gEOcANVAS 128 (gc128) v3.0 tEXTii TOOL BY nATHAN fIEDLER (11/27/94)
tHIS IS THE SECOND VERSION OF THE gEOcANVAS TEXT TOOL. tHE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS ONE AND THE PREVIOUS TEXT TOOL IS THAT THIS ONE LETS YOU DEFINE A TEXT REGION AND ENTER TEXT WITHIN IT. iT WILL WORD-WRAP AND ALLOWS FOR MULTIPLE LINES OF TEXT. tHIS FILE PROVIDES INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE USE OF THE tEXTii TOOL WITH gc128.
@aDDING tEXTii
- fIRST, YOU MUST ADD THE tEXTii MODULE TO gEOcANVAS. tO DO THIS, LAUNCH gEOcANVAS, THEN SELECT 'ADD TOOL' FROM THE OPTIONS MENU. tHIS WILL PRESENT YOU WITH A LIST BOX WHICH SHOULD SHOW 'tEXTii' IN THE LIST. sELECT IT AND CLICK ON open. tHIS WILL ADD THE MODULE TO gc. eXIT THE ADD TOOL BOX BY CLICKING ON cancel. (rEMEMBER TO SAVE gc TO YOUR WORK DISK.)
@sELECTING tEXTii
- wITH THE TOOL ADDED YOU CAN NOW SELECT IT. dO SO BY CLICKING 'SELECT TOOL' FROM THE OPTIONS MENU, OR BY PRESSING c=t. sELECT THE ICON WITH THE t SURROUNDED BY A DOTTED LINE. tHIS DOTTED LINE IDENTIFIES THIS TOOL AS THE ONE USING A FENCE TO DEFINE A REGION IN WHICH TO ENTER TEXT.
@dEFINING A rEGION
- wITH THE TEXT TOOL SELECTED, YOU CAN NOW DEFINE A REGION. dO THIS BY CLICKING THE MOUSE WITHIN THE DRAWING WINDOW. oN THE 128 VERSION IT MAY TAKE A COUPLE OF SECONDS BEFORE ANYTHING HAPPENS. mOVE THE MOUSE AND YOU SHOULD SEE A DOTTED RECTANGLE FORMING. tHIS IS YOUR TEXT REGION. tO FINISH DEFINING IT, CLICK THE MOUSE AGAIN.
@mOVING AND rESIZING THE REGION
- tO MOVE THE REGION, CLICK ON THE LITTLE BUTTON IN THE UPPER-LEFT CORNER OF THE TEXT REGION. tHE DOTTED RECTANGLE WILL NOW FOLLOW YOUR MOUSE WHEREVER YOU MOVE IT. tO PLACE THE REGION, CLICK AGAIN. tO RESIZE THE REGION, CLICK ON THE LITTLE BUTTON IN THE BOTTOM-RIGHT CORNER OF THE TEXT REGION. tHE DOTTED RECTANGLE WILL NOW CHANGE SIZE AS YOU MOVE THE MOUSE. tHIS IS MUCH LIKE DEFINING THE REGION, AND TO FINISH, CLICK THE MOUSE AGAIN.
@eNTERING tEXT
- wITH A REGION DEFINED, THERE WILL BE A BLINKING TEXT PROMPT IN THE UPPER-LEFT CORNER OF THE REGION. wHEN YOU TYPE IN LETTERS, THEY WILL APPEAR STARTING IN THE UPPER-LEFT CORNER. aFTER YOU'VE TYPED SOME TEXT, YOU CAN THEN USE THE MOUSE TO REPOSITION THE TEXT PROMPT, JUST AS YOU CAN IN GEOwRITE. yOU CAN ALSO REPOSITION THE PROMPT USING THE CURSOR KEYS, JUST AS IN GEOwRITE. yOU CANNOT HIGHLIGHT TEXT, HOWEVER. yOU CAN TYPE UP TO 512 CHARACTERS WITHIN A SINGLE TEXT REGION. tHIS INCLUDES CARRIAGE RETURNS, WHICH COUNT AS A CHARACTER. yOU CAN DELETE TEXT USING THE inst/del KEY, JUST AS ANYWHERE ELSE IN geos.
@sELECTING sTYLES AND fONTS
- tO USE A TEXT STYLE, SELECT ONE FROM THE TOOL ATTR. MENU, JUST AS YOU WOULD FROM THE STYLE MENU HERE IN GEOwRITE. tO SELECT A FONT, CLICK ON 'OPEN A FONT' FROM THE TOOL ATTR. MENU. tHIS WILL DISPLAY A LIST OF AVAILABLE FONTS IN A DIALOG BOX. hIGHLIGHT ONE AND CLICK ON open. aNOTHER BOX WILL APPEAR LISTING THE AVAILABLE POINT SIZES. tYPE IN A SIZE AND PRESS return. tHE TEXT WILL BE CHANGED INTO THE NEW FONT. iF YOU CLICK ON cancel IN EITHER OF THE DIALOG BOXES, THE FONT WILL CHANGE TO THE SYSTEM FONT, REFERRED TO AS bsw 9.
@eRASING tEXT qUICKLY
- (aND SAFELY) tO ERASE ALL OF THE TEXT YOU ENTERED IN THE CURRENT REGION (yOU WOULDN'T NORMALLY DO THIS, BUT IF YOU WANTED TO...) SELECT 'ERASE TEXT' FROM THE TOOL ATTR. MENU. tHIS WILL CLEAR ALL THE TEXT IN THE CURRENT REGION, AFTER IT ASKS YOU IF YOU ARE SURE. tHERE WILL BE A NEED FOR THIS, AS i WILL EXPLAIN LATER.
