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Page 1 Q U I C K F O R M S _________ ______|__ | (R) Version 2.2 __| | |__________________ | ______|__ | Association of Copyright 1991, 1992 | | |___| Shareware |__| O | Professionals by Russ Irwin _____| | |______________________ |____|____| MEMBER ________________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1 INSTALLING QUICK FORMS...............................2 Installing Quick Forms...........................2 Using Quick Forms With Windows...................3 Chapter 2 INTRODUCTION.........................................3 Introduction To Quick Forms......................3 On-line Lessons..................................4 Chapter 3 MENU PAGE............................................5 Change Path......................................5 View Files.......................................6 Select Printer...................................6 Fill In A Form...................................6 New Master Form & Edit Master Form...............7 Delete A Form....................................8 Exit.............................................8 Chapter 4 WORKING ON A FORM....................................8 The Status Line..................................8 Typestyle........................................9 IBM Extended Character Set......................10 Special Features Using the CTRL-Function Keys...10 Other Useful Keys...............................14 Moving Around In A Form.........................15 Time And Date...................................16 Making Labels...................................17 Overlay Form....................................17 Chapter 5 OPTION LINE.........................................18 Save............................................18 Quit............................................19 Print...........................................19 Tabs............................................21 Chapter 6 REGISTERING QUICK FORMS.............................21 Page 2 Chapter 1 --- INSTALLING QUICK FORMS --- There is a file that comes with Quick Forms called PACKING.LST. It lists all the files and forms that should be on your disk. You may want to print it out. Type PRINT PACKING.LST to print it, or to read on the screen, type BROWSE PACKING.LST Quick Forms comes ready to use. While you can run Quick Forms off of a floppy disk, it is recommended to put it on your hard disk. This can be done in two ways: 1. Create a directory for Quick Forms. As an example, assuming your Quick Form files are on a floppy disk in the A: drive, and you are in DOS in the main directory on Drive C: , you would type: MKDIR Q_FORMS This creates the directory C:\Q_FORMS. Now to get into this directory type: CD Q_FORMS You are now in the C:\Q_FORMS directory. Now just copy all the files from your floppy to this directory: COPY A:*.* That's it. To run Quick Forms just type QF If you got Quick Forms by downloading it from a BBS, it came in the form of Q-FORM22.ZIP. Hopefully you created a separate directory before 'UnZipping' it. If you did then you are ready to go. 2. You can use INSTALL.BAT which came with Quick Forms. INSTALL.BAT must be run from one of your floppy drives or from a directory on your hard drive as long as that directory ISN'T named Q_FORMS. For example, if you downloaded Quick Forms from a BBS into the directory C:\MYDIR and then UnZipped it in that directory, you can use INSTALL from that directory (remember that you 'must be in the C:\MYDIR directory'). Assuming your files are on a floppy disk in the A: Drive, type A: to get into that drive. Now just type INSTALL. Quick Forms will create the directory C:\Q_FORMS (if it doesn't already exist) and copy all the files to it. Quick Forms will also copy the 10 Forms that come with it into this directory 'as long as they don't already exist there'. The name of any file not copied will be placed in the file NOTCOPY.TXT (in the Q_FORMS directory), and will also be printed on the screen after installation is complete. INSTALL will also copy the file QF.PIF into your 'Windows' directory if you have one (see Using Quick Forms With Windows). INSTALL will also create the file QF.BAT in the main directory on the C: drive. You can just type QF from the main directory to run Quick Forms. (If you already have a file named QF.BAT, INSTALL will not overwrite it however) INSTALL will not copy itself into the Q_FORMS directory since it cannot be run from there anyway. UPGRADING FROM Version 1.0 thru Version 2.1 If you are currently using Version 1.0 of Quick Forms, you should use the INSTALL.BAT file to upgrade to Version 2.1. Before using INSTALL, rename the directory in which you currently have Quick Forms to Q_FORMS and then follow the instructions under "2" above. Page 3 If you decide to do it manually then don't copy the file QF.INI. If you do don't worry, the only thing is that you will have to select your Printer again. If you don't copy QF.INI, Quick Forms will update the old QF.INI file after the first use and you won't have to select your Printer again. Copy all the other files into your QF directory. You might want to check the names of the .FM_ and .FMS files against any forms that you might have created yourself with Version 1.0. Use QK-LIST.FM_ to check these out. The registration file REGISTER.FMS should also be copied since it is different than the one that came with Version 1.0. INSTALL will make all these checks for you. USING QUICK FORMS WITH WINDOWS Quick Forms comes with the file QF.PIF for use with Microsoft Windows. Copy this file into your Windows directory (if you install with INSTALL.BAT, it will do it for you). You must now add Quick Forms to Windows' Non-Applications. Start Windows and choose 'Non-Windows Applications'. Choose FILE Choose NEW You are now in 'New Program Object' Choose PROGRAM ITEM Click OK Under DESCRIPTION type Quick Forms Under COMMAND LINE type QF.PIF Click OK Quick Forms is now ready to use with Windows. Before you exit here you might want to change the Icon that Windows assigned. To do this just select CHANGE ICON. IMPORTANT NOTE: QF.PIF is set up to tell Windows to look for Quick Forms in the directory C:\Q_FORMS. If you have installed Quick Forms in another directory, you will have to use Windows' PIF EDITOR to reflect the Path to Quick Forms. For example, if you have Quick Forms in the directory C:\QUICK, you will have to change PROGRAM FILENAME to C:\QUICK\QF.EXE VIDEO MODE must be Graphics/Multiple