PCREVIEW.DOC ·
DOC ·
26 KB ·
1987-01-21 ·
from CompuLink-User-Group_Magazette_Feb-1987
PC Outline (v1.08) - A Review, some notes and suggestions for use
by Robin Swale
This article is intended to be rather more than a review. In it I've
tried to provide a reasonably full reference to most PCO functions
together with suggestions for the use of PCO. By this means I hope to
interest others in the use of outliners in general, PCO in particular,
and the wealth of applications which they make possible. I have
purposely left it in outline form with section numbers to make
reference to the various sections easier.
1. Contents
2. Introduction
3. What I like about PCO
4. What I would like in PCO
5. Inconsistencies in documentation
6. Peculiarities (bugs?) of operation
7. Suggestions for use
8. The PCO screen
9. Verdict
10. What of the Future?
11. What do you use PCO for?
12. Appendices
2. Introduction Outliner programs have been variously called, perhaps
with slight exaggeration, Thought Processors and Idea Processors.
"Outliner" is probably the most appropriate name, but this is not to
belittle their usefulness. I am convinced that they are the most
useful general purpose tool available to the computer user - I use
mine every day for jobs varying from updating my TODO list to writing
complete technical manuals. In fact this review was written using
PCO.
Outliners have been around for several years and I assume that readers
are familiar with their operation so I don't intend describing the
basics yet again. There are many such programs on the market, but
there is only one whose full features you can try before buying - PCO.
3. What I like about PCO 1. PCO can be run as a standard DOS program
or as a resident program and all operations are very quick. 2.
Macros can be used to redefine keys to perform tedious editing and
re-formatting chores at a single keystroke e.g. define F3 to
underline and highlight the whole of the current line. Your macro
definitions can be saved away in a macro definition file, which will
be called up automatically when PCO is started 3. Residency and
Windows together provide a powerful pseudo multi-tasking system e.g.
you can be working on a list of jobs to do, an outline for a new
manual, half a dozen other outlines AND be working on a DBASE II
application! - except beware when using DBASE II as <CTRL>C will
cause an exit from DBASE II when PCO is resident! If anyone can
explain this to me I'd be grateful. 4. Each outline has its own
set-up information e.g. tab settings etc. which allows the making of
skeletons for various types of outlines. 5. Data import from screen
can be extremely useful especially when PCO is run in the resident
mode and another application is run under DOS in the normal manner.
6. It is very easy to select and modify the printer page format and
character style using the DISPLAY and PRINT menus 7. Ability to move
a new entry's position immediately after creation before entering text
i.e. create an entry then place it. 8. Powerful document formatting
commands including paragraph indent, switch numbering off for
specified entry(s), etc.
4. What I would like in PCO 1. Repeat heading for each page if
requested 2. Selected number of empty lines between entries at
selected levels - for document formatting purposes. 3. Single key to
hide all text and all entries below the highest level. Of course, a
macro could be used to perform this function. 4. ^PgUp is
jump-to-parent. It would have been nice if ^PgDn could have been
jump-to-child. 5. Waiting for any program to print a 40 page manual
is a bind. Built-in spooling would have been very useful. PCO does
have the ability to redirect its output to a file so I suppose, after
writing the file, you could exit the resident version of PCO, invoke
PRINT or whatever spooler you have, and then return to PCO to continue
with your next outline.
5. Inconsistencies in documentation It looks as though PCO has been
updated several times and the on-screen help and manual have got out
of step with the functions available - see the README files on PCO
disk for more information. 1. ^C on edit menu - incorrect 2. Prompt
line at bottom of screen suggests pressing "/" followed by a menu
letter to select a menu but this doesn't work. Press <ALT>menuletter
instead.
6. Peculiarities (bugs?) of operation 1. Quite often, on exiting
from the resident PCO to DOS, I have found that the keyboard is locked
until I hit <CTRL>BREAK 2. Sometimes, on trying to restart the
resident version, the <CTRL>\ has to be followed with a <RET> 3.
