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- %C%@F:NewHall.Bold,12@PipeLine - April 1990
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Get Your Free PipeDream 3!
- %JR%Well, not exactly PipeDream 3, but Colton's PipeDream 3 Demonstration Disc. I haven't yet discovered all the
- %JL%things that you can't do with the demonstration disc except that you can't save your work, but it does give a very
- %JR%good indication of how PipeDream works. I have included it, with Colton's permission of course, for the
- monthly disc so that if you buy that off Archive then you get the demonstration version of PD3.
-
- %JR%For those of you not wishing to buy the Archive monthly disc then I have a few copies of the demonstration disc
- %JL%that I can lend you. The arrangement is this: You send me a jiffy bag and a label with a stamp. I send you the
- demonstration disc and you return it back to me when you've tried it out so that I can let someone else have it.
-
- %JL%When you have decided that you can't live without PipeDream then you order the full version from Archive at
- £xxx.xx (or from Colton direct at £xxx.xx).
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Contributions to PipeLine
- %JR%Thanks to all who have sent in a contribution to this month's PipeLine. Please keep sending them in to me at the
- %JL%ABACUS TRAINING address given on the back cover of Archive. If you have an extended example then
- %JR%please let me have it on disc so that I can get Paul to include it on the Archive monthly disc. If you have a
- %JL%problem that needs a lot of explanation then please send me a disc copy. All letters are read; all discs are
- returned but please be patient, the mail bag is large!
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Anagrams and More Bubbly
- %JR%Printing anagrams and subgrams isn't possible. Printing a dictionary is. Dump the dictionary to a file using ^# as
- the template. Then print the file! Don't infringe Colton's copyright or we'll all be in trouble.
-
- %JR%The competition is to find the word which has the most anagrams included in Colton's PD3 dictionary. To get
- %JL%you started you might try 'teas'. Next month I'll give you a word which has eight anagrams (including the
- %JR%original word) - no! I didn't think of it myself - so you'll have to beat eight. However, any reader who sends %H4%me%H4% a
- %JL%word of seven or over will get an honorable mention in the next edition of PipeLine together with their word (or
- its anagram).
-
- %JR%To win the bottle of bubbly you must send your word (more than eight anagrams including the original word)
- %JL%direct to Robert Macmillan, Coltonsoft Ltd, Broadway House, 149-151 St Neot's Road, Hardwick, Cambridge,
- CB3 7QJ quoting your PD3 registration number (found from clicking menu then info on the installed PD icon).
-
- %JR%Subgrams are also an interesting pastime. Find a long word in Colton's dictionary and see how many subgrams
- %JL%you can get. There is no prize for this but if you send some good ones to %H4%me%H4% I will publish the best in next
- month's Archive.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Bubbly for Formatting to Two Widths
- %JR%Up to now Colton report "We have not received many responses and those that have arrived either solved a
- %JL%different problem or cheated. By cheating I mean .... so that it (%H4%the text%H4%) becomes completely unformattable."
- I've solved it, so it can be done. Watch this space!
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Hard Space
- %JR%Talking of space, character 160 is a hard space of fixed width. Insert it by holding down the <Alt> key and
- %JL%typing '160' on the numeric pad. When you release the <Alt> key, the space appears. I have had a few readers
- %JR%who like to see their hard space. If you do, then type in some little used character such as | as your hard space
- %JL%and then either search and replace | with character 160 (from the spell menu) or translate | by modifying your
- printer driver translation list.
- %P0%
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Non PipeDream Users and 1 Mb Archies
- %JR%Whether or not you are a PD user, send me an sae that will take an A4 sheet and I'll send you a copy of an
- %JL%application note from Colton explaining what they think is the best way of handling the problem of memory
- %JR%shortage on 1Mb machines. You may wonder why non PD users will be interested. The answer is that the
- %JL%problem of memory shortage is %H4%not%H4% exclusive to PipeDream, nor, if it comes to that, is it caused by PipeDream.
