Copyright: Copyright © Compware 1995
Citation: Copyright © Compware 1995


Additional Information Files
Additional Information Files (Appendices)

Additional information is included included in the README.TXT file supplied with TvText. You should read it to obtain the most up-to-date information about the content of the the TvText Teletext Viewer package.

The following additional sources of information are included with the TvText Teletext Viewer package, but others not listed here may also have been added, so please refer to README.TXT for a complete list:

README.TXT	Read for the latest information and for details of other .TXT files.
LICENSE.TXT	Describes the terms under which you may use the software.
WHATSNEW.TXT	Describes the new features in this and previous versions.
EVALUATE.TXT	Describes how you can obtain an evaluation license key.
ORDER.TXT	Includes a ready to use form for registering the software.
ERRATA.TXT	Describes late changes or additions to documentation.
PROBLEMS.TXT	Describes known problems, incompatibilities and workarounds.

NOTE:

If clicking on the above file names fails to find the appropriate file, you may have deleted the file from your installed directory, or more likely have changed the current directory while running TvText (by loading or saving a file for example). Restarting TvText should fix the latter problem, but if the files are not contained in your installed directory, you will obviously have to locate them from a backup or from the distribution disk.


Anatomy - Fast Text Link Highlighted on a Teletext Page
This highlighted fast text link can be dragged and dropped using the mouse to set a page window to collect and display it.

The link is highlighted to indicate that TvText has already collected its page, and so will be able to display it immediately.


Anatomy - Fast Text Link on a Teletext Page
This fast text link can be dragged and dropped using the mouse to set a page window to collect and display it.


Anatomy - Main Menu
The menu bar provides access to menu commands and configuration dialogs.


Anatomy - Page Number Highlighted on a Teletext Page
This highlighted page number can be dragged and dropped using the mouse to set a page window to collect and display it.

The page number is highlighted to indicate that TvText has already collected its page, and so will be able to display it immediately.


Anatomy - Page Number on a Teletext Page
This page number can be dragged and dropped using the mouse to set a page window to collect and display it.


Anatomy - Status Bar on Main Window
The status bar at the bottom of the main TvText window is used to display status messages and to give helpful information such as the effect of a menu command if one is highlighted.


Anatomy - Title Bar on Main Window
The main title bar has the following features:

an icon on the far left giving access to the TvText system menu

the name of the active group of pages

buttons on the extreme right, which are shortcuts to system menu commands


Anatomy - Title Bar on Page Window
Each page window title bar has the following features:

an icon on the far left for access to a control menu

the name of the page's group followed by the channel and page number of the window

buttons on the extreme me right which are shortcuts to control menu commands


Anatomy - Toolbar Button for Fast Text Auto
The Fast Text Auto button controls and indicates the status of Fast Text Auto for this Teletext page window.


Anatomy - Toolbar Button for Numbers Auto
The Numbers Auto button controls and indicates the status of Numbers Auto for this Teletext page window.


Anatomy - Toolbar Button for Subpage Auto
The Subpage Auto button controls and indicates the status of Subpage Auto for this Teletext page window.


Anatomy - Toolbar LED
The status LED indicates the following status information for each Teletext page window:

 no request active for this page.

 request active, current display probably invalid.

 request active, current display probably valid.


Anatomy - Toolbar Subpage Browsing Features
The arrowed subpage buttons and subpage display are used for subpage browsing.

The display shows which subpage is being viewed, and which other subpages are available immediately.

The buttons allow you to move back and forth among the available subpages.


Appendices

This section contains sundry additional information not related to TvText functionality or modes of use:

obtaining a license

installing a license key

reporting a problem

additional information files


Close command (Control menus)

Use this command to close the active window or dialog box.

Double-clicking a Control-menu box is the same as choosing the Close command.

Note:  If you have multiple windows open for a single document, the Close command on the document Control menu closes only one window at a time.  You can close all windows at once with the Close command on the File menu.

Shortcuts

Keys: 	CTRL+F4 closes a Teletext page window

ALT+F4 closes the TvText application window or dialog box


Contents
TvText Help Contents

Readme Once!