@cOPYING AND pASTING
- tO C
@cOPYING AND pASTING
- tO COPY THE TEXT IN THE REGION TO A TEXT SCRAP, SELECT 'COPY TEXT' FROM THE TOOL ATTR. MENU. yOU CAN THEN PASTE THAT SCRAP INTO THE tEXT mANAGER OR ANY OTHER geos APPLICATION. tO PASTE A TEXT SCRAP INTO THE REGION, SELECT 'PASTE TEXT' FROM THE MENU. tHIS WILL ERASE THE TEXT CURRENTLY IN THE REGION AND REPLACE IT WITH THE TEXT FROM THE SCRAP. sCRAPS CAN COME FROM GEOpAINT, GEOwRITE, OR ANY OTHER geos APPLICATION. tEXTii WILL ATTEMPT TO USE THE FONT USED IN THE SCRAP, BUT IF THAT FONT IS NOT ON DISK, tEXTii WILL USE THE bsw 9 SYSTEM FONT.
@sTARTING A nEW tEXT rEGION
- tO START A NEW TEXT REGION, CLICK ANYWHERE IN THE WINDOW (BUT NOT WITHIN THE REGION). tHIS WILL START DEFINING A NEW REGION, JUST AS YOU DEFINED THE FIRST ONE. cLICK AGAIN TO FINISH DEFINING THE NEW REGION. tHE TEXT IN THE PREVIOUS REGION WILL BECOME SET, AND CANNOT BE ALTERED AGAIN.
@cOLOR ON/OFF
- iF YOU WISH THE TEXT REGION TO BE COLORED, MAKE SURE THE * DOES NOT APPEAR NEXT TO 'NO COLOR' IN THE MENU. iF THE * IS NEXT TO 'NO COLOR', TURN IT OFF BY CLICKING ON 'NO COLOR'. tHIS WILL NOW REDRAW THE TEXT REGION USING THE COLOR SETTINGS AS SET BY THE cOLOR TOOL. tO GO BACK TO TEXT WITHOUT COLOR, CLICK ON 'NO COLOR' AGAIN, WHICH WILL PLACE THE * NEXT TO 'NO COLOR' IN THE MENU, INDICATING THAT THE TEXT IS WITH "NO COLOR".
@sLIGHT qUIRK
- iF YOU SELECT ANOTHER TOOL OR OPTION FROM A MENU, YOU WILL NOTICE THE TEXT REGION REDRAW. tHIS IS NORMAL. tHIS IS CAUSING THE TEXT TO BE SET, MAKING IT UNALTERABLE AFTERWARDS. wHEN YOU SELECT THE tEXTii TOOL AGAIN, YOU WILL SEE THE REGION AND TEXT BE REDRAWN. hOWEVER, DON'T BE FOOLED. tHIS IS NOW A COPY OF THE TEXT. iF YOU MOVE THE REGION, YOU WILL SEE TWO COPIES OF THE SAME TEXT. yOU MIGHT WANT TO SELECT 'ERASE TEXT' NOW TO ERASE THE TEXT IN THE REGION. aLL THIS WAS NECESSARY, SINCE THERE IS NO WAY FOR tEXTii TO KNOW WHEN YOU ARE DONE WITH THE TEXT YOU ARE EDITING. tO AVOID THE CONFUSION AND COPIES OF TEXT, i SUGGEST THIS:
1. eNTER TEXT INTO YOUR REGION.
2. dON'T SELECT ANY OTHER TOOLS UNTIL YOU ARE DONE.
3. wHEN YOU ARE DONE WITH THE TEXT, DEFINE A NEW REGION, AND LEAVE IT EMPTY. nOW YOU CAN USE THE OTHER TOOLS AND OPTIONS WITHOUT HAVING A COPY OF TEXT ON THE SCREEN.
@tEXTii 128 AND fONTS
- uNDER gc128 THERE IS AN EXTRA 2000 BYTE BUFFER. tHIS IS USED FOR THE COLOR HANDLING. uNFORTUNATELY, THIS 2000 BYTES COMES OUT OF THE FONT BUFFER, LEAVING tEXTii WITH ONLY ABOUT 2500 BYTES FOR A FONT. tO AVOID THIS AND BE ABLE TO USE LARGER FONTS, SELECT 'NO COLOR' SO THAT ITS * IS VISIBLE (DEFAULT). tHIS WILL FREE UP THE 2000 BYTES AND ALLOW YOU TO OPEN LARGER FONTS. tHE FONT BUFFER FOR tEXTii IS ABOUT THE SAME SIZE AS GEOpAINT'S. tO HANDLE EVEN LARGER FONTS, USE THE tEXT TOOL, WHICH IS THE SINGLE-LINE TEXT EDITOR. iT'S FONT BUFFER IS ABOUT 8000 BYTES, AND THERE IS LITERALLY NO FONT IT CAN'T USE.
@tEXTii 128 AND sPEED
- gc128 IS SLOW IN SCREEN RESPONSE TIME COMPARED TO gc64, AND THE 128 VERSION OF tEXTii IS REALLY SLOW. iT CAN TAKE UP TO TWO SECONDS TO REDRAW THE REGION. tHIS IS BECAUSE 16000 BYTES ARE MOVING THROUGH AN 8-BIT DATA BUS TO VIDEO MEMORY. bLAME IT ON HARDWARE. (tHE 40 COLUMN vic CHIP HAS SCREEN MEMORY IN THE MAIN COMPUTER MEMORY, MAKING 40 COLUMN SCREEN ACCESS EXTREMELY FAST COMPARED TO 80 COLUMN vdc MEMORY.)
tHATS ALL FOR THE NEW tEXTii MODULE. i HOPE YOU ENJOY USING IT AND gEOcANVAS 128.
(.txt)