Document Reader is a program that allows you to quickly browse through the chapters and subchapters of a text.
To the left of this text you will see two scrollable lists. The upper list shows the path of chapters and subchapters you have selected. Since you have not selected any chapter yet, this list should just display the file name.
The lower list displays the subchapters of the current chapter. It should look something like this:
1 Try Click This
2 About Document Reader
3 Browsing with the Document Reader
4 Using the Menus
5 Writing Your Own Document Reader Documents
6 Final Words
To see the contents of a chapter, just click its name in either of the two lists.
Now, click on the chapter labelled "Try Click This" in the lower list.
1 Try Click This
Very good, you just made your first successful move with the Document Reader. Now the chapter heading "1 Try Click This" has been moved to the upper window and the lower window has been set to display the subchapters of this chapter.
This only happens if the chapter you click have any subchapters. If you click a chapter that doesn't have any subchapters its text will be displayed in the text pane, but the contents of the two lists will not change.
To see an example of this, click the chapter labelled "1.1 Has no subchapters"
1.1 Has no subchapters
Good! As you see, only the text in this pane changed, the lists remained unchanged (apart from the selection being moved).
A chapter may have any number of subchapters, the subchapters may have subsubchapters, and the subsubchapters may have subsubsubchapters, and so on. To see this. Click the chapter labels "1.2 Subsubchapters"
1.2 Subsubchapters
Excellent. As you see, this subchapter has two subchapters. Begin with looking at its first subchapter by clicking the label "1.2.1 First subchapter".
1.2.1 First subchapter
Good, now click on the label "1.2.2 Second subchapter".
1.2.2 Second subchapter
Very good.
Since you now have exhausted the list of subchapters of 1.2 you would like to move back to a previous level. You do this by clicking in the upper window.
Clicking "1.2 Subsubchapters" will change the text to whatever is under that heading, but the lists will not change as you currently are under the 1.2 heading.
Clicking "1 Try Click This" will bring you back to the list of subchapters of chapter 1.
Clicking "About Document Reader" will bring you back to the top of the document, where you can select other parts of the manual.
By now you now enough of Document Reader to be able to browse about in this manual by yourself. This manual contains much important information about the program so please read it carefully.
2 About Document Reader
2.1 Credits
The Document Reader was written by Niklas Frykholm using THINK C.
This program is ShareWare, this means that you can copy it and give it to your friends as much as you like, but if you use it and like it you have to pay a small registration fee.
This program is part of the Niklas Frykholm ShareWare package. This package is a unique offer. By sending in $5 or a corresponding amount in the currency of your choice you will become a registered user of the entire Niklas Frykholm ShareWare package.
This package includes every ShareWare program ever written by me, together with any ShareWare program I will ever write in the future.
If you never paid for a ShareWare program before, this is the time to do it. You will never get a better offer. A list of the programs currently part of the package is found in section 2.2 of this document.
Send the money, together with your name and address to:
Niklas Frykholm
Rothoffsv. 37 A
S-903 42 Umeî
SWEDEN
nisfrm95@student.umu.se
http://www.ts.umu.se/~r2d2
If you have an e-mail account you will get updates by e-mail automatically. Otherwise add $5 to the fee (that is, send me $10) and I'll mail you a disk with the latest versions.
2.2 The Niklas Frykholm ShareWare package
At this date, the ShareWare package contains the following programs:
MacSnails - A Macintosh version of the snails game. The first Macintosh program I ever wrote. (Needless to say?)
MacPatience - A program for playing solitary card games. The current version can play three different games and comes in black and white only. A colour version is under development.
Electric Poet - A program that can create its own literary works after having been fed with the works of the great masters. The program is especially good at abstract poetry.
Extended Calculator II - Finally crept out of the beta version. This program includes a graph drawer as well as a programmable calculator.
BattleTanks 2.0 - An artillery style game, where up to 10 players mutilate each other with 16 different weapons.
Creator Changer - A small utility which allows you to change the creator of files.
Document Reader - You're looking at it!
