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GIFXTS Minimum requirements: CGA/EGA/VGA monitor 533400 BYTES free memory (EGA/VGA) 521200 BYTES free memory (CGA) GIF Print Utility or 9-pin printer TABLE OF CONTENTS: DISCLAIMER..........................................2 INTRODUCTION........................................3 REVISION HISTORY....................................5 OVERVIEW............................................7 SCREEN LAYOUT.......................................8 CURSOR CONTROL......................................9 EDITTING CAPABILITIES...............................9 ERRORS & WARNINGS..................................10 MENUS..............................................12 FILE (<ALT>F)..................................12 EDIT (<ALT>E)..................................13 INFORMATION (<ALT>I)...........................14 SYMBOLS (<ALT>S)...............................15 PRINT (<ALT>P).................................15 VIEW (<ALT>V)..................................16 CONFIGURING/SELECTING A PRINTER....................17 DESCRIPTION OF ALL FILES REQUIRED TO RUN...........18 DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT Users of GIFXTS must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "GIFXTS is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of GIFXTS". GIFXTS is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. 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 continue to develop new products. If you find this program useful and find that you are using GIFXTS and continue to use GIFXTS after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment of $20.00 to Chris O'Donnell at the address below. The $20.00 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Anyone distributing GIFXTS for any kind of remuneration must first contact Chris O'Donnell at the address below for authorization. You are encouraged to pass a copy of GIFXTS along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will are entitled to upgrades. You may download the upgrades from CompuServe, or I will mail you the upgrades. If you wish a copy mailed to you, indicate on the registration form, and I will notify you when the next version is available. The cost for mailing an upgrade is $5.00, payable BEFORE I mail it. If you encounter a problem, or have any questions or comments please contact me. Obviously, all problems will be responded to, question and comments are welcome from registered users. Chris O'Donnell 576 Benson Road Middlebury, Ct 06762 CIS: 70431,1427 2 INTRODUCTION: This section will explain WHAT the GIFXTS program is intended to do. During the testing of the program, there was a lot of confusion regarding the display, the output and what exactly should be expected. In order to ensure that the phrases and "buzz" words that are used mean the same to everyone, let's start with some terminology. PIXEL - a graphical point of resolution. Each graphics monitor contains a maximum number of addressable pixels, EGA is 640x350, VGA is 640x480. When software is written it sets the resolution, thus a VGA monitor can be "changed" to EGA mode by specifying that the graphics driver is to use the EGA pixel resolution of 640x350, or even 640x200. Thus "pixel" is somewhat independent of the monitor. Independent in that although the monitor has a physical MAXIMUM resolution, any lower resolution can be used. Gifxts uses an EGA resolution, 640 pixels by 350 pixels. GIF - Graphics Interchange Format - A method of encoding and decoding the graphical information presented on a monitor. Thus a GIF image is a graphical image that has been encoded using this methodology. In order to re-generate the display, the decode methodology is used. * GIF and "Graphics Interchange Format" are trademarks (TM) of Compuserve, Inc., an H&R block company. When an image is originally created, the artist has decided which 16 colors are to be used and has loaded these colors into a "palette". Although the computer can generate 256 different, most monitors can display only 16 colors at one time. Thus the artist will select the 16 colors, including the background color, and load the palette. The next step is to "draw" the image. Each pixel of the image has one color assigned to it. The color is indicated by the palette entry, therefore a pixel whose color is 1, is using the color located in the first entry of the palette. If the color located in entry 1 is changed, the pixel will immediately change to the new color. When the image is saved, the palette configuration and the color of each individual pixel is recorded, usually left -to-right, top-to-bottom. Thus to restore the image, the file is read, the palette is loaded and the pixels are colors, left-to-right, top-to-bottom. GIFXTS COLOR SCHEME (EGA/VGA): When a GIF file is read into GIFXTS, each palette entry is assigned a character. Entry 1 is a '!', entry 2 is a '\' and so on. There are 254 different characters that can be used. However, there are only 14 colors available. The colors BLACK and WHITE are reserved. There is a really GOOD reason for this, that I will try to explain: The default background