Sometimes, after entering and exiting the resident version of PCO
several times, the status of the keyboard NUM LOCK and CAPS LOCK can
be reversed. 4. Doesn't like KBBUFF, the PD resident keyboard
enhancer
7. Suggestions for use 1. Make personalised copies of COMUG library!
Use PCO's cut and paste to extract info on the more interesting PD
disks. 2. Produce an Index File on each of your disks listing each
file with a short description. This is particularly useful for Public
Domain Utility disks which are stuffed full of utilities but you can't
remember what they do. The answer is to run PCO as a resident program
and run the standard Compulink "type file" utility T (also known as
LIST) as follows: T *.DOC Ensure that you use a recent version of
LIST. This will put the first page of the documentation of the first
(in alphabetical order) *.DOC file on the screen. Jump into PCO,
create your new outline and and use the Advanced Import function to
cut and paste the most interesting lines into a new outline entry.
Then exit to DOS and press <ESC> to bring up the next file. It's very
quick! It's even quicker if you use a macro to read in, say, the
first 7 or so lines of each file and edit out the dross once all the
data's in PCO. 3. Use the resident version of PCO to produce an
outline of your C.V. or another job application. When the Boss looks
up - CLICK!!, you're working hard on that new presentation! 4.
Create letters etc. by extracting the component parts (of the letter)
from an outline containing all the possibilities and merging them to
produce the final document. To do this, mark the entries you want,
move them to a safe place then delete the rest. This method comes
into its own in systems where there are relatively few items but many
possible combinations. Applications like the allocation of dinner
menus in a canteen would probably be simplified using this technique.
A simplified outline is provided here as an example: 1. The Letters
Database 1. Your home address 2. Your work address 3. Your country
retreat address 4. Address of Bank Manager + Dear Sir, 1. Please
accept apologies for lack of funds to cover outgoings yet again this
month .... 2. Please transfer ten thousand pounds to my Jersey
account ... 5. Address of Building Society 1. Please pay enclosed
cheque into my account no. ... 2. Please send a cheque to .... for
.... amount 2. Other examples might be menus, shopping lists,
program design, allocation of group activities, etc.. 5. Create
databases and lists e.g. TODO list, disks (both types), house
inventory, address book, etc.. 6. Produce help documents for other
users or reports incorporating data from your spreadsheet, etc. using
snippets which you have cut and pasted into PCO. In fact, Appendix 3,
which details the pull-down menus of PCO was produced by running two
copies of PCO, one in the resident mode and the other in the
non-resident mode. In the non-resident mode copy I pulled down the
the first (FILE) menu and then switched to the resident copy and used
the ADVANCED menu IMPORT function to cut and paste the pull-down menu
into this article. 7. Produce structured Parts Lists 8. Write
manuals 9. Create fault-finding charts 10. Create software tree
charts i.e. what procedure calls what 11. Design structured programs
from initial idea, through PDL (Program Description Language) to the
final coded version. At any point the program can be contracted to
obtain an overview or expanded to see specific detail. 12. Read
pre-written program source code into PCO format and then using the
<CTRL>U, Divide Entry command, to produce a structured listing, which
can then be manipulated for software documentation purposes etc.. 13.
Use the resident version of PCO to produce an outline of your C.V..
When the Boss looks up - CLICK!!, you're working hard on that new
presentation!
8. The PCO screen For those of you who haven't yet seen and used PCO
I've included here a screenshot of the top two lines of the PCO
screen. The top line is the menu line. The second line gives the
name of the current outline, its size, status of the INSERT/OVERWRITE
toggle, current page,line and column numbers. Additionally PCO
displays, on the top right of the screen, the current window number
and current time (not shown here). At the bottom of the screen is to
be found the TAB ruler, the size of available memory remaining and the
prompt line which provides useful context-specific prompts. Page
break markers are located to the left of the text while on the right
hand side are found markers which indicate hidden text or hidden
entries.
FILE OUTLINE EDIT DISPLAY PRINT HIDE SHOW WINDOW ADVANCED
A:\PCO\PCREVIEW 30k INS PAGE=1 LINE=6 COL=1
PCO provides pull down menus for all commands, many of which,
especially those in the EDIT and OUTLINE menus, also have an
alternative (quick) method of invocation - usually by means of one of
the function keys or a Control combination. I have grouped the "Quick
Key" commands by function and listed them in Appendix 2.
