The development of electronic page assembly systems in the publishing industry is both changing the working environment within the industry and opening doors to people previously outside publishing. As recently as three years ago, typesetting was only avaiable to people with large and expensive dedicated machines. No more! Welcome to the exciting world of desktop publishing.
Today's writers are not restricted to their typewriteres...their typewriters are the golden gate to the entire world of publishing. Today's authors do not have to rely on typists, typesetters and proofreaders...they can do it all themselves. From original concept right on through to the finished page, the writer of today can have total control over his or her document. And the most versatile system for doing desktop publishing on an Amiga computer is with the new Publisher Plus electronic page makeup program.
Your Publisher Plus program allows you to enter text from word processors, enter illustrations from paint programs, directly input headlines, edit text or illustrations, and assemble all these elements into a page format of your choosing. You may go back into the page and change it around as ush as you like. When you are happy with the way your page looks on the screen, you can print it out on your dot matrix printer, a laser printer, or save it to disk to print at your local print shop.
This manual is designed to assist the beginner to Amiga computing and also give in-depth help to those familiar with the Amiga, but new to publishing in general. There are six chapters. Chapters 1,5 & 6 consist of general information and are for everyone. Chapter 2 is designed to get the beginner publishing easily. We recommend that you acquaint yourself with basic Amiga functions by referring to the Introduction to Amiga manual that came with your computer. People familiar with their Amiga might want to skip Chapter 2 and go right to Chapters 3 & 4, although the simple exercise in Chapter 2 can be very useful in familiarizing anyone to Publisher Plus quickly.
This program manual occasionally uses terms that are familiar to printers and publishers but not known to people outside the trade. Chapter 5 contains a quickee course in typestyles and Chapter 6 has a glossary of printer's terminology.
Have fun with this program. Experiment with it and learn all that it can do.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Welcome to Publisher Plus
1-A. Before You Begin
1-B. What You Can and Cannot Do
1-C. System Requirements
1-D. Making a Back-up Copy
1-E. Determining the Version of Your Program
1-F. Setting the Keymap
Chapter 2 - The Apprentice Publisher
2-A. The Publisher's Workbench
2-B. Setting Preferences for the First Time
2-C. Preparing a Data Disk
2-D. Loading Publisher Plus for the First Time
2-E. A Sample Exercise
2-F. Setting the Headline
2-G. Inputting Text From the Word Processor
2-H. Rearranging the Text Material
2-I. Calling Up a Graphic
2-J. Lines and Blocks
2-K. And Now. The Test!
Chapter 3 - The Journeyman Publisher
3-A. The Publisher Plus Window
3-B. The Workpage Tools
3-C. The Menus
Chapter 4 - The Expert Publisher
4-A. Refining Your Publishing Talents
4-B. Aligning Text ARound Graphics
4-C. Linking Text from Page to Page
4-D. The Pattern Editor
4-E. Hardware Options
4-F. Printer Problems
Chapter 5 - Typestyles
5-A. A Brief History
5-B. A Few Definitions for the Record
5-C. Typestyles on Publisher Plus
5-D. Loading Fonts from other Sources
5-E. The Fonts: Borders
LT BUBBA
LT BINGO
pTIMES
pHELVETICA
pCOURIER
pSYMBOL
ZAP
Chapter 5 - Appendix
6-A. Glossary of Common Terms
6-B. Proofreader's Marks
6-C. Hints and Tips
1-A. Before You Begin
Publisher Plus is a powerful program; it has to do a lot of things. It's going to take a little time to learn all the methods the program uses to assemble the page. The exercise in Chapter 2 is designed to get you into the system easily and quickly. But in order to use it to your best advantage, you should first understand the basic Amiga system... You should know how to use the workbench options, pull-down menus, the Notepad, Preferences, the disk-copy and initializing programs. Between the Introduction to Amiga manual and the prompts on the screen, you should find these simple to operate.
You should scan this entire manual to see how it is laid out, but don't try to memorize it now. We'll take it a step at a time and you will learn as we go.
1-B. What You Can and Cannot Do With Publisher Plus
With Publisher Plus you can arrange text and graphics from other programs. In addition, you can input and edit text directly on the page using the keyboard. The elements on the page can be rearranged as many times as you like and when you are satisfied, you can save it to your disk and print it out on a printer. Blank formats can be set up and saved so pages will be uniform throughout an entire publication. And they can be saved for future use too.
Publisher Plus will accept text from word processors and text flowed in from a word processor can be set in any of the typestyles and size available on the Publisher Plus disk. Presently, Publisher Plus will accept text from the following word processors: Amiga Notepad, Textcraft, Scribble! as well as any word processor that saves a palin or ASCII text file. Newer word processors will be supported with future updates when necessary. In addition, more typestyles are available from other sources that can be copied to the program disk. See Chapter 5 for more information on typestyles.
Color pictures can be called up from any graphics programs supporting the IFF file system. Presently, these programs include: Electronic Art's Deluxe Paint; and Deluxe Paint II; Aegis Images, Aegis Draw, Aegis Draw Plus and Aegis Art Pak. Colored graphics will be converted, allowing them to be printed in representative shades of gray. Graphics can be re-sized and cropped within the Publisher Plus work page.
As with all other Amiga programs, you must use double-sided disks. While single0sided disks might work, they are not reliable and you culd lose your data.
Publisher Plus will output to any printer listed in the Amiga Preferences menu. The only exception is that daisy wheel printers cannot be used. Refer to Chapter 4-F, "Printer Problems", if your printer is not in Preferences.
1-C. System Requirements
This version of Publisher Plus requires an Amiga with at least 512K memory and Version 1.2 of the Workbench. Amiga 1000 users will need Version 1.2 of Kickstart as well. While Publisher Plus has its own workbench and can be loaded from Kickstart, the Amiga workbench can be used for Disk-Copy, Initialize and other programs you use. See your authorized Amiga dealer if you do not already have this release.
You do not need the optional external disk drive but it sure helps. Since PublisherPlus integrates data from other programs, having the second disk drive saves disk swapping.
Any printer found in the Preferences printer list can be used with PublisherPlus. If your printer is listed, select it and you are ready.
1-D. Making a Back-Up Copy
Before firing up PublisherPlus and working with it, you should make a duplicate copy of the program disk to use and put the original disk in a safe place. The program disk is not protected and you can make as many copies as you need. It is a good idea to close the write-protect on the Publisher Plus disk when making copies. Slide the little write-protect tab toward the edge of the disk. When you can see through the hole, the disk is protected. The write-protect must be open on the blank disk, i.e., you cannot see through the hole. When making disk copies, you do not have to initialize the blank disk.
To make a copy on a single drive system, turn on the Amiga. When asked for the workbench, insert your workbench 1.2 disk and then your original PublisherPlus program disk. Click once on the disk icon that appears on the upper right and then select Duplicate from the workbench menu. Follow the prompts through 4 or 5 disk swaps, making sure that your original PublisherPlus disk is the FROM disk and the blank disk is the TO disk.
On systems with two drives, insert PublisherPlus in the internal drive and the blank disk in the external drive. When both icons appear on the screen, move the PublisherPlus icon onto the blank disk icon.
1-E. Determining the Version of your Program
In the natural evolution of developing a good program, new updates are issued periodically. Owners of PublisherPlus should be sure to send in the Registration Card that comes with the program so Northesat Software Group can notify you when an update is available. You also should be aware of which version you have. You can find this by clicking once on the Publisher Plus icon in the workbench window and selceting Info from the workbench menu. This will display a screen showing pertinent information about PublisherPlus including, in the comments field, the version number and the date of release. Please include this number in any communication with Northeast Software Group. No information should be changed on this screen. Click on Quit to exit the display.
1-F. Setting the Keymap
PublisherPlus is fully compatible with all keymaps for the Amiga line of products. Most users in North American should never need to change the default keymap which is used when you boot up your Amiga. International users may need to change the keymap in order to use the additional characters not available on the standard USA keymap. Consult your specific Amiga documentation about the SetMap and KeyToy utilities included with your Amiga.
Chapter 2
2-A. The Publisher's Workbench
When loading PublisherPlus into your Amiga, the first stop is the workbench. Insert the PublisherPlus disk instead of the Amiga workbench. Click twice on the disk icon in the upper right and the Publisher workbench will present itself with some of the familiar Amiga icons. PublisherPlus uses the "Intuition: system in the same way the Amiga Workbench uses them so the use of the disk copy, initializing, the CLI, and the trash can are all explained in the Amiga User's Guide. The little fellow standing at his "stone" hand-setting type is the PublisherPlus icon. If you were to click twice on it, the program would load. There is also an icon called Pattern Editor, a special function tool that is further explained in Chapter 4. Before loading the program, first let's check the settings in the Preferences menu.
2-B. Setting Preferences For the First Time
The Preferences menu has been preset to PublisherPlus's requirements. You should not change it unless your particular equipment has different requirements. There are, however, some options that you can control for your own particular comfort. All settings are listed here in case some of them get changed inadvertently and you have to set them again.
Click twice on the Preferences icon. Preferences on the Amiga consists of three menu screens. The first menu selections are pretty much for your own personal comfort. Adjust the mouse speed and key repeats, center the picture on the screen, and set the date. Text should be set at 80 columns.
The colors are preset to present you with a blank white page window and black type. You should not change the black and the white color selectors. Changing them will have an adverse effect on what you get from your dot matrix printer.
When you are satisfied with all the selections on the main menu, click on the Change Printer gadget. A second menu appears. See if your printer is listed. If it is, move the selector up and down until it is centered in the blue box. Select PostScript for any PostScript output. If your printer is not listed, see Chapter 4 - Printer Problems.
Starting at Paper Size, the options are preset at: Narrow Tractor; Length=66 lines; Left Margin=1; Right Margin=80; Paper Tyep=Fanfold; Quality=Draft;Pitch=10 picas and Spacing=6 lines per inch. These are necessary settings. Do not change these.
Click on Graphic Select gadget. A third menu will appear. Make sure the following settings are as follows: Threshold=2; Aspect=Horizontal; Shade=Black & White; and Image=Positive. Again, do not change these settings.
Click on OK until you get back to the main Preferences menu, then click on Save. This will save your preferences and take you back to the PublisherPlus workbench window.
2-C. Preparing a Data Disk
In order to have a place to save your document, you must create a data disk. Take a blank disk and insert it in your disk drive. To initialize a disk, insert the disk in a disk drive, select the disk icon that appears on the workbench and then choose Initialize from the Disk Menu. The disk drive light will come on until the initialization is completed.
Once the formatting cycle is completed, the disk will be named "empty". Click on the disk icononce and select Rename from the workbench Menu. Use the delete key to erase the name "empty" and type in the name "Data".
2-D. Loading Publisher Plus for the First Time
We are ready to load up the PublisherPlus program for the first time. On one-drive systems, remove the data disk and re-insert the PublisherPlus disk. Click twice on the Publisher icon inthe workbench window and the program will present you with a blank white screen.
The coordinates X and Y displayed in the title bar at the top of the screen refer to the location of the cursor. X refers to the distance in inches from the left edge of the page. Y refers to the distance in inches from the top. If you move the cursor across the screen so that both coordinates are at 1, you will be at a point exactly 1 inch down and 1 inch to the right from the upper left corner of the page. Moving the cursor to a point where both coordinates are 1.50 will put you 1 and a half inches down and to the right.
The part of an 8" x 11" page that you can see on your screen at any one time is roughly 5 inches wide and 2 1/2" deep or 1/8th of a page. This is necessary to allow you to read your text.
2-E. A Smaple Exercise
We are going to lay out and assemble a complete page for this exercise and we will use the Sample Layout 2-C for our guidelines. All text and grpahics for this page are integrated into the PublisherPlus program disk. Remember, all type, whether input from the keyboard or entered from a word processor, must be entered into a guide.
This exercise will measure increments in inches. Picas, the standard printer's measurement used in the United States, might prove to be more hand for you later on. American printers have been using picas for centuries and like a lot of things from the past, picas have been absorbed into the new technology. The main reason is that picas are only subdivided once...you only have picas and half picas. There are six picas to an inch. The numbers are simple! You might love them. However, the default setting on PublisherPlus is in inches and we won't change them at this time.
Always start a new document by first giving it a document name. This is done by selecting New Document from the Project Menu. A directory requester is now displayed. Assuming you have a one-drive system, remove the program disk and insert the data disk in the internal drive (df0:). On tow-drive systems, put the data disk in the external drive (df1:). Next click the mouse in the box just to the right of the word DRAWER:, use the backspace key to erase anything in it. Now type in the word "Data:Sample". Hit return and a requester will come up that says "Directory not found, Create it?" Click on Proceed. Now the cursor will appear next to the word "File". Type in the words "My-Document", hit return and click on the Save gadget in the lower left hand corner of the directory requester. What you have done is create a file 'drawer' into which the file 'My-Document' will always be saved.
Looking at the sample layout or 'dummy', we see we will need a type guide for our headline, three type guides for text, and room for a grpahic. It is a good idea anytime you are going to assemble a page to roughly 'dummy' up the page on a piece of paper before you start.
A logical sequence for setting up the page would be to place all the guides and graphics first, before entering the text. In this case, however, we will place the graphics last.
By selecting NEW DOCUMENT from the Project menu, a requester will appear that allows you to set the type guides in advance for the page. All parameters set in this box are fully adjustable later on when you work on the page. We will go into this function in depth in Chapter 3. Click in each box, back-space over the default numbers, and type in the following new ones. Be sure to hit RETURN after the entries are made in each box. We will start this exercise from a screen with the following parameters:
LEFT=.5 (half inch) RIGHT=.5
TOP= 3 inches) BOTTOM=.5
NUMBER OF COLUMNS=3
SPACE BETWEEN COLUMNS=.25 (1/4 inch)
Click on PROCEED when done. A screen with three equal column guides should be in front of you now. Because we started three inches from the top, you will only see the guides if you use the scrolling gadget on the right side of the screen to move down the page. Try it and see. Scroll up and down the page. Use the scrolling gadget on the bottom of the screen to move sideways. When done, scroll back to the top left corner of the page again.
2-F. Setting the Headline
The three guides we set up are for text copy. We will now set up a headline typeguide above them. Select Create from the Guides menu. Move the cursor to the point on the screen where:
X=0.50 (half inch from side) Y-1.00 (one inch from top)
Click once and drag the cursor down and to the right until you can see the row of guides below and can align the new guide with the right hand side of the right hand guide below it. The coordinates should be:
X=7.50 Y=2.75
Notice that PublisherPlus will automatically scroll smoothly sideways or down when you hit either the right side or the bottom of the screen.
When you are at the right coordinates, click the mouse to lock the guide in. Scroll again to the top left side of the screen.
This will be the guide for the headline which we will input from the keyboard. To do this, we will need to select a typeface that is large enough for that purpose. 32 point pTIMES is a good one for this. Select FONT from the Attriubtes menu. The Font Directory will present itself. Find and click on pTIMES(dir). The disk drive will purr and pTIMES will appear in the Drawer selector of the box. The directory will list all the sizes available for pTIMES. Since no 32 point pTIMES is listed in the directory, click in the space next to the word FILE and type in 32. PublisherPlus will have to scale the font to that size. Click on LOAD. A requester will appear that says "Font Not Found, Okay to Scale It?" Click on proceed. The directory will disappear.
To enter the TYPE MODE, select TYPE from the Tool menu, click within the top guide and type in the following:
Now...at last!!! Electronic (Return)
Page Processing comes to (Return)
Amiga - Publisher Plus (Return)
(We hope you pardon the advertisement!)
Select TYPE from the Tool Menu to leave the TYPE MODE. When this is done, we notice that the headline is aligned to the left. Perhaps we should center it instead. We also should make the headline bold. Go to the Attributes menu and select BOLD. Then select CENTER from the same menu. Select REFLOW TEXT from the Edit menu and click within the headline guide. Notice that the headline jumps to the right and realigns itself, each line centered under the previous one. The type also become bolder. But it is still a little high above the text guides. Scroll to the right until the 'g' in Amiga is on the left and you can see the sizing gadget on the lower right. Click an dhold on the sizing gadget and move the bottom line of the guide until it is just below the 'g' in Amiga. Release the mouse button. If you got too close to the letters, the bottom line might go off the screen. If it doesn, just click on the sizing gadget again and pull the line down a little bit more until the bottom line comes back.
Click and hold anywhere within the headline guide and move the whole guideblock straight down until it is just above the text guides. Align the guide with the guides below and release the mouse button. Now the headline is in a good position on the page.
2-G. Inputting Text from the Work Processor
Because we do not know how much room our text material is going to take, we'll place it now. Scroll around until you are at the top of the left type guide. Since we will want to use a small text typeface for our body copy, we'll have to change fonts again. Using the same routine we used to select our headline font, select pTIMES in 13 point. Since ]only 12 and 24 points are listed, you will have to enter 13 next to the FILE again. Hit return and PublisherPlus will scale the font to 13 point. Go to the Attributes Menu and change the type from Bold back to Plain and the alignment from Center to Left. Also from the Attributes Menu, select Leading. When the requester appears, backspace over the 13 and change it to 14. This will add a point of space between the lines.
When you have your font selecting done, select GET TEXT from the Place menu. The disk directory will appear. Scroll down the directory until you find TEXT(dir) and click on it. That title will appear in the DRAWER box below. Click on TEXT-SAMPLE.doc which appears in the sub-directory.
TEXT-SAMPLE.doc will appear in the space next to FILE: Click on LOAD.
