cds@duke.UUCP (Craig D. Singer) (02/18/86)
Hello,
This question concerns the use of Appleworks on a //e with 128k and an
Imagewriter Printer. What I would like to know is...is there a simple way
of sending printer control characters to my Imagewriter *in the middle of*
printing a word processor file? There are lots of good reasons for doing
this, of which my main interest is to temporarily change the character set
to a custom set which I have read into the printer's memory before booting
up Appleworks. Usually, I want to print just one or a few custom characters
and then return to the normal font. Things that don't work include:
1. Trying to insert control characters directly. Appleworks just beeps.
2. Using the "EK" (enter keyboard) command to make the printing pause.
In the first place, even if this did work, it would be a royal pain
to use, but in any case, you still can't enter nonprinting
characters.
3. Probably any other direct command sequence in Appleworks.
Things that do work, but are so convoluted that I really wonder why I
bother, include:
1. Using the part of custom character memory which occupies the
low-value ASCII codes, I recreated the regular printing set of
characters for all ASCII values which I use (alphanumerics, some
punctuation) and then customized the keys I don't use to whatever
characters I needed for that application. Then, I tell the printer
(before booting up Appleworks) to print everything in the custom
character font, which is mostly just the regular characters. This
process is not actually that painful once the regular character set
is recreated and stored in a file, but it severely limits the number
of custom characters I can use in one session. Besides, this
solution only takes care of custom characters, not other printint
codes which one might want to turn on and off in the middle of a
file.
2. Writing a utility that takes an Appleworks output file (sent to disk
with the printer control characters) and replaces special characters
that I don't generally use in the file (like "{" and "~") and
rewrites them as sets of control characters which turn on and off the
custom character set. This gives me the full range of custom
characters I need but requires a second utility to take the text
output of the first one and print it (since Appleworks won't print a
text file without first making it an Appleworks file, which causes
escape sequences to become invisible). I have not actually tried
this method but someone else has and says it works but, naturally,
slows down the process of printing a file tremendously. I don't feel
like writing the utilities, anyway.
What I'd really like to know is whether someone has found a sneaky, easy way
to accomplish this goal, or if there is some cheap software which will work
nicely with Appleworks and take care of the problem (by cheap I'm thinking
of under $40 or so). I suppose I should just buy Applewriter, or any of a
dozen other word processors which let one insert such characters, but I like
a lot of the things Appleworks does and I've already bought it and used it
extensively. Any suggestions? In any case, thanks for reading this long
article!
--
Craig D. Singer, Dept. of Computer Science, Duke University
Durham, NC 27706-2591. Phone (919) 684-5110 (ext.20)
CSNET: cds@duke UUCP: ...!decvax!duke!cds
ARPA: cds%duke@csnet-relayjulerio1@polyob.UUCP (A1 jose ulerio1 ) (02/22/86)
> Hello, > This question concerns the use of Appleworks on a //e with 128k and an > Imagewriter Printer. What I would like to know is...is there a simple way > of sending printer control characters to my Imagewriter *in the middle of* > printing a word processor file? There are lots of good reasons for doing > this, of which my main interest is to temporarily change the character set > to a custom set which I have read into the printer's memory before booting > up Appleworks. Usually, I want to print just one or a few custom characters > > What I'd really like to know is whether someone has found a sneaky, easy way > to accomplish this goal, or if there is some cheap software which will work > nicely with Appleworks and take care of the problem (by cheap I'm thinking > of under $40 or so). I suppose I should just buy Applewriter, or any of a > dozen other word processors which let one insert such characters, but I like > a lot of the things Appleworks does and I've already bought it and used it > extensively. Any suggestions? In any case, thanks for reading this long > article! > > Craig D. Singer, Dept. of Computer Science, Duke University > Durham, NC 27706-2591. Phone (919) 684-5110 (ext.20) > CSNET: cds@duke UUCP: ...!decvax!duke!cds > ARPA: cds%duke@csnet-relay About the easiest way to insert printer control characters in Appleworks is to redefine the program's own printer control characters. I redefined Appleworks' boldface begin/end characters for this purpose since I wanted to use the NLQ mode available on my Okidata 93. On the Okidata series of printers, ESC-1 turns on NLQ printing and ESC-0 turns it off. I simply went to the printer spec menu and redefined boldface begin as ESC-1, and boldface end as ESC-0. You can change it yourself quite easily, but if you're a bit unsure, here is a cookbook routine on how to do it: 1. Upon booting Appleworks, select the Other Activities option. 2. Now select option seven, "Specify information about your printer" 3. From the "Printer Information" screen, select option four from the list, "Change printer specifications for," or the appropriate device (This is assuming you've already defined a printer type) 4. From the screen "Change a printer," select option five from the screen, "Printer Codes" 5. Now select the Boldface option 6. At the "Enhancements" screen, you now have a list of choices.. you could redefine the begin/end control characters for sub/superscript, but since they have uses in most technical writing, it's best to stick with boldface. When you select the characters to redefine, make note of the default values if you want to return things as they were. Look up the proper control characters you wish to use in your printer manual, type them in verbatim, and save the results by ESCaping back to the main menu. From now on, typing a CTRL-B in the Word Processor portion of Appleworks will put a "Boldface" note in your text, but the actual character sent will be the one you specified for whatever other purpose you had in mind, such as switching to an alternate character set or switching back to normal. As for alternate character utilities, Vilberg Brothers, Inc. sells a utility disk for the Imagewriter that includes a font editor/ downloader for $50 or so.. You might want to check recent issues of Nibble magazine for their address (sorry, don't have an issue in front of me or I'd post the address..) Hope this all helps.. Jose M. Ulerio Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering Polytechnic University, Bklyn, NY
kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath) (02/25/86)
well, here goes.
Buy AppleWriter.
in AppleWorks, there are only four commands that can get turned on or
off in the middle of a paragraph. They are Bold, Undeline, Supescript,
and Subscript. The others will only turn on or off during a paragraph
break. Note that all are turned off by a paragraph, i.e. if you turn on
bold, then end a paragaph, the next paragraph will not be in bold. The
way to get around this is to set the Bold End option to a null, and make
a fake character pitch equal to the turnoff code.
Anyway, that's the basic idea. I myself use applewriter. You can't get
a better, more powerful wordprocessor. soon I hope to have it modified
enough to not only print screen dump, but to use a modem, etc. I use
the DOS version, as I'm not so hot on ProDOS. You can print pages and
pages continuesly with WPL, as well as make great glossaries, do
fantastic formlettering, etc. It is well worth the money, though you
should look for the DOS version rather than the ProDOS version :-)
I'm not positive about everything I just said, except that AppleWriter
is the best word processor around. the info I get is out of Open-Apple,
on of the best publications around for Apple owners. They had one issue
devoted to AppleWorks.
Incedently, someone posted a whie ago asking how to get AppleWorks to
run on a ][+. If anyone is still interested, I can give more info
now...
Sean Kamath
--
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