home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Datafile PD-CD 1 Issue 2
/
PDCD-1 - Issue 02.iso
/
_printapps
/
printapps
/
_formattxt
/
!FORMATTXT
/
!HELP
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-04-05
|
10KB
|
236 lines
Help for !FormatTXT
===================
This program is used to format text files. The text
can be formatted to fit on pages of a certain width and
length, with page breaks, a header line, and a footer
line. Lines can be justified to the Left, Centre,
Right, or both ends, or can be arbitrarily split at the
end of the line.
The important options available from the menu are
as follows:
* Save as:
Once you have dragged a file to !FormatTXT's
iconbar icon or into one of it's windows, the Save as
option can be used to format and save that file using
the present format. This basically allows you to format
a single file several times without having to
repeatedly drag that file to !FormatTXT.
NOTE: The SAVE AS window consists of 3 parts: a 'normal'
save as window, and two yellow buttons labeled 'Printer
Driver' (Which saves output DIRECT to any installed
printer driver (e.g. !PrinterDM)), and 'Last
application' (Which will send output to the last
application you saved to by dragging the text icon).
* Justify
This brings up the justification options window,
which allows you to select NO/Left/Centre/Right/Full
justification. This window can also be brought up by
clicking Select on the iconbar icon.
* Format
This brings up the (somewhat more comprehensive!)
format window. This allows you to set all the
formatting options (width,length of page, etc.). See
below for more information on formats. This window can
also be brought up by double-clicking Select on the
iconbar icon.
* Save Format
This saves the present state of the format and
justify windows as the default format window state. This
will be loaded every time you run the !FormatTXT
application, so is a good short-cut if you want to use
a specific format often. If you want to revert to the
original (default) format, DELETE the file 'Default' in
the !FormatTXT application directory.
Formatting options:
===================
The following are the options available from the
Format window:
* Page width: The width in characters of the page.
This is the TOTAL width, i.e. left and right margin
sizes will NOT be ADDED to this width, but rather are
included within it.
Note: If page width minus margins (i.e. actual line
width) is set to less than 15, (especially when <5)
the Formatting code may lock up. Thus, you will be asked
before formatting if you are sure you wish to continue.
If the code does lock up, press the ESC key (escape) to
abort the format.
* Page length: The length of the page in lines.
This is the TOTAL length, i.e. headers/footers etc. are
not ADDED to the length of the page, but rather are
included within it.
* Line Spacing: This controls how many newlines
will be printed at the end of each line of text. A
value of 1 outputs text normally. A value of 2 will
print a blank line inbetween each of the text lines
printed. A value of 3 prints 2 blank lines... and so
on.
* Left and Right Margins: These values control how
many spaces will be included at the start and end of
each line as margins. Usually these are set to 0.
* Top gap: This is the number of blank lines
printed at the top of each page (used to move down past
the perforation on continuous stationery).
* End gap: This is the number of blank lines
printed at the end of each page (used to move down past
the perforation on continuous stationery).
* Header: This is a single line of text that is
printed at the top of each page. If this line is left
blank, the header line will not be printed at all. The
header can include the following special sequences,
which are replaced by other text upon printing:
#F - This is replaced by the filename of the file
being printed.
#D - This is replaced by the current date e.g. "Sun
18 Mar, 1990"
#T - This is replaced by the current time e.g.
"16:02:29"
#N - This is replaced on each page by the present
page number (starting at 1)
## - This is replaced by a single '#'
#C - This moves all following text into the centre
of the line
#R - This moves all following text across to the
right of the line
* Head gap: This is the number of blank lines
inserted between the header line an the start of the
text placed on that page. This also won't be printed if
the header is left blank.
* Footer: This is similar to the header, but it
occurs at the bottom of each page. The special
sequences can be used here also. It won't be printed if
it is left blank.
* Foot gap: Similar to the head gap, this is the
number of blank lines between the bottom of the text on
that page and the footer line. This won't be printed if
the footer is left blank.
* FF char: This is the character (ASCII value) that
will be printed at the bottom of each page to cause a
FORM FEED. The normal Epson-compatible printer code for
Form feed is 12 (This corresponds to 'Clear screen' on
the Archimedes). Set this value to 0 to stop the
character being output.
* CR char: This is the character (ASCII value) that
will be printed at the end of each line (CARRIAGE
RETURN). The normal code for a CR is 13. Set this value
to 0 to stop the character being output. On most
printers, only an LF (see below) needs to be sent, so
this is set to 0 by default.
* LF char: This is the character (ASCII value) that
will be printed at the end of each line (LINE FEED).
The normal code for a LF is 10. Set this value to 0 to
stop the character being output.
The following options lie in the two boxes in the
top right and top centre of the format window. They are
all, by default, turned off. To turn one of these
options on, click on the text of the option, or on the
box to the left of the text with Select- a tick will
appear to show that the option is on.
* Expand tabs to [ xx ] spaces: When turned on,
this will convert any TAB characters (ASCII 9) that it
finds into spaces- Each tab character is replaced by
'xx' spaces.
* Remove multiple spaces: When on, this option will
strip 'runs' of more than one space down to only one
space. This helps to strip off indents and paragraph
indents.
* Remove multiple newlines: When on, this option
strips 'runs' of more than one newline (ASCII 10 or
ASCII 13), replacing them with a single newline. This
can be used to strip out unwanted 'blank lines' in the
text.
* Auto paragraph indent: When on, this inserts 5
spaces after every newline it finds. Thus if you type
in paragraphs as a single continuous piece of text in
!Edit, then this option will successfully indent the
first line of each paragraph.
* Remove characters: When turned on, this option
takes the list of characters in the white writeable box
to the right of this option, and deletes any characters
in this list from the text. e.g. If the list contains
the 'space' character, then all spaces will be stripped
from the text. The list is made up as follows:
Each character in the list is specified in one of
two forms: if you type a number, then the it will be
interpreted as an ASCII value. If you type a single
character enclosed in single quotes (e.g. 'A'), then
that character will be removed from the text. Each
character in the list is then seperated by commas.
e.g. To remove all newlines: 10,13
To remove all TABs: 9
To remove all capital A's: 'A' } either form
To remove all capital A's: 65 } will do
To remove ALL A's: 'A','a' or 65,97
* Upper threshold: This is an ASCII value. Any
characters in the text with ASCII values higher than
(But NOT including) this threshold, will be deleted.
This is very good for stripping 'Top-bit-set'
characters (threshold=127) that printers tend to
interpret as commands, causing them to go haywire.
* Lower threshold: Similar to upper threshold.
Again, this is an ASCII value. Any characters in the
text with ASCII values lower than (But NOT including)
this threshold (except for 10,13: the newline
characters) will be deleted. Generally this is used to
filter out ASCII value less than 32 (space) (i.e.
threshold=32), as these characters tend to cause mayhem
with printers.
* Character conversion: The three options at the
far right of the format window control how characters
are converted. The default setting is 'No conversion',
which leaves characters alone. Setting this to 'Force
uppercase' will cause all output text to be in
uppercase, while 'Force lowercase' causes all output to
be in lowercase text.
Possible (with a capital "Poss") future
improvements to this application:
-RAMload/RAMsave direct from/to other applications
-Incorporate fully functional DTP, Art package, Text
editor, Memory editor, Program archiver, and a Raytracer
(P.S. This was written in EDIT, and formatted with the
application, followed by minor touch-ups by me. This
format used Full justification, a left margin, and auto
paragraphing.)
On-line help is available using the !Help application on
the Applications disc 1 ('App1') disc.