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- ▒ Using ALT: A brief tutorial ▒
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-
- The following tutorial is intended to provide you with enough hands-
- on experience with ALT to let you use the program effectively. It
- should not be viewed as a replacement for the user's guide which is
- shipped with every full version of ALT. (See the read.me file for
- information about ordering the fully unabridged version of ALT)
- Before beginning, please note the following:
-
- - The examples in the tutorial explain how to use ALT along with
- other software. The tutorial will instruct you to run Lotus
- 123 to illustrate how to use ALT with another program. Please
- note that you do not need to have Lotus 123 to follow the tutorial.
- If you do not, just run any program you have whenever the tutorial
- instructs you to run Lotus 123. It is suggested, however, that
- you run a program that runs in text mode in order to follow along
- with the section on using the CUT and PASTE facilities in ALT.
-
- - Before running the tutorial you should be familiar with at least
- the first few sections contained in the read.me file and you should
- have already followed the instructions for loading ALT onto your
- hard disk. In particular, you should be thoroughly familiar with
- the section in the read.me file entitled "Running ALT" and how
- to configure the drive ALT uses for swapping memory.
-
- - The tutorial contains several types of instructions. When
- you see:
-
- Press: F1
-
- The tutorial expects you to press the F1 key at that point.
- When you see:
-
- Type: hello
-
- The tutorial expects you to actually type h, then e, then l, etc.
- In the above example, do not type a RETURN after typing hello
- unless explicitly instructed to do so.
-
- A consistent interface is used throughout Alt. The F10 in
- most accessories will bring up a menu similar to Lotus. An
- item can be selected in two different ways, either by using
- the left and right arrow keys to highlight the item and
- press Enter, or by pressing the first letter of the item
- on the keyboard.
-
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- ▒ Using ALT with Other Software ▒
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-
- To begin, you must run ALT if you have not already done so:
-
- Type: cd \alt
- Press: Enter
- Type: Alt
- Press: Enter
-
- After a brief pause, the ALT banner screen will be displayed. You
- should stop and read this screen to understand your rights in using
- the software.
-
- Press: Enter
-
- If you have never set up the swap drive, ALT will present the swap
- drive configuration screen at this point. See the section entitled
- "Running ALT" for information on setting up the swap drive.
-
- After successfully running ALT, you will be placed at the DOS prompt
- and you will see a message at the top of your screen similar to the
- following:
-
- A VERY short tap on the ALT key will bring up the ALT Main Menu
- In order to enter the ALT main menu:
-
- Tap: Alt ( i.e. the key marked Alt on your keyboard. Do
- not hold down the Alt key. YOU MUST TAP IT
- SHARPLY. )
-
- To exit the ALT menu and return to the DOS prompt:
-
- Press: Esc
-
- Now run Lotus 123. You may have to change to your Lotus directory
- first by using the cd command.
-
- Type: 123
- Press: Enter
-
- Now press any key to get past the Lotus banner screen. Now if you wish,
- load a 123 spreadsheet if running 123 or if you are using another
- program, load some text or data. Now let's suppose at this point
- that you need to go to a DOS prompt and do a directory listing. To
- do this, you will now open a new ALT partition:
-
- Tap: Alt
-
- You should see in the center of your screen, something similar to
- the following:
-
- 1. C:> 123 510K
-
- This informs you that you are running 123 in partition 1 with
- 510K of main memory available. The 510K will vary from machine
- to machine depending on what options and programs are resident on
- the computer.
-
- Now as promised, you will open a new partition:
-
- Press: 2
-
- This will bring up a partition configuration screen. Use the
- default settings:
-
- Press: F10
-
- After a few seconds, you will be presented with a DOS prompt.
-
- Type: dir
- Press: Enter
-
- You have just completed a directory listing. Now go back to Lotus
- 123 right where you left off:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Press: 1
-
- After a few seconds, you will return to Lotus 123. The reason you
- were instructed to press 1 at the ALT main menu was to select partition
- 1 where Lotus 123 was being run.
