SIDEWAYS SOFT-DOX WHAT YOU NEED ------------- TO RUN SIDEWAYS YOU WILL NEED AN APPLE ][+,e,c COMPUTER WITH AT LEAST 48K, AT LEAST ONE DISK DRIVE, A PRINTER INTERFACE CARD, AND A DOT-MATRIX PRINTER WITH DOT-ADDRESSABLE GRAPHICS CAPABILITY. FOR A LIST OF CURRENTLY SUPPORTED PRINTERS AND PRINTER INTERFACE CARDS, SEE THE SECTION ENTITLED 'INSTALLATION GUIDE'. WHAT'S ON YOUR DISK ------------------- YOUR SIDEWAYS DISK CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING FILES: SIDEWAYS...................THIS IS THE SIDEWAYS PROGRAM INSTALL....................THIS PROGRAM ALLOWS YOU TO SET-UP SIDEWAYS FOR YOUR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION (PRINTER MODEL, INTERFACE CARD,SLOT NUMBER) SAMPLE.PRF.................THIS IS A SAMPLE SPREADSHEET, WHICH CAN BE USED IMMEDIATELY TO DEMO SIDEWAYS PRINTING. INSTALLING THE PROGRAM ---------------------- BEFORE YOU CAN USE THE SIDEWAYS PROGRAM, YOU MUST TELL IT THE TYPE OF PRINTER YOU HAVE, THE TYPE OF INTERFACE CARD YOU HAVE, IN WHICH SLOT THE INTERFACE CARD IS LOCATED, AND THE NUMBER OF DATA BITS PER BYTE THAT YOUR PRINTER WILL ACCEPT (NORMALLY 8). 1. PUT YOUR SIDEWAYS DISK IN DRIVE 1 AND TURN ON THE COMPUTER. 2. WHEN THE SCREEN TITLE APPEARS, TYPE THE CHARACTER "I" (FOR INSTALL). BE SURE TO DO THIS BEFORE THE MAIN SIDEWAYS MENU APPEARS. 3. THE "INSTALL" PROGRAM WILL TELL YOU HOW SIDEWAYS IS CURRENTLY INSTALLED, AND WILL PRESENT A MENU FOR CHANGING THE INSTALLATION. SELECT WHICHEVER ITEMS NEED TO BE ALTERED; THE PROGRAM WILL LEAD YOU THROUGH THE VARIOUS OPTIONS IN A SERIES OF MENUS. 4. WHEN YOU HAVE MADE ALL THE NECESSARY CHANGES, USE THE "TEST INTERFACE" OPTION TO DO A PRELIMINARY CHECK OF THE SYSTEM. THIS WILL SEND A LINE OF TEXT CONTINUOUSLY, INSURING THAT YOUR SELECTION OF PRINTER INTERFACE CARD AND AND SLOT NUMBER WERE CORRECT. 5. NOW USE THE "EXIT" OPTION TO LEAVE THE INSTALL PROGRAM AND START THE NEWLY INSTALLED SIDEWAYS PROGRAM. 6. CHECK OUT THE SYSTEM BY PRINTING THE SAMPLE SPREADSHEET THAT WE'VE INCLUDED ON YOUR SIDEWAYS DISK. WHEN THE SIDEWAYS SCREEN COMES UP, TYPE IN "SAMPLE.PRF", FOLLOWED BY . IF YOU BUY A NEW PRINTER, OR OTHERWISE CHANGE YOUR CONFIGURATION, MAKE SURE YOU KEEP SIDEWAYS ABREAST OF NEW DEVELOPMENTS BY REPEATING THE ABOVE PROCEDURE. REFER TO THE SECTION ENTITLED "INSTALLATION GUIDE" FOR INFORMATION ON PARTICULAR PRINTERS AND INTERFACE CARDS, AND HOW THEY SHOULD BE INSTALLED. STARTING UP THE PROGRAM ----------------------- PUT YOUR SIDEWAYS DISK IN DRIVE 1 AND TURN ON YOUR COMPUTER. FIRST, A TITLE SCREEN WILL APPEAR, FOLLOWED, AFTER A FEW SECONDS, BY THE SIDEWAYS MENU. WHAT YOU SEE ARE ALL THE CURRENT SETTINGS OF THE FORMATTING AND PRINTER OPTIONS. YOU MAY ALTER ANY OF THESE OPTIONS, SAVE THE NEW SETTING TO DISK, SELECT A FILE FOR SIDEWAYS PRINTING, OR EXIT TO A DIFFERENT PROGRAM. THE CURSOR ALWAYS POINTS TO A HIGHLIGHTED FIELD; INITIALLY IT POINTS TO THE PRINT FIELD. USE CTRL-E AND CTRL-X TO MOVE THE CURSOR AROUND THE SCREEN TO DIFFERNT FIELDS (ON AN APPLE IIe USE UP-ARROW AND DOWN-ARROW). IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ALTER THE VALUE OF A FIELD, SIMPLY POSITION THE CURSOR TO THAT FIELD AND RE-ENTER IT. FOR MOST OF THE FIELDS, YOU WOULD SIMPLY ENTER THE NEW VALUE AND TERMINATE YOUR ENTRY WITH , OR CTRL-E OR CTRL-X. YOU