The Party 1994: Try This At Home

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Text File | 1995-05-20 | 19KB | 414 lines

████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ▄██████ ██ ██ ▐█▌ ██▄▄▄██ ██▄▄▄▄ ██ ██ ▐█▌ ██▀▀▀██ ██▀▀▀▀ ██ ██ ▐█▌ ██ ██ ▀██████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██████▄ ▄█████▄ ██████▄ ███████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄██ ██▄▄▄██ ██ ██ ▐█▌ ██▄ ▄██ ██ ██ ██▀▀▀▀ ██▀▀▀██ ██████ ▐█▌ ▀███▀ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ▀██ ▐█▌ ▐█▌ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ▀▀▀████▀▀██▀▀▀██▀▀▀ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ █▄ ▄█ ██ ██ ▄▄▄████▄▄▄▄███▄▄▄▄▄ ██ ██ ██ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ╓─╥─┐ ╥ ┬ ╥──┐ ╓──┐ ╥──┐ ╥──┐ ─╥─ ╓──┐ ─╥─ ╓──┐ ╥ ║ ╟──┤ ╟─ ║ │ ╟─ ╟─ ║ ║ ║ ╟──┤ ║ ╨ ╨ ┴ ╨──┘ ╙──┘ ╨ ╨ ─╨─ ╙──┘ ─╨─ ╨ ┴ ╨──┘ ╓──┐ ╥──┐ ╥──┐ ╓──┐ ╓─╥─┐ ║ ║ │ ─── ╟─┬┘ ║ │ ║ ║ │ ╙──┘ ╨──┘ ╨ ┴ ╙──┘ ╨ ╨ ┴ Copyright 1994,1995 by Assembly Organizing. All rights reserved. === ABOUT THIS MANUAL === You are now reading an on-line manual for the The Party 94 CD-ROM's GUI (short for Graphical User Interface). This manual is divided into two sub- sections, the manual on how to operate the GUI and information about the productions on this CD-ROM. === 1. OPERATIONAL GUIDE === 1.1 Overview of the GUI ----------------------- The Graphical User Interface (GUI) is designed for maximum ease of use and versality. The GUI is completely operatable with your mouse and / or with your keyboard. For optimal use we suggest the use of mouse as it is faster and more flexible than the use of keyboard. The CD-ROM has been organized into menus, one for each competition, so there is a menu for the PC demo competition, the graphics competition and so forth. All PC demos, PC intros, pictures and modules (4 channel and 32 channel) are executable from within the GUI, all you need to do is to click on them with your mouse! 1.2 Operation manual -------------------- 1.2.1 Abbrevations ------------------ In the following chapters the following abbrevations will be used: GUI Graphical User Interface ESC Escape key ALT-C Press and hold the ALT key while pressing C ALT-H Press and hold the ALT key while pressing H ALT-L Press and hold the ALT key while pressing L ALT-R Press and hold the ALT key while pressing R ALT-S Press and hold the ALT key while pressing S ALT-T Press and hold the ALT key while pressing T If not noted otherwise the following keys will substitute for mouse buttons if you are using a keyboard: Right mouse button Space bar -key Left mouse button Enter key 1.2.1 Parts of the screen ----------------------- If you look around your screen right now, you can see a title bar (The Party 94 CD) on the top of the screen, then this block of text and then below a menu bar (Demos, Intros, etc) and in the bottom of the screen you can find the option bar. This part of the screen that you are reading right now where most of the interaction and information to the you, the user, will take place. This part of the screen is used both for displaying information and help texts (like this one you are reading right now) and for presenting you with the menus from which to choose the production to be executed, installed or viewed. For more information, refer to the section 1.4. The menu bar below contains icons on which you click (or alternatively press the appropriate function key displayed near the name of the menu) with your left mouse button and by so doing move between the menus. For more information, refer to the section 1.3.1. The option bar in the bottom of the screen provides you with many ways to configure the functions of the GUI. For more information, refer to the section 1.5. To the right of this part of the screen you can see a white scroll bar. With it you can scroll the information on this paragraph up and down. 1.3 Using the GUI ----------------- The GUI is so easy to use that you only need to master a few things: 1) moving between the menus 2) executing productions and 3) using the option bar. 1.3.1 Moving between menus -------------------------- Moving between menus is easy, just click on the menu bar on the appropriate icon. To do this move the mouse cursor over the icon you wish to activate and then press your left mouse button. No matter where you are or what you are doing (assuming you are still within the GUI, and not executing a demo or a intro) you can always click on the menu bar to switch between menus. If you are using a keyboard you can move between the menus by pressing your function keys. If you look on the menu bar you will see that next to the name of the menu a function key is displayed. For example if you look at the "DEMOS" icon, you will see that "F1" is displayed near the text "DEMOS". This key is the function key you need to press if you wish to switch to the "DEMOS" menu. Below you can see a list of the function keys available: Function key Menu ------------ ----------------- F1 Demos F2 Intros F3 Graphics F4 4 channel modules F5 32 channel modules F6 Sources F7 Information 1.3.2 Moving inside menus ------------------------- Wherever you are in the GUI you can always see a scroll bar just off the right end of the screen. The area white is the actual scroll bar. By dragging (click-and-hold and while holding moving the mouse) scroll bar you can scroll the text on this part of the screen up and down. You can also accomplish a similar feature by clicking on scroll bar outside the white bar. If you are using keyboard, you can move up and down on by using your cursor keys (up and down arrow and PgUp and PgDown keys). 