Ovation Pro Hints and Tips

General information

Individual contributors are not identified, but thanks to all who participate in the maillist and who make it a very friendly and helpful source of information. Special thanks must go to David Pilling, the author of Ovation Pro, for his many illuminating contributions, and for taking note of every comment raised on the list. Thanks also to Chris Wragg who sent me some hints he had already extracted from the maillist. Some of the material here is based upon his work.

There are some hints and tips available on David Pilling's site, which might also prove useful.

Contents

Abbreviation applet

• If you have an abbreviation, sa expanding to said, for example, and follow the abbreviation with a comma or a full stop then it expands fine. But if you put an apostrophe after it, it doesn't. I'd like to be able to able to type something like "pe" to expand to "Peter" (which is fine) but sometimes type "pe'" to expand to "Peter'" to which I then add "s" (or "d")
  • Easy to do. You need to make the following changes to the file !OvnPro.Applets.!Abbrev.Library.Abbrev. (Make a copy of this file into another directory first, in case things go wrong. It must be in another directory, or OP will try to load it and complain.)

    (1) Find the lines in function abbrev_fix() which read:

    // check if key is 'space', 'new para', 'tab', 'new line' or 'new page'
if (key == 32 || key == 13 || key == 394 || key == 2061 || key == 6669)

    and change the lower line to read:

    if (key == 32 || key == 13 || key == 394 || key == 2061 || key == 6669 || abbrev_ispunct(key))

    (2) Then add the following lines near the top of the file, after the line which starts 'string abbrev_path=' and before the definition of function abbrev_readdata():

    int abbrev_ispunct(int c) { return "!'?.,:;/\""/chars(c)+1; }

    The stuff in the quotes consists of a list of punctuation marks which you want to be able to trigger abbreviation expansion. If you want the plain double quotes to be included, you need to prefix it with a backward slash.

• Is there any way of altering the abbeviation applet so that it does not necessarily add a space after the word, (even though you have to press the space bar to activate the word)?
  • In the file Abbrev inside the applet change
    type("{Deleteb}" * l + s);
    to
    {type("{Deleteb}" * l + s);if(key==' ') key=-1;}
• I have several abbreviations set up to avoid repeated typing of often used phrases. Most of them occur mid sentence and are therefore followed by a space. The problem is the applet also produces a space so I end up with two. Is there a way of avoiding this?
  • Check your !Abbrev.abbrevs list for end-of-line spaces, and if you have some then remove them. That should cure your problem.

All upper case

• I want to create a macro and button for the toolbar that will change a selected block of text into upper case. How do I do it?
  • Create a style in the edit style box. All you have to do is select Case=All Caps on the modify text menu
  • Define new buttons with, for example, the names and macro strings as shown:

    Function	Name	Macro
    Normal Title All Caps	aa Aa AA	{case_entry(0,0)} {case_entry(1,0)} {case_entry(2,0)}

    While these don't have the toggle effect of swapcase, they seem to do the trick.

Applet version

• How can I find out which version of an applet I have?
  • Open the Ovation Pro directory, by double clicking with SHIFT held down. In there you will find a directory Applets. Open this directory, and you should see all your installed applets. Open the directory of the applet of interest by double clicking with SHIFT held down. One of the files therein is !info. Examine this file in a text editor. The first two lines of this file are of the form
    majorversion:1
minorversion:2
    This means the applet is version 1.02
    Note for the unwary. If the number after minorversion consists of only one digit, then a zero will be automatically placed in front, so the example given is for version 1.02. If, instead the minor version was 23, then this would be interpreted as version 1.23.

Applets deactivating

• I lost the use of Applets I had installed. It seems that any turned-on Applets get turned off automatically as Ovation Pro installs on the icon bar! I can watch the Applets in a filer window as I launch Ovation Pro. As it installs on the Icon bar any that are on get a - added as they are all turned off!
  • This is because the !ARun files from inside the applets have gone missing. It is the presence of the (often zero length) !ARun file which denotes an applet which is loaded from something else which is run. And if you run an applet, it toggles it's on/off status, just as it does when you double click on it.

