The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-386-Vol-2of3.iso/z/zoomdoc.zip/MANUAL2.TXT

Text File | 1992-11-15 | 39KB | 900 lines

                            ZOOM
           ■════════════════════════════════════■

          ADMINISTRATOR'S GUIDE TO ZOOM VERSION 2.3

      (c) Copyright 1992 by ATI.  All Rights Reserved.
                        October 1992

                  ■═══════════════════════■

Notes

      If you create stacks that may be of interest to others, you are free
      to market them.  However, we would like to obtain a copy of it
      as well.  If we like your stack and include it with Zoom for
      distribution, we will also give you a free registration.

Disclaimer
      ATI hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this software,
      whether expressed or implied, including without limitation any
      implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular
      purpose.  ATI will not be liable for any special, incidental,
      consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or
      any other reason, even if ATI or an agent of ATI has been
      advised of the possibility of such damages.

      For technical assistance, contact:

      Alternative Technologies, Inc.
      MIT Branch
      P.O. Box 118
      Cambridge, MA 02139
      USA

      Phone:  [phone]
      FAX:    [phone]
      email:  [e-mail]


      The Zoom software has been produced with the assistance of the
      World Health Organization and the E.M. Clark Foundation.

Trademark
Acknowledgments


      All terms mentioned in this Guide that are known to be
      trademarks or service marks are listed below.

      dBASE III is a registered trademark of Ashton-Tate.

      Hercules is a registered trademark of Hercules Computer
      Technology.

      IBM, PC-DOS, PC-AT, PC-XT, and PS/2 are all registered
      trademarks of International Business Machines, Inc.

      Lotus is a registered trademark of Lotus Development
      Corp.

      MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft, Inc.

      MultiMate is a registered trademark of Ashton-Tate.

      PC Paintbrush is a registered trademark of Z-Soft
      Corporation.

      ScanJet Plus is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard
      Corporation.

      Wordperfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect
      Corporation.

      WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro International
      Corporation.


1.   Introduction

Zoom is a computer software package for IBM-PC and compatible
computers capable of organizing and presenting ideas.  Zoom enables the
user to search through the stacks (database) using the concepts of Index
and Key Words.  Zoom is easy to use and requires only a basic hardware
and software configuration.  In addition, Zoom stacks are easy to create,
and has the capability to interact with the user in English, French, Spanish
and Portuguese (planned).

1.1  Computer Hardware Requirements

Zoom is designed to run on IBM PC, XT, AT and PS/2 computers and
compatibles with at least 512 KB of RAM.  A hard disk is highly
recommended.  If a mouse is installed, Zoom will use it.  A color monitor
is a plus, but it is not required.  If the information consists only of text,
then there are no additional hardware requirements.  If the information
consists of text and pictures, a graphics adapter is required.  Zoom
supports all graphics modes up to and including VGA.  (The current
version of Zoom, version 2.3, supports all the graphics modes, but the
images will be distorted on CGA and HGA.)  If images need to be
scanned, a scanner such as a  Hewlett-Packard ScanJet Plus is required.

1.2  Computer Software Requirements

Zoom requires PC/MS-DOS Version 3.0 or higher.  A text editor, capable
of writing ASCII format, is required to enter the text information and
establish links.  Popular word processors, such as WordStar or
WordPerfect, are ideal for this purpose.  If pictorial information are
required, a paint software package capable of manipulating PCX image
format, such as PC PaintBrush by ZSoft Corporation, Maretta, GA 30067,
USA [phone], is required.  Zoom reads the PCX image format.
For database files, any program that can write DBF files is acceptable.
For spreadsheets, any program that can write WKS files is acceptable.
1.3 Structure and Organization

Zoom allows the organization of text and pictures into a logical, inter-
connected structure.  Information is linked using key words and through
an index file.  The Index file is also an ASCII file, modifiable by the
administrator.  The Index file will be talked about in more detail later in
the manual.

