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- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND STARTING
-
- The Illustrated Reader will run on any IBM or
- 100% compatible PC with an EGA or VGA monitor and
- graphics card. Although the program will run from
- a floppy drive, a hard drive is almost necessary if
- you intend to read illustrated documents, due to
- the graphics overhead. You should also have at
- at least 256K of RAM (512K recommended) and DOS 2.1
- or higher. If you run Microsoft Windows, you must
- run this program as a DOS application. Consult the
- Windows manual for details.
-
- To start the Reader from DOS, just type IREAD
- and press the ENTER key.
-
- INSTALLATION
-
- If you received the IR from a disk vendor or retail outlet, then
- it should have a file called INSTALL.BAT that will unpack the program
- files and install the IR and its documentation. There is a small
- program called README.COM that is started by typing "readme" (without
- the quotes) and pressing the ENTER key. This program will display
- complete instructions for installation.
-
- The IR actually needs only one file, the executable or program
- file called IREAD.EXE, to run. All the other files are documents
- (.PCX files), pictures (.PCX files) or figure information (.FIF)
- files, which the IR uses to place the pictures within each article.
- To start the IR, just type "iread" and press ENTER. (If you typed
- "go", then you ran a special batch file that loads README.DOC.) But
- normally, you would just give the IREAD command.
-
- THE CONTROL PANEL
-
- Let's start our "tour" of the IR with the control panel, the area
- visible at the bottom of your screen while you're reading. (It fact,
- the only time it's not in plain sight is when the LOAD A NEW FILE
- screen appears, which will be described in the next section.)
-
- Starting from the left, under the ILLUSTRATED READER title is a
- handy date and time display. Then there are graphic representations
- of the ESC, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, F1 and F2 keys. If you have a
- mouse (you can tell if it's operative by checking to see if the arrow-
- shaped mouse cursor is visible) you can "click" on the pictured keys
- by moving the mouse cursor over the key, then pressing (and releasing)
- the LEFT mouse button. Only the left mouse button is used in the IR.
- You can also press the corresponding key on your PC keyboard, which,
- of course, is your only option if you don't have a mouse.
-
- Pressing the ESC key quits the program. Since it's very annoying
- to be kicked out to DOS when you don't really want to quit, a small
- yellow box will appear that asks "Are you sure? Y/N". If you really
- want to quit, you must press the "Y" key on the keyboard--no mouse
- actions are accepted here. (You don't have to use the shift keys,
- either upper or lower case "y's" are accepted.) Pressing any other
- key will cancel your quit request.
-
- Use the Page Up or Page Down keys (PgUp/PgDn on some keyboards) to
- page through the document. Some readers allow "scrolling" one line
- at a time with the up/down arrow keys. This is very hard on the eyes,
- especially in graphic modes, as the text tends to "roll" down the
- screen. The IR "pops up" each page in sequence, which is more like
- turning the pages in a traditional book. The same method is used with
- the HOME and END keys, which take you to the first and last pages of
- a document respectively.
-
- Finally, the F1 key presents a brief help screen (F1 accesses help
- in most PC programs) which summarizes the information in this and the
- last two paragraphs. Pressing F2 brings up the Reader Options Menu,
- shown to the right. This can be
- considered the "main menu" of the
- IR. All "pop up" menus in the IR
- operate the same way. You can
- "click" on your choice with the
- mouse, or press the number key that
- corresponds to the selection you
- want. Every menu also has a "Quit
- This Menu" option, in case you
- change your mind, or brought up the
- menu by mistake. There are also instructions for each menu in a
- window just right of the options (not shown here).
-
-
- LOAD A NEW FILE
-
- When you select "Load a New File", the control panel disappears
- and a title screen appears with instructions for loading a document
- into the IR. This screen varies slightly, depending on whether or
- not you have a mouse. A list of all the files with a .DOC extension
- will appear on the right side of the screen. If there are more than
- 19 of these files in the subdirectory where the IR resides, then a
- message saying either "More files--show them" or "More files--press
- a key" will be shown in reverse video (highlighted with black).
-
- If you are using a mouse, you can click on any of these filenames
- and that file will be loaded, with the first page displayed. If the
- "More files..." message shows, this means there are more than 19 .DOC
- files, and clicking on this message will display them. So you can
- easily find the file you want in this manner, move the arrow over
- the filename and "click" the left button.
