Z*Magazine: 31-Jul-87 #64
From: Atari SIG (xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 07/17/93-08:24:17 AM Z
From: xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Atari SIG)
Subject: Z*Magazine: 31-Jul-87 #64
Date: Sat Jul 17 08:24:17 1993
_____________________________________
ZMAGAZINE JULY 31, 1987
ISSUE #64
_____________________________________
ZMAGAZINE INFORMATION NETWORK
(201) 968-8148 300/1200 BAUD
ACCESSIBLE THROUGH PC PURSUIT
_____________________________________
Publisher/Editor: Ron Kovacs
Assistant Publishers:Ken Kirchner,
Susan Perry, Rich Decowski
Zmag Correspondents: Leo Newman
Mike Brown
_____________________________________
Xx ZMAG INDEX 64
_____________________________________
<*> Zmag Update
<*> New Zmag Column
<*> Surge Protection
<*> Zmag Newswire
<*> Zmag Special Report
(Computer Security Act)
<*> Zmag Technical Assistance
<*> The Wizard "Oasis Support"
<*> Zmag Software Review
_____________________________________
Xx ZMAG UPDATE
_____________________________________
Here's what's happening at Zmag:
In the weeks ahead look for our
format to change. New columnist's
have joined Zmag, Mike Brown, Leo
Newman, Bill Whitton, Calamity Jane,
and a few others still deciding.
I am trying to get people to write
articles for Zmag to make this a
more diversified publication. Sit
back and watch Zmag in the weeks
ahead for more updates.
This week, Mike Brown debuts his
User Group column. Look for more
from Mike next week.
Mr. Goodprobe is coming to Zmag!!
Who is this you ask?? He will be
Zmag's Hardware expert. Ask your
questions and look for fact filled
replies about your hardware. Mods,
specifications, upgrade and repair
information coming soon. If you
would like to get information now,
about any of the items listed above,
you can call Midtown TV in Ohio at:
(216) 633-0997. Tell them you read
this in Zmag!! Otherwise, Good 'Ol
Mr G wont know who you are!!
The copyright problem with Issue 62
on CompuServe has still not been
cleared up. As soon as the details
are in, I will let you know.
Issue 63 finally made it into access
on CIS!! Wenesday July 29th!! Only 6
days past the original upload date. I
must apologize for this, Perhaps we
should locate another outlet for
the latest issues??
Thanks for supporting Zmag!!
_____________________________________
Xx NEW ZMAG COLUMN
...User Group Focus...
_____________________________________
By: ZMAG Correspondent Mike Brown
Let me take a moment to say hello to
the readers out there; a while back
Ron and I were in CHAT on the ZMag
Information Network and Ron lamented
that he needed someone to help
coordinate and edit the user group
reports that were coming in from all
over. Well, being the kind of a guy
that I am, I was easily talked into
giving it a try. It may take some
time doing this feature before I
develop a format that will be
consistent, so please bear with me.
As the User Group Focus "evolves". I
would prefer that if you wish to
submit material from your user group,
upload it to my BBS;
The Balloon Works (419) 289-8392.
The reason for this is that Ron's
system is long distance for me and I
promised myself that I would try to
cut down on these $180/month phone
bills I have been getting lately! If
you can't upload it, send the
information to me at:
268 E. Fourth St. Box 32
Ashland, OH 44805.
This month's edition of the User
Group Report focuses on an up-and-
coming group serving the Cleveland
Ohio area, The Atari Peekers of
Lakewood.
The Peekers were started over six
years ago by Claudette Tischler
because "There was a huge need in the
area for support, It seemed like the
stores were selling computer systems
as fast as they could get them, but
tha was as far as the support went".
One of the dealers in the area that
was also an authorized service
center, B&G Electronics, felt the
same way, and offered a great deal of
assistance in organizing and
promoting TAP. B&G's biggest
contribution to TAP been providing
duplicating services for the club
newsletter at no cost. B&G also
actively participates by offering
discounts to club members, and by
supplying demo equipment and software
for the meetings.
