabbit from memory **

If you need to remove Nabbit from memory enter "nab/u" at the DOS prompt.
Remember, you must remove TSR's in the reverse order in which they were
loaded.  If you don't, Nabbit may not be able to remove itself or your
computer may lock up requiring a re-boot.

** Activating Nabbit **

You activate Nabbit by pressing its "hot key".  The default is Ctrl-G
(press the Ctrl and the G key at the same time), but you can change the
"hot key" by using the Configuration program.  We'll discuss the
Configuration program later.

-- Activate Nabbit by pressing Ctrl-G

Hear those two low beeps.  They're letting you know Nabbit's ready.  In
text modes Nabbit also makes the cursor bigger when it's activated.  In
graphic modes Nabbit draws its own little cursor.  The cursor may or may
not be located at the same place as the cursor being used in your
application.  If you can't find Nabbit's cursor, check the upper left
corner of the screen.

** Escaping **

If you need to exit Nabbit, just press the Escape key.  You'll hear one
low beep indicating Nabbit has finished.  Your cursor will be restored to
its original size and location.

** Marking your text **

Once you've activated Nabbit you need to tell it what part of the screen
you want to capture.  First, you mark the upper left corner of the area
you want captured.  Use the cursor keys (up, down, left, and right arrow
keys), Tab, Home (move to start of line) or End (move to last column in
line) to move the cursor to the upper left corner of the characters you
want to get.  Press S (for start).  You'll hear an ascending series of
beeps letting you know that this is the starting place.

--  Mark the upper left corner of the area you want to capture by moving
the cursor to that point and pressing S for Start.

Now that you've marked the start, it only makes sense to mark the end.
This time move the cursor to the end (the lower right corner) of the area
you want to capture.  The key you press to mark the end depends on what
you want to do.   Your options are:

    For printing, press:

       E  to print a regular size envelope

       B  to print on a big envelope

       L  if you want to print a label, or just send the text to the
          printer unformatted.

    To store in the Insert buffer, press:

       I  to capture the text as is

       Space Bar  to capture the text, removing carriage returns and
          multiple spaces

** A Sample **

Load Nabbit into memory (if you haven't already) by entering "nab" at the
DOS prompt.  Let's say you want to register Nabbit so you need to print
an envelope to put the $10 in.  Activate Nabbit by pressing Ctrl-G.  Move
the cursor to the upper left corner of the address (the G in Nabbit) and
press S to signal that this is the start of the block.  Move the cursor
to the lower right corner of the address (on the zip code line, directly
below the E in SE).  Turn on your printer, insert an envelope, and press
E (for Envelope).  That's it.  Tough huh?   (If your printer didn't, then
check the problems section.)

** What Nabbit Nabs **

What Nabbit actually grabs depends on what you ask it to do.  If you're
sending it to the printer then it grabs all the characters within a box
defined by where you press S and where you press E, B, or L.  However, if
you are putting it into the Insert buffer then Nabbit grabs from S to the
end of the line, and all of the lines down to where you press I or the
Space Bar.

Envelopes and labels grab like this:

             S............
             .............
             ............E


The Insert buffer grabs like this:


                   S...........................................................
...............................................................................
..................................I

When you press I, the Insert buffer grabs the block as it is, with
carriage returns and multiple spaces intact.  However, if you press the
Space Bar the insert buffer strips out carriage returns and multiple
spaces.

You can have the insert buffer grab in the same way as an envelope by
using Ctrl-I and Ctrl-SpaceBar.  If you use the Ctrl values the insert
buffer will grab those characters in a box defined by where you press S
and where you press either Ctrl-I or Ctrl-S.

Nabbit uses a BIOS call (a built-in function of your computer) to grab
the characters off the screen.  In text mode it recovers everything
(although Nabbit doesn't capture the color of the characters).  In
graphics modes it really depends on what your application is doing.
Programs like desktop publishers which use a WYSIWYG display aren't going
to capture anything.  On the other hand, there are many other
applications that do fine.  As a general rule, if your screen is showing
more than one typestyle, or more than one size of type, then you're
probably not going to be able to grab anything.  The only way to know is
to try.  If it works, it works.  (I went to college so I could write like
this....)

** Printing **

The only difference between pressing E, B, or L is how many spaces the
printer moves over before it starts printing and how many lines it
scrolls after it's done.  The table below shows the default values.  You
can change these using the infamous configuration program we'll discuss
later.

