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Text File | 1987-12-08 | 19KB | 404 lines

GRAB The Envelope Address Printer - Copyright 1987 By Paul Mayer Have you ever wanted to have your favorite word processor take the name and address from a letter and print your envelope? Well now it is possible with GRAB! GRAB is a memory resident program that will allow you to point at the address in your let- ter, GRAB IT, and then print your envelope for you. There are three files that comprise the GRAB system: GRAB.EXE - The memory resident program. GRABCFG.EXE - The GRAB configuration utility. GRAB.DOC - This file. The GRAB program was first created in the fall of 1986 written in Turbo Pascal. After being out for a little over a year on the 'shareware' circuit GRAB has now been rewritten as a new system. This latest release has been redone under Turbo Pascal 4.0 and is the result of many enhancement suggestions from the users of the earlier versions. One of the most important improvements is the ability to use GRAB from the DOS prompt. CONFIGURE GRAB By using the GRABCFG program you can change many of the GRAB default settings. GRABCFG.EXE should be in the same directory as your GRAB.EXE program when you do this. The main menu of the configuration program has seven selections and they are as fol- lows: 1 - 'Hot Key' This will open a sub-menu which will allow you to change the GRAB 'Hot Keys'. a - The 'Main Hot Key' that calls GRAB from memory into use. This can be now set to multiple key combinations to eliminate the accidental calling of GRAB. You could for ex- ample set a combination such as <Ctrl><Right Shift> and Z as your key combination. The following keys may only be set with simple <Alt> or <Ctrl> and <Key> combinations. b - The 'Print Marker Key' which tells GRAB to print the ad- dress after you cover it with the 'marking block'. c - The 'Print Window Key' which calls up a manual entry window so you can type in the name and address by hand. d - The 'Toggle Print Return Key' which will toggle the printing of the return address on and off. e - The 'Toggle Small Envelope Key' which will toggle the size from regular to small envelopes. 2 - 'Printer' This selection will give you a sub-menu that re- quests information about your printer set up. a - 'Type of Printer' This will ask you to select from one of the two HP Laserjet type printers (to take advantage of their envelope feed facility) or from a regular printer. b - 'Check Printer' This selection is to tell GRAB to check your printer before printing the envelopes. This eliminates the DOS ERROR message 'Abort, Retry, Ignore'. If your par- ticular application hangs up when GRAB performs this check, you may tell GRAB to not check the printer first and allow DOS to do the checking. c - 'Init/Exit Printer' GRAB also can send an initializa- tion string to the printer as well as an exit string. The use for this would be if you have a dot matrix printer that requires a special code to turn the 'letter quality mode' on and another code to return the printer to it's normal state. You would enter the decimal codes from your printer manual in the configuration program. An example of this would be to set the Epson FX286 to 'letter quality mode'. Enter in the first block available for the Init string the decimal code for escape which is 27 then in the second block available enter the decimal code for G which is 71. These two codes will send an escape G to the printer before print- ing your envelope. The exit string would be entered in the Exit string blocks using the codes for escape H (or 27 72) in the first two blocks available. You have a string of up to eight blocks for both the Init string and the Exit string. The Init string can be made to print at the beginning of each line also in the configuration. 3 - 'Return Address' This will give you a sub-menu that will al- low you to tell GRAB that by default you want to print your return address and also enter it. a - 'Print Return Address?' This entry will allow you to set the default to print your return address. You may toggle your default answer here while you are in the GRAB program. b - 'Return Address' If you want to use a return address this is the selection that you use to enter the information into your configuration file. 4 - 'Envelopes' This selection will allow you to use different size envelopes. GRAB comes configured for the standard business size envelope which is 4 x 9 1/2 in size. This is where you can change GRAB to print on the smaller 3 5/8 x 6 1/2 size. a - 'Small Envelopes' With this selection you can set the default to print the small size envelopes. This default as the 'return address' default may also be toggled from regular to small. 