旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � ANSI Publisher 2.1 � � "The new standard for long ANSI document creation" � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE CREATIONS Software Engineering Division PO Box 184 Fountain City, WI 54629-0184 USA FIRST EDITION All rights reserved No part of this manual or the accompanying software may be reproduced or transmitted by any means without the expressed written consent of Innovative Software Creations. Duplication or translation of any part of this manual for use, other than personal, is a violation of United States copyright law. Innovative Software Creations makes every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this manual. However, Innovative Software Creations assumes no responsibility for damages due to error and omissions, and disclaims any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. RESTRICTED RIGHTS: Use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraphs (c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause as DFARS 252.227-7013. Contractor/manufacturer is Innovative Software Creation, PO Box 184, Fountain City, WI 54629-0184 USA. Trademark Acknowledgments All Innovative Software Creations products are trademarks of Innovative Software Creations IBM and IBM PC AT are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation TBBS is a registered trademark of eSoft, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are trademarks, service marks, or registered trademarks of their respective manufacturers. Printed in the United States of America 96 95 94 93 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Sysop Productivity Series 009 Part No. 020-021-001 袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴� 旼컴컴컴컴컴� � Chapter 1 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴� An Overview Welcome to ANSI Publisher - the new word processing system that enables you to create long ANSI documents for your bulletin board system. No longer will you have to "cobble" together text screens using single-screen ANSI menu painters to make sign-on screens, help screens or bulletins. And document size is not a problem any longer either: ANSI Publisher can create up to 2,600 pages of continuous text (that's 65,000 lines!). ANSI Publisher works and acts like your traditional word processor with features such as: dynamic word wrap, block marking, complex line draw capabilities with automatic intersections, true WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing and much more. ANSI Publisher has built-in ANSI compression to make very efficient ANSI sequences. It is also compatible with all major BBS software platforms that support ANSI escape sequences. ANSI Publisher directly supports Wildcat! @color codes and PCBoard @color codes. Other programs that were designed to be used with ANSI Publisher are also included in this software package. The ANSI Conversion Program (see chapter 6) converts your existing ANSI screens into ANSI Publisher's format. The ANSI Screen Saver Program (see chapter 7) is used to capture DOS screens and save them in a binary PIC file format, one that can be used with ANSI Publisher. The ANSI File Viewer Program (see chapter 8) can be used to view files that are created with ANSI Publisher. Using ANSI Publisher ANSI Publisher is powerful word processing software. Use it to create any kind of document, from long BBS text screens to BBS bulletins. You will discover that, no matter how you use ANSI Publisher, the program's ability to perform desired word processing functions as well as create graphic elements, will add creativity and outstanding visual elements to your bulletin board system. Program Requirements The minimum system requirements to run ANSI Publisher are: * 386 DX CPU (or higher) IBM compatible PC * 1 megabyte of free hard drive space * Color monitor * 640K of conventional memory Recommended system configuration for optimal performance: * 486 SX/DX CPU * 4 or more megabytes of memory * Laser or dot-matrix printer * Disk caching software * 12 ms or faster hard drive * 100% compatible Microsoft mouse ANSI Publisher's Features To give you an overview of just some of the features included with ANSI Publisher, we have listed a few of them below. All of ANSI Publisher's features will be described in detail, along with short tutorials, in chapter 3. WYSIWYG Environment ANSI Publisher is a full-blown ANSI word processor. This WYSIWYG development environment means that you can create a screen display that accurately reflects the look of the final displayed document. Your ANSI Publisher document shows exactly what the file will look like when displayed to your BBS callers - all before you generate and test the color ANSI file on your system. There has never been a more productive sysop development tool for creating long, complex ANSI documents. Sophisticated Typing Modes ANSI Publisher features two typing modes. Normal Typing Mode makes ANSI Publisher act like a traditional word processor. For example, when you type text on a line, any character to the right of the cursor will be pushed to the right. Enhanced Typing Mode is a more sophisticated typing mode developed specifically for ANSI Publisher. This mode is used to type text within boxes. For example, if you switch to Enhanced Typing Mode and type text within a box, the right side of the box will remain in tact and not be pushed to the right. Text can also be centered within the box with the press of a function key. (Please see the Centering Text section in this manual for more information.) Line Draw Capabilities ANSI Publisher also has built-in sophisticated line draw capabilities that make creating eye-catching graphics simple and easy. It supports Single and Double Line Draw Modes that automatically create the proper intersections when a line is drawn over an existing line on the screen. The program also allows you to pick any of the standard ASCII characters and use them for drawing. Making grids, boxes, tables or simple graphics couldn't be easier! Block Marking Sophisticated Column and Line Block Marking are also supported in ANSI Publisher. After marking a block with the mouse or keyboard, you may copy, cut or delete any item that is selected. You may also change color attributes of items, as well as selectively change only the foreground or background color of the text marked in the block. Dynamic Word Wrap ANSI Publisher also has dynamic word wrapping capabilities. Specify the right margin, and all of the text typed will automatically wrap to fit within those boundaries. User Interface ANSI Publisher has an easy to use interface that consists of intuitive SAA/CUA compatible pulldown menus and dialog boxes. All common word processor shortcut features and hotkeys are supported. DOS Extender Memory Management System ANSI Publisher uses a DOS Extender Memory Management System. This DOS Extender enables ANSI Publisher to execute in the protected mode of the 386, 486 or Pentium processor. This allows access to much larger amounts of memory, by making full use of your computer's extended memory for both code and data. In short, the DOS Extender boosts the performance of ANSI Publisher, because you have more memory available. This extra memory means that the program can handle up to 2,600 pages or over 65,000 lines of continuous text! Support for BBS Platforms ANSI Publisher supports all BBS platforms that support ANSI. It also supports Wildcat! @color codes and PCBoard @color codes. If you use any of these BBS software platforms, you can export your ANSI Publisher files and use them on your BBS. No manual creation of code is necessary - what you see on the screen is what your callers will see when they dial your board. 袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴� 旼컴컴컴컴컴� � Chapter 2 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴� Installation To install your copy of ANSI Publisher, simply insert the ANSI Publisher floppy disk media into your computer's floppy disk drive and type: C:\> A: A:\> install C: The installation batch file will create the appropriate directories and copy the ANSI Publisher executables and sample files to the correct subdirectories on your hard drive. Configuring the ANSI Publisher Program Modifying the INI File The ANSI Publisher program can be configured using the AP.INI file located on the ANSI Publisher disk. This file sets