               06        # of lines for label
               FormFeed                 envelope
               FormFeed                 big envelope

               0         Tab spaces for label
               40                       envelope
               50                       big envelope

"# of lines" needs some explaining.  When Nabbit finishes printing what
you captured, it continues scrolling until it reaches a multiple of the
"# of lines" value.  For example, if the # of lines for labels

is 6, and you print a label and the area you capture is 4 lines long,
then Nabbit would scoll another two lines after it was done printing, for
a total of 6 lines.  If the captured area had been 8 lines long, then it
would've scrolled 4 lines upon completion, for a total of 12 lines, an
even multiple of 6.  If you set the "# of lines" to "FormFeed" then
Nabbit sends a form feed to the printer when it's done.  This normally
causes the printer to scroll to the end of a normal 11 inch long page.

** Controlling Print Style **

When you print Envelopes or Big Envelopes you can have Nabbit send an 18
code Initialization string to the printer before printing, and a 12
character Reset code when printing is done.  This lets you tell your
printer, via printer codes, how you want to print.  For example, you may
want it to print in bold, or italics, or both.  You define these strings
using the Configuration program, which we'll discuss later.

** Linefeeds before printing **

You can put linefeeds (Character 10) in the Initialization string thereby
causing the printer to jump down so many lines before printing starts.
This is useful for laser printers or any other printer where you can't
align the print head before printing.

** What's that obnoxious noise? **

If you try to print something and you hear a continuing series of low
notes that sound like they're pronouncing impending doom, Nabbit's
telling you it can't send the material to the printer.  It continues
making this noise until the problem is fixed or you press a key.  Usually
someone forgot to turn the printer on.  If that someone tries turning on
the printer, things will probably work just fine.  If it's not the power,
then check if the printer has paper.

** Partial Screen Prints **

The normal DOS print screen function works fine if you want to print the
entire screen.  But what if you only want to print out part of the
screen?  No sweat.  Just use Nabbit, and print a Label.

If you find yourself doing partial screen prints a lot (it's addicting)
and you hardly ever use Nabbit to print real labels then you might want
to use the Configuration program to change the "# of lines for labels" to
"LineFeed".  That way when you do a partial screen print using Nabbit,
the printer will scroll to the end of the page after it's done.

** Inserting text **

When you press I or the Space Bar, Nabbit puts what it grabs into the
Insert buffer.  You can adjust the size of the buffer from 256 bytes to
3072 bytes by using the configuration program.  The default value is 256
bytes.  Nabbit only grabs as much as the buffer holds, even if you try to
grab more.  Therefore, if Nabbit inserts less than you grabbed, then you
grabbed more than the buffer can hold.  Use the configuration program to
increase the size of the buffer.

Once you've grabbed something and put it into the Insert buffer, it stays
there waiting for you to press the Insert "hot key" (Ctrl-I by default).
When you press the Insert "hot key" Nabbit waits until the program you're
using goes looking for an input from the keyboard.  Nabbit then jumps in
and gives your program what's in the Insert buffer instead.  The effect
is the same as if you were typing the "grabbed" stuff in yourself.

This can be really handy.  The most obvious use is to copy data from one
application to another.  For example, the letter you wrote Bob last week
has a paragraph in it you want to put in Freds letter.  You bring up
Bob's letter, capture the paragraph using Nabbit, and then edit Fred's
letter.  Move to where you want to place the paragraph and press the
Insert "hot key".  The paragraph will be inserted as though you were
typing it in anew.

You could have just as easily entered the paragraph into your spreadsheet
program, data base, or desktop publisher.

Let's say you want to write an instruction manual and you want to insert
part of directory listing.  Since format is important here, you'd grab
the directory listing using "I" instead of the Space Bar.  Remember,
pressing "I" leaves all multiple spaces and carriage returns intact, the
Space Bar strips them out.  So if you want to retain the general format
of what you are capturing, press "I".  In all other cases press the Space
Bar.

You can also use this feature as a keystroke expander.  For example,
you're writing a letter and there's a particular word or phrase that
occurs over and over again.  Use Nabbit to capture it and then use the
Insert "hot key" to type it in whenever you need it.

How fast the stuff gets inserted depends on how fast the original
application goes looking for keystrokes, and how high you adjust the
"Rate" value in the configuration program.  Setting the Rate value to one
sends about 18 characters a second.  This may sound fast, it's really
not.  Setting the value to 15 (the highest value, and also the default
value) attempts to insert 273 characters a second.  Remember though, most
of the time the limiting factor is how fast the original application goes
looking for keyboard input.  Nabbit won't insert characters any faster
than they are requested.  However, some programs continue looking for
characters even when they can't accept them anymore (go figure).  In
these cases you may want to reduce the Rate value so the program has time
to catch up with itself between each character.

** Repeat operations **

In some applications it may be handy to grab information from the same
spot on the screen over and over.  It sure would be nice if you didn't
have to define the same capture area each time.  Well there's an easier
way.

If you activate Nabbit and make your selection (L,E,B,I,Space Bar)
without moving the cursor then Nabbit will grap from the same area as the
previous time you used it.

