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Text File | 2019-04-13 | 11.3 KB | 233 lines

     HOW TO USE LETTER.IMG

     First, rename the program LETTERS, as all future reference will be to
     that name.

                        QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE TO LETTERS

     TEXT SCREEN

     f1 ---------- insert line
     f2 ---------- delete line
     f3 ---------- change margin color
     f4 ---------- default margin color
     f5 ---------- tab
     f6 ---------- set or release tab
     f7 ---------- go to menu
     f8 ---------- restore text
     CTRL and 9 -- underlining on
     CTRL and 0 -- underlining off
     clr --------- screen clear/store text
     home -------- home
     del --------- delete character
     inst -------- insert character
     return ------ move to left margin on the next line down
     crsr up ----- cursor up 2 screen lines
     crsr down --- cursor down 2 screen lines
     crsr left --- cursor left 1 character
     crsr right -- cursor right 1 character

     MENU SCREEN

     f1 ---------- change border color
     f2 ---------- default border color
     f3 ---------- change  background color
     f4 ---------- default background color
     f5 ---------- change character color
     f6 ---------- default character color

     DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS....

     LETTERS is not a full-blown word processor, but has many of the
     features you will find in one. I wrote it because I got pretty
     frustrated with the imbedded commands in the commercial software, and
     wanted something easy to use, fast and versatile. For me, it has been
     the best compromise between text manipulation power and ease of use.
     All of the critical parts of this program are performed by machine
     language routines for speed and convenience, including printing, text
     creating and editing, loading and saving (disk storage only, no tape).
     Load and run the program as you would any other basic program. There
     is about 2K of machine language that will be transferred to $C000 and
     up when you run the program, and during certain buffer operations all
     of $C000 to $CFFF will be used. For this reason you should not use
     the DOS WEDGE with this program, as it will be overwritten.

     GETTING STARTED

     Select "C" from the main menu and answer the next 2 prompts with "N".
     You will now be in the CREATE/EDIT mode. You can go back to the menu
     with F7 whenever you want to, but let's forge ahead for now. You'll
     see reddish bars at the left and right margins. These are the margin
     markers, and you will not be able to type into them. Moving the cursor
     past these markers will cause the cursor to move to the margin on the
     opposite side of the screen (the next line or the previous one).

     These markers will aid you in identifying line beginnings and ends,
     centering titles, etc. Notice that the left markers are on different
     screen lines than the right markers. This is because you are now
     dealing with an 80 column line (the screen lines are only 40). Since
     your printer deals with 80 column lines, the screen will now follow
     that format. You will notice that you can wrap a word around the end
     of a screen line as long as there is no marker there. That's because
     you will be typing the word in the middle of an 80 column line (as
     the printer will see it).

     AUTOMATIC PARSING

     As you are typing a line and approach the end marker, you need not
     worry about breaking a word up at the marker. If the last letter on
     the line is not a blank space, LETTERS will move the entire word to
     the next line for you. This function is called "parsing" and was
     added so that you don't have to watch the screen as you type a new
     line. Parsing will not happen, however, if there is text on the next
     line (this is an aid for editing. Keeps you from dumping a word onto
     text residing on the following line when you are editing). Also,
     parsing will only move words less than 10 characters in length.

     CURSOR UP, DOWN, LEFT AND RIGHT

     Cursor up/down work as they normally do, except that they move the
     cursor 2 screen lines at a time (remember, that's only one 80-column
     line). Moving the cursor past the top or bottom of the screen will
     cause the document to be scrolled, which is how you move through the
     document to read or edit it. Cursor left/right work normally.

     INSERT AND DELETE KEYS

     Use the normal inst/del keys to edit single lines or characters. The
     delete key will work as expected, but when it reaches the left marker
     it will stop. The insert key also works as expected, but when a
     character is pushed into the right marker, it is deleted. This was
     done to prevent you from affecting other lines by making minor
     changes on one. If you wish to insert or delete entire lines at a
     time, use F1 and F2. F1 will push all text from the cursor line down
     one line, and place a blank line at the cursor line. F2 will delete
     the cursor line and move all text beyond that position back one line.

     RETURN AND TAB KEYS

     The return key will move the cursor to the beginning of the next
     line. The tab key is F5. F6 sets or releases a tab. To set a tab,
     move the cursor to where you want the tab to be and press F6. To
     release a tab, tab to the tab you wish to release and press F6. To
     tab, press F5. The cursor will move to the first tab to the right of
     the cursor. If there is no tab set to the right of the cursor, it will
     perform a return.

