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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
WSformat 0.81 Documentation
subchapters:
WSformat abstract
Word Processing with WSedit+WSformat
Who should use WSformat?
next chapter:
Installation and first steps
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1. WSformat abstract ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
WSformat is a formatting and printing program for Wordstar (DOS) files. WSedit
and WSformat together are a full-featured word processing suite, running under
current operating systems, but based on the Wordstar DOS philosophy ('what you
see is what you want' and not 'what you see is what you get'). Nevertheless,
WSformat does have a provision for document preview.
Wordstar Compatiblity: WSformat accepts all Wordstar (DOS) files, but does not
support all Wordstar DOS functions, i.e., those which were added after Wordstar
Version 4. Instead, some extended functions (such as generating tables of
contents or handling footnotes) are implemented in a WSformat-specific way.
Basic Wordstar 5-7 'symmetrical sequences' are recognized (indentions, for
example).
WSformat is Shareware and WSedit is Freeware.
WSformat supports hyphenation, the creation of end notes and footnotes,
generation of tables of contents and indexes, line drawing, embedding graphics
in text and allows conditional statements. In contrast to the older versions of
DOS Wordstar, document preview and printing use functions provided by the
Windows (or OS/2) operating systems. This means you have access to the printers
and type fonts which are installed on the operating system.
The WSformat command syntax is very similar to that of Hypermake. From a WS
file, Hypermake will generate an equivalent file in RTF, Winhelp, HTML, IBM
Help or Microsoft HTML-Help format.
WSformat requires Windows 98, Windows NT 4, OS/2 Warp 3 or later.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2. Word Processing with WSedit+WSformat ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Word processing with WSedit+WSformat is very different from those Windows word
processing programs such as Winword or StarOffice, and also differs in some
respects from Wordstar for DOS. Word processing operations are closer to Latech
than to Winword, for example. With WSformat, the task of 'text content editing'
and that of 'typesetting' are sequention operations, rather than
simultaneously.
For the moment, forget all you have learned about computer word processing and
think about the time before the personal computer was invented, when your 'word
processor' was pen, scissors, cement, etc. The way to get a complex document
involved some or all of the following steps:
Step 1: Writing a draft in longhand, often including notes that would not
appear in the final publication;
Step 2: Typing the draft with a typewriter;
Step 3: Correcting the text by hand on the typewriter copy;
Step 4: Sending the typewritten manuscript to the typesetter.
In the first step there was no need to consider the layout - page size,
margins, type faces. The author concentrated only on the contents... The four
steps were performed step by step. Today when you prepare a document using
Winword, the steps are all intermingled, effectively taking place
simultaneously. Because of this mode of operation, Winword and its counterpart
word processors are difficult to use. This design philosophy produces word
processing programs that are big, slow, drain system resources, crash often,
and in some cases are unable to produce the document the user requires.
By way of contrast, when documents are prepared with WSedit+WSformat, the four
steps take place sequentially rather than concurrently.
Step 1: Editing Text is prepared as an (unformatted) 'raw' text file (a *.WS
file) using WSedit (or Wordstar DOS). Such a text file will not include fixed
margins. If you use WSedit, the margin of the displayed text margin depends
only on the settings of the editing window and the screen font; it is otherwise
not fixed at this stage.
When preparing documents on your computer, WSformat will only rarely be called
upon to process the text. This is the reason why I have decided not to create a
single program incorporating both functions.
Step 2: Starting WSformat, formatting the unformatted raw-text WS file to
produce a formatted FMT file:
The WSformat 'format' function reads the raw-text WS file and writes an FMT
file. It does not modify the WS file in any way. In the FMT file, which can be
also viewed using WSedit or Wordstar (DOS), the right margin is now fixed, the
page breaks are apparent, and words at the end of the line which require
hyphenation are displayed accordingly.
Step 3: Minor changes by hand on the formatted FMT file
If you are not satisfied with some formatting details, you can make small
changes to the FMT file. These include such things as incorrect hyphenations,
and more importantly, page breaks which can be improved.
However, avoid making bigger changes to the FMT file; if these are considered
necessary, it is more expedient to make the changes to the WS file and run
WSformat again. Because WSformat formatting is extremely fast (about 100 pages
per second, depending on your processor and the nature of the text), this does
not represent a significant delay in production.
The WSformat preview feature helps in locating sections of the text where the
printout can be improved. The printout in the Preview window mirrors exactly
page printout.
Step 4: Printing the final version of the document
After making the final changes to the FMT file, select the physical or virtual
printer installed on your computer and print your document. This is done the
same way as it would be for other current word processors. Besides physical
printers (laser or inkjet printers), it is possible to use 'virtual' printers
(FAX and PDF creation programs). These also work on files produced with
WSformat.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.3. Who should use WSformat? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The WSedit+WSformat word processing suite is useful for the following users:
Users of Wordstar (DOS)
Of course, all computer users who resist Winword and similar programs
will find a new home with WSedit and WSformat. (I intend to support both
of these programs in the long term, because I myself for various reasons
find Winword and similar programs unproductive.)
Academics and other authors who have to prepare large and complex
(scientific) documentation
Authors, students and others often fear using winword-like programs when
generating large, complex documents. Many people have found themselves
typing and re-typing such documents, due to the inherent instability (and
the resulting crashes) when handling such documents. Because of the
serial processing of WSformat, there is virtually no limit on file size.
There are no problems in processing a document with hundreds of pages,
thousands of footnotes, and dozens of bitmap graphics.
Note to Students: WSformat is available for a special, very low student fee.
All people who do not like winword-like software
Those users who do not like winword-like word processing software are
invited to switch to WSedit+WSformat. WSedit+WSformat is also a fast,
easy-to-use and adequate software for writing even simple correspondence.
Companies who want to reduce software expenses
WSedit is free and WSformat is much cheaper than word processors such as
Winword. Support by telephone or by E-Mail is simpler, because dot
commands are transmitted within the document, instead of being forced to
describe mouse controlled actions. ('On the top left, you see an icon
with a wide border...') By using the 'embed file .fi' command, it is
possible to observe standards throughout documents regardless of the
author. For example, the company letterhead to be used in all WSformat
files can be maintained centrally, and when it is necessary to change
'boilerplate' text, those changes will appear in all subsequent
publications.
Limitations
WSformat does not support muli-column text editing and formatting.
(Nevertheless, I plan multi-column printouts.) It is not intended for
desktop-publishing of such things as newsletters, magazines, etc. It is not
possible to include output from other applications, such as the way Winword
does with Excel, Access and so on. Instead you have to generate a bitmap file
from your spreadsheet, database or graphics program which can then be embedded
into a text document produced by WSformat. When making changes to your
spreadsheet, you have to update the bitmap file manually, something Winword
will do automatically.
For technical writers (physicists and mathematicians, for example) Latex will
also be found useful because WSformat has no specific provisions for handling
mathematical formulas. With WSedit+WSformat, you have to generate a bitmap
file of your formula.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Installation and first steps ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
subchapters:
Installation of WSformat
Modifying WSedit settings
Format and print this documentation
next chapter:
WSformat user interface
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.1. Installation of WSformat ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Unzip the WSformat archive file to a directory of your choice, e.g.
C:\Programs\WSformat.
Drop the WSformat.exe file onto your desktop to get a reference to the
WSformat.exe file.
(An easy-to-use table installation program which will also generate file
associations is planned for the 1.0 version.)
When starting WSformat the first time, some initialization procedures run
automatically:
A binary file WSformat.dta which retains user settings will be generated;
it contains the data found in the settings notebook (settings - settings
notebook)
A simple text file fonts.ini will be generated. It stores the information
about the fonts which are available on your system. It is recommended
that you modify this file to fit your needs. (settings - font definition)
The fonts.ini text file is converted to a binary file printername.dta
which holds detailed font information before formatting or printing. When
changes are made to fonts.ini, the printername.dta file is updated
automatically and a small window 'registering fonts' appears.
It is also necessary to modify some entries in the settings notebook (settings
- settings notebook):
To start WSedit or your preferred Wordstar editor from WSformat, select
the Program page of the settings notebook and enter the full filename of
the editor, e.g. C:\Programs\wsedit\wsedit.exe. If the file exists, the
edit field turns green; otherwise it remains red.
Select the printer to which formatting refers to. This should be your
favourite printer for printouts.
By default, hyphenation is turned off. If you want to turn hyphenation on, do
the following:
Select the Hyphenation page in the settings notebook. For all languages
other than German, click on 'external tex file' and select your language.
Please note that some conventions of British and American English are
different. The browser, which uses the Google search engine, is started
and you are directed to download the file to the directory where
WSformat.exe resides. Tex hyphenation files are small.
For German users, I recommend the internal german hyphenation plug-in
which is better than the tex algorithm.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.2. Modifying WSedit settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
By default, WSedit 0.91 does not know some file extensions that WSformat uses.
(This will be changed for the next update.) All of the new file extensions
refer to the 'formatted file' type.