When the directory disappears, click in the first guide on the left. The text will flow into the guide until it is full. Now select CONTINUE from the Edit menu and click first in the left guide (the FROM guide) and then in the next guide (the TO guide). Now any text that wouldn't fit in the first guide will flow into the second one. Do the same routine to flow text into the third guide.
Now lets take a look at how our page is in its entirety. Select FULL PAGE from the display menu. It might take a few seconds, so don't be alarmed. As long as the ZZ's are on the cursor, something is happening. A full page view will appear on the right side of the screen. You won't be able to read it, but the components of the page will be represented. Notice that we ran out of type before the third column was full. Click in the center of the full page view and it will disappear.
2-H. Rearranging the Text Material
Now we will adjust our text blocks to allow room for the graphic. Move the cursor down until you are at the bottom of the center guide. Using the sizing gadget for that guide, move the bottom line up to the top of the screen and let go of the button. PublisherPlus will shorten the center guide and flow all excess text into the third guide. Make note of the last word in the third block and keep resizing the cetner guide upward until the third guide has text all the way to the bottom. Try to keep the width the same throughout this maneuver. You can scroll up and down to check on your progress.
When the third guide is full, all there is to do is click and hold somewhere inside the center guide and bring the whole block down to the bottom. Let the automatice scrolling feature bring you there fast. Align the bottom lines, let the text catch up with it and that's it.
2-I. Calling Up a Graphic
Now we'll put in the picture. Scroll up to a position where the tops of the two outisde guideblocks are centered vertically on the screen. Select GET IMAGE from the Place menu. The main directory will appear. Scroll down the directory until you find IMAGES (dir). Select this and the Images directory will appear. Find and click on LOGO.pic, click on it, make sure it appears in the FILE box, and click on LOAD.
After a moment, the picture will appear hanging on the cursor. Without touching a button, move the mouse until the picture's guide is aligned with the type guides along the top. Click once to lock it in place.o That was easy! Well, not that easy. The picture is a tad to narrow. It was drawn in low resolution and PublisherPlus uses medium resolution. Click and hold inside the picture's guide and move it to the left. Watch the picture, not the guide. When it is far enough left to fit well but not touching the type, release the mouse button. It is okay if the guides overlap. Click and hold the sizing gadgt and move straight right until the ugide on that side overlaps the righthand type guide equally. Too wide? Move the sizing gadget to the left. Adjust it until the image is centered between the columns of text. Sometimes dealing with graphics takes a little bit of time, so remember. if the ZZ's are there, just be patient.
NOTE: You might find that you cannot get to the sizing gadget without moving the right text block. You have two options, neither one of which involves moving the type block. Simply move the picture to the left until it is freeof the type guide and do your resizing there. Then center the picture in the space. Keep making adjustments until you are satisfied. Option number two is to select SEND TO BACK under the Edit menu. This option is more invovled and is fully explained in the next chapter. Just use option one for now and enjoy all the practice you're getting.
2-J. Lines and Blocks
If you've gotten this far, you have some idea of the basics of PublisherPlus and are beginning to have some fun. Let's not quit! Scroll up to the upper left hand corner of the page. Under the Patterns Menu, select the lightest screen pattern, located just under the words "Load Line. This is a 10% screen. Select SOLID from the Tools menu, move the cursor to the upper left corner of the headline guide, click and hold the mouse button and drag it right and down until the entire headline guide is tinted with the screen pattern. Get it all ajusted, release the mouse, click it again to lock it in. Practice adjusting both the type and the pattern block until they fit nicely together. Do not worry about the guides themselves. They disappear in the printing.
Next select Frame from the Tools Menu and draw a frame around the outside of the little publisher guy's picture. Click in the upper left and drag down to the right until the new frame slightly surrounds the grraphic's guideblock. Now when the guideblock disappears, there will still be a frame around the picture.
If you want to see what the page looks like without the guides, select HIDE from the Guides menu. Clicking anywhere on the page or selecting SHOW from the same menu will bring them back.
Now we'll put a little ornamentation on the page. First we'll type in a border at the top of the page just above the headline. Select BORDERS (dir) under FONTS from the Attributes menu the same way we selected all previous fonts. The only point size is 32. This font has no letters. It is ornamentation such as rules and dingbats that can be accessed from the keyboard. Dingbats are small characters and symbols sometimes used in printing. See all the characters on this font in the Typestyle samples in Chapter 5. When you have loaded the font, create a guide just above the headline, about an inch deep and spanning the whole page. Make it about an inch wider than the headline guide. Select TYPE from the Tools menu, click in the little guide and keep striking the captial "F". Do not type off the screen. Scroll across as you type. Stop when the rule is as wide as the headline block. We do not want to have the characters to make a border, hit return. Again select Type (Right Amiga Key - T) to leave the Type Mode. Now you can move the rule down closer to the black block. There is even room enough to put one down at the bottom if you want. "BORDERS" has many different rules for this purpose.
2-K. And Now. The Test!
If you have stayed with us this far, your page is nearly complete. You have gotten through some of the basic operations of PublisherPlus and now it is time for a test. Since we have a little space underneath the picture, it would only be right to include a little caption about the original graphic. And... we have such a caption for you to put there. The text for the caption reads: "Old Time Publishers had to do it one letter at a time. And then they had to put all the type back into little drawers. See how much easier it is today?" Your job is to draw a guide, select 18 point pTIMES as a typestyle to use, make it bold italic, type it into the guide and make it centered. When you have accomplished this, use the LINE option from the Tools menu and put in a simple rule to separate the caption from the main text.
Do this and you are no longer an apprentice... you're a joyrneyman. Congratulations!
Chapter 3
3-A. The Publisher Plus Window
To get your publishing career off to a running start, refer to the view of Publisher Plus's work page. You can print an 8" x 11" page with this program. In order to be able to read what appears on your screen though, you can only work in an area that is one-eighth of the total page at a time, rougly 5 inches wide and 3 inches deep. Figure 3-B illustrates a full page and its relationship to the work area, or window, that your screen represents.
To work within the window, there are several tools and gadgets available for your use. Starting at the upper left corner in the Menu Bar, we'll go through their uses.
The Window Closing Gadget has the same function in PublisherPlus that is has in most Amiga programs. It allows you to exit the program and go back to the workbench, the equivalent to calling Quit from the Project menu. Make sure to save anything that is on the page because this is just a fast way out. There's no way back.
Moving to the right along the Menu Bar is the Prompt Line. This is an aid that reminds you what function you have to perform once you have selected a menu item. Messages like "Select first point..." when you initiate a Create Guide command or "Position Text.." about every menu item you select will have an appropriate prompt. Great if you get interrupted and forget what you were doing.
To the right of the Prompt Line are the Coordinates. These tell you the exact position of the pointer on the screen. The X coordinate is the distance from the left side of the page and the Y coordinate is the distance from the top. The coordinates can be given in inches, millimeters, or picas, which you can change by selecting Set Units from the Display menu.
The Front-to-Back gadgets, located in the upper right corner allow you to go to the workbench without losing what yo have on the workpage. Clicking on the left one sends the workpage to the back and clicking the right one brings the workpage back. These can come in handy if you have to change the mouse movement control in Preferences for example.
Along the right hand side is the Vertical Scrolling gadget. Use this to move up and down the workpage. If you are at the top and you want to go to the bottom, click and hold in the gadget block while you move the mouse. In some modes, Publisher Plus will scroll automatically. When it doesn't, you can use this. The scrolling gadget along the bottom will move the workpage sideways.
The Window Sizing Gadget in the lower right allows you to resize the workpage. This is another way of accessing the workbench without losing the work you've done. Click and hold on the sizing gadget and move the mouse.
The pointer, located on the screen, is where it is all happening. It is controlled by the mouse. You put the pointer on a gadget and then click on it. If you were to create a Guide, you would move the pointer to the position you want to be the upper left corner, click the mouse and move the pointer down and to the right.
Also indicated on the screen are the vertical and horizontal rulers. These are connected to the pointer and move with it. The increments along the rulers will be in the same measurement that the coordinates are. If you selected inches for the coordinates, the rulers will likewise be in inches.
3-B. The WorkPage Tools
PublisherPlus has many tools for you to use when creating a page. Figure 3-C illustrates some of these tools and now we'll se how they are used. You must experiment with these tools to really begin to understand just how responsive this program is to your publishing creativity. Take a Saturday afternoon, relax, and play.
All type, whether text or headline, must be entered into a guide. These are moveable resizable boxes that you create from the Guides menu. Once created, type can be entered directly from the keyboard or flowed in from a word processor. Move guides by clicking and holding the mouse, moving the guide and then releasing the button when it is where you want it. If the ugide is not big enough to hold all the type, grab the sizing gadget in the lower right and enlarge the guide. All guides will have a sizing gadget as long as the guide is visible. If you want to see what your page will look like without the guides, select Hide from the Guides menu. They will reappear if you select Show from the same menu or click anywhere on the page. Guides will not appear in print. They disappear as soon as you select the Print option.
