STARTING To do fancy word processing and desktop publishing easily, get Ami Pro. It's a word processor that includes lots of tools for desktop publishing. It's easy, powerful, and so pretty that I nicknamed it ``the strawberry''. It lists for $495. Discount dealers sell it for $249. The original version was called just Ami (which is the French word for ``friend''). Then came an improved version, called Ami Professional (or Ami Pro). Ami and Ami Pro were published by Samna. In 1991, Lotus bought Samna, so Samna's become a division of Lotus. Here's how to use Ami Pro version 3. It requires 2M of RAM and Windows 3 or 3.1. To find out how to use Windows, read my Windows chapter. That chapter also explains how to use Windows Write, which is the word processor that comes free with Windows. Practice using Windows Write before you use Ami Pro. Copy Ami Pro to the hard disk Ami Pro comes on floppy disks. To use Ami Pro, you must copy it from those floppy disks to your hard disk. Here's how. Turn on the computer without any floppy in drive A. Start Windows (by typing ``win'' after the C prompt). You'll see the Program Manager Window. Choose Run from the File menu. The computer will say ``Command Line''. When you buy Ami Pro version 3, you get a big box that contains the main manual, several booklets, eight 1.2M floppies, seven 1.44M floppies, and sheet of paper called a Media Conversion Card (which you can mail to Lotus to get 720K floppies instead). Here's how to copy Ami Pro from the 1.2M floppies to your hard disk. (Copying from 1.44M floppies or 720K floppies is similar). Using Ami Pro version 3's 1.2M floppies, put Disk 1 in drive A. Type ``a:install'' (and press ENTER). If your Ami Pro floppy disks were never used before, the computer asks you to type the name of your company and your own name; to reply, type the name of your company, press ENTER, type your own name, and press ENTER again. (If you don't have a company, type ``Ami Pro Lovers Association''.) Press ENTER four more times. The computer says, ``Please insert Disk 2''. Put Disk 2 in drive A and press ENTER. When the computer tells you, do the same for Disks 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Press ENTER two more times. The computer says, ``Main Menu''. Click the ``Exit Install'' button (by using the mouse). You see the Lotus Applications window. Close it (by double-clicking its control box). Exit from Windows (by choosing ``Exit Windows'' from the File menu, then clicking ``OK''). Turn off the computer, so you can start fresh. Launch Ami Pro Here's how to start using Ami Pro version 3. Turn on the computer without any floppy in drive A. Start Windows (by typing ``win'' after the C prompt). The computer will say ``Program Manager''. Double-click the Lotus Applications icon. Double-click the Ami Pro 3.0 icon. The top of the screen shows this menu bar: 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 쿑ile Edit View Text Style Page Frame Tools Window Help � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 First time The first time Ami Pro 3 is used on your computer, the computer says, ``Welcome to the Ami Pro QuickStart Tutorial''. To reply, click the ``Exit Tutorial'' button. Then the computer says ``Ami Pro SwitchKit Loading Options''; to reply, click the ``Add menu item'' box, then click ``OK''. Customize Ami Pro Ami Pro can act in different ways, to meet the needs of different people. When you use Ami Pro, it begins by acting however the previous user told it to. If the previous user was a jerk, Ami Pro will act jerky. The following procedure makes Ami Pro act as a professional desktop publisher. The first time you use Ami Pro, do this procedure. The next time you use Ami Pro, you can skip the procedure ___ unless a colleague has used your copy of Ami Pro and given different commands instead. Here's the procedure. . . . Ruler Click ``View''. You'll see the View menu. If one of the View menu's choices is Show Ruler, choose it. That makes the computer put a ruler across the top of the screen. The ruler is numbered in inches: 1", 2", 3", etc. Preferences From the View menu, choose View Preferences. Make sure the boxes next to ``Vertical ruler'' and ``Display as printed'' each contain an X. (To put an X in a box, click the box.) Make sure box next to ``Custom view'' contains 91. If it contains a different number, raise or lower that number (by clicking the nearby arrows) until that number becomes 91. The other boxes don't matter. When you've finished, click ``OK''. Type your document Start typing your document. Ami Pro uses the mouse and fundamental keys the same way as Windows Write. For details, read these sections on page 152: ``Use the keyboard'' ``Scroll through documents'' ``Insert characters'' Movement keys To move to different parts of your document, you can use your mouse. To move faster, press these movement keys instead: Keys you pressWhere the pointer will move right-arrow right to the next character left-arrow left to the previous character down-arrow down to the line below up-arrow up to the line above END right to the end of