up some defaults used within the program. To change the default settings, use a DOS text editor or even ANSI Publisher. Here is a sample INI file: DefaultANSIExtension=ANS DefaultWildCatExtension=BBS DefaultPCBExtension=PCB DefaultASCIIExtension=TXT DefaultBlockMode=COLUMN DefaultTypingMode=ENHANCED BBSMacroFile=C:\ANSIPUB\WILDCAT.LST BBSMacroDelimiter=| Use@CLREOL@ForPCBFiles=NO ScrollDelay=1 Default Extensions The default extensions are used within the file picker. For instance, when exporting to an ANSI file, the ".ANS" will automatically be filled in for you. Make sure there are no spaces before or after the equal sign, and that the extension does not contain more than three characters. NOTE: If you change your mind while in the program, the ".ANS" can be changed. You don't have to use the setting in the INI file. Just type any extension that you want over the ".ANS". Default Block Mode Setting The DefaultBlockMode can be set to COLUMN or LINE. This is the default mode in which ANSI Publisher starts, you are allowed to toggle the setting while in the program. Setting this variable to COLUMN will allow you to mark section within your document as a rectangle. This setting is handy for making boxes or marking small rectangular areas of text. Setting this variable to LINE will allow you to mark the entire line very easily. Use this setting if you plan on marking the whole document or want to work with lines that are fully marked. Default Typing Mode Setting The DefaultTypingMode can be NORMAL or ENHANCED. The NORMAL setting makes ANSI Publisher perform as a word processor, e.g., any characters to the right of the cursor will be pushed to the right while you type. The ENHANCED setting allows you to type characters within a box without the border being pushed to the right. You are allowed to toggle the setting while in the program. BBS Macro File Setting The BBSMacroFile allows you to specify which BBS Macro file to use within the program. Three sample BBS Macro files were copied to the ANSIPUB directory when the program was installed. The file names are: TBBS.LST, WILDCAT.LST, and PCB.LST. You may make any changes to these files that you feel are necessary, as they can be edited with any ASCII text editor. Creating your own files is also a possibility, but remember to make sure the path is correctly specified. Edit a BBS Macro file to see how the file is formatted. The BBS Macros will be automatically sorted within the program. BBS Macro Delimiter Setting The BBSMacroDelimiter is used to identify the delimiter used within the BBS Macro files. A delimiter is the character that is used to separate the BBS Macro and the description. The default delimiter used within the sample BBS Macro file is a "|". If you change this value, you must make sure your BBS Macro file uses the correct delimiter. Use@CLREOL@ForPCBFiles Setting The Use@CLREOL@ForPCBFiles can be set to YES or NO. During testing, it was discovered that you can't used @CLREOL@ when creating color e-mail messages. So, you can optionally use the ESC[K as a replacement by setting this option to NO. Either setting works for files on your BBS. Scroll Delay Setting ANSI Publisher has some special buttons located on the right of the status line. They are: PageUp, PageDown, Scroll Up and Scroll Down. These buttons can be selected with the mouse. Press and hold the mouse to repeat the action. On some computer systems, the scrolling happens very quickly and is hard to control. For example, if you click on the Scroll Down button, the screen will scroll 30-40 lines. So, if you want to scroll a little slower, try setting the ScrollDelay to five or six. You will have to experiment with different settings to get the desired scroll rate. Setting Up the Mouse ANSI Publisher also allows you to set the sensitivity of the mouse. From the Utility menu, select "Set Mouse Sensitivity...". When the dialog box appears, click on the Up and Down Arrow buttons to increase or decrease the mouse movement speed. The valid range is a setting from 1 (slowest) to 100 (fastest). After clicking on the Arrow buttons, move the mouse back and forth to note the difference in the mouse speed. Click the Ok button to save the changes. A small file (AP.CFG) will then be created. Starting the Program Start the program by typing AP at the DOS prompt and pressing the Enter key. Command line processing is also available. At the DOS command line you may execute the program by typing: C:\ANSIPUB> AP filename.apf where filename.apf is the name of the ANSI Publisher file you wish to automatically load and edit. Once the program starts, there will be an opening menu screen which has the three push button options. Press the Tab key or use the mouse to move from button to button. Press the Enter key to activate the button you have selected. Upon selecting "Create New File," you will be prompted for: * Clear Screen Option - Select this option to generate an ANSI clear screen sequence at the top of the ANSI file generated by ANSI Publisher. This ANSI sequence, when embedded at the top of your ANSI file, will clear the screen to the specified Clear Screen color before displaying your color ANSI file to the console or the caller. * Color (Clear Screen Color) - If you selected the Clear Screen Option, select the color that the screen will clear to before the Clear Screen ANSI sequence is issued. * Right Margin - Select a right margin (any number from 40 to 80) for your document. Click the left mouse button to activate the pushbuttons or to select option buttons. If you don't have a mouse, use the Tab and Arrow keys to move from field to field. The spacebar is used to select the option buttons and is also used to toggle the Clear Screen Option check box. NOTE: The right margin and clear screen color may be changed later within the program while you are editing an ANSI Publisher document. Upon selecting "Open File," a File Selection dialog box will appear on the screen. Select an ANSI Publisher file to load or select Cancel to return to the opening screen. If you select "Return to DOS," the program will end and you will be returned to the DOS prompt. Keys Used Throughout the Program The following is a list of most of the keystrokes that are used within the program. Most of these keys are also available on the pulldown. Once you learn and memorize these simple keystrokes, you will find that you move through the program much faster and with ease. Home - Move cursor to the beginning of the line. End - Move cursor to the last character on the line and then to the right column. Left Arrow - Moves the cursor to the left. If you are at the beginning of the line, the cursor will jump up a line. Right Arrow - Moves the cursor to the right. If you are at the end of the right column, the cursor will jump down a line. Up Arrow - Moves the cursor up a line. If you are at the top of the screen, the screen will scroll. Down Arrow - Moves the cursor down a line. If you are at the bottom of the screen, the screen will scroll. Ctrl+Right - Jumps one word to the right. It will also jump the cursor to the next line. Ctrl+Left - Jumps one word to the left. It will also jump the cursor to the previous line. Ctrl+PgUp - Jumps you to the top of the document. Ctrl+PgDn - Jumps you to the bottom of the document. Ctrl+L - Activate the sub-menu line draw types. Ctrl+O - Open file. Ctrl+S - Save current file. Ctrl+I - Activates the import file sub-menu. Ctrl+E - Activates the export file sub-menu. Ctrl+X - Exit the program. Ctrl+A - Change the character under the cursor to the new edit color. Ctrl+N - New file. Ctrl+G - Goto line within the file. Ctrl+C - Copy block if block was marked with keyboard. Ctrl+V - Paste block Ctrl+F - Activate the Find Text dialog box. Ctrl+R - Repeat the find. Ctrl+Y - Delete line. Ctrl+\ - Toggle case. Alt+? - Activate the pulldown with Alt+letter of the pulldown. Alt+A - Pick a new edit color, Esc-cancels, B-toggles the blink. Alt+C - Pick up the color under the cursor. This new color will be the new edit color. Alt+1 - Normal Typing Mode. Alt+2 - Enhanced Typing Mode. Alt+3 - Column Block Mode. Alt+4 - Line Block Mode. F10 - Also activate the pulldown with the F10 key. F5 - Start Single Line Draw Mode. F6 - Start Double Line Draw Mode F7 - Erase text in Line Draw Mode. F8 - Start Custom Line Draw Mode. F1 - Help screen. Esc - In most situations, pressing the Esc