HyperLib 1997 Winter - Disc 1/HYPERLIB-1997-Winter-CD1.ISO.7z/HYPERLIB-1997-Winter-CD1.ISO/オンラインウェア/MLT/Breeze 0.3 folder.sit/Breeze 0.3 folder/breeze_e-z-card documentation

Text File | 1996-03-05 | 31KB | 764 lines

welcome to e-z-card and light breeze...

e-z-card helps you create electronic greeting cards.
light breeze helps you create multi-media presentations.

e-z-card and breeze are the same program,
except e-z-card is for small screens,
and light breeze is for regular-size screens.

e-z-cardﾕs creations are called ﾒe-cardsﾓ, and
light breezeﾕs creations are called ﾒpresentationsﾓ.

in most of this documentation, iﾕll call the program ﾒbreezeﾓ,
and use the term ﾒpresentationsﾓ, but these instructions
apply equally well to e-z-card as to light breeze.


if youﾕre an experienced user of the program,
you can probably skip directly to the end of this documentation,
and read the ﾒfinalizing and distributingﾓ section and the
ﾒchanges from earlier versions of e-z-cardﾓ section.
the methods of ﾒunlockingﾓ the program and ﾒfinalizingﾓ a presentation
have been changed, so make sure you read that section.
and there are a good many new and improved features in this version,
so you will want to read that section as well.


***********************************************************
general orientation to the program
***********************************************************

when you create a presentation in ﾒbreezeﾓ, itﾕs a self-contained show:
the program stores most of the presentation materials inside itself.
(the sole exception is quicktime movies, which remain as independent files.)

this means that every copy of the program is an independent presentation.
(to create another presentation, you just make another copy of the program.)
every presentation is a single-file, standalone, executable mac application.

there are three ﾒpalettesﾓ that contain the resources used in a presentation:
the ﾒpicture paletteﾓ, the ﾒsound paletteﾓ, and the ﾒbackground paletteﾓ.
when you import these resources, they are put on the appropriate palette.

the palettes also let you remove unneeded resources from your presentation.
when your presentation is finished, you should remove all unused resources.
that makes the presentation smaller and minimizes modem transmission times.


breeze allows you to create presentations with up to 25 screens.
each screen can have text, 1 picture, 1 sound, and/or 1 movie
associated with it, as well as a colorful background pattern,
to make your presentations more vivid.

(an upcoming ﾒproﾓ version of ﾒbreezeﾓ will offer more capabilities.
for instance, it will allow up to 500 screens.  and each screen will
be able to have multiple pictures, sounds, and movies on it.)


when you enter each screenﾕs text,
you can select from several fonts, sizes, styles, and colors.
each screenﾕs text can be left-justified, centered, or right-justified.


putting pictures of yours on a screen is easy.
you can paste them in right from the clipboard,
or read them in from files on your disk.

with ﾒlight breezeﾓ, your pictures can be positioned
at the left, in the center, or on the right,
either at the top, in the middle, or at the bottom.
(in the ﾒproﾓ version, they can be moved anywhere.)


but thereﾕs more to pictures than meets the eye.
they can also serve as ﾒhot buttonsﾓ that
have various ﾒactionsﾓ associated with them.
that means that when the user clicks them,
they can show a picture, play a sound, play a movie,
take you to another screen, or perform other actions.


each screen can have a sound associated with it,
so the sound is played when the screen is displayed.
or a sound can be associated with a hot button.

to import sounds into your presentation,
you can paste them in from the clipboard,
read them in from a sound file, or
import them from the resource fork of another file.

you can include sounds youﾕve downloaded or purchased.
and, if you can record sounds on your mac,
you can include those in your presentation, too.

some people, especially with powerbooks and/or system 7.5,
reported problems with sounds in earlier versions.
to the best of my knowledge, those problems have been
completely eliminated in the newest version.

if you still have problems with sounds,
or you encounter any other bugs,
please e-mail me, and iﾕll try and fix them.
my e-mail address:   [e-mail]


each screen can have a quicktime movie associated with it,
so the movie dialog is displayed when the screen is shown.
a movie window can also be summoned with a hot button.
to run the movie, use the controller.