Simple Card - A tool for creating simple multimedia documents.
HTML Pro - A tool for editing web pages.
OrgaNicer - A personal organizer for your Macintosh.
2.3 When Should I Use Document Reader?
Document Reader's hierarchical structure together with its powerful navigating functions, such as browsing through chapters and subchapters, even using hyperlinks, makes it well suited for documents who are read randomly such as manuals, references, or other kinds of structured documents. It is less well suited for documents who are read sequentially, such as novels, but it could be used with such documents as well.
Another advantage with Document Reader documents are that they are portable. Since Document Reader is a ShareWare program you can without worrying give it away to the people who you are sharing documents with. Furthermore, since the program is so small, only 35 K, you can even ship it together with the document and thus be perfectly sure that the receiver can read it.
If the receiver still should fail to have the program, all is not entirely lost. Since Document Reader documents are ordinary text documents they can be read by any word processing application. Of course, the receiver will then not be able to use the powerful navigating functions of Document Reader.
By opening Document Reader documents with word processing programs, you will be able to print or edit the documents. You can also create your own Document Reader documents with your favourite word processor. For more information on this, see section 5 Writing your own documents.
3 Browsing with the Document Reader
3.1 Browsing with the Mouse
The window contains two lists, the upper one, that describes the path to the current chapter and the lower one, that displays the subchapters of the current chapter.
Clicking at a subchapter in the lower list will
a) if the subchapter has subchapters of its own - make the subchapter the current chapter, add it to the upper list, display its text and its subchapters.
b) otherwise - display its text
Clicking at a chapter in the upper list will
make that chapter the current chapter, remove all entries following it from the upper list, display its text and its subchapters.
3.2 Browsing with the Keyboard
The program also allows the keyboard to be used for browsing. The keys that can be used to browse are:
Left arrow: Moves to previous superchapter.
Up arrow: Moves the selection up.
Down arrow: Moves the selection down.
Right arrow: Works as if the selection had been clicked.
Return: Works the same way as right arrow.
Delete: Moves to the previously used page.
Cmd-Z: Works the same way as delete. (see 4.3)
Tab: Moves to the next page in the document. See below.
Numeric keys: See below.
The tab key allows you to read the entire document its original order. Just press the key and the computer will move into and out of chapters and subchapters as required.
The use of the numeric keys is very straightforward. Pressing 3 will take you to the third chapter of the current chapter, that is, it will work as if you had clicked the third entry in the lower list.
If you hold down the command key while pressing a numeric key, the upper list will be affected instead of the lower. So, pressing Cmd-1 will always take you to the top level of the document.
If your mind is slippery (and who's isn't) it might be a good idea jot down these navigation keys on a piece of paper, your tie, or whatever is within reach.
3.3 Using Hyperlinks
This program supports the use of hyperlinks, which makes it possible to create complex documents which link together related parts of the document.
Whenever you see the a section number in a piece of text, just hold down the command key and click at the section number to jump to that section.
When you have read the related information you can return to the page you came from by pressing the delete key or Cmd-Z, or by choosing Undo from the Edit menu.
Try command-clicking on the numbers in the following table of contents:
1. Try Clicking This
1.1 Has No Subchapters
1.2 Subsubchapters
1.2.1 First subchapter
1.2.2 Second subchapter
2. About Document Reader
2.1 Credits
2.2 The Niklas Frykholm ShareWare Package
2.3 When Should I Use Document Reader?
3. Browsing with the Document Reader
3.1 Browsing with the Mouse
3.2 Browsing with the Keyboard
3.3 Using Hyperlinks
4. Using the Menus
4.1 ≡ (Apple) Menu
4.2 File Menu
4.3 Edit Menu
4.4 Size Menu
4.5 Font Menu
5. Writing Your Own Document Reader Documents
5.1 Formatting Documents for the Document Reader
5.2 Limitations on Document Reader Documents
5.3 Making it a Document Reader Document
5.4 Creating Hyper-Links in Your Document
6. Final Words
4 Using the Menus
4.1 ≡ (Apple) Menu
Selecting About Document Reader╔ in the file menu will show some information about the program. This document, however, contains much more information. Therefore, this document should always be distributed together with the Document Reader.