CAN USE LEFT-ARROW ORDELETE TO DELETE THE LAST CHARACTER YOU TYPED, OR TO DELETE YOUR ENTIRE ENTRY.IF YOUR ENTRY IS INVALID, YOU WILL GET AN ERROR MESSAGE, AND THE FIELD YOU JUST ENTERED WILL REVERT ITSELF TO ITS PREVIOUS VALUE. THE REST OF THE FIELDS ARE "TOGGLE" FIELDS: YOU CAN CHANGE THEIR CONTENTS SIMPLY BY STRIKING ANY ALPHANUMERIC KEY (SUCH AS THE SPACE BAR). THESE FIELDS INCLUDE HORIZONTAL FORM SIZE, CHARACTER FONT, AND DOUBLE STRIKE. SELECTING A FILE TO PRINT ------------------------- TO PRINT A FILE, POSITION THE CURSOR TO THE PRINT FILE FIELD AND TYPE IN THE NAME OF THE FILE YOU WANT TO PRINT, TERMINATE BY HITTING . ENTER THE FILE NAME IN NORMAL DOS FORMAT: filename[,Sn][,Dn][,Vn] (S,D, AND V ARE SLOT, DRIVE, AND VOLUME. AS INDICATED BY THE BRACKETS, THE ARE OPTIONAL PARAMETERS,) ONCE PRINTING HAS BEGUN, THE FOLLOWING IS DISPLAYED: STRIKE "P" TO STOP PRINTING IF YOU DO STRIKE "P", THE PRINTER WILL STOP PRINTING AT THE CURRENT LINE AND DO A FORM FEED. AFTER YOUR FILE HAS BEEN PRINTED, YOU MAY ONCE AGAIN ALTER THE OPTION SETTINGS, ENTER A NEW FILE NAME FOR PRINTING OR EXIT TO ANOTHER PROGRAM. SLOT, DRIVE, VOLUME: IF YOU DON'T SPECIFY A SLOT OR DRIVE NUMBER, SIDEWAYS WILL USE THE DEFAULT SLOT AND DRIVE. INITIALLY, THE DEFAULT IS THE SLOT AND DRIVE FROM WHICH SIDEWAYS WAS BOOTED (NORMALLY SLOT 6, DRIVE 1). WHENEVER YOU SPECIFY A SLOT OR DRIVE WITH A FILENAME, IT BECOMES THE NEW DEAFULT. IF YOU DON'T SPECIFY A FILENAME, BUT TYPE IN A SLOT AND/OR DRIVE NUMBER, FOLLOWED BY , SIDEWAYS WILL CHANGE THE DEFAULT SLOT AND DRIVE WITHOUT ATTEMPTING TO PRINT ANYTHING. YOU MUST REMEMBER TO PRECEDE THE DRIVE OR SLOT NUMBER WITH A COMMA. FOR EXAMPLE, TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT DRIVE TO DRIVE 2, TYPEIN: ,D2 IF YOU SPECIFY A VOLUME NUMBER, SIDEWAYS WILL MATCH THIS NUMBER TO THE VOLUME NUMBER ON THE DISK, AND GIVE YOU AN ERROR ON A MISMATCH. WILDCARDS: IF YOU DON'T REMEMBER THE NAME OF THE FILE YOU WANT TO PRINT, YOU CAN EXAMINE THE FILENAMES ON YOUR DISK BY USING A "WILCARD" IN THE FILENAME YOU ENTER. THE EQUAL (=) SIGN IS THE WILDCARD CHARACTER-IT STANDS FOR ANY SEQUENCE OF CHARACTERS IN THE CORRESPONDING POSITION OF THE FILENAME. FOR INSTANCE, P=W WOULD STAND FOR ANY FILENAME STARTING WITH P AND ENDING WITH W. AFTER ENTERING THE FILENAME WITH THE WILDCARD IN IT, DON'T TYPE , BUT USE RIGHT-ARROW TO DISPLAY, ONE-BY-ONE, ALL TEXT FILES MATCHING YOUR ENTRY. WHEN THE FILE THAT YOU WANT APPEARS, HIT TO PRINT IT. HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF WILDCARDS: = ALL FILES ON DEFAULT DRIVE =,D2 ALL FILES ON DRIVE 2 =ING ALL FILES ENDING IN ING FILENAME RULES: YOUR FILE MST BE ON A DOS 3.3 DISK. DOS ASSIGNS EVERY FILE ON YOUR DISK A "FILE TYPE", WHICH GENERALLY DESCRIBES THE FORMAT OR PURPOSE OF THE FILE. THE "TEXT" FILE TYPE INDICATES A FILE COMPOSED OF PRINTABLE CHARACTERS-THIS IS THE TYPE OF FILE SIDEWAYS EXPECTS, AND IF YOU ENTER A FILE OF A DIFFERENT TYPE, SIDEWAYS WILL NOT RECOGNIZE IT. TEXT FILES ARE INDICATED BY THE "T" CODE NEXT TO THE FILE NAME WHEN YOU CATALOG YOUR DISK. YOU SHOULD NOT USE FILE NAMES WITH EMBEDDED CONTROL CHARACTERS, OR WITH FLASHING OR INVERSE CHARACTERS. WHILE SIDEWAYS WILL HANDLE LOWER-CASE CHARACTERS IN A FILENAME, IT IS GOOD PRACTICE TO AVOID USING THEM. SIDEWAYS WILL