The basic unit of information in Zoom is the slide.  A slide consists of a
screen of graphical or textual information.  Zoom utilizes what is called a
virtual screen.  A virtual screen allows the displaying of images larger
than the size of the monitor.  The computer monitor works like a window
looking into a larger piece of image, allowing the user to scroll through
the entire image.  The actual size of the window is dependent on the type
of graphics adapter used.  Usually, a piece of information will consist of
several connected text and graphic slides.  Connection are made by
linking the slides through the use of branches.  These concepts will be
explained later on.

Next level of organization is the chapter.  A chapter is formed by
grouping a set of slides together.  Thus, a chapter can consist of both text
and pictures.  Chapters are different from branches mainly in the size and
the heterogeneity of the material contained.  For example, a branch may
consist of a discussion on apple seeds.  However, a chapter may discuss
fruits in general.  Apple seeds branch will then be a subset of the Fruits
chapter.   Zoom can handle up to 300 chapters, each with up to 300
slides.  The total number of slides that a Zoom stack can hold is 300 x
300 or 90,000.

In addition to the organization of material, Zoom assigns a level of
priority for each slide.  This will determine how a slide is displayed.  The
slides that the administrator feels are essential are called Slides and the
slides which contain information that may be too detailed or may be of
little interest to most readers are called Subslides.  When the user selects
Run command from the menu, Zoom sequences through series of Slides
which make up the body of information.  If the user desires more detailed
information on a particular topic, it is possible to branch off to a related
set of slides.  These related slides will consist of both Slides and
Subslides.

The user moves from topic to topic by using the concept of link.  A link
is a relationship between different slides established by the administrator
through the use of the index file.  A slide can point to a number of other
slides and in turn may be pointed to by other slides.  Through the use of
function keys, the user can jump between various topics and return to the
starting point at any time.

1.3.1  The Slide

As mentioned previously Zoom partitions the information into basic units
of slides.  There are two types of slides - @Slides and @SubSlides.
@Slides make up the core sequence, and may include more basic
material.  Therefore, when the user begins Zoom, the user is usually led
through a sequence of slides made up of @Slides.  @SubSlides may
contain more detailed information about a particular subject matter which
is available to the user only through a link from another @Slide or
@SubSlide.  @SubSlide is not shown if the user selects the automatic
mode.

For example, a chapter contains a set of slides, both @Slide and
@SubSlide.  The core material is made up only of @Slides.  Therefore, if
the user does not branch off to other subjects by using Key words or
Index, the user will only view the @Slides.  Each @Slide can be linked
to @SubSlides or @Slides.  The following diagram is used to illustrate
this point - S represents @Slides and SS represents @SubSlides.


Slide 1          2          3          4          5          6
      S════════S════════S════════S════════S════════S
                           
                 │          
                 │          SS───────SS──────SS──────SS
                 │
                 
                 SS───────SS───────SS──────SS
                            
                            
                            SS───────SS──────SS
                                       
                                       
                                       SS──────S(6)

                  Fig. 1 - Slide link tree

The level of references (linking) may be very complicated or very
simple.  It is up to the administrator to create those links.  Only a
very simple example has been used to illustrate the linking concept.
As can be seen on Figure 1, @Slides can be linked to @SubSlides or
other @Slides.  @SubSlides can also be linked to @Slides and other
@SubSlides.

When a user begins Zoom in automatic mode (by selecting Run command
from the menu), the first slide of chapter 1 is shown (refer to Fig.
1).  By using the Page Down key or the Next menu command, the following
slide, Slide 2, is shown.  The user can, at any point, view the
previous slide by using the Page Up key or the Previous menu command.
If there are no previous or following slides, Zoom notifies the user of
the proper action to take.

In addition to viewing the core slides, the user can view the SubSlides
(SS in Fig. 1) by branching from the core slides.  In Figure 1, two
sets of SubSlides are linked to Slides 2 and 3.  A key word provides
the link to other Slides and SubSlides.  A set of key words can be
associated with each Slide or SubSlide and is available to the user
from the Key words menu command.  The user can select one of the key
words from the key words menu and branch to the slides which are linked
to the key word.  There can be up to 20 key words per slide, and the
maximum length of the key words is 46 characters, including the "hide
character ^".

