Belgian Amiga Club - ADF Collection/BS1 part 40.zip/BS1 part 40/Doc_disk3.adf/BUMPERSTICKER-doc

Text File | 1978-11-16 | 17KB | 375 lines

            BUMPER STICKER MAKER

                  CONTENTS

Introduction...............................................3
    What is Bumper Sticker Maker?......................3
Getting More Bumper Stickers...............................4
Getting Started/Amiga......................................5
    Loading Bumper Sticker Maker.......................5
The Side Menu..............................................6
The Pull Down Menus........................................9


               INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS BUMPER STICKER MAKER?

BUMPER STICKER MAKER is an entertainment and productivity program designed to
allow you to easily and efficiently print bumper stickers. The program allows
you to design and create the icon (graphic symbol) that you will be placing on
the sticker, or to use one of the many prestored icons. The program then allows
you to pick styles for your type, and place text onto the sticker. Finally, you
can move this text around until you have the sticker composition you desire and
then print the sticker on your printer.

The bumper stickers that you will create with Bumper Sticker Maker are intended
for recreational and entertainment uses. They are not meant to replace
professional bumper stickers that you can obtain from a printer. The Publisher
realizes that the program is limited by the quality of your printer. Unless you
have a very fine printer, BUMPER STICKER MAKER stickers will not equal
professional stickers. Nevertheless, BUMPER STICKER MAKER is the first program
to give you the opportunity to create, design, and print fun and usable
stickers from your computer.

We are sure you are going to have hours of fun with BUMPER STICKER MAKER and
find hundreds of uses for the stickers you will create!  Read through this
manual carefully before beginning the program.

                       GETTING MORE BUMPER STICKERS

The BUMPER STICKER MAKER paper is a custom paper stock that was created
specifically for use with the Bumper Sticker Maker program. Paper is included
with this program. However, you may find you need more paper. The paper is sold
in separate paper packs. Paper Packs contain enough paper to create 100 bumper
stickers. Please ask your computer dealer for more information on buying the
Bumper Sticker Maker paper packs. If you dealer does not have the paper in
stock you may purchase it directly from IntraCorp, Inc. Please call us at
1-800-INTRACO (468-7226) and have your credit card handy. (Sorry, no CODs). We
will be happy to ship you the additional paper directly. Since paper prices
change occasionally, you will have to ask our order desk for the price of the
paper pack when you call.

            GETTING STARTED/AMIGA

LOADING BUMPER STICKER MAKER

Turn on the computer. If your machine requires a KickStart disk then insert it
now. After Kickstart has finished loading the computer will ask for a WorkBench
1.2 disk. Insert the BUMPER STICKER MAKER program disk now. The drive will know
the disk has been inserted automatically. Soon the program's title screen will
appear. Press any key or the mouse button to continue. The screen will clear
and the message "One moment please...." will be displayed. Soon it will
desappear as well, and the main program will begin initializing. When the
Bumper Sticker WorkScreen appears you are ready to begin. If you fail to get
the work screen to appear after a while check the peripheral connections and
make sure you have 512K or memory on your machine!

NOTE: If you intend on restarting the program any time other than at bootup
please note thet IT MUST BE RUN FROM CLI! To make sure youdo not forget, no
icon exists for the program itself. To re-run it go to CLI and type: LOGO.RUN
(or) BSM.RUN (if you don't want to go through the startup title). The Bumper
Sticker Maker work screen consists of three separate areas: the drawing area,
the side menu and the pull-down menus.

The drawing area is where the actual bumper stickers are created. If you have
ever used a paint program before you will notice that BSM functions similarly
to one. The left mouse button is used to draw in the drawing area and is also
used to select the drawing function from the side menu. The right mouse button
is used to select an option from the pull-down menus.

                       USING THE SIDE MENUS:

On the side menu you will notice several drawing functions. They are as
follows:

DRAW (freehand drawing) -

Click on this with the left mouse button and you can do freehand drawing with
the mouse in the work area. The line you draw will be rendered in the current
color. (See Selecting a color to draw with).

LINE -

When in this mode click and hold on the mouse button and move the mouse around.
Notice that a straight line connects the position you clicked at and the
position the mouse pointer is currently at. Release the button and a line will
be drawn in the current color.

BOX -

Works similar to the line function except a box is created between two ponts.
Release the button to draw the box. A note about box (and circle): You can
select filler or unfilled boxes (or circles) by clicking on one of the two
images to the right of their text in the menu. The frame image gives an
unfilled box or circle and the solid image gives a filled one.

