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Text File | 1988-12-31 | 25KB | 677 lines

L A R G E P R I N T D O S ADVANCED FEATURES Version 2.52 December 20, 1988 (C)Copyright VisionWare Software, Inc. 1988 PO 1676 Brookline, MA 02146 ADVANCED FEATURES INTRODUCTION 1. SCANNING THE PAGE WORD-BY-WORD. How to... a. move to the beginning and end of text: Ctl PgUp and Ctl PgDn. b. read word-by-word: Ctl Right-Arrow and Ctl Left-Arrow. c. move to the next line of text: Ctl Home, Ctl End and Ctl Return. d. read a column of print. The "[ / {" and Shift Return keys. 2. LARGE PRINT WINDOWS. How to... a. create Fixed windows: The Tab and Letter keys. b. create Column and Row windows: The F9 key. c. use the arrow keys to move from window to window. d. move back to where you were: The Shift Tab key. 3. CHANGING THE LOCATION AND COLOR OF THE CURSOR. How to... a. change the cursor location: The F5 key. b. change the cursor color: Shift F5. 4. DEFINING AND USING ALTERNATE CURSORS. How to... a. track a reverse video highlight: The number 2 key. b. switch back to the standard cursor: The number 1 key. c. define alternate cursors: The F6 and 3-9 keys. d. switch to an alternate cursor. e. turn off cursor tracking: The 0 key. 5. RECORDING YOUR PREFERENCES. How to... a. store your preferences: The F10 key. b. recall your preferences. c. automatically load your preferences at start up. d. restore the original Large Print DOS set-ups. 6. WHAT'S NEXT? SUMMARY OF ADVANCED KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS LARGE PRINT DOS ADVANCED FEATURES INTRODUCTION Now that you have learned the basics of the LARGE PRINT DOS program, you are ready to work. The basic features cover the common functions that you will require. However, given the variety of possible applications, the LARGE PRINT DOS program also offers many advanced options that you may find useful in special situations. This section presents the advanced features of the LARGE PRINT DOS program, which will let you: 1. Read the page word-by-word. 2. Create and use Large print windows. 3. Relocate the stationary cursor to a new display position. 4. Define alternate cursors and track any object on the page. 5. Automatically record and recall your personal preferences. These features demonstrate how versatile a large print program can be. 1. SCANNING THE PAGE WORD-BY-WORD You have learned that you can use the cursor keys to move around the large print page. You can also use the cursor keys to scan the page word-by-word, skipping over any empty space. Scanning word-by-word is a fast way to browse through text. 1a. HOW TO MOVE TO THE BEGINNING AND END OF TEXT: Ctl PgUp and Ctl PgDn. It is often convenient to be able to move directly to the beginning or end of the text. Ctl PgUp moves to the first word of the page. Ctl PgDn moves to the final word of the page. The Ctl PgUp key is very helpful when you want to quickly find the first word of the large print page, especially when the page contains a lot of blank space. When you press the key, the first line of text will be displayed in the middle of the screen. 1b. HOW TO READ WORD-BY-WORD: The Ctl Right-Arrow and Ctl Left-Arrow keys. Ctl PgUp moves the first line of text into center view on the screen. You can advance through the text one word at a time by pressing Ctl Right-Arrow and Ctl Left-Arrow. Ctl Right-Arrow advances to the next word. Ctl Left-Arrow moves back one word. Each time you press Ctl Right-Arrow, the next word on the line will advance to the left edge of the screen. Eventually, the end of the line will be reached. The next time you press Ctl Right-Arrow, the beginning of the next line of print will come into center view, skipping over any empty lines in between. You will hear a beep when you have advanced to the last word on the page to indicate that you can advance no further. 1c. HOW TO MOVE TO THE NEXT LINE OF TEXT: Ctl Home, Ctl End, and Ctl Return. You can move directly to the first and last words of the line by pressing Ctl Home and Ctl End. You can skip to the first word of the next line of text, passing over any empty lines, by pressing Ctl Return. Ctl Home moves to the first word of the line. Ctl End moves to the final word of the line. Ctl Return skips to the first word of the next line of text. 1d. HOW TO READ A COLUMN OF PRINT: The "[ / {" and Shift Return keys. Information is often presented in tabular form. Suppose you want to scan a column of data in large print. Move the column into view and press the "[ / {" key. Now, go ahead and read the column. Each time you wish to advance to the beginning of the column on the next line, press Shift Return. Shift Return moves the beginning of the next line of the column into view on the screen. 