The Index file can be considered as a road map used by Zoom.  The index
file contains the links for all the key words in all the chapters of a
Zoom stack.  When the user selects a key word from the Key word menu,
Zoom searches the index file and locates the links and loads the proper
sequence of slides.  The Index is available to the user at any point
during the program from the Index menu command.  Since the Index file
contains all the key words from all the slides, the user can branch to
any slide on any chapter.

1.3.2 The Chapter

A chapter contains the text information and the commands used by Zoom
to display the information.  There are several commands used by Zoom to
determine, for example, to display text in a window on the screen, to
change the color of the text and to control the duration of pause at
the end of each text line.  A chapter may hold up to 300 slides, and
there may be up to 300 chapters per stack.


2.   The Formation of Slides and SubSlides


The interaction of Zoom with the stack file is analogous to the
interaction between say a BASIC program and a BASIC interpreter.  Zoom
reads each line in the stack and looks for commands which tell it how
to display the information.  The commands are, however, much simpler
than any programming language.  All commands begin with an '@' and take
an  argument, followed by an open bracket '[',  the text, and an close
bracket ']'.  For example, the command that tells Zoom to display a
phrase in red looks as follows:

              @red[This text will be printed in red.]

The commands can be placed in any position in the text.  Zoom will not
show the command or brackets when displaying on the computer screen or
printing.  In this example, only the sentence This text will be printed
in red. will appear on the screen (in red).  A command cannot occur
within another command.

2.1 The Text Slide

A chapter is divided up into slides using the '@Slide[ ]' command.
Each slide must have a unique label that is no longer than 12
characters (any characters beyond 12 will be ignored).  Since the key
words and the index use the slide label to identify each slide in a
stack, each label must be unique among the entire stack (all the slides
in all the chapters).  For example, the first slide in the Middle Ages
chapter, may look like:

@Slide[FirstSlide-TEXT-]

This is the text in the first slide on the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages
were neither high, nor low; they were in the middle.

In general, a text slide can have up to 21 lines of text.  However, if
a slide is longer than 21 lines, Zoom will allow the user to scroll the
rest of the text on the screen.

The first argument after the @Slide command, 'FirstSlide', is the slide
label.  No other slide can have 'FirstSlide' as its label.  Zoom is
case insensitive - FirstSlide is same as firstslide or FIRSTSLIDE.
However, for ease of comprehension, mixed upper and lower case letters
should be used.  The slide label can be up to 12 characters long,
including the "hide character".

The second argument, 'Text', tells Zoom that this is a text slide and
to print the information on the screen.  The dashes, '-', are essential
and are used to separate arguments.  The arguments are also case
insensitive.

Suppose that in the second slide we wish to give the user the freedom
to look at a certain topic in greater detail.  We must, then, provide
key words for the slide.  A key word points to an entry in the index
file which contains a sequence of Slides or SubSlides that can explain
in greater detail the selected key word.  It is up to the author to
determine how links are established.

Do not confuse key words with slide labels.  A slide label is the name
of a particular slide.  It is how a slide is identified by Zoom.  A key
word, on the other hand, is used by Zoom to establish links between
slides.  It is done through the index file.  A typical line in the
Index file may look like this:

Industrial revolution^One-IndustAge1-IndustAge2-Machines-

Industrial revolution^One is the key word and IndustAge1, IndustAge2,
Machines are slide labels.  The "hide" character (^) allows you to have
multiple index entries that appear to be the same entries to the user.
Characters after the hide character is not displayed on the screen, but
Zoom will use it to identify the link.  In this case, the user will see
only Industrial revolution on the screen but Zoom will consider the
entry to be Industrial revolution^One.  This is useful if you need to
have several of the same entries in the index.  The following example
explains this concept further.

Industrial revolution^One-IndustAge1-IndustAge2-Machines-

Industrial revolution^Two-NotClean1-NotClean2-


In this example, the author wanted to have sub-index headings in two
different places that is called Industrial revolution.  Each of the
index entries has its own list of slides to display.  To  the user,
only the phrase Industrial revolution will be displayed.  But Zoom will
use the hide character and the characters after it to identify them as
unique entries.

