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The 640 MEG Shareware Studio 2
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The 640 Meg Shareware Studio CD-ROM Volume II (Data Express)(1993).ISO
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CHAPTER.2
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1992-05-12
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How to use Writer's Dream
The first thing you should understand is that this very
information you are reading now is being presented with
Writer's Dream. You are reading an electronic book. This one
has only a few chapters, but your book can have up to 20
chapters. We are using Writer's Dream to teach you about
Writer's Dream!
As you read this chapter, you may find some items temporarily
confusing. Don't worry, with some experimenting it will
all make sense. In fact, unless you are already a very
experienced computer user, some experimenting will probably
be necessary. Be patient. Enjoy.
These are the files on your disk:
BEGIN.BAT - A batch file so that a beginner can type BEGIN to
start reading this electronic book.
DREAM.EXE - The runtime module that actually displays text
files ('chapters') This program you will copy and distribute
with your finished product.
BOOK.CFG - A special file which DREAM.EXE needs to know your
chapter names and files. This is created by BUILD.EXE and
will be automatically customized for your electronic book.
WHATSNEW - A text file containing a general overview of new
features.
CHAPTER.1 - The text file which contains my introduction to
Writer's Dream.
CHAPTER.2 - The text file which you are now reading.
BUILD.EXE - The program which you will use to create your own
electronic book. Once used, you can discard this program, it
is not needed once your book is created.
EXE.DOC - A text file explaining how to mix .EXE, .COM and
.BAT files into your text presentations.
ORDER.EXE - A program to create your own optional order form
which you can distribute along with your disk-based book.
ORDER.FRM - An order form with which you can order WRITER'S
DREAM, also provided as a example to use with ORDER.EXE
SPACE.EXE - To add a "professional" looking left margin to
your text files.
REPAIR.EXE - A program which will change non-standard text
files created by some word processing programs into pure
ASCII (normal) text.
ORDER.DOC - To place an order.
MORE.DOC - Instructions for the other programs on this disk.
The General Principal Of Operation
Using an ordinary word processor, you create files of
text on disk. These files will be like chapters in a book.
Using BUILD.EXE you will create a file called BOOK.CFG
which will tell DREAM.EXE the names of your chapters.
You create a master disk containing your chapters and
DREAM.EXE and BOOK.CFG. Make and distribute copies of this
master for others to read.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Make your chapters. Use any word processor. If your word
processor is one that normally makes non-ASCII text, use the
ASCII mode (or 'non-document' or 'print to disk', depending
on your word processor). All standard word processors can
make ASCII files, but you may have to read the instructions
that came with your word processor for details.
You can have up to 44 chapters and they can each be as
long as you like. THERE SHOULD BE NO LINES LONGER THAN 80
CHARACTERS. Obviously, the total size of all your chapters
cannot be more than one disk will hold. If they are, make a
two-disk ('two-volume') book, using Writer's Dream for each
disk.
2. Copy DREAM.EXE and BUILD.EXE onto a blank, formatted
disk. Then copy all your chapters (files) onto the same
disk. There must be at least 2000 bytes (2k) free space left
on the disk. Safely store your original Writer's Dream disk
in case your working copy become damaged. (And because the
BOOK.CFG file will be changed)
3. Type BUILD and press [Enter]. This is the setup program
for Writer's Dream. It will allow you to enter the title,
your name, and your chapters as they will appear in the
'menu'. The menu is a 'live table of contents' - the first
screen the user will see when they start to read your book.
It will look just like what you see if you press the [Esc]
key now, except it will have your chapters instead of mine.
Your electronic book can have from one to 44 chapters, this
one has just a few chapters.
4. After a welcome screen, the BUILD program starts with the
title box. This resides on the left side of the user menu.
You can enter up to 3 lines of text here. Our example looks
like this:
WRITER'S DREAM
by
Another Company
To edit any line, just move the highlight bar with the arrow
keys to the line you want to edit, then press the backspace
key or hold [Ctrl] and press [Y] to delete what's there. Then
type your own line. Your lines must be less than 56
characters long. Do not center your lines, the program will
do this automatically later.
When done editing the lines to contain your title and
name and possibly subtitle, just press the [Esc] key. The
program will remember your changes.
5. Now you will be shown a bigger box. This is the Table of
Contents. In the left of this box you will enter your
chapter names as you want them to appear on the menu. Just
delete my example chapters, and type in your own. You can
delete a line by using the [BKSP] key or by holding [Ctrl]
while you press [Y].
On the right side of this same box are the files that
contain your chapters. In other words, if you have written a
chapter called INTRODUCTION and it is in a file called
INTRO.DOC, you would type INTRODUCTION on the top left line,
and INTRO.DOC on the right side. This is how the program
knows to display the text in INTRO.DOC when the user selects
INTRODUCTION.
If you have more chapters than can be shown in this box
at one time, simply use the up and down arrow keys to scroll
through.
Do not precede filenames with a drive or path. If you
were to put C:\MYBOOK\INTRO.DOC, the program will not work
properly on other people's computers, unless they also
happen to have a sub-directory called MYBOOK on their C:
drive. Do not type A:INTRO.DOC either, for the same reason.
Someone might purchase your electronic book and put it in
their B: drive, and it wouldn't work.