Artworks black

• When I use an overprint (lets say black on cyan) in Artworks, and put this in Ovation things won't work as an overprint anymore because Artworks black is set to Cyan, Magenta, Yellow in Ovation.... Why does not black remain black???
  • There's a horrible catch... this is that you load a CMYK image, i.e. an ArtWorks file, but you have the image processing options set to RGB, and so it converts to RGB, and then back to CMYK, which of course spoils things. Set the correct image processing mode, and you should have no problems. You have to watch this point. It does work as long as processing is set to CMYK (and the AW colours must be CMYK). You'd also be well advised to have Ovation Pro 2.49 or later.
  • As to spots this was a problem in the older versions. In the later ones, if you tick 'use spots' on the processing window and create a colour in Ovation Pro with exactly the same name as the spot in the AW file then spots will carry over.
  • This may well be caused by having colour correction set in Choices-Colour. The CMYK images only appear to separate as CMYK if 'No Correction' is set. This can be a big problem if there is an RGB bitmap in the document that does need colour correction when separating to CMYK as you have to use an Imagesetter Colour Table.
  • The 'No Correction' setting refers to the curves which are used to convert RGB to CMYK. Question for you is why RGB to CMYK would affect CMYK images, and the answer can only be if you've got RGB image processing set on one.
• I have just converted an advert that was in Publisher+, to OP v2.50. The main graphic and logos, etc., are an Artworks file, with some items in overprinted black. A bitmap is placed behind (and shows through the 'gaps'. OP's text is used in the foreground as overprint black in front of part of the AW graphic (a graduated fill). The problem is that OP's text overprints all right, but the overprint stuff in the AW file does not.
  • Set the definition of Black in the ArtWorks file to be a Spot colour. Set its application to 'Overprint' Make sure you redefine Black before setting Overprint. Once in OP set OP's Black to be spot. Then import artwork and use Picture.Process option to get to Process dialogue box. Tick 'Use spots'. That should do what you need (all described in Acorn Publisher 5-1).

ArtWorks overprint in black

• Is it possible to command an imported single colour (black) ArtWorks file to overprint in black? At present it knocks out the underlying colour frame. As the ArtWorks file has fine lines this could present registration problems when printed in a 4 colour process.
  • If you set the black in the ArtWorks file to be a spot colour and its application to the artwork in question to Overprint, then import into a frame in Ovation Pro, you can use the Process window from within the Picture menu to switch on 'Use spots' and the black in the imported ArtWorks file will NOT knock out any underlying colours. The spot black and any other black still seems to fall entirely on the black separation.
  • When you use the 'use spots' feature, the attributes of the Ovation Pro colour whose name matches the named colour in the ArtWorks file get taken over.

Automatic window opening

• How do I prevent the 'Ovation Pro Styles', 'Page Palette' and 'Cols' windows being opened automatically?
  • Usually they have a variable in the main !Applet.Library.Script file that you can change the initial value of.

    ColPal
    int colpal_palette = 1;
    Change the 1 to a 0.

    PagePal
    int pagepal_toolbox = 1;
    again change 1 to 0.

    StylePal
    int stylepal_palette = 1;
    again change 1 to 0.

• How do you make them open in a position where you want them, e.g. at the edge of the screen and not in the middle of the main window?
  • Seemingly this can be arranged too. Looking at the ColPal library file.
    int colpal_centre = 1;
    If you change the 1 to a 0, then the palette will open at the default position set up in the applets template file. You obviously need to use a template editor to change the default position.

Bad page number

• After upgrading, when I tried to print a document, I received the message "Bad page number". What does this mean? What have I done wrong?
  • You'll probably find in the range icon on the print dialogue box, a token PR15. This is appearing because you didn't copy the new Messages file over the copy of Ovation Pro you are upgrading. You've got to copy the !OvnPro in the archive over the old one, and you've got to have the right copy options set.

