This is the Shareware release of InScript Version 1.1.
InScript 1.1 may be copied and distributed provided that
1. only a nominal copying fee is charged,
2. this file is included,
3. if InScript 1.1 is included with other programs in a compilation disk
or set of disks, then a copy of these disk/s is sent to me.
InScript may not be used for any commercial purposes without express written permission.
To register your copy of InScript, send AUS $40 to the above address.
Registered users of InScript 1.1 will receive a free copy of the next version of InScript when it is released. At this stage, I do not intend to release future versions of InScript through public domain channels.
So what does InScript do? InScript is aimed at two areas - Video Titling and the production of screens for use in Interactive Video. The operational concepts are similar in many ways to those of a Desktop Publishing Program. Text is added to a page, but unlike some paint/titling programs the text can be easily altered after it has been placed down. The text can be edited, changed to a different font, have shadows added and changed, moved around the page, changed colour, etc - all without disturbing or having to redo other elements on the page, even with an IFF picture in the background. InScript also has a script making function so that the pages can be played back with various transitions between them for recording on to videotape.
InScript was born out my frustration with other titling and paint programs. Altering text (fixing typos,moving text, changing colours, etc) in a paint program (and some titling programs) after it has been entered is very difficult and often involves redoing the whole thing just to fix one small error. Most titling programs allow you to edit text after it has been entered, but placing it precisely on the screen is difficult. They have very limited alignment options, and cutting, pasting, changing fonts and colours,etc can be a tedious affair. InScript is closer in concept to a desktop publishing program, where everything is editable after it has been placed on the page. Simply select one or more objects (lines of text) and then perform some action eg move them, change font, shadows, colours, etc on it/them.
The key features of InScript Version 1.1 are:
- text is fully editable after placing on page
- text is fully editable after saving/loading
- text can be placed on top of an IFF picture, moved and edited
without disturbing the background
- manually adjustable kerning
- number of fonts loaded at one time limited by available memory
- screens can be saved as IFF picture or anim files
- up to 99 undos/redos
- comprehensive text alignment options
- individual pages can be saved/loaded
- text styles (colour, shadow, outline, etc) can be saved and
Version 1.1 has the following improvements over Version 1.0:
- proper overscan support
- Workbench 2.0 Outline font support
- Colour cycling
- IFF pictures may be included in playback script.
- better memory management. IFF backgrounds are now stored in fast ram
(if available) rather than in chip ram, allowing for more backgrounds
to be loaded at one time.
- minor changes to allow for new Workbench 2.0 features
eg. overscan Workbench screens.
Installing InScript:
All that is required is to drag the InScript icon into whatever drawer you wish it to be in - on either a hard or floppy disk. There are no other files needed for operation and no assigns are needed. You can save configuration and text style files for your convenience but InScript does not require them to operate.
Double-click the InScript icon to run. If running from the CLI type the program name. There are no command-line switches, although you can specify the name of an InScript data file to be loaded after the program starts. eg. run InScript mydatafile.
InScript requires at least 1mb memory, more if you are using High Resolution Screens or IFF Picture files as backgrounds.
InScript needs a stack of at least 8000 bytes. If you are running InScript from an icon, make sure that the stack in the icon info is at least 8000. If you are working from the CLI, type 'stack 8000' before running InScript.
Entering Text:
Text can be entered either in lines or boxes.
To enter a line of text, click once with the left mouse button where you want the line of text to start. You can also start a line by pressing <RETURN> while holding the <SHIFT> key down - the line will be positioned at the cursor position. The cursor will change to an 'I' shape. Type in your text. At the end of the line press <RETURN>. To enter another line click somewhere else. Or if you press <RETURN> again, the next line will align left and below the previous line.
All text in a line will have the same font, colours, effects, etc. Lines are limited to 80 characters.
To create a text box, choose 'Edit -> Text box -> Create' from the menu. The cursor will change to a small cross-hair. Draw out a box while holding the left mouse button down. This box will be the outside boundaries of the text box. After releasing the left mouse button, the cursor will change to an 'I' shape and an insertion point will be created inside the box. Type in your text - the text will wrap when it reaches the right boundary. There is a menu which allows you to set the alignment within the box - left, right or centre - change font, leading (space between lines) and tracking (space between letters). Pressing <RETURN> will complete the text box and return to the main screen. Pressing <SHIFT><RETURN> will force a line break. If the cursor is at the end of a line that has a forced line break, it will change to a different shape to that of the normal cursor.
If the text extends down past the bottom of the text box, then that text will not be displayed. If the cursor is also in this part of the text, it will not be displayed. Holding down the <SHIFT> key and pressing the <LEFT> cursor key will move the insertion point to the start of the current line, <SHIFT> + <RIGHT> cursor will move to the end of the line, <SHIFT> + <UP> cursor will move to the start of the text in the box, and <SHIFT> + <DOWN> will move to the end of the box.