Start WSedit with a WS file
Type Ctrl-OO to access the settings
Press the 'new' button
Next to the 'new' button, enter the new file extensions FMT,FUN,TOC,TAF
(divided by commas, no spaces)
Choose 'file' page, click on the 'Wordstar 4/5 formatted' radio button
In the 'description of file type' editing field, enter 'Wordstar
formatted'
Choose 'wrap' page, click on the 'word wrapping - not at all' radio
button
Choose 'hilight' page
Select 'syntax highlighting enabled'
Select 'WS formatted page break'
Select 'WS formatted floating background'
Press OK.
When using DOS Wordstar instead of WSedit, there's no need for modifications.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2.3. Format and print this documentation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The archive file contains the documentation in WS format (unformatted text) and
in Help file format. You have got access to the Help file from the WSformat
main window, Help menu item, or by pressing the yellow questionmark buttons. If
you prefer a printed documentation, you are encouraged to print your docu.
Select the WS file
First select the file which you want to format and print, in this case
WSFDOCU.WS. Click on the File menu item, and then choose select. You may also
simply drop the WSFDOCU.WS file icon into the dropdown field on the WSformat
main window.
Format the WS file
Simply press the format button. A new file, WSFDOCU.FMT, will be generated.
Edit the FMT file
If you really want to create a paper print, take a look at the WSFDOCU.FMT
file. By default, after formatting the editor starts and selects the FMT file.
Take a look at the page breaks which are represented in WSedit by a floating
yellow background. If you want to improve some page breaks, do it and then save
the FMT file.
Preview
You are also encouraged to preview the file; simply press the preview button.
When saving the FMT file in the editor, the preview window is updated
automatically. In the preview window, use the Pg dn and Pg up keys on your
keyboard, or use the left and right mouse button. For example, to go to page
20, hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to the right. Change the
height and width of the Window. The preview scale depends on the window width.
Print the file
Select a printer by using the dropdown box in the WSformat main window. Press
the Print button, or select File - Print pages from the menu. In this case, you
can select single pages.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. WSformat user interface ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Because WSformat is a text compiler, there are only a few windows which forms
the user interface.
subchapters:
Main Window
Settings Notebook
Preview Window
Print pages dialog
Command line Arguments
next chapter:
Fonts
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.1. Main Window ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The WSformat main window is the central command window for editing, formatting,
and printing text; it is where you start jobs and open other windows. While
merely editing text, you can operate on your WS files directly with your WSedit
or Wordstar editor. While formatting and printing, start WSformat and leave the
main window open. From there, you can also execute the editor on unformatted
text.
Selecting a WS file
There are several ways of selecting a WS file.
Click on the File menu item, and then choose select. You will get a file
dialog which is similar to those used in many other programs.
Drop the WS file on the WSformat icon on your desktop
Drop the WS file icon onto the dropdown field of the WSformat main window
Enter the WS file name after WSformat on the command line.
After successfully selecting a WS file, some of the five WSedit function
buttons are enabled, depending on the existence of the corresponding FMT
(formatted) file.
Formatting a WS file
Press the Format button or select the menu item Make - formatted file. Either
choice is acceptable.
Editing files
To edit files from WSformat, the file name of your favourite editor has to be
entered in Settings - settings notebook, page Program.
Selecting the button unformatted - edit starts the editor with the designated
file (with the file extension WS); selecting formatted - edit starts a file
with the extension FMT.
The menu items file - edit - unformatted and file - edit - formatted have the
same effect as the corresponding buttons. If the FMT file does not exist, the
buttons are disabled, while the menu items remain enabled.
The menu item File - close editors closes all Editor windows (for programmers:
by sending WM_CLOSE messages) of the selected project file. This has the same
effect as clicking to the 'Window Close' button of each editor window. Do not
use this function with a DOS (Wordstar) editor. In this case, you are asked
whether to interrupt the DOS application or not. If you press yes, all data in
the DOS window will be lost.
Previewing formatted files
To open the preview window, press the Preview button or select File - Preview.
Printing formatted files
To select a printer, press the dropdown button and make your selection. To
print the whole document, press the print button. To print only a section of
the document, select the menu item File - Print pages. Note that you get the
best result if the selected printer is also the printer where formatting
refers to. You can reselect the 'reference printer' in the settings notebook,
page Program.
While the print job is running, the print button turns into a stop printing
button. Note that if you interrupt printing, a lot of data likely will have
been sent to the printer queue. You can delete this data by opening your
printer object.
Dropdown field and compile information
In the middle of the WSformat main window, there's the dropdown field where
you are able to drag and drop WS files. This will select the dropped WS file.
In the dropdown field, there are three lines, each with an LED. These display
the current processing states of the three WSformat jobs:
When formatting a text, the progress of the operation is displayed on the
first line. While formatting, the red LED glows.
While preview is activated and the preview window is shown, the yellow
LED glows and the page number of the page currently displayed in the
preview window is shown. The page number also appears in the title bar of
the Preview window.
While a print job is running, the blue LED glows.
The WSformat print job is faster than the printer can print the results. The
operating system buffers the data and sends it to the printer as requested,
depending on the speed of the printer.
WSformat is a multi-threaded program. This means that even while WSformat is
executing one a job, it is able to do another job concurrently. Besides the
main thread - editing the settings notebook, for example - there are three
threads which are represented by the red, yellow and blue LED: When the LED
glows, the thread is running. This means that you can format a file while
another file is still being printed, but you cannot print a file while another
file is printed. While printing a file, you can select another file and format
or preview this new document.
The extended compile jobs Make - Text and Footnote, Make - Content and Make -
Index are also executed in the format thread.
You are not allowed to exit WSformat until all threads are finished. If
WSformat does not end a thread - we don't hope that such a bug occurs - you
have to kill the WSformat application (in Windows, press Ctrl-Alt-Del
simultaneously and select WSformat to end the process). In any case, contact
the author if the bug can be reproduced.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2. Settings Notebook ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The data of the settings notebook is stored in the file WSformat.dta.
subchapters:
Program page
Format page
Hyphenation page
Layout page
Notes page
Index page
next chapter:
Preview Window
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2.1. Program page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
In the entry field Full filename of the embedded editor, you can select the
editor program to be executed when pressing the buttons edit unformatted and
edit formatted on the WSformat main window. If you don't remember the file
name, use the search button.
If the checkbox open editor after make is checked, WSformat automatically
executes the editor with the generated file after finishing the task of
formatting the text, generating the table of contents, or performing any
similar operations.
You can restrict where WSformat is to search for files by supplying it with a
list of directories. The directories are separated from one another by a
semicolon ';'. Instead of typing the directory names directly, you can also use
the search button. The directory where WSformat.exe resides is always searched,
but only if the search in these directories has failed. The list of directories
refers to the following files:
Formatted and unformatted files, by using the .FI command
Heading template files
Bitmap files, by using the .BM and .BT commands
file SILBAUSN.WS (internal German hyphenation)
Printer to which formatting refers is relevant only if you have installed more
than one printer on your system. In such a case, selecting the active printer
affects how WSformat will perform its calculations while formatting. If you
select another printer for printing, the spaces between words can differ
because of slight differences of printer font metrics. But neither line breaks
nor page breaks are affected.
Auto correct file extension affects the main window of WSformat. If this
setting is on, you can also drop FMT files into the dropdown window and the
unformatted file will be given the extension WS. Deselect the checkbox if you:
Want to re-format a FMT file
Want to use extensions other than WS for the unformatted Wordstar file
want to preview or print files other than FMT or TAF files, for example,
a TOC (table of contents) file.
Allow printing unformatted WS files can be useful if you have a text file with
a table or graphics and no running text, and thus the text file will not need
to be reflowed. Running text will not look as good as it would be with the
formatted file. Normally, this setting should be turned off.
The program language is only English at this time. The German setting affects
only some error and information messages. To translate WSformat to other
languages, I need help from native speakers. Please contact me if you are
interested in such an effort - you will receive a donation for your work.
Concern printing group box
Lower the Print job priority if user input slows down while running a print
job.
Concerning Preview groupbox
When using preview you can also choose between positioning of each character
and positioning only each word. Positioning only each word is faster, but it
affects the word spacing, because WSformat can only select integer values of
font sizes and then the spaces between words can differ. The default value is
enabled.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2.2. Format page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
On the format page, you can change settings concerning formatting rather than
directly previewing or printing or setting margins. These settings are located
on the Layout page.
Change hard spaces to soft spaces at the beginning of a line is useful if
WordStar conventions using soft spaces have not been observed for text
indention. Note that enabling this function will result in a wrong format if
normal spaces have been used to indent the first line of a paragraph. The
default value is disabled.
Reduce factor of spaces in wrapped lines ('gum factor') affects the width of
the spaces between the words of a wrapped line. A gum factor of '1' means that
on average the sum of the width of all spaces in a line is reduced about the
width of one Courier 12 character (1/10 inch). A negative gum factor enlarges
the average width of spaces. You can change this setting in your document by
entering '.GU', followed by the value.