key will activate the pulldown. Using the ANSI Files with RIP If your BBS has been converted to RIP, you can still use ANSI files created by ANSI Publisher. Two files, RIPSTART.RIP and RIPEND.RIP, have been included on the installation disk and should have been copied to the FILES directory when the program was installed. These files set up a large beveled button with a sunken button inside of it. An 80 x 43 text box was made within the sunken box. Any ANSI text will be displayed within this text box. You may edit the RIPSTART.RIP screen with a RIP graphical editor such as RIPaint. The steps needed for making a RIP screen are described below. * Export the ANSI file from ANSI Publisher. * Make a note of the name that you use. (For this example we will use INTRO.ANS.) We will now make the RIP screen using the DOS COPY command. * C:\ COPY RIPSTART.RIP + INTRO.ANS + RIPEND.RIP INTRO.RIP The above copy command takes the RIPSTART.RIP, INTRO.ANS, and RIPEND.RIP files and puts them together into a file called INTRO.RIP. INTRO.RIP can now be used by your BBS to display the RIP screens to a RIP user. Make sure you enter the file name with the "+"s in the correct positions. It is recommended that you have two versions of text files if you are planning on having RIP callers. The INTRO.ANS file will work for ANSI callers, and the INTRO.RIP will work for RIP callers. The above steps could also be used for other graphical protocols used by the BBS industry. Technical Support If you experience any problems running the program, or have any questions regarding ANSI Publisher, our technical support staff will be able to help. Innovative Software Creations technical support can be reached through the following means: BBS: (608) 687-4207 Internet: jronning@luminet.net E-Mail is the preferred method of technical support. However, you may call (608) 687-8146 for voice support. Please make sure to write down any error messages that may have appeared on the screen. It will also help to have a print out of the XTRACE.TXT file, if it is generated. 袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴� 旼컴컴컴컴컴� � Chapter 3 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴� Chapter 3 How-to Guide Now that you have installed your ANSI Publisher program, you are ready to begin developing long, creative text documents with ANSI Publisher. This chapter covers techniques you can use when building and working with your ANSI Publisher documents. Document Construction Creating a New ANSI Publisher File You don't have to exit the program if you want to create a new document. To create the new document: * Press Ctrl+N or select "New" from the File pulldown to create a new file. * You will be asked to save the current file if changes have been made. * You will then be asked to select a Clear Screen option, the color and the right margin. Opening a File You don't have to exit the program if you want to open a different file. To open a different file: * Press Ctrl+O or select "Open" from the File pulldown to open a previously saved ANSI Publisher file. * You will be asked to save the current file if changes have been made. Saving the File After you open a new document, you can choose "Save" from the File pulldown menu to name the document and save it on disk. Once you have saved a document, choosing "Save" retains the changes you have made since the last time you chose "Save". While working on a document, it is important to save your changes often to reduce the risk of losing work in the event of a system failure, power failure, etc. To save your work, follow the steps outlined below. * Press Ctrl+S or select "Save" from the File pulldown. * If you haven't named the file yet, a file selection dialog box will appear. * Type the desired filename and press Enter. The three letter ".APF" extension will automatically be appended to the filename. * You may also select a file to overwrite. Using Save As... Use the "Save As..." pulldown menu selection to save the current file to a new file with a different filename. Word Processing Features Changing the File Properties If you should change your mind about the right margin or clear screen options, select "Change File Properties" from the File pulldown. If you change the right margin, the program will wrap any text that will not fit on the line, and words will be chopped at the right column. Any text contained in the copy buffer will also be lost after this operation. Printing the File Printing can be done to any PC-compatible laser or dot-matrix printer. Printing is always a good idea for proofreading your bulletin board long text documents, notes, etc. To print your ANSI Publisher documents, follow the steps described below. * Select "Print..." from the File menu to print the ASCII contents of the current file. You have the options of printing to LPT 1-4 or COM 1-2. * You may also select the number of lines per page to use. * When printing, press the Esc key to cancel. NOTE: The printed file will not be in color, even if you have a color printer. Importing Files ANSI Publisher provides all the tools you need to generate and edit text for your BBS. However, you can generate text using another word processing program and then import it into an ANSI Publisher document. This importing feature allows you to use all of your old BBS text documents, so that previous work you have done to create your BBS will not be lost. The following steps will guide you through the import process. * Press Ctrl+I or select "Import..." from the File pulldown menu. * A sub-menu will appear. * You can then select the type of file that will be imported. Files that are supported by the ANSI Publisher import function are: ANSI Publisher files, ASCII files, and PIC files (created with the TSR screen capture utility). * After selecting the type of file that you want to import, a file selection dialog box will appear. * Select a file and press Enter. * If importing a PIC file, preview capabilities are supported. * Once a file type has been selected, another dialog box will appear on the screen. * From this dialog box, you will instruct ANSI Publisher where to place the contents of the imported file. For example, you can import the contents of the file and place them at the top of the current file, at the cursor position, or at the bottom of the current file. * You also have the ability to cancel the file import, by pressing the Cancel Import button. NOTE: If a line in the imported file does not fit within the right margin specified for the current file, the import line will automatically be split and wrapped into two separate lines. Also note that words will be chopped at the right column. Exporting Files You can also export documents created with ANSI Publisher in file formats that can be displayed by other BBS software platforms. Platforms currently supported are ANSI, Wildcat!, PCBoard and ASCII. Any BBS that can utilize these platforms will be able to show your ANSI Publisher files. * Press Ctrl+E or select "Export..." from the pulldown menu. * A sub-menu will appear. * Select the type of file that will be exported (ANSI, Wildcat!, PCBoard or ASCII). If you choose the ASCII option, be aware that all color will be stripped from the file. However, this type of file can be edited by any word processing program, so you may find it a very useful feature. Wildcat! and PCBoard use their respective @color codes. * Upon selecting your choice, a file selection dialog will appear. * Enter the name of the file that you want to "export to" and press Enter. You may also select a file that you want to overwrite. Simulating the File Display ANSI Publisher allows you to simulate how the file will look to the user. From the Utility menu, select "Simulate Display...". A dialog box will appear. You can specify the page length and see how the file would display to the user. The page length is the number of lines that will be shown before the "More" or "Page" prompts appear. Most BBSs have this feature. You can also specify the speed of the display. By using the fast or slow setting, you can see how the file will be displayed. NOTE: The display speed is not accurate as if it were on your BBS. For true speed tests, put the file on your BBS and call it with a real terminal program. You may also specify the "More" override. There may be times when you want to pause at a certain point within the file and allow