Aminet 41/Aminet 41 (2001)(Schatztruhe)[!][Feb 2001].iso/Aminet/text/misc/eNote.lha/eNote/Docs/English/eNote.txt

Text File | 2000-11-24 | 24KB | 508 lines

                  eNote's Documentation. (c) 1999-2000 by AmiS

· Introduction.

   This programm is an electronic notebook. Probably everyone knows the
situation - you need to write something quickly (phone, address, filename,
URL, etc.) - and your table starts looking like a paper bin, and there is a trash
can in your paper notebook. After some time you cannot find
something in there. Finally, according to Murphy's law, you lose the most
necessary piece of paper, and thieves take your notebook from your pocket.
   There are many ways you can solve this problem, but all of
them are usually reduced to a DOpus5 menu/button or a hot key text
editor. But a text editor doesn't usually load very quickly. Besides, this method has
some shortcomings. For example: you loaded the editor for some file, then
forgot about it, and load it again, then changed something and saved the result.
Then you found ( :) ) the previously-started copy, changed something again and
saved the result - you have successfully killed your previously-made changes.
   Besides, things like colour marking, various styles (italics, underline,
bold), various types of formatting etc. are provided only in pretty powerful
packages like FinalWriter or WordWorth, which are not very suitable as a
notebook.
   The program eNote has none of the above shortcomings.

· Features

   - Comfortable MUI interface.
   - Capability to configure the external appearance.
   - Ability to handle xpk files.
   - Localization.
   - ARexx port.
   - Capability of orthographic checking.
   - Password protection of data.
   - Comfortable text searching.
   - Automatic data saving.
   - Ability to save/read documents in various formats.
   - Text design (styles, decorative separation).
   - RESIDENT mode for quick opening.
   - Ability to switch between screens.
   - OpenURL handling.
   - eNote is a full Commodity programm.
   - Drag&Drop handling.
   - Context Menu.

· Copyright

   This software compiles with "Standard Amiga FD-Software Copyright Note". This
programm is CARDWARE, that is mentioned in part 4c.

   If you like it, and you use it rather regularly, send the postcard to an
address:

   Russia, Moscow, postal code 121108, Kastanaevskaya street, 27/5-45.

   You can read more in file "AFD-COPYRIGHT" (V 1.4 +).

   Remember - the main thing is not a price, but your attention!

· Requirements

   - Amiga-compatible computer...

   - 68020+
   - AmigaOS 3.x
   - MUI 3.8+ (c) Stefan Stuntz
   - TextEditor.mcc (c) Allan Odgaard

   Products mentioned below are not needed by this program to work, but their
absence may cause eNote to lose some of its features. The author recommends you
install these products in your Amiga:

   - Toolbar.mcc 15.6+ (c) Benny Kjær Nielsen
   - XPK Package (c) Dirk Stoecker, Christian von Roques, Urban Dominik Mueller.
   - XFD Package (c) Georg Hoermann, Dirk Stoecker
   - imagepool.library (c) Linus McCabe
   - openurl.library (c) Troels Walsted Hansen


· Configuring.

   eNote is a rather complicated program, and, as usual, has many
configuration parameters. This version is set up via ToolTypes. Some of
the settings are duplicated via the menu strip, and very few of them are accessible via
the ARexx port. In subsequent versions of the program the author plans to add
complete built-in settings.
   The greatest variety of settings are accessible via ToolTypes.
A side effect of this is that these settings are used only once, when the programm
starts.

   Brief explanation of all tooltypes, accessible in this version of eNote.

   NAME            - path to filename to be loaded when eNote starts.
                     N.B.! If you start eNote from WBStartup, and this file is
                     encrypted, you will be asked for the password while the system
                     is loading! If it is not correct eNote will finish its work
                     even in RESIDENT mode.
                     Default is "s:eNote.data".

   WORKMODE        - file format (PLAIN/EMAIL)

   AUTOSAVE        - time in seconds from first change of text until it
                     saves automatically.
                     If not mentioned, then the Autosave point in the
                     Project menu will not be accessible. This ability is quite
                     valuable for those users who don't have UPSes, or
                     programmers debugging unstable versions of programs.
                     Disabling this feature is accessible from Project menu/
                     Autosave.
                     This may be needed for a situation in which you want silence
                     and have stopped your HDD via any existing tool.


