If you've ever tried to rotate, mirror or invert a geoPaint file, you've found the size of the edit box allowed in geoPaint's window very limiting! If you want to simply invert your file, you have to scroll around and draw 15 different edit boxes just to invert the whole page. Mirrorring and rotating a page is even more a drudge! You not only have to to draw all those edit boxes, but then you have to cut each into a photo scrap and paste the scraps into a new paint file, relocating each scrap to a different location on the new page. That's quite a lot of work! Now you can easily control the horizontal and the vertical... Paint Rotate allows you to process the entire page, in just one pass!
@Paint Rotate
runs under GEOS 64, and 128 v2.0 in 40-column mode. After opening Paint Rotate, You are presented with the system GetFiles box in which you may select the geoPaint file you wish to process. DISK and DRIVE icons are available, and drives "A" through "D" (yes, I said, "D-E-E") are supported. You may also access 1541's, 1571's, and 1581's, but the use of a RAM disk is suggested, due to the amount of reading and writing required to process a file. If you forget this point, the program will present you with a warning, along with the option to continue anyway, despite the program's better judgement.
After you select a file to process, Paint Rotate will prompt you for a filename for your resulting file. (Paint Rotate will not change your original document.) This must be a valid filename, and Paint Rotate will check to see that no file by that name already exists on your disk. This output file will be created on the same disk as the input file, so be sure that you have enough free space on the disk.
Once you've selected your files, Paint Rotate will ask which action you wish to perform on your file. You may rotate 1/4 turn clockwise, rotate 1/4 turn counter-clockwise, invert, mirror the entire file along the Y-axis, and mirror along the X-axis. All actions affect the ENTIRE geoPaint page, with the exception of rotate. Due to the non-square shape of a geoPaint page, rotating only affects the top 80 cardlines of the picture, leaving the bottom 10 cardlines blank. (If you had any data at the bottom of your original file, rotating would move it off the right or left edge of the document.) You may also CANCEL at this point, and the program will return to the original dialog, with no action taken or files created.
Once your selection is made, Paint Rotate begins processing. A "thermometer" shows which portion of your new file has been created. As you will be able to see, rotating is slower than the other processes, even in a RAM disk. You may interrupt the processing by clicking your mouse. It may take a few seconds for the program to sense the mouse click, but holding down the button is not necessary. If you interrupt, Paint Rotate will create a partially processed output file, with the remainder of that file blank.
Finally, Paint Rotate reports that your processing is done, and returns you to the original selection box so that you may process more files. Clicking CANCEL will display my pesky Shareware message, and another click there will return control of your system to the deskTop.
@Paint Rotate
is released for an easily affordable $2.00 Shareware fee. As always, direct your comments, questions, or fan mail to: