This is the instruction manual for HyperRead. It is also a demonstration HyperRead file. You can flip through this document one page at a time using the and keys. You can move one line at a time by holding down the Ctrl key as you press or . You also can move through the document by pressing the up or down cursor key. If the screen cursor gets to the top or bottom of the screen and you continue pressing the cursor key, the text will scroll. You can move to the top of the document by pressing the key on your keyboard, or go to the end of the document by pressing the key. You also can jump around in the document using the link words or phrases. Link phrases look like this. To jump to a section of text containing more information on a link phrase, use the cursor keys to move the screen cursor to the link phrase, then press the key on the keyboard. You may do this repeatedly, going from one link word to another. You can backtrack along this path by pressing the key on the keyboard. There is more information on this "jumping" later in this document. You also can control HyperRead using a mouse if you have one installed. This will be explained later (or you can jump to this subject now by jumping from the word "mouse" and then backtracking to this page when you are done). You can get a quick explanation of the commands by calling for the HELP screen. Just press the key at any time. You may now read the manual. Enjoy, and feel free to experiment with the link phrases. Every few years, a new concept comes along that offers a whole new use for personal computers. Typical examples have been word processing, telecommunications and BBS's, spreadsheets, and desktop publishing. The latest new idea is hypertext. What is hypertext? It is an indexing system that allows people to use their computers to read computer text files quickly and easily. It does this by allowing them to jump from one part of the file to another, following whatever train of thought they want. In an ordinary printed document, the reader must read the document linearly. That is, the person must read from the beginning to the end, one page at a time. Sometimes the person can jump around a little by using the index or the table of contents, but this is very limited. The index can only list a few key words, and the pages listed for those words are usually simply where the word is defined or first mentioned. The table of contents points only to broad areas of the document where a general subject is discussed. In any case, flipping through the pages is time-consuming and tedious. With hypertext, the author of a document can create "tunnels" or links within a document that allow the reader to jump from one area of the document to another. The reader uses a computer to read the text on the screen. When he or she finds an important word or phrase in the text that needs clarifying, the computer can jump to the part of the text that explains the term or gives more information. For example, suppose you are reading a story about the history of the electric light bulb. The story mentions that it was invented by Thomas Edison. If you get curious about Edison, you can jump directly from that part of the text to the part that tells you more about Edison. That part of the text might mention some of Edison's other inventions. If you see one that looks interesting, you can jump directly to the part of the text that describes this invention. This can vastly increase the speed at which you can find information. HyperRead Generator and HyperRead are programs that allow you to create and distribute hypertext documents. HyperRead Generator allows you to convert an ordinary ASCII text file into a hypertext document, which you may then use or distribute. This program is shareware. It can be downloaded from various Bulletin Board Systems or ordered directly from Leithauser Research or a qualified distributor. HyperRead is the program that allows you to read the hypertext documents. This program is freeware, and you may distribute it freely with any HyperRead files you create. Both programs can be used with or without a mouse. Using HyperRead To read a HyperRead file, you need only run HyperRead and load the desired HyperRead document. There are two ways you can do this. You can simply type the program name (HR5) at the DOS prompt. If there is more than one HyperRead document in the current directory, the computer will display a list of HyperRead files and ask which file to load (Otherwise it runs the one file). Type the name of the file and press ENTER. Note: All HyperRead documents actually consist of two files. There is a text document file that can have any name and extension and a control file that has the extension HRF. It is not necessary to type this extension to load the file. For example, to load the file READER.HRF, just enter the name READER. Another way to run HyperRead and load a file is to type the program name (HR5) followed by the name of the file to load at the DOS prompt. For example, this file is called READER.HRF. You can run the program and load this file at the same time by typing HR5 READER at the DOS prompt (it is not necessary to include the extension). This feature makes it easy to create a batch file that automatically runs the HyperRead program and loads a HyperRead file. When the program has loaded the file, it will display the first page of the file. At the bottom of the screen, you will see a list of options. These options are PgUp, Home, Help, Load, Quit, Jump, Backtrack, Search, Print, End, and PgDn. For the PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End options, press these keys on the keyboard. For the other options, press the first letter of the option. These options are explained below. PgDn Pressing the key moves the page of text on the screen to the next page. That is, it scrolls down 23 lines. If you hold down the key while pressing the key, however, the screen will scroll only one line. PgUp Pressing the key scrolls the text up 23 lines. If you hold down the key while pressing this key, however, the text will scroll only one line. Home Pressing the key moves you directly to the