- %JR%If you want a sophisticated piece of software that gives you many of the features of a desk top publisher with the
- %JL%ease of use of a wordprocessor plus a first class spread sheet and a reasonably good database thrown in for good
- %JR%measure (ie PipeDream 3), plus fonts and RISC OS printer drivers and maybe a graphics package (!Draw or
- %JL%!Graphbox) then you really need 2Mb of memory. Upgrades to the 310 are available now at a price [Paul: what's
- the latest?] and that is the route I strongly suggest you take.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Row Numbers
- %JR%Insert a new column to the left of the 'A' column so that it becomes the new 'A' column. Now press Edit
- %JL%Expression, <F2>, and type in "row" and press <Return>. Replicate this expression down the 'A' column as far
- as you want to go. Hey Presto! row numbers.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Greek and Other Outline Fonts
- %JR%I have been told that Beebug (that rival magazine!) have some Greek outline fonts. Ian Copestake has sent me a
- %JL%sales leaflet about fonts he has available but I am not sure from the documentation whether these are outline
- %JR%fonts or whether they are printer specific and redefine what is printed at the printer when the printer receives
- character codes from, say, a PipeDream printer driver.
-
- %JR%Let me try to clear up one misunderstanding. PD3 %H4%will%H4% print out via the RISC OS printer drivers as well as via
- %JL%the PipeDream printer drivers. The RISC OS printer drivers are those which, up to now, have been provided by
- %JR%Acorn and you use the RISC OS drivers with anti-aliased or their recent replacement, outline fonts. I strongly
- %JL%recommend anyone %H4%not%H4% using the PipeDream printer drivers (ie %H4%are%H4% using the RISC OS drivers) to change from
- %JR%anti-aliased to outline fonts if they have not yet done so. A starter set of outline fonts is available through
- %JL%Archive at £xxx.xx [Paul: here's your chance again!] and other outline fonts are becoming available at about
- %JR%£5.00 to £10.00 per font from, amongst other places, The Electronic Font Foundry, 18 Brockenhurst Road, Ascot
- SL5 9DL.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Delete to End of Slot
- %JR%If you have a multi column format and you want to get rid of a line in one column then 'Delete Row in Column'
- %JL%works but it pulls everything in that column up a row and this might mess up your table. You should use 'Delete
- %JR%to End of Slot' instead. If you want to delete many lines in a column but don't want the column to move up then
- %JR%don't use 'Block Delete'. Use 'Delete to End of Slot' in the first row and then 'Block Replicate' (<Alt>+BR) to
- replicate the blank slot down through the column.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Labels (again)
- %JR%Again, to clear up a misunderstanding, make sure that you set the page length to the vertical distance between
- labels.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Insert on Return
- %JR%If you are working on a spreadsheet make sure you turn this option 'Off' otherwise you will get in a mess that
- will take hours to put right. Remember to turn wrap (and justify) off when working with a spreadsheet.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@CR + LF (or not)
- %JR%This paragraph refers to the use of PipeDream printer drivers. Make sure that you use LF (line feed) and CR
- %JL%(carriage return) in such a way that everything works properly. This problem can take ages (or pages) to explain
- %JR%but, essentially, you need to have your *Configure Ignore option, your printer's dip switches and your printer
- %JL%driver option set to a compatible set of commands. My own settings are: *Configure Ignore (ie ignore nothing)
- %JR%which gives for *Status - No Ignore, the printer dip switches so that there is %H4%no%H4% automatic line feed (ie the
- %JL%computer %H4%must%H4% send the LF character) and my printer driver option so that it %H4%does%H4% send the LF character to the
- %JR%printer. There are other combinations that work equally well. If there is some cleaver reader out there who has
- %JL%the whole set of 'workable' options on a disc that they are willing to send me than I shall be pleased to make them
- available to anyone with problems.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Unwanted Form Feeds
- %JR%This is a similar problem to the one above, ie of getting the hardware and software configured to a compatible
- %JR%set. I am still struggling to get my laser printer to produce labels from a 'mail merge'; at present I get a form feed
- %JR%after each label and I can't seem to get rid of it! I have solved the problem with my FX80 using a PipeDream
- %JR%printer driver by taking out the form feed from the printer driver but I am still having problems with the RISC
- OS driver because I can't find out how to get rid of the form feed. Help!