DISREGARD CASE WHEN YOU USE RIGHT-ARROW TO SEARCH FOR A FILE; HOWEVER, WHEN YOU TERMINATE YOUR FILENAME ENTRY WITH , ALL THE CHARACTERS OF THE FILENAME MUST BE IN THE CORRECT CASE FOR THE FILE TO BE FOUND. WHEN YOU USE RIGHT-ARROW TO SEARCH FOR A MATCHING FILENAME, THE EQUAL SIGN (=) IS A WILDCARD; BUT WHEN YOU TERMINATE YOUR FILENAME ENTRY WITH , THE EQUAL SIGN IS TAKEN LITERALLY. SIDEWAYS OPTIONS ---------------- SETTING PAPER DIMENSIONS: HORIZONTAL FORM FEED REFERS TO YOUR PAPER WIDTH. IT WILL TOGGLE BETWEEN 8 INCHES AND 13 INCHES. IF YOU HAVE A NARROW CARRIAGE PRINTER, YOU SHOULD LEAVE IT SET TO 8 INCHES. VERITCAL FORM FEED IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN PERFORATIONS OF YOUR PRINTER PAPER. WHENEVER SIDEWAYS IS DONE PRINTING A PAGE, IT FORM FEEDS TO THE NEXT MULTIPLE OF VERTICAL FORM SIZE. IT IS NORMALLY SET TO 11 INCHES. SETTING THE STYLE OF THE PRINTOUT: DOUBLE STRIKE IS A TOGGLE FIELD WHICH MAY BE ON OR OFF. IF IT'S ON, EACH LINE WILL BE PRINTED TWICE, FOR ADDED PRINT DENSITY. CHARACTER FONT IS A TOGGLE FIELD WHICH GIVES YOU A CHOICE OF VARIOUS TYPE SIZES, FROM TINY TO EXTRA LARGE. ON THE RIGHT OF THE SCREEN, THE DIMENSIONS OF THE "DOT-MATRIX" - THE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL PRINT DOTS THAT ARE USED TO MAKE UP EACH CHARACTER IN THE SELECTED FONT-ARE SHOWN. CHARACTER SPACING IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE CHARACTER COLUMNS, MEASURED IN TERMS OF THE VERTICAL DOT DENSITY OF THE PRINTER. YOU CAN CROWD CHARACTERS TOGETHER, OR SPREAD THEM APART, BY MAKING THIS NUMBER SMALLER OR LARGER-THE RESULTING NUMBER OF CHARACTERS PER INCH IS DISPLAYED AT THE RIGHT. LINE SPACING IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE PRINT LINES, KEASURED IN TERMS OF HORIZONTAL DOT DENSITY OF THE PRINTER. YOU CAN CROWD LINES TOGETHER OR SPREAD THEM APART BY MANIPULATING THIS VALUE-THE RESULTING NUMBER OF LINES PER INCH IS DISPLAYED AT THE RIGHT. YOU MAY SET A DIFFERENT CHARACTER AND LINE SPACING FOR EACH CHARACTER FONT; WHEN YOU CHANGE FONTS, YOU AUTOMATICALLY REVERT TO THE CHARACTER AND LINE SPACING ASSOCIATED WITH THE NEW FONT. SETTING THE FORMAT OF THE PAGE: LEFT MARGIN CONTROLS THE AMOUNT OF WHITE SPACE BETWEEN TOP-OF-FORM AND THE LEFTMOST SIDEWAYS PRINT COLUMN TOP MARGIN CONTROLS THE AMOUNT OF WHITE SPACE BETWEEN THE RIGHT EDGE OF THE PAPER AND THE 1ST SIDEWAYS PRINTED LINE. BOTTOM MARGIN CONTROLS THE AMOUNT OF WHITE SPACE BETWEEN THE LAST SIDEWAYS PRINTED LINE AND THE LEFT EDGE OF THE PAPER. THE AMOUNT OF SPACE AVAILABLE FOR PRINTING IS DETERMINED BY SUBTRACTING TOP MARGIN AND BOTTOM MARGIN FROM HORIZONTAL FORM SIZE. THE PROGRAM AUTOMATICALLY COMPUTES THE NUMBER OF LINES THAT WILL FIT ON EACH PAGE, AND DISPLAYS THIS ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE SCREEN. OTHER OPTION: STARTING PAGE ALLOWS YOU TO SKIP OVER THE INITIAL PAGES OF A PRINT FILE; IT IS NORMALLY SET TO 1. SAVING OPTION SETTINGS TO DISK ------------------------------ ONCE YOU HAVE SET UP THE SIDEWAYS OPTIONS AS YOU LIKE THEM, YOU CAN SAVE THEM TO DISK BY TYPING CTRL-S, AND RELOAD THEM FROM DISK BY TYPING CTRL-L. THE OPTION SETTINGS ARE SAVED IN A FILE CALLED SWOPTIONS. WHEN YOU TYPE CTRL-S, THE CURRENT OPTION SETTINGS ARE WRITTEN TO SWOPTIONS ON THE DEFAULT SLOT AND DRIVE. WHEN