Moving the cursor to one of the corners of the bounding box will change the cursor to a small cross-hair. By holding down the left mouse button, you can alter the size of the text box.
All text in a box will have the same font, colours, effects, etc. Text boxes are limited to thirty lines and 256 characters.
Selecting Text:
Before any text attributes (font, colour, letters, etc.) can be changed, the text has to be selected. (Similar to a word processor.) Only whole lines and text boxes can be selected. Click with the left mouse button on the text you want to select. You can also draw a box around a number of lines or boxes while holding down the left mouse button. Click with the right mouse button on any selected text if you want to deselect it. Any number of lines or boxes can be selected at once. The subsequent action eg. changing to a new font, will affect all the text that is selected. To deselect all the text that is selected press the <ESC> key. After you have selected some lines, performed some action on them and the screen has redrawn, those lines can be selected again by pressing the <~> key.
Editing Text:
First select the text you wish to edit. Only one line or text box can be edited at a time. Choose 'Edit -> Text' from the menu. The cursor will change to an 'I' shape. Use the cursor left and right keys to move the cursor to where you wish to edit, and make the necessary changes. Press <RETURN> to return to the main screen.
There is a menu with various options, depending on whether you are editing a line or text box. If you are editing a line of text, you can adjust the kerning of the text. Kerning is the adjustment of the space between two adjacent letters eg. decreasing the space between an 'A' and a 'V' to improve the visual effect. Move the cursor to between the two letters you want to kern. Choose 'Kerning' from the menu. The cursor will change to a 'K' shape. Use the left and right cursor keys to increase or decrease the space between the letters. Press <RETURN> to return to the 'Edit Text' mode. Press <RETURN> again to return to the main screen or move the cursor to a new position to do another kerning.
Other menu options allow you to delete the kerning where the cursor is positioned and to delete all kerning in a line. You can also make the line all Upper or Lower case and split the line into two separate lines.
Kerning is not available for text inside a text box.
Moving Text:
Text can be easily moved around after it has been entered. Select the text you want to move. When all the text has been selected, click on one of the lines or boxes but keep holding down the left mouse button. The text will start flashing. Move the mouse around until the text is positioned correctly then release the mouse button.
Loading Fonts:
Up to thirty fonts can be loaded into ram at one time. To load a new font, choose 'Edit -> Font -> Load' from the menu. A requester will appear listing the fonts available in the current fonts directory. To read the fonts in a different disk/directory, type the full path name of the required directory in the path string gadget and press <RETURN>. Select one of the fonts in the requester and click 'OK' or double-click on the font you want.
Another screen will appear showing you the sizes available in that font. At the top of the screen the name of the font will be given, along with a list of the sizes in that font already loaded.
The size of the gadget representing each available point size corresponds to the size of that point size based on your current screen resolution, unless there are more than 15 different point sizes available. In this case each gadget will have the same size.
If you are using Workbench 2.0, then there will be a string gadget at the top left of the screen. You can enter any point size in this gadget and Workbench 2.0 will scale the font to this size. If you have already made some bitmap sizes of this font, then those sizes will be shown as gadgets you can select. If there are no bitmap fonts already created, then a range of gadgets in different sizes will be provided.
Select the point sizes you wish to load (remember that more than one can be loaded at once.) If you click the 'OK' gadget the point sizes selected will be loaded and you will be returned to the main screen. If you click the 'Batch' gadget, the point sizes selected will be loaded and the 'Load font' requester will reappear. If you select the 'Cancel' gadget, no fonts will be loaded and the 'Load font' requester will reappear.
If you are using Workbench 2.0, then you can enter a size in the string gadget. If you press <RETURN>, this size will be loaded (along with any gadget sizes also selected) and you will be returned to the main screen. However, if you hold down the <SHIFT> key while pressing <RETURN> then that size will be loaded, and the string gadget will be cleared so that you can enter another size to load.
ColorFonts are supported. Load them as for any other font. To change the palette to that of the font, choose 'Page -> Palette -> Use ColorFont' from the menu. A requester will appear showing the fonts already loaded. Choose the ColorFont whose palette you want to use. The program ColorText that comes with ColorFonts must be running for ColorFonts to work properly, unless you are using Workbench 2.0.
When you change the directory that you are loading fonts from, InScript does not change the Fonts: assign. This can lead to trouble when using floppy drive systems, particularly if you only have one drive. This is because the disk that Fonts: is assigned to must be present in the system to load a font. In a single drive system, the Fonts: disk (usually you boot disk) and the disk containing the font you want to load can not be in the drive at the same time. To get around this, either
1. rename the disk containing the font to "Fonts".