- To go back to the DOS prompt in partition 2:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Press: 2
-
- After a few seconds you will be placed again at the DOS prompt.
-
- At this point you can do anything that you would normally do at
- the DOS prompt, including running programs. In fact you could even
- run a second copy of Lotus 123 by changing to your Lotus directory
- and typing 123. If you wish, you may do this at this point and
- practice switching between the two running copies of Lotus 123 in
- the same manner as you did above.
-
- ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
- ▒ Using ALT Accessories ▒
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-
- The rest of the tutorial will focus on using the ALT accessories.
- The accessories are accessed by choosing one of the menu items
- displayed at the bottom of the ALT main screen. These items are
- chosen by either typing the first letter of the menu item or by using
- the arrow keys to position the highlighted bar over the menu item and
- then pressing Enter.
-
- One very useful accessory function is the cut and paste facility.
- In the following steps you will cut a small portion of the Lotus
- 123 screen and paste the cut text into the ALT notepad
-
- First go back to the 1st partition:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Press: 1
-
- Now cut a few lines of the Lotus 123 screen
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Kut
- Press: Home
- Press: .
- Press: Down arrow
- Press: Down arrow
- Press: Down arrow
- Press: End
- Press: Enter
-
- As you were pressing keys you should have seen a rectangular area
- highlighted. This is the text which was cut from the screen.
-
- Now enter the ALT notepad:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Notes
-
- Finally paste back the text cut from 123 into the notepad:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Paste
-
- Finally save the contents of the notepad:
-
- Press: Esc (or you may select Quit by pressing F10 and pressing 'Q')
-
- This will place you back at the ALT main menu.
-
- Now go back to the notepad and erase its contents since what was
- pasted into the notepad is not really very useful:
-
- Press: Ctl - ( i.e., hold down the control key and press the
- minus sign)
- Now retrieve the notepad main menu:
-
- Press: F10
-
- The notepad, like most accessories uses the F10 key to retrieve
- the command menu. In the notepad, for example, there are commands
- to mark and copy blocks, append files, get files, print, search
- and more. Retrieving a file with the notepad will now be illustrated:
-
- Select: File
- Select: Get
- Type: \alt\tutorial
- Press: Enter
-
- A copy of this tutorial file will now be contained in the notepad.
- Now search for the word tutorial:
-
- Press: F10
- Select: Search
- Type: tutorial
- Press: Enter
-
- Now find the next occurrence of the word:
-
- Press: F10
- Select: Next
-
- Escape from the notepad command line:
-
- Press: Esc
-
- The cursor will then be positioned at the next occurrence. Finally,
- erase the contents of the notepad:
-
- Press: Ctl -
-
- As a final example of moving between your application programs and
- ALT accessories, we will now learn a shortcut method for switching
- back and forth between an application program and the most recently
- visited accessory. This can be done by "double tapping" the Alt key:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Tap: Alt
-
- That's right tap the Alt key twice. This will have the effect of
- putting you into Lotus 123. Now to go quickly back to the notepad:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Tap: Alt
-
- Practice this operation several times to get the hang of it.
-
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- ▒ More Accessories: the Filer ▒
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-
- The filer provides a convenient way to manage the files on your
- disks. Now enter the filer:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Disk
-
- You should see a list of files, sizes and information about the
- directory you are in. Initially, you will be placed in the ALT
- directory. At this point, lets suppose you just want to see the
- executable files in the ALT directory (i.e. all files which end
- with the extension .exe)
-
- Press: F10
- Select: File/Dir
- Select: Wildcard
- Type: *.exe
- Press: Enter
-
- The display is now restricted only to .exe files. At this point,
- it might be useful to choose a new directory on your disk to
- view. To do so, get a map of the disk:
-
- Press: F2
- Press: Enter
-
- At this point a hierarchical map of the disk is shown. Use the
- arrow keys, PgUp, PgDn, Home and End to move around in the map.