the user to continue. In TBBS for example, use the %MORE% to cause the BBS to pause displaying the file. You will need to consult your BBS manuals and find out what is the correct BBS Macro to use for your BBS software. NOTE: We recommend that a pause macro like %MORE% be used on a line by itself within the document. Also note that most BBSs will use the color of the macro as the color for the pause prompt, so set the color as desired. Exiting the Program To exit ANSI Publisher: * Press Ctrl+X or select "Exit" from the file pulldown. * If the file has changed, you will be asked if you wish to save the file before exiting. Color Features Changing the Current Edit Colors ANSI Publisher features color properties that let you colorize many parts of your documents. Once you have selected a color, however, you are still able to change it using the steps listed below. * Press Alt+A or select the "New Edit Color" from the Edit pulldown. You can also click on the current color indicator (�) on the status bar just to the right of the file name. * A color selection dialog box will appear. * Press the Arrow keys to move the blue selection box to the desired color. You may also click on the desired color with the mouse. * Press "B" or click on the Blink Button to toggle the blinking status. * Press the Enter key to use the currently selected color or press the Esc key to cancel the color change. You may also double-click on the desire color with the mouse. Changing the Current Character Attribute To change the current character attribute: * Press Ctrl+A or select "Character Attribute" from the Edit pulldown. Upon doing so, the character under the cursor will inherit the current edit colors. The step shown above allows you to change the color attribute of the text very quickly. The alternative would be to delete the character and then re-type it with the new color attribute. Picking up the Attribute To pick up the color and blink status of the character under the cursor: * Press Alt+C or select "Pick up Attribute" from the Edit pulldown. * The current edit foreground, background, and blink status will be changed to that of the selected character. NOTE: This is much faster than selecting the color using the Color Picker. Graphic Features Line Draw Mode One of the most fascinating features of ANSI Publisher, not found in many word processors, is its line draw capabilities. ANSI Publisher has sophisticated line drawing capabilities that allow the creation of single or double lines with automatic intersections. You may also pick any of the standard 256 ASCII characters for use as the line draw character. With this feature, you can create boxes, lines, tables and graphics by simply selecting a Line Draw Mode and using your keyboard's Arrow keys. As with most features in ANSI Publisher, lines can be colorized, or have blinking attributes for greater effect. The process for creating lines and other graphics is detailed below. * Press F5 for Single Line Draw Mode. * Press F6 for Double Line Draw Mode. * Pressing F7 initiates line draw "Erase Mode". It works much like toggling Line Draw Mode "OFF," except that when the cursor is moved to a new location on the screen, the character under the cursor is erased from the screen. This is useful for erasing any unwanted lines or intersections that may have been generated while drawing. * Press F8 for Custom Draw Mode. An ASCII chart will appear. Use the Arrow keys to move the blue selection box on the screen. You can also use the mouse to select the ASCII character you wish to use. * Toggle the line draw "ON" and "OFF" by pressing the spacebar. By toggling line draw "OFF," you can move the cursor to a new location on the screen without drawing lines and disturbing text under the cursor. Once Line Draw Mode has been toggled off, it can be toggled "ON" again by pressing the spacebar, as well as F5, F6, or F7, or F8. * Change the active color of the line being drawn by pressing Alt+A to pick a new color. To exit Line Draw Mode: * Press either the Enter or Esc key. Line Draw Limitations There are a few limitations you may experience when you are in Line Draw Mode. * The screen position is locked, thereby disabling scrolling of the screen. * Additional lines may not be added to the document. * Lines may not be drawn beyond the document's right column. Text Editing Features Centering Text As with traditional word processing software, there may be occasions when you want to center your text. ANSI Publisher's built-in text centering feature to automatically center your text, use the steps described below. * Press F4 or select "Center Line" from the Edit pulldown to center any text on the current line. * If typing mode is set to NORMAL, text will be centered between Column 1 and the right margin specified for the current file. If typing mode is set to ENHANCED, the test will be centered between high ASCII characters such as the single and double lines. Searching for Text In the event that you need to find a certain word or phrase, ANSI Publisher, like traditional word processing software, has search and find capabilities. Its details are described below. * Press Ctrl+F or select "Find..." from the Search menu. * A dialog box will appear on the screen. * Enter the text that you wish to search for, then press Enter. NOTE: The search starts at the current row within the document. If you want to search the entire document, press Ctrl+PgUp to move to the top document and then begin your search. Repeating the Search To continue searching for text: * Press Ctrl+R or select "Repeat Previous Find" from the Search menu. NOTE: If no other text is found, the cursor will rest on the last row in the right column. The search will not continue at the top of the document. Goto Line Number To selectively go to a certain line number within the document: * Press Ctrl+G or select "Goto Line Number..." from the Search menu. NOTE: If you enter a number larger than the number of lines within the document, you will be taken to the last line. Blocks Marking a Block To mark a block using the mouse, press and hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse across the desired area of text. If you reach the top or bottom of the screen, the program will automatically scroll through the document. When the block is marked on the screen, release the mouse button and the Block menu will appear. If you press the spacebar when marking a block, the marked area will change colors. This color change is used only for reference - the color is not changed within the document. Use this feature when you wish to mark a block when using a white background. Since the default block marking color is black on white, this allows you to see the block. If you don't have a mouse or just want to use your keyboard, press and hold the Shift key and use the Arrow keys to mark the block. Other keys supported for block marking are: the spacebar, End, Home, PgDn, PgUp, Ctrl+PgDn, and Ctrl+PgUp. NOTE: The Shift key must be pressed in order to use the preceding list. If any other key is pressed, the block will be unmarked on the screen. Once the desired area on the screen is marked, press the Enter key to activate the Block menu. Press Ctrl+C to copy a block, and press Del to delete the block. To mark a block, whether it be text or graphics, use the steps outlined below. * Begin by making sure the Block Marking Mode that is desired is selected. * Position the cursor at the start of the block and use the keyboard or mouse to mark the desired block. * Release the mouse for mouse users, or press the Enter key for keyboard users. * A Block menu will appear. * Use the Arrow keys to move the highlighted bar up and down. * Click the mouse on the desired selection or press the Enter key to select a choice. (You may press the Esc key to cancel the menu.) Changing Block Marking Type ANSI Publisher has two flexible block marking abilities: Column and Line. Use the Column and Line Block Marking methods for copying or exporting a rectangular area of the document. * Select "Block Type" on the Edit pulldown to activate the Block Type sub-menu. * You may select one of the following block marking types: Column or Line. * The current selection will have a check mark next to it in the pulldown menu. * You may also press Alt+3 for Column Block Marking or Alt+4 for Line Block Marking. NOTE: You can't change the "block