2. LARGE PRINT WINDOWS In many applications, the items that you frequently want to see are located at specific positions on the page. Other times, such as in spreadsheets, the information that interests you is found in columns and rows that are arranged in tabular form. Because you can not see the entire page in large print, you may want to quickly and easily move from one page section to another. To assist you, the LARGE PRINT DOS program lets you identify and tag: - Fixed Windows, when you want to refer to items found at specific (fixed) locations. - Column Windows, when you want to refer to information contained in specific page columns. - Row Windows, when you want to refer to information contained in specific page rows. 2a. HOW TO CREATE FIXED WINDOWS: The Tab and Letter keys. Windows are used to move quickly and easily from one section of the page to another. If you are in the reading mode and you see a section of the page that you wish to recall later, you can tag it and create a FIXED WINDOW. To tag the section of the page currently being displayed, type: TAB (tag) followed by a letter key, A-Z. The Tab "letter" combination identifies the displayed page section as a window that you may want to recall later. For example, Tab A tags the page section on the screen with the letter A. You can tag up to 26 Fixed windows. Each Fixed window is tagged with a unique letter, A-Z. When you wish to view a window, type the letter that you chose to identify the window. Press A and the section of the page that you tagged with the letter A will instantly appear on the screen. 2b. HOW TO CREATE COLUMN AND ROW WINDOWS: The F9 key. The preceding section illustrated the usage of Fixed windows. You can create COLUMN WINDOWS and ROW WINDOWS in a similar fashion. Column and Row windows are useful for locating information that is presented in tabular form. To create Column windows, press F9. A three-choice menu will appear on the screen. The choices are Fixed, Column, and Row. Choose Column by using the Up and Down-Arrow keys and pressing Return, or by simply typing the first letter, C. When you select Column, the Fixed Windows that you created become inactive. You can now tag columns for later recall using the same keys that you used to create Fixed windows. Type Tab followed by a Letter key to tag a column. To move horizontally across the screen in order to see the information contained in the column, type the letter that you assigned as the column tag. To create Row windows, press F9 again and choose "Rows". Your Column windows become inactive. You can now create Row windows using the Tab and 26 Letter keys. Type Tab followed by a Letter key to tag a row. To move vertically to view the information contained in the row, type the letter that you assigned to the tagged row. The windows that you create in one window mode are not destroyed when you switch to another window mode. They simply become inactive. You can reactivate them at any time by switching back to the corresponding window mode. You can therefore create 26 Fixed, 26 Column, and 26 Row windows using the same letter keys. Note: It does not matter whether the letter keys are pressed in upper or lower case. Typing a letter that is not active as a window tag has no effect. A tag remains attached to a window until the letter is used to identify a different window or until the tag is removed from a window on the screen by typing Tab Del (Delete). 2c. HOW TO USE THE ARROW KEYS TO MOVE FROM WINDOW TO WINDOW. You can also use the Tab key in conjunction with the Arrow keys: In Fixed window mode: Tab Right-Arrow moves right one window (one complete screen). Tab Left-Arrow moves left one window. Tab Up-Arrow moves up one window. Tab Down-Arrow moves down one window. In Column window mode: Tab Right-Arrow moves right to the next tagged column. Tab Left-Arrow moves left to the previous tagged column. In Row window mode: Tab Up-Arrow moves up to the next tagged row. Tab Down-Arrow moves down to the next tagged row. 2d. HOW TO MOVE BACK TO WHERE YOU WERE: The Shift Tab key. Suppose that you are reading the page and decide to briefly view a window located somewhere else on the page. When you are through viewing the window and want to resume reading where you left off, press Shift Tab. Shift Tab reverses or undoes the effect of a window move. When pressed, the portion of the page that was displayed prior to the window move is redisplayed. Shift Tab also reverses any moves caused by the Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys. 3. CHANGING THE LOCATION AND COLOR OF THE CURSOR The LARGE PRINT DOS cursor is normally located in the center of the screen in the typing mode. You may want to relocate the stationary cursor to a different position on the screen or change its color to make it more visible. 3a. HOW TO CHANGE THE CURSOR LOCATION: The F5 key. To change the cursor location, enter the reading mode and press F5. You will see a flashing "*" above the cursor. You can reposition the flashing * by using the Arrow keys. When the flashing * is at the position on the screen where you want the cursor to appear, press F5 again. The flashing * will disappear. When you leave the reading mode, the stationary cursor will appear where you last saw the *. 