2. use the name of the disk, not the drive when specifying
the disk/directory eg use "FontDisk1:fonts" not "DF0:fonts".
3. assign Fonts: to something that is always in the system
eg In a CLI window, type "assign fonts: ram:"
Under WorkBench 2.0, the assigned Fonts: directory does not have to be present in the system to load a standard Bitmap font. To load an Outline font however, the system needs to access files in the 'Fonts:_Bullet' directory, and will not create the font if they are not found. This should only cause problems if you are using a floppy disk based system, which is highly impractical with Outline fonts anyway.
Changing Fonts:
First select the text that you want to change the font of. Choose 'Edit -> Font -> Select' from the menu. A requester listing the fonts that you have previously loaded will appear. Choose the font that you wish to change to. All selected text will now be redrawn with that font.
Text Effects (Shadows, Outline, etc.):
First select the text that you want to change the effect of. Choose 'Style -> Edit' from the 'Edit' menu. The 'Text Style' screen will appear. This screen consists of gadgets to change the shadow, outline, colours, style attributes, and tracking of the text you have selected. Alter these gadgets to achieve the desired effect. If you have selected some text, that line will appear in the top half of the screen to display the effect.
The Shadow gadgets alter the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) size of the shadow. Clicking the center gadget will set the Shadow values to zero. The shadow can be turned off or on with the 'Shadow' gadget. The shadow can be either Cast or Drop.
The Outline gadgets put an outline around the letters. The size can be adjusted with the up and down gadgets or a number can be typed into the string gadget. The outline can be turned on or off by selecting/deselecting the 'Outline' gadget.
The Tracking gadgets set the spacing between the letters.
Clicking on the 'Colour' gadget will bring up a palette requester where you can choose and alter the colours that the face, shadow and outline will be drawn in. To change the colour of the face of the text, click on the 'Face' gadget, then click on the colour you want in the palette gadgets. The colour can be altered with the RGB sliders. The shadow and outline colours can be changed in a similar manner.
The Bold, Italic and Underline gadgets do the obvious things.
If you have loaded an IFF picture as a background, the Background gadget will show the picture in the top half of the screen.
There is a pop-up menu available in the Style screen. This menu controls the Style options which will be covered later.
When you have achieved the effect you want click 'OK'. All the text that was selected will be redrawn with that effect. Click 'Cancel' to exit the Effect screen without making any changes.
Effects (shadows, outlines, etc.) can be named and saved so that they can be applied to text quickly and easily. A combined effect is called a Style. Styles can be named, selected, loaded and saved from both the main screen and the 'Text Style' screen.
Each style must have a name. To name a Style from the main screen, select some text that has the effect you want to name. Select 'Style -> Name' from the 'Edit' menu. A requester will appear showing you the already named Styles and a string gadget for enter this Styles name. Style names are limited to 20 characters. Give this Style a meaningful name and click 'OK'.
To apply this style to other text, first select that text, then select 'Style -> Select' from the 'Edit' menu. A requester will appear showing the Styles that have already been named. Choose the one you want and that Style will be applied to the selected text.
The first four Styles that you name will be assigned to the function keys F6 - F9. They can be then selected without going to the requester by pressing the appropriate key. These key assignments can be changed by using the 'Style -> Assign key' command.
The entire list of Styles can be saved to and loaded from disk by using the 'Style ->Save' and 'Style -> Load' commands. When InScript first runs, it checks to see if there is a file called "s:InScript.styles" and loads it if it exists. If you have some styles you use constantly, save them as this file and they will be automatically loaded whenever you start the program.
Alignment:
The alignment options from the 'Edit -> Alignment' menu are only applicable for text entered in lines. Text in text boxes can be aligned with the sub-menus of the 'Edit -> Text box' menu.
First select the lines you want to align. Then choose 'Edit -> Alignment' from the menu. The 'Alignment' screen will appear. The gadgets on the left side of the screen control the vertical alignment of the lines while the right side controls the vertical spacing between the lines. Both sets of gadgets can operate either separately or together.
To do vertical alignment, choose one of the top left group of gadgets - either Left, Right or Center. You must also choose one of the bottom left group of gadgets - either Spread, Line, Screen, Mouse or Number. The two groups act together and you must have one gadget from each group selected for any alignment to take place.
What Left, Right and Center alignment are should be obvious.
Line will align all the selected lines up with the last line that was selected before you chose 'Alignment' from the menu. eg. if you select the Left and Line gadgets all the selected lines will align left with the last line selected. If you choose Center and Line all the lines will be center aligned around the center of the last line selected.
Screen will use the dimensions of the screen as the basis for the alignment. eg. Center and Screen will align all the selected lines in the center of the screen.