The Peekers are not only a large, but
active group. It is not uncommon to
have several members per monthly
meeting stand up and give
presentations on original software
that they have written or have
discovered in the public domain. For
a while there, it seemed like
everyone was doing POKEY music,
lately several excellent
presentations have concerned the
flood of new languages for the
8-bits. The Peekers are fortunate to
have commercially published
programmers as well as educators as
active members.
The ST owners are not forgotten,
there are several demonstrations of
the latest in ST titles at each
meeting.
A large public domain library is
currently maintained for both the
8-bit and the ST machines. Disks can
be checked out for no cost overnite
upon presenting a TAP membership
card. They are considering changing
the newsletter format to include all
articles on disk along with public
domain software and graphics
displays. Something unique that TAP
is experimenting with is a magazine,
book and newsletter library.
Currently there are a handful of
popular titles that can be checked
out by members at no cost.
As most user groups do these days,
TAP offers a BBS system (216 228-7335
300/1200) that is open to the public
and has special SIGs and Message
bases for the exclusive use of the
membership. The TAP BBS is currently
run on an 8-bit system using one of
the first ICD MIO devices. They
depend on a rather Rube Goldberg
appearing Hard Disk System and BBS
Express! software to keep things
running smoothly. Currently there are
separate download sections for the
8-bits and the ST as well as a
technical message base where callers
can find help and guidance when they
get into bad situations.
There is also a group in the same
area that operates out of Case
Western Reserve University. They tend
to be a bit more large-system, and
programming oriented. There is
considerable interchange between the
two groups, with many people
belonging to both groups.
If you are a resident of the northern
Ohio area, I would encourage you to
contact the Peekers or stop by one of
their meetings. The meetings are held
on the second Tuesday of each month
at 7:00 pm at the Lakewood Center on
Aging, 16022 Madison Ave., Lakewood,
OH. Their mailing address is:
The Atari Peekers Of Lakewood
2160 Eldred
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
Club Officers:
President D. Terry Stiglic
Vice President Jim Haynes
Treasurer Paul Banasik
Corr. Secretary Chuck Gies
Rept. Secretary David Butera
8-Bit Libr. Dave LaForm
ST Libr. George J. Neff Sr.
Newsletter Ed. Jim Haynes
Membership Fees:
First Year Initiation Fee: $13
Yearly membership: $12
Your comments and opinions on this
feature are invited!!
_____________________________________
Xx SURGE PROTECTION
_____________________________________
Copyright (C) 1987 by Garry Jones
DO-IT-YOUSELF SURGE PROTECTION FOR
YOUR COMPUTER
When setting up a computer system,
one piece of equipment which might
get overlooked is a surge protector.
The purpose of a surge protector is
to protect equipment from voltage
spikes and surges caused by lightning
strikes on power lines (c'mon, it
never rains is Southern California,
does it?), electrical equipment
turning on and off (you didn't really
plug your computer into the same
circuit as your refrigerator, did
you?), the crummy wiring in your
apartment that your landlords won't
fix because they're too cheap, and
just plain lousy performance by your
friendly local Edison Company.
A surge protector works by clamping
the voltage and preventing it from
rising beyond 130 volts when a sudden
increase occurs. To do this, a surge
protector uses a device called a
metal oxide varistor, or MOV for
short. Of course, you want to know
if they wear out, and when they do,
how to tell. MOVs do have a finite
life, depending on the number and
severity of surges they're exposed
to. When they fail, they typically
create a short which will pop a
circuit breaker if one is included in
the circuit, immediately shutting off
the power and saving the equipment.