Do not leave blank lines between your chapters. Each
chapter must have a corresponding file where the text is to
be found. You have a limit of 34 characters for each chapter
name. Your filenames must be ordinary DOS-legal filenames.
You can have as many as 44 chapters or as few as 1.
Because the Dream menu becomes triple-wide when
displaying more than 24 chapters, you must not have more than
23 characters in each chapter name if you have more than 24
chapters.
When done with this section of the program, just press
the [Esc] key.
6. The program will ask you some questions. The first is
about sound effects. If you like the sounds, answer [Y] and
the same sounds will occur for your readers. (The readers
can optionally switch off the sound effects from within the
DREAM program by pressing the [T] key.) If you answer the
question about sound effects with [N] then there will be no
sound effects in your book unless the reader presses the [T]
key.
Then you have a choice of centered or left-justified
table of contents. The normal choice is [C], but if you want
all your chapter names to be shifted to the left, press [L].
Finally, the program will ask you if you want to create
a new book. This is your last chance to cancel by pressing
[N]. If you press [Y], then whatever previous book setup
existed on disk will be lost and a new one written. The BUILD
program creates a file called BOOK.CFG. This is where the
table of contents information is stored on your disks.
So, before you create a new book, if you'll ever
want to read this example book again, make a backup copy.
7. You will probably have to experiment with the BUILD
program several times before you fully understand it and can
create the perfect product of your dreams with your own text
files. That's ok, in fact, just fine. Each time you restart
the BUILD program, it will show your previous configuration
so that you can edit only the parts you want to change.
When done with BUILD, type DREAM at the DOS prompt and
test your whole book. If you have accidentally misspelled a
filename, or put the a filename next to the wrong chapter
name, you'll see the problem.
8. HINT: To make your disk easier to use for beginners (and
everyone) you can copy BEGIN.BAT from the Writer's Dream disk
onto your disk-based book. Then, on the disk label you can
type this line: "Type BEGIN and press [Enter]."
9. HINT #2: If you want your text to look better on-screen
- just like this text - in your word processing program,
set your left margin to 10 and your right margin to 70.
Note to Word Perfect 5.X and MS-Word users:
Your word processing programs are capable of ASCII (.ASC)
files, but may not preserve the left margin when converted.
To fix this problem, use SPACE.EXE, described in a later
chapter.
10. DELETE BUILD.EXE from your final disk. This program is
only the setup utility of Writer's Dream. The only program
required for your distribution version is DREAM.EXE, and of
course the configuration file called BOOK.CFG.
11. Test your new electronic book carefully. Make sure you
have not misspelled a filename, or left anything out. Make
sure you don't have any chapter names without a
corresponding file name on the right side of the box.
There are some things you can do to make sure you get more
readers and that they are more likely to send you money.
* Consider your title carefully. It must attract attention.
* Make sure your first 100 words are very powerful.
Shareware buyers often buy 20, 40 or even 100 disks at a
time. As you would expect, each individual disk is not
regarded as particularly important to these folks. They will
put each one in the slot and give it five minutes. If it
doesn't grab their attention, out it goes! If it does get
their interest, they'll read it from one end to the other!
* Make sure your advertising is well written. If you simply
ask for a donation, you won't get much. One of the best
things you can do is use your disk to sell something else. A
same-subject, volume 2, or another disk-based book covering a
different but related subject will be easy to sell.
* If you are already in a business, consider using a
disk-based book to sell your product. For instance, if you
sell seeds, you could write a book about gardening and tell
your readers to call or write for a free catalog.
* The more copies you send out, the more readers you will
get. A good idea is to send to as many shareware distributors
as you can. Most distributors will gladly list your disk in
their catalogs.
Remember that shareware has a lot of inertia. It can
take over a year between the time you introduce a shareware
product and the time you start getting money. This is because
it takes that long for distributors to get it into their
catalogs, and for friends to make copies for friends, etc. It
takes most users quite a while to switch from considering
sending you some money to actually doing it. (Of course you
may start getting SOME money within the first two months.)
Shareware also has a long burnout period. If you put
your phone number in your disk, you may be answering requests
for orders or free catalogs for years into the future!
Now is the time to write that book you've always dreamed
about!
Thanks,
I hope you enjoy and prosper from this program,
Jeff Napier
d.b.a Another Company
May 12, 1992
P.S. For your convenience I have written a disk-based book
called SUCCESS WITH SHAREWARE. It is about the shareware
business for programmers and text-writers alike. Learn all
the professional tips for successful shareware authorship,
learn all the pitfalls to avoid. Can you succeed without
Success With Shareware? Yes! But why learn everything the
hard way? I've packed tons of experience into Success With
Shareware to save you years of fooling around. Not only is it
based on my own experience but also contains the fruits of
knowledge gained from conversation, correspondence and study
with other shareware authors. Success With Shareware
contains sales frequency charts, ideas for subjects to write
about, techniques in advertising, and techniques for ensuring
maximum exposure of your shareware to the public. Send $29.95
for your copy of SUCCESS WITH SHAREWARE. I'll send it to you
immediately. (Please specify 5.25" or 3.5" disk size.)
P.S. #2: How would you like a list of over 200 shareware
distributors who would like to review your shareware products
for inclusion in their catalogs? Send $29.95 for this very
up-to-date list and bump your new career into high gear.
(Please specify 5.25" or 3.5" disk size.)
_____________________________________________________________
chapter end.