first page of the document. If you are in the middle of a long document, this can be a faster way to get to the beginning than repeatedly pressing . End Pressing the key moves you to the last page of the document. If you want to get to a page near the end, you can press and then a few times. This is sometimes faster than pressing repeatedly. Cursor Keys You can move the screen cursor with the cursor keys and also scroll through the document by moving beyond the top or bottom of the screen. Help This option displays a Help screen. This screen gives a short summary of the other options and how to use them. After viewing this help screen, you can press the space bar to return to the HyperRead document. Load This loads a document file into memory. The computer will display a list of HyperRead documents in the current directory. Type the name of the file and press ENTER. It is not necessary to include the extension. This option allows you to read several documents without returning to DOS to reload HyperRead and load a new document. Quit This option ends the programs and returns you to DOS. Jump This is the function that allows you to move directly to another area of the document that is pointed to by a link word or phrase. If you have a color screen, the default color for link words is blue on a black background. If you have a monochrome screen, default color for link words is black on a white background. You can change these at program startup. To select a link word, use the keyboard cursor keys to move the flashing screen cursor until it is somewhere on the link word. Then press the key. The computer will then display the page of text pointed to by the link word. The page of text may be within the main body of the text or, starting with HyperRead version 5.5, it may be a separate section of text that can only be accessed with a Jump function. In either case, once you have moved to this page, you can move normally through the document using the and keys. You also can jump to other areas of the document from there using other link words. For example, suppose you jumped to a page using the link word "Thomas Edison" and that page contained the link word "light bulb." You could then jump directly to the page pointed to by "light bulb." If the link word is the name of a PCX picture file, "jumping" to it displays that picture on the screen. For example, moving the screen cursor to the word SATURN.PCX and pressing the key will display a sketch of Saturn. Pressing any keyboard key (except control keys like Shift, Ctrl, or Alt) or either mouse button will return you to the document text. If the link word is an executable file name with an EXE, COM, or BAT extension, "jumping" to it will cause HyperRead to run that program (if it exists in the current directory). For example, jumping from the word NOTHING.COM will run the NOTHING.COM program. When the program or batch file finishes running, HyperRead will come back and display the page it was on before you ran the program. In addition to displaying a picture or running an executable file with a link, you an load another HyperRead file. Although only one HyperRead file can actually be in memory at a time, HyperRead can jump back and forth between files easily, allowing you to treat a group of HyperRead files as one. This can considerably simplify the editing process. Backtrack This function allows you to reverse the effects of the Jump function. When you press the key, the computer will take you back to the page containing the most recently used link word. For example, if you jumped to a destination page using the link word "Thomas Edison," pressing the key would take you back to the page containing "Thomas Edison." You can use the backtrack function repeatedly. For example, suppose you jumped to a page pointed to by "Thomas Edison" and that page contained the link word "light bulb." You then used the "light bulb" link word to jump to another page. Pressing the key twice would jump back to the page containing "light bulb" and then to the page containing "Thomas Edison." You can repeat this process until you reach the page containing the first link word you used. Search This option allows you to search the document for a specific text string, such as a name. It is handy if you want to find information on a subject, and there is no link word on the screen that would take you to that subject. When you pick this option, the computer will ask you for the string of text to search for. Type the string and press ENTER. If you have already used this option, the default will be the last string you searched for. This allows you to easily continue the search if you want more information on the string. The computer will always begin the search at the line the screen cursor is on in the document. It does not find any appearances of the string that occur before this in the document. The search is case-insensitive. That is, it disregards capitalization. If you asked the computer to search for "home," it would find "home," "Home," and "HOME." The program searches each line of text for the search string. It will not find the string if it is broken by the end of a line. For example, if the string were "George Washington," the program would not find it if the text contained the word George on one line and Washington on the next. For this reason, it is best if you limit your search string to one word if possible. When the program finds the search string, it displays the page of text containing the string. The line containing the string will be at the top of the screen. If the document does not contain the string after the current screen cursor position, the program will display a message saying "String not found. Press space bar to continue." When you press the space bar, the text will be at the same point where you started the search. Print The Print function will send a copy of the document to the printer. If the document contains page feed characters, HyperRead will use those to format the document. Otherwise, HyperRead will create its own formatting. It will print out the document with margins at the top and bottom of the page and a page number at the bottom of each page. To use this feature, set the printer at the top of a page of formfeed paper, turn it on, and press the