5 - 'Locations' If you do not like the default print locations for the two different envelopes you can adjust them. This is the selection that you would use if you did not want to use the default address printing locations. a - 'Change Locations' Here you can change the 'Up down location of the TO ADDRESS', the 'Left right location of the TO ADDRESS' and the 'Left right location of the FROM ADDRESS'. To decrease the number of spaces or lines in a print position you would enter a negative number. Let us say for five less spaces or lines we enter a '-5'. To increase the spaces or lines we would enter a positive number. 6 - 'Color' You can change the colors of the text marking block. a - 'Change Colors' Here you will be given a screen that looks like a WordStar editing screen with GRAB called up. You can use the left/right and up/down arrow keys to change the default colors. 7 - 'Exit' This last selection allows us to read from and write to a configuration file or exit the configuration program. a - 'Get' Will read in the existing GRAB.CFG file if it is there. This allows you to modify the changes you made the last time you used the configuration program. If you do not get a file the default setting will be those that GRAB originally came with. b - 'Save' Will write your configuration to the GRAB.CFG file. This is the selection that you take after setting all of your preferences. c - 'Exit' This will exit the program and return you to DOS. USING GRAB 1 - 'Installation' To install GRAB for use just type GRAB at the DOS prompt. GRAB will install itself into memory awaiting the 'Hot Key' to call it up for use. GRAB has been written to co- exist with other memory resident applications. Borland International's SideKick is one memory resident program that re- quests that it be loaded after all other utilities. For this reason, GRAB will not load itself if you have SideKick loaded prior to your attempt to load GRAB. When GRAB has successfully loaded you will receive a conformation notice. In the notice you will be shown the 'Hot Key' combina- tions as installed. If you do not use SideKick, you can have GRAB install itself along with your word processor and then remove itself from memory upon exiting your word processor. You would use a batch file like shown below as this will install GRAB then load your word processor and after your finished it will remove GRAB from memory. The following example batch file would load GRAB then load WordStar 4. After you exit from WordStar it would remove GRAB from memory. You should name the batch file WS4.BAT presuming your WordStar 4 is called WS.EXE the following is presented: GRAB WS GRAB /R That's right! Only a three line batch file. 2 - 'Calling GRAB From Memory' To invoke GRAB just enter into your favorite word processor and when you have your letter on the screen with the address showing, just hit the assigned 'Hot Key' combination. If you screen is in the 'Graphics mode' GRAB should not load itself. In this case GRAB should just respond with a beep when you attempt to call it. After you invoke the system, GRAB will display an instruction window on some of the commands. Also the toggles for the return address and small envelopes will be displayed. GRAB will then mark the screen with the area that will be printed on the en- velope. You can move this area around with the arrow keys on the keypad to cover the address that you want to print. The size of this marker can be slightly altered. The default size is 5 lines of 40 characters across. You can change the width of the marker with the F7, smaller and F8, wider keys, the height with the F9 and F10 keys. F9 will shorten the height down to 3 lines and F10 will increase the height to a maximum of 7 lines. After you have the address covered, just tap the 'Print Marker Hot Key' to print the address. If you are using a standard printer you should have positioned your envelope so the print head will cross on the first line that you would like the address to appear. The ad- dress will print forty spaces over from the left margin. If you have the HP laserJet printer you will just insert your envelope in the standard envelope feed position. If you want to abort the print process just hit the ESC (escape) key instead of the 'Print Marker Hot Key' combination. GRAB will strip control codes from the address before printing. GRAB will only accept ascii characters and will strip and replace the non-ascii characters with a nul. Also some word processors use