Copyright: Illuminatus V2.0 (c)Digital Workshop 1994


Contents

Version 2.10 evaluation copy

© Digital Workshop  1994

Portions of Imaging Technology © JASC Inc 1990-1994

Click on one of the following topics for further details

Ordering the Full Version

READ THIS FIRST  	- The latest information and important considerations

New Features 	- A brief introduction to features new in this version.

Introduction 	- Introduction to the program

Using The Program 	- A guide on how to use Illuminatus

Reference Guide 	- A complete reference of functions and commands

Tips & Technical 	- Tips for using Illuminatus and technical issues

Conventions

In this help file worked examples are in Bold Italic text;

RED text is used to show text you type while using the program,

BLUE text designates menu options and text on screen labels or buttons or keys to be pressed


Fonts

Illuminatus supports True Type fonts and so allows you to use any font you currently have installed under Windows. There is no need to restrict your choice to those you think your readers will have or to distribute the fonts with your publications as Illuminatus automatically converts them to graphics when you compile or publish your document.

When selecting fonts with which to display text you should think about the manner in which they will be read. Small sizes and fancy typefaces will probably not work well when displayed on screen; they are particularly unsuitable for rolling demos where the message must get across quickly. As with all publishing it is advisable to limit yourself to one or two typeface styles in any one document as this give the publication consistency and coherence.

Text


Introductory Topics

Welcome

Introduction

Learning Illuminatus

What is Multimedia Publishing


Using the Program

Quick Start

A brief overview on how Illuminatus works for users who cannot wait to get started.

How it Works

A more detailed overview of the how the program works for experienced Windows users.

Creating Your Publication Efficiently

Resources & Data Files

All you need to know about graphics, music, video and animation, and how to use them in Illuminatus.

Reference Guide

A comprehensive guide to all the options and dialogs you willl come across in Illuminatus. Plus additional reference information for a full understanding of the functionality of Illuminatus.

Commands

A comprehensive guide to each command in Illuminatus and what it does.


Tips & Technical

Important Considerations

Some things to keep in mind when designing your multimedia publication and the resources you plan to use in it

Other Hints and Tips

Technical Details

About Illuminatus


Read This First

Black Page Backgrounds and Frames

If frames or backgrounds of your publication are black where you expect graphics to be this is because Illuminatus cannot find the resources in the publication. Use Check Location to find the resource files and reassign the publication to use them from the new location. Where only the drive has changed and the directory structure is the same you can reassign all the data files by using the Change Data Drive option.

Sharing Violation Error

If you get a Windows error message saying that a sharing violation has occurred while running your Illuminatus publication this is usually because the publication has tried to play some music which is already playing. For example if your first page launches some music which loops continually in the background and then another page takes you back to that first page Illuminatus will attempt to launch the same music again and the sharing violation will be noted. To avoid this happening simply set "Stop Existing Sound". This way the original file will be closed before it is rerun and the error will not occur.

Test Thoroughly

We have made Illuminatus easy to use and it may appear simple but the mechanics of what it is actually doing are quite complex. We recommend that you test your compiled and published publications thoroughly to ensure that everything works as you intended it to. Try to get someone who hasn't seen it before to try it out. This can often highlight problems or requirements you hadn't predicted.

If you are distributing your publication to others it can also be useful to test your publication on another computer or in a different graphics mode to ensure that it looks as you would wish.

Compile Times

Compile and Publish will take slightly longer when you Compile or Publish to a colour scheme different from the one you are working in. This occurs because Illuminatus has additional work to do reducing the colours in each page.

Compile and Publish Problems

If your publication fails to compile\publish properly or doesn't run properly once compiled. Use check location to check all your resource files. Check your available memory and system resources. Check your free disk space. Free as much system resources as possible and try again. This will often solve the problem.

Temporary Files

Illuminatus creates temporary files when publishing and compiling. The size of these depends on the number of pages in your publication and the resources you are using. A simple publication of five or six pages may require 2Mb a twenty page publication with video and sound effects may require 30Mb.

Big Publications

Publications with a large number of pages can be slow to work with so you may like to consider breaking the publication down into sections and creating each of these separately. You can either daisy-chain them as described in Advanced Features or if you need your final publication to be a single file you can cut and paste the modules together at the last minute.

Titles

Do not forget to add titles to slideshows, animation and video in the box provided or these elements will not be visible throughout the rest of the program. (See Titles and Filenames  for further details).

Speed

Illuminatus will run on any PC which will run Windows 3.1 but the program will be more enjoyable to work with on a 66Mhz 486 or better. If you are running it on a slower machine or do not have a graphics accelerator you can speed up the program by switching off the thumbnails used to preview pages in the Publication View and by not previewing bitmaps in Page View. Both of these options are available from the Preferences item on the File menu.

For obvious reasons display of multimedia pages from within the Illuminatus Editor using the Preview option will be considerably slower than the final Compiled or Published version.

Media Clipart Licence

The graphics and sound files which come with this program are copyright Digital Workshop and Words & Pictures. They can be used freely in commercial or non-commercial publications produced with Illuminatus but MAY NOT be distributed separately from the Illuminatus program or a multimedia publication created with it.

Additional Licences

Additional licences for Illuminatus are available in 5 and 10 User packs. Special rates are available for educational licences.

Free Upgrades

Digital Workshop is committed to fair play on upgrades. We will have maintenance releases to fix bugs and upgrades to add features. Maintenance releases will be free although a small handling and postage charge may be necessary for customers who do not have access to Compuserve or CIX where maintenance releases will be made available. Please note however that when we release a general maintenance upgrade only registered users will be sent it automatically. Registering your copy of Illuminatus tells us your actively using it so we can actively support you.

Free Disk of Backgrounds

You also receive a FREE disk of backgrounds when you register.

Tabbed Dialogs

The new tabbed dialogs allow us to add extra options to the frames and buttons without changing the simple approach we began in version 1. Please note that the Summary on the front of each set of dialogs allows you to switch options on and off conveniently, the information cannot be edited there.

Related Information

Important Considerations

Other Hints and Tips


New Features

There are a great many changes and improvements in this version of Illuminatus. The following details some of the most significant ones.

Smaller Publications

Illuminatus now compresses all page data and its data files so that publications take much less hard disk space. In addition the Compile and Publish now check for duplicate images, audio files etc and only include one copy of any duplicated on another page of your publication. This means both editable and distributable publications take up much less disk space.

Faster Publications

Your distributed publication now buffers the pages in memory as much as possible. This means that publications take a while to load but are much quicker to view. This means publications can now run much better direct from floppy.

Editable Templates

Frames and buttons can now be moved and resized as you like and can be added and deleted as required. You can add entirely blank pages to your publication to create templates from scratch.

Editing Page Elements

You can also align the buttons and frames on a page.

Align

Extension Programs

The Launch Program option for can be used for extending Illuminatus, particularly as Illuminatus can now start up on a particular page passed to them as a parameter.

Launching Other Programs

Extension Programs

Reporting Text

Buttons can now save text to a disk file thus enabling scoring, checking and such like. Combining this with extension programs which analyse and act on the resulting text files can be very effective and useful.

Button Options

Page Options

A number of additional options are now available for pages. They can be displayed using special effects. They can be individually timed to appear for a certain period and can have music or sound associated individually.

Page Options

Keyboard Support

Buttons can now be assigned a hot key so that they can be activated by pressing a key on the keyboard rather than only with the mouse.

Button Options

New Commands

Data Files

Check Location

Change Data Drive

Consolidate Project

Insert Blank Page

Add

Frame

Button

Delete

Move

To Front

To Back

Align

Left

Right

Top

Bottom


Welcome

Thank you for purchasing Illuminatus. We hope you enjoy exploring the opportunities multimedia publishing offers.

Digital Workshop is committed to really user-friendly software and customer-friendly service. We are trying to build software that works the way you do, that needs the least effort from the user. We're also playing fair on upgrades so you will never have to pay for features you do not need to fix bugs which should not have been there in the first place.

Of course we won't always get it right so when we get it wrong please let us know and you can be sure we'll do better next time.

Give us a call or contact us via our conference on CIX ( join theworkshop\illuminatus) or Compuserve GO WORKSHOP

Other Introductory Topics:

Introduction

Learning Illuminatus

What is Multimedia Publishing?


Introduction

Illuminatus is a multimedia publisher. It is a way of quickly and easily combining the myriad of multimedia resources which are now available into an interactive multimedia document which you publish in digital form on your hard disk or onto a floppy or CD ROM.

Illuminatus is not a multimedia presentation package although it will perform a similar function more than adequately but it will do far more than that and because it is versatile but simple and easy to use it offers the opportunity for multimedia publishing for everyone.

Illuminatus is powerful enough to create a full blown computer-based training package or multimedia programs and yet is so quick and easy to use that it can be used to write multimedia memos or even greetings cards for friends and colleagues.

Illuminatus can produce an independent Windows program which runs and installs just like any other Windows program and yet it is so easy to use that you need no programming skills. It works on similar principles to DTP programs now familiar to millions.

Other Introductory Topics:

Learning Illuminatus

What is Multimedia Publishing?


Learning Illuminatus

The first step in learning to use Illuminatus is to read the Getting Started booklet which comes with the program. This is not a comprehensive reference manual but instead provides a quick overview and tutorial introducing the most salient points of the program.

An online tutorial is also provided which compliments the Getting Started manual with a visual introduction to the program and its features.

This online manual provides all the additional information you may need providing a comprehensive reference for all the functions of the program as well as hints and tips, technical information and late-breaking news. It also provides context-sensitive help from the various dialogs in the program.


What is Multimedia Publishing?

Multimedia is one of the most exciting forms of communication available to us today but until now creating multimedia communications was a difficult and demanding job. Now Illuminatus introduces multimedia publishing which extends the concept of desktop publishing into the audio-visual, interactive realm of multimedia. With Illuminatus interactive multimedia programs can be created as easily as a DTP document and published in digital form for distribution on floppy disk, CD Rom or across the Internet.

Multimedia is already a favourite tool for the business presentation professional. Illuminatus offers the ability to quickly and easily add multimedia pizzaz to standard business presentation and promotional items but also allows you to extend presentation and promotion into new modes by easily adding interactivity and distribution of the finished publication.

Illuminatus is so simple to use that you don't need to be an expert to use it. Thus you can be an expert in something else and yet develop an interactive multimedia application.  It provides an ideal opportunity for enthusiasts and specialists to pass on their knowledge in this most exciting and effective way. It is also particularly useful where confidentiality is an issue and where the involvement of as few additional parties as possible is required.

Furthermore, you can also tailor your project to your own needs, capacities and budget so interactive multimedia comes into the reach of small businesses and  even individuals.

Multimedia Publishing offers "books" which can include sounds, and moving images as well as words and pictures, and which can be interactive. That is, they do not have to read page by page but allow the reader to choose the course of their study.

Multimedia publishing also offers the creative person an opportunity for creativity beyond what was previously available. A single creative artist can command words, pictures, music, sound and filmic images into whatever combination he or she desires.

As implemented by Illuminatus multimedia publishing works in much the same way as DTP except that the documents it publishes are published in computer form rather than on paper. Illuminatus makes multimedia publishing easy and will publish onto floppy disks so that it makes it possible to produce multimedia versions of even simple documents such as memos and greeting cards.