color (palette entry 0) is black, white is defaulted to entry 15. When I first started programming this program, I looked at "white grid on black background" vs. "black grid on white background". The white on black was very difficult to look at, so I opted for black on white. The menus use white text on a black background with a colored highlight bar. The menu bar uses black on a colored background. When I first started loading GIF images, everything went smoothly until on day. The menu bar disappeared, the menus were blank, the menu highlight 3 bar was gone. It turned out that the color palette associated with the GIF I was reading consisted of 2 colors, white , entry 1, and black, every other entry. At that time I decided that not only would I protect the palette entries for black and white, but I would not allow any other entry to be set to black or white. This can have a very interesting affect on some images, so once an image is loaded into GIFXTS FORGET THE COLORS. THINK SYMBOLS! It doesn't matter if the spots on Bambi are green, blue or white. As long as they are a different SYMBOL than the rest of the image. If the color(s) really bother you, use the EDIT MENU and select the option to use BLACK SYMBOLS. Then the only time you will see the colors is when you use the VIEW, PRINT or SCALE options. Once you have an image loaded, you can add detail by adding new symbols or delete detail by deleting symbols. You can also change the color palette, change the colors assigned to individual symbols and trim the image down to any segment of the image. After performing whatever editing you want, you can save the image. SAVING IMAGES WITHIN GIFXTS: There are 2 ways to save an image that you have loaded into GIFXTS. You can save it as a GIF file. This file will be readable by any GIF viewer BUT PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE COLOR CONSTRAINTS EXPLAINED ABOVE ARE IN EFFECT IN THE SAVED FILE! Or you can save the file as an XTS file. This file is NOT readable by a GIF viewer. It contains some additional information about the image, such as the colors assigned to each of the 94 symbols, and which symbols were used. PRINTING THE IMAGE AS A PATTERN: Gifxts can print the symbolized image to a 9-pin printer, or it can produce a GIF file that can be printed using a GIF print utility for your printer. (I suggest that you wander thru the Graphics Support and/or Quick Pictures for a GIF print utility that suits your printer, and your pocketbook.) This file is MUCH bigger than the original GIF image. This is because each individual pixel is now being changed to a 6x7 pixel character, plus the grid lines. Thus the final printable symbolized GIF file size will be: (original width x 9)+1 and (original height x 9)+1(+ the symbol chart at the bottom of each image) BUT there are 2 ways to produce this file: You can either "print" the entire file, or you can select sections to print. The symbol chart at the bottom of the file will list every symbol used for the ENTIRE image. CONCLUSION: Hopefully this little explanation will help you understand what you are viewing, and creating when using GIFXTS. If you have any questions, and are a registered user, feel free to contact me: Chris O'Donnell 576 Benson Road Middlebury Ct. 06762 CIS: 70431,1427 4 REVISION HISTORY This is a brief list of the enhancements and fixes for each version of GIFXTS. For detail information of the enhancements see the appropriate section of the users guide. December 1992 - Version 3.5 1) Fixed EGA Monochrome support November 1992 - Version 3.4 1) Added EGA Monochrome support 2) The program could not be run from the root directory - FIXED November 1992 - Version 3.3 1) When using the INFORMATION menu to decrease the height and/or width of the image, the resulting image was "off" - FIXED 2) When using the INFORMATION menu to decrease the height and/or width of the image, "garbage" symbols were added to the right and bottom - FIXED 3) When returning from using the INFORMATION menu to decrease the height and/or width of the image, the 'X' was not responding correctly -FIXED October 1992 - Version 3.2 1) added CGA support 2) when reading gifxts.cfg file program terminated with a divide by 0 error - FIXED 3) when saving an XTS file, if the Stitches/inch or Rows/inch had decimal point positions (ie 15.25) the numbers after the decimal point were lost - FIXED 4) When changing the color PALETTE, the screen was not restored correctly - FIXED October 1992 - Version 3.1 1) Amount of free memory reduced to 532000 BYTES 2) In View mode, after scrolling IMAGE, box disappeared - FIXED 3) When using FILE MENU, and changeing directory or drive, cursor disappeared - FIXED October 1992 - Version 3.0 1) Amount of FREE memory required reduced to 520K 2) Hot keys: F1: Load GIF file F2: Load XTS file F3: Save as XTS file F4: Save as GIF file F5: Change directory F6: Change drive F7: Scale F8: not used F9: Save as XTS and exit F10: "quit" - no save just get out F11: Clear grid F12: Toggle black symbols/color symbols 5 3) There's a new menu INFORMATION, included in this is: WIDTH: - # of stitches/pixels wide value set when loading image HEIGHT: - # of stitches/pixels high value set when loading image STITCHES/INCH: - user set value (see below) ROWS/INCH: - user set value (see below) INCHES WIDE: - computed value width divided by stitches/inch INCHES HIGH: - computer value height divided by rows/inch DASH LINES VERTICAL: - # of solid lines between dash lines DASH LINE HORIZONTAL: # of solid lines between dash lines SAVE AS DEFAULT CONFIGURATION FILE - see below RESTORE DEFAULT CONFIGURATION - see below 4) All GIF view give "true" picture. You can "scroll" up/down and left/right. 