Overview

what is TvText?

why TvText is best

teletext hardware

Highlights

fast access

page availability indication

drag-n-drop page selection

subpage browsing

group pages into topics

auto save pages

set your computer's clock

excellent help

Tutorial

introduction

quick start - viewing pages efficiently

creating and using groups of pages

storing and viewing teletext files

improving teletext performance

setting your PC clock from teletext

Reference

menu commands

keyboard commands

mouse commands

dialogs

toolbar

teletext interface setup

Appendices

obtaining a license

installing a license key

reporting a problem

additional information files

Copyright © Compware 1995


Ctrl-E
Hold down the Ctrl key and press E.


Ctrl-F4
Hold down the Ctrl key and press function key F4.


Ctrl-F6
Hold down the Ctrl key and press function key F6.


Ctrl-N
Hold down the Ctrl key and press N.


Ctrl-P
Hold down the Ctrl key and press P.


Ctrl-S
Hold down the Ctrl key and press S.


Dialog - ASCII Teletext Page Colour
ASCII Teletext Page Colour Dialog

The same dialog is used to set the colour of the text and the background of a window displaying ASCII text.

The Text Colour command on the Page menu sets the colour of the text.

The Background Colour command on the Page menu sets the colour of the background.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - ASCII Teletext Page Colour - colours
This area shows the colours available and the current selection.


Dialog - ASCII Teletext Page Colour - custom colours
Custom colours are for perfectionists and so not supported by TvText  :-)


Dialog - ASCII Text Font
ASCII Text Font Dialog

This dialog is used to select the style and size of text used by a TvText window when it is showing ASCII format text. It is opened by activating a Teletext page window which is showing ASCII text, and then using the Font command on the Page menu.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - ASCII Text Font - effects
Click on the checkboxes to select strikeout and underlined effects, or on the list to choose a colour for the text.


Dialog - ASCII Text Font - font
Click on the lists to choose the font, style and point size.


Dialog - ASCII Text Font - sample
The text shown in this area is a sample showing how the current dialog settings would affect your text.


Dialog - ASCII Text Font - script
Lists the available language scripts for the selected font.

Choose the one appropriate to the language set up for your computer.


Dialog - About TvText
About TvText Dialog

Gives information about the TvText Teletext Viewer, including product version, copyright and contact points.


Dialog - Choose File Save Format
Choose File Save Format Dialog

Choose to save a Teletext page with all its graphics and colour information, or as text.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - Choose File Save Format - format
Saved file formats:

Raw Teletext: preserves all Teletext information and saves with a '.TTR' suffix.

ASCII Text: strips out Teletext codes and graphics to save a text file with a '.TTA' suffix.


Dialog - File Auto Save And Load
File Auto Save And Load Dialog

Configures the active page to automatically

save Teletext pages in files, or

load a saved file when TvText is first started.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - File Auto Save/Load - load
When checked, load Teletext information from a named file into the active page, when TvText first starts.


Dialog - File Auto Save/Load - naming
Specify the name of a file to be saved or loaded:

Auto Name: generates a name for saved files by combining channel C, page PPP, and timecode TTTT.

Fixed Name: uses the specified file for saving or loading Teletext information.

When using a you can use the Browse button to find and use the name of an existing file.


Dialog - File Auto Save/Load - save
When Save On Update In Formats  is checked, Teletext information will be saved whenever the page is updated.

Saved file formats:

Raw Teletext - preserves all Teletext information and saves with a '.TTR' suffix.

ASCII Text - strips out Teletext codes and graphics to save a text file with a '.TTA' suffix.

If you specify Raw And ASCII, two files will be generated with the respective suffixes.


Dialog - File Open
File Open/Load/Save As Dialog

This dialog is used to specify the name and location of a file.

A similar dialog is displayed for the Open, Load and Save As commands on the File menu, although for Save As, the Choose File Save Format dialog is displayed first.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - File Open - drives
Select the drive in which TvText stores the file.


Dialog - File Open - file name
Type or select the filename you want.  This box lists files with the extension you select in the List Files of Type box.


Dialog - File Open - folders
Select the folder or directory in which TvText stores the file.