marking" mode while in "block mode" (i.e., after you have initiated block marking and you are in the process of marking a block on the screen). Copying a Block To copy a highlighted block: * Select the "Copy Block" choice. The text will be copied to an internal memory area. You can later paste this block while in another area of the document. Cutting a Block To cut the highlighted block: * Select the "Cut Block" choice. The text will be copied to an internal memory area. It will also be removed from the current document. You can later paste this block while you are editing. Deleting a Block To delete the highlighted block: * Select the "Delete Block" choice. Pasting a Block To paste a block that is in memory: * Press Ctrl+V or select "Paste" from the Edit pulldown. * If the Insert Mode is turned off, you can paste over the top of existing text. This pasting method allows several things to be pasted on the same line. NOTE: If the Insert Mode is turned off, any text that falls beyond the right margin will be truncated, and any text that falls beyond the EOF marker will be lost. * Any text to the right of the cursor will be moved down and the block will be inserted. Character Fill You can now use a character fill to fill the marked block with any of the standard 256 ASCII characters. Once the ASCII chart appears on the screen, use the mouse to select the desired character. You can also use the Arrow keys to move the blue selection box around the screen. Press Enter or double-click the mouse to select the ASCII character. NOTE: The fill character will have the current editing color. Text Case Once the block is marked, you may change the case of the block to uppercase or lowercase, or you may toggle the case of any text contained within the block. For example, if you wanted to uppercase an entire paragraph to give it more emphasis follow the steps outlined below. * Mark the text. * Select the "Text Case" choice. * A sub-menu will appear. * Select the "Uppercase" choice. Single Line/Double Line Box Once and area is marked on the screen, you can easily create a single line or double line box. The box can be filled or unfilled. Unfilled means that any text inside the box will be unaffected. A filled box will erase any text inside the box with spaces. The box will be drawn with the current edit color, so you may wish to change the editing color before you draw the box in order to speed up the development process. Single Line/Double Line Shadow Box You can also make boxes with a left or right shadow. Any text falling inside a shadow will have grey on black as the color. You can also have a custom character shadow. The custom character will be used instead of just changing the color. As with single line or double line boxes, you can have the shadowed boxes as filled or unfilled. NOTE: The shadow falls outside of the marked block. Changing a Block Attribute To change all of the color within the block: * Select the "Block Attribute" choice. * A color selection dialog will appear. * Use the Arrow keys to select a new color and press the Enter key. * Pressing "B" will toggle the blink status. * Pressing the Esc key will cancel the color change. Selectively Changing a Block Attribute To selectively change a certain color within the block: * Select the "Foreground Attribute" or "Background Attribute" menu choice. * A color dialog box will appear. * Select the "From" Color and the "To" Color by pressing the Tab or Arrow keys, then the spacebar. Mouse users just need to click on the desired color option buttons. By using this option you can change, for example, all of the blue text to green. Or you could change a red background to white. More importantly, all text with color attribute combinations that do not meet this "Color Change" specification will not be altered. Exporting a Block While a block is marked, you can export it to an ANSI or ASCII file. You can have the exported file either left justified or as is, with spaces filled into the left of the marked block. NOTE: When exporting to an ANSI file, no clear screen ANSI sequence will be generated at the beginning of the file. Help Features If there are times when this documentation is not readily available, or you just need a quick hint, help screens are just a button press away. Also remember that our technical support staff will always be able to answer any questions that you may have concerning ANSI Publisher. See chapter 2 for details. Help Screen To activate the Help Screen: * Press F1 or select "Help Screen" from the Help pulldown. * A Help dialog box will appear on the screen. This dialog box contains all the hotkeys used by the program. Other Features BBS Macros ANSI Publisher has the ability to load a list of BBS Macros that can be used while editing a text file. The BBS Macro list is contained in an ASCII file that can be edited with an ASCII text editor. There are three sample files that are included with ANSI Publisher: TBBS.LST - TBBS BBS Macros PCB.LST - PCBoard BBS Macros WILDCAT.LST - Wildcat! BBS Macros See the "Configuring the ANSI Publisher Program" section to see how to reference the file that you want. Edit one of the files and see the file layout. Make any changes that you want within the text file. The list will be automatically sorted for you within the ANSI Publisher program. To activate the list, select "BBS Macros..." from the Edit menu. A dialog box will appear with all of the available BBS Macros in a list box. Use the Arrow keys or scroll bar to move the selection bar up or down. Press Enter or click on the Select button to choose the highlighted BBS Macro. NOTE: The BBS Macro will use the current editing color. You may want to change the color before selecting a BBS Macro. DOS Shell You can shell to DOS at any time while running the ANSI Publisher program. The program will be moved to upper memory or swapped to the hard drive. After the swap, 2K will be used in conventional memory. To return to ANSI Publisher, type EXIT at the DOS prompt and press Enter. The program will return to its previous state. NOTE: Do not delete the temporary swap file while at the DOS prompt. Doing so will cause the computer to lock up and you will lose any changes to the file. 袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴� 旼컴컴컴컴컴� � Chapter 4 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴� Tips Word Wrap Techniques It is best to leave a few blank lines above and below boxes and sophisticated line draw graphics. When typing text on the line directly above a graphic, sometimes the word wrap will include the first line of the box, resulting in an unsightly graphic. By pressing Ctrl+Y, you can remove the blank lines when you are finished editing. Right Margin Considerations Try to set the right margin to no more than 78 or 79 columns. If possible avoid exactly 80. If the text has exactly 80 characters on a line, some BBSs will word wrap or line wrap, resulting in a blank line. This is especially true for creating ASCII screens. The resulting blank line will become part of the screen and can be confusing to the BBS user. When possible, also avoid changing the right margin numerous times. As the margin setting becomes smaller, all of the text that does not fit will wrap to the next line, and some of the words may be chopped. Re-editing of the text then becomes necessary. For the best results, set the right margin when creating the document for the first time and don't change the value unless absolutely necessary. Memory Considerations ANSI Publisher has a very efficient Extended Memory Management System. It will try to use every amount of conventional, extended, and expanded memory available on your computer. The program will also use a virtual swap file if all memory is used. However, if you experience poor performance running ANSI Publisher, an easy way to eliminate this problem is to install more memory on your computer. If you have 4 megabytes or less of memory, another way to boost performance of ANSI Publisher is to keep the document size under 25,000 lines of text (that's about 1,000 pages). You can still edit larger files; however, the program will have to swap memory to and from your hard drive. If you have more than 4 megabytes of memory, ANSI Publisher should be running at optimum speed. You will be able to create and edit files up to the maximum file size of 65,000 lines of text without any