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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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1989-12-03
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------- PAN1124 - A Utility Program for your Panasonic 1124 Printer -------
------- Written by Pam Lagier -------
------- -------
------- Copyright (C) 1989 Omnific Software -------
------- Quality Software for Business -------
------- -------
------- P. O. Box 512, Ripon, Ca. 95366 Phone (209) 599-6722 -------
------- Call our Turbo City BBS, home of BeeLine, at (209) 599-7435 -------
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WHAT DOES PAN1124 DO?
---------------------
PAN1124 is a simple program which automatically sets various features on your
Panasonic 1124 printer. You don't have to learn to use the printer's front
control panel or study the manual to get nice results when you print!
The PAN1124 program is helpful to people without desk-top publishing programs,
for computer novices and for all non-programmers.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
-----------------
You can set the printer from within the PAN1124 program. When you quit the
PAN1124 program, YOUR PRINTER STAYS SET until you turn it off or another
program resets it.
PRINTING FROM DOS
-----------------
So ... you can set the printer with PAN1124, return to DOS, and then use the
DOS "PRINT" command to print a nice looking hard copy of a text file. You can
create many effects, from a crisp, business-like appearance to a "handwritten"
look. You can even create flyers with huge letters.
OUTPUT FROM OTHER PROGRAMS
--------------------------
Or, you run PAN1124 to set the printer and then run another program which
outputs to the printer. Unless the other program resets the printer (most
don't), your printer will use the PAN1124 settings.
You might want letter quality printing instead of draft mode, for example. If
your program prints output meant for 14" wide paper, you can easily set your
Panasonic to print 137 characters per line.
PAN1124 MACROS
--------------
You can also save combinations of settings you like into MACROs which are
stored in a small disk file. Then, you can choose whichever Macro you want and
set the printer with it. You can easily add, edit and delete your own Macros
with PAN1124.
This is very handy if you print similar materials frequently or want similar
printed materials to maintain a consistent appearance.
HOW TO INSTALL AND START PAN1124
--------------------------------
Simply place all the PAN1124 files in the same directory anywhere on your hard
disk.
You can run PAN1124 from any drive or directory on your computer. Here are two
possible ways to run the program without changing drives or directories:
The first way: Place the PAN1124 files in a directory which is in your PATH.
To run PAN1124 from any drive or directory, at the DOS prompt, just type in:
"PAN1124"
The second way: Place the PAN1124 files in ANY directory; for example, into
"C:\UTIL". To run PAN1124 from any drive or directory, at the DOS prompt, type
in:
"C:\UTIL\PAN1124"
If your current drive is the same as the one where PAN1124 is located (in drive
C:, in this example) you could shorten the command to:
"\UTIL\PAN1124"
SOME HINTS FOR USING PAN1124
---------------------------
PAN1124 lets you enter any combination of settings that the Panasonic 1124
will accept. Incompatible combinations - ones the printer would ignore - can't
be entered. This helps you get the results you want in less time and with less
wasted paper.
Following are a few important details about PAN1124 and some observations we've
made about the way the Panasonic 1124 printer works. By changing the printer
settings, you can create more than 5500 different effects! You may find certain
combinations of settings that can't be handled properly by the PAN1124 program.
THE RIGHT MARGIN
----------------
The maximum right margin is displayed and changed whenever you change a setting
upon which it depends. For instance, if you select double wide letters, the
maximum printed line will be fewer characters long. After you've entered the
other settings you want, you can adjust the right margin with PAN1124. Lines of
text which would normally print past the new right margin will instead 'wrap
around' and be continued on the next line.
The printer does not know how to divide words into syllables, of course, so it
may start a new line right in the middle of a word. Unless you have a specific
reason for doing so, avoid changing the right margin. PAN1124 displays the
maximum right margin mostly so you can tell how long the lines in your text
files can be.
THE LEFT MARGIN
---------------
Change the left margin setting to move the printed lines to the right on the
paper. Determine how long the lines in your text file can be by subtracting
the left margin setting from the right margin setting.
