The Business Master (3rd Edition)

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ The Business Master (3rd Edition) / The Business Master (3rd Edition).iso / files / grapties / another1 / tmwpart1.exe / EDIT.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 22.5 KB | 433 lines

***************** EDITING THE PICTURE FILE ****************** One of the fringe benefits of ASCII-VECTOR-GRAPHICS is that you can edit the picture file directly with any word processor that has a standard ASCII mode (and most do) or text editor. You can use a TSR program, run from within Microsoft Windows, or use DOS WINDOW on the file menu to access a word processing program. With these techniques you can jump quickly from the picture, to the script file, and back again. As you know by now, when you create a picture, it is stored as little bits of text in a plain text file. When MSHOW reads this text picture file, the lines of text are translated into parts of the picture. Generally, the code goes like this: An object is represented by a capital letter. For instance, an R is for Rectangle, a C is for Circle and so on. Each object letter is the leftmost character on a line, and is followed by a series of integers. (Integers are numbers with no decimal point, for those of you who are not strong in math.) These integers represent the location of the object and it's size. The first number is the horizontal location of the object on the screen in pixels. Pixels are the little dots of light that make up everything in a computer picture. If the number is zero, the object is crammed up against the left edge of the monitor. In most video modes, 639 is the far right edge, because there are 640 pixels across the screen, and the first one is 0. In Hercules the right edge is 719 and in CGA-LO 4-color it is 319. The second number is the vertical location with 0 being the very top. In most modes 199 is the bottom of the screen, but in Hercules it is 347, in EGA-HIGH it is 349, and in VGA it is 479. Many objects will also have other numbers following them. After this paragraph are the specific codes used in The Multimedia Workshop picture files. These are all the codes of which all pictures are composed. There are no others. T - Followed immediately by either a digit. This is line thickness. If you see a T3, all lines, circles, freehand, rectangles or ellipses are drawn in the thick solid line style from this point until another T is encountered. T1 - thin solid line T3 - thick solid line T4 - thin dotted line T5 - thick dotted line T6 - thin dashed line T7 - thick dashed line S - Followed by a space and an integer representing the frequency in Hertz (cycles per second), then another space, and another integer, representing the length of time in milliseconds for which this sound will play. If the frequency following S is 0, the sound is silent, as in a musical rest. U - With nothing following. This is Wait For User, and freezes the system until the user presses any key. (Remember, Wait For User, Delay and Sound effects will not play true to form from within The Multimedia Workshop if FAST VIEW has been selected or during screen rewrites by GRID, UNDO, PIXEL EDIT, and some other services, but they will be effective when run from MSHOW.EXE. Normally, you wouldn't want to put a 'U' in a presentation which will use the MSHOW AUTO mode, since the presentation will stop at the U until a user presses a key. P - Followed by two integers is for Pixel, and changes the pixel at the designated location (by the first two integers) to the current color. L - Followed by four integers. This is LINE and displays a line starting at the location specified by the first two numbers and ending at the location specified by the last two numbers. Like all objects this line will be in the current thickness and color. l - On a line by itself. This marks the end of a loop. The loop will repeat all the lines above it back to the last line starting with b, or until the beginning of the file, or back 16384 bytes. Loops continue until the user presses any key. Of course, you wouldn't normally want to put a 'l' in a presentation which will be using the MSHOW AUTO mode. b - On a line by itself. This marks a TAKE BREATH. This forces MSHOW or TMW to read the disk at this point and refill the RAM memory at this location. That way, there are 16384 bytes (if the file is large enough) of uninterrupted script file in RAM, so that the program won't have to stop to read the disk, possibly in the middle of a time-critical animation or sound effect. Z - Followed by six integers. This specifies a ZOOM action. The first four integers represent the original area to be changed. The last two are the new lower right corner of the area in it's new dimensions. The upper left corner remains in the same location. KA - Followed by six integers. The first four specify the area of the original block to be animated. The next is the amount of time in milliseconds between moves, and the last is the copystyle (3 for transparent, 2 for opaque). Following the line with KA are one or more lines containing nothing but two integers. These are the upper left corner coordinates for each block move comprising the animation. There must be a blank line at the end of this series. KC - Followed by seven integers. Borrowed from Wordstar and Borland conventions, this is for COPY. The first four integers specify the area to be copied, and the last two mark the location of the upper left corner of the new object. The last integer determines whether the block will be copied in TRANSPARENT style or OPAQUE. If 3, it will be transparent, otherwise it is opaque. KV - Followed by seven integers. Again from Wordstar and BORLAND, this is for MOVE. Again six integers are used in the same manner as KC. The last integer determines whether the block will be copied in TRANSPARENT style or OPAQUE. If 3, it will be transparent, otherwise it is opaque. KY - Followed by four integers. An ERASE in "Wordstarese" These four numbers mark the rectangular region to be deleted. R - Followed by four integers. This creates a rectangle. The first two numbers mark the upper left corner and the last two mark the