5) Scale Function: This function is accessible from either the EDIT menu, or F7. A GIF view of the image is presented with a menu across the top. You can change the size of the image by selecting a menu option. The image is NOT save until you select "save". Hitting ESC will terminate this option. 6) Print: You can now print either directly to a 9-pin printer, or create a GIF file of the charted image. If you "select section" you will be presented with a GIF image, and a selection box. You can move and/or re-size the box to select the area you with to print. 7) SETPRINT - This standalone program is used to create the print configuration file. MUST BE RUN AT LEAST ONCE IF YOU PLAN TO PRINT DIRECTLY TO PRINTER. You select manufacturer and model of printer you will be using, or emulating. A quick test of the printer is optional. May 1992 - Version 2.0 1) Mouse can now control the cursor movement 2) There is a second option bar to be used with the mouse 3) 253 different symbols 4) Changes to EDIT MENU 5) Automatically scroll the VIEW image if the box moves past the visible section of the image. April 1992 - Version 1.0 6 OVERVIEW The purpose of this program is to take GIF files (some of which are great pictures) and change them into charted stitch patterns. The program can handle GIF images up to 640 pixels x 480 pixels. The simplest use is to load in a GIF image, create the printable output and print the charted image. Notations used: <alt> or <cntl> indicates to hold down the alt or cntl key while simultaneously depressing the indicated key. Thus <alt>R means hold down alt and depress the R key (upper/lower case is irrelevant) <cntl>page up means hold down the cntl key and depress the page up key. EXECUTION PARAMETERS: Start the program by typing GIFXTS. There are 4 optional parameters you can supply: 1) L/l - set up the mouse as a left-handed mouse, that is swap the functions of the left and right buttons. If you use this option, remember to swap the words left and right when reading the documentation. 2) V/v# - change the vertical sensitivity of the mouse, the bigger the number, the more physical up/down movement is required before the cursor will move. 3) H/h# - change the horizontal sensitivity of the mouse. The bigger the number, the more physical left/right movement is required before the cursor will move. 4) G/g - "graphics override" allows you to select the graphics mode you wish to run in. You will be shown a list of supported graphic modes. Enter the number associated with the desired mode. Current modes are EGA/VGA and CGA. If not specified, the program will determine the highest possible graphics mode. Any, all or none of these parameters can be supplied. The order does NOT matter. If the graphics hardware is NOT one of the currently supported devices, you will be presented with the same option screen as with the "G" execution parameter. If your monitor can emulate one of the listed graphics mode, then select that mode. The $*& that flashes across the screen is shown during the initialization to indicate that the program is starting correctly. When ever files are being loaded or written, a message is displayed, and a line is written across the screen, just to let you know that something is happening. 7 SCREEN LAYOUT The screen shows a grid with every tenth line being a dashed line. Across the top of the screen is are 2 option bars. The option bars can be accessed in 3 different ways: ALT key combined with the first letter of the desired menu; Move the mouse to the top of the grid, an onto the menu bars, a menu highlight box will then be visible; Holding the ALT key and depressing the M key, this will put the menu highlight bar on the menu. As long a the menu highlight box is visible the menus can be accessed. The menu highlight box will respond the either the movement of the mouse, or the arrow keys. The top bar lists the various menus, and options. Here is a brief description of the options, see the section entitled MENUS for complete details of the menus, see the section entitles VIEW for details on View mode. 1) File (<Alt>F) - this menu contains options related to file controls ie loading files, saving file, changing directories. 2) Edit (<Alt>E) - this menu contains options related to editing the loaded image. ie change color of symbols, change color palette. 3) Symbols (<Alt>S) - this menu allows you to change the current symbol. 4) Print File Creation (<Alt>P) - See PRINT for details. 