If Industrial revolution^One was selected from the key word menu or
from the index, the three slides called IndustAge1, IndustAge2,
Machines will be lined up in the sequence to be viewed by the user.  At
the end of the third slide, Machines in this case, Zoom will tell the
user that the end of the sequence for Industrial revolution^One was
reached and that the user can press either F2 or F4 key to get back to
where they were before.

It will be explained a little later in detail how one makes the link
between key words and the corresponding slides.  For now the second
slide with links to such topics as  'Aristocracy', 'Clergy', and
'Peasants' may look like this:

@Slide[SecondSlide-Text-Aristocracy-Clergy-Peasants-]

Life in the Middle ages was very difficult, especially if you were a
peasant.   Life was much better if you were a member of the clergy, but
life was the best if you were part of the aristocracy.

Note that the first two arguments after the @Slide command are the
slide label and the slide type.  The remaining arguments are the key
words for this slide.  A slide can have up to 20 key words and the key
words can be up to 46 characters long, including the hide character
("^").  A key word can be a combination of words, spaces, and extended
ASCII characters.  However, a dash ('-') or brackets ('[]') are not
allowed.  The key words thus defined will appear under the Key words
menu choice.  If a key words is selected, Zoom displays the referenced
slides on the screen.

The other kind of slide, SubSlide, is used in a manner similar to the
Slide, except the SubSlide is accessible only through links.
Therefore, SubSlide is suitable for information that may be very
detailed and may not be of interest to the majority of the users.  An
example of the SubSlide is as follows.

@SubSlide[DetailedInfo-Text-]

With the advance of the plow, made by @red[Jethro Tull], crop
production during the Middle Ages increased tenfold.

This particular SubSlide, DetailedInfo, can only be accessed through
references from other Slides and SubSlides.  The links are formed
through the use of index file.

In the SubSlide 'DetailedInfo', we have also used the color command to
make 'Jethro Tull' stand out. Zoom can display different combination of
foreground and background colors.  Zoom will let you select same the
foreground and background colors, so you have to make sure that the
color combinations are visually acceptable.  The following is a list of
color commands available in Zoom.

@black[Color Text]
@blue[Color Text]
@green[Color Text]
@red[Color Text]
@magenta[Color Text]
@brown[Color Text]
@lightgray[Color Text]
@darkgray[Color Text]
@lightblue[Color Text]
@lightgreen[Color Text]
@lightcyan[Color Text]
@lightred[Color Text]
@lightmagenta[Color Text]
@yellow[Color Text]
@white[Color Text]

All the colors can be used as a background color by using @bgcolor
command.

@bgwhite[Color Text]
@bggreen[Color Text]
.
.

Simply printing the text to the screen can be boring.  Often it would
be more interesting to change the speed of printing to the screen.
Zoom has the capabilities to delays the printing the text on the
screen.  When such pause is introduced, it makes the printing more
dramatic.  The command is issued as:

@Slide[DelayExample-Text-]

This line is printed without delay.
@Delay[5000] This line is printed after a 5 second delay.

The argument to the delay command, 5000, is the number of milliseconds
to wait before printing.

2.2   The Quiz Slide

Zoom as the ability to ask the user a question and wait for the correct
answer.  Zoom will not let the user go on without answering the
question.  The user is given three attempts at answering the question.
If the user fails at the third attempt, Zoom provides the user with the
correct answer and allows the user to continue on.  Thus, with the Quiz
slide, one has the ability to test the user's retention of the
information.  As with the text slide, the administrator can provide key
words. The index is also available to the user during the quiz, but the
Previous and Next menu choices are not available.  The format of the
Quiz slide is:

@Slide[Question1-Quiz-Answer-key word1-key word2-]

The Quiz slide can either be a Slide or a SubSlide.  As with any other
slide, the Quiz slide must be given a unique label.  The argument
following the slide label, Quiz, tells Zoom that this is a quiz slide.
The third argument is the correct question answer.  In addition, the
Quiz slide may have key words which may be linked to the review
information.  The user, however, is not allowed to progress in the
chapter sequence until answering the question.  An example is as
follows.