3b. HOW TO CHANGE THE CURSOR COLOR: Shift F5. To change the color of the cursor, press F5 to display the flashing *. The color of the flashing * will change when you press Shift F5. When you exit the reading mode, the cursor will have the same color as the *. 4. DEFINING AND USING ALTERNATE CURSORS Most programs use the standard PC cursor to indicate the focus of attention. Unfortunately, this rule is not always true. Some programs ignore the standard cursor and leave it in a corner or off the screen entirely. This occurs frequently when menus are displayed. A menu is a list of choices. The user's selection is typically highlighted in reverse video. The reverse video highlight indicates the focus of attention and serves as an alternative to the standard cursor. The LARGE PRINT DOS program handles these special situations easily. It allows you to choose the object that you want to track. This can be the standard cursor, a reverse video highlight, or any visible object that appears on the page. The objects that you choose to track are called ALTERNATE CURSORS. The LARGE PRINT DOS program uses the F6 key and the number keys located on the typewriter section of the keyboard, (above the Q, W, E, R... letter keys) to define and select alternate cursors. 4a. HOW TO TRACK A REVERSE VIDEO HIGHLIGHT: The number 2 key. The reverse video highlight is used so frequently in menus and spreadsheets that it exists as a pre-defined alternate cursor within the LARGE PRINT DOS program. To track the reverse video highlight, press the number 2 key (above the W key). You will instantly exit the reading mode and return to the typing mode. However, you will now see the reverse video highlight with a flashing double-line underscore beneath it, instead of the standard underline cursor. The double-line underscore indicates that you are in typing mode and that you have chosen to track an alternate cursor. Sometimes, there are many reverse video objects on the page. When this occurs, press a key that moves the reverse video highlight that you wish to track. Large Print DOS will lock onto this highlight and track it. If the page does not contain a highlighted object, then LARGE PRINT DOS will position the double-underscore cursor in the upper-left corner of the page. From this point on, you can enter and exit the reading mode in the normal procedure, by using the "*" MODE key. The LARGE PRINT DOS program will continue to track the reverse-video highlight until you select a different cursor. 4b. HOW TO SWITCH BACK TO THE STANDARD CURSOR: The number 1 key. To switch back to the standard cursor, re-enter the reading mode and press the 1 key (located above the Q key). You will instantly return to the typing mode and see the standard cursor. Note that 1 switches to the standard cursor; 2 switches to the reverse highlight which is the principal alternate cursor. 4c. HOW TO DEFINE ALTERNATE CURSORS: The F6 and 3-9 keys. Suppose that you want to track some other letter, symbol, or color on the page. The LARGE PRINT DOS program lets you define any object that appears on the page to be an alternate cursor. To define an alternate cursor, enter the reading mode and press F6. You will see a flashing ? with the double-line underscore alternate cursor symbol beneath it. Use the Arrow keys to move the ?. When the ? overlaps the object that you wish to define to be an alternate cursor, press a number key, 3-9 (above the letter keys: E,R,T,... ). The number key assigns a cursor number to the object that you are selecting. After you press the number key, a three-choice menu will appear. The menu choices are: - Attribute - Character - Both char. & Attr. Choose "Attribute" if are interested in tracking a color or shaded area rather than a specific character or symbol. Choose "Character" if the object you want to select is a character or symbol and you do not care about its color or shading. Choose "Both char. & attr." if you want to track a character or symbol of a specific color or shade. Use the Up and Down-Arrow keys and press Return, or enter the first letter of your choice to make a menu selection. After you have made a decision, you will be given the opportunity to confirm your choice. The cursor number will appear on the screen together with the object that you selected. Press Y to confirm or N to change your mind. You can also press ESC to get back to the menu or F6 to abort. As an example, suppose you wish to track a reverse-video diamond. Press F6. Find the reverse-video diamond. When it is covered by the flashing ?, press 3 to identify it as cursor number 3. Next the menu will appear. Select "Both char. & attr." since you are interested in a diamond symbol that appears in reverse-video. Finally, press Y to confirm that you want to assign the reverse- video diamond to cursor number 3. 