DTP Toolbox/DTPToolbox.iso/propage4.0/datalibrary/readme_files/donsgenies/ppagegenies.readme

Text File | 1992-08-26 | 11.7 KB | 255 lines

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   Professional Page Genies by Robin Evans   (R.EVANS6 on GEnie)

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This archive contains four genies for use with Gold Disk's Professional
Page software version 3.0 or higher. ARexx must be running to take
advantage of the genies in PPage.

These genies are offered as what I'll call comment-ware. Use them as you
wish, distribute them as you will (as long as you don't take my name off).
All I ask is that you send a note to me or leave a message in the StarShip
RT with suggestions, complaints, or other matters.

Install the genies in the same directory where other PPage #?.pprx files
are located. The Gold Disk installation program puts them in the rexx:
directory, but they can be moved to another location if the value after RX
in the file 's:PPage.ini' is changed to point to the new location.

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PSPrintInfo

This genie will produce a listing of information about a document. The list
includes page size, crop setting, number of color plates, and (what's
usually most important) names of fonts which will be downloaded with the
document along with names of those which should be online at the service
bureau.

You will be given a choice of printing the listing or saving it to a disk
file. The second requester presents a list of output resolutions. Select
one to tell your bureau how to print the document.

This genie uses information which is recorded by using the genie called
'EnterPersonalInfo' which included in the PPage 3.0 distribution disk.
Once the the personal data is recorded with that genie, it will be
available whenever PPage is running.

PSPrintInfo should be executed after a document has been printed using the
PostScript option. It will not record accurate information for a document
which has not yet been printed -- at least to a disk file.

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Fraction

This genie will convert fractions to superscript and subscript form. The
genie works only when PPage is in edit mode. Highlight a fraction of the
form '1/2' or '99/100' before executing the genie.

It's best to use this genie only after text has been entered into the
document because text entered immediately after the fraction, will take on
the attributes of the fractions divisor -- it will shown as a small
subscript font.

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ChooseDLFont

This genie is an aid for those of us who use service bureaus extensively.
It allows the user to choose which fonts used on a page or in a document
will be downloaded. If the genie doesn't find a .psfont file for one of
the fonts chosen, it will provide the option of moving the proper file
from another directory or device. The genie also prevents fonts which you
don't wish to download from being included in a file. It does that by
renaming the file with a "_" in front of the name. (That "_" prefix will
be removed by this genie if you later decide to download the font.)

This genie reads the 's:PPage.ini' file to determine the location of PPage
PS files. That's usually 'cgfonts:PS', but may be changed by altering the
value after 'PS' in the '.ini' file.

Options:

Page/Document listing
   The first requester asks whether you wish to look at a list of all
   fonts used in a document, or only those included on the current page.
   If you choose 'Page' the genie will make sure that other fonts included
   in the document are not downloaded when the page is printed.

Pick fonts to download
   The second requester lists each of the fonts used on the page or in the
   document. Highlight the names of all fonts which should be downloaded
   with the file.

Fonts not available for DL
   A list of any fonts which could not be found in the PS directory is
   presented after that directory has been searched. If you have some .ps
   files stored on a different disk or in a different directory, choose
   the 'Transfer' option.

   After choosing 'Transfer', you will be presented with a PPage file
   requester. Enter the directory path of the extra files. The genie will
   then search that directory and copy any of the matching download files
   to the PS directory.

   If there are still more files not available, the process will be
   repeated. This allows you to transfer files from several different
   disks or directories.

   Press 'Finished' when you're done with the transfer process.

   (Unfortunately, Gold Disk has not yet provided ARexx ports on their
   utility programs, so it isn't possible to call CreateFont from this
   GEnie.)

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MakeCalendar

This is the most complex of the four genies in the archive. It creates a
calendar of any size, using any font, and any colors.

The code used to calculate the dates is by Mike Meyer whose 'month.rexx'
was included on early releases of Bill Hawes's ARexx. The same code was
used last year by Marvin Weinstein for a pair of articles in the last two
issues of AW'S Tech Journal (more on that later).

Sizing your calendar
   Before executing the GEnie, drag an empty box to the size you want the
   calendar to be. After it is started, the genie will ask you (with a
   message in the PPage titlebar) to click on the box which will hold the
   calendar.

Calendar preferences

   Month
      You may enter a number from 1 to 12 or characters in this string
      gadget. If you enter characters, you need only enter enough of them
      to uniquely identify the month. Three characters are enough to
      distinguish any month, although three months can be identified with
      just one character and five others with a single character.

   Year
      Calendars can be created for any year from 100 through 9999. It's
      possible to truncate the year to just the last two digits for any
      year from 1950 to 1999 or from 2000 to 2050.