Black and white photos

• I've been loading black and white photos into a document and they look OK on screen. But when I view the colour separations, I see that there is information on the CMY separations as well as the black. In fact, the black separation seems to lack tonal gradation. This suggests that the colour separations assume that four colour process will be used. Unfortunately I will be using black plus a spot colour, and need the photos just on black. Is there a setting which I have missed which prevents anything appearing on the CMY separations?
  • To solve the problem you have to select 'No Correction' in the General Preferences -> colour settings.
  • One point to consider is what image processing mode is set for the picture. By default Ovation Pro uses RGB which involves conversion to RGB space and then back to CMYK.
  • Secondly the 'curves' which are used to convert from RGB to CMYK do mix colours onto the CMY plates. They're designed to do that. Solution there then is to use colour choices to switch them off.
  • Finally one workaround that springs to mind is to enable duotoning (Picture... Process...) between black and white, but of course to have these two colours defined in CMYK space - pure K values. The picture should be in sprite format
  • The specific question is quite interesting because it is about greyscale. I think Ovation Pro knows nothing about GS images, it just applies the same rules as for RGB ones.

Buttons and macros

• I wished to save a change in the order of the button icons on the top bar (produced by Ctrl dragging). I have attempted to save the change by calling up the Macro window, clicking on the Save icon at the bottom and then accepting the Overwrite option to save as "!Macros". On reloading Ovation the button icons were back in their old order.
  • This is a common problem. In Autorun, you should have a !Macros file, this sets up all the buttons and macros, it controls the order of the buttons, and it is what is saved when you click on Save on the macros window. The trouble starts if you have another file in Autorun which sets up macros. If you do, and that file is executed after !Macros, then you can change !Macros as much as you like, and it won't have an effect. At some point Beebug dished out a file, which they suggested be put in Autorun, set up buttons, and was not called !Macros. Since then this has been fixed, but no doubt copies live on to trip up the unwary.

!ColSupp - do I need it?

• The Colour supplement supports image processing, which is probably why people have seen the problems they have. But if you don't want to be able to twiddle images, and you don't want to do colour separations, and you don't want to drive Turbo drivers in CMYK mode, then you don't need it.

Copying paragraph attributes

• For copying rulers, or other paragraph attributes, from within the same document, there is a little known Ovation Pro feature, viz. if you have the caret in some text, and then shift+adjust click over another paragraph in the same document the paragraph attributes will be copied to the paragraph with the caret. This is particularly useful for copying special rulers, if they have not been set up as separate styles.

Disappearing drawfiles

• After upgrading to 2.48 frames containing draw files do not print correctly
  • Don't forget to update your old colour supplement applet !ColSupp with the program available on the same web page as the upgrade

Document templates (blank)

• I have produced several stylesheets for business stationery such as letters, invoices etc.. They have a master page with several frames on containing logo, address panel, date etc. and the main text frame occupying two thirds of the page. The problem comes when I need a second page. The master page repeats, as it should, with all the frames. What I need is a full blank page with the text frame full page size. I can delete the address etc. frames so that only the main text frame is present, but I can't alter it to make it larger without altering the frame on the first page. It won't allow me to make it a local frame.
  • Firstly, consider the difference between a stylesheet, and a document with no text in the default master frames, and no local frames either.

    The stylesheet will only contain frames that are on the master page and that leads back to the original problem of having frames on the first page via the master page and not on subsequent ones.

    So the suggestion is this. Instead of using stylesheets, set up a document, with a full size default master frame. Close the master pages, then on the first document page, set up your logo, address panel etc.. If the master frame is too big, then just overlay it with a frame to make it the right size. Save this document to use as your template. When you load it, you'll get the blank frames, for filling in the address etc. When you enter text that flows, subsequent pages will be of the form of the master page - full size frame with no logo boxes etc..

• When I do this, I invariably overwrite my blank document with one containing lots of text.
  • You should, of course, make your blank document file "read only". To make doubly sure, save the blank document as a DDL file. When such files are reloaded, the full pathname is not retained in the new document, but only the leaf name. Thus you always have to either drag to save, or enter manually a full path.