To directly input type from the keyboard, just create a guide, select a font, select the Type menu option, click inside the ugide and type. While you are in the Type Mode, you can click inside any other guide to enter or modify text in that block. To pour in a word processor file, create a guide, select a font, select Get Text from the Place menu, select your text file from the directory that comes to the screen, and click within the guide. Any text within a guide can b ereflowed in a different typestyle or pointsize. See the procedures for this in the Reflow Text section of the Menu Options. When you are finished typing, you must remember to leave the Type Mode by selecting the Type menu option or striking the Right Amiga key and the letter T.
Graphics, created in a paint program, do not need guides. They do come to the screen with a frame and a sizing gadget, but like the guides, they disappear when you select print or Hide Guides. Graphics can be accessed directly from the Place menu by selecting Get Image. Any picture or illustration can be resized in PublisherPlus in the same way a guide can be. In addition, grapics can be cropped or have portions of them removed by selecting Crop Image from the Edit menu. Gadgets will appear in the upper left and lower right corners and operate the same way the sizing gadgets do. The difference is that the image does not resize. It stays the same size and areas outside the cropping lines will disappear. This is great for closing in on a person's face or getting rid of the parts of a picture that do not matter. Crop down to just the picture you want to show and then resize what's left to the size you need. PublisherPlus's graphics handling abilities are very flexible. The creative mind can have a lot of fun!
Horizontal or vertical lines can be drawn very easily. Select Line from the Tool menu, click where you want the line to begin and draw the mouse sideways to where you want it to end. A line drawn in this manner does not have to be a solid line. The Patterns menu offers four different lines, solid, dotted, and dashes, etc. with the solid line being the default.
Frames are drawn the same way that guides are. The difference is that you cannot flow text into frames and they do not disappear with Hide Guides or Print. Both lines and frames can be drawn with whatever line patterns you select.
A Solid is a frame that is filled with black or a pattern. It is drawn the same as a frame, but when you lock it in by releasing the mouse, it is filled solid. On documents that will be printed on dot matrix printers, any letters or graphics will become white if you draw a black solid box over it. This is the way you make reverses, white letters on a black background.
NOTE: users of PostScript laser printers will not be able to make reverse type in this way. The solid and the type will both print black. However, interesting effects can be made by using screens and patterns that are light enough to show the type.
The Solid menu option is black in default. If you want to draw a pattern, just select a pattern from the Patterns menu and draw the solid Experiment with this tool. You can create an amazing variety of printing devices. Nice, eh? Wait! The best is yet to come!
You can create your own lines or patterns with the Pattern Editor that loads from an icon on the workbench. Any ine or pattern that you create can be saved in a special lLne or Pattern directory and called up when you want them. For more on the Pattern Editor, see Chapter 4.
3-C. The Menus
Your PublisherPlus offers many options for setting up a page format. Chapter 2 offered a brief summary of those options and now we'll go into them in much more detail.
The Project Menu
If we start from the left on the pull-down menus, PublisherPlus has Project commands that deal with starting new pages, opening existing pages, saving pages and sending them out to your printer. The Quit option is also available here.
New Document
When starting a new document, the document must first be named and a file set up for it. Selecting NEW DOCUMENT will present you with a requester. Be sure to save any previous activity if needed. If no previous work is present, a directory requester will be displayed. The directory is an easy way to store and retrieve files that are used in many parts of the program. All directories perform similarly.
Along the top of the directory requester is the name of the directory indicating the task at hand, in this case Document Directory. Directly beneath this is the main body of the directory showing the root directory, a list of the items on the disk. A scroll bar to the left allows you to move up and down in the list. Use the arrows to move one line at a time or move the slider gadget up and down to move faster.
Beneath the directory list is the Drawer where the present disk drive and/or disk name is located. Click on any file followed by a (dir) for directory. That directory's name will appear in the Drawer (next to the drive number and disk name) and the contents of it, its sub-directory, will be displayed in the listing. Beneath the Drawer is the File which will display the name of the specific file when it is selected. Select a file from the sub-directory by clicking on it in the list area. The selected file will appear in the File box. You can also type directly into the Drawer and Fle boxes if you know the exact directory and file names. Click in each box respectively, backspace over any information there and type.
Along the bottom of the requester are button gadgets for saving, changing drives, and cancelling. The internal drive is always df0: and the external drive is df1: If you have a hard disk drive, (lucky you) click on dh0: To view the contents of any drive, click on its drive number.
To name a new document, insert a data disk in any drive and click on that drive number. At this point you can, if you wish, create a new directory to save your document in by clicking in the Drawer box and typing in the new directory name next to the drive number and/or disk name. NOTE: Never use a space in any file name. Always connect words with a dash (-) or an underline (_). A requester will appear saying that the new directory can't be found and asks if it should create a new one. Click on Proceed. To store the document in an existing directory, select that directory from the list. To save the new document, click in the box next to File and type the document's name, hit return and click on Save.
Now the Page Setup requester will appear which will allow you to set the parameters for your page. Set the number of columns text and their sizes at this time. Guides, once set up, can always be re-arranged afterwards. Text can be resized or moved. Nothing done in the first stages of page make-up is locked in... carved in stone, as it were. You always have the option to rearrange the page without having to start all over again if the elements do not fit the way you want them to.
It is a good idea to have a rough pencil draft of the page before you begin.
New Page
When starting a new page within a document already named, select NEW PAGE from this menu. Publisher Plus will present you with a requester that will clear the screen of any previous work if you select Proceed. Be sure to save all previous activity before selecting NEW PAGE from the menu. When you select NEW PAGE, the Page SetUp requester will appear. Refer to information on this requester described previously in NEW DOCUMENT.
Open
Choosing the OPEN command will call up a previously stored document which you can continue working on. OPEN will call up a requester containing the entire disk directory. You can select the name of the document desired if it is on the PublisherPlus disk. If the document you want is on another disk, you will have to load that disk into the drive and change the directory. On a single drive system, click in the DRAWER: box and type df0: or the name of the disk followed by a colon(:) and hit return. On a two-drive system, put the data disk in the externa drive, click in the DRAWER: box and type df1: and hit return.
Scroll down the directory until you see your page file. Click on it's name in the directory. The file name will appear in the FILE: box. Click on LOAD. PublisherPlus will show the page as it was when you last saved it and ready for you to continue your work.
Save As
Choose SAVE AS any time you want to save your document to the disk. This command will call up the directory requester.
It is a good practice to save your documents on separate data disks. To use a separate data disk to store a document, the disk should first be prepared using the workbench Initialize menu function. The procedure to initialize a new data disk is explained in detail in your Amiga User's Guide. You may also use a separate data disk that has already been initialized and may even have some files already stored on it. Just make sure there is enough space left on the disk to save your new document. When using a separate disk, on a single drive system, click in the DRAWER: box and type df0: or the name of the disk followed by a colon(:) and hit return. On a two-drive system, put the data disk in the external drive, click in the DRAWER: box and type df1: or the name of the disk followed by a colon(:) and hit return.
If the document you want to save is a new one, click in the FILE: box, backspace or delete anything in it, enter a new file name for your page and hit return. NOTE: Instead of using the space bar in any file names, use a dash (-) or an underline (_). Saving the file under a new name will have no effect on any page you called up under the previous name.
If the page being worked on was called up under the OPEN command, the file name it was opened with will still be in the FILE: box. Just click on SAVE. You should save your page often in the course of its composition to recover from any problems that might arise...power failures, for example.
Print
Select PRINT to have PublisherPlus send the page to the printer. Three sub-menus are attached to the Print Menu: Dot Matrix, PostScript, and POst Script>>Disk.
Select DotMatrix if a dot matrix printer is attached to your Amiga and it has been appropriately selected in Preferences. A bit-map representation of your page will be printed.
Select PostScrip when a PostScript printer is being employed and selected in Preferences. The page will automatically be converted to PostScript language and be sent to the printer.
Select PostScrip>>Disk to save the file in PostScript on a disk. Manuy service bureaus and printing houses are now equipped to receive PostScript data files for printing on laser printers (300 dots per inch) and phototypesetters (635-2540 dpi). Once on a disk, the data can be sent to the service bureau via telephone modem or, if they have an Amiga, the disk can be brought there.
Amiga will espond with its ZZs and the printer will start the printing process. Once PRINT is selected, the computer will not respond to any new commands until the page print or save is completed.
Quit
Selecting this command exits PublisherPlus and sends you back to the Amiga Workbench. Be sure to save your work before you QUIT.
The Place Menu
The commands from this menu allow you to select files from other locations for placement within your working page.
Get Text
This command, when selected, allows you to call up files from either the PublisherPlus disk or any of the Amiga word processors. PublisherPlus will respond with the directory requester for the PublisherPlus disk. If the text file desired is on another disk, put that disk in the disk drive, click on the appropriate drive gadget or click in the DRAWER: box and type df0:, or the name of the disk followed by a colon and hit return. On two-drive systems, put the disk in the external drive, click on the df1: gadget or type df1:, then hit return.