Dialog - File Open - list files of type
Select the type of file you want to open:

Raw Teletext: files containing all the visible information received with a live Teletext page.

ASCII Teletext: files that have Teletext control codes removed so they can be viewed or printed as text.

Any Teletext: both raw and ASCII Teletext files.


Dialog - File Open - network
Choose this button to connect to a network location, assigning it a new drive letter.


Dialog - File Open - read only
Check this box to restrict listed files to only those which are read-only.


Dialog - Group Edit - delete
Delete the selected group.


Dialog - Group Edit - list
Lists all groups.

Select a group to be shown, renamed, edited or saved and then click on the appropriate buttons or checkboxes.


Dialog - Group Edit - rename
Rename the selected group.


Dialog - Group Edit - save/save all
Save Group: saves the selected group.

Save All: saves changes to all groups.


Dialog - Group Edit - show
Show the selected group.


Dialog - Group Edit - update/visible always
Normally, only one group of pages is updated and visible at a time. These checkboxes enable you to override this behaviour for individual groups:

Update Always: when checked, the group's pages are always updated.

Visible Always: when checked, the group's pages are always visible.


Dialog - Group Show - list
Lists all groups.

Double click on a group, or select it and press show to show the group.


Dialog - Group Show - show/cancel
Press

Show to show the group highlighted in the list, or

Cancel to keep the current group visible.


Dialog - Help Button
Display help for this dialog.


Dialog - License Details
License Details Dialog

This dialog shows the status of the TvText license.

This includes the product, licensee, license reference number and if appropriate, the expiry date of an evaluation license.


Dialog - License Installation
License Installation Dialog

Installs a license key to enable TvText functions covered by the license, for the period of validity of the license. If you have registered TvText, you will receive a key that will enable TvText functions indefinitely.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - License Installation - close
Close the dialog without installing a license.


Dialog - License Installation - install
Attempt to install a key from the specified file or manually input text.


Dialog - License Installation - key source
Indicate the file containing a license key, or type the key in manually.

If your key is in a file, usually called 'license.cde' you can use the Browse  button to specify the file.

If you enter a manual key, note that keys are not case sensitive.


Dialog - License Installation - product details
The product identity which must be matched by the key for the key to be valid.


Dialog - License Installation - status
Current status of your TvText license.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning
Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning Dialog

This dialog does most of the work in tuning the Television channels for use by a Microtext or OPT-III Teletext interface. To access it you should start by opening the Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup dialog using the Configure Driver command on the Teletext menu.

As soon as you open the automatic tuning dialog, it will start scanning the television frequencies for transmitted signals. Each time it finds a channel, it enables the OK button and waits for you to save the corresponding frequency to a specified channel. You must set an appropriate channel number, using the sample Teletext Header as a guide, and then press OK.

For example, if the header indicates 4-Tel (Channel Four's Teletext service), make sure the channel to be saved is 4 and then press OK.. In the UK, the software should automatically suggest the correct channel number for BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4.

Each time you press OK, the dialog continues scanning for the next channel, until you either press Cancel to stop the process or until it has finished scanning the entire range of frequencies. If the scanning reaches the end of the frequency range before you press Cancel, the dialog will close itself.

Note that you can set frequencies for each channel manually using the Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Manual Tuning dialog.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

See Also:

Teletext Interface Setup

Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup dialog

Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning dialog

Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning dialog


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning - cancel
Press the Cancel button to stop the tuning process, keeping any saved settings, but ignoring any signals in frequency ranges which have still to be scanned.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning - frequency
This shows the television frequency currently being scanned, or for a newly identified television signal.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning - save signal
Each time a reasonably strong signal is identified, the OK button will be ungreyed and you can specify a channel number to be saved with the current frequency.

The channel and frequency will be saved when you press OK.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning - teletext header
A Teletext header will be displayed here, and updated continually, whenever the frequency is matched to a reasonable television signal. You can use the header as a guide to the strength of the signal being received.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning
Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning Dialog

This dialog lets you tune the Television channels for use by a Microtext or OPT-III Teletext interface. To access it you should start by opening the Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup dialog using the Configure Driver command on the Teletext menu.

