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LABEL MAGIC<TM> (Shareware Release 1) Graphic Label Program Documentation Copyright (C) 1989 Joseph Albanese - All rights reserved DATE: 06/11/89 SOFTWARE REGISTRATION You are granted a 14 day trial period to determine whether or not Label Magic meets your needs. After that time you must register the software. Refer to the file called ORDER.FRM to see how to order the commercial version for only $19.95 + $5 p&h. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright (C) 1989 Joseph M. Albanese. All rights reserved. You are granted a license to use the software described in this manual. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of that license, which is described following this notice. Label Magic is a trademark of Joseph M. Albanese. TRADEMARKS Throughout this manual are commercial names of products made by other manufacturers or developers. Many of these product names are either registered or unregistered trademarks of their respective manufacturers or developers. The owners of these trademarks have never expressed any approval or disapproval of NEOCOM products, nor are they associated with Label Magic, NEOCOM, or Joseph M. Albanese in any way. LICENSE AGREEMENT (Shareware Release) This software is licensed to you as an end user. IT IS NOT SOLD. The "Shareware Release" of Label Magic is fully copyrighted and may not be sold. However, as with all shareware, it may be copied freely for evaluation purposes. As a Label Magic evaluee, you are granted a 14 day trial period in which to determine its suitability. At the end of the trial period, if you wish to continue using Label Magic, you must register the software. Refer to the file called "ORDER.FRM" for registration information. There are many advantages associated with registering Label Magic. Some (and certainly not all) of these include: o Tech support o Enhanced non-shareware verson of Label Magic o Complete printed manual o Eligibility to submit your icon creations HISTORY: The Label Magic project began about a year ago when I found the need to produce professional looking labels for my shareware business. I sat down with my graph paper, a programmer's calculator and my trusty C.Itoh 8510 dot matrix printer and started to work. Well, after about three hours and a couple of screaming fits I crunched out the first label. It looked pretty good, too, I might add. The only problem was that I could only print the labels on my C.Itoh and if I wanted to make any changes I had to get back down to bitwise binary calculations. Needless to say, the labels remained unchanged. As time passed, I knew I had to do something better so I decided to make a graphic label program that would provide me with editing capability. After many months and lots of constructive criticism from my brother and friends, which I am now grateful for, Label Magic emerged. CAPABILITIES: Label Magic turned out to be much more than a great graphic label generator. Here are some of the many features available to Label Magic users: 1.GRAPHIC LABELS - With Label Magic, you'll be able to produce mailing labels with crisp 2500 dot icons. 2.MAILING LISTS - Generate mailing lists with (or without) graphic icons for batch printing. 3.ENVELOPES - If you have a printer that allows you to insert envelopes (for example: HP DeskJet, IBM Proprinter), or if you purchase form fed envelopes for other dot matrix printers, you can use Label Magic to print ICONS, ADDRESSES, either or both, directly on the envelopes. 4.LETTERHEADS - You can print the very same icons and/or addresses you use for labels as a letterhead as well. This combination of matching envelopes and letterheads produces a very professional look. 5.TEXT ICONS - Every copy of Label Magic comes complete with a utility program called "CONVICON.EXE," which facilitates the conversion of Label Magic icon files (.ICN) to and from a number of other formats, including ASCII. ASCII icons can be used in text files or word processed documents. 6.GENERAL PURPOSE ICONS - The 2500 dot icons generated by Label Magic can be converted, using the utility program mentioned above, to a form accessible to Pascal programmers. This means you can write your own Pascal routines to manipulate Label Magic graphic icons. For instance, you could use Label Magic to create single color icons for use in an animated graphics sequence for a Pascal game. GRAPHICS SUPPORT: A wide variety of graphics systems is supported by Label Magic, including: FULLY SUPPORTED CGA MCGA (Model 30) EGA AT&T 640x400 HIRES VGA (color or monochrome) PRINTER SUPPORT: Label Magic provides full support for the following printers (and compatibles): C.Itoh 8510 "Prowriter" NEC 8023 EPSON FX Series (and others) EPSON LX IBM Graphics IBM Proprinter HP DeskJet HP DeskJet Plus HP LaserJet Series II HP PaintJet Printer output may be routed to either of the following: PRN (default), LPT1 or LPT2. Serial printers are not currently supported. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Label Magic requires an IBM PC, AT, PS/2 (or compatible) computer running IBM or MS DOS 3.x with at least 512K of RAM, a parallel printer, and *hard disk drive. An MS or compatible mouse is optionally supported in the icon editor. NOTE:The computer must be equipped with one of the heretofore mentioned graphics systems. No monochrome systems (i.e Herc), other than those which emulate color systems, are supported. * Label Magic may work on a floppy system where density is sufficient. THE MAIN MENU: The first thing you will see when you run Label Magic is the MAIN MENU. ┌───────────────────────────────────────┐ │ L A B E L M A G I C Version 1.10 │ └───────────────────────────────────────┘ Copyright (C) 1989 by Joseph Albanese - All rights reserved A product of NEOCOM MAIN MENU ┌───────────────────────────────────────┐ │ O : : O │ │ : 1. LABEL MAINTENANCE : │ │ O : 2. ICON EDITOR : O │ │ :-------------------------------: │ │ O : 3 CONFIGURATION : O │ │ : 4. QUIT : │ │ O : : O │ │ :-------------------------------: │ │ O : Press the number of your : O │ │ : selection. : │ │ O : : O │ │ :-------------------------------: │ │ O : : O │ As implied by the numbering, there are four MAIN MENU options. The first time you use Label Magic, and occasionally thereafter, you should choose the CONFIGURATION option ("3"). It may seem strange to you at this point that the first thing you should do is select the third menu option; however, it will become clear to you later that these options are numbered in the order that they are most frequently accessed. Needless to say, our discussion will not necessarily follow this pattern. CONFIGURATION: To configure Label Magic to work correctly with your computer system, choose option three by pressing the "3" key. It is not necessary to follow the key press with an ENTER. ┌────────────────[ CONFIGURATION ]───────────────┐ │ │ │ PRINTER: IBM Graphics Printer │ │ OUTPUT: PRN │ │ │ │ SOUND: OFF │ │ GRAPHICS MODE: VGA │ │ │ │ OPTIONS: P:PRINTER O:OUTPUT S:SOUND G:GRAPHICS │ │ │ └─────[ Press ENTER to SAVE or ESC to ABORT ]────┘ │ O : Press the number of your : O │ │ : selection. : │ │ O : : O │ │ :-------------------------------: │ │ O : : O │ The configuration control window will pop up in front of the upper portion of the main menu. As with the main menu, the configuration menu has four options: P.PRINTER - You must configure Label Magic's graphics to be compatible with your printer. This is accomplished by repeatedly pressing "P" until the correct printer type is displayed. NOTE:It is recommended that you scan the entire printer list, even if the one you want is already selected, to ensure that the printer driver is properly installed. O.OUTPUT - In addition to telling Label Magic what type of printer you have, you must also tell how it is connected. There are three OUTPUT devices available: LPT1 and LPT2 "LPT1" should work for most applications; however, if you do need to change this setting, do so by repeatedly pressing the "O" key on your computer keyboard. S.SOUND - Pressing "S" will toggle the SOUND option between "ON" and "OFF." If "OFF" is selected, most sounds generated by Label Magic will be suppressed. G.GRAPHICS MODE - Use the "G" key to select the graphics mode which is the best your system can support. In order of resolution they are: CGA, EGA, AT&T, MCGA (Model 30) and VGA, where VGA has the highest resolution and CGA the lowest. When you have made all necessary changes and are ready to save those settings, press ENTER. This will store all configuration settings and return you to the main menu. If you decide that you do NOT wish to keep the changes, simply press ESC to return to the main menu. The LABEL MAINTENANCE option is selected from the main menu by pressing the "1" key. You will undoubtedly spend the majority of your time in this option while using Label Magic. Here is a list of the kinds of things you can do in LABEL MAINTENANCE: Label Editing Label List Management Icon/Label Browse Label Preview Label/Letterhead/Envelope Printing View File List DOS Shell Let's take a look at the LABEL MAINTENANCE screen. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ LABEL MAGIC Label Maintenance Copyright (C) 1989 by Joseph Albanese │ ├─────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │█▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▌ │ █▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▌ │ │█ DIRECTORY ▌ │ █ MENU ▌ │ │█──────────────▌ │ █──────────────────────────────────────────────────────▌ │ │█ COMPUTER.ICN ▌ │ █ ▌ │ │█ DISK.ICN ▌ │ █ 1. CREATE/EDIT LABELS ▌ │ │█ FLOWERS.ICN ▌ │ █ ▌ │ │█ IBM.ICN ▌ │ █ 2. CREATE/EDIT LISTS ▌ │ │█ MONEY.ICN ▌ │ █ ▌ │ │█ BASSETT.ICN ▌ │ █ 3. BROWSE ▌ │ │█ NEOCOM.ICN ▌ │ █ ▌ │ │█ PATTERNS.ICN ▌ │ █ 4. PRINTING ▌ │ │█ TELEPHON.ICN ▌ │ █ ▌ │ │█ HEART.ICN ▌ │ █ 5. DOS SHELL ▌ │ │█ BHEART.ICN ▌ │ █ ▌ │ │█ HOUSE.ICN ▌ │ █ 6. DIRECTORY OPTIONS ▌ │ │█ NEO3.ICN ▌ │ █ ▌ │ │█──────────────▌ │ █──────────────────────────────────────────────────────▌ │ │█ ▌ │ █ Choose an option (1-6), or press ESC to return ▌ │ │█▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▌ │ █▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▌ │ ├─────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ PATH: C:\LM DISK USAGE: 92.5% DATE: 05/20/89 │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ STATUS LINE: At the bottom of the screen you should see a status line containing three fields. First, on the left, the drive letter and path