@Slide[EuropeWar1-Quiz-C-]

   The Thirty Years War raged through Europe for:
            (Answer A, B, or C and press Enter)

   A) Three months, but it seemed like thirty years.
   B) Three years, but the name was actually mistranslated.
   C) Thirty years, and this is a really stupid question.

In this example, EuropeWar1 is the slide label, and C is the correct
answer.  All Text slide commands are available in the Quiz slide.

2.3   The Picture Slide

The Picture slide gives Zoom the capability to display not only text,
but pictures as well.  The picture must be in the PCX (ZSoft, PC
Paintbrush) format and the computer must be equipped with a graphics
adapter.  A picture slide can also be a Slide or a SubSlide.  When Zoom
encounters the PCX slide command, it will search the current directory
for a file with name of the slide label and the extension PCX.  If no
file exists with that name, an error message is displayed.  A picture
slide is accessed by using the following command.

@Slide[Picture1-PCX-keyword1-keyword2-keyword3-]

As you can see, a Picture slides may also have key words.  The key
words for the Picture slide will appear in the Key words menu and will
work in the same way as the key words from the Text or Quiz slide.  The
index will work as well.  In the example given above, Zoom will search
the current directory for a file called 'PICTURE1.PCX'.  If the file is
found, and is in correct PCX format, the image will be displayed.  If
the file is not found, an error message is generated.

2.4   The Pointer Slide

The Pointer slide is the fourth category of slides, after Text, Quiz
and PCX.  The Pointer slide is used as a pointer to another slide in
the stack.  A Pointer slide could be used, for example, when you want
to present the information from another slide in the stack, but do not
want to re-type the information.  Using the Pointer slide can save a
lot of disk space, especially if multiple showing of same picture slide
is done.  An example of the pointer slide implementation is:

@SubSlide[Picture2-Pointer-Picture1-]

This example shows the Pointer slide, labeled Picture2, as a SubSlide.
The Pointer slide points to the slide labeled 'Picture1'.  The slide
'Picture1' will be displayed by this command along with all of
Picture1's key words and attributes.

2.5   The Executable Slide

The Executable (EXEC) slide expands the capability of Zoom beyond
simple text and picture links to the endless possibilities of linked
programs.  The scope of the linked programs is determined by your
imagination.  The Executable slide will temporarily exit Zoom and run
any DOS command, .EXE file, .COM file, or .BAT file.  The use of this
feature requires more advanced knowledge of DOS.

The execution of DOS commands with the Exec slide is easy.  Suppose,
for example, upon the selection of a slide you would like to have the
files on the current directory displayed.  The Exec slide command to
perform this would look as follows.

@Slide[Directory-Exec-DIR-]

'Directory' is, of course, the slide label; 'Exec' is the type of
slide; and 'DIR' is the DOS command you want to execute.  When this
slide is selected, first Zoom loads a copy of the command processor,
then the 'DIR' command is executed, and finally the control is returned
to Zoom.  The execution of any of the other DOS commands is possible.

The execution of other computer programs (those programs contained in
.EXE or .COM files) is accomplished in a similar manner to the DOS
commands. The slide command for program execution is as follow.

@Slide[Programlabel-Exec-kermit.exe-]

This command will run the program 'kermit.exe' provided that
'kermit.exe' is in the directory with Zoom. It is also possible to
specify a full path for program execution.

@Slide[Programlabel-Exec-c:\util\kermit.exe-]

This example will look in the directory 'util' for the program
'kermit.exe'.

A batch file is an ASCII file which contains a series of DOS commands
and/or programs for execution.  The batch file is stored in a file with
the .BAT extension.  The slide command for a batch file is similar to
the  previous executable slides.

@Slide[BatchLabel-Exec-Example.BAT-]

In the previous example, Zoom expects the file 'Example.BAT' to be in
the current directory.  However, like with other executable programs, a
full path name can be used.