Stretch factor of tabs (soft spaces) applies only to proportional fonts. In a
proportional font, there's no single width for every character; instead every
character is assigned its own width. If text printed in a proportional font
table is indented using soft spaces, there is the question to which scale the
indention refers to. This scale is now defined by the 'tab stretch' (.TS)
value. A value of 60 means the width of one soft space is equal to 60% of the
widest character in the font, usually the capital 'W' in a Roman alphabet. If
you want to be sure to keep two columns of a table from overlapping, try a
value of 100. This applies even if the column contains only 'W's. Since this is
highly unlikely, adequate values are from 50 to 60. When creating tables with a
proportional font, it is strongly recommended to check carefully with Preview.
All .LH Line Height values refer to default normal font
let WSformat change the .LH values in the formatted file, dependent on the
current font selected with .SF. This omits overprinting lines when using large
fonts. See Line Height.
Default fonts
Using fonts is described in an own chapter of this document. Fonts are
represented by single letters (case-sensitive). In the file fonts.ini, font
letters are assigned to the fonts available on your operating system. Single
characters represent fonts with no attribute, adding ' means italic, " means
bold, and & bold-italic. Note however that all these conventions can be
redefined.
You can select default values for both the normal and alternate fonts. The
selected font written with the selected font is displayed in the white field on
the right.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2.3. Hyphenation page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Hyphenation is an important feature of a word processing program that must
formatting text with a fixed right margin. The more hypenation points are
correctly found, the better the final appearance of the document.
The default value of hyphenation is no hyphenation.
External Tex file
For all languages other than German, the external tex file setting is
recommended. Use the Google search engine on the Internet to locate the tex
hyphenation file (there is one available for almost every language). Once
located, download it to your computer and then save it in or move it to your
WSformat directory so that it will be available. These files are available for
nearly every language. For additional information see the chapter on
installation.
Tex hyphenation files are data-based text files which can be viewed with an
ASCII editor that accepts the IBM-OEM codepage. If a word is not currently in
the database, that word will not be hyphenated in your document. This will
especially affect the hyphenation points of such complex substantives as
'news-paper. The database stores the syllables with interspersed digits which
represent the possible hyphenation points. An odd digit means 'hyphenation
allowed,' while an even digit indicates 'hyphenation not allowed.' These may be
considered indicators of 'fracture' points. Digits of larger values indicate a
low probability of a hyphenation point; low value digits indicate 'weak' and
thus an increased likelihood. The factor Minimal rating refers to these digits.
A minimal rating of 1 can result in a larger number of hyphenations; values of
3 and 5 reduce the frequency of hyphenations, and produce only very good
hyphenations. A lower frequency of hyphenations can increase the average width
of spaces between words. A rating of 2 is not different from a value of 1.
Internal german hyphenation algorithm
In the German language, hyphenation is very important because of complex
substantives. The internal german hyphenation function is based on a phonetic
assessment of a word, rather than on a reference to a stored data base. It can
thus hyphenate words which occur in text only very seldom; proper names fall
into this category. It locates more possible hyphenations (nearly all in fact)
than the German TeX database. In the case of a few hyphenations, the results of
the algorithm are ambiguous. In these cases, there is a query option
(RБckfrage) where the user is called upon to make a judgment. Many of these
queries are humorous funny, because the wrong hyphenation alters the meaning.
It is possible that WSformat takes note of these corrected hyphenations, and
stores them in the files DEULERN.DTA and GRIELERN.DTA which resides in the
current directory (normally the directory where WSformat.exe is located in).
The additional 'Ancient Greek' algorithm is useful for scientific documents
where many words are derived from the Greek roots. This particularly applies to
syllables beginning with ps, pt, rh, sc and some others. In most German
(commercial, correspondence...) these syllables occur very seldom, and the
default setting is set to disabled.
The minimum of not separated chars settings refer to all hyphenation
algorithms. It's a matter of document ('house') style whether a hyphenation
will leave only two characters of the word on a line. Higher values will reduce
the number of hyphenations; useful values are 2, 3 or 4.
Do not hyphenate areas with capital letters depends on your own style
requirements. Sometimes there are abbreviations with capital letters which must
not be hyphenated. If your text contains sections in capital letters, you
should disable this function. The default setting is enabled.
A manual hyphenation setting is also available. When a word must be hyphenated,
a simple YES-NO-CANCEL dialog box is presented to the user for his decision.
You can change the hyphenation default setting by using the .HY command, see
chapter Select Hyphenation.
To indicate that no attempt should be made to hyphenate it, type a leading ^PG
character in front of the word.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2.4. Layout page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
On the settings notebook page Layout, you can set the default values of many
dot commands which refer to the default page layout.
The scale of all vertical values is the default typewriter line height (.LH8)
('lines') and of the horizontal values the width of a Courier 12 font character
('columns').
The dot commands also accept inch values (.PL 8.5") or cm values (.PL 23.0). To
distinguish the line/column scale from cm scale, the latter always requires a
decimal point or comma.
On the settings notebook, only the column/inches values can be set, but if you
move the mouse over the entry fields, you will activate a bubble help which
shows you the value in inches or cm, depending on the scale for bubble help
radiobuttons.
Page Template let you restore and save other dot command settings referring the
page layout. To define a new value, select one of the "Template" items, edit
the combobox and change the dot command values. The last template you have
chosen is the template WSformat refers to.
Write default dot commands to FMT file is useful if you want to send a
formatted file to another WSformat user. All your dot command default settings
are automatically written at the beginning of the formatted file.
The ASCII codepage holds single line and double line images, e.g. single ΓöÇ
(Alt-196) and double ΓòÉ (Alt-205). WSformat does not send the ASCII code of
these 'characters' to the printer; instead it generates graphics. The Line
drawing settings refers to the width of lines in 1/300 inch pixels. Useful
values are from 2 to 10. Instead of a double line, WSformat creates a wide
line.
It is permissible to use these characters in situations other than in .LI line
drawing tables. The length of these lines in relation to text set in
proportional fonts depends on the '.TS' tab stretch value: The length of one
line character corresponds to one soft space.
Codepage has two settings. There are two code pages which are very similar,
both known as the 'IBM codepage' or the 'OEM codepage.' The difference is in
the line drawing characters, which are made up of both small and wide lines.
Code page 850 lacks these combined line drawing characters, but instead
contains additional accented characters for various languages.
An important consideration in Europe is the addition of Euro-character ΓòÆ which
is available only on the 850 Code page. If you have selected code page 437, it
will be a line-drawing character instead of the Euro symbol.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2.5. Notes page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
WSformat handles endnotes, footnotes and margin notes.
Settings referring to Format function
Width of left margin for margin notes is the default value of the '.MN{}n' dot
command, where 'n' represents the maximal length of margin notes in characters.
When bringing text and notes on a page together (Make - text and footnotes), it
is necessary that each footnote link in the text area be indicated with a
marker. This marker is the internal character for assigning footnotes and is
simply a character which is not used anywhere else in your document. The
default value is ^PQ (ASCII value of 17 decimal).
To enter Wordstar Printer chars ^PA...^PZ, type a ^ (circumflex) character and
then a capital letter.
There are different ways of showing footnote links. Footnote link text in text
area defines how the footnote link is to appear. Acceptable conventions for
footnote links are (1), [1], and ^T1^T (superscript). Remember that you can
define a superscript font, see chapter fonts.
Footnote link text in footnote area is the counterpart at the beginning of a
footnote. Note the use of leading spaces to represent indention.
If you want to insert a Return inside your footnote text, you need a character
for RETURN in footnote text which will later be converted to a Return. Normal
Returns in footnote text are filtered.
Settings referring to 'Making Text and Footnotes'
Number of empty lines between text area and footnotes defines the distance
between the text block and the footnote block of a single page.
The last setting hold number of lines in a paragraph together refers to the
Make - Text and footnote task. When creating a text and footnote file (TAF
file), WSformat has to generate the Page breaks on its own. If you select a
value of 2, WSformat holds the first two and the last two lines of a paragraph
together; using a value of 1 deactivates this function. Enabling this function
(values 2 or 3) is strongly recommended.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2.6. Index page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The index page stores those settings which refer to the Make - contents and the
Make - index function of WSformat.
Concerning content creation
When creating a table of contents (TOC) files, you can select whether or not to
write page numbers.
With Highlight main headings enabled, main headings get bold toggles. Anyway,
WSformat writes an empty line above a main heading.
Concerning index creation
Highlight weighted page numbers generates bold face page numbers for weighted
index entries.
Sortiere... refers to a German 'umlaut' problem.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.3. Preview Window ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
To have access to the preview feature, first format your text. Then press the
preview button or select File - Preview. The preview window opens and the
yellow LED in the WSformat main window glows.
The title bar of the preview window now displays the current page number and
the filename.
When saving the FMT file in the editor, the preview window is updated
automatically. Changing settings in the settings notebook will also
automatically force a preview update.
In the preview window, use the Pg dn and Pg up keys of your keyboard or the
left and right mouse button. The left mouse button shows the next page, the
right mouse button the previous page. To go to page 20, for example, hold down
the left mouse button and drag the mouse to the right. Until the end of the
file is reached, WSformat does not know the page length. On reaching the end,
the number of pages is shown in the titlebar: '7 of 17' (pages).
