Software of the Month Club (Business) 1998 May

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Software of the Month Club (Business) 1998 May / Software of the Month Club - Business Shareware (Volume 249) (May 1998).iso / dos / biz / inform-z / ifz.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1998-02-02 | 209.6 KB | 4,630 lines

--------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ------------------------------- --------------------------- ----------------------- ------------------- --------------- inform-Z (tm) by Rob W. Smetana and Pro~Formance --------------- ------------------- ----------------------- --------------------------- ------------------------------- ----------------------------------- --------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Version 4.7 (2/98) inform-Z (pronounced "informs") was recently named the "BEST SOFTWARE APPLICATION" by a major software distributor. =============================================================== Use Ram-Man to turn this into a pop-up quick reference guide. If you'd rather print this, use our Multi-Print program. See the last few pages for details on Ram-Man and Multi-Print. With Multi-Print, you can print this (or any other text file) with up to 9 pages on EACH SHEET of paper on HP LaserJets -or- Epson or DeskJet printers. And you can print it FIVE different ways including Booklet or Newspaper, 2-Column format. Plus, Multi-Print includes 17 internal fonts to provide very high quality output on LaserJets and DeskJets, and to let us print **sideways** (in landscape mode) on Epson printers. =============================================================== ========== For information or support, call or write: ========= Rob W. Smetana 132 Alpine Terrace San Francisco, Ca. 94117 Phone: (415) 863-0530 (10am - 5pm Pacific time please) We welcome your feedback, suggestions and comments. ===== Facilities Planning & Relocation: R. S. Means Co. ====== If this copy of inform-Z was included in the Facilities Planning and Relocation book by R. S. Means Company, Inc., welcome. We hope you enjoy inform-Z. Please understand that: * inform-Z is a general purpose forms design program. You can use it to customize the forms Means included in your package. And you can also use it to create custom forms useful throughout your organization. * To save space on the distribution disks, the "lite" version of inform-Z you received lacks some of the features you'll find described in this manual. For example, the program "Install.Exe" and the printer database are not here, so you won't be able to use inform-Z printer-control features. When you order inform-Z PRO, at the special Means price, we'll send you the complete package, with all features and utilities mentioned here. ========================= TRADEMARKS ========================== inform-Z and it's manual and support files are protected by U.S. and International Copyright Laws. Copyright (C) 1988-1998, Rob W. Smetana and Pro~Formance All Rights Reserved inform-Z, if-DB, Big! Font, Mail Call, MC Express, MCE, and P~F are Trademarks of: Rob W. Smetana & Pro~Formance LaserJet, and IBM are Registered Trademarks of: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, and International Bus. Machines Corp., respectively. ======== DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY AND LIMITED WARRANTY ======== This product is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. The entire risk as to the results and performance of this product is assumed by you. We warrant only that any disks we send you are free from physical defects and workmanship under normal use and service for a period of 90 days from the date shipped. Our entire liability, and your exclusive remedy, as to the disk(s) shall be, at our option, to either (1) return the purchase price; or, (2) replace disks which don't meet our limited warranty. Neither Pro~Formance nor RWS & Associates, nor their officers or employees shall be held responsible for: failures of this program to satisfy any needs, damages due to using it, or any effects this program has on you, your business or operations. This program, its manual and its support files may be modified or changed from time to time. It may contain operational inac- curacies or typographical errors which may be corrected by future versions, if any. Registered users may be notified of available updates. ======================= LIMITED LICENSE ======================= inform-Z is "user-supported" software -- NOT "freeware." You're granted a limited license to try inform-Z for a limited period. You may use it or copy only in the manner described below. PERMISSION TO USE If you ARE a registered user: - You've either made a contribution to continue using inform-Z, or ordered it from us. - You're granted a license to use inform-Z for both personal and business purposes. And we'll try to keep you posted of enhancements and revisions to inform-Z. If you're NOT a registered user: - You're granted a limited license to try inform-Z out for a limited period. If, after this "demo period," you decide you want to continue using inform-Z, we ask that you register as described below. Running inform-Z 15-20 different times should allow you to decide if it's going to be useful to you. Therefore the "trial period" is set at 20 inform-Z sessions. +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | EACH COPY used in a corporation, business, trade, | | government agency, or agency, including each copy used | | on a NETWORK, MUST Be registered. | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ This means, if you're using inform-Z for any business purpose or in the context of conducting business, you are required to register and submit the registration fee for each copy used. Site/Network Licenses and multiple-copy discounts are available. TO REGISTER ...... You'll find a registration form on the last page of this manual. ========== DISTRIBUTORS OF "USER-SUPPORTED" SOFTWARE ========= Bulletin board Sysops, clubs and shareware distributors may distribute "user supported" versions of this program, provided: *** Your company name IS NOT: California Freeware *** American Freeware US Freeware or any other firm, group or association with "Freeware" in its name, literature, promotions, etc., which companies are PROHIBITED from distributing ANY products by Rob W. Smetana, Pro~Formance, RWS & Associates or their officers, staff or associates. *** Your adds, literature and company name DO NOT include *** "free software," "freeware" or other such terms which misrepresent "user-supported" software. We further ask that: (1) It is distributed in complete, unmodified form. (2) You charge nothing other than a "disk distribution fee" of up to $8.00 to cover distribution and handling. (3) You state YOUR fee is NOT payment or registration for OUR software. (4) You clearly encourage registration by stating that con- tinued use requires sending contributions to the developer. (5) You include all files mentioned in Readme.BAT including: IFZ.Exe, IFZ.Doc, QuickRef.Iff, Lessons1-2?.Pff, etc. ======================== Introduction ========================= Very simply, inform-Z is the easiest-to-use, most powerful and fastest form programs available! If you're new to inform-Z, we urge you to STOP READING and run the "lesson forms" we included. The lesson forms demon- strate inform-Z' major features. Once you finish them, you may NOT NEED this manual! Before you jump in, please read the sections "System Requirements," and "Quick Start." Here's a summary of inform-Z. * You can design and print "professional looking" forms in minutes -- on ANY printer. And inform-Z offers special support for HP LaserJets and Epson printers. * You can "automate" forms by adding special Auto-Edit fields, formulas, dates, sequence numbers, the date, the time, etc. then fill them out automatically. You can even: - Enter dates in 10 different formats, and in 5 different languages! - Link "help forms" to forms you (or someone else) fill out. * And you can print on "pre-printed" forms, printing just the fields you edit, "calculated fields," dates, time- stamps, sequence numbers, etc. * Design forms using pull-down menus, or easy-to-remember "hotkeys:" D = Draw, S = Shade, C = Copy, M = Move, etc. * Dialog boxes and full mouse support speed things up even more. * inform-Z offers THREE types of help -- two of which YOU can customize to provide the help YOU need while you're design- ing form, or when you (or someone else) fills them out. * Special features put inform-Z above the others: - Forms may have up to 200 columns and 125 lines. - You can draw "grids" of rows and columns all at once. - "Repeat" actions to save enormous amounts of time. - See things happen as you do them -- there are no surprises. - Use "Undo" if you decide that's not really what you wanted. - A "preview" mode lets you see BOLD, UNDERLINE, ITALIC text. - Add "check boxes" and arrows. - Add continuous shading (LaserJets) or full shading (all). * On LaserJets, print PCX graphics files to add logos, letter- heads, signatures, etc. to your forms. * With Mail Call, a separate program, you can add names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. to a database, then link forms to that database. Let Mail Call fill them out for you! continued . . . Introduction (continued) * And, with if-DB you can link any form to industry-standard dBase III files! Create, read, update and add records to dBase files by just "drawing" a form. - And each form can be linked, if you like, to several different dBase files. This lets you, for example, look up a customer's name from one database file, look up product descriptions, prices and current inventories from another dBase file, then update another database file to keep track of cumulative sales, sales tax, etc. * Finally, HUNDREDS of forms are already available to you. - We offer over 140 forms in the OFFICE, SALES and HOME collections. Each "collection" offers many forms that are useful in any office, sales/retail or home setting. Get these from the same source from which you got inform-Z (directly from us, from a shareware distributor, a BBS, CompuServe, etc.) When you register . . . +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | inform-Z is "user supported" software; it's NOT free software.| | | | Give it a thorough workout, see if it serves your needs. | | But after trying it 15-20 times, if you want to continue | | using it, please register. The last few pages have infor- | | mation on registering. | | | | We appreciate the honesty and support of those who | | register. To "say thanks" when you register, we send | | you inform-Z "+" which includes: | | | | * Options we're adding right now (eg., "Repeat" to save | | dozens or hundreds of keystrokes when designing forms). | | | | * Install.Exe and Printer.Dat which let you: | | - Select and install a printer from our database. | | - Customize or add printer codes to ensure we print | | forms the way YOU want them printed. | | | | * To-Ascii -- a handy utility program to convert | | "compressed" forms to ASCII files (which you can | | then load into any word processor or other program). | | | | * Added math and Auto-Edit capability -- up to 200 | | formulas and/or 450 Auto-Edit fields per form. | | | | * Access to our Form Libraries. Using or editing existing | | forms is often much faster than starting from scratch. | | | | * Phone support | |----------------------------------------------------------------| | | | For a different approach to registering, load the form | | PForder. Once it loads, press: | | | | - alt-F to fill in some information. | | | | - ctrl-F9 to do the calculations for you. | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ This manual is used for all versions of inform-Z. It explains all the features available with inform-Z "Plus". ========================= What's New ======================== This is a major update. If you've used earlier versions of inform-Z (or P~F Form), PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY! If you're new to inform-Z, this will introduce its newest features. With this version, we've added: ............................... * A brand new user-interface with dialog boxes, pull-down menus, plus MUCH FASTER mouse and keyboard operations. Easier drawing: press alt-D to draw lines -or- boxes. What we draw depends on where you move next. This required changing two commands: press alt-X and ctrl-X to delete rows or columns, respectively. * A new install-printer program, plus 10 additional printer code options (for 30 in all). And when you install a prin- ter, you can easily customize or add your own printer codes. * An option to print on pre-printed forms using the new "overlay" feature -- printing just fields you fill in, plus dates, sequence numbers, the results of formulas, etc. * A stunning new "preview" mode which shows italic, bold and underlined text, as well as normal text, Big! Fonts, and lines, boxes and shading. Preview also lets you "compress" or "expand" your "view" to see more of your form, or more detail. (Requires a CGA, EGA or VGA monitor, or compatible). * 10 different ways to format dates, PLUS the option to print them in 5 different languages, PLUS two different formats to "time-stamp" forms. And you can select all these options while in inform-Z (no longer must you edit a "configuration" file). We also added two different ways to date or time-stamp forms. * "Lesson forms" to cut the learning time drastically. * Improved fill-out features. You can now begin filling out forms anywhere. And once you begin, you can browse around forms, and update just the fields you need to. You can also "execute" formulas while in "fill-out" mode, then, if neces- sary, edit what you've entered. Finally, you can add "help forms" to help you (or others) fill out your forms (see the next point). * Two different ways to add customized help. One is available while you're designing forms. The other's available when you (or someone else) fills out your forms. * New color options, which are now saved to disk and used each time you run the program. And you can now choose stunning bright-backgrounds (CGA/EGA/VGA only). continued . . . What's new (continued) And if that's not enough . . . .............................. * You can draw "grids" (an entire form-full of columns and rows) in one, simple operation!!! * You can add auto-edit fields to an entire column all at once. Then use "repeat" to repeat these in another column -- adding hundreds of A-E fields in just seconds! * Now, when you insert columns and rows, we'll "patch" any lines, boxes and shading that might be affected. * Similarly, if your form has formulas and you insert or delete rows or columns, we'll automatically update your formulas so they calculate and print properly. Also, you can now press alt-R to "repeat" formulas. Although this is "partial," it still saves you lots of time. * Continuous shading now "defaults" to the first (lightest) shading level. If this is what you want, you no longer have to insert a "shading character" to let us know. * Finally, we've added many features to improve form printing: - We already mentioned the 30 printer codes you can customize. - We also mentioned that you may now print on pre-printed forms. On LASERJETS: - You can print PCX files (eg., logos, etc.; LaserJets only). - Managing fonts, line spacing and other attributes is now much easier. Now, when you select printer attributes, they'll remain in effect until you turn them off or select something else (we no longer reset LaserJets at the start of each line). And we better control the printing of lines, boxes and shading so if you, say, switch fonts, only the text changes. On EPSON Printers: - You may now vary line spacing ANYWHERE in forms (including areas with lines, shading, etc.). - With one simple command you may choose from line spacing of 6, 8, 12 or 16 lines-per-inch. And you may change these anywhere in your forms, and as many times as you like. ========================== Contents =========================== Your manual has 6 sections: Getting Started, Designing Forms, Automating Forms, Printing Forms, Designing Forms for use with Mail Call, Appendices (Installing Printers, Errors, ASCII Forms). 1. GETTING STARTED inform-Z & Mail Call: Powerful Companions ... 1.1 System Requirements, Installing inform-Z ..... 1.2 inform-Z' Files, Customizing Help ............ 1.3 Printer Options, Installing Printers ......... 1.4 Using a Mouse ................................ 1.9 Quick Start: Lesson Forms, Running inform-Z, Loading and Saving Forms ....... 1.10 Selecting Options, Dialog Boxes 1.14 Choosing Date & Time Formats ... 1.16 2. DESIGNING Forms The Fastest way to Get Things Done ........... 2.1 inform-Z' Main Screen, Scroll Bars ........... 2.2 Using Pull Down Menus, Selecting Options ..... 2.3 A 1-Page Summary of Your Options ............. 2.5 Designing Forms: The Basics ................. 2.6 Compressed Forms, Loading & Saving Them ...... 2.7 Creating Forms, Previewing Them .............. 2.8 Boxes, Lines and Joining Them ................ 2.9 Adding Arrows, "Check Boxes," "Non-English" Language Characters, Erasing/Shading ......... 2.10 Centering, Copying, Moving Blocks, Repeat .... 2.11 Drawing Grids ................................ 2.12 Adding Text, Centering It .................... 2.13 Big! Font, Walk-About ........................ 2.14 Half Tone Shading ............................ 2.15 Delete/Insert Characters/Rows/Columns ........ 2.16 Dating and Time-Stamping Forms: Method 1 .... 2.17 GOTO Column .................................. 2.18 3. AUTOMATING Forms Introduction, the Automate Dialog Box ........ 3.1 Adding Dates and Times ....................... 3.2 Adding Sequence Numbers ...................... 3.3 Adding Help Forms ............................ 3.4 continued . . . =================== Contents (continued) ===================== 3. AUTOMATING Forms (continued) Adding "Auto-Edit" Fields .................... 3.5 Filling Out Forms ............................ 3.9 Math / Formulas: Introduction ............... 3.10 Adding Formulas ............................ 3.11 The Formula Option Dialog Box .............. 3.12 Tips to Add, Subtract, Multiply, or Divide . 3.13 Formulas on Top of Formulas ................ 3.16 Editing, Copying, Deleting Formulas ........ 3.17 Formulas: Tips & Guidelines ............... 3.19 4. PRINTING Forms Print Options Dialog Box ..................... 4.1 Which Printer: What Each Option Means ....... 4.2 Printing on PRE-Printed Forms ................ 4.3 Printing PCX Graphics (LaserJets Only) ....... 4.5 Notes: All Printers .......................... 4.6 Printing on LaserJets ........................ 4.7 Printing on Dot Matrix or Epson Printers ..... 4.9 5. Designing forms for use with MAIL CALL An Example ................................... 5.1 "Merge Keys" to Merge Database Fields ....... 