@Slide[BatchLabel-Exec-c:\bat\Example.BAT-]

In this example, Zoom will look in the directory BAT for the batch file
'Example.BAT'.  The Example.bat file may look like this:

 ECHO OFF
 DIR | MORE
 PAUSE Hit any key to return to Zoom.

This batch file is a more useful way to display the current directory
since we are using the DOS program 'MORE' to view the directory one
screen at a time.  Issuing the DOS command 'DIR' by itself will result
in the printing of the current directory without a pause, and immediate
return to Zoom at the end of the command.  The user will only get a
glimpse of the directory.  With 'MORE' the user will be prompted to
press a key to view the directory screen at a time.  See a DOS manual
for more description on how 'MORE' works.


2.6  The Exit Slide

The Exit slide allows you to exit the program from a slide queue.  The
command would look like this:

@Slide[FinalSlide-Exit-]

When this slide is accessed, Zoom will terminate and put you back in
DOS.


2.7  The Goto Slide

The Goto slide allows you to jump to a branch and play out the slides
of the queue.  The command looks like this:

@Slide[loop-goto-loopit-]

When this slide is accessed, it will go and look up the index entry for
"loopit" and play that queue.  Using this slide type will allow you to
build an endless-loop. An example index entry would look like this:

Loopit-slide1-slide2-slide3-loop-


3.  The Hot Area

Zoom has a unique feature that enables the administrator to define
areas within the monitor screen and link the areas to key words.  Key
words, as was described previously, allow a slide to be linked to other
slides.  With the Hot Area, key words can be used to identify a
rectangle on the screen and made available to the user.  Hot Areas show
up on the screen as a rectangle made with broken lines.

For computers equipped with a mouse, the shape of the mouse cursor will
change when the cursor is passed over a defined Hot Area.  This
indicates to the user that the defined area is associated with a key
word, and additional information is available to the user.  The process
of clicking the mouse in the hot area is the same as selecting a key
word from the Key words menu.  If there is no mouse, the Hot Areas can
be accessed with the cursor keys, and selected with the Enter key.

Hot Areas are defined using either the text or the pixel coordinates on
the screen.  This means that for the text coordinates, the largest box
can be 78 columns by 21 rows (see manual section 1.3 Structure and
Organization), and the smallest can be 1 column by 1 row.  For pixel
coordinates, the maximum size is limited by the resolution of the type
of graphics adapter used.   Hot Areas will work with Text, Quiz and PCX
slides.

Hot Areas are defined by adding screen coordinates to a key word in the
slide command.  For an example:

@Slide[MapOfEurope-PCX-England,1,1,8,8-France,7,10,15,15-]

will display a map of Western Europe, and will have two key words,
England and France.  The numbers following the key words define the
upper left-hand corner and lower right-hand corner coordinates of the
Hot Area.  Therefore, the Hot Area for England starts at position (1,1)
and ends at position (8,8).  Likewise, the Hot Area for France starts
at position (7,10) and ends at position (15,15).  The key words England
and France are still available under the Key words menu.  The user now
has a choice of pointing to an area on the screen or using the Key
words menu to find out about England and France .

The same hot areas using pixel coordinates will look like this:

@Slide[MapOfEurope-PCX-England;1;1;80;80-France;7;10;150;150-]

Notice that the coordinate seperator is a semicolon instead of a comma.


The templates for slide command with Hot Areas are given as:

@Slide[Label-Type-KeyWord1,X1,Y1,X2,Y2-] for text coordinates
@Slide[Label-Type-KeyWord1;X1;Y1;X2;Y2-] for pixel coordinates


The syntax for defining the Hot Area using text coordinates requires
that a comma follow the key word, and then the X1 coordinate, WITH NO
SPACES, a comma, Y1, a comma, X2, a comma, Y2 and a dash ('-').  For a
Hot Area using pixel coordinates, semicolons have to be substituted for
the commas.  A slide can have up to ten Hot Areas.

