Calendar Publisher
ver 1.0 April 22, 1991
Programmed by Patrick J. Simmons
Art Work by Patrick R. Simmons
Calendar Publisher is an easy to use program that will allow you
to personalize and print calendars for home, office, school, or
any application where there is a need to organize your monthly
schedule.
Features include:
- Print a calendar for any month.
- Enter text for any day in the month.
- Enter text across a group of days in a week.
- Automatic entry of most common holidays.
- Import clipart that was saved as an IFF-ILBM file.
- Advanced editing functions for both text and graphics.
- WYSIWYG ("What You See is What You Get") preview option.
- Save and load files in Calendar Publisher format.
- Save in IFF-ILBM format to edit the calendar in a paint
program (like Deluxe Paint III).
Using Calendar Publisher.
Getting Started.
Calendar Publisher is built around the familiar intuition
interface. It can be started from the workbench by double-
clicking on the Calendar Publisher icon, or from the CLI by
entering "CalendarPublisher".
The Control Screen
The first screen to appear is the main control screen. This
screen contains a graphic representation of the month. Calendar
Publisher automatically sets the month and year to the month
after the system date. You can change the month by clicking on
the gadgets to the left and right of the month's name. Likewise,
you can change the year by clicking on the gadgets on either side
of the year.
Each day of the month is a gadget. Clicking on a day's gadget
and then clicking on the larger "Edit Day" gadget on the bottom
of the screen will allow you to enter text for that day. Double-
clicking on a day will save you the trouble of hitting the "Edit
Day" gadget. To enter text that will span 2 to 7 days in a week
(an "Event"), click on the first day, then click on the last day.
You will notice that all of the days between will appear to be
depressed, and the "Edit Day" gadget will now read "Edit Event".
"Event" is a term used in Calendar Publisher to describe text
associated with more than one day.
On the bottom of the control screen are 4 large gadgets.
On the far left is "Preview", by selecting preview, the
calendar, as it will be printed, will appear on the screen.
The second is "Edit Day" or "Edit Event" as described earlier.
The third, "Heading" will allow you to enter an optional one line
heading to appear at the top of the calendar.
The fourth, "Notes", gives you the option of entering up to four
lines of text that will appear at the bottom of the calendar.
Text Editing.
The text edit screen will appear whenever you want to enter text
for a day, event, headings, or notes. You will notice a large
white rectangle with a smaller grey rectangle outline within.
The cursor will be positioned at the upper left corner of the
grey rectangle. The area enclosed by the grey rectangle shows
you where the limits of the text for the day or event are. In
either case, if text was already entered, it will appear and you
will be able to change it.
At the bottom of this screen there are four large gadgets:
- "Done" accepts the text entered and returns you to the
control screen.
- "Cancel" will ignore all of the changes made and return
you to the control screen.
- "Insert / Typeover" displays the current entry mode.
Clicking will toggle between modes.
- "Clear" will erase all of the text on the screen.
There are also a number of control-key combinations that will
make the job of entering text a little easier. They are all
evoked by holding down the ctrl key and pressing the
designated key.
Key Function
--- ------------------------------------------------
E Clears the line to the right of the cursor.
I Toggles between insert and overstrike mode.
J Joins the line below with the current line.
B Breaks the line at the cursor (WARNING, the line
below will be lost.
Q Same as the "Done" gadget.
The arrow keys will allow non-destructive movement through the
text, ctrl and arrow will move the cursor to the limit in the
direction of the arrow. You can also move the cursor by pointing
the mouse and clicking. The tab key will move the cursor four
spaces to the right, backtab (shift and tab together) will move
the cursor left four spaces.
Cutting and Pasting Text.
You can copy or move text from one day or event to another by
using the options on the edit menu from the control screen.
To copy the text from a day or event, first click on the day (or
range of days for an event) and select "copy" from the edit menu.
This will put a copy of the text into a special area in memory
called a buffer. To copy the text to another day or event,
click on the day (or range of days for an event) that you
want the text copied to and select "paste" from the edit menu.
You can continue to paste the text to other days (or events) by
repeating the last (paste) step.
Moving text from one day (or event) to another is just as easy,
only instead of selecting "copy" from the menu, select "cut".
This will copy the text into the buffer and then delete it from
the day (or event) that was selected.
The "Clear Buffer" option will disable the "Paste" option until
another day (or event) is cut or copied.
The Preview Screen.
This screen gives you a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)
view of the calendar. I recommend that you use this option
often. The program will draw the calendar on the screen in the
same way that the calendar will be printed with the exception of
a 1 pixel boarder that is added in this display to show you where
the page edges are. The calendar will be larger than your
display, so you can scroll around by using either the mouse or
cursor keys. To use the mouse, place the pointer on the edge
that you want to scroll and hold the left button to scroll
slowly, or hold the right bottom to move quickly. The cursor
keys will scroll slowly in the direction indicated by the key,
hold the ctrl key along with the cursor key to move quickly.
Exit this function by clicking the left mouse button in the upper
left corner or hit esc key.
Working with Clipart.
Clipart graphic images can be placed onto your calendar providing
the following are true:
- The file is in an ILBM_IFF format (the AMIGA standard).
- The image is less than 320 pixels wide and 100 pixels high.
- The image has only 2 colors. (Calendar Publisher will
consider the background color (color 0) as transparent).
A directory called "ClipArt" is included and contains numerous
samples.
