[comp.sys.atari.st] firstword plus & pictures formats

nowlin@ihuxy.ATT.COM (Jerry Nowlin) (05/18/88)

I own neochrome 1.0 but I have several PD programs to manipulate picture
files in .NEO, .PI? and .TNY formats.  I recently purchased firstword plus
and really like it as a word processor.  I'm especially happy with the
built-in spelling checker.  One of the main reasons I selected it, aside
from the fact that it's compatible with my existing firstword documents,
is that it can import and print pictures along with text.  It does a real
nice job considering I have a nine-pin dot matrix printer.

Well, it turns out that it can only import .IMG files.  I have no utility
to convert .NEO files to .IMG files.  There was a desk accessory called
snapshot included with firstword plus that can grab part of a screen and
create a .IMG file but when NEO is running none of the installed desk
accessories are available.  That makes it hard to grab parts of .NEO
pictures.  Has anyone else solved this problem yet?  Are there other
painting or drawing programs out there that generate .IMG files and can
use .NEO files?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Jerry Nowlin
(...!ihnp4!ihuxy!nowlin)

euloth@dalcsug.UUCP (George Seto) (05/25/88)

In article <2535@ihuxy.ATT.COM>, nowlin@ihuxy.ATT.COM (Jerry Nowlin) writes:
> 
> Well, it turns out that it can only import .IMG files.  I have no utility
> to convert .NEO files to .IMG files.  There was a desk accessory called
> snapshot included with firstword plus that can grab part of a screen and
> create a .IMG file but when NEO is running none of the installed desk
> accessories are available.  That makes it hard to grab parts of .NEO
> pictures.  Has anyone else solved this problem yet?  Are there other
> painting or drawing programs out there that generate .IMG files and can
> use .NEO files?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
> 
 Jerry
 As mentioned Degas Elite will load Neo pictures into the program and
 save out as a Degas file. However there are several programs which will
 do that for you in the Public Domain as well plus other kinds of Snapshot
 programs as well.

 When I want to save a picture of ANY resolution or with or without the
 Desktop menmu bar around, I use a program called Degasave.prg which I have
 previously loaded into my Auto Folder. This program is really nice in that
 it traps the Alt-Help combination, which is usually for a screen dump to
 the printer. It dumps the screen instead to the disk in whatever resolution
 you are in. You can save as many as you like up to the disk space limitations.

 There are several versions of this kind of program. This one is without
 documentation, and when ARC'd is 768 bytes, but is about 4K unarc'd. The
 others do it in different ways. One popular one needs two programs or
 are they accessories. Haven't used them for quite some time. This will
 use the Alt-Help combination to save a picture, however, it doesn't save
 directly to the disk. It buffers it to a portion of screen memory and
 takes up a LOT of room if you have several screens to be saved. When you
 exit the program you call upon the accessory and then save the screens.

 Now, for the picture conversions and drawing packages. The only one I know
 for sure that generates a compatible IMG file is EasyDraw. Maybe JILCAD
 does as well. BTW, Publishing Partner uses any one of these formats
 according to our newsletter publisher. Tnystuff and its' newer versions
 all allow you to interchange between at least TNY, NEO, and PI? formats.
 The latest of this popular Shareware package will also convert from
 and maybe to other formats as well, including IFF and MAC pictures.
 If you want the ultimate all in one picture conversion tool, I have seen
 Picswitch in several incarnations, most notably Picsw6 and Picsw7. These
 were 0.6 and 0.7 versions of a ShareWare package from John Brochu. Really
 nice programs and useful if you have pictures in Atari 8 bit, IFF, MAC
 and a variety of choices which you might want to convert to Degas and or
 NEO pictures. I believe there is a version 1.0 coming out, which is to
 be gotten only by registered users of the older versions. It is an 
 excellent program which should be supported. (Note Degas Elite will also
 convert from ALL these formats. but it will only save to Degas format. It
 also has an Accessory which will convert TNY pictures as well.)

 Hope this helps. If you want the Degasave program, I am not sure if I
 have sent this to Steve Grimm yet. Thought I did.

 George Seto - using a friend's account.




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