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S H A R E W A R E I N F O R M A T I O N _______ ____|__ | (tm) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware- related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a CompuServe message via Easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. Welcome to the shareware version of HyperLink! "HyperLink" is NOT made available to you as "Public Domain" or "Freeware". This fully functional package is distributed as shareware. Shareware programs give you the opportunity to verify that a program will operate with your systems configuration, and most importantly, will fulfill your specific needs. Keep in mind that a lot of hard work has gone into the development and testing of this product, we are not giving this product away for free. "HyperLink" is a copyrighted software package developed and owned solely by BGASoft. BGASoft grants you, without charge, the right to reproduce, distribute and use copies of this shareware version of our Hypertext Help product, subject to the following limitations: 1) "HyperLink" can NOT be sold or distributed as part of any larger system, or as a part of a more inclusive product or service, without the express written consent and licensing from BGASoft. 2) The complete unmodified package must be distributed with all related executable, support, and documentation files. 3) You are encouraged to distribute copies of this software package to other persons, but solely for their evaluation purposes. Any persons who continue to use this package for a period of more than thirty (30) days MUST then register. 4) You may not receive any payment, commercial benefit, or other consideration for the reproduction or distribution of this software package. A nominal fee, not to exceed $7.00, may be charged to compensate for the reproduction and distribution costs of this product. 5) You must NOT modify this license agreement or the copyright notice which appears in the software, documentation, user interface, or magnetic media: HyperLink v1.0 i October 1990 P R O D U C T R E G I S T R A T I O N I N F O R M A T I O N If you continue to use the "HyperLink" after the initial 30 day evaluation period, you MUST register. Registered users will receive a new version of "HyperLink" which does not display the BGASoft Copyright notice on the top line of the Help screen. The registered version may then be freely incorporated into your own programs. Technical support will be provided along with information about new program updates and/or product releases. /////////////////////// / PRICING INFORMATION / /////////////////////// Registration for "HyperLink" is $20.00. Please fill out the order form which follows. Fully documented Turbo Pascal source code is available for $49.00. If you have already registered your copy of "HyperLink", you may purchase the source code for the $29.00 difference in price. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \ BGASoft \ \ P.O. Box 270674 \ \ West Hartford, CT 06127-0674 \ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ HyperLink v1.0 ii October 1990 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \ HyperLink v1.0 Registration Form \ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Purchase Order #: __________________________ Date: __________________ Name: _______________________________ Title: ________________________ Company: _____________________________________________________________ Address: _____________________________________________________________ City: ________________________________________________________________ State/Country: ________________________ Zip: _________________________ PHONE Work: (_____) _____ - ______ Home: (_____) _____ - __________ NOTE: Connecticut State residents MUST add sales tax. All checks and money orders MUST be drawn on U.S. accounts only. ===================================================================== [ | | Cost | Total ] [ Quantity | Description | per unit | Cost ] ===================================================================== [ | | | ] [ | "HyperLink v1.0" | $20.00 | ] [ | | | ] [ | "HyperLink" Source Code | $49.00 | ] [ | | | ] ===================================================================== [ Connecticut residents add 8% sales tax | ] ------------------------------------------------------ [ Shipping Cost add $2.00 | ] ====================================================== Total U.S. funds [ ] ============= Please indicate diskette format: [ ] 5.25 [ ] 3.5 Paid by: [ ] Check - [ ] Money Order \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \ Send this order form to: \ \ BGASoft \ \ P.O. Box 270674 \ \ West Hartford, CT 06127-0674 \ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ HyperLink v1.0 iii October 1990 COPYRIGHT (c) 1990 by BGASoft All Rights Reserved Software License and Copyright These materials are made available on an "as is" basis without warranty as to the their performance, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. In no event will BGASoft be liable for any damages, direct, incidental or consequential, such as, but not limited to, the loss of anticipated profits, benefits, use, or data resulting from the use of this software. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of direct, incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations may not apply to you. In no event will our liability exceed the purchase price of this software. HyperLink and BGASoft are trademarks of BGASoft. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines. Turbo Pascal is a registered trademark of Borland International. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of MicroSoft Corporation. WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corporation. CompuServe and EasyPlex are registered trademarks of CompuServe Incorporated. HyperLink v1.0 iv October 1990 HyperLink v1.0 TABLE OF CONTENTS ================================ NOTE: For an overview of "HyperLink" refer to the README.NOW file. HOW TO CREATE THE HYPERTEXT FILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 MORE HELP TOPICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 LINKING LONGER HELP TOPICS WITH [PgUp/PgDn] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 IMPORTANT INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 CREATING THE INDEX TO YOUR HELP FILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 KEY DEFINITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 HELPFUL HINTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 CONTACTING BGASoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 HyperLink v1.0 v October 1990 HOW TO CREATE THE HYPERTEXT FILE "HyperLink" is quite simple to set up and use. You place all of the necessary codes for establishing the links directly into your ASCII help file as you create it. Let's begin by looking at the format of a sample help text file: ~B,Main Menu Main Menu Select the keyword you would like to obtain more information on. See Also: ^Keyword1^ ^Keyword2^ ^Keyword3^ (Press the [F1] Key at any time to return to this screen.) ~E The first keyword in your help file must be named "Main Menu". This is the help screen that will provide access to the rest of the hypertext help file. And, whenever the user presses the [F1] key, this is the help screen that will appear. The start of each new help topic is designated by the "~B" character combination. This must be followed immediately by a comma with no spaces. The keyword that follows the comma is what provides the link. Spelling is extremely important, case is not (e.g. MaIn MEnu will work just as well here). Directly below the keyword, it is recommended that you provide a brief description of the current help screen. In this case, the descriptive text matches the actual keyword ("Main Menu"); this is not required. Providing Access to other help topics: Any text which is located between two carats "^" will be displayed on the screen in a brighter colored text. A reverse video Highlight Bar will be placed on the current Help Keyword. The user may use the [Up], [Down], [Right], [Left], [Home], and [End] keys to move through any of the brighter colored help keywords. Marking the end of the current Help screen: The end of the current help page is designated by the "~E" combination. HyperLink v1.0 1 October 1990 MORE HELP TOPICS The next item in your help file should look like this: ~B,Keyword1 This is Keyword1 Information for keyword 1 should be placed here. See also: ^Keyword2^ ~E Again, the "~B" characters indicate the beginning of a new help topic, followed by the keyword to be linked. Once again, on the next line you should put some text which describes the help topic that is currently displayed. HyperLink v1.0 2 October 1990 LINKING LONGER HELP TOPICS WITH [PgUp/PgDn] Often times, one screenful of text is not enough to fully explain a help topic. You may indicate that more information is contained on the following page by marking the end of page with the "~P" character combination (instead of "~E"). Currently, up to 20 pages may be linked together in this manner. When this help screen appears on the screen, the word "PgDn" will be displayed in the bottom right hand corner of the window border. This indicates to the user that more information follows on the next page. ~B,Keyword2 This is Keyword2 If there is a lot of information for help keyword2, more information can be put on the next page. ~P This screen contains more information about Keyword2 See Also: ^Keyword3^ ~E ~B,Keyword3 This is Help Keyword 3 See Also: ^Keyword1^ ~E HyperLink v1.0 3 October 1990 IMPORTANT INFORMATION 1) The Help text file that you create must be named "HyperLNK.TXT". You will probably want to rename (or back-up) the HyperLNK.TXT file which is supplied with this package