Loading an Image.
To load an image, select load from the image menu on the control
screen. A new screen with a file requester will appear (the file
requester is explained in detail later, but you will find that it
operates pretty much like others that you've seen). Select the
file that contains the image that you want to import and hit the
load button. From here will be taken to a screen that is the
WYSIWYG display of your calendar (just like the "Preview"
option). Instead of a mouse pointer, you will see the image that
you just loaded. Moving the mouse will cause the image to move.
You can scroll the screen by using the cursor keys. Holding ctrl
along with the cursor key will speed up the scrolling. When you
have decided where you want your image placed, hit the left mouse
button to draw the image on to the calendar. You can continue to
draw the same image in different places on the calendar, by
moving the image around and hitting the left mouse button. When
you are done, hit the right mouse button (you will notice that
the mouse pointer returns) clicking on the upper left corner of
the screen will return you to the control screen. You can also
exit this screen by hitting the esc key.
Moving an Image.
To move an image that is already on the calendar, select move
from the image menu on the control screen. This option will take
you into the WYSIWYG screen with a mouse pointer that says
"PICK". Find the image you want to move (the cursor keys work
the same way the did in the add function) and click on the image.
The mouse pointer will disappear, and the image selected will
move with the mouse. From this point, this function works just
like the load function described above.
Deleting an Image.
To delete an image that is already on the calendar, select delete
from the image menu on the control screen. This option will take
you into the WYSIWYG screen with a mouse pointer that says
"DEL", find the image you want to delete (the cursor keys work
the same way the did in the load and move functions) and click on
the image. The image will disappear, you can continue to delete
images, or click the right mouse button to disable the delete
function. Exit this function by clicking in the upper left
corner of the screen (after hitting the right mouse button),
or by hitting the esc key.
Adding an Image.
The "Add" function works just like the load or move function,
except that the image that you will be adding to the calendar is
the last one that was loaded, moved, or deleted.
Preferences
The preferences menu gives you the option of printing:
- The year on the top line of the calendar.
- The text for most common holidays.
- Your choice of:
- A small version of last and next months calendars.
- A small version of the last two months calendars.
- A small version of the next two months calendars.
- No small calendars at all.
Check marks next to the menu items will indicate which options
are in effect. Note that if you change the default text option,
you must select "New" from the "Project" menu before the change
takes effect. The best way to learn what these options do is to
experiment.
Loading and Saving.
You can save you calendar in two different formats.
Calendar Publisher format will enable to re-load the calendar
into Calendar Publisher for modification and/or printing at a
later time.
IFF-ILBM format will create a file that is compatible with most
Amiga paint packages (like Deluxe Paint III). If you want to add
graphics that are beyond the scope of Calendar Publisher, or
perhaps create a color calendar, this option will get you
started.
Printing
To print the calendar, select the "Print" option from the
project menu. Calendar Publisher should work with any printer
that has graphics capabilities and the proper printer driver
installed (see the manual that came with your Amiga for details).
After you confirm that your printer is ready, the WYSIWYG screen
will appear, however, you will not be able to scroll the screen
at this time, and you will notice that the border lines are not
drawn. This screen will be displayed until the calendar is
completely printed.
If for any reason you want to cancel the print in progress, hit
the esc key. If you do this, before attempting to print again,
I recommend that you reset the printer by turning the power off
and on. This will keep any "leftover" data from appearing on
your next attempt at printing.
The File Requester.
When you ask Calendar Publisher to load or save data, you will be
presented with the file requester screen. This file requester
is similar to most other included with Amiga software. Here are
the particulars of it's operation.
At the top of the screen, a title bar tells what operation you
are about to perform. The center of the screen contains a list
of files and directories. Under that are two string gadgets for
directly entering drawer and filenames, and at the bottom, there
are four large control gadgets that allow you to:
"Load/Save" the selected file.
"Devices" returns a list of devices attached to your
Amiga.
"Parent" backs you up a branch on the directory tree.
"Cancel" terminates the file operation without taking any
action.
Tapping enter after entering a filename is the same as clicking
on the "Load/Save" gadget.
The "Cancel" gadget is active even when a directory is being
read.
Double clicking on a directory will load the names of the files
and directories in that directory into the file requester.
Double clicking on a file is the same as clicking on the
"Load/Save" gadget.
To eliminate excessive disk thrashing, the file requester will
not re-read a directory. For this reason, the requestor could
become out-of-date (if there has been activity in the directory
since it was first loaded. If you suspect this to be true,
simply position the cursor to the right of the drawer name
string requester and tap enter.
Keyboard Short Cuts.
There are keyboard short cuts for every menu item. They are
shown when the menu is displayed.
Requesters that ask for your "Ok" can be answered by hitting the
"o" key.
Requesters that ask for a "Yes" or "No" response, can be answered
by hitting the "y" or "n" key.
Technical Information (for anyone who cares).
Calendar Publisher was written in C and assembler using SAS C
5.10A and CAPE 2.5. The images for the gadgets requesters,
fonts, etc were drawn in Deluxe Paint III.
If you have any questions or comments about Calendar Publisher,
we love to here from you. Contact us at:
1275 Evergreen Drive
Palatine, Il 60067
(708) 991-1721
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Tool Chest Volume 3, Issue 1, September 1991
IDG Communications/Peterborough, Copyright 1989 Peterborough, NH 03458