Text (Do NOT change this) Chapter 2 --- INTRODUCTION --- Quick Forms is an easy to use, comprehensive program, that will have you designing your own forms in very little time. At first, Quick Forms may seem a little complicated, but that is only because Quick Forms 'DOES SO MUCH'. You needn't learn everything at once, and there are features that you may never use. On the other hand, the HELP screens are so good that most people can be up and using Quick Forms in just minutes, without ever reading this manual. The HELP screens are also 'context sensitive'. This means that you get help with JUST what you are doing at the time. For example, if you are in Draw Lines Mode, Page 4 you will only get help with drawing lines. If you ask for HELP (always available by pressing ALT-H) when ready to print out a form, you will get help on printing. Quick Forms makes forms up to 63 Rows, by up to 136 Columns, with column settings at 80, 96, 110, 132 and 136. These values (except for the 96) were selected because they happen to be the printing width of most printers on the market, but you will learn tricks to printing forms greater than your printer width and still have them fit. That is why the 96 Column width was added. An 80 Column printer can print 96 characters when printing at 12 CPI (characters per inch). See the section on printing (Page 19). Quick Forms includes features such as Move, Copy and Erase blocks of characters. Duplicate characters, Draw Lines with the cursor keys and Fill in areas. It also has an Automatic Grid Maker. Load ASCII files saved from other programs and dress them up. Save your forms in an ASCII format to import into other programs. Quick Forms gives you access to the entire IBM Extended Character Set. Create a Master Form and then fill it in with FILL IN Mode. Depending on your printer, Quick Forms will print Normal, Bold, Italic, Underline, Condensed, Superscript, Subscript, Double Width, Double Height and in combinations of these. To make using Quick Forms even easier, there are Lessons that you can load in, and then following the instructions on screen, you will get 'hands on' experience using some of the functions of Quick Forms. Version 2.0 adds the ability to print on pre-printed forms. Make Master Forms and then make copies of them, or take them to your local Print Shop and have copies made. Then use Quick Forms to fill in the form 'on screen'. Next use the 'Fill In Only' feature to fill in the pre-printed form. There is no need anymore to print out the entire form, but that is still available if you desire it. You can also create 'templates' to fill in forms such as American Express Forms. One is included in the forms that you received. You now can switch back and forth between color and monochrome when in 'FILL IN Mode'. This makes it a little easier on your eyes when filling in a form. The parts that you fill in will still be in color, but all of the Master Form will be the same color. Version 2.0 gives you the ability to make labels and pre-address envelopes. (See the section on MAKING LABELS. Page 17) Version 2.0 also gives you the option of having the cursor location given in Rows & Columns, or in Inches. This can be very useful when designing your forms. You can now print multiple forms (up to 99) without exiting Print Mode. Version 2.0 also adds a DATE & TIME Stamp. (See Time and Date on Page 16) All these features (along with all the existing features) are available with only one or two keystrokes 'while' you are working on your form. These were features that people like you asked for, and now they are here. I'm still looking for suggestions for further improvements of Quick Forms. ON-LINE LESSONS To make learning Quick Forms even easier, there are 5 On-line Lessons. Experience is the best teacher, so with these lessons you can learn by 'hands on' experience. Just follow the directions on the Page 5 screen. The first 4 Lessons should be loaded by the third menu choice: "Edit Master Form". Lesson 5 should be loaded by the first menu choice: "Fill In a Form". At the end of each lesson you are cautioned not to save any changes. This is in case you (or someone else) want to go back over them again for more practice. If you have backup copies of the Lessons, then go ahead and save them if you want. Chapter 3 --- MENU PAGE --- The Menu Page is the first screen that you will come to. The Menu choices are: Fill In a Form New Master Form Edit Master Form Delete a Form Exit (Ctrl X) Next on this screen is the Path that Quick Forms was loaded from. For example: C:\Q_FORMS To the far right of this is the number of forms. There are a possible 100 forms (two pages) that can be viewed. If there are more than 100 forms this will be in light red and will say >100 files. You might want to consider starting a new directory when you approach this limit. After this will be a list of all the Quick Form files in this directory. They will always be in alphabetical order, making it much easier to locate the form that you are looking for. Quick Form files will have one these extensions: .FM_ A Master Form .FMS A Form saved in Fill In Mode .FM@ A Form saved in an ASCII format The 25th line gives you what options are available on this screen: Alt-H Always available for HELP Alt-C Change Path Alt-F Toggles between Quick Form files and 'all' files Alt-P Used to select your printer CHANGE PATH (Alt-C) This is used to change the path where Quick Forms looks for files. If the current path is: C:\Q_FORMS and you want to look at the A: Drive, then just backspace, or use a CTRL-E to erase the current path and type in A: followed by an ENTER. Quick Forms won't let you specify an invalid path. If you start to get confused and forget what the default path was, just type a ? followed by an ENTER and the default path will be restored. Page 6 VIEW FILES (Alt-F) This is used to toggle back and forth between 'only' Quick Form files and 'all' files in the directory. About the only time you would use this is to load an ASCII file from another program. For example, let's say you had a LOTUS 123 file that you had saved in ASCII format as MYFILE.TXT. You would use ALT-F and load MYFILE.TXT. When you save it with Quick Forms it will make a Quick Forms File (MYFILE.TXT will still exist). Quick Forms will attempt to load any file that is not a .COM, .EXE, .FM_, or a .FMS file, as if it were an ASCII file (with .BAK files, a check will be made first to see if is a .BAK