1.4 Executing productions ------------------------- When you have moved to a menu (see section 1.3.1) you will be presented with a display with two paragraphs. The paragraph on the left displays the names and the authors of the productions and their placement in the Party 94 competitions. The paragraph on the right displays the names of the information files for the corresponding (i.e. the production on the same line) productions. If a line is blank on this paragraph it means that there is no information file for this particular work. Just off the right end of the screen you can see the scroll bar (see section 1.3.2 for more details). This screen is where you can choose which production(s) to execute, read information about them and if you wish also to install them on your own hard disk. 1.4.1 Running a production -------------------------- By clicking with your left mouse button (or the enter key) on a production (the currently selected one is the one embossed in a white bar and under the mouse cursor) you will activate the production. Depending on the type of the production different actions will take place. If you are clicking on a demo or a intro the GUI will exit to DOS and run the selected production and after the production finishes you will be returned to GUI (for more information, refer to section 2.2.1). If you are clicking on a picture the selected picture will be displayed on your screen (for more information, refer to section 2.2.2). If you are clicking on a 4 or 32 channel tune the music player will be activated to play the selected tune (for more information, refer to section 2.2.3). 1.4.2 "Tagging" productions --------------------------- By clicking with your right mouse button (or the space bar -key) on a production (the currently selected on is the one embossed in a white bar and under the mouse cursot) you will "tag" (i.e. select) the production. You can tag as many production as you wish from as many different menus as you wish. Once you press your left mouse button (or the enter key) on any production all of the "tagged" (i.e. selected) productions will be run. The number on the left from the name of the production indicates the position of this particular production. So, if a production has the number 42 to the left of it this production will be the 42th production executed. If you have selected multiple production for execution (by tagging them) you can exit before reaching the last of the productions by pressing ESC. If you are watching demos, intros or listening to music you will be presented with a three second pause between these productions and if you press ESC during this pause you will return to the GUI. If you are watching graphics you can press the ESC (in order to return to the GUI) any time you wish. 1.4.3 Viewing an information file --------------------------------- The paragraph on the right displays the names of information files for productions. Some lines usually are blank on this paragraph because not all of the production come with information files. You can view a information file by clicking with your left mouse button on the name of the information file. This opens up a view which is similar to this one you are reading right now. Similarly, you can scroll up and down on this paragraph (see section 1.3.2 for details) and once you wish to return from the information file you can either press your right mouse button or if you are using a keyboard, you can press ESC. You can also exit from the information file by moving to a menu (see section 1.3.1). 1.5 Using the option bar ------------------------ The option bar allows you to modify the way the regular operations of the GUI work and look. It controls for example how the list of the productions are sorted, looping etc. There are two kinds of icons on the option bar. The first kind is a basic on/off switch (for example the "loop" switch) and the other kind is the multivalue switch (for example the sorting switch). You can tell the multivalue switch from a basic switch by two or more little circles near the name of the icon. One of these circles is always lit at a time and it denotes the setting that is at the moment active. The multivalue switches have two or three different possible states. They are linked so that if you click on a multivalue switch when it is in its "last" state the switch will move to the "first" state. So if you press a multivalue switch (that has 2 states) twice you will get back to the state you were when you first clicked on it. All of the switches have a hot key which performs the same function as pressing the left mouse button on the switch. For example, the "loop" switch's hot key is ALT-L. So, to turn the "loop" switch ON you would first press and hold the ALT key and then while holding press L and then release the both of the keys. If the basic switch is active it will appear as it would be deeper in the option bar, like it would have been actually pushed. To turn the switch off you can either click on it with your mouse left mouse button or press again the hot key for the appropriate switch. If the basic switch invokes a new screen (like the help screen) or a mode (like the "tree" mode) you can return from that mode or screen by pressing again the right mouse button or the ESC key. 1.5.1 Run / Copy switch ----------------------- This switch controls the action which takes place when you press the left mouse button on a production. The possible values are "Run" (default setting) and "Copy". If the switch is in