PDA Software Library/pdasoftwarelib.iso/PSION/MISC/READER/READER.TXT

Text File | 1995-06-19 | 21.8 KB | 563 lines

                                Reader 2.2a

                                  Install

 Copy Reader.opa to the APP directory and install with <Psion>I from the
system screen.  Next you will need to create a TXT directory using <Psion>+
and enter \TXT and select the drive you want to keep the text files on (files
you want to read or view.)

 Note: Once Reader is installed you may want to assign a button to start up
Reader from the touch pad above the key board.  I use Control+Agenda (icon
sort of looks like a book.) To do this, first have the cursor under the Reader
icon, then press <Psion>A to assign a button to the application.  Then select
the button you want to use close the dialog and you are all set.


                                Quick Start

 Once Reader is installed you can copy any text file to the TXT directory.
And its name should appear under Reader's icon (note: file name should end
with the .TXT extension for this to happen other wise use <Tab> at the system
screen and select your file that way.)


                                 Overview

 Reader is intended for the viewing or processing large text files that exceed
the 40k limit of the Word app.  Since only a small portion of the file is read
at a time, things like paging backward and reformatting the current screen
cause the text to "wander" a bit since all the internal buffers are set to
display the next page.  Also when going backwards (Page up or up arrow key)
Reader will often start in a middle of a word or line of text. This was done
so you could maneuver in any type of file such as a MS Word (tm) file which
does have (mostly) readable text somewhere in the middle of the file.  This is
a bit disconcerting at first but hopefully will not cause any serious
deterrent to using Reader.

 Reader uses a special methodology for wrapping lines in the view window
and tries very hard to maintain the original look and feel of the document
in a smaller (or larger) window. It does so by making an intelligent
decision on what to wrap and what to leave on a separate line, its not
perfect but for me its better then all one way or the other.

 Note: When first starting Reader it may take viewing a screen or two for
Reader to adjust to the file and display the text in a more consistent
manner.

 In case your file would be more readable wrapped differently, Reader has
different views (the diamond key) that can turn off the line wrap or wrap
all the lines together into continues paragraph (broken only by a blank
line in the file.)

 One use for Reader is the reading of electronic There are several "Electron
Books" available on Compuserve (tm) in the Palmtop forum in library 17
(Miscellaneous) and there is a wealth of minor works in other forums such as
LitForum and the Sci-Fi forum.  The largest collection on Compuserve is in the
STUFOB (Student B) forum in the English/lit section and the Gutenberg
collection can be accessed from CIS by GO GUTENBERG but you will need to join
Ziffnet in order to access the files (A few dollars extra per month.) America
On Line (AOL) has over 300 Electronic texts in the Palmtop forum.

Here are some sources for E-Books on the Internet:

1) Internet: ftp: mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu
Electronic Books Site, big choice

2) Internet: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/
DataSources/bySubject/Literature/Gutenberg/
Lit_Author.html

3) There are two Web pages I can recommend for links to lots of different
etext repositories:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/books.html
http://www.adc.com/~don/arts.html

4) E-Books
Internet:ftp.books.com
Book Store On line

If there are other sources of free electronic text I would be interested in
hearing about them, my address is at the end of the next section.

 Reader can also process large files so they can easily be loaded or merged
into the Word application. Carriage returns can be removed or retained
(selectable by the viewing mode (diamond key)) and a large file will
automatically be split into smaller files. See the Export section for more
information.

Note: When viewing vertically the font is built up from the ROM font so the
initial display is a bit slow but speeds up rather quickly. When Reader goes
to the background (when you switch to another app) Reader closes down
resources including its copy of the vertical font. So when you switch back
Reader will then build the font back up in the background. This process is a
bit time consuming so there will be a delay in processing keys. In general
count to 10 before thinking Reader is ignoring your key press. Once the font
is built this problem goes away.


 Any feed back in regard to Reader would be welcomed.

                        Reader c/o Barry Childress
                         3415 North Second Street
                            Harrisburg PA 17110

               Phone [phone] - Compuserve 73510,1420
                     Internet: [e-mail]

                                 Options:

Menu
     Screen

          Setup              <Psion>S

 The setup dialog has all the options for the screen display.

               Font

 You can select any of the Series 3a fonts:
     8 S3 normal    8 S3 bold 8 Mono
     8 Roman   S Roman 11     M Roman 13 L Roman 16
     8 Swiss   S Swiss 11     M Swiss 13 L Swiss 16
     6 Mono

 The letter or number in front of each font is the point size "hot key" (6
- 6 point, 8 - 8 point, S - Small 11 point, M - Medium 13 point and L -
Large 16 point.) You can "hot key" to any point size by pressing 6, 8, S, M
or L. Pressing the same "hot key" again will move to the next style for
that size. You can use the arrow keys to quickly select a font of a
different size but in the same style.