file of a Master Form). Since the limit of columns is 136, if a carriage return and line feed are not found by the 137th character then loading is aborted and a message is given. SELECT PRINTER (Alt-P) Even though this is last, it should be one of the first things that you do. This selects the Printer you are using. Quick Forms comes with PLAIN.PRT as the default printer. This will only print straight ASCII text, but is compatible with almost any printer. After you select ALT-P you will see a list of the printers currently known to be compatible with Quick Forms. Use the cursor keys to select your printer and press ENTER. On the right side of the screen will be the full name of the printer and a list of what features that it supports. If your printer is not on the list, pick the one that seems closest to it. Most of the newer printers on the market today are compatible with one of these. You may have to experiment. Press ESC when you have selected your printer. There is a file called PRTTEST.FM_ that you can load that will test the capabilities of your printer. If your printer is not listed, you can use this test to select the printer that most closely matches yours. Now lets go back to the Menu: FILL IN A FORM You can load forms that have already been created as a Master Form in this mode to fill in. If you select a Master Form with the .FM_ extension you will notice that it now has the extension .FMS and when you save it it will be saved with this extension, however, the Master Form 'will still exist' with the .FM_ extension. The next time that you want to fill it in, just select the filename with the .FMS extension. You can partially fill in a form, save it, and come back later to finish. You may want to fill in the information that won't change, such as your name, address, company name, etc. Then save it with the .FMS extension. This will keep you from having to retype this information each time you fill in a form. You can also use the CTRL-A and CTRL-E functions to clear from part of a line, up to the whole form. In Fill In Mode these two CTRL keys 'only' affect the Page 7 parts that have been filled in, and have no effect at all on the protected characters of the Master Form. These two CTRL keys will also be covered later. All of the characters of the Master Form are 'protected' in Fill In mode and cannot be written over. The exception to this is the 'Underline' character (_). Underlines can be written on and, when printed, will underline anything that was written on them. Even though, on the screen, it seems that the underline is written over, it still retains the underline attribute. You will notice that when you space (or backspace) over these characters that the underline is still there. The spacebar will 'go through' protected characters without harming them. All blank spaces can be written on in FILL IN Mode. If you have set TABS (setting Tabs will be covered later; See Page 21) at the locations that you want to fill in, then just press the TAB key to go to the next location (or Shift-Tab to back up). The ENTER key will go to the first tab below the Row that you are currently on. This makes filling in forms a breeze. In this mode you can use CTRL-M to toggle back and forth between color and monochrome for the protected characters. Master Forms can tend to get pretty colorful, and while this is useful in visualizing what the finished product will look like, it can be a hindrance when you just want to fill in the form. When in the monochrome mode, all the protected characters will be one color, but the parts that you fill in will still be in whatever color they would normally be. This tends to be easier on the eye when filling in forms. Also, in this mode, you can choose to print the entire form, or just to fill in the blanks on pre-printed forms. We will cover that under 'Printing' (Page 19). NEW MASTER FORM & EDIT MASTER FORM As the titles indicate, these two selections either create a new Master Form or let you edit a Master Form. It is advisable to only load files with the .FM_ extension. To load an ASCII file from another program, either rename it in DOS with the .FM@ extension, or do an ALT-F, find it on the list, and then load it. Once an ASCII file is loaded and saved with Quick Forms, it will become a Master Form with the .FM_ extension (the original ASCII file will still exist). In both of these selections 'Anything Goes'! You have access to all of the functions of Quick Forms. These will be covered one by one as we go on. You may load a .FMS form in MASTER Mode. Unlike when you load an ASCII file, the 'unprotected' characters (if there are any) will stay 'unprotected' and the protected characters will stay protected. Anything that you change, however, will become a part of the Master Form. When you save it now, it will be saved with the .FM_ extension and NOT the .FMS extension it was loaded under. The original .FMS form won't be changed. Sound confusing? That is why it is 'not recommended' to load a .FMS form in MASTER Mode. The preferred way is to make any changes to the original Master Form, save it, and then reload it in FILL IN Mode. The ability to do this, however, is there because it can (at times) be an advantage for advanced users. Page 8 When you select New Master Form you will be asked to specify how many columns that you want it to be. Use the cursor keys to make your choice. You can always change it later while working on the form by doing a CTRL-F8. When you save a form, the number of columns is saved with it. DELETE A FORM Delete a Form does just what it says so be very careful when using this function. Quick Forms has a built in safeguard in that .COM files and .EXE files cannot be deleted, but everything else is fair game. So, once again, be careful when deleting. EXIT (Ctrl X) Exits back to DOS. CTRL X will also exit to DOS. Chapter 4 --- WORKING ON A FORM --- THE STATUS LINE The 25th line is the status line. On the far left will be the name of the form that you are working on. A Master Form will be in light red while a .FMS form will be in light blue. Next will be the type of form - MASTER or Fill In - with the same color scheme. The next area will either be how many columns, or 10 of the IBM Extended Character Set. This area is toggled by doing a CTRL-0 (above the letter keys on the keyboard). This will be covered shortly. Now comes the type of print you will be using (Normal, Bold, etc.). This will be shown in