Change the window with and height. The preview scale depends on the window
width. If you make the window width large, a vertical scrollbar appears.
If you have a slow computer and a large document, previewing backwards requires
some considerable time because WSformat must read the document again from the
beginning. (Perhaps that will improve in a later version.)
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.4. Print pages dialog ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
To print a document from the first to the last page, select a printer in the
main window dropdown box and press the Print button.
To print selected pages of a document, click on File - print pages. This brings
up a small dialog window. If you press OK without entering values for the first
and last pages, the whole document will be printed.
You are allowed to enter several page numbers in the entry field, separating
them by commas or spaces. To print several pages, enter the first and the last
page numbers, separating them with a hyphen.
If you want to print from a specific page to the end of the document, select a
number for the last page which exceeds the size of the document, e.g. 18-999.
Enabling the Exclude pages checkbox means all pages will be printed, but now
the pages shown in the entry field are instead omitted.
You can select the Number of copies which you want printed. The document is
printed once from the first to the last page, and then the document is printed
a second time from the beginning. That means the page order is in collated
sequence, such as 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, etc., and not as 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.
Press OK to start printing and Cancel if you decide to terminate the job.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.5. Command line Arguments ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The current WSformat program allows only one file name to be entered as an
argument on the command line. Any additional arguments are ignored. If the
filename contains spaces, type 'file name' or "file name". Do not omit the file
extension.
I am planning to include support for full format and print control using
command line arguments in a later version.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Fonts ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Using fonts with WSformat is very different from Wordstar, but similar to
Hypermake. Fonts are selected by using specific dot commands.
In WSformat and Hypermake, fonts are represented by a font letter which is a
shortcut for a specific font description. Font letters are case-sensitive, so
you can use A to Z and a to z for a total of 52 letters.
subchapters:
Storing font data
WSformat default fonts
Basic font selection in document
Extended Fonts.ini functionality
Extended font selection in document
next chapter:
Basic text commands
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1. Storing font data ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The information about fonts is stored in two files: Fonts.ini and
Printername.dta. Both files are located in the directory where WSformat.exe
resides.
Fonts.ini is a text file which can be edited with any reliable ASCII editor,
with WSedit, or by selecting Settings - Font definition in the WSformat main
window.
Printername.dta is a binary file which stores the same information which is
held in the Fonts.ini file. It stores additional information about the selected
fonts, especially the pixel width of all characters. Because the font metrics
slightly differ from printer to printer, every printer installed on your system
gets such a file, e.g. 'HP Deskjet 600.dta'. After changing Fonts.ini, the
Printername.dta file is updated automatically before processing the next
format, preview or print job. When formatting or printing, WSFormat gets the
information from this file and not from the operating system. This makes
formatting and printing faster.
In the current WSformat version, formatting problems occur when these font data
are involved. (I hope to correct these problems in future versions.) In this
case, deleting the Printername.dta file forces recalculating all font data and
the elimination of the problems.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2. WSformat default fonts ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Starting WSformat the first time causes a new Fonts.ini file to be generated.
WSformat asks the operating system for the names of registered Times Roman,
Helvetica and Courier fonts. Depending on this computer-specific query,
WSformat generates a new Fonts.ini file. Please take a look at your Fonts.ini.
On many systems, the following fonts are listed:
Font A = Times New Roman 8
Font B = Times New Roman 10
Font C = Times New Roman 12
Font D = Times New Roman 14
Font E = Helvetica 8
Font F = Helvetica 10
Font G = Helvetica 12
Font H = Helvetica 14
Font I = Helvetica 16
Font J = Helvetica 18
Font K = Courier New 8
Font L = Courier New 10
Font M = Courier New 12
The font letters from A to M are allocated in every WSformat installation. Use
these fonts if you want to write a document to be sent to another WSformat
user. This font selection covers all normal word processing purposes.
If you miss some fonts, enter your own definitions, using the font letters N to
Z and a to z.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3. Basic font selection in document ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
For selecting a font in your document, simply use the dot command
.SF (select font),
followed by the font letter. E.g.
.SFC
This selects the font 'Times New Roman 12,' because it is defined in the
Fonts.ini file as:
Font C = Times New Roman 12
Typing .SF without a parameter selects the default font which is set in the
settings notebook, page format.
Alternate Font
You can also define an alternate font
.AF (alternate font)
which is printed when a ^PA character appears at the beginning of a paragraph.
The syntax is similar to the .SF font:
.AFC (selects alternate font C)
.AF (selects default alternate font).
Behind the ^PA printer character, the alternate font rests activated until the
paragraphs ends with a Hard Return.
Subscript/Superscript font
It is useful to select a smaller font for subscript (^PV in pairs) and
superscript (^PT in pairs) text:
.SSB
select subscript/superscript font selects e.g. font B (Times Roman 10). The
default setting is the default font in the settings notebook, page format.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4. Extended Fonts.ini functionality ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
If you are more ambitious in your treatment of fonts, you can define manually
bold, italic and bold-italic fonts.
The default behaviour of WSformat is that you simply define a font by using
.SF. When you then use the ^PB (bold) and ^PY (italic) toggles, you will get
the same font in bold or italic styles respectively. You have the option to
redefine the bold, italic and bold-italic fonts manually.
When interpreting a 'Font' line in the Fonts.ini file, not only is a single
font defined, but the italic, bold and bold-italic fonts along with it:
Font C = Times New Roman 12
Font C" = Times New Roman 12 bold
Font C' = Times New Roman 12 italic
Font C& = Times New Roman 12 bold italic
This default behavior can be turned off selectively by entering:
AutoItalicBold = no
and can be turned on
AutoItalicBold = yes
You can now define the bold, italic and bold-italic fonts by hand, or you can
override these settings. Because the Fonts.ini file is interpreted
sequentially, it is possible to repeat a font definition without turning off
the 'AutoItalicBold' setting.
Font C = Times New Roman 12
Font C" = Times New Roman 13 bold
That means italic and bold-italic of the C type face are defined
conventionally, but the bold font is a slightly larger font (13 instead of 12).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.5. Extended font selection in document ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The .SF command changes the previously selected fonts for normal, bold, italic
and italic-bold styles simultaneously. If you want to change a font attribute
selectively, there are specific dot commands which can be used, such as the .SF
command:
.SN (select normal)
.SB (select bold)
.SY (select italic)
.SX (select bold-italic)
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Basic text commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
'Basic text commands' refers to the formatting and printing commands - dot
commands, printer (^P) characters - which are similar to Wordstar DOS. The next
chapter 'Extended text commands' refers to advanced features such as graphics,
footnotes or contents which are implemented in a WSformat specific way.
The majority of WSformat text commands are identical to those in Wordstar DOS,
but a few are new or different from Wordstar DOS. They are marked with the
following sign:
Γûê
Γûä Wordstar DOS user, please note!
Most word processing programs save formatting and printing information in a
binary format. Wordstar DOS and WSformat store this information as readable
text characters. There are two kinds of these commands:
Γûá dot commands: A text line beginning with a dot (period), followed by two
characters. Dot commands are not case-sensitive.
Γûá printer chars: Characters with an ASCII value lower than decimal 32. In
Wordstar DOS and WSedit such characters are entered by type Ctrl-P, followed by
a letter.
subchapters:
Syntax of dot commands
Printer command characters
Text formatting commands
Page formatting commands
Embedding files
next chapter:
Extended text commands
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1. Syntax of dot commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A dot command must be typed on a separate line and begin with a dot in the
leftmost margin. If the dot is not located at the first column, it will not
treated as a dot command and will instead be be printed as text. In most cases,
the dot is followed by two characters which are not case-sensitive. Many dot
commands require a following argument. For example:
.RM70
sets the right margin to the value 70. You are allowed to enter spaces between
'RM' and the number.
In this documentation, I need to print dot commands without having them
interpreted. The first character in a line is the bold toggle and the second
the dot, thus isolating the latter from the right margin. A line so constructed
will thus show the dot in the left margin, as the first character when it is
printed, and it won't be interpreted.
In Wordstar, the default horizontal page measurement is characters and the
default vertical measurement is lines. Both directions refer to old typewriter
conventions. A character is considered to be as wide as a 'Courier 12'
character - the only font with which most typewriters were provided - and the
line measurement is the default (narrow-spaced) line. WSformat assumes 1/48' to
be the unit of vertical pitch, so .LH8 indicates a line spacing of 8/48' or 6
lines per inch).
All dot commands which allow character or line counts to indicate distances
will also accept inches and cm values:
.RM 7.0"
.RM 17.8
Γûê
Γûä Note that the use of dot (decimal point) or " makes the difference: If the
number contains a dot or a comma, it is treated as a measurement in centimeters
or inches. The inch value is marked by the " character.
Comments
A very useful dot command is 'dot dot'
..This won't be printed
This allows you easily to enter text which won't be printed in the finished
document. In WSedit, these lines are shown on the editing screen in magenta.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.2. Printer command characters ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
In WSformat and Wordstar DOS, characters with an ASCII value lower than decimal
32 have got a specific meaning. These characters are not printed, but instead
control the formatting and printing of the job.
