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ICONEDIT.DOC
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IconEDIT
ver. 1.1
Copyright 1993, EFD Systems
All Rights Reserved
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─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
T A B L E of C O N T E N T S
Description ----------------------------------------------------------- 3
Installation and Startup ---------------------------------------------- 4
Building Menus -------------------------------------------------------- 5
Editing and Copying Icons --------------------------------------------- 6
Command Buttons ------------------------------------------------------- 8
How-To ---------------------------------------------------------------- 9
Mail Order ------------------------------------------------------------ 12
Maintenance Log ------------------------------------------------------- 13
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Description
IconEDIT is the graphical setup and maintenace utility for IconDOS. IconEDIT is
used to build and edit icon menu files containing up to 32767 icons. With
IconEDIT you can draw your own icons from scratch or you can copy and modify any
of the provided library icons. At the same time, you can edit an icon's title
and attach a DOS command string and password to the icon.
IconEDIT is almost totally mouse driven; therefore, a MicroSoft compatible mouse
is required. If a mouse driver is not present at startup, IconEDIT will abort
with a short message. IconEDIT also requires a VGA monitor (EGA will not work).
This condition is also checked at startup.
IconDOS icons are always 32 by 32 pixels. Wallpaper is also a 32 by 32 pixel
graphic that is placed into a special file, PAPER.ICN, for display as a
repeating backdrop pattern. Therefore, IconEDIT does not make a distinction
between icons and wallpaper and will edit either. During editing, IconEDIT
displays a normal and an expanded view of the icon. Drawing with the mouse
always takes place in the expanded view.
IconEDIT can now assign a 4 character password to an icon. The password is
requested from the user before the icon action will be performed. Passwords
are case insensitive, i.e. caps and lower case are considered to be the same.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Installation and Startup
Installation is very easy. Simply make a new directory and copy all of the
IconDOS files to it. If you insist, a batch file called INSTALL.BAT has been
provided which will do this for you. Change to the drive and directory where
the IconDOS files are located and type:
INSTALL path Example: INSTALL C:\MENU
To start IconEDIT, type:
ICONEDIT iconfile [buffile]
"iconfile" is the name of the file that you wish to edit. The file will be
created if it does not exist. "buffile" is the name of an optional
cut/copy/paste buffer file. If "buffile" is not specified, IconEDIT will create
and use a file called ICON.TMP. The "buffile" is the key to copying and moving
icons between files. Try editing DEMO.MNU for practice.
NOTE: The buffer file grows in size with each CUT or COPY command. ICON.TMP is
never deleted or overwritten, only added to. Therefore, you may wish to delete
this file from time to time in order to prevent it from becoming excessively
large.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Building Menus
An icon menu file can be built by hand drawing icons using IconEDIT; however, it
is easier and faster to copy icons from the provided icon library whenever
possible. Specific instructions for copying icons using IconEDIT are provided
in the following section. After icons have been drawn or copied, use IconEDIT
to add icon titles, command strings and passwords. Due to the command string
size limit of 14 characters, imposed by the IBM keyboard buffer, the command
string is normally used to call a batch file with a parameter. The batch file
actually contains the list of DOS commands needed to carry out specific icon
actions. A single batch file file can contain multiple sets of commands, one
set for each icon in a menu. An icon specific parameter should be passed by
the icon command string to the batch file for use in selecting the proper DOS
command set. RUN.BAT is a fully commented batch file which illustrates this
technique. This file can be modified for your own needs as desired. This batch
file is also used to make the menu system re-entrant by returning control to
IconDOS after a command set has been executed. Comments in RUN.BAT also
illustrate this.
To allow IconDOS to operate from any directory, the batch file containing the
DOS command sets should be located somewhere inside your DOS path. IconDOS can
be accessed from outside the IconDOS directory by specifying the full path for
both IconDOS and menu file like this: C:\MENU\ICONDOS C:\MENU\DEMO
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Editing and Copying Icons
As noted earlier, IconDOS is mostly mouse driven. Notes on-screen explain how
the CTRL and ALT keys will modify certain mouse actions. The keyboard is only
used to enter and edit icon titles, command strings and passwords.
All drawing takes place in the expanded view of the icon. Individual pixels are
painted by clicking inside a pixel box. Lines can be drawn by holding down a
mouse button and moving the cursor. A wide brush (3 X 3 pixels) is available
for filling in larger regions by holding down the ALT key while drawing.
The left and right mouse buttons can be assigned drawing colors by clicking on
the color bar. To erase instead of draw, simply assign the background color to
one of the buttons and draw over the area to be erased.
Note that you must explicitedly store your artwork to disk by clicking either
the SAVE or APPEND command buttons; otherwise, your work will be lost when you
leave IconEDIT or move to the next icon.
To edit a title, command string or password, click inside the labeled edit box.
The mouse is disabled until editing is terminated by ENTER or ESC. The box
editor provides Insert and Overstrike modes toggled with INSERT. Alt-C will
clear the box, Alt-R will restore. Home and End move to the box start/end.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Editing and Copying Icons (cont'd)
When building a menu, it is generally preferable to copy an icon from the
provided library, ICON.LBR, instead of drawing your own icon from scratch.
