NEW AND ENHANCED
FEATURES
updated October
2000
INDEXING
OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS is separately documented - ask us for a copy if
you are interested.
Additional note 15 September 2001: More features have been added in Version 7.18. These, as well as the features mentioned here, are described in Version 7 manual supplement PDF file.
It
is still possible to use the keyboard in exactly the same way as in version
6, but there are mouse alternatives almost everywhere. All menu and file
selector options can be called up by clicking with the mouse;entries
can be called up and edited by clicking on them; it is also possible to
scroll up and down the list of entries (both in add and edit mode) by clicking
on the horizontal line above and below the text window; and you can change
Insert On to Off, etc, with the mouse. Clicking on the phrase "press return
when done" at the bottom of the two column menu screen is equivalent to
pressing return.
The
right mouse button duplicates the <enter> key.
Details:
add,
Inspect and edit screen
Top
part of screen ? options toggled with a mouse click
Insert
on/off
Ignore/respect
case/with wild/no wild (enhanced feature - see "Simplified searching" below)
Cutting
and pasting using the mouse
Click
on an entry and then press CTRL C. The whole entry will be copied to the
clipboard and can be inserted in (a) the same index, (b) a different index
or (c) any other Windows program. See also 16 - Cutting and pasting.
Add
screen
Top
part of screen
Insert
on/off
Main
body of screen
All
entries on screen can be accessed using the mouse in the same way as for
the Add and Inspect screen.
The
right mouse button functions as <ENTER>.
File
selector screen
You
can use the mouse on this screen and can move around through all the subdirectories
on a particular drive. Double click on the first line of the screen (DIR)
is at the right side; the left side is blank) and you will get all your
subdirectories (folders) listed.Double
click on the folder you want and then on the file you want. PgDn and PgUp
and the <return> message can also be clicked on as an alternative to
pressing the keys.
Menu
options
Items
that select from a list now use a pop up box and can be selected with the
mouse.
2.Adding
an entry at the "Ready" prompt
In
version 6, if you began to type an entry on the add, Inspect and edit screen
at the "Ready" prompt by mistake you got a "xxx not found" message appearing
at the top of the screen and you had to laboriously retype your entry after
pressing F4. This is no longer necessary. If you press F4 when the "not
found" message appears, what you have typed will appear as a new entry.
This feature also works when you are half way through writing an entry
and realise that you have forgotten to press F4. When you press F4 the
program will flip into add?entry mode, leaving what you have already typed
as part of the new entry.
You
no longer have to precede certain characters (the MACREX "reserved" characters)
\^[~*$-?
The
message is
Ignore
case/no wild
If
you press F2 or click on this message it changes in sequence to
Ignore
case/with wild
Respect
case/no wild
Respect
case/with wild
and
then back again to the first message.
If
you leave the message as it is (of if you have selected "Respect case/no
wild") you can search for anything in the index simply by typing what you
want, e.g. to find ^house?swapping^ you just type
^house?swapping^
However,
when the message is
Ignore
case/with wild
or
Respect
case/with wild
typing
^house?swapping^ would not find what you want. If you have this setting
you will need to type
\^house\?swapping\^
as
you did on version 6.
If
you are used to using "wildcard" searches you will want to change the message
to
Ignore
case/with wild
or
Respect
case/with wild
to
implement complicated wildcard searches, in which case you will also need
to precede "reserved characters" with a backslash, as you did in version
6.
Start->Settings->Control
Panel
Then
double click Add/Remove Programs and select the Windows Setup tab.Check
the box labelled "Multilanguage Support" and make sure that all the components
are checked under details.Click
OK and follow the instructions for will appear for installing the support
(this may involve inserting your Windows 95/98 CD Rom) and reboot your
computer when asked.
There
are also two new items added to the Options menu
4
? Printer lines per inch 6
5
? Printer characters per inch 12
These
can be used to set the number of lines and characters per inch used by
the printer when it is being used (i) to list entries as they are typed
(ii) to list missing cross references and (iii) to print error messages
from the merge, utilities, and pagination subprograms. At present only
Courier font is available.The defaults
are 6 lines per inch and 12 characters per inch.This
gives a conventional "typewriter" size text.If
you set lines per inch to 10 and characters per inch to 17 you get a smaller
listing which is more economical on paper. This facility is alsoavailable
in the Utilities and Paginate subprograms.
5.Listing
in entry order in a window while adding and editing
If
you press F12 while adding entries (after pressing F4) on the add?on?edit
screen, or from the main Add screen, a window (the "scroll buffer") will
appear with a list of all your added and edited entries (up to 100,000
entries)with the most recent entry
highlighted. You can scroll up and down this window using the arrow keys
(or the PgUp and PgDn keys - you cannot at present use the mouse on this
screen, nor CTRL<HOME>/<END>) and select a highlighted entry. Pressing
<RETURN> copies the highlighted entry to the one you are currently editing
(or makes a new entry). Pressing F1, or F12 a second time, abandons the
window without changing the entry you are editing. If you change an entry
immediately after inputting it, the original will be replaced in the scroll
buffer by the edited version; however, if you edit the entry after making
more entries, both the original entry and the edited entry will appear
in the list.
