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Documentation for !Thoughts Version 1.36 October 1990
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Introduction
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An ideas processor is an application designed to aid you in 
planning, either a letter or a project of some kind or any other 
textual document which may need some planning.
An ideas processor is centred around a hierarchical structure of 
text under the following headings:    
                                   TITLE
                                   HEADING
                                   SUB-HEADING &
                                   POINT
Text can be manipulated freely between these headings, and then 
edited. The resulting ideas can then be printed and used as an 
aid for the creation of a document.   
You may be asking why bother? Well an ideas processor can 
actually save valuable time by reducing drafting and editing time 
which can result in a much clearer end document.

    

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Directions for use
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On loading you are presented with the icon on the icon-bar, 
clicking MENU will produce the menu with the info and quit 
options.
Clicking SELECT or ADJUST on the icon will produce the main ideas 
window, where all your ideas will be shown.

Creating ideas
==============

To create a new set of ideas click MENU in the ideas window, and 
a menu should appear. You may then select either Title, Heading, 
Sub-Heading, or Point, enter the text and press return or click 
on the icon to finalize the idea.

Editing   
=======

To edit an item you must first select it by either clicking with    
SELECT or ADJUST on the item you wish to edit, or enter its    
number manually from the first option in the select menu. Once an  
item has been highlighted it may be edited in one of these ways:

1)Insert:-Enter the text you wish to insert before the currently 
selected item in the insert option on the select menu and press 
return etc. The text will be inserted at the  status of POINT. To
promote see the promote option.

2)Delete:-Click SELECT or ADJUST on this option to delete the 
currently selected item.

3)Copy:-Enter a number in the copy option in the menu to copy  
the currently selected item to, and press return etc.

4)Swap:-Enter a number in the swap option in the menu to swap  
the currently selected item with, and press return etc.

The following two options are in the rank submenu:
5)Promote:-Click SELECT or ADJUST on this option to promote the 
currently selected item up one rank.

6)Demote:-Opposite of above.

To change the currently selected item re-enter it via the title, 
heading, sub-heading, or point options on the enter menu.

Colours
=======

Screen colours may be selected at will for Highlight (foreground 
highlight colour of text), Marker bar (background highlight 
colour), Backgound (window background) & Foreground (foreground 
text colour).
To change defaults at start up see instructions for config file 
below.

Printing
========

To print a some or all of your edited ideas, move into the Print 
submenu and enter to number from which you wish to start from and 
the number on which you wish to finish on. To start printing 
click on the OK option. 
A dialogue box will appear to confirm selection. If the printer 
is not on line or connected, then an error message will appear, 
and by clicking OK you can then try to reprint. 
To change settings see instructions for config file below.
N.B. Printing directly from !Thoughts through the RISC OS drivers  
is not yet possible.

Filing
======

Loading and saving is performed in the usual RISC OS manner, ie. 
You may either drag the icon to the directory viewer that you 
wish to save the file in, or the full name may be entered in the 
icon that displays the filename.
Saving is only performed up to the currently selected item.
As well as a normal save option, a save text option is also 
provided to save your current set of ideas as an ASCII text file 
suitable for loading into !Edit, Impression, or 1st Word+ etc.
When using the save text option to save data, text may be 
directly passed to a text editor (!Edit) without going through a 
file first, however this is not possible when using the normal 
save option.
NOTE:- Textfiles may NOT be loaded back into !Thoughts, so be 
careful when using this option to save data.



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Configuring settings
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By pressing shift and clicking on the !Thoughts icon and clicking 
SELECT the application directory should open to reveal a set of 
files one of which is named Config.
This file contains configured options for the printer & screen 
colours. The current values may be substituted as needed.



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Examples & Demos
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The disk contains two demonstrations of what !Thoughts can do, 
one is a text file and the other is a loadable example file for 
you to play about with, to help you to learn to use the package 
to its full potential.



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Updates & Problems
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For latest versions and queries with software write to:

G. Rampton
367a Finchampstead Road,
Wokingham,
Berkshire,
RG11 3JU. 

If you yourself make any improvements or suggestions for 
improvements then I would be interested to hear from you.