YOU TYPE CTRL-L, THE OPTION SETTINGS ARE LOADED FROM SWOPTIONS ON THE DEFAULT SLOT AND DRIVE. REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN ALTER THE DEFAULT SLOT AND DRIVE BY ENTERING THEM IN THE PRINT FILE FIELD WITH A BLANK FILENAME, FOLLOWED BY . YOU CAN ALSO SAVE THE OPTION SETTINGS TO THE SIDEWAYS DISK ITSELF. IF YOU HAVE DONE SO, THEY WILL BE RELOADED EVERY TIME YOU BOOT SIDEWAYS, AND YOU WILL NOT NEED TO USE CTRL-L. IF YOU HAVE ONE STANDARD SET OF OPTION SETTINGS THAT YOU USE MOST OF THE TIME, IT MAKES SENSE TO SAVE THEM TO THE SIDEWAYS DISK. IF YOU HAVE DIFFERENT OPTIONS SETTINGS USED FOR DIFFERENT PRINT FILES, YOU MIGHT WANT TO SAVE EACH OF THE VARIOUS SETTINGS TO A DIFFERENT DISK, AND USE CTRL-L TO READ THEM IN. CREATING SPREADSHEET PRINT FILES -------------------------------- NORMALLY, WHEN YOU WANT TO PRINT A SPREADSHEET, YOU ISSUE A "PRINT" COMMAND FROM YOUR SPREADSHEET PROGRAM WHICH ACTIVATES THE PRINTER DIRECTLY. HOWEVER, TO USE SIDEWAYS YOU MUST FIRST WRITE A PRINTABLE IMAGE OF YOUR SPREADSHEET TO A TEXT FILE ON DISK. SIDEWAYS USES THIS "PRINT FILE" TO CREATE HARD COPY. YOUR SPREADSHEET PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION WILL TELL YOU HOW TO CREATE PRINT FILES FROM YOUR SPREADSHEETS; WE'VE ALSO INCLUDED SOME HINTS FOR THE MORE POPULAR SPREADSHEET PROGRAMS BELOW. WHEN YOU TELL YOUR SPREADSHEET PROGRAM WHAT FILE NAME TO ASSIGN TO YOUR PRINT FILE, BE CAREFUL! DON'T USE THE SAME NAME THAT YOU USED FOR THE WORKSHEET FILE ITSELF, OR YOU COULD LOSE ALL YOUR WORK. CREATE A "NAMING CONVENTION" AND STICK TO IT. FOR INSTANCE, YOU MIGHT APPEND THE SUFFIX ".PRF" TO THE FILE NAME WHENEVER YOU CREATE A PRINT FILE; THUS, IF YOU HAD A SPREADSHEET NAMED "BUDGET", YOU WOULD CALL ITS ASSOCIATED PRINT FILE "BUDGET.PRF". YOU COULD THEN ALSO USE THE SIDEWAYS FILE SEARCH FEATURE TO FIND ALL YOUR PRINT FILES BY ENTERING "=.PRF" FOLLOWED BY RIGHT-ARROW. SOME SPREADSHEET PROGRAMS HAVE A PRINTING FEATURE WHICH IS USEFUL FOR NORMAL PRINTING, BUT GETS IN THE WAY WHEN YOU ARE PRINTING SIDEWAYS. THESE PROGRAMS OUTPUT THE SPREADSHEET IN SECTIONS, BASED ON A PARAMETER WHICH YOU WOULD SUPPLY INDICATING THE WIDTH OF YOUR PRINTER. SINCE THE PRINTING WIDTH OF SIDEWAYS IS VIRTUALLY INFINITE, YOU WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU SET THIS PRINT WIDTH PARAMETER HIGHER THAN THE NUMBER OF CHARACTER COLUMNS IN YOUR SPREADSHEET; OTHERWISE, YOUR PRINTOUT WILL BE BROKEN UP INTO SECTIONS. VISICALC HINTS: TO CREATE A PRINT FILE IN VISICALC, ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS ISSUE THE PRINT FILE COMMAND (/PF). THE PROGRAM WILL PROMPT YOU FOR A FILE NAME, THEN FOR THE SPREADSHEET RANGE YOU'D LIKE TO PRINT OUT. VISICALC-ADVANCED VERSION HINTS: METHOD 1-PAGE BREAKS DISABLED: THIS METHOD IS SIMPLEST, AND MOST RESEMBLES THE ORIGINAL VISICALC. FIRST, USE THE PRINT SETTINGS COMMAND TO DISABLE PAGE BREAKS (/PSBN). THEN, ISSUE THE PRINT FILE COMMAND (/PF). THE PROGRAM WILL PROMPT YOU FOR A FILE NAME, THEN FOR THE SPREADSHEET RANGE YOU'D LIKE TO PRINT OUT. METHOD 2-PAGE BREAKS ENABLED: YOU WOULD USE THIS METHOD IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A FORMATTED, MULTI-PAGE SPREADSHEET, POSSIBLY WITH TITLES OR PAGE NUMBERS. YOU WILL FIRST NEED TO BRING UP SIDEWAYS, AND MAKE NOTE