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The Datafile PD-CD 5
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!FormText
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Text File
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1997-02-21
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6KB
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195 lines
FORMTEXT
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FormText
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Introduction
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FormText is a utility to reorganise a plain text file so that it has
regular page breaks, margins, headers, footers and a contents page.
Files processed in this way can be used as a manual, suitable for
printing on almost any printer.
The reason for writing it was more to make something useful out of a
Toolbox tutorial than to provide a brilliant utility. Therefore, the
formatting code was wriiten for simplicity rather than efficiency.
Although all formatting is done in RAM it uses a rather slow multi-pass
process.
This file has been processed by FormText, but without contents because
they would look silly with a manual this short.
The author
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Tony Houghton
271 Upper Weston Lane
Southampton
SO19 9HY
tonyh@tcp.co.uk http://www.tcp.co.uk/~tonyh/
Suggestions, presents etc welcome.
Conditions
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The conditions by which FormText is used and distributed are best
described by the term freeware. This means that it may be freely used
and distributed, but the author retains copyright. The conditions I
impose are that the application is distributed without any of its files
altered, and it is not marketed as a commercial product.
Subscribers to Archive magazine/disc have access to the source code, to
be used only for tutorial purposes.
Installation
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If you have an OS earlier than RISC OS 3.6 you need the Toolbox modules
in the supplied copy of !System. Use !SysMerge to install the new modules,
the merger within RISC OS 3.5 and 3.6's !Boot is bugged.
Version
———————
This is version 1.05.
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FORMTEXT
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Basic use
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FormText appears on the icon bar when loaded. To format a file, drag it
to the FormText icon and a large dialogue box will appear. Fill in the
details you require and click Format.
While the text is being formatted the Hourglass shows the percentage
done. This is a very rough guide, based only on how many stages of
processing the file has gone through so far. The time taken to complete
each stage can vary widely.
When formatting is complete, the main dialogue box closes and is
replaced by a Save as dialogue box for you to save the formatted file.
How to set up a text file for formatting
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FormText splits text up into lines short enough to fit across the
configured page, so you should only use line-feeds (ie the Return key)
where you explicitly want them, such as at the end of paragraphs. To
enter your text you may find it easier to use the SoftWrap mode in Zap,
or a word processor like Impression that can save plain text without
line feeds.
Tabs are allowed, these will be expanded with a field of 8 characters.
A line beginning with a certain character is taken to be a heading;
headings can be underlined and shown in an automatically generated
table of contents. The 'heading flag' character, which is removed from
the output file, must have an ASCII value greater than 127; you enter
which character you want to use in FormText's main dialogue box.
Recommended characters are ¬ for Risc PC and ¤ for Archimedes, because
these are available on the keyboard but are rarely used. Do not
underline your headings, FormText can do this for you.
Settings in the dialogue box
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Page dimensions
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'Total height' is the total number of lines per page on the printer.
'Top margin' lines will be left blank at the top of every page, below
this 'Header lines' are allowed for the header. Then 'Bottom margin'
lines are left blank above 'Footer lines' allocated to the footer. If a
header or footer is too long to fit in its space, including a blank
line, it will be truncated.
The 'Total width' is self-explanatory; 'Left margin' spaces are
inserted at the start of every line, and room is left for 'Right
margin' spaces at the end of each line, but these are not actually
inserted.
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FORMTEXT
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For clarity:
Total height = Top margin + Header lines +
text height (calculated) +
Bottom margin + Footer lines
Total width = Left margin +
text width (calculated) +
Right margin
Header & footer
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Text from these fields is entered at the top and bottom of every page
respectively. Certain pairs of characters have special meanings:
|M inserts a line feed.
%p inserts the current page number.
To insert a % or |, use %% or || respectively.
Contents
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If the 'Generate contents' button is ticked a contents table is
generated (may be more than one page), consisting of every heading next
to its page number. The 'Title' is used as the header of contents
pages, there is no footer. Page numbers are right-aligned, as many of
'Leadering char' as necessary are inserted between the entry and its
page number to guide the eye.
Save settings
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This button saves the settings currently entered in the dialogue box to
be used as the defaults next time you load FormText.
Page 3