As an example let's say that instead of just printing one envelope you
want to print two.  You'd activate Nabbit and print an envelope just as
we discussed earlier.  However, for the second envelope you'd just
activate Nabbit and press E for Envelope.  Since you didn't move the
cursor the second time Nabbit would grab stuff from the same area as it
did the first time.

Another example:  You're working with a data base program where the name
and address of the person always appears in the same place on the screen.
You want to print envelopes for each.  You'd only have to define the
capture area the first time.  From then on you would just activate Nabbit
and press the selected option (L,E,B, etc..).

** The Configuration program **

We've mentioned several items that you can change using the configuration
program.  Here's how:

-- Go to the subdirectory where all the Nabbit files reside

-- Enter "config" at the DOS prompt

-- A list will appear of the items you can change, and their current
   values.

-- Press the up and down arrow keys to select the item you want to
   change.

-- Press the left and right arrow keys to change the value of the
   selected item.

To change a "hot key" you first select the shift state of that hot key
and select either Ctrl, Alt, or Ctrl-Alt.  Then select the item below it,
press the right arrow key, and then press the key that goes with the
shift state.  For example to change the Insert "hot key" to "Alt-F10"
you'd first select the Insert Shift State, press the right arrow key
until "Alt" appears, move down one line, press the right arrow key once,
and then press the F10 key.

** Printer Codes **

The last two items (Init and Reset) are ways you can control your printer
output during the printing of envelopes.  The Init string will be sent to
your printer before the envelope is printed, the Reset string afterward.
Each string consists of decimal ASCII characters separated by commas.
The Init string can be 18 control codes long, the Reset 12.  If you enter
more than these amounts the string will be truncated.  These numbers
refer to the number of codes entered, not the number of characters.  For
example, "27,69,27,46" is 4 codes long, not 11.

You can find what control codes your printer uses by checking your
printer manual.  Make sure you use decimal ASCII codes, not hex ASCII.
As an example, on my printer, the code to set boldface is 27,69.  It is
also referenced as <ESC> "E" and 1B,45 (hex).  Once again, make sure you
use the decimal ASCII values and seperate each code by a comma.  You can
put linefeeds (ASCII code 10) in your Initialization string if you
desire.

Your Reset string should reset your printer to the way it was before you
sent the Init string.  Often a printer will have a reset code, usually
"27,64" or similar. If you don't want to use these strings just leave
them blank.

To change or enter the Init or Reset string, use the up/down cursor keys
to select the desired string, press the left/right cursor key to indicate
that you want to change it, and then input the new string as instructed.
Remember, its a comma delimited decimal ASCII string.

** Saving the changes **

When you're done press the Escape key and the new values will be inserted
into Nabbit.  If Nabbit is currently in memory then you'll have to re-
boot and reload it to notice the changes.

** Problems, etc. **

If you try to print an envelope and the printer doesn't print anything
and yet Nabbit acts as tho it did (doesn't beep at you) then grab your
printer manual, find out what character sequence is used to reset the
computer, and use the configuration program to set your Initialization
string to the reset character sequence.  On my computer the sequence is
"27,64".  Yours may be different.  This should clear up the problem

If what Nabbit inserts is less than what you grabbed, then you grabbed
more than the buffer can hold.  Reduce the size of what you grab or use
the configuration program to increase the size of the insert buffer.

Nabbit doesn't work with some programs, particularly those that interface
directly with the keyboard hardware without using DOS or BIOS function
calls.  Likewise, Nabbit won't insert data into certain applications.
These applications vary, but often they are telecommunications software
or games.  If you can't activate Nabbit  or you can't insert using
Nabbit, then the program you're trying to activate it from is either
misbehaved or has good reasons for not letting you interrupt.  Either way
you're stuck.

In 256 color VGA modes, the cursor doesn't erase itself, but instead
leaves a trail of cursors behind it.  Because I can't imagine too many
programs that deal with text using the 256 color graphics modes I've
decided not to burden Nabbit with the extra code needed to correct this
annoyance.

Sometimes Nabbit may be able to grab a character off the screen but your
printer won't be able to print it.  Worse yet, the character might be a
printer code that sends your printer off doing things you hadn't
intended.  If you're grabbing strange characters and your printer is
acting up, this is probably the reason why.

If you run into any problems and you can't find an answer in these
instructions then give us a call at [phone].  Technical support is
provided to registered users, so have your registration number handy.
That's about it.  I hope you find Nabbit useful and worthy of your
support.  Take care.

                       *** Disclaimer ***

RSE Incorporated specifically disclaims all warranties expressed or
implied, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  The software itself
is licensed "As Is", without any express or implied warranties
whatsoever.  In no event shall RSE Incorporated, its distributors or
dealers, be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage,
including, without limitation, special, incidental, consequential or
other damages.  In no case shall any liability exceed the price paid for
the software.