4d. HOW TO SWITCH TO AN ALTERNATE CURSOR To switch to one of the alternate cursors, re-enter the reading mode and type its cursor number. The LARGE PRINT DOS program will immediately return to the typing mode and track the alternate cursor. In the prior example, the reverse-video diamond was assigned to cursor number 3. When you press 3, the LARGE PRINT program will re-enter the typing mode and track the reverse-video diamond. 4e. HOW TO TURN OFF CURSOR TRACKING: The 0 key. Finally, suppose that you want to turn the cursor tracking off, and freeze the page in one position while you are in typing mode. While in reading mode, locate the section of the page that you want to freeze on the screen. Then, press the 0(zero) key, above the P key. The LARGE PRINT DOS program will return to the typing mode and display the double-line underscore of the alternate cursor. The page will remain frozen in position when you type. The only changes that you will see on the screen are changes that occur within the area of the page that is frozen on the screen. 5. RECORDING YOUR PREFERENCES The LARGE PRINT DOS program lets you select print size and page color, create windows, and define alternate cursors. The LARGE PRINT DOS program lets you record these preferences so that you they can automatically recall them at a later time. This means that you do not have to mechancially re-enter your choices each time you use the program. 5a. HOW TO STORE YOUR PREFERENCES: The F10 key. To store or load your preferences, press the F10 key. You will see a menu with 3 choices - Load, Store, and Clear. Identify your choice using the Up and Down-Arrow keys and pressing return, or by typing the first letter of your choice. Select "Store". You will then be asked to enter a label. A label consists of a combination of up to eight letters or numbers. The label serves as an identifier that you can use to recall your preferences at a later time. Because your preferences are stored under unique labels, you can store as many sets of preferences as you wish. For example, you can set up different Fixed, Column, and Row windows for each of your programs and store them under separate labels. Note: Because your preferences are stored on disk, you may occasionally hear a beep when you press F10. This means that your PC is currently performing another operation that must be completed first. Exit the reading mode, and let the PC complete the operation. Then re-enter the reading mode and try again. 5b. HOW TO RECALL YOUR PREFERENCES Press F10 and select "Load" from the menu. Next, enter the label of the preferences that you wish to recall. The preferences that you stored under this label will be automatically reloaded. You will see the print size, and page color change on the screen to correspond to the values that were recorded earlier. The windows and cursors that you defined when you first stored your preferences will also be re-activated. 5c. HOW TO AUTOMATICALLY LOAD YOUR PREFERENCES AT START UP Suppose that you have a set of preferences that you always want to begin with when you use the LARGE PRINT DOS program. Record this set of preferences under the "DEFAULT" label. Your DEFAULT preferences are automatically loaded each time you start the LARGE PRINT DOS program. 5d. HOW TO RESTORE THE ORIGNAL LARGE PRINT DOS SET-UPS. Finally, you can return to the original LARGE PRINT DOS set-ups by pressing F10 and selecting "Clear". The Clear feature restores the program to its original state. WHAT'S NEXT? 6. A PERSONAL NOTE The Large Print DOS program is constantly being updated and improved. As the author of Large Print DOS and a visually impaired computer user, I am very interested in your comments and ideas. Please let me know how you think the program can be improved in the future. M. Daniel Simkovitz VisionWare Software, Inc. LARGE PRINT DOS ADVANCED KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS Ctl Right-Arrow Move to the next word. Ctl Left-Arrow Move to the previous word. Ctl Home Move to the first word of the line. Ctl End Move to the final word of the line. Ctl PgUp Move to the first word of the page. Ctl PgDn Move to the final word of the page. Ctl Return Move to the first word of the next print line. { / [ Mark a column for review. Shift Return Move down one line in the column. F9 Select Fixed/Column/Row window mode. Tab Letter Tag a page window with a label, A-Z. Letter Move to window "Letter". Tab Right-Arrow Move right one window. Tab Left-Arrow Move left one window. Tab Up-Arrow Move up one window. Tab Down-Arrow Move down one window. Shift Tab Reverse a window move. Tab Del Delete a tagged window. F5 Relocate stationary cursor. Shift F5 Select cursor color. F6 (with 3-9) Select cursors, 3-9. Shift F6 Select cursor color. These number keys are on the top row of the typewriter keyboard: 1 Re-enter the typing mode and track the standard cursor. 2 Re-enter the typing mode and track the reverse highlight. 3-9 Re-enter the typing mode and track cursor 3-9. 0 Re-enter the typing mode with cursor tracking disabled. F10 Load/Store/Clear user preferences.