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FORMDOIT.TXT
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1991-08-10
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FormDoIt! (Version 1.2d)
by Dan Wilga
Copyright © 1991, Gribnif Software. All Rights Reserved.
This program may be distributed without charge, provided that this text
file is present and that it and the program files are unmodified.
Overview
--------
The FormDoIt! program replaces the parts of the GEM environment that
handles the standard dialog and alert boxes that appear in most Atari
programs. Enhancements that FormDoIt! offers include:
o Keyboard Equivalents for dialog and alert box buttons.
o [Undo] key to exit dialog and alert boxes.
o Enhanced editable text fields.
o Ability to insert extended characters into editable text fields.
o Editable alert box icons.
o Control over the default exit button in alerts and dialogs.
Included Files
--------------
This archive should include the following files:
1. FORMDOIT.PRG - The FormDoIt! utility.
2. FORMDOIT.TXT - The file you are reading now.
3. ENGLISH .UND - Sample English [Undo] keywords.
4. GERMAN .UND - Sample German [Undo] keywords.
5. DEFAULT .BL3 - FormDoIt! default alert box icons.
6. BORING .BL3 - Original system alert box icons.
7. INVERSE .BL3 - Inverse version of original system alert box icons.
Installation
------------
Place the FORMDOIT.PRG in your system's AUTO folder. Optionally, you
can also install it by running it from the desktop of your choice.
Enhancements
------------
Default Button
--------------
Normally, if you press the [Return] key while in a dialog or alert box,
the "default" exit button is selected. This button can usually be
identified by its extra thick border.
With FormDoIt! you can change which of the exit buttons is considered
the default by holding down the [Alternate] key and pressing the [Tab]
key. When you do this, you should see the thick border move from one
exit button to the next.
This change is not permanent, many programs will automatically return
the default button back once you exit that dialog or alert box.
Exit Button
-----------
When using FormDoIt!, if you press the [Undo] key, the first button
found that contains the word "Cancel", "Quit", "Exit", "Abort", or "No"
will be selected.
Since all buttons in a dialog and alert box are in an internal order,
it will choose the button that makes the first match (even if there is
more than one button with a string that matches).
You can change the strings used by FormDoIt! for this feature by
creating a file called FORMDOIT.UND. If FormDoIt! finds this file when
it first runs (in the same directory it was run from), the file
contents are used instead of the previous mentioned strings. The file
is a simple text file with each button string on a line by itself.
There should be no empty lines in the file, and the carriage return
should immediately follow the last letter of each line. The included
GERMAN.UND file can be renamed to FORMDOIT.UND if you happen to use
German programs. If you wish to create your own custom FORMDOIT.UND
file, you can use the ENGLISH.UND as a guide.
Buttons
-------
FormDoIt! provides keyboard equivalents for all the other buttons in a
dialog or alert box. FormDoIt! scans all the buttons in the dialog box
and assigns each one a unique keyboard equivalent. When the dialog box
appears, it will look slightly different because there will be short
lines underneath characters in most of the buttons. If you hold down
the [Alternate] key and press the character that is underlined, that
button will be selected. Up to 20 buttons in a dialog can have
[Alternate] key assignments.
The method for choosing which letter to assign to a specific button is
rather simple. FormDoIt! scans all the buttons in order and looks for
the first unique character (that has not been used before) in that
button. Once it finds it, it assigns it that key and underlines the
letter. If a button has no unique characters (because they all were
already used in the dialog box) then it will not receive a keyboard
equivalent. The scanning is done following the internal order of all
the dialog box buttons.
If you don't like the "underline" keyboard equivalents, you can turn
this feature off. This is done by holding down both [Shift] keys and
pressing the [Backspace] key. You will hear a short sound effect
indicating your selection. Pressing these keys again will turn the
"underline" keyboard equivalents back on.
See the "Configuration Options" section for more information on how to
more permanently turn this feature on or off.
Some dialog boxes will look odd if these underscores are not undrawn
before control returns to the program that called FormDoIt. If this is
a concern, you can permanently configure FormDoIt to always undraw the
underscores. See the "Configuration Options" section.
Alert Boxes
-----------
When FormDoIt is active, you can not only use Alternate key combinations
to activate alert buttons, you can also use the 1, 2, 3, F1, F2, or F3
keys to choose a particular button within the alert. The buttons are
numbered, from left to right, 1 to 3.
Alerts can be temporarily removed from the screen. Clicking with both
mouse buttons on any area other than a button will cause the alert box
to disappear. As soon as both buttons are released, the alert will appear
again. This is handy for situations where you want to see what is
"underneath" an alert.
With FormDoIt! you can define what the standard alert box icons (stop
sign, question mark, and exclamation mark) look like. Once you use
FormDoIt! you will see that it changes these (I got bored of the same
old ones).
If FormDoIt! finds a file called FORMDOIT.BL3 at bootup, the icons
contained in that file are used in place of the default ones inside of
FormDoIt!. Included with this program are three files:
BORING .BL3 - These are the old standard GEM alert box icons.
DEFAULT.BL3 - These are the defaults FormDoIt! normally uses.
INVERSE.BL3 - These are an inverse version of DEFAULT.BL3.
The .BL3 files are in Degas Elite block format. They can be edited and
re-saved using Degas Elite. If you edit them, you must be very careful
to make sure that the new file you save is a block that is exactly
32x96. The "Snap" feature in Degas is helpful for this purpose.
Editable Text Fields
--------------------
An editable text field is a string within a dialog box that has a
vertical line cursor so that you can modify it with the keyboard.
FormDoIt! emulates the normal GEM dialog text field functions:
o The [Tab] and down-arrow keys move to the next editable field.
o The up-arrow key moves to the previous editable field.
o The left and right-arrow keys move the cursor within a field.
o The [Esc] key clears an editable field.
o The [Backspace] and [Delete] keys delete characters before and
after the cursor.
o The mouse can be used to select an editable field.
It also adds a number of extensions:
o [Tab] and down-arrow will move the cursor to the first editable
field in a dialog box if it is already at the last one.
o Up-arrow will also wrap, from the first field to the last.
o [Shift] left-arrow will move the cursor to the leftmost character,
and [Shift] right-arrow will move all the way to the right.
o If there is no default button in a dialog box, the [Return] key
will advance the cursor to the next editable field.
o The mouse will position the cursor to the character closest to
where the mouse button was pressed, not just to the end of the
line.
It also lets