5) Information(<Alt>I) - This menu presents you with information about the current image. The information includes the Height and Width of the image, in both # if stitches and inches, the current rows/inch and stitches/inch, and number of spaces between the dashed line. 6) Help (<Alt>H) - this menu presents you with the various help topics available. The second option bar presents the command change the portion of the displayed grid. These commands duplicate the CNTL commands. THe commands are: 1) TOP - Move to the top of the image 2) BOTTOM - Move to the bottom of the image 3) LEFT - Move to the far left of the image 4) RIGHT - Move to the far right of the image 5) UP ARROW - Move up 30 squares 6) DOWN ARROW - Move down 30 squares 7) LEFT ARROW - Move left 30 squares 8) RIGHT ARROW - Move right 30 squares At the bottom of the screen is a information section. In this section is displayed the current symbol, the current directory, and the file, if any, that has been loaded. When moving around the image, the edges of the image, and/or the grid, are indicated by a thick black line. The cursor cannot be moved past these edges. 8 CURSOR CONTROL The 'X' is the cursor and is controlled either by the key board, or by moving the mouse. The following keyboard commands will move cursor: Right arrow/R/r - move X 1 square to the right * Left arrow//L/r - move X 1 square to the left * Up arrow/U/u - move 1 square up * Down arrow/D/d - move 1 square down * home/H/h - move to farthest left visible square end/E/e - move the farthest right visible square page up - move up 10 squares * page down - move down 10 squares * <cntl>R - move to the right 10 squares * <cntl>L - move to the left 10 squares * <Cntl>Home - move to the left edge of the design * <Cntl>End - move to the right edge of the design * <Cntl>Page up - Move to the top of the design * <Cntl>Page down - Move to the bottom of the design * C/c - move to the center of the grid (no matter where in the grid you are) * These commands will also control the select box in VIEW and PRINT If the mouse driver is installed, you can move the mouse to move the cursor around the displayed section of the grid. To move beyond the displayed section, use the bottom option bar, or the above listed keystrokes. EDITING CAPABILITIES Symbols can be added to the pattern and deleted from the pattern using the ENTER key and DEL key, or the left and right mouse buttons, respectively. These keys will perform their actions on the grid square where the cursor is. Symbols can be replaced by positioning the cursor on the symbol to be replaced, and hitting enter. The Current Symbol will replace the previous symbol. With the mouse you can do repeated adds/deletes by continuing to hold down the mouse button as you move it. Any square the cursor passes over will have the symbol added or deleted. In addition to the 1 symbol at a time technique, the borders of the image can be adjusted. Using the Edit Menu, it is possible add rows or columns to the edges of the design. The border markers will be moved out 1 row/column. It is also possible to move the border IN to the current cursor position. When the borders are moved in, all symbols the are beyond the new border(s) are deleted. This technique can be used to Trim or crop an image by positioning the cursor at the edges of the desired section, and moving the borders in. The THUMPER.GIF was cropped from BAMBI.GIF using this technique. The EDIT menu can also be used to DELETE symbols, REPLACE symbols and add a symbol to ALL the BLANK squares 9 ERRORS & WARNINGS There are 2 catagories of errors: Recoverable errors, aka warnings, and non-recoverable errors. Warnings cover those events that are NOT disasterious, ie attempting to load an image bigger than 640x480. The program can continue running. You will be presented with a message explaining the problem, and telling you to "Hit enter to acknowledge/continue" or to "hit ESC to return to DOS". The recoverable errors are: 1 INVALID DIRECTORY - you attempted to change to a non-existant directory 2 TOO MANY FILES, CURRENT MAX IS 50 - there are more than 50 GIF or XTS file 3 INVALID FILE NAME - NO ACTION TAKEN - you entered an invalid file name 4 NOTHING TO PRINT, GRID IS EMPTY - you cannot print an empty grid 5 NOTHING TO SCALE, GRID IS EMPTY - you cannot scale an empty grid 6 NOTHING TO VIEW, GRID IS EMPTY - you cannot view an empty grid 7 GRID AT MAXIMUM SIZE CANNOT ADD - grid size is 640 wide &/or 480 high, you cannot add additional rows or columns 8 GRID IS EMPTY - NO ACTION TAKEN - You attempted to replace or delete "all" symbols and the grid is empty 9 WIDTH GREATER THAN 640 - resulting width would be greater than 640 stitches 10 YOU DID NOT CHANGE THE WIDTH - The value you entered did not change the width - No action will be taken 11 TOO BIG A CHANGE, USE SCALE - the size change is greater then twice the current size,or less than 1/2 the current size: use SCALE first, than adjust the size 12 HEIGHT GREATER THE 480 - the resulting height will be greater then 480 stitches 13 YOU DID NOT CHANGE THE HEIGHT - The value entered did not change the width No action taken 14 USING DEFAULT CONFIGURATION - Using the INFORMATION menu, you selected to "restore congifuration, and there is NO gifxts.cfg file. 15 ABORTED NEW SIZE - RELOAD IMAGE - You hit ESC while saving the new size - The image was lost - You MUST reload the image, 16 HEIGHT IS ALREADY 480 STITCHES - You cannor increase an image that is already 480 stitches high 17 RESULTING HEIGHT > 480 STITCHES - You cannot create an image greater than 480 stitches high 18 WIDTH IS ALREADY 640 STITCHES - You cannot increase an image that is already 640 stitches wide 19 RESULTING WIDTH > 640 STITCHES - You cannor create an image greater than 640 stitches wide 20 WIDTH IS ALREADY 1 STITCH - You cannot scale the width smaller than 1 stitch 21 HEIGHT IS ALREADY 1 STITCH - You cannot scale the height smaller than 1 stitch 22 RATIO TOO BIG RESULT > MAX - If the new INCREASE ratio you entered is used it would result in an image greater then 640 or 480 23 RATIO TOO SMALL RESULTS < 1 - If the new DECREASE ratio you entered is used it would result in an image smaller than 1 24 COULD NOT OPEN FILE - Could not open .xts or .gif file 25 COULD NOT DECODE HEADER - Could not decoder header information in .gif or .xts file 26 IMAGE GREATER THAN 480 PIXELS - You are attempting to load an image bigger than 480 high - Use another image 27 IMAGE GREATER THAN 640 PIXELS - You are attempting to load an image greater than 640 wide - Use another image 28 COULDNOT DECODE IMAGE - The image information could not be decoded properly, use another image 10 31 COULD NOT CREATE XTSPRT - Could not create /xtsprt - this is the directory where the gif image of the chart is put for later printing - Creation of the file is aborted. 37 CAN NOT CHANGE PRINTER SPEED - The printer speed and number of squares are related. Depending on the number of squares, you may NOT be able to change the speed 38 CAN NOT CHANGE # OF SQUARES - The printer speed and number of squares are related. Depending on the speed, you may NOT be able to change the number of square 39 SET PRINTER TO TOP OF PAGE - Verify that the printer is ready to go 40 NO PRINTER CONFIGURATION FILE - There is NO printer configuration file, Run SETPRINT to create the configuration file. Non_recoverable errors are those problems that cannot be recovered from, ie not being able to find or read a file containing a menu. In this case, you will be presented with a message explaining the error, and hitting ANY key will gracefully terminate the program. If you run into a big time error that you can't resolve, contact me ASAP. I'll gladly replace, for registered users, missing/deleted menu files etc. 9 NO MEMORY FOR HIGHLIGHT BAR - In sufficient memory for highlight bar. Without this bar, the menus cannot be used. 30 COULD NOT OPEN MENU FILE - Could not open the.mnu file associated with the menu you requested. 32 COULD NOT FIND PROMPT - Could not find prompt in oneline.mnu file 33 COULD NOT OPEN PRTGIF.DTA - prtgif.dta is the file containing the individual symbols for generating the printed output, &/or the gif image of the chart 34 COULD NOT DECODE PRTGIF.DTA - could not decode prtgif.dta - file is corrupt 35 COULD NOT OPEN TITLE FILE - Could not find views.hdr file 36 COULD NOT FIND MENU OPTIONS - Could not find correct record(s) in views.hdr 41 COULD NOT OPEN HELP FILE - allhelp.fle contains the list of all help files. 42 COULD NOT FIND HELP TEXT - No text in help file 43 COULD NOT OPEN MENU LISTING - allmenu.fle contains all the .mnu files 44 COULD NOT IDENTIFY MENU FILE - Could not find the .mnu file in allmenus.fle 45 COULD NOT FIND GRAPHICS FILE - could not open the graphics.msg The Biggest error occurs ONLY if the program cannot locate the error message file of ifthe message associated with the error number could nit be located in the file. If this should happen, a message appears on the screen, identifying the problem and showing the error message listed above. 11 MENUS All the menus display a list of items for selection. Use the up/down arrows, page up/down or the mouse to highlight the selection and hit enter. If there are more selections than visible (ie the symbol menu) the items will scroll thru the menu area when you try to move past the bottom or top of the menu. When the item you want is highlighted, hit enter, or the left mouse button. The first option of almost all the menus is CANCEL. Selecting CANCEL will get you out of the menu without taking any action. ESC or the right mouse button will do the same thing. FILE MENU (<ALT>F) This menu allows you to read in files, save the current display, exit from the program and/or quit without saving anything. Change Directory(F5) - This option will present you with a single line display of the current directory. ie c:\123\ABC. Change directory by back spacing, to create c:\123 and/or typing in the desired name, to create c:\123\XYZ or c:123\ABC\456. THERE IS A 20 CHARACTER LIMIT ON THE DIRECTORY NAME. The "new" directory will be used when loading files, saving files and creating the print directory. YOU CANNOT CHANGE DRIVES WITH THIS OPTION. Change Drive(F6) - This option will present you with a single line display of the current drive. ie C:. To change to a different drive simply type