OF HOW MANY LINES PER PAGE IT IS ABLE TO PRINT, BASED ON THE FORMATTING OPTIONS YOU SET (THIS NUMBER APPEARS ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE SIDEWAYS SCREEN). IN VISICALC, USE THE PRINT SETTINGS COMMAND TO SET THE FOLLOWING: 1. PAGE BREAKS: ENABLED (/PSBY) 2. PAPER LENGTH: EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF LINES PER PAGE THAT SIDEWAYS CAN PRINT (/PSF)-THIS MATCHES THE VISICALC PAGE TO THE SIDEWAYS PAGE. 3. PAGE LENGTH: LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO PAPER LENGTH (/PSP). 4. PAGE WIDTH: 255-THIS IS ITS MAXIMUM VALUE (/PSW). THEN, ISSUE THE PRINT FILE COMMAND (/PF). THE PROGRAM WILL PROMPT YOU FOR A FILE NAME, THEN FOR THE SPREADSHEET RANGE YOU'D LIKE TO PRINT OUT. NOTE THAT SINCE PAGE BREAKS ARE ENABLED, IF YOUR SPREADSHEET IS WIDER THAN THE PAGE WIDTH OF 255 CHARACTER COLUMNS, VISICALC WILL PRINT IT OUT IN SECTIONS. IF SO, REFER TO APPENDIX B FOR SOME TECHNIQUES TO DEAL WITH THIS PROBLEM; OR USE METHOD 1 ABOVE RATHER THAN THIS METHOD TO AVOID THE PROBLEM ENTIRELY. MULTIPLAN HINTS: IF YOU HAVE VERSION 1.05 OF MULTIPLAN OR EARLIER, WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU UPGRADE TO THE LATEST VERSION. MUTIPLAN OUTPUTS VERY WIDE SPREADSHEETS IN SECTIONS BASED ON ITS "PRINT WIDTH" PARAMETER. MULTIPLAN VERSION 1.05 AND EARLIER WILL ACCEPT A VALUE NO HIGHER THAN 165 FOR "PRINT WIDTH"; VERSION 1.06 WILL ACCEPT VALUES AS HIGH AS 512. THIS MEANS THAT WITH THE EARLIER VERSION OF MULTIPLAN IT WILL BE RATHER CUMBERSOME TO PRINT SPREADSHEETS WIDER THAN 165 CHARACTER COLUMNS. 1. FIRST, YOU MUST BRING UP SIDEWAYS, AND MAKE NOTE OF HOW MANY LINES PER PAGE IT IS ABLE TO PRINT, BASED ON THE FORMATTING OPTIONS YOU SET (THIS NUMBER APPEARS ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE SIDEWAYS SCREEN). 2. RUN YOUR MULTIPLAN PROGRAM. 3. USING THE PRINT MARGINS COMMAND, SET UP THE FOLLOWING PARAMETERS: LEFT MARGIN = 0 PRINT WIDTH = 512 (165 IF v1.05 OR EARLIER). PAGE LENGTH = THEN NUMBER OF LINES PER PAGE SIDEWAYS CAN PRINT. TOP MARGIN = 0 PRINT LENGTH = SAME AS PAGE LENGTH. (YOU MAY, IN FACT, SET "TOP MARGIN" AND "PRINT LENGTH" HOWEVER YOU LIKE, AS LONG AS THEIR SUM DOES NOT EXCEED "PAGE LENGTH"; THE VALUES WE SUGGEST ABOVE MAXIMIZE THE NUMBER OF AVAILABLE PRINTABLE LINES.) 4. USE THE [PRINT] OPTIONS COMMAND TO SPECIFY THE RANGE TO BE PRINTED. 5. USE THE [PRINT] FILE COMMAND TO WRITE THE PRINT FILE TO DISK. CREATING TEXT FILES USING WORD PROCESSORS AND EDITORS ----------------------------------------------------- SIDEWAYS WILL ACCEPT AS INPUT ANY ORDINARY TEXT FILE CREATED USING A WORD PROCESSOR OR AN EDITOR. THE TEXT FILE SHOULD NOT INCLUDE PRINTER CONTROL SEQUENCES SUCH AS COMPRESSED MODE, EXPANDED MODE, SUPERSCRIPT, OR THE LIKE, SINCE THESE ARE NOT RECOGNIZED BY SIDEWAYS, AND COULD PRODUCE UNWANTED RESULTS. IF YOUR WORD PROCESSOR HAS ITS OWN "PRIVATE" FORMAT FOR ITS TEXT FILES, SIDEWAYS MAY NOT BE ABLE TO PRINT THEM DIRECTLY. HOWEVER, SUCH WORD PROCESSORS USUALLY ALLOW YOU TO "PRINT TO DISK"-THAT IS, TO RE-ROUTE PRINT OUTPUT TO A DISK FILE INSTEAD OF THE PRINTER. SIDEWAYS SHOULD BE ABLE TO READ A PRINT FILE CREATED THIS WAY. APPENDIX A: TROUBLESHOOTING --------------------------- IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE GETTING SIDEWAYS TO