of where you were at the time you ran Label Magic is displayed. Second, in the middle, is the percentage of disk space currently used up. And finally, on the right, the current system date is shown. DIRECTORY: Occupying about one quarter of the screen and flush against the left side of the screen, you will notice a window labeled "DIRECTORY." As its name suggests, this is a directory list of all the files currently in the Label Magic directory. There are several directory options which will be discussed soon, but for now try using the UP and DOWN arrow keys to scroll back and forth through the entire list of files in the directory. MENU: The remainder of the label maintenance screen is occupied by a MENU box. There are six options associated with this screen, which we will discuss in order and in detail in the following pages. DATA FILE TYPES: Before we talk about these options, we should take a moment to examine the three basic data file types associated with Label Magic: icons, labels and lists. ICONS:Graphic icons generated by Label Magic (see ICON EDITOR) are stored in condensed, individual files which occupy 350 bytes. The file names are specified by the user; however, they all share the ".ICN" file extension. There is also a special un-compressed icon file format specifically for Pascal programmers. To find out more about it, refer to the programmer's section. LABELS:As with icons, labels also are stored as individual files, but with the ".LBL" file extension. The label file contains all label information, including the name of the (optional) graphic icon. This "separate file" technique has many advantages. For one thing, it is not necessary to store 350 bytes of an icon in every label file. Rather, only 8 bytes (extension assumed) is required to store the NAME of the icon. LISTS:Label Magic label LISTS are nothing more than random access files containing the name of each label in the list. All other information is gathered dynamically when you are working with lists. Analogous to the "separate file" argument above, since lists are only required to store the name of a label, each element in the list requires only 8 bytes. This technique allows greater flexibility with lists. For instance, since list files are very small, you may generate many lists which all draw from one label pool. CREATE/EDIT LABELS: This option (No. 1 in LABEL MAINTENANCE) is for creating a new label or for editing an existing one. The mode, either CREATE or EDIT, is selected automatically depending on whether or not the label already exists. To choose this option, press "1" on your keyboard. The MENU will be replaced by a pop-up label editing screen similar to this one: ┌─────────────────[ CREATE/EDIT LABELS ]─────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ LABEL : ░░░░░░░░ │ │ │ │ ICON : ░░░░░░░░ (Blank=No icon) │ │ │ │ FONT (0-4): 0░ (0=Standard print) │ │ │ │ ADDRESS : │ │ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │ │ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │ │ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │ │ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │ │ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │ │ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ │ │ │ └────[ F1:SAVE F2:LOAD F3:PREV F4:CLEAR ESC:QUIT ]───┘ The first thing you should do when creating a label is enter a name for it. Be sure you do not specify a name which is already in use or the existing label may be erased. Press ENTER to move on to the next field. Now enter the name of any (optional) graphic icon for the label. Icons are small graphic symbols created in the icon editor, and are printed on the left side of the label. If you do not wish to use an icon simply leave this field blank. Fonts are also optional. Enter a number (0-4) to select various fonts. We recommend that you start out by using font "0" and experiment later to achieve the best results. Fonts vary considerably from printer to printer. In fact, on some printers it may make little or no difference at all. For users of the HP PaintJet, the font number actually selects a color for the text portion of the label. The last step in creating a new label is to enter the address (and/or whatever other text) information is to be printed. Six text lines are provided for each label. It should be noted that six lines are a lot to cram onto a single label and that normally, unless you don't mind the lines being so close together, you should double-space. In other words, skip a line between address lines. Before you save this new label, you may want to take a preview of what the printed product will look like. The PREVIEW feature is selected by pressing the function key "F3." This is one of the more powerful features of Label Magic. It provides you with a true WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET (WYSIWYG) view of what a label will look like when it is printed. The only exception to PREVIEW's accuracy is that font selections are not taken into account. Other function options are listed at the bottom of the editing screen. When everything is correct, you are ready to save the newly created label. To SAVE the label, press "F1". If you receive a warning that the label you are attempting to save "ALREADY