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Text File | 1993-06-01 | 17KB | 370 lines

ConvDW 1.2 Payment Form ----------------------- NEW! Payment for ConvDW now entitles you to a free CompuServe IntroPak, including a $15 credit toward on-line time! Name ____________________________________________________________ Company _________________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________________ City ________________________________ State ______ Zip __________ Country _________________________ NUMBER OF COPIES ____ DISKETTE SIZE __________ TOTAL PAYMENT $_____ ($20/copy suggested) Payment of $20 or more per copy entitles the purchaser to a printed manual (sized to fit the DW binder), the current release of ConvDW without the on-screen payment reminder, and a free CompuServe IntroPak. SALES TAX _______ (Michigan residents only, 4%) OVERSEAS SHIPPING _______ ($5 per order) PAYMENT METHOD: ___ Check enclosed (US Funds): ___ Bill company (enclose purchase order, add $5 processing fee) ___ Charge VISA / MasterCard Card # __________________________________ Expires ___________ Signature ____________________________________________________ Call (517) 332-4353 to pay by MasterCard or VISA, or send your payment or purchase order to: CrossCourt Systems 1521 Greenview Ave. East Lansing, MI 48823 Prices are in U.S. dollars and include shipping within North America. Foreign orders: payment must be by credit card, international money order in U.S. dollars, or by check in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank. Payment must also include $5 shipping for airmail delivery. ConvDW DisplayWrite-to-ASCII Conversion Program Version 1.2 Another Shareware Product from: CrossCourt Systems (Member - Association of Shareware Professionals) FEATURES ConvDW is a standalone program for IBM-compatible computers that converts IBM DisplayWrite 3 & 4 document files to ASCII. IBM does not publish the file format for DisplayWrite, so ConvDW is one of only a handful of programs, either shareware or commercial, that can read DisplayWrite files. See the end of this file for information about conversion to DCA/RFT and our DisplayWrite Conversion Package for those who need to perform their own conversions to or from DisplayWrite. ConvDW improves upon DisplayWrite's ASCII output in several ways. 1. ConvDW can create files that omit the soft returns and retain the tab characters. This format, which is very useful for importing to another word processor, is not available from within DisplayWrite. 2. It can mark certain font attributes, such as underlining, in the ASCII file by using special characters. This also is useful if you want to transfer the ASCII file to another word processor and restore the attributes. 3. ConvDW can be run from the DOS command line, and will accept wildcard filespecs. 4. It can be used by someone who does not have DisplayWrite, but who may have received DisplayWrite files from elsewhere. ConvDW's default ASCII format is very much like DisplayWrite's ASCII output. It emulates indents, tabs and centering by the use of spaces, and ends each line with a hard carriage return. The format is suitable for electronic mail and many other purposes. See the "OPTIONS" section for information on the other formats ConvDW can produce. ConvDW omits most page-formatting characteristics. This means that, for example, the left margin is not expanded to spaces; the top and bottom margins are not expanded to blank lines; and page breaks, headers, footers, and page numbering are omitted. USE To run ConvDW, type CONVDW followed by two filenames. The first one is the name of the input (DisplayWrite) file, the second is the output (ASCII) file. For example: 3 CONVDW TEST.DOC TEST.OUT The file names can include wildcards, employed in the same way as with the DOS COPY command. For example, CONVDW A:C*.TXT *.PRN would convert all DW3 files starting with the letter C in the current directory on drive A: to ASCII files with the extension .PRN on the current drive and directory. If no extension is specified for the source file, .DOC will be used. If none is specified for the target file, .ASC will be used. For example, CONVDW \DOCS \TEXT would convert all files with the extension .DOC from the \DOCS directory to the \TEXT directory while changing their extensions to .ASC. To use a filename with no extension, you must end the name with a period. If a file already exists under the output name, it will be replaced without warning. If the input and output names are the same, ConvDW will not proceed with the conversion. If the source file is not a DW3 or 4 document, ConvDW will report this, and will not perform the conversion. OPTIONS ConvDW has many options which can be invoked by "switches" on the command line. The switches start with a slash or a hyphen, followed by a letter identifying the option, and, for some of the switches, a numeric value. The identifying letter can be upper or lower case and the switches can appear anywhere on the command line -- before, after, or in between the filenames. There must not be any spaces between the slash, the letter and the number. A typical command might look like: CONVDW /T /R /B60 /C62 JULY \NEW "Generic Format" Options These two options would usually be used together. The resulting format has tabs and carriage returns only where the operator originally typed them, with no spaces or "soft returns" added. This is usually the best format to use if you want to transfer the resulting ASCII file to another word processor. 1. /R keep only hard <R>eturns This will keep only DisplayWrite's hard returns in the ASCII file, in effect turning each paragraph into a single long line of text. 4 2. /T keep <T>ab characters This will keep tab characters in the ASCII file, rather than replacing them with spaces. This will also suppress the use of spaces to position text that is centered between the margins or flush to the right margin. Font Attribute Options These four options, two of which use two switches apiece, allow the start and end of certain font attributes to be marked in the ASCII file using special characters. They are usually used along with the generic-format options in order to move the ASCII file to another word processor and restore the original format. The naming of these switches is intended to be mnemonic, but they require some explanation. For bold and underline, which have both a start and end code, the switch for the starting code is intended to remind you of the function, while the switch for the ending code simply follows the start switch alphabetically. Thus /B for bold is paired with /C, and /U for underline is paired with /V. Subscripting and superscripting do not have end codes in DisplayWrite; you end a superscript by putting in a subscript code (and vice versa), thus returning to the original level. The switch names for these are less obvious, with /I intended to remind you of things often used as subscripts, while /X might be used as a superscript (powers). 