the line HOME left to the beginning of the line PAGE DOWN down to the next screenful PAGE UP up to the previous screenful Ctrl with right-arrowright (to next word or punctuation symbol) Ctrl with left-arrowleft (to beginning of a word or punctuation) Ctrl with a periodright to the next sentence Ctrl with a commaleft to the beginning of a sentence Ctrl with down-arrowdown to the end of a paragraph Ctrl with up-arrowup to the beginning of a paragraph Ctrl with PAGE DOWNdown to the next page Ctrl with PAGE UPup to the previous page Ctrl with END down to the end of the document Ctrl with HOMEup to the beginning of the document CONTROL key To manipulate your document quickly, use the CONTROL key (which says Ctrl on it). Underline Here's how to underline a phrase (like this). Press Ctrl with U, then type the phrase, then press Ctrl with U again. Word underline Here's how to underline all of a phrase's words individually (like this), without underlining the spaces between them. Press Ctrl with W, then type the phrase, then press Ctrl with W again. Bold Here's how to make a phrase be bold (like this). Press Ctrl with B, then type the phrase, then press Ctrl with B again. Italics Here's how to italicize a phrase (like this). Press Ctrl with I, then type the phrase, then press Ctrl with I again. (That technique works only if your printer can italicize.) Normal You can combine techniques. For example, here's how to make a phrase be underlined and bold (like this). Press Ctrl with U (to underline), then press Ctrl with B (to make bold), then type the phrase, then press Ctrl with N (to make the computer revert to ``normal'' printing). Exactly centered Here's how to make a title be exactly centered. Press Ctrl with E, then type the title (and press ENTER), then press Ctrl with E again. Justify Here's how to justify several paragraphs, so their right margins are perfectly straight. Press Ctrl with J, then type the paragraphs (pressing ENTER after each paragraph), then press Ctrl with J again. Right Here's how to make a short line of text be flush right, so the text is next to the right margin. Press Ctrl with R, then type the short line of text (and press ENTER), then press Ctrl with R again. Go You can go to page 3 quickly by using this trick: press Ctrl with G, then type the number 3 and press ENTER. (That technique works only if your document is at least 3 pages long.) Find If your document contains the word ``love'', here's how to make the computer find that word. Click at the beginning of the document. (To search through just part of your document for ``love'', click at the beginning of that part.) Press Ctrl with F. Type ``love''. Press ENTER several times. Each time you press ENTER, the computer moves to the next ``love'' in your document. When the computer can't find any more ``love'' in your document, the screen's bottom left corner briefly displays a message saying how often your document says ``love''. The computer ignores capitalization. If you tell it to find ``love'', it will also find ``Love'' and ``LOVE''. The computer looks for complete words. If you tell it to find ``love'', it will not find the ``love'' in ``loves'' or ``glove''. Save To save the document (copy it onto the disk), press Ctrl with S. The computer will say ``Filename''. Invent a short name for your document (no more than 8 letters). Type the name and press ENTER. That makes the computer copy the document onto the hard disk. For example, if you named the document ``jennifer'', the computer will put onto the hard disk a file called ``JENNIFER.SAM'', which means ``JENNIFER created by Samna's AMi program. The file will be in the documents subdirectory (called ``DOCS''), which is part of the AMIPRO subdirectory. Afterwards, if you change your mind and want to do more editing, go ahead! When you finish that extra editing, save it by pressing Ctrl with S again. Print To print the document onto paper, press Ctrl with P. Then click ``OK''. Fonts At the screen's bottom, near the right margin, you see the name of a typeface. (For Windows 3.1, that typeface is normally Times New Roman.) Click that typeface name. You see an alphabetized list of typefaces, like this: Arial Courier New LotusLineDraw Modern Roman Script Symbol Times New Roman WingDings (That's the list created by Windows 3.1. Windows 3.0 creates a shorter list. You might also see some extra entries contributed by your printer's manufacturer or by any font packages you bought.) Click the typeface you want. At the screen's bottom, to the right of the typeface, you see a number (which is normally 12). That's the point size. Click that number. You see a list of point sizes to choose from, like this: 4 6 8 9 10 11 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 30 36 42 48 60 72 Click the point size you want. (The bigger the point size you choose, the bigger the characters will be.) After you've chosen a typeface and point size, type some words. They'll be in the typeface and point size you selected. (Your document's other words, which you typed earlier, remain unaffected.) You'll be typing in the