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Night Owl 6
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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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023a
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fm40.zip
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FMEDIT.HLP
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1991-10-06
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174 lines
***************************** FORM Editor Help *******************************
The form editor supports creation and modification of forms. It allows you to
move the cursor about the form and type in its contents. It has features to
draw lines and boxes as well as copy groups of lines from one place to
another. You can set attributes to control the colors of characters and
backgrounds on your form for use with a color monitor, or set normal, high
intensity, inverse video, and underlining for use with a monochrome monitor.
There are 256 different attributes and you must choose one to four attributes
for input fields - areas you can type into when the form is executed. The
four attributes for the input fields are entered on the editor pop-up menu.
The first line displays "EDIT:" followed by the form name, the cursor
position, the attribute of the character the cursor is on, and the active
attribute which is used when you type characters onto your form. An "Ins"
appears on the first line if you are in insert mode meaning characters will be
inserted at the cursor as you type instead of replacing existing ones.
Another indicator appears when the cursor is on certain special characters.
This indicator gives the meaning of these special characters.
Attributes:
Attributes determine how a character appears on your monitor, such as its
foreground and background color, or highlighting and underlining,
depending on what your monitor supports. Each character on your display
has its own attribute. You have control over how these attributes are
used when text is placed on your form with function keys F2, F7, F8, and
F9 (listed below).
Attributes have two purposes. They make your form colorful, and they
DEFINE INPUT FIELDS WHICH ARE PLACES YOU CAN TYPE INTO WHEN THE FORM IS
EXECUTED. Up to four different attributes may be used to define input
fields. A common one is inverse video (black characters on a white
background) which has a value of "70". This attribute is selected with
F8. Use of attributes is important and is covered in lesson 2.
Functions:
ESC - Return to Menu: Exits Form Generation. After the first push the
form control parameters pop-up menu appears. You can modify any of
these parameters at this point. Press "ESC" a second time to return
to the main menu or press F3 to resume editing. Use the pop-up menu
to change the number of rows in your form while editing. Use it
also to define up to 4 attributes that the form executor will
interpret as input fields.
F1 - Help: Displays on-screen help. A condensed help screen is shown
first. Pressing F1 a second time provides detailed help.
F2 - Define Special Characters & Attributes: Displays a menu which
allows you to (1) select any character including the special IBM
graphics characters to enter on your form; and (2) define any
attribute to use on your form.
Any character in the IBM character graphics set may be selected by
using the cursor keys. To place it on your form press "ESC" to
resume editing, then press F10.
Attributes apply to characters on your form. They define colors and
the ability to underline, highlight, and blink depending on what
your monitor supports. Each character on your display has its own
attribute defined for it. Attributes are used by Form Master to
designate areas on your form where information may be filled in when
the form is executed. It is up to you to define these input fields.
You must give them a different attribute than other places on your
form. The suggested attribute for input fields is inverse video
(attribute 70). Select it by pressing F8 while editing. You can
then move the cursor to where the field will be and press the space
bar repeatedly to watch it appear. This F2 menu allows you to
define any attribute for use.
There are three functions associated with this special menu:
o Select a character
o Select the foreground component of the attribute
o Select the background component of the attribute
You can change the function by pressing the Return key. Selection
is made using the cursor control keys.
F3 - Start/Erase Line or Box: A "Start/Erase line or box" pop-up menu
appears. Enter "1" for single line style, "2" for double line
style, or "3" for erase. Press F3 a second time. Move the cursor
to the end of the line or to the opposite corner of the box and use
F4 to finish.
F4 - Draw/Erase Line or Box: Either a "Draw Line", "Draw Box", "Erase
Line", or "Erase Box" pop-up menu appears. Drawing or erasing
depends on the choice made with F3. A line is drawn or erased if
the cursor is in the same row or column as the blinking indicator
placed by F3. Otherwise a box is drawn or erased. Press F4 a
second time to draw or erase the line or box from the blinking
indicator marked using F3 to the current cursor position. Lines and
boxes are drawn using the active attribute. The erase mode blanks
lines and boxes to the background portion of the active attribute.
F5 - Pick Line(s): A "Pick Lines" pop-up menu appears. You can specify
the number of lines to pick from 1 to 24, beginning with the line
the cursor falls on. Use F6 to copy picked lines.
F6 - Put Line(s): An "Insert n lines" pop-up menu appears where "n" is
the number of lines picked with F5. Press F6 a second time to copy
the picked lines into the position before the line containing the
cursor.
F7 - Use Normal Attribute: The active attribute is set to normal video
which has white characters on a black background (07). Further
typing, lines, and boxes will use normal video.
F8 - Use Inverse Video Attribute: The active attribute is set to inverse
video, black characters on a white background (70). Further typing,
lines, and boxes will use inverse video.
F9 - Define any Attribute: A pop-up menu appears allowing any value to
be entered as the active attribute. The last attribute defined with
F2 or F9 is listed as a default. Further typing, lines, and boxes
will use this attribute.
F10 - Type Special Character: The special character defined with F2 is
entered onto the form at the cursor position using the active
attribute.
Other Form Editor Features
Alt-F1 Execute view: shows how form looks without
special printer characters (as when executing)
Home Move cursor to line 1 and column 1.
End Move cursor to last row and column 133
Tab Move cursor right 8 columns.
BackTab [Shift-Tab] Moves cursor left 8 columns.
PgUp Move form down 23 lines.
PgDn Move form up 23 lines.
Insert Toggle between insert and overwrite text.
Delete Delete character at the cursor
Control Right Arrow Move cursor to column 133.
Control Left Arrow Move cursor to column 1.
Control N Insert blank line at cursor.
Control Y Delete line at cursor.
Control D Place current date on form (will not update)
Control T Place current time on form (will not update)
Special characters may be inserted in your form using the "Alt" key and
pressing a letter. These perform special functions when you execute and/or
print your form although they are not seen when executing it. The following
are defaults:
Alt-B Print Boldface, Enhanced text
Alt-C Print Compressed text (17 characters per inch)
Alt-D Enter the current date when executing form
Alt-E Print Elite text (12 characters per inch)
Alt-F Enter the form sequence number when executing form
Alt-H Print Higher, Superscript
Alt-I Print Italic text
Alt-L Print Lower, Subscript
Alt-O Overstrike with next line (skip line feed after
printing line - therefore 2 lines are printed on top of
each other)
Alt-P Print Pica text (10 characters per inch)
Alt-T Enter the current time when executing form
Alt-U Print with Underline
Alt-X Print Expanded text
Other Alt-letter combinations can be defined as needed for other printer
functions.
Notes:
If Alt-D, Alt-F, or Alt-T is used adjacent to one of the other Alt-letters,
it should be placed second. For example, to have the current date underlined
place the characters in the following order:
Alt-U Alt-D . (See the example Invoice form.)
If you place one Alt-U character on a line to underline characters,
underlining continues only to the last character on the line. To continue
underlining to the right side of the form beyond the last character, place a
second Alt-U at the right end of the line.