Using pTextweb
Contents
Introduction
What
Is pTextweb?
Screenshot
To What Uses May
pTextweb be Put?
pTextweb Demo
Version
Getting
Started
Installing
pTextweb
Using Existing Webs
Specifying
pTextweb Output
The Settings
Dialog
Choosing Output Destinations
Specifying Report
Output
Sample Reports
Menubar
pTextweb
Menus
Warranty,
License, Registration, Distribution, and
Support
Warranty
License
Registration
Distribution
Support
What is pTextweb
pTextweb is a hypertext notepad.
Unlike HTML editors, pTextweb does not focus on the presentation of linked information. pTextweb focuses on the editing of linked information as a way to facilitate verbal thinking about complex ideas and systems.
pTextweb lets the user create cells of text by simply typing in names for the cells, or double-clicking words that are not yet cellnames. It allows the user to create linkage from one cell to another by simply typing the name of the cell to be linked into the cell that does the linking.
pTextweb keeps a sorted list of all the cells created so far, and allows access to the cells by selecting from the sorted list or clicking embedded links.
pTextweb has a reporting feature that generates formatted lists of the contents of some or all cells, and produces cross references of cell linkages.
Screenshots:
pTextweb has three tabbed screen panes and a toolbar.
The list pane is a selectable list of the text cells in the current web.
The text pane is a scrolling, editable view of the selected text cell. Clicking on a highlighted cell name in the text pane takes you to that text cell. Any cellname entered in the main pane automatically becomes a highlighted link to that cell. Double clicking any word in the main pane allows the user to create both a cell by that name and a link to the new cell.
The console pane is used for output of the report feature.
The toolbar at the top of the screen is pretty much a standard hypertext browser bar, except that its action is confined to the local text web, instead of the world wide web.
To what uses may pTextweb be put?
A few suggested uses are:
Take linked notes in classes and meetings.
Search the notes for keywords.
Generate reports from the contents of the notes.
Record your thoughts and ideas as well as the structural relationships between them.
Report on the structure, as well as the contents, of your records.
Make a map, including links, of your favorite web sites.
Create storyboards of complex scenarios and try different paths through them.
Make maps of the interactions between your friends, and use the reporting features to learn more about their relationships.
Enter structural information for computer programs, and use cross-reference reports to help reverse engineer the programs.
Model the underlying structure of user interfaces, and use the models to try out different design ideas.
Build cognitive maps and causal networks about any subject matter.
Make nested outlines of talks or speeches to be given, and use the outlines like a teleprompter during the talk.
pTextweb Demo Version
The pTextweb demo version is fully functional, but it occasionally nags the user to register the program.
To find out how to register pTextweb,
the user may select the Help menu item About pTextweb, and click
the Registration Information button on the dialog that appears.
The user will be instructed to go to
website www.codelode.com to
register the program. After the user has entered the
registration code, paid the registration
fee, and supplied the necessary information, she will receive a
registration key via email. Information supplied for purposes of
registration will not be sold or given away to third parties.
See the section called Registration for information on entering the registration key into the program.
Installing pTextweb
Your pTextweb program should have arrived as a self-extracting archive, containing pTextweb.exe, SciLexer.dll (the freeware edit control used by pTextweb), and a bunch of other files. Installation consists of double-clicking the self-extracting archive, and following instructions.
If you did not receive such a self-extracting archive, go to www.codelode.com and download one.
Using existing webs
A few .twb files were provided to allow you to get the hang of navigating a web. These files are called cave.twb, DIBPrinting.twb, Meditation.twb, and Quotes.twb. They will be loaded into the pTextweb subdirectory of the Program Files directory.
The pTextweb file open dialog only works in subdirectories of My Documents. If you want to open the example webs, you will have to either open them from the File Explorer, or copy them to My Documents, and open them from pTextweb.
In any event, mess around with these webs and get familiar with linking between cells, creating new cells, changing the settings and so on. It won’t take long. You’ll be creating your own useful webs in no time.
The Settings Dialog
Click on the Edit menu, Settings choice. The following dialog will appear:
The tabs allow the user to specifiy pTextweb behavior and appearance regarding Links, Reports, or Output.
In the picture shown, the Links tab is chosen, which allows the user to choose from four link colors, and to activate cell creation on double clicking of words that are not cell names. It also allows the user to specify a dialog box be displayed before creating a new cell based upon a double-click.
Choosing
Output
Destinations
Choosing the Output tab brings up the following dialog:
The user can choose between directing report output to the console or to a text file named in the Output Name field. Output text files appear in the My Device directory.