Mouse will allow you to visually choose the alignment point. After choosing this option and clicking 'OK', the screen will clear then redraw everything except the selected lines. Click with the left mouse button where you want the alignment point to be.
Number allows you to numerically enter the alignment point.
Spread will create a staggered alignment between two lines. If you have selected six lines before you entered 'Alignment', choose Spread and Left, then the leftmost and the rightmost lines will stay where they are and the starting positions of the remaining four lines will be evenly staggered between them.
To control the vertical position and spacing of the lines, use the right column of gadgets.
The bottom right group of gadgets controls where the selected lines will appear on the screen. Select Top and adjust the position of the top line using the number gadgets. The actual position number refers to the number of pixels down the screen the top line will be. This option has no effect on the spacing between the lines - it will only move them up or down the screen as a group.
The top right group of gadgets controls the vertical spacing between the selected lines. Either the Height or the Fixed gadget must be selected. Fixed will put a fixed number of pixels between the baselines (the line that the text sits on) of the selected lines. The number is changed by using the number gadgets at the bottom. If you are spacing lines that contain different size fonts, then using Fixed spacing will produce what appears to be uneven spacing. Using Height spacing will take the size of the font of each line into account. It will put a fixed number of pixels between the bottom of one line and the top of the next line.
Selecting the Spread option will leave the top line and the bottom line where they are and distribute the remaining lines evenly between them (using either Fixed or Height spacing).
Because the Alignment screen hides the bottom of the main screen, it can be difficult to accurately set the spacing visually. Clicking on the 'Hide Menu' gadget will hide the Alignment screen. The spacing and position of the lines can now be altered using the cursor keys. Clicking on the 'Help' gadget in the small window that appears will explain how this works. Click on the 'Menu' gadget (or press <RETURN>) to return to the Alignment screen.
Changing Colours:
The 'Edit -> Colour' menu allows you to change the colours of the selected text. First select the text you want to change. Then select 'Edit -> Colour'. The Colour window will appear. Click on either the Face, Shadow or Outline gadgets. The text in that gadget will change to "Choose". Now select the colour that you want from the palette section. The gadget will fill with the colour you have chosen to indicate that that particular gadget has been activated. To deactivate the gadget click on it again and it will back as it was at the start. You can choose to change any or all of the Face, Shadow or Outline.
Loading/Saving IFF:
IFF pictures files (except for HAM and Half-brite) can be loaded and used as a background. The screen format and palette will be changed to match that of the picture. Text is in the foreground and can still be moved, edited, etc. even with a picture in the background. (If InScript crashes while loading an IFF picture, this usually means that you r stack is set too low. See Installing InScript to fix this.)
The screen (text plus background if present) can be saved as a standard IFF file.
Selecting 'IFF -> Save" will bring up a requester where you can specify which pages to save. Selecting either 'All' or 'Range' allows you to save a number of pages as a series of IFF pictures. If the 'Use page names' gadget is not selected, the name that you entered in the file requester will be used as the basis for the names of the created files. eg. if you entered "Pics", then Page 1 will be saved as "Pics.001", Page 2 as "Pics.002", etc. If the 'Use page names' gadget is selected then the file name entered in the file requester will be ignored and the files saved as their page names in the directory specified in the file requester. If you are only saving the current page then it will be saved as the name entered in the file requester - the 'Use page names' gadget has no effect. You will only be warned if you are about to overwrite an existing file if you are saving the current page. Saving all or a range of pages will overwrite existing files without warning - so be careful. (This is done so as to avoid a large number of requesters if you are saving a lot of pages.)
The pages can also saved as an Animation file that can be read by DeluxePaint and most presentation programs. Selecting 'Save as anim' will bring up the 'Animation File Options' requester. This allows you to save all the pages or just a range of pages as an Anim. You can also save the anim as a 'Looping' Anim, where the first two pages are added on to the end of the anim. Some presentation programs prefer it this way, some don't. The palette of the first page is used as the Anim palette.
Loading/Saving Data:
InScript data files contain all the information needed to make up an InScript screen. This information consists of:
Screen Data (width, height, resolution, depth);
Palette Data (colours in the present palette);
Font Data (names and sizes of all the loaded fonts);
Text Data (text, position, font, shadows, etc.)
and Background information for every page.
The current playback script is also saved. This is covered later.
Saving a Data file will save all this information about the current display.
Loading a new Data file will delete all of the current display, except for the fonts presently loaded.
The background information saved consists of the full filename of the IFF picture. eg "DH0:Pictures/pic". The actual picture information is not saved. When reloading the data, InScript will try to load the file as specified. If there are any problems eg not enough memory, can't find file, etc. then no pictures will be loaded. If you are loading pictures that are stored on to floppy disk, then you should specify the disk name rather than than the drive name in the file requester when you first load the picture eg use "PictureDisk1:pic" rather than "DF0:pic". This will ensure that you will get a requester asking you to insert the right disk when loading the file.