-
- If you don't have a mouse (or have disabled the mouse driver),
- then a small white box will appear at the bottom of the screen,
- and you must type in the name of the file. Since all the files
- displayed have a ".doc" extension, you don't have to type that part.
- You can use the backspace key if you make a mistake. After typing
- the name, just press the ENTER key and the file will be loaded. If
- the "More files--press a key" message shows, then you will have to
- press a key and bring up the next list until there are no more .DOC
- files shown. The box will not appear until the end of the list has
- been reached.
-
- Command Line File-loading
-
- There is another way to load a file into the Reader. When you
- start the IR with the "iread" command, you can leave a space and
- type the full filename (name and extension) of the file you want
- to read, then press ENTER. For example, to directly load this file
- you could type:
-
- iread manual.doc (and press the ENTER key.)
-
- The IR will load and display ANY text file, whether or not it
- has a ".doc" extension. Say you have a file named LETTER.TXT. To
- read it, start the IR with the command "iread letter.txt" and it will
- be loaded, ready to read. ("Mouseless" users can use this method or
- type the entire filename in the box that appears on the Load a New
- File screen.)
-
- The Bookmark Feature
-
- Whenever you exit the IR, it writes a small text file called
- BOOKMARK.DAT, which contains information about the document you
- were reading. The next time you start the IR, it consults the
- bookmark file and loads that document, displaying the page you were
- on when you exited. Like a regular bookmark, the bookmark file
- keeps your place so that you don't have to page through the document
- or do word searches. (And, unlike a paper bookmark, it doesn't fall
- out of the book or get worn with use!)
-
- A Word of Caution
-
- The IR was designed to read text files ONLY. If you load in
- executable program files (those with .COM or .EXE extensions), the
- results will be unpredictable. (The only way you could do this
- would be to use the command-line method, or by typing it in if you
- don't have a mouse.) About 99% of the time the file will load, but
- the viewing area will be filled with strange characters known as
- "garbage." If this occurs, just press ESC and exit from the IR.
- You should also delete the BOOKMARK.DAT file (just give the command
- "del bookmark.dat") so the problem file doesn't get loaded when you
- restart the program.
-
- All files with a .DOC extension are listed when you select LOAD
- A NEW FILE. However, not all files with a .DOC extension are pure
- text files (also known as ASCII files). Many word processors save
- your files with a .DOC extension, but they have special "headers",
- or blocks of coded information at the beginning of the file telling
- the word processing program about underlining, bold print, column
- formats, and so on. Most of these files will load, but they will
- have "garbarge" characters mixed in with the text, or they may be
- cut off prematurely if one of the special characters is one that DOS
- uses to signal EOF (end of file).
-
- If you plan to use your word processor to prepare documents for
- viewing for the IR, be sure to save your work in an ASCII format.
- Most word processors offer this option. The best way to prepare
- IR documents, however, is to use a text editor (see the AUTHOR.DOC
- file).
-
-
- PRINT CURRENT PAGE/ARTICLE
-
- The first real submenu,
- PRINT CURRENT PAGE/ARTICLE
- gives you several options
- for printing. Here "page"
- refers to that part of the
- document visible on the screen.
- The first two options produce
- graphic prints, which will
- include any illustrations on
- the page. Be sure to select
- the correct type of printer. Option 1 is ONLY for laser printers.
- All others should select Option 2, if you want a graphic print. Color
- printing is not supported. The third and fourth options will produce
- a text-only printout, which is quicker and uses less ribbon or toner.
- Option 3 prints only the text on the current screen page, which would
- be handy for getting a bibliography, addresses or other info. very
- quickly. The fourth option prints the entire .DOC file. (In fact,
- you could print this manual right now by selecting this option!)
-
- When selecting any of the print options, always be sure your
- printer is on line and has a good supply of paper. When you select
- a print option, the mouse cursor will disappear and you will not be
- able to page or do any other program action for a few seconds while
- the program formats the data and sends it to the printer. (This
- generally only happens when you select a graphic printing.) Soon a
- message box will appear with a "Printing..." message, and printing
- will begin. Depending on the size of the printer's buffer, you
- may have to wait before resuming reading. The length of this wait
- will depend on how much there is to print. One-page jobs are
- shorter than whole-document dumps, and graphics printing takes
- longer than text-only. When printing is complete, the IR sends a
- "formfeed" code which will eject the last page printed.