Buying a surge protector is something
of a problem, since not all surge
protectors are created equal. Good
ones are fairly expensive (there's
plenty of expensive junk out there,
too); how do you tell the good from
the bad, and what do you do for cash
after you spent the last of it on
some superwhizbang software for your
new computer? Good news for you
clever hacker types who can tell a
hot soldering iron when you pick it
up (by the wrong end): Make your own
surge protector. It's easy, it's
chep, and best of all, it might even
work. For the rest of you who
haven't developed opposable thumbs
yet, watch the ground for pennies,
steal candy from babies and sell it
to bigger babies, see a loan shark,
and read PC (Can you say, "PC?"
Sure. I knew you could. It does
mean IBM, but your tongue didn't dry
up and fall out of your mouth, did
it?) Magazine's product tests and
take their advice.
Anyway, on to the project. You'll
need a power strip (make sure you get
the kind you can disassemble with a
screwdriver instead of a hacksaw),
three metal oxide varistors (General
Electric part no. V130LA20A (which
means 130 volts 20 amps) or Radio
Shack catalog no. 276-568B), some
rosin core solder (DO NOT USE ACID
CORE SOLDER OR FLUX: it will corrode
the solder joints in time, ruining
them), some miscellaneous tools, like
Xacto knives, alligator clips, wire
cutters, etc., and a soldering iron.
Three hands would be nice, but you
can probably manage with two. Most
of us do.
Take the back off the power strip and
look inside. It probably looks like
the drawing included in this archive.
If it doesn't, don't worry. If it
has outlets, wires (three of them?),
and a cord, it'll work. Notice the
three wires inside: they're probably
black, green, and white. White is
the hot wire, green the ground, and
black the common. Now, strip some
insulation off the wires as shown in
the illustration. Take one varistor
and solder one of its' wire legs to
the white wire, and the other leg to
the green wire as shown. Fasten an
alligator clip to the leg being
soldered between the solder joint and
the varistor to prevent heat damage
to the varistor while soldering. Do
the same thing with the second
varistor, except it should be
soldered to the green wire and the
black wire. Solder the third
varistor to the black wire and the
white wire.
Clean the solder joints with a rag
dipped in a little alcohol, and
examine the joints. There should be
a smooth shiny flow of solder between
the wire leg of the varistor and the
copper wire in the power strip. If
the joint is dull, lumpy, or flawed
in appearance, resolder it. When all
the joints look good, reassemble the
power strip. Sit back. Relax.
You're done now. Wasn't that easy?
Can you say, "Easy?" Sure. I knew
you could.
-Garry Jones-
Compuserve: 72030,273
GENIE: GXRAY
_____________________________________
Xx ZMAG NEWSWIRE
_____________________________________
Responding to requests from large
schools for volume discounts,
Mindscape is offering the educational
software industry's largest site-
licensing plan, which lets a school
district make a specified number of
copies of the disks and buy lab packs
at discount prices.
While site licensing is widely used
-- and debated -- among corporate
users, Mindscape's action serves
another major purposes: It is the
first major foray into combatting
illegal copying.
Mindscape will make 55 titles
available for the plan, including
Keyboard Cadet, Tonk in the Land of
Buddy Bots, The Halley Project: A
Mission in our Solar System and
Vocabulary Challenge.
_____________________________________
This week's charging of nine youths
in Pennsylvania in an alleged
computer cracker ring may lead to
further arrests in up to seven other
states.
A six-week investigation of alleged
computer intrusion and credit card
fraud culminated with the arrests of
the nine, all students at Mount
Lebanon Junior-Senior High School,
ages 14 to 17.
Local and federal authorities accuse
the Mount Lebanon nine -- eight boys
and one girl, unidentified in press
accounts because they are minors --
of feloniously using home computers
to raid the files of a credit card
authorization center on the West
Coast and obtain lists of card
numbers and expiration dates.
Police say the teens ordered
thousands of dollars in merchandise,
from clothes to skateboards. The nine
also are accused of making long-
distance telephone calls with stolen
access codes and making phone hookups
between their computers and systems
in banks, businesses and government
agencies.
Investigators told the wire service
they found evidence of one conference
call involving 10 computer operators,
one of them in France.
