Power Tools for Macintosh/Power Tools for Macintosh (SoftBit)(1992).iso/Applications/Add⁄Strip 2.9/Add⁄Strip™ 2.9 Docs

Text File | 1990-02-10 | 15KB | 395 lines

Add/Strip™ (version 2.9) Docs - Add/Strip™ 2.9 © 1987-89 Jon Wind
                              - This file MUST accompany Add/Strip™ 2.9
                              - This application is Shareware ($25)
                              - Source code is available ($35)
                              - Please do not distribute modified copies

Files Included:

1.  Add/Strip™ 2.9 Docs - This file. - Written using 9 point Monaco.

2.  Add/Strip™ 2.9 - The application.

3.  Edit Add/Strip™ 2.9 - An application to edit Add/Strip™ 2.9.



Brief History:
----------------

Add/Strip (A/S) was originally written to facilitate our desktop publishing
area’s productivity.  They use Quark XPress to produce many of our company’s
publications.  The copy is written on Wangs, CPTs, and DOS-based machines.
These text files are then sent to the Macs for page layout.  Unfortunately,
these files are seldom formatted properly for their particular needs.

A/S has been designed to automatically perform much of the work of cleaning up
TEXT files destined for import to page layout, word processing, database, or
spreadsheet programs, as well as export from these programs to a DOS-based or
mainframe computer, in a fraction of the time ordinarily needed to manually
reformat using a word processor.

Version 2.9 of A/S is the product of many hours of work, and is available as
Shareware.  If you use it, please pay for it.  See the section entitled
“Registration” for more.



Commands:
-----------

-->  See the online help for a more complete description of current functions
and limitations.

-->  Please note that “Strip CRs” is NOT the same as “Make Paragraphs.”  Use
“Make Paragraphs” or “Make Paragraphs2” if you plan on importing the text
file to a page layout or word processing program.



Order of Processing:
----------------------

Read line
Remap characters if required by chosen remapping set
Replacement set #1-9
Filter noise characters
Make ellipses
Make em dashes
Make ligatures
Leading string (performed in main process if “Make Paragraphs” is chosen)
Strip trailing spaces
Quotes & apostrophes
Normalize spaces
Adjust case
Perform main process
Remap characters if required by chosen remapping set
Write line



New in 2.9:
--------------

1.  #ASCII equivalents can be entered (when appropriate) for CR and tab
    characters in edit text fields by pressing the return or tab keys while
    holding the command key down.

2.  Previous edit text fields may be selected by pressing shift-tab.

3.  Several new options wre added to the output TEXT file creator popup menu,
    including an option to use the input file’s creator.

4.  Removed 255 character per line limit for incoming lines from the
    “Variable -> Tab Delimited” process and added “Strip bounding spaces”
    checkbox which will remove leading and trailing spaces from all fields.

5.  Removed 255 character per line limit for incoming lines from the “Tab
    Delimited -> Fixed” and “Tab Delimited -> Variable” processes.

6.  The name of the current character remapping table is now displayed at the
    top of the Process Select window.

7.  The names of remapping sets which remap characters immediately after a
    line is read are italicized.

8.  The pointer now becomes an I-Beam if it’s over an edit text field and a
    pointing hand if it’s over a popup menu.

9.  “Fixed -> Tab Delimited” process was added to insert tabs into lines at
    a specified frequency and added “Strip bounding spaces” checkbox which
    works as mentioned above.

10. Fixed “fatigue” bug which caused out of heap memory error when processing
    large numbers of files.

11. Pressing command-z will undo all changes made in a dialog window.  This
    is like pressing the “Cancel” button, except the window doesn’t close.

12. Fixed bug that prevented the popup menus in the Preferences Window from
    reverting to their previous settings if the “Cancel” button was selected.

13. Removed the 20 cursor limit for animated cursor sets.

14. Fixed quote counting bug and improved quote and appostrophe curling.

15. Added ability to select a “Cancel” button by pressing the Esc key.


New in 2.8.9:
--------------

1.  Fixed display of all files when the option key is down as the Process
    Select window is closed.

2.  Fixed display bug on Mac IIs when editing remapping sets.


New in 2.8.8:
--------------

1.  Cut, copy, and paste command key equivalents now work even if the caps
    lock is down.

2.  A/S should no longer occasionally hang when processing files with lines
    longer than 255 characters.

3.  Open and save file windows no longer “zoom” if the zooming option is off.

4.  Removed 255 character per line limit for incoming lines from the “CSV ->
    Tab Delimited” and “Tab Delimited -> CSV” processes.

