VECTOR
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Written by Jonathan Marten for 4Mation
14 Castle Park Road, Barnstaple, Devon. EX32 8PA
Tel. 0271 25353  Fax 0271 22974

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Supplied with this demonstration copy of Vector are a number of explanatory
files. They use the outline font supplied so please double-click on
!4M Fonts before loading !VectDemo.

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The font supplied, Montclair.Medium, was created by 4Mation and
Sherston Software for use with 4Mation and Sherston programs only.
It is NOT in the public domain.

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BRIEF GUIDE
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This does NOT cover all the features.


SAVING The Save options are not available in the demo version but Vector can
save files in 4 formats:

  Vector file - compressed, with settings
  Compressed - compressed Draw file
  Draw - normal Draw file
  Poster - Poster file

You can also save all the lines of text from a document and save the current
settings.


TOOLS see Vector file "Tools"

PATHS  To finish a path press Return, or click Adjust to enter Edit mode.

COLOURS  In 256 colour modes, extended palettes are available. Each document
may have its own palette.

TEXT  Lines of text can be edited. Enter Edit mode and press Adjust on text.
Under RISC OS 3, text can be rotated.

FONTS  If you change the font directory, choose "Reload fonts" from the icon bar menu.

ARRANGING OBJECTS  There are 2 facilities which require explanation.
Arrange: Distribute spaces objects so that the sides of their bounding boxes
are evenly spaced.
Arrange: Space/Pack arranges objects so that there is equal or no spacing
between objects.

RULERS  Four different rulers are available. You can change rulers by
clicking on the ruler number or by choosing from the Rulers box. A ruler's
origin may be moved.

LAYERS  See Vector file "Layers"


SPECIAL FEATURES
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[See the Special submenu]


Text to path - converts text to path text

Explode text - converts a line of text to a group of characters which can be
ungrouped

Reset object - makes rotated text horizontal (RISC OS 3) and restores
scaled/rotated sprites to original size/orientation

Bounding box - creates a rectangle around selected object(s)

Replicate - see Vector files "Replicate1" and "Replicate2"

Radiate - see Vector files "Radiate1" and "Radiate2"

Skeleton - see Vector files "Skeleton1" and "Skeleton2"

Mask - see Vector files "Mask1" and "Mask2"

Interpolate - see Vector file "Interpol"

Reverse path - reverses a path so that the start point becomes the end point

Merge paths - see Vector files "PathMerge1" and "PathMerge2"

Split subpaths - splits a merged path into individual objects

Split to lines - splits segments of a path into individual objects



LIBRARIES
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A Library file is a compressed file of objects. It is a convenient and
economical way to store frequently-used drawings and sprites. To
load the example library, double-click on "Library". To load an image from
the library file, select the name of the image and then click on the library
icon (the folder) in the toolbox.

On a 1Mb machine, memory is tight. If you load the Library file you will
restrict the amount of memory available to you.




RELEASE NOTE
============

This demo version corresponds to version 102 of Vector, which is now
available from 4Mation.  The major enhancements over older versions are:

1.  Automatic save (not functioning in the demo version) can now be set to
    prompt for confirmation before saving.  This prevents files for being
    inadvertently overwritten.

2.  Text-to-path is now available on RiscOS 2.

3.  There is an option on the Mask dialogue box to automatically create a
    mask-substitute object, as per appendix2 of the manual.

4.  A number of bugs and dropoffs have been fixed.