the color that appears on the screen as you are typing. Normal will show up as green and anything you type will be in green. Italic will be red, and so on. Anything bold will have a blue background. The last thing on the status line is the cursor position. This will either be in Row & Column, or in inches. This is toggled back and forth by doing a ALT-P and is remembered between sessions. Using inches can be very useful when laying out a new form. Page 9 TYPESTYLE Quick Forms uses a color code to show what kind of typestyle you are using. This is very helpful in that you can see at a glance what will be printed as normal, bold, italic, etc. To select a typestyle use the ALT and letter key for the typestyle that you want. NOTE: When using the CTRL & ALT keys, 'hold down' the CTRL or ALT key, press whatever keys that you desire, and 'only then' release the CTRL or ALT key. Here are the typestyles, ALT-key combination and colors associated: Normal ALT N Green Normal Bold ALT N + B Green (Blue Background) Normal Underline ALT N + U Light Green Normal Bold Underline ALT N + B + U Light Green (Blue Bkgd) Italic ALT I Red Italic Bold ALT I + B Red (Blue Background) Italic Underline ALT I + U Light Red Italic Bold Underline ALT I + B + U Light Red (Blue Bkgd) Double Width ALT W Brown Double Width Bold ALT W + B Brown (Blue Background) Double Width Underline ALT W + U Yellow Double Width Bold Underline ALT W + B + U Yellow (Blue Background) Double Height ALT T Magenta Double Height Bold ALT T + B Magenta (Blue Background) Double Height Underline ALT T + U Light Magenta Double Height Bold Underline ALT T + B + U Light Magenta (Blue Bkgd) Double Width Double Height ALT X White D-Wide D-High Bold ALT X + B White (Blue Background) D-Wide D-High Underline ALT X + U Bright White D-Wide D-High Bold Underline ALT X + B + U Bright White (Blue Bkgd) Superscript ALT S Light Blue Subscript ALT L Blue Condensed ALT C Gray SHORTCUTS: If you are already in a particular typestyle, it is not necessary to do the first ALT Key if you are going to stay in that typestyle. For example: If you are in Italic and want to do Italic Bold, just do an ALT B (it is not necessary to do the ALT I again). NOTE on Double Width & Double Height characters: All Double Width characters are followed by a small dot. This is for continuity on the screen, and more importantly is used for printing purposes (don't worry, the dot isn't printed). This small dot is NECESSARY and you will notice that the cursor can't be placed under it. It is possible with the MOVE, COPY and ERASE functions to erase the dot without the character that goes with it, so be 'careful' when using these functions. A Double Width character without it's corresponding dot (or vice versa) will print with erratic results. Page 10 You must (on your own) leave a blank space above each Double Height character (for obvious reasons). Because of this you can't have a Double Height character on the first line. IBM EXTENDED CHARACTER SET Quick Forms has access to the entire IBM Extended Character Set except for characters 249 and 255. Character 249 is the small dot used with Double Width characters. Character 255 (a blank) is used for internal purposes. To open the window for the IBM Extended Characters do an ALT 0 (the number 0 that appears above the letter keys on the keyboard). Press ALT 0 again to close it. To scroll through these characters use ALT + or ALT - (the two keys to the right of the 0 key). You will notice that these characters are numbered 1 thru 10. Each number corresponds to the Function Key of that number. Just press the Function Key corresponding to the number of the character and that character will be printed on the screen. Many printers do not support the lower part of the IBM Extended Character Set (although some support the heart, diamond, club & spade). The characters that are not supported by the printer that you have selected will appear gray on the screen. You can still put them on your form, but if they are not supported, a space will be printed instead of the character. SPECIAL FEATURES USING THE CTRL-FUNCTION KEYS Each Function Key (F1 - F10) besides being used to print the IBM Extended Character Set, has a special feature when used with the CTRL Key. To access these features hold down the CTRL Key and then press the function key desired. Pressing the ESC key at any time will exit the function that you are in. CTRL F1 - MOVE - This is the MOVE function. It is used to move blocks of characters. First position the cursor at the upper right corner of the area that you want to MOVE. Now do a CTRL F1 Use the cursor keys to highlight the area that you want to MOVE. Press the END Key. Now move the cursor to the upper right corner of the new location. Press the INSERT Key. The old location will be erased and the block of characters will be placed in the new location (anything in the 'new' location that is in the way will be overwritten). Page 11 If you don't like how it looks in the new location, just move the cursor to another location and press the INSERT key again. You can keep doing this until you are satisfied with where it is and then press the END key to exit this function. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' only non-protected characters can be moved, and then only to non-protected spaces. CTRL F2 - COPY - This is the COPY function. It is almost the same as the MOVE function, except that the 'old' block of characters is not erased. A 'copy' of the block of characters is placed at the cursor location where you press the INSERT Key. As in the MOVE function, you can make multiple 'copies'. Press the END Key when finished. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' only non-protected characters can be copied, and then only to non-protected spaces. CTRL F3 - ERASE - This is the ERASE function. It is used to ERASE blocks of characters. Highlight the area that you want to erase just as you would highlight an area in MOVE or COPY. Then press the END Key. The area will be erased. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' only non-protected characters can be erased. CTRL F4 - GRID - This is one of the most useful functions in Quick Forms. It is the ability to lay out and then automatically make a GRID. In fact, this ability might be 'unique' to Quick Forms. Almost every form makes use of grids. To make a grid, first position the cursor in the upper left corner of where you want the grid. Now do a CTRL F4 You will notice that a bright white asterisk (*) appears where the cursor was. The default is for a grid with single lines. To change just press the letter "D" (double lines) or "S" (single lines). The co-ordinates for the grid are now laid out along the top row and left column. The cursor will only move along these two axis. Use the cursor keys, spacebar, tab key and enter key to move the cursor. Press any letter key (except the S or D) to place an asterisk at each location where there will be intersecting lines. When you are finished, just press the END Key and watch the GRID draw itself before your eyes. Page 12 HINT: If you are going to use column headings, it might be better to space and lay out the headings first, and then draw the grid around them. NOTE: The GRID function is not available in 'FILL IN Mode'. CTRL F5 - DRAW LINES - The DRAW LINES function is another very useful function of Quick Forms. To enter the DRAW LINES mode: Do a CTRL F5 Now the cursor keys will draw lines as you move the cursor. single lines is the default. Just press the letter "D" to draw double lines or the letter "S" to return to single lines. You will notice that when lines intersect, that they match up (if possible). You can change back and forth between single and double lines while drawing. Another feature is that if you hold the SHIFT Key down and then press one of the cursor keys, a line will be drawn (in whatever direction that the arrow on the cursor key was pointing) from the cursor up until the first character that it encounters. To Pause line drawing, and move the cursor to a new location, just press the letter "P". Now you can move the cursor around without drawing lines. To Erase just press the letter "E". Now anything that the cursor encounters will be erased. To exit 'Pause' or 'Erase' just press the letter "R" and you will resume drawing lines. The ESC Key exits the DRAW LINES mode. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' the lines you draw will not interact with any of the protected characters. CTRL F6 - DUPLICATE - The DUPLICATE function is very similar to the DRAW LINES function, except that instead of drawing lines, the cursor keys will leave a trail of whatever character is in the duplicate buffer. To enter the DUPLICATE mode: Do a CTRL F6 Instead of drawing lines, the cursor keys will now print whatever is in the duplicate buffer. The duplicate buffer holds a single character which appears on the 25th line. To put a different character there, press the letter "P" and move the cursor under whatever character that you wish to place there. Now hold down the SHIFT Key and press the ENTER Key. You will hear a soft 'click' and that character will now be in the duplicate buffer. You don't have to be in this mode to change the character here. You can do this 'anytime' while you are working on a form, by placing the cursor under the character that you wish to place in the duplicate buffer and then doing a SHIFT ENTER. Then whenever you enter DUPLICATE mode, that character will be there waiting for you. Page 13 Pause and Erase are the same as in DRAW LINES. Just press the letter "P" or "E". The ESC Key exits DUPLICATE mode. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' you cannot duplicate over any protected character. CTRL F7 - FILL - The FILL function fills all blank spaces in a defined area with whatever character is in the duplicate buffer (see DUPLICATE). To enter the FILL mode: Place the cursor at the top left of the area that you want to fill (as in the MOVE, COPY & ERASE functions): Do a CTRL F7 Use the cursor keys to highlight the area that you want to fill. Press the END Key. All 'blank' spaces will now be filled in with whatever character is in the duplicate buffer. CTRL F8 - SET COLUMNS - The SET COLUMNS function lets you change the column width of the form that you are working on, while you are working on it. For example you may be working on a form set for 80 columns and find that you need 110 columns to do the job right. To enter SET COLUMNS mode: Do a CTRL F8 A window will open in the upper right part of the screen. Use the cursor keys to select the new column width. If you are reducing the number of columns, be careful that you don't cut off any of the right side of the form that you are working on. Press ESC when your selection is made. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' this feature is not available. CTRL SHIFT F9 - INSERT COLUMN - This function 'inserts' a blank vertical column at the cursor location. Everything, starting at the column where the cursor is, is pushed to the right one column. To insert a column: Hold down the CTRL and SHIFT Keys together and then press the F9 Key. The reason that this function requires three keys is to prevent accidental use of it. You can mess up a form much more by inserting or deleting a column accidentally, than by inserting or deleting a row. Page 14 Even still, be careful that you don't lose anything off of the right end of the form when inserting a column. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' this feature is not available. CTRL SHIFT F10 - DELETE COLUMN - This function 'deletes' a column at the cursor location. It is the opposite of INSERT COLUMN. Everything in the column at the cursor location will be deleted and everything to the right of the cursor will shift left one column. To delete a column: Hold down the CTRL and SHIFT Keys together and then press the F10 Key. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' this feature is not available. OTHER USEFUL KEYS CTRL C This centers whatever is on a particular row. Centering is done according to how many columns the form has (80, 110, 132 or 136). NOTE: CTRL C is inactive in 'FILL IN Mode' CTRL A This erases everything on the form, starting at the cursor location up until the end of the form. For example, if the cursor is in the middle of the form, that's where erasing will start. Anything before that location is unaffected. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' all protected characters of the Master Form are unaffected. Only the parts that you have filled in will be erased and all 'underlines' from the Master Form will be restored. CTRL E This is the same as CTRL A, except it only affects whatever is on the same 'Row' as the cursor. All other rows are untouched. CTRL F This prints a cyan highlighted space on the form. It is a non-printing character. It is used to disable the Form Feed when the form is printed. See the section on 'Making Labels' at the end of this chapter (Page 17). CTRL D This prints the current date or time starting at the cursor & location. It is only as accurate as the date and time in CTRL T your computer's memory. NOTE: In 'FILL IN Mode' if there is not enough room to fit the whole date or time before a protected character is encountered, then printing stops at the protected character. See section on Time & Date Stamps. Page 15 CTRL M This feature is only active in 'FILL IN Mode'. It toggles the screen between color and monochrome mode 'only' for the protected characters of the Master Form. What you fill in is still in color. ALT P This toggles the cursor location (shown on the 25th line) between "Row & Column" and "Inches". ESC The ESC key always exits whatever you are doing. Pressing ESC while you are working on a form will give you the 'Option Line'. This line gives you the choice to Quit, Save, Print or Set Tabs. This will be covered later. SHIFT ENTER Places the character at the cursor location in the duplicate buffer. (see CTRL F6 and CTRL F7) INSERT Inserts text. The cursor will become larger. NOTE: N/A in FILL IN Mode. DELETE Deletes text. NOTE: N/A in FILL IN Mode. SHIFT INSERT Inserts a new blank row immediately above the cursor. NOTE: N/A in FILL IN Mode. SHIFT DELETE Deletes the row that the cursor is on. NOTE: N/A in FILL IN Mode. MOVING AROUND IN A FORM There is a 'Quick Reference Guide' that comes with Quick Forms. It is on your disk as QK-REF.FM_ You may want to load it (in any mode) and print it out to refer to as you are getting used to Quick Forms. These keys make it easy to move around in a form: CURSOR KEYS Move the cursor PAGE UP Moves the screen up 20 lines. PAGE DOWN Moves the screen down 20 lines. SHIFT PAGE UP Moves screen to Home position and cursor to upper left. SHIFT PAGE DOWN Moves screen and cursor to the last row in use. SHIFT UP ARROW Moves screen up one row SHIFT DOWN ARROW Moves screen down one row SHIFT RIGHT ARROW Moves screen right one column (if form has more than 80 columns) SHIFT LEFT ARROW Moves screen left one column (if form has more than 80 columns) CTRL RIGHT ARROW Moves screen to far right (if form has more than 80 columns) CTRL LEFT ARROW Moves screen to far left (if form has more than 80 columns) Page 16 TAB Moves the cursor right 8 spaces. NOTE: In FILL IN Mode the TAB moves the cursor to the next TAB position. If no Tabs are set then it has no effect. SHIFT TAB Back Tab. ENTER Moves the cursor to the first position on the next line. NOTE: In FILL IN Mode the ENTER key moves the cursor to the first TAB position 'below' the current Row. If no Tabs are set then it has no effect. HOME Moves the cursor to the first position on the line. NOTE: In FILL IN Mode it moves the cursor to the first Tab position on the form (shifting the screen if necessary). If no Tabs are set it goes to the upper left of the form. END Moves the cursor to the last character on the line. SHIFT HOME Moves the cursor to the upper left corner of the screen. SHIFT END Moves the cursor to the lower left corner. TIME & DATE There are two ways to enter the time and date. The first is to enter it as a part of your form. As it is now a part of the form it will not change. In other words, no matter when you print a copy of the form, the time and date will be the same value as when you originally entered them. The two key combinations to do this are: CTRL T Will print the current time. CTRL D Will print the current date. The time always requires 8 spaces and the date requires 12 spaces. Make sure there is room for them. In FILL IN Mode if there is not enough room to fit the whole time or date in before a Protected Character is encountered the printing will stop at the protected character. The same goes for the far right side of the form. The time is always in this format: 10:11 AM The date is always in this format: Mar 11, 1992 The second way to print the time and date is to make a Time or Date 'Stamp' on your form. This must be done in MASTER Mode. When you make a Time or Date 'Stamp', when you print out the form in FILL IN Mode, the time or date at the "time of printing" will be printed, no matter when that may be. The key combinations to do this are: CTRL SHIFT T Will put a Time 'Stamp' on the form. It will have a green background and will say: Time-Stp CTRL SHIFT D Will put a Date 'Stamp' on the form. It will have a green background and will say: Date---Stamp In place of Time-Stp & Date---Stamp the current time or date will be printed. Once again make sure you have enough room. Also remember that this is printed only in FILL IN Mode. In MASTER Mode Page 17 spaces will be printed instead. This is so that if you want to get copies made of your Master Form, this space will be left blank. Then when you 'Fill In' the form, the time and date will be printed. MAKING LABELS Quick Forms is also an excellent 'label maker'. With the ALT-P key, change the cursor location to 'inches', and then design your label. If you are designing labels, you are not going to want to generate a Form Feed at the end. Quick Forms puts a Form Feed after the last character on the form (even if the form is only one line long). To disable the Form Feed, press CTRL-F at the end of your label. It will print a blank, cyan highlighted space. This is a 'non- printing' character. You can use this to disable the Form Feed on any form. It is only active while you are printing the form that has it. The CTRL-F also serves a second purpose. Let's say that you are making a label that is 2 inches vertically. This would be 12 Rows (or lines) since there are 6 Rows to an inch. Now let's say that you are only printing on Rows 5 & 6, and do a CTRL-F after Row 6 to disable the Form Feed. You must print another 6 blank Rows (carriage returns), and Quick Forms ignores everything after the last (non-space) character. You should do the CTRL-F on Row 12 (2 inches). This tricks Quick Forms into thinking that you actually have 12 Rows to print, and after printing Rows 5 & 6, Quick Forms will then do another 6 carriage returns. Depending on what you set the counter to, Quick Forms will print up to 99 labels (more if you make multiple labels on the same form. The COPY feature comes in useful here). NOTE: You may have to use the 'Micro Feed' on your printer to adjust the 'Top Of Form' when making labels. You can also use