Computer vandals from across the
country apparently are responsible
for some $38,800 worth of
unauthorized telephone calls charged
to a Des Moines, Iowa, law firm's
account.
A spokesman for the firm of Davis,
Hockenberg, Wine, Brown, Koehn and
Shors told The Associated Press he
took a call from several Texas
youngsters who said they got the
firm's 700 number, used to set up
conference calls, from a computer
bulletin board system. The BBS has
been traced to New Jersey, he said.
Now the firm has added a piece of
equipment to make it possible for
employees to call from outside the
office into the system using a secret
number for billing.
_____________________________________
New York authorities said they have
confiscated the computers of three
alleged crackers accused of breaking
into systems operated by telephone
companies, financial institutions and
credit bureaus across the country.
The three juveniles -- two boys in
Brooklyn and another in Bronxville --
may be part of the same so-called
"network" of crackers revealed
earlier this week with the arrests of
nine youths in Mount Lebanon, Pa.
Investigators have confiscated
computer systems, hundreds of
diskettes, manuals and printouts that
filled 21 boxes from the three
youths. The telephone records showed
the three made calls to banks, credit
bureaus, insurance companies,
universities and other large computer
systems.
The US Secret Service is said to be
conducting investigations with local
authorities in as many as seven
states in connection with the ring.
_____________________________________
Disk makers at Seagate Technology say
they will open a research facility in
Boulder, Colo., adding they chose
that region for its large pool of
experienced engineers.
According to The Associated Press,
the Scotts Valley, Calif., -based
firm initially will hire about a
dozen people to work at the Boulder
County facility.
However, Seagate said the company is
looking for an existing facility of
at least 10,000 square feet with
possibilities for expansion.
_____________________________________
Xx ZMAG SPECIAL REPORT
...Computer Security Act...
_____________________________________
Even with the Reagan administration's
backing, the House Of
Representatives' Computer Security
Act of 1987 (HR 145) must still dodge
National Security Agency (NSA)
opposition, which could affect the
outcome when the Senate considers the
bill this month.
Awaiting its fate, the measure now
sits in the Senate. Although the
Senate does not currently have
companion legislation to match the
House, it could either eventually
propose its own bill, make some
adjustments to the House bill or
adopt the House bill in its entirety.
"Right now, the House bill is being
held at the desk," said Ann Harkins,
chief counsel for the Senate
Committee on technology and the law.
The holdup has given the NSA an
opportunity to influence the Senate
legislation and industry sources said
that the NSA is indeed talking to
Senate leaders. The NSA declined
comment on the whole subject.
"I assume the NSA will fight it all
the way, going through the Senate (to
argue its case)," said Donald Peyton,
director of government relations for
the Information Industry Association
(IIA) in Washington D.C. "But based
on what we know the bill has a good
chance of going through the Senate as
is."
The NSA has a vested interest in the
bill, which places the National
Bureau of Standards (NBS) in charge
of computer security standards for
"sensitive but unclassified" data in
the federal government.
Although the NSA and the Defense
Department will remain in charge of
Classified data, industry sources
said that in the eyes of defense-
minded officials, the bill still
leaves too much information at the
fingertips of the public.
"NSA believes that it should control
all of the (sensitive but
unclassified) information," said one
information provider.
Neither was Jack Simpson, President
of Mead Data Central Inc. of Dayton,
Ohio, sure that the Computer Security
Act would smooth ruffled defense
establishment feathers. "Its a
temporary victory but nothing has
been resolved (yet)," he said.
The Defense department started
studying data flow in early 1986,
when the Air Force dispatched its
AFMAG (Air force Management Advisory
Group) to check into private industry
database services. It was then that
Dialog received a visit from AFMAG.
Dialog was AFMAG's first stop and all
the firm had to provide was
information that was already publicly
available. "They knew little about
on-line data and asked us which
databases were available," said Bob
Simons, company council for Dialog
Information Services Inc. "We gave
them a copy of our catalog, and
explained what we have and how its
obtained. It was a pleasant meeting."