EXISTS," then either change the name in the "LABEL" field or tell Label Magic to overwrite the old one. At any time during the editing process you may press "ESC" to abort the edit and return to the LABEL MAINTENANCE menu, or "F4" to clear all fields and start over. NEW LABELS: All you have to do to edit an existing label is enter the name in the "LABEL" field and press "F2" to load the current label information. Once loaded, everything else is exactly as if you were creating a new one. DELETING LABELS: The only way a label can be deleted is to delete the DOS file which contains it. This may be done either by exiting Label Magic or by choosing the "DOS SHELL" feature to get into DOS, and then using the DOS "DEL" command to delete the "????????.LBL" file for the given label. A NOTE ABOUT TEXT EDITING: All text input routines in Label Magic work identically. Type the information into the selected field, then press ENTER to move on. NOTE:There is one exception to this rule. When in the label editor, you may use the UP/DOWN arrow keys to move from field to field. This makes editing easier; however, it also means that directory scrolling is not allowed. To correct a typing mistake, use the BACKSPACE key. And finally, to change a field which already contains information, simply type over the old text and press ENTER. Whatever is in BOLD PRINT at the time when you hit the ENTER key replaces what was in the field. CREATE/EDIT LISTS: This option (No. 2 in LABEL MAINTENANCE) is for creating a new label list or for editing an existing one. The mode (CREATE or EDIT), just as with CREATE/EDIT LABELS, is selected automatically depending on whether or not the list already exists. To choose this option, press "2" on your keyboard. You will be prompted to enter a list name. The prompt window looks very much like the one seen below: ┌──────────[ CREATE/EDIT A LIST ]───────────┐ │ │ │ List name? ░░░░░░░░ │ │ │ └───────────────[ ESC=ABORT ]───────────────┘ Whether you're creating a new list or editing an existing one, type the name and press ENTER. The pop-up list editing screen should now be visible in front of the label maintenance menu. A sample view is depicted below: ┌──────────────[ EDITING AND EXISTING LIST ]─────────────┐ │ │ │ List : SAMPLE │ │ │ │ Label : LM (16 of 21) │ │ Icon : LM │ │ │ │ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ LABEL MAGIC │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ P.O. Box 1157 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Bassett, Virginia 24055 │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ F1:NEXT F2:PRIOR F3:MOD F4:ADD F5:DEL │ │ │ └───────────[ Choose a function (or ESC=QUIT) ]──────────┘ Subsequent to an in-depth discussion on the uses and capabilities of Label Magic's list feature, I would like to take a moment to review its limitations. LIMITATIONS: The primary function of Label Magic is to produce mailing labels with graphic icons. It is further assumed that the primary use for its labels will be for return addresses. However, we simply couldn't distribute a label program of any kind that had no list capabilities. Moreover, it would not make sense to require that all labels carry icons. For this reason Label Magic does support non-graphic labels and does have rudimentary mailing list capabilities. In short, if you have a $20,000,000.00 company and wish to generate a mailing list with thousands of addresses, this is not the program you should be using. Nonetheless, if you have a group of from 10 to 300 addresses, then Label Magic will have no trouble handling that. With that out of the way, let us discuss the operation of Label Magic lists. The five fields of interest within the editing window are: LIST:Contains the name of the list currently selected. LABEL:Contains the name of the label, within the currently selected list, being viewed. NOTE:This is the only user-modifiable field. LABEL NUMBER:The label number field, in the form "(xx of xx)," tells which label is currently in view and how many total labels are in the list. ICON:The name of the icon (if any) which is associated with the label being viewed. LABEL BOX:Displays the contents of the address portion of the label being viewed. A label list may be traversed in four ways. The first two are "NEXT" and "PRIOR," which are selected by "F1" and "F2," respectively. As implied by their names, "NEXT" means to advance by one label and "PRIOR" to move backward through the list by one. The other two ways to traverse a list are "HOME" and "END." Pressing the "HOME" key will place you at the beginning of a list and "END" will put you at the last label. ADDING NEW LABELS: To add a new label (or group of labels, using wildcards) to a new or previously existing list, press "F4" on your keyboard. This will place the cursor at the beginning of the "LABEL" field. At this point you have two options: 1.Type the name of a label and press ENTER to add it to the list. 2.Use wildcards, identical to those used by DOS, to add an entire group of labels to the list automatically. Option 1 is fairly straightforward. That method simply attaches a single label to the list and is self explanatory. Option 2, on the other hand, is a bit more complex and requires greater discussion. If a