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Cream of the Crop 21 (Terry Blount) (October 1996).iso
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The Visual Text Publisher
Description:
The Visual Text Publisher (or "V-Text" for short) allows you to
create "electronic" books or magazines, such as tutorials,
training manuals, or even works of literature. The V-Text
system allows you to create professional looking, self-executing
programs with little effort. V-Text uses ASCII text files that
you create on your own, and then compiles them into a graphical,
on-line "electronic" book. If you know how to use a word
processor then you have all the skills necessary to publish your
own "electronic" books that you can then distribute on diskette.
The electronic books that you create with V-Text can be copied,
distributed and sold, royalty free! Share your knowledge, your
research, your works of poetry, fiction with others by using The
Visual Text Publisher!
Features:
V-Text allows you to customize your electronic documents.
Consider the following... V-Text allows you to...
+ Consolidate all your text files into just one compact data
file. In fact, after compilation, only two files are
necessary to make your electronic book available to your
audience (READ.EXE and READ.DAT). This makes disk
distribution file management a breeze.
+ Display 16 color .PCX graphic images alongside your text
+ Include branching sub-menus. Jump to a different chapter
or section of your electronic book when you press a predefined
hot-key.
Special requirements:
The Visual Text Publisher requires a IBM PC using DOS versions
3.0 to 6.22 or Windows 3.x or Windows 95. V-Text also requires
a VGA monitor and adapter.
Before we get started:
This documentation has been written to be concise and helpful as
possible. We suggest that you print out a copy of this file and
keep it near you as you work on the sample projects provided
with this program.
Before you compile your very own electronic book we recommend
that you browse through one that has already been created. You
should find a file AESOP.DAT on your disk, which contains a
short collection of Aesop's Fables. To view this electronic
book from the DOS prompt enter: READ AESOP then press [ENTER].
Browse through this electronic book and get a feel for what
V-Text can do. If you like what you see, and would like to
create similar V-Text documents, resume reading these
instructions and proceed with your first compilation.
Terms and definitions:
There are several terms that will be used throughout this
documentation and that need to be fully understood by the user
before you create your own electronic books. Please review
these definitions carefully:
ASCII FILE: This is a term used to describe any file that you
create and save with an editor such as DOS' EDIT or Window's
Notepad. An ASCII file contains only characters that can be
found on a standard IBM keyboard. Most word processor programs
(like Word Perfect) can save files in ASCII format IF you
specifically instruct the program to do so. The reason V-Text
does NOT come with an editor is because most users already have
a favorite text editor or word processor that they feel
comfortable with. We saw no reason to force the user to use
another editor and have consequently not included one.
CHAPTER: A chapter is any ASCII or text file that you create
that you want to become part of your electronic book. Chapters
are simply individual text files, and can be identified by their
DOS file extension. Example: AESOP.1 for chapter 1, AESOP.2 for
chapter 2, etc. Chapters must not exceed 32,000 bytes in size.
COMPILER: The compiler is the program that merges and compresses
your ASCII text files, and graphic files into a single data file
(READ.DAT).
DATA FILE: The data file is a specially formatted file that
contains ALL of your chapters and graphics. This data file is
created by using the V-Text compiler (COMPILE.EXE), and once it
has been created it can be identified by the default filename
"READ.DAT". This data file is one of the two necessary files
that must be placed on your distribution disk in order for
others to read your electronic book. Data files can be renamed
if you wish, however to use them with the "reader" (READ.EXE)
you must specify its new file name on the DOS command line. For
example, AESOP.DAT was originally named READ.DAT, but was
renamed in order to preserve its contents from future
compilations that would have created a new READ.DAT file and
overwritten it. To use AESOP.DAT with the "reader" module
(READ.EXE), the user needs to start the electronic book from the
DOS command line in this manner: READ AESOP.DAT By using this
method inside a batch file, the author can create several
electronic books on one floppy disk, needing only one "reader"
module.
READER MODULE: This refers to the file "READ.EXE". This is the
program that reads the information in your data file and
displays it to your audience. Remember, in order to create an
electronic book for distribution on a floppy diskette, two files
must exist on that disk: 1) READ.EXE and 2) READ.DAT.
TEXT FILE: Text files and ASCII files all refer to the same
thing (see ASCII FILE above).
PCX FILE: This is a bitmap graphic file that can be used inside
your electronic document. You can create PCX files using PC
Paintbrush, Windows' 3.x Paintbrush, Electronic Arts' Deluxe
Paint II (my favorite), NeoPaint (shareware available on our
BBS), or any other paint program. Although PCX files can be
found in Black & White, 16 color and 256 color format, V-Text
only supports 16 color .PCX files.
Getting started:
You will need to create all of the ASCII text files that you
wish to include in your "electronic" book BEFORE you run the
compiler (COMPILE.EXE). Use your favorite word processor or
text editor (like DOS' EDIT) to compose the individual
"chapters". If you are using a word processor, like Word
Perfect, then it is absolutely essential that you save each
"chapter" as an ASCII file. Most word processors add "control
characters" to your document as you compose it. Control
characters are used to identify italics, highlighting,
underlines, margin spacing, etc. When using a word processor,
these control characters will create problems if they are not
removed. By saving a word processing document as an ASCII file,
all the control characters will be removed.
In Word Perfect 5.0/5.1, you can save your document as an ASCII
file by pressing CTRL+F5, then selecting "1 DOS Text", then
select "1 Save".
If you are using DOS' EDIT, or the Windows' Notepad, then you do
not need to worry about control characters, for their native
file formats are ASCII.
Each "chapter" of your electronic book MUST exist as an ASCII
file. The manner in which you save and name your ASCII files is
absolutely CRITICAL! The file extensions must be a number, and
must correspond to the chapter contained within it. For
example, AES