In both Wordstar DOS and WSedit, you can enter a command to be sent to the
printer by typing Ctrl-P (P for 'printer'), followed by a letter from A to Z.
In the documentation, these commands are written ^PA... ^PZ.
printer chars not used in pairs
^P@ (Wordstar DOS) Text followed by this character is right-justified when
printing
^PZ (WSedit) Text followed by this character is right-justified when printing
^PK Text followed by this character is centered when printing
^PA Turn on the alternate font until the next Hard Return
^PG The following word is not hyphenated
^PO binding space: a line will not be divided a binding space
printer chars used in pairs (toggles)
^PB select the bold font
^PS select underlined text
^PY select the italic font
^PT Superscript, e.g. square meter m2
^PV Subscript, e.g. CO2 will be polluted
Γûê
Γûä WSedit shows the ^PT 2 ^PT sequence simply as 2 which is part of the IBM
Codepage, and ^PT 3 ^PT as 3. You can set the height and depth of the printout
with the .SR command (default is .SR3) and the superscript/subscript font with
the .SS command (select sub/superscript font), followed by a font letter.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3. Text formatting commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
subchapters:
Indentions
Hard and Soft Returns
Turning formatting off and on
Change the hyphenation algorithm
Line Height, superscript roll
Paragraph Width
Paragraph orientation
Auto indention
next chapter:
Page formatting commands
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3.1. Indentions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Hard and Soft Spaces, indentions
Wordstar DOS, WSedit and WSformat know two different kinds of Spaces: Soft
spaces (in WSedit shown as 'snow characters') and normal 'hard' spaces. Soft
spaces represent indentions and tabulations. While formatting, these soft
spaces can vanish and then appear on another place.
This is a sample showing soft spaces. To indent a line in WSedit, simply
use the Tabulation (Tab) key, or press Ctrl-OG.
It is also possible first to enter text and then to indent by typing
the Tab key, followed by the running text.
To reformat a paragraph in WSedit after changing the '.TB' tab stop
position, type Ctrl-B. WSformat interprets the resulting soft spaces, not
the '.TB' command.
Γûê
ΓûäThe width of soft spaces (snow characters) can be defined with the .TS tab
stretch command.
.TS60 (also .DE60 or .DE6)
sets the width of a soft space to 60% of the capital W of the current
proportional font. When using a fixed font, this setting has no effect.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3.2. Hard and Soft Returns ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
There are also two different kinds of Returns: lines can end with either a Soft
or a Hard Return. In WSedit, this is shown by color patches in the rightmost
column. Soft Returns vanish and appear on another place while formatting. Hard
Returns remain fixed at the same place. Soft Returns are generated by the
computer; Hard Returns by typing the Enter key on the keyboard.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3.3. Turning formatting off and on ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
When typing tables, there is always the concern about destroying table
formatting, because WSformat might treat the table as running text and reormat
it. WSformat attempts to recognize the difference between tables or columns
automatically, if more than 4 normal spaces occur, but sometimes this rule
fails. In such instances, it is safer to turn off formatting explicitly:
.FM OFF Formatting disabled (also .BA, .AW OFF)
.FM ON Formatting enabled (also .BE, .AW ON)
Typing ^B in the WSedit editor will not have an effect after typing FM OFF or
BA.
If you type .BA TOTAL at the beginning of a Wordstar document, neither WSedit
nor WSformat will do any formatting whatever.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3.4. Change the hyphenation algorithm ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
You have access to the hyphenation algorithm choice within your document like
you have on the hyphenation page of your settings notebook. This is useful when
editing multilingual documents.
.HY OFF
or
.HY NO
hyphenation off turns hyphenation of words off.
.HY ON
turns hyphenation on again and activates the algorithm which was valid before
turning off hyphenation.
.HY GERMAN
turns the internal german hyphenation on, using the checkbox values of the
settings notebook.
.HY TEX
turns the external tex hyphenation on, with the tex hyphenation file which was
last selected.
.HY Languagename.TEX
turns the external tex hyphenation on and makes the tex file Languagename.tex
current
.HY MANUAL
or
.HY HAND
queries all possible hyphenations. A simple YES-NO-CANCEL dialog box is
presented to the user for his decision.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3.5. Line Height, superscript roll ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
.LH8
line height sets the line height to 8/48 inches. This is the default
linespacing of a conventional typewriter. .LH12 means 150% of the default
typewriter linespacing. .LH10. is a good choice for Times Roman 12 or Helvetica
12.
In the settings notebook on the format page, you will find the checkbox
all .LH Line Height values refer to default normal font
This has got two effects:
all .LH commands gets changed in the FMT file, if you don't use the size
of the default font, e.g. '12' for 'Times Roman 12'.
after selecting a new font with .SF, the line height is recalculated and
in the FMT file, WSformat generates a new .LH entry behind the .SF
command.
This setting omits that lines with large fonts are overprinted, but old
Wordstar DOS user could get confused. The default setting is enabled.
.SR3
superscript/subscript roll defines the height of superscript text (using ^PT
in pairs) or the depth of subscript text (^PV in pairs). The default value is
3.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3.6. Paragraph Width ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
.RM40
sets the width of the text block (right margin) to 40 (the measurement is in
Courier 12 characters). The WSformat default value is 60 and can be modified in
Settings - Settings notebook, page Page. The value does not correspond to the
width of the right paper margin; you enter instead the width of your text
(paragraph width).
.PO8
page offset is the left paper margin. This command affects only previewing and
printing, but not formatting.
The width of a default sheet of paper is 83 characters. If your .PO page offset
is 8 and the text block width (.RM 'right margin') is 60, then 83 - 8 - 60 = 15
characters are left for the right paper margin.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3.7. Paragraph orientation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Output centered
To center text, instead of typing ^PK in front of each line you can also use
the appropriate dot commands:
.OC ON
.OC OFF
The default value is OFF.
Micro justification
You can also select whether text is to be set ragged right or justified:
.BL ON
Block on turns justification on (fixed right margin) using 'micro
justification'
.BL OFF
Block off turns justification off (ragged right margin). ('Micro justification'
is off.)
If the text is to be right justified (right margin is fixed - .BL ON), WSformat
distributes the empty space remaining at the end of the line equally between
all words. If the Printername.dta file which holds the character width of all
characters and fonts which are used by the document is corrupted, micro
justification will fail and the printed result will be unusable. In this case,
delete the Printername.dta file; it will be re-created automatically.
By default, paragraphs are printed with fixed left and right margins (FMT
formatted files), or with a fixed left and a ragged right margin (WS
unformatted files).
The Wordstar commands .UJ and .OJ are also interpreted. However, you won't see
justification in the editor. .FL (German 'flatter' = bouncing) and simply .BL
(block) without parameters is also interpreted.
Γûê
Γûä Do not format double- and triple-spaced text (Wordstar .OJ ON). Only
paragraphs of single-spaced text can be formatted.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3.8. Auto indention ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
.LM and .PM refer to the formatting process of WSformat. If you want to indent
your text in a uniform way without reformatting in the editor by using '.TB'
and Ctrl-B, you can use these two dot commands:
.LM6
left margin causes the text to begin in column 6; columns 1 through 5 will be
occupied by soft spaces.
.PM8
paragraph margin is like the .LM command, but affects only the first line of
each paragraph. In this case, the first line will be further indented.
To turn off automatic indention, set the default values .LM0 and .PM0.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4. Page formatting commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
subchapters:
New Page
Page margins
Header and Footer Lines, Page Numbering
Odd and even pages
Paper orientation
next chapter:
Embedding files
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4.1. New Page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
.PA
forces the following text to the beginning a new page.
.CP10
conditional page keeps the following 10 lines together. If there is
insufficient space on the page, a page break will be inserted at the location
of the .CP command.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4.2. Page margins ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The following page margin commands are available. A table showing these dot
commands with their default values is available on WSformat Settings - Settings
notebook, page page.
.PL page length
.MT margin top
.MB margin bottom
.PO page offset (=left paper margin)
.RM right margin (=paragraph width)
and, to define the separations between header/footer lines and text:
.FM foot margin
.HM head margin.
The european A4 page size is 8.25" x 11.666" and the US Letter standard is 8.5"
x 11". So .PL66 is the length of a US Letter page, while .PL70 is the length of
an european A4 page. See page templates on settings notebook, page Layout.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4.3. Header and Footer Lines, Page Numbering ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
To get a header line which repeats on each subsequent page, enter (for example)
:
.HE My document, 1st Edition
You can place similar text at the bottom of the page (footer line):
.FO My document, 1st Edition
Γûê
Γûä You may then designate a font by combining the .HE Header and .SF Select Font
commands:
.sfE
.HE My document, 1st Edition
or
.HEsfE My document, 1st Edition
which has no effect on the font selection of lines which follow.
To center a header or footer line, use the printer command character ^PK. To
justify text right, use the WSedit ^PZ command (equivalent to Wordstar ^P@).