situation arises where you have a group of similarly named labels which you would like to add to the list, you may be able to use wildcards to add the entire group automatically. For example, if you've created five labels whose names are the same and unique (at least for the first few characters), you could use a "?" or an "*" to combine them. If the names were LABEL1, LABEL2, ..., LABEL5, for instance, you could enter "LABEL?" in the label field and all five labels would be appended to the list. You could also use "LABEL*" to accomplish the same thing. The difference between using "?" and using "*" is that the "?" is used to replace a single (wild) character, but "*" replaces all characters to the end of the name. In other words, "LAB*" would work, but "LAB?" would not. Keep in mind also that if you enter "LAB*" that you may accidentally bring in labels with names such as "LABAMBA." This brings to mind another very important point. When you are creating labels that you know will be used later in a list, be sure to give all the labels similar names (those which have identical characters starting from the left). This will make building the list effortless later. In addition to adding new labels to a list, two other methods for making modifications to a list exist, MOD and DEL. MOD, which stands for "MODIFY," will allow you to change the label that is in the current position (#16 shown previously) in the list to some other label. In other words, if you type in some other label's name in place of whichever one you are currently viewing, that label will then become label number "16" (in the previous example). Entering blanks will make label number "16" a blank label such that nothing will be printed in its place. The last feature available, "DEL," as its name indicates, allows you to remove a label from the list entirely. THIS DOES NOT ERASE THE LABEL, but rather it removes the label's name from the current list. DELETING LISTS: The only way a list can be deleted is to delete its DOS file, which can only be done from DOS. List files end with the extension ".LST" and are usually the least common. BROWSE: Another great Label Magic feature in the WYSIWYG category is BROWSE. BROWSE is option 3 from the Label Maintenance menu and is selected by pressing the "3" key when the menu is in view. The two browse options are: 1. Browse Icons 2. Browse Labels ┌────────────────[ BROWSE ]─────────────────┐ │ │ │ Browse ICONS or LABELS (I/L)? │ │ │ └───────────────[ ESC=ABORT ]───────────────┘ When you see the window displayed above, enter either "I" to browse icons, "L" to browse labels, or press ESC to abort and go back to the maintenance menu. To "browse" simply means to view (graphically) each icon or label in the Label Magic directory, one at a time. This feature, even though graphic oriented, supports all Label Magic graphics modes -- including CGA. PRINTING: Option 4, selected by pressing the "4" key from the label maintenance menu, is the option to choose whenever you wish to print anything. There is one exception to this rule, though. The ICON EDITOR allows you to print a single icon just to see what it's going to look like (refer to ICON EDITOR section). The first thing you have to do is select the type of printing you will be doing. A query window, pictured below, will pop up prompting you to enter your selection. ┌────────────────[ PRINT OPTIONS ]───────────────┐ │ │ │ 1.LABELS 2.LISTS 3.LETTERHEADS 4.FORMFEED │ │ │ └──────────────────[ ESC=ABORT ]─────────────────┘ To make the choice, hit the number key corresponding to your selection. As with most menus, it is NOT necessary to press the ENTER key. PRINTING LABELS: When printing, Label Magic assumes you are using "1-wide" labels. By "1-wide," we mean that there is only one label across the width of the label sheet. This does not mean that you cannot print "2-wide" labels; however, it does mean that you won't be able to do it in a single pass. We recommend the following labels: For dot matrix printers: AVERY 4145 3.5" x 15/16" fanfold pressure-sensitive adhesive TANDY Cat. No. 26-1328 3.5" x 15/16" x 4.25"carrier fanfold adhesive For LASER/DESKJET printers: AVERY 5161 8.5" x 11" self-adhesive sheets Other brands should work as long as the dimensions are the same. LABELS (one or more copies of a single label): Option 1 is for printing one or more copies of a single label. To select this option, press "1" on your keyboard. You will then be asked whether or not to include the address. This might seem like a silly question, but there are certain to be occasions when you wish only to print the graphic icons. Finally, be sure the labels are properly aligned, then enter the number of labels which are to be printed. It's a good idea to print only 1 label at a time until you are sure the paper alignment is correct, and (believe it or not) to be sure that the printer is turned on. That's it. 2-WIDE LABELS: If you are using a LASER printer, DeskJet printer with 2-wide labels (such as AVERY 5161) or if you have 2-wide labels on a dot matrix printer, simply print half of the desired number of labels and then reinsert the labels so that the remainder of the labels are printed upside down and on the other side. Another safeguard you might wish to