5.  Rewrote quote curling procedure and added “No #' or #" curling” checkbox
    to the Preferences window to control whether A/S should check if there
    is a number in front of apostrophe and quotation marks before curling.
    If this option is selected, A/S won’t curl any apostrophe or quotation
    marks which are preceded by numbers, as with feet and inch measurements.

6.  Modified quote counting routine to count opening and closing quotations
    marks separately when curling or uncurling, instead of maintaining a
    running total, and then compare the number of open against the number of
    close quotation marks.

7.  Added customizable character remapping tables and modified Edit Add/Strip
    to enable it to edit them.  These tables also specify whether the
    remapping should occur first (immediately after the line is read) or
    last (just before the line is written).  This should facilitate file
    transfer to/from “foreign” systems which use different character mapping.
    Remapping sets are added alphabetically by name to the bottom of the
    Option menu.  If the “Mac Character Set” menu item is chosen, no
    remapping will occur.  Four editable sets are included, Mac -> DOS,
    DOS -> Mac, Encrypt, and Decrypt (restores files processed with the
    Encrypt remapping set).

8.  Changed settings file format.  A/S will offer to convert old settings
    files when they are opened.

9.  Updated printed documentation.


New in 2.8.6:
--------------

1.  Fixed intermittent bug that caused A/S to forget the curl quotes and
    apostrophes setting.

2.  Current scrollable text in the About… Window can be appended to any text
    that is already in the clipboard by pressing command-shift-c.


New in 2.8.5:
--------------

1.  Added ability to copy the current scrollable text in the About… Window to
    the clipboard by pressing command-c.  Also made window display larger on
    large monitors.

2.  Cutting, copying, or pasting within a modal dialog now causes the Edit
    menu to blink.

3.  Added a folder icon to the processing window that fills when processing
    folders.

4.  Added ability to enable/disable all invisible character tagging when
    opening a file for browsing, overriding preferences settings. Holding down
    the shift key disables; the option key enables all invisibles.


New in 2.8.4:
--------------

1.  Replaced custom Geneva FONT with a customized version of Monaco, which
    displays “box” characters instead of zero-width control characters when
    browsing.  The same FONT is used to draw the ASCII chart.

2.  All files in a folder can be sent to a single file (instead of a series
    of files) thus merging them into a single file.  Hold down the command
    key when the select files window is displayed to see the “Merge All”
    button.  Resource forks are not copied to the new TEXT file.

3.  Added “No em dash spaces” to the Preferences window to control whether
    spaces will be removed on either side of em dashes when making em dashes.

4.  Added “Show merged file seams” to the Preferences window to control
    whether A/S will insert a couple of lines and the phrase “End of file:
    XXXXX” (where XXXX is the name of the merged file) after each merged file.
    Deselecting this control and choosing “Read & Write File” will cause all
    files in a folder to be concatenated into a new file.

5.  Added “Unhyphenate paragraphs” to the Preferences window to control
    whether hyphens will be removed from lines (only) when making paragraphs.

6.  Added ability to replace with (but not search for) carriage returns (#13)
    in the replacement sets and removed ability to search and replace using
    nulls (#0).

7.  Improved handling of keystrokes and mouse clicks when opening window is
    displayed on unregistered copies of A/S.

8.  Fixed bug that caused a system error when A/S attempted to process an
    empty file.

9.  Fixed bug that allowed colons to be entered in the default settings and
    output file prefix/suffix edit text fields in the Preferences window.

10. Fixed bug that would sometimes cause A/S to inaccurately count TEXT files
    in a folder when processing all.

11. Revised several sections in the A/S registered user’s manual.


New in 2.8.1:
--------------

1.  Fixed “Wrap lines to window” checkbox in “Preferences” window; previous
    version didn’t turn off wrapping when checkbox was unchecked.


New in 2.8:
--------------

1.  Improved MultiFinder friendliness; it now demands less attention from
    MultiFinder when running in the background.

2.  Changed Edit Add/Strip so that functions are accessed via menus rather
    than a modal window, allowing it to better coexist with MultiFinder.
    Also improved error checking.

3.  Fixed right justify numbers bug in “Tab Delimited -> Fixed” process.

4.  Added “Tab Delimited -> CSV” process.

5.  Added “Insert” item to the “Leading String” popup menu.

6.  Altered “Set TEXT File Creator” window to use a popup menu to select a
    new Creator and added a key equivalent to its menu item.