   STARTCMD        - CLI command to be executed when starting eNote.

   QUITCMD         - CLI command to be executed when quitting eNote.

   OPENCMD         - CLI command to be executed when opening eNote's window.
                     May be used, for example, to open button bank of DOpus5
                     containing buttons of choosing different texts.

   CLOSECMD        - CLI command to be executed when closing eNote's window.
                     May be used, for example, to close mentioned above button
                     bank.

   IMAGES          - path to directory with pictures for Toolbar and buttons.

   VIRTUALTB       - Virtual Toolbar mode.
                     In this mode the toolbar will be shown particularly if eNote's
                     window is too small. If this mode is off then you are not
                     able to make a window smaller than the size of the toolbar. This
                     mode gives you the ability to scroll the toolbar. To do so,
                     you should press the left mouse button over any toolbar button
                     and move the mouse. Do not let go of the mouse button until you
                     reach the desired toolbar position.

   RESIDENT        - RESIDENT mode.
                     This mode is one of the main features of this program. If
                     this mode is enabled the program upon launch doesn't open
                     its window, but remains in memory and waits. If you command
                     the program to open (there are 2 methods to do so), it
                     opens its window almost momentarily unlike other programs,
                     which start very slowly.
                     The first way to open a window is to start eNote one
                     more time. eNote stays in memory only as a single copy - starting
                     several copies is senseless because eNote could edit
                     several files.
                     The second way is the REXX command OPEN. It can be executed
                     from a REXXscript via command rx or rexxcom.
                     If the RESIDENT mode is off then closing the window will
                     cause eNote to quit.

   ICONIFY         - this mode enables iconification when closing eNote's window
                     in RESIDENT mode.
                     If this tooltype is not mentioned then eNote will simply
                     close its window without any iconifications. Also the
                     screen where the eNote was opened would not be closed and
                     closing/opening of the eNote's window will be much faster.
                     Enabling the ICONIFY mode makes sense only if you are
                     working with eNote on its own screen. Otherwise this mode
                     will only slow down work.

   PEN             - pen number of rendering text in Colored mode.

   TOOLBAR         - enabling the ToolBar

   TOOLBARPOSITION - placement of the ToolBar in the window
                     (TOP/BOTTOM/LEFT/RIGHT)

   TOOLBARKEY      - the code of the key enabling/disabling the Toolbar.

   SPACING         - size in pixels between text editing field and the border of
                     the eNote's window.
                     Unlike all other eNote windows it is not controlled from MUI.
                     The bigger this size, the easier it is to hit it with a mouse when
                     dragging the toolbar.

   NORESIZE        - disables the window sizing gadget.
                     Allows reducing the border size when you don't need to resize
                     the window.

   FIXED           - enabling the fixed width font in the text editing field.
                     Default is the proportional font. Both of them are set in
                     the MUI texteditor settings.

   USEXFD          - enables usage of xfdmaster.library when working with XPK.
                     Makes the first start of the eNote much slower and
                     there is not much sense in using it in practice.

   EXPORTTEXTWRAP  - text width when exporting to text file.

   EOF             - enables positioning of the cursor to the end of text.

   VIEW            - view mode.
                     Enables the mode when you are not permitted to modify
                     loaded text. This is useful for those texts which are not
                     intended to be changed to save them from the risk of
                     accidental modification.

   NOBORDER        - Turning off the border
                     Turns off the representation of the border for the main
                     window of eNote. This mode, in combination with the
                     NOSLIDER mode, allows you to use the maximum workspace
                     for editing text.

   NOSLIDER        - Switches off the slider.

   BACKDROP        - The Backdrop mode is for showing the main window of eNote.

   Every button on the toolbar may be enabled/disabled individually - enabling
is done with the help of tooltypes listed below:


   NOCUT,  NOCOPY,  NOPASTE,  NOUNDO,  NOREDO,  NOSEPARATOR,  NOBOLD,  NOITALIC,
NOUNDERLINE, NOCOLORED, NOLEFT, NOCENTER ¨ NORIGHT.

