Welcome to the demo of PAGESTREAM, version 1.8. This is a fully functional demo of the most powerful desktop publishing program available for the Atari ST. The demo will allow you to explore all of PageStream's powerful features, and to print out your results. Saving your documents is not possible with this demo version, and when you print a diagonal "PAGESTREAM" will appear across the length of your page. Those are the only limitations of the program. SETTING UP: =========== Along with this README.TXT file you should find three LZH files: PSPRG18.LZH, PSFONTS.LZH and PSOTHER.LZH. First extract the PSPRG18.LZH onto any hard drive partition, RAM disk or floppy disk. You can extract it to any folder or onto the root directory of your disk. Next, extract the PSFONTS.LZH file into a folder called PSFONTS, inside the same folder as the PageStream program and resource files you previously extracted. Finally, extract the PSOTHER.LZH file into a folder called PSOTHER in the same folder as the PageStream program and resource files. Using the "Extract to Folder" options from many LZH shell programs makes this task very easy. In the end your files should look like this: *PSFONTS--folder with font files *PSOTHER--folder with PRT and IMP files PSDEMO.PRG PGSTREAM.RSC PGSTREAM.DAT All of these files and folders can be in any other folder or on the root directory of your disk. You are now done setting up..! RUNNING THE DEMO: ================= Double click on PSDEMO.PRG. The program will load, and will take a little extra time on the first running to set up a font list from the PSFONTS folder. All subsequent loading of the demo (and real version) will be faster as the program will not have to create the font list each time. When the program has finished loading select "New Document" from File menu (ALT+N). Then select your paper size, single or double sided document, and hit RETURN. You now have a blank page in front of you. Use the VIEW menu bar to set different viewing scales and to hide the grids, add a ruler, etc. Keyboard equivalents are available for every PageStream menu item, and the eq's for the viewing percentage are ALT+1 double page view, ALT+2 full page, ALT+3 50%, ALT+4 actual size, ALT+5 200%, ALT+6 full width (so you don't have to scroll horizontally), and ALT+7 user size (0-999%). PageStream uses menu bars, keyboard eq's and a tool box (the tool box also has keyboard eq's). The tool box contains 7 pairs of icons. The first pair are the letter A and the Arrow icon. The A is for text. Click here and then click in any column to type text. Or click anywhere on a page to type in a free floating text object (no columns necessary!). The arrow icon is the Object icon, and is used to select object for moving, resizing, etc. You can shift/click to select more than one object, or use the familiar click and drag to rubber band a group of objects. When you select more than one object they are still individual objects. To group them select "Group" from the Object menu bar (ALT+G). The next pair are the box with text in it and the box with an X in it. The left box is the text column box. Click here to draw a column. Now click once, move the mouse diagonally down, and click again to draw your column. You will find it much easier to use the LAYOUT menu bar and "Create Columns" menu item to create multiple, linked columns. The box with the X in it is the reshape icon which you use when reshaping any polygon at any intersection point. The next pair are the rectangle and circle icons which are used to draw rectangles and circles. The next pair are the restricted (vert or horiz line) and unrestricted line icons. Use these to draw lines. The next pair are the circle and oval icons. The next pair are the two arc icons. Use these to draw parts of circles (good for pie charts). The final pair are the polygon and freehand drawing. The polygon works like this. Draw a series of lines, clicking the left mouse each time you want to change direction. To finish the polygon to back to right near the first point and click twice. The polygon will now be completed. You can use the Reshape tool to "pull" at any corner of a polygon and reshape it. THAT'S IT ========= That's it for the demo documentation. PageStream is very easy to use, and you should be able to explore the program without too much difficulty. Before signing off, here are some features you should play around with--features not available with any other Atari ST publishing program: --Duplicate: Draw a horizontal line. Now click on the Object icon (arrow) so the line is selected. Now select Duplicate from the Object menu (ALT+D) and duplicate it 10 times with an x offset of 0 and a Y offset of .25. Now type ALT+A (select all) and now type ALT+G (group) and now resize the group of lines. --Align: On a blank page, draw a box. Now draw a line. Now select the A icon (text) and click anywhere on the page and type in your name. Now type ALT+A (select all). Now type ALT+I (Align) and click on the right pointing arrow. All your objects are now aligned along the right edge..! This is a VERY powerful tool, and you can combine alignments (top left, middle right, etc). --Two Dimensional Font Sizing: Go to a blank page and type ALT+2 to get into full page view. Now click on the A icon and click in the middle of the page and type your name. Now click on the Object (arrow) icon so your name is selected as an object. Now type CONTROL+F (for font) and click on the "Block" when you see the dialogue box asking if you want to change the font for the Document or Block. Now clear the font size line and type in "100,200" (without the quotes) and hit RETURN. Your name is now sized 100 points by 200 points. Type the Esc key and then type the letter U to force a quick redraw of the screen (don't hold down the esc key, just type it and then type U). Now click the mouse on the upper right box surrounding your name and resize the text object in any way you want. --Rotating Objects: You can rotate graphics as well as text. Not only can you rotate things, you can slant and skew them. Select any object and then select Rotate from the OBJECT menu bar. That's all...for help using the demo, please visit the SoftLogik RT on GEnie. Type "m385;1" and look for the Demo topic in Category 1.