It is possible to define up to five Header or Footer lines:
top of page
.H1
.H2
.H3
.H4
.H5 = .HE
.F1 = .FO
.F2
.F3
.F4
.F5
end of page
Note that these lines can appear only if the .MT and .MB values (margin top and
margin bottom) have been assigned values which are high enough to allocate the
necessary space. Use Preview to test whether or not the header and footer lines
appear.
Γûê
Γûä You can set the vertical pitch (line spacing) of the header and footer lines,
comparable to the .LH dot command.
.HH Header Height
.FH Footer Height
The default value of these commands is 8 (= default Typewriter linespacing of 6
lines per inch).
Page numbering
By default the page number in the footer line is centered:
.FO ^PK #
# will be replaced by the current page number when the document is printed.
You can change this default setting by entering your own footer and header
commands.
.OP
To turn off printing of page numbers, use omit pages. This command let the
footer line get void.
.PG (or .PN)
turns printing page numbers on again.
.PC30
page column prints the page number at column 30 and is retained for Wordstar
compatibility, but will often produce unpredictable results when proportional
fonts are used.
.PN15
page number immediately advances the page counter to the value of 15. This is
no good practice, because it may result in the same page number occuring twice
in the same document.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4.4. Odd and even pages ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Γûê
Γûä By default, the page number value has no effect to WSformat printing. If you
want to write a book, the left page is always even (2, 4, 6), and the right
page is odd (1, 3, 5). (If you don't believe it, take any book from your
bookcase and make a spot check!)
.LR
Left-right causes WSformat to print all header/footer lines of left (even
numbered) pages left-justified and all header/footer lines of right (odd
numbered) pages right-justified.
You can treat right and left headers or footers separately:
.HER My Header text on the right side
.HEL My Header text on the left side
This can be also combined with the footers and with several header/footer
lines:
.H4R My header text on the right side, line 1
.H5R My header text on the right side, line 2
.F1R My footer text on the right side, line 1
.F2RsfE My footer text on the right side, line 2, Font E
and so on.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4.5. Paper orientation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
.LA (also '.PR or=l')
turns the printer orientation to landscape; the paper width is set larger than
the paper height. The default setting is portrait. The dot commands referring
to the page format do not change automatically. You have to select the suitable
page template on the Layout page of the settings notebook before formatting.
The .LA command only refers to printing.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.5. Embedding files ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Embedding files
.FI Filename
File is a very powerful command. The contents of the file Filename are inserted
at the position where the .FI command is located. This command is interpreted
while formatting but not while printing.
The file extension makes a great difference.
.FI Filename.ws
.FI Filename.fmt
If the file extension is WS, WSformat interprets the file as an unformatted
file and while formatting, full dot command interpretation and formatting are
used. If the file extension is not WS, the contents of the file are simply
copied to the formatted file.
Save and Remember current formatting values
When using the .FI embed file command, it can be useful to save and remember
current values of dot command settings.
.S:FONTS
.R:FONTS
saves and remembers all current font data (normal, alternate, bold, italic,
bold-italic).
.S:LINEHEIGHT
.R:LINEHEIGHT
saves and remembers the current state of the .LH command.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Extended text commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The extended text commands provide extended word processing facilities; these
are implemented in a WSformat specific way. For Wordstar DOS users, the
information in this chapter will be completely new.
subchapters:
Embedding graphics
Line drawing
Chapters, headings, table of contents
Footnotes, End Notes, Margin Notes
Index
Conditional statements
next chapter:
Dot command summary
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.1. Embedding graphics ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A provision for embedding graphics was lacking in Wordstar DOS. In a graphical
environment, it is no longer difficult to handle graphics; their support in
WSformat is fully compatible with Hypermake syntax.
The graphics commands only support Windows Bitmap (BMP) files. GIF and JPEG
support is planned for a future version.
WSformat offers two simple ways of embedding graphics.
To embed a graphic in your document, simply enter
.BM Filename.bmp
The files are searched in all directories which are listed on the Program page
of Settings - Settings notebook.
The .BM command is interpreted both while formatting and while printing. While
formatting, WSformat calculates the width and height of your graphic. The
default behavior of WSformat is that the graphics file is stretched
horizontally and vertically until the width matches the paragraph width
(depending on the .RM command). The height of the graphic is calculated and
WSformat enters empty lines into the FMT file:
ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇ
(running text above the graphic)
.CP7
.BM Filename.bmp
(running text below the graphic)
ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇ
When previewing or printing, the graphics file is shown.
If you want the width of the graphics width to be different from the paragraph
width, you can modify the size of the graphic by entering
.BW 80
bitmap width before typing the .BM command. A value of 80 means that the width
is 80% of the paragraph width. The graphic will be printed centered, with a
margin of 10% on the left and 10% on the right side. The default value of .BW
is 100. This command also influences formatting. The smaller this value, the
fewer empty lines WSformat will insert.
Bitmap text
The .BM command is not appropriate if you want to embed a graphic in running
text. Instead, use:
.BTX Filename.bmp
X represents a bitmap character, an arbitrary character which will not
otherwise appear in the text. This character will be replaced in your text by
the bitmap 'filename.' Note that bitmaps can be higher than characters, so you
should select one that will not cause overprinting of characters on the line
above. Block chars like Γûê (Alt-219), Γûä (Alt-220), ΓûÇ (Alt-223) are useful bitmap
chars (DOS/IBM codepage).
Text Bitmaps are already interpretated while formatting. WSformat treats such
bitmaps as characters and calculates the width of the bitmap to let the right
margin justified.
The scale of the .BT graphics is 300 bits per inch, which means that a graphics
file with a 300 pixel width gets a 1 inch (2,54 cm) width on your printout. You
can change this value by entering:
.GS
graphics scale. Place this command above your .BT command.
You are allowed to define up to 20 bitmap chars simultaneously.
To deactivate a character-bitmap definition, enter:
.BTX
without specifying a filename. The actual character will then be printed,
rather than the bitmap.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.2. Line drawing ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The IBM codepage contains some characters which represent lines instead of
letters. You can use combinations of these characters to draw boxes.
WSformat does not send line characters to the printer directly. Instead, it
sends bitmap images of the characters to be printed. The main reason for doing
this are that line drawing characters must be printed only at the default line
height .LH8. To draw an unbroken vertical line, line drawing characters are
converted to commands like 'draw a line from coordinate X to coordinate Y.'
You are encouraged to use these line drawing characters in running text ΓöÇ e.g.
as a dash (Alt-196, narrow lines)
or for lists (Alt-205, wide lines).
Characters which represent double lines are shown as wide lines in preview and
on printout. You can set the width of the narrow and wide lines in the
settings notebook, page Layout.
Block characters Γûê (Alt-219), Γûä (Alt-220), ΓûÇ (Alt-223) and - only 437 codepage
- Alt-221 and Alt-222 are also sent as bitmap graphics. Here as an example is
a large exclamation mark
Γûê
Γûä which is made by using such block characters.
Creating Boxes
As creating boxes is usually a tedious job, a dot command has been defined to
facilitate line drawing. The following example illustrates its use.
.LIXY
X X
Operating systems
Y Y X X
Novell IBM Hardware
Y Y X X
DOS Netware OS/2
X X
.LI
The result will be: (view FMT file or make preview)
ΓöîΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÉ
Γöé Γöé
Γöé Operating systems Γöé
Γöé Γöé
Γö£ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöñ ΓöîΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÉ
Γöé Novell Γöé IBM Γöé Γöé Hardware Γöé
Γö£ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöñ ΓööΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÿ
Γöé DOS Γöé Netware Γöé OS/2 Γöé
ΓööΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö┤ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö┤ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÿ
In the dot command .LIXYZ, X represents an arbitrary character marking the
corners of the box, Y a partition of the box. Z, placed in front of X or Y,
generates double lines (wide lines). A combination of single and double lines
requires the Codepage 437 selection (Page Layout in the settings notebook).
The Z char in the .LIXYZ command for producing double lines has to be a
^P-character like ^PE or ^PR. When using the ^OD toggle in Wordstar DOS, you
can make the ^P-characters invisible to check the correct orientation of the
box. (In WSedit 0.9, this functionality is missing yet, so after entering a ^P
character, the X chars are no more in the same column.)
WSformat supports proportional fonts in line drawings. The .TS tab stretch
command is very important in this case. You can specify the width of your
boxes with the .TS command. If this produces overlapping columns, enlarge the
.TS command value (default is 60).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3. Chapters, headings, table of contents ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
WSedit, WSformat and Hypermake provide easy-to-use support for headings and
tables of contents.
subchapters:
Heading commands in your source text
Headings and WSedit
Formatting a text with headings
Non-decimal classification
Writing out a table of contents file from your formatted file
next chapter:
Footnotes, End Notes, Margin Notes
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3.1. Heading commands in your source text ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
You can arrange your text with heading levels, as you would in a technical
document:
first heading
first sub-heading
second sub-heading
first sub-sub-heading
second sub-sub-heading
third sub-heading
second heading
In the WSedit/WSformat/Hypermake format, the headings are designated in the
following manner:
.1
first heading
.2
first sub-heading
.2
second sub-heading
.3
first sub sub-heading
.3
second sub sub-heading
.2
third sub-heading
.1
second heading
On the line immediately following the dot command for the heading level, you
enter the heading text. Heading text can be longer than one line, but must not
extend beyond a single paragraph: a Hard Return marks the end of the heading.