5.2 6. APPENDICES I Installing a Printer, Running Install.Exe II Mail Call's Database Features Described III To-Ascii: Creating ASCII Versions of Forms IV Error Messages You Might Get Registering/Ordering ............................. Last 2 pages =============== Conventions We Use in This Manual ============= When you see this It means you should ------------------- --------------------------------------- <cr> Press <Enter> or <Return> Left Click the Left mouse button Esc or <Esc> Press the Escape key alt-Key / ctrl-Key HOLD DOWN Alt or Ctrl, press another key =============================================================== 1.1 ================= SECTION 1: Getting Started ================= ===== Mail Call & MC Express: Two Companions to inform-Z. ===== Earlier we mentioned that you have two ways to link forms to databases. One way is by using our Mail Call program, (also a user-supported program). The second is with if-DB -- a new program we're developing to give you dBASE III database capa- bilities by simply drawing a form! Call us for details. With both inform-Z and Mail Call you can manage almost every piece of paper in your office or home with one set of programs! With Mail Call you can add names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. to a database. You can then: * Browse through them. * Search for a name (search on Last Name, Company or a special "key" field). * Print: - Forms you create with inform-Z. - Envelopes, mailing labels, "form letters," directories, reports, etc. And when you print forms (or form letters), Mail Call will merge ANY of it's 13 fields into your forms -- right where you want them. The fields you can merge include names, titles, company names, addresses, city, state, ZIP code, phone number, the message field, the comment field and a salutation (eg., Louise or Mr. Samuelson). Mail Call also lets you "fill out" forms, calculate the results of formulas you've added and time-stamp, date and "sequence number" forms. Finally, Mail Call can "import" comma-delimited database records. So if you use another database program, you can easily import existing databases right into a Mail Call! If you don't have Mail Call, you can download a "user-supported" version from CompuServe (go ibmAPP) and most major bulletin boards (BBSs). Look for a file called "MC...." or "MailC...". Appendix II more fully descries Mail Call. Also see Section 5 for details on how to add "merge keys" to forms (like &name, &date, etc.) to tell Mail Call what to merge into your forms. 1.2 ==================== System Requirements ===================== Computer: IBM PC or compatible; DOS 2.1 or later (required) Memory: 396k Disk: A hard disk is fast, floppy disks are fine. Printer: Any! inform-Z offers special support for HP LaserJets and Epson printers; but you can use ANY printer. Fonts: NONE needed. Choose LaserJet or Epson print options and we'll use features internal to these printers to draw lines, boxes and shading. With other printers, you'll need fonts to print lines, boxes and shading. Monitor: Any. The "preview" option requires a CGA, EGA or VGA adapter and monitor. inform-Z "writes directly to the screen" -- so set up DESQview or Windows accordingly. inform-Z displays forms in text (not graphics) mode. As a result, printed forms often LOOK MUCH BETTER than we can show on the screen. For example, if you shade an area "Continuously" (in- cluding text; LaserJets only), you'll see on your screen two marks with text in between. But, print the form on a LaserJet, and everything's shaded -- including the text. ===================== Installing inform-Z ===================== Copy "required files" to a "working disk" or your hard disk. If you already have Mail Call (MC), we suggest you copy the "required files" to your MC directory. If you don't have Mail Call, we think you'll want to get it. So we suggest you create an "MC" or "INFORM" directory, then copy required files to it (eg., md inform <cr>, cd inform <cr>). Required Files Optional Files ==================================== ========================= IFZ.Exe inform-Z itself IFZ.Doc This manual inform-Z.Psl Menus and Help screens QuickRef.Iff On-line ref. Install.Exe * Select printer, custo- ReadMe.Bat Introduction mize printer codes Lesson?.Pff Lesson forms Printer.Dat * Database of printers and printer codes Laser.Xfg\ Printer codes To-Ascii.Exe * Convert compressed Epson.Xfg/ Discussed later forms to ASCII (* = sent to registered users) Actually, to run inform-Z, you only need IFZ.Exe (plus inform-z.Psl if you want to use the pull down menus or get Help). Other files listed under "Required" are required only when you install a printer (Install.Exe and Printer.Dat), or to create ASCII versions of inform-Z' form files (To-Ascii.Exe). 1.3 ================== The Files inform-Z Creates ================== inform-Z saves two types of files to disk. * Forms files, which have the extension ".pff" (eg., myform.pff). * It's "configuration file" IF.Cfg. inform-Z updates IF.Cfg each time you press alt-O (Options) and choose things like: * The colors we'll use to display forms. * The date and time "formats" we'll use whenever you date or time-stamp forms. * How you'd like the results of calculations displayed. We'll discuss these later. These options will be constant across forms -- until you change them again. But inform-Z offers you many other options as well -- which are saved along with the form you're developing. These aren't saved to IF.Cfg since you'll probably use different options in different forms. ====================== Customizing Help ======================= inform-Z offers you THREE ways to get help. Two are available as you design forms; one is available when you fill out forms. And TWO of them you can customize help so you get the help YOU need. * Press F1 while designing forms to get help. From the Help menu, you can choose to view several help screens. * The last option in the Help menu is "Browse QuickRef.IFF." This is an ASCII file YOU can edit to add your own help. * FInally, you can create "Help Forms" to provide help when you (or someone else) fills out forms. We'll discuss this in the sections called "Selecting Options" and "Filling Out Forms." You can edit QuickRef.IFF with any word processor. Add your own tips and reminders (adding pieces of this on-disk manual if you like), then save it in ASCII format. See the first page of QuickRef for details. Once you edit QuickRef, run inform-Z and press F1. Choose the last option in the Help menu to browse through QuickRef WHILE designing forms. 1.4 ====== inform-Z' Printer Options, Installing a Printer ====== You should know 6 things about how inform-Z interacts with printers: 1. The printer options you have, and what each option means. 2. How to install a printer. 3. How to access printer attributes in your forms. 4. Opportunities and Challenges these features present. 5. How inform-Z' "Preview" option works. 6. Why inform-Z must control line spacing with Epson printers. This section explains the many options inform-Z offers you to print forms. It also discusses some general guidelines to help you manage fonts, line spacing, etc. We'll also SUMMARIZE how to install a printer. Registered users should read Appendix I for details on running Install.Exe to select a printer and customize printer codes. Finally, we'll also discuss here two other options that are dependant on HOW you customize printer codes: Preview and Epson printing. PLEASE read this carefully. In Shareware Versions : : : ........................... To save space in the shareware distribution files, we include neither Install.Exe nor Printer.Dat. We DO include, however, TWO printer code files: one for LaserJet-compatible, and one for Epson-compatible printers. * Since the vast majority of printers have either LaserJet or Epson compatibility features, one of these files should give you the basic printer codes you'll need. * To use one of these files (Laser.Xfg or Epson.Xfg): - inform-Z needs a file called IF-PTR.Xfg. So, simply copy (or rename) one of the files to IF-PTR.XFG. For example: copy laser.xfg if-ptr.xfg <cr> <--- for LaserJets copy epson.xfg if-ptr.xfg <cr> <--- for Epson printers When you register, you'll receive Install.Exe and Printer.Dat. Then you'll be able to customize inform-Z even more. Which Printer Port? ................... inform-Z will print to parallel ports 1-3. Parallel port #1 (LPT1) is the default. If your printer is hooked up to LPT2 or LPT3, just select a different printer port when you print forms. Do this once each session, unless you want to switch printers. 1.5 Printer Options (continued) Five Print Options .................. When you print a form, you may choose from among FIVE printer options: LaserJet, Epson LQ, Epson FX, Print As-Is, and Translate. You can use As-Is and Translate on any printer. * ALL 5 of these options recognize the "printer code symbols" you add to forms to take advantage of the attributes of your printer. We'll discuss these next. * If you use inform-Z' LaserJet or two Epson options: - We'll print lines, boxes and shading in graphics mode -- meaning you DON'T need fonts to print lines and shading. Even if you have fonts that let you print these, our graphics versions are better -- especially on LaserJets. - You'll be able to print several things that you can't with the other options: "check boxes," arrows and (on Laser- Jets) PCX graphics files. We print these in graphics mode. * If you choose "Print As-Is" or "Translate," inform-Z prints forms in "text" mode. This is faster than graphics mode; but check boxes and arrows aren't available in text mode. - "Print As-Is" means that inform-Z prints your form exactly as you see it on your screen. Your printer must have fonts capable of printing lines, boxes, shading, etc. - Use "Translate" for quick "draft copies" -or- if everything else fails. inform-Z will translate lines, boxes and shading into "text characters" that ANY printer can handle. Using Printer Attributes: Controlling Fonts, Line Spacing, Etc. ............................................................... inform-Z offers you tremendous power to use the attributes of your printer. You can add or edit from 1 to 30 different printer codes, and invoke them by simply moving your cursor to a blank spot in your form and pressing a key. * Run Install.Exe to select a printer and edit printer codes. We send Install.Exe to registered users. Install saves printer codes in a file called IF-PTR.Xfg -- which inform-Z must find on the drive/directory from which you run it. * Then, as you design forms: Press To "Turn On" ..................... .............................. alt-1 to alt-0 Printer codes 1 - 10 alt-F1 to alt-F10 Printer codes 11 - 20 shift-F1 to shift-F10 Printer codes 21 - 30 F8 For a summary of printer codes continued . . . 1.6 Using Printer Attributes (continued) For example, when you press alt-5, inform-Z adds a symbol to your form where the cursor is. When you print your form, inform-Z detects that symbol and sends a printer code to your printer instead -- the 5th printer code in IF-PTR.Xfg. These features give you near-total control over your printer. Invoke any option your printer supports, at any time. Use 8, 12 or more lines/inch to print more lines on a page. Use different fonts for headings or sub-headings. But . . . Challenges This Creates: 10 cpi Character Spacing .................................................. Along with this flexibility and power comes certain challenges. The most important is that if you change fonts, or use propor- tionally-spaced fonts (rather than fixed-spaced) fonts, columns and lines may not line up down the page -- especially in text mode. You CAN use proportionally-spaced or different fonts. And inform-Z offers some features to make using them easier. BUT, please note that: * inform-Z' LaserJet and Epson options print lines and shading in "graphics mode" using 10 characters-per-inch (10 cpi). This normally ensures lines and columns line up. * If, however, you use the text-mode "As-Is" or "Translate" options, the "current" character-per-inch setting, or the font(s) you select, will affect left-to-right movement. For example, in proportionally-spaced fonts, each character has a different width causing your printer to move across the page at unpredictable rates. Lines and columns may no longer line up. You can avoid this by changing fonts only in rows with no boxes or lines. * On LASERJETS you can change fonts or turn on almost any LaserJet attribute anywhere in your form. It won't affect lines and boxes since we print these in graphics mode at 10 cpi character spacing. * EPSON printers, however, may be affected by anything that affects left-to-right movement. * In short, we recommend that you: - Dedicate 1-2 printer codes that'll reset your printer to 10 cpi fixed-spaced character spacing. Then if you shift to something else, as soon as possible, shift back to the predictable 10 cpi, fixed spacing. - Experiment with different fonts and attributes. Try inform-Z' "GOTO" option, and shift things around to get results you want. - If all else fails, limit font changes to rows in your forms that DON'T have lines that must line up with others. 1.7 inform-Z' Preview Option (Also discussed in Previewing Forms) ....................... Three printer attributes you can turn on and off are Bold (press alt-2), Underline (alt-4) and Italic (alt-6). When you add these to a form, and then press alt-P -- to Preview your form in graphics mode -- you'll actually see italic, bold or underlined text. This can help you spot areas where you've forgotten to turn a feature off (eg., everything is underlined) or you used the wrong feature. But Install lets you change all 30 printer codes -- to anything! * If you change the printer codes for Bold, Italic or Under- line (so that they mean something else), Preview will still show bold, Italic and Underline. * Therefore, we urge you NOT to change the printer codes for these features -- such that you change their meaning. * Out of the 30 printer codes you can customize, many will initially be blank -- including the last 10 which are labeled "User 1" through "User 10." Though you can change any printer code, we urge you to leave the first 15 alone, and edit the last 15 -- especially User 1 to User 10. Line Spacing on EPSON Printers .............................. Four printer codes let you control line spacing -- to print forms (or parts of them) using 8, 12 or 16 lines-per-inch (lpi) rather than the normal 6 lpi. This is handy to: * "Compress" long forms so they'll fit on one sheet of paper. * Help us print on pre-printed forms -- which often vary fonts and line spacing, making it hard to "hit" the blank spaces you're trying to fill in unless you change line spacing. Again, Install lets you customize the 4 line spacing codes. But if you print a form using one of inform-Z' two Epson print options, inform-Z MUST control the line spacing. Why? * With inform-Z' two Epson options, we print lines, boxes, shading, arrows, and check boxes in graphics mode. * To "connect" vertical lines and the sides of boxes on Epson printers, inform-Z must print the line, then move down a partial line and print a "filler line." * If we don't connect vertical lines carefully, they'll be "broken." So, to ensure vertical lines are continuous, inform-Z controls the line spacing. continued . . . 1.8 Epson Line Spacing (continued) NOTE: this does NOT mean you can't use 8 or 12 lpi on Epson printers. It means only that inform-Z will handle these. If you need line spacing other than what inform-Z' Epson options offer, you have two options. You can use: * The "User" printer code section to add your own codes. inform-Z sends these codes to your printer exactly as you install them. Use Shift F1 - Shift F10 to activate them. * inform-Z' "As-Is" or "Translate" print options (instead of the Epson options). When you use "As-Is" or "Translate" print modes, inform-Z send printer codes to your printer as you installed them. 1.9 ======================== Using a MOUSE ======================== inform-Z is "optimized" for a mouse -- meaning that you can create forms and choose options from menus and dialog boxes more quickly with a mouse than without one. As we'll explain later, since inform-Z' "hotkey" commands are so fast, the fastest way to get most things done is with a "two-handed" approach -- using both a mouse and the keyboard hotkeys. To use a mouse you must first install a "mouse driver." * Do this by including a line in your "config.sys" file, or running a mouse program. Your mouse manual has details. * inform-Z works Microsoft-compatible mice. It's also compatible with other mice line the inexpensive Genius mouse. * If inform-Z can't seem to access your mouse (and it IS con- nected), either your mouse driver isn't installed, or inform-Z and your mouse/driver are incompatible. In general, click the LEFT mouse button to design forms and select options from menus and dialog boxes. Click the RIGHT button whenever you'd press <Escape> to cancel something. For example, if you click Left on the top line of your screen to pull down a menu, you can then click Right to put the menu away. inform-Z doesn't use the middle button on 3-button mice. IMPORTANT: Two Cursors ....................... If your mouse is installed, you'll see TWO cursors on the screen when you run inform-Z. * The MOUSE cursor is a full-sized block of color. It appears in the center of your screen when inform-Z starts. * The TEXT cursor is a half-sized, BLINKING cursor. ALL ACTIONS occur where the TEXT cursor is. To anchor the text cursor at a spot, move the mouse cursor there and click Left. For example, suppose you want to delete the line you're look- ing at near bottom of your screen. The mouse cursor is on that line. But the text cursor is at the top of the screen. * If you press alt-X (Delete Line), the TOP line will disap- pear, NOT the line you're looking at! * If you had clicked Left (to anchor the text cursor where the mouse cursor was), alt-X would have deleted the correct line. Try to establish this habit: Before starting any design option, click Left to anchor the text cursor at the spot you want to begin. 1.10 ================ Quick Start, Lesson Forms ================== inform-Z is extremely easy to use. And the fastest way to discover this for yourself is to load and browse through the "lesson forms" we included. If you move through lesson forms in order, you may find you don't really need this manual. BUT BEFORE YOU JUMP IN, READ . . . Running inform-Z Installing a printer (discussed above) Loading Lesson Forms, Using Dialog Boxes ====================== Running inform-Z ===================== Run inform-Z by typing either: ifz <cr> -or- ifz /m <cr>. "/m" "monochrome" means use white on black. It's optional. If you have a color monitor, inform-Z displays forms in color, unless you run inform-Z with the "/m" or monochrome switch. Once inform-Z is running, press alt-O (Options) to change colors. We'll save your colors to disk and use them when you run inform-Z. ========= Loading Lesson Forms, Using Dialog Boxes ========== To load the first lesson form, run inform-Z, then press F4 (that's function key F4). When you press F4, the "load form dialog box" pops up. It looks like this: +----------------------------------------------+ | Load from which path? | | +------------------------------------+ | | |C:\InForm | | | +------------------------------------+ | | | | Load which form file? | | +------------+ | | | | | | +------------+ | |----------------------------------------------| | < OK > < Directory > < Cancel > | +----------------------------------------------+ To load the first lesson form (a form called Lesson1.Pff): * Press <Tab> to move the cursor to the box labeled "Load which form file?" * Type in "lesson1" (without the quotation marks). * Then press <Enter> twice -- once to move to the button "< OK >," the second time to say "OK, that's what I want." Lessons 1-19 cover basic topics. Lessons 20+ cover advanced ones. 1.11 Loading Forms, Using Dialog Boxes (continued) inform-Z' dialog boxes make it very easy to choose options. To use them, just press the <Tab>, <Space> and <cr> keys. A mouse makes it even easier to use dialog boxes. * The first time you see a dialog box, just look at it, then press <Tab> several times. Press <Esc> and it disappears. - As you press <Tab>, the cursor moves from one area of the dialog box to another. Press <PgDn> to do the same. - To move back, press <Shift-Tab> -- hold down the Shift key, then press <Tab>. Press <PgUp> to do the same. * To "select" something in a dialog box, press <Tab> to move to it, then press <Space> or <cr> to "select it." Using a Mouse ............. Click the LEFT mouse button on any option to "select it." For example, to cancel loading a form, click Left on the button "< Cancel >." And instead of pressing <Tab> to move the cursor around, just click Left on any option in a dialog box. By the way, the Save form dialog box is identical to the one above but asks "Save which form file?" Press F2 to save forms. Two Ways to Load or Save Forms .............................. When you press F4 or F2, you'll have two ways to choose which form to load or save. You can type in a form name. Or you can select < Directory > and choose a form from a menu. To TYPE IN a form name: * When the Load or Save form dialog box pops up, the cursor will be blinking in the box labeled "Load from which path?" - inform-Z assumes you want to load forms from (or save them to) the drive/directory you're on when you first run it (ie., the "current path"). - So, in the example above, inform-Z shows us that the "current path" is the inform-Z directory on drive C:. - To use a different path, edit "C:\InForm" (eg., "B:\"). continued . . . 