typeface and point size you chose, until you switch to a different typeface or point size or hop to a different part of your document. Select text Here's how to edit a phrase you typed. First, make the phrase turn black, by using one of these methods: Method 1: to blacken just one word, double-click in the middle of the word. Method 2: to blacken a sentence, click in the middle of the sentence while holding down the Ctrl key. Method 3: to blacken a paragraph, double-click paragraph's middle while holding down the Ctrl key. Method 4: to blacken any phrase, point at the phrase's beginning, then drag to the phrase's end. Method 5: click the phrase's beginning; then while holding down the SHIFT key, click the phrase's end. Method 6: by using the movement keys, move to the phrase's beginning; then while holding down the SHIFT key, use the movement keys to move to the phrase's end. Turning the phrase black is called selecting the phrase. Then say what to do to the phrase. For example, choose one of these activities: To underline the phrase, press Ctrl with U. To make the phrase be bold, press Ctrl with B. To italicize the phrase, press Ctrl with I. To erase the phrase, press the DELETE key. To replace the phrase, just type whatever words you want the phrase to become. To make the phrase be a different typeface, click the typeface at the bottom of the screen, then click the typeface you want. To make the phrase be a different point size, click the point-size number at the bottom of the screen, then click the point size you want. Move a phrase To move a phrase to a new location, just ``select the phrase, and then drag from the middle of the phrase to the new location.'' Here are the details. . . . First, select the phrase you want to move, so the phrase turns black. Then take your finger off the mouse's button. Move the mouse's pointer to the middle of the phrase. Finally, hold down the mouse's button (so you see a vertical blue line); and while you keep holding down the mouse's button, drag that line to wherever you want the phrase to move. (Drag the line anywhere you wish in the document, or drag to the end of the document, but don't try to drag past the document's end. During the drag, the line turns red.) At the end of the drag, lift your finger from the mouse's button. Presto, the phrase moves where you wished! Page menu You can improve how your text is placed on the page. Page break When you finish typing a paragraph, you normally press the ENTER key. Instead of pressing ENTER, try this experiment: choose Breaks from the Page menu, then click OK. That makes the next paragraph be on the next page. Columns In a newspaper, text is printed in many narrow columns. Here's how to create such columns. Choose Modify Page Layout from the Page menu. Underneath ``Number of Columns'', click how many columns you want. (For example, if you want each page to be divided into 4 columns, click the ``4''.) Then click ``OK''. FRAMES You can draw a box and put information inside it. For example, if you're creating a newspaper, you'll want to draw a big box and put a big masthead or headline inside it. Underneath, you'll want to draw a smaller box and put a picture inside it. Yes, Ami Pro lets you draw a box and put text or a picture inside it! A box that contains information (such as text or a picture) is called a frame. It surrounds the information, just as a picture frame surrounds a picture. Here's how to draw a box (frame). Find the Frame icon, which looks like a red picture frame. (It's near the top of the screen, just under the word ``Window''.) Click the Frame icon. Point in your document, where you want the box's top left corner to be, and drag to where you want the box's opposite corner. For best results, make the box's top left corner be in the middle of the page, and make the box's opposite corner be below that and far to the right, where the page's text area meets the right margin. The box appears. All your document's words and columns move out of the way to make room for the box. To make sure that the box doesn't bump into nearby text, the computer makes the box slightly smaller than you requested. To make the box beautiful, the computer gives the box rounded corners and a shadow. The box temporarily has black bumps on it. The bumps are called handles. In the box, you can put text or a drawing (but not both). Text To put text in the box, double-click in the box and then type the text. Drawing If you want the box to contain a drawing instead of text, make sure the box has handles (if it doesn't, create them by clicking in the box). Click the Drawing icon, which looks like a pencil and is near the screen's top right corner. Near the top of the screen, you see these icons for drawing: Arrow, Hand, Slanted Line, Zigzag, Polygon, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Oval, Arc, and Text. Here's how to use them: What you want to draw How to draw it slanted line Click the Slanted Line icon. Start where you want the line to begin, and drag to where you want the line to end. horizontal, vertical, or 45� line It's similar