Multimedia publishing is extraordinary communication for ordinary people. Illuminatus is multimedia publishing at its easiest.

Illuminatus - mirable dictu, mirable visu


Quick Start

Illuminatus is simple to use. When starting with a new publication you get a blank window which provides an overview of your publication.

You can build your publication from any combination of pages and page templates which you can insert from those options on the Publication Menu or using the relevant buttons on the toolbar. You then click in your publication window at the point where you want the pages inserted. A wide selection of skeleton pages (page templates) is provided for you to get started. Or you can insert a blank page in the same fashion and then add frames and buttons as required.

Insert however many pages or page templates you need from the wide selection available.

Publication View

Double click on any page to edit it.

Page View

Double click on the background to edit the basics of the page, its colour or background picture, to attach a sound or music, to display it with a special effect or for a certain length of time.

Page Options

To reposition a frame or button simply drag it to where you want it to be. To reshape and resize a button or frame drag one of the eight handles which appear around it when selected to create the shape required.

To add frames or buttons select Add|Frame or Add|Button from the Edit menu or click the appropriate button on the toolbar. Click on your page where you want the top left corner of your frame or button and then drag down and right to create the object.

Editing Page Elements

Double click on a frame to load its contents, colour, picture, animation, slideshow, text etc, to alter its precise size and location and its border style.

Frame Options

Double click on a button to give it a caption and connect it to an event (launching a video, slideshow, animation or moving to another page, etc.) and to alter its precise size and location.

Button Options

Preview the complete document using the Preview button.

Preview

Save your publication to disk using Save Publication As from the Save submenu of the File menu or use Consolidate Project to save your publication and copy all the files it needs into the same directory for convenience.

Once you have completed your document you can produce an independent program by compiling it on to your hard disk or publishing it onto floppy disks (from the Publication menu). Set your Installation Options and Publication Options to specify a title for your publication and the details to build it into a distributable form. You can choose an icon for your publication and create it in mono, sixteen, 256 or 16.7million colours and Illuminatus will handle any colour changes automatically.

Compile

Publish

NOW READ

Important Considerations


How It Works

Illuminatus works in a similar way to several popular DTP programs in providing frames into which you place text and/or graphics (including video and animation) to build up a "page" and then a complete document. In addition it provides buttons which allow the reader to move around the "book" and which can be used to launch events within the book.

Start Up

The program starts up in Publication View [see Publication View ] - an overview of your whole document, showing all the pages in it as icons with a title beneath it for easy reference. You can choose to view an accurate thumbnail of the page by selecting Thumbnails of Pages in Publication View from the Preferences option from the File menu. You can choose to open a publication from disk, load up the bare bones of a complete publication by choosing New from Template; or to start entirely from scratch by selecting New Publication.

If you are using the Illuminatus title page to choose the way you start you can also open the last document you used. If you are already within the Illuminatus editor you can choose from the last four you used by selecting the appropriate filename from the list on the bottom of the File menu.

You can open more than one publication at a time if you wish. (See Multiple Publicationsfor further details.)

Publication View allows you to organize the pages of your publication. You can select as many as you like and can Cut, Copy, and Delete them as required. (See Selecting and Moving Pages for further details.)

Preferences and Options

Publication View also allows you to set up the way your multimedia publication and Illuminatus itself works. You can set up certain aspects of how Illuminatus runs, via the Preferences option on the File menu including - keeping a backup copy of your publication when you save it, preview thumbnails and bitmaps and whether to skip the title page on start up. It will also let you play background music while you work and set the colour of the Help tags which appear over the toolbar buttons.

There are several general options you need to set up for each of your publications. You can set a title and details of the installation of the distributable version of our publication via the Installation Setup option on the Publication menu. This dialog also lets you set a title for the publication which appears in the title bar of the publication and beneath the icon,  a default directory into which the setup program will install your multimedia publication and the icon it will use in Program Manager. You can also set the size of floppy it should be created for.

Note: You must give your multimedia publication a title before you compile or publish it.(See Installation Setupfor further details.)

General Options

Illuminatus provides a number of options which apply to the whole publication and these are accessed via  Publication Options on the Publication menu. This dialog allows you to set up how the publication can be interrupted and how it closes. If the publication is going to be used unattended you may like to protect interruption of it with a password.

This dialog also allows you to reset the publication automatically. If your interactive publication is being used unattended it will almost certainly get left at various points as users find what they wanted or finish using it. On such occasions you need to be able to return your publication to the opening page. The Auto Reset option allows you to do just that.

Building Your Publication

Your publication is constructed from up to 500 screen pages built up of frames and buttons over a background colour or design. A wide range of pre-defined template pages are provided for you to start with or you can design your own from scratch. Insert pages, page templates and master pages by clicking on the appropriate button on the toolbar or via those options on the Publication menu.

A frame can display text, graphics, video, animations or Illuminatus slideshows, or any practical combination of these. Double-click on the frame to bring up a set of tabbed dialogs allowing you to "load" these elements into the frame and set various options for them. You can type text in directly or import it from an ASCII file on disk. You can search for pictures, videos or animations using the file list boxes on the bottom of the dialog. Remember, these elements need a title to be visible in the rest of the program.

There is a summary at the front of the dialog which allows you to set the exact position and size of the frame, to switch the elements on and off conveniently without needing to go to the appropriate section, and to assign a border style for the frame.

If you need two or more similar types of object in the same place you can draw an additional frame to contain each and position them over each other in the order required. Layers can be reordered using the Move|To Front and Move|To Back options on the Edit menu in Page View.

If you want a consistent design and colour scheme to your publications you can save an edited page as a Master Page with all the settings, graphics etc. intact. If you have pages you want to use in more than one publication or which will only change slightly from publication to publication you can save the page independently of the publication using Save Page from the File menu in Page View. Both of these options are useful for any elements of a document which stay consistent over different pages or different issues e.g: cover, contents page, index, product details etc.

Buttons provide the actions for your publication. Double-click on the button to bring up a set of dialogs allowing you to assign actions to it and give it a caption. A button can move between pages, close the publication (as set up in Publication Options on the Publication menu) or launch a video, animation, slideshow or another program. It can even launch another multimedia publication.

A button can also be used to play a sound, stop a movie and to send a piece of text to a specified file on the hard disk. This latter enables you to track what your user is doing if you wish.

Publishing Your Multimedia Document

Once you have built your publication you need to create a copy which will run outside Illuminatus. For this you need to Compile or Publish it.

The former builds a working copy of the publication onto your own hard disk and does not create an install program or build all the associated files into the publication as they can be accessed where they are. This is useful for publications you want to have an installed copy of and for rolling presentations for shop windows and exhibitions.

The latter builds a distributable copy of your publication by collecting together all your data and any programs you want to launch with supporting files or materials (as set up in the Publishing dialog which comes up when you publish your project. All the material is then combined and compressed (optional) and wrapped in a standard Windows setup program. If necessary it is then chopped up into segments small enough to fit onto the type of floppy you have chosen (using Installation Setup on the Publication menu). This copy is then built into a directory of your choosing on your hard disk with each diskful going into its own subdirectory. (This is much quicker than publishing directly onto the floppy drive). You can then copy the publication segments to floppy at your convenience using File Manager, the DOS Copy command or your favourite file management program.


Reference Guide

Click on one of the following topics for a comprehensive reference on that subject.

Publication View

Installation Setup

Publication Options

Page View

Button Options

Page Options

Frame Options

Preview

Compile

Publish

Preferences

Commands

Resources and Data Files


Publication View

Publication View is an overview of your entire publication showing all the pages in it. If you have the Preview Thumbnails option turned on (Preferences on the File menu) each page is represented by a miniature representation of the actual page and a title. You edit the title by typing it into the box provided on the toolbar in Page View.

To edit a page simply double click on it in Publication View. If the page is already selected you can simply press Enter.

You can switch backwards and forwards between Page View and Publication View by pressing F4.

Here is a list of the commands available in Publication View. Simply click on any of them for further information on their function

File

New...

New Publication

New Publication from Template

Open Publication

Save...

Save Publication

Save Publication As

Save All Publications

Save Publication As Template

Close Publication

Data Files

Check Location

Change Data Drive

Consolidate Project

Print

Printer Setup

Summary Info

Preferences

Exit

Edit

Cut

Copy

Paste

Delete

Select All

Deselect All

Edit Selected Page

Publication

Publication Options

Installation Setup

Insert Blank Page

Insert Page Template

Insert Page

Insert Master Page

Compile

Publish

Preview

Tools

Picture Editor

Word Processor

Sound Editor

Setup Tools

Window

Help

Further Information

Selecting and Moving Pages

Multiple Publications

About Templates

Related Topics

Preferences

Installation Setup

Publication Options

Preview

Page View


Preview

This function allows you to preview your publication. It runs the publication as it will be displayed on your reader's machine and allows you to view the design and test buttons and so on.

You can run Preview from both Publication View and Page View by pressing F5.

Please note: Preview is still referring to the original files to create your publication and so is considerably slower than the final version will be. To accurately preview the speed of your publication you should compile it and run that version outside the editor.


Installation Setup

This option allows you to set your preferences for the way your distributable multimedia publication will be installed.

You can select a title (you must have a title for the publication before it can be published). This title is used as your publications name under Windows - it is used under the icon and in the title bar of the publication's window. The title is not the same as the filename for the program element of your publication.

You can setup the directory which will be used as the default when your reader installs your publication. (They can change it to suit if required.)

You can also choose an icon which will represent the publication in your reader's Program Manager. Use the Browse button to locate and open the file you want.

You can also set the size of disk you will be publishing your publication on. Click on one of the three options provided to select either 3.5"HD, 3.5"DD or 5.25"HD disks. This information is only used when you Publish your publication. The Compile function does not divide you publication into disk-sized chunks. If you wish to produce material for CD Rom you can ignore this setting because you will want to Compile rather than Publish.

This dialog can be called up from the publishing dialog when you come to it but the title must be established in advance. Illuminatus will prompt you for a title if you haven't set one.

Related Topics

Preferences

Publication Options


Titles and Filenames
Titles & Filenames

To make Illuminatus easy to use it uses user-defined titles to refer to things rather than filenames. Whenever you select an animation, slideshow or video to go into a frame you must give it a title by typing it into the box provided. This allows a much more descriptive name than the eight letters of a DOS filename and also allows you to use the same animation in more than one location and still know which one you are referring to when launching it.

When you want to add such an event to a button you can then choose the element by its title in the drop down list box provided.

Pages have titles too. These are shown in a box in the toolbar in Page View and can be edited there. They also display in Publication View as an aid to identification.

Publication Titles

Publications also have titles. A publication's title is the name which appears in the menu bar of the window of your publication and beneath the icon in Program Manager. It is also used by the setup program. These are set up via the Installation Options dialog.If you try to compile or publish your publication before you have set a title Illuminatus will prompt you for one as it is required before both Publish and Compile can proceed successfully. You will only need to set the title once although you can change it at any time if you wish to.


Publication Options

This set of dialogs lets you set up options which apply across the whole publication.

Reset

This establishes how long your publication will wait before it decides it is not being used anymore (type the number of seconds in the box provided) and what it will do then. The options are to go to a specific page or to closedown. You can select a sound or music file to accompany this event.

Closedown

This is what will happen when your publication exits. It allows you to display a final page or play a sound file if you so wish.