OPERATE PROPERLY, THESE NOTES MAY GIVE YOU SOME CLUES AS TO WHAT IS GOING WRONG. THE PROBLEMS THAT YOU ARE LIKELY TO ENCOUNTER CAN BE GENERALLY DIVIDED INTO TWO TYPES: (1) PROBLEMS WITH THE PRINTING PROCESS, AND (2) PROBLEMS WITH THE FORMAT OF THE TEXT FILES YOU ARE TRYING TO PRINT. TO DETERMINE TO WHICH OF THESE TWO CATEGORIES YOUR PROBLEM BELONGS, TRY PRINTING THE SAMPLE TEXT FILE THAT IS INCLUDED ON YOUR SIDEWAYS DISK. BOOT THE PROGRAM, AND ENTER "SAMPLE.PRF" IN THE PRINT FILE FIELD. IF IT DOES NOT PRINT OUR CORRECTLY, THEN THERE IS A PROBLEM IN THE PRINTING PROCESS; IF IT DOES PRINT OUT CORRECTLY, THEN THE PROBLEM ALMOST CERTAINLY LIES IN THE FORMAT OF THE TEXT FILE THAT YOU WERE TRYING TO PRINT. IF NOTHING PRINTS OUT OR THE PRINTOUT HAS ERRORS, YOU MAY HAVE SPECIFIED THE WRONG INTERFACE CARD OR SLOT NUMBER. PROBLEMS WITH THE PRINTING PROCESS: 1. IS ANY DATA GETTING TO THE PRINTER? IF, WHEN YOU TRY TO PRINT, THE MESSAGE "PRINTER NOT READY" APPEARS, DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE PRINTER IS ON-LINE, AND THE CABLE IS PLUGGED IN; OR IF THE MESSAGE "STRIKE P TO STOP PRINTING" APPEARS, BUT THE PRINTER DOES NOTHING; THEN IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT, WHEN YOU INSTALLED SIDEWAYS, YOU SPECIFIED EITHER THE WRONG INTERFACE CARD OR THE WRONG SLOT NUMBER. 2. DOES THE PRINTOUT CONSIST ENTIRELY OF NORMALLY ORIENTED (NON-SIDEWAYS) CHARACTERS? MOST LIKELY, YOUR PRINTER DOES NOT HAVE GRAPHICS. MOST PRINTERS COME WITH GRAPHICS CAPABILITY; ON SOME, GRAPHICS IS AN OPTION WHICH MUST BE PURCHASED. IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE THAT YOU SPECIFIED THE WRONG PRINTER WHEN YOU INSTALLED SIDEWAYS. 3. IS THE PRINTOUT AN AMALGAM OF SIDEWAYS CHARACTERS AND NORMALLY ORIENTED CHARACTERS? ARE THE SIDEWAYS CHARACTERS MISREGISTED? THERE COULD BE VARIOUS EXPLANATIONS. THE CABLE TO THE PRINTER MAY BE LOOSE, OR FAULTY. IF YOU ARE USING AN EXTERNAL PRINTER BUFFER, TRY REMOVING IT FROM THE CIRCUIT AND SEE IF THE PROBLEM PERSISTS. IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE THAT YOU SPECIFIED THE WRONG PRINTER OR INTERACE CARD WHEN YOU INSTALLED SIDEWAYS. IF YOU HAVE A SERIAL, RATHER THAN A PARALLEL, PRINTER INTERFACE, IT COULD BE THAT YOUR CABLE IS NOT CARRYING THE PRINTER'S "HANDSHAKE" SIGNAL BACK TO THE INTERFACE CARD, AND THE PRINTER IS BEING OVERRUN BY DATA COMING IN TOO QUICKLY. SIDEWAYS SENDS A LARGE VOLUME OF GRAPHICS DATA TO THE PRINTER AT VERY HIGH SPEEDS AND IT IS ENTIRELY POSSIBLE THAT A CABLING ERROR OF THIS KIND WOULD CAUSE NO PROBLEM AT ALL WHEN PRINTING TEXT, BUT WOULD SHOW UP IMMEDIATELY WHEN PRINTING IN GRAPHICS MODE. TRY REDUCING THE BAUD RATE-IF THIS ALLEVIATES THAT PROBLEM THEN YOUR CABLE IS VERY LIKELY AT FAULT AND SHOULD BE REPLACED. IF YOU HAVE A PRINTER WHICH IS NOT MANUFACTURED BY EPSON, BUT IS SUPPOSED TO USE THE SAME CONTROL CODES AS EPSON PRINTERS, THIS MAY BE THE CULPRIT. MAY SUCH "LOOKALIKES" OPERATE JUST LIKE AN EPSON, AND WON'T CAUSE ANY PROBLEMS; OTHERS HAVE SLIGHT DIFFERENCES AND MAY NOT OPERATE PROPERLY. BESIDES THE STANDARD EPSON INSTALLATION OPTIONS WE'VE ALSO PROVIDED "LOOKALIKE" INSTALLATION OPTIONS WHICH USE SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES TO OPERATE THE PRINTER. TRY RE-INSTALLING SIDEWAYS USING THESE ALTERNATIVES-HOPEFULLY