 Note: The Swiss character set is generally thinner then Roman, so you can
get more text per line using Swiss.

 See also <Psion>Z & <Psion><Shift>z (Zoom.)

               Style

 This lets you select Normal or Bold type for the display font.

 See also <Psion>B (Bold toggle.)

               Vertical Tracking

 This sets the space between lines, -1 = close together, 0 = Standard, 1 =
farther apart.

 See also <Psion>V

               Status window

 This selects the size of the Status window. The settings are Off (none,)
Small or Large.

 Also the <Control><Menu> keys.

               Line wrap

 This selects how the lines of text from the source file will "wrap" on the
screen.

 On - The computer analyzes the text and attempts to reformat the paragraph
to fit on the screen and still maintain the original "look." Sometimes the
computer gets it wrong by not wrapping a line (text starts on a separate
line that should be continued on the previous line) or wrapping a line that
should start on a new line (trying to make a paragraph out of table data.)
 Off - All new lines in the source file start a new line on the screen. If
the line is longer then the display area the line will break at a word and
continue on the next line.
 All - This wraps all new lines as part of a paragraph unless separated by
a blank line.

 Also the <Diamond> key.

               Orientation

 The selects how you want to hold/view the Psion while reading.  The choices
are Horizontal, Left-Vertical and Right-Vertical.  Horizontal is the normal
viewing mode of the Psion. Left and Right Vertical are sideways fonts with
the left or right referring to which side of the screen is the top. See the
note in the Overview section for more info about Vertical fonts and their
quirks.

 Also the <Psion>O key.

          Save as default    <Psion>D

 This saves the options for the screen display to be used when viewing any
new files. The options are saved as Reader.def in the \APP\ directory (same
disk where Reader is installed.)

          Zoom in            <Psion>Z

 This changes the font to the next font. See <Psion>S (Setup) for a list of
fonts.

          Zoom out           <Psion><Shift>Z

 This changes the font to the previous font. See <Psion>S (Setup) for a
list of fonts.

 Note: ALL the system fonts (but the Psion 3 number font) are available not
just the normal four in the standard apps.

          Bold toggle        <Psion>B

 This toggles between Normal and Bold font.

 See also <Psion>S (Setup.)

          Vertical tracking  <Psion>V

 This adjusts the amount of blank space between lines. It will also effect
the number of lines that will appear on the screen.

          Orientation         <Psion>O

 This cycles between Horizontal and the two sideways fonts.
 For more direct access to the screen orientation press (no <Psion>):

 < - for Left-Vertical
 > - for Right-Vertical
 / - for Horizontal

 See <Psion>S (Setup) for more information.


          Write to file      <Psion>W

 This writes the contents of the current screen to a file. The dialog
defaults to a file with the same drive, path and base name as the original
file with the extension changed to .SAV. Pressing <Tab> while in the file
name box will let you select any existing file.

 You can use the up and down arrows Zoom (<Psion>Z & <Psion><Shift>Z) and
Vertical tracking (<Psion>V) to adjust the contents of the screen. Note:
using the down arrow key is not a precise way to set the screen. The
internal counters only approximate the current location with a tendency to be
further into the text then what is on the screen.

 Use this option for quick collecting of highlights from the text you are
reading. If you wish to create a new file other then filename.SAV then use
<Psion>T & <Psion>E (Export.)

 I have a Word alias set up so all the saved files will appear under this
icon. To do this place the cursor under the Word app icon in the system
screen. Press <Psion>E to create a new list. The Directory will be \TXT\
the extension will be SAV. If you normally view files with the wrap mode
set to ON or ALL then the type should be Word Processor. You can then
(optionally) select the supplied Clip icon. I used Clips for the name of
the list but anything can be used.

          About              <Psion>A

 This brings up a screen containing the version number and Copyright right
information. There is also information on how to contact me.

     Search

          Find word          <Psion>F

Note: For the fastest searching Reader needs at least 16k free. It will
still work with less then that but a bit slower.

               Word

 Enter a word (or phrase) to find.

 Note: Reader will not find a phrase that spans two original file lines.
Although Reader will find a phrase that it splits across two (or more) lines
it will not highlight it.

               Mode

 Start of word-This is like whole word search but allows for different
endings.
 Anywhere-Find the text in any location.

