Game Head 1996 February/GameHeadMonthlyFeb96.iso/dos/tarot2/t2.exe/HELP.4

Text File | 1993-06-06 | 7.2 KB | 212 lines

Help on the items in the SPREAD menu.

* Open spread
* Close spread
* Define spread
* Change card
* Comment

 OPEN SPREAD: Choose the open command
from this menu to open a spread file.
The open-file dialog box will appear
with "*.SPR" as the wildcard spec.
(See FILE help for more on using this
dialog box)
A spread is a predefined layout. In
a spread, when you left-click on the
deck to deal a card, the card will be
placed into a set position in the
layout and will not be able to be
moved. When you deal out all the cards
in the spread, left-clicking on the
deck will put the program into
interpret mode (See KEYS or EXAMINE
help for more on interpret mode) and
will bring up the Overview (See
EXAMINE help). Once in interpret mode
you can right-click on the cards to
get an interpretation of their
positions in the spread. Right-click
on the deck to get information on the
spread you have loaded.

 CLOSE SPREAD: Choose this when you
have a spread loaded and you want to
close it so you can move the cards
and the deck where you choose or to
change cards in the spread. To reopen
a spread choose OPEN and then choose
CANCEL in the file dialog box. All the
cards moved will be put back in order
and any changed cards will now show up
the way you changed them.

 DEFINE SPREAD: Choose this to define
a new spread or to just check on the
settings in the currently loaded
spread. A dialog box will appear with
fields allowing you to enter the
number of cards in the spread, how
they will be positioned and grouped,
and whether cards will be compared
with neighbouring cards. To define a
new spread, first click in the box
beside CARDS and type in the number of
cards that will be in the spread
(1-78) and press <Enter> if it is a
single digit number. Next click on
DEFINE to the right of this and
proceed to lay out the cards, and
deck, in the order and position you
would like them in the spread. To
move the deck with the keyboard you
must use the <Insert> key instead of
the <Esc> key. Right-click or press
<Esc> when you are finished. You can
press <F2> to bring up a coordinate
readout for more precise positioning
(See KEYS help for more). If the cards
and deck are already in position when
you choose Define, just Right-click.
Next click in the box beside GROUPS
and type in the number of groups you
would like in the spread. Groups are
cards which share a common
interpretation  within a spread
(Usually based on position). Cards in
a group don't have to be adjacent to
one another. Right-clicking on any
card in a particular group will bring
up the same interpretation. If a card
is not part of a group the comment box
will come up when you right-click on
it. Click on DEFINE to the right of
GROUPS to set up your groups.
Right-click to clear the messages
which appear to let you know which
group you are on and left-click on
each card you would like in the group.
A number will appear on each card you
select. Right-click when you finish
and proceed to define the remaining
groups. You will be returned to the
dialog box when you right-click after
choosing the cards for the last group.
If you want cards compared to their
neighbors, click in the box beside
COMPARE until an asterisk appears.
This is for spreads which use the
comparison of the elemental
association of one card to the
elements its neighbors are associated
with to determine the good or ill
dignity of that card. The
interpretations will say a card's
dignity is weakened or strengthened.
Strengthening a card that is
essentially a bad card to begin with
will make it worse and weakening it
may even make it well-dignified.
The elements are Fire, Water, Air and
Earth or Neutral for no association. A
card must have two and only two
neighbors before a comparison
takes place. If a comparison has taken
place, when you right click on a card
a box will appear with the results.
When you close this box the group
interpretation will appear. When no
comparison takes place just the group
interpretation will appear. For a card
to be considered a neighbor of another
it must overlap by at least one pixel.
You can have one long row with each
card having neighbors on each side
except the end cards, unless you loop
it back around to bite its own tail,
then all cards can be compared to
neighbors on either side.
You can assign element associations to
each of the trumps by clicking on
TRUMPS. Different decks order the
trumps in different ways, so there
isn't one set way of assigning
elements to the cards 0-21. When you
click on TRUMPS a dialog box appears
with the numbers 0-21 with boxes
beside them filled with either N for
neutral or the first letter of one of
the four elements. Click on these
boxes to toggle thru the five choices.
If you are unsure of a trump's number,
click on the number and the
interpretation for that trump will
appear.
When you have finished these steps
choose SAVE and give your spread a
name, preferably with the extention of
" .SPR". If you do not supply an
extention the ".SPR" will be appended.
(See FILE help for more on saving
files) Once you have saved the spread,
open it and then fill in the
interpretations for the groups by
laying out the spread and then right-
clicking on a card from each group
while in interpret mode. Right-click
on the deck, in interpret mode, to
bring up a box in which to type
general information on this particular
spread.

 CHANGE CARD: Choose this to change a
card you have dealt or to deal a card
of your choosing. When you choose this
command, the deck appears in a row
starting on the left. You can scroll
thru the deck one card at a time with
the single arrows or a row at a time
with the double arrows or you can jump
to the start of any suit by clicking
on its name. To change a card first
click on the card, in the row, that
you want in the layout and when the
row disappears click on the card you
want to change. If the card you pick
from the row is already laid out, it
will change places with the card you
chose to change. You will have to
click on both cards or else it will
appear that there are two of the same
card laid out. To deal out a card of
your choosing, pick the card you want
from the row and then click on the
deck. Your card will be dealt. You can
use this for loading in a layout you
have done outside of this program in
the so-called real world with real
cards.

 COMMENT: When you choose this a text
box will appear in which you can enter
a comment (or a query or whatever you
want), which will appear whenever you
choose this command. This comment gets
saved when you save a layout. When you
open the saved layout and choose this
command you will see the last comment
you typed in before saving that
layout. When you first view the
comment of an opened layout you can
have it remainin memory by clicking on
CLOSE in the text box (or pressing
<Alt-C>) and answering yes , or you
can have the comment revert back to
what it was before you loaded this
layout by right-clicking or pressing
<Esc> or by choosing CLOSE and
answering no. The last comment in
memory is saved in the file
"Comnt.tmp" when you quit, to be
reloaded the next time you start.