ONE OF THEM WILL WORK. PROBLEM WITH THE FORMAT OF THE TEXT FILE: 1. DOES THE PRINTOUT CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT YOU WOULD EXPECT TO SEE IN YOUR FILE, BUT ORGANIZED IN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT WAY? YOU ARE PROBABLY PRINTING THE WRONG SORT OF FILE. WHEN YOU ARE USING A SPREADSHEET PROGRAM, THE WORKSHEET FILE THAT YOU LOAD AND SAVE IS IN THE PROGRAM'S OWN PRIVATE FORMAT-YOU SHOULDN'T TRY TO PRINT THIS FILE. YOUR SPREADSHEET PROGRAM SHOULD ALSO BE CAPABLE OF CREATING A "PRINTFILE" WITH ALL THE WORKSHEET INFORMATION IN DISPLAYABLE, OR PRINTABLE, FORM; THIS IS THE TYPE OF FILE WHICH YOU SHOULD PRINT. RE-READ THE SECTION ABOVE: "CREATING SPREADSHEET PRINT FILES". 2. DOES YOUR SPREADSHEET PRINT OUT IN SECTIONS; THAT IS, DO YOU GET SOME OF THE COLUMNS OF YOUR SPREADSHEET ON ONE PAGE, FOLLOWED BY A FORM FEED, THEN THE REST OF THE COLUMNS ON A SECOND PAGE? SOME SPREADSHEET PROGRAMS WILL SECTION A SPREADSHEET AS IT PRINTS IT OUT, IN ORDER TO ACCOMMODATE WIDE SPREADSHEETS TO NARROW PRINTERS. IF THIS HAS OCCURED, YOUR SIDEWAYS PRINTOUT WILL HAVE THE KIND OF DISLOCATIONS DESCRIBED ABOVE. IN ORDER TO PREVENT THE SPREADSHEET PROGRAM FROM SECTIONING YOUR PRINTOUT, YOU SHOULD SET ITS PRINTING WIDTH PARAMETER AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE. REFER TO THE SECTION "CREATING SPREADSHEET PRINT FILES" FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE PRINTING WIDTH CAPABILITIES OF VARIOUS SPREADSHEET PROGRAMS. IF YOUR SPREADSHEET PROGRAM WILL NOT ACCEPT A VALUE FOR ITS PRINTING WIDTH THAT IS HIGH ENOUGH TO ACCOMMODATE THE ENTIRE WIDTH OF YOUR SPREADSHEET, THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO USE ONE OF THE STRATEGIES OUTLINED IN APPENDIX B IN ORDER TO GET THE PROPER PRINTOUT. 3. IN A FORMATTED, MULTI-PAGE PRINTOUT, IS THE SECOND PAGE OF THE SPREADSHEET NOT APPEARING AT THE TOP OF THE SECOND PAGE OF THE PRINTOUT? IN A FORMATTED PRINTOUT (SUCH AS MULTIPLAN), ONE OF THE PARAMETERS YOU SPECIFY TO THE SPREADSHEET PROGRAM IS THE PAGE LENGTH. YOU SHOULD BE SURE TO SET THE SPREADSHEET PROGRAM'S PAGE LENGTH EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF LINES PER PAGE THAT SIDEWAYS CAN PRINT (AS DISPLAYED ON THE SIDEWAYS SCREEN). THE SPREADSHEET PROGRAM WILL PAD OUT EACH PAGE WITH BLANK LINES, UP TO THE PAGE LENGTH: IF THE PAGE LENGTH IS TOO HIGH, SOME OF THOSE BLANK LINES WILL APPEAR AT THE TOP OF THE SECOND SIDEWAYS PAGE, FORCING DATA DOWN; IF PAGE LENGTH IS TOO LOW, LINES FROM THE SECOND PAGE WILL APPEAR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FIRST SIDEWAYS PAGE. 4. IN A PRINTOUT OF A VISICALC SPREADSHEET, ARE THERE INDIVIDUAL CELLS WHICH APPEAR IN THE WRONG PLACE-IN THE CORRECT ROW, BUT 20 OR 30 CELLS TO THE LEFT OF WHERE THEY SHOULD BE? THIS PROBLEM CAN OCCUR IN VISICALC PRINT FILES WHEN THE SPREADSHEET IS VERY WIDE AND CONTAINS MANY BLANK CELLS ALL IN A ROW. REFER TO APPENDIX C FOR A COMPLETE DISCUSSION OF THE PROBLEM. APPENDIX B: IF YOUR SPREADSHEET IS WIDER THAN YOUR SPREADSHEET PROGRAM'S MAXIMUM PRINTING WIDTH ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------ WE MENTIONED ABOVE THAT SOME SPREADSHEET PROGRAMS AUTOMATICALLY BREAK VERY WIDE SPREADSHEETS INTO SECTIONS AS THEY PRINT OUT, IN ORDER TO LIMIT THE