- Practice doing this and then select a directory containing some
- files with extension .EXE in it:
-
- Press: Enter
-
- You will now be placed in that directory. If there were no
- executable (.EXE) files in that directory, you will be shown the
- message: No files are in this Directory! At this point set the
- wildcard back to viewing all files:
-
- Press: F10
- Select: File/Dir
- Select: Wildcard
- Type: *.*
- Press: Enter
-
- Now the filer will show all files.
-
- Multiple files can be marked for copying, deleting, moving, printing,
- etc. Now try marking some files:
-
- Press: + (any '+' key on your keyboard will work)
-
- Repeat this operation several times. Notice that an asterisk is
- placed beside the filename to indicate that the file has been marked
- for a multiple file operation. This is called TAGGING files.
- Now let us pretend that we want to print all of the files we have
- marked. To do this:
-
- Press: F10
- Select: Print
- Select: Tagged (to indicate that you want to print all tagged
- files)
-
- At this point a message about checking the printer is issued. To
- begin printing you would just hit the Enter key at this point. We
- don't really want to print those files, so
-
- Press: Esc
-
-
- This aborts the printing procedure. The same procedure of tagging
- files and then selecting a command can also be applied to moving,
- copying and deleting files.
-
- Now practice un-tagging a few files by using the up arrow key to
- the first file you marked.
-
- Press: - ( any '-' key on your keyboard will work)
-
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- ▒ More Accessories: the Calculators ▒
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-
- Alt offers not one, but three calculators for your convenience.
- To select a calculator:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Calc
-
- At this point you will be given three choices:
-
- Algebraic Reverse_Polish_Notation Tape
-
- Let's select the scrolling tape (adding machine) calculator:
- (Note the Tape Calculator is not available on the Shareware
- version.)
-
- Select: Tape
-
- Now get ready to use the calculator:
-
- Press: Num-Lock ( to use the numeric keypad )
-
- Now let's add $25.00, $56.50, $78.45 and $95.50:
-
- Type: 25.
- Press: +
- Type: 5650
- Press: +
- Type: 7845
- Press: +
- Type: 9550
- Press: =
-
- And the answer 255.45 will appear. Notice how the "paper tape"
- scrolled smoothly at the side will you were entering the numbers.
-
- The other calculators can be tried at this point by pressing Esc
- and then choosing a calculator. If you wish, try the Reverse Polish
- or the Algebraic (parentheses calculator).
-
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- ▒ More Accessories: the Rolocards ▒
- ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
-
- The Alt Rolocards provides a convenient way to keep track of
- business associates, phone numbers, and addresses. To select
- the Rolocards:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Rolocards
-
- If Rolocards has not been used previously, it will ask you to
- create a ROLODEX file.
-
- Press: Y
-
- Lets add a couple of cards to your address book.
-
- Press: F10
- Select: Add
- Type: John
- Press: Enter
- Type: D.
- Press Enter
- Type: Doe
- Press: Enter
- Type: 555-5555
- Press: Enter
- Type: 100 Main St.
- Press: Enter
- Press: Enter
- Type: Maincity
- Press: Enter
- Type: Texas
- Press: Enter
-
- You practice by completing in the rest of the fields. Movement
- from field to field can be obtained by using the following keys:
-
- Up arrow, down arrow, tab, and shift-tab.
-
- Modifications to fields can be made with the following keys.
-
- Ctrl-X Delete line
- INS Toggles between overtype and insert mode
- DEL Deletes character under cursor
- BackSpace Deletes character before cursor
-
- When you are through adding information to the card:
-
- Press: Esc
- Select: Save
-
- You are now asked if you would like to add another card,
-
- Press: Y
-
- Add another card using the name and address of one of your friends
- and save it just as you have done previously. When asked if you
- want to add another card,
-
- Press: N
-
- You can now scroll through the cards that you have added to your
- Rolocards using the up and down arrows. If you only added two
- cards then the scrolling will be limited. The number of cards
- in your address book is only limited by the amount of free space
- on your disk.