Quick Forms to pre-address envelopes, or just to put your return address on blank envelopes. This can be a big convenience for things such as bills that you send out every month to the same address. OVERLAY FORM For added convenience there is an Overlay Form included with Quick Forms. It is on you disk as OVERLAY.FM_. This is a large grid, marked off in rows and columns. To use this Overlay, first get a sheet of tracing paper. You should be able to find tracing paper in any Art Supply store (ideally, a complete transparency would be best, but that might be hard to come by). Insert the tracing paper into your printer and print out the Overlay Form on it. Now, if you are making a form from an existing one, or a making a template (such as the American Express one), just lay the Overlay over the form that you are working from, and you can instantly see which row and column that each part of the form will occupy. Page 18 Another way to use the Overlay is to feed the form that you want to copy (or make a Template for) into your printer and print the Overlay 'onto' the form. Now your coordinates are right on the form. The Overlay is 80 columns wide. You can edit it to make it wider if you want. If you do, the COPY feature comes in very useful. Chapter 5 --- OPTION LINE --- When you are done working of a form press ESC. This will give you the Option Line. You now have five choices of what to do: SAVE Press the letter "S" to save the form that you have been working on. This brings up the choices of how and where the form will be saved. In most instances, unless you are making a new form, you will not want to change anything. If everything is OK just press ENTER. If you want to change something, the TAB key will step you through the three different areas. If you change your mind, pressing the ESC key will return you to working on the form. On the left of the 25th line is the name of the form. If you are making a new form you will have to give it a name. This can be from 1 to 8 characters long. The extension can't be changed. It will always be .FM_ for a Master Form and .FMS for a form saved in FILL IN Mode (or .FM@ for an ASCII file). You can also save a form that you are editing under a different name by either adding to it or backspacing over the existing name. Don't worry about losing a Master Form if you change the name, or if you load it in FILL IN Mode and then save it with the .FMS extension. Here are two examples of what will happen. 1. You load MYFORM.FM_ in MASTER Mode and then save it under the name MYFORM1.FM_ . You now have 'two' Master Forms. MYFORM.FM_ and MYFORM1.FM_ . 2. You load MYFORM.FM_ in FILL IN Mode (notice that the extension changes to .FMS). Now you save it in FILL IN Mode. You once again have 'two' forms. MYFORM.FM_ and MYFORM.FMS. When you save a form that you are editing in MASTER Mode, a .BAK file will be made also. Some people consider .BAK files a nusense, but they can save the day if you accidently delete a form or really mess it up. In fact, a .BAK file saved the day for me as I was writing this manual. If you do accidently delete one of your Master Forms, just do a CTRL-F on the Menu Page and load the .BAK form. It will then become a .FM_ form. Unlike Version 1.0, Version 2.0 can tell the difference between a Master Form .BAK file and a .BAK file from an other program. .BAK files are not made in FILL IN Mode, nor when a file is saved in ASCII format. Page 19 In the middle of the 25th line is the Path that the form was loaded from. This is also where the form will be saved to. You probably will not want to change this, but if you do just TAB over to it and change the Path. The same rules apply as on the Menu Page. Add to the Path or backspace over it. CTRL E erases the Path so you can start over again, and a ? will return you to the default Path that Quick Forms was run under. For example, if you loaded your form from the Path C:\QF and want to save it to a floppy disk, do a CTRL E and then type in A: Quick Forms will not let you specify an invalid path. Your MSDOS manual will give you all the specifics that you need on setting Paths. NOTE: If your computer has only one floppy drive it will be the A: drive. In this case DO NOT change the Path to B: You will get weird results if you do. Quick Forms can handle just about any other mistake, but not this one. Even Microsoft Word doesn't handle this one. On the far right of the 25th line is the choice of whether to save your form formatted or not. The default is "Y" for formatted. The only time that you would want to choose "N", for non-formatted, is if you want to save your form in an ASCII format so that it can be read by other programs. When you save your form in an ASCII format, you loose all of Quick Forms' formatting. This includes things such as Italic, Bold, Underlined, Protected and Non-Protected characters, etc. However, only the .FM@ form looses formatting. If you saved the file MYFORM.FM_ in an ASCII format, you would have 'two' forms. MYFORM.FM_ and MYFORM.FM@. QUIT Press the letter "S" to quit working on a form and go back to the Menu Page. If you have made any changes and forgot to save them, you will first be asked if you want to save them. The line will read: Enter Y to Save Changes. N to Discard Pressing the letter "Y" will take you to the choices for saving a form. Pressing the letter "N" will leave the form as it was when you loaded it and take you back to the Menu Page. PRINT Press the letter "S" when you are ready to print on your printer. Printing is the same for FILL IN Mode and MASTER Mode, except in FILL IN Mode you have the option to print on 'pre-printed' forms. This discuss this first. FILL IN MODE ONLY After you press "P", the 25th line will ask you if you want to print the 'Entire Form' or 'Fill In Only'. If you choose 'Entire Form' then Everything will be printed. This includes the protected characters of the Master Form and everything that you have filled in. Page 20 Choose this option when you are printing on blank paper. If you choose 'Fill In Only' then ONLY the parts that you have filled in will be printed. The protected characters of the Master Form will be ignored. Choose this option if you are printing on 'pre-printed' forms. This will usually be much faster as the printer has much less to print. If you are using pre-printed forms, make sure that the form lines up correctly in the printer. Most of the newer printers do an 'excellent' job of