textfiles/apple/DOCUMENTATION/printrix.tutor

Printrix Tutor II
original article by Bill Fortenberry
Apple Fontrix/Printrix Club Newsletter
August 1987*


CONFIGURATION Some people have had trouble configuring Printrix.  Configuration
is necessary so Printrix will know what printer and word processor you are
using.  Here's how to  configure Printrix.  On versions 1.00-1.01, when you
first boot Printrix, press the ESC key as soon as the disk starts to spin.
After a while you should see a flashing cursor and the ] prompt.  Put the
Configuration disk in the drive and type PREFIX/CONFIGURE [CR] AND THEN RUN
CONFIGURE [CR].

If you are using a version over 1.01 then you would boot the program disk, put
in the configuration disk and type [C].

The first screen asks for you keyboard type. Type "1" if you have a IIe, "2" if
you have a IIc, or a "3" if you have a GS.  Next you are asked for the
manufacturer of your printer interface card.  Find the manufacturer on the list
and type the number to the left of their name.  Next you will see a list of
printer interfaces made by that manufacturer.  Select the one you want by
number.  Then specify what slot the card is in.  Normally the slot is one.  If
you are using the GS printer port, the slot is one.  Now you will get a list of
printer manufacturers.  Find the manufacturer of your printer and select it by
typing the number to the left of the name.  Next you get a list of their
printers.  Find yours and select it by number.  Some printers may offer more
than one printing resolution.  If yours does, pick the one you want to use.  If
one of the options for your printer is followed by (Quad Density), I would
recommend you use that option.  Quad density will be covered in an upcoming
newsletter in more detail, but "in a nut shell" it gives you better printouts.
With a few printers, the resolution is so high that Printrix doesn't have enough
storage space to  use it all.  If you see a number, in parenthesis next to your
printer, such as "(5.3 max)", it means your documents can only be  5.3 inches
wide.

Now comes your word processor.  Printrix supports native files from AppleWorks,
Apple Writer, Word Juggler and Word Perfect.  If you don't use one of these word
processors, you will have to save your text as an ASCII text file.  A soft ASCII
file has a RETURN character at the end of each line, and two RETURN characters
at the end of a paragraph.  A hard ASCII has a single RETURN character at the
end of each paragraph.  You will have to consult your word processor's manual to
see which type of text file it will create.  If you intend to print the tutorial
files on the Printrix disk, configure Printrix for your interface card and
printer, but set the word processor to ASCII soft.

After you select your word processor, you will see a recap of everything you
configured for.  Check it over.  If it is correct, remove the configuration
disk, insert the Printrix disk, and press RETURN to save the configuration info
to disk.  If you need to reenter anything, press R.  To abort the configuration
altogether, press ESC.

PRODOS PATHNAMES ProDOS allows files to stored in a tree like structure.  This
allows you to store similar files together.  It's also important for managing a
large number of files on a mass storage device.  ProDOS implements this tree
structure through volume names and subdirectories.  The combination of the
volume name, any subdirectories and the filename is called the pathname.  This
is the path ProDOS must follow to retrieve the file contents.  Many Apple users
call the name of the volume (or disk name) the "Prefix", the subdirectory
information and "Pathname" and then of course the "Filename" the name of the
program.  Others call the Prefix everything up to the filename and don't use the
term pathname. For our examples, the term "Pathname" will be the volume name,
subdirectories, and the filename.  The term "Prefix" will be the volume name and
subdirectories, without the filename.

When you format a ProDOS disk with the system utilities you are asked for a
volume name.  The volume name is the first step in the pathname.  The newly
formatted disk is called a volume and it is given the name you supplied.  This
volume also has a main directory.  A volume directory is a special type of file.
It contains the information ProDOS needs to find other files on that volume. You
can see some of that information by cataloging the volume with the system
utilities.  There can only be 51 entries in a volume directory.  The volume name
can be pretty much anything within some limits.  The name cannot be longer than
15 characters.  The first character must be a letter.  After the first character
you can use any  combination of letters, numbers and periods.  Normally a volume
name will reflect the contents of the volume and a slash(/) will precede the
volume name.  For example, the volume Printrix is supplied on is named
/PRINTRIX.