-
- If you should accidentally select the laser graphic option when
- you have a dot matrix or other non-laser printer, just turn off the
- printer. The printing data stream should "time out" after a while
- and return control to the program. If somehow you lose complete
- control, just power everything down and try again.
-
-
- CHANGE TEXT/BACKGROUND COLORS
-
- The next submenu lets you
- select from seven different color
- combinations for the text display.
- The normal or "default" text and
- background colors is Option 1,
- black text on a light cyan (a sort
- of blue-green) background. This
- provides a nice high-contrast color
- scheme that mimics paper documents,
- but avoids a bright white back-
- ground, which would be too bright
- for a PC screen.
-
- The other color combinations are
- all high-contrast combinations that have been used with many popular
- PC word-processing programs. Color is a highly personal issue--each
- of us reacts differently to different combinations, so the IR offers
- some options to the default display.
-
- When you select a color scheme, the program redisplays the same
- page of the document you were reading in the new color scheme. One
- nice feature of the IR is that it remembers your current color scheme
- when you load in a new file, so that the first page of the new file
- will be displayed with the same colors used with the previous file.
- One word of caution is in order about changing colors: often the
- pictures in an IR document are designed to "blend in" with the cyan
- background, so rectangular "borders" may appear when you select a
- different color scheme. The borders are always there, of course,
- you just don't see them with the default color scheme.
-
-
- SEARCH FOR A WORD/PHRASE
-
- The last option is the word/phrase search. This is not a submenu,
- but a "pop-up" input screen. (It will be shown on the next page.)
- This feature is one of the biggest advantages of an electronic book
- over hardcopy editions. Say you're reading about lakes and want to
- find all references to Lake Michigan. It would take a LONG time to
- skim through a book or even an article and mark each occurance of
- the phrase "Lake Michigan". But the computer can do this in a split-
- second, making such research actually pleasant!
-
- To enter a word or a
- phrase you want to search
- for, either press the F2
- key or click on the F2
- icon below, then select
- Option 4 from the Reader
- Options Menu. The box
- shown on the right will
- appear. Like all sub-
- menus and input screens
- in the IR, it has in-
- structions provided on
- the screen itself. Just type in the word or phrase you want to
- search for, then press ENTER. (You might want to press the HOME
- key first, to start your search from the beginning of the file.)
- You can correct mistakes while typing the word or phrase with the
- backspace key, or toggle insert and typeover modes with the insert
- key.
-
- When you press ENTER the IR searches for the word or phrase, and
- takes you to the page where it first occurs. It marks the line where
- the word/phrase is found by "highlighting" it in yellow, just as if
- someone used a yellow highlighter to mark the line in a hardcopy book.
- (The advantage here, of course, is that it isn't permanent!)
-
- Word/phrase searches are limited to 24 characters maximum, which
- is an arbitrary limit that should suffice for most searches. If you
- need to find larger strings, e.g., "antidisestablishmentarianism",
- just type in the first 24 characters and this should work just as
- well. Searches are not case-sensitive--they treat upper and lower-
- case characters as identical.
-
- Often you want to repeat a search. It would be very annoying to
- have to call up the Reader Options Menu each time, so the IR has a
- handy "hot key" combination that will repeat the last word/phrase
- search. This is the ALT-S combination, which is activated by pressing
- the "s" key while holding down the ALT key.
-
-
- REGISTRATION AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT
-
- The Illustrated Reader is shareware, which is not free software,
- but a method of distribution that gives you a chance to "try it
- before you buy it". You may register at three different levels
- starting as low as $10. Read the MONEY.DOC file for full details
- on registration, licenses, warranties, etc. If you are considering
- authoring illustrated books or documents, be sure to read the AUTHOR
- and IDEAS .DOC files, which give full details. Finally, if you need
- to contact me personally, write to: Joe Kretschmer
- Tea Time Software
- 92 Acorn Circle
- Oxford OH 45056
- You can also call (513) 523-3830 after 6 PM Eastern time, or contact
- me on CompuServe by sending E-mail to 71020,1350.
-
- <<END OF ARTICLE>>
-