1.12 Loading Forms (continued) * When the path is correct, press <Tab> to move the cursor to the box labeled "Load which form file?" You can also click the Left mouse button there to move the cursor. - Type in a form name (eg., Lesson1). Note that you needn't enter an extension -- since forms always have the extension ".pff." The only time you need to enter an extension is if you're loading an ASCII file that was saved by another program with a different extension. - Once you enter a form name, press <Enter> or <Tab>. The cursor will move to the button "< OK >" at the bottom of the dialog box. - Press <Space> (or <Enter>) to "select" OK. That's it. Your form is loaded (or saved). To choose a form name from a DIRECTORY: Select "< Directory >" from the dialog box shown above. "Select" means to either click Left on "< Directory>," or Tab to "< Directory >", then press <Space>. Another dialog box pops up which looks like this. Notice there's a "menu" (or list box) in this dialog box. Also note that inform-Z asks "Which file spec?" in this dialog box. You can choose items from menus using either a mouse or the keyboard. How to do this is discussed on the next page. +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Select=Double Click, | | Which path? (Blank = Current dr/dir) or press <Space>/<cr>| | +----------------------------------+ +--------------------| | |C:\InForm | | Lesson1.PFF | | +----------------------------------+ | Lesson2.PFF | | | Lesson3.PFF | | Which file spec? | Lesson4.PFF | | +------------+ | Lesson5.PFF | | |*.PFF | | Lesson6.PFF | | +------------+ | Lesson7.PFF | | | Lesson8.PFF | | Edit 'path' to use another drive/ | Lesson9.PFF | | directory. Edit 'file spec' to | Lesson10.PFF | | specify a different type of file. | Lesson11.PFF | | If you edit either, select 'OK.' | Lesson12.PFF | | +<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>| |--------------------------------------------------------------| | < OK > < Cancel > | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ 1.13 Loading Forms (continued) Using the KEYBOARD to choose items from menus: .............................................. * Press <Tab> twice to move the cursor to the menu. inform-Z highlights the first name (Lesson1.PFF here). * Press the Up, Down, Left or Right cursor pad keys to HIGH- LIGHT the item you want. If there are more items than will fit in the window, press the right cursor key to scroll the screen right to display more. Press left to scroll back. * To "select" the highlighted item, press <Space> or <Enter>. * To cancel (and return to the previous dialog box), press <Esc>, or select "< Cancel >" (press Tab, Tab, Space). PLEASE NOTE that you MUST press <Enter> or <Space> to "select" an item. You can't just highlight it, then select OK. Using a MOUSE to choose items from menus: ......................................... * Click Left once on an item to highlight (but NOT select) it. DOUBLE CLICK the left mouse button on an item to select it. * If there are more items than will fit on the screen, click Left on the "scroll bar" (<<< >>>) at the bottom of the menu. Click Left on the right side of the scroll bar to scroll right. Click Left on the left side to scroll back. PLEASE NOTE that you MUST double click Left on a menu item to select. You can't just highlight it, then select OK. Loading a Different Type of File: ................................. To load a different type of file (eg., an ASCII ".doc" file): * Edit the "path" in the directory dialog box (if necessary). * Then edit the "*.pff" you see under "Which file spec?" Normally you'll load or save inform-Z' form ".pff" files. So "file spec" starts out as "*.pff," meaning list ".pff" files. To load an ASCII file created by another program, edit "*.pff," then press <Enter> 3 times. For example, to load a ".doc" file saved by your word processor, edit "*.pff" so it reads "*.doc". * Press <Tab> twice -- once to move to the menu, the second time to move to "OK." Then press <Space> or <cr>. inform-Z will recognize that you want to load a different type of file. It'll then load all ".doc" files into the menu, letting you pick one. Note that this feature lets you load any ASCII file. And it doesn't matter how long or wide it is -- inform-Z will load up to it's maximum: 125 rows and 200 columns per form. 1.14 ======== Selecting Options; Tips on Using Dialog Boxes ======= All of inform-Z' dialog boxes work much the same way as the two we showed you above. In ALL cases, select "< Cancel >" (or press <Esc>) to cancel the action. But some dialog boxes offer many types of options. We'll illus- trate how these work by showing a dialog box you'll see often. Press alt-O and the OPTIONS dialog box appears (see below). You'll see some options here we haven't mentioned yet -- we'll explain them later. For example * "Sequence Numbers" and "Help Forms" are relevant to forms you "automate" (see "Automating Forms"). * "PCX graphics" lets you print graphics logos, letterheads, etc. (see "Printing Forms"). * "Suppress calculated zeros" and "Include thousands separator" affect how inform-Z prints formula results (see "Automating Forms"). +-------------------- Options ------------------+ | Sequence Number: | | +----------+ | TEXT BOXES -->| |0000000001| | | +----------+ | | Help Form (Text file with .PFF extension): | -->| +--------+ | | | | | | +--------+ | | PCX graphics (with .PCX extension): | -->| +--------+ | | | | | | +--------+ | | # Lines on Screen: | OPTION BUTTONS -->| (.) 25 | | ( ) 43 | | ( ) 50 | | | CHECK BOXES -->| [X] Suppress 'calculated zeros' in formulas | | | | [X] Include 'thousands separator' in formulas | |-------------------------------------------------| COMMAND BUTTONS -->| < OK > < Cancel > < Colors > < Date & Time > | +-------------------------------------------------+ Please note the command buttons: "Colors" and "Date & Time." We'll return to these shortly. TIP: To quickly get to the last option(s) in dialog boxes, press PgUp 1 or more times, instead of Tab several times. continued . . . 1.15 Options, Dialog Boxes (continued) To Select Options in Dialog Boxes: .................................. * You'll type text in TEXT boxes (file names, paths, etc.) * OPTION BUTTONS are "mutually exclusive": choose ONE from the group shown. For example, you can switch to 43- or 50- line screen modes (to see more of your form at one time). But you can't use 25- and 43-line screen modes at the same time. - The "dot" inside the parentheses indicates which option is selected (25-line screen mode in this example). - To select an Option Button: -- Click Left on it (on the parentheses). -- Or, press <Tab> to move to the group, then press Up/ Down cursor keys to move the dot to the option you want. * You CAN choose more than one box from a group of CHECK BOXES. - "[X]" means an option is ON. "[ ]" means it's off. - To turn a Check Box on -or- off: -- Click Left on it (on the brackets). -- Or <Tab> to it, then press <Space>. * Some dialog boxes (like the Directory box we showed earlier) have MENUS (or List Boxes). You may choose ONE item from a menu. Please remember that highlighting a menu option does NOT select it. To select a menu item: - Double Click Left on it. - Or, <Tab> to the menu, press cursor keys to highlight an item, then press <Space> or <Enter> to select it. Colors ...... To change the colors inform-Z uses to display forms, press alt-O Options, then select the "Colors" command button. inform-Z then: displays a window with "sample" colors and asks you to press: * F1 to change the foreground color (you have 15 options) * F2 to change the background color (you have 8 options) * F3 to turn "bright backgrounds" on or off (CGA/EGA/VGA only) As you press these, the "sample" window changes colors. Press <cr> or select <Done>. inform-Z saves your choices in a file called IF.Cfg and uses them each time you run inform-Z. NOTE: Turning bright backgrounds on and off may cause parts of your screen to start blinking. Exit and colors will be fine. Bright backgrounds may cause blinking on some monitors. Try it. 1.16 Date and Time Formats ..................... As we'll explain later, you can date and time-stamp your forms in two different ways. To select the FORMAT inform-Z uses to add the date and time, press alt-O Options, then select the "Date & Time" command button. When you do, inform-Z displays another dialog box like this. Notice that: +----------- Date & Time Options ----------+ | | | Date Format: Language | | ( ) yyyymmdd +---------+ * You can format | (.) May 25, 1994 | English | dates in 10 dif- | ( ) May 25 | German | ferent ways! | ( ) Monday May 25, 1994 | Spanish | | ( ) Monday May 25 | French | * You can print | ( ) 25 May 1994 | Italian | dates in 5 dif- | ( ) May, 1994 | | ferent languages! | ( ) mm/dd/yy (Euro: mm.dd.yy) | | | ( ) Dec 10, 1994 | | * And you can | ( ) yy/mm/dd (Euro: yy.mm.dd) | | select 12- or 24- | | | hour time formats.| Time Format: | | | (.) 3:35 pm (12 hour) | | | ( ) 15:35:00 (24 hour) | | | +---------+ +-------------------------------------------+ | < OK > < Cancel > | +-------------------------------------------+ When you select OK, inform-Z saves your choices to it's config- uration file: IF.Cfg. It uses these formats for all forms you create -- until you change formats again. JUST FOR FUN: ............. Start inform-Z and move the cursor to a blank area of the screen. * Press ctrl-D to add the date where the cursor is using the "active" date format. Move the cursor DOWN 1 line. * Now, press alt-O. When the Options dialog box pops up, press PgUp to immediately jump to "Date & Time;" press <Space>. - Choose a different date format. - Also choose a different language if you'd like. * Select OK, then press ctrl-D again. Try different date formats and languages to see which you prefer. Also press ctrl-T to add the time. Then try the other format. 2.1 ================= SECTION 2: Designing Forms ================= inform-Z is remarkably easy to use. * Use the keyboard -or- a mouse in almost any combination. * Use pull-down menus -or- fast keyboard "hotkey" commands. * To move around your form press the cursor pad keys. Press: To Move: ------------------------- -------------------------------- Left or Right cursor keys left or right 1 space Ctrl-Left of Ctrl-Right 5 spaces left or right Home or End to the beginning or end of lines Up or Down up or down 1 line PgUp or PgDn up or down one "page" Or click the Left mouse button in "scroll areas" to move around. We'll explain these on the next page. Press alt-O to change how many rows are shown on your screen: 25, 43 or 50. ============ The F-a-s-t-e-s-t Way to Most Things =========== Use any combination of mouse/keyboard or menu/hotkey options that "feels right." We've found the fastest approach to many things is a combination of keyboard "hotkeys" (using one hand) and a mouse (using the other hand). To draw a box for example: * With your mouse in one hand, move the cursor to one corner where you want a box to begin. * Press alt-D with your other hand. ("D" for Draw). * Using the mouse, quickly move the cursor to the opposite corner. Click the LEFT mouse button to say "I'm done." Your box is drawn -- in about 2-4 seconds! Compared with using just the keyboard or a mouse, this left/right hand combination SPEEDS UP developing forms by about 200 - 300%! 2.2 =================== inform-Z' Main Screen ==================== inform-Z' main screen looks something like this: File Draw Block Text Math Fill Out Options Help (F1) ^=============================================================^ v<----------------------------------------------------------->v F9=< > F10=< > Row: 1|60 Col: 1|80 * The TOP line of your screen shows your menu options. Click Left on one of these options (eg., File) to call up a menu. Or press "/" to use the menus. Press F1 for help. * The BOTTOM line of your screen shows you two things: - The Row and Column your cursor is on ("Row: 1|60" means you're on row 1 in a 60-row form; "Col: 1|80" means you're on column 1 of an 80-column form). - The "current" Line/Box drawing style and the current Shading darkness. Press F9 to choose from 6 drawing styles; press F10 to choose shading. You may also click the Left mouse button near F9 or F10 to choose. * The four corners of the screen, and the next to last row are "mouse scroll bars." On your screen you'll see arrows and shading. Above we use "^" and "v" to represent the arrows you'll see. And "<---->" represents the left/right scroll bar. - Click the Left mouse button in these regions to scroll. - If you have no mouse, use cursor pad keys to move around your form. 2.3 ======================= Pull Down Menus ======================= Choose options using either pull down menus or keyboard "hotkey" commands. For instance, to draw a box, press alt-D (Draw), -or- pull down the "Draw" menu and select "Draw." NOTE: Menus are stored in a file called inform-Z.Psl. If inform-Z can't find inform-Z.Psl on the drive/directory you're on, when you try to pull down a menu (or view help), you'll see the message "Menus & Help are Unavailable" instead. To bring up the menus: * Press "/" on your keyboard. * Or click LEFT on a menu option at the top of your screen. inform-Z has 8 menus; each has several options. When you press "/," the last menu you used drops down. If you haven't used the menus yet, the 1st menu ("File") will drop down. It looks like this: FILE draw block text math fill out/DB options help (F1) +------------------------+ | Save Form F2 | NOTE: On the right, next to | (reserved -- expansion)| each option in a menu, |------------------------| is the keyboard hotkey | Load Form F4 | you'd press to invoke | (reserved -- expansion)| that option. For ex- |------------------------| ample, press Function | Print F6 | Key F2 to Save a form, |------------------------| F4 to Load one, or ESC | New Form / Clear F7 | to exit inform-Z. |------------------------| | Review Fonts F8 | ALSO Some options aren't yet |------------------------| NOTE: available. We reserved | Quit. Exit to DOS. Esc | some "slots" for features +------------------------+ we're adding now. To MOVE AMONG the 8 main menus using: ..................................... The KEYBOARD: press the Left or Right cursor keys. A MOUSE: move the cursor along the top line until it's on one of the 8 options. Click the Left button to select it. NOTE: Press F1 almost anytime to get help. The Help menu will drop down. Just highlight a topic and press <cr>. 2.4 Pull Down Menus (continued) To select options FROM menus: ............................. * Using the KEYBOARD: - Highlight the option you want and press <cr>. - To highlight an option, press the Up/Down cursor keys or the 1st letter of the option you want. If two or more options begin with the same first letter, keep pressing the 1st letter until the choice you want is highlighted. * Using a MOUSE: - Move the mouse cursor to the option you want; click the Left button. - Or, hold down the Left button and drag the highlight to the option you want. Release the Left button to accept it. Press Esc or the Right mouse button to exit the menus without making a choice. 2.5 Here are inform-Z' keyboard "hotkeys." For a 1-page quick refer- ence guide, print either this page or the form "HELP-IF." ==================== FUNCTION KEY Options ===================== Use Function keys to get help, save or load forms, print them, clear them, or choose drawing or shading styles. F1 Help F2 Save a form F3 (not used) F4 Load a form F5 (not used) F6 Print the current form F7 New/Clear (start a new form; choose a form size) F8 Review printer codes stored in IF-PTR.Xfg. F9 Select one of 6 Line/Box drawing styles F10 Select one of 3 Shading options TO EXIT inform-Z: Press Esc (or select Quit from the File menu). TO UnDo MISTAKES: Press alt-U (or use the Options Menu). UnDo works for all major and a few minor things. ================ alt-key / ctrl-key Options ================== (hold down the alt or Ctrl key, press another key) Use alt-key or ctrl-key options to design forms. Most options are mnemonic so they're easy to remember: D = Draw, M = Move, C = Copy, E = Erase, S = Shade, etc. Join Lines/Boxes, Add Check Boxes Draw Boxes or Arrows, Text Walk- Repeat UnDo or Lines Ascii Char. Enter/Center About ................................................................... alt- U D J T / C W R --------- Block options ---------- Delete or Delete or Continuous Insert Insert Big! Copy Move Erase Shade Shade Center ROW COLUMN Font .................................................................... alt- C M E S Z ctrl-C alt-X/I ctrl-X/I ctrl-B Goto Add Cur- Automate Fill Column Graphics ---- Formulas ---- rent Date Forms Out (Laser) Preview Add Edit Execute or Time ..................................................................... alt- A F G P ctrl-F1 F2 F9 ctrl-D/T To "turn on" one of 30 printer codes stored in IF-Ptr.Cfg, press alt-1 to alt-0 (for codes 1-10), alt-F1 to alt-F10 (codes 11-20) or shift-F1 to shift-F10 (codes 21-30). Press F8 to see what each code is. 2.6 ================ Designing Forms: Some Basics ================ * Learn to use alt-R (Repeat) and alt-C (Copy). Both can save enormous amounts of time. * The "default" form size is 80 columns wide by 60 lines long. But forms can have up to 200 columns and 125 lines. To change sizes, press F7 (New Form). A dialog box pops up letting you choose one of 6 options: ("User-supported" versions offer 2.) 