lower right corner. O - Followed immediately by a digit (no space between them). This changes the current color. Any object drawn will be in this color until the color is changed again. In monochrome graphics modes, 0 is black or the background color, and any other number between 1 and 15 results in foreground or white. In the 16-color modes: 0 = BLACK 1 = MIDNIGHT BLUE 2 = TREE GREEN 3 = DARK CYAN 4 = CRIMSON 5 = PURPLE 6 = BROWN 7 = LIGHT GRAY 8 = DARK GRAY 9 = AVERAGE BLUE 10 = BRIGHT GREEN 11 = SKY BLUE 12 = BRIGHT RED 13 = MAGENTA 14 = YELLOW 15 = WHITE (assuming there have been no 'n's in the file) In 256-color mode, the above list shows the first 16 colors, beyond this, you are on your own with colors! n - Followed immediately by 2 or 4 integers. This indicates a color palette change and only works in UNIVERSAL, EGA-HI or the VGA video modes. The first number is the color number to change. For instance, if the first number is 3, then the color affected will be the third one on the color menu. In 16-color modes, the next number indicates then new value (range 0-63) for the color. In the 256-color modes the second number (0-63) indicates the amount of red, the next number is for green and the last is for blue. These are negative colors, oddly enough: Green + red = yellow. Notice that the n is not capitalized. B - Followed immediately by a digit (no space between them). This has no effect unless the graphics mode is CGA-HIGH or CGA-LOW, in which case it immediately changes the background color. You can choose any of the first 8 (0-7) colors from the above listing for background color. H - Followed by a space then a filename. This displays a .PCX file. b - On a line by itself. This is "Breathe In", which resets the RAM area holding the file to begin at this place in the script. This is useful before a series of sounds or an animation, where you don't want the presentation to stop while the next portion of the script file is read from the disk. After 'b', as many as 16,384 bytes will be played continuously before another disk read. 'b' is also used to mark the beginning of a loop. l - on a line by itself. This marks the end of a loop. Whatever lines in the script file from here UP to the last line containing only a 'b' (or the beginning of the file) will be played over and over again until the user presses any key. Use this with caution. Block moves must always have the same picture data, or the picture will not loop, but change continuously instead. Experiment to see what I mean. h - Followed by a space then an executable file name or a batch file name. This causes the named program or batch file to execute within your script. C - Followed by four integers. A circle. The first two integers mark the centerpoint location, and the last is the radius of the circle. As with most objects, the circle will be drawn in the current color and line thickness. The fourth number, if 2, indicates that the center of the circle is to be shown with a + mark. E - Followed by seven integers. An ellipse. The first two integers mark the centerpoint, the next two are the starting and ending angles of the ellipse. A full ellipse starts at 0 degrees and ends at 360. 0 degrees is the 3 o'clock position, High Noon is 90 degrees, 9 o'clock is 180, and 6 o'clock is 270. Therefore a partial ellipse, drawn from 45 to 90 degrees would range from approximately 1:30 to noon of a clock dial. The last two digits in an ELLIPSE are the horizontal followed by the vertical axes in pixels. The seventh number, if 2, indicates that the center of the ellipse is to be shown with a + mark. F - Followed by three integers. This fills a bordered area with the currently selected color in the pattern specified by the third number. The color must be the same as the border. If there is even a one-pixel gap in the border, the color will leak out and fill the whole picture. text/ - Followed immediately by five integers. The first two integers mark the position of the upper left corner of the text block. The third number selects the typeface or font. The last two integers represent the magnification of the typeface. Of these last two, the first is for the width and the second is for height of the font. The 'default' size of most fonts is 4 wide and 4 high. A number smaller than 4 renders a narrower font and a larger number is wider. And, of course, if the last number is larger, the font will be taller, but if it is a number smaller than 4, the font will be small. The possible sizes range from 1 to 9. If you try to use a width or height outside of this range, any number of horrible things may happen to your presentation! The first two typefaces, BITMAP and TRIP, are built into the program, but the others are kept on the disk in external files. These files end with .CHR. So, if you want to use the SCRIPT font, for instance, you must supply the SCRI.CHR file along with your picture files on every disk copy you make. The first typeface, BITMAP, is handled differently by the program. Vertical and horizontal dimensioning is handled together, you control overall size of this font, but not the width or height independently. Text is drawn in the currently selected color. The text begins on the line following "text/" and the five numbers and continues until a line is encountered which starts with ~. This ~ must be in the first column of the first line following a block of text, otherwise MSHOW will assume the following lines are to be displayed as text and will most likely crash. So, as soon as MSHOW encounters a line that starts with "text/" the lines following are considered text and displayed verbatim until a line starting with ~ is found. TEXT BLOCKS MUST BE FOLLOWED BY A LINE THAT STARTS WITH ~. You can edit the text just as you would any ASCII text document. Keep in mind that the size of the block cannot exceed the room available in the picture. title/ - Followed by five integers. The first two integers mark the center around which the title will be displayed. The third number selects the typeface. And, as with text/, the last two numbers control the size of the font. The line following "title/" and the five numbers is the title which