To copy icons between files, start IconEDIT in the following manner:
ICONEDIT fromfile tofile
For example, to copy an icon from ICON.LBR to MYMENU.MNU, start IconEDIT with:
ICONEDIT ICON.LBR MYMENU.MNU
Step through ICON.LBR until you find the desired icon. Note that Ctrl and Alt
keys can be used with the NEXT and PREVIOUS command buttons to jump more rapidly
through the file. Once the icon is found, click COPY. A copy of the icon will
be placed into MYMENU.MNU. DO NOT use CUT unless you wish to actually remove
the icon from ICON.LBR as it is being placed into MYMENU.MNU.
IconDOS can be used to view the icon library and select icons to be copied.
Simply type ICONDOS ICON.LBR. Icons are displayed in succession by row, 56 per
page. Selecting icons and noting their numbers in this way makes them easier to
find and copy later with IconEDIT.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Command Buttons
PREVIOUS - Move to the previous icon in the file. Hold the Alt key to move in
steps of 5 icons. Hold the Ctrl key to move to the start of the file. The
current icon number and the total icon count are shown at the upper right.
NEXT - Move to the next icon in the file. Alt key moves by 5. Ctrl key moves
to the end of the file. When moving, the user is prompted to save the
current icon if it has been modified.
CLEAR - Clears the icon to the mouse button color. For example, to clear the
icon to solid red, assign red to one of the mouse buttons by clicking on the
color bar and then click CLEAR with the red mouse button.
CUT - Removes the current icon from the file and places it in the buffer file.
The last icon in the file is moved to fill the current position and the total
icon count is reduced by 1.
COPY - Copies the current icon to the buffer. The current file is unchanged.
PASTE - Copy the next icon from the buffer file and overwrite the current icon
display. Only the screen display is overwritten, SAVE or APPEND must be used
to overwrite the icon on disk. PASTE starts at the end of the buffer file
and progresses backward with each use in a Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) manner.
APPEND - Adds the currently displayed icon to the end of the file. Increases the
total icon count by 1.
SAVE - Overwrites the current disk icon number with the displayed icon.
Exit - The window button in the extreme upper left of the screen exits IconEDIT.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
How-To
- Add a new icon to a file?
Draw or copy a new icon (using Copy or Paste as described above) at any location
in the file. With the icon is displayed, click the APPEND command button. The
icon, as currently displayed, will be appended to the end of the file. Ctrl-Next
moves to the end of the file to view or edit the newly appended icon.
- View all of the icons in a file?
Start IconDOS and specify the file. For example, ICONDOS ICON.LBR, will display
all of the icons from the provided icon library on successive pages with 56
icons per page.
- Setup a submenu?
Assign a submenu file name (.MNU extension required) to an icon in place of a
DOS command string. IconDOS will load the submenu file when the icon is
clicked. You may want to provide an icon in the submenu which re-loads the
previous menu. See DEMO.MNU and SUBDEMO.MNU for an example. All menus and
submenus should always be maintained in the same directory; otherwise, IconDOS
may have trouble locating the needed files.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
How-To (cont'd)
- Move icons within a file?
Delete the default buffer file, ICON.TMP. Edit the file using the default
buffer (don't specify a buffer file). COPY all of the icons to be moved.
PASTE the copied icons into new positions and SAVE, one at a time.
- Move icons between files?
The most direct way is to edit the file to be copied FROM while using the file
to be copied TO as the cut/copy/paste buffer (see pg. 7). Alternately, any
icons copied from one file into the default buffer are available for pasting
into any subsequent file being edited. The default buffer is never deleted or
overwritten, only added to.
- Edit or create new wallpaper?
Use IconEDIT to edit the wallpaper file, PAPER.ICN, in the same way that you
edit a menu file. As mentioned previously, icons and wallpaper are structurally
identical. Wallpaper is just an icon that is in a special file. You really
should make a backup copy of PAPER.ICN before you start editing to avoid any
possibility of mishaps.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Mail Order
To use this software beyond a 30-day trial period requires the purchase of a
license. A license can only be purchased by direct mail order from the author
(just like in the old days with the Sears catalog). See ORDER.FRM or send a
check or money order for $25 US to:
EFD Systems
304 Smokerise Circle SE
Marietta, GA 30067 CIS:72627,3026
As a minimum, licensed users will receive the following:
- The lastest licensed version of IconDOS including a library of at least 450
ready-to-use high quality icons and new wallpaper.
- A utility to display 16 color PCX files and capture icons from the screen.
Provides an indirect but workable path to convert Window's icons to IconDOS.
The icon library was converted from public domain Windows icons in this way.
- Information on upgrades and any new utilities not offered as shareware.
Registered users can upgrade to any later version for a $5 S & H fee.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Maintenance Log
1.0 - 1/8/93 (the King's birthday) Original release.
1.1 - 1/21/93 Added password security.
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