Specifying Report Output
Choose the Report tab, and the dialog below appears. This tells pTextweb what to do when the user requests a report.
Report type allows four choices: Formatted, In Pointers, Out Pointers and Trail.
For each cell name selected the text
edit window, (or if the Report on All Cells box is checked, for
all cells), the formatted report generator scans the Report Format
string supplied, outputting it’s characters one by one until
it encounters a substitution code, such as \n, \N, or \T.
When \n is encountered, a carriage return linefeed is output to the output destination in place of the ‘\n’ string. When \N is encountered, the cell name is output instead of the string ‘\N’. When \T is encountered, the contents of the text field of the cell is output instead of the string ‘\T’. When \ is encountered, whatever character follows it the format string, including ‘\’ is output to the output destination.
If Inpointers is selected, then for each cell name selected in the text edit window, (or if the Report on All Cells box is clicked, for all cells) the report generator puts out the cell name, followed by a list of cells which point to that cell name.
If Outpointers is selected, then for each cell name selected in the text edit window, (or if the Report on All Cells box is checked) for all cells, the report generator puts out the cell name, followed by a list of cell names which are pointed to from that cell.
If Trail is selected, then the
report generator outputs all of the cellnames in the stack
kept in the combobox.
Sample Reports
(default formatted report from cave.twb)
*****AttackTheGnome**************************
You thrust your torch into the gnome's face, he dodges; and his broad axe separates your head from your shoulders. Your last impression is of the passageway tumbling crazily in your vision; and the sound of rushing water..... then icy silence.
*****ClimbTheRockChimney**************************
You climb for an hour before coming into the sunlight through an opening by a juniper bush on the side of a rocky slope. A rumbling sound intensifies around you, and you leap just in time to avoid the cave-in which closes the chimney from which you just emerged. You can see the lights of your neighboorhood just a short hike down the mountain. Strange adventure.
*****DiveIntoTheTorrent**************************
That was a hugely stupid thing to do! The water siezes you and plunges you through a winding cavern, rushing down without air, until you begin to feel strangely separate from yourself, observing as from a distance.
Suddenly, you break the surface. Your lungs gratefully gulp great draughts of air. A second later, the water slows down. Soon you are in a placid lake, surrounded by translucent, glowing crystal walls. You crawl onto a sparkling beach, and lie there exhausted.
Without warning, a booming voice enfolds you in its thunderous sound: "Be who you are." You look around, but nobody else is there.
Seeing no way out of the crystal cavern, you remember that you followed links from the home cell to get here. All you have to do to get home is just keep pressing Alt-left arrow.
*****EnterTrapDoor**************************
You are an adventureous soul. You drop lithely into a shallow pit below the trapdoor, which slams shut above your head. Before you is a passageway leading into the dimly lit bowels of the earth. A torch burns in a niche in the rock wall of the passage. You're in luck! The torch can be removed from its niche. You may choose to TakeTorchIntoPassageway, or GoBackToShack.
*****Fossil**************************
The only treasure in here is the exposed bed of limestone, rich with the fossilized history of the evolution of life on this planet.
*****GoBackToShack**************************
Unfortunately, the trap door above your head will not open, no matter how you pound on it. You may choose to LayDownAndDie or TakeTorchIntoPassageway..
*****GoHomeAndWatchTV**************************
A wise, and safe decision. On the way home you find $5 lying on the street. You congratulate yourself on your good fortune, and stop at a convenience store to purchase popcorn. There is a good movie on tonight!
*****home**************************
You are standing on a trap door in an abandoned shack in the forest. On the table before you is a map, apparently of subterranean caverns. Much of the map has been destroyed by time, but there is a section of the map that can still be read. On that section is the legend: "Here there be treasure".
If you choose to EnterTrapDoor, you may be able to find the treasure, and become rich. On the other hand, you may get lost, and leave nothing but your bones behind in a dimly lit crevasse far under the ground. If the risk is too great, you may decide to GoHomeAndWatchTV.
Click the link of your choice.
*****LayDownAndDie**************************
Quitter!
*****Noway**************************
There is no treasure in this cavern, which is not accessible from any other passage in the Cave. How did you get in here?
****SmileAndBrushPastHim**************************
You smile politely and step nimbly around the little fellow, finding yourself suddenly in a cavern full of the sound of rushing water. From a ridge on one side of the room, there is a shaft of light coming down a rock chimney. On the other side, the river disappears into a hole in the wall. There is no air space in the hole, just rushing river.
You can ClimbTheRockChimney or DiveIntoTheTorrent.