take is to cycle power OFF and back ON on your printer to be sure that the default settings are restored. Label Magic makes few assumptions regarding the status of the printer prior to printing. LISTS (one or more copies of a LIST of labels): Option 2 is for printing "Label lists," which were discussed in detail in the earlier section, CREATE/EDIT LISTS. Printing label lists is exactly like printing labels, with one exception. Instead of specifying the name of a particular label, you indicate the name of a list to be printed. Just as with printing a label, you must tell whether or not addresses should be included on the printouts. And, you must indicate the number of times the list should be printed. LETTERHEADS: Label Magic allows you to print matching letterheads to go along with those beautiful-looking labels. Select this option (print option 3) by pressing "3" on your keyboard, from the PRINT OPTIONS pop-up menu. As with printing labels and lists, the options associated with printing letterheads are the same. You specify which label, whether or not to include the address, and the number of letterheads (or pages). There is one additional option, though, and that is whether a letterhead dividing line should be printed. A dividing line is exactly what its name indicates, a line between the letterhead and the body of a future document. FORM FEED (particularly important for LASER users): That last print option, number 4, provides you with a way to make your printer do a form feed (advance one sheet) without leaving your desk chair. If you are using Label Magic in conjunction with a LASER printer, you may find it necessary to initiate a form feed after sending other printing instructions, before the printer actually begins to print. We found in our testing that many LASER printers only begin printing once a form feed character is received. We preferred not to hard-code form feeds since there are many instances where one doesn't wish to feed the paper until a series of labels have been printed on a particular page. In this way you could manually send label print commands for a number of labels and then send the form feed to instruct the print to send the sheet through. Getting back to the LABEL MAINTENANCE menu, we will now discuss the last two menu options "5" and "6," which are "DOS SHELL" and "DIRECTORY OPTIONS," respectively. DOS SHELL: "DOS SHELL" provides a quick way to get into and out of DOS without ever actually leaving Label Magic. To enter a DOS SHELL, simply press "5" on your keyboard and there you'll be. Remember to type "EXIT" and press ENTER as soon as you have completed your work in DOS, to get back into Label Magic. This is important since it is easy to forget you are in a shell. The DOS SHELL is quite handy for deleting an icon, a label, a list or a group of any of those using standard DOS "DEL" commands. DIRECTORY OPTIONS: As you know by now the label maintenance screen contains a directory listing, to the left. When you first come into label maintenance ALL files in the Label Magic directory are displayed. You should also know by now that pressing the UP/DOWN arrow keys allows you to scroll up or down through the entire file list. This would be fine, but you don't always care to see all the files in the Label Magic directory. This is the reason for option 6, DIRECTORY OPTIONS. Press "6" from the label maintenance menu and you will be presented with the following directory options: ┌───────────[ DIRECTORY OPTIONS ]───────────┐ │ │ │ 1. SHOW ICONS 2. SHOW LABELS │ │ 3. SHOW LISTS 4. SHOW ALL │ │ │ └───────────────[ ESC=ABORT ]───────────────┘ Press a "1" now and only icon (.ICN) files will be visible in the directory window. Press a "2" and only label (.LBL) files are shown. Press a "3" and only list (.LST) files are apparent. Directory option "4" will cause all files to, again, be displayed. These options are very helpful when invoked just prior to label or list editing. For example, if you are going to work on a list, it is very helpful if only labels are visible. It is even more important when editing labels, because UP/DOWN directory scrolling is temporarily disabled. The most powerful feature of Label Magic is its ability to produce professional labels with graphic icons. All sample icons you may have already seen were created using the ICON EDITOR. To invoke the editor, press "2" from the MAIN MENU. There are four primary fields of interest, which we will discuss in detail, within the editor screen: 1. Options List - left 2. Status Area - lower left 3. Editor Box - center 4. Preview Box - right center NOTE TO MOUSE USERS: Label Magic supports MS (or compatible) mice and drivers. If you have any difficulty getting a mouse or driver working, be sure you have the most recent version of the driver. If everything goes well you should be able to see a small arrow inside the icon box which moves with the mouse. But getting back to the icon editor screen, as we said, there are four primary areas. OPTION LIST:This is the list of options on the left side of the editor screen. There are twenty editor options, all of which we will soon discuss. STATUS AREA:In the lower left corner of the screen you will see messages telling of the status of various features. For