difficulty. Deleting Blocks to Free Memory If you wish to remove a block and not use it again, use "Delete Block" instead of "Cut Block". The "Cut" function actually moves the block from the file into another area in memory on your computer. The "delete" function is much better, because the block will be removed from memory, thus freeing memory for the program to use. If you have copied and pasted a large block and do not need it any longer, simply copy a single character. This deletes the previous large block from memory, which results in faster program operation. Now instead of a large block being stored in the copy buffer, a single character will be stored there. This will free up memory, and the program will operate more efficiently. Save Often As with all computer software applications, saving your work is very important. But because ANSI Publisher does not have an "undo" feature, saving often is even more critical. By saving every five minutes or so, you can restore the file before a major mistake has been made. Using the Line Draw As you have probably already discovered, ANSI Publisher has sophisticated line draw capabilities. You can change the type of line you wish to draw "on-the-fly" by pressing the appropriate function keys. F5 - Single Line F6 - Double Line F7 - Erase Mode F8 - Custom Line This makes it very easy to draw many different types of boxes within the document. You may also use the spacebar to toggle the Line Draw Mode on or off. This makes it possible to draw several boxes in succession. Also be aware that you can press the Alt+A hotkey to change the color of the line being drawn "on-the-fly". Use Hotkeys for Increased Productivity Most of the ANSI Publisher functions have a hotkey. Learning to use these hotkeys to perform functions will speed your productivity. For example, to quickly save a file you can press Ctrl+S. Without using hotkeys, the alternative would be to press Alt+F, move the Arrow button down to "Save File" and press the Enter key. As you can see, hotkeys will save you a lot of keystrokes! Running ANSI Publisher ANSI Publisher can run from a floppy disk. However, it is painstakingly slow and is not recommended. For best results, run the ANSI Publisher program from your hard drive. Make sure you have about 1-2 megabytes free space on your hard drive. This will ensure that you have proper space for swap files. The amount a free space required depends on the size of the file you are creating and the amount of RAM available on your computer. The larger the file and the less RAM you have will require a larger space for the temporary swap file. Importing ASCII Files ANSI Publisher has the ability to import ASCII files. You can type your documents in your favorite word processor and then export it to an ASCII file. This file can then be imported directly into ANSI Publisher. If you wanted a document that contained two columns for example, just set up your word processor in a two column format and then export the file. You can also spell check your work in your word processor before importing the file into ANSI Publisher. When importing ASCII files, make sure the exported file is less than or equal to the right margin that you have set in ANSI Publisher. For instance, if the file that you are importing is 100 characters wide and your right margin is set at 78, any characters that lie between 79 and 100 will be moved to the next line. This could cause words to be chopped, and you would have to re-edit your document within ANSI Publisher. Once the file is imported into ANSI Publisher, you can start "painting" the text any color you want. You also have the ability to pick the default color for the ASCII file that is being imported. For instance, you can use white on blue if most of the text will be that color. You can pick any of the typical DOS color combinations, including blinking. Backing Up Your Work From time to time you should back up all of your "APF" files. This will ensure that you never lose work. However, if you ever lose your original "APF" file, you can use the conversion program that came with ANSI Publisher to convert the ANSI file back into something you can use. NOTE: ANSI Publisher makes a BAK file when your fist load a file. Using the Import ANSI Publisher File Feature Many of the text files that you create with ANSI Publisher may have something in common. For example, let's say all of your text files have a title box, like Figure 16. Instead of creating this box over and over for each file, just create it once and save the file as "TITLE.APF" or any name that you wish. Now when you are ready to create a new file, just import the TITLE.APF file and continue creating the rest of your document. Creating 3D Effects To create 3D effects, start by drawing a box using a Line Draw Mode. Next, use a Column Block to mark a section of the box and change the color. Below are some sample screens that you can create. Creating Shadows on Boxes To add shadows to boxes, just block mark the area where the shadow will be and change the color to grey on black. Look at the following example to who you how to create a shadow. You can use other color combinations as well. Experiment for the best results and the most eye-catching combinations. Using Center Line When you set the Typing Mode to NORMAL, ANSI Publisher will center the text within the left and right margins. If you set the Typing Mode to ENHANCED, text can be centered between extended ASCII characters. This makes it very easy to center text inside a box. NOTE: The center text function only works on text. It can't be used to center a blank line with different background colors. Using Text Find When using the text find function searching begins where the cursor is placed within the document. Once the search reaches the end of the document, searching stops. It doesn't continue at the top of the document. To search the whole document, press Ctrl+PgUp to jump to the top of the document and then start the search again. Marking the Whole Document as a Block Sometimes you may want to mark the whole document to make some color changes. You can use the mouse to do the marking, however this can sometimes be very slow. Using the keyboard is faster using the following steps: * Change the block type to line mode (Alt+4). * Press Ctrl+PgUp to jump to the top of the document. * Press Shift+Down Arrow to start the block mode. * Press Shift+Ctrl+PgDn to jump to the last line. * Make sure you hold the Shift key down. If the task was completed properly, the entire document should be marked as a block. You can then press the Enter key to activate the Block menu. Changing Modes with the Mouse Located at the bottom of the screen on the status line are the various Typing and Block Modes that are active. You can click on each of the three areas to toggle the modes: INS/OVR, NORMAL/ENHANCED, and COLUMN/LINE. Changing the Edit Color From the Status Line Located directly to the right of the file name is the current edit color indicator (�). You can click on this indicator to change the current edit color. This is exactly like pressing Alt+A if you were using the keyboard. Using the SAVER.COM Program Included with ANSI Publisher is a powerful DOS screen capture program that may be used to capture any DOS screen. These screens can then be imported into ANSI Publisher. Once imported, all the colors will be displayed exactly as they were on the DOS screen. 袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴� 旼컴컴컴컴컴� � Chapter 5 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴� ANSI Publisher Tutorial The following is a quick-start tutorial that shows you how to use many of the features included with ANSI Publisher. It is not designed to explain all of the possible options associated with ANSI Publisher, but rather to quickly show you how to use some of the more common features. This tutorial assumes that you have installed the ANSI Publisher program to your hard drive. If you haven't done so, please refer to chapter 2 in this manual. Starting the Program Start by changing the current directory to the location where you installed ANSI Publisher. For this tutorial, we will assume this is C:\ANSIPUB. At the DOS prompt: * Type CD C:\ANSIPUB and press Enter. * Then type AP and press Enter. A dialog box with three buttons will appear on the screen. You have the option of creating a new file, loading an