Be careful you do not display a final page which itself has a button to call closedown as your publication will end in an infinite loop and you'll never be able to close it.

Exit

his dialog lets you specify what keystroke can interrupt your publication and force it to exit. The standard Esc and Alt+F4 are provided. You can prevent unauthorised exiting of your publication by assigning a password to the exit procedure.

Related Topics

Preferences

Installation Setup


Page View

Page View shows your publication one page at a time so that you can see the various page elements to edit them. You can work on your entire publication in Page View by moving backwards and forwards through the project using the slideshow buttons provided or using the cursor keys and Home (to jump to the first page) and End (to get to the last page).

You can also jump to any chosen page simply by selecting its title from the drop down list of page titles in the toolbar.

Page View allows three levels of zoom - Zoom 100% (for previewing the page exactly as it will appear), Zoom 50% (so you can see the whole page with reasonable detail) and Zoom to Fit (scales the page to fit the whole page into the current window).

Most users will find it most convenient to use Zoom to Fit with both Illuminatus and the publication window maximised

The Page Elements

An Illuminatus page consists of three elements...

Page - Certain elements and functions can be applied to the whole page. You can display it for a specific length of time, select a special effect with which it will appear and/or disappear and play background music or sound. The background of a page can be coloured and/or can contain a graphic which is either an illustration or an attractive pattern or which imposes a design on the publication.

Frames - these are the boxes into which text, graphics, animations and/or slideshows can be loaded. They can have a background colour or can be transparent (select the background colour None). They can have a selection of different border types.

Buttons - these control the actions of an Illuminatus publication. Unlike standard buttons they can have multiple line captions. They can also be invisible which enables them to be used as hotspots as they are not visible but can still perform the action assigned to them and so can be placed under a graphic so that when the user clicks on the graphic he/she is clicking on the invisible button.

Editing the Page

To edit the various elements on a page you simply click on them and drag them to wherever you want them to be. If you want to resize them there are eight small black "handles" on the corners and in the middle of each size. Click and drag on these to alter the size and shape of the frame or button.

You can also edit them by typing in the appropriate figures in the boxes on the Summary dialog.

To add additional frames or buttons you select Add|Frame or Add|Button from the Edit menu or click on the appropriate button on the toolbar. You then click on your page where you want the top left corner of your frame or button to be and then drag down and right until the object is the right size and shape before releasing the mouse button.

To edit the contents of the page elements simply double click on the appropriate element this brings up a set of dialogs which allows you to set the options appropriate to that element.

Both frames and buttons can be hidden to "remove" them from your page when they are not required. This also allows you to change the design of the page to some extent without editing the template or to retain alternative versions of the same publication in the same file.

This is a comprehensive list of the commands available in Page View. Simply click on one for further information on the function.

File Menu

Save...

Save Publication

Save All Publications

Save Publication As

Save Page As

Save As Master Page

Save Page As Template

Export Page

Print

Printer Setup

Return to Publication View

Edit Menu

Add

Frame

Button

Delete

Move

To Front

To Back

Align

Left

Right

Top

Bottom

Page Menu

Zoom 50%

Zoom 100%

Zoom To Fit

Next Page

Previous Page

First Page

Last Page

Preview

Tools

Picture Editor

Word Processor

Sound Editor

Setup Tools

Window

Help

Related Topics

Preview

About Master Pages


Editing the Page Contents

To edit the contents of frames, buttons and whole pages you simply double click on the appropriate element and then select the tab for the option you wish to edit.

Page Options

Frame Options

Button Options


Editing Page Elements

To move the frames or buttons on a page you simply click on them and drag them to wherever you want them to be.

If you want to resize existing frames and buttons there are eight small black "handles" on the corners and in the middle of each side which appear when you click on the frame or button. Click and drag on these to alter the size and shape of the element. If the handles overlap another object you can sometimes miss the handle and inadvertently select the object beneath. To avoid this ensure that you click the point of the cursor in the very centre of the handle.

You can also edit the size and shape of buttons and frames by typing in the appropriate figures in the Top, Left, Width, Height boxes on the Summary dialog.

To add additional frames or buttons you select Add|Frame or Add|Button from the Edit menu or click on the appropriate button on the toolbar. You then click on your page where you want the top left corner of your frame or button to be and then drag down and right until the object is the right size and shape before releasing the mouse button

You can delete any frame or button, together with its contents by pressing the Delete key or choosing Delete from the Edit menu in Page View

You can select multiple items by holding down the Shift key while clicking on the objects required. Only Delete and Align work on multiple objects.

Add

Frame

Button

Delete

Move

To Front

To Back

Align

Left

Right

Top

Bottom


Page Options

Double click anywhere on the background of a page to bring up the set of Page Options dialogs.

Summary

The summary allows you to set the length of time the page will be displayed (optional). This is mainly intended to allow you to produce a non-interactive rolling demo.

It also allows you to switch the various other options on and off conveniently.

Background

You can add a background colour to your page. Clicking on the Palette button brings up a standard Windows colour-selection dialog from which you can choose any of the ready-made colours or create your own by clicking on the Define Custom Colours button.

Note: This colour is the colour used to surround your publication if it is run in 800x600 or larger mode. It is also used for the blank screen between pages so it can be important to set this colour even if a picture normally fills the background of your page.

You can also load a picture in any of the supported graphics formats by using the file list boxes at the bottom of the dialog to find it on your disk. Checking the Scale to Fit option will resize the picture to fill the background, with the Keep Aspect option checked the picture will not be stretched out of proportion in order to make it fit. The scale to fit option is not relevant for vector format pictures such as .WMF or .CGM.

The background picture can be a texture, an illustration or a graphic which designs the publication in a certain way.

Display

This option allows you to choose a special effect with which your page will appear on screen or disappear. Using the Over Existing Page option you can specify whether the page should appear over the preceding page over whether it should go to a blank screen first (the colour of this blank screen is set by the background colour setting on the Background dialog).

Sound

A button can also play a piece of music or sound effect. You can set this up via the Sound tab. Use the file list boxes to find the file you want to play.

Selecting Loop will play the file repeatedly.

Delay enables you to synchronise the sound with another event or time it for some other reason.

Stop Existing Sound will stop any background music playing but please note that two files of the same type cannot be played at the same time anyway so this is only relevant if you are playing a midi track and want to launch a WAV file or vice versa.

You can ensure that the sound does not continue when you move onto the next page by checking the Stop on Next Page option. To provide background music for your entire publication simply start a sound on the first page without checking this option and the music will continue until another button or page stops it.


Frame Options

Whenever you double-click on a frame you call up this set of dialogs which allows you to setup the contents on any frame. Frames can contain text, graphics, animations, video or slideshows. A frame can contain all these elements although you cannot run a slideshow, video and/or animation at the same time, whichever is launched last will overplay the other.

The Summary on the front of the dialog allows you to switch the options on and off conveniently. It also allows you to specify a style for the Frame Border. Simply click on the style you want in the drop down list.

You can also edit the exact size and location of the frame here by editing the figures in the Top, Left, Width and Height boxes.

If you want a frame to be transparent set the colour to None but note that the background of any bitmap graphic in the frame will not be transparent, only vector images are pasted transparently onto the page.

Related Topics

Text

Graphics

Slideshows

Animations

Video


Button Options

Double-clicking on a button brings up this set of dialogs which allows you to assign actions to buttons. You can use buttons to move around the publication or to launch events.

The Summary on the front of the dialog allows you to set the actions for buttons and to switch the options on and off conveniently.

You can also edit the exact size and location of the button here by editing the figures in the Top, Left, Width and Height boxes.

The button can be activated automatically by setting the AutoStart and Delay options as appropriate.

Hot Key

If you want the button to be operated by the user pressing a key as well as using the mouse you can assign a single letter to the button which will activate it whenever that key is pressed. The hot key does not distinguish between upper and lower case characters so it doesn't matter if your user has CapsLock on or not.

None

The None option clears the other mutually-exclusive options and thereby allows you to use a button to play a sound and/or stop an animation without performing anything else.

CloseDown

Exits the program via the Closedown routine as specified in Publication Options.

Go to Page

Move the publication to the page chosen. Select it from the drop down list provided. It is as well to have set up all the page titles before you start assigning buttons to move to them as the button will not find the page if you change the name subsequently.

Slideshow

Launches a slideshow chosen by selecting its title from the drop down list. You must have set up a frame with a slideshow in for the button to refer to. Slideshows

Animation/Video

Launches an animation or video file chosen by selecting its title from the drop down list. You must have set up a frame with a video or animation file in for the button to refer to.

Most of the options are mutually exclusive - you can only use a button to perform one main action. There are two additional actions which a button can be assigned at the same time as one of the main functions and those are to play a sound file and to stop a slideshow or animation. Thus a single button could stop the animation running on the current page, play a fanfare and move onto the next page. Moving Images

Launch another program

This enables you to launch another program from within Illuminatus. You can set this option up via the Launch tab.

You can simply type the name of the program in the box provided and type a parameter command or or assign a data file to be run with it by typing that in the With Parameter box. Alternatively you can use the file list boxes to locate the program you want to run and/or the file parameter for the program or assign a data file to be run with it. In this case use the Add as Launch and Add as Parameter buttons to copy the file details into the appropriate boxes when you have selected the file.

An example of this would be to launch the Powerpoint Viewer program (PPTVIEW.EXE) and with the presentation you wanted it to view given in the With Parameter box.

You can also select whether your publication should close when the other program has been launched and whether you want to distribute the files you are using.

See also

Launching Other Programs

Sound

A button can also play a piece of music or sound effect. You can set this up via the Sound tab. Use the file list boxes to find the file you want to play.

Selecting Loop will play the file repeatedly.

Delay enables you to synchronise the sound with another event or time it for some other reason.

Stop Existing Sound will stop any background music playing but please note that two files of the same type cannot be played at the same time anyway so this is only relevant if you are playing a midi track and want to launch a WAV file or vice versa.

Report Text

This feature allows you to record a piece of text to a file on your user's hard disk and is set up via the Report tab. You type the text you want recorded into the box provided and then name the file you want it saved into. If this file does not exist Illuminatus will create it for you. If it does exist you can either Overwrite it or Append the text to the end of the existing file by checking the appropriate option.

This can be used for scoring or recording your user's responses or progress and could be subsequently analysed and processed by an Extension.

Captions

To add a caption to a button simply type it into the box provided. Unlike standard buttons you can have multiple lines on an Illuminatus button. The caption will automatically be centred in the button both horizontally and vertically.

Invisible

By checking the Invisible option buttons can be used as hotspots as they are not visible but can still perform the action assigned to them. They can be placed on a graphic so that when the user clicks on the graphic he/she is clicking on the invisible button. Hotspots


Hotspots

By checking the Invisible option on the Summary of Button Options dialog buttons can be used as hotspots as they are not visible but can still perform the action assigned to them. They can be placed on a graphic so that when the user clicks on the graphic he/she is clicking on the invisible button.

By highlighting specific words in your text and using an invisible button beneath it you can simulate hypertext.

Button Setup


Slideshows

You can set up a slideshow to play in any Illuminatus frame. This feature allows you to setup a series of bitmap graphics to appear at intervals of your choice.

The Slideshow tab brings up a dialog allowing you to locate pictures using the file list boxes.You can then add these to your slideshow by clicking the Add button or simply by double clicking on the file required.