9. Verdict I'd been using MaxThink, which has a reputation as one of
the best outliners in the States, for several months previous to
trying PCO. After I'd used PCO, I had no urge to return to MaxThink.
PC Outline is an outstanding package. To the best of my knowledge, it
is the best Outliner available at any price - it just happens to be
the cheapest.
PCO is available in the COMUG library and is distributed as Shareware
but the rights have recently been bought by Brown Bag Software in the
States, which may have changed the registering procedure. The
November issue of BYTE has an ad from Brown Bag which compares the
attributes of PCO, MaxThink and ThinkTank - have a look! It seems
that Brown Bag are to set up in London soon, which is good news as
they specialise in inexpensive, good quality, useful software e.g.
Homebase.
10. What of the Future? An outlining program is basically a powerful
structured list maker and manipulator. Does that sound rather like a
Database Processor? At the moment these two types of programs are
separate but I can see the time coming shortly when some enterprising
company amalgamates the two to produce a powerful Structured Database
system which will enable the user to view his database in Overview,
List, Structure, Detail, Chunk and other modes as well as to perform
arithmetic functions on entries.
As an example, such a structured database might contain full
manufacturing information for all of the products of an electronics
manufacturer. At the highest level would be entered the names of the
products together with drawing references specific to the overall
product. The next level down would contain the names, quantities,
drawing references etc for each of the sub-assemblies of the product.
This structure continues down to the lowly bought-in components at the
lowest level of the hierarchy.
This structure could obviously be achieved with current relational
databases but, the forte of the outliner would be to rapidly move
around the database, hiding this and showing that so that the
information contained in the database could be viewed in many
different ways. Also, searching for specific information would be
relatively easy. If you're not already working on Outlinerbases then
please start soon, you software entrepreneurs, as that's where there's
a fortune to be made!
11. What do you use PCO for? I'd like to hear what you are using PCO
for. I'm sure that other Group members would too, so why not write in
and tell us all?
12. Appendices 1. Appendix 1 - Some Other Outliners 1. Brainstorm
2. FrameWork II 3. Kamas/OutThink (CP/M) 4. MaxThink 5. Ready! 6.
The Thought Processor 7. ThinkTank 8. WORD 3.0 - WORD 3.0's outliner
seems rather crude to me.
2. Appendix 2 - Quick Commands grouped by function (The PCO Manual
provides an alphabetical listing) Remember that this appendix only
lists the quick-key (menu-bypassing) versions. The menus have
additional commands for performing other functions as given in
Appendix 3 1. Special Commands 1. ^C^C - BOMBS THE SYSTEM! 2. ^C -
Request Menu 3. ^K - Redefine Key (i.e. create Macro) 4. ^P - Start
Printing 5. ^S - Save the Outline 6. ^Z - List Windows 7. ^\ -
Leave (and Enter) Resident PC Outline 8. F1 - Show HELP Screen 9.
GRAY- - Zoom Window 10. <ALT>F1 - Hide/Show character format control
characters 11. <ALT>1-9 - Switch to Window No. 1-9 12. ^DEL^DEL^DEL
- ABORT AND REMOVE PC OUTLINE FROM MEMORY 2. Outlining Commands 1.
F2 - Mark/Unmark Current entry 2. F3 - Free for User to define using
^K macros 3. F4 - Free for User to define using ^K macros 4. F5 -
Promote Current entry 5. F6 - Indent Current entry 6. F7 - Promote
Marked Entries 7. F8 - Indent Marked Entries 8. F9 - Copy Marked
Entries to cursor position 9. F10 - Move Marked Entries to cursor
position 10. GRAY+ - Hide Children Toggle (^H) 11. ^D - Delete
Outline Family 12. ^H - Hide Current Entry's Children (GRAY+) 13. ^J
- Join Outline Entries 14. ^L - Hide all Children at Current Level
15. ^M - Move Outline Entry 16. ^N - Create New Outline Entry (^RET)
17. ^Q - Copy Window Family 18. ^U - Divide Outline Entry 19. ^W -
Move Window Family 20. ^RET - Create New Outline Entry (^N) 21.