SKIP PERFORATIONS
-----------------
You can instruct the printer to skip over the perforations on your fan-fold
paper while printing. If you set "Skip Perforations" on by using the printer's
front panel (and do not set it on with PAN1124), the printer leaves one inch
of white space at the bottom of each page.
PAN1124, however, sets this to TWO inches of white space. For nice looking
results when printing long, unpaginated text files, set "Skip Perforations" on
with PAN1124 and roll your paper up so the printhead is ONE inch from the top
of the paper BEFORE you set the printer. The printed pages will now have a one
inch margin both at the top and at the bottom of each page!
CHARACTER SETS
--------------
You may choose one of three character sets for the Panasonic 1124. Look at
Appendix A in your manual to see the differences. For most uses, you should
choose Graphic Character Set 1 or 2 instead of the Italic set.
The Graphic Character sets allows you to print the characters used for drawing
lines and boxes - Italic does not. If your text files contain these characters
and you choose the Italic Character Set, various letters will be printed
instead of the graphics characters in the lines and boxes.
(Do not confuse this with the "Italics" font that causes the printed characters
to 'lean to the right.')
LINES PER INCH
--------------
Changing the number of printed lines per inch has a dramatic effect on the
appearance of your printed documents. Generally, wider spacing (fewer lines
per inch) makes the document easier to read.
If you select double high letters, be sure to lower the lines per inch setting!
PROPORTIONAL SPACING
--------------------
Proportional spacing makes printed text look like it was type-set. This results
in readable, professional-looking documents. The basic printed width of each
letter varies, from 18/360" for the letter "i" to 42/360" for the letter "M".
Appendix B in your manual shows the basic width of each character.
Because the width of each character varies, the length of each printed line can
also vary tremendously, depending on the characters in the line of text. It may
appear that the printer is using a pitch differnt from the one you chose.
Proportional spacing doesn't look right if your document contains tabulated
columns of words or numbers. If you have problems with misaligned columns, try
turning proportional spacing off.
JUSTIFICATION
-------------
Like proportional spacing, text justification (right, center or full) may cause
tabulated columns of number or text to be misaligned. Proportional spacing used
with full justification may cause inconsistent results; some lines may be short
while others are fully justified (full length).
SINGLE DIRECTION PRINTING
-------------------------
The printer normally prints both as the print head moves to the right and to
the left. If you set Single Direction printing on, it prints only as the print
head moves to the right.
For most uses, the bidirectional mode is fine. If any lines or boxes on the
printed page look 'ragged' or any characters look 'crooked,' however, the
Single Direction print mode will probably help.
REQUIRED HARDWARE
-----------------
PAN1124 will work with any IBM-compatible computer connected to a Panasonic
1124 printer. It has not been tested on other printers but should work on any
printer with Epson LQ-2500 emulation.
THE MACRO BACKUP FILE
---------------------
Whenever you add, edit or delete a Macro in PAN1124, the old Macro file is
renamed to PAN1124.BAK and a new PAN1124.MAC file is created. If you run out
of disk space or have some other hardware problem which prevents the new
PAN1124.MAC file from being written to the disk, you can still save the Macros:
go to the directory where the PAN1124 files are located and, at the DOS prompt,
type in "REN PAN1124.BAK PAN1124.MAC"
DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY
-----------------------
PAN1124 simply sends the various control sequences listed in the manual to the
printer and cannot harm the printer in any way. Omnific Software disclaims all
responsibility for any damage to your printer or other equipment.
USE OF THIS PROGRAM
-------------------
Please feel free to use this program as much as you like, courtesy of Omnific
Software. You may also distribute the program to others who might find it
useful if you do not alter the program or documentation in any way. Happy
printing!
REVISIONS
---------
1.1 Relaxed the printer-ready detection scheme to work with unusual hardware
configurations. Allowed the Escape key to work the same as 'Quit' choice.
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----------------------------- Omnific Software ------------------------------
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