Fast Load/Save:
Fast load/save simply bypasses the file requester. Instead of the file requester you get a string gadget containing the name of the last file you loaded or saved. Note that the Fast load/save option will save or load the file as either Data or IFF according to whatever format the last file you loaded/saved was. Only the current page is saved if you select 'IFF Save'. Animation files can not be saved with 'Fast save'. When saving files on 'Fast save' you are not warned if the file you are saving will overwrite another file.
Loading/Saving Configuration:
When InScript first runs, it checks to see if there is a file called "s:InScript.conf". If there is, it will load the Data contained in that file. This enables you to set the resolution,depth, palette, fonts, etc. to whatever combination you desire. For example, you may wish to always start InScript in a High Resolution, non-interlaced, 8 colour screen with the fonts Swiss.50, Swiss.70 and Roman.40 already loaded. To do this start InScript, set up the display and load those fonts. Now select 'Configuration -> Save default' from the 'Project' menu. Now every time you run InScript, the program will read this file, set the display to what you specified and load those fonts.
You can save the configuration file as any other name you like and load them at any time. Use 'Save other' and 'Load other'. This means you can have different configuration files for different types of jobs.
Screen Format:
Screen format gives you options about the display. InScript does not support HAM or Half-brite displays. Overscan screens (or IFF backgrounds) can be used. There are three overscan gadgets - 'Off', 'Std' and 'Max'. These correspond to their DeluxePaint equivalents. Please note that overscan screens can cause problems if you are using Workbench 2.0 without the Enhanced Chip Set. Also, under Workbench 1.2/1.3 with a PAL display, some combinations of screen size and depth and Preferences settings can cause the bottom section of the screen to dissappear.
The screen size can be any size that is larger than the standard non-overscan sizes. Type in the required size in the string gadgets.
There is a choice of whether you want to work in PAL or NTSC screens. The default will depend on the system you are using.
The screen format is totally independent of any loaded IFF pictures used as backgrounds (except when they are first loaded). If you load a Low Res IFF file then change the screen format to High Res, the IFF picture will cover only the left half of the screen. If you display a 640 x 512 picture in a 320 x 256 screen then only the top left quarter of the picture will be seen.
Fast Redraw:
Every time you perform some action in InScript the screen needs to be redrawn. If you have text with large shadows or outlines this can take some time. Fast redraw speeds up this process somewhat but uses more memory, so it can be turned on or off as necessary. Fast redraw makes some educated guesses about what parts of the screen need to be redrawn. Sometimes this is not completely successful. If this happens, choose 'Edit -> Redraw' from menu and the screen will be redrawn from scratch. Any text (including shadows. etc) that are supposed to be drawn in Color 0, will not be drawn while Fast Redraw is on. Fast redraw does not operate on text boxes.
Pages:
InScript will allow you to have up to 99 different pages. Each of these pages will have the same screen resolution and depth. However they can all have different palettes and backgrounds.
Pages can added by selecting 'Append' or 'Insert' from the 'Page' menu. The new page will be added after the last page.
Individual pages can be saved and loaded as desired. When loading a page, a requester will appear allowing you to choose what aspects of the page to load. These aspects are the Screen, Fonts, Palette, Text and Background. Note that when saving the background, only the file name of the background is saved, not the actual picture information. When loading a page, InScript will attempt to load that file.
When loading a page, a new page will be inserted before the current page and the new data loaded into it. Pages can also be copied, cut and pasted.
All pages must have a name. When first created, each page will be called 'Page 1', 'Page 2', etc. You can rename them if you wish by selecting 'Page -> Name' from the menu. If you do rename pages, it is suggested that a different naming style be used - do not use 'Page 1', etc.
The ToolBar at the bottom of the screen allows you to move through the pages. Click on the right arrow to move forward one page and on the left arrow to go back one page. You can also use the right cursor to go to the next page and the left cursor to go back one page. The Up cursor goes to the first page and the down cursor goes to the last page. The current page number will be displayed in the string gadget between the two arrow gadgets. You can also type in the number of the page you wish to go to in the string gadget. If you select 'Page -> Goto' from the menu, a requester will appear with a list of all the page names. Click on the one you want to go to.
There is a 'Text' submenu in the 'Page' menu. This allows you to copy text to and from other pages. If you select one or more lines of text before using one of the 'Copy to' commands then the text that has been selected will be copied. If no text is selected all the text will be copied. The text that is copied is added to the other pages, any text already on that page is retained.