- %P0%
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Loss of Right Justified Text
- %JR%If I had a £1 for every letter I've had from people with this problem then I could afford to buy the stamps to reply
- %JL%to you all and still have a week's holiday! Please accept my apologies for not replying to each of you
- %JR%individually. If you are losing right justified text when you print then it is almost certainly because you have a
- %JL%right margin position (the little vertical arrow set with <Alt>+H) which is either (a) off the right hand edge of the
- %JR%paper you are printing on or perhaps (b) outside your range of columns (ie beyond the rightmost column). The
- %JL%solution is (a) to use <Alt>+H to reduce the right margin position or (b) add another column. It is important to
- follow this by reformatting your text before trying again.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@RISC OS Printer Drivers
- %JR%Somewhere I have seen a RISC OS printer driver advertised for the Canon BJ-130, 360 dpi printer at about
- %JL%£10.00. It might be 'Font Foundry' but I'm not sure. If anyone can help [Paul: is 'Font Foundry' one of your
- %JR%advertisers?] then please let me know. I'm still looking for an Epson GQ-3500 RISC OS driver so that I don't
- %JL%have to work in HP Emulator mode all the time. The HP DeskJet seems to be a popular RISC OS printer from
- %JR%the amount of correspondence I get printed out using one. I can not distinguish between the output of the
- DeskJet and the LaserJet. Would any reader care to comment?
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@The Monthly Disc
- In addition to the %H4%'free'%H4% PD3 there are three more sub-directories of PipeLine on the Archive monthly disc.
-
- %JR%Jim Ducat has sent in PipeDream files for a Cassette Inlay Printer and "a number of spreadsheets for customising
- %JL%including a financial planner, a building society account manager and a car costs monitor". The building society
- spreadsheet shows how insert days of the week automatically into a spreadsheet.
-
- %JR%John Greening has sent in some utilities, with 'readme' documentation, for converting Mini-Office II files to
- PipeDream. This is a once only operation and well worth while if you have files in Mini-Office II format.
-
- %JR%Barry Allen has sent in PipeDream printer drivers for the HP DeskJet and Panasonic KP 1081 which will print
- %JL%out the IBM graphics set together with a PipeDream key file and a modified PipeDream !Run file which lets you
- enter IBM graphics so that they appear on the screen.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Background Printing
- %JR%Here's a useful tip I have been sent by Colton. "Having a fast computer and a slow printer leads people to get
- %JL%very frustrated when the computer gets tied up talking to the printer and the user doesn't get a look-in until its
- %JR%finished. People ask for background printing. Well, we already have it in the RISC OS drivers !PrinterDM and
- %JL%!PrinterPS and, hopefully, in the the RISC OS drivers being written by other people. We first get PipeDream to
- %JR%do its print operation but, rather than sending the output straight to the printer, we redirect it to a disc datafile
- %JL%(because this is faster than sending the file to the slow printer). Then we redirect the driver to send to the printer
- %JR%and drag the datafile from the disc to the printer driver icon. This operation %H4%will%H4% work in background, enabling us
- %JL%to carry on working in the foreground. So we have made the (slow) printer-dependent operation into a
- %JR%background task. Note that the first stage of the operation (output to a disc datafile) can be done with either the
- RISC OS driver or the PipeDream driver."
-
- %JR%One word of warning. RISC OS drivers generate enormous files. A typical page for me generates a 1Mbyte size
- %JL%file so I can't get it onto an 800Kb floppy. However, for half pages, I can manage to get the 500Kb file onto an
- otherwise blank floppy!
-
- %JR%I have a 4Mb machine so I created a RAM disc of about 1.5Mb and redirected my RISC OS output to that. It
- seemed to me to work better than when I used the hard disc.
-
- @F:Homerton.Bold,10@Thanks to You!
- %JR%Keep those letters coming in. I hope that, as the months (and years?) roll by to get more in tune with what you
- %JL%want in this column. At present, it seems you prefer a mixture of hints and tips such as we have here, plus a very
- %JR%simple article such as the multiplication table of February leaving the more complicated things (eg PipeDream
- %JL%printer drivers, spreadsheets and data base examples) on disc with adequate documentation. I hope that, as we all
- %JR%get to know PipeDream better we shall get some more extensive examples needing linked or cross referenced
- %JL%files dependent documents and macros. A few comments from the more expert reader (you?) on how you think
- %JR%PipeDream's linked or cross referenced files with dependent documents compares with a full relational database
- would be a welcome contribution. Have you an example of a problem solved by such techniques?
-
- %CO:B,46,67%%CO:C,7,21%@F:Trinity.Medium.Italic,8@Copyright
- @F:Trinity.Medium.Italic,8@Author
- @F:Trinity.Medium.Italic,8@Date
- %CO:D,4,14%@F:Trinity.Medium,8@: ABACUS TRAINING
- @F:Trinity.Medium.Italic,8@: G L Fitton
- @F:Trinity.Medium.Italic,8@: 17th March 1990
- %CO:E,10,10%