In your printout, your document is structured like this:
1. first heading
1.1 first sub heading
1.2 second sub heading
1.2.1 first sub sub heading
1.2.2 second sub sub heading
1.3 third sub heading
2. second heading
WSformat handles up to 9 heading levels, but Hypermake is limited to only 6
heading levels. WSformat also supports other conventions for enumerations
(letters, roman numerals, as well as others).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3.2. Headings and WSedit ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
WSedit provides support for headings and tables of contents, expressed in
WSformat / Hypermake syntax.
First, headings are highlighted in green, if the heading checkbox is checked on
the Highlt page of the WSedit settings notebook (press ^OO).
Second, to help navigating in your unformatted text, WSedit has a contents
window. ^OC opens the contents window. ^OI also opens the contents window and
then jumps to the chapter where the text cursor is currently located.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3.3. Formatting a text with headings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
When formatting a source text which contains heading commands, these commands
are converted to commands for font selection, line spacing and page breaks.
Previewing and printing the file will display headings in their final correct
form.
The way these dot commands are to be converted to other commands is defined in
the headings template file. This file can be viewed by selecting settings -
headings template in the WSformat main window. This shows the file HEADINGS.WS
which is located in the directory where WSformat.exe resides. The file is
self-explanatory. Instead of the word 'heading,' WSformat subsitutes the
heading text you have specified.
You are at liberty to modify this file. If you want to use other heading files,
first make a copy of HEADINGS.WS and then modify the copy. Simply place your
HEADINGS.WS file in the directory where your document files are located, or
substitute another filename, e.g. MYHEADING.WS, and then include the dot
command
.HF MyHeading.ws
heading file before entering the first .1 command.
.P# 3.2.5
sets the current content numbering. You have to enter decimal notation here.
Use e.g. .P#5 at the beginning if you have got a separate document containing
chapter 5 and 6.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3.4. Non-decimal classification ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Some people prefer other ways of enumerating headings. Today, although decimal
classification is a standard, WSformat also supports other forms of
enumerations:
1.1 Decimal classification without last dot
1.1. Decimal classification with last dot
I. Roman nnumerals (up to 38 = XXXVIII)
A. Capital letters
1. Customary (arabic) numerals
a. lowercase letters
aa. double lowercase letters
[alpha character]. Ancient greek characters (bu only those in codepage 437,
Alpha = Alt-224, etc.)
Instead of typing a dot behind the character, a right parenthesis ')'--is also
possible, thus: 1)
In the headings template file, you can define any or all of these styles of
enumeration.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3.5. Writing out a table of contents file from your formatted file ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
After finishing your FMT formatted file and fixing all page breaks, WSformat
helps you prepare a properly numbered table of contents.
In the unformatted file enter, for example, something like:
.PA
Contents of this document
.ci7
.. (later, place the table of contents file here)
.PA
.PA
There are two aspects to consider:
.CI
contents indention sets the tab stops while formatting the table of contents
file, comparable to the Wordstar/WSedit .TB command. The value has to be the
maximum number of characters of your deepest heading enumeration plus 2. E. g.
if you have selected decimal classification and use headings up to level 3, the
width of the heading enumeration does not exceed 5:
123456789
1.1.1 TextTextText
In this case, a .CI value of 7 or more fits your purpose.
The other aspect to consider is how many pages the table of contents will
occupy. Because the table is printed before the running text begins, the length
of the table influences the page numbering of your document. You will therefore
have to estimate the length of the table (in pages) and then enter several .PA
page break commands, so the first page of your running text will get the final
page number after inserting the contents. If your first trial fails, edit the
FMT file and enlarge or reduce the number of .PA commands. Please remember that
you have to enter at least one empty line between two .PA commands.
After inserting the .CI command and .PA page breaks as described above, do the
following to embed a table of contents file in your formatted file:
Select Make - Content in the WSformat main window. The extension of the
contents file is TOC.
Now open the formatted file which has remained unchanged while executing
Make - Content.
Remember the page number of the first page of your running text.
Delete the .PA commands you have inserted previously.
Copy the contents of the TOC file to the location you previously
allocated.
Locate the first page of your running text again and see what page number
WSformat has assigned to it. If the number has changed, leave the
formatted file without saving any changes, re-open it, delete or insert a
.PA command, and repeat the procedure.
From a technical point of view, the Make - Content function operates
independently of the headings function, explained above. It does only
interpret formatted files which no longer contain any heading commands. So you
can also use Make - Content if you have entered your headings manually.
WSformat takes a careful look to the beginning of each paragraph of your
formatted file and decides whether or not to copy this file into the table of
contents file. If there is any uncertainty, the line is nevertheless copied to
the table of contents file. It is always advisable to take a close look at the
table of contents file and delete any lines which are not headings.
The criteria are: after reading spaces and printer characters at the beginning
of a paragraph, the first acceptable characters have to be
one or two normal (arabic) digits or latin numberals up to XXXVIII,
followed by a dot or a close-parenthesis ')'
one or two upper- or lower-case letters, followed by a close-parenthesis
')'
a single captial letter, followed by a dot.
Unrecognized Recognized
123. 12.
345) 34)
7 7.
IL. XXXVIII.
IV IV)
B B.
ab. ab)
aac) ac)
Because a TAF file (text and footnotes) will usually contain many paragraphs
beginning with a number followed by ')' - the footnote paragraphs - all lines
in TAF files with a number and ')' are not copied to the Table of Contents
file.
In the settings notebook, page index, you can specify whether to write page
numbers or not, and whether or not to highlight main headings in boldface. In
any case, an empty line is inserted before writing a main heading. The first
heading type which occurs in the formatted file will be considered the 'main
heading.' This can differ from the .1 command in the unformatted file.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4. Footnotes, End Notes, Margin Notes ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
WSformat supports footnotes in an easy and uncomplicated way.
If you prepare a file using Wordstar DOS 5-7, load such a file with footnotes
or end notes into WSedit, and then save the file, these notes are converted to
WSformat and Hypermake format.
Because WSedit and WSformat does not support multi-column text, there is a
special implementation for creating margin notes. Margin notes are very short
text (e.g. 3 or 5 characters long) which appear in the left margin area.
subchapters:
Writing footnotes or end notes in your unformatted file
Handling end notes
Getting real footnotes
Margin Notes
next chapter:
Index
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4.1. Writing footnotes or end notes in your unformatted file ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Generating Footnotes or end notes with Hypermake is very simple. For example,
footnote text can be quoted in brackets like [This will be the content of the
footnote] after entering the dot command footnote usage:
.FU[]
Other useful footnote bracket pairs are { }, < > or Γûä (Alt-220) ΓûÇ (Alt-223).
In WSedit, you can highlight these specific characters (^OO settings notebook,
hightlt page, entryfield spec. chars).
You can add a font selection to the footnote dot command:
.FU[]sfB
This will select font B for your footnotes or end notes.
To select a line height for your footnotes or end notes, add LH followed by
your preferred value:
.FU[]sfXlh7
The order of SF and LH makes no difference.
While formatting, WSformat creates
Γûá an FMT file where the notes text has disappeared and instead a footnote link
appears
Γûá an FUN file (.FU Notes file) which contains the text for all notes.
You can modify the appearance of your footnote links in the settings notebook,
page notes.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4.2. Handling end notes ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
To embed the .FU notes file at the end of your document, you can manually copy
the FUN file to the end of the FMT file, or you leave this job to WSformat:
.FI *.FUN
Place this command exactly as it appears above (type the '*' sign, not the
filename) at the end of your unformatted file. This will cause the contents of
the FUN file to appear in the FMT file. You cannot enter additional notes text
in your running text after typing this .FI command.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4.3. Getting real footnotes ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Up to yet, you have only a separate file containing the text of your footnotes.
Make - Text and Footnote merges an FMT (formatted text) with an FUN file (notes
text) file. The result is a TAF file which combines Text and Footnotes.
When merging text and footnotes together, WSformat has to make page breaks by
itself. There is no way anymore to optimize the page break by hand in the
formatted file.
In the notes page of the settings notebook, you can define that e.g. the 2
first and the 2 last lines of a paragraph are always hold together. This omits
a result where the first or the last line of a paragraphs rests alone on a
page.
However, this function is not adequate to produce proper page breaks. You
frequently have to use the .PA page break and especially .CP conditional page
break. All tables, enumerations and so on have to be prefixed by .CP commands
to omit page breaks. The more .CP commands you use in your unformatted file,
the fewer formatting runs you need to produce a satisfactory final TAF file.