Use the buttons to select the channels you wish to tune, and to step through frequencies by different amounts until you have set the desired frequency. Then press OK to save your changes or Cancel to leave the original settings unchanged.

You can use this dialog to tune frequencies to known numerical values, or to home in on a signal by seeing how small adjustments to the frequency affect the quality of the Teletext Header which will be updated continually, so long as there is a reasonable signal.

Note that you can set frequencies for each channel semi-automatically using the Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Automatic Tuning dialog.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

See Also:

Teletext Interface Setup

Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup dialog

Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning dialog

Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning dialog


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning - channel
This indicates the channel being tuned, which can be changed using the + and - buttons.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning - frequency
This indicates the frequency the current channel. You can adjust the frequency by different amounts using the buttons as follows:

+ or -	adds or subtracts 0.05MHz
++ or - -	adds or subtracts 1MHz
+++ or - - -	adds or subtracts 10MHz


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning - teletext header
A Teletext header line will be displayed here and updated continually so long as a reasonably strong signal is being received. You can use this as a guide to the quality of the signal and as an aid to tuning.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup
Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup Dialog

Before you can use a Microtext or OPT-III (Optimum Technology) Teletext interface you need to configure the driver and tune the reception channels for your local Television frequencies.

The following dialog can be opened using the Configure Driver command on the Teletext menu. You must use it to indicate whether you have an internal adapter card or external Teletext receiver.

If you have an internal card, you must indicate the position of the adapter card's link setting, "Set on A" or "Set on B". This is normally "Set on A" unless you have changed it to avoid conflicts with other hardware.

If you have an external receiver, you must indicate which serial port it is attached to (COM 1,  2, 3 or 4). This will normally be COM 1 or COM 2, as most computers have COM 1 and COM 2 as standard, but not COM 3 or COM 4.

When you have chosen these features, you may wish to tune the television receiver channels for your local area. To do this, open the Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning dialog by clicking on the Tune button.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

See Also:

Teletext Interface Setup

Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning dialog

Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning dialog

Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning dialog


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup - adapter type
Microtext and Optimum Technology (OPT-III) Teletext interfaces come in internal and external forms. You must indicate which type you have:

internal Teletext adapter card; or

external Teletext receiver connected to a serial communications port (COM port)


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup - cancel
Press Cancel to close the dialog and revert to the original settings.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup - com port
You must set the Com Port to indicate which serial port is connected to your external Teletext receiver. Most computers come with COM 1 and COM 2 as standard, and without COM 3 or COM 4. The most likely setting for this will therefore be either COM 1 or COM 2.

This setting only applies to external Teletext receivers, which connect to a serial port on your computer.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup - hardware link
You must choose a Hardware Link setting to indicate how the hardware link is set on your internal Teletext adapter card. The default is A, but it may be set to B in order to avoid conflicts with other hardware devices. See the manufacturer's instructions for more details.

This setting applies only to internal Teletext adapter cards.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup - ok
Press OK to accept and save the current settings of this dialog.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup - tune
Press Tune to open the Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning dialog, in preparation for tuning the television channels for your local reception area.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning
Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning Dialog

This dialog is used to initiate automatic or manual tuning of a Microtext or OPT-III Teletext interface. You can access it by first opening the Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup dialog.

If you wish to tune the Television reception channels used by your Teletext interface, select either automatic or manual tuning, the type of TV System you are using, and then press OK.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

See Also:

Teletext Interface Setup

Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup dialog

Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning dialog

Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning dialog


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning - cancel
Press Cancel to close the dialog without tuning.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning - ok
Press OK to commence tuning with the current settings.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning - tuning method
Set to choose between automatic tuning and manual tuning of your Teletext interface.


Dialog - Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning - tv system
Set to match the type of television signal for your installation. This is used to determine the appropriate frequency range for automatic tuning.


Dialog - New Group
New Group Dialog

This dialog is shown whenever you create a new group. You can type in a group name or just accept the default.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - New Group - name
The name for the new group.