4.2 File Menu
Open╔
------
This option opens any text document for browsing and reading with the Document Reader. When you open large documents, it will take a couple of seconds until the computer has located all the chapters and subchapters.
Open & Possess
--------------
This option works exactly the same way as Open with one tiny difference. Before opening the document, Document Reader changes it into a Document Reader document (that was four "document" in one sentence, probably unbeatable). The document will still be a text document, however, that can be opened by any word processing program. The only thing this option does is to change the document so that the Document Reader document icon will appear and so that Document Reader will be opened when you double-click the document (okay, so it wasn't).
You typically select this option after having created a text document in for example Microsoft Word or BBEdit, to change the document so that it is automatically opened with the Document Reader. This process is also described in section 5.3 Making it a Document Reader Document. (Try command-clicking the figures "5.3".)
Quit
-----
Terminates the program.
4.3 Edit Menu
Undo
----
Undo moves you to the previously viewed subchapter. This is especially useful when using hyperlinks to take a quick look at a related subchapter. The Document Reader keeps track of the ten latest viewed subchapters, so you can't use Undo to step back more than ten times. You can activate the Undo command by pressing Cmd-Z or by pressing the delete key on your keyboard. (See 3.2 Browsing with the Keyboard, for information on other keyboard commands.)
Copy
----
You can select any text from the Document Reader's text pane and copy it with this command. The text can then be pasted into other programs.
NOTE: You cannot Undo the copy command. With the Document Reader, Undo only affects your movements.
Cut, Clear, Paste
-----------------
Since you can't change the text of a Document Reader document from within the Document Reader, these commands are always disabled.
4.4 Size Menu
This menu allows you to change the size of the displayed text.
4.5 Font Menu
This menu allows you to select the font of the displayed text. Many documents that are using tables have been designed to be used with monospaced fonts, and will look bad when displayed in other fonts. For example look how this table changes when you select different fonts.
Up arrow: Moves the selection up.
Down arrow: Moves the selection down.
Right arrow: Works as if the selection had been clicked.
Return: Works the same way as right arrow.
Tab: Moves to the next page in the document.
Some common monospaced fonts are Courier and Monaco.
By default, the text is set to be displayed in Monaco, 9 pt.
5 Writing Your Own Document Reader Documents
5.1 Formatting Documents for The Document Reader
The Document Reader documents are nothing else than plain text documents. This is very important, since:
Ñ All word processing programs can read text documents. Thus, every Document Reader document can be opened, read, printed or changed by any word processing program.
Ñ All word processing programs can save documents in plain text format. Thus, any word processing program can be used to create Document Reader documents.
The Document Reader must, however, have some way of knowing what are chapters, subchapters and so on. It does this by looking for paragraphs beginning with numbers. So if the computer should be able to find a heading the number of the heading must begin a new paragraph. There can not be any spaces between the invisible "paragraph marker" and the number.
To be able to be read by a document each chapter must have a title numbered so that it describes the complete path to the chapter. Thus a heading for subchapter 3 of chapter 5 should look like this.
5.3 Making it a Document Reader Document
The chapters must form a complete "tree", you cannot have a subchapter without having a chapter. Thus if you have a subchapter 5.1.2, the document must contain a subchapter 5.1.1, a heading which begins 5.1 and one that begins 5. There does not have to be any text after these headings. It could look like this:
5. Mathematical Expressions
5.1 Expressions Containing *
5.1.1 Short Expressions
An example of a short expression containing * is╔ &c.
5.1.2 Long Expressions
An example of a long expression containing * is╔╩&c.