To load the text file, select the file from the new directory by clicking on it in the directory. Check to be sure it appears in the FILE: box and click on LOAD.
Text files that have been created by word processing programs are sometimes saved on disks with suffixes appended to the name of the file. PublisherPlus requires that Scribble! files be saved with a suffix fo ".doc"; and NotePad files be saved with a suffix of ".not" if you wish PublisherPlus to automatically accept any style changes such as italics, when you load the file.
A file with any other suffix will be laoded as a plain, or vanilla ASCII flie. Please note that as of this release, ProWrite, VizaWrite, TextCraft, and WodPerfect files should be saved in ASCII or "text only" format.
NOTE FOR SCRIBBLE USERS: Try to avoid using dot commands (embedded format commands) in files that you wish to load into PublisherPlus. At present, they are not supported and will appear as straight text in a text guide.
Remember to create text guides on your page before using this option. After all, you will need somewhere to pour the text you're loading.
Get Image
Select this command to call up any graphics from your paint programs or from the PublisherPlus graphics editor. Follow the same procedures used to call up text.
Image files that have been created with other programs need only to have been saved as IFF files. The manuals that came with your other programs will tel lyou if they store images to IFF files. It does not matter which IFF format they save their files in. They may be called pictures, brushes, windows, drawings, or graphs. They also may have been saved in low, medium, or interlace resolution. It doesn't matter. Any IFF image format can be loaded by PublisherPlus.
If the picture that is loaded was originally created in color, PublisherPlus will change it into a black, gray and white image. This shading process sometimes takes a while to be performed, so be patient. Remember, if the ZZs are on the screen, something is happening inside.
NOTE: Files called up from other programs will often have suffixes such as .pic (picture) or .doc (document) following the file name. Some file names will have a ".info" after their names. These are information files for the computer and are not the ones you want to load.
Lock/Unlock
This command will prevent the accidental moving, resizing, or cutting of elements on the page while other elements are being worked on. When this command is selected, a sub-menu appears with two choices: Item and Page. Since the two work in different ways, let's take them one at a time.
ITEM: When you choose this menu item, PublisherPlus will prompt you in the title bar to select an item to lock/unlock. Locking an item prevents you from moving, sizing, cutting or copying that item. If it is a text guide which is locked, you can still "Continue from" that guide to another but you cannot "Continue to" a locked block. The Status Menu choice works regardless of whether the block is locked or not.
This item works as a toggle on/toggle off switch. If the element you choose is unlocked, this menu item will lock it. If the element is locked, it will unlock it. The Status menu choice will indicate if a block is locked or not.
PAGE: Choosing this menu optin is an all-or-none proposition. If a page is unlocked, PublisherPlus will lock all the elements on the page. If the page is already locked, this menu option will unlock all the elements. When a page is locked, a checkmark will be next to the PAGE sub-menu item.
Suppose you desire to lock all the elements on a page except for a self-portrait image which needs cropping. You could lock each item individually except for your similing visage. A faster way would be to lock the whole page and then unlock the image for cropping.
One of the best uses for the locking feature occurs when you are about to edit type in the Type Mode. PublisherPlus does not reflow any locked text elements when you enter the Type Mode. By locking all the text elements except for the one you wish to edit, you will save time, especially if you have used scaled fonts extensively.
The Guides Menu
This menu allows you to set the guides that you will flow text into from word processor files. You also need these guides to set type directly onto the page from the keyboard.
Create
When this option is selected, clicking once on the page will set corner of the guide. Release the mouse button and move the mouse to the opposite corner until the guide is the size you need. Click the mouse button again and the guide will be locked in place. It can be moved by simply clicking within the guide and holding the mouse button down while moving the guide around. When you release the mouse button, the guide will lock in place. The guide can be resized any time by using the sizing gadget in the lower right. Select Create for each guide you want to make.
PublisherPlus will scroll automatically up and down or left and right if the pointer hits the window border in any direction. This automatic scroll function is only active while you are creating, changing the size of, or repositioning objects on the page. You can readjust the guide's size after it is locked in place by clicking in the sizing gadget and moving the mouse in any direction. Clicking anywhere inside the guide itself will allow you to move it around on the page.
Hide/Show
The guides can be hidden anytime by selecting Hide and brought back to the page by selecting Show. This is a simple toggle-on/toggle off arrangement. Clicking on the page will also bring them back.
The Edit Menu
This menu contains commands for manipulating the elements on the page, reflowing text into guides and cropping graphic images.
Cut
This command will remove and delete any element selected. Items cut will be placed into the Clipboard buffer where it will be stored. Once an item is CUT, it can be pasted somewhere else using the PASTE option. A CUT or COPY-ed item will be eliminated when something else is Cut or Copied later. Only the most recent CUT is saved.
COPY
This is similar to CUT, but the selected element will remain where it is. Items COPY-ed will be likewise stored in the Clipboard. It then and may be duplicated by PASTE-ing it in other locations. Again, only the most recent COPY is saved.
PASTE
When selected, PASTE will insert the contents of the Clipboard at a new location on the present page or another page. Whatever you PASTE onto the page will be in back of anything else at the same location. It may then be moved or resized.
SEND TO BACK
When elements on a page overlap one another, they are like pieces of transparent paper stacked one upon the next. With PublisherPlus you can only act upon (move, size, delete, copy, etc.) the element at the top of this stack. The Send To Back option, when selected will allow you to move an element from the top of the stack to the bottom. If you cannot work on the object you want, select Send To Back from the menu and click on the object that is in your way. It will be sent to the back. Depending on the number of layers on your page, you might have to do this a few times to get to the one you want.
REFLOW TEXT
When text is first typed or poured into a blank guide, that text takes on the font, style, leading, and justification, etc. currently set in the Attributes menu. If you wish to change any of these attributes after they are in the guide, you can do it with this option. Just change the settings in the Attributes menu to your new requirements, select Reflow Text and click in the block of text you wish to change. The text will reflow into the guide with the new attributes.
CONTINUE
Each guide that we placed on the screen is meant to be a container into which text can be typed or poured. If that guide takes up all the space allowed between the top and the bottom of the alloteed text area, it is a column. Sometimes the text we pour into that guide will not all fit. We will need to add another guide to take more of the type. The Continue option allows you to pour a large text file into more than one guide, forming a series of linked text blocks.
To use this option, first you must select your typestlye attributes, have all your guides on the page, and have placed whatever text will fit in the first guide. Select Continue from the Edit menu. The prompt line in the title bar wil first ask "Continue From?" Click within the guide that you want the text to continue from. Then the prompt asks "Continue To"? Click anywhere within the guide to be filled. The text in the file, but not yet on the page, will pour into the second guide. Do this until each guide is filled and all your text is on the page.
You can insert a new guide into a series of filled guides also. For example, say you want to flow text around a small graphic. See Illustration 3-D. Simply resize the guide (A) back up to a point above the illustration. Create and insert a new, narrower guide (B) below it, next to the picture. Select Continue, Click within guide A ("from" guide) and again within the new guide B ("to" guide). The inserted guide B will accept type from guide A until full and then automatically reflow any excess type into guide C.
This method is also used to continue type from one page to the next. More on this in Chapter 4 under "Linking Pages".
Once this option is used to create a series of linked text blocks, subsequent changes to any guide in the series, sizing, moving, etc., will automatically cause readjustments in other blocks too. It is this "fluid" way of arranging type blocks that makes PublisherPlus so easy to work with. Experiment with it and see how many different ways you can use this very "friendly" device.
CROP IMAGE
Each image that is loaded by PublisherPlus onto a page will always appear with a sizing gadget in the lower right corner of its frame. This gadget can be used to rescale, make the image larger or smaller. Sometimes, you might want to use just part of the picture, trim off the sides, top or bottom, etc. This would be equivalent to actually cutting off excess parts of a photograph with scissors. PublisherPlus allows you to do that with its Crop Image option from the Edit menu. When this option is selected, the graphic will appear with two sizing gadgets, one in the upper left and one in the lower right. Use the upper left gadget to eliminate parts of the picture from the top and left side. Use the lower right gadget to eliminate parts of the picture from the right and the bottom. The excess will be removed but the original image will stay the same size. If you take off too much, simply move the gadgets again until it is right. You do not actually lose cropped off sections until you de-activate this function by selecting Crop Image a second time. A check mark will appear beside the menu item while Crop Image is active and disappear when you de-activate it. Now the graphic can be resized with the normal resizing gadget and moved in the usual manner.
Keep in mind that the graphic can be restored to its original state any tie by re-entering the CROP IMAGE mode and moving the crop gadget out again.
