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Amiga Collections: Tampa Bay Amiga Group
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TBAG - Tampa Bay Amiga Group's Disk of the Month #52 (1991)(Merlin's Software - Amiganuts United)(PD).zip
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TBAG - Tampa Bay Amiga Group's Disk of the Month #52 (1991)(Merlin's Software - Amiganuts United)(PD).adf
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banner.docs
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1991-01-07
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The Banner Program V1.2
A public domain banner printing utility
(C)opyright 1990
by Arthur J. Dahm III
40 Adams Avenue
Norwalk, Ct 06851
(PeopleLink: Cosmac)
The Banner Program V1.2 is a public domain banner printing
program that uses standard Amiga fonts. It automatically selects
the largest point size available for each font and expands it to
the full width of the page. The Banner Program can print in
color on a color printer or in greyscale on a black and white
printer.
Starting The Banner Program:
To start The Banner Program from Workbench, double-click its
icon or type 'banner' at the CLI prompt to start from the CLI.
The Banner Screen will appear and The Banner Program will search
your fonts directory to see what fonts are available. After The
Banner Program checks the fonts directory, it is ready receive
input.
The Message Gadget:
The string gadget where you enter the message to be printed
is not a standard Amiga string gadget. It is always active,
except when the mouse pointer is a wait (Zzz..) pointer. It will
also display text in color and supports a limited form of
highlighting (or cursor expanding). Highlighting is used to
delete or change the color of blocks of text. To expand the
cursor with the mouse, point to the text where you wish to start
expanding, and while holding down the left mouse button, drag the
mouse left or right. To expand the cursor from the keyboard,
hold down the Alt key press either the left or right arrow keys.
Press the left or right arrow key by itself or click the mouse
inside the string gadget to unhighlight (or unexpand) the text.
The Return Key:
Pressing the return key (or enter key) tells The Banner
Program to display the message in the page gadget which takes up
most of The Banner Screen. The message will be displayed in
color with the current selected font expanded to the full height
of the page gadget. This is an approximation of how the message
will look when it is printed out on the printer. Since fonts
that have a very large point size will take a while to display,
the page gadget is only updated when the return key is pressed,
or the mouse is clicked inside the page gadget, or a new font is
selected. While the message is being drawn into the page gadget
the wait pointer will appear and everything in The Banner Program
is disabled except the three gadgets below the page gadget, which
are used to scroll through the page gadget.
The Color Gadgets (Left Amiga 1 through 8):
There are eight color gadgets at the bottom of the screen,
which correspond to the eight colors that a standard color
printer can print without dithering. The Banner Program starts
with the black gadget selected. Although the color gadget for
white is included, it is not a good idea to use it, since it will
cause the printer to print a blank space the size of the white
character(s). It is include for use in future versions of The
Banner Program, which may include different color backgrounds or
outlined characters.
To change the current color, simply click the new color
gadget and any further text that is typed will appear in that
color. To change the color of text that is already typed,
highlight it and click the color that you want to change it to.
An alternate to using the mouse to select a color is to use left
amiga 1 through 8 from the keyboard.
The Font Gadget (Left Amiga F):
Clicking the font gadget will bring up the font requester,
which will give you a list of fonts to choose from for your
banner. You can scroll through the list by using the gadgets to
the right of the list or by using the up and down arrow keys on
the keyboard. To choose a font, highlight the desired font name
by scrolling through the list or by clicking the mouse on the
font name. Then select the 'OK' gadget to load the font, or the
'Cancel' gadget to exit the font requester without loading a new
font. The return key is the keyboard equivalent for the 'OK'
gadget and the 'Esc' key is the keyboard equivalent for the
'Cancel' gadget.
The 'Path:' string gadget is used to change the current
'Fonts:' directory from within The Banner Program. Activate the
'Path:' gadget by clicking inside the box or by pressing the
backspace key. Then, type in the full path name to the new fonts
directory (i.e. if you have fonts stored in a directory called
BigFonts on your system disk, type Sys:BigFonts) and press
return. The Banner Program will then read the new fonts
directory and list the new fonts.
The Graphic Gadget (Left Amiga G):
This gadget is not used in this version of The Banner Program.
The Clear Gadget (Left Amiga C):
Click the clear gadget to erase the current message. The
message gadget and the page gadget will both be cleared.
The Print Gadget (Left Amiga G):
The print gadget will print the message to the printer,
taking into account the Preferences settings (smoothing, density,
ect.). It will bring up the 'Printing...' requester and the wait
pointer will appear. Click the cancel gadget in the
'Printing...' requester or press the 'Esc' key to abort printing
the banner before it is finished.
The Load Gadget (Left Amiga L):
This gadget is not used in this version of The Banner Program.
The Save Gadget (Left Amiga S):
This gadget is not used in this version of The Banner Program.
The Info Gadget (Left Amiga I):
The info gadget displays copyright and version information
about The Banner Program.
The Quit Gadget (Left Amiga Q):
The quit gadget exits The Banner Program and brings you back
to Workbench or the CLI.
Known Bugs:
A few converted Macintosh fonts cause The Banner Program to crash.