GENERAL OPERATION. When you first enter the program, a banner will be displayed. Press any key to get to the main menu. The main menu will display the file you are working with, on the top line, and all the formatting information in 2 boxes. Also Quit, Printer, and Display are shown on the bottom line. FILE NAME. It is suggested, that the first thing you do is set up the file name. Simply press "F". On the last line of the screen you will be asked for the file name. Type in the file name. This name must be in the directory and it must be a .DO file. Do not type in the .DO extension. If you do not want to enter or change a file name, press ENTER and you will return control to the main menu. However this will erase any file name that you currently have in. I suggest that if you accidentally press "F" just retype the current file name. If the file does not exist or you accidentally typed it in wrong, the screen will flash FILE ERROR, and return to the main menu. FORMATTING PARAMETERS. When you first enter the main menu, the formatting info is automatically set up for a letter with parallel output. This can be changed very easily. Simply press a key corresponding to the info you want changed. On the last line of the screen you will be asked about the change and given a range. If you do not want to change the info, press ENTER, and you will return control to the main menu without altering the info. If you press a wrong key or enter an amount which is out of the stated range the screen will flash WRONG ENTRY, and return to the main menu. A new feature has been added, TOTAL CARACTERS IN LINE (page width control). It is now variable from 20 to 132 char. This was added so that you can use a 14 inch printer or so that you can print newspaper type columns or thin memos. DISPLAY MODE. You must have a file name set up, or the screen will flash FILE ERROR and return to the main menu. The screen will display the file just as it will be printed. It will also display all of the formatting info. One page at a time will be displayed. To see the next page, press any key. If you do not want to continue or you want to stop the display while it is formatting press ESC and then ENTER. This will return you to the main menu. The purpose of the display mode is to give you some idea as to what your file will look like when printed. Since this program is written in M/L, the formatting is very fast. The only thing slowing it down is the slowness of the LCD screen. The display mode is very handy if you write memos which are shorter than a full page. The page is drawn and the text is inserted, centered on the screen. Try a half or a third of a page with different widths of pages, for some interesting results. A new feature is expanded tabs. Now imbedded tabs, affect the display and print position. The tabs are set up for every 8 characters. Also imbedded command lines, are not displayed or printed. More on command lines later. PRINTER MODE. The print and the output sections have been consolidated into a PRINTER menu. 3 additional functions have been added, typewriter, direct, and pause. To return to the main menu, press either ESC or ENTER. PAUSE. PAUSE AFTER PAGE, tops your printer after each page has been printed. This was added so that you can examine each page or to insert single sheets. Any key starts the printing of the next page. The pause feature is normally set to NO PAUSE. If you select Pause, you will be asked, on the last line of the screen, if you want the pause (Y/N). "Y" turns the feature on. DIRECT. DIRECT numeric output, allows you to take advantage of any built in features your printer may have. As an example 27, 69 kicks my GEMINI printer into emphasized mode. If you select this feature, you will be asked, on the last line of the screen for a numeric input. The range is from 0-255. Each numeric input is sent directly to the printer. The feature will keep looping back for additional input. To leave the feature, simply press ENTER, with out any input. If you enter a number which is out of the range, the screen will flash an error message and continue on with the feature. TYPEWRITER. The TYPEWRITER function, turns your computer/printer combination into a very powerful typewriter. Basically, it uses all the formatting commands in the main menu, plus it will accept directly any of the imbedded commands. This will allow you to change the the form directly as you type it. When you select TYPEWRITER, you will be shown a clear screen, with the curser at the beginning of the middle line. At this point, type your line in, modify it, etc. Formatting is automaticaly done on the line. Any word which goes over the line length is truncated. If you have the right justify turned on, the line will be right justified. The line is then sent to the printer, and displayed on the top portion of the screen. This is done so that you can see what the line looks like. If any words have been truncated etc. All the margins are also automatically set up and printed. After you are done typing, you leave the typewriter mode by typing in either GRAPH S or CODE S followed by "Q" and an ENTER. This is the imbedded line code for the end of document. The GRAPH S or CODE S must be in the first position of the line. OUTPUT. If you select OUTPUT, the screen will display a box containing 4 choices. If you do not want to change the output press ENTER. SPECIAL RS232C. The Special RS232C is for a serial printer which does not use XON-XOFF. If you have this set up (most serial printers), you will need to connect 3 wires between the comuter and the printer. They are: COMPUTER PRINTER FUNCTION Pin 2 - Pin 3 Data to printer Pin 5 - Pin 11 Printer status Pin 7 - Pin 7 Signal ground It is strongly suggested that you use the display mode first, to make sure that the formatting is correct. IMBEDED COMMANDS. All of the formatting commands can be imbedded in the form. This allows you to set up a form before you even enter the formatter. Also, this even allows you to change the form in the middle of it. The imbedded commands are set up by a GRAPH S or CODE S in the first position of a line. In most cases, multiple commands can be placed on the same line. An example is; GRAPH S or CODE S followed by C60 M10 T80 U8 B8 L66 S1 RY This sets up; Char in body 60 Left marg. 10 Total chr/lin 80 Upper marg. 8 Bottom marg. 8 Lines page 66 Spacing 1 Right justify on The imbedded commands are; Q - QUIT N - NEW PAGE U - UPPER MARG. B - BOTTOM MARG. M - LEFT MARG. C - CHAR. IN BODY T - TOTAL CHAR PER LINE S - SPACING L - LINES PER PAGE CY - TURN ON CENTERING CN - TURN OFF CENTERING RY - TURN ON RIGHT JUST. RN - TURN OFF RIGHT JUST. The centering command is available only from the imbeded commands. It takes presedence over right justify. Also it centers in the column, not on the page. Quit and New page, must be on a line by themselves. They are immediate commands, which work directly on the form. The other commands are the passive type, which set up parameters. FINAL NOTES. With the addition of the new features, this text formatter is probably one of the best, and easiest to use formatters available for the Model 100, from any source. You have my blessing to copy this program, and freely give it away. The only restrictions I place on it are, you may not sell it, and do not remove my copyright and trade mark. If there is any interest, I'll make the source code available. I sincerely welcome your comments on this program. However at this point, I think it's time to move on to program something else. Once again, I welcome suggestions, and I hope that you will find this program as much fun to use, as it was to write!!! Bob Jack 8371 White Rd. Burbank, Ohio 44214 November 1984