THE TOOLS MENU
LINE
Use this option to draw a straight line either across the page or down. This function's default is a solid line. You have the option of selecting dotted or dash lines also. See the Patterns menu option which follows. Click at the starting point and drag to the end point. Click again to lock it in. Lines can be resized after they have been locked in by clicking on the resizing gadget at the right end or at the bottom of the line. A line can be moved anytime by clicking anywhere on it and holding down the left mouse button while moving the mouse. Release the button to lock the line in again.
FRAME
Use this option to draw frames. Create frames in the same manner you create guides. Visually, a frame looks like a guide. Unlike a guide, however, it cannot be hidden and you cannot flow text into it. The default frame is a solid line.
Select Frame from the Tools menu. Click in one corner and drag the frame to the other corner. Click again to lock it in. Frames can be resized by using the resizing gadget in the lower right and repositioned by clicking within it and moving the mouse. In addition, frames can be drawn with any pattern from the Line section of the Patterns menu. Select the line pattern first, then select Frame.
SOLID
Use this tool to create a solid or patterned block. The default Solid is a black box but you can also select a gradient of gray or a pattern from the Shade section of the Pattern menu. Then proceed in the same manner as with Frame.
TYPE
The previously discussed menu options Get Text and Continue are two ways text can be flowed into empty type guides. However if you want to enter text directly from the keyboard, or more important , edit text that already exists in a text guide, the Type option will allow you to do this.
To enter type directly from the keyboard, select your typestyle, create the guide, select Type from the Tools menu, click within the Guide and type in your copy. Characters that you type will be inserted at the cursor and if inserting text, any characters to the right of the cursor will be moved over. Note: while you are typing, any other elements that overlap the current text guide may temporarily disappear. These elements will reappear when you finish typ[ing. Also, regardless of your column selection, while typing, all text will appear Left Justified (ragged Right) The column will revert to your selection when you finish typing.
For editing copy already in guides, PublisherPlus's Type Mode is always in insert mode. To replace an item, you must first delete it. You can move the pointer to where you want the cursor and click the left mouse ubtton. If you are to the left of the items you want to delete, use the delete (DEL) key. If you are to the right, use the back space key. They type in your new copy. Text will reflow to the right as you type.
There are certain keys that you can type that will not result in a character being placed on the screen but will have an effect on the text attributes such as deleting, making type bold, italic or underlined, etc.
° Deleting (DEL) key - This key will delete the character to the right of the cursor. All other characters will be readjusted to allow for the deletion.
° Back Space Key - This key will delete the character to the left of the cursor. All other characters will be adjusted to allow for the back space.
° The Cursor Up, Down, Left, or Right Keys - These keys allow you to move the cursor position without affecting the text in any way. Or... you can click the mouse pointer where you want the cursor moved to.
° Kern Right (Hold ALT key down and use Right Cursor key) or Kern Left (Hold ALT key down and use Left Cursor Key) - These key combinations will move the character on the right side of the cursor exactly one pixel (1/120") to the left or right for each strike of the cursor key. This is an appropriate function for sliding the A closer to the Y in the word YANKEE in a headline for a more unified look. Hold the ALT key down and strike the left cursor key until the letterspacing looks equal to the rest of the word.
Tabs are shown in the Type Mode as a special character(>>). When you leave the Type Mode, the actual spacing selected for that element will be displayed.
Since all characters appear flush left (ragged right) in the Type Mode, PublisherPlus indicates a change to another alignment, such as centered, with a pair of characters which only show up in the Type Mode. They will not appear when not in Type Mode or on the printed page. These characters are:
%c - Centered
%r - Flush Right/Ragged Left
%l - Flush Left/Ragged Right
%j - Justified
Other features are included that give PublisherPlus the power of word processors. When you are in the Type Mode, you may notice that most of the menu options are 'ghosted' or not selectible. The only live options, beside Type, of course, are Cut, Copy & Paste (if there is something in the Clipboard) from the Edit menu, and all the items except Font in the Attributes menu.
The Cut and Copy choices allow you to cut or copy a section of text from one guide and paste it into another. To select a section of text for cutting or copying, position the cursor at the starting point of the text, press down the left mouse button and move the mouse cursor to the right until you reach the end point. Release the button. You will notice that the selected text will appear in reverse video and will remain that way when you relese the mouse button. At this point, choose Cut if you want to remove the text from its present location or Copy if you want it left there. In either case, the selected text will be placed in the Clipboard buffer for Pasting elsewhere. When something is in the Clipboard, the Paste option becomes active. Move the text cursor to the point where you want the text inserted and select Paste. The text will be inserted there and all following text will flow down. Anything in the Clipboard can be Pasted many times. Remember, if you have just Cut or Copy-ed something and you want to Paste it somewhere else, do it before you Cut or Copy something else. Only the last Cut or Copy is kept im memory.
Working with Attributes within the Type Mode will have visible effects on the text. For example, if you want a word made Bold, Publisher Plus will insert an unseen control code before that word. Every word following that point will become bold until it encounters another control code or it reaches the end of the guide. You must select Plain at the point you want to resume plain text. The same is true for italics or underline.
For alignment changes, a % followed by a letter is shown, as noted above.
While you are adding text to a line that already has text in it, you may notice that the screen does not update beyond the current paragraph. To provide for rapid typing, PublisherPlus waits for one of the following events before completely updating the current text element:
a mouse click which moves the cursor
a press of an up or down cursor key
a press of the Escape key
moving to another guide
leaving Type Mode
PublisherMode stores its text files in purse ASCII format (8 bit). This means that you can edit PublisherPlus with your word processor or editor. PublisherPlus inserts the following symbols into the document if you have used any of the style change options:
%> - Right kerning of one point
%< - Left kerning of one point
%r - Flush right mode
%l - Flush left mode
%c - Center mode
%j - Justified mode
%b - Bold text
%u - Underlined text
%n - Plain (Normal) text
%i - Italicized text
On a standard 512K Amiga, text files from Scribble or NotePad can be up to 57,000 bytes. If you saved your text in ASCII such as might come from TextCraft in text-only format, files can be up to 109,000 bytes. On an Amiga with a megabyte expansion board, files can be up to 309,000 bytes.
Keyobard Equivalents: Certain pull-down menu options have keyboard entered equivalents which can be found by pulling down the menu and seeing if there is an Amiga Key and a code letter immediately to the right of the option's name. These key combinations are shortcuts. You can use them rather than having to use the equivalent pull-down menu selections when working with some functions in PublisherPlus.
When entering or editing text, some of these 'control' keys alter the text to the right of the cursor position. For example, to italicize one word in a sentence of plain character words, hold down the Right Amiga key and type I before the word, type the word, then hold down the Right Amiga key and type P to get back to plain type.
Plain Type - (Hold Right Amiga Key down and strike P) This key combination will turn off the italic, boldface or underlined mode and return you to the basic character set. Plain type is the default setting. Other settings will have to be entered as you go.
Bold Type - (Hold Right Amiga Key down and strike B) This key combination will turn on the boldface character set.
Underlined Type - (Hold Right Amiga Key down and strike U) This key combination will underline what you type.
Italic Type - (Hold Right Amiga Key down and strike I) This key combination will italicize what you type.
To change from one character set to another, say from Bold Type to Plain Italics, you must first go back to Plain (Right Amiga Key - P) and the italicize the Plain (Right Amiga Key - I). Otherwise you will get Bold Italics. Simply depress the right Amiga key and type PI, not just I.
Align type to the Left (Ragged Right) - (Hold Right Amiga Key down and strike L) This control code will align all type within the guide, following the control code insertion point, to the left margin.
Align type to the Center - (Hold Right Amiga Key down and strike the equal key [=]) This key combination will center all type within the guide, following the control code insertion point.
Align type to the Right (Ragged Left) - (Hold Right Amiga Key down and strike R) This key combination will align all type within the guide, following the control code insertion point, to the right.
Justify type - (Hold Right Amiga Key down and strike J) This key combination will align all type within the guide to the left and right margins. Spaces will be added between words to fill out the lines.
All type following the control code insertion point will continue to be controlled by that code until the end of the guide or until PublisherPlus finds another contol code entered further along. Editing takes place in only one guide at a time. For example, if you decide to take all plain text and make it bold in four text guides, you must enter the appropriate control code in each guide individually. Use the Attributes pull-down menu to alter a whole guide at a time.
Note that all these key combinations use 'invisible'. They will not be displayed and wil lseem to have no effect on the text while you are in the Type mode. All these effects will be apparent when you exit the type mode however. To exit the Type mode, use Reflow Text from the Edit menu.
The Display Menu
This menu allows you to see a full page view whenever you want to review your progress. It also lets you access the Grid and Ruler and set the units of measurement you want to use on them.
Full Page
Use this command to view the entire page. When selected the full page view will appear at the right side of the screen. You might not be able to read everything but it will be represented and will give you an idea of the page's appearance. Click within the full page view oncye and it will return you to the work page.