Dialog - PC Clock Synchronisation
PC Clock Synchronisation Dialog

You can synchronise your PC's internal clock to the time transmitted by Teletext.

Synchronisation can be started automatically or manually. Once started, TvText waits for an error free Teletext page to be received and then uses its time to set the PC's clock. If too long elapses before the clock can be set, a warning dialog will be shown.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - PC Clock Synchronisation - repeat warnings
When checked, you will be warned every time that clock synchronisation takes too long.

When not checked, you will only receive a warning the first time synchronisation takes too long.


Dialog - PC Clock Synchronisation - start sync
Close the dialog and start synchronisation.


Dialog - PC Clock Synchronisation - synchronise
You can choose to synchronise:

At Startup Only: synchronisation will start whenever you start TvText.

Every N Minutes: synchronise at startup, and then every so many minutes.

At User Request Only: only synchronise when instructed.


Dialog - PC Clock Synchronisation - tv channel
Synchronisation can use pages from any channel, or from the specified channel.


Dialog - Page Settings
Page Settings Dialog

Specifies which page or pages are to be collected, how frequently and when to ignore pages containing errors.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - Page Settings - channel/page/timecode
The Channel, Page and Timecode are used to identify which page or pages are to be collected and shown in the current window.

Channel: a one or two digit number indicating the TV Channel. In the UK, this would be 1 for BBC1, 2 for BBC2 and so on.

Page: a three digit page number such as 100 for Teletext page 100.

Timecode: a four digit timecode (also called a page subcode). Used if you need to identify a particular subpage where several different pages are transmitted with the same page number. Normally set to '****' which matches any timecode.


Dialog - Page Settings - integrity
Integrity settings can be used to reject pages if they contain errors:

Ignore All Errors: accept pages even if they appear to contain errors.

Accept Repeated Contents: accept pages which are the same twice in succession, even if they appear to contain errors.

Reject If Errors: ignore pages containing any errors.


Dialog - Page Settings - open icon
Check this setting in order to open up a minimised page view when new information is received. This setting will only have an effect if the view is minimised when a new page is received.


Dialog - Page Settings - update
When to update a page:

Every N Minutes: specifies a decimal update period in minutes (e.g. 1.5 would mean 90 seconds). The actual update period will depend on the number of pages being viewed, number of TV channels being scanned, and the number of pages rejected due to errors.

Once And Hold: collects the page once and then puts the view in Hold mode.

Never: stops any update, usually used for views showing Teletext information. loaded from a file.


Dialog - Report Problem
Report Problem Dialog

This dialog is provided to help you report a problem.

Fill it out as fully as you can, and this will help us to help you.

After filling it out, press Save Report to generate a text file which you can send to us for assistance.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - Report Problem - address
The postal address where we can contact you.


Dialog - Report Problem - description
A description of the problem you have and how to replicate it.

Please click on Hints for a checklist of things which you could include in the description.


Dialog - Report Problem - first name
Your first name.


Dialog - Report Problem - hints
Displays a checklist of things to include in the problem description.


Dialog - Report Problem - last name
Your last name (or family name).


Dialog - Report Problem - report
Detail level for the automatically generated sections of the report:

Concise: a short summary of the most limited information about your system. May be inadequate.

Standard: summary information plus the contents of some system configuration files. Usually adequate.

Detailed: extended information which may result in quite a large report file. Rarely required.

Please inspect the generated report before sending it.


Dialog - Report Problem - save
Generate a problem report text file containing information from the dialog and additional information detected automatically.


Dialog - Report Problem - tel/fax/email
Your telephone, fax and email details as appropriate.


Dialog - Report Problem - title
Your title: Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr etc.


Dialog - Server Poll Settings
Server Poll Settings Dialog

You can adjust the amount of time that TvText spends polling the Teletext card to see if any new pages are available.

The more frequently that polling takes place, the less time there will be for TvText and, more importantly, for other applications.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - Server Poll Settings - idle
The amount of idle "time" TvText will wait for before polling the server.

Idle time is a measure of the amount of space processing capacity your computer has.

Increasing this value will slow down Teletext updates, but leave more time for TvText and other applications.