For some other database companies, a
visit from Uncle Sam was not so
pleasant. Mead Data met AFMAG, FBI
and the NSA representatives on
various occasions.
At that time, Simpson said, the NSA
was "most interested in patents and
Nexis" information availability.
"They wanted to know how our system
worked, who our customers were, and
if we could monitor (customer access)
and if we could stop (some customers)
from accessing some data," Simpson
explained.
According to Simpson, these visits as
well as visits to other database
companies such as CompuServe; EIC
Intelligence in N.Y., Chemical
Abstract, Columbus, Ohio; and Digital
Information Group, Stamford Conn.,
were all part of a plan to implement
restrictions on data availability.
Hence the National Telecommunications
Information Systems and Security
(NTISS) Policy Directive No. 2 issued
by former national security adviser
Adm. John Poindexter in late 1986
Mead Data's federal guests weren't
happy with its National Technical
Information Service (NTIS) database,
which comes from Department of
Commerce public-domain information.
As it was, Mead's NTIS offering was
not faring well commercially, so the
company deleted it from its database
in February of this year. "We hoped
that would settle this whole issue,"
Simpson added.
Opponents of the bill argue the
"puzzle pieces" theory, where foreign
intelligence or domestic hackers
could take bits of publicly available
data and pull together strategic
information that as a sum of its
parts could be considered classified.
_____________________________________
Xx ZMAG TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
...SG10 Printer Driver
_____________________________________
After 2 years of frustration and many
dollars spent on "custom" printer
drivers, I think I have a solution.
Below is a printer driver that I have
been using with great success to
solve many of the Star Gemini -
AtariWriter+ problems. It may give
you some ideas to help you build one
that will suit your own needs.
UNDERLINE DRIFT
===============
Most of my word processor print outs
require underlining in NLQ. If you
have tried this with inverse video
underline command you will have a
problem with what is called underline
"drift". The words and underline
"drift" down as the printer does half
spacing. Since I seldom have need for
superscript or subscript, I have
eliminated the type font macros for
these and substituted direct codes
for underline on and underline off
(AW+ [controls G8 and G9 are what I
use]. My printer driver allows for
the use of inverse video when in
draft mode. To underline in NLQ I
use the G8 to begin underline and G9
to end underline. NO DRIFT!! Many
times I will creat my document using
inverse for rough drafts and then
when I am ready for final print out
go back and visually key off the
inverse video, insert the G8 and G9
codes there and "undo" the inverse
video using [control] U.
You will also find that the G8 and G9
codes will give you a "solid"
underline (underlining the spaces
between words as well).
TURNING OFF NLQ AND MIXING FONTS
================================
My printer driver allows some degree
of flexibility to change fonts using
the "G" codes. You will note that
all Font type commands begin with 27
66 5. This is the SG10 code to turn
off NLQ. If you are in NLQ and want
to change to italics with double
strike you may do so with G5 and G7
command. If you look at the G1
(pica) commands you will see the
commands to turn off all the other
font styles. It is important to
remember that you MUST "pass through"
G1 to move from all typestyles except
NLQ or you might get some funny
looking print outs.
In effect G1 will "undo" everything
(except underline) and put you back
in draft mode. If you have need for
subscript and superscript AND NLQ
underlining, you may need to make
modifications to this program. This
canbe done by substituting sub and
superscript for perhaps Elite and
condenced fonts. If you do this be
sure to also substitute the "turn off
commands" in the G1 (pica) codes. It
would be a good Idea to keep a print
out of which G codes you are using
forwhat on hand.
It may also be necessary to build
more than one driver if your
documents vary in format. Hope this
is of some help to all the SG10
users.