               Case sensitive

 Select ether Yes or no. No will find the text in any case.

               From

 Beginning-Start looking from the beginning of the file.
 Current-Start looking from the current file position.

               Show before

 Enter the number of characters to show on the screen before the text that is
found.

          Find again         <Psion>G

 Find the next occurrence in the file.

          Jump               <Psion>J

 The dialog box pops up indicating the current percent within the file.
Type in a new percent and enter. And the text relative to that percent will
be displayed.

          Page               <Psion>P

 The dialog box pops up indicating the current page (relative to the
current screen (type) size) within the file. Type in a new page and enter.
And the text relative to that page will be displayed.

 Note: If you go to the last page there may be a few lines still following
that are part of the file.

     CIS

 If the file you are viewing is a Compuserve forum message file these options
will be available. (Each file is tested for a '#: ' that begins a line.
Reader will also highlight portions of the header to draw your attention to
them. It checks the To: and Fr: line for your name (Press <Psion>A and check
the "Special thanks" line I have your name correct as you use it on forums.
And new subjects are also highlighted. Note: that when viewing vertically the
highlight will not work if the text to be highlighted is split to another
line.

 Note: The top of the screen is used to determine the start of the current
message. So if the screen does not start off with a #: the message header on
the preceding screen is used as the "current" message.

          Next Header       <Psion>H       or H
          Previous Header   <Psion>Shift-H or Shift-H

 Goes to the next/previous Header (message.)

          Next Thread       <Psion>N       or N
          Previous Thread   <Psion>Shift-N or Shift-N

 Goes to the next/previous message with a different Sb: line (subject.) This
is a bit slower then normal searching since each message is checked for it's
Sb: line.

          Response file     <Psion>R       or R

 Generates a TapCIS (tm) send file (.SND.) I hope to resume work on generating
files for Dennis Lefebvre ReadCIS script but as it is that part is still not
done.

          Keep file         <Psion>K       or K

 Saves the current message to filename.SAV on the same drive and directory of
the source file.  Please note that Reader starts at the top of the screen and
looks _backwards_ for a #: to figure out the current message. Using the down
arrow to adjust this is fairly safe unless the message is real short (a line
or less.) See "Write to file" for more info on the down arrow key.

     Bookmark

          Create             <Psion>C

 You can create up to 26 bookmarks for a file. Each bookmark is represented
by a letter A-Z.  I like using letters over numbers (0-9) so if I do use more
then a couple of markers in a file I can assign some sort of mnemonic to help
memorize the key.

 You cannot change the modifier it is there as a reminder that you can
quickly jump to any bookmark using <Control><letter> combination.


 If you attempt to update a marker that is already in use you will get a
dialog confirming the update.

 When you exit Reader (with <Psion>X) you will be asked if you want to save
the bookmarks. If you answer yes the bookmarks will then be saved and
automatically recalled each time you open the file. Once the bookmark file
(filename.BKM) is created you will no longer be prompted to save bookmarks
it will automatically be updated for you. If you wish to delete all the
saved bookmarks just delete the file filename.BKM.

 Note: only new or updated bookmarks are written to the disk. So the
bookmark file is flash friendly.

          Go to Mark         <Psion>M

 This lets you jump to a previously created bookmark. By pressing <Tab> (or
using the left or right arrow keys) in the dialog box you can see a list of
markers that have been set (in case you forgot.) Select the marker you wish
to jump to and press <Enter> pressing <Esc> will abort the operation and
return you to where you where.

 Remember that the markers are accessible through their short cut key
combination <Control><key letter>.  Note: if you are having trouble using
Control-S exit Reader and restart, that should fix the problem.  Or use
<Psion>M to go to the mark.

     Export

Note: The only way to abort an export is to exit Reader.

          Set Top (start)    <Psion>T

 This sets the first line of screen as starting the export file. The
default is the first line in the file.

          Export to here (end) <Psion>E

 This marks the last line of the screen as the last line to export and
brings up the dialog box of exporting details. The top of the screen
(outside the dialog) will show the starting file contents of the export and
the bottom line will show the end of the file export.

 Note: The wrap mode that Reader is in is used to determine how you want
the text exported. If the wrap mode is off the original file lines will go
to the export file as is. Otherwise they are wrapped together as explained
below.

 The title of the dialog box shows the approximate page numbers of the
exported pages.  Use this and the information on the screen to help verify
that you correctly set the beginning (<Psion>T) and end of the text to be
exported.