the drive letter. If the drive does not exist, you cannot change to it. If you select A: or B: you will be prompted to "insert diskette, hit any key when ready". IF THE DRIVE IS NOT READY THE PROGRAM COULD ABORT, AND EXIT, IF YOU TRY TO READ A FILE. Load GIF file(F1) - This option will present you with another menu that lists all the files in the current directory that have .GIF ending. Position the highlight bar at the file wish to load. While the file is being read, a message will appear, and a line will "grow" across the screen. The length, and starting position, of the line are DIRECTLY related to the width of the image. The wider the image, the longer the line. Load XTS file(F2) - This option will also present you with another menu listing all the files in the current that have a .XTS ending. Position the highlight bar at the file wish to load. These are the files that this program has created. While the file is being read, a message will appear, and an line will "grow" across the screen. The length, and starting position, of the line are DIRECTLY related to the width of the image. The wider the image, the longer the line. Save Current Pattern(XTS) (F3)- This option will save the current pattern. Another menu is presented listing all the .XTS files. You can save the pattern to an existing file, or select ENTER NEW NAME to create a new file. If you create a new file, an area is presented to type in the file name. the .XTS will be added automatically. After saving the current pattern you can continue either working with this pattern or load another image or pattern. Save as GIF File (F4) - This option allows you to save the current pattern in a GIF format. This file (.GIF) can be read by a GIF viewer. Another menu is presented listing all the .GIF files. You can save the pattern to an existing file, or select ENTER NEW NAME to create a new file. If you create a new file, an area is presented to type in the file name. 12 The .GIF will be added automatically. After saving the current pattern you can continue either working with this pattern or load another image or pattern. The primary difference between the GIF and XTS files is that the XTS file contains information about the 254 symbols. If you have changed the default color of any of the symbols, you MUST save the design as an XTS file, or you will LOSE the symbol color(s). This file also contains the CURRENT configuration. This information will be used whenever you re-load this XTS file. Quit (No Save) (F10) - This option will allow you to exit from the program without saving. You will be presented with a verification menu: "Yes quit" or "No don't quit" also known as an OOPS menu. This gives you a chance to change your mind. Save(XTS) & Exit (F9) - Identical to Save Current Pattern, with the addition that after the pattern is saved, the program will end. EDIT MENU (<ALT> E) This menu allows you to edit the grid, the pattern and/or the symbols. CLEAR GRID - This option will clear the grid of the current pattern, leaving you with a blank grid. The TOP/BOTTOM/LEFT/RIGHT positions are reset to the edges of the grid. Any chances that were made to the color palette or the symbols, will be preserved. DELETE ALL SELECTED SYMBOLS - The symbol menu will be presented. Select the symbol you wish to delete. All occurrences of the selected symbol will be delete. A WORKING message, and growing line will appear during the replacement. REPLACE 1 SYMBOL WITH ANOTHER - will bring up the symbol menu. Select the symbol you wish to be replace. The symbol menu reappears, select the symbol you want to replace with, all occurrence of symbol 1 will be replaced with symbol #2. A WORKING message, and growing line will appear during the replacement. REPLACE ALL BLANKS WITH SYMBOL - will bring up the symbol menu. Select a symbol, and ALL the blanks squares will contain that symbol. A WORKING message, and growing line will appear during the replacement. SCALE SIZE(F7) - This option present a GIF view of the image. A menu across the top of the screen allows you to select the amount and direction of the scale. The actual scaling does NOT take place until you select the direction. You can increase the height, increase the width, decrease the height or decrease the width. The default ratio is 1:2 increase and 2:1 decrease. You can change this ratio by selecting the SCALE MENU. Each of the 4 scales can be modified separately. The scale menu also has an option to show the "information" associated with the new size. The NEW size is NOT saved until you select SAVE. Hitting ESC/right mouse at ANY time will terminate this function. 