      The date-making code takes into account the change from Gregorian to
      Julian calendar. It makes the change in 1752, which is when US
      calendars were changed. Other countries made the switch on different
      dates.

   Colors
      Colors must be specified for the calendar's TITLE (the month and
      year which appear above the calendar), DATES (the numerals 1 through
      30ish which appear in the calendar itself), and GRID (the lines
      separating the rows and columns representing weeks of the month and
      days of the week).

      There are two ways to enter the color value. The exact name of a
      color ('grey 33%', for example -- upper/lowercase doesn't matter)
      may be entered in the text gadget in the large prefs requester, or
      any of those gadgets may be left blank, in which case a list of
      defined colors will be presented for each of the unspecified choices.

      The list of available colors will also be presented for any of the
      color options which don't contain the name of an already defined
      color.

      Whichever way the colors are chosen, they must have been previously
      defined. That means that 'blue 47%' will not be a valid color unless
      it was created with a PPage color requester before the macro began.
      (Unfortunately, there doesn't yet seem to be a way to call up the
      PPage color requester from a genie.)

   Bold
      The title of the calendar and/or the date numerals will be entered
      as bold versions of the specified font by entering 'y' or 'yes'
      after the 'Bold' entries.

   Memo fields
      Memo fields are text boxes which can be used to enter text into a
      date's box on the calendar.

      Although I haven't at this point provided any way to enter data into
      the fields short of clicking on each box and entering the text in
      the normal way, each box is named with the day of the week, the
      month, and the date. For example, a memo field box might have the
      name 'Sat Aug 22'. That allows for access to the calendar's memo
      fields from another genie which might add info to a calendar.

   Small font
      When using memo fields it's usually a good idea to use a smaller
      than normal font, since text in the memo field will be set up to
      begin below the date's numeral. This field tells the genie to
      calculate a small font for the calendar.

Fonts
   A standard PPage font requester is used to specify the font to be used
   for the date numerals (the same font will be used for the title) and
   a font for the memo fields.

Once the requesters have been satisfied, the genie will go to work. It
will indicate its progress with occasional messages in the PPage titlebar
and with that screen flashing with which we've become so familiar.

Among other things, the genie will calculate the largest font that will
fit in the defined space (unless the 'Small font' option is chosen).
That's where the greatest problem arises. As near as I can tell, there's
no way with the current version of PPage to determine the width of a
string of text in a certain font. That made it difficult to set up size
and spacing values which will work with any font. I used a compromise
method which works well with most fonts and adequately with all that I've
tried.

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Editing a calendar

If the spacing of the numerals isn't quite right, the best way to fix that
is simply to change the left margin on the box which contains the date
numerals.

I've noticed a spacing problem with single-digit numbers on a couple of
public domain and translated fonts. (They're all decorative fonts which
one would be well advised to avoid on a calendar.) The value of the space
in some of these fonts seems to be larger than normal. That will make the
single-digit numbers appear out of place. In order to justify the single
digits, each of the numbers is actually entered as a thin space + soft
space + character (that's '\T n' where 'n' is the number). The soft space
may have to be replaced by hand on some of the PD fonts even though it
works well with all the Gold Disk fonts I've tried.

Another oddity which may be observed when editing one of the calendars
created with this genie crops up in the box which contains the title. If
that line needs to be edited it's best to transfer the text first to the
Article Editor. In that box, the month is left-justified and the year is
right-justified -- apparently on the same line. It's actually two lines of
text, though, with negative leading equal to the size of the font. That
negative leading makes it difficult to do any on-screen editing.

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One final note about directions others may wish to go with this genie:

I mentioned above that it would be possible to fill in memo fields with
input from another program. One good candidate for an off-line entry
program would be the date-book program by Marvin Weinstein which appears
in Volume 2, Numbers 1 and 2 of AmigaWorld's late (and lamented) Tech
Journal. Any other date-book program with a good ARexx interface could
also be used. There are a number of ways to implement such a connection.
However it's done, though, the box names of the memo fields would have to
be collected on the PPage side. Those names can tell the data-entry
program where the data should be stored.

The connection (dare we call it a link?) could even be implemented as a
very-warm-tying-together of the programs. As long as the PPage genie
understands the file format of the input program, it's a minor matter to
add a field which would indicate when information for a date has been
changed.

Representatives of a certain software company (one which hasn't yet gotten
around to supporting this vital feature of the new OS with an ARexx
interface on their programs) insist that ARexx couldn't possibly provide
anything close to publish-and-subscribe abilities on the Amiga. Such
statements indicate more about their lack of understanding (or marketing
blindness) of ARexx than they do about the utility of this feature of the
Amiga.