^HOME - Jump to Start of Outline 22. ^END - Jump to End of Outline
23. ^PgUp - Jump to Current Entry's Parent 24. ^PgDn - Toggle
Hide/Show Extra Text 25. sHOME - Jump to Start of Outline (^HOME) 26.
sEND - Jump to End of Outline (^END) 27. sUP - Jump Up Outline 28.
sDOWN - Jump Down Outline 29. <ALT>F2 - Clear All Marks 30. <ALT>F9
- Copy all marked entries to be children of current 31. <ALT>F10-
Move all marked entries to be cheldren of current 3. Manipulating
Text 1. Block and Text Formatting Commands 1. ^B - Move Text Block
2. ^E - Erase Text Block 3. ^I - Indent Paragraph 4. ^O - Indent
Paragraph and Hang 5. ^T - Define Current Paragraph Style 6. ^X -
Clear Paragraph Indent (see ^I,^O) 2. Text Editing Commands 1. ^A -
Find String Again 2. ^F - Find String 3. ^G - Toggle Text
Overtype/Insert Mode ( s<INS> ) 4. ^R - Find and Replace Text String
5. ^V - ??? 6. ^Y - Delete Current Text Line 7. ^RIGHT- Delete
Word Right 8. ^LEFT - Delete Word Left 9. sF1 - Insert Static Date
10. sF2 - Insert Live Date 11. sF3 - Insert Static Time 12. sF4 -
Insert Live Time 13. sLEFT - Jump to Word Left 14. sRIGHT- Jump to
Word Right 15. sPgUp - Jump Up Paragraph 16. sPgDn - Jump Down
Paragraph 17. s<DEL>- Delete to end of line 18. s<INS>- Toggle
Overtype/Insert Mode (^G) 3. Character Font Commands 1. ^F1 -
Underline On 2. ^F2 - Underline Off 3. ^F3 - Bold On 4. ^F4 - Bold
Off 5. ^F5 - Italic On 6. ^F6 - Italic Off 7. ^F7 - Superscript On
8. ^F8 - Subscript On 9. ^F9 - Super/Subscript Off 10. ^F10 -
Insert Non-break space 11. sF5 - Double Strike On 12. sF6 - Double
Strike Off
3. Appendix 3 - Pull-down menu and sub-menu details WARNING - this is
a long appendix. Blame PCO as it has so many features.
1. FILE MENU 1. S - Save Current Outline (^S) 2. L - Load Existing
Outline 3. N - Start New Outline 4. R - Rename Current Outline 5. C
- Change Current Drive or Directory 6. F - File Options 1. Pick a
Sub-Directory Set Parent Directory Create new Sub-Directory Erase an
Outline Quit this Menu
7. D - Run Another Program From Dos 8. I - Input Other File Types 1.
A - Read in an Ascii File W - Read in a Wordstar File S - Read in a
Structured File Q - Exit this Menu
9. Q - Quit PC-Outline
2. OUTLINE MENU 1. M - Move Outline Entries (^M) 2. D - Delete
Outline Entries (^D) 3. C - Create New Outline entry (^N, ^C) 4. O -
Mark/Unmark Outline Entry (F2) 5. P - Promote Marks (F7) 6. I -
Indent Marks (F8) 7. Y - Copy Marks (F9) 8. V - Move Marks (F10) 9.
J - Join Outline Entries (^J) 10. U - Divide Outline Entries (^U) 11.