WIDTH OF EACH PAGE TO THE WIDTH OF THE PRINTER; FOR SIDEWAYS PRINTING, YOU SHOULD SPECIFY AS WIDE A PRINT WIDTH AS POSSIBLE, IN ORDER TO PREVENT THIS UNWANTED SECTIONING. SOME SPREADSHEET PROGRAMS MAY BE LIMITED IN HOW HIGH A NUMBER THEY WILL ACCEPT FOR THE PRINTING WIDTH PARAMETER. FOR EXAMPLE, MULTIPLAN v1.06 WILL NOT ACCEPT A "PRINT WIDTH" GREATER THAN 512 (v1.05 OR EARLIER IS LIMITED TO 165). IF YOUR SPREADSHEET IS WIDER THAN THIS LIMIT, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PREVENT THE PROGRAM FROM SECTIONING IT. HERE ARE A COUPLE OF STRATEGIES TO GET AROUND THIS PROBLEM. 1. CREATE MULTIPLE PRINT FILES AND STRING THEM TOGETHER. DIVIDE YOUR SPREADSHEET INTO SEGMENTS THAT DO NOT EXCEED THE SPREADSHEET PROGRAM'S PRINTING WIDTH, AND CREATE A SEPARATE PRINT FILE FOR EACH SEGMENT. NOW RUN SIDEWAYS, AND PRINT THESE FILES SIDE-BY-SIDE CREATING A SINGLE, VERY WIDE PRINTOUT. BE SURE TO SET VERTICAL FORM SIZE TO 0; THIS WILL PREVENT FORM-FEEDS FROM OCCURING BETWEEN THE SEGMENTS. 2. CREATE A SINGLE PRINT FILE, WITH PAGE-BREAKS ADJUSTED SO THAT SUCCESSIVE SECTIONS APPEAR ON SUCCESSIVE PAGES. SET THE PAGE-LENGTH IN YOUR SPREADSHEET PROGRAM TO MATCH THE NUMBER OF LINES PER PAGE IN SIDEWAYS, AN MAKE SURE THAT THE ROWS OF THE PRINT RANGE ALL FIT WITHIN A SINGLE PAGE. RUN SIDEWAYS, SET VERTICAL FORM SIZE TO 0, AND PRINT THE FILE. EACH SECTION WILL THUS BE PRINTED ON A NEW PAGE, EXACTLY ADJACENT TO THE PREVIOUS SECTION, THEREBY CREATING A SINGLE, VERY WIDE PRINTOUT. APPENDIX C: A GLITCH IN VISICALC -------------------------------- HERE ARE A FEW PROBLEMS THAT YOU MIGHT RUN INTO WHEN PRINTING VISICALC SPREADSHEETS: 1)... IF THE SPREADSHEET IS VERY WIDE (MORE THAN 256 CHARACTER COLUMNS) AND IF IT CONTAINS MANY BLANK CELLS ALL IN A ROW. IF A ROW OF YOUR SPREADSHEET CONTAINS A SEQUENCE OF CELLS WHICH ARE ALL BLANK, FOLLOWED BY A NON-BLANK CELL, AND IF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF BLANK CHARACTER COLUMNS IS 256 OR MORE, THEN VISICALC WILL "LOSE" 256 BLANK CHARACTER COLUMNS, AND SHIFT THENON-BLANK CELL THAT FAR TO THE LEFT WHEN CREATING THE PRINT FILE. *** FOR INSTANCE, LET'S SAY THAT IN ROW 14 OF YOUR SPREADSHEET, YOU HAVE DATA IN COLUMNS A AND B, COLUMNS C THROUGH AF ARE BLANK, AND DATA ONCE AGAIN APPEARS IN COLUMN AG. THUS, THERE ARE 30 BLANK COLUMNS IN SEQUENCE, WITH 9 CHARACTERS PER COLUMN, FOR A TOTAL OF 270 CHARACTER COLUMNS OF BLANKS. VISICALC WILL LOSE 256 OUT OF THOSE 270 BLANKS, WHEN THE SPREADSHEET IS PRINTED, AG14 WILL HAVE BEEN SHIFTED LEFT BY 256 COLUMNS, AND WILL APPEAR AT ABOUT THE POSITION OF D14. THE MOST DIRECT WAY AROUND THIS PROBLEM IS TO INSURE THAT YOU NEVER HAVE A SEQUENCE OF 256 BLANK CHARACTER COLUMNS IN ANY ROW. IF YOUR SPREADSHEET DOES HAVE THIS MANY BLANK COLUMNS, PICK A CELL SOMEWHERE IN THE CENTER OF THE SEQUENCE OF BLANKS, AND PUT SOME INCONSPICUOUS PRINTABLE CHARACTER IN IT, SUCH AS A ".", OR A "0". HAVING BROKEN UP THE LONG SEQUENCE OF BLANKS INTO TWO SHORTER SEQUENCES OF BLANKS, THE SPREADSHEET WILL PRINT OUT CORRECTLY. ANOTHER WAY AROUND THIS PROBLEM WOULD BE TO CREATE TWO SPREADSHEET PRINT FILES, ONE FOR THE LEFT HALF, AND ONE FOR THE RIGHT HALF OF THE SPREADSHEET. YOU WOULD THEN PRINT THEM OUT SIDE BY SIDE. AS LONG AS NEITHER OF THE TWO HALVES CONTAIN A STRING OF 256 BLANKS#