an ascii display for control codes, GRAB detects the ^ con- trol code followed by a letter and strips this out as well as the < and > markers that are sometimes used to mark a carriage return. You can also type the address in to GRAB by hand if desired by hitting 'Print Window Hot Key' when in GRAB and a window will open and request the address. This is useful to address an en- velope that you need to send a "carbon copy" of a letter to. After typing in the address the PgDn key will print the envelope for you. This can also be used from DOS or any other program that you might be in. 3 - 'Remove GRAB from Memory' To remove GRAB from memory just type GRAB /R or GRAB -R at the DOS prompt. Then GRAB will remove itself from memory. Do not remove GRAB if you have other memory resident programs loaded after GRAB, this could cause unexpected results. EDIT COMMANDS Edit commands available for use in the data entry areas are as follows: <Enter> - Accept line. <Esc>, <CtrlBreak> - Quit without changing line. <Left>, <CtrlS> - Cursor left one character. <Right>, <CtrlD> - Cursor right character. <CtrlLeft>, <CtrlA> - Cursor left one word. <CtrlRight>, <CtrlF> - Cursor right one word. <Home>, <CtrlQ><S> - Cursor to beginning of line. <End>, <CtrlQ><D> - Cursor to end of line. <Del>, <CtrlG> - Delete character at cursor. <Bksp>, <CtrlH>, <CtrlBksp> - Delete character to left of cursor. <CtrlEnd>, <CtrlQ><Y> - Delete to end of line. <CtrlY>, <CtrlX> - Delete entire line. <CtrlHome> - Delete from beginning of line. <CtrlT> - Delete Word to right of cursor. <Ins> - Toggle insert mode on and off. Fat cursor indicates in- sert mode; thin cursor indicates overwrite mode. <CrtlR>, <CtrlQ><L> - Restore original contents of line. GRAB is provided at no charge to the user. GRAB is a 'shareware type program' without either expressed or implied warranties of any kind on an 'as is' basis. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of 'user-supported' software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to con- tinue to develop new products. If you find this program useful, a contribution ($15.00 suggested) would be greatly appreciated. Any suggestion or comments you may have are also welcome. INFORMATION for tested word processors: WORD PROCESSOR TESTED: SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: Celebrity None Works Fine. Deskmate (Tandy) None Works Fine. DisplayWrite 4 Must change marker colors. * Electric Pencil-PC Does Not Work. Farsight (Interface Tech.) None Works Fine. Leading Edge Word Processor Works Fine with the following: After you have GRAb loaded and enter the LEWP program hit <Ctrl> and <Esc> this will cause a "DOS" to appear in the upper right hand corner of the screen indicating that GRAB and other memory resident programs may be used. Letter Perfect None Works Fine. MASS 11 (MEC-Chicago) None Works Fine. Microsoft Word (3.1) 1. Word is in TEXT mode. (start with --> WORD/C) 2. OPTIONS/VISIBLE/NONE is selected. * Multimate (Ashton Tate) Does Not Work. * Office Writer (5.0) None Works Fine. PC-Write (2.71) None Works Fine. PFS:Professional Write None Works Fine. Q&A None Works Fine. Smart System 3.10 None Works Fine. Word Perfect 4.2 None Works Fine. WordStar None Works Fine. WordStar 4 None Works Fine. WordStar 2000 None Works Fine. * WordVision Does Not Work. * Word Writer PC (Timeworks) Does Not Work. XyWrite III Plus None Works Fine. Most of the above reports were made from user's of the older ver- sions of GRAB. If you have different results we would appreciate hearing from you. * If you get one of these Word Processors to work let us know. It is possible to use GRAB with a word processor that fails in the "text grabbing" mode. The GRAB utility can be used as an en- velope printer by typing in the address with the manual entry window. Please drop us a line if you have had either success or failure with a word processor other than any of those listed above. All contributors will receive a copy of the latest version of the GRAB program with a printed illustrated manual. We will also send you an information packet that describes other software available from Paul Mayer and ZPAY Payroll Systems. ZPAY Payroll Systems c/of Paul Mayer 3516 Ruby Street Franklin Park, IL 60131 (312) 671-3130 (Please between 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm Chicago time) Compuserve ID 70040,645 GRAB will work on the IBM-PC/XT/AT and true compatible computers with PC-DOS or MS-DOS 2.0 or newer. GRAB should work with most popular word processors and printers that use 'text mode' and not a 'graphics mode' to display text.