The Delete button removes selected files. The Up and Down buttons move the selected file up or down in the slideshow.

Slideshows can consist of only one picture and so (with the Delay option) allow for timed display of single elements on your page.

A slideshow can be launched by a button and/or can start automatically by checking the AutoStart option.

The slideshow can be made to fit each picture into the frame by using the Scale to Fit option and can retain the original proportions using the Keep Aspect option.

Special Effects

You can choose the way the pictures appear in a slideshow by using the Effects option but these effects apply only to bitmap graphics.

Animations

By building a slideshow from the frames of an animation created by a bitmap animation package such as Animation Works Interactive or by creating them manually in a paint program you can create your own animations in Illuminatus. You need to set the timing of the slideshow to 0.1secs for smooth animation. The speed of animation will depend on the size of the graphics you are using and the speed of your users computer.

This can, however, be particularly useful for producing animated buttons, several of which are provided with the program.

Related Topics

Recreating Standard Presentation Effects


Launching Other Programs

Illuminatus allows you to program buttons to launch other programs. Any button can launch a program by selecting the Launch Program option and then typing in the filename of the program you want to run or using the file list boxes to find it. If the program needs a parameter or you want it to start with a particular file you can include this in the With Parameter box. If you want these files distributed with your publication you can check the Distribute option.

You can choose whether Illuminatus closes down after it has launched the program by selecting Close after launch; if  you want Illuminatus to continue running in the background you should leave this option blank.

This is the function which enables you to extend Illuminatus with Extensions. You launch you chosen extension which performs the additional function for you and then either simply drops back into your publication or relaunches your publication giving it a page number to jump to, as a parameter if required. Further Details Extension Programs

This also means it can be used as a front end for a compilation of programs or even a front end for a series of Illuminatus publications.

When you publish a multimedia publication you can choose to distribute this program with your publication and to add any other files it needs to run (.DLLs etc).

Don't forget that to include these programs in your multimedia publication you must have a licence to do so or the program and associated files must be public domain.


Extension Programs

You can extend Illuminatus to do anything you want by linking it with ILX extension modules or executable programs. These are programs which add specific features to Illuminatus in a modular way so that the basic program remains uncluttered and you can focus on the extension separately from the interactive multimedia packaging. Illuminatus has been specifically designed to allow this modular extension in a seamless way to give you whatever functionality you require while keeping the amount of baggage which must be distributed with your program to a minimum.

If you are a programmer yourself then you can create extension programs in any Windows programming language. A developer's kit is available for assisting with this process and for creating .ILX files. If you are not a programmer then you simply buy the module you need from ourselves or buy programs from other third parties and concentrate on the part of the multimedia publishing process you want to.

Moving to a Specific Page

Extension modules and other  can be launched using the Launch Program function and can either run over the top of your publication page or can replace it. If you want the extension program to return you to a certain location in your publication your extension program should rerun your publication with the title of the page you want to be displayed first passed as a parameter. Illuminatus has been specially designed so that if you have not closed it before running your extension module it will not restart but will simply move to the page you have requested. For example to go to the Contents Page of a publication with the filename Catalog.Exe your extension program would close down by issuing the command... "CATALOG.EXE CONTENTS".

Ideal uses for this function are search programs, order programs, specialised picture viewers, scoring programs and printing programs. Several of these are available from Digital Workshop at a small extra charge.

See Also

Launching Other Programs


Selecting and Moving Pages

Selecting pages in Illuminatus works just like multiple selection in File Manager and other Windows programs.

You can select any single page by clicking on it with a single mouse click.

To select a range of pages click on the first page. Then hold down the Shift key and select the last page in the batch. All the intervening pages will be automatically selected.

To pick a scattered selection of pages click on the first page, hold down the Ctrl key and then click on all the other pages you want in the batch individually.

In all the above cases to deselect a page simply click on it again. If there are multiple pages selected and you are pressing Ctrl only that file will be deselected.

To quickly select all the pages in a publication use Select All from the Edit menu option. There is a similar option to Deselect All if you need it.

You can cut, paste, delete, save and print the pages you have selected.

To reorder your pages simply select the page you want to move and drag it to where you want it placed.


Mulitple Publications

Illuminatus allows you to have more than one publication open at one time. It will open a separate window for each publication and you can move, resize and minimize these publication windows just like the main window though they always remain within their "parent" window.

You can also use the Window option on the menu bar to close and reorganise your windows. Selecting Tile from this menu is very useful when you want to view two publications or pages together.

The number of publications you can have open at any one time will depend on the amount of memory, system resources and hard disk space you have available.

Having multiple publications open enables you to cut and paste pages between publications. This saves you recreating a page you have used in one publication and now want to use in another. Simply open both publications and select Tile from the Windows menu option. Click on the page you want to copy and click on the Copy button on the toolbar or select Copy from the Edit menu. Then click on the window of the publication you want to paste the page into and select Paste from the edit menu or click the Paste button on the toolbar. You cursor will change to show you are holding pages and you can paste them into your publication by clicking at whatever point you want them to go.


About Master Pages

Illuminatus allows you to save any page to disk as a master page. All the elements and contents of your page are saved with it. See Save As Master Page

The idea of Master Pages is to allow you to lay out elements which you want to use across all or most of the pages in your publication. A typical use for a Master Page would be to hold a background design for the whole publication and a company logo or the motto for the presentation which you want to appear on all the pages. This is very useful for giving the publication a consistent appearance.

If you need a similar page for most of your publication but also require some page designs for which the relevant Master Page is not appropriate these can be inserted and edited individually as required.

Once included in your publication the Master Page can be edited to suit particular page requirements.

Master Pages are also useful to establish consistent colour schemes across a series of pages. Instead of  colouring the same elements repeatedly across a series of pages colour one, then save it as a Master Page. Then insert it again as many time as you require. Even if subsequent pages have some differences it can be quicker and easier to edit a Master Page than to start from a blank page or template.

You can use Copy and Paste to reuse pages in a similar fashion while you remain in the Illuminatus editor although, obviously, these pages are not available to be reused in subsequent publications.

Related Topics

About Templates

Save Page As


Creating Your Publication Efficiently

Experience has told us the following process is the most efficient way to create a publication using Illuminatus.

1: You will need to have a fairly good notion of the publication you want to create before starting out. With projects involving lots of pages and buttons it will be useful to have a definite plan for the publication. It will probably help to break the publication down into sections with a menu page for each section and subsection.

Things you will need to consider are the resources you have available, the maximum number of buttons you will need the number and position of frames, the size of resources you want to use.

2: Select or create a basic page design which is best suited to the bulk of the pages you want to use.

3: If required select or create an appropriate Cover/Contents and other primary page which looks and works consistently.

4: Build one copy of each page design you will be using into a new publication. These will be your master pages.

5: Create everything which will be consistent across your entire publication. This will probably include:

a background colour or graphic for the whole page,

a background colour or graphic for frames,

a company logo/motto and.or title for the publication,

borders for frames,

also create anything which will be consistent across the majority of your publication.

an Exit button,

a button for a particular page which needs to be reached from most other pages (e.g: contents or index),

hotspots,

hide buttons and frames you are not using on most pages.

You should also create sample text in the frames and set up the font, alignment and colour you will be using most consistently. This means that for every new page you create you will only need to edit the text and possibly font size rather than repeatedly selecting font and colour.

6: Once you have edited the pages save them to disk as pages or as master pages.

7: Insert as many copies of your half-finished pages as you need and you are already half-finished.

8: Rename the pages to ensure there is no confusion. Ensure that any page you are connecting a button to has its final title.

9: With any publication over a few pages it is as well to divide it up into sections. Complete each section individually before moving to the next. Link it to a button on a contents page.


About Templates

Page Templates

Page Templates are the bare layouts for pages which are the fundamental building blocks of a multimedia publication. Each Page Template consists of a design of frames (to contain the graphics and text of the publication) and buttons (to control the actions of the publication).

Template Styles

The Page Templates supplied with Illuminatus are divided into various sets. These sets are intended to provide a range of similar style templates allowing you to build a consistent-looking publication easily. Many have also been given titles to indicate possible uses.

User Templates

You can save templates you have edited or created from scratch using the Save Page as Template from the File menu. If you want to be able to show just these templates in the open template dialog box you should give the template a filename with "USR" as the first three letters. This enables the program to display it when you select User Templates from the List Files of Type drop down list.

Publication Templates

Publication Templates are simply collections of page templates allowing you to save the basic design and layout of whole publications ready for regular use. They are ideal for users who regularly publish programs or publications of a similar design - a regular newsletter, a monthly sales report or similar.

In the publication templates supplied with the program only one of each style of template is included in each template. Each page type can then have the common elements and properties defined before saving it as a master page and inserting it again or repeatedly cutting and pasting to build the number of pages required.


Compile

This is the function which allows you to build a finished and independent copy of the publication onto your own hard disk. It is useful when creating presentations which will be viewed on the same computer they were created on (e.g: rolling demos) and for testing the true functionality of the publication (the Preview option within the Illuminatus editor works very differently and is, in particular, a great deal slower than the final version of the publication).

If you have not saved your publication you will need to do so. You will also need to give your multimedia publication a title before you Compile or Publish it. This is not the same as the filename for the publication it is the title used in the menu bar and is required by Illuminatus to set up the data for your publication. Illuminatus will remind you about these two requirements if you try to publish or compile without them. (See Installation Setup for further details.)

You can choose the number of colours you want your publication created in by clicking on the appropriate button. The amount of colours you use will affect the size of the finished publication (mono being the smallest, 256 colours the largest). A new feature of Illuminatus means that if you publish or compile for 256 colours and your customer uses the publication on a 16 colour system Illuminatus will automatically dither the publication to the restricted colour scheme in the most attractive manner possible.

If you have the DOS Publisher Extension you can choose between Windows and DOS publication here.

Related Topics

Publish

Installation Setup

Publication Options

Preview


Publish

This option allows you to produce an independent multimedia publication for distribution to other computer users. It gathers all the files you have used together, allows you to add others if you wish and then bundles everything together, compresses it all and writes a setup program to install it on your reader's computer.

Although the published version of the program is intended for distribution on floppy disk you should publish it onto your hard disk. and then copy it to the floppy using File Manager. This is much faster and means you have a reference copy of the publication on your disk.

Disk1, Disk2 Subdirectories

The Publish operation will break the complete publication into pieces of the correct size for the disk you are publishing it for. It then places each of these sections into a separate subdirectory in the directory you chose so that they are easily separated. These subdirectories are called disk1, disk2 etc. To copy your publication to floppy simply copy the files contained in these subdirectories to the first, second, third floppy disk of your publication as required.

Larger Than Floppy Publications

If you want a publication to fit on a removable hard disk, an optical drive, tape drive or other medium with larger capacity than the floppy options provided you can either Compile it and then copy the working version to the large capacity media or you can Publish the publication to 1.44Mb floppies and simply copy all the resulting data files to the same location on the large capacity media. The setup program will ask for disk2, disk3, etc but you can simply press Enter as the data files will be there already.

What You Need To Do Before Publishing

If you have not saved your publication you will need to do so. You will also need to give your multimedia publication a title before you Compile or Publish it. This is not the same as the filename for the publication it is the title used in the menu bar and is required by Illuminatus to set up the data for your publication. Illuminatus will remind you about these two requirements if you try to publish or compile without them. (See Installation Setupfor further details.)