S - Sort Outline Level
1. SORTING Sort Direction: Increasing Order Type of Sort:
Dictionary Order Field Number to Sort: 0 SET THE OPTIONS AS DESIRED
PRESS RET TO DO THE SORT, ESC TO CANCEL
3. EDIT MENU 1. F - Find String (^F) 1. SEARCH Search for what
string: Force case to be the same ? No Search scope: Only ON
Entries
2. R - Find and Replace (^R) 1. SEARCH AND REPLACE Search for what
string: Replace with what string: Force case to be the same ? No
Search scope: Only ON Entries Ask before replacing ? Yes All
occurrences ? No
3. A - Find Again (^A) 4. C - Copy Block 5. M - Move Block (^B) 6.
D - Delete Block (^E) 7. O - Printer Format 1. PRINT FORMAT U -
Underline On (^F1) Y - Underline Off (^F2) B - Boldface On (^F3) N -
Boldface Off (^F4) I - Italics On (^F5) O - Italics Off (^F6) S -
Superscript On (^F7) C - Subscript On (^F8) F - Both Script Off (^F9)
D - Double Strike ON (sF5) L - Double Strike OFF (sF6) Q - Quit This
Menu
8. I - Indent Paragraph (^I) 9. H - Indent and Hang (^O) 10. X -
Clear Indent (^X) 11. P - Page Breaks 1. PAGE CONTROL CODE Enter
Code: TYPE IN A PAGE CONTROL CODE Enter .P for a hard page break.
Enter .C n for a conditional break of n lines that will keep the next
n lines together on the same page.
12. T - Tab Stops 1. EDIT THE RULER Column = (1) PRESS: ESC to
cancel changes, RET to set the changed ruler USE: Arrows, Home, End,
Tab, and Backtab to position the cursor T = Set tab, E = Erase one
tab, C = Clear all tabs
4. DISPLAY MENU 1. C - Current Paragraph Style (^T) 1. CURRENT
PARAGRAPH FORMAT Paragraph alignment: LEFT ALIGNED First line
alignment: SAME AS REST OF PARAGRAPH Left Margin: 1 Right Margin:
61 Make these settings the defaults also? No PRESS F10 TO SAVE THESE
TO THE CONFIGURATION FILE
2. R - Range Paragraph Style 3. D - Default Paragraph Style 4. G -
Global Outline Style 1. OUTLINE STYLE Indent per Outline Level: 3
Spaces for Numbering: 4 First entry number: 1 Numbering Type:
Sequential: A, 1, a, ... 1st Level Letter: Upper Case Letters A-Z
2nd Level Letter: Numbers 1-99 3rd Level Letter: Lower Case Letters
a-z 4th Level Letter: Numbers 1-99 5th Level Letter: Lower Case
Letters a-z 6th Level Letter: Numbers 1-99 7th Level Letter: Lower
Case Letters a-z 8th Level Letter: Numbers 1-99 1st Level
Punctuation: . 2nd Level Punctuation: . 3rd Level Punctuation: )
4th Level Punctuation: ) 5th Level Punctuation: > 6th Level
Punctuation: > 7th Level Punctuation: : 8th Level Punctuation: :
PRESS F10 TO SAVE THESE TO THE CONFIGURATION FILE
5. P - Place Outline Entry 6. A - Reset All Places 7. N - Start New
Numbering 8. S - Skip Numbering 9. U - Reset Numbering 10. T -
Title Toggle 11. E - Even Right Margins
5. PRINT MENU 1. G - Go Start Printing (^P) 2. R - Set Range to be
Printed 3. D - Set Device For Output 1. SELECT AND CHOOSE GO P -
Send to Printer F - Send to File A - Send to Ascii File W - Send to
Wordstar File S - Send to Structured File
4. F - Set Page Format 1. PAGE FORMAT Top Margin: 5 Bottom Margin:
7 Lines per Page: 66 Left Print Margin: 5 Printer Feed: Continuous
Page Numbering: Centered Page Column for Numbering: 1 Start Page
Numbering With: 1 Page Breaks: Yes PRESS F10 TO SAVE THESE TO THE
CONFIGURATION FILE
5. S - Set Printer Font 1. SEND TO PRINTER Bold ON Bold OFF Italics
ON Italics OFF Double Strike ON Double Strike OFF Condensed ON
Condensed OFF Elite ON Elite OFF Reset Quit
6. L - Advance Printer One Line 7. P - Advance Printer Page 8. I -