to drawing a slanted line, but depress the SHIFT key during the whole process. zigzag Click the Zigzag icon. Click where you want the zigzag to begin. Click where you want each bend in the zigzag. Double-click where you want the zigzag to end. polygon Click the Polygon icon. Click where you want the polygon's first corner. Click where you want each additional corner, but double-click at the last corner. rectangle Click the Rectangle icon. Start where you want the rectangle's top left corner, and drag to where you want the rectangle's opposite corner. square It's similar to drawing a rectangle, but depress the SHIFT key during the whole process. rectangle with rounded corners It's similar to drawing a rectangle, but click the Rounded Rectangle icon. square with rounded corners Draw a rounded rectangle while depressing the SHIFT key. oval Click the Oval icon. Imagine a rectangle big enough to hold your oval: start where you want that rectangle's top left corner, and drag to where you want that rectangle's opposite corner. circle It's similar to drawing an oval, but depress the SHIFT key during the whole process. arc that's a quarter of an oval Click the Arc icon. Imagine the entire oval: start at the oval's leftmost or rightmost point, and drag to where you want the arc to end. title in the middle of the drawing Click the Text icon (which says ``abc''). Click where you want the title to begin. Type the title. To nudge the entire drawing slightly ___ but without moving the frame that it's in ___ do the following: click the Hand icon, then start in the middle of the drawing and drag in the direction that you want to nudge. Here's how to edit an object that you drew. Click the Arrow icon. Click the middle of the object, so that the object gets handles (bumps). Then choose one of these activities: Activity How to do it Delete the object Press the DELETE key. Change the object's size Point at one of the handles. Drag the handle in the direction you want the object to stretch (or shrink). Move the object Point at the object's center (not at a handle). Drag in the direction that you want the object to move. Edit a frame Here's how to edit an entire frame. Click outside the frame, then click inside the frame. The frame gets handles. Then choose one of these activities: To delete the frame, press the DELETE key. To change the frame's size, drag a handle. To move the frame, point at the frame's center and drag. VOCABULARY The computer can improve your vocabulary. Spelling Here's how to check the document's spelling. For example, type a short document that contains just this one sentence: Be huppy! To spell-check the document, click at the document's beginning. Click the Dictionary icon, which is blue and says ``ABC''. (It's under the word ``Help''.) Click ``OK''. The computer looks up each word in the dictionary. The computer finds ``Be'' in the dictionary but can't find ``huppy''. The computer highlights the strange word ``huppy'' and prints this list of suggestions: hoopoe happy guppy puppy Notice that the computer's immense vocabulary even includes ``hoopoe'', which is a European bird that looks like a cross between a parrot and a zebra! You have several choices: If you meant ``hoopoe'', ``happy'', ``guppy'', or ``puppy'', click what you meant & then click ``Replace''. If you meant ``huppy'' and want to add that slang word to the dictionary, click ``Add To Dictionary''. If you meant ``huppy'' but don't want to add that slang word to the dictionary, click ``Skip''. If you meant some other word instead, type it (without pressing ENTER) and click ``Replace''. When the computer finishes checking the entire document, the screen's bottom left corner briefly say ``Spell check complete.'' Thesaurus Suppose your document contains the word ``caress''. To find synonyms for that word, click it, then click the Thesaurus icon (which is say ``T'' and is under the word ``Help''). You'll see the Thesaurus window. It contains this list of synonyms for ``caress'': cosset cuddle dandle fondle love pet If you want to replace ``caress'' by a synonym, click the synonym you want then click ``Replace''. When you finish using the Thesaurus window, double-click its control box (or click ``Cancel''). FINISH When you finish working on a document, choose Exit or Close from the File menu. If you choose Exit, the computer will stop using Ami Pro, and you'll see the Windows Program Manager. If you choose Close instead of Exit, the computer will let you work on another document, and your next step is to choose New or Open from the File menu. If you choose New and then click ``OK'', the computer will let you start typing a new document. If you choose Open and then double-click the name of an old document, the computer will put that document onto the screen and let you edit it. Didn't save? If you didn't save your document before doing those procedures, the computer asks, ``Save?'' If you click ``Yes'', the computer copies your document's most recent version to the hard disk; if you click ``No'' instead, the computer ignores and forgets your most recent editing.