4.    Making the link with the Index


Throughout this guide, we have talked about links and linking words and
areas to slides without ever mentioning just how that link is
accomplished. The link is defined in the index file.  The index file
(an ASCII file which is kept in the Zoom directory and named
'stackname.ind')  contains a list of key words and the slides
referenced by the key words.  In fact, the index file is analogous to
an index in a book.  Zoom uses the index file to look up word(s) and
then brings up the slides referenced by the word(s) on the screen
automatically.  The syntax for an index entry is as follows.

key word-label1-label2-label3-label4-label5-

In the example 'key word' is the key word from the slides.  The
arguments, 'label1', 'label2', 'label3', etc. are the slide labels that
are associated with the 'key word'.  These slides are loaded into the
queue upon the selection  of 'key word' by the user, either through the
Index menu command, or through the Key word menu command.  Since Zoom
uses the index file and the key words to establish the links, you have
to make sure that they are spelled the same way.  For example, if a
slide has a key word 'T. Edison', and the index file has the entry
'T.Edison' (without the space), Zoom will not be able to match the two
words.  The capitalization of the letters does not matter.  However,
the spelling must be identical, including the punctuation marks and
spaces in the words.

If you wish to show an entry, but not make it available to the user as
a choice, you can start the line with the characters '(' or '═' (ASCII
205) or ASCII 255 character (null character).  You can get these
characters for example in WordPerfect by pressing the Alt key and
entering the ASCII numbers on the numeric pad.  It will not work if you
enter the numbers using the number keys above the letter keys.
However, each of these 'no-choose' lines must terminate with a dash ('-
').

There can be up to 1800 index entries.

See Appendix B for an example of an entire index file.


                 Appendix A: Example Stack


The stack is stored in ASCII format.  The following example is an
example  stack that contains some textual information.  Note that the
'@End' command must be placed at the end of the file to mark the end.
The file is called Mid_Age.STK and it contains all the textual
information.  The associated index file is called Mid_Age.IND.  When
Zoom starts up, it will look at the current directory for all files
with the extension .STK.  If there is more than one file with .STK
extension, Zoom will display a window with the names of stacks and a
short description as described by the @Summary command in the stack.

@Language[English]
@Summary[This stack is about Western European History]
@Chapter[Introduction]
@Slide[Intro-Text-]
@bgblack[@lightCyan[Western European History: First Semester Course]]

@window[This computer program has been put together to aid your studies
on the Western European History and provide an interactive supplement
to your text book.]

        The material has been organized into three chapters:
@delay[2000]  Chapter 1: The Middle Ages. (600 to 1300 AD)
@delay[2000]  Chapter 2: The Renaissance. (1400 to 1600 AD)
@delay[2000]  Chapter 3: The Enlightenment. (1600 to 1800 AD)

This program has been put together to allow the viewing of issues such
as @yellow[politics, religion, class, and gender] while transcending
the causality of time and the vastness of space.

@Chapter[The Middle Ages]
@Slide[OutlineCh1-Text-]

                    Chapter 1: @lightcyan[The Middle Ages]

   In this chapter, the following issues will be presented:

                       I.   The Aristocracy
                       II.  The Church
                       III. The Plague


@Slide[Aristch1-Text-]

@bgmagenta[@Red[I. The Aristocracy]]

    The aristocracy of the Middle ages was comprised of a bunch of rich
people, who wanted to have a heavenly justification for their begin
rich and other people being poor. Thus royalty was invented.

@Slide[ChurchCh1-Text-]

@bgmagenta[@Red[ II. The Church ]]

    During the Middle Ages in Europe, the Church held quite a monopoly
on religion. You were either in the Church, or you were not. If you
were not, then you were killed as a heretic.

@SubSlide[WitchCh1-Text-]

   During the Middle Ages, people often feared witches. A witch was
someone practicing black magic, possessed by the devil, or just plain
weird.

   Witches, if found were burned at the stake. How do you find a witch?
You take a person and throw them into the water with their hands and
feet tied. If the person floats then he or she is a witch. If the
person drowns, then the person was innocent. Well it was justice in the
early days.

@Slide[PlagueCh1^1-Text-]

@Black[III. The Plague]

   The bubonic plague, often called the @Black[Black Plague], ravaged
through  Europe, especially during the Fourteenth century. A entire
third of the  continents population  died.