Each page can have its own background (IFF picture). The way in which the backgrounds are displayed are governed by the 'Load backgrounds' submenus in the 'Control' menu. If the 'Load all' submenu is selected, all the backgrounds will be loaded into ram (if there is enough free memory). If the 'Current page' submenu is selected, only the background of the current page is loaded. When you go to another page, the background of the present page is removed from memory and the background of the new page is loaded. If the 'On update' submenu is selected, then no backgrounds are loaded. The background will be displayed only when you select the 'Page -> Background -> Update' menu. If a background is used by more than one page, only one copy of it is stored in memory (unless you explicitly load it more than once).
There is a 'Background' submenu in the 'Page' menu. This allows you to copy backgrounds to and from other pages. If you choose 'Clear' from this submenu the background will be cleared. If the background is being used by by other pages, a requester will appear asking if you want to delete the background from those pages as well.
Each page has its own palette. There is a palette submenu in the 'Page' menu. The options here allow you to adjust the palette (only on the current page), set cycling, copy palettes to and from other pages. Palettes can be saved/loaded by using the 'Page -> Save' and 'Page -> Load' menus and only selecting the 'Palette' gadget.
If you load an IFF picture as a background, then you may find that colour 1 (which is normally used to display the menus) may not be a suitable colour. 'Menu Colour' allows you to choose a different colour to display the menus, gadgets and requesters on the main screen.
Colour Cycling:
Choosing 'Page -> Palette -> Set cycling' will open the 'Set cycling' window on the main screen. At the top of the window is a series of boxes containing the colours from the current pages palette. On the top and bottom of these boxes are two markers - one labelled 'S' (for start) and 'E' (for end). These markers can be moved to set the start and end colours for the current range. Up to 8 ranges can be used, and can be selected using the Range gadgets. The Speed gadget is to the right of the Range gadgets. The speed can be adjusted between 0 and 455. The higher the number the faster the cycle speed. Each range can have a different speed. To the left of the Range gadgets are the 'On/Off' gadgets. These control whether or not this page will cycle. At the bottom of the window is the 'Test' gadget. Clicking on this gadget will cause the 'Set cycling' window to disappear and the main screen to start cycling. Clicking the left mouse window will bring back the 'Set cycling' window. Click on the 'OK' gadget when you have adjusted the cycling to the preferred values.
Choosing 'Control -> Cycling On/Off' (when on the main screen) toggles cycling on or off. This command also works when you are in the 'Video' playback mode. It has no effect when working in the 'Play script' playback mode.
If you load an IFF picture as a background for a page, then any cycling information that has been saved with that file will be used in the palette for that page.
File Requester:
The file requester contains two pop-up menus. One contains a list of the last 14 directories you entered and allows you to easily go back to one of them. The other contains 3 DOS functions - Delete, Rename and Make Directory. Selecting 'Configuration' also on this menu allows you to set the six drive gadgets and the pop-up directories to whatever you wish. There are also two gadgets which can be turned on or off. One is the 'Make Icons' gadget. When this is selected, icons will be created when you save a file. When the 'Update Dirs' gadget is selected, the the list of directories in the pop-up menu is updated every time you go into a new directory. If this gadget is not selected, the names don't change. When you select select 'Configuration -> Save' from the "Project' menu, the current drives and pop-up directories are also saved. (So that they will automatically be loaded when you next start InScript).
The code for the pop-up menus come from Paul Miller's program PopMenu on Fish Disk 368.
Clicking on either of the names "Path:" or "File:" or "Ext:" will clear the respective string gadgets and insert the cursor ready for typing.
Holding down the <SHIFT> and <RETURN> keys while in the 'File' string gadget will activate the 'Path' string gadget.
While files are being read, a disk icon will be added to the cursor. Other gadgets can still be selected while files are being read. Clicking in the file gadget while reading files will stop any more files being read.
Requesters:
Most InScript requesters will appear on their own screen. Requesters without a string gadget can be operated from the keyboard as follows. Where there are two gadgets in the requester, pressing <RETURN> is the same as clicking in the left hand gadget (the "OK","Yes", etc gadget). Pressing <ESC> is the same as clicking in the right hand gadget (the "Cancel", "No", etc gadget). Where there is only an "OK" gadget, pressing <RETURN> is the same as clicking in this gadget. You can also type the first letter of the text inside the gadget eg. "Y" for "Yes".
Video:
Selecting 'Control -> Video' from the menu removes the ToolBar and the pointer. The right cursor displays the next page, the left cursor displays the previous page, the up cursor goes to the last page and the down cursor goes to the first page. When you display a new page, the next page draws into RAM, ready to be displayed. You can not display this page i.e. pressing the right cursor will have no effect, until the page is ready to be displayed. If you are go backwards to the preceding page, there will be a delay after you press the left cursor while the page is being drawn into ram prior to display.