･  special navigation keys...

there are some ﾒspecialﾓ keys you can use for navigation
when you are creating your presentation, in addition to
the cursor keys, which take you forward and back one screen.

esc:  redraws the current screen.
home:  takes you to the first screen.
end:  takes you to the last screen.
tilda:  takes you to the ﾒboomerangﾓ screen,
            (the screen that brought you to the current screen).
asterisk:  takes you to the boomerang screen
plus:  takes you forward one screen
minus:  takes you backward one screen

these special navigation keys can also be used
by people viewing a finalized presentation.


***********************************************************
specific instructions for the menus in the program...
***********************************************************

the ﾒtextﾓ menu...

use the ﾒtextﾓ menu when you want to edit the text on a screen.

if you pull down the ﾒtextﾓ menu, youﾕll see that the first item is ﾒedit screen textﾓ.
note that the command-key shortcut to edit is command-e.
(command-key shortcuts, like command-q to quit, are great time-savers.)
when you choose ﾒedit screen textﾓ, the background clears away from the text,
and youﾕll be able to edit the text on the screen.

if you make changes to the text on a screen, you must save them, and
you have to save the changes before going to another screen.
you save by choosing ﾒsave this screenﾕs textﾓ under the ﾒfileﾓ menu.
(itﾕs under the ﾒfileﾓ menu because thatﾕs where ﾒsaveﾓ is usually located.)
if you try to go to another screen without saving your changes,
the program will prompt you to save or abandon the changes.

when youﾕre editing the text, the first item under ﾒtextﾓ becomes ﾒstop editingﾓ.
so, when youﾕre done editing, choose that item and the background will return.

command-e is the command-key shortcut that allows you to stop editing.
this means that you can use command-e to ﾒtoggleﾓ editing on and off.

press command-e several times, and youﾕll see how convenient it is.
itﾕs much faster than using the menu to switch editing on and off.


the ﾒpictﾓ menu...

use the ﾒpictﾓ menu to deal with pictures in your presentations.

to specify the picture that is displayed on a screen,
choose the ﾒselect the picture for this screenﾓ item.
this brings up the ﾒpicture paletteﾓ.
then, just click a picture to select it.

since ﾒlight breezeﾓ only allows one picture per screen, you can
switch from one picture to another by simply re-specifying the second.

choosing the ﾒremove the picture from this screenﾓ item will do that.

if the picture is on the clipboard, you can paste it in to the palette.
or, if you have a picture thatﾕs been stored as a ﾒpictﾓ file on disk,
you can ﾒimportﾓ it onto the picture palette by choosing that item.
you can also import ﾒpictﾓ resources saved inside a resource fork.

the other items on the ﾒpictﾓ menu are for placement of the picture:
on the left, center, or right, and on the top, middle, or bottom.

the picture palette also lets you permanently remove items.
simply click the small ﾒxﾓ button next to a picture,
and it will be immediately removed from the presentation.
you canﾕt ﾒundoﾓ this action, so use it carefully.


･  import¥delete picts¥ppats

you can import picts (pictures) and ppats (backgrounds)
into your presentation using a very powerful feature
summoned by selecting the ﾔimport¥delete picts¥ppatsﾓ item.

this feature lets you import picts and ppats from
the resource fork of other files, including applications.

it also lets you delete picts and ppats that are
already contained in your presentation.


the ﾒhotﾓ menu...

pictures can serve as ﾒhot buttonsﾓ that perform some action when clicked.

you turn a picture into a ﾒhot buttonﾓ by using the ﾒhotﾓ menu.
just select the appropriate item from the menu,
and the picture will perform that action when itﾕs clicked.

although the concept of ﾒhot buttonsﾓ is very simple,
they are a powerful feature that lets you set up
some fairly complicated multi-media presentations.

this is also one of the areas where feedback is appreciated.
specifically, what kind of ﾒhot buttonﾓ features would you like added?
good ideas will be incorporated into the ﾒproﾓ version of ﾒbreezeﾓ.


the ﾒsndﾓ menu...