key on the keyboard. This is intended primarily for people who are distributing HyperRead instructions for their Shareware or public domain programs. This makes it unnecessary to include a separate ASCII file of the instructions to print. Mouse Support If you have a mouse driver installed, HyperRead will support the mouse. If you have a mouse driver installed, you will have two cursors on the screen. One is controlled by the mouse and one is controlled by the keyboard cursor keys. The mouse cursor is somewhat darker in color. You might need to move the mouse around a bit to help you find the mouse cursor. You can use the mouse to operate the HyperRead navigation functions. Moving the mouse cursor to the word PgUp at the bottom of the screen and pressing the left mouse button (known as "clicking on it") has the same effect as pressing the key. Clicking on PgUp with the left mouse button has the same effect as . Clicking on PgDn at the bottom of the screen with the left mouse button has the same effect as pressing . Clicking on it with the right mouse button has the same effect as . Clicking on Home or End at the bottom of the screen with either mouse button has the same effect as pressing the or buttons. Clicking on a link word with the left mouse button causes HyperRead to jump to the information referenced by that link word, just as pressing the key does. Pressing the right mouse button causes HyperRead to backtrack through the links just like pressing the key does, regardless of where the mouse cursor is located. Other functions, such as Load, Quit, and Search, cannot be controlled using the mouse. In some cases, this is to prevent you from accidentally activating the function (like Quit) with the mouse. In other cases it is because the function requires keyboard input anyway, such as the word to search for. Uses for HyperRead You can use this program to create any type of easy-to-read document you like. For example, you can create a HyperRead instruction manual. The users can quickly zero in on any problems they have by using link words to go to more and more specific descriptions of the problem. This document is an example of such a file. Instruction manuals for shareware programs are a particularly good use for HyperRead. HyperRead reference "books" can also be easy to use. Consider a HyperRead cookbook. The first few pages of the HyperRead file could be a list of recipes. The name of each recipe could be a link word or phrase. The user could jump directly to the recipe by pointing to it with the cursor and pressing the key. Within the recipes, some of the more unusual ingredients could be link words. These links could take the reader to a section at the end of the "book" that gives information on the ingredients. In a similar fashion, you could make each item in a table of contents of any file a link phrase. The reader can then jump directly to that page using the link phrase. A more entertaining use of the HyperRead function is interactive fiction. This is an increasingly popular form of literature. In such a book, the reader does not read the book from start to finish. Instead, the book offers the reader choices on what to read. A typical story might say something like, "If you want to explore the cave, turn to page 38. If you want to continue on the path, go to the next page." With HyperRead, you could have the reader select which action to take by selecting the proper link phrase. The program would then take the reader to the proper page. This is similar to text adventure games. Creating your own HyperRead documents To create your own HyperRead documents, you need the HyperRead Generator. This is a shareware program that you can download from many Bulletin Board Systems. If you cannot find it anywhere else, you can order the shareware program by sending $5.00 for shipping and handling to: Leithauser Research 4649 Van Kleeck Drive New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169 However, before you distribute any documents created by HyperRead Generator, you are required to register it by sending $25.00 to Leithauser Research. You can save the $5.00 shipping and handling fee for the shareware program by sending the $25.00 to Leithauser research in the first place, thereby registering the program at the same time you order it. The $25.00 is a one-time fee. Once you have registered HyperRead Generator, you may use it on one computer to create as many HyperRead documents as you like without paying any additional fees. Bug reports, suggestions, questions, etc. If you have any questions about HyperRead or are encountering any problems, you can write to Leithauser Research at the above postal address. You can also reach Leithauser Research at any of these EMAIL addresses: America Online: Leithauser Compuserve: 74046,1556 Internet: Leithauser@aol.com In extreme emergency, you can call (904)-423-0705 between the hours of 11 AM and 10 PM Eastern time. Custom software The primary function of Leithauser Research is developing custom software to customer specifications. If you need a program you cannot find anywhere, or you have an idea for a program that you want to sell but do not have the programming skilled to write the program yourself, contact Leithauser Research at any of the above addresses (postal or EMAIL) with a description of the program you have in mind for a price quote. Prices are extremely reasonable. Unusual and artificial intelligence programs are our speciality. ***END TEXT SECTION*** This is an example of a separate section of text that can only be accessed by the Jump function of the HyperRead Reader. Because these sections are intended to be small (and to reduce the size of the HyperRead program), the Search and End options are not implemented in text sections after the first section, which is assumed to be the main body of text. However, scroll up and down with the cursor keys, PgUp, PgDn, and Home functions will work within these small sections of text if they contain more than one screen of text.