CODES TO ENTER FOR EDITOR PROMPTS:
==================================
Initalize every line
blank Line
feed & CR 155
Underline off blank
Underline on blank
Backspace 8
Elongate off 27,87,0
Elongate on 27,87,1
Bold off 27,70
Bold on 27,69
Up 1/2 line blank
Down 1/2 line blank
Down 1/2 line and CR blank
Return w/o line feed 155
Font Type Codes
=========================
1 Pica 27 66 5 27 53 27
72 27 112 0
2 Condensed 27 66 5 27 66 3
3 Proportiional 27 66 5 27 112 1
4 NLQ 27 66 4
5 Italics 27 66 5 27 52
6 Elite 27 66 5 27 66 2
7 Double Strike 27 66 5 27 71
8 Underline on 27 45 1
9 Underline off 27 45 0
_____________________________________
Xx THE WIZARD
...Oasis BBS Support...
_____________________________________
We return this week with a couple of
questions and possible problems for
SysOps who run the Oasis BBS.
Understand from my end when a SysOp
leaves me a message and says, "my
board crashed, help!" It sort of
leaves me grasping at straws to find
out what his problem is. This past
week I have been going thru
everything I could to get a SysOp to
tell me where his board 'crashed' so
I could tell him what his problem
was.
After many messages back and forth I
was finally able to get him to tell
me where and what the user was doing
whe the system locked up on him. Ah
ha! Some information is extremely
helpfull!
His problem was the BBS would lock up
whenever a user tried to save e-mail
on his system. I almost knew without
asking him what his problem was and
that there was a very simple cure for
it.
The SysOp was using a P:R Connection
on his system, and the simple cure
for his problem was to use the
PRC.SYS file instead of the standard
RS232.COM in his batch file. This
cured his lock up problem, and now he
is happy.
The reason I mentioned this problem
is to let you folks know that when
you write or call someone to complain
about a problem you are having with
any thing, software or hardware, let
them know who, what, when and where
the problem occurs. It can save you
many hours of problems and of course
the person you contacted for support
a lot of frustration in trying to
help.
The second problem that came up was a
SysOp wanted to let me know he had
discovered a 'bug' in the bbs
program. He had noticed that a few
of the users names had the first
letter of their name in inverse. He
knew the bbs had to have a bug and he
hated to tell me about it. He also
told me he had been 'fixing' the
user names himself.
If you are an Oasis SysOp and have
noticed this, it is not a bug!!!
This is how the bbs actually flags a
user that he has e-mail waiting.
Unlike some other systems that has to
look thru all the e-mail each time
you log onto the system, Oasis will
only search for e-mail if you have
e-mail waiting. You can also check
for e-mail once you are online by
hitting the C command to read old
e-mail you may have not deleted for
one reason or another.
Now for a little tech tip for Avatex
modem users. Understand that all
software written based on hayes
compatibility is written based on the
original Hayes 300 Smartmodem. Hayes
had internally tied pins 6 and 8
together, something that Avatex did
not do. This can cause your modem to
go into a loop, sending and receiving
data constantly. There is an easy
cure for this, on the DB25 pin
connector, the plug that goes into
the rear of your modem. Unsolder the
wire going to pin 6 and move it to
pin 8 and resolder it in place. This
will now give you 2 wires connected
to pin 8, and also the same
configuration as the original Hayes
300 Smartmodem.
If you have any questions about the
Oasis BBS System, call (316)-683-7514
300/1200/2400 and leave a message to
the SysOp. Or write to:
Leo Newman
3900 N Woodlawn #17 Chisholm
Wichita, KS 67220
Your reply will appear in the next
issue of ZMAG. Look forward to
hearing from you....
_____________________________________
Xx ZMAG SOFTWARE REVIEW
_____________________________________
The Print Shop Companion
By Charles Brown
In this article I will review a
utility program for The Print Shop.
It is called The Print Shop
Companion. This program contains
several useful utilities for the main
Print Shop program. It also has some
extra pictures, fonts, and borders
for you to use with The Print Shop.
