"CrossMyPath" ("CMP" for short) is a "HyperText" application in a HyperCard 2.0 stack. It allows for easy creation of text-links ("WordRefs") between cards, as well as graphic-links ("PicRefs") between a card and a graphic stored elsewhere.
When you're reading through CMP's cards, hypertext links are indicated by phrases in text entries which have received special text formatting: the "group" formatting under a word or phrase means that a text link to another card with the same name exists. By Option-Clicking on that WordRef, the user will go immediately to the other card. A phrase formatted "group" & "outline" means that a hypertext link exists to a graphic stored elsewhere on disk. By Option-Shift-Clicking on that PicRef the user will immediately see a copy of the graphic (without leaving the current card).
HyperCard makes possible all these "hypertext" features, yet it is not a true hypertext application: the creation of hypertext documents, containing many hypertext links, is not facilitated by HyperCard. On the other hand, "CrossMyPath" is a "hypertext authoring system": It facilitates the creation of hypertext links between text and graphic; navigation between cards; searching of cards; report-writing; and has many other features. Following is a list of some of the features provided by CrossMyPath:
• As many cards as are desired can be created. Each card must be assigned a name, and each name must be unique.
• Text can be entered directly into the single text field on each card, or it may be imported.
• Besides this text information, a graphic can be associated with the card via a "Picture Link": the name and location on disk of a particular graphic (of type PAINT or PICT) are stored in invisible fields on the card. This Picture Link is immediately searched out by CMP when the user Shift-Option-Clicks on any phrase which is of text style "group" & "outline": CMP will find the name and path of that graphic stored on the card with the same name as the phrase, and open a copy of that graphic.
• A PAINT-style graphic (a "Card Drawing") can be made "on top" of any card. This type graphic is different from the Picture Link graphics mentioned above: they are separate graphics files stored away from the stack.
• Card Drawings can be converted into separate graphic files and a Picture Link established to these graphics by CMP.
• "WordRefs", or text links between a phrase and another card of the same name as the phrase, can be created easily in CMP. So can "PicRefs", or links between a phrase on one card and another card of the same name as the phrase, when the second card also has a Picture Link to it. After a user highlights any phrase, it can be converted into a WordRef or PicRef by simply selecting "Create WordRef..." or "Create PicRef..." from the CMP menu. If a card with the same name as the highlighted phrase already exists, the highlighted phrase will automatically be converted into "group" formatting, if a WordRef is being created; if a card does not already exist, it will be automatically created, followed by the conversion of the phrase to the "group" formatting. If a PicRef is being created, CMP will automatically create a new card, if one does not exist; and it will prompt the user to find a graphic to associate with the card via a "Picture Link".
• The "Auto Cross Referencing" feature allows the user to select one, some or all card names from a dialog box, and to cause all occurrences of those phrases on the current card or on all cards in the stack, to be converted into either a WordRef or a PicRef (only possible if a Picture Link exists to the card name(s) selected).
• From within the first, or "Index", card, the user may carry out a search for all cards containing a specific WordRef or PicRef. Any single card can alternatively be searched to see which WordRefs or PicRefs are found on it. (The results of both searches appear in the standard CMP dialog box, which allows the results to be saved to disk or printed out.)
• The second card in the stack is the "HelpCard". It contains a very thorough, 60K manual to the features of CMP (and includes PicRefs to graphics stored on 20 cards which come with the stack). Additional help is available in the form of an online help file available from within every card.
• Besides the above-mentioned searches to see which cards contain a particular WordRef or PicRef, it is possible to create subsets of the entire stack of cards by different criteria, and to print out or save the contents of just those select cards. There are numerous ways to create such subsets: cards can be "marked"; searches can be carried out for cards with text entries (some cards may have none); and searches of the names of all cards for certain character strings can be carried out (either on a "begins with" or "contains" basis).
• The deletion of any particular card or of the Picture Link to any card causes CMP to carry out sophisticated testing of which examples of various WordRefs or PicRefs throughout the stack should be "de-formatted", or lose the characteristic "group" or "group & outline" formatting styles. (For example, if card "Dialog" is deleted and WordRefs to this phrase exist throughout the stack, then the independent phrase "dialog" of style "group" will be reformatted, removing the "group" style; but the word "dialog" in the WordRef "dialog box" will NOT be reformatted, because it would be improper to do so. Other checking of this kind is carried out in other situations.)
• The index of all cards is updated immediately upon addition or deletion of cards, and may be accessed instantly via a dialog box. The index of all cards with Picture Links to them is also updated immediately, and may also be accessed instantly via a dialog box.
• From within the CMP dialog box, the user may print either the list of cards or graphics appearing therein, or print the contents of the text fields; the user may save either the list of cards/graphics or the contents of text fields as TEXT files; or the user may go to the any card by double-clicking on its name (or see the graphic, in the case of the index of cards with graphics).
• A list of the last 100 cards visited is also updated immediately, and may be accessed instantly via a dialog box. The user can return to any of those 100 cards by simply double-clicking on the card's name. Or, by clicking on the "Print" button, the user can print out the list of the 100 cards or the contents of the text fields on those 100 cards (duplicate entries are automatically eliminated).
• The CMP stack and the graphics files linked to it via Picture Links may be transported either to different locations on the same disk, or to different disks, even to different machines. The only requirement is that all graphics files on disk must be stored at all times in a folder called "Graphics Folder" which is to be located in the same folder containing "CrossMyPath".
• The name and path of any graphic linked to a card can be learned by clicking on certain buttons or selecting specific menu items while holding down the Option key.
• The list of 100 cards visited previously is stored in reverse chronological order — i.e., the most recent are at the top. The contents of this list may be deleted by Option-clicking on the appropriate button or Option-selecting the appropriate menu item.