@Chapter[The Renaissance]
@Slide[IntroCh2-Text-]

              Chapter 2: @lightCyan[The Renaissance]

                   I.   Art
                   II.  The Reformation
                   III. Literature


 @Slide[ArtCh2-Text-]

    During the Renaissance the Arts flourished and monarchs invested in
painting and sculpture. During this time such works as the Mona Lisa,
the Sistine Chapel, etc.

@Slide[ReformCh2-Text-Hell-]

    During the Reformation, preachers such as Martin Luther, Calvin and
Zwingli preached against the evils and corruption in the Catholic
Church.

@Slide[LitureCh2-Text-Hell-]

   During the Renaissance, such literary works as Dante's Inferno,
Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Thomas Moore's Utopia were written.

@Subslide[HellCh2-Text-]

     The Count Malatesta of Rimini is the only person ever to be
publically condemned to Hell by the pope.

@Chapter[The Enlightenment]
@Slide[IntroCh3-Text-]

             Chapter 3: @LightCyan[The Enlightenment]

                     I.   Mathematics
                     II.  Science
                     III. Literature


@Slide[MathCh3-Text-]

    During the Enlightenment Newton in England and Liebinez in Germany
simultaneously invented calculus. Newton's form of calculus was based
on geometry while Liebinez's description of calculus was based on
symbolic formulas.

@Slide[ScienceCh3-Text-]

    During the Enlightenment, Astronomy advanced to the point where is
was discovered that the earth orbits the sun with an elliptical path.

@Slide[LitureCh3-Text-]

   Literature during the enlightenment flourished as well.

@End



                 Appendix B: Example of Index File.

This is the content of the MID_AGE.IND file which is the index file for
the MID_AGE.STK stack.  The information is stored as ASCII text.


Black Plague-PlagueCh1-
Bubonic^Part1-PlagueCh1^1-      (Only Bubonic will be displayed to the user,
Church-ChurchCh1-ReformCh2-     but Zoom will use the entire label)
Class-AristCh1-
Dante-LitureCh2-
Hell-HellCh2-
Justice-WitchCh1-
Literature-LitureCh2-LitureCh3-
Mathematics-MathCh3-
Middle Ages-OutlineCh1-
Plague-PlagueCh1-
Politics-AristCh1-
Religion-ChurchCh1-ReformCh2-
Shakespeare-LitureCh2-
Witch-WitchCh1-


                    Appendix C:  Command Summary

                        Command Line Switches

-f  <file>      The stack <file> is automatically loaded
-r      ZOOM skips the main menu and jumps to the viewing menu
-ch#    ZOOM skips the main menu and jumps to chapter number #
-l <Language>   <Language> is used for interaction.  Overrides the
                command in the stack
-bw     For use with black and white monitors or laptops computers

                           Stack Commands

@Summary        The stack description as displayed by Load Stack
                command, optional
@Language       Language used for interaction.  English, French,
                Spanish or Portuguese, optional.  Default is English
@Chapter        Marks the beginning of a new chapter in the stack
@Slide  Marks the placement of a slide
@SubSlide       Marks the placement of a subslide
@End    Marks the end of a stack

                             Slide Types

Text    Slide made up of characters, numbers, lines, etc
PCX     Graphic image slide for Bit-mapped images
Quiz    Quiz slide for asking questions
Dbf     Reads dBASEIII+ compatible file and displays the content
Wks     Reads Lotus 123 compatible file and displays the content
Exec    Executes a DOS command
Pointer Displays the content of another slide
Loop    Jumps back to another slide in the loop
Exit    Exits Zoom upon access of this slide type

                         Other Stack Command

@Window Displays text inside a window over a slide
@Timer[n]       automatically advances to the next slide in the queue
                after n seconds

                         Text Slide Commands

@Color  Command to display the text in chosen color, ie @Yellow[]
@BgColor        Command to change the background color of the text, ie
@bgblack[] @Delay[n]    Puts a pause in the text of n/1000 seconds



                               The End