13 ADD ROW/COLUMN - This option presents a secondary menu to add a row or column to the edges of the image. The options are: 1) Add Row to Top 2) Add Row to Bottom 3) Add Column to Right 4) Add Column to Left CLIP TO CURSOR - This option is used to move the edges of the image to the cursor position. A secondary menu appears with 4 options: 1) Move top to cursor 2) Move bottom to cursor 3) Move left to cursor 4) Move right to cursor After selecting the desired option, mouse users MUST position the cursor and hit the left mouse button, or enter. A Prompt will appear at the bottom of the screen to remind you. INSERT ROW/COLUMN - brings up a secondary menu to select row or column. Mouse users, position the X to the row/column you wish to insert and hit the left mouse button/enter. The screen will clear, and a message will indicate the progress of the insertion. (The message is needed because the rows/columns are shifted out 1 position. Depending where in the image you are, and how big the image is, this can SEEM to take a while. The message will let you know that something is happening) DELETE ROW/COLUMN - brings up a secondary menu to select row or column. Mouse users, position the X to the row/column you wish to delete and hit the left mouse button/enter. The screen will clear, and a message will indicate the progress of the deletion. CHANGE SYMBOL COLOR - This option presents you with 14 color bars representing the 14 colors available in the color palette. Use the up/down arrow keys to select a new color for the current symbol. Hit ENTER to select a new color. Hit ESC to NOT change the current symbol color. After selecting a new color, the design will be re-drawn, using the new color. CHANGE COLOR PALETTE - This option presents you with 14 color bars representing the current color palette. Use the up/down arrow keys to select the color you wish to change. Hit ESC to terminate this option. Hit ENTER to select the color you wish to change. The screen will turn white. A new box with 14 color bars is presented. The color you selected is the topmost color bar. Use up/down arrows, page up/page down or the mouse, to scroll thru the 256 possible colors. Hit ESC to NOT make a selection, Hit ENTER to make a choice. You will be returned to the 14 color bars of the palette, to make another selection, and the design will re-appear. The color palette change will take place IMMEDIATELY. BLACK SYMBOLS/COLOR SYMBOLS (F12) - This option allows you to view the symbols on grid as BLACK symbols, or as COLORED symbols. The entry in the menu will toggle between the 2 choices. Even when BLACK SYMBOLS are shown, the VIEW and PRINT screen will use color. 14 INFORMATION MENU (<ALT>I) The information menu serves 2 purposes, it shows you the current size of the image, and allows you to CHANGE this information. WIDTH: - This is the current width, in stitches. Selecting this option will present you with a prompt to enter the new width. A GIF view of the modified image will be presented. At this point you can SAVE the new size, or ESC, and cancel this change. (SEE NOTE BELOW) HEIGHT: - This is the current height, in stitches. Selecting this option will present you with a prompt to enter the new height. A GIF view of the modified image will be presented. At this point you can SAVE the new size, or ESC, and cancel this change. (SEE NOTE BELOW) STITCHES/INCH: - This is the current stitchs/inch. It was loaded from the configuration file. Selecting this option will present you with a prompt to change this ratio. The ratio between stitch/inch and rows/inch will determine the number of symbols drawn in each square. ONLY EVENLY DIVISIBLE RATIOS ARE DISPLAYED. (I can't do 1/2 a symbol). This same ratio is used when viewing the image as a GIF. ROWS/INCH: - This is the current rows/inch. It was loaded from the configuration file. Selecting this option will present you with a prompt to change this ratio. The ratio between stitch/inch and rows/inch will determine the number of symbols drawn in each square. ONLY EVENLY DIVISIBLE RATIOS ARE DISPLAYED. (I can't do 1/2 a symbol). This same ratio is used when viewing the image as a GIF. INCHES WIDE: - This value computed, based on the number of stitches wide, and the stitchs/inch. Selecting this option will present you with a prompt to enter the new width. A second menu the presented. You can either change the number of stitchs, or the stitchs/inch to reach this size. The computed change will create an image NOT BIGGER than the entered value. INCHES HIGH: - This value computed, based on the number of stitches high, and the rows/inch. Selecting this option will present you with a prompt to enter the new height. A second menu the presented. You can either change the number of stitchs, or the rows/inch to reach this size. The computed change will create an image NOT BIGGER than the entered value. DASH LINES VERTICAL: - This value is loaded from the configuration file, it is the spacing between the vertical dashed lines. Selecting this option presents you with a prompt to change the vertical dashed line spacing. Enter 0 to remove the dash line. DASH LINE HORIZONTAL:- This value is loaded from the configuration file, it is the spacing between the horizontal dashed lines. Selecting this option presents you with a prompt to change the horizontal dashed line spacing. Enter 0 to remove the dash line. SAVE AS DEFAULT CONFIGURATION FILE - This option allows you to save the current stitchs/inch, rows/inch and dash line spacing. This configuration will then be used every time you start the program. RESTORE DEFAULT CONFIGURATION - After changing the configuration, you can restore the default by selecting this option. 