Set Units
There are three measurement aids available to you on the PublisherPlus window: the X and Y coordinates displayed in the upper right corner of the window which tell you at all times the exact location of the mouse pointer relative to the upper left corner of the page; the Rulers option which displays a horizontal and vertical calibrated line intersecting at the mouse pointer; and the Grid option which display a calibrated grid over the entire page. Each of these measurement aids can be calibrated to your preference using the Set Units option.
This command calls up a requester in the center of your screen. Use it to set the measurements in Inches, Millimeters, or Picas by clicking in the square gadget next to your preference. PublisherPlus is preset in inches but these can be changed in this requester. The X and Y coordinates, the Grid and the Ruler will all work in the units you select.
The Grid Spacing gadgets let you type in the distance you want between the ines in the Grid. Set the Grid Spacing in the Horizontal and Vertical boxes by whatever unit of measurement you chose to work in, in the gadget selection above. This means if you chose to work in inches, set the measurements in these boxes in inches also. If you chose Picas above, you must set your distances in picas too. When you have made your selections, click in the Proceed box.
Show/Hide Grid
The Grid is a set of evenly spaced horizontal and vertical fine dotted lines that you can use to line up the elements on your page. The distance between the lines can be set in inches, millimeters, or picas with the Set Units option above. Simply select Show Grid to make it visible and Hide Grid to make it disappear.
Show/Hide Ruler
The Rulers appear as two calibrated lines, one horizontal and one vertical, which intersect at the point on the mouse pointer. You can also use these to align and measure your page elements. The calibrations on the rulers are always displayed relative to the top of the page for the vertical ruler and relative to the left side of the page for the horizontal ruler. The calibration marks are on the rulers are determined by the units you select with the Set Units menu option. If you select inches, the calibrations will be marked off at each pica (or 1/6th of an inch). If you select millimeters, there wll be calibration mark every 5 millimeters.
The Patterns Menu
This menu is divided into two sections, LInes and Shades. If you are going to draw a Line or a Frame on your page, select a line pattern from the selection displayed. The defalut is a solid line one pixel thick. You may, however, select from a variety of dotted and dash lines available from the Line menu. To draw a Line or a Frame with other than a solid line, select your choice first from the Line menu, then select Line or Frame from the Tools menu.
The Shades area of this menu displays a variety of different shades of gray and patterns available. Solid gradients range from 10% to 100%. The default pattern is a solid black (100%). To draw anything other than a solid black box, select a shade of gray or a pattern from the Shades menu and then select Solid from the Tools menu.
Draw Lines, Frames, and Solids in the same manner as you created the text guides. See Lines, Frames, and Solids in the Tools section of this chapter.
You can also create your own Lines and Patterns. See Chapter 4 for the section on the Patterns Editor.
The Lines and Frames that you create on the Patterns Editor can be loaded into the appters menu for your work session by selecting Load Line or Load Shade from the Patterns menu. The directory requestor will appear. In the Drawer box, type df0:lines for the Line directory or df0:shades for the Shade directory. The selected directory will appear in which all the lines or shades stored on the disk are listed. Click on one in the directory, see that it appears in the File box and then click load. Your selected line or shade will appear in the space on the Patterns menu just above the Load Line or Load Shade option.
The Attributes Menu
This menu controls the way the type will look on your page. Large, small, light, italic, etc. This series of menu options allow you to change font attributes either before or after the text is entered on the page.
Fonts
Each text guide on your page can contain one font and size. Since you can have an infinite number of guides on a page, there is no limit to the number of fonts you can use. Each guide can contain as many typestyle changes as needed.
Select this option to view the typestyle that is loaded or to change to another typestyle. The name and pointsize of the present typestyle is noted in color in the block just below the word FONT. To change to a new font, select Font. This will bring up the Font directory for the PublisherPlus program disk you are using. When you have the directory on the screen, select the font you want to use by clicking on its name in the directory. That name should then flow into the Drawer box following FONTS. At that point, the directory will display the sizes available for that particular typestyle. Select the size you wish to use by clicking on it in the directory. This will make that size appear in the File box. If the size you want is not listed, it will have to be scaled. Type the size you want in the FILE: box. When this is done, click in the LOAD gadget. The requester will disappear and the font and size you requested will be loaded. If it needs to be scaled, a requester will state this.
A font size must be an integer and can be as small as 2 points. Its upper size is limited by chip memory, currently around 130 points.
Creating a new font size takes an average of three seconds, so a page with many different scaled fonts may be time consuming. There are two ways to conserve time: through the judicous use of the lock feature; and reflowing text blocks with scaled fonts after you have set up the page layout.
From this point on, until you load another font, any type you input from the keyboard or pour in from the word processor will be in that typeface and size. If you want to change the font afterwards, simply select a new font using this same option and reflow the text using the Reflow Text option on the Edit menu.
If PublisherPlus does not find a font on a previously stored document, it will default to 8 point Topaz but keep the leading that was stored. If you suspect that this has happened, choose Status from the Attributes menu and point to the suspect element. If the requester says Topaz 8, you will need to reflow the elements with the font you really want.
This is the standard procedure for using fonts that are on the PublisherPlus program disk. If you want to use fonts other than the ones provided on the program disk, refer to Chapter 5 - Loading Fonts from Other Sources.
Plain, Bold, Underlined and Italics
Changing styles within a typeface is very simple. Select the style option you wish and reflow the text with the Reflow Text option on the Edit menu. Watch the checkmarks on the menu because if you go into bold and then change your mind and want plain italics, you'll have to select Plain first and then Italics.
If you are inserting text within a guide and you turn on a new style option while typing, be sure to turn it off again when you are through. Otherwise, all the text in the guide following your insertion will take on the new attributes too. More than one of these style selections can be used within a guide.
To change the style for a whole text guide, just select the new style and reflow the text (see Reflow Text under the Edit menu).
Leading
This menu option allows you to add space between the lines of text copy.
Leading, pronounced like pencil lead, is the distance from the baseline of one line of characters to the baseline of the next and is measured in points. Leading gets its name from the actual insertion of thin strips of lead between rows of type to space out text, thereby making it easier to read and sometimes filling out a page if the copy is too short.
Leading is usually set for you when you load a font, i.e., at 10 point typeface will be set on 10 points of leading. It is not unusual for extra leading to be added for clarity or space requirements. 10 point type set on 12 points of leading is pretty common. The value you cahnge to should always be greater than the point size of the type you are using. If the value is less, the letters will overlap each other. On the other hand, you can add too much leading also. It's a good idea not to lead out a story more than 1/3 of the pointsize of the typeface you're using. If you're working with 10 point, don't lead it out more than 13.
To change the leading within the edit mode, select this option and a requester will appear where you can enter your new value. Any text following this leading selection will have the new leading.
To change the leading for a whole guide, just select the new value and reflow the text (see Reflow Text under the Edit Menu).
Tabs
The Tab menu option sets the number of blank spaces represented by the Tab key. To change the number of spaces that the cursor moves when the tab key is struck, select this option from the Attributes menu. When the reqester appears, type in the new Tab value. Any time the Tab key is struck, following this change, the cursor will move to the new Tab position.
Microspace
The Microspace option allows for the control of the space between letters. It only has an effect on text within a guide that is set to Justified. When tex tis being justified, it aligns itself to both sides of the column. Usually any space needed to filll out a line is made up by enlarging the spaces between words. This is not always the best way. Sometimes the spaces are too large and the line looks awkward. Microspacing allows you to add space between letters evenly. The larger the number, the more space will be inserted. Each microspace is equal to 1/120 inch.
Left, Center, Right or Justified
This set of menu options allow you to change the alignment of text within the text guides.
Left aligns all text to the left, which leaves the right margin uneven (Flush Left/Ragged Right). This is the default setting. If you do not change this menu optin, type will always align itself to the left margin.
Center aligns all text to the center of the guide, which makes both margins uneven (Ragged Right/Ragged Left).
Right aligns all the text to the right, which makes the left margin uneven (Flush Right/Ragged Left).
Justified aligns all the text to both margins by adding spacing between the words to fill out the line (Flush Left and Right).
To change this setting for a whole guide, select a new one and select Reflow Text from the Edit menu. If you are editing text within a guide, text will reflow with the new attributes following the new command's insertion.
Status
The Status menu option is a way of showing pertinent information about each element that you create on your page. When Status is selected, Select Elements For Status will appear at the top of the screen. Click within the element you want information on. A requester will appear that shows: element type; whether it is locked or unlocked; the name of the element; its location and deimensions shown in the measurement units selected. This information is for images, but it is common for all elements. The original color image file name will also be given.
For text elements, additional information on leading, tabs, microspacing, font type and size, style, the total text file length in characters, alignment, and the number of characters in the text guide.
For Lines, Frames and Solids, Status will also provide a sample.
To exit the requester, click on Proceed.