instance, "SILENT" displayed means that the sound effects are being suppressed. Other status messages include: "DRAW," "ERASE" and "CIRCLE." EDITOR BOX:The square (or rectangular, depending on aspect ratio) box in the middle of the screen is known as the "EDITOR BOX." This box is the area where icon editing actually takes place. If you are using a mouse, you have likely noticed by now that the mouse cursor's movement is limited to the confines of the editor box. Hence, even if you use a mouse for icon editing, editor options must still be selected from the keyboard. PREVIEW BOX:On the right side of the editor screen, about half way from the top, you will see a small box labeled "PREVIEW." It is a miniature version of the editor box, whose purpose it is to allow you to see (approximately) what the icon will look like when printed. EDITOR OPTIONS: F1:DIRECTORY Pressing the function key "F1" will take you temporarily out of the graphics-based icon editor and into a directory utility. The utility allows you to scroll through the entire Label Magic directory, enabling you to check for existing icons, etc. Notice that all icon files (those ending in .ICN) are highlighted. This will help you sift through a long list for a particular icon file. To abort the directory utility, simply press "ESC" and you will find yourself right back inside the editor. F2:CLEAR The purpose of the "clear" option is to erase the contents of the editor and preview boxes. F3:TOGGLE Pressing "F3" will cause whichever tiny block the square cursor is on at the time to be toggled "ON" or "OFF." For example, if the block is ON at the time you press F3, then it will be toggled back OFF. F4:COMPLEMENT This option might have been more appropriately named "INVERSE." I say this because the effect of hitting "F4" is that the entire contents of the editor box is converted to inverse video. That is to say, all "ON" blocks are turned off and all "OFF" blocks are turned on. People familiar with the binary compliment will understand why it is so named. F5:ROTATE Choosing this option will cause the entire contents of the editor box to be rotated, in a clockwise direction, by 90 degrees. Press F5 four times and the image will be back to its original attitude. F6:CIRCLE To really appreciate this option, try making a large circle manually sometime. The way it works is that you position the cursor on a block that is to be the center of the resulting circle, then press F6. The word "CIRCLE" should appear down in the status area now. Label Magic is now waiting for you to press a number key in the range 1-9. The number represents, approximately, the length of the radius of the circle (in blocks). Play around with this feature for awhile to get a good feel for the size of the circles relative to the numbers. F7:DRAW Use this option when you wish to create a series of connecting blocks, a line for example. Hit F7 and the message "DRAW" will appear in the status area. This will stay on until F7 is again pressed to toggle it back off. Pressing any of the (Home,PgUp,UP,DOWN, etc.) keys will move the block cursor, leaving a trail of highlighted blocks. NOTE:Do not use this feature when you use a mouse for drawing. F8:ERASE This does exactly the opposite of what DRAW does. F8 toggles between ERASE "ON" and ERASE "OFF." Cursor movement, by means of the keyboard, will leave a trail of "OFF" blocks. Pressing any of the (Home,PgUp,UP,DOWN, etc.) direction keys will move the block cursor, leaving a trail of blank blocks. NOTE:Again, do not use this option when you are drawing using a mouse. F9:SILENT You will find that there are a number of beeps, bells and whistles which help enhance Label Magic's user interface. F9 allows you to silence the sound effects, except for some warnings, for those times when you simply don't wish to hear them. Press F9 again to turn the sound effects back on. ^P:PRINT The key combination CTRL-P (CTRL key and P key held simultaneously), which is represented here by "^P", permits you to send the current icon image to your printer for review. This is particularly helpful for users with EGA graphics systems, since the screen image is distorted by an elongated aspect ratio. U:SHIFT UP This feature allows you to shift the entire icon image up one pixel row. Portions of the icon that are shifted off the top are wrapped back to the bottom row. D:SHIFT DOWN Exactly the same as "SHIFT UP," except that the icon is shifted downward and that portions of the icon that are shifted off the bottom are wrapped back to the top row. L:SHIFT LEFT Similar to U and D, except that icons are shifted to the left and that portions shifted off the left side are wrapped back to the right side. R:SHIFT RIGHT Exactly like L, except that icons are shifted to the right. ^V:FLIP VERT If you want to turn the icon completely upside down, press CTRL-V. ^H:FLIP HORIZ To flip an image sideways press CTRL-H, producing a mirror image of the original. ^B:BROWSE "BROWSE" lets you skim through all the icons in the Label Magic directory. The icon images are shown inside the preview box. As we mentioned earlier, the preview box is the small box on the right side of the screen that looks like a small framed picture. Notice that during the browse cycle the