Choose the number of colours you want your publication created in. If you have the DOS Publication Extension you can choose between Windows and DOS publication here.

Related Topics

Compile

Installation Setup

Publication Options


Keyboard Shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts are available in Illuminatus.

New Publication	Ctrl+N

Open Publication	Ctrl+0

Save Publication	Ctrl+S

Print  	Ctrl+P

Exit 	Alt+X

Summary Info	Ctrl+I

Cut	Ctrl+X

Copy 	Ctrl+C

Paste	Ctrl+V

Delete	Delete

Select All	Ctrl+A

Edit Selected Page	Enter

FirstPage	Home

LastPage	End

NextPage 	Page Up

PreviousPage	Page Down

Preview 	F5

Compile 	F8

Publish 	F9

Switching between

Page View

and

Publication View	Enter


Commands

A comprehensive guide to all the commands and functions in Illuminatus.

GENERAL

Tools

Picture Editor

Word Processor

Sound Editor

Setup Tools

Window

Help

PUBLICATION VIEW

File

New...

New Publication

New Publication from Template

Open Publication

Save...

Save Publication

Save Publication As

Save All Publications

Save Publication As Template

Close Publication

Data Files

Check Location

Change Data Drive

Consolidate Project

Print

Printer Setup

Summary Info

Preferences

Exit

Edit

Cut

Copy

Paste

Delete

Select All

Deselect All

Edit Selected Page

Publication

Publication Options

Installation Setup

Insert Blank Page

Insert Page Template

Insert Page

Insert Master Page

Compile

Publish

Preview

PAGE VIEW

File

Save...

Save Publication

Save All Publications

Save Publication As

Save Page As

Save As Master Page

Save Page As Template

Export Page

Print

Printer Setup

Return to Publication View

Edit

Add

Frame

Button

Delete

Move

To Front

To Back

Align

Top

Bottom

Left

Right

Page

Zoom 50%

Zoom 100%

Zoom To Fit

Next Page

Previous Page

First Page

Last Page

Preview


Export Page

This function allows you to export a full size copy of your page to a disk-based graphic file so that you can edit it or cut out portions using a paint program such as Paintbrush. If you are running in 256 colour mode the exported graphic will be a 256 colour graphic. If you are running in 16 colour mode the graphic will reflect that.

Useful hint

One use for this is to quickly turn text into graphics. Export the page and then cut out the pieces of text and save them as graphics. You can then use these graphics of your text to create text slideshows and other standard presentation effects. You can temporarily give the relevant frame a border for reference when you come to cut the item out.

Another simple use for this is to flip or invert a piece of the background texture or to draw a white line around the top left and black around the bottom and right to create and embossed or inset look to a frame.


Resources & Data Files

The main focus of  this version of Illuminatus is to provide a quick and easy way to bring together all the multimedia resources which are now available.

Illuminatus supports all major graphics formats as well as industry-standard formats for music, video and animations; and thereby enables you to immediately utilise all your existing resources in your multimedia documents.

Links with Resources

Illuminatus uses most resources directly from the original files on your hard disk. This ensures that any changes you make to graphics, animations or large text files will be automatically reflected in the multimedia publication using them.

You can check that all the graphics, text, animations, sound and video files used in your publication have not been deleted or lost by using the Check Location option from the Data Files submenu on the File menu. This option gives you the chance to check and reassign the location of your resource files.

If you edit a publication which was originally started on another drive or if the resources in your publication are labeled with a different drive you can use the Change Drive option to correct this. Suppose, for example, you are trying to edit a publication on your "C" drive which was originally on a CD Rom in your "D" drive and so expects to find all its resources on D:\. Use Change Drive to update the links with resource files to reflect the change of drive while retaining any directory and subdirectory information.

To help you maintain you project easily and ensure all the files you need for a publication are available to it Illuminatus includes an invaluable function which copies all the resource files the publication uses into the same directory as the editable file. This the Consolidate Project option on the Data Files submenu. Data Files

Text of less than 100 characters and captions for buttons are stored in the program and not in a file on disk.

Links with Other Programs

You can launch programs to edit your text files, graphics and sound files from within Illuminatus using the appropriate options on the Tools menu. The default set up uses the programs which come free with all copies of Windows namely, Write (for word processing), Paintbrush (for picture editing) and Sound Recorder (for sound editing). You can, however, change these to suit your own particular favorites by using the Setup Tools option on the bottom of the Tools menu.

Remember when using word processors to create and edit text for your Illuminatus frames that you must save or export the file as basic DOS or ASCII text.

Text

Graphics

Sound

Moving Images


Data Files

This option allows you access to a submenu provided for reorganising the links between your Illuminatus publication and the resources used in it.

Resources & Data Files

Check Location

Change Data Drive

Consolidate Project


Check Location

This option allows you to check that all the graphics, text, animations, sound and video files used in your publication are where Illuminatus expects them to be and have not been deleted or lost. If they are not your publication will have blank or partially blank frames and pages.

When you run this option Illuminatus checks the links with the files and lets you know if any can't be found. If the file is missing Illuminatus asks you if you want to reassign the file. You can then either locate the original file or find another file to replace it.

Resources & Data Files

Change Data Drive

Consolidate Project


Change Data Drive

This option allows you to change the drive where Illuminatus will look for the data files and resources used in your publication while retaining any directory or subdirectory information.

If you have copied a publication from one drive to another for example, or if you are trying to edit a publication on your hard drive (C:) which is expecting all your resource files to be on a CD Rom in your drive (D:) or vice versa.

Resources & Data Files

Check Location

Consolidate Project


Consolidate Project

This invaluable option allows you to quickly pull together all the components of your multimedia publication and store them in a single place alongside your editable Illuminatus file.

When you select this option a File Save dialog appears and allows you to choose a filename directory for your consolidated project. Usually these will be the same as the current filename and directory but you can move and/or rename your whole project by typing a different directory or filename in the dialog which appears.

Once you've clicked on OK Consolidate Project will gather together all the resources used in the project and put them into the same directory as the Illuminatus editor file (*.MPB) as selected via the File Save dialog. It will then reassign all the references in the publication to the new location. Illuminatus includes any files referenced in the publication whether they are actually used in the publication or not. This ensures that if you switch a slideshow back on all the files it needs will have been consolidated and you won't have to start all over again.

Once you've consolidated your project you can then safely delete any working files not copied to the consolidation directory in the knowledge that you didn't use them.

Check Location

Change Data Drive


Text

Captions for buttons, titles and short pieces of text can be typed directly into Illuminatus. Larger amounts of text are stored in individual files on disk. This is to allow you to work on your Illuminatus text using your favourite Word Processor and for those changes to be automatically reflected in your multimedia publication.

You can still type large amounts of original text within Illuminatus. The program will ask you for filename to store it in once the text gets too long.

Note: When you import a text file from disk and click OK to use it in your frame Illuminatus will ask you for a filename as though you had typed it all in yourself - this is because you may have edited it within Illuminatus and you are therefore given the opportunity to save it under a new name. If you have not edited it or if you have but want the original disk file updated you can simply save it under the same filename.

Text Attributes

Fonts

Graphics

Sound

Moving Images


Graphics

Graphics are very important in Illuminatus. They can be used as backgrounds or illustrations in both frames and page backgrounds or they can impose a design on an Illuminatus page as several of the backgrounds supplied with the program do.

To import a graphic simply click on the frame or page background you want the graphic to be in and then locate the file you want by using the file list boxes at the bottom of the Background dialog.

Checking the Scale to Fit option will resize the picture to fill the background, with the Keep Aspect option checked the picture will not be stretched out of proportion in order to make it fit. The scale to fit option is not relevant for vector format pictures such as .WMF or .CGM.

ClipArt

Illuminatus supports all the major graphics formats and so enables you to utilise your existing graphics and draw on the wide range of clipart available from ourselves and from third parties

Formats Supported

Illuminatus will import the following graphics formats: .BMP. .PCX. .TIF, .GIF, .TGA, .WPG, JPEG, .WMF and .CGM

Palettes

If you are displaying 256 colour graphics in super VGA 256 colour mode it stands to reason that displaying more than one graphic may need more than the 256 colour slots available. This can cause problems if you want to display two or more 256 colour graphics on the same page as the palettes of the two graphics may be different and interfere with each other.

One alternative is to use 16.7 million colours but this can be slow and is not really suitable for publications intended for wide distribution because it relies on the reader having a system capable of running in such high colours. A second alternative is to use a paint or graphics conversion program to reduce the number of colours to sixteen (if this can be done attractively) or to convert the files to greyscale as the palette for all greyscale images is the same.

Sound

Moving Images

Text


Sound & Music

Sound and music can make a most effective impact on your multimedia publication but you and your end user need a specialised sound card to enjoy the effect although you can persuade the PC speaker to play sound effects using a special Speaker Driver program which is available from bulletin boards and shareware libraries if a sound card is unavailable.

However, there is no need to do two versions of a multimedia publication or to avoid music because you are not sure all your users will have a sound card. Your multimedia publication will not crash if it can't play the music it will simply carry on silently.

You can stop a music file by assigning a button to play a sound without giving it a .MID file to play, i.e: by playing an empty sound.

Sound

Microsoft's .WAV audio format is best used for short spot effects rather than background music as it does not operate very well on sound files over 60 seconds long. Indeed, files are best restricted to 4 secs if possible as this ensures they are used in one chunk. The length of this chunk can be extended to 8 seconds via the Setup option for the MCI Sound driver in the Drivers section of the Windows Control Panel but your readers will need to have it similarly setup if you are to rely on it.

The possible consequence of an audio file too large for this buffer is that if your multimedia publication is doing something else at the same time (an animation, demo or similar) particularly if it is reading from the hard disk the sound file may stop and start.

Music

The industry-standard MIDI format is the best option for adding background music to your publication as Midi files can be any length and do not require the large amounts of system resources which WAV files can need.

You can add background music to your publication by starting the music on your first page (via the Sound item on the Page Options dialog) and switching off the Stop on Next Page option.

Most professional musicians are familiar with this format and compose for it and there is a good deal of good quality Midi music available from third-parties or public domain.

The limitation of this format is that rather than record the actual sound of an instrument it is a series of instructions which are sent to the digital instruments (voices) built into your sound card. Some of these mimic the instruments they are meant to be very well while others do not. This is particularly true of drums, trumpets and stringed instruments. If a piece of midi music uses instruments your sound card doesn't support very well the results can be appalling.

The most popular range of soundcards is the SoundBlaster series and if you are distributing your publication widely it will be as well to ensure it sounds best on the SoundBlaster.

To get even better quality from the SoundBlaster Pro cards a special driver is available from the manufacturer which considerably improves the quality of the instrumentation under Windows.

All the midi music supplied with Illuminatus is intended for optimised for such a setup.

Graphics

Moving Images

Text


Moving Images

You can assign an animation or video clip to play in an Illuminatus frame by selecting the relevant file using the file list boxes at the bottom of the Animation section on the Frame Options dialog. As with most elements in Illuminatus you must give the resource a title by which it is known throughout the program.

The animation can start up immediately the page is opened using the AutoStart option, or it can be synchronised with a later event using the Delay option.

The Scale to Fit and Keep Aspect options only apply to AVI video files and not to animations but you can set the Loop option to make the animation play repeatedly.