CIRCLE -

Just like box except the circle will expand and contract as you move the
pointer away from and towards the center of the circle. The center is where you
first pressed (and held) the left mouse button. Try not to move the mouse
pointer when you release the left button to draw the circle. Note that filled
circles may not fill properly if a lin of the same color as the circle
intersects it. If the circle does not fill all the way select the FILL function
(see below) and fill it manually.

FILL -

Whenever you click the left button you will get a flood fill in the currently
selected color.

AIRBRUSH -

Press and hold the left mouse button to get a "spray" of dots in the work area.
The longer you stay over one portion the denser the dots will be, just like a
spray can.

MIRROR -

Unlike the other functions the mirror function is a toggle function which is
selected by clicking on the arrows to the right of the "Mirror" text. The
horizontal arrows give you a horizontal mirror while the vertical arrows give
you a vertical mirror. If both are activated you get a four-way mirror! All
side menu functions except Airbrush get mirrored if any mirror mode is
activated.

                        SELECTING A COLOR TO DRAW WITH:

A one-color bumper sticker can be pretty boring. To select a different color
simply move to the color bar you want and click on it with the left button. If
you have more than 512K in your Amiga you will be able to draw with 16 colors
instead of the standard 8 color display. Also note that this manual makes
several references to a "background color." The background color is selected by
using the "select background color" option under the Colors pull-down menu.
(See below). The default background color is white (the color of the
workscreen). To use the shadow text function you must set it to another color,
or shadow text will not work well.

NOTE: When booting the program it is possible to force the program to 8-color
mode. When the "One moment please" text comes on after the title screen is done
press the "8" key once. You may want an 8-color display since it uses half as
much memory as a 16 color display and thus saves lots of disk space when saving
bumper stickers!

               THE PULL-DOWN MENUS:

To get the pull-down menu options to display click the right mouse button and
HOLD IT DOWN. At the top line of the screen you will see the menu titles. Move
the mouse over each option and a menu will appear under each menu title. Move
the mouse down and each menu item in that menu will be highlighted. To select
an item place the mouse pointer over the item and release the right mouse
button. (Please note that the left mouse button is NOT used when selecting the
pull-down menus with this program.) Here is a list of the pull down menu
options and an explanation of each:

                PROJECT:

NEW -

Clears the current bumper sticker with the selected background color. This is
when you want to "start from scratch so to speak..."

OPEN -

Loads a bumper sticker in IFF format. This function loads a bumper sticker that
was previously saved with this program or any IFF picture that will fit into a
480x400 pixel area. The following instructions show how to use the file
requesters with this program.

            USING THE FILE REQUESTER:

When a file requester is coming up the pointer turns into a coffee cup and the
disk drive will access. When the file requester appears it will have several
finenames in it. If more than 10 files exist you can scroll up or down by
clicking on the up and down arrow images in the requester. Double click on the
file name using the left mouse button and it will be selected. You will notice
that you can also type the filename at the bottom of the requester. Hit RETURN
after yu are done typing it. To abort a file requester click on the close box
of the file requester or click outside of it. The function keys (F1-F4) have a
special purpose in the file requester: F1 reloads the directory from drive DF0:
F2 reloads the directory from drive DF1: F3 reloads the directory from hard
drive DH0:  F4 reloads the directory from hard drive DH1: These are for if you
have a separate data disk or are planning on using the program with a hard
drive.

Once a filename is selected or entered the requester will disappear and the
function associated with this requester will receive the filename and begin to
execute.

             NOTES ON LOADING BUMPER STICKERS:

Since this program uses IFF picture formats to store the bumper stickers you
can read in some of your favorite digitized or drawing pictures and use them as
bumper stickers. There are a few limitations however....

1. They must be 8 or 16 colors depending upon what color mode you are in. You
can load a picture with more colors but it will not display correctly.

2. They must be no larger than 480 pixels across. This rule MUST be followed or
the pictures will overwrite into the menu area. They can be any vertical size
however.

SAVE -

Saves a bumpber sticker in IFF format. A file requester will appear. Follow the
file requester instructions above if you are not familiar with it.  Note: BSM
saves a workbench icon with its stickers so you can use the workbench screen on
the Amiga to copy stickers to other disks.

KILL -

Deletes a bumper sticker that was saved on disk. Select the file with the file
requester.

PRINT -

Displays the bumper sticker on screen. A requester will appear asking how many
you want printed. Enter the # of stickers to print.  Entering nothing will
return you to the main program. While printing the ESC key will abort printing
as soon as the currently printing bumper sticker is finished. The program disk
comes with all of the Commodore-Amiga supplied printer drivers. The default
setting is for an Epson JX-80 color printer. To change the default, save the
bumper sticker you are working on (if any) and Quit the program. (See below).
The workbench screen will come up so you can get into Preferences and select
the printer you want. If you are not familiar with WorkBench Preferences
consult your owner's manual.