word "PREVIEW" is replaced by "BROWSE." As each icon is displayed, so too is its name. The name is displayed immediately below the preview box. To load an icon directly into Label Magic, type "L" while it is in view inside the BROWSE box. This subroutine will take you temporarily out the graphics mode and wait for you to type in the icon name to be loaded. ^S:SAVE The CTRL-S key combination allows you to save the currently selected icon work for later printing. Be sure you do not give the new file the same name as an existing one or all the information on the original will be replaced by what is on the new one. ^L:LOAD Use CTRL-L to load a pre-existing icon. Keep in mind that the icon currently in view will be lost when you load a different one. ESC=EXIT Use the ESC key at any time to exit the editor. Save your work! PITFALLS: DON'T(S): The following are examples of things you should NOT do while editing icons. o DON'T LOAD ANOTHER ICON PRIOR TO SAVING YOUR CURRENT ONE. o DON'T DRAW USING THE KEYBOARD WHEN THE MOUSE WILL DO THE JOB BETTER. o DON'T USE A MOUSE WHEN THE KEYBOARD MIGHT BE EASIER. DO(S): The following are examples of things you SHOULD do while editing icons. o DO SAVE WORK FREQUENTLY, THUS REDUCING DAMAGE CAUSED BY DON'T(S). o DO USE A MOUSE, IF YOU HAVE ONE. o DO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALL EDITOR OPTIONS TO SAVE YOURSELF WORK. TURBO PASCAL PROGRAMMERS: This file contains the [Turbo] Pascal data and file structure for Label Magic unpacked icons. Label Magic icons are normally stored packed and must be converted to unpacked (using CONVICON.EXE, mentioned below) so that they may be used with the following structure. CONST MaxX = 50; MaxY = 50; TYPE { UnPacked Icon DATA TYPE } Icon_Type = ARRAY[1..MaxX,1..MaxY] OF BOOLEAN; VAR Icon : Icon_Type; IconF : FILE OF Icon_Type; { Random access file type } COMMENTS: Icons are stored as record #0 in the random access file, IconF. Your programs may shell into the conversion program (CONVICON.EXE), using the appropriate parameters, to UNPACK the 350 byte icons. Packed (350 byte) icons may be converted either to "unpacked" (shown above), "TEXT" ('*' and ' ') or ASCII ('█', '▄', '▀', or ' '). SIMPLE PROGRAMMING EXAMPLE: {$M 16000,0,0} PROGRAM Load_Icon; USES Dos; TYPE Icon_Type = ARRAY[1..50,1..50] OF BOOLEAN; VAR Icon : Icon_Type; IconF : FILE OF Icon_Type; BEGIN EXEC( 'CONVICON.EXE',' U LM.ICN LM.ICN' ); { UnPack ICON } ASSIGN( IconF,'LM.ICN' ); RESET( IconF ); READ(IconF,Icon); CLOSE(IconF); . . . . . . Do graphics whatever. . . . EXEC( 'CONVICON.EXE',' P LM.ICN LM.ICN' ); { Pack ICON } END. CONVICON.EXE Information (as seen from the DOS command line): CONVICON Version 1.0 - Copyright (C)1989 NEOCOM by Joseph M. Albanese Label Magic Icon Utility SYNTAX: C>convicon [OPTION] <infile.ext> <outfile.ext> OPTIONS: T - Convert a packed icon (350 byte) to a text icon I - Convert a text icon to a packed icon (350 byte) A - Convert a packed icon (350 byte) to an ASCII icon B - Convert an ASCII icon BACK to a packed icon U - Convert a packed icon (350 byte) to an UNpacked icon (2500 byte) P - Convert an unpacked icon (2500 byte) to a PACKed icon (350 byte) EXAMPLES: C>convicon t lm.icn lm.txt C>convicon a lm.icn lm.asc C>convicon b lm.asc lm.icn ONE FINAL NOTE: The unpacked icons, produced in label magic, do not necessarily have to be stored one-per-file. A random access file of many [unpacked] icons could be used to store an animation sequence of single-color objects to be used in a game, for instance. Label Magic is a product of NEOCOM, P.O. Box 1157, Bassett, Virginia 24055 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEOCOM Registration Form SEND THIS FORM TO: LABEL MAGIC REGISTRATION c/o NEOCOM MicroSpecialists P.O. Box 1157 Bassett, VA 24055 What you get by registering: 1. The latest, enhanced, non-shareware version of LABEL MAGIC which includes at least the following improvements: o Multiple label printing o Label list printing 2. Complete printed documentation, containing detailed and more in-depth discussion of many of Label Magic's features. The shareware documentation is only an excerpt from the complete manual. 3. Telephone VOICE/BBS technical support. Please make checks ($19.95 + $5 p&h US funds only) payable to : NEOCOM P.O. Box 1157 Bassett, VA 24055 Send your check, along with the following registration form: Your name _______________________________ Phone: ( )___-_____ Address ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ City _________________________ State _________ Zip Code ________ Computer Type _________________________________ Program name (i.e. LABEL MAGIC) ______________ Version ______ Preferred diskette type: ___ 3.5" ___ 5.25" We would also appreciate any input you would care to give concerning NEOCOM products. If you have any ideas or comments that would make them better programs please let us know. Are you ever confused as to what to do next at any point in the program? We are working hard to make our products the best, most useful, and affordable in their classes on the market today. With your input we will be well on our way to achieving that goal. ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ NOTE: Don't forget to include the registration/handling fee.