The way the backgrounds are displayed are governed by the 'Load backgrounds' submenus in the 'Control' menu. If 'Load all pages' is selected, then all pages will be loaded into ram before playback. If the 'Current page' is selected, then only the current page's background is loaded (therefore using less memory, but slowing playback speed). If 'On update' is selected, then no backgrounds will be loaded.
Pressing the <TAB> key at any time during the playback will toggle cycling on and off. The current page must have the cycling turned on (using the 'Set cycling' command) for any cycling to take place.
Pressing the 'Esc' key will end the Playback mode and return
to the main screen.
Edit Script:
Selecting 'Control -> Edit script' from the menu brings up the 'Edit Script' screen. This allows you to arrange the pages so that they can be displayed in any order and to put transitions between them. This will primarily be used for recording to videotape.
The top half of the screen contains a list of events in the order they are to be displayed. An event consists of a Page name, an Effect, a Speed for that transition, a Time to display that page and a set of various Options. The list of pages is on the left of the display. Beside them to the right is a list of the effects. Next to the right is a list of the speeds of the effects, a list of the delay time between pages, and then a gadget to set the options. On the bottom left of the screen is a scrollable box containing a list of all the pages you have created. Next to it is a box containing a list of all the available effects. Next to that is a 'Trashcan' gadget for deleting pages, and also gadgets for adjusting the speed and timing of transitions.
The basic method of creating a script is to drag page names, effects, speeds and times from the bottom half of the display to the top half. eg. To add a new event to the end of the script, scroll through the page list on the bottom of the screen till the required page is visible. Then click and hold (with the left mouse button) on that name. Now drag the mouse pointer to the end of the page list on the top half of the screen and release the mouse button. That page will be added to the list to be displayed. Do the same with the effects, speeds and times.
Pages, effects, speeds and times do not have to be dragged only from the bottom of the display, Any page already in the event list can be dragged to another position in the event list. Note that this just copies the page name to another position, it does not delete the name from its original position. To delete a page from the event list i.e. to delete an event, drag it to the 'Trashcan'. A page name can appear in the event list any number of times. For example, if you want to have a number of blank pages (between other pages) in your script, you only have to create one blank page, but you can display it many times during the script.
Dragging a new page name on to an event that already has a page name will overwrite the old page name. If you wish to insert a new page name into the event list, first make sure the 'Insert' gadget in the 'Control' group is selected.
If you hold down the <SHIFT> key before you start to drag a transition, speed or time, then the new transition or amount will be copied to every event after the one you drag it onto. If you hold down the <ALT> key, then the new transition or amount will be copied to every transition or amount that was the same as the one you dragged onto. For example, if you hold down the <ALT> key while dragging a time of 3.0 seconds onto a time of 2.0 seconds, then every subsequent event with a time of 2.0 seconds will be changed to a time of 3.0 seconds.
The pages that the script will display are defined as a range. The markers denoting a range appear on the left of the event list. The right pointing arrows mark the start of the range and the left pointing arrows mark the end of the range. The pages between these two marks i.e those that will be displayed, will have a circle beside them. To change either the start or end of a range, drag from the appropriate gadget in the Control group to the desired event. Dragging the start gadget to the 'Trashcan' moves the start marker to the first event. Dragging the end gadget to the 'Trashcan' moves the end marker to the last event.
There is a 'Options' gadget in the Control group. Clicking on this gadget will bring up a requester containing various script options.
There is a 'Loop' gadget in the Script Options. If this is selected, the script will loop after the end marker back to the start marker.
There is a 'Beep' gadget in the Script Options. If this is selected, then any page that has a 'Key' wait specified will give an audible beep when it has been drawn into ram and is ready to be displayed. If you press the right cursor key before the page is ready to be displayed, then nothing will happen. The beep is to indicate to you that the page is ready to be displayed.
There is also a 'Cycling' gadget in the Script Options. This will covered shortly.
Each event also has its own Options settings. For an InScript page the options available are 'Cycling', 'Show Pointer' and 'Fade out'.
Cycling is controlled as follows. There are three areas where Cycling can be turned On or Off - in the 'Set cycling' command of each page, in the Options for each event in the script and in the Script Options. For cycling to be seen in any particular event, cycling must be turned on in all three areas. If Cycling is turned off in the script options, then no cycling will occur in the script. If Cycling is turned off for a particular page, then it will not cycle in any event in which that page is used.
The 'Fade out' option allows you to fade out at the end of the that event. (In InScript 1.0, Fade Out was a separate effect.) There is a string gadget where you can enter the number of frames to fade out over. During playback, the screen will fade to black, and then the next effect will take place. Note that the palette of the next event is not displayed until the transition effect is finished. If you do a Fade Out and the next event has a wipe effect, then you will not see the wipe take place - the palette of the previous page has been set to all black during the fade and is not updated to the new page's palette until after the wipe is completed. To get around this, make a blank page with the same palette as the new page and insert this blank page between the other two pages in the script. Make the effect of the blank page 'Cut' with a time of 0.0 seconds. This will mean that the palette will be updated when the blank page is displayed and the wipe to the next page will be visible.