Animations

Illuminatus supports the industry-standard .FLC and .FLI formats of animation. These are the native formats of the Autodesk range of animation products - Animator, Animator Pro and 3D Studio but they are supported by a wide range of other programs and utilities.

There are large numbers of such animations available on bulletin boards or from third parties and many companies can produce them to order.

Video

Illuminatus supports the Microsoft Video for Windows AVI format. There are an increasing number of video clips in this format available in collections from third parties. You cannot play more than one video file at any one time. If you want more than one movie playing on a page you must use slideshows or animations.

Slideshows

You can also create simple animations using the inbuilt slideshow function.

Graphics

Sound

Text


Important Considerations

Volume Levels

WAV and MID files are produced differently on any soundcard and the difference in the volume levels can be quite considerable. Your sound card may come with a mixer utility which allows you to set up the relative volumes of playback. With SoundBlaster this is the SBMixer utility. Adjust the controls until WAV and MID files are played back at equal volumes.

Page Zoom

Please note that some details of the page may not be properly visible if the page is reduced too much. This is particularly true of any colours which are dithered.

Distributing Other Programs

When you want a button to launch a program for you Illuminatus will need the complete location for the program (e.g: "c:\windows\calculator.exe"). If the program is distributed with the publication this is not necessary as Illuminatus will put it into the same directory as the publication so that it knows where to find it.

There is an option which allows you to include the program with the distributable version of the publication so that it is installed on your reader's computer. This is the only way to ensure that the reader has the program and that it is currently installed. But obviously you can only distribute these programs if their copyright-holder allows it or if you have a licence to do so.

You will also need to ensure that Illuminatus also distributes any supplementary files the program needs (e.g: special drivers, sound files or .DLL's). A dialog asking for details of supplementary files will prompt you when you set up a button to launch a program.

Other files

All the elements you include in the publication (graphics, text, sound, animation, video clips) are built into the distribution file when Illuminatus creates you publication so there is no need to distribute the original files.

Text

Remember that even users familiar with computers are not as used to reading screens as they are paper. If you need a lot of text for any reason try to break into down into manageable chunks. This is particularly important in rolling presentations where text should be a large bold style so that it can be read at a glance and get its message across quickly or entice the viewer in to read the smaller text. Avoid large amounts of text unless the publication is an online book. If you have a lot of text to display split it over several pages and make it exciting to look at.


Other Hints and Tips

Cutting and Pasting Text

You can cut and paste text between the Illuminatus Text box and any other Windows application using Ctrl+C for Copy and Ctrl+V (or Shift+Insert) for Paste.

Using Export Page

One use for the Export Page option is to quickly turn text into graphics. Export the page and then cut out the pieces of text and save them as graphics. You can then use these graphics of your text to create text slideshows and other standard presentation effects. You can temporarily give the relevant frame a border for reference when you come to cut the item out.

Another simple use for this is to flip or invert a piece of the background texture or to draw a white line around the top left and black around the bottom and right to create and embossed or inset look to a frame.

Speed of Operation

You can speed up the program during editing by switching off the thumbnails used to preview pages in the Publication View and by not previewing bitmaps in Page View. Both of these options are available from the Preferences item on the File menu.

For obvious reasons display of multimedia pages from within the Illuminatus editor using the Preview option will be considerably slower than the final Compiled or Published version.

Creating Illuminatus Pages in Your Favourite Application

If you want to create your pages or parts of your pages in other applications you can do so. You can even go so far as to design the whole page in another application and then either export it as an appropriate size bitmap, or as a vector (.WMF or .CGM) graphic or simply grab a screenshot using Alt-PrintScreen.

The result can be imported into an appropriate Illuminatus frame and the buttons connected as required.

Getting Bitmaps the Right Size

Bitmap graphics will invariably work best if they are the same size as the frame they are going into. This especially important for sixteen colour graphics. If sixteen colour graphics are dithered reducing them to fit in an Illuminatus frame can give them an unwanted tartan effect.

In the status bar at the bottom of the screen Illuminatus tells you the size and position of the button or frame you have selected.

If you are creating your bitmaps specially you may find it helps to save the Illuminatus page or the page template you are using them in as a bitmap using Export Page (see Export Page) from the File menu in Page View. You can then load this into your paint program and use it for reference in creating your bitmap.

Rolling Demos

For rolling demos variation in the graphics is most eye-catching. Changes in the predominant colour of the screen and strong main graphics can be most effective in exhibition situations where attention-getting is the key. This can, however, make the presentation uncomfortable to read so for shop windows it is less useful. In both cases a consistent basic design should be maintained to let viewers quickly read the information you are presenting once you have caught their attention.

Background Music and Sound Effects

You can play a WAV file over the top of a MID file without stopping the latter. So you can, for example, use a MID file for the background music and then use a WAV spot effect or fanfare over it as required. Don't forget that AVI files can have WAV sound tracks in them and so can interrupt any other WAV files you have running.

SoundBlaster Pro

If you have a SoundBlaster Pro card we recommend you get the Super SAPI driver for it as this greatly improves the quality of output under Windows.

All the midi music supplied with Illuminatus is intended for optimised for such a setup.

Frame Borders

The Frame Options dialog allows you to switch the border for a frame on or off (by choosing None) or to add one of several different styles. To add more sophisticated borders you can use frames within frames. Use the outer frame to hold a graphic border for the text, graphic, animation or video in the inner frame.

Video and Animation Preview Bitmaps

Frames in which video or animations will run can leave large empty gaps but you can grab a frame from the video to use as a preview as follows:

Run the Media Player accessory which comes with windows and open the appropriate video or animation file. Using the slideshow buttons on Media Player step through the individual frames of the file until you find one you want to use to represent the file. Copy it to the Clipboard by pressing Alt-PrintScreen. Open Paintbrush and Paste the clipboard file into there. You can then edit and save the video frame as a bitmap graphic which can be displayed in the same Illuminatus frame that the video or animation itself will appear in.

Colour Schemes

Colour can be the make or break of any presentation and multimedia publishing is no different. For those untrained in design we recommend that the basic design is limited to a neutral colour (grey, black or white) with one other colour. Using grey as the main colour gives you dark and light grey, plus black for shadows and white for highlights. This will also give the multimedia publication a Windows feel and Windows users will feel comfortable with it. This also means that you can easily find examples of colour schemes which work and ones which don't by your own response to the colour schemes employed by Windows programs.

Sixteen vs 256 colours

Using 256 colours in your publication is always preferable and for scanned pictures, digitised video or sophisticated colours it is essential. In 256 colours your graphics will be much closer to photographic quality than in sixteen colours.

It doesn't matter whether your user has a system capable of displaying 256 colour graphics as Illuminatus has a special automagic feature which recognises what mode it is running in and adapts 256 colour graphics to 16 if required.

The real problem with 256 colour graphics is that they can be very large.

If you wish to create a sixteen colour publication best effects in sixteen colours are achieved by avoiding dithered colours wherever possible. Stylish effects can still be achieved using mono or sixteen colour graphics, particularly by using bold icon or symbol type images. (Several examples are supplied in the samples which accompany this program.)

If your publication is to be displayed in 16 colours but contains graphics intended for display at 256 colours (or higher), particularly greyscale or colour scans or photographic images, then you should compile it to sixteen colours so that you can examine the consequences. If you want greater control over how the sixteen colour graphics are created you should reduce them yourself. We recommend PaintShop Pro for this as some of the dithering options it offers can be quite attractive in themselves.

NOTE: Both Animator animations and video files will display on standard 16 colour VGA systems but the effects may be unpredictable. AVI video general works quite well but the colours in Animator files may not convert properly. Animations produced by Windows bitmap animation programs like Animation Works Interactive, CorelMove etc. can create sixteen-colour animations which avoid these problems but are not suitable where large areas are being animated.

Reducing File Size

If you need to reduce the size of your final publication consider some of the following options. Reducing the number of colours in a graphic can also drastically effect the size of the file involved.

Pictures with lots of  detail and variation in colour or tone will compress poorly so try to replace them with graphics with flatter areas of colour.

If you have reduced the number of colours in a graphic using a dithering option try and alternative dither as some nice-looking dithers can produce files which do not compress very well at all.

As a last resort consider whether any graphics can actually be removed.

Consider replacing WAV files with midi files or removing them completely as these can be very big and do not compress very well.

Consistent Style

If you a creating a series of documents on the same theme or for the same purpose it is advisable to choose a "house style" for your documents. Base the bulk of your publication on one or two page template designs - the templates supplied with Illuminatus often have several variations on designs for just this purpose. Use this page consistently with the same colour scheme, the same fonts and the same position for your company logo or the motto/title for the presentation.

Getting Ideas

Keep your eyes open for other multimedia programs, demonstrations and presentations which work particularly well and try to decide what makes them successful.

Television is a similar medium to multimedia publishing so TV programs, particularly current affairs and news programs, can often provide inspiration for page designs or simply illustrate effective techniques. You will also see reviews of many multimedia products in specialist magazines which can often prompt your own creativity.


Setup Tools

This option allows you to setup your favourite word processor, paint program and sound editor to use to edit your multimedia resources via the Tools menu without leaving Illuminatus.

The default settings are to use the programs which come with Windows namely; Write, Paintbrush and Sound Recorder. You can change them by using the appropriate Browse button to find the filename for the program you want to use. So, for example, to replace Paintbrush with Corel PhotoPaint you choose Setup Tools, then click the Browse button alongside the Paint Program box. Search through the directories to find CORELPNT.EXE, select that and then press OK. Now every time you choose Picture Editor from the Tools menu Illuminatus will launch Corel Photopaint.


Auto Reset

This option allows you to control what happens to your publication when the user has finished with it and it is left idle. Usually you will want it to return to the opening page, alternatively you may want to close the publication down (this is particularly useful if the publication was launched from another multimedia publication and you want to return to that one).

You can set the time the program waits in seconds by typing the number into the box provided. You can then set whether the program closes via the Closedown procedure or whether it resets to a particular page.

Note: When setting the reset time don't forget to allow your user plenty of time to read and act on your pages or your publication will reset inappropriately.

Closedown


Recreating Standard Presentation Effects

Illuminatus can produce a presentation similar in style to standard presentation packages by using slideshows for all the elements of a "slide". Slideshows can consist of only one picture and so (with the Delay option) allow for timed display of elements on your page. If you want to use text in this way you should convert your text to graphics as follows:

Load a template for a bulleted list. Load a background and colour each of the bullet and text frames appropriately. Type in the bullets and text as required. Now save this page as a independent bitmap graphic using Export from the Page menu. Take the bitmap into Paintbrush and cut each of the elements out and save them to disk as individual picture.

Now replace the text in the Illuminatus frames with slideshows displaying a single bitmap version of the text. By setting the delay for each frame differently the bullet points can appear in any order your require.

This can be used in both self-displaying and interactive publications.


Rolling Publications

In addition to creating interactive multimedia documents Illuminatus makes it simple to create stylish self-displaying publications and demonstrations. Simply design the publication you require just as with any other multimedia publication, and then specify the length of time each page will display by type a value in seconds into the Timed box on the Summary of the Page Options dialog.

This allows you to set up the intervals in tenths of a second between each page and the way in which the publication can be interrupted.