Drag and drop

• Ovation Pro does support drag and drop to other programs. So if you want a marked area of text copying to Edit, just hold down ALT and drag it across. That is less action than copying to the clipboard, clicking in Edit, and then pasting. It also works for pictures.

Facing pages macro tip

• I often use the facing pages option as means of checking the layout of a dobule sided document but on my monitor (AKF60) using a resolution of 600 x 800, I find that this is a little difficult without also reducing the Zoom down to 50%. This can be done very easily but it requires 4 clicks of the mouse when one would be preferable.

  I made the following simple alteration to the "Facing pages" macro, which enables you to toggle between a single page at 100% and facing pages at 50% with one click of the mouse.

  Replace the existing definition of the facingpages macro with the following line.

  {if (getfacingpages()==0) setzoom(ZOOM50,0,0);else setzoom(ZOOM100,0,0); setfacingpages(!getfacingpages())}

Flipping pictures

• If you change aspect to a negative number in a picture frame e.g. 100 to -100 the image is flipped over horizontally.

Force a document reflow

• The manual states that words added to the hyphenation dictionary are only used when a piece of text is re-flowed. Is it possible to re-flow the entire document without fiddling with each chapter individually?
  • Yes. A typical trick to fool Ovation Pro into doing a complete reflow is to change the Bodytext style definition in some trivial way. For example, change the background colour to white (assuming it is already white).

Importing style sheets

• It is worth knowing that you can drag a style sheet from one document to another documents style editing window or colour editing window, and so transfer styles or colours.

Index Applet

• Overcoming a problem with the Index applet. When it creates its own chapter at the end of the document, it takes the last chapter in the Master page as its template for the creation. If that last chapter has a footer, Index tries to cram all the indexing information into the footer and it gets lost.

  Before creating the index, it is important that you have, or create, a new blank chapter at the end of the document Master page after the last chapter; remove the footer if it's copied from a previous chapter. Close the master page. Create the Index as detailed in Peter's help file. You should then find you have the end of the document proper, a blank chapter, followed by the index.

  Click in the blank chapter... Then... Click Menu Page->Delete chapter. You should now be left with the document followed by the index.

Linked frames and autoflow

• I make up a document with a master page containing, for example, 7 rows of 3 across labels. Link each one to the next so that a file of addresses with page returns dropped onto the first label 'ripples through' and fills the page with one address per label. The problem is that when the listing reaches the last label on the page it overflows rather than goes on to a new page. How does the concept of the 'master frame' being the one to throw a new page work when there are 21 little frames on the master page? I just can't get a link running on to the new page.
  • On the master page the last label must be linked BACK to the first label. New pages will then be thrown as per normal.

    This uses the auto-link feature of OvnPro that was new with version 2.46. The facility is very flexible. Suppose you want 4 frames on a page for a flowing story and a fifth for a picture or some blurb.

    On the master page, set up the frames, and then, using the link tool, link 1 - 2, 2 - 3, 3 - 4 and 4 - 1, which means that overflow in frame 4 will produce a new page. The link from 4 to 1 will be displayed in green to indicate its special function. Frame 5 is not linked with itself and therefore will not generate new pages, but will simply overflow.

    

• How does one produce a set of columns which are independent of each other, but which flow over pages, such that column 1 always flows into column 1 on the next page, while column 2 always overflows into column 2 of the next page, and so on.
  • Create a master page with the appropriate number of columns. Normally the linking is set up automatically to fill each column in turn. Therefore create a new frame over the top of each column. Select the link tool, and then, for each frame in turn, link the frame only to itself (by dragging with select and dropping while still in the same frame). You will now find that each frame will now overflow into the corresponding frame of the next page. The Master page should look like the following diagram when the link tool is selected.