Printer Code Display 9. C - Configure Printer Codes 1. PRINTER
CONFIGURATION Underline ON: 27,45,49 Underline OFF: 27,45,48
Boldface ON: 27,69 Boldface OFF: 27,70 SubScript ON: 27,83,49
SuperScript ON: 27,83,48 Both Scripts OFF: 27,84 Italics ON: 27,52
Italics OFF: 27,53 DoubleStrike ON: 27,71 DoubleStrike OFF: 27,72
Condensed ON: 15 Condensed OFF: 18 Elite ON: 27,77 Elite OFF:
27,80 Reset Code: 27,64 Print Driver File/Path: PCODRV.CFG Printer
Name: EPSON ENTER THE DESIRED CODES PRESS F10 TO SAVE THEM TO THE
CURRENT DRIVER
6. HIDE MENU 1. A - Current Entry's Children (^H) 2. B - All
Children At Level (^L) 3. C - Current Entry's Text 4. D - All Text
At Level 5. E - All Text In Outline
7. SHOW MENU 1. A - Current Entry's Children 2. B - All Children At
Level 3. C - Current Entry's Text 4. D - All Text At Level 5. E -
All Text In Outline 6. F - All Children in Outline 7. G - All Text
And Children 8. H - All Family Children 9. I - All Family Text
8. WINDOW 1. L - Load Outline New Window 1. CHOOSE A FILE ME 11k
HELP_PCO 5k DOSHEET 9k
2. N - New Outline New Window 3. C - Close Window 4. M - Move
Window 5. S - Size Window 6. A - Arrange Windows 7. T - Transfer
Windows (Alt 1-9) 8. I - List Windows (^Z) 1. WINDOW STATUS # SIZE
CHANGES FILENAME 1 1k Y A:\MINE.PCO 2 Not Open 3 Not Open 4 Not Open 5
Not Open 6 Not Open 7 Not Open 8 Not Open 9 Not Open **** Press any
key to continue ****
9. Z - Zoom Window 10. Q - Copy Family (^Q) 11. W - Move Family
(^W)
9. ADVANCED MENU 1. C - Config. Settings 1. CONFIGURATION Starting
Directory Path: Macros File/Path: PCOMAC.CFG Print Driver File/Path:
PCODRV.CFG Configuration File/Path: PCO.CFG Automatic Timed File
Saving ? No Time Between Automatic Saves (minutes): 6 Create
Automatic Backup Files ? Yes Prompt before overwriting a file ? Yes
Video Retrace: Yes Printer Port: LPT1 Force Black and White: No
PRESS F10 TO SAVE THESE TO THE CONFIGURATION FILE
2. K - Key Definition (^K) 1. Press the KEY you wish to REDEFINE
Control - Break will end the definition
3. O - Key Def. Options 4. D - Insert Static Date (sF1) 5. V -
Insert Live Date (sF2) 6. T - Insert Static Time (sF3) 7. X - Insert
Live Time (sF4) 8. E - Export Block 9. I - Import Block 10. H - Key
Help (F1) 1. FUNCTION KEYS: DELETE KEYS: F1 - Key Help ^Right -
Delete Wd-right F2 - Mark/Unmark ^Left - Delete Wd-left F3 - ^Y -
Delete Line F4 - ^D - Delete outline F5 - Promote current Shift DEL -
Delete to end of line F6 - Indent current F7 - Promote marks OTHER
KEYS: F8 - Indent marks Gray Plus - Hide children togg F9 - Copy
marks Gray Minus - Zoom F10- Move marks ^PgDn - Hide text toggle Shift
Ins - Insert/Overstrike ^RET - Insert new entry MOVEMENT KEYS: Shift
Left - Word Left Home - start line ^Home - Top File Shift Right - Word
Right Home twice - top screen ^End - Bot File Shift Up - Up outline
Home thrice - top file ^PgUp - Jmp Parent Shift Down - Down outline
End - end line Shift PgUp - Paragraph Up End twice - bot screen Shift
PgDn - Paragraph Dn End thrice - bot file To enter menus directly,
press the slash key ("/") and then menu letter.
11. F - Flatten Whole Outline
4. Appendix 4 - Personal Plug I live in Winnersh near Reading and am
interested to meet any other PC users who live in the Reading area -
especially if, like me, you have a computer at home. Also, I've got
some brand new IBM Games/Joystick Adaptors available at 12.00 each if
anybody's interested. My telephone number is Wokingham 784035.