Dialog - Server Poll Settings - max period
You can override the idle measure by checking this box and specifying a maximum period between server polls.

Use this option with caution. Setting it may reduce the time available for other applications, and for TvText to update the display of received pages.


Dialog - Server Poll Settings - min period
You can override the idle measure by checking this box and specifying a minimum period between server polls.

Setting this option can make more time available for other applications, and for TvText to update the display of received pages.


Dialog - Show Group/Edit Group
Show Group / Edit Group Dialog

Two similar dialogs are used to show or delete groups, and to edit group characteristics.

Show Group Dialog

Choose a group from the list and either double click on it or press Show. The current group of pages will be hidden and the chosen group's pages will appear.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

Note: you can also open the edit groups dialog using a keyboard shortcut, by typing Ctrl-S.

Edit Groups Dialog

This dialog can be used to show a group in the same way as the above dialog, but is also used to delete groups or to edit group characteristics including:

Group name.

Update, where [image] indicates a group that collects Teletext even when not the active group.

Visibility,  where [image] indicates a group that is always visible.

Select the group whose characteristics you wish to alter and then use the buttons or checkboxes as required:

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

Note: you can also open the edit groups dialog using a keyboard shortcut, by typing Ctrl-E.


Dialog - Teletext Font Size
Teletext Font Dialogs

Adjusts the size of font used to display Teletext information with the full set of Teletext characters and graphics.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - Teletext Font Size - H x W
Select the character height and width of the Teletext font.

Changes are reflected immediately in the display of the active Teletext page window so that you can see how different font sizes look without closing the dialog. Press Cancel to undo any changes and revert back to the initial font.


Dialog - Teletext Page Cache
Teletext Page Cache Dialog

TvText saves received Teletext pages in a memory cache so that they can be shown the instant they are required. Once the cache is full, newly received pages will displace older pages.

When the cache is enabled, each time you change the channel, page number or subcode of an active page, TvText looks to see if the page is available in the cache. If it finds the page it will be shown immediately.

You can disable the cache in order to ensure that pages are only redrawn when a new copy of the page has been received.

You can also adjust the size of the cache to adjust the balance between memory use and response time.

The contents of the cache are forgotten whenever you restart TvText.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.


Dialog - Teletext Page Cache - enabled
Enable or disable use of the cache.


Dialog - Teletext Page Cache - size
You can specify the size of the cache as the number of pages to be cached, or the amount of memory to be used.

Note that as you change one figure, the other is adjusted so that you always know how many pages will be cached and  how much memory will be used by the cache.


Dialogs
Dialogs (Reference)

About TvText	Information about TvText.
Choose File Save Format	Choose the format (raw or ASCII) when saving Teletext to a file.
File Auto Save And Load	Automatically saving Teletext files on update, or loading files on start up.
File Open / Load / Save As	Loading or save Teletext files.
Show Group / Edit Group	Show, delete, or edit the characteristics of groups of pages.
License Details	Show details of your TvText license.
New Group	Create a new group of Teletext pages.
Page Settings	Specifies which pages are shown by a view, how often and when to ignore pages.
PC Clock Synchronisation	How and when to set your PC clock using Teletext time.
Report Problem	Generate a report to help us solve your problem with TvText.
Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup	Configure and tune a Microtext or OPT-III Teletext interface.
Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning	Tune a Microtext or OPT-III Teletext interface.
Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning	Automatically tune a Microtext or OPT-III Teletext interface.
Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning	Manually tune a Microtext or OPT-III Teletext interface.
Server Poll Settings	Tune Teletext collection settings.
Teletext Font Size	Adjust the size of font used to display Teletext.
ASCII Text Font	Choose the font, size and characteristics used to display ASCII teletext files.
ASCII Teletext Page Colour	Choose the text or background colour used to display ASCII teletext files.
Teletext Page Cache	Enable or disable the cache or adjust its size.


End
Press the End key.


Example Jump

Like this!

Now click on the button labelled Back above.


Example Popup
shows information in a little popup window


Fast Text Auto

When enabled using the Toolbar or the Fast Text Auto command, the fast text links on the current Teletext page will be collected while the page is being displayed. This means that by the time you have read the page and want to move on, there will be a good chance that the next page you wish to view is already in the cache and can be displayed immediately.