1) 8.5 x 11 (80x60) 2) 8.5 x 14 (80x80) 3) 15 x 11 (132x60) 4) 11 x 8.5 (106x48) 5) 14 x 8.5 (136x48) 6) Select own size - To create your own size, <Tab> to the box labelled "Rows" and enter the number of rows (25 - 125). Then <Tab> to the box labelled "Columns" and enter 80 - 200. - Option 3 needs a wide carriage printer or compressed font. - Note that options 4 and 5 are "landscape" versions of 1 and 2. -- If you have a LaserJet and choose options 4 or 5 (or create forms wider than 80 columns), inform-Z asks if you want to print it in landscape mode. -- If you don't have a laser printer and create forms wider than 80 columns, use wide paper, turn the paper sideways, or use compressed fonts. * To WIDEN or LENGTHEN forms: move to the spot where you want a new row or column. Press alt-I to insert a row, or ctrl-I to insert a column. (alt-X/ctrl-X "deletes" rows/columns.) * When you draw boxes or lines or shade areas, inform-Z uses the "active" symbol set. The bottom line of your screen shows which symbol set is active. Press: - F9 to select from among 6 different box/line draw styles. - F10 to choose from 3 shading levels (light, medium or dark). * When you begin to draw, or start a "block" action, inform-Z: - Often displays a highlighted symbol: a box corner, "E" (Erase), a shade character, etc. - Then, as you move the cursor, inform-Z either shows you what you're drawing, or displays a "rubber band" of dots to indicate what you're marking to move, copy, center, etc. * You can "draw" or "mark" things in almost any direction: Top- Bottom, Left-Right or the reverse. And "Repeat" will repeat what you did in the direction you did it. Sometimes this is easier to comprehend if you move Left to Right, Top to Bottom. 2.7 ============== Saving and Loading Forms (F2/F4) =============== NOTE: inform-Z compresses forms when saving them to disk. This saves 40 - 70% of the disk space uncompressed forms would need. REGISTERED USERS, when you need forms in ASCII format (say, to load into a word processor or other program), run To-Ascii.Exe. To-Ascii will save a second version of your form to disk -- in ASCII format, without formulas. Your original form remains on disk untouched. An Appendix explains how to use To-Ascii. NEVER edit a form outside inform-Z; you may destroy it. Other programs (eg., word processors) CANNOT handle inform-Z' com- pressed forms or formulas. Loading Forms From Disk F4 Load ....................... Press F4 to load a form from disk. inform-Z can load its own compressed forms as well as any ASCII file. We discussed loading forms in the section "Loading Lesson Forms." Please refer to that section for details on using the dialog boxes you'll use to load or save forms. Saving Forms to Disk F2 Save .................... Press F2 to save a form to disk. inform-Z asks you to enter a 1-8 letter file name (extensions are always ".PFF"). * If you previously saved or loaded a form, inform-Z displays the file name you used then. Press <cr> to use the same name. * If you try to save a form that's already on disk, inform-Z asks if you want to write over it. Press <Y>es or <N>o. NOTE: inform-Z always Saves forms to the same drive/directory from which you loaded it. We urge you to keep your forms on the same drive/directory -- the path -- from which you run inform-Z. That'll save you time, since you won't have to type in the name of the drive/directory inform-Z should use. 2.8 Creating Forms .............. Most options work the same way. In all cases, Esc = Cancel, and <cr> means "I'm done." In most cases, when you press a hotkey, inform-Z "marks" your starting spot with a blinking symbol: "E" (erase), a "box corner", a shading character, etc. You may "draw" or "mark" things in any direction: Top-to- Bottom and Left-to-Right or, Bottom-to-Top and Right-to-Left. We'll now explain each option. In each case, we'll show you the hotkey you'd use AND the menu you'd choose that option from. Preview alt-P (Options - Preview) (CGA/EGA/VGA required) ....... While designing a form, it's sometimes hard to visualize the entire form when you're looking at just 22 lines and 80 columns of it at a time. Preview can show you the "entire picture." (Use alt-O (Options) to switch to 43- or 50-line modes.) And, since Preview can display bold, italic and underlined text, it can help you visualize how forms will look when printed. It can also help you spot where you made mistakes with printer attributes, like forgetting to turn off italics. Press alt-P to preview your form in graphics mode. This re- quires a CGA, EGA or VGA graphics adapter and monitor. When you press alt-P, inform-Z begins displaying your form in slightly compressed form. Press: * F1 to "compress" the view even more. Press F1 2-3 times to compress it the maximum possible. - Please note that compressing the view simply "squeezes" forms both vertically and horizontally to fit more of it on the screen. We don't use different screen fonts. - At the maximum compression, text will be unreadable. But you'll be able to see up to 159 columns, and up to 82 rows (EGA and VGA monitors) or 46 rows (CGA monitors). * F2 to "expand" your view. This shows less of your form, but shows it in easier-to-see detail. * PgDn to see the next "page" of your form; or PgUp to back up. Please note that Preview uses a "fixed spaced" font. This means it cannot properly display proportionally-spaced fonts, if you've used them. Nor does Preview display changes in line line spacing, large or compressed fonts, or superscripts or subscripts. We're may add these features later. 2.9 Drawing Boxes & Lines Alt-D / Draw - Box/Lines ..................... Move the cursor to where a box or line should begin. Press Alt-D (we'll "mark" the spot with a blinking box corner). Now move the cursor. WHAT we draw depends on WHERE you move. If you: * Move left or right on the same row, we'll draw a horizontal line. * Move up or down in the same column, we'll draw a vertical line. * Change both rows and columns, we'll draw a box. Press <cr> or Left and you're done! Your line or box is drawn in the style you chose by pressing F9. Auto-Joining (See "Special Note on alt-J" below) ............ When you draw lines or boxes, inform-Z "joins" them to every line in its path. It does this by "guessing" what you're trying to accomplish. Most of the time inform-Z' correct, and this speeds things up tremendously! * This only works when symbol sets are the same (close won't work). * If inform-Z' "guess" is wrong, use alt-J to fix specific spots. Joining Boxes & Lines alt-J (Draw - Join) ..................... (ALSO see Arrows later) To "Join" a line to a box (or one line to another), move the cursor to a line/box intersection, then press alt-J. A window pops up showing the drawing symbols. To "select" a character: * Press the cursor pad keys to move to it. Then press <cr>. * Or, click Left on any character to select it. SPECIAL NOTE: alt-J (Join) =========================== You'll press alt-J to do many things: to join lines and boxes, or add arrows, check boxes or "non-English" language characters. When you press alt-J, a window pops up which displays low and high ASCII characters (those not found on your keyboard). As you move the cursor around, you'll see (in the upper right corner) the character you're on and it's ASCII value. In the Join window are many characters that you should probably NEVER select. We use them for internal purposes (eg., to rep- present printer codes), and some mean special things to printers. But, if you're NOT printing forms with inform-Z, and you know how to handle these characters, alt-J is an easy way to get to them. 2.10 Adding Arrows & Check Boxes alt-J (LaserJets/Epson only) ........................... Press alt-J to add arrows or check boxes. A window pops up. * To add arrows, move to one of 4 arrows shown near the top. * To add "check boxes" move to a "happy face" and press <cr>. There are 2 "happy faces" on the right end of line two. NOTES: Check boxes are small, open boxes that are useful when you want someone to "check something off." Examples: Check Lists, To Do lists, selecting a form of payment (Cash, Visa). * Check boxes are smaller than you can create drawing a box. * On LaserJets, BE SURE to leave one blank space to the right of each Happy Face (in front of any text or a line). inform-Z offers two forms of check boxes. One is a plain, square box, the other is similar, but with a 3-D drop shadow. * To choose the plain box, select the open, "dark" Happy Face. * To choose the shadowed box, select the "white" Happy Face. Arrows and check boxes work with LaserJets and Epson printers. They won't work if you choose "Other" or "Translate" printer options. Why not? Because the arrows and Happy Faces are known as "control characters" which most printers can't handle. On LaserJets or Epson printers, we print them in graphics mode. Two Ways to Add "Non-English" Language Characters ................................................. French, German, Spanish and other languages require charac- ters other than those found on many keyboards. To add these to forms, move to the spot in your form where you want one and: * Press alt-J (Join) to select a character from the Join window. * Or, hold down the alt key, then enter the ASCII code of the character you want on the NUMERIC KEYPAD. NOTE: To PRINT these, your printer must have an appropriate font. Erasing or Shading a Block alt-E / alt-S (Block - Erase/Shade) .......................... It's just like drawing a box. Move to one corner of a block. Press alt-E (or alt-S Shade). A blinking "E" (or shade charac- ter) marks the spot. Move to the opposite corner; press <cr>. 2.11 Centering a block ctrl-C (Block - Center) ................. To center an area of your form, move to one corner of the "block" you want centered. Press ctrl-C. inform-Z begins it's rubber band marker. Move to the opposite corner. Press <cr>. inform-Z centers blocks within the borders of your form, NOT your screen. With forms wider than 80 columns, you may sometimes see a block disappear off the screen. Scroll right to find it. Copying or Moving a Block alt-C / alt-M (Block - Copy/Move) ......................... Just like examples above -- with one more step. Move to one corner. Press alt-C (or alt-M Move). The rubber band marker appears; extend it by moving to the opposite corner. Press <cr>. * You just marked what you want to copy or move. Now move to the spot where you want the block to appear. Press <cr>. NOTE: If you marked from Top to Bottom, move the block to the TOP of where you want it to appear. If you marked from Bottom to Top, move the block to the BOTTOM. Repeat alt-R (registered users) (Options - Repeat) ...... Repeat can save you dozens or hundreds of keystrokes. When you begin an alt-key design function (ie., box, line, copy/ move/ erase, etc, but NOT Undo or Function key options), inform-Z: * Records your key strokes (the option you chose plus cursor keys). * Plays them back when you press alt-R. For example: * You create a box. You then move the cursor to a new loca- tion and press alt-R. inform-Z draws another box in the new location: same style, same size. * Or suppose you want a grid (a series of horizontal lines). You draw the first line. You then move the cursor down 3 lines and press alt-R. inform-Z draws another line for you. You move down 3 more and press alt-R again; then again, and again and.... See alt-L (Layout Grids) for another way to do this. You can alt-<R>epeat something as many times as you like. Just move the cursor to a different location and press alt-R. But, as soon as you begin the next alt-key option, inform-Z begins recording your actions again -- erasing what you did before. 2.12 Drawing Grids alt-L (Draw - Grid) ............. Press alt-L to draw grids -- a form-full of evenly spaced col- umns and rows -- in one simple operation. Grids offer the fast- est way to create forms in just minutes! A "grid" is simply: * One or more equal-width columns. * Two or more lines, separated by at least one blank row. You can draw one of these (eg., columns only), or both of them. The lesson forms have examples demonstrating how to draw grids. To draw a grid, move the cursor to the top left corner where you want to begin. Press alt-L. inform-Z displays this dialog box: +------------------------------------------+ | | | How many COLUMNS would you like? | | +---+ | | | | | | +---+ | | How many BLANK ROWS between lines? | | +---+ | | | | | | +---+ | +------------------------------------------+ | < OK > < Cancel > | +------------------------------------------+ * To draw, say, 5 equal-width columns beginning where the cursor is, enter 5 for "How many Columns would you like?" * To draw a series of lines down the form with one blank row in between them, enter 1 for "How many Blank Rows." * Move the cursor to the opposite corner; press <cr> or Left. To draw JUST the columns (the vertical lines), enter 0 for "How many Blank Rows." To draw JUST the rows (just the horizontal lines), enter 0 for "Columns." And you can easily combine 2 or more grids on the same form to, say, create one wide column (with lines) on the left side of the form, and then 3-6 narrower columns to the right of it. Please note: ............ To draw grids, inform-Z divides up the area you mark into evenly- spaced columns and rows. At times what you really want is not mathematically possible in the space you marked! While inform-Z' results almost always make sense, they're sometimes surprising. continued . . . 2.13 Drawing Grids (continued) For example, sometimes you'll see an unfinished column, or "half a row." Always press PgDn 2-3 times to see the latter. * We leave these very conspicuous to alert you to the fact that, for example, one column is narrower than the others. * When you see these "exceptions," you can decide which column should be 1 character narrower than the others, or whether you need 1 more (or 1 less) row in your form. * Once you've decided, it's usually quite easy to press alt-D to finish a "partial" column, or use alt-X or alt-I to delete or insert a row. Related to the last point, if you want to combine grids with boxes, ALWAYS draw the grids first, THEN the boxes around it. * In most cases you won't need the boxes -- since grids are usually "finished products." * If you draw boxes first, you'll often find that the "mathe- matically correct" grid is 1-2 columns narrower (or 1-2 rows shorter) than the box you drew. - But inform-Z will connect the grid to the box for you -- to save you time. The results may not be what you want. - You now must erase some lines, then re-draw others to "patch" any open areas. Avoid anomalies like these by ALWAYS drawing grids first. THEN draw any boxes you need around or inside the grids. Adding / Centering Text alt-T / alt-C (Text - Text) ....................... You can add text in two ways. First, move to the spot where you want to add text. Then, start typing or press alt-T. * inform-Z "respects" your lines and boxes. You may enter text up to the 1st line/shade character inform-Z finds (or, if none, the right side of the screen). inform-Z scoops up any existing text it finds, letting you edit it. * Press: <alt-C> to Center text, <cr> when done, <Esc> to Cancel * NOTE: Enter up to 80 columns of text at a time. For forms wider than 80, enter section 1, scroll right, then add some more. 2.14 Big! Font ctrl-B (Text - Big! Font) ......... Big! Font is fast way to add large, block messages. Each character will be 7-8 lines high and 8 columns wide. And you can use dozens of different ASCII characters to "build" your message. See the form "Big!Font" for examples. * Move to the top, left corner and press ctrl-B. * inform-Z clears your screen and prints "eg" in the "current style." - Enter 1-8 letters. Press Esc to cancel, backspace to erase. - Press F1 to change "font styles." inform-Z displays it's Join window. Staying ABOVE the first horizontal line, "select" the character you want to draw with and press <cr>. inform-Z prints "eg" in the new style. - LASERJET users: If you choose one of the three shading symbols as the font style (characters 176-178), you should "turn on" SINGLE HEIGHT shading to print Big! Fonts. At the END of the Big! Font message, turn on Double height again. If you don't do this, the Double height shading will cause characters to "bleed" together. Big! Fonts OVERWRITE everything! So be sure there are 8 blank lines beneath your cursor, and 80 blank columns to the right. If Big! Font overwrites something important, remember alt-U. WalkAbout alt-W (Draw - Walkabout) ......... alt-W (WalkAbout) copies the character your cursor's on -- letting you draw (or erase) with ANY character on the screen. And if you don't see a character you like, press alt-J. A window pops up with line draw and a few other ASCII characters. Move to a character you want, press <cr> to accept it, then press alt-W to "paint" it around the screen. In general: * Move your cursor to the character you want to copy; press alt-W. * inform-Z highlights the character at the cursor. Press cursor pad keys and inform-Z copies the character around the screen. - Press Home, End, PgDn, PgUp, or ctrl-cursor to jump around, carrying the character you marked around with you. - If you move the mouse around, you'll "spray" the character around your form. If this isn't really what you wanted, press alt-U to undo it. * Press Esc or <cr> when done; you'll return to where you started. * Use WalkAbout to erase as you go -- just start on a blank spot. 2.15 Half Tone Shading alt-S or alt-Z (Block - Shade) ................. inform-Z' shading features are among the finest available in any forms program -- especially on LaserJets. To shade areas of your form, just press <F10> to select the "shading level" (Light, Medium or Dark), then mark the area of your form you'd like shaded. Experiment to see which shading level works best on your printer. You can shade areas or boxes in TWO ways: Solid (text is not shaded) or Continuous (text also shaded--LaserJets only). SOLID * Press alt-S (Shade) at one corner. Then move to opposite corner area you want shaded. Press <cr> to shade the block. * You CAN enter text in these areas (erase a section, then enter text). But this text MAY NOT be shaded when printed. CONTINUOUS (LaserJets only) * Press alt-Z at the left AND right ends of EACH LINE you want continuously shaded. A "2-line" tilde appears. * If you'd like inform-Z to shade this area with the lightest shading level, you're all done. Light shading is the default. But if you prefer medium or dark shading, anywhere between the two ends, press alt-S <cr> to insert at least one "shade character" -- to tell inform-Z what to shade with). Now enter text or lines between the alt-Z characters. Everything from alt-Z to alt-Z (inclusive) will be shaded. ............................................................... IMPORTANT: LaserJet Users ............................................................... inform-Z offers LaserJet users BOTH Double and Single height shading. Double height is the default; it's designed to com- pletely fill boxes. But you should use single height for Big! Fonts IF you create messages using one of the 3 shading char- acters (ASCII codes 176 - 178). * To turn on Single Height, add character 251 to your form. To do that, press alt-J (Join), then find character 251 on the bottom line. A "square root" symbol (for divide) will appear in your form. To restore Double Height shading, use character 253. A small "2" (for double) will appear in your form. * IMPORTANT: Double height shading WILL "partially" shade text that's 1 line above or below it. Often this is what you want. If not, avoid it by adding blank lines above and below shading. 