This
feature has many uses but the following applications are suggested (we're
sure people will think of more ? let us know!)
6.Listing
of recently used commands
If
you press F12 while editing entries, a window will appear containing the
last 100 commands made at the Ready prompt. You can recall any of them
by scrolling up and down the window and pressing <enter> to get them
onto the Ready==> prompt (very useful for recalling complicated wildcard
searches).
This
feature checks page ranges for ascending numbers.It
will only work if automatic merging is on (this is the default) and can
be disabled by changing option 6 on the Options menu to "No".. The default
setting for the "squashing" of page numbers in page ranges has been reset
to "Unsquash" - this is the method recommended by ISO 999. This means that
if you type
123-4
you
will get
123-124
when
you press <enter>, which can save a considerable amount oftyping
time.
You
don=t
have
to keep to the type of "squash" used as the version 7 default.To
change this to another format, e.g. Hart=s Rules or Chicago, go to the
Merge menu and change option G (type of squash) from Unsquash to Hart=s
Rules or whatever setting you normally use, and save this as the default
by pressing <escape>.
In
version 6 the default was not to "squash" page ranges, but we=ve had to
make a type of "squash" the default to allow for page number verification.
This is because if we didn=t do this, a reference like 21-3 will look like
a "bad" page range to the program unless it realises that a particular
system (in this case Hart=s Rules) is being used. If you don=t want
to have your page ranges checked or want to use a system not supported
by MACREX, change option 6 on the Options menu (Check bad page ranges?)
to No.
If
you want to check existing page ranges, you should first of all
set option F (Squash) on the Merge Options menu to Yes and G to the type
of squash you want.
If
you try to enter a page range where the final number is less than the first,
(eg cows, 17-16) you will get an error message
Starting
page of range is greater than ending page
If
you run the merge program there is a new option
8
- Tag page ranges
2.Volume
numbers (if present) are check first.If
the first volume number is lower than the second you get the same message.If
the volume numbers are the same or there are no volume numbers the page
numbers are checked.
3.If
the first and last page numbers are equal you will get the same error message.
4.Roman
numerals are also checked if the option to recognize roman numerals is
turned on.
5.Bad
page ranges are not checked for when an MBK file is loaded from
R -
Read a backup file on the main menu.However
you can choose to check them when using the R -Read and correct backup
file option from the Utilities subprogram.
In
the Read and correct a backup file option in the Utilities subprogram
there are two new options
E
? Ignore missing ^ and \ in volume numbers?
F
? Ignore bad page ranges?
G
? Test page ranges allowing for squash?
These
are all normally set to No so that you will have to correct any
entries that have eg \10.10\ or have bad page ranges.However
you may wish to load entries such as \10.10\ and have them automatically
corrected using the new option 9 ? Insert missing ^ and \ in vols
on the Merge Options menu or you may wish to load bad page ranges without
being prompted and tag them via the new merge option 8 - Tag bad page
ranges to deal with later.If
you wish to do this you can do so by setting either or all options to Yes.
There
is also an option to turn off page range checking, on the Options
menu (directly off main menu).
6
? Check for bad page ranges?
Note
that even if this is set to No bad page ranges will still be tagged
by running the merge subprogram if the Merge option 8 is set to Yes.
Page
range checking is temporarily disabled during the conversion back from
a page number order file to one in alphabetical order.
8.Checking
for unmatched characters
Mismatched
square, round, angle and European brackets ( i.e.. (), [],
<>,
*+) are checked, and if found to be mismatched, the user is alerted.The
program also checks for an uneven number of double quotes ("").If
these characters are mismatched, a warning message will appear, and you
will have the chance to edit the entry. Rather like the check for a missing
page reference, pressing <return> at this point will allow the entry
to go in unchanged.This check is
done on the Add screen, when you edit an entry on the Inspect screen, and
on the Add-on-Edit screen. The Read a backup option in the Utilities menu
will also check for mismatched characters.