The different parts of a heading's number should be separated with a period (.), a dash (-) or a colon (:). You cannot expect the computer to understand something like this:
1.1 Past results
1.11 Mining
1.12 Ironing
1.2 Future results
1.21 Mining
1.22 Ironing
Instead it should be written like this:
1.1 Past results
1.1.1 Mining
1.1.2 Ironing
1.2 Future results
1.2.1 Mining
1.2.2 Ironing
The computer will only recognise the headings if they are in the right order. For example, the heading 5.4.2 could only be followed by one of the following:
5.4.2.1
5.4.3
5.5
6
Specifically, it wouldn't be allowed to be followed by any of the following:
5.4.2.0
5.4.4
5.6
6.1
7
Since the computer try to interpret paragraphs beginning with numbers as headings, you should never begin a paragraph with a number unless the paragraph is indeed intended to be a heading. The simplest way to avoid this is to put one or more spaces in front of the figure at the beginning of the new paragraph. This is what I have done in the examples above. If I hadn't done that, the computer would have thought my examples were headings.
To get an idea of what a document should look like open this document, About Document Reader, in your favourite word processor and take a look at how it is written. Then, try to write your own document.
5.2 Limitations on Document Reader Documents
While the program is indeed very flexible, there still are some limitations. These are listed below.
Ñ You are limited to ten levels of subchapters.
The question is if this should be considered a disadvantage or an advantage. Even subchapters on the seventh level tend to look ridiculous and I can't see a reason why anyone would need more than ten levels. See the examples below:
1.3.4.1 Four levels - quite acceptable
1.3.4.1.6.2.3 Seven levels - hum╔
1.3.4.1.6.2.3.3.2.2 Ten levels - I would not recommend this
Ñ The computer will only display 40 characters from each heading
If a heading contains more than 40 characters it will be truncated and a ╔ will be appended to it. For this reason headings at the same level should be separable by looking only at the first 40 characters. The following is not recommended:
1.1 Anticipated Developments in the Field of Mining
1.2 Anticipated Developments in the Field of Ironing
In practice, you will not always be able to see all the 40 available characters, because of the width of the lists.
Ñ The text under each subchapter can not be longer than 30 000 characters.
This does not need to be a disadvantage. Indeed if a subchapter contains more than 30 000 characters I strongly suggest dividing it into subchapters for easier reading. That's the point of this program, isn't it?
Ñ Memory limitations
Each heading the computer stores requires some memory. While the 250 K recommended for this program should be enough for almost any conceivable text, there is of course the possibility of someone creating a multi-megabyte document consisting entirely of headings.
A such mentally deranged person would, if he wanted to read his document have to increase the application size from 250 K to whatever he thinks is necessary. Failing to do so would probably result in a crash of the program.
5.3 Making it a Document Reader Document
So, you have used TeachText or your favourite word processing program (this is an exclusive or) to create a text document that can be read by the Document Reader and looks great when you open it from within the application.
However when you double-click the document the computer doesn't open Document Reader, but instead Microsoft Word or some other inferior program.
To fix this problem, all you have to do is open the document from within Document Reader, using the Open & Possess command instead of the Open command. (The file menu commands are described in section 4.2). When you do this, the program will change the icon of the document and the application associated with it.
The document will however still be a simple text document. If you want to open it with the word processor, simply do what you previously had to do to open it with the Document Reader. First, start up the application. Then, open the document from within the application.
5.4 Creating Hyper-Links in Your Document
To use a piece of text as a hyperlink, it should be marked with the following command-string {*CPFG#HYPER╔
No, I'm just joking (ha ha ha), what do you think this is? A DOS-program? The fact is that any number in the text will automatically work as a hyperlink. The disadvantage of this is that the user can command-click the five in the calculation 2 + 3 = 5, and be moved by to chapter five, by the unsuspecting computer. The advantage, that clearly outweighs the disadvantage, is however, that you anywhere in your document, can add a hyperlink by just writing (see 6 Final Words) or whatever you think the user should see. Amazing, isn't it!
6 Final Words
Enjoy this program as much as you like, but do pay your ShareWare fee. After all, what will $5 buy you? A lollipop?
Buddha said: Invest your money in ShareWare programs, to come at harmony with your inner self.
(Well maybe these were not his exact words, but the spirit of the whole is preserved.)