each screen can have a sound associated with it.
the sound will be played when the screen is shown.

in addition, sounds can be activated by a ﾒhot buttonﾓ.

you can import sounds into your presentation
by simply pasting them in from the clipboard.
you can also import a sound by reading it in from a file on disk.
the file can be a mac sound file (ﾒsfilﾓ file, with a ﾒsnd ﾓ resource),
or it can be a file that has sounds stored in its resource fork.

if you have sounds in other formats, youﾕll need to convert them first;
there are various shareware programs that will do such conversions.


the ﾒmoovﾓ menu...

use the ﾒmoovﾓ menu to associate a quicktime movie with a screen,
so the quicktime window is displayed when the screen is shown.
choose ﾒselect the movie for this screen...ﾓ, and specify the file.
when the quicktime window is displayed, move it where you want it,
and click its ﾒcloseﾓ box to ﾔlock inﾕ that position for future display.
(to redraw the screen right away to check it, press the ﾒescapeﾓ key.)

the quicktime movie file must accompany the presentation ﾑ
movies arenﾕt automatically incorporated into the presentation.
at runtime, the movie must be in the some folder as the presentation.

thereﾕs no ﾒmovie paletteﾓ because movies arenﾕt stored internally.

you can also specify that a ﾒhot buttonﾓ display the movie window.
choose ﾒdisplay a movie...ﾓ under the ﾒhotﾓ menu, and specify the file.
as above, move the window where you want it to be displayed,
and then click its ﾒcloseﾓ box to save that position for future display.

quicktime incorporates ﾒmidiﾓ music, so quicktime movies
can be used in an ﾒaudio-onlyﾓ mode to deliver a soundtrack.

if you want to use an ﾒaudio-onlyﾓ quicktime movie,
select the ﾒoff-screen - audio onlyﾓ item under the ﾒmoovﾓ menu.
you can also use this for a movie that has video, too,
if you just want the audio to play without displaying the video.

to return a movie to the screen after having moved it offscreen,
just select the ﾒcenter onscreenﾓ item under the ﾒmoovﾓ menu.

if you choose the ﾒoffscreenﾓ or ﾒonscreenﾓ items while
a ﾒhot movieﾓ is being displayed
(i.e., a movie that was activated by a hot button),
then it is the ﾒhot movieﾓ that will be moved accordingly.


the ﾒmiscﾓ menu...

the ﾒmiscﾓ menu allows you to select screen backgrounds for your presentation,
ﾒblankﾓ unnecessary screens, and ﾒjumpﾓ to any screen.

to ﾒjumpﾓ to any screen, just select the corresponding item for that screen.

if your presentation needs less than 25 screens, you can ﾒblankﾓ unwanted screens
by selecting ﾒblank this screenﾓ.  the blanked screen is still displayed while you are
in ﾒcreate-a-presentationﾓ mode, in case you change your mind and decide to use it.
however, it will not be displayed when you are in ﾒrecipientﾓ mode,
or after you ﾒfinalizeﾓ your presentation.

choose the ﾒselect background...ﾓ item to choose backgrounds.
choosing this summons up the ﾒbackground paletteﾓ.
to select a particular background, just click it.

ﾒbreezeﾓ uses ﾒppatﾓ resources for its backgrounds.
there are literally thousands of ppats in the a.o.l. libraries that you can
download and import into your presentation to use as backgrounds.
once imported, the ppats are be displayed on the background palette.

you can find these ppats by going to keyword ﾒmutﾓ, clicking the
ﾒsoftware librariesﾓ button,  then opening the ﾒresourcesﾓ folder,
and then opening one of the ﾒbackgrounds and patternsﾓ folders.
you can also use quickfind to search the libraries for ﾒppatﾓ
and any other keyword you might want (such as ﾒsoothingﾓ).
ppats are often also described as ﾒtexturesﾓ or ﾒsystem backgroundsﾓ.

in addition, there are programs that allow you to create your own ppats,
make ppats from picts, etc.   well-known programs are ﾒtexture installerﾓ,
ﾒppat toolﾓ, and ﾒpict2ppatﾓ.  (note that texture installer ppats must be
uncompressed before they are imported, or they make the program crash.)