As each page is received, its fast text link will be highlighted to indicate that the page is available immediately.


Help Button
Displays help for this dialog.


Highlights

See below and click on the picture for some of TvText's highlights. For a more comprehensive guide to using TvText, please refer to the Tutorial.

Fast Access	TvText fetches pages before you need them. Most of the time you will find that the pages you want are available immediately
Page Availability Indication	Numbers and fast text links of available pages are highlighted on a displayed page so you can read the available ones first.
Drag-n-Drop Page Selection	You can display pages by dragging page numbers or fast text links from one page to another.
Subpage Browsing	The Toolbar shows available and missing subpages and lets you move back and forth among available subpages.
Group Pages into Topics	You can show and hide groups of pages instantly which makes things easier to manage and allows TvText to provide extremely fast access.
Auto Save Pages	You can set pages, including entire sets of subpages to be saved to disk in Teletext or ASCII text format.
Set Your Computer's Clock	You can use the accuracy of Teletext time to keep your PC's clock right on time.
Excellent Help	We've worked hard to make TvText help as useful as possible. Please take a few minutes to browse the Contents and the Tutorial. I'm sure you'll discover something to make it worthwhile. The Readme Once! section gives a few tips on using TvText help.
	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

Fast Access

TvText fetches pages before you need them. Most of the time you will find that the pages you want are available immediately.

TvText keeps pages that it has been collected in a memory cache so that it can keep them ready for display immediately they are needed. It also prefetches pages and puts them in the cache while you are reading other pages.

Using TvText's Numbers Auto, Fast Text Auto and Subpage Auto features you can make sure that TvText prefetches the pages which you are most likely to want to read next.

See the Tutorial:

prefetching referenced pages

prefetching fast text links

Page Availability Indication

When a page is configured to use Numbers Auto or Fast Text Auto, page numbers and fast text links will be highlighted on the page if they are available immediately. This helps you read the ones which are available while waiting for others to be collected.

When using Subpage Auto, TvText collects subpages in the background and displays their availability on the pages Toolbar. This mode allows you to move back and forth between subpages, reading them at your own pace, without the current page being overwritten before you've finished reading it. This is called subpage browsing.

Drag-n-Drop Page Selection

You can drag a page number or fast text link from one page and drop it onto another (drag and drop). If the corresponding Teletext page is in the memory cache, it will be displayed immediately in the window receiving the drop. If the page is not available, the receiving window will display it as soon as it is collected.

Drag and drop combined with TvText's fast access and page availability indication make it by far the quickest and easiest way to view Teletext information.

See the Tutorial:

drag and drop

Subpage Browsing

While reading one subpage, TvText can collect other subpages in the background ready for when you need them. This is enabled using Subpage Auto.

The Toolbar contains Subpage Status and Browsing display and buttons which indicate which subpage you are reading and which others are available. You can use the Toolbar buttons or keyboard commands to move back and forth through the available subpages, reading them at your own pace.

See the Tutorial:

browsing subpages

Group Pages into Topics

You can group Teletext windows into topics such as News, Sport, Television and so on. TvText will save the configuration and window layout for each group and lets you switch instantly from one group to another.

Grouping pages into topics is useful because it reduces the number of windows shown (or more likely obscured by other windows), and because it helps TvText deliver even faster access.

Normally, only the active group is displayed and updated, but you can override these settings and so could have one or more groups which are always visible or always updated.

See the Tutorial:

creating and using groups of pages

Auto Save Pages

Each Teletext page window can be used to save Teletext data to a file automatically, each time it is updated. You can save data in Teletext format (for reloading into TvText for later display), or as ASCII text.

You can save pages in named files or let TvText generate the file names automatically.

You can even save a complete set of subpages, each in a separate file, fully automatically.

See the Tutorial:

storing and viewing Teletext files

Set Your Computer's Clock

TvText can read the time information transmitted with the Teletext signal and use it to keep your PC's clock accurate. You choose whether this is done fully automatically or just on your command.

