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******** /*** /*** /***////// /*** /*** /*** /*** /*** /*** /******* ********** /** /***** /********* /*** /***///*** /***///***// /*****/// ////***/// /*** /*** /*** /*** /*** /***/ /*** /*** /*** /*** /*** /*** /*** /*** /******** /*** /*** /********** /*** /*** /////// //// //// ////////// //// //// /*** *** /*** /**** ***** /*** /***/** **/*** /*** /*** /*** /*** *********** /****** /********* /******* /** /***** /*** // /*** /***////***// /***//// ////***/// /***////** /*****/// /*** /*** /*** /*** ///*** /*** /******** /***/ /*** /*** /*** /*** //*** /*** /***/// /*** /*** /*** /*********** /*******/ /*** /******* /*** //// //// /////////// //////// //// /////// //// COPYRIGHT (C) 1989 by Michael Bodin ALL RIGHTS RESERVED -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Chart Master is a chart making program designed with the user in mind. This program will allow you to create a variety of different charts with very little user input. These charts are accurate to within +/- 1% of the total specified range. Let's start with an overview of Chart Master. The following diagram should give you an idea of the chart layout and some of the terms used in Chart Master. Main Screen: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Main Title Area Col. Label -| | C -| o | l. -| | T -| __ i | | | t -| __ | | l | | | | | e -| __ | | | | __ | | | | | __ | | | | -| | | | | | | | | __ | | |__|__|___|__|___|__|___|__|___|__|___|__|_____Row Label JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN Row Title As you can see there is an overall chart title and each axis has both a Title area and a Label for the axis. You can enter in all titles and labels or only those you need to best describe your chart. The following are the specifications for each: Main Title 60 chars. Column Title 20 chars. Row Title 40 chars. Column Label 12 chars. Row Label 12 chars. Each item within the chart can also have an Item Name as well as its Item Value. In the diagram the Item Names are JAN, FEB, etc. The Item Value is displayed as a bar. Item Name 20 chars. Item Value 4 places (0000 - 9999) I will be referencing these terms throughout the rest of this documentation. Next I will cover the chart definition and item definition requesters. These requesters are used to define your chart and the individual items. Chart Requester ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ___________________________________________________ | X Y | | Chart Title___________________ ___ ___ | | |_____________________________| |___| |___| | | | | Col. Title____________ ___ ___ | | |_____________________| |___| |___| | | | | Row Title_____________________ ___ ___ | | |_____________________________| |___| |___| | | | | Col Label____ Row Label____ | | |____________| |_____________| | | __ ____ ____ | | Total Items |__| Range |____| to |____| | | ____ ______ ________ | | |_OK_| |_UNDO_| |_CANCEL_| | |_________________________________________________| When you select New from the PROJECT menu this requester will be displayed. From here you can define your chart's parameters. The titles and labels are self explanatory. Each has an X,Y location on the screen. Initially these values will all be zero. The program will automatically center these text strings when it finds a value of zero or blank. Later after the chart is defined if you wish to fine tune these placement values you can edit the chart and these X,Y gadgets will display the centered values. You can then change them slightly to create the screen layout you desire. The Labels are automatically placed in line with the axis they represent. (See diagram 1) These are fixed locations and cannot be changed. The Total Items gadget allows you to enter in the total number of items for this chart. You can enter up to 12 items per chart. (Anymore items makes for a cramped display). Again you can enter 1 up to 12 total items. Be aware also when creating your chart that although each item can have a 20 character Item Name, when you get above six items these Item Names will run together if you are using the full 20 chars. (Example: When entering 12 items to represent 12 months in a year it is best to use an abbreviation for each month.) Experimentation is the best way to judge how many characters you can use for the Item Name given the number of items to be displayed. The Range gadget allows you to specify the total range for the chart. For example you could say 0 to 100 to show a percentage or 0 to 1000 units of whatever. This range can be anywhere from 0 to 9999. This should be adequate for most displays. The range for most of the chart displays will always be zero based. If you wish to show both positive and negative values in the same chart you will have to select the Deviation Bar Chart. With this chart type you can specify a negative low range value. (YOU MUST SELECT THE DEVIATION BAR CHART from the menu BEFORE you define your chart!) If you have have any other chart type selected and you enter a negative value for the low range the program will reset this to 0. Once you have defined all the parameters for your chart select the OK gadget. If you are editing an existing chart and you make a mistake in entering the parameters you can select the UNDO gadget to recall the original values. Or you can select the CANCEL gadget in which case no changes will be made. Items Requester ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ______________________________________ | __ | | Item Number |__| | | | | Item Name_______________________ | | |_______________________________| | | ____ | | Item Value |____| | | ____ ________ | | |_OK_| |_CANCEL_| | |____________________________________| Once you have selected the OK gadget from the Chart Info requester you will be presented with the Item Info requester. This requester is where you specify the individual names and values for each of the items specified in Total Items. As you can see this is a very simple requester. In the