Cream of the Crop 21/Cream of the Crop 21 (Terry Blount) (October 1996).iso/editor/winpro35.zip/WINPROOF.TXT

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              WinProof (tm) User's Manual

"This is the grammar checker you've been waiting for" (tm)
                    VERSION 3.2

COPYRIGHT 1995 BY INTELLECT SYSTEMS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

To make a printed copy of this manual, use the Print command
under the File menu of the Notepad program.

                     Chapter 1
             An introduction to WinProof

WinProof is a revolutionary new grammar checker that blazes
new territory by using a "molecular" parsing technology that
allows WinProof to detect the toughest and most embarrassing
grammar errors without flagging every single sentence in
your document.  In a real sense, WinProof "understands" how
English sentences are put together and it uses this
knowledge to provide an amazingly accurate level of grammar
checking.  WinProof doesn't try to change your writing style
by flooding you with annoying style objections and
readability statistics.  Instead, WinProof concentrates on
finding serious grammatical errors.  Even the best writers
can make grammar mistakes because proofreading is a
laborious and difficult task.  Often, the proofreading
process is completely skipped because there isn't enough
time to proofread.  This can lead to embarrassing errors
because it is all too easy to drop words in a sentence or to
misspell a word into another word.  For example:

I put the car it the garage.
The those cars are good.
I we examine the problem, we can solve it.
A teacher tried teach a difficult class.

These are not subtle errors that only a grammar teacher
would point out.  These are errors that could be easily
corrected if they were pointed out in the document.
WinProof's main purpose is to point out sentences which might
contain grammar errors.  When WinProof detects a suspect
sentence, it is presented to the user for proofreading.  A
short description of the suspect problem and how to fix it
is provided.  After proofreading the sentence and examining
the description of the problem, the user can make any needed
corrections.

The program detects grammar errors by looking for unusual
word order or usage.  Because English is a complex language
which can be used in many ways, WinProof cannot detect
errors with a 100% accuracy.  Any sentence which is even
slightly unusual or complex can be flagged as having an
error, even though the sentence is perfectly correct.
Therefore it is the responsibility of the user to decide if
there is actually an error in the sentence.  The complexity
of English also means that WinProof may not be able to
precisely identify the error.  This means that the user
should use the program's advice as a general guide to
finding an error.  The suspect sentence should first be
carefully proofread.  If the sentence looks correct then you
should examine the word which is highlighted and the
explanation/advice message.  Additional advice is available
by pressing the F1 Key.  If the sentence still looks
correct, then it probably is correct and the user should
skip the sentence.  It is important to remember WinProof
flags sentences that might contain an error.  Don't spend
time on sentences that appear correct.  WinProof does flag
some perfectly correct sentences due to the complex nature
of English.

By pointing out the few sentences which might contain
errors, the user has a better chance of detecting and
correcting serious mistakes.  However, WinProof is not a
substitute for manual proofreading.  There will always be
some errors which cannot be detected by any grammar checking
program.  WinProof helps the user to proofread by indicating
which sentences to carefully proofread.  It does not replace
proofreading. A comprehensive list of errors that WinProof
can detect can be found in the file GRAMTEST.TXT. Try running
WinProof with this file to see how all of the errors are
handled.

                         Chapter 2
              Using the commands in WinProof

Activating the menu bar

The top line is the menu bar.  To activate the menus, you
can use the mouse to point at menu items by placing the
mouse pointer over the menu item and pressing the left mouse
button.  You can also press the F10 key to activate the top
menu bar.  Once the menu bar has been activated by pressing
F10, you can use the arrow keys to move through the menu
selections.  You can also activate the menu bar items by
pressing the ALT key and the highlighted letter (shown as
underlined in WinProof) of the menu item.  For example, to
activate the 'Files' menu, press ALT-F.  Once a menu bar
item has been selected, a pull-down menu appears.  To
activate a command, use the mouse to click on a command or
use the arrow keys to highlight the command you want and
then press the Enter key.  On the right side of each
pull-down menu, you will see function key names.  You can
press these function keys to activate the command shown on
the left side of the pull-down menu.  For example, pressing
the F1 key will activate the 'Interactively proofread'
command under the 'Files' menu.

Using dialog boxes

After you select a command, a dialog box may appear.  Dialog
boxes ask for more information and can contain many items.
To select between items (such as buttons and checkboxes) in
the dialog boxes, press the TAB key or point at each item
with the mouse and press the left mouse button.  Use the
arrow keys to move between items in a group of checkboxes or
filenames.  If you want to cancel any command, press the ESC
key.

Quitting WinProof

To quit or exit WinProof, select the "Exit" command in the
"File" pulldown menu or press ALT-X.  Never quit WinProof by
turning off your machine or rebooting.

                       Chapter 3
              Proofreading with WinProof

Before you begin to proofread a document, make sure that you
have saved the document to a disk file and that you know
where the file is located.  Once you have prepared a
document, there are two ways you can use WinProof to
proofread.  The interactive method stops at each suspect
sentence and allows you to take an action.  The report only
method writes all of the suspect sentences to a disk file
for you to review later.

Interactively proofread (Press F1)

Select the 'Interactively proofread' command in the 'Files'
menu to use the interactive method.  You can also activate
this command by pressing the F1 key.  After you select this
command, a dialog box will appear which asks you for the
file to proofread.

Selecting a file to proofread

The top of the dialog box shows a wildcard filename and a
list of files that you can select.  If you know the name and
location of the file to proofread, you can type it in the
top line of the dialog box.  If you want to look at a
different directory, you can type the name of the directory
in the top line.  You can also change the types of files
which are displayed by specifying a wildcard filename (see
your DOS manual about wildcard filenames).  Press the Enter
key to select a filename, new directory or wildcard.  To
select a file shown in the file list, you must press the Tab
key to move into the file list area.  Once you are in the
file list area, you can use the arrow keys to select a
specific file.  The files are shown in alphabetical order.
You can also move the file list pointer by typing the first
letters of the filename that you are interested in.  For
example, if the file you want starts with the letter 'R'
then you can press the R key to move the file pointer to the
beginning of the files which start with the letter R.

Special note for Microsoft products and SHARE.EXE

If you cannot access the file, check if you have SHARE.EXE
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  Some programs such as Word 6.0
require that SHARE be loaded.  The share program prevents
two programs from accessing the same file.  Check if the
file is open in another application (like your word
processor).  You will need to close the file in the other
application before you can access the file with WinProof.
You only need to close the file.  You do not have t