7.  Changed file select windows so that the “Open” button will read “Open”
    when a folder is highlighted or, when a file is selected, it will reflect
    the action to be taken, such as “Process”, “Browse”, or “Transfer.”

8.  Resolved conflicts that some people were having with processing folders
    not working when certain INITs were loaded.

9.  Changes made to the current settings in the “Process Select” window will
    no longer be saved if the Cancel button is chosen.

10. Added preferences options to enable/disable line wrapping when browsing
    a file and quote counting.

11. Added ability to select or deselect all “Process Select” window toggle
    and “Replacement Strings” window activate set checkboxes by shift-clicking
    on a checkbox item.  Also made pressing command-n (where n is 1-9) the
    same as clicking on the corresponding activate set checkbox, while
    command-0 deselects all sets in the “Replacement Strings” window.

12. Improved “Add Characters” process to better handle lines longer than 220
    characters.

13. Reorganized source code to allow future versions to be compiled using
    Think Pascal.  Sorry about that Borland...

14. Added order of processing list to online help.

15. Wrote 30+ pages of documentation and increased price.



Operating Tips:
-----------------

1.  Read the online help CAREFULLY.

2.  Don’t trash the original TEXT file until AFTER verifying that A/S has done
    what was expected.  The “Browse TEXT File…” option may be used to do this,
    though 10-25K can be displayed.

3.  Be certain to verify ALL settings, including replacement strings, before
    OKing to be sure that the correct processing will be done.

4.  Change the Output File Creator to launch a program other than A/S when the
    new TEXT file is opened.  For instance, changing it to “MACA” provides
    launching into MacWrite.  Be sure that the file whose File Creator is used
    accepts TEXT files.

5.  Lines of text on a Mac are generally terminated with a CR, while DOS-based
    machines use a CRLF sequence.  Therefore, if a Macintosh TEXT file is to
    be transferred to an DOS-based machine, it would be appropriate to select
    the “Add LFs to paragraphs” checkbox when it’s available, or the “LFs”
    checkbox when “Add characters” is chosen. “Uncurl” quotes and apostrophes
    should also be chosen.

6.  Consider processing a file 2 or more times to achieve the desired effect.

7.  If CRs are part of your replacement set, consider using something like my
    (soon to be updated) Reponer program, which supports search and replace
    on any characters, in conjunction with A/S.

8.  Because replacements are made blindly, use a word processor to do
    conditional character replacement instead of A/S.

9.  If you plan on processing more than one file using EXACTLY the same
    settings, hold down the Shift key when selecting the “OK” button in the
    “Process Select” window.

10. Holding down the option key when selecting the “OK” button in the “Process
    Select” window and when selecting the “Browse TEXT File…” menu item to
    display all files for opening.

11. Make the most commonly used settings the default values by choosing “Save
    settings as Default,” and/or save them as separate files.  Opening a
    settings file will launch A/S, loading the values contained in that file.

12. Notify the author if you find a bug, or it may not get fixed.



Registration:
---------------

Add/Strip is Shareware.  This means that if you use it, you should pay for it.
It’s as simple as that.  I believe this a useful program at a reasonable
price.  I hope you feel the same.  Please don’t rip me off.

Registered users receive a disk with the latest version, printed documentation,
and may use future versions at no additional cost.  Registration is $25.  Site
licenses, which allow for an unlimited number of copies to be used at a single
location, are available for $100.  Users who’ve already sent money and BBS
operators may use this version free of charge.

Commented source code for both Add/Strip and Edit Add/Strip (approx. 250K of
Turbo Pascal) is available for $35, which includes registration.

If you choose not to send money, AT LEAST send comments, suggestions, and/or
bug reports.  I can be reached at:

Jon Wind (A/S 2.9)   <-- let me know which version you’re using
2374 Hillwood Drive
Maplewood, MN  55119

or

COMPUSERVE: 70167,3444
GENIE: JPWIND
MCI MAIL: J.WIND
AMERICA ONLINE: JWIND



Acknowledgments:
-------------------

Thanks are extended to those individuals who’ve bothered to send money and
(no less importantly) to those who’ve offered suggestions for improvements,
especially Charles Vass, John Ware, and Fastrax.  This version of A/S could
not have been created without your support.



Mandatory Disclaimer:
-----------------------

A/S SHOULD work on Mac Pluses or better.  It works fine on the Macs I’ve
tested it on, but I cannot guarantee that it will on yours.  Still, if it
doesn’t, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do.