-
- You can quickly jump to cards in your address book beginning with
- a certain letter in the alphabet by pressing the Alt key along
- with the selected letter. For example, to quickly jump to the
- John Doe card we just added,
-
- Press: Alt-D (i.e. Hold down the alt key and press the
- 'D' key on your keyboard. )
-
-
- To view the contents of the card,
-
- Press: F10
- Select: View
-
- To exit viewing the card
-
- Press: Esc
-
- If you have a modem, numbers in your Rolocards can be called
- automatically by
-
- Press: F10
- Select: Call
-
- The Rolocards may have to be configured to talk to your modem.
- The configuration settings can be set by
-
- Press: F9
- Select: Modem
-
- Refer to the Alt manual and your modem manual if you are not
- familiar with the settings terminology.
-
- To exit the Rolocards,
-
- Press: Esc
-
- ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
- ▒ Recording Macros ▒
- ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
-
- Macros are convenient short-cuts for cutting down on lengthy and
- repetitive key entry chores. For this example, we will go to the
- notepad or if you wish, you can record the macro in your favorite
- word processor instead. Let's suppose we want to indent 100 lines
- of text by 10 spaces. You wouldn't want to do all that typing so
- you might try recording a keyboard macro to cut down on the work.
- First go to an editor (the notepad for example):
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Notepad
-
- If the notepad is empty, try your hand at loading a file with the
- F10, File, Get sequence. If you don't have a text file handy for
- retrieval just type in a few lines of text and move to the first line.
-
- Now begin recording an "Instant Macro" to indent by 10 spaces and move
- to the next line:
-
- Press: Alt-Shift-F1
- Type ten spaces.
- Press: Down-Arrow
- Press: Home (to move to the first of the line)
- Tap: Alt
-
- You should have heard a gentle clicking sound to remind you that you
- were recording a macro. When you pressed Alt-Shift-F1, you informed
- ALT that you were ready to begin recording an "Instant Macro". You
- then typed the keystrokes that you wanted to record. Finally, tapping
- the Alt key informed ALT that you were finished recording the "Instant
- Macro". Now try playing back the macro several times to indent the
- next several lines:
-
- Press: Alt-F1 (not Alt-Shift-F1)
-
- This caused the recorded keystrokes to be played back. The same
- technique of press the Alt-Shift-F2 key could be used to record a
- macro for the Alt-F2 key and so on.
-
- Notice now that a single keystroke can be used to indent the lines
- instead of 11 keystrokes. If you were indeed formatting 100 lines
- of text, this could be a big time savings!
-
- Macro record can also be initiated by
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Other
- Select: Record
- Press: Alt-F5 ( or any other key, this associates a macro
- with this key. )
- Type: Macro to indent 10 spaces
- Press: Enter
- Type ten spaces.
- Press: Down-Arrow
- Press: Home (to move to the first of the line)
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Quit
-
- To playback this macro:
-
- Press: Alt-F5
-
- If you forget your macros and their associated key:
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Other
- Select: Titles
-
- A menu will be displayed showing the available macros. Use the
- up and down arrows to place the highlighted bar over the
- selected macro and
-
- Press: Enter
-
- to playback the macro.
-
-
- ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
- ▒ On-line Help ▒
- ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
-
- A full context-sensitive help is available in Alt. While in
- Alt's main menu or its accessories, you can obtain help by
-
- Press: F1
-
- Help on the accessory that you are in will be displayed in a
- window. ( Note: The help file is not distributed with the
- shareware version. )
-
-
- ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
- ▒ Uninstall Alt ▒
- ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
-
- To unload Alt and its accessories from memory,
-
- (Make sure that you have quit any running programs or a possibility
- exists of losing data or files. )
-
- Tap: Alt
- Select: Other
- Select: Quit
- Press: Y
-
-
-
-
-