WSformat inserts the page breaks in the TAF file one line ahead of where they
are necessary. You are therefore both permitted and encouraged to make minor
changes in your TAF file by moving the last line on a page of your running text
(Wordstar DOS and WSedit ^Y and ^U) to the beginning of the next page, or to do
the converse.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4.4. Margin Notes ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Margin notes are short notes which occur in the indented left margin of the
formatted file. When insertion of margin notes is activated, all formatted text
will be indented. The usage is similar to the footnote / end note command of
WSformat.
Instead of .FU, you enter .MN margin notes (or .BV German "Blattverweise").
.MN<>3
Here is an example of a margin note, as it would occur in the indented left
margin of your text. To insert such a note, you would mark<007> this line.
To see what the result would be, take a look at the FMT file!
This is a sample for a margin note. Margin notes occur in the left indention
area of your text. Now I mark<007> this line.
The characters < and > bracket the text of a margin note. '5' sets the maximum
length of margin notes (in number of characters) to 3. That means that the
space allocated for the margin is sufficient to accommodate when printing
margin notes with a length of 3 characters: the first character of the
paragraph appears in column 5, and the number of soft spaces which are inserted
is 4.
In the settings notebook, page Notes you can set a default value for the length
of margin notes. A numeric value in the .MN command overrides this default
value.
When using margin notes, the paragraph width is increased, while the right
margin gets less.
If you want to specify a font attribute (bold, italic) for your margin notes,
you can extend the .MN command by entering ^P, followed by the appropriate
Printer command character:
.MN<>3^Y^Y
sets the margin notes' font attribute to italic.
.MN
without parameters turns off the margin notes function.
Margin notes and error messages
It is not possible to print two margin notes on one line. Another limitation is
that the length of the margin notes may not exceed the numeric value entered in
the .MN command, because the space in the margin would be insufficient to
accommodate it.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.5. Index ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
In the next version of WSformat I will explain the Index function and make some
changes to the WSformat code that relates to handling the index. The index
commands in your source text are identical to the Hypermake syntax. The .IN and
.IT commands in this document refer to this function, but it is also possible
to mark words or expressions in running text (not used in this document).
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.6. Conditional statements ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
With conditional statements, you can create slightly different variations of
the FMT files, derived from the same source text. If you insert these commands
in the FMT file manually, these commands will not be interpreted during
previewing and printing, because only the format function recognizes these
commands.
There are three dot commands:
.IF CONDITION
.ELSE
.END
The condition statements are not case-sensitive. Note that The ELSE command
need not be included.
This means text between these commands is interpreted only if the condition is
set (is true). They are set in the WSformat main window, if entry field. You
may enter more than one condition, which must be separated by spaces.
The condition WSFORMAT is always set. Use this condition to distinguish text
designated for Hypermake or for WSformat. The OS/2 version of WSformat also
sets the condition OS2.
WSformat also supports the following expressions:
.IF NOT COND
.IF COND1 AND COND2
.IF COND1 OR COND2
I regret that more sophisticated if-conditions grouped with parentheses are not
supported.
The Wordstar command .EI end if can be used instead of the .END command.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Dot command summary ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This chapter will be available for the next version.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. FAQ ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
I will place questions I get from you here.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. About ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
subchapters:
Registration
Disclaimer
Author
Versions and future plans
History
Bug report
Download Location
Trademarks
Other progs
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.1. Registration ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
WSformat is Shareware, but this refers only to the formatting function. If you
format documents often, you are asked to register. You are allowed to send
WSformat to friends or to a publishing house for printing your formatted
document. The registration key rests on your computer. WSedit is Freeware.
The normal registration fee is 120 Dollar or 120 EUR. The student registration
fee is only 30$ or 30 EUR.
The key is valid for all 1.X versions and for all supported operating systems.
When ordering more than one licenses, you will get a 40% discount for every
additional license (non-student licenses).
You can register this software by sending a Mail to BMT Micro, see
BMTORDER.TXT. If you want to get the student price, please send a copy of your
Student ID to BMT Micro.
If you contact BMT Micro, I will get informed by E-Mail. Then I send you the
registration key. This process takes 1-2 days.
If you have got a bank account in an Euro country, you can transfer the money
to my bank account in Germany Dresdner Bank Ottobrunn, german bank code 700 800
00, account Nr. 075 64 62 400. In this case send me your Student ID via postal
mail or fia FAX to Germany.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.2. Disclaimer ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
WSformat is provided as is and comes with no warranty of any kind, either
expressed or implied. In no event will the author be liable for any damages
resulting from the use of this software.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.3. Author ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Martin Vieregg, 37. I've studied economics. My main job is working in my own
consulting company. Our special subject is public transport, especially
railways and airports. The title of my doctoral (PhD) thesis was 'increasing
efficiency of railway long-distance passenger traffic'.
E-Mail address: Martin@vr-transport.de
Homepage of my Freeware- and Shareware programs:
http://www.hypermake.com
Postal Address:
Dr. Martin Vieregg
Emdenstr. 11
D-81735 Munich
(Germany)
Fax Number: 0049-89-26023656
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.4. Versions and future plans ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
WSformat 0.81
The first published version of WSformat. While the planned WSformat
functionality is not implemented completely, I will use version number 0.8X.
0.9X will be the beta-test version numbers.
If you have bug reports and ideas for new functionality, please E-Mail me!
Future versions
There are a lot of things to to in the next month.
Jobs I plan for the next weeks:
Index functionality (documentation and modifications)
Dot command summary in documentation
faster preview on big documents when browsing a document back
more graphics file formats (GIF and JPG).
multi-colum support for preview and printing
Up to version 1.0, I will improve help functionality and write sophisticated
communication between WSedit and WSformat (e.g. jump from Preview back to FMT
or WS file and search the same location) or bubble help of dot command syntax
in the WSedit window, based on WSformat data. Because these changes also
affects WSedit, I will also publish new WSedit versions.
Perhaps I will publish a smaller Freeware EXE version with print functionality
only (WS-Print).
After publishing WSformat, 1.0, I want to publish a Linux version and
translate WSformat into German. To translate WSformat to other languages, I
need help from native speakers. Please contact me if you are interested in
such an effort - you will receive a donation for your work.
For Hypermake, I have written RTF import and export. If there are enough
WSformat registrations, I will implement RTF export (two algorithms, one for
unformatted files and one for formatted files) if you think it will be
necessary.
Last but not least, I'm thinking about a substitute format for the WS file
format. Hypermake already interpretes ANSI text with dot commands, and for
WSedit and WSformat I plan this, too. But the concrete format definition has
to be considered very well. Perhaps I only implement this option for
unformatted files, and not for formatted files.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.5. History ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
In the late 80's, I published a Worstar DOS extension program 'StarExtender' in
german language which had hyphenation, footnote, Line drawing, index and
proportional printing support. WSformat is based on this program which is
very-well tested for a lot of years. This is the reason that the basic format
functionality works very well even WSformat is beta state software. Because the
formatting and printing kernel is optimized for old computers from the 80's,
today WSformat is extremely fast.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.6. Bug report ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Here I will place bug reports.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.7. Download Location ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
An easy way for uploading is my Homepage
http://www.hypermake.com
In the Internet, the versions for all platforms are available on
ftp://ftp.bmtmicro.com/bmtmicro/
Filenames:
OS/2-eCS version: wsf-os2.zip
Win95/98/ME/NT/Win2000/XP version: wsf-win.zip
Archive file names with version number (e.g. wsf-100.zip) are usually the
Windows version.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.8. Trademarks ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
IBM and OS/2 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp.
WordStar is a trademark of The Learning Company.
Windows is a trademark of Microsoft.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.9. Other progs ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Other programs I have written, both Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP and OS/2 (Linux
versions for some programs are planned)
Hypermake:
A Hypertext compiler which creates HTML files, Winhelp MS HTML-Help and OS/2
Help from WSformat source files. The WSformat help file is created from this
docu by Hypermake. Automatic linking, window arrangement, helptables,
footnotes, tables and other features. Shareware if source file > 20 kB.
WSedit:
Wordstar (DOS)-compaitble editor: Reading and writing Wordstar (DOS) files,
ASCII IBM and ISO codepage. Supports Wordstar Ctrl key commands and CUA
commands. Syntax-highlightning, Translation, spell checking, function key macro
recorder and a lot of other features. WSedit handles very large ASCII files.
Freeware.
pmCalc: a "pocket" calculator automatic clipboard functionality, programmers
and scientific functions, Regression. There's a separate input and output
field, the formula you type rests in the input field. (Shareware)
TinyAlarm:
A simple countdown with a slider from 1 to 60, an alarm by entering alarm time
and a chime. System shutdown. Freeware.
cd-shortcut:
instead of whole directory names you enter only substrings. Searching through
several drives and opening OS/2 WPS folders. Freeware.
Simple Zipshell:
Packing and unpacking ZIP files by using the graphical desktop. Freeware.
Clear:
(only OS/2) Uses also Info-Zip and let you backup your data e.g. on floppies.
You can enter filenames like *.BAK which are not copied, directories which are
skipped. Then you can enter filenames with a specific age which are deleted.
Freeware.
For more information, screenshots and downloads, visit my Homepage
http://www.hypermake.com
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