lining up the paper vertically to the top of the form. Make sure that form is also aligned horizontally. The current setting for this choice will be in the color Light Cyan. You can use the TAB key to toggle back and forth between the two choices. This setting will be remembered between sessions. If you are satisfied with the setting then press ENTER. The rest of printing is the same for both modes. FILL IN & MASTER MODES You have 3 choices that you can make now. The first is the number of copies. The default is always 1. To change this just use the number keys (the same as on a commercial copier) to enter any value up to 99. Pressing the letter "C" will clear the counter back to 1. The next choice is whether to print bi-directional or uni-directional. Use the LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW keys to toggle back and forth between these two choices. Choose uni-directional (this makes your printer print from left to right only) when your form has tables and charts, to ensure that the vertical columns will be in alignment. To tell you the truth, on the printers that I have tried out I have seen very little difference between the two. This choice is remembered during the current session, but not between sessions. The third choice is how many characters per inch to print (CPI). The default (and standard) choice is 10 CPI. You can change this to 12 CPI and 15 CPI if your printer supports them. Use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys to change this value. Choose 'Off' to control this manually from your printer. You can also use one of these choices to squeeze more characters on a line that your printer would normally support. For example, if you have an 80 column printer and the form you are working on 'needs' 96 columns to complete it properly, just choose 12 CPI and it will fit. You will notice that some of the included forms have 96 Column widths. You can print them on an 80 Column printer if you choose 12 CPI (characters per inch). Below is a chart giving printer width and the number of characters that will fit using this option. Printer width 80 Columns 110 Columns 132 Columns 136 Columns 10 CPI 80 Char. 110 Char. 132 Char. 136 Char. 12 CPI 96 Char. 132 Char. 136 Char. 136 Char. 15 CPI 120 Char. 136 Char. 136 Char. 136 Char. Page 21 TABS Setting Tab Stops in your form is a nice convenience when you go to fill in the form in FILL IN Mode. Tab Stops may be set in both FILL IN and MASTER Modes. Press the letter "T" to set Tabs. Any existing Tab Stops will now be highlighted in brown. (Tab Stops are normally invisible) To set a new Tab Stop just position the cursor to where you want the Tab Stop to be and press any letter key to set it. To remove a Tab Stop just do the opposite. Place the cursor under the Tab Stop that you want to remove and press any letter key. Pressing CTRL Z will erase all Tab Stops. You can put a Tab Stop anywhere you want EXCEPT on a protected character of the Master Form. You can, however, put a Tab Stop on any underline character. When you are finished setting Tabs just press ESC to go back to the option line. When you load a form in FILL IN Mode, the cursor will automatically go to the first Tab Stop. Now when you press the TAB key the cursor will go to the next Tab Stop. Pressing the ENTER key will ignore any more Tab Stops on the line you are on and go to the first Tab Stop 'below' that line (no matter how far down it may be). Pressing the HOME key will take you back to the first Tab Stop on the form, shifting the screen if necessary. Chapter 6 --- REGISTERING QUICK FORMS --- Quick Forms is a 'Shareware' program. Shareware is the concept of 'try' before you 'buy'. A lot of time and effort went into the making of Quick Forms. If you find that it is not for you then that is fine, please pass Quick Forms on to a friend. In fact, even if you use Quick Forms and register it, you are encouraged to pass it on to as many people as you like. That is the concept of Shareware. If you find Quick Forms useful and use it on a regular basis, you are expected to register it. To register Quick Forms send $25 to: Russ Irwin 113 Beechmont Ave. Pittsburgh, Pa. 15229 To register Quick Forms, select 'Fill In a Form' on the Menu Page and load the form REGISTER.FMS. Use the TAB key and fill it in, then just print it out. You can also just fill out the Registration form on the next page. All registered users will be kept informed of future updates and receive the next one free. Also, as an added bonus, when you register Quick Forms, you will receive a disk with 50 additional forms ready to use. Use them as they are, or modify them to suit your personal taste. Thank you for trying Quick Forms. I sincerely hope that you will be pleased with it. QUICK FORMS - Version 2.2 - Registration Form ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, QUICK FORMS is useful to me. I would like to register it. Enclosed is my registration fee of $25. I understand that I will be informed of future upgrades and will receive the first one free. I also understand that I will immediately receive an additional 50 Forms on disk, ready to use, or modify to my own taste. Please indicate disk size required: __ 3 ½ inch (this is preferred) __ 5 ¼ inch Is this a High Density drive? __ Yes __ No NAME _______________________________________________________________ COMPANY ____________________________________________________________ ADDRESS ____________________________________________ APT __________ CITY ____________________ STATE ___________________ ZIP __________ PHONE (___) ___ ____ SEND TO: Russ Irwin 113 Beechmont Ave. Pittsburgh, Pa. 15229 _______________________________________________________________________ Would you please answer the following questions. (Optional) Where did you get your copy of QUICK FORMS? ___________________________ How would you rate QUICK FORMS? __ Excellent __ Good __ Average What is your __ To make my own Forms main use for __ To use (or modify) the Forms that came with it QUICK FORMS? __ Other _________________________________________ What kind of computer do you have? ____________________________________ Is it a: __ 486 __ 386 __ 286 __8086 __ 8088 What printer do you have? _____________________________________________ Have you used any other 'Forms' programs? __ Yes __ No If Yes, what other programs? _________________________________________ Any additional comments: (include suggestions for future upgrades)