HOW TO USE LETTER.IMG First, rename the program LETTERS, as all future reference will be to that name. QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE TO LETTERS TEXT SCREEN f1 ---------- insert line f2 ---------- delete line f3 ---------- change margin color f4 ---------- default margin color f5 ---------- tab f6 ---------- set or release tab f7 ---------- go to menu f8 ---------- restore text CTRL and 9 -- underlining on CTRL and 0 -- underlining off clr --------- screen clear/store text home -------- home del --------- delete character inst -------- insert character return ------ move to left margin on the next line down crsr up ----- cursor up 2 screen lines crsr down --- cursor down 2 screen lines crsr left --- cursor left 1 character crsr right -- cursor right 1 character MENU SCREEN f1 ---------- change border color f2 ---------- default border color f3 ---------- change background color f4 ---------- default background color f5 ---------- change character color f6 ---------- default character color DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS.... LETTERS is not a full-blown word processor, but has many of the features you will find in one. I wrote it because I got pretty frustrated with the imbedded commands in the commercial software, and wanted something easy to use, fast and versatile. For me, it has been the best compromise between text manipulation power and ease of use. All of the critical parts of this program are performed by machine language routines for speed and convenience, including printing, text creating and editing, loading and saving (disk storage only, no tape). Load and run the program as you would any other basic program. There is about 2K of machine language that will be transferred to $C000 and up when you run the program, and during certain buffer operations all of $C000 to $CFFF will be used. For this reason you should not use the DOS WEDGE with this program, as it will be overwritten. GETTING STARTED Select "C" from the main menu and answer the next 2 prompts with "N". You will now be in the CREATE/EDIT mode. You can go back to the menu with F7 whenever you want to, but let's forge ahead for now. You'll see reddish bars at the left and right margins. These are the margin markers, and you will not be able to type into them. Moving the cursor past these markers will cause the cursor to move to the margin on the opposite side of the screen (the next line or the previous one). These markers will aid you in identifying line beginnings and ends, centering titles, etc. Notice that the left markers are on different screen lines than the right markers. This is because you are now dealing with an 80 column line (the screen lines are only 40). Since your printer deals with 80 column lines, the screen will now follow that format. You will notice that you can wrap a word around the end of a screen line as long as there is no marker there. That's because you will be typing the word in the middle of an 80 column line (as the printer will see it). AUTOMATIC PARSING As you are typing a line and approach the end marker, you need not worry about breaking a word up at the marker. If the last letter on the line is not a blank space, LETTERS will move the entire word to the next line for you. This function is called "parsing" and was added so that you don't have to watch the screen as you type a new line. Parsing will not happen, however, if there is text on the next line (this is an aid for editing. Keeps you from dumping a word onto text residing on the following line when you are editing). Also, parsing will only move words less than 10 characters in length. CURSOR UP, DOWN, LEFT AND RIGHT Cursor up/down work as they normally do, except that they move the cursor 2 screen lines at a time (remember, that's only one 80-column line). Moving the cursor past the top or bottom of the screen will cause the document to be scrolled, which is how you move through the document to read or edit it. Cursor left/right work normally. INSERT AND DELETE KEYS Use the normal inst/del keys to edit single lines or characters. The delete key will work as expected, but when it reaches the left marker it will stop. The insert key also works as expected, but when a character is pushed into the right marker, it is deleted. This was done to prevent you from affecting other lines by making minor changes on one. If you wish to insert or delete entire lines at a time, use F1 and F2. F1 will push all text from the cursor line down one line, and place a blank line at the cursor line. F2 will delete the cursor line and move all text beyond that position back one line. RETURN AND TAB KEYS The return key will move the cursor to the beginning of the next line. The tab key is F5. F6 sets or releases a tab. To set a tab, move the cursor to where you want the tab to be and press F6. To release a tab, tab to the tab you wish to release and press F6. To tab, press F5. The cursor will move to the first tab to the right of the cursor. If there is no tab set to the right of the cursor, it will perform a return. UNDERLINING OR SPECIAL COMMANDS To underline, press CTRL 9 (rvs on). Underlining off is CTRL 0. The printing routine in LETTERS will respond to reverse video characters by sending an escape sequence to the printer before printing the character. After printing the character, it sends another escape sequence. I use this feature to enable and disable the underlining feature of my printer. If your printer does not underline, you can substitute another escape sequence for this feature (italics, shadow print, super/subscript, etc.). See program modifications for details. MOVING TEXT AND THE CLR/HOME KEYS The home key works normally. The screen clear key writes the text on the screen into a buffer and clears the screen. You can use this feature to move from 1 to 12 lines of text at a time, because the buffer can be recovered with F8. (If you wish to permanently delete a line or lines, use F2 instead of clr). There are 2 safety features built into these keys. First, the clr key will work only if the buffer is empty. This will prevent you from accidentally writing over the contents of the buffer (the buffer is emptied when you use F8 to restore the text). The entire screen is affected with these keys, so here's how to manipulate less than 12 lines at a time: 1. Scroll the first line to be buffered to the top of the screen and place the cursor on the line AFTER the last line to be buffered. Press F1 as many times as necessary to push the unwanted lines off the screen. Then press clr to buffer the screen. Delete the blank lines (unless you want them) with F2. 2. Scroll to where you want the text inserted. Scroll the line that will be BELOW your inserted text to the top of the screen and home the cursor. Push all text off the screen with F1. Now restore your buffered text with F8 and delete any unwanted blank lines by moving the cursor to them and pressing F2. MARGIN MARKER COLOR F3 changes the color of the margin marker bars. F4 sets the default color. THE MAIN MENU The main menu is self-prompting and self-explanitory except for the screen color options. The "F" keys will have different functions now, as outlined in the beginning of this document. STOPPING OR EXITING THE PROGRAM The program can be stopped from the main menu with the run/stop key. It can be resumed by re-running the program. Any document in memory will NOT be lost by doing this, as LETTERS will not clear the memory unless it's being run for the first time. When run, LETTERS changes some of the default computer settings, such as the top of basic memory, all keys repeat, etc. When you want to exit the program and reset the computer to default conditions, select "E" from the main menu and the computer will be sent to it's cold start routine. Even if you exit in this manner, if you should discover you left a document in memory by accident (you forgot to save it to disk), you can still recover it by reloading and running LETTERS again. You're out of luck, though, if you shut off the the computer or load in another program that overwrites document storage ($4000 to $9FFF) or LETTERS machine language subroutines ($C000 to $CFFF). PROGRAM MODIFICATIONS You can modify the basic part of LETTERS. Those with printers that do not emulate CBM printers will need to do this. This program works fine with the VIC printers and the PROWRITER with a +G CARDCO interface. If you have different escape codes for underlining or bolface, you will want to change the codes on lines 1210 and up. Don't forget to allow for ascii conversion when you change the codes. FORM LETTERS You can create a form letter, save it to disk and load it back in to edit it. After all, a form letter is just a document that you edit and resave (usually under a different name). DOCUMENTS OVER 5 PAGES IN LENGTH Once you type in 5 pages of text (plus 7 lines) you're out of memory and must either stop and print the document or save it to disk. You can then continu...
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