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1985-03-10
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F O R M S
Reference Manual
Version 1.0
March 1985
MaeDae Enterprises
1826 Wren
League City, TX 77573
(c) Copyright 1985 by MaeDae Enterprises
All Rights Reserved
PREFACE
FORMS is distributed under the "Shareware" concept. Feel free
to pass copies to your friends and PC users groups. This program
may be uplinked to bulletin boards provided this documentation
file is included. YOU MAY NOT SELL FORMS!
A contribution of $30.00 is suggested if FORMS proves useful to
you. This contribution entitles you to:
1. A copy of the latest version of FORMS
2. A complete users manual
3. Notification of future updates of FORMS
4. Notification of other software products developed
by MaeDae Enterprises
Send all contributions and inquires to:
MaeDae Enterprises
1826 Wren
League City, TX 77573
Disclaimer:
MaeDae Enterprises makes no claims for or offers no warranties of
any sort with FORMS. MaeDae Enterprises assumes NO responsibility
for any sort of damage resulting from the apparent or actual use
of FORMS (mental or physical). MaeDae Enterprises DOES want to
know of any problems users have with FORMS and will fix any
"bugs" found by our users. We will also try to incorporate
changes and enhancements based on our users suggestions.
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. OVERVIEW
2. GETTING STARTED
3. KEY DESCRIPTIONS
4. SUGGESTIONS/EXAMPLE USAGE
5. NOTES ON FORMS
ii
OVERVIEW
FORMS is a form-generating program that allows you, the user,
to generate master forms tailored to your individual needs.
FORMS allows you to create or revise a master form or a
completed (filled out) form. A master form can be altered only
if you are operating in the "create or revise a master form"
mode.
Master and completed forms can be stored as well as printed.
Once a master form has been created and saved, it can be
recalled an unlimited number of times to be filled out and then
stored as a completed form.
FORMS supports IBM (Epson) compatible printers as well as Daisy
wheel printers, however only Epson and Epson compatibles (Gemini
10X for example) can take advantage of the compressed mode used
by FORMS when printing out larger forms.
FORMS requires an IBM PC or IBM PC compatible with at least 256K
of RAM. Direct screen memory access is used to provide high
speed screen updates. This may make FORMS unusable on some
"not too close" IBM PC compatibles. If after loading FORMS,
you see only text, no borders, then you have a compatibility
problem. If you provide MaeDae Enterprises with information
on your screen memory starting address, MaeDae Enterprises
will try to include your display adapter particulars in the
FORMS defaults. IBM monochrome, color, and enhanced graphics
adapters are known to work with FORMS.
1
GETTING STARTED
Everything has a beginning. The ballerina begins by sticking
her foot into her slipper, the college professor by finding his
box of multicolored chalk, and you'll begin by loading DOS into
your computer. If you are an experienced computer person then
type FORMS and skip to the description of the menu items.
However, if you're like the Mae of MaeDae Enterprises (who just
happens to be the one writing this section), then you'll need
all the help you can get.
So find the diskette that has your DOS on it. After loading
DOS, type FORMS and press enter. A wonderful display written by
the Dae of MaeDae will come up (my husband really spent some
time on this so please appreciate it)!
At this point, some nice to know information will come up.
Basically, if you are this far along your computer has enough
memory to run FORMS. Press any key. TA-DA the MAIN MENU.
The Main Menu options with descriptions are below.
1. Create/Revise Master Form: This option allows you
to create a new master form or revise an existing
one. You have the capability to designate the form
size (maximum size is 86 lines by 130 columns),
adding (or deleting) a border and drawing horizontal
or vertical lines (diagonal lines are not possible).
The cursor control keys are enabled, allowing you to
"walk around" a newly created form.
2. Complete a Master Form: With this option, you can
retrieve, then complete a copy of a master form.
Text added to the original master form can be
manipulated, however, any text which is part of the
master form can't be changed.
3. Revise Completed Form: Here you can recall a
completed form for revision. This option is the
same as option two, except you aren't starting with
with the "clean slate" of a master form. You have
complete freedom to revise any portion of the form
except for the master form outline.
4. Print a Form: This option gives you full access to
the computer directories and drives to allow you
flexibility in searching out and printing forms. If
you have an Epson or Epson compatible, then you can
take advantage of the compressed print format for
larger forms.
5. Utilities: This section lets advanced users really
"play" with this package. You will be able to
manipulate forms -- erase, copy, rename, and even
export a form to a standard ASCII DOS file.
2
6. General Information: For those of you who will just
have to run FORMS before reading the documentation,
here is a short overview.
7. Exit to DOS: All good things must come to an end.
Choose this option if you want to leave FORMS and
return to DOS.
NOTE: Once a form size has been selected (option 1),
it cannot be changed.
3
KEY DESCRIPTIONS
Generating a master form consists of determining form dimensions,
drawing lines, and adding appropriate text. FORMS defines the
numeric keypad keys, the keyboard keys, and function keys to make
this task easy.
KEYPAD KEYS: With the exception of the insert and delete keys,
all keypad keys are non-destructive, that is, the character under
the cursor is not changed.
left arrow - move cursor one space left
right arrow - move cursor one space right
up arrow - move cursor up one line
down arrow - move cursor down one line
page up - move screen up one page (24 lines) within form
page down - move screen down one page within form
home - move screen to upper left portion of form
end - move screen to lower left portion of form
insert - inserts desired number of spaces at the cursor while
moving rest of line right
delete - deletes character under cursor and moves rest of line
to left to fill in space
FUNCTION KEYS: These keys perform different functions depending
on whether you are working on a master form or a completed form.
