Path: news.uiowa.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!info.ucla.edu!library.ucla.edu!unixg.ubc.ca!freenet.vancouver.bc.ca!gareth From: gareth@opus.freenet.vancouver.bc.ca (Gareth Jones) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Ten Best Tips... Date: 31 Oct 1995 08:36:45 GMT Organization: Vancouver Regional FreeNet Lines: 79 Message-ID: <474n6t$jr@milo.freenet.vancouver.bc.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: opus.freenet.vancouver.bc.ca X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Gareth Jones' Ten best tips for the Apple IIgs 1. Install the Video Keyboard desk accessory from the System disk. It conflicts with no program that I know of, and is a handy way to enter (or remember) the key combinations for specific "special" characters. 2. The way to import Macintosh TeachText documents into GraphicWriter with all the special characters intact is: Open a template and to select a text area that will hold the imported text. Now, select the "Universal" translator from the list of file translators. It will give you a dialogue box full of radio buttons. You must click two of these OFF: "Choose from TEXT files only" and "Convert all characters to low ASCII." The first click allows you to select a TeachText file to import and the second allows you to import the file with the high-ASCII symbols displaying correctly. 3. ClarisWorks and the ProDOS File System INIT on a Mac will work together to save files in AppleWorks format on a ProDOS-formatted disk. However, the files will have resource forks that make them unreadable to AppleWorks. The shareware program Fork.Split will remove the fork, leaving you with a readable file. 4. To create macros in WordPerfect IIgs that are invoked by pressing Option plus a letter key, ignore the instructions in the manual. You must save the macro to disk normally under a name composed of "MACRO" plus the letter that you want to assign to the macro. (For example, MACROX for a macro that is invoked by Option-X). You must also have Keyboard Translation set to "None" in the General Control Panel for the macros to work. 5. You can print Text, Teach, or AppleWorks files from the desktop if you have ShadowWrite or Hermes installed and its "Finder Extra" function active. You simply have to select the files in the Finder then select "Print" from the Finder's "File" menu. (AppleWorks GS files will be printed by AppleWorks GS. HyperCard works on HyperCard stacks). 6. HyperCard IIgs has two commands for communicating with other applications: "open [document] with [application]" and "print [document] with [application]." The only catch is that the application must have been written to receive these messages. AppleWorks GS will operate properly with these commands for its own files; My Word! (a Teach editor by Gary Little) works properly for text, Teach, and AppleWorks files; SuperConvert will open or print many types of graphic files under HyperCard's control. Here is a sample script: on mouseUp answer file "Select a text file to print:" of type 80 -- the filetype is specified as a _decimal_ number if it is "Cancel" then exit mouseUp else put it into wpFileName print wpFileName with ":HardDriveVolume:FolderName:AppleWorks.GS" end if end mouseUp 7. SuperConvert 3.01 hides the desk accessories under the Apple menu if you run it under System 6.0 or 6.0.1. This bug does not appear, however, if you run The Manager first. 8. You can get proper greyscale printing on a PostScript laser printer from the GS LaserWriter driver _if_ the picture you are printing is already displaying in greyscale. Ways to obtain greyscale include: turning the "display colour" option in GraphicWriter III _off_, using the freeware Grayscale INIT, or using the ColorToGray external command for DreamGrafix. 9. LaserBeam 1.1 from EGO Systems allows PostScript fonts to be uploaded to a PostScript printer for use by GS software. 10. TextDisplayDA 1.0.2 by John Siemon is a free NDA that presents a scrolling text field. You can customize or replace the text with a freeware resource editor like Foundation or rEdit, then use the DA as an address list or command reference. Hope this helps someone. -Gareth