15 SYMBOL MENU (<ALT>S) There are 253 different symbols that can be selected. This menu presents the symbols and their assigned colors. Use page up/page down, and the up/down arrow keys to select the symbol to be used as the "current" symbol. PRINT (<ALT>P) This menu allows you to create either a GIF file of the charted image, or print directly to the printer selected by SETPRINT. (See SETPRINT.TXT) You can also view the printer options, and change the number of squares/page width, and the speed. There are current 3 combinations of speed and squares/page width, these 3 combinations are used during the test of the printer by SETPRINT. If you select the generate a GIF image, to print later, you will be prompted for a file name. This file will be placed in a sub-directory call XTSPRT. If the directory does not exist, it will be created. You can select to work with either the FULL image, or with a section of the image. If you opt to select a section of the image, a GIF view will be presented. You can move and/or change the size of the box. Only the area of the image within the box will be printed/put to the file. VIEW (<ALT>V) This option will show the current pattern without the grid. Actually this is like a normal GIF display. To scroll the display up/down use Cntl U for up and Cntl D for down. A box is drawn showing the area that is shown on the grid. This box can be moved in a manner identical to moving the 'X' on the grid. Moving the box past the visible section of the display will automatically scroll the image. Hit Enter to return to the grid. The grid will show the area designated by the box. Thus moving the box in this mode is a quick way to move around the grid. Hit ESC to return to the original grid section. This will cancel any movement of the box. 16 CONFIGURING/SELECTING A PRINTER To select a printer, run SETPRINT.EXE. This program will create a printer configuration file for gifxts. Right now (10/92) I'm only supporting 9-pin printers. The program MUST be run from the same directory as GIFXTS, since it uses the symbol file for the printer test & the file that is generated is "assumed" to be in the same directory as GIFXTS when you run it. To run the program, type SETPRINT, at the DOS prompt. You will be shown a list of MANUFACTURERS. Use the arrow keys and select the manufacturer of your printer, or the printer you plan to emulate. The next display is of the different models made by this manufacturer. Again, use the arrow keys and select the model. You will be given the chance to run a "quick" test of the printer. If you say "yes", 3 different test will be run, each one using a different speed and density. These are the options available to you within GIFXTS. Even if you don't run the test, the configuration file will be created. If you don't plan to change printers, you can delete the following files: setprint.exe printers.cod DO NOT DELETE gifxtspt.cfg. If you do, you will have to re-run SETPRINT. 17 FILES REQUIRED TO RUN GIFXTS Graphics drivers: CGA.BGI and EGAVGA.BGI Messages - These files contain various messages and displays GRAPHICS.MDE - Contains screen shown when overriding/selecting graphics mode STARTUP.ERR - Errors encountered BEFORE starting graphics ERROR.MSG - ALL errors and warnings Menus: Each menu is kept in it OWN .mnu file. The file allmenus.fle is the MASTER reference to the individual menus. PRTBOX.MNU - the CHANGE SIZE OF PRINT BOX menu PRTINFO.MNU - the printer information menu PRTOPT.MNU - the changeable printer options menu FILENAME.MNU - Contains the prompt "ENTER FILE NAME:" EDIT.MNU - the EDIT menu FILE.MNU - the FILE menu ADDBLANK.MNU - add a blank row/col to edge SCLINFO.MNU - the SCALE INFORMATION menu from scale CLIP.MNU - Clip to cursor menu INSERT.MNU - Insert row/col menu DELETE.MNU - Delete row/col menu INFO.MNU - the INFORMATION menu CHGWIDTH.MNU - the options available when changing the width of the image CHGHGHT.MNU - the options available when changing the height of the image PRINT.MNU - the PRINT menu SCALE.MNU - the SCALE menu presented when scaling HELP.MNU - the HELP menu OOPS.MNU - the OOPS menu ONELINE.MNU - ALL the single line prompts (ie ENTER NEW DIRECTORY) Help: Each help text is kept in it's OWN .hlp file. The file help.fle is the MASTER reference to the individual help files. BOTTOM.HLP - Describes the BOTTOM LINE of the menu CURSOR.HLP - Describes the CURSOR CONTROLS TOP.HLP - Describes the TOP LINE of the menu EDIT.HLP - Describes the EDIT menu FILE.HLP - Describes the FILE menu INFO.HLP - Describes the INFORMATION menu MENUS.HLP - Describes general menu layout MOUSE.HLP - Describes MOUSE capabilities PRINT.HLP - Describes PRINT file SCREEN.HLP - Describes screen layout SYMBOLS.HLP - Describes the SYMBOLS menu VIEW.HLP - Describes VIEW SCALE.HLP - Describes SCALE HOTKEY.HLP - Identifies the hot keys PRTGIF.DTA - Contains the printable symbols. Without this file you CANNOT print the chart or create the gif image of the chart. HEADERS.HDR - Contains the top and bottom option lines VIEWS.HDR - Contains the menus for VIEW, SCALE, PRINT and SIZE 18