you can easily import these ppats into your presentation by
choosing the ﾒimport¥delete picts¥ppatsﾓ item under the ﾒfileﾓ menu.
once imported, the ppats are displayed on the background palette.

the background palette also lets you delete unwanted ppats.
just click the ﾒxﾓ button next to an unwanted background,
and it will be immediately and permanently removed.

sometimes the backgrounds will ﾒdisappearﾓ
from the boxes on the background palette.
to make them reappear, just click the ﾒredrawﾓ button.

there are ﾒ<-ﾓ and ﾒ->ﾓ buttons on the background palette.
clicking them will cause the program to go one screen
backward or forward through the presentation.
this means you can pull up the palette a single time,
and assign backgrounds to every screen in the presentation.
this is very convenient, and will save you a lot of time.
it is much faster than summoning the palette on each screen.

you can also choose a solid color for a screenﾕs background.

you use the color picker to specify the background color.
you can summon the color picker from the ﾒbackgroundﾓ palette,
by clicking the ﾒcolorﾓ button.  when you get the color picker,
just click inside the color wheel to specify a particular color.
you can adjust the brightness or darkness of the color wheel
by using the scrollbar youﾕll find to the right of the color wheel.
when youﾕve got the color you want, click the ﾒokﾓ button.

note that you can also summon the color picker
without first calling up the ﾒbackgroundﾓ palette,
by selecting the ﾒbackground colorﾓ item under the ﾒfileﾓ menu.


the ﾒfileﾓ menu...

･  the first item under the ﾒfileﾓ menu is ﾒsave this screenﾕs textﾓ.
obviously, you use this item when youﾕre done editing the text on a screen.

･  the next item is ﾒturn sounds offﾓ.  when youﾕre creating a presentation,
sounds can be irritating, so this item lets you turn them off temporarily.

･  the next item is ﾒswitch to recipient display modeﾓ.
this option switches you out of ﾒcreate-a-presentationﾓ mode
and into the end-user mode that your recipient will see.
the ﾒswitchﾓ to recipient mode is temporary.  once you re-enter the program,
you will again be in the ﾒcreate-a-presentationﾓ mode, not recipient mode.
to permanently prepare a presentation for distribution, you must ﾒfinalizeﾓ it.

･ there are also items to control the type of display mode for the presentation:

(1)  ﾒactive user modeﾓ assumes there is an active user controlling the display,
so a screen is displayed until the user dismisses it by clicking one of the
ﾒarrowﾓ buttons at the bottom, or a hot button that displays a new screen.

(2)  ﾒkiosk modeﾓ assumes an active user, but will switch to ﾒslideshow modeﾓ
if no keypress or mouseclick has been detected in a certain time
(which you specify).  if user input resumes, ﾒkioskﾓ mode responds to that.

(3)  ﾒslideshow modeﾓ allows no user input, except:
     (a)  command-period to quit,
     (b)  command-q to quit, or
     (c)  a press of the letter ﾒqﾓ to quit.

because ﾒslideshow modeﾓ is relatively limited,
you will probably want to use ﾒkiosk modeﾓ in most cases.

･  the ﾒkiosk and slideshow settings...ﾓ item brings up a window that lets you
control the various options for the kiosk and slideshow modes.  these include:
     how long each slide is displayed,
     how much time without input before kiosk mode goes into slideshow mode,
     whether the presentation loops or not, etc.


the ﾒfileﾓ menu contains a ﾒbackground colorﾓ item that lets you
assign a solid background color to the current screen.


there is also an item to ﾒimport¥delete picts¥ppatsﾓ, which was discussed above.


also under the ﾒfileﾓ menu are items to ﾒswitch to recipient display modeﾓ and
ﾒfinalize the presentationﾓ.  these items are discussed fully in the next section.