If you want animations, video or slideshows to appear in your self-displaying publication you need to set the AutoStart option for these elements (with a Delay if required). Don't forget to set the timing of the page long enough to let the animations finish.

By combining slideshows containing just one graphic you can produce most standard presentation styles.

Recreating Standard Presentation Effects


Closedown

Closedown is the overall term for the way your multimedia will close when it has been interrupted or when the user closes it using a button you have provided for the purpose.

You play a sound file or piece of music and display an end page for however long you require.

A typical use for the end page would be a copyright notice, a thank you or a reminder of how to order or who to contact for further details.

Publication Options


Technical Details

Screen Resolution

Illuminatus currently supports a standard VGA resolution of 640x480. It will run successfully in any higher resolution but the pages will remain at 640 x 480 pixels and will be centred on screen. The remainder of the screen will be covered with the background colour of the page.

Recommended Display Mode

Illuminatus will run most effectively in 256 colour mode. You can create publications running in other graphics modes and on many systems you can compile and publish in VGA or SVGA 256 colour modes. However, some VGA display drivers do not offer the functions Illuminatus uses to create pages when creating a compiled or published publication unless you are running in 256colour mode. The program will tell you when this is the case.

Number of Colours

Illuminatus will support graphics up to 16.7million colours assuming the computer display card and monitor are capable of 24 bit colour. These graphics will be automatically converted to mono, 16, or 256 colours when publishing or compiling.

Distribution Disk Space

The distributable multimedia publication is optimised and compressed as much as possible allowing a viable MPB to fit on a single floppy disk. Exactly how much information will fit depends on the type of resources you use. Text, midi music and sixteen colour bitmaps will take up less room than WAV files and 256 colour graphics. A 1.44Mb floppy will probably hold about 20 pages of average material. Video files and animations are very large. Much smaller files can be achieved by publishing your publication in mono (select the Mono option on the Compile or Publish dialog) although this will reduce the attractiveness of graphics intended for use in colour. The overhead for the executable proportion of your publication work is little more than 280K but there is a small additional overhead for the program which will install your publication from disk.


Technical Support

UK & Europe

If you require technical assistance with Illuminatus, call Digital Workshop on 01295 258335 and ask for Technical Support. Alternatively you can fax (01295 254590) or post details of your problem to us.

Digital Workshop

First Floor

8 West Bar

Banbury

Oxon

OX16 9RR

We can also be contacted via CIX join theworkshop or on Compuserve, GO WORKSHOP

USA & Canada

Sales and Support for North America is currently provided by

JASC Inc

10901 Red Circle Drive,

Suite 340,

Minnetonka,

MN55343

Tel: 612 930 9171 Fax: 612 930 9172

Worldwide

International support is provided via CompuServe, GO WORKSHOP

or at the UK address above.

When you call or write to technical support, please have as much information as possible available including the type of computer you are using, the amount of memory installed, the size of hard disk and the graphics card you are using.

If it is possible to have access to your computer when phoning it is usually helpful to have the program running on the system when you call.


File (Publication View)

This provides access to file and program management options such as file loading and saving functions, printing and program preferences.

New...

New Publication

New Publication from Template

Open Publication

Save...

Save Publication

Save Publication As

Save All Publications

Save Publication As Template

Close Publication

Data Files

Check Location

Change Data Drive

Consolidate Project

Print

Printer Setup

Summary Info

Preferences

Exit


File (Page View)

This provides access to file and program management options such as file loading and saving functions, printing with reference to the current page.

Save...

Save Publication

Save All Publications

Save Publication As

Save Page As

Save As Master Page

Save Page As Template

Export Page

Print

Printer Setup

Return to Publication View


Save Page As

Saves the currently selected page to disk via a standard Windows file dialog to allow you to give it filename.


Save Page As Template

This option allows you to save the design of frames and buttons on the current page to disk as a template which can then be used in future publications via the Insert Page Template option. The page can be based on one of the templates supplied with the program or can be one you have created from scratch.

If you want to be able to filter your templates from all the others using the List Files of Type option the first three letters of the filename for the template must be USR.


Save As Master Page

Saves the currently selected page to disk via a standard Windows file dialog as a master page.

About Master Pages


Return to Publication View

Returns you to the overview of your publication.


New Publication

Creates a new, untitled publication without pages or page templates.


New Publication from Template

Opens a new publication from a skeleton version of a publication (Publication Template) which already contains the page templates necessary for the chosen publication.


Open Publication

Opens a publication previously saved to disk. A standard Windows dialog allows you to browse your system for the file required.


Save Publication

Saves the currently selected publication to disk under its existing filename without further ado. If it is untitled you will be asked for a filename.


Save All Publications

Saves all the publications you currently have open to disk under their  existing filenames without further ado. If any are untitled you will be asked for a filename.


Save Publication As

Saves the currently selected publication to disk via a standard Windows file dialog to allow you to give it (new) filename.


Close Publication

Closes the currently selected publication. If the publication has been changed since it was last saved you will be given the opportunity to save it.


Summary Info

Allows you to record more extensive details about your publication such as title, who created it, and any notes or keywords you want to add. You can also assign it a category. The only role for this information in the current version of Illuminatus is to quickly remind you of details of the publication at any time after you have created it.


Save Publication As Template

Enables the current publication to be saved to disk as a skeleton publication on which to base future projects. Only the templates for each page are saved. No text, captions or contents are saved.

This option is useful where you regularly use a consistent layout but with different content.

Master Pages should be used where some of the content is also consistent.


Print (Page View)

Prints a preview version of the current page to the current Windows printer. For printers using A4 paper the output will look best if the printer is setup in landscape mode


Print (Publication View)

Prints your whole publication or a range of pages from your publication, one page per printed page, to the current Windows printer. For printers using AL paper the output will look best if the printer is setup in landscape mode.


Printer Setup

Allows access to the standard Windows Printer Setup dialog to control your printing options. For printers using AL paper output from Illuminatus will look best if the printer is setup in landscape mode.


Preferences

Allows you to control several aspects of the way Illuminatus works.

Make Backups When Saving - Whenever you save a publication Illuminatus can keep a backup of the previous version for you to revert to if necessary. The backup is stored in the same directory and filename as the original but has the .BAK ending. You can revert to this version by renaming it to [filename.MPB].

Thumbnails in Publication View - Creates a miniature image of your page and displays this in Publication View in place of the blank page icon. It can slow the program down on slower machines.

Show Bitmaps While Editing - Allows you to hide the graphics on your page while you are editing it in Page View and so speed up operation of the program. The pictures will still display in Preview.

Show Start Up Dialog - Allows you to launch Illuminatus straight into publication view without the prompts on the title page.

Help Tag Colour - Allows you to choose your own colour for the help tags which appear over the toolbar to prompt you of the use for the button.

Enable Project Timer - Allows you to turn the Project Timer on or off allowing you to demonstrate Illuminatus editing without displaying the time you have spent on the project or without increasing the time spent on it.

Background Music - Allows you to play background music while you work in Illuminatus. Obviously this music stops while you preview your publication.

Initial Zoom - Allows you to specify the zoom setting which Illuminatus will start in when it switches to Page View. You can select any of the options available as your default or the program can remember the last zoom used.


Exit

Closes the program down, giving you the option of saving any publications which have changed.


Edit (Publication View)

This menu allows you to perform all the standard Windows editing functions on your selected page(s). It also allows you to switch to Page View for editing of your Illuminatus page.

Cut

Copy

Paste

Delete

Select All

Deselect All

Edit Selected Page


Cut
Cut (Ctrl+X)

Removes the currently selected page or pages from their place in the current publication and stores them on the Windows clipboard ready to be pasted back into a new position or a new publication if required.

Related Topics

Copy

Paste


Copy
Copy (Ctrl+C)

Copies the currently selected page or pages leaving the originals in the current publication and stores the copy on the Windows clipboard ready to be pasted back into a new position or a new publication if required.

Related Topics

Cut

Paste


Paste

Pastes any page or pages currently stored on the Clipboard. The cursor changes to show you have pages to paste and you simply click where you want them to go.

Related Topics

Cut

Copy


Delete
Delete (Del)

Deletes the selected item(s) completely from the publication. In Publication View it deletes selected pages.

In Page View it deletes the button(s) or frame(s) you have selected. A dialog will ask you to confirm that you want to delete the objects.


Select All
Select All (Ctrl + A)

Quickly selects all the pages in a publication.

Useful for when you want to Copy the whole of a publication ready to Paste it into another.

Related Topics

Selecting and Moving Pages


Deselect All

Quickly deselects all the pages you currently have selected.

Related Topics

Selecting and Moving Pages


Edit Selected Page
Edit Selected Page (Enter)

Switches the program to Page View to allow you to edit the elements on a page. If you have more than one page selected Illuminatus will go into Page View with the first page in your selection.

Related Topics

Frame Options

Button Options


Publication

This menu provides the tools of publishing

Publication Options

Installation Setup

Insert Blank Page

Insert Page Template

Insert Page

Insert Master Page

Compile

Publish

Preview


Insert Page Template

Allows you to insert a ready-made page template from the wide selection provided with the product or those you have saved to disk using the Save Page As Template option. These already contain frames and buttons and are designed in a variety of styles for a variety of roles.

You can limit the list of templates to a specific style by selecting that style from the List Files of Type box at the bottom of the dialog.

Related Topics

Selecting and Moving Pages

Insert Blank Page

Insert Page

Insert Master Page

Save As Master Page

About Master Pages


Insert Blank Page

This option allows you to add an entirely blank page to your publication on which you can draw a template of buttons and frames of your own design.

Once you have selected this option you click in your publication window at the point where you want the page inserted.

Related Topics

Editing Page Elements

Selecting and Moving Pages

Insert Page Template

Insert Page

Insert Master Page

Save As Master Page

About Master Pages


Insert Page

Allows you to insert a page which has been previously saved to disk. All its properties and contents will be included. To build your publication quickly you can check the Multiple Copies option and type the number you require in the box provided.

Related Topics

Selecting and Moving Pages

Insert Page Template

Insert Blank Page

Insert Master Page

Save As Master Page

About Master Pages


Insert Master Page

Allows you to insert a page which has been previously saved to disk as a master page. All its properties and contents will be included. To build your publication quickly you can check the Multiple Copies option and type the number you require in the box provided.

Related Topics

Selecting and Moving Pages

Insert Page Template

Insert Blank Page

Insert Page

Save As Master Page

About Master Pages


Edit (Page View)

This menu provides functions for creating your own page templates or editing existing ones. It enables you to add frames and buttons, to align them and to order the layering of overlapped objects by bringing selected objects to the front or moving them to the back

To perform any of these options simply select the object(s) required (Use Shift+Click to select multiple items) and then choose the appropriate function or click on the relevant button on the toolbar if one is available.

Commands

Add

Frame

Button

Delete

Move

To Front

To Back

Align

Left

Right

Top

Bottom

See Also

Editing Page Elements


Add

This command allows you to draw your own frames and buttons on the page. You can either start with a blank page by using Insert Blank Page from the Publication menu in Publication View or you can add frames and buttons to an existing page template.

If you want to use the template you have created in future publications you can save it to disk using the Save Page As Template option in Page View.

Add...Frame

Add...Button


Add...Frame

This option allows you to draw a frame anywhere on your page. You can start with a blank page or an existing page or page template. Once you have selected this option click on your page at the point where you want the top left corner of your frame to be and drag down and to the right until the frame is the right size and shape. Note that the size and shape of a selected frame is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of your Illuminatus window.