the "Copy" mode the production on which you clicked is going to be installed or if you have "tagged" multiple files those are going to be installed. The hot key for the "Run / Copy" switch is ALT-R. This is a multivalue switch. After pressing your left mouse button (or the enter key) you will be presented with a similar view to the one which pops up when you press the tree switch (for more information, refer to section 1.5.4). The difference is that on the paragraph on the right a list of the productions to be installed is presented (instead of the list of the files in the directory selected (which is presented when in normal "Tree" mode)). Please refer to section 1.5.4 for more details on how to move in this view. Once you have reached a satisfactory directory (where you would like the production to be installed) press the space bar -key to begin the installation. The "tagged" productions (displayed on the right paragraph) will be installed to the directory you currently are in. You can also use your keyboard: you can enter a path on your keyboard (for example you can type "c:\fun\demos" (without the quotes)). After you have entered the path you can either press the space bar -key or the enter key. If you press the space bar -key, the productions will be installed to the path you entered. If the path you entered does not exist the GUI will ask you if you wish to create the directory so that the productions can be installed. If you press the enter key after entering the path the GUI will try to change to the directory you specified with the path. If it does not exist an error message will appear. If you are unsure in which directory you currently are you can see it just above the borders of the installation paragraph. If you wish to exit from the install you can press the right mouse button (or the ESC key). 1.5.2 Loop switch ----------------- The loop switch controls the looping of the productions. The default setting is off. The hot key for the loop switch is ALT-L (ref. 1.2.1). When you press the loop switch down (by clicking on it with your left mouse button or by pressing ALT-L the button will look as it would have actually been pushed down. When the button looks like this, i.e., the loop mode is on the productions will loop. For example, if you have selected 10 pictures to be viewed and you have the loop switch on the following will happen. The 10 pictures will be presented normally and after the last picture a pause of 3 seconds will take place (for you to be able to exit from the loop by pressing ESC) and then the 10 pictures will be shown again in the same order and so on. To exit from the loop press the ESC -key. To turn the loop switch off either press ALT-L again or click on the switch with your left mouse button. 1.5.3 Sort switch ----------------- The sort switch controls how the production list is sorted. The hot key for the sort switch is ALT-S. This is a multivalue switch. There are three different kind of "sortings" available; by name of the production, by name of the author or by the placement of the production in the The Party 94 competitions. The productions are sorted in ascending order. The default setting is by the placement in the competitions. You can switch between different "sortings" by clicking with your left mouse button (or by pressing ALT-S) on the switch. 1.5.4 Tree switch ----------------- The tree switch allows you to switch to the tree mode where you can browse any directory on the CD-ROM or on your own hard disk. The hot key for the "tree" switch is ALT-T. The screen is divided into two paragraphs, the directory paragraph and the file paragraph. The directory paragraph contains the names of the directories below this directory and the link to the parent directory (denote by ".." similarly as in DOS). Also it contains the hard disk drive symbols ("C:", "D:" etc). The file paragraph contains the filenames of the files located in this directory. Just above the top left corner of the installation paragraph you can see the current path (for example "c:\fun\demos"). The directory paragraph is where you can move between directories and between hard disk drives and the CD-ROM drive. All you need to do is to click with your left mouse button (or with the enter key) on the name of the directory (or the drive) you which to change to. For example, if you wish to go upward on the directory tree (to the parent directory of the current directory) click on the ".." symbol. The file paragraphs is where you can run executable programs, view pictures (of common graphics formats) and listen to modules (of common formats). Once again, all you need to do is to click with your left mouse button (or with you enter key) on the production you wish to activate. For example if you have file called "PICTURE.LBM" (LBM is a common graphics format) on the current directory you can click on it and the GUI will display the picture immediately on the screen. If you wish to exit from the "Tree" mode, you can press the right mouse button (or the ESC key). 1.5.5 Help switch ----------------- The help switch activates this online manual. The hot key for the help switch is ALT-H. The online manual is a comprehensive manual on operating the GUI and contains all necessary information for operating the The Party 94 CD. In fact you are reading it right now. 1.5.6 Exit switch ----------------- The exit switch is a multivalue switch. By pressing twice on it you can exit from the GUI back to DOS. The hot key for the exit switch is ESC (but it is only accessible when you are using a normal menu).