existing file, or exiting to DOS. For the purpose of this tutorial, click the on the "Create New File" button. If you don't have a mouse, press the Tab key until the correct button is selected, then press the Enter key. The File Properties Dialog Box The File Properties dialog box will now appear on the screen. This dialog box allows you to select some global settings for the document you are going to create. Clear Screen ANSI Publisher allows you to clear the screen to a desired background color before the text starts displaying to the user. It's recommended that you clear the screen for any text files or menus that you may create. However, don't clear the screen if you are creating a color e-mail message. For this example, clear the screen to blue. * Make sure the Clear Screen box is checked. * Also make sure the blue option button is checked. Right Margin ANSI Publisher allows you to set the right margin within the document. We recommend setting this to 79. If you use exactly 80, some BBSs will word or line wrap causing the file display to be double-spaced. * Set the right margin to 79. * Click on the OK button to continue. The ANSI Publisher Editor You should now be within the ANSI Publisher editor. To activate the pulldown, press the Esc key or the right mouse button. (You can also press Alt+F to activate the file menu, Alt+E to activate the edit menu, etc. for each of the other menus.) All common word processor keystrokes are also supported. For example, you may use Ctrl+Arrow to jump from word to word, or Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDn to jump to the first line or last line of the document. All of these hotkeys are listed on the help screen. To activate the help screen, press F1. Making Your First Title Box Let's start our first ANSI Publisher document by making a title box at the top of the screen. * To make room for the box in the document, press the Enter key about 12 times. * To choose the color of the box, press Alt+A. * The Color Picker will appear on the screen. * Select bright white on green. (You can use either the mouse to click on the color or use the Arrow keys to move the blue selection box.) * Press Enter or click on the select button to select the color. Upon doing so, the current edit color indicator (�) on the status line at the bottom of the edit screen should be bright white on green. * Press Alt+3 to set the Block Marking Mode to column. ANSI Publisher supports both column and line marking, but for this example we want to use column. Now use the mouse to mark an area on the screen. * On the first row in column 20, click and hold the left mouse button. * While still holding the mouse button down, start dragging the mouse to the right and to the bottom of the screen. * Stop at column 60 and row 4. The exact size of the marked box is not critical. * Once the area is marked, release the left mouse button. * A Block menu will appear. If you don't have a mouse, use the steps below. Full keyboard control for block marking is also supported in ANSI Publisher. * Use the Arrow keys to move the text cursor to the upper left corner of the block and press the Shift+Arrow keys to mark the block. * Make sure you continue to hold the Shift key while using the Arrow keys. Failure to do so will cancel the block marking. * Press the Enter key once the block is marked to activate the Block menu. NOTE: You can start in any corner to mark a block. You are not limited to starting in the upper left corner. Experiment and see how you prefer block marking to be achieved. Making a Shadow Box Next, we will make a shadow box, following the instructions below. * Select the Double Shadowed Box choice and press Enter, or you may click on the choice with a mouse. * A sub-menu will appear next to the first Block menu. * Now select the Filled Transparent Right Shadow choice. Upon doing so, you should now see a bright white on green box with a right shadow. Typing a Title Inside the Box Now let's make a title inside the box. * Use the Arrow keys to move the cursor inside the box, keeping it close to the left side. * Press Alt+2. This will turn on ANSI Publisher's Enhanced Typing Mode. * Type "My First Title Box". * As you type, you should notice that the right border of the box doesn't slide to the right. This is ANSI Publisher's Enhanced Typing Mode. Use Enhanced Typing Mode if you plan to type any text within high ASCII characters. NOTE: Any character higher than ASCII 127 is considered a high ASCII character. Now let's center the text inside the box. * Press F4 and you should see the text automatically center within the boundaries of the box. Since the typing mode was set to Enhanced Typing Mode, text is centered within high ASCII characters. Normal Typing Mode causes the whole line to be centered. Importing ASCII Files Sometimes you may want to use a different text editor to create your documents. To import them into ANSI Publisher, you must first save the text as ASCII. You can then directly import this ASCII file into ANSI Publisher. Let's import a sample ASCII file. * Select Import... from the File menu. * Select Import ASCII File from the sub-menu. * A file dialog box will appear. * Select the SAMPLE.TXT file in the C:\ANSIPUB directory. * Next, a dialog box with some import choices will appear on the screen. You have the ability to import the file at the top or bottom of the document, or at the cursor location. For this example, we want to import the file at the bottom of the document. * Click on the "At The End" button. * An information dialog box now appears. This text explains that you are about to import an ASCII file and have the ability to pick the default color for the text being imported. * Press Enter to continue. * Now a Color Picker dialog box should appear. * Select white on blue as the color. * The SAMPLE.TXT ASCII file will then be imported into the current document. Painting the Text We now want to "dress up" the appearance of the ASCII file that we just imported. Let's change the color of the "HELP ON DIRECTORY MAINTENANCE COMMAND" title. * Use the mouse or the Shift+Arrow keys to mark the title. * Select the Block Attribute choice. * Select the black on white color combination. You just used the block operation to change the color. By using this Block Attribute, you can change the attribute of a large amount of text very easily. Now let's change the color of all the letters in the "<>"s. * Press Alt+A to activate the Color Picker. * Select bright white on blue. * Move the text cursor onto the "A" in "rea". * Press Ctrl+A. You just painted the single character with the active edit color. Use the Ctrl+A key combination if you want to "paint" a few characters. This technique is generally faster than block marking for small color changes. * Continue to "paint" the other letters in the "<>"s. * Now mark the description of each command and use the Block Attribute of yellow on blue. You can use the mouse or keyboard to mark each paragraph. When you are done, you should have all of the letters inside the "<>"s set to bright white on blue and the description attribute set to yellow on blue. Changing the Colors Whenever you change your mind about the color of text within the document, you can use ANSI Publisher's powerful color manipulation features. For example, you just painted all the descriptions of each command to yellow on blue. But let's say you wanted to make the color bright white on blue. Instead of remarking each paragraph and changing the color, let's mark the whole document and let ANSI Publisher do it for you. * Press Ctrl+PgUp to jump to the first line of the document. * Press Alt+4 to change to Line Block Marking. * Press Shift+Down Arrow once. This starts the block marking mode. * Press Shift+Ctrl+PgDn to jump to the last line of the document. NOTE: Make sure you hold the Shift key. If you don't, the block marking will cancel. * Press the Enter key to activate the Block menu. * Select the Foreground Attribute... choice. * A color dialog box will now appear on the screen. * Select yellow in the "From Color" section. * Select bright white in the "To Color" section. * Select the "Change the Color" button. All of the yellow text will be changed to bright white. More importantly, no other foreground or background color will be affected. Drawing Lines With ANSI Publisher you can create single, double, and custom lines