Item Number gadget will appear the item number you are working with. For example if you specify 7 total items that will serve to represent the 7 days of the week item #1 would be Sunday, item #2 would be Monday and etc. Once you are done defining the item's name you can then enter the Item Value. This value must be a number that falls within the range low and high you specified in the Chart Info requester. If you enter a number greater than the high range the value will be reset to the high range value. You cannot enter a negative number unless you are defining a Deviation Bar chart, in which case you cannot enter a number less than the low range value. Also you cannot enter a fractional number. (Example: 1.2, 0.5, etc.) These values can ONLY be integers. After you have entered the value select the OK gadget to move on to the next defined Item. After you have entered the data for the last defined item, the screen will clear and your chart will be displayed. If you have made a mistake in entering any of the data for the items you can always go back and edit each item. To edit an item just sel- ect Item from the EDIT menu and the Item Info requester will be re- displayed. Enter the Item Number you wish to edit in the Item Number gadget and that item's data will be displayed for editing. Select OK or CANCEL gadgets when you are finished editing. That's all you need to know to quickly define a chart and its parameters. The whole process is quick and easy. Once your chart is displayed you can then select any of the appropriate chart types and your chart will be instantly redefined to the new type. So changing from a Bar chart type to a 3D Bar chart to Vertical Bar chart is all a matter of selecting the chart type from the CHARTS menu. Please note that some definitions may not look to well as a Pie chart unless defined with that in mind. Same thing applies to the Deviation Bar chart, if your range is zero based. I strongly recommend you ex- periment with the different types to get a feel for the different displays. Text Requester ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _____________________________________ | | | Line 1_________________________ | | |______________________________| | | | | Line 2_________________________ | | |______________________________| | | | | Line 3_________________________ | | |______________________________| | | | | Window Coordinates | | ___ ___ | | X |___| Y |___| | | | | ____ ________ | | |_OK_| |_CANCEL_| | |___________________________________| The Text info requester allows you to write 3 lines to be displayed in a small window anywhere on screen. This option can be used to de- fine, say, a chart key. Each line of text can contain up to 32 char- acters. The text is always left justified, so if you wish to center the Text in the window just add in the spaces as needed. This allows you to adjust the placement of the text anywhere within the window. This text window will be displayed when you select the Text ON from the DISPLAY menu. The window will be displayed with a double border at the window coordinates you enter in the requester. Remember that these coordinates must fall within the screen's definition. If you are using a 640X200 screen you can define a Y value no greater than 200 - window height. (For a 640X400, 400 - window height.) (Technically this is not really a window like your used to using on the WorkBench. This window becomes part of the chart display itself so if you select to save the file as an IFF picture it will be part of the screen bitmap.) If you wish to fine tune the text placement or the window coordinates just re-select Text from the EDIT menu. Then make your changes and select OK or CANCEL. To re-display the new entries you will need to select REDRAW from the DISPLAY menu. --------------------------------------------------------------------- These are the three primary requesters you will be working with when defining a Chart Master chart. I have touched on some of the major items from the menus, so now lets go over each menu item and specify each one's function. PROJECT MENU ----------------- | New | | Open | --------- | Save as ----->| File | | | | IFF | | | --------- | Quit | | About | ----------------- NEW - Select this item to start a new chart. This clears all the chart variables and opens the Chart Info requester. You can then define the chart as previously explained. OPEN - This item allows you to open a previously SAVEd file. This file can only be a Chart Master type file. Chart Master filenames always end with a ".cm" suffix. A file requester will be displayed and you can select the drive name, (DF0:, RAM: etc.) the directory and filename. Once selected use the OPEN gadget to load the file. Once the file is loaded it will be displayed EXACTLY as you saved it. All options will be reset to the saved values. For instance if you saved the file with the Grid ON, then when the file reloads the Grid will be turned on. Also the file will be displayed as the saved chart type. If you save a Pie you load a Pie. SAVE AS - This item has 2 subitems. One is, Save as FILE. This will save the chart definition as a standard Chart Master file. This is a very SMALL file and is the way all charts should be saved. If you don't save the FILE you will lose the chart definition when you QUIT. Again this will call up a file requester and you can select where you wish to save the file. You can enter a new filename or use a current filename to overwrite the file. You can enter the ".cm" suffix or if you forget the program will automatically tack it on the end. Once you have the disk drive and filename typed in just select the SAVE gadget to save the chart definition. If any errors occur you will get a warning message indicating the file was not saved properly. The second subitem is Save as IFF. This allows you to save the chart displayed as an IFF picture file. You can then load this picture into any paint program for touch up work. ( I have tested these IFF pictures by loading