2.16 Inserting or Deleting CHARACTERS Insert/Del keys ................................. Press Insert or Delete to insert or delete characters on a line. * Insert adds a space at the cursor, pushing EVERYTHING right. * Delete deletes what's at the cursor, shifting EVERYTHING left. Beware that Insert can push characters off the right side of your form -- they'll be lost. To avoid loosing characters, use ctrl-I (discussed next) to first widen your form, then press Insert. Inserting ROWS or COLUMNS alt-I or ctrl-I (Text - Insert) .......................... To insert a line ABOVE the row your cursor's on, press alt-I. To insert a column at the cursor, press ctrl-I. At the bottom of your screen, you'll see that your form is now 1 row longer, or 1 column wider. NOTE: If your form already has the maximum number of rows or columns and you try to add another, inform-Z simply beeps. AUTOMATIC "PATCHING:" When you insert rows or columns, inform-Z tries to "fill in" any lines or boxes that may be affected -- to save you from having to manually "patch" boxes and lines. So, if you press alt-I (or ctrl-I) with your cursor on a line that has lines, boxes or shading, inform-Z inserts a new line (or column) which includes ALL the lines and shading from the current line. inform-Z won't duplicate text or printing symbols. But, suppose you press alt-I with your cursor on the "1" next to the box on the left. You'll get what you see on the right -- inform-Z duplicated the lines and shading on the row you were on. If this happens, erase what you don't need, or insert at line "2." 1 +--------+ +--------+ 2 | | +--------+ +--------+ | | +--------+ Deleting ROWS or COLUMNS alt-X/alt-X (Text - Delete) ........................ To delete the row that your cursor is on, press alt-X. To delete the column your cursor's in, press ctrl-X. At the bottom of your screen, you'll see that your form is now 1 row shorter, or 1 column narrower. NOTE: You'll be unable to delete if your form is already at the minimums: 25 rows and 75 columns. inform-Z simply beeps. continued . . . 2.17 Inserting or Deleting Rows/Columns (continued) IMPORTANT: When you insert or delete rows or columns, inform-Z automatically updates any formulas you've added to your form. This ensures that results print where they should, and that we look in the right areas of your form to find the numbers you want to add, multiply, divide or subtract. Adding Dates and Time-Stamps to Forms ctrl-D/ctrl-T ..................................... You have two ways to add the date and time to forms. In BOTH cases, the date/time formats inform-Z uses are the ones YOU chose by pressing alt-O (Options). * Press alt-O to choose from 10 different date formats. And you can choose to display dates in 5 different lang- uages: English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. * You can also choose between 12 or 24 hour time formats. The two ways to date or time-stamp forms are to: 1. Press ctrl-D to add the date at that point in your form where your cursor is. Press ctrl-T to time-stamp your forms at the cursor. 2. Put "&date" and "&time" in your forms. Then, when you fill out forms (you press alt-F), inform-Z will replace "&date" with the date, and "&time" with the time. We'll discuss this option in the section "Automating Forms." Notes: * Please leave enough room in your form for the longest possible date or time. Some date formats may require 27 characters: Thursday, September 28, 1994. If you add a date, but haven't left enough room, the date will over- write whatever is to the right. * Both the date and time are read from the clock in your PC. If the clock is incorrect, inform-Z will insert incorrect dates and times into your forms. If your PC's clock is NOT updated automatically when you start it, you can add the lines DATE and TIME to your Autoexec.Bat file (or start inform-Z from a batch file that begins with these lines), and then enter the correct date and time before you run inform-Z. 2.18 GOTO COLUMN alt-G (Options - Goto) ........... Goto is a fairly specialized option. But if you need it, you REALLY need it. Goto works WELL on HP LaserJets. It may or may not work with the Epson print options. It WON'T work with other print options. To understand GOTO's usefulness, consider the following: ==========+==================+=============+=========+======== Item # Description Quantity Price Total ==========+==================+=============+=========+======== NOTE: there are NO lines separating the columns here. See below for a different example. Suppose we want to print each column heading in a 14 point, proportionally spaced Helvetic font. If we switch to Helvetic just before "Item #," the other headings will NOT line up -- because there are no lines separating the columns, and since we're no longer moving across at 10 characters-per-inch. * To solve this dilemma, we simply press alt-G 2 spaces in front of "Description," then immediately "turn on" Helvetic again. We do the same for "Quantity," "Price" and "Total." * alt-G inserts a small "n" in your form (character 252), which tells inform-Z to move to that column. Now you're ready to print the next heading at the right spot. Note that if you switch fonts frequently on a line, you may have to experiment a bit to get text position properly. inform-Z will NOT print the small "n" -- which makes this option useful to control where we are on a line, without having to add a character that prints. ALTERNATELY: The example below has lines separating colummn. ==========+==================+=============+=========+======== Item # | Description | Quantity | Price | Total ==========+==================+=============+=========+======== On LASERJETS only, whenever inform-Z finds a line character, it begins moving across the page at 10 characters-per-inch until it encounters text again. Usually this is enough to properly print column headings -- without having to use GOTO. But you may still find situations where GOTO comes in handy. 3.1 ================ SECTION 3: Automating Forms ================= This section describes how to "automate" forms by adding Auto- Edit fields, the date or time, sequence numbers, and formulas. If you plan to use Mail Call to link forms to a database, please read Section 5 for tips on how to add "merge keys" (like &name, &city, &phone, etc.) to forms. Introduction ............ When you automate forms, you can: * Fill them out over and over again (eg., Expense Reports). * Fill out and print dozens of forms for different people (eg., Order forms or Invoices). * Ask inform-Z to do the calculations for you. * Add dates, time-stamps and sequence numbers which auto- matically "update themselves" each time you fill out forms. * Print on pre-printed forms -- printing just the variable in- formation (what you enter, dates, calculated results, etc.). * Add "help forms" to help you (or someone else) fill them out. And automating forms is very easy -- it's just like drawing a line. You just "mark" areas of your form where you want to fill in something, or areas you want to calculate. That's it. Press ctrl-F1 to add formulas. We'll discuss formulas later. Press alt-A to Automate a form. Then choose the option you want from this dialog box: +------------- Type of Field ------------+ | | | (.) Auto-Edit (Text or Numbers) | | ( ) Auto-Edit (Numbers Only) | | ( ) Date | | ( ) Time | | ( ) Sequence Number | | ( ) Database Link (not yet available) | | | | Right Justified? | | [ ] Yes (relevant only for Auto-Edit) | | | +------------------------------------------+ | < OK > < Cancel > | +------------------------------------------+ )] ) ) ) ) )) ) The easiest features to add are dates, time-stamps and sequence numbers. We'll begin with these. 3.2 Adding Dates and Times ...................... When adding date and time fields, please remember that (we mentioned this above in our discussion of ctrl-D and ctrl-T): * You should leave enough room in your form for the longest possible date or time. Some date formats may require 27 characters. The time may need 8 characters. If you don't leave enough room, they'll overwrite anything to the right. * inform-Z reads the date and time from the clock in your PC. If your PC's clock is incorrect, inform-Z will insert incor- rect dates and times into your forms. Automatically Dating Forms alt-A (Automate - Add A-E) .......................... If you'd like inform-Z to automatically "date" forms, just: * Move to the spot in your form where you want the date. Then: - Press alt-A (Automate) and select DATE from a dialog box. - Or simply type: "&date" (without the quotation marks). * Press alt-O (Options) to select a date format and the language you'd like the date printed in. * Press alt-F (Fill Out). inform-Z replaces &date with the date. BE SURE to leave enough room for the widest date (maximum = 27). NOTE: If your form has no Auto-Edit fields, you can still use alt-F to automatically date, time-stamp or sequence your forms. inform-Z tells you there are no A-E fields, then adds these. "Time Stamping" Forms alt-A (Automate - Add A-E) ..................... If you'd like inform-Z to automatically time-stamp forms, just: * Move to the spot in your form where you want the time. Then: - Press alt-A (Automate) and select TIME from a dialog box. - Or simply type "&time" (without the quotation marks). * Press alt-O (Options) to select the time format you'd like: 12-hour (eg., "9:45 am") or 24-hour (eg., 09:45:32). * Press alt-F (Fill Out). inform-Z replaces &date with the time. BE SURE to leave room for the 7-8 character time. 3.3 Adding Sequence Numbers alt-A (Automate - Add A-E) ....................... A sequence number can be ANY text or numbers that inform-Z auto- matically "increments" each time you press alt-F to fill out a form. This feature is especially handy when you need each form printed with a unique number -- Order forms, Invoices, Purchase Orders, Service Call records, Repair bills, etc. Sequence numbers may include 4-10 characters in almost any combination of numbers, letters, spaces or punctuation. They begin as "0000000000." Press alt-O (Options) to change (or "seed") this to virtually anything you want. inform-Z will increment numbers -or- letters (upper or lower case). It skips embedded delimiters, spaces and other non- numeric alphabetic characters (including non-English letters). * This lets you create neatly formatted sequence numbers like: "ABC 000-aa" or "IF-abc 01" or "001 abcdef" * inform-Z increments sequence numbers from right to left. When the right-most character reaches it's maximum (ie., 9, z or Z), inform-Z resets it to it's minimum, and then increments the character to it's left. So, if a sequence number starts as "ABC 000-aa," when you press alt-F it becomes "ABC-001-ab." Similarly, "IF-aaa zz" becomes "IF-aab aa" (Note: the last 3 letters changed here). To automatically "sequence number" or "serialize" forms, just: * Move to the spot in your form where you want a sequence number. Then either: - Press alt-A (Automate) and select Sequence Number. - Or simply type "&seq" (without the quotation marks). * Press alt-O (Options) and "seed" the sequence number (ie. change "00000000" to the format you prefer). * Press alt-F (Fill Out). inform-Z replaces &seq with the number. Tips on using Sequence Numbers: ............................... * Use letters instead of numbers to give you the greatest range. For example, "aaa" gives you almost 17,600 unique "numbers" (26 x 26 x 26). But "001" gives you 1000 (10 x 10 x 10). * Each form you create can have a different type of sequence number. Just create or load a form, press alt-O (Options), edit the sequence number, then press F2 to save your form. continued . . . 3.4 Tips on using Sequence Numbers (continued) * Use sequence numbers at least 4 characters long -- to ensure that "&seq" is completely erased when you press alt-F. * When you press alt-F and inform-Z finds "&seq," it increments your sequence number, then saves it to disk! - While filling out the form, you can edit the sequence number. - But editing it here WON'T change the number saved with your form. You must press alt-O (Options) to reset it permanently. * If, while developing a form, you press alt-F many times to test what you've done, the sequence number will continue to increment. When your form is finished, press alt-O and re-seed it. * If sequence numbers start out lower (or upper) case, they'll stay that way -- we won't wrap from "Z" to "a." Adding "Help Forms" alt-O (Options - Colors, Etc.) ................... If YOU will be the only one filling out the forms you create, you may not need this option -- since you'll know what to do. But if someone else will be filling out your creations, you can provide them with "on-line help" by creating a "help form." Then, while they're filling out your form, they can press F1 to "browse through" your tips, guidelines and reminders. To add a help form: * First create a form that you'll later fill out. As you design it, press alt-O and, in the box labeled "Help Form," type in a 1-8 character form name (the extension MUST be ".pff"). Note: the form does NOT have to exist yet to do this. * Later, create a form (or create ANY ASCII file with an editor or word processor). It may be ANY length and width! Save this help form to disk -- to the same drive/directory from which you'll run inform-Z to fill out another form. inform-Z will look ONLY on the "current path" for help forms. * Now, run inform-Z, load the form you want to fill out, then press F1 to browse through your help form! Help Forms MUST be in ASCII Format .................................. Help forms MUST be in ASCII format to be viewed -- the format your Quick Reference guide must be in to view it by pressing F1. * So, if you create a form using inform-Z, you must use the sep- arate program we send registered users (To-Ascii) to create an ASCII version of inform-Z' "compressed" form. * Alternately, create help forms with ANY word processor. Save them in ASCII (or DOS Text) format with a ".pff" extension. 3.5 Adding Auto-Edit (A-E) Fields alt-A (Automate - Add A-E) ............................. Introduction ............ An Auto-Edit field (or A-E) field is simply an area in your form that you've marked to tell inform-Z: "When I press alt-F to fill out this form, I want to type something in here." * Marking these areas in as easy as drawing a line or a box. * You can add hundreds of A-E fields in just seconds! Do this by adding an entire column of A-E fields in one simple step. Then just move to another column and press alt-R (Repeat). * You can enter up to 250 A-E fields to each form. While inform-Z won't stop you from entering more than 250, it won't process more than 250 when you press alt-F (Fill Out). - Dates, time-stamps and sequence number DO count in the 250. - User-supported versions of inform-Z let you add 250 fields. But they'll only process the first 25 or so -- to give you a chance to try out this powerful, advanced option. * Add A-E fields, then press alt-F to fill them in. inform-Z jumps to the first field (that's to the right of or below your cursor), highlights it, then lets you edit it. Press: - <Tab> or <Enter> to move to the next field. - <Shift-Tab> to move back one field. - Cursor pad keys (Up, Down, PgUp or PgDn) to browse around, or to quickly move to another area of your form. Press <Tab> or <Enter> again to edit the next field. * A-E fields look like "...." or ".N..." or ".NR..." in your forms. You can copy, move or erase them -- just like any- thing else you see in your forms. inform-Z is very flexible. - A-E fields with just the dots ("....") are "text" fields. Here you can enter ANYTHING -- text, numbers or punctuation. - Fields with an "N" (eg., ".N...") are NUMBERS ONLY fields. In these you can enter 0-9, plus characters often found in numbers like ".,$-". - Fields with "R" in them mean that what you enter in them will be right-justified. This is handy to ensure that numbers in columns always line up at the decimal point. 3.6 To Add A-E Fields: .................. To add Auto-Edit fields, move the cursor to the left edge of where you want an A-E field to begin. If you want to add an ENTIRE COLUMN of A-E fields all at once, move to the LEFT hand column and the FIRST row where you want A-E fields to begin. BE SURE the cursor is on a blank spot or on text. inform-Z WON'T add A-E fields if you begin on a line -- to protect your form. Press alt-A. This dialog box pops up (like we showed you earlier): +------------- Type of Field ------------+ | | | (.) Auto-Edit (Text or Numbers) | | ( ) Auto-Edit (Numbers Only) | | ( ) Date | | ( ) Time | | ( ) Sequence Number | | ( ) Database Link (not yet available) | | | | Right Justified? | | [ ] Yes (relevant only for Auto-Edit) | +------------------------------------------+ | < OK > < Cancel > | +------------------------------------------+ * Select one of the first two Auto-Edit options: Text OR Numbers, or Numbers Only. * Also select Right Justified if you'd like. Once you select the "type" of A-E field, just move the cursor to mark the field(s). * If you're adding just one A-E field, move right or left. * If you're adding an ENTIRE COLUMN of A-E fields, move right, and then move down until all rows are marked by the "rubber band" of dots. If there are lines in the way, DON'T WORRY. See the "NOTE" below. * Press <cr> or click Left to accept it. NOTE: When you add columns of A-E fields, inform-Z only adds them to lines where it finds a blank spot or text in the column you started in. So, if you're adding A-E fields to a series of rows separated by lines, inform-Z ONLY adds them to the blank areas -- leaving your lines and shading intact! 3.7 Auto-Edit Fields (continued) IMPORTANT NOTES: Auto-Edit Fields .................................. * ALWAYS save a form you're working on BEFORE you press alt-F. You CAN save forms you've filled out; but you MUST save them with a UNIQUE file name. Why? inform-Z' method of creating Auto-Edit fields is very flex- ible. With other programs, you first create your form, and then manually "define" each field (eg. row 15, column 22, width 15). If you later decide to change your form, you're forced to go back to their "field definition" form and manually change the "coordinates" of each field. But with inform-Z, you simply "draw" fields. And once you draw them, you can "repeat" them, move or copy them, erase or shorten them -- like you can anything else. When you then press alt-F, inform-Z scans your form for the "dots" that define Auto-Edit fields. When inform-Z finds the first field, it converts the dots to spaces, highlights the field, and lets you edit it. In other words, once you press alt-F, at least one A-E field is gone -- it's been converted to spaces, or you entered something in it. If you now save that form, then reload it later, at least that first A-E field won't be there anymore. *** That's why you should save forms before you press alt-F -- to ensure the A-E fields you just added are saved to disk. *** That's also why inform-Z requires a unique name if you want to save a form you've filled out -- to ensure you don't overwrite the form with your A-E fields with one that's been filled in. * Similarly, if you add A-E fields, press alt-F, and then add, copy, move or change some, if you immediately press alt-F again, inform-Z won't recognize the changes you made. Why? Because when you press alt-F, inform-Z creates a "record" of where each A-E field is -- so you can fill out the same form over and over (or edit what you entered). inform-Z will know where each field is even though A-E phrases may be gone. - But when you add, move or change A-E fields, and press alt-F again, inform-Z won't "know about" the new A-E fields. It won't look for your changes; it'll simply start editing. - To avoid this, after you move or add A-E fields, save the form, then re-load it. Now when you press alt-F, inform-Z will recognize it has no record and will create a new one -- which will include the changes you've made. 3.8 Important Notes (continued) * The widths of A-E fields determine how many characters may be entered. ".N.." allows 1-4 numbers; "....." allows 1-5 numbers -or- text. - The maximum width is 80 column -- the width of your screen. - The minimum width of a Text A-E field is 1 ("."). If you right-justify it, the minimum width is 2 (".R"). - The minimum width of Numbers Only fields is 2 (".N"). If you right-justify it, the minimum width is 3 (".NR"). * Between 2 A-E fields, there must be at least 1 space, line or shade character -- so inform-Z knows where one A-E field ends and the next one begins. * inform-Z never prints unused Auto-Edit phrases. Before printing, inform-Z convert them to blanks. * DON'T delete the first "dot" of A-E fields And DON'T break up an A-E field by inserting a space or any character. inform-Z need these characters together to find A-E fields, and to determine their length and type (numbers or text + numbers). 