The Paging Gadget
Multiple pages can be created simply with PublisherPlus. The gadget that lets you move from page to page is located near the top right corner of the PublisherPlus window just to the right of where the X and Y coordinates are displayed. When you first load the program, this gadget displays the number 1 in it. The number in the gadget always reflects the page that is currently displayed in the window. To change the display to show another page, simply click once on the page gadget and a requester will be displayed in the center of the window. Type the page number of the page you want to work with into the space provided on the requester and then click on Proceed. PublisherPlus will now load and display the page you chose if it has already been created. If the page number you requesterd was not previously created, a new blank page will appear in the window. Note that as you change pages, the number displayed in the Page gadget will reflect the current page number you are working on.
Chapter 4
4-A. Refining Your Publishing Talents
The art of computer publishing contains some of the same pitfalls that the more conventional publishing systems have. Computer publishing just makes it easier. The intent is still the same. You want what you have written to be read. And the big unknown in this industry is just how much your reader wants to read what you have to say. The best advice that anyone in the business can give you is...
A. Consider the fact that first, the reader will scan the easy stuff...the headlines and the pictures. This is your first and sometimes your last chance to get his attention.
B. Make it easy for the reader to grasp the essence of what you have to say. Make headlines short but informative, just enough to get him interested and curious engough to want to look further.
C. Keep your format simple and uniform throughout. Don't change from three columns of type to two unless you have a good reason. Try to select a column width roughly twice the width of the lower case (a-z) of the type size you will use. A column too wide will tire the reader. A column too narrow makes the reader scan too many lines Don't make the reader have to search for the next block of type; have it easily accessible and preferably adjoining the previous block.
D. Be careful of the number of typestyles you use. use on typestyle for all the headlines and vary them if needed by making some italic, rather than using another typestyle. Use the plain version of a text typeface for all text copy and reserve the use of italics and boldface for word enhancements and special needs such as captions.
E. Don't put form over function. I'm reminded of a clock on the wall in a restaurant I used to frequent. It was made to look like the bottom of a frying pan. Across the face of the clock was a screen-printed three color version of the American eagle, complete with a blazing red shield and a red, white and blue banner. Attractive? Patriotic? Sure! But you could not tell what time it was. You could not see the hands against the background. Don't make your publication so decorative that it scares the reader away. Try to use the items that have to be on the page creatively... but keep it simple. Add borders and decorations sparingly, not to clutter but to enhance. To quote a famous architect, "Less is more!"
The point is, there are no rules in this printing thing, but you have to be careful to remember always that whatever you print... you want read.
4-B. Aligning Text Around Graphics
Sometimes in page make-up you might want to go from a wide column to a narrower column in order to allow room for a graphic. This is not an unusual problem in typesetting and PublisherPlus has an easy way of handling it. Refer to Illustration 4-A as we discuss this matter.
We will allow room at the top of the column for a large initial letter introducing a column of text that will run the total depth of the page. Naturally, the large initial letter will take up space and the text it leads into will have to be set narrower than the total column width. Beneath the initial letter, the column width will increase and allow the text to flow underneath it. Halfway down the column, because we never do things once when we're demonstrating something, we'll put in a picture that also will take up a chunk out of the column.
Rather than making a big deal out of this, simply show the Grid so we'll have something to align elements to. Set the Grid Attributes to allow a two-inch space between lines. At the top of the column, create a guide (a) large enough to hold a large letter. Enter the letter via the keyboard, resize the guide until it is just big enough to hold the letter but not so small the letter disappears, and move it to the left side of the Grid. Create a new guide (b) beside it that extends right to the two inch grid line and down enough to extend just a little below the initial letter. Now create another guide (c) that goes across the entire two inches and extends down three inches. Get your graphic (d) from the file and place it along the right side of the column. Size it down so that it takes up less than half the total column width. Now create another guide (e) just to the left of the graphic and extend it down just below the graphic. Create another guide (f) two inches wide right to the bottom of the column. Adjust and align all the guides within the gridliens. Call up your text file and flow it into the top guide (b), use the Continue menu option to flow the rest of the text into the remaingin guides, from one to the next, until they are all full. See how easy it is to be creative with PublisherPlus?
4-C. Linking Text From Page to Page
If you are writing a newsletter, magazine, or other booklet type document, it is sometimes helpful to continue articles from a column on one page to a column on another. To do this, create guides on each of the pages you want the articles to continue to. Load the text file using the Get Text menu option. Pour the text into the first column of the article. After it pours and fills the first column in the series, select the Continue menu option. When you are prompted to select which column to CONTINUE FROM?, click on the column you just poured. Next select Page option and go to the page on which you want to continue the article. While you are still prompted to select the column CONTINUE TO?, click within the guide in which you want the type flowed. The remainder of the article will now pour into this guide. If the next guide has not been created at this point, you can select GUIDES from the CREATE menu, make your new guide, and then finish the CONTINUE operation by clicking within the new guide.
This same paging option can be used to COPY items from one page and PASTE them on another or CUT from one page and PASTE on another.
4-D. The Pattern Editor
One tool that you creative types will enjoy is the Pattern Editor. Available from the workbench, the Pattern Editor allows you to create the very lines and patterns that you use on PublisherPlus pages. Maybe there's a limit to the number of ways you can make a line...from dots to dashes...to solid, but you can create quite a few. When you add the hundreds of patterns you can form yourself with this tool, it is a program in itself.
All lines and patterns can be saved in special directories by names of your choosing and called up easily for use on your pages. Fun to use and definitely useful!
Click twice on the Pattern Editor icon in the workbench. A requester will come up that lets you decide whether you want to create a line or a pattern. Lines are simle. Let's try one. Select Line Border. A window will appear that will shows the line enlarged - with 16 adjoining blocks. clicking in those blocks will create the line. Fill them all in and you will have a solid line. Fill every other block will form a fine dotted line...and so forth. If the block is white, clicking in it will color it. If the block is colored, clicking in it will turn it white. Simple! To the right of this row of blocks is the viewing area where it will appear on the PublisherPlus workpage in actual size. If you want to save a line you have created, simply click within the File Name box and type the name to save under and click in the Save to Disk box. If you want, you can save it to a special lines directory by typing df0:lines/name chosen. Thereafter it can always be called up directly by this name in the program directory.
The Patterns Editor handles patterns the same way. The difference is that you are covering a larger area. The patterns you create in the 128 boxes in the square are repeated horizontally and vertically to any size you make the Block on PublisherPlus workpage. Save your patterns either by just a name or you can save them into the patterns directory for easier access. Click in and type df0:patterns/name chosen in the File Name box and click in the Ave to Disk.
The Clear Pattern box turns all the blocks white so you can start again.
The only pulldown menu options are Info, which tells you who we are and Quit which send syou back to the workbench.
A very simple program but one you can get a lot of use out of.
4-E. Hardware Options
After you have worked with your PublisherPlus program to create a few documents, you may want to add a few refinements to your system to further take advantage of your new publishing abilities. PublisherPlus was designed to work and work well on a single drive Amiga with a minimum of 512K RAM memory. However you should be aware that as you work more and more with the computer and the program, certain annoyances can pop up that another piece of hardware can alleviate. It all depends on what you have to do, how long you have to do it in...and, of course, your 'annoyance threshold'.
You might find working with a single disk drive a tad tedious. Adding an Amiga external disk drive is not an expensive item if it saves you time and trouble...and disk swapping can be a pain on occasion. If money is no option, you might even find that a hard disk will vastly improve your publishing speed and file handling capabilities. There is a splended array of Amiga hardware and compatible third-party developed hardware available to enhance your system with more becoming available all the time. PublisherPlus can work with any Amiga compatible peripherals.
You might also consider a RAM expansion card. These cards come in sizes from 512K to 9 megs, and may allow you to create very complex pages that might require more than the basic 512K system.
Consult your Amiga dealer for more information on these products.
4-F. Printer Problems
As it has been often stated in this manual, PublisherPlus will work with any printer listed in the printer section of the Preferences menu. Any printer problems are usually solved long before you try to set up and print a page with Publisher Plus. Usually one already has an Amiga with a functioning printer attached. All you have to do is change the Preferences on the PublisherPlus program disk to the same settings as on your workbench disk and other programs you have used.
People buying a new Amiga and trying to use their old printer with it are sometimes faced with a problem. Their printer is not listed in Preferences. Many printers on the market today will work on an Amiga if they can 'emulate' a printer that is listed in Preferences. For example, Epson printers are listed in Preferences and a lot of other brands can be set up so the Epson printer driver will drive them. All you have to do in that case is set up your printer to emulate an Epson. The manual that came with your printer should tell you whether it can be done and how to do it.
Occasionally a new printer driver will have to be written. With the exception of the PostScript printer driver that came with your PublisherPlus, Northesast Software Group does not make printer drivers. Should you have a problem making your printer work on an Amiga, your best recourse is through your Amiga dealer. He will be equipped to advise you on your printer's requirements.