   You can change some of the settings from the Settings menu.

   Here you can enable or disable ViewMode, choose placement of the
toolbar, or disable it. All these settings may be stored in ToolTypes, selecting
Settings->Save... menu location.

· Usage.

 o Starting the program

   This program may be started either from CLI or from WorkBench. The best way
is to put it in the WBStartup drawer with RESIDENT mode enabled. Icon Tooltypes
are actually the program settings and will be read even if starting the program
from CLI. Upon startup eNote will read the file transferred to it via the NAME
argument.

   To activate eNote execute this string:

   sys:rexxc/rx "address ENOTE; 'OPEN filename'"

   This command may be set, for example, on the DOpus5 button or in the
ToolManager/ToolsDaemon. If you have several texts then use several buttons with
different filenames.

 o CLI arguments.

   All the CLI arguments are the same as the corresponding tooltypes. When calling
eNote from CLI entered arguments have greater priority over tooltypes. Some of them have
shortcuts. A list of them can be seen when starting eNote with the "?" argument.

 o Editing different files.

   eNote allows you to edit any number of files. If you send the new file to
the program it automatically saves the previous one (it's only a notebook, not a
text editor; don't forget this), and loads the new one.
   You can send the file via two different methods. The first one is mentioned
above: restart of the program or the REXX command OPEN, and the second one is
drag'n'drop. But it only works if started on the WorkBench or DOpus screen.
Dropping the file or icon into eNote's window will cause eNote to switch to
a new text.

 o Encryption handling.

   To store some "secret" documents eNote has XPK handling. You can choose the
encryption method and the password in the Set Encrypt menu. Encryption of the
text is enabled by the checkmark in the Encrypt menu.
   When loading secret file eNote will ask the password. If it entered
incorrectly eNote will not load anything. If the password is entered correctly the
text will be loaded and when saving it will be encrypted with the same password.
   Since compressing text for the notebook is impractical eNote will not
permit you to choose a XPK method not handling encryption. But if the text is
packed with any XPK method before starting eNote then it will be decompressed
and compressed when saving with the same method.
   You should remember that not all XPK methods safely encrypt data. For example
SQSH method has password handling, but data is accessible even if the password is
incorrect. IDEA (International Data Encryption Algorithm) can be recommended
as a safe encryption method, for example.

   If XPK is not installed the encryption cannot be performed.

 o File formats used

   eNote handles three file formats - TEXT, PLAIN and EMAIL. These formats
differ in formatting, style, and color management codes.

   TEXT format has no control codes. When storing text in this format
all the styles, formatting, and color management codes are removed from it. This
is a simple plain text file and saving in this format could be useful when
transferring text to another program.

   EMAIL format is the extended text format. It can store styles and separators.
The styles in text looks as beginning and ending the word symbols: "/" for
italics, "*" for bold and "_" for underline. Separator stores as "<tsb>". This
format is usually used for e-mail in FIDO and the Internet.

   PLAIN format stores all codes, including formatting and color management. It
uses ANSI control codes starting with ESC [.
   The file can be stored in any of these three formats. In addition, at
any time you can save it to any other filename in another format.

 o Working with the program.

   eNote has a very easy to understand graphics interface. You can either use
a mouse or work only from the keyboard.
   When activating eNote the window opens containing the text editing field (
made from texteditor.mcc, which needs to be installed) and an optional
toolbar (made from toolbar.mcc and accessible only if it is installed).
You can enter text in the editing field. Parts of it can be selected with the mouse or
from keyboard and you can perform some operations on it - delete, copy to buffer,
insert from buffer, change color, style, and formatting. Besides the separator,
the current date and/or time, or optional text file (Insert point in the Project
menu) can be inserted. All changes made can be cancelled with the help of
Undo, and it can be restored via Redo.
   eNote allows you to beautifully design you text, using the italics,
underline, bold, and of course all their possible combinations, and also to
change its colour. Anywhere in the text the separator can be inserted (any
number of them of course), and any text may be entered inside it. Text can
be aligned to left, right, or centered.
   Selected parts ofthe text can be made upper case or lower case.
   All the above you can do with the help of the toolbar, the the Edit
menu, or from the keyboard. They need not be described in detail; try it
yourself.