At this point you can start storing your programs in the main directory.  But if
you have a 3.5 disk, or a hard disk, the directory can fill up fast.  What's
needed is a way to group files together in logical groups.  ProDOS provides this
function through subdirectories.  Subdirectories are the intermediate steps in
the pathname.  The subdirectory is a fully functioning directory. but it is
subordinate to the volume directory.   A subdirectory can contain other
subdirectories.  It's entirely  possible to have a directory made up of only
subdirectories.  Again, a subdirectory can be named anything, but usually
describes its contents.

Finally is the filename.  The filename is subject to the same naming rules as
volumes and subdirectories and is the final step in the pathname.  Printrix
limits the entire pathname and filename to 79 characters, including all slashes.
If you're starting to get confused, think of a big oak tree.  The volume name is
the trunk of the tree.  Each branch is a subdirectory.  A branch may have
another branch growing out of it, which could also have a branch growing out of
it, etc.  The leaves are the filenames.  A large tree can have a lot of branches
and leaves.

Let's say you have Printrix set up on an 800k disk.  The volume name is
/PRINTRIX.  There are two subdirectories called FONTS and CLIP.ART.  All the
fonts are stored in the FONTS subdirectory.  The pathname for SET.CASLON25 would
be /PRINTRIX/FONTS/SET.CASLON25.  Notice the slashes.  The pathname always
starts with a slash and slashes separate the volume name, subdirectory names and
the filename.

If you have a lot of subdirectories, pathnames can get long, and typing them can
be tedious.  To get around this ProDOS supplies the prefix.  The prefix is a
pathname that is always placed on front of the filename to make the complete
pathname.  Using the example from the last paragraph we could set the prefix to
/PRINTRIX/FONTS/.  Then we could get to caslon.25 by typing set.caslon.25.  To
get to a file in another directory, we would have to change the prefix.

To help manage prefixes, there is a bonus program on the Printrix configuration
disk.  To use it, boot Printrix and press ESC immediately.  When you see the ]
and flashing cursor insert the configuration disk and type
LOAD/CONFIGURE/DEFAULT.PATHS [CR] and then put in the program disk and type
PREFIX.PRINTRIX [CR].  When the cursor is again ready, type RUN [CR].
"Default.Paths" doesn't mince words, the prompts are short and to the point.
When you see LAYOUT and a question mark, type the prefix for the location of
your layout files.  Don't forget the starting slash.  At the next question mark,
enter the location of your fonts.  Finally enter the location your text files.
Before pressing RETURN insert the Printrix program disk,  Printrix will use
these prefixes as defaults, but you can always override these prefixes from
within Printrix.

EDITING KEYS Printrix has some editing functions that are available anytime you
are asked for a prefix or filename.  Here's a short summary of the editing keys.

When typing path and filenames you are always inserting characters.  Any
characters to the right of the cursor will slide right to make room for the new
characters.  If the cursor is on the first character of a line, the first
character pressed (other than a special control, tab, or open-apple character)
will erase the line.

? - The question mark will scan all your disk drives and show you the volume
names mounted in those drives.

<-, ->  The arrow keys move the cursor to the right or left.

OA-Y - T Holding down the open-apple key and pressing [Y] deletes the characters
from the cursor to the end of the line.  Characters to the left remain intact.

DELETE -  The delete key deletes characters to the left of the cursor, one at a
time.  characters to the right slide of the left to fill the gap.

OA-DELETE -  Holding down the open-apple key and pressing DELETE removes the
character under the cursor.  The characters to the right slide ot the left.

TAB - The TAB key jumps to the next slash.  this makes it easy to add a
subdirectory to a prefix.  Sometimes it is faster to tab to the end of a line
and type new information, or delete characters with the [DELETE] key and type
new characters as needed.

Control A - Holding down the control key and pressing A will move the cursor to
the start of the line.

Control Z -  Holding down the control key and pressing Z will move the cursor
one past the end of the line.

Control X - Holding down the control key and pressing X will home the cursor and
delete the line.

Next month in Printrix tutor we'll get back to covering the Printrix menus.  See
you next month.



*Apple Fontrix/Printrix Club
P.O. Box 29857
Thorton, CO 80229-0857

August 1987

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