1. /B# and /C# <B>oldface There are several ways to use these and the following paired options. If you want to mark boldface text using the default characters of { (ASCII 123) at the beginning and } (ASCII 125) at the end, all you have to do is specify /B by itself. If you want to mark boldface text, but want to use different characters, perhaps because the default characters may occur in your document, you can specify either or both of the /B and /C switches with a numeric ASCII value (as indicated by the # symbol in the switch template above). In the case of the /B switch, the ASCII character corresponding to the numeric value will be used to mark the start of boldface; the value given for the /C switch will be used to mark the end. The value must be decimal (i.e., hexadecimal is not allowed) and cannot be zero. Only a single ASCII value can be used for each switch; it is not possible to mark with a multi-character code, such as [B]. So, for example, /B17 would cause a Ctrl-Q 5 to be used at the start of bold text, while /C35 would put # symbols at the end of bold text. In some ways the use of ASCII values is inconvenient, but DOS puts restrictions on the use of many characters on the command line, so something like /B< /C> will not work. The use of numbers gives maximum flexibility. 2. /U# and /V# <U>nderlining The description of /B and /C above explains how the paired options work. If you use /U without a number, the beginning of underlining will be marked with < (ASCII 60) and the ending with > (ASCII 62). 3. /I# subscript The description of /B and /C above explains how to use this option. If you use /I without a number, the beginning of a subscript will be marked with ~ (ASCII 126). 4. /X# superscript The description of /B and /C above explains how to use this option. If you use /X without a number, the beginning of a superscript will be marked with ^ (ASCII 94). REGISTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION IBM and DisplayWrite are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. ConvDW is Copyright 1988-89, CrossCourt Systems. If you try ConvDW and find it to be a useful and valuable product, please complete your purchase of it by sending payment to CrossCourt Systems at the address below. For $20 you will receive a printed manual, sized to fit an IBM binder, and the current version of the program, without the on-screen payment reminder. You will also receive a free IntroPak for the CompuServe Information Service, the premiere interactive electronic communication service. CompuServe provides news, financial information, entertainment services, personal computing services, special interest forums, and more. The IntroPak includes $15 of free on-line time. VISA and MasterCard are accepted. Volume discounts and site licenses are available. In the spirit of shareware, we believe that the value of a program is best determined by you, based on the number of copies you are using, the frequency of use, and the amount of time it saves you. Our 6 business policy is to accept payments both above and below the stated $20 price. ConvDW may be distributed to others, as long as 1) the program is not altered in any way, 2) this documentation file is always included, and 3) no charge is made for such distribution beyond a modest disk preparation fee. For bulletin board distribution, please use the file name CONVDW.ZIP. ConvDW has been tested and performs its functions essentially as described above, without causing any damage to the computer in use or any of its files. However, all users are responsible for backing up their own files, and CrossCourt Systems assumes no responsibility for any damage or losses incurred as a result of its use. CrossCourt Systems supports ConvDW, by providing technical assistance, bug fixes, and enhancements. CrossCourt Systems can be reached on CompuServe at 72446,2704, or at the address and phone below. If you encounter problems with any conversion, or have suggestions for improvements, please let us know about them. CrossCourt Systems 1521 Greenview Ave. East Lansing, MI 48823 (517) 332-4353 CrossCourt Systems is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP), a group dedicated to high standards in the design, documentation, and support of shareware products. ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member, the ASP Ombudsman may be able to help. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a CompuServe EasyPlex message to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. Other products from CrossCourt Systems DisplayWrite Conversion Package - includes a report describing the format of DisplayWrite files, as well as Microsoft C source code for ConvDW, DWtoRFT, and DumpDW. Call for information. DWtoRFT - converts DisplayWrite files to DCA/RFT using wildcard filenames. Great for large conversions from DisplayWrite to other formats. Available for $50 direct. TextOut/5 - converts WordPerfect 5.0 or 5.1 files to ASCII, offering many of the same options as ConvDW. Its conversion is much more flexible than WordPerfect's own. It also converts foot- and endnotes, text boxes, and equations, and formats tables better than WP does. 7 Shareware found as TXTOUT.ZIP or TEXTOUT5.ZIP on bulletin boards. Available for $20 direct (includes printed manual). ConvDCA - converts IBM DCA/RFT format files to ASCII, offering many of the same options as TextOut/5. Shareware found as CNVDCA.ZIP or CONVDCA.ZIP on bulletin boards. Available for $20 direct. TextCon - a program to reformat ASCII files before importing them to your word processor. TextCon performs extremely intelligent "cleaning" operations on your ASCII files, so you have less editing to do after importing them. It removes unneeded hard carriage returns (even with tricky paragraph formats), strips excess spaces used for margins or justification, and does other processing to get the cleanest conversion possible. Can also perform other unusual formatting tasks such as splitting long lines in generic-format files. Shareware found as TEXTCN.ZIP or TEXTCON.ZIP on bulletin boards. Available for $25 direct (includes printed manual).