***********************************************************
finalizing your presention, and distributing it...
***********************************************************

this version of the program, sent only to registered users,
automatically comes up in the ﾒunlockedﾓ mode.
so, when you are done creating a presentation,
you should first remove all unused resources from the file,
then make a backup copy of the presentation, and
then ﾒfinalizeﾓ the presentation by choosing the
ﾒfinalize presentationﾓ item under the ﾒfileﾓ menu.
(once you ﾒfinalizeﾓ a presentation, you canﾕt edit it.
thatﾕs why you should make a backup copy first.)

make sure you remove all unused pictures, sounds,
and backgrounds before you ﾒfinalizeﾓ a presentation.
this decreases the size of the presentation, and minimizes
the modem transmission time for you and all recipients.


you can still ﾒpreviewﾓ a presentation thatﾕs in-progress,
to see how the recipient will see it, by choosing the
ﾒswitch to recipient display modeﾓ item under ﾒfileﾓ.
(to switch back, click the "x" in the upper-right corner.)

when you switch to recipient display mode,
however, the switch is only temporary.
to switch back and forth from recipient display mode,
just click the small ﾒoﾓ button in the upper-right corner.

switching to recipient display mode
is different from ﾒfinalizingﾓ a presentation,
because ﾒfinalizingﾓ is permanent.

remember to ﾒfinalizeﾓ your presentation before you send it out.


ﾒbreezeﾓ presentations can be ﾒattachedﾓ to an a.o.l. e-mail,
and thereby sent directly to any other a.o.l. subscriber.
they can also be uploaded to a.o.l. libraries, for download by others.

presentations made by ﾒbreezeﾓ are regular mac applications,
so they can execute on any mac running system 6.0.5 or later.
(they can only execute on p.c.ﾕs which can run mac programs.)

ﾒbreezeﾓ presentations require a 640*480 color monitor.
(they will run on a black-and-white monitor of that size, too,
but obviously the colored backgrounds wonﾕt be displayed.)

presentations canﾕt be sent over the internet as-is, because
they are binary files.  to send a presentation over the internet,
it must first be ﾒuu-encodedﾓ as a 7-bit ﾒasciiﾓ file.
then, upon receipt, the recipient must ﾒuu-decodeﾓ the file,
which turns it back into an 8-bit binary application.
the a.o.l. libraries contain many programs that do this encoding.
search the libraries for ﾒuuencodeﾓ and you will find them.
(these programs will also give you a more detailed explanation.)


***********************************************************
summary
***********************************************************

multi-media programs donﾕt have to be difficult.
they donﾕt need to require tons of memory.
and the presentations they create
donﾕt have to be huge and memory-hungry either.

ﾒbreezeﾓ shows how easy multi-media can be.
itﾕs a small program, both in hard-disk-footprint
and ram-required terms,
and it creates small files that will run on virtually any mac.


***********************************************************
e-mail me
***********************************************************

as always, please feel free to e-mail me at
[e-mail]
if you have any questions, comments,
suggestions, or whatever...
                                                               ﾑ bowerbird



there are two more sections.

the first is a list of changes from earlier versions of e-z-card.
if you used an earlier version, you should read this section,
so you know whatﾕs different in this improved version.

the last section is a blurb on other programs iﾕve written.


***********************************************************
for people upgrading from earlier versions of e-z-card...
***********************************************************

for people who used earlier versions of e-z-card,
there is a new method of ﾒunlockingﾓ e-z-card,
and ﾒfinalizingﾓ the presentation you have created.
this method is described below, in the ﾒfinalizing and distributingﾓ section,
so make sure you read that.


listed below are explanations of the new features in this version:

･   a presentation can now have 25 screens instead of 10
･   support for quicktime movies has been incorporated
･   ﾒhot picturesﾓ can perform an action when clicked
･   ability to import background patterns
･   ability to import picts stored as resources
･   window to manage backgrounds and pictures
･   can use color picker for a solid color background
･   can use cursor keys on picture and sound palettes
･   ﾒblank all screensﾓ option for starting a new presentation
･   new ﾒkioskﾓ and ﾒslideshowﾓ display modes
･   miscellaneous small changes throughout
･   new method of ﾒunlockingﾓ and ﾒfinalizingﾓ
･   fix for powerbook and/or system 7.5 sound problems


･  a presentation can now have 25 screens instead of 10

well, this one is pretty self-explanatory:
two and a half times as many screens.

with more screens, planning becomes important.
and, if you wonﾕt be using all 25 screens,
i recommend leaving a few blank screens
in between the screens you do use,
so you can easily ﾒinsertﾓ a screen
between two existing screens.