them into DPAINT I II and III, DigiPaint 3.0, and Photon Paint, so I am sure you will have no problem loading them into your favorite paint program) NOTE: You must have Chris Weber's iff.library in your LIBS: directory for these save routines to work. The library is bundled with this program but should they get separated you can get a copy on many of the BBS systems. The save routine will work with either version 15 or 16 of the iff.library. (SPECIAL THANKS TO CHRIS!) To copy this program to a new disk be sure you also copy over the iff.library! QUIT - Self explanatory...you will be asked if your sure you want to quit. This is the time to be sure your chart definition is saved, otherwise it is lost forever! ABOUT - This is where I put in those lovely COPYRIGHT notices. But they serve a purpose, so here they are! CHART MENU -------------------- | Bar | 3D Bar | |_________|________| | Vert Bar| Dev Bar| |_________|________| | Line | Point | |_________|________| | Column | Pie | |_________|________| These menu items are actually displayed as miniture pictures of the chart type they represent. Look at the picture and you'll get an idea of what the chart will look like. To select just slide the mouse to the chart type you want and release. The chart will instantly be re- drawn in the new type. EDIT MENU --------------- | Chart /|C | | Item /|I | | Text /|T | --------------- CHART - Select this item AFTER you have defined the chart to go back in and edit any of the chart features. See the chart requester dia- gram for details on setting these definitions. ITEM - Select this AFTER you have defined all the items to go back in and edit one particular item. The first item will be called up for display. To edit another item just type in the Item Number and that item's data wil be displayed for editing. Make your changes and then select OK or CANCEL. TEXT - Select this to define the text lines you want displayed in the special text window. Enter the lines of text you want up to 32 chars. and then select OK or CANCEL. DISPLAY MENU ----------------- | Grid ON | | Border OFF | | Text ON | | ReDraw /|R | ----------------- The first three items all act like switches. To turn on an option just select it. The messages displayed will reflect the current state of that option. The default status is shown above. The grid is off, the border is on and the text window is off. The message says Grid ON which means turn on the grid. The message say Border OFF which means turn off the screen border. If you turn on the grid the message will change to say Grid off, meaning turn OFF the grid. Experiment! REDRAW - Chart Master will not automatically redraw the screen. If you make a change to an item, or the text you must select ReDraw to re-display the chart with the new parameters. SCREEN MENU ---------------- ------- | 640 X ----->| 200 | | | | 400 | | Title OFF | ------- | Palette /|P | ---------------- 640 X - This item lets you redisplay the chart in either screen resolution. 640x200 or 640X400 (interlace) Select the one that suits your needs. TITLE - This is also an option switch. The screen title can be turned on and off as you wish. NOTE: this is the one option that is NOT saved with your chart. The program will always start with the screen title ON. To turn it off just select this item. It will stay off until you turn it on again. PALETTE - This item will call up a color palette requester that will allow you to change ANY of the 16 colors that Chart Master uses. This lets you fully customize the colors displayed. NOTE: certain colors are used by the system for menus, requesters, and messages. If you change the upper colors (12 - 15) you will find the menus, etc. might look a little strange, but you can set them to any color that you feel you need for the best looking display. That covers all the menu features. Again the best way to judge the effect each option has on the chart display, is to experiment! You can create some pretty interesting charts using these simple, yet powerful features. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Misc. Notes: 1. Chart Master uses its own specially defined font. This font is called CMB.font and must be located in your fonts directory. You can optionally assign fonts directory to the directory that con- tains the font. To install the font into your fonts directory you must first make a CMB directory. The following commands can be typed in from the CLI prompt. (To open a CLI window double click the CLI or SHELL icon located on your WorkBench disk.) First make the directory containing the CMB.font the current directory using the CD command. (Ex: CD ChartMaster/ ) 1> makedir FONTS: CMB 1> copy CMB.font to FONTS: 1> copy 8 to FONTS:CMB/ If the font is not found you will receive a message when you run the Chart Master program. The major difference you will notice is the range numbers displayed on the side of the grid will appear as small squares. Other than this the program will function normally. 2. The iff.library must be located in your libs directory. This library is a collection of standard IFF routines that allow a variety of functions. This library was created by Chris Weber from Switzerland. These are very nice and quick routines that provide an IFF standard. My thanks to Chris Weber for this move towards developing a standard for IFF routines! 3. Chart Master files are extremely small and always end with a ".cm" suffix. If you save your file as an IFF picture it will be given a ".pic" suffix to disinguish it from a standard Chart Master file. You CANNOT load a ".pic" file, only ".cm" files can be reloaded into Chart Master. 4. Finally, no program is perfect and I am sure Chart Master can always stand improvement. If you have any suggestions, comments, or general ramblings please address these to myself or to AmigaWORLD. I can be reached at any of the following addresses: GEnie M.BODIN PLink MBODIN Compuserve 72571,3240 Lattice BBS Mike Bodin Please feel free to contact me with any of your ideas!