There is an effect called 'IFF Picture'. Dragging this effect into the script will bring up a file requester where you can specify an IFF Picture or Brush file to show. This picture can be any resolution, including HAM and Halfbrite. The resolution of the IFF Picture can be different to the resolution that InScript is currently using. Clicking on the "Opt' gadget will bring up the 'IFF Picture Options' requester. These options include two where you can set fade in and fade out times for the picture. At the bottom of the options list is the name of the file to show. Beside this is a gadget called 'File'. Clicking this will bring up a file requester so you can choose a different file.
If you are showing a brush rather than a full page image, then normally InScript will place this brush in the center of the screen. However, there is also a gadget called 'Keep Brush Position'. If this gadget is selected, then InScript will place the brush in the position that it was in when it was originally saved. The only problem with this is that not many paint programs seem to save this information in their brush files. Deluxe Photolab is the only one I've found that does. Why don't the others?
Note that the effect of an event after an IFF Picture can only be a 'Cut' or 'Fade In' effect i.e. you can not do a wipe between an InScript page and an IFF picture. During playback of the script, the IFF Picture will be preloaded when the previous event is displayed.
If you click on the 'Play' gadget in the 'Control' group, the script will play. The pointer and 'Edit Script' screen will disappear and the first page in the event list will be displayed. This page will display for the amount of time specified in the first event. If this time is specified as "Key"then playback will pause until you press the right cursor key. Then the page name in the second event will be displayed, using the transition and speed specified in the second event. This will continue until the end of the event list is reached (or forever if the Script Loop gadget is selected). To abort the playback, press the 'Esc' key.
Click on the 'Exit' gadget in the 'Control' group to exit the 'Edit Script' screen and return to the main screen. The script is retained in memory and will be displayed the next time you go into 'Edit Script'.
When you select 'Project -> Data -> Save' from the menu on the main screen (not the 'Edit Script' screen) the present script is also saved, and will be loaded if the file is reloaded at a later time.
The range of transitions in this release of InScript is limited to fades and wipes.
Play Script:
Selecting 'Play script' from the 'Control' menu plays the current script. Before playing the script, a check is made of all the page names in the script to ensure there is a page by that name. If a match is not found, (you may have deleted or renamed it), a requester will appear asking you whether you want to replace it with another page or to delete it from the script.
The way the backgrounds are displayed are governed by the 'Load backgrounds' submenus in the 'Control' menu. If 'Load all pages' is selected, then all pages will be loaded into ram before playback. If the 'Current page' is selected, then only the current page's background is loaded (therefore using less memory but having slower playback). If 'On update' is selected, then no backgrounds will be loaded or displayed during playback.
Undo/Redo:
Inscript allows a maximum number of 99 undos. The default number is 5. The number of undos can be changed by selecting 'Control -> Set max undos' from the menu. Selecting 'Undo' from the 'Edit' menu steps backwards through the undo list, while selecting 'Redo' steps forwards through the list. The undos will only work on one page i.e. if you go to another page, the undo memory list is cleared and a new one started for the current page.
The reason for allowing you to set the number of undos is so that you can control the amount of memory allocated for the undo list. The amount of memory used is
(
184 bytes * the number of lines on the page
+
414 * the number of text boxes on the page
+
total number of characters in text boxes
)
* the number of undo levels.
eg. a page with 5 lines and two small text boxes will require approximately 1.8k of memory for each undo level.
Iconify:
Choosing 'Project -> Iconify' from the menu will reduce InScript to an icon in a window on the workbench screen. Clicking on this icon will reactivate the program.
Screen To Back:
Choosing 'Control -> Screen to back' from the menu will push the InScript screen to the back of all other screens. Clicking in the top right corner of the screen does the same thing. Be aware though that because InScript does not have a Intuition Depth Gadget, you may not be able to the screen back again, depending on what other programs are running.
Printing:
InScript has a limited print option. Selecting 'Project -> Print' from the menu, brings up a requester where you can select the pages to be printed and the number of copies. The printing function uses the settings currently stored in the system preferences. These are not adjustable from within InScript. You have to go back to the Workbench to alter them.
The ToolBar:
Across the bottom of the screen is the ToolBar. This bar contains gadgets for some of the most used menu functions. Most gadgets have different functions depending on which mouse button is clicked on the gadget. The ToolBar can be displayed/hidden by selecting 'Toolbar' from the 'Control' menu. (In the tradition of DeluxePaint, you can also use F10.