               Name

  Enter the name of the file with the extension you want (.WRD) to export
to. The default directory is \WRD\ unless it is a CIS message file then the
default drive is the same as the source file.  This can be an existing file or
a new file.  You can press <Tab> to open the file list box and using the arrow
keys (and <Enter>) navigate to the disk, directory and file you want.

 If the file already exists it will first be tested to make sure it's an
ASCII file before the text is append to it. If the file is not ASCII an
error message is displayed and no export takes place. To correct, restart
the export with <Psion>E and fill in a unique name for the file name.

Printing is still very limited at this time since I'm not using any of Psion's
printer drivers.  But with the Psion linked to a PC you can use the name of
REM::LPT1 (or any other printer number) or REM::PRN and it should work (unless
you have a postscript printer.) With Psion's parallel cable using a file name
of PAR:A should work for a printer (but I can't test it.) On laser printers
you need to press the "page eject" (or some such) button to get the page,
Reader does not issue a form feed.  My apologies to Macintosh owners in that
this method will probably not work.


               Disk

 Select the disk you want the file sent to.

               Split file length

 Enter the desired file length of the exported file. When the file exceeds
this length a new file will be created and the export will continue and
repeat as necessary. The new file will have the same filename with digits
appended to indicate the sequence of the split. Use 0 (Zero) to indicate no
split .

 Use this option to split a large file so it can be loaded into the Word
app which can only hold approximately 40,000 characters (30,000 characters
is the default to leave some room for editing.)

 Another use would be to split a large text file on the remote computer so
parts can be loaded to a smaller SSD. In this case make sure the wrap mode
is off before beginning the export (other wise you can loose some of the
paragraph formatting.) (You will also need to turn on the remote link and
MCLink (or equivalent) and have the two computers connected for this to
work. ) You can then select the file on the remote drive and specify a new
file name on the remote drive. The file will then be split over the remote
link. (Multitasking on the Psion can still take place while this is going
on.)

 Note: split happens only at paragraph boundaries so a file may slightly
exceed the amount specified on this line.

               Line length

 When the wrap mode is set to ON or ALL you will get this option. You can
use this to set the right margin of the exported file. Typical values are
60-80 or use 0 to indicate no split for a line (a return only at the end of
a paragraph.)

     Exit
          Save place         <Psion>X

 Exit Reader and saves current position and settings (for that document.)
This information is kept in a file with the same base name as the text you
are reading but with the extension .RDR.

 Note: The RDR files are "Flash friendly" and consume just a small number
of bytes on exit.

          Just exit          <Psion><Shift>X
          Quit               <Psion>Q

 Exit Reader without updating any files.

          Delete support files  <Psion><Shift>X

You can delete the 'file.RDR' and 'file.BKM' files on the final "Close
file" dialog by pressing <Delete> or as <Psion><Shift>D (and from the Exit
menu.) The main TXT file is not deleted (you can do that from the
system screen.)


Help

 Pressing help will bring up a reminder of these keys:

     Esc or Del

 Pages up (approximately) one page.

     Up or Down Arrow

 Moves text Up or down a line (some times more) at a time.

     <Psion><Control><Pg Up> or <Psion><Control><Pg Dn>

 Goes to the top or bottom of the file. Sometimes when going to the bottom
it will miss by a few lines so sometimes another page down will be
necessary.

     <Diamond> & <Shift><Diamond>

 Change the text wrapping mode. See Screen - Wrap Mode for more
information.

     <Shift><Down Arrow>

 Starts the "auto scroll" (look ma no hands.) Repeated pressing will speed it
up. Any other key will stop and take appropriate action. (Pressing <Down
Arrow> is a good choice. for stopping.)

     <Shift><Up Arrow>

 Slows the "auto scroll." Note: once you go past the slowest setting the
<Shift><Up Arrow> will work like up arrow and stop the scroll.

                              All other keys

 Page down the text. This is so no mater how you are holding the Psion you
can easily page the document.

 Note: A gray bar is drawn to the right of screen to indicate the position
within the file. If the file is small enough you will see a small break in
the bar to indicate the size of the current screen relative to the file
length.


                                 Copyright

 Reader is Copyrighted 1994 by Barry Childress All rights reserved.
To distribute please contact me.

Registered versions are licensed to a single user or single machine (the
only way that more then one person can use the same program.) Copies for
backup purposes are allowed.

 I have done my best to make sure the program performs adequately but I can
not make any guaranties as to its performance with data I have not tested.

 If you have any questions or comments you can address them to me at my
Compuserve address 73510,1420.


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