･  support for quicktime movies

a quicktime movie can now be associated with a screen.
with this new support for quicktime movies,
e-z-card now becomes a full multi-media program.


･  ﾒhot picturesﾓ that perform some action when clicked

another multi-media feature introduced in this
new version of e-z-card is ﾒhot picturesﾓ.

you can specify that the picture assigned to a screen
is a ﾒhot pictureﾓ that performs an action when clicked.
(see the ﾒhotﾓ menu for a list of possible actions.)

for instance, if you choose ﾒplay a soundﾓ,
youﾕll be asked to specify which sound.  then,
when the user clicks the picture, that sound will play.
so you might have a picture of your daughter that
says ﾒhi grandma!ﾓ when her grandma clicks it.


･  ability to import background patterns

this version of e-z-card lets you
import background patterns from another file.
backgrounds are ﾒppatﾓ resources, and there are
thousands of them available in the a.o.l. libraries.

just select ﾒimport¥delete picts¥ppatsﾓ under ﾒfileﾓ,
and click the ﾒimport backgroundsﾓ button.
then, specify the file that contains the backgrounds
you would like to import.  the program ﾒsteps throughﾓ
the backgrounds, letting you ﾒimportﾓ or ﾒskipﾓ each one.

you can import backgrounds from an old version of the program.


･  ability to import picts stored as resources

the same window that lets you import backgrounds also lets you
import picts that are stored in the resource fork of another file.

click the ﾒimport pictsﾓ button, specify a file, and youﾕre on your way.

itﾕs okay to experiment with this feature.  many programs,
for instance, have picts inside them that you could import.
even though you might not have much need for picts
from another program, it can be fun to look at them.

you can import picts from an older version of the program.


･  window to manage pictures and backgrounds

the window that lets you import picts and ppats from another file
also lets you delete picts and ppats from the current presentation.
you should always delete all unused resources before ﾒfinalizingﾓ
your presentation to minimize modem transmission time,
both for you and the recipients of your presentations.

of course, you can also do these deletions by
using the picture and background palettes,
where you just click the small ﾒxﾓ button
next to a particular picture or background
to remove it permanently from the card.

but the ﾒimport¥deleteﾓ window gives you another way to do it..


･  use color picker to specify a solid color background

in previous versions of e-z-card,
you could only specify a pattern for the background.

in this version, you can select a solid color
to be used as the background for any screen.

choose ﾒbackground colorﾓ under ﾒfileﾓ and then
use the color-picker to specify a particular color;
you have a wide range of colors to choose from.

you can also summon the color picker from the background palette,
by clicking on the ﾒcolorﾓ button that you find there.

note that the ﾒsliderﾓ button at the right side of the color wheel
can be used to adjust the brightness or darkness of the wheel.


･  use cursor keys on picture and sound palettes

in previous versions, the background palette had ﾒ<-ﾓ and ﾒ->ﾓ buttons
that let you move backward and forward through your presentation.
(the cursor keys will do the trick too.)

these buttons were so handy that i added them to the
picture and sound palettes, and the ﾒimport¥deleteﾓ window.

this means that you can just summon a palette one time,
and step through all the screens in the entire presentation.
this is much easier than calling up the palette for each screen.


･  a ﾒblank all screensﾓ option to start a new presentation

in the past, with only 10 screens in a presentation,
it wasnﾕt a big deal to ﾒblankﾓ (or erase) each screen.

with 25 screens, itﾕs a bit of a hassle, so i added a
ﾒblank all screensﾓ option (under ﾒmiscﾓ)
that allows you to start a new presentation very easily.

this option is only available from the first screen,
and it actually blanks all screens except the first.
(youﾕve gotta have one non-blank screen on a presentation.)

as before, you can ﾒun-blankﾓ a screen by simply
adding text, background, picture, sound, or movie.