*****TakeTorchIntoPassageway**************************
As you descend the passageway, you begin to hear trickling sounds, and to see rivulets of sparkling water along the path. Ahead, in the gloom, a pair of eyes appears; and you hear an ominous chuckling.
Suddenly you are confronted with a fabulously ugly little gnome, who is carrying a broad axe, and clearing his nostrils noisily on your feet.
You must decide whether to AttackTheGnome, or SmileAndBrushPastHim.
Sample Reports
(inpointers report from meditation.twb)
AdviceToBeginningMeditators
<Shamata
CategoriesOfShamataMethods
<Shamata
FifthShamataTechnique
<Shamata
FirstShamataTechnique
<Shamata
FourthShamataTechnique
<Shamata
home
MeditationPosture
<home
MeditationPractices
<home
NonReligiousMethod
<VarietiesOfMeditation
ReligiousMethod
<VarietiesOfMeditation
SecondShamataTechnique
<Shamata
Shamata
<AdviceToBeginningMeditators
<CategoriesOfShamataMethods
<FifthShamataTechnique
<FirstShamataTechnique
<MeditationPractices
<Shamata
<ShamataOnEssence
ShamataOnEssence
<CategoriesOfShamataMethods
ShamataWithFocalSupport
<CategoriesOfShamataMethods
ShamataWithoutFocalSupport
<CategoriesOfShamataMethods
ThirdShamataTechnique
<Shamata
VarietiesOfMeditation
<home
Vipasyana
<AdviceToBeginningMeditators
<FifthShamataTechnique
<MeditationPractices
<ShamataOnEssence
<Vipasyana
Sample Reports
(outpointers report from DIBPrinting.twb)
biBitCount
biClrImportant
biClrUsed
>biClrUsed
biHeight
biPlanes
biSize
>BITMAPINFOHEADER
>biSize
biSizeImage
bitCompression
BITMAPINFO
>BITMAPINFOHEADER
>RGBQUAD
>BITMAPINFO
>BITMAPINFOHEADER
>RGBQUAD
BITMAPINFOHEADER
>biSize
>biWidth
>biHeight
>biPlanes
>biBitCount
>bitCompression
>biSizeImage
>biXPelsPerMeter
>biYPelsPerMeter
>biClrUsed
>biClrImportant
>BITMAPINFOHEADER
bitmapTable
biWidth
biXPelsPerMeter
biYPelsPerMeter
Convert
>Convert
>BITMAPINFO
>DIBbitmap
>GetDIBits
>GetDIBits
>BITMAPINFO
>myBITMAPINFO
>BITMAPINFO
>GetDIBits
>BITMAPINFO
>DIBbitmap
>Transfer
DIBbitmap
>DIBbitmap
>RGBQUAD
GetDIBits
>GetDIBits
>Convert
>BITMAPINFO
>BITMAPINFO
>BITMAPINFO
>GetDIBits
>BITMAPINFO
>GetDIBits
>BITMAPINFO
>bitmapTable
>BITMAPINFOHEADER
>BITMAPINFO
>GetDIBits
>BITMAPINFO
>BITMAPINFO
>GetDIBits
>BITMAPINFOHEADER
home
>Convert
>Transfer
>Convert
>Transfer
myBITMAPINFO
>biSize
>biWidth
>biHeight
>biPlanes
>biBitCount
>bitCompression
>biSizeImage
>biXPelsPerMeter
>biYPelsPerMeter
>biClrUsed
>biClrImportant
>BITMAPINFOHEADER
RGBQUAD
>RGBQUAD
>RGBQUAD
SetDIBitsToDevice
>SetDIBitsToDevice
StretchDIBits
>StretchDIBits
Transfer
>SetDIBitsToDevice
>StretchDIBits
Sample Reports
(trail report from DIBPrinting.twb)
Trail:
BITMAPINFOHEADER
BITMAPINFO
Convert
home
pTextweb Menubar
The
menubar has four popup menus, called File, Edit, Cell, and
Help, and two buttons. The dialogs and functions invoked are
described below:
File
Menu
The File menu has New, Open, Save, and SaveAs options.
Edit Menu
In addition to the usual Edit menu entries, this one contains the Settings selection, which brings up the settings property sheet, which has three tabs: Links, Report, and Output. Use of these tabbed dialogs is described above. The edit menu also has the Zoom selection, which allows you to change the size of Font used in the Text, and Console panes.
Cell Menu
The Cell menu has selections to create a ‘New’ cell or ‘Clone’ a new cell from an existing one, It also allows you to ‘Delete’ the current cell.