 o Search/Replace

   This function (Search/Replace) is located in the Project menu. When the
text is found it is marked. Repeated selection of Search marks another found text block;
Replace changes the text found and proceeds to the next one. Replace All performs a
global replacement.
   The peculiarity of the replacement is that found text is not changed, but marked
text. So you can not only replace one word with another, but also mark any word,
type in another, and press Replace.
   Ignore  Case  (search with no case matching) needs a correct Russian language
driver in the system.
   From Top - search begins from the beginning of the text, not from the current
position.

 o Toolbar

   It can be placed at any border of the window and is draggable by mouse. If
you want, you can remove it by removing the checkmark in the Settings menu or by
the hotkey set in the TOOLBARKEY tooltype. The location of the toolbar can be
selected from the Settings -> Toolbar position menu even if the toolbar is
disabled.

  All the functions from the toolbar are duplicated in the Edit menu and on the
hotkeys.

 o Screen Switching

   If in the MUI settings the eNote's screen is made "Frontmost" then the Next
Screen menu becomes very useful.

 o OpenURL handling

   If you have an openurl.library in the system eNote provides additional
features. On the doubleclick on the URL like:

"http://www.formula1.ru"

the action set in the OpenURL settings will be made. The author's browser opens
to this URL.

   If you have the openurl.library of version greater than 2 you will be able to
work with EMail like:

"mailto:[e-mail]?subject=Subject?body=Body"


· AREXX port.

   eNote has REXX-port "ENOTE" (Uppercase!). The commands given below are
possible:

   SAVE            - saving the current text. It has no arguments.

   SAVEAS          - saving the current text in chosen format.
                     (NAME/A,PLAIN/S,EMAIL/S,TEXT/S).
                     Current text could be stored in any chosen format by
                     PLAIN, EMAIL or TEXT argument.

   OPEN            - opening the new file with storing of the old one.
                     (NAME/A,PLAIN/S,EMAIL/S).
                     Since there is no possible way to automatically determine
                     fileformat it must be indicated by using PLAIN or EMAIL
                     arguments. There isn't much sense in storing text in TEXT
                     format.

   VIEWMODE        - enabling (ON) or disabling (OFF) the View mode.
                     (ON/S,OFF/S)

   IMAGES          - allows changing the external appearance of the program (PATH/A).

   TOOLBAR         - enabling/disabling the toolbar (ON/S,OFF/S).

   TOOLBARPOSITION - location of the toolbar in the window
                     (TOP/S,BOTTOM/S,LEFT/S,RIGHT/S).

   TOOLBARBUTTON   - enabling/disabling toolbar buttons.
                     (ON/S,OFF/S,INVERT/S,BUTTON/M).
                     ON enables buttons, OFF - disables, INVERT - changes the
                     condition of the buttons.
                     Buttons are enumerated in the BUTTON argument, which allows
                     changing the condition of several buttons at a time.
                     The following button names are allowed:
                     CUT,  COPY,  PAST,  UNDO,  REDO,  SEPARATOR,  BOLD, ITALIC,
                     UNDERLINE, COLORED, LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT ¨ ALL.

   In addition, all the commands of the texteditor.mcc are handled properly. A list of
them is found below. You can get more detailed information from the documentation
to texteditor.mcc

   CUT,  COPY,  PASTE,  ERASE, GOTOLINE, GOTOCOLUMN, CURSOR, LINE, COLUMN, NEXT,
PREVIOUS,  POSITION,  SETBOOKMARK,  GOTOBOOKMARK,  TEXT,  UNDO,  REDO,  GETLINE,
GETCURSOR, MARK, DELETE, BACKSPACE, TOUPPER, TOLOWER


· Known Problems.