so that it will not be lost. 2) Make sure that any column of help keywords (enclosed between two carats "^") is left aligned on the same column, otherwise the [up] and [down] keys will not work properly. In other words, all of the carats "^" should line up in a column along the left hand side: ^Keyword 1^ ^Keyword 1a^ ^Keyword 1b^ ^Keyword 1d^ ^keyword2^ ^keyword2a^ ^keyword2b^ ^keyword2d^ ^Keyword #3^ ^Keyword #3a^ ^Keyword #3b^ ^Keyword #3d^ ^Keyword4^ ^Keyword4a^ ^Keyword4b^ ^Keyword4d^ ^Topic 5^ ^Topic 5a^ ^Topic 5b^ ^Topic 5d^ ^Topic No. 6^ ^Topic No. 6a^ ^Topic No. 6b^ ^Topic No. 6d^ 3) Help keywords can not be any longer than 30 characters. Otherwise they will be truncated in the Index file. 4) You can not have more than 30 keywords on any single help screen. 5) Make sure you that you have included the correct version of the help unit with a USES statement as follows: Uses Hyper60; (for users of Turbo Pascal v6.0) or Uses Hyper55; (for users of Turbo Pascal v5.5) or Uses Hyper50; (for users of Turbo Pascal v5.0) 6) Call the Help unit by issuing the procedure call in the following manner: HyperLink(X1,Y1,X2,Y2, Help_Keyword); (e.g. HyperLink( 1, 1,79,25, 'Main Menu');) 7) Do not use a value of 80 for the X2 parameter when the Y2 parameter is set to 25. Otherwise, when the bottom right corner of the box is drawn, the window will be forced to scroll up one line. 8) Keep in mind that you are able to specify the size and location of the border around the Help window on the screen. Your text must be formatted to fit within this box, otherwise it will be clipped off at the right and/or bottom margins. HyperLink v1.0 4 October 1990 CREATING THE INDEX TO YOUR HELP FILE Once you have finished creating your Help file, you are ready to make the index file. This is accomplished by running the "HyperNDX.EXE" program. When you execute this program, each keywords will be listed on the screen as it is encountered. Next to the keyword you will see a number. This represents the location of the keyword in the HyperLNK.TXT file. This information is stored in a file named "HyperLNK.NDX" for later use by the HyperLNK unit. You must run the HyperNDX program any time you make a change to the HyperLNK.TXT file. Otherwise, the index file will become obsolete and the HyperLNK unit will no longer operate as anticipated. NOTE: The "HyperLNK.TXT" file must reside in the same subdirectory as HyperNDX.EXE, otherwise the index will not be created. HyperLink v1.0 5 October 1990 KEY DEFINITIONS When you use "HyperLink", several keys are defined as follows: [F1] - Brings up the help screen which is associated with the "Main Menu" keyword. You will notice that one nice feature has been added. When you return to the Main Menu screen, the Highlight Bar will be placed on the keyword that was accessed most recently. The keys listed below will perform the associated tasks only if there is more than one keyword on the current help screen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Up] - Moves the Highlight Bar up one row if there is a keyword directly above the current topic (must be in the same column). [Down] - Moves the Highlight Bar down one row if there is a keyword directly below the current topic. [Left] - Moves the Highlight Bar to the previous keyword, located either to the left or above the current topic. [Right] - Moves the Highlight Bar to the next keyword, located either to the right or below the current topic. [Home] - Moves the Highlight Bar to the first keyword on the screen. [End] - Moves the Highlight Bar to the last keyword on the screen. The following keys will perform the associated task if the word "PgUp" or "PgDn" (respectively) is displayed on the lower right hand corner of the screen. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [PgUp] - Brings up the help screen which precedes the current help screen. [PgDn] - Brings up the help screen which follows the current help screen. HyperLink v1.0 6 October 1990 HELPFUL HINTS It will be much easier to use a word processor when you are creating your help file. Wordperfect V5.0 was used to develop the hypertext help file which is included with the demo program (some extra work is involved converting this file into its proper format). Using a word processor allows you to quickly modify the margins if you so desire. Also, the ability to perform a spell check on the help file will give your documentation a more professional appearance. If you do choose to us a word processor, be sure that you are able to remove all unnecessary codes, and that your file can be converted to the proper format. HyperLink v1.0 7 October 1990 CONTACTING BGASoft Technical support will be provided for registered users only. Limited assistance is available for first time users. US Mail: BGASoft P.O. Box 270674 West Hartford, CT 06127-0674 CompuServe: Robert Gurrieri User# [72040,467] HyperLink v1.0 8 October 1990