･  new ﾒkioskﾓ and ﾒslideshowﾓ modes

this version of e-z-card has different ﾒdisplay modesﾓ.
previous versions had only ﾒactive user modeﾓ,
where the user navigates by clicking the arrow buttons.
this version introduces ﾒkioskﾓ and ﾒslideshowﾓ modes.
choose ﾒkiosk and slideshow settingsﾓ under ﾒfileﾓ, and
examine the options there to learn about these modes.

ﾒslideshow modeﾓ allows no user input at all.
the program steps through the screens automatically.
you can set it so each screen will display for a fixed time,
or for a variable time based on the number of text lines.

ﾒkiosk modeﾓ allows user input, but it switches to ﾒslideshow modeﾓ
if no user input is detected after a certain time (which you specify).

you can have the presentation play once, or loop.
(to quit, just press command-q or command-period.)

if you donﾕt understand these modes, just donﾕt use them.


･  assorted small changes

a number of small changes were made
throughout this version of the program
to make it more stable and user-friendly,
so it should be even more pleasant than before.

however, it sometimes happens that making changes
like these introduces new bugs to the program.
so if you encounter any difficulties,
please let me know via e-mail right away.


***********************************************************
iﾕve written some other programs you might like.
***********************************************************

one of them is called ﾒe-zine-makerﾓ.
(an e-zine is an electronic magazine.)
e-zine-maker is similar to e-z-card, except
it has features specialized for an e-zine.

another program of mine is called ﾒlogﾕoﾕlogsﾓ.
logﾕoﾕlogs is a program that helps you
manage ﾒsystem logsﾓ created by a.o.l.

these programs are described more fully below.
you can download them from the a.o.l. libraries;
just do quickfind, and search for ﾒbowerbirdﾓ.


ﾒe-zine-makerﾓ

e-zine-maker (e-z-m) creates an electronic magazine.

just import text and pictures from disk files,
or paste them in from the clipboard,
and e-z-m formats your e-zine automatically
into a standalone, self-contained mac application.

e-z-m allows you to customize the menu-bar
with menus appropriate for your particular e-zine.

e-z-m also lets you have your own ﾒsplashﾓ screen,
ﾒabout...ﾓ screen, and ﾒexitﾓ screen, and
gives you the same ﾒppatﾓ backgrounds.

e-z-m makes it easy for you to make an e-zine,
but it also makes your e-zine convenient for readers.

in addition to the menus you configure,
which can give an excellent ﾒoverviewﾓ of the e-zine,
your readers can also use cursor keys to navigate,
or convenient buttons can take them to the main sections
of the e-zine, with more buttons for individual articles.

thereﾕs also a ﾒfind...ﾓ function that lets the reader
search for specific text within the e-zine.

e-z-m makes electronic magazines fun and easy.


ﾒlogﾕoﾕlogsﾓ

logﾕoﾕlogs (lﾕoﾕl) helps you manage your system logs.
when you save your a.o.l. online sessions to disk,
ﾒsystem logsﾓ are the files where the text is stored.
if you donﾕt regularly use system logs,
youﾕre paying far too much for a.o.l.,
because you can read system logs offline for free,
and save good stuff (instead of going to get it again).

however, itﾕs not very convenient to use system logs.
they are limited to 32k, so even a short online session
can generate a number of separate files.
and itﾕs difficult to find specific text in a system log,
because a.o.l. doesnﾕt have a ﾒfind...ﾓ command.

lﾕoﾕl can consolidate hundreds of system logs into itself.
it displays messages individually for easy reading,
and cursor-keys take you from message to message.
you can delete undesired messages with a single key.
since you keep only wanted messages, the power of
your archives is concentrated.  and you save disk space.
lﾕoﾕl lets you follow message ﾒthreadsﾓ automatically,
and a ﾒheader modeﾓ lets you scan message headers
so you can quickly browse through all your messages.
you also get a sophisticated ﾒfind...ﾓ function that
can search for up to 8 different strings simultaneously.
individual messages can be annotated and re-saved,
and you can copy them to the clipboard or a disk file.