3.9 Filling Out Forms alt-F (Automate - Fill Out) ................. Press alt-F to fill out forms with Auto-Edit fields, dates, sequence numbers or time-stamps. If your form has NO A-E fields, but has &date, &time or &seq, inform-Z "fills these in" and then tells you your form has no A-E fields. If your form DOES have A-E fields, inform-Z jumps to the first field that's to the RIGHT OF or BELOW where your cursor is, highlights it and lets you edit it. * This lets you begin filling out forms anywhere. Just move the cursor left of the field you'd like to edit; press alt-F. * To always begin at the beginning, press PgUp 2-3 times to ensure the cursor is on the top row of your form; press alt-F. * If inform-Z finds &seq or &date or &time on the same line as some other field, it will process them in the order just shown -- even if some other field precedes it on the line. Near the bottom of your screen inform-Z will tell you that you're in Fill Out Mode, and will also show you which Row and Column you're currently in. Press: * <Tab> or <Enter> to move to the next field. * <Shift-Tab> to move back one field. * Cursor pad keys (Up, Down, PgUp or PgDn) to browse around, or to quickly move to another area of your form. Press <Tab> or <Enter> again to edit the next field. * Ctrl-F9 to execute the formulas you added (if any). This can help you spot errors in what you entered. Glance at the results, then edit any mistakes. * Esc to exit the Fill Out mode. You can then: - Execute formulas (if you haven't already). - Print your form. - Press alt-F to begin again (or fill it out for someone else). 3.10 ========================= Formulas ========================== inform-Z' math options add speed, accuracy and "spreadsheet con- venience" to forms. And adding both formulas and A-E fields makes filling out forms a snap! PLEASE read this thoroughly. You add formulas much like you do other things: you "draw" them. * If you use spreadsheets, you're probably already know how to "point" to the range of cells that you'd like to add up. * inform-Z works much the same way. For example, to add a col- umn of numbers, just mark where you want the results, then point to (mark) the entire column of numbers (lines and all). - You must mark were you want the results since, unlike spreadsheets, forms don't have "cells" you can assign results to. So you define a cell by marking it. - And if you "mark" lines, shading and text along with your numbers, we'll "filter them out" before doing calculations. You can add, subtract, multiply and divide. Each form can have up to 200 formulas (about 25 in shareware versions). And you can "repeat" formulas (partially) by pressing alt-R. You can also edit formulas -- to delete, copy or change them. You can add formulas on top of each other -- 2, 3, 4, as many as you like. This lets you perform complex calculations, with the results of one formula used as the basis for the next. You see only the final results! You can, and often will, add formulas that'll involve numbers that aren't in your form yet! This often happens when you've added A-E fields which you'll later fill in with numbers. Formulas are part of and are saved with the rest of your form. But formulas themselves are "invisible." You see their results, but you don't see formulas -- until you press ctrl-F2 (Edit). When you "execute" formulas, inform-Z adds the "results" to your form and treats these results like any other text. Press UnDo and results vanish. You can copy, move or edit results (but not in Fill Out mode). If you save a form, inform-Z saves the results as well. If you then re-load the form, change the numbers underlying your formulas, then press ctrl-F9 again, the old results are replaced by new ones -- as you'd expect. Finally, when you add formulas, inform-Z remembers the row and column of where you want the results, plus the row/column lo- cations of the numbers you want to add, divide, etc. If you then insert or delete rows or columns, inform-Z automatically updates your formulas to ensure results print where they should, and that we look for numbers in the right places! * inform-Z can't, however, protect you from moving or copying things around such that your formulas are affected. 3.11 To Add Formulas: : : .................... You manage formulas with three ctrl-Key commands: ctrl-F1 = Add formula ctrl-F2 = Edit them ctrl-F9 = Execute Adding a formula takes just 3 simple steps: * Mark where you want the results. * Choose the type of formula you want. * Mark the numbers you want to add, multiply, etc. BEFORE you press ctrl-F1 to add formulas, ALWAYS move the cursor to one side of where you want the RESULTS. Now press ctrl-F1. inform-Z asks you to move the cursor to mark the "re- sults area." This step's important step for two reasons: * First, be sure to create results areas wide enough for the largest possible number that'll appear -- PLUS any formatting symbols like "$" "," "." or "%" that'll be added to the number based on the format you choose. If your results areas are too narrow for the actual re- sults, part of your form may be overwritten -- we consider the integrity of your numbers more important than the lines, boxes and shading that may be overwritten. * Second, when you "execute" formulas, inform-Z first erases the results area, then inserts results from RIGHT to LEFT. - We erase the areas so that if a number drops from, say, $495.00 to $2.95, the extra characters are erased -- so you don't end up with something like "$4$2.95". - And numbers always expand from right to left to ensure that decimal points line up down columns. - If a result expands leftward so far it goes off the left side of your form, it won't be printed. So, please mark results areas wide enough to ensure that previous results will be erased. And create results areas wide enough for the largest possible number. 3.12 Adding Formulas (continued) When you press ctrl-F1 (Add Formula), inform-Z displays this dialog box. Choose the options you want and then select OK. Select Cancel (or press Esc) to cancel adding a formula. +----- Formulas ----+ | | * Tell inform-Z if you'd like to add, sub- | Function: | tract, multiply or divide by selecting | (.) Add | one of these option buttons --------->> | ( ) Subtract | | ( ) Multiply | | ( ) Divide | | | * Tell inform-Z which format to use by | Format: | selecting one of these options ------>> | (.) Currency | - The only difference between "Fixed" | ( ) Fixed | and "Currency" is the latter auto- | ( ) Percentage | matically adds "$" to the results. | | | Decimal Places: | * Here, enter ------------------------->> | +---+ | the number of decimal places you want. | | | | inform-Z "rounds" results accordingly. | +---+ | | Name: | * Enter a 1-8 character name here ----->> | +----------+ | (a description). We urge you to do this! | | | | With up to 200 formulas per form, it can | +----------+ | be hard to remember what does what. |-------------------| | < OK > < Cancel > | +-------------------+ NOTE: Although you select most formula options from the dialog box above, there are two others you can select by pressing alt-O Options. These are "Suppress calculated zeros" and "Include thousands separator." * The reason you choose these using alt-O Options is that they're saved to disk and remain in effect until you change them -- they're constant across all forms and all formulas. * "Suppress calculated zeros" means that if the results of a formula turns out to be 0, those results won't be printed. Most people prefer this; but it's your option. * "Include thousands separator" means insert commas every third place left of the decimal point (or the right side of the number is there's no decimal point): 99,999,999.00. 3.13 Adding Formulas (continued) Assuming we chose 2 decimal places: * Fixed format results might appear like this: 0.00 * Currency results might appear like this: $0,000.00 * Percentages might appear like this: 0.00% Notice in the currency example that the dollar sign "floats" with the size of the number. If you prefer dollar signs lined up, or you use non-US currency symbols, use Fixed formulas, then add currency symbols yourself (using alt-T Text). Once you select the type of formula you want, what you do next depends on whether you're: ADDING: * You can Add down columns, across columns or both. For example, calculate a "Grand Total" by adding up ALL the rows and columns in a form. * Numbers you're adding can be anywhere on your form. But they should be in the same "block" -- you can't add numbers from different areas of your form. * Move your cursor to the Top Left corner of num- bers (or to the spot where numbers will appear). Press <cr> to begin highlighting the spot. * Now move right (and down if appropriate), expand- ing the highlight so it covers all numbers you want added. Press <cr> when done. That's it. SUBTRACTING, MULTIPLYING, and DIVIDING * You'll mark two numbers (or areas where numbers will appear). These 2 numbers can be anywhere on your form -- on any row, in any column. - The first number you mark MUST be the one that would go ON TOP if you were doing math on paper. - We'll subtract the 2nd number you mark from the first, or divide the 1st number by the 2nd. So the order in which you mark them is important. * Move the cursor to the left side of the first number. Press <cr> then move right to mark the first number. Press <cr>. * Now move the cursor to the left side of the 2nd number. Press <cr>, then move right to mark the 2nd number. Press <cr>. You're all done. 3.14 Adding Formulas (continued) Adding Formulas: An Example ............................ In our Order Form below, we want the "Total" price for an item ordered: Quantity multiplied by Price. 1. We begin by moving our cursor to the area under Total. We press ctrl-F1, and mark where we want the results. 2. We tell inform-Z we want: a) to multiply, b) we want currency format, and c) we want 2 decimal places. 3. Finally, we mark the 2 "numbers" we want multiplied. - We first mark the Auto-Edit field under Quantity. It has no numbers now, but it will when we fill this out. - We then mark the area under Price. That's it. ================================================================== Catalog # Description Quantity Price Total ================================================================== ......... | ........................... | .N.. | $13.99 | -----------+-----------------------------+--------+--------+------ ......... | ........................... | .N.. | $21.99 | -----------+-----------------------------+--------+--------+------ Repeating Formulas: Partially .............................. Once we add a formula to the first row, we can "partially" repeat it. We do this here by moving our cursor down 2 lines and pressing alt-R (Repeat). "Partial" means: * inform-Z duplicates the formula with: - The same-width results area, modified to reflect the row and column our cursor is now in. - The same function (ie., Add, Divide, etc.) - And and the same format (eg. Fixed) and # of decimal places. * But, we must still mark the areas in our form that we want added, divided, etc. 3.15 Adding Formulas (continued) Tips on Adding Formulas: ........................ * As you mark the numbers you want to add, subtract, etc., PLEASE add a few extra spaces on BOTH left and right sides. - We filter out non-numeric characters before we calculate. - And adding extra spaces allows you to make small changes to your form (like shifting numbers or Auto-Edit fields left/right) without having to edit your formulas. * Numbers you're Adding must ALWAYS have at least 1 blank space on both sides of them. When adding across columns, we need the space to tell where one number ends and another begins. So, BE SURE that spaces surround: 1) numbers you enter with Auto-Edit fields; and, 2) "intermediate" numbers (resulting from formulas) that you intend to use in other formulas. Adding Formulas: Our Example Continued ....................................... Let's continue the example we started earlier. We'll add several different formulas, some on top of each other. Suppose we're designing a "Computer Supply" order form like this: ================================================================= Catalog # Description Quantity Price Total ================================================================= 54321-199 | Box: 10 5 1/4" Floppy Disks | .NR. | $13.99 | -----------+-----------------------------+--------+--------+----- 54321-200 | Box: 10 3 1/2" Floppy Disks | .NR. | $21.99 | -----------+-----------------------------+--------+--------+----- | Postage & handling: # boxes: | $.35 | +--------------------------------------+--------+----- Sub-Total California residents, (.) .065 Tax TOTAL Notice the 3 Auto-Edit fields: 2 under "Quantity" (letting us fill in "Quantity Ordered"), and the third near "Tax." We'll explain the "(.)" near "Tax" later. We need 8 formulas: 1 - 2 (Quantity times Price), 3 (# of Boxes Ordered), 4 (# of Boxes times $.35), 5 (Sub-Total), 6 - 7 (Tax), 8 (Total). * We already added the first formula when we began our example. * We could now add another "Quantity * Price" formula for 3 1/2" disks (Repeat would make this easy). Instead, we'll later use ctrl-F2 (Edit formulas) to "copy" one. 3.16 Adding Formulas (continued) Formulas on Top of Formulas ........................... We put formulas on top of each other when we don't need to see results from every formula. Each formula can use results from the one before it; we'll see only the results of the last one. Suppose we've already added formulas down through "Sub-Total." It's time to add TWO formulas for "Tax" -- one on top of the other. * We first create formula #6: We multiply "Sub-Total" times the ".065" left of Tax. 6.5% might be the tax rate in your state. - But some people ordering our disks WON'T be from our state. We must design our form so they aren't charged sales tax. * So, for formula #7, we leave the cursor where it is and multi- ply the "results" of "Sub-Total * .065" by the Auto-Edit field left of "Tax" -- which looks like this "(.)". - Note there are no results for "Tax" yet. But there will be when we press ctrl-F9. - So, for formula #7, we carefully mark the SAME results area that we did for formula #6. We then multiply the A-E field "(.)" times Sub-Total. Now, when we fill out our form and get to the A-E field near "Tax:" * We'll press "1" if our customer lives in California. And we'll simply press <cr> if they don't. - In other words, if they don't live in California, we'll leave the "(.)" field blank. - Mathematically, a blank field (or nothing) is 0. * When we execute our formulas, inform-Z WILL calculate Tax. - But, it will then multiply Tax times either "1" or "0." - We'll see either the correct tax or nothing -- since "Tax * 1" = Tax, and "Tax * 0" = 0. 3.17 ====================== Editing Formulas ======================= Once you add formulas, edit them by pressing ctrl-F2. You can: * Copy formulas, to duplicate them over and over. * Edit formulas to, say, adjust where results print if you've moved things around in your form. * Delete formulas. When you press ctrl-F2, a window pops up and inform-Z displays up to 20 formulas at a time. Here's how this window might look. --Function/Fmt--- -- Results --- -Start / 1st- --End / 2nd- Label Funct Fmt Decimal Row Left Right Row Left Rht Row Left Rht Qnty * $ M C 2 4 70 76 4 52 59 4 61 68 Qnty * $ M C 2 6 70 76 6 52 59 6 61 68 # Boxes A F 0 8 54 58 4 52 59 6 52 59 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Formulas have 5 "sections." Here's what you can enter in each: Label Any name/description you want. "Qnty * $" is our abbreviation for "Quantity times Price." Function/Fmt Function: A (Add) S (Subtract) M (Multiply) D (Divide) Format: C (Currency) F (Fixed) P (Percentage) Decimal: Number of Decimal Places (0 - 5) Results Row = the row in your form where results will print. (Valid rows: 1 to the length of your form) Right = the column you chose to right-align formula results. inform-Z erase the area between Left and Right columns before inserting results. (Valid columns: 1 to the width of your form) "Start / 1st" and "End /2nd" indicate where in your form the numbers are we use in calculations. * "Start/End" applies only to numbers you're adding. What you'll see here are the starting Row/Column and the ending Row/Column of the numbers inform-Z will add up. * "1st/2nd" applies to all other functions. "1st" refers to the first number you marked; "2nd" refers to the second. For example, the first formula above multiplies Quantity (row 4, columns 52-59) by Price (row 4, columns 61-68). The second formula multiplies the same columns, but in row 6. We "created" the second formula by copying formula the first (discussed later). continued . . . 3.18 Editing Formulas (continued) Copying, Deleting or Editing Formulas ..................................... When the Edit Formula window pops up, the cursor will be next to the label of formula #1. Press the cursor pad keys to browse through formulas, or move to one. Press: Up/Down cursor keys to move the cursor up/down 1 formula PgUp/PgDn to move up or down about 20 formulas Home/End to move the cursor to the 1st or last formula To Copy, Delete or Edit a formula, move the cursor to the row the formula is on, then press: * alt-C to Copy the formula your cursor's on. The copy appears right below the one you're on; others shift down. * alt-D to Delete the formula your cursor's on. The formula disappears; any formulas below it move up. * alt-E to Edit the formula your cursor's on. inform-Z highlights the Label field. Press: - <cr> to move to the next field in that ROW. <Shift - Tab> to move back one field in that ROW. - Up/Down cursor keys to move up or down 1 row. - PgUp/PgDn to move up or down 1 page. - Esc when you're done. Press Esc to exit and return to your form. We urge you to press F2 right away to Save any changes you made. Back to our Example ................... Now let's return to our example. Recall our example needed a second "Quantity times Price" formula in row 6. To create it, we press ctrl-F2 (Edit Formulas). * We then make sure our cursor is on the first "Qnty * $" formula, and then we press alt-C. inform-Z duplicates the formula, adding the second one beneath it. * We then move the cursor down one row and press alt-E (Edit). We simply change the 3 numbers in this row under "Row" so they read "6" not "4." And that's it! Copying formulas is a fast, easy way to add consistent formulas to forms. And it helps ensure all related formulas are right- aligned at the same column -- with decimal points lined up in a column. "Repeat" can do the same. 3.19 Tips & Guidelines: Formulas (Please read this thoroughly) ............................ Formulas can add tremendous speed and convenience to forms. But, if you add them "prematurely" and then make substantial changes to your forms, you may find yourself spending hours either editing formulas, or deleting them all and starting over again. Please read this section on formulas 2-3 times; then run inform-Z and experiment. Keep this section handy; glance at it as you experiment. Enter the examples we showed here; and experiment with PF-Order and Math-1. Enter numbers larger than you'll ultimately expect, then press ctrl-F9 and see what happens. Here are some final tips. * Sketch out forms on paper before you run inform-Z -- to give you a "road map" of where you're going. Design the basic outline of a form BEFORE you add formulas. - It's harder to "move formulas around" than it is to add them after your form is in it's final state. * Know ALL the formulas you'll need BEFORE you add the first one, especially when formulas will need results of earlier ones. - inform-Z execute formulas IN THE ORDER YOU ADD THEM. - If formula "B" needs the results of formula "A," but you enter "B" first, your results will be wrong. * To INSERT formulas: You CAN'T, at least not directly. Suppose you forget a formula and want to insert it between formula number 34 and #35. Here's how to do it: - Create the formula as you normally would. Immediately press ctrl-F2 then press <End> to move down to your new formula. - Write down ALL the information about the new formula. - Now move the cursor up until it's on formula #34. Press alt-C to COPY it. Move the cursor down 1 row to the copy. - Press alt-E, and, using your notes, edit each field so it matches the new formula you entered. Press <Esc> when done. - Now delete the formula you created: press <End> then alt-D. * "Debug" formulas before using forms in Mail Call. This is very important if others will fill out forms in Mail Call: if errors occur, they won't know how to run inform-Z to edit your formulas. * Finally, the more "white space" you mark as numbers, the longer calculations will take, since inform-Z must filter out non-numeric characters. And if an error occurs when calculating results, "%" appears as the 1st character -- usually because you marked a results area that was too narrow. 4.1 ================ SECTION III: Printing Forms ================ Be sure to read "Print Options" near the front of this manual for details on your main options, and for important guidelines to consider when you vary fonts, line spacing, etc. Press F6 to print a form. When you do, inform-Z displays this dialog box: +---------------- Print Options --------------+ | | * Enter 1-99 | Print how many copies (1-99)? | here ----->> | +--+ | | |1 | | | +--+ | * Select a | Which printer? | printer | (.) Laser | here ----->> | ( ) Epson LQ | | ( ) Epson FX | | ( ) Print As-Is | | ( ) Translate | | | * Select a | Which printer port? | printer port | (.) LPT1 | here ----->> | ( ) LPT2 | | ( ) LPT3 | | | * Select these | [ ] Print as Overlay (Variable Fields Only)? | to print on | [ ] If Overlay, print alignment dot & pause? | pre-printed | | forms. +-----------------------------------------------+ | < OK > < Cancel > | +-----------------------------------------------+ How Many Copies (1 - 99)? .......................... You may print from 1 to 99 copies of each form. * LaserJets are smart. So if you use a LaserJet, inform-Z simply tells it how many copies to print, then sends your form to the LaserJet ONCE. LaserJets quickly prints copies 2+, printing them from the copy stored in its memory. * On other printers, we print forms as many times as you asked. 4.2 Which printer? LaserJet, Epson LQ, Epson FX, Other, Translate? ............................................................... Which printer you choose depends on not only which printer and fonts you have, but also what you want to accomplish. For in- stance, "Translate" works on ANY printer. It's useful for fast "draft" copies even on printers that support the higher quality (but slower) graphics. Here's what your printer options mean. * Choose LaserJet ONLY if you have an HP LaserJet (+/500/II/III). Lines, boxes and halftone shading are printed using the Laser- Jet's graphics capabilities. Special fonts AREN'T required. * Choose Epson LQ or FX and we'll print lines, boxes and shading using Epson graphics capabilities. Fonts AREN'T needed. * Choose As-Is if your printer CAN print lines and shading as you see them on your screen -- using fonts built into your printer which include the line draw characters. inform-Z prints each line of your form exactly as shown on your screen (except the printer control characters). * Choose Translate if your printer CAN'T print the lines, boxes or shading you see. inform-Z will translate them into charac- ters ANY printer can handle. Lines become "---" or "===." Corners become "+." Shading becomes "||||." This option should work with any printer. Which Printer Port? ............................................................ You can print forms on printers hooked up to parallel ports 1-3. * Parallel port #1 (LPT1) is the default. If your printer is hooked up to LPT2 or LPT3, just select the appropriate option. The next section, "Printing on Pre-Printed Forms" explains the last two print options you saw in the dialog box above -- those referring to "Overlays." 4.3 ================ Printing on Pre-Printed Forms =============== Introduction ............ Sometimes you can't custom-design your own forms -- you must use pre-printed forms. Examples might include "airbills" (Federal Express, UPS, etc.), forms used in government agen- cies (which often require standardized forms), contracts, corporation-required forms, and so on. inform-Z' "Print Overlay" option lets you print on these. * You choose HOW you want to print forms at print time. That means you can design a complete form -- an exact replica of the pre-printed form, and then print the whole thing as you see it, or print it as an overlay. * When you print forms as overlays, inform-Z prints just the "variable fields:" Auto-Edit fields, calculated fields, dates, time-stamps and sequence number. "Fixed" areas in your form (lines, boxes, shading and text) aren't printed. Where to Start: Overlay.Pff ............................ You might begin by printing Overlay.Pff -- the row/column "ruler" we included. Use it to help design your "replica" in inform-Z. Just print Overlay.Pff, then lay it on TOP of pre- printed forms to help you decide where to place boxes, fixed text -- plus the "variable fields" inform-Z actually prints. If you print Overlay.Pff: 1. Print it on a "transparency" to make it much easier to see the form underneath it -- since transparencies are clear. "Transparencies" (or "flimsies") are used with overhead projectors. If your printer can't handle transparencies, print Overlay.Pff on paper, then use your "Xerox" machine to transfer it to a transparency. 2. You might want to print Overlay.Pff 2-3 times -- at 6, 8 and 12 lines-per-inch (lpi). Many pre-printed forms are created using a variety of fonts and line spacing. To print on top of these, you might have to vary the line spacing several times to ensure we print things at the correct row and column. Printing Overlay.Pff several times with different line spacing can help you determine where you should switch line spacing in your form. To print Overlay.Pff using different line spacing: 1) print it once at the normal 6 lpi; 2) Move the cursor to a BLANK SPOT anywhere on the first line. Press alt-F1, alt-F2 or alt-F3 to "turn on" 8, 12 or ?? lines-per-inch. Now print the form again. 4.4 How To Print on Pre-Printed Forms ................................. Design a form as you normally would. Add Auto-Edit fields, formulas (if needed), plus, if you want, the &date, &time and &seq "merge keys" to tell inform-Z to date, time-stamp and sequence number your form when you fill it out. Save your form to disk. Then press alt-F and fill in the appropriate fields. Press Esc to exit Fill Out mode. Now press F6 (Print). * A dialog box pops up. Near the bottom are two "Overlay" options. Just <Tab> to each, and press <Space> to toggle each option on or off (it's ON if it's marked with an "X"). * The first option is whether you want to print this form as an Overlay. "Select it" (press <Space> to mark it with an "X") to print just the variable fields. * The second option is "Print an alignment dot, then pause." This option is ONLY used if you also turned Overlay ON. - This option is designed to help you adjust the pre- printed form in your printer before we print the rest of the form. Although you can use it with any printer, it's especially useful with dot matrix printers. - When you select this option, inform-Z prints a period at row 1, column 1 of your form. It then moves back a space (so the printhead is on top of the period), and pauses. Adjust your pre-printed form up or down or sideways; then press a key to continue printing. You may have to try this several times so that you'll know how to insert the form in your printer. Once you figure it out, you shouldn't need to use the "print dot and pause" option again. 4.5 ========== Printing PCX Graphics Images (LaserJets) ========== If you use an HP LaserJet (or compatible printer), inform-Z offers an option to print PCX files -- to add logos, letter- heads, signatures, etc. to forms. This takes just two steps. * Move the cursor to the spot in your form where you want graphics to print; press ctrl-P. inform-Z inserts a "heart" in your form at that point. * Press alt-O (Options) and enter the name of your PCX file in the box labeled "PCX graphics (with .PCX extension)." - Please note that you must NOT enter an extension -- just a 1-8 character file name. The extension of the file MUST be ".pcx". Now save your form (press F2) then print it (press F6). * When you print your form (and choose the Laser print option), when inform-Z finds the "heart," it looks on the "current path" for your PCX file. * If inform-Z DOES find the file, your PCX graphics images will be printed with the upper left corner where the heart was. In other words, graphics print right and down. * If inform-Z CAN'T find the PCX file, it'll skip that step and print the rest of your form. In other words, no error message appears. Since inform-Z works in "text mode" and can't show how graphics images will look, you may have to experiment to correctly posi- tion text, lines, boxes and shading "around" your graphic -- to ensure they're not over-printed by your graphics image. Also remember that inform-Z looks only on the current path for the PCX file. If you copy your form to another PC to print it, be sure to copy your PCX file too. 4.6 ==================== Notes: All Printers ==================== PLEASE refer to the earlier section on installing printers for important notes about "10 character-per-inch" (10 cpi) spacing. * To print much more text than is normally possible on a line: - WIDEN your form beyond, say, 80 columns. Then use com- pressed or proportionally spaced fonts for this line. - On the screen, your text may look much wider than your form, but the font will print text in a smaller space. - This trick usually works ONLY on rows with no lines, shading, etc. -- which we may have to print at 10 cpi. * Most printers print 55-65 lines per 8 1/2 x 11" page. To print longer forms, use longer paper, or more lines/inch. Use 8-12 lines-per-inch (lpi) where you don't need lots of "white space," 6 lpi where you do. * One way to "add space" without adding lines is to use Superscript or Subscript options to shift text up or down 1/2 line. Just BE SURE to return to normal before the end of the line. ================ NOTES: Printing on LaserJets ============== * LaserJets are designed to print only so many lines/page de- pending on: 1. the number of lines/inch you select; and, 2. the size of the paper you installed. For example, at 6 lpi, LaserJets print up to 60 lines/page on 8 1/2 x 11" paper. - If you try to print more lines/page than LaserJets expect, the LaserJet stops, and its control panel flashes "PC" followed by the size cassette it needs (eg., "PC" "65"). If this happens and you press "Continue," some of your form may not print (or it'll print on the next page). - To avoid this, either: 1. Use inform-Z' printer control features to "turn on," say, 8 lines/inch (at least for some lines of your form). 2. Or, install a paper cassette with longer paper (eg., legal). 3. Or, do both. * Because of the way LaserJets print, forms 80 columns wide print left-of-center. To center forms on the printed page, start your forms in column 3+ (ie., skip columns 1 and 2). 4.8 Printing on LaserJets (continued) * IMPORTANT By default, inform-Z uses DOUBLE HEIGHT shading on LaserJets -- to completely fill the boxes you shade. - See the section on Shading (alt-S/alt-Z) for details on this and how to toggle Single Height shading. - Text on lines immediately below or above lines that are Double Height shaded may be 1/2 shaded! - Also note that Big! Font's created with any of the 3 shading characters (176-178) REQUIRE single height shading. * Use 6 LINES/INCH around shaded areas. If you switch from 6 lpi, shading may not fill or may extend beyond lines or boxes. * Be sure to read the section on GOTO for other details about how to take advantage of LaserJets. 4.9 ========== General Notes on Dot Matrix Printers ============ Many dot matrix printers can print "bi-directionally" -- from left-to-right and then from right-to-left. This is fine for printing text, but NOT for printing forms. Printer manufacturers suggest you use "unidirectional print- ting" for forms with boxes and line. Unidirectional printing helps ensure columns and lines line up vertically. If your printer supports unidirectional printing, we urge you to use it. With some printers, to print lines and shading you may have to install or "activate" a different font -- one which contains the upper ASCII line draw characters (Chr$(176) to Chr$(223)). This is NOT necessary with inform-Z' Epson or LaserJet options. ============== NOTES: Printing on Epson Printers ============== * inform-Z offer two Epson printer options: LQ and FX. The ONLY difference is the printer code we send to control line spacing. If printed forms are ELONGATED (ie., 1-page forms print on 2 rather than 1 page), choose the LQ printer option. * inform-Z has 6 box/line drawing styles. Two of these are solid, thick lines. One is very thick and prints fine (but densely) on Epsons. The second, thinner version does NOT. Here's why. - To create solid, unbroken VERTICAL lines on Epsons, inform-Z prints a "filler" between lines. - When printing boxes made of the thinner solid line, a gap appears between the top and filler lines. You may or may not find the effect pleasing, but it's not what's on your screen. * You CAN change line spacing (to, say, 8 or 12 lines per inch) using printer codes you've installed. But, as we said earlier, inform-Z WILL control line spacing to connect vertical lines. - If you "turn on" the standard 8 line-per-inch code, inform-Z will switch using ITS 8 lpi code. - To use your OWN code, edit your printer codes and use, say, the USER printer codes. inform-Z sends these as entered. * If you choose LQ or FX printer options, we print lines, boxes, and shading in Epson graphics mode. But, some Epson printers HAVE fonts with line and shading characters. To use these, you often have to either flip a switch in your printer (enable IBM graphics characters), or use printer codes. - The first code ("<t1" where "<" = Escape) "selects" the IBM graphics characters (instead of Italics). - The second code ("<6") tells Epson printers to print these as characters rather than control codes. Either way, use the "As-Is" printer option. Since you'll print in text (not graphics) mode, you can try different fonts, draft and letter quality, etc. to see which gives you best results. Remember, check boxes and arrows aren't available in text mode. 5.1 ========= SECTION V: Designing forms for Mail Call ========= Mail Call (MC) can fill out forms for you (at least parts of them) by pulling names, addresses, etc. from your database, and printing them right where you want them. It'll date or time-stamp forms, sequence-number them, and let you edit them before printing, on-the-fly. It'll also execute the formulas you've added with inform-Z. To design forms you can use with MC, use inform-Z to enter "merge keys" to tell MC where you want information printed. Here's an example of how part of a form might look. ===============================+================================ &date &seq | Completed By: ................. ===============================+================================ Mail To : : : ================================================================ Name: &name Company: &company Street: &street City, State, Zip: & city Phone: &phone ================================================================ * Place one or more of the following "merge keys" in your form wherever you want MC to place data: &date &seq &time &name &title &company &salutation &street &city &message &comment &phone - A "merge key" is an ampersand (&) followed by a word. The word may be capitalized or not (&DATE, &date, and &Date are the same). There must be no space between the "&" and the word. And you must spell the word as it appears above. * As MC reads in your form, it replaces "merge keys" like "&name" with information from your database (or your PC). Specifically: - &name is replaced by First and Last Name fields combined. - &city is replaced by City, State and Zip Code fields combined. - &date and &time are read from your PC's internal clock. If the clock's wrong, either reset it (see your DOS manual to set Date), or remove &date and &time from your form. - If MC finds NO replacement text (eg., no Company name), it leaves the area blank. But the line will print. 5.2 Guidelines .......... * MC adds the database fields to your form (eg., address) until: 1) it reaches the end of the text; or, 2) it runs into a box, line drawing or shade character. Some of MC's database fields are 42+ characters long. So design your forms for YOUR maximum case. - The issue is how much text you actually enter in each field, NOT how much space MC gives you for each field. * You CAN have 2 or more merge keys on the same line. But, since some database fields can have 42+ characters, be sure to design enough space for each field on a line. * Here's the maximum width of MC's database fields: &name (43) &title (42) &company (42) &street (42) &city (58) &phone (15) &message (42) &comment (30) &salutation (19) * MC won't properly insert text into other text. Things like "So, &salutation, we hope you...." cause unpredictable results. Auto-Edit Fields (adding A-E fields was also discussed earlier) ................ Mail Call lets you "fill out" forms the same way inform-Z does -- using the Auto-Edit fields and formulas you added using inform-Z. When you load a form to fill out, Mail Call shows you, on the bottom lines of your screens, which keys you should press to do what. * The keys you'll press are a little different than those you use in inform-Z. But the logic is basically the same. And what you should press is clearly spelled out at the bottom of your screen. ==== Appendix I: Using Install.Exe to Install a Printer ==== To install printers or customize printer codes you need 2 files which we send to registered users. 1. Install.Exe. 2. If you want to select a printer (or change printers), you'll need the file called "Printer.Dat." If you simply want to add to or change printer codes you installed earlier, you'll need a file called "IF-PTR.Xfg." Install.Exe created this file the last time you ran it. BOTH Printer.Dat and IF-Ptr.Xfg MUST be on the drive/directory you're logged onto. If not, Install won't be able to find and use them. Install.Exe, however, can be on another path. * For example, assume you're in a directory on your hard disk called "c:\inform." Both Printer.Dat and IF-Ptr.Xfg are there too. But, Install.Exe is on a floppy disk which is in drive A:. To run it, type: a:install <Enter> Running Install the First Time .............................. 