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-
- Opus 2.2 ReadMe
- Release Date: 8/12/89
- ---------------------
-
-
- To: New users
- -------------
-
- Please read the file INSTALL.DOC before attempting to run Opus; it
- contains important information about setting things up for GDOS. The
- OPUS22.DOC file is really a manual addendum. If you are having difficulty
- learning Opus and find the online help inadequate, or you would like to
- see some sample worksheets, download the file OPUSDOC.ARC. It contains
- several worksheet files as well as the documentation for version 2.1,
- which is mostly applicable to version 2.2 (OPUS22.DOC supersedes
- OPUS21.DOC in certain areas).
-
- Since the Swiss 10 point font is included with every GDOS package I'm
- aware of, Opus 2.2 uses this as its default for all chart text items.
- You may change this on an item by item basis to whatever font you
- have available.
-
- To: All users
- -------------
-
- To use the new help feature of Opus 2.2, create a folder OPUSHELP in
- the directory containing OPUS.PRG. Then transfer all the help files to
- that folder. The help files are found in HELP.ARC within the OPUS22.ARC
- file.
-
- To: Current users
- -----------------
-
- Your current PRINTER.INF, OPUS.CNF, and OPUS.WID files are compatible
- with Opus 2.2. However, Opus 2.2 does save additional information in
- the OPUS.CNF file. Two new default paths are saved: WKS/WK1 and DIF.
- DIF isn't used yet, but it will be later on. In addition, the default
- settings of the new chart features are saved.
-
- Please be sure to at least read the "Copy/Move" and "Insert/Delete
- Row and Column" sections in OPUS22.DOC, for these worksheet functions
- have undergone some significant changes.
-
- Re: Scrollable lists
- --------------------
-
- To deselect items, earlier versions required you to click anywhere
- outside the list but within the dialog. I often found myself
- unintentionally deselecting items, so this method has been changed.
- Now, click within the "margins" of the list to deselect an item. For
- example, if the list looks like:
-
- ------------------
- |****************|
- |**d-mmm-yy **|
- |**mmmm d, yyyy**|
- |****************|
- ------------------
-
- click within the area indicated by the asterisks (this area is of
- course blank in the actual dialogs). This affects the number and
- date/time format dialogs.
-
- Sorry for the inconsistency; this will be the finalized method.
-
- Re: Charting
- ------------
-
- Opus 2.2 allows you to position chart titles and legend with the
- mouse. However, if you want your worksheet files to be portable
- from the monochrome monitor to the color and vice versa, Character
- Spacing should be in effect when you place the titles. Otherwise,
- you'll likely find the titles slightly out of place when used on
- the "opposite" monitor.
-
- Opus 2.2 uses line patterns to distinguish between chart data series
- when appropriate. Splines and other smooth curves are constructed from
- a set of line segments, and you may find that the patterns "get out of
- sync" on some curves; that is, a dotted pattern may show more dots
- than it should. This seems to be more of a problem with the screen
- than with the printer and apparently is an ST limitation.
-
- A number of users have pointed out that EasyDraw has problems with
- Opus metafiles. Text isn't justified properly, filled area outlines
- are lost, vertical axis titles aren't displayed rotated, scaling of
- the chart as a whole isn't very accurate, etc. Well, what can I say.
- One of the main reasons I bought EasyDraw was to use and test with
- Opus metafiles, so I'm disappointed too. My conclusion is that although
- EasyDraw uses the GEM metafile as its file format, it is not a generic
- metafile player, much less a generic metafile editor. This is supported
- by the fact that Publisher ST and OutPrint/Output do splendid jobs with
- all Opus metafiles. While I could make an effort to make my metafiles
- "EasyDraw-compatible," about the only improvement would be drawing of
- outlines around filled areas. EasyDraw simply doesn't support rotated
- text or justification of text in a manner other than its own. Furthermore,
- I can't do anything to improve EasyDraw's accuracy in scaling metafiles.
- Since the things I _can't_ fix are fundamental to producing presentation
- quality graphics, I can't justify the time and effort to fix the few
- things I can.
-
- Finally, I've occassionally noticed very minute breaks in regression
- lines when printed at 300 DPI on a Hewlett Packard DeskJet. This is
- an infrequent problem, and it occurs with lines printed at certain
- angles. I mentioned this in a letter to Migraph, and they attribute
- it to limitations in the Digital Research (author of GEM) printer driver
- code, upon which most, if not all, ST GDOS printer drivers are based.
- They say they seldom hear complaints about this, and I'll agree it's not
- too serious a problem. In any event, Migraph is aware of it and is
- working on a fix.
-
-