very easily. Automatic intersections are also created while drawing the lines. Let's make a double line under the "HELP ON DIRECTORY MAINTENANCE COMMAND" title. * Start by moving the cursor to the end of the title. * Press the Enter key to insert a blank line. * Move the cursor one line directly below the title and two columns to the left of the HELP word. * Press F6 to start the Double Line Draw Mode. * Press the Right Arrow until you are two columns to the right of the COMMAND word. Now let's say you changed your mind and wanted a single line, with the color being bright white on red. To change the active color while in Line Draw Mode: * Press Alt+A and select bright white on red. To change from Double Line Draw Mode to Single Line Draw Mode: * Press F5. * Now press the Left Arrow key to redraw the line. * Press Enter to exit Line Draw Mode. NOTE: You cannot use the mouse to draw lines. Saving the File Now would be a good time to save the file. It is recommend that you save every five minutes, to ensure all of your changes are not lost. To save the file: * Press Ctrl+S. * Type in TUTOR as the file name. * Select the OK button. The file will then be saved to your hard drive. Making Your First ANSI File Now let's make your first ANSI file with ANSI Publisher. * Press Ctrl+E. * A sub-menu will appear from the Export... choice. * Select Export ANSI File. * Type TUTOR.ANS as the file name. * Select the OK button. * ANSI Publisher will now export the ANSI color sequences to the TUTOR.ANS file. To experiment with this file: * If you have the ANSI.SYS driver loaded, you can TYPE this file at the DOS prompt. If you don't have the driver loaded or don't know what ANSI.SYS is, consult your DOS manual. * From the Utility menu, select DOS Shell. * At the DOS prompt, type TYPE TUTOR.ANS. The file should display on the screen in full color. Congratulations, you just made your first ANSI file. * Type EXIT at the DOS prompt to return to ANSI Publisher. You should now be aware of some of the more common features included with ANSI Publisher. Take a few minutes to browse through the remaining portion of this manual to gain more knowledge about the benefits of using this program, and enjoy your new BBS screens! 袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴� 旼컴컴컴컴컴� � Chapter 6 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴� ANSI Conversion Program ANSI Publisher ANSI Conversion Program This program was developed to convert your existing ANSI files into APF files that ANSI Publisher can load and edit. If you already have used ANSI files within your BBS, you can convert them with this program. By doing so, all of your colors will not be lost. The conversion program does have its limitations, however, it should convert the ANSI file enough to allow editing within ANSI Publisher. Running the Program To run the program: * Copy all the ANSI files to be converted into a TEMP directory. Always use backup copies of files. The conversion program opens the files for "read only", so just to be safe, please use a backup. * Copy the CONVERT.EXE program to the TEMP directory. * Run the CONVERT.EXE on each file. At the DOS prompt type: C:\TEMP> CONVERT FILE1.ANS * Some information about the file will be displayed on the screen while it is converting. * The newly created file will then have an APF extension. For instance, SUPPORT.ANS would become SUPPORT.APF. * This file can be edited within ANSI Publisher. NOTE: The file will have a right margin of 80, and the clear screen color will be black. These values can be changed within the ANSI Publisher program. Program Limitations The conversion program will not convert ANSI files with the cursor positioning GOTO command. If you have animation sequences within your ANSI file, they will not be converted properly. Other commands like CURSOR UP or CURSOR DOWN are also not supported. After converting an ANSI file, go into ANSI Publisher and see if the file has been converted properly. Sometimes, just a little editing is required. However, if the file was not properly converted, see the fol- lowing section. Other Ways to Convert the Files If the CONVERT.EXE file did not convert the file, you have some other options. Please try of the following to convert your ANSI files. Using a Terminal Program with SAVER.COM * Load the SAVER.COM screen capture program. * Next, dial your BBS with a terminal program. Use a DOS terminal program, the SAVER.COM program will not work in windows or in DOS VGA/EGA graphics mode. * Set your "more" or "line" count to 23 lines within your BBS. This will cause your BBS to pause the text files after displaying 23 lines of text. * View the file that you wish to convert. * Once the first page of text scrolls by, capture the screen with the saver program. The hotkey is Alt+P. * Continue scrolling through the text file and grabbing each pause. Make sure you use a naming convention so you know which screen is first, second, etc. * Once the file is done displaying, exit your BBS. * Next, go into ANSI publisher and create a new file. * Import the PIC files in the correct order, making sure you import the PIC file at the end of the file. * Now you can remove the extra lines of text by pressing Ctrl+Y to delete the line. This will delete the status lines of the terminal program. You can also edit any text that doesn't appear correctly. Manually Editing the ANSI File If all else fails, manually edit the ANSI file and remove all references to the ANSI escape sequences. You can then save this text file and import the ASCII file into the ANSI Publisher program. You will have to recolor the text within the program. 袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴� 旼컴컴컴컴컴� � Chapter 7 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴� Screen Saver Program ANSI Publisher Screen Saver Program SAVER.COM is a utility program that can be used with ANSI Publisher. Saver is a well-behaved DOS TSR program that is used to capture 80 x 25 DOS screens. You can use it while on-line or running another DOS program to "grab" screens and save them in a binary PIC file format. Once saved, these PIC screen captures can then be imported directly into ANSI Publisher. SAVER.COM takes about 19K of memory. Program Operation To load the Screen Saver Program, use the steps outlined below. * Type SAVER and press the Enter key at the DOS prompt. * A status box will appear on the screen informing you if the program was successfully started. To remove the Saver Program type: * SAVER /U at the DOS prompt. * Again, a status box will tell you if the program was successfully removed from memory. NOTE: Never start or remove the program from a DOS shell while in another application. This could result in memory conflicts. The computer may lock up. Once the Saver Program is in memory, it can be activated by: * Pressing Alt+P. * Upon activating it, a dialog box will appear. * Type in a file name and press Enter. Do not type a file extension. The ".PIC" will automatically be added for you. * Press the Esc key to cancel the "grab". 袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴袴� 旼컴컴컴컴컴� � Chapter 8 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴� File Viewer Program ANSI Publisher File Viewer Program The File Viewer Program was developed to view the APF files that ANSI Publisher creates. You may freely distribute the APFVIEW.EXE program along with document files created with ANSI Publisher. When viewing the files, you will see them in full color, as if you were in ANSI Publisher. Your BBS users can now download the ANSI Publisher files along with this program and view the files off-line. The file size can be up to 65,000 lines long. Running the Program To start the program, enter the following at the DOS prompt: APFVIEW FILENAME.APF The FILENAME.APF can be any ANSI Publisher file that you wish to view. You may also specify a path to the file. Using the Program Once in the program, you can use the following keys to view the ANSI Publisher file: Esc - Quits the program. Up Arrow - Moves up one line within the document. Down Arrow - Moves down one line within the document. Page Up - Moves up one page within the document. Page Down - Moves down one page within the document. Ctrl+Page Up - Moves to top of the document. Ctrl+Page Down - Moves to bottom of the document. P - Print to LPT 1. Press Esc while printing, if you wish to cancel the process.