   CAUTION! A very unpleasant situation has been discovered. It happens that some
users have some buggy xpkXXXX libraries. I can not give more exact
names, but I can advise you how to locate them.
   To check the normal work of your xpksub libraries use the command "xQuery"
without any parameters from the XpkUser package. If everything goes OK then it
is possible that you have the normal versions. In case you have incorrect
libraries then you will get Guru/Suspends and other unpleasant things. It has been
verified that all libraries from the XpkUser v.5.2 package work correctly. A list
of the normally working libraries follows. There are some libraries for which old
versions do not work.

xpkACCA.library         1.0       1520    xpkILZR.library         1.2       3932
xpkBLFH.library         2.1      11112    xpkIMPL.library      1.0.79       4048
xpkBLZW.library         3.0       2128    xpkLHLB.library         1.1       1024
xpkCAST.library         1.0      25252    xpkMASH.library        1.98       2796
xpkCBR0.library         1.0       1300    xpkNONE.library         1.4        812
xpkCRM2.library         1.1       1112    xpkNUID.library         1.6       3088
xpkCRMS.library         1.1       1124    xpkNUKE.library         1.7       2900
xpkDLTA.library         0.1        960    xpkPWPK.library         1.0       1644
xpkDMCB.library         0.8       2144    xpkRAKE.library         1.7       7108
xpkDUKE.library         1.6       3280    xpkRDCN.library         3.1       1364
xpkENCO.library         1.0       1216    xpkRLEN.library         1.3       1008
xpkFAST.library        1.10       2136    xpkSASC.library         1.3      10420
xpkFEAL.library        1.03       2760    xpkSDHC.library         1.1       2120
xpkFRLE.library         1.0       1124    xpkSHID.library         1.6       3304
xpkGZIP.library         1.1      28392    xpkSHRI.library         2.2       9272
xpkHFMN.library        1.36       2056    xpkSHSC.library         1.3      10684
xpkHUFF.library        0.64       2284    xpkSMPL.library         1.0       1740
xpkIDEA.library        1.99       3940    xpkSQSH.library        1.10       2232


   Be careful: xpkDMCB.library works only if you have an FPU!

   Please check your libraries because if you have incorrect versions the author
will not guarantee normal operation of eNote.

   It is possible that you have libraries not in this list or have some other
version. Check their operation with the help of the xQuery NAME.


· Future Plans.

   If time permits in the next versions of the eNote I will do the following:

   - GUI Setup - It is the biggest part of the work I have to do.

   - Handling of more than 1 color will be added.

   - Possibly integration with Charon will be made.

   - Context menus may be made, for example, on URLs.

   - A configurable toolbar is planned.

   - Also there is possibility that the internal system to switch different
texts will be added. For example, the author has DOpus-Buttons doing this.

   - Also all your suggestions will be accepted! Write me!

· Thanks.

   I express gratitude to those people whose software is used in eNote.
Possibly eNote would have been made without them, but it would not have been so
flexible or so fast.
   First of all big thanks goes to all who made the Amiga, to all who support it
to this day. Big thanks go to Stefan Stuntz (MUI), Allan Odgaard
(TextEditor.mcc), and Benny Kj¦r Nielsen (Toolbar.mcc 15.6).  Also I express
gratitude to Dirk Stoecker (XPK/XFD), Christian von Roques (XPK), Urban
Dominik  Mueller  (XPK), Georg Hoermann (XFD), Linus McCabe (ImagePool.library),
Troels Walsted Hansen (OpenURL).

   I want to thank all who help me to write this program. Without their support
eNote would never been like it is now.
   Thanks goes to Denis Sotchenko (RDC) for help with documentation making,
useful advices, "lectures" about several AmigaOS pecularities, constant
beta-testing, some ideas, and simply support. Big thanks go to Efim Shuvikov
(S7reaM) for the design and very active beta-testing. Your ideas were also
very apt.

   Thanks to Alexander Filyanov for the beautiful logo.

   Thanks to all betatesters for the work done. I hope that this will be only the
beginning of our joint work. I think that we must stick together in such bad
times for the Amiga. Also I think that betatesting is very useful and sometimes
dangerous work.

   A country must know its heros:

Alex  Letaev, Alexey Yurko, Denis Sotchenko, Dmitry Pavluhin, Efim Shuvikov,
Igor Goldenberg, Vitaliy Chepeleff, Vlad Vinogradov, Vladimir Berezenko

   Also I want to thank ATO-Rus and Oleg Sergeev personally for the organization
of the translation of this documentation and catalogues. Thanks to all ATO
members who took part in this.