The Observer Menu System v2.0 ----------------------------- Last Updated 12.6.95 Written by Terry King Ninth Wave Software 1994-95 The Observer Menu System or TOMS for short is a shell program for the Observer document displayer. You are probably already reading this document from within TOMS so you've already figured out how to access the menus ! To exit back to the main menu select 'Exit To Menu' from the File menu or press UNDO or press the right mouse button. There are two modes that can be used ; mouse mode and cursor mode. Mouse mode is accessed from the Scroll menu or by pressing 'M'. While in mouse mode the cursor will be invisible (so you can't access the menus) and you can scroll through the document by moving the mouse up and down. To enter cursor mode simply press the left mouse button and the cursor will appear allowing you to access the menus or mark lines of text for printing. You can also scroll through the document with the cursor keys in whichever mode you're in. Pressing up and down scrolls up and down and pressing left and right moves to the previous or next disk description. From the main menu you can use the accessories by selecting 'Accessories' under the Atari symbol in the top left. Documents other than those listed in the menus can be read by selecting 'Load Document'. To quit back to desktop simply select 'Quit'. Once you have selected a document it will be loaded and depacked if necessary. You have now left the shell program and entered The Observer. Using The Observer ------------------ After the program has been run you will be presented with a menu at the top of the screen and the document details at the bottom of the screen with the document displayed in the middle. To start with you will be put into mouse mode, this allows you to scroll through the document by moving the mouse vertically. To access the menus press the left mouse button and the cursor will appear allowing you to enter the drop down menus. File Menu --------- Save Settings Saves the current document settings ; tab width, colours, screen frequency and font. Exit To Menu Takes you back to the main menu to access other documents. Options Menu ------------ Goto Top/Bottom Jumps straight to the top or the bottom of the document. Goto Line Allows you to type in the line that you wish to jump to. If you enter a value greater than the number of lines then it will jump to the bottom of the document. Mark Start Sets the first line of the display as the start of a block. If the 'Mark End' has already been used then the new block of text will be inverted. Mark End Sets the last line of the display as the end of a block. If the 'Mark Start' has already been used then the new block of text will be inverted. Unlike normal block marker functions the old marked block will stay marked. Clear Marks Clears every marked (iverted) line. Search Text Type in a word or phrase to search, select whether it should be case sensitive or not and also whether the search should start from the start of the document or your current line. When pressing the RETURN key on the alert boxes they will default to their previous values. Wildcard '*' and joker '?' searches can be used to substitute unknown characters. A wildcard is used for any number of characters and a joker is used to replace just one character. For example, 'b?t' could search for 'bat', 'bet', 'bit' or 'but'. 'b*t' could search for the same words, but also 'ballet', 'blast', 'bolt', 'bust', etc. Repeat Search Repeats the search from the current line. Set Bookmark Allows you to mark up to 10 important places within a document. When setting a bookmark it will store the first line of the display along with the line number. Bookmarks are kept even when loading another document. Goto Bookmark Select the bookmark and you'll be taken straight to that line. If the bookmark belongs to another document it will still attempt to goto the same line as defined in the bookmark. Set TAB Width Set a new TAB width, the default should be 8. Set Colours Allows you to select a palette which is most comfortable for your eyes. The sub menu is different for colour and mono users. For colour users there is a choice of five colour schemes, the first two have light coloured backgrounds and the others have dark backgrounds (which are generally easier on the eyes when reading large documents). For mono users there are only three options, the first is the default black on white text, the second is white on black text and the final option is used to toggle whether the menu text is black or white. Change Hertz Used to select 50 or 60 hertz screen frequency. A bigger vertical screen is shown for those TV/Monitors that can cope with a 60Hz display. Change Font Four fonts are included, the standard ST font, the IBM font, Macintosh font and a Sans Serif font. Print Menu ---------- Print Document Prints the entire document, either page by page or continuous depending on the settings covered in 'Configure Output'. If paged output is selected then the file name and current page number will be printed at the top of every page. Print Marked Lines While in cursor mode you can click on any individual lines you wish to print or you can define a block by holding down the left mouse button (defining the start of the block) and dragging the mouse to the end of the block. Any lines that are printed inverted will be printed by the command, this also includes any blocks marked by the 'Mark Start' & 'Mark End' commands. NOTE: There is no page formatting, output is continuous. Configure Output Allows you to select whether the 'Print Document' command prints a page at a time or dumps the entire document to the printer. If page formatting is selected it will then ask for the number of lines per page, the default