When you first use the Companion
disk, you must let your Print Shop
disk know that you will be using the
features added by The Print Shop
Companion. This is accomplished in
the set-up routine. The instruction
manual just tells you to follow the
on-screen prompts to do this set-up.
When finished, the new set-up data
will be saved to your Print Shop disk
and copied to your Companion disk.
The Print Shop disk will now
recognize the Companion disk. You
should put a write protect tab on
both your Print Shop and Companion
disks.
Like The Print Shop, the Companion
disk can be used with either the
Joystick, the Koala Pad or the Atari
Touch Tablet. The Print Shop
Companion has several new features.
You access them from the main menu,
just as in The Print Shop.
The first selection is the Graphic
Editor. I feel that this editor is
much better than the one provided
with The Print Shop program. It has
many more features, such as: a
selection of 17 patterns that you can
use to fill in different areas of
your picture; different "mirror
image" effects (as in Atari Artist);
flipping of the graphic both
horizontally and vertically; a
negative feature, which creates an
inverse of the graphic. This editor
even automatically draws circles,
boxes, and ovals for you. I feel
that this editor is very useful, and
that you will find it to be very
helpful.
The next selection from the menu is
the Border Editor. You can use it to
modify one or more of the 50 borders
provided on this disk. You can even
load in and modify the borders from
the main Print Shop disk, or you can
use it to create your very own
borders. When this feature is
loaded, you will have three different
editing boxes. The first box is used
to edit the four corners of the
border. The second box is used to
edit the top and bottom parts of the
border, while the third box is used
for the sides of the border. This
editor uses many of the same features
as the graphic editor. With the three
editing boxes and all the editing
tools, you can really be creative
with your borders.
The next feature is a Font Editor.
ou can use it to modify any of The
Print Shop's eight fonts. An
additional twelve fonts are provided
on the Companion disk as well. You
can even create your own. I haven't
really tried this one out, so can't
comment on its usefulness. I am sure
it has the same features as many of
the other font editors you've seen.
The next feature chosen from the main
menu is Tile Magic. This feature is
very similar to the kaleidoscopes
from the screen magic part of The
Print Shop. You can browse through
the different patterns that are
provided. When you see one that you
like, you simply hit a key to freeze
it n the screen. Then, you can save
the pattern to a data disk, or you
can go to the graphic editor to
modify it. You can use it to create
a whole lot of different things for
your creations.
The next feature chosen from the main
menu is a Creature Maker. In this
part you have a choice of different
zany creatures to start with. You can
change the three parts of a creatures
ody. They are the Head, the Middle
and the Feet. You can exchange all
of these parts at will. Once you have
made your own creature, you can save
it to disk as a graphic, or you can
go to the graphic editor and modify
it even more. (My kids love this part
of the program! - Ed.)
The last selection from the main menu
is the Calendar Maker. You can use
this mode to create and print out
your very own calendars. You can
either make a weekly or monthly
calendar. You can put graphics on
it. You can use different fonts on it
for unique effects. A very nice
feature is that you can put your own
messages in the daily spots on the
calendar; you can put in things like
birthdays, anniversaries,
appointments or anything you want to
remind yourself of. This way, it
will be already printed when you do
the whole calendar. This is nice for
people like me who have poor hand
writing (or people like me with poor
memories! - Ed.). After you have
made your calendar, you can print it
or save it to disk. It is nice to
save it, and then load it back in
later to either print or revise it.
As you can see, The Print Shop
Companion is a very powerful utility
for the main Print Shop program. If
you really want to create your own
Print Shop icons, I feel that the
graphic editor on the Companion disk
is far superior to the one on the
Print Shop disk. If you are serious
about using the The Print Shop
program, I'm certain that you will
find the Companion disk very helpful.
_____________________________________
ZMAGAZINE NEW JERSEY JULY 31, 1987
PLEASE CONTRIBUTE YOUR ARTICLES!
_____________________________________
ISSUE #64 ISSUE #64 ISSUE #64
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