     UNDERLINING OR SPECIAL COMMANDS

     To underline, press CTRL 9 (rvs on). Underlining off is CTRL 0. The
     printing routine in LETTERS will respond to reverse video characters
     by sending an escape sequence to the printer before printing the
     character. After printing the character, it sends another escape
     sequence. I use this feature to enable and disable the underlining
     feature of my printer. If your printer does not underline, you can
     substitute another escape sequence for this feature (italics, shadow
     print, super/subscript, etc.). See program modifications for details.

     MOVING TEXT AND THE CLR/HOME KEYS

     The home key works normally. The screen clear key writes the text on
     the screen into a buffer and clears the screen. You can use this
     feature to move from 1 to 12 lines of text at a time, because the
     buffer can be recovered with F8. (If you wish to permanently delete a
     line or lines, use F2 instead of clr). There are 2 safety features
     built into these keys. First, the clr key will work only if the
     buffer is empty. This will prevent you from accidentally writing over
     the contents of the buffer (the buffer is emptied when you use F8 to
     restore the text). The entire screen is affected with these keys, so
     here's how to manipulate less than 12 lines at a time:

     1.
     Scroll the first line to be buffered to the top of the screen and
     place the cursor on the line AFTER the last line to be buffered.
     Press F1 as many times as necessary to push the unwanted lines off
     the screen. Then press clr to buffer the screen. Delete the blank
     lines (unless you want them) with F2.
     2.
     Scroll to where you want the text inserted. Scroll the line that will
     be BELOW your inserted text to the top of the screen and home the
     cursor. Push all text off the screen with F1. Now restore your
     buffered text with F8 and delete any unwanted blank lines by moving
     the cursor to them and pressing F2.

     MARGIN MARKER COLOR

     F3 changes the color of the margin marker bars. F4 sets the default
     color.

     THE MAIN MENU

     The main menu is self-prompting and self-explanitory except for the
     screen color options. The "F" keys will have different functions now,
     as outlined in the beginning of this document.

     STOPPING OR EXITING THE PROGRAM

     The program can be stopped from the main menu with the run/stop key.
     It can be resumed by re-running the program. Any document in memory
     will NOT be lost by doing this, as LETTERS will not clear the memory
     unless it's being run for the first time. When run, LETTERS changes
     some of the default computer settings, such as the top of basic
     memory, all keys repeat, etc. When you want to exit the program and
     reset the computer to default conditions, select "E" from the main
     menu and the computer will be sent to it's cold start routine. Even
     if you exit in this manner, if you should discover you left a
     document in memory by accident (you forgot to save it to disk), you
     can still recover it by reloading and running LETTERS again. You're
     out of luck, though, if you shut off the the computer or load in
     another program that overwrites document storage ($4000 to $9FFF) or
     LETTERS machine language subroutines ($C000 to $CFFF).

     PROGRAM MODIFICATIONS

     You can modify the basic part of LETTERS. Those with printers that do
     not emulate CBM printers will need to do this. This program works fine
     with the VIC printers and the PROWRITER with a +G CARDCO interface. If
     you have different escape codes for underlining or bolface, you will
     want to change the codes on lines 1210 and up. Don't forget to allow
     for ascii conversion when you change the codes.

     FORM LETTERS

     You can create a form letter, save it to disk and load it back in to
     edit it. After all, a form letter is just a document that you edit
     and resave (usually under a different name).

     DOCUMENTS OVER 5 PAGES IN LENGTH

     Once you type in 5 pages of text (plus 7 lines) you're out of memory
     and must either stop and print the document or save it to disk. You
     can then continue your document by using "C" for create and writing
     the next part. Save the next part with a different name (such as
     DOCUMENT#2). When you go to print your multiple file document, the
     printing routine will be able to accomodate you (if you answer the
     prompts correctly). Print the first file, then load the second and
     print it, etc. You are only limited by the number of disks you have
     to store text on.

     ABOUT THE FILES

     LETTERS stores it's files in CBM screen codes. The first 48 bytes in
     the file contain the variables used to format the text, and the rest
     of the file is text, including spaces. The file is sequential.

     CONVERTING THE FILES FOR CIS

     You can use the file conversion program (also on this XA) to create
     another file from a LETTERS file. I use LETTERS to create EMAIL,
     bulletin board messages or documentation files such as this. Then I
     run The conversion program (FILCON.IMG) to convert the file to a
     standard ASCII file or a CBM PETASCII file (you have a choice).
     FILCON.IMG discards the 48 variable bytes, performs the coversion and
     deletes spaces at the end of the lines. It also adds a CR and LF to
     the end of each line for ASCII, or a CR only if PETASCII. Then I can
     load the new file into my VIDTEX buffer and send the entire message
     at once with META V (ASCII). PETASCII files I use for uploading
     documentation. The original LETTERS file is not changed, FILCON.IMG
     just creates a modified duplicate file, naming it whatever you choose.

     I'll be glad to respond to any questions or comments via EMAIL.

     Thank you,  Jim Klitzing