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- The Banner Program V1.2
- A public domain banner printing utility
- (C)opyright 1990
- by Arthur J. Dahm III
- 40 Adams Avenue
- Norwalk, Ct 06851
- (PeopleLink: Cosmac)
-
-
-
- The Banner Program V1.2 is a public domain banner printing
- program that uses standard Amiga fonts. It automatically selects
- the largest point size available for each font and expands it to
- the full width of the page. The Banner Program can print in
- color on a color printer or in greyscale on a black and white
- printer.
-
-
-
- Starting The Banner Program:
-
- To start The Banner Program from Workbench, double-click its
- icon or type 'banner' at the CLI prompt to start from the CLI.
- The Banner Screen will appear and The Banner Program will search
- your fonts directory to see what fonts are available. After The
- Banner Program checks the fonts directory, it is ready receive
- input.
-
-
-
- The Message Gadget:
-
- The string gadget where you enter the message to be printed
- is not a standard Amiga string gadget. It is always active,
- except when the mouse pointer is a wait (Zzz..) pointer. It will
- also display text in color and supports a limited form of
- highlighting (or cursor expanding). Highlighting is used to
- delete or change the color of blocks of text. To expand the
- cursor with the mouse, point to the text where you wish to start
- expanding, and while holding down the left mouse button, drag the
- mouse left or right. To expand the cursor from the keyboard,
- hold down the Alt key press either the left or right arrow keys.
- Press the left or right arrow key by itself or click the mouse
- inside the string gadget to unhighlight (or unexpand) the text.
-
-
-
- The Return Key:
-
- Pressing the return key (or enter key) tells The Banner
- Program to display the message in the page gadget which takes up
- most of The Banner Screen. The message will be displayed in
- color with the current selected font expanded to the full height
- of the page gadget. This is an approximation of how the message
- will look when it is printed out on the printer. Since fonts
- that have a very large point size will take a while to display,
- the page gadget is only updated when the return key is pressed,
- or the mouse is clicked inside the page gadget, or a new font is
- selected. While the message is being drawn into the page gadget
- the wait pointer will appear and everything in The Banner Program
- is disabled except the three gadgets below the page gadget, which
- are used to scroll through the page gadget.
-
-
-
- The Color Gadgets (Left Amiga 1 through 8):
-
- There are eight color gadgets at the bottom of the screen,
- which correspond to the eight colors that a standard color
- printer can print without dithering. The Banner Program starts
- with the black gadget selected. Although the color gadget for
- white is included, it is not a good idea to use it, since it will
- cause the printer to print a blank space the size of the white
- character(s). It is include for use in future versions of The
- Banner Program, which may include different color backgrounds or
- outlined characters.
-
- To change the current color, simply click the new color
- gadget and any further text that is typed will appear in that
- color. To change the color of text that is already typed,
- highlight it and click the color that you want to change it to.
- An alternate to using the mouse to select a color is to use left
- amiga 1 through 8 from the keyboard.
-
-
-
- The Font Gadget (Left Amiga F):
-
- Clicking the font gadget will bring up the font requester,
- which will give you a list of fonts to choose from for your
- banner. You can scroll through the list by using the gadgets to
- the right of the list or by using the up and down arrow keys on
- the keyboard. To choose a font, highlight the desired font name
- by scrolling through the list or by clicking the mouse on the
- font name. Then select the 'OK' gadget to load the font, or the
- 'Cancel' gadget to exit the font requester without loading a new
- font. The return key is the keyboard equivalent for the 'OK'
- gadget and the 'Esc' key is the keyboard equivalent for the
- 'Cancel' gadget.
-
- The 'Path:' string gadget is used to change the current
- 'Fonts:' directory from within The Banner Program. Activate the
- 'Path:' gadget by clicking inside the box or by pressing the
- backspace key. Then, type in the full path name to the new fonts
- directory (i.e. if you have fonts stored in a directory called
- BigFonts on your system disk, type Sys:BigFonts) and press
- return. The Banner Program will then read the new fonts
- directory and list the new fonts.
-
-
-
- The Graphic Gadget (Left Amiga G):
-
- This gadget is not used in this version of The Banner Program.
-
-
-
- The Clear Gadget (Left Amiga C):
-
- Click the clear gadget to erase the current message. The
- message gadget and the page gadget will both be cleared.
-
-
-
- The Print Gadget (Left Amiga G):
-
- The print gadget will print the message to the printer,
- taking into account the Preferences settings (smoothing, density,
- ect.). It will bring up the 'Printing...' requester and the wait
- pointer will appear. Click the cancel gadget in the
- 'Printing...' requester or press the 'Esc' key to abort printing
- the banner before it is finished.
-
-
-
- The Load Gadget (Left Amiga L):
-
- This gadget is not used in this version of The Banner Program.
-
-
-
- The Save Gadget (Left Amiga S):
-
- This gadget is not used in this version of The Banner Program.
-
-
-
- The Info Gadget (Left Amiga I):
-
- The info gadget displays copyright and version information
- about The Banner Program.
-
-
-
- The Quit Gadget (Left Amiga Q):
-
- The quit gadget exits The Banner Program and brings you back
- to Workbench or the CLI.
-
-
-
- Known Bugs:
-
- A few converted Macintosh fonts cause The Banner Program to crash.
-
-
-
-