    

Macros

• To turn the colour, style and page palettes on and off from the button bar.
  • Just create buttons with these macros.
    {stylepal_entry(0,0)}
{colpal_entry(0,0)}
{pagepal_entry(0,0)}

Mailmerge preview

• How to view the page of labels on the screen before printing
  • Use File->Mail Merge... and investigate the new buttons on the mail merge window, First, Next and so on. It's all described in the magnum opus "All you ever wanted to know about mail merge and quite a bit more", available from the Beebug file library: http://www.beebug.com/software/ovpro/filelib/index.html

Maths and foreign symbols

• How to use the mathematical terms (xbar) and (ybar) in the body text of a document.
  • The !Critic applet will happily do this. To get x-bar, type "x(Ctrl-U)_" (the last is the underscore character). That sequence actually puts a macron over any letter, not just x or y.
• Any thoughts as to how I can produce a 'c' with an upside down circumflex on top?
  • Get the !Critic applet. You need to install three fonts (supplied with the applet) and define some styles.
    To get a hacek over a letter first type the letter, press Ctrl-U and then '5'. The Critic fonts contain a variety of diacritics in a number of positions; the applet automatically selects the right position so the diacritic is centred on the letter underneath it. (You can use the fonts in other programs, of course, but the Critic applet makes it particularly easy in OP).
  • Buy a font with that particular character in it. You could contact EFF for this.
  • Modify an existing font using FontEd and save it under a different name. Printing should now work and you will also be able to output it to PostScript without a problem, as all fonts are downloaded in the PostScript output file.

Memory size

• I have just upgraded our school A4000s to 2.50. Now the working memory for Opro has jumped in size from 1440 kb to 1800
  • In fact you can change the line at the end of the !Run file from
    WimpSlot -min 1388K -max 1388K
    to
    WimpSlot -min 1184K -max 1184K
    and it will still be happy.

Current time

Insert filename

Page x of y

• Is there any way to get Ovation Pro to put "page x of y" automatically on each page (i.e., page 1 of 4 on the first page, 2 of 4 on the second, etc)?
• Can I insert the document filename into the document automatically?
• Can I insert the current time into a document?
  • Put the MERGE commands shown below into a file, set its type to OVPDDL, open a blank Ovation Pro document and drag the OVPDDL file to it. Then use Misc/Insert/merge tag to insert the necessary merge fields. You can then preview the document using File/Mail Merge, clicking on the 'First' button to see the results. The merge commands given allow you to also insert a filename, and a current time.

    MERGE_02={merge 901 "time" "{gettimestring(\"%24:%MI:%SE\", macv)}"}
MERGE_03={merge 902 "filename" "{fileinfo(currentfile(), macv)}"}
MERGE_04={merge 903 "numpages" "{int i,n,f,c; f=currentfile(); c=documentchapters(f); for(i=0; i<c; i++)n+=chapterpages(i,f); macv=itos(n)}"}

    Note: Merge requires that the CSV field has a valid entry. The First button works OK, but when you try to print without a CSV entry it produces an error

    Filing system ADFS: must be given a file name

    Any CSV file will do because the merge does not actually read any data from there.

Pause while printing

• Can anyone advise me as to why the 'pause' option in the printer dialogue does not pause printing between pages? I want to turn the page to print on the back, but it won't stop! Help!
  • This does work... but only if you have OPro set up to poll whilst printing. In the file !OvnPro.Autorun.!Choicesl you will find the line
      printchoices(0,8505,250,200000);
    You need to have 0 as the first argument in the above function. See page 226 in the OPro reference guide.
  • An alternative solution is to go into the Configuration window for the printer driver and set the paper feed to manual instead of auto. The printer then pauses awaiting confirmation after printing each sheet.

Printing rotated text in drawfiles

• There is a problem with printing Draw files which contain text, particularly if they're rotated - the text will often vanish. In order to cure this problem, David Pilling has written a very handy module which you can stick in your boot sequence and then forget. It's FontFix version 0.01, and you can grab it from the free software page at David's Web site. The URL of the file is:

  http://www.davidpilling.com/fix.zip

  Note that this fixes the problems for all applications, not just Ovation Pro.