being 60 lines. Configure Printer The configure printer option allows you to assign a number of printer control codes to radio buttons, which allow you to set such things as fonts,letter quality modes and indents just with a few mouse clicks. Up to four printers can be supported, three of which have already been setup for Epson compatibles, the Hewlett Packard Deskjet range and the Star Gemini printers. Click on the appropriate printer name and the twelve radio buttons on the right hand side will display their settings for the selected printer. Click on the radio buttons to send the control codes to the printer, if the printer is offline then it waits for you to put the printer online or gives you the option to cancel. To edit an existing sequence of control codes or create new ones, select the 'Edit Command' button and select which of the twelve radio buttons you wish to edit from the drop down menu. You will then be asked to edit the name to appear on the button and then enter a sequence of control codes. The codes must be entered as two digit hexidecimal numbers seperated by spaces. For example, the sequence ESC S 1 would be 1B 53 01 (which would select subscript mode on an Epson compatible). To create a new set of codes for another printer or alternatively add more than twelve commands for one printer, select the printer radio buttons on the left side and select 'New Name'. You will then be asked to edit the printer name or create a new one. The twelve radio buttons connected to that printer will then be displayed. From this menu you can also save or load the printer configuration. Saving will automatically save to the home directory of the program and not the drive/directory currently selected. The printer output configuration is also saved in this file which includes the page length, page mode and whether there is a pause between printing pages. I have a HP Deskjet myself hence the inclusion of the Deskjet control codes. If you are printing a manual I can recommend selecting Gothic 12pt with indent which will give around an inch left border with around another inch right border for 80 column text which makes it ideal for double page printing with enough room for hole-punching into a ring binder. If you're a real paper scrooge or are just printing something out for reference then select a 6 point font with indent as this will allow you to print up to around 128 lines per page (remember to change this in the configure output option) or simply select continuous output. Scroll Menu ----------- Mouse Scroll Puts you into mouse mode allowing you to scroll through the document one line at a time by moving the mouse up and down. Pressing the left mouse button returns the cursor allowing you to access the menus. ExpoMouse Scroll An exponential scroll which is ideal for large documents that you wish to quickly browse. Moving the mouse at a normal speed will scroll one line at a time just like the normal mouse scroll mode, but moving the mouse in a fast continuous motion allows you to skip many lines at a time. At its fastest it can jump 512 lines at a time. Again, pressing the left mouse button will put you back into cursor mode. Infinite Block Markers ! ------------------------ Well not quite 'infinite' but this feature allows you to select whichever lines you want printed. While in cursor mode click on the text you want to mark and it will invert. If you hold down the mouse button you can drag a box which will mark or unmark a block depending on whether the line you selected was originally marked or unmarked. If the line was originally unmarked then the block will be marked, if it was marked then the block will be unmarked. This feature makes it ideal to print out and mark only the lines which catch your eye instead of having to select and print a block at a time like most (if not all) other document display programs. Select 'Print Marked Lines' from the Print menu to print the lines. Keyboard Shortcuts ------------------ I have gone against just about every type of document displayer here as the keys are single presses (no control or alternate need be held down) which makes it much easier for one handed operation. File Menu F10 Save Settings UNDO Quit To Main Menu Options Menu T Goto Top B Goto Bottom G Goto Line F1 Mark Start F2 Mark End CLR Clear Marks S Search Text R Repeat Search V Set Bookmark J Goto Bookmark TAB Set TAB Width Print Menu P Print Document K Print Marked Lines O Configure Output X Configure Printer Scroll Menu M Mouse Scroll E ExpoMouse Scroll Buy Menu 1 Select Item For Purchase 2 List/Delete Selected Items 3 Print Order Others Up Scroll One Line Up Down Scroll One Line Down Space One Page Down Shft/Down One Page Down Shft/Up One Page Up Left Goto Previous Disc Marker Right Goto Next Disc Marker That's it --------- If you would like information about using/customising your own version of TOMS then let me know (my address is in 'About TOMS' on the main menu). TOMS was written in GFA Basic v3 with numerous 68000 assembly routines written with DEVPAC 2. While you're here my I take this opportunity to give a blatant plug for 'Sprite Works'. If you're a programmer (either GFA v3.x or assembler) then this is THE essential purchase. It has many, many powerful (and a few unique) commands that will set your software alight. For assembly program- mers there's full source code listings and for GFA users there's examples of every command in action. All aspects of graphics and sound are covered. Also included is a fully fledged art package, two map designers, two demos and three demo games and with version 2.0 there's also a sample editor. All for an incredibly low price of œ7.00 for two DS/DD disks. All code and documentation Copyright Terry King 1994/95 - Ninth Wave Software