Master Form Completed Form
----------- --------------
F1 Help F1 Help
F3 Draw Border F10 Exit
F4 Erase Border
F5 Draw Line
F6 Erase Line
F10 Exit
Note: For F5 and F6 position the cursor at the beginning point
and press the function key once. Then position cursor at the
ending point and press the function key again. F5 and F6 can be
used for either vertical or horizontal line drawing/erasing.
KEYBOARD KEYS: All letters and numbers are entered as you
normally would from the keyboard. The special keyboard keys are:
control right arrow (hold down Ctrl and press keypad right
arrow) - move cursor to right side of form
control left arrow - move cursor to left side of form
return - move one line down, start of line
backspace (keyboard left arrow) - move cursor one position to
the left along with the rest of line
Only in Master Form mode:
Alternate I (hold down Alt and press I) - insert line
Alternate D - delete line
4
SUGGESTIONS/EXAMPLE USAGE
STEPS FOR EXAMPLE: Creating a form named TEMP.
1. Bring up FORMS.
2. Press any key to go from the FORMS logo to the Main Menu.
3. Select 1 for Create/Revise Master Form. The screen will
clear and you will be presented with a menu of all the
existing master forms.
4. Type TEMP and press enter. A menu will appear asking you
to define the form size.
5. Select 3 for a 40 line by 80 column form. You are now in
the edit mode for a master form.
6. Press F3. A border should appear around the entire form.
Notice that the bottom of the form is missing. We are
only looking at the 1st 24 lines of a 40 line form.
7. Press PgDn. The rest of the form will now appear.
8. Press F5 for a line. Move the cursor to the right side of
the form by pressing Ctrl and the keypad right arrow. Press
F5 again. We have just drawn a horizontal line on line 17
of our form. Don't worry about the "-" in column 1 of the
form overwritting part of the border. Just press F3 once
more to restore the border.
9. Be creative. Walk around on the form and type in text,
make vertical lines, or anything you desire. Refer to this
manual or press F1 (Help) then select 4 for more information
on the key functions.
10. Press F10 (Exit). We are ready to save our masterpiece.
11. Select 7 (Save and Exit). When asked for the file name type
TEMP and press enter. TEMP will now be saved.
12. Select 2 (Complete a Master Form). You will see a directory
of master forms displayed. Type TEMP and press enter.
13. You are now in the "complete a form" mode. Walk around on
the screen and "fill out" the form you generated earlier.
Notice how the outline of the master form is protected from
erasure.
14. Press F10 (Exit). We have now completed a master form.
15. Select 7 (Save and Exit). When asked for the file name type
TEMP01 and press enter. We have just saved our first
completed form (notice the 01 we added after TEMP in the file
name, this allows easy reference later).
16. We are now back at the Main Menu. From here you can print
TEMP or call it in for further revision.
5
NOTES ON FORMS
A mixture of information relating to FORMS is listed below.
These items didn't seem to fit into any of the other sections
but need to be passed on to you.
GENERAL:
1. FORMS was written in Borland's Turbo Pascal. The source
code consists of 4000 lines of code.
2. All screen manipulation, including windowing, is handled by
writing directly to the screen memory. This provides extremely
fast screen updates and allows high speed scrolling of text on
the screen. Checks are performed to determine whether your
system is color or monochrome and the corresponding section of
memory is used.
3. FORMS is a "Shareware" software package. Please provide
suggestions for improvement and also a contribution of $30 to
show us that our efforts are not in vain. FORMS will continue
to improve as long as people suggest improvements and contribute
toward its development.
PRINTING:
1. Most IBM PCs have the printer connected on LPT1 (the first
parallel printer port). The Print Menu allows you to select
LPT1 as the default printer port. If you select it, then FORMS
will do a check to ensure that the printer is turned on and
on-line prior to trying to print. This will allow you to
correct most problems prior to the start of printing.
2. If you have chosen an Epson compatible printer then FORMS
will use compressed print and adjust the line spacing as
necessary to allow your form to fit on a single sheet of paper.
SAVING:
1. Retyping the file name is required only if you are creating
a new master form or filling out a master form. If you are
editing an existing form then press enter when asked for file
name and the original file name will be used.
2. Before saving, a check is done to ensure sufficient space is
left on the diskette and that the file doesn't already exist. If
a problem occurs, FORMS will prompt you for the necessary action.
6
DEFAULT DRIVE:
FORMS allows you to change the default drive so that you can have
full access to all the drives on your system. If an error occurs
while saving to one drive, then you can always switch to another
drive and try again.
CHANGE DIRECTORY:
Many of the menus allow you to change to another directory.
You can access all the directories available on the default
drive. You must be using DOS ver 2.0 or later for this to work.
FILE NAME EXTENSIONS:
1. FORMS uses the file name extensions FRM and FOF to designate
master form and completed (filled out form) respectively. These
extensions are transparent to you except when you ask for a
complete directory listing under the utilities menu or from DOS.
2. Master forms when saved to disk consist of only the text with
a 128 byte header containing information about the form size.
3. Completed forms when saved to disk consist of the text
alternated with the video attribute (protected or unprotected)
along with the 128 byte header.
7