QUIT -

Quits the program and transfers you to WorkBench.

                EDIT:

UNDO -

Undoes last side menu function. Also undoes the last text entered. Very useful
if you find that you made a "mistake."

GRAB -

Lets you copy or move the image to another part of the screen. Click the left
moust button and a box will appear, and resize itself as you move the mouse
around. Click again and that area will be "grabbed". The image you have grabbed
is represented by a box that moves with the mouse. To place it down again click
on the lift mouse button. If you want to save the grabbed image press the "S"
key. A file requester with a list of files will appear. Enter the filename on
the keyboard. (If you want to save over an existing file double-click the left
mouse button on that displayed filename. See Using the file requester for more
info on it's use.  When placing an image down onto the screen it will be placed
according to the mode selected in the Grab/Cut options menu. (Again folks see
below under the Grab/Cut options...).

CUT-

Same as grab except the area you grab is cleared with the current background
color.

LOAD-

Loads an image that was grabbed and saved. Please note that these cut-and-paste
images are NOT IFF format. A file requester appears for the filename.

KILL-

Deletes an image saved on disk. Select with the file requester.

            FONTS:

ENTER TEXT-

A line appears and moves with the mouse, this is the cursor. Click the left
mouse button to set where you want the text to start. The letters you type will
appear on the screen in the currently selected size and color. If Shadow mode
is on a shadow of each letter is generated in the current background color. The
BACKSPACE key erases the whole line not just a single letter.

RESIZE-

A requester appears asking for the horizontal and vertical sizes of the text.
Any real number between 1 and 3 inclusive can be used. To change a value press
the BACKSPACE key and enter the new value.  Press RETURN and that value will be
entered. When finished click on the OK box with the left mouse button.

SHADOW-

This is a toggle selection. When "on" a check mark will appear to the left of
it. When you enter text the current background color will be used as a "shadow"
for the text being entered.

              GRAB/CUT OPTIONS:

These options deal directly with the way a grabbed image will appear when
pasted on the work screen. The one that is currently selected will have a check
mark beside it in the pull-down menu box. Here is a brief explanation of each:
AND performs a logical AND with the grabbed image and screen before it is
pasted. OR performs a logical OR with the grabbed image and screen before it is
pasted. PUT places the image down on the screen and erases whatever was on the
screen inside the image rectangle. This is the only function where whatever is
on the screen has no effect as to how the pasted image will look.  XOR does a
logical XOR with the grabbed image and screen before it is pasted.

NOTE: There are a few pre-saved images on the BSM disk. To sve space these
mages were all saved in 8-color mode. When these images are loaded under the
Edit-load function in 16-color mode the colors may not be right. To allow them
to work properly select PUT under the Grab/Cut options menu load the image and
paste it where you want it. Remember that PUT mode is the only mode where the
screen data has no effect on how the images are displayed when pasted. This is
why PUT must be selected when loading 8-color images on a 16-color screen.

                COLORS:

EDIT PALETTE-

With the Amiga you can choose from 4096 colors to place in each of the color
registers of the color palette. When selected a requester appears on the right.
Click inside the slider bars to change the red, green, and blue intensity
levels of the currently selecte color. Click on OK when done.

SELECT BKRND-

The currently selected color becomes the new background color. Just click on
the color bar you want to use as a background color and select this function.
The next time you NEW or CUT this new color will be used instead of the white
default. The text shadows (if turned on) will be rendered in this color.

DEFAULT PALETTE-

If you want the program's default palette back on select this function.

                          ADDITIONAL NOTES

NOTE: We assume that the printer drivers supplied by Commodore-Amiga work
properly. We can take no responsibility if the supplied driver does not work.

            HARD DISK INSTALLATION

If you are planning on using this program from a hard disk drive the following
files and directories are needed: (These get copied to a BSM subdirectory you
would create on the hard drive).

Filename        type of file
--------        ------------

Logo.run        program
BSM.run            program
BSM.pfont        data file
Menu.pic        data file
BMAPS            subdirectory
BOBS            subdirectory
Stickers        subdirectory
Images            subdirectory
Stickers.info        icon file
Images.info        icon file

Also you must copy the BAS.RL file out of the L: directory on the BSM disk to
the L: directory located on the root directory of the hard drive. You should
also make sure you have the RAM-HANDLER in this directory. This program uses a
RamDisk for scratchpad use. Then make sure the LIST command in the C: directory
of the BSM disk is in the C: directory of the hard drive. You must have the
LIST command in the hard drive C: directory or else the file requesters will
not work!

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Bumper Sticker Maker docs brought to you by The Southern Star.