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- (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 1992, 1993, 1994
-
- Version 2.54 LAN NET USE fix. Major revision at version 2.51, please read.
-
- TEXTorPS is an application program that can enhance the usability of
- OS/2 PostScript printers by permitting the user to leave the printer in
- PostScript mode and still print text sent to the printer spooler by
- applications which are not PostScript aware. When TEXTorPS is running,
- PostScript printer jobs are undisturbed, but other text files are
- modified by the insertion of a PostScript program to interpret the job
- as ASCII text. The user may specify the font, typesize, line spacing,
- margins, orientation, page numbers and strings on each page.
-
- The ASCII text mode which is supported is not the full PPDS
- datastream mode, and does not support graphics, control
- characters other than CR/LF, FF, TAB, SI , SO, DC2, DC4,
- esc-E, esc-F, and esc-:. An attempt is made to print unsupported
- characters as blanks and ignore unsupported esc sequences, but
- esc sequences containing the character ctrl-D (hex 04) will
- cause the printout to fail. Support of SI,SO is not identical
- to PPDS mode but may be acceptable. The single and double rule
- characters are replaced by single rules and corners by blanks.
- The National Language Characters of codepage 850
- are available as an option.
-
- Starting TEXTorPS
-
- TEXTorPS monitors a selected printer queue. The default
- queue monitored is the "default printer" queue.
-
- Installing TEXTorPS
-
- Normally you want to install TEXTorPS
- by unziping TXT2PS.ZIP to a temporary directory and then using the
- install program TINSTALL by double clicking on the TINSTALL.EXE icon.
- Unzip TXT2PS.ZIP using the command PKUNZIP TXT2PS.ZIP.
- Program parameters should be blank for a typical installation.
-
- After installation, the TEXTorPS program icon will be on the
- desktop. If you want automatic startup you might want to
- shadow it to the startup folder. You may want to drag the icon to
- a folder. The help information should work as set up. If you have
- problems with it, you may need to place
- set HELP = c:\path in config.sys,
- where 'path' contains the directory in which TEXTORPS.HLP is
- installed, or copy TEXTORPS.HLP to C:\OS2\HELP.
-
- If you want to install TEXTorPS for a printer on a LAN using
- NET USE LPT3 \\server\queue (for example)
- you need to also define a printer on an unused parallel port (say LPT2),
- (drag from the printer template in OS/2 2.0 and select PostScript driver),
- set that printer to be the default printer, and/or select the printer
- from the Monitored Queue listbox under Option Queue of TEXTorPS, and
- set the NET USE Port listbox to LPT3. If the default printer is changed,
- TEXTorPS will not recognize that change unless it is restarted.
- If you are not using a NET USE command, leave the NET USE Port
- listbox set to "NO NET USE". That would be the case if you are using
- TCPIP command LPRMON to redirect LPT2 to a lan printer. If you are
- using LPRMON, use the option -b (no banner) and set up the driver
- as a generic PostScript printer.
-
- Files dragged to the printer icon may be selected to be
- "printer specific" to obtain the TEXTorPS formatting.
- The default system conversion to text is obtained by selecting
- "plain text" for the printer file contents.
-
- More information is available through the Help Menu
-
- For help about any control on any window, select the control
- and press F1. Use the tab key to move to controls without
- activating them.
-
- Be sure that a PostScript driver has been
- installed and connected to the queue you will be
- using. The correct driver name will probably start with PSCRIPT.
- The PM SPOOLER must not have been disabled for this program to work.
-
- Start the program with the command syntax above; select margins if desired,
- minimize the window.
-
- Software required: OS/2 2.1 or later with installed PSCRIPT driver
- Hardware required: (almost) any PostScript printer.
-
- Brief comments on options and dialog boxes:
-
- Margins - On this screen you can select the paper size and
- text margins, also the paper orientation. The paper.
- length should always be larger than the width. The
- margins are the distances from the respective edges
- of the paper for the body of printed text. When in
- landscape mode (sideways printing), the top margin
- is the distance between the long side of the paper
- and the top line of text (top, right etc. follow the
- printing, not the paper).
- Note for landscape mode it is NOT necessary to try
- to place the printer in landscape mode. On the other hand,
- the paper size settings are not sent to the printer-
- they are just used to decide where to print. You should
- set the printer paper size by hand when changing sizes.
-
- Font - On this screen you can select the typeface and size
- for text printing. The typefaces shown are for the IBM4019
- and the PostScript FontCard. The program
- does not check that a fontcard is installed, invalid fonts
- may result in Courier being used as default or in no output
- if a software error results from a sufficiently invalid name.
- The options Oblique/Italic and Bold
- are not applicable to all fonts - see the names below.
- Symbol, for example, has no Italic form. Italic will
- be ignored in that case and no error message produced.
- Similarly Helvetica Light will ignore the Bold option.
- Type size is set by clicking on the desired number.
- Click on the scrollbar arrows to see more values. The
- accepted range is 5 pts to 72 pts (72 pts= 1 inch or 25.4 mm).
- Courier and its variants are the only non proportional
- fonts and should be used if column alignment is critical.
-
- Pagination- On this screen you can specify one or two strings to be printed
- in the upper or lower margins of each page, and an optional
- page number. The strings S1 and S2 are edit boxes accepting
- a maximum of 32 characters. Group boxes allow selection
- of what is printed at each of 4 places on the page:
- TC: O S1 place String S1 at top center
- O S2 place String S2 at top center
- O N place page number at top center
- O place nothing at top center.
-
- TR: top right. BC: bottom center BR: bottom right.
-
- The type size box on this screen applies to all of these items
- which are printed inside the left and right margins and
- outside the top and bottom margins. The centered strings
- are centered between the margins, not on the paper. Note
- that if you want vary large page numbers, for example, it
- may be necessary to increase the top or bottom margin size.
- The Save button on this screen is equivalent to the
- Save Defaults submenu choice: it saves ALL options for future
- default use.
-
- Save Defaults- Selecting this option will cause all settings: Font,
- margins, paper orientation, page number instructions, etc
- (but not the printer device name )
- to be saved in the user.ini system file. About 30 variables
- are saved. The first time this is done, considerable disk
- activity is required as keys are added to the system file.
- The application keyname is "TEXTORPS". Once this has
- been done, at all future loads of the program the default
- values will be reloaded.
-
- Online Help See the online Extended Help and Help Index for additional
- information. Press F1 after tabbing to any option for
- more information specfic to that option.
-