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1990-11-29
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6KB
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129 lines
MicroFox
P.O. Box 447
Richfield, OH 44286-0447
U.S.A.
Dear User Group Coordinator/Shareware Distributor:
As part of a promotional campaign, we are giving you two exciting programs to
distribute to your membership/customers as shareware: AHELP and HDM. AHELP
is a full-featured help system for Clipper applications, and HDM (Hard Disk
Menu) is an independent menu and utility system.
Both programs are marketed as shareware, members who send in registration
forms (included on the diskette) and a modest fee will receive additional
benefits. This is one way we are marketing the products, and we hope you
will participate.
Enclosed are brief write-ups of each program, suggested as handouts.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
MicroFox Co.
Overview of AHELP for Clipper
AHELP provides both context-sensitive and generalized help windows for use
with Clipper applications, either Summer '87 or 5.0. The shareware version
enclosed is for Summer '87 and provides the following features:
* You control whether help windows have no border, a single-line border, or
a double-line border.
* You control whether the cross-bars drawn inside the help windows have no
line, a single line, or a double line.
* AHELP automatically determines the appropriate intersections.
* You control what colors AHELP will use for the help window border, title,
content, and highlight bar in the help index window.
* You control whether or not the end user has the ability to create or
modify help windows.
* You control whether or not the help windows have drop shadows.
* AHELP automatically positions the help window immediately below the screen
position of the input variable (e.g., a GET variable) if the window will fit
there; otherwise, the window appears immediately above the input variable.
* AHELP provides a help index; whenever any help window is on the screen,
the user may press F1 to see the help index. The help index is another
window with a scrolling alphabetic listing of help subjects. The user
uses the cursor control keys to highlight the subject of interest, and
presses Enter to see the corresponding help window. The user may also
type the first letter of the subject to move the highlight bar immediately
to the first occurrence of that letter.
* AHELP is sensitive to the Clipper environment. If the cursor is off when
help is invoked, it will be off when control returns to your application.
Conversely, if the cursor is on when help is invoked, it will be on when
control returns to your application. The same principle applies to colors,
function keys, insert status, work area, and the status of SET CONSOLE,
DELETED, ESCAPE, and SCOREBOARD.
* AHELP does not use any "wait state" commands (READ, WAIT, ACCEPT, INPUT,
MENU TO), to avoid conflicts with any pending GETs. It uses the INKEY()
function for all keyboard input, with two exceptions: it calls DBEDIT() for
the help index window and MEMOEDIT() for displaying/editing help text.
The last page of the user guide (the .DOC file on the distribution diskette)
is a registration and order form that the user may send in with a modest fee
to receive a more advanced version of AHELP for either Clipper Summer '87 or
5.0 -- or both.
Overview of AHELP for Clipper, continued
This more advanced version of AHELP adds the following features:
* Network capability. AHELP opens the help file for shared use only unless
an update is required. Then it locks the record long enough for the
update, and immediately unlocks the record.
* Import help displays from ASCII text files. During creation of a new help
display, the user may press F7 to tell AHELP to import one or more lines of
text from a user-specified file.
* Copy or refer to an existing help display. During creation of a new help
display, the user may press F1 to tell AHELP to open the help index window,
"point" to the desired entry, and use that help display.
* Key word capability. One or two key words may be specified for each help
display, and a key word search routine allows lookup by matching against a
key word prompt. You control whether or not this feature is enabled. If
so, it is activated by pressing F7.
* Change the default screen coordinates of either the edit window or the help
window in the setup call.
* "Drag" or move the help window around the screen and save its new position.
You control whether or not this feature is enabled. If it is enabled, it
is activated by pressing F5.
* Expand or reduce the size of the help window and save its new shape. You
control whether or not this feature is enabled. If it is enabled, it is
activated by pressing F6.
Both the move and resize features store the new help window coordinates in the
help file record, so the window will be opened in its new place or shape when
recalled.
We are very excited about this program; it was introduced earlier this year
and has received wide acclaim here, in Europe, and from as far away as
Australia. We think Clipper developers everywhere should add this powerful
program to their toolkit.