1. Log onto the drive/directory where you've installed IFZ.Exe. That's so Install can save IF-PTR.Xfg to the same path IFZ.Exe is in. Then, when you run inform-Z, it'll be able to find your printer codes. inform-Z looks only on the "current path" for IF-PTR.Xfg. 2. Before you run Install, verify that the printer database file (Printer.Dat) is also on inform-Z' drive/directory. For example, type: dir printer.dat <cr>. - If Printer.Dat isn't on inform-Z' path, find it on the distribution disk, then copy it to inform-Z' path. 3. Run Install by typing: install <cr>. - It'll display a summary of what you'll do to install a printer. Press a key to move on. - Install then displays a menu of the printers found in Printer.Dat. Just press the cursor keys to highlight the printer you'd like to install, then press <cr> to accept it. Press <Esc> (or F10) to cancel. NOTE: If your printer is NOT listed, simply choose one that's close. You'll be able to edit not only the printer codes, but also the printer name and model. - Install then displays the labels (or descriptions) of 30 printer codes, plus the codes (if any). The section "Editing Printer Codes" explains what to do next. Running Install to Customize Printer Codes You Installed Before ............................................................... If you've run Install before, it saved the file IF-PTR.Xfg to disk. When you run Install again and it finds IF-PTR.Xfg on the current path, it'll ask you if you'd like to edit it. * Press <Y>es if you'd like to edit the printer codes you've already installed. You can edit codes, add new ones or both. * Press <N>o if you'd like to install a different printer. Please beware, however, that if you install a new printer and then press F2 to SAVE the printer codes, Install will write over the existing IF-PTR.Xfg! So, if there's ANY CHANCE that you may want to go back to the first printer you installed, BEFORE you run Install: - Copy (or rename) the existing IF-PTR file to a different file name (eg. copy if-ptr.xfg epson.xfg <cr>). - Then you'll be able to easily switch back to the other printer by simply renaming the ".xfg" files again. Installing Several Different Printers ..................................... If you might use different printers to print forms, it's very easy to use Install to create several different ".xfg" files. Then, depending on which printer you're using, before you run inform-Z, just copy the appropriate ".xfg" file to IF-PTR.Xfg. Here's how: 1. Run Install the first time, select a printer, then save the printer codes to IF-PTR.Xfg. - Now exit install and RENAME this ".xfg." - For example if you just installed a LaserJet, rename it like this: rename if-ptr.xfg laser.xfg <cr>. 2. Run install again, select a different printer and save the codes. Exit Install and rename IF-PTR.Xfg again (eg., rename if-ptr.xfg epson.xfg). Repeat this as often as you need. 3. Finally, before you run inform-Z, copy the appropriate ".xfg" file to IF-PTR.Xfg. For example, you might type: copy laser.xfg if-ptr.xfg <cr> if <cr> To simplify things, you could create a batch file (say, ifz.Bat) that let you specify which ".xfg" file to use, copied it automatically, then ran inform-Z. Then you'd simply type something like this: ifz epson <cr>. Editing Printer Codes ..................... Once you select a printer (or edit an existing ".xfg" file), Install displays printer codes in a window like this. Note that: * Printer codes usually start with Escape (ASCII code 27). That's why printer codes are sometimes called "escape codes." We can't show Escape here, so it's represented below by "<." Escape will appear on your screen as a left-pointing arrow. To enter Escape, just press Escape on your keyboard. Since Escape is a "valid character," note on the top line that you must press <F10> to exit. * The printer name and model are near the top of the window. You can edit these -- which you may want to do if your prin- ter isn't in our database and you chose one that was "close." +======= <F2> = Save Codes <F10> (not Escape) = Exit ========+ | | | Printer Name: HP LaserJet Model: All Models | | | | Initialize <E<&l6D<(P 15-17 CPI <(s1p16.66H | | Bold ON <(s3B UserFont | | Bold OFF <(s0B Enhanced | | UndrLinON <&d0D DdlSTRIKE | | UndrLinOFF <&d@ DdlWIDE | | Italic ON <(s1S User 1 | | Italic OFF <(s0S User 2 | | SUP-Script <&a-.5R User 3 | | SUBScript <= User 4 | | 6 Lin/Inch <&l6D User 5 | | 8 Lin/Inch <&l8D User 6 | | 12 Lin/Inc <&l12D User 7 | | 16 Lin/Inc <&l16D User 8 | | 10 CPI <(sp10h12V User 9 | | 12 CPI <(s1p12v5T User 10 | | | |==== Press::: Up|Dn to highlight a code to edit <F2> = Save ====| | <Shift Tab> = edit USER labels <Tab> = edit codes again | |To enter Escape -Chr$(27)- press <Esc>. To enter codes with ASCII| |values < 32, hold down Alt, then type the # on the numeric keypad.| +==================================================================+ Depending on which printer you selected, many of the 30 printer codes may be blank. There are for two reasons for this: 1. Because we've added many empty "slots" that you can use to add the printer codes YOU need. 2. And also because some printers don't use (or make available) some printing features that other printers offer. For example, Epson and Toshiba printers offer a Double Wide option; LaserJets don't. If you install a LaserJet, Double Wide will be blank. Edit this to access a large font. Editing Printer Codes (continued) Editing printer codes is quite easy. Just press Up or Down cursor keys to highlight the code you want to edit, consult your printer manual, then type in the appropriate code. * Press Escape to enter the Escape character. To enter ASCII codes 1 - 31, hold down Alt, then type the ASCII number on the numeric keypad (not the row of numbers atop your keyboard). * Each code can have up to 10 characters. In most cases that's more than you'll need, and should allow you, if you want, to add 2 or more printer codes to the same line. For example, the first code, Initialize, might contain several codes to turn on or off several printer attributes. - LaserJet FONT codes, however, often require more than 10 characters to "fully" describe them. In these cases, you may have to use two codes to "turn on" a specific font. - For example, one code might turn on a Times Roman font. Another code might turn on bold. To use a bold Times Roman font, you'd then press two keys in inform-Z to insert two "font symbols." The first would turn on Times Roman, the second turns on bold. * Notice the last 10 printer codes: User 1 to User 10. - Here, Install lets you edit BOTH the printer code AND the label. Press <Shift-Tab> to move to and edit the label. Press <Tab> to switch back to editing the printer code. - User code labels are the ONLY ones Install will let you edit. The reason for this, as we mentioned earlier, is that inform-Z' Preview mode uses certain printer symbols (for Bold, Underline, etc.) to display these attributes on-screen. Although Install lets you change the printer codes (which you shouldn't do), the labels stay as-is to avoid confusion with Preview. Press: F10 to Exit, F2 to Save Codes ..................................... Press F10 to exit. BE SURE to press F2 first if you want the printer codes saved. If you selected a printer from Install's Menu, Install will return to the menu. Press F10 again to exit to DOS. If you were editing an existing IF-PTR file, Install exits to DOS when you press F10. Press F2 to save the printer codes to IF-PTR.Xfg. Plus, if, when you ran Install, you selected a printer from Install's menu, Install ALSO saves these codes to the FIRST record in Printer.Dat. This lets you run Install again and choose this printer -- as you edited it. The original codes for that printer are NOT changed. ============ Appendix II: Mail Call Described ============= Mail Call (MC) is our full-featured mailing assistant. It can help with anything from simple tasks (like printing a memo or an envelope) to managing large mailing list databases. Here's a summary of Mail Call's features: UNLIMITED Capacity (with the multiple database file option) ------------------------------------------------------------ - Number of database files No limit in registered versions Number of names per file 32,600 - Number of sub-databases Use MC's "Key" field to create per file as many sub-databases per file as you'd like. Features Include: ----------------------------------------------------------------- - Options to Add, Edit, Delete, Browse, Search and Sort names. - Thirteen fields including Message and Comment fields, plus the ability to "tag" fields as "non-printing." This lets you store, but not print, information useful to you. - Print something for one person in your database, all of them, or some sub-set you choose. - B-Tree indexing lets you sort on Name, Company, Zip Code and "Key" ---- v-e-r-y quickly! Printing Options Include: ----------------------------------------------------------------- - Forms (automated, if you like, with edit fields, formulas, dates, time-stamps, sequence numbers PLUS database merge.) - Envelopes - 5 sizes ranging from Personal to 8 1/2 to 11 - Labels - 8 sizes, plus a "roll-your-own-size" option - 1 to 3 columns per page, 1 - 99 copies/each label - Personalized Documents ("form" letters, memos, brochures, etc.) - Reports: Names & Phone #s; or All Fields (Many uses for this) Mail Merge ----------------------------------------------------------------- Import from/Export to "comma-delimited" files used by word processors, other database programs, etc. Printers Supported ----------------------------------------------------------------- - HP LaserJets (Original, Plus, II, III), DeskJet, Epson & Toshiba - A "Standard Printer" option lets you use most any printer Configuration Options: Format Phone & "Mail Code," Install Modems Finally, Mail Call comes with MC Express (optional) -- a RAM- resident program grab names off the screen and to print envelopes on HP LaserJets (LaserJets only). === Appendix III: To-Ascii.Exe (sent to registered users) === inform-Z compresses forms when saving them to disk -- saving 30-80% of the disk space uncompressed forms would consume. If you need forms in ASCII format, say, to load into a word processor or other program, run To-Ascii.Exe. BEFORE running To-Ascii, move to the drive/directory containing your forms. To-Ascii looks for forms only on the "current path." You can use To-Ascii in TWO different ways: 1. Create an ASCII version of ONE form file; or, 2. Create ASCII versions of EVERY form file on the path you're on. Your originals aren't changed. But any ASCII versions with the same name will be overwritten. To create an ASCII version of ONE form ...................................... Run To-Ascii like this: to-ascii myform <cr> * Replace "myform" is the name of your form, with NO EXTENSION. The extension MUST be ".pff." To-Ascii quickly creates an ASCII version, then exits to DOS. To create ASCII versions of ALL form files .......................................... Run To-Ascii like this: to-ascii <cr> (note NO form name) Run this way, To-Ascii will create ASCII versions of EVERY form it finds on the current path. If you want ASCII copies of some, but not all forms, copy them to a RAM or floppy disk, or to a dif- ferent hard disk directory. Move to that path, then run To-Ascii. * When you run To-Ascii this way, it tells you what it's going to do and asks if you want to proceed. Press <Y>es or <N>o. * If you say "Yes; go ahead," To-Ascii quickly creates ASCII versions of EVERY ".pff" file it finds on the current path. Loading ASCII Versions ...................... ASCII versions of forms have the original form name, plus the extension ".asc." To load ASCII versions into inform-Z, rename them so they have a ".pff" extension. inform-Z can load either compressed or ASCII versions. If you don't need both versions (AND your form had NO formulas), you can delete the compressed one. But if you ever load the ASCII version into inform-Z and re-save it, inform-Z will compress it again. To load these into a word processor or other program, consult your manual to see what's required to load files NOT in their native format (eg., use Ctrl-F5 (DOS Text) with WordPerfect). ======== Appendix IV: Error Messages You Might Get ======== We try to prevent most errors from disrupting your work. For example, inform-Z checks to ensure your printer's ready before you start printing. And it checks to see if files exist, alerting you if you try to load a non-existent file. Most other errors will probably be due to disk or printer errors: your printer runs out of paper, the disk drive door is open, or you run out of disk space while saving a form. With most errors, we sound an alarm, print an error number and and ask you to fix the problem then press a key. In some cases an error will be "fatal" - inform-Z is unable to go on. Here's a summary of most errors you might get. An asterisk next to the error number means it's probably fatal. Printer ....... 24 Timeout (printer may be turned off or off-line) 27 Out of paper 25 Device fault (may be disk/modem/other device error) 57 Device Input/Output error (may be disk/modem/other device error) 68 Device unavailable (not on-line or doesn't exist) Disk (also see above: 25, 57, 68) .... 61* Disk full (fatal unless you can change disks and resume) 67* Too many files on disk/directory (fatal unless you change disks) 70 Permission denied (disk is write-protected or file is locked) 71 Disk not ready 72 Media error (damaged/unformatted/ disk) Other ..... Math 6* Overflow. A number is too large. Memory 7, 14* Out of memory (eliminate TSRs/Device drivers/etc.) Files 7x Path or File not found or other Path/File error Other errors are internal. If they occur more than once, please: * Write down the error number * Jot down exactly what you were doing when the error occurred * Send the note to us. We'll fix the problem. ======= Appendix V: Three Questions About Registering ======= What IS shareware? I got a copy for nothing. Why should I pay a registration fee? I got this program from a company that "SELLS" shareware. I paid THEM for your program. Why should I register with you? These are good questions. Here's a response. (Our response applies to user-supported software in general, not just inform-Z.) Shareware is NOT free software. A better term is "user- supported" software. Why? Because "shareware" authors spend long, hard hours developing programs, debugging them, writing manuals and answering users' questions. They DEPEND on your support (and comments and an occasional "thank you") to keep going -- to justify the time and sweat. You get to "try it before you buy it," to see if it works and meets your needs. You get to enjoy the result, at very reason- able prices. And registering your copy (supporting the author) brings you other benefits as well. These include (depending on the program): the latest version (often with new, more or better features), extra "goodies," a printed manual, phone support, updates, etc. Shareware "works" because people like you: (1) are honest; and, (2) understand authors will stop "sharing" their work if they receive no support. In short, if you fail to even acknowledge the contributions authors make, or support their efforts (even modestly), the well will dry up. In response to the third question, many firms now "sell" user- supported software (or shareware). They charge you a fee for their time and the expense of sending you a disk. NONE of the fee you give them goes to the author of the software. So when you pay $2-$5.00 for a disk full of software, you're NOT supporting the person who spent their time developing ideas you're now enjoying. To Register or Order ================================================================== Because we offer so many programs, our order form has 2 pages. Please read CATALOG.DOC for descriptions of each program. * THIS PAGE lists our programs and the per-copy cost of each. * THE NEXT PAGE is the actual order form. - On the next page, fill in the name of each program you're ordering. PLEASE BE CAREFUL here and use the names listed below. If we're not sure which program you're ordering, we may have to return you're order. - If ordering by Visa or MasterCard, fill in the section for credit card orders. BE SURE TO SIGN it. Program Name Per Copy ============================================================== Multi-Print $19 if ordered w/ ANY other program $29/$19 The Printer Programmer's Printer Code Database $49 The Printer Pro Professional: With PDT and COMPILER $169 Font Pak "Pro" Programmer's Fonts/Mouse Shapes/Icons $49 Font Pak "DOS" Hundreds of DOS text-mode fonts $29 PDT The Pro~Formance Data Tool $139 inform-Z Professional Forms Design/Database $29 Mail Call With MC Express $40 Pro~Scribe & PS Express $29 P~F Presents Professional $79 P-Screen Professional $49 " Plus $29 Pro~Stamp Stamp Collection Manager $29 Ram-Man RAM-resident Text File Browser $19 Sparkle AND Menu Magic $29 The Survey Catalyst $495 ================================================================= PACKAGE DISCOUNTS Call about quantity discounts & site licenses. ================================================================= THE WORKS! One of each program (except The Catalyst) $299 inform-Z AND Mail Call $59 P-Screen Pro AND P~F Presents (Pro versions of both) $109 ============================= TO ORDER ============================= For FASTEST delivery of your programs, CALL with a Visa/MC card number. F __________________________________________ M Rob W. Smetana Pro~Formance R __________________________________________ A T 132 Alpine Terrace San Francisco, CA O __________________________________________ I O 94117 (415) 863-0530 M __________________________________________ L Make checks payable Phone ( ) ______-________ Date ___/___/___ to: Rob W. Smetana ======================================================================= For Visa or MasterCard Orders ======================================================================= Credit Card Number: ________________________________ Expires: ___|___ Signature (Required for credit card orders): __________________________ Be sure your name at the top matches how it appears on your credit card. ============================================================ ifz 4.7 == Name of Program or "Package" # of Copies Price/Copy Total ======================================================================= Multi-Print ($19 if ordered /w other pgm) _____ x $19/$29 = $_______ ________________________________________ _____ x ______ = $_______ ________________________________________ _____ x ______ = $_______ ======================================================================= Shipping & Handling: Total Number of Programs (and Copies) ----->> _____@ $4 PER copy/program $ ______ =============================+========================================= | Subtotal $ ________ INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: : : | | CA. residents, add 8.5% tax $ _______ * US funds only please. +-----------------------+----------------- * Money order, check drawn a | US bank, or VISA/MasterCard |TOTAL $ ________ =====================================================+================= WHERE did you got your copy of our program? _________________________ This helps us learn the best way to get new programs to you. And feel free to write comments and suggestions on the other side. Thank you.