9.Extra
checks when loading files
We
recommend that you load any file via the Utilities subprogram (U from the
Main Menu) and then R -Read
and Correct a backup file option, rather than via the R - Read a
backup file option from the Main Menu. We have introduced more checks
into version 7. If you really don=t want these checks to be made you can
change option 8 on the Options menu (version 6 page number checking) to
Yes before going to the Utilities menu. The version 7 checks are: for \\
and ^^ straddling volume.page reference; for non-viable page ranges, and
for non-matching (), [], "" and * +
Bold
and italic volume.page references:
version 7 will not allow you to enter bold or italic volume.page numbers
in the form ^vv.pp^ or \vv.pp\.The
correct form is ^vv^.^pp^ or \vv\.\pp\.If
you have a lot of volume.page numbers that have been typed in the now unacceptable
format, you should set option E ? Ignore missing ^ and \ in volume numbers?
in the menu that appears before you load in the file to Yes. After you
have loaded the index, go to the Merge options menu and use option 9
? Insert missing ^ and \ in volsto
add missing ^ or \ automatically. You can set this option to Yes before
you load the file and the changes will be made as the file is loaded.
Page
ranges(see
also 7 above) : If you may be loading a lot of squashed page references
(eg cows, 221?6) make sure option G ? Test page ranges allowing for
squash? is set to Yes to avoid being asked to correct them.You
may also wish to set option F ? Ignore bad page ranges?to
Yes to disable testing for bad page ranges and use Merge option8
? Tag bad page ranges to tag them later.
Non-matching
non-reserved characters (),
[],"" and *+ (see also 8
above): Because you may well not want to have some of these characters
"matching" we have made this an optional feature. You can turn off this
check while loading entries by changing option H to No. While making new
entries you will be advised after you press <enter> that you have non-matching
characters, but if you press <enter> again these characters will be
accepted.
10.Increased
number and length of macros
The
maximum number of macros has been increased to 48 (ALT+ F1 - F12 and SHIFT
+ F1 - F12, ALT+SHIFT F1 - F12, and CTRL+SHIFT F1 - F12).The
maximum length of any macro is now 100 keystrokes. We shall be distributing
files containing commonly used macros (such as shortcuts for bold, italic,
super- and sub-scripts, deleting a line, making a backup file automatically)
in due course.
1Macros
are no longer saved in the .OPT file but macros made in version 6 can be
loaded into version 7 indexes via a named saved version 6 .OPT file. Macros
are automatically saved in the .INF file specific to the index.In
addition, on the MACREX Options Menu there is a new option
9
? Macro Options
Choosing
this will allow macros to be saved either as "default7.macros" (which will
be automatically re-loaded) or in a named .macro file.It
will also allow macros to be loaded from previously saved files.
You
are no longer limited to six characters for the name of your index. You
can have a name including spaces and other characters. The total length
of the file name and the path name can be up to 255 characters in length.
You can also specify a network file name as an index name, eg
\\Parsnip\parsnip?d\indexes\cows
Note:
It is still not possible to make the last character of a filename a digit.
If
you start your index from the DOS prompt you
need to enclose the name in quotes if it contains spaces; e.g.
macnt
"harry the hound"
You
can deal with long directory names by enclosing the whole path including
the drive name in double quotes:
macnt
"d:\my documents\harry the hound"
12.Scrolling
through the index while editing
You
can now scroll up and down the index while in add-on-edit as well as on
the edit screen. To scroll up and down a line you have the choice of the
<ALT>-down- and up-arrow, the grey + and minus keys, and the mouse -
click on the lines at the top and bottom of the text box. You can also
scroll up and down a page at a time using PgUp and PgDn . CTRL PgUp nor
CTRL PgDn do not work while on add-on-edit.
Warning
? you can use escape and "yank" but the highlighted entry may not be the
one you expect! Just use the arrow keys to locate your desired entry.
The
default record length has been increased to 300 characters.
Because of the fact that for anyone with Windows 95, 98 or NT, the amount
of RAM available for index entries is unlikely to be a problem, we have
decided that 300 characters would be a more comfortable limit for the average
index. If you would prefer a shorter record length you can change this
before you start the index, or from U?Utilities ?> C ? Change record length
if you have already begun your index.
The
maximum
record length has been increased to 3000 characters. If you want a
very long record length (usually unnecessary) you will need to set your
screen size to accommodate enough characters (see 7 above). Possible uses
for a longer record length are
indexing
journal articles with very large numbers of contributors
including
glossary material, etc., in index entries etc.
You
are recommended to change the screen size using N and
O
on the MACREX OPTIONS MENU.
If
necessary you may be able to change to a smaller screen
font
using the pull?down menu or the properties menu of the
window
in which MACREX is currently running, in order to
more
characters.
<==
Press any key to continue ==>
If
you are checking entries and do not intend to add any very long entries
you can ignore this message.
14.Screen
fonts and dimensions
You
can select from a variety of screen font sizes. Depending on the computer's
screen size and the font selected you can set the screen width and height
to be more than 80 by 25 characters, for example 120 by 45 characters.
This is done from the O ? Options screen from the main men, options N and
O. Don=t try to change the screen width and height more than once in any
one indexing session.