You can resize and reshape the frame at any time by dragging any of the eight editing handles which appear around it when it is selected. You can also edit the size and position very precisely by editing the numbers for Top, Left, Width and Height on the Summary of the Frame Options dialog.

Illuminatus currently allows a maximum of 25 frames on any one page.

Add...Button


Add...Button

This option allows you to draw a button anywhere on your page. You can start with a blank page or an existing page or page template. Once you have selected this option click on your page at the point where you want the top left corner of your button to be and drag down and to the right until the button is the right size and shape. Note that the size and shape of a selected button is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of your Illuminatus window.

You can resize and reshape the button at any time by dragging any of the eight editing handles which appear around it when it is selected. You can also edit the size and position very precisely by editing the numbers for Top, Left, Width and Height on the Summary of the Button Options dialog.

Illuminatus currently allows a maximum of 25 buttons on any one page.

Add...Frame


Move

This option allows you to dictate the order in which frames and buttons will appear on the screen. Please note, however, that for technical reasons all frames are drawn first and all buttons drawn over the top. So ordering of frames is within the frame "layer" and ordering of buttons is confined within the button "layer".

To Front

To Back


To Front

This will bring a selected frame to the front to appear over the top of any other frames. It will also bring a selected button to appear over the top of any other buttons.

To Back


To Back

This will move a selected frame to the back to appear over behind any other frames. It will also bring a selected button to appear behind any other buttons.

All frames always appear behind buttons.

To Front


Align

This option allows you to ensure that buttons and/or frames line up neatly. You select a number of frames or buttons by holding down Shift and clicking on each of the items required. The eight black editing handles appear on each object to show they are selected.

You can now select one of the options to align the frames neatly to top, bottom, left or right.

Left

Right

Top

Bottom


Left

Selecting this option will align the lefthand edge of all selected items with the lefthand edge of the object furthest to the left.

Right

Top

Bottom


Right

Selecting this option will align the righthand edge of all selected items with the righthand edge of the object furthest to the right.

Left

Top

Bottom


Top

Selecting this option will align the top of all selected items with the top of the object highest up the page.

Left

Right

Bottom


Bottom

Selecting this option will align the bottom edge of all selected frames and/or buttons with the bottom edge of the object lowest down the page.

Left

Right

Top


Page

This menu provides control over how your page is displayed.

Zoom 50%

Zoom 100%

Zoom To Fit

Next Page

Previous Page

First Page

Last Page

Preview


Zoom 50%

Shows your current page at half the size it will display. This view is often a good compromise for users running Illuminatus in 640x480 allowing you to see the whole page in reasonable detail.

Related Topics

Zoom 100%

Zoom To Fit

Next Page

Previous Page

First Page

Last Page

Preview


Zoom 100%

Shows your current page at the size it will actually display. This gives you the best preview of your page without using Preview but unless you are running Illuminatus in a resolution higher than 640x480 you will not be able to see the whole page at once.

Related Topics

Zoom 50%

Zoom To Fit

Next Page

Previous Page

First Page

Last Page

Preview


Zoom to Fit

Scales the view of the current page so that the whole page fits into the current window. When you resize the window the page will be scaled to fit the new size. If you zoom to fit when the window is quite small you may lose some details of your page and it may be difficult to select the elements you want to edit. We recommend you use Zoom to Fit with the largest possible window - maximise both Illuminatus and your publication window.

Related Topics

Zoom 50%

Zoom 100%

Next Page

Previous Page

First Page

Last Page

Preview


Next Page

Takes you to the next page in the current publication.

You can use the Page Up as an shortcut/alternative.

You can also move to any page in your publication by selecting its title from the drop down list box in the toolbar in Page View.

Related Topics

Zoom 50%

Zoom 100%

Zoom To Fit

Previous Page

First Page

Last Page

Preview


Previous Page

Takes you to the preceding page in the current publication.

You can use the Page Down key as an shortcut/alternative.

You can also move to any page in your publication by selecting its title from the drop down list box in the toolbar in Page View.

Related Topics

Zoom 50%

Zoom 100%

Zoom To Fit

Next Page

First Page

Last Page

Preview


First Page

In Page View. Takes you to the first page in the current publication.

You can use the Home key as an shortcut/alternative.

You can also move to any page in your publication by selecting its title from the drop down list box in the toolbar in Page View.

Related Topics

Zoom 50%

Zoom 100%

Zoom To Fit

Next Page

Previous Page

Last Page

Preview


Last Page

Takes you to the last page in the current publication.

You can use the End key as an shortcut/alternative.

You can also move to any page in your publication by selecting its title from the drop down list box in the toolbar in Page View.

Related Topics

Zoom 50%

Zoom 100%

Zoom To Fit

Next Page

Previous Page

First Page

Preview


Tools

This option offers you access to programs for editing text, graphics and sound without leaving Illuminatus.

The default settings are to use the programs which comes with Windows, namely Write for text, Paintbrush for graphics and Sound Recorder for sound.

You can change this setting using the Setup Tools option on the Tools menu.

Related Topics

Picture Editor

Word Processor

Sound Editor

Setup Tools


Sound Editor

This option allows you to launch your favourite sound or music editor to create or edit sound or music files without leaving Illuminatus. When you have finished editing or creating the audio file save it to disk ready for use in Illuminatus.

If you edit a file you are already using in Illuminatus the copy in your publication will be automatically updated

The default setting is to use the Sound Recorder program which comes with Windows. You can change this setting using the Setup Tools option on the Tools menu.

Related Topics

Sound

Setup Tools


Word Processor

This option allows you to launch your favourite text editor or word processor program to create or edit text without leaving Illuminatus. When you have finished editing or creating the text save it to disk ready for use in Illuminatus.

You must save it as DOS or ASCII text to use it in the current version of Illuminatus.

If you edit a file you are already using in Illuminatus the copy in your publication will be automatically updated

Related Topics

Text

Setup Tools


Help Menu Option

Contents

Takes you to the Contents page of this help file.

About

Shows a page showing details of Illuminatus including the version and the licence details.


Window Menu Option

Cascade

Arranges all the windows you currently have open neatly into a stepped array with the title bars showing.

Tile

Arranges all the window you currently have open neatly in a tiled arrangement.

Arrange Icons

Neatly arranges and spaces the icons of minimised publications at the bottom of the main window.

Close All

Closes all the windows you currently have open, including minimised ones, asking you if you want to save those which have changed


Picture Editor

This option allows you to launch your favourite paint program to create or edit graphics without leaving Illuminatus. When you have finished editing or creating the picture save it to disk ready for use in Illuminatus.

You can save it in any of the formats supported by Illuminatus.

If you edit a file you are already using in Illuminatus the copy in your publication will be automatically updated.

Related Topics

Graphics

Setup Tools


About Illuminatus

Illuminatus V2.10

© Digital Workshop 1994  - All rights reserved

Portions of Imaging Technology © JASC Inc 1990-1994

Programmed in Microsoft Visual C, portions in Borland C and Assembler.

Developed and published in the UK by:

Digital Workshop

First Floor, 8 West Bar, BANBURY

Oxon, OX16 9RR, UK

Tel:01295 258335, Fax:01295 254590

Intl Tel: +44 295 258335 Intl Fax: +44 295 254590

CIX: join theworkshop

Compuserve: GO WORKSHOP


Text Attributes

Individual words and phrases can be highlighted by applying attributes to selected text using the buttons on the top right of the Text section of the Frame Options dialog. This inserts special codes into your text which Illuminatus interprets when it creates the page. A code is inserted at the beginning of the section of text to be highlighted to switch the attributes on, and another is inserted at the end of the text to switch the attributes off as illustrated below. More than one attribute can applied to a piece of text at any time. If the font already has that attribute the switching on and off will be reversed.

You can edit these codes manually just as though they were ordinary text and they can included in a text file prepared in a word processor and then imported into Illuminatus.

Removing Attributes

To remove text attributes delete the appropriate codes. Don't forget to delete the pair of codes and ensure you remove the "\" as well. The quickest and easiest way is to drag the cursor over the code and press the Delete key.

Attribute Codes

\i 	= italic

\b	= bold

\u	=underline

\c	=colour, followed by two numbers for each colour as follows

00	=default colour as chosen in font selection box

01	=white

02	=light grey	#

03	=bright red	#'

04	=bright yellow	#

05	=bright green	#

06	=bright cyan	#

07	=bright blue	#

08	=dark grey	#

09	=dark red	#

10	=dark yellow	#

11	=dark green	#

12	=dark cyan	#

13	=dark blue	#

14	=dark magenta	#

15	=light magenta	#

16	=black	#

The settings above would produce the following result.


Ordering the Full Version

Apart from the compile and publish functionality not available in this version the full version of Illuminatus includes megabytes of original multimedia clips, specially-written music, fanfares and spot effects, backgrounds, photographs, animations and so on.

You can place your order by phone, fax, post at the addresses below:

For your convenience an order form is provided at the bottom of this page. Select Print Topic from the File menu to print the order form to your default Windows printer then complete and post or fax to the addresses below.

UK & Europe   £99.95  (+VAT @17.5% & £2.50 Postage = £117.44 total) Digital Workshop First Floor 8 West Bar Banbury, Oxon OX16 9RR UK Tel:  01295 258335 Fax:  01295 254590	US & Canada   $149.00 (+$5 shipping and handling) (Minnesota residents please add 6.5% sales tax) JASC Inc 10901 Red Circle Drive Suite 340 Minnetonka MN55343 USA Tel:  612 930 9171 Fax: 612 930 9172
Prices are subject to change without prior notice and are for single user licences. Please call for multiple-user licences and educational pricing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ORDER FORM

Name:..............................................................................................................................................

Company:.........................................................................................................................................

Address:...........................................................................................................................................

Address:...........................................................................................................................................

Town:................................................................................................................................................

County/State:.....................................................................................................................................

Country:.............................................................................................................................................

Postal Code:......................................................................................................................................

Telephone:.........................................................................................................................................

Please supply........copies of Illuminatus @ ........... plus ...............handling Total...............................

I enclose a cheque or money order for the above amount.

Please charge my.............................credit card No:..................................................Exp.............

Credit Cards accepted - MasterCard and Visa (plus UK Only - American Express, Access, Delta)

Signed..................................................................................


Additional Software

Digital Workshop are developing a range of .ILX extension modules and support software for Illuminatus to add even more functionality to the program. Current plans include

ILMTEXT - an extension of the module provided free with this version providing a frame box with scroll bars and page controls for handling large amounts of text.

ILMCOPY - for copying files

ILMSWAP - for exchanging pages in your publication

ILMORDER - to provide an order form for customers to complete

ILMANIM - a simple animation program to provide animations which can be overlaid on your pages.

A developer's kit will also be available to help anyone wishing to develop their own extensions.

We also have a range of support products and software including animations, photographs, clipart, paint programs etc. which we feel would be of use to Illuminatus users if you would like to receive further details on these products please contact us...

Digital Workshop

First Floor, 8 West Bar, Banbury

Oxon, OX16 9RR, UK

Tel:01295 258335, Fax:01295 254590

Intl Tel: +44 295 258335 Intl Fax: +44 295 254590

CIX: join theworkshop

Compuserve: GO WORKSHOP