will be displayed verbatim. D - Followed immediately by one integer. DELAY, causes the program to freeze for the amount of time in milliseconds indicated by the integer. The largest value allowed is approximately 65000 milliseconds. If a longer delay is required, several delays can be used together. For example, a two-and-a-half minute delay would look like this: D60000 D60000 D30000 And that's all the codes required to make multimedia presentations! These are fully at your disposal for editing with your text editor or word processor. For instance, if you have made a picture with a rectangle in it: R113 24 196 68 but you wish the rectangle were a little more to the left, you could simply change it: R103 24 186 68 Then rerun The Multimedia Workshop or MSHOW and check your change. In this illustration, your rectangle would have moved 10 pixels to the left. Lets say your rectangle was yellow, and you wish it were white. You could precede the line like this: 015 R103 24 186 68 No doubt you can see the incredible power in ASCII editing of pictures! You can fine tune your graphics, sound effects, animation timings, even correct typographical errors in text within pictures! There are some conventions that must be observed. Make sure to use a single space between integers. Make sure to use the exact same spellings and capitalizations. Make sure to preserve blank lines where they exist in the picture file. For instance, after a series of sounds, there must be at least one blank line. Make sure to test your pictures after you have made changes. And most of all, feel free to experiment considerably. With practice, you'll understand this well and be able to generate very fine work, very quickly! Since all the picture command lines start in the very left-most column, you can temporarily remove an element from a picture by simply typing a space or an * in front of the line. This causes it to move to the second column. If The Multimedia Workshop or MSHOW.EXE finds a ' ' or an '*' in the first column of a line, they ignore the whole rest of the line, except within text blocks. This is good for troubleshooting a picture. For instance, let's say you have created a complicated picture, and in your picture is an annoying line which runs diagonally through the wrong place as annoyingly as a pipe wrench in a typewriter. Try to find the line. When you think you have it, put a * in front of it, and check the picture. One line in your picture will not be displayed. If you put the * in the right place, the diagonal line will be gone, otherwise some other line will be missing. Once you have found the right line to delete, you can simply leave the * there or you can actually delete the line. If you use a text editor which runs TSR (Terminate Stay Resident) such as Borland's Sidekick, you can do your editing while The Multimedia Workshop remains loaded and see your changes almost instantly. The best way to do this seems to be to select SEE from the control panel first, then do your editing, then return to SEE, press [Enter] and then [Enter] again to redraw the picture. This is best because some TSR's do funny things to the picture, especially if in VGA mode, or they steal the mouse cursor and won't give it back! Note: If your RAM space is limited, you'll sometimes have just enough space for a small TSR and The Multimedia Workshop. Kick the others out of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If still a problem, you can almost always switch between MSHOW.EXE and a TSR without RAM problems. VIDEO MODES You'll notice that the first line in picture files is always "mode" followed by a digit. This is how MSHOW.EXE or The Multimedia Workshop know which mode to use. The modes are: 1 CGA-HIGH 2-color 2 CGA-LO 4-color 3 640 x 200 EGA-LO 16-color (UNIVERSAL MODE) 4 EGA-HIGH 5 HERCULES MONOCHROME 6 VGA-HIGH GUESS WHAT? You can fudge these modes. For instance, Let's pretend you have a HERCULES graphics system, but you want to create a presentation in UNIVERSAL mode so that the widest possible audience can see your stuff. The Multimedia Workshop knows that all you have is HERCULES, and so automatically puts a "mode5" at the start of every picture, so it will run at the best possible resolution in your system, and not confuse you with 16-color menus you can't use. But if you use a mode5 (Hercules) presentation in most other systems, MSHOW.EXE will first display a warning that it is the wrong graphics mode, then translate the pictures. Furthermore, Hercules allows 720 pixel-wide pictures, but the other graphics modes don't, so the right-hand side of your presentations will be cut off for CGA and VGA users. So here's what you do: You start by changing the first line in each picture from "mode5" to "mode3." Mode 3 is UNIVERSAL MODE. It will still play on your HERCULES system, but will now also work without the warning on all other standard graphic systems. Then you make your pictures to fit within 640 horizontal pixels and 200 vertical pixels. In other words draw your pictures in the upper left portion of your screen not exceeding coordinates 639 by 199. This is important. When you play a picture in a mode for which it was not designed, if the picture is larger than the graphics mode attempting to display it, the program may crash. So, UNIVERSAL MODE pictures cannot exceed 639 x 199. NOTE: Do not fudge graphics modes if you have included .PCX files, because they are usually not transportable from one type of graphics card to another (or one emulation to another). In other words, you cannot end up with a Hercules .PCX file working on a .CGA system. And last, to add colors, for those who can display them, you can use the picture file COLORS to see a chart and then sprinkle your picture files with "O"'s followed by numbers for color changes. Getting the colors right is tricky, so you might want to at least view your presentation on a borrowed computer which has color, to make sure it looks ok. A little inside tip for professional-looking colorizing: Stick to two or three colors, perhaps text in sky blue, graphics in white, and arrows in red. _____________________________________________________________ end of chapter