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OS/2 Shareware BBS: 8 Other
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ANSIANIM.DOC
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2002-06-30
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Welcome to Ansi-Animator!
by
Eric Green and Eric Leitner
(C) Copyright 1986 by Eric Leitner
Ansi-Animator Version 1.2 Page 2
Ansi-Animator is a unique new program which allows the use
of animation in batch files and bulletin board menus. It
simplifies the often tedious process of ansi animation by
eliminating the need to manual enter ansi codes. We hope you
enjoy using Ansi-Animator.
You are encouraged to use Ansi-Animator and distribute it
freely as long as the following conditions are met:
1. You do not distribute Ansi-Animator in a modified form.
2. You do not modify the documentation.
3. You distribute both the Ansi-Animator program and
documentation together.
4. You DO NOT charge any amount for distributing the Ansi-
Animator program or documentation.
If you find Ansi-Animator to be useful, a small contribution
of $10 would be greatly appreciated and will insure further
updates and improvements of the program. Please send
contributions to:
Eric Leitner
P. O. Box 551
Coram, NY 11727
Please make checks payable to Eric Leitner.
One further note, if you do not send in a contribution, your
conscience probably will not haunt you but mine will. In any
case enjoy the program and pass it along!
Now onto the good stuff!!
=========================
Ansi-Animator is an easy to use program which is mainly self
explanatory. The following describes some of the finer points of
the program as well as the major functions.
ALT H
=========
Pressing the [H] key while holding down the ALT key will
bring up Ansi-Animator's on-line help menu. This menu briefly
describes the functions available in Ansi-Animator.
ALT B
=========
Allows you to switch between blinking and non-blinking
characters. This will only affect characters typed after
ALT B is pressed. The current colors are retained as well.
This is a toggle, pressing it again will switch back and forth
between blinking and non-blinking characters.
Ansi-Animator Version 1.2 Page 3
ALT R
=========
Re-displays all previously entered screen(s) and returns to
last cursor position. This is handy if you want to see how your
finished screen will look.
ALT C
=========
Displays a chart of all available colors and allows you to
change the current color. This function also lets you choose
whether you want the characters to blink (can be changed with
ALT B). Hitting anything other than 'Y' at the 'Do you want
characters to blink?' prompt will default to non-blinking
characters.
ALT A
=========
Switches the characters represented by the [F] keys between
the 9 available sets. This does not clear the screen and is a
quick way to switch between ASCII characters.
ALT P
=========
A toggle which picks up or puts down the 'pen'. This
function is very useful when you want to move around the screen.
Instead of sending Ansi codes for each space moved, it is
suggested that you pick the pen up with this toggle, move to the
location you want to enter characters, then put the pen down.
You will find that this speeds up screens considerably. A
further note, if you hit a key other than the cursor keys, the
pen will automatically be put down and the character you entered
will be written to the screen.
ALT T
=========
This is a VERY useful function which allows you to enter up
to 79 characters of text that is automatically centered. You
must hit [RETURN] to exit this function, or if 79 characters are
entered it will automatically end. Before hitting ALT T you
should place the cursor on the line you want the text to be
centered on. Cursor movement is not available in this mode.
This will not clear the entire line, rather, it will only
overwrite characters that are under the characters you enter.
You cannot change colors in this mode.
Ansi-Animator Version 1.2 Page 4
ALT W
=========
This is another unique function which is comparable to a
macro key. By pressing it, a whirling star will appear at the
cursor position. More macros such as this will be added in the
future.
ALT D
=========
Displays ASCII character chart and allows you to change the
current symbol set associated with the [F] keys.
ALT S
==========
Saves all current screen(s) in memory to disk. This
function allows you to specify a path other than the current one
to save the file to. Ex. (Drive\path\filename). Warning, this
will overwrite an existing file without warning you, use
carefully. To exit the save procedure without saving the file,
hit [ESC]. When saving a file to disk, Ansi-Animator places a
clear screen at the begining of the file and resets all colors to
white on black at the end, it also places the cursor on line 23
column 1.
[ESC]
=====
Asks you if you want to end Ansi-Animator, does not save
current screen so you should save it first if you want to keep
it.
[HOME]
======
Issues a clear screen, retains previous screens. The screen
will be cleared in the current background color, so if you want
it to be cleared in black, you should change the background color
first using ALT C.
[CTRL][HOME]
============
Clears the screen, erases all previously entered work. For
starting over if you mess up.
Ansi-Animator Version 1.2 Page 5
[END]
=====
Non-destructively moves the cursor back 2 spaces. This
function is ideal for drawing frames backwards. You should use
this instead of hitting the backspace key when you want to move
back 2 spaces.
[PGUP]
======
Non-destructively moves the cursor up 1 line and back 1
column. Again, this is very useful for drawing frames quickly.
[PGDN]
======
Non-destructively moves the cursor down 1 line and back 1
column. This along with the previous 2 commands will allow you
to draw frames for your menus with tremendous speed.
Well, that's all you have to know to master Ansi-Animator
and give your menus a unique difference. Now I'd just like to
glance over some general information. Ansi-Animator allows
screens 22 lines long and 79 columns wide. Ansi-Animator has
been tested and runs fine in DoubleDOS and Desqview for you
multitaskers out there.
For the latest information and version of Ansi-Animator,
give the Elco Base PCBoard a call at (516) 473-5438 1200/2400
baud. We plan on updating and improving Ansi-Animator
constantly, your contribution of $10 will insure our continued
development of the program and will be greatly appreciated. I
know you've seen this a thousand times but please send in your
donations so we can continue to support this and other useful
utilities. If you design a screen you are proud of, give the BBS
a call and upload it, we are planning a contest of all uploaded
screens so send your best one today!
Future plans for Ansi-Animator include user definable macro
keys, additional predefined macros for quick animation, editing
of existing screens and many other features. If you have any
ideas you would like us to implement in Ansi-Animator let us
know!