Printing thumbnails

• How can you print several pages on one sheet of print. In Impression this is set by "Fit Lots" in the print setup.
  • You need to have the Imposition applet installed, then you can use the thumbnails print format (menu icon near the top right of the print window).
• How to print 2 copies of one A5 page on A4
  • Create A5 page. Open print window. Print Format menu, choose Thumbnails, and from the sub menu select 'all same' and 'paper area(2x1)'. Expand print window (Print setup) and select 'sideways'.
• How to print 2 copies of one A4 page on A4
  • Same as above, but set the print scale to 70%

Save and reload as DDL (corrupt documents)

• If you have a document which you think has become corrupted in some way, and the problem persists when reloading the document, then try saving the document as DDL, and then create a new document from this. It seems to often cure such problems.

Selecting lines

• Occasionally, when drawing lines, one of the lines cannot be selected to be adjusted or be erased!
  • This may happen if the line coincides with a guide line and the guide lines are set to "Guidelines to front". Go to Misc>Preferences>View and click on the "to back" button.
  • It is sometimes because the line is very thin, in this case either zoom in by holding down Ctrl and Alt and clicking select repeatedly then try again or hold down Ctrl and Shift and drag a rectangle around the line with the mouse to select it.
  • It is sometimes because the line you want to select is underneath another transparent frame. If when you click on the line another frame is selected send this frame to the back with Object>Back and try again.

Selecting overflowed text

• I find I can't select, or apply effects to, text which has flowed out of a frame. I need to be able to select everything after a chosen point in the text and reduce its size, font or leading etc..
  • Define a key macro and for the body have the following.

    {int b;b=bmcreate(\"k1\");setbmtocaret(b);bmmove(b,1,4);setzonetobm (b);bmdelete(b);}

    That will give you a key press which selects to the end of the current story.

Template fields not found

• I've just upgraded to 2.50. I know you've covered this before but please can you tell me how to overcome "Template fields not found"?
  • Open up !OvnPro and double click on !OvnResDir. If that fails then make sure the new Templates file has been copied over from the patch archive to your copy of 2.50.

Thesaurus button

• How exactly do you set up a button in the toolbar to run !Thesaurus?
  • Hack the !Run file of the thesaurus and bracket the run line at the end with

    set thesaurus$running 1

    and;

    unset thesaurus$running

    Then define a macro (for C_T) with the body

    {string s="thesaurus$running";if(!getenvs(s)) {osclis("wimptask run <Thesaurus$Dir>.!Run");pause(5)}}{'C_T}

    Note: It is necessary that <Thesaurus$Dir> needs to have been defined. To ensure this copy the "Set Thesaurus$Dir <Obey$Dir>" line from the !Run file of the Thesaurus application to its !Boot file also. Either allow the filer to "see" the Thesaurus application before attempting to use the macro, or Filer_Boot the Thesaurus application in your boot sequence.

    There is more discussion in the January 1998 archive.

Upgrade problems

• A range of problems, and hints, are dealt with on the upgrade page.

Upside down pictures

• How to fix upside down pictures with Turbodrivers
  • You need to obtain the CCprfix file from the Beebug web site, and put it in the !OvnPro.Library directory
  • If this does not work then you may be using a new "printer type". Look in the CCprfix file. Find the line;

    // messagebox("Printer type = " + itoxs(i));

    Remove the two //'s from the start of the line. Resave, quit OPro, reload OPro, print, and it will stick up a message box telling you the type of printer you have. Now compare with the numbers in the comments at the start of the file...

    If this isn't one of the turbo options listed in this file, try changing the line underneath by adding || i == 0xNN, where NN is the printer type returned. You should then, of course, put the two //'s back into the CCprfix file and resave yet again, to prevent the message box appearing every time.

    The line will look something like the following.

    if(i == 0x10 || i == 0x11 || i == 0x12 || i == 0x5 || i == 0x13)

Help for user macro buttons

• Is there a way to define interactive help for user macro buttons added to the toolbar? All the pre-defined macros have help, but I would like to add some for the ones I have created myself.
  • Yes. Have a look at the !Macros file. For example

    defmacro2(0,"select","{picktool(1,0)}","select","Select tool.|MThis is the default tool used to select objects and edit text.");

    You can see the help text - the last argument of defmacro2() which is an enhanced version of the original defmacro() function. I suppose it gets complicated because you can't just type the help text into an icon.

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