Help Menu
The Help menu provides a short selection of help topics, which when selected, are output to the currently selected Output. It also has an About pTextweb selection which gives pTextweb copyright and version information, as well as giving information on how to register the program, and providing a registration dialog. The registration dialog and information apper only if the program has not yet been registered.
Report Button
This printed page representation causes the report generator to run, using its current settings. If the "Report on All Cells" box in report settings is not checked, the report is generated for every cellname in the selected text of the text pane. If the "Report on All Cells" is selected, the report is generated for all cells.
Stop Button
This red circle with an 'X' button stops report output.
Limited Warranty, License, Registration, Distribution, and Support
Limited Warranty
LIMITED
WARRANTY
THE PTEXTWEB SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING
WRITTEN MATERIALS (INCLUDING INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE) ARE PROVIDED
"AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. FURTHER, NEITHER
CODELODE NOR DAVID CLIFTON PROVIDES ANY WARRANT, GUARANTEE, OR
MAKES ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE, OR THE RESULTS OF
USE, OF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS IN TERMS OF CORRECTNESS,
ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS, OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK
AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY
YOU THE USER. IF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS ARE DEFECTIVE
YOU, AND NOT DAVID CLIFTON, CODELODE, OR ITS DEALERS,
DISTRIBUTORS, AGENTS, OR EMPLOYEES, ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL
NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.
THE ABOVE IS THE
ONLY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, THAT IS MADE BY CODELODE OR
DAVID CLIFTON, ON THIS PRODUCT. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR
ADVICE GIVEN BY DAVID CLIFTON, CODELODE, ITS DEALERS,
DISTRIBUTORS, AGENTS, OR EMPLOYEES SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN
ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY AND YOU MAY NOT RELY
ON ANY SUCH INFORMATION OR ADVICE. YOU MAY HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH
VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.
NEITHER DAVID CLIFTON, CODELODE, NOR
ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR
DELIVERY OF THIS PRODUCT SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS
OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS
INFORMATION, AND LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE
SUCH PRODUCT EVEN IF CODELODE OR DAVID CLIFTON HAVE BEEN ADVISED
OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
THIS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL
BE GOVERNED AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE STATE
OF COLORADO.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
BY USING THE DEMO OR REGISTERED VERSION OF PTEXTWEB, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS LIMITED WARRANTY, UNDERSTAND IT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU ALSO AGREE THAT THE LIMITED WARRANTY IS THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PARTIES AND SUPERSEDES ALL PROPOSALS OR PRIOR AGREEMENTS, ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE PARTIES RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE LIMITED WARRANTY.
License
After you have registered pTextweb, you may use the program for as long as you like, and make as many backup copies as necessary on the computer for which it is registered. If you change operating systems, mother boards, or root disk drives after registering, that will likely necessitate re-registering the program. As long as there is a record of your previous registration, you can obtain a new registration key simply by requesting one from registration@codelode.com. Each registered user will be limited to no more than three free reregistrations during the course of a single year.
You may use pTextweb without registering it, provided that you do not attempt to disable Nagging, which as been provided as an incentive to register the program.
Any attempt to disable nagging in the unregistered program revokes your permission to use the program or to keep it on your computer.
Registration
Registration takes place in three parts:
Part 1) Copy the registration code from the dialog reached from the aboutpTextweb entry on the Help menu. If there is no registration code in that dialog, then pTextweb has probably been registered already.
Part 2) Go
to www.codelode.com, and
go to the page that allows registration of pTextweb. Enter
your registration code, and other information requested, and
pay the registration fee.
A registration key divided
into 8 parts will be emailed to you.
Part 3) Select the aboutpTextweb entry in the Help menu while pTextweb is running on your computer. Click on the "Register" button. You will be presented with a dialog which requests one part of your registration key.
If you enter the information correctly, you should get a message “Registration Succeeded” in the status line at the bottom of the pTextweb window.
Distribution
pTextweb may
be freely distributed provided the following conditions are
met:
1) Permission must be received to distribute pTextweb
on retail racks, on CDROMs, or bundled with any other product.
2) The file distributed must be the pTextweb self-extracting, self-installing archive. That's the one that can be downloaded from www.codelode.com.
3) Disk Vendors, Shareware Distributors and BBS(s) may charge a nominal fee for distribution of pTextweb. The recipient of pTextweb must be informed, in advance, that the fee paid to acquire pTextweb does not relieve the recipient from the necessity of registering his copy to disable Nags and enable printing.
Support
Support for registered pTextweb users, and for those attempting to register pTextweb is available via email at the address ptextweb@codelode.com. Include the word pTextweb in the subject line.