See the Tutorial:

setting your PC clock from Teletext

Excellent Help

We hope that it is already apparent that TvText help is comprehensive. A lot of effort has been invested in the help system because we want you to get the most out of TvText.

Please visit the Readme Once! section, for some tips on using TvText help, and then spend a few minutes browsing the Contents and Tutorial sections. You should find it worthwhile.


Home
Press the Home key.


Installing A License Key
Installing A License Key (Appendices)

When you have obtained a license, you must install your license key using the License Installation dialog. If a valid license key is not installed, this dialog is displayed automatically when TvText starts up. You can also open the dialog using the Install License Key command on the Help menu.

Use the dialog to input the key manually, or to supply the name and location of the license key file. Then press the Install button which will attempt to install and validate the license key.

After installing the key, you can check the status of your license using the License Details command on the Help menu.


Keyboard Commands
Keyboard Commands (Reference)

Keyboard Shortcuts to Menu Functions

Where a menu command has a keyboard shortcut, the shortcut key sequence is shown to the right of the menu item.

TvText supports the following keyboard shortcuts to menu commands:

Ctrl-S	Show Group command
Ctrl-E	Edit Group command
Ctrl-P	Previous Group command
Ctrl-N	New Teletext command
Shift-F1	On Next Action command

Note that pressing the function key F1 accesses help related to the current context, if available. For example, if you have a dialog open, pressing F1 shows help about the dialog.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Teletext Page Control

In the following table, upper case letters indicate keys which can be typed as upper or lower case in order to achieve the effect. A lower case 'n' is used to indicate a command which requires a digit (0 to 9).

Shortcut	Effect	Example
Cn	Sets the television channel for a page.	C2 selects channel 2
nnn	Sets the Teletext page number.	160 selects page 160
Tnnnn	Sets the page Timecode or subpage number.	0001 selects subpage 1. Note that typing **** is also valid, and matches any subpage.
TT	Resets the Timecode to **** which will match any subpage.
I	Sets the page number to an Index page specified by Teletext.
PageUp	Increases the page number by one.	If the page number is 123, pressing PageUp will set it to 124.
PageDn	Decreases the page number by one.	If the page number is 123, pressing PageDn will set it to 122.
Home	Sets the page number to the next higher decile.	If the page number is 123, pressing Home will set it to 130
End	Sets the page number to the next lower decile.	If the page number is 123, pressing End will set it to 120.
H	Turns Page Hold on and off.
+	Increase timecode or subpage number.
-	Decrease timecode or subpage number.
N	Get the next sequential subpage from the cache.	If you are viewing subpage 2, and the cache only contains subpages 3 and 6, pressing N once will show subpage 3, but then have no effect.
Shift-N	Get the next subpage from the cache even if it is not the next in the sequence.	If you are viewing subpage 3, and if subpages 1 and 6 are in the cache, repeated presses of Shift-N will show subpage 6, and then subpage 1 and then subpage 3 again.
P	Get the previous sequential subpage from the cache.
Shift-P	Get the previous available subpage even if it is not the next in the sequence.
→	Get the next sequential subpage from the cache.	Same as N.
Shift-→	Get the next subpage from the cache even if it is not the next in the sequence.	Same as Shift-N.
←	Get the previous sequential subpage from the cache.	Same as P.
Shift-←	Get the previous subpage from the cache even if it is not the next in the sequence.	Same Shift-P.

NOTE:

Where more than one character is required for a shortcut, you must type the full number of characters before the command will be applied. If you type an invalid character before completing a sequence the incomplete sequence of characters will be ignored.

For example, typing "12H" will behave as if you had typed a single "H".


LeftArrow
Press the left arrow key.


Maximise command (System menu)

Use this command to enlarge the active window to fill the available space.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Click the maximise icon on the title bar; or double-click the title bar.

Keys:	CTRL+F10 enlarges a document window.


Menu - File
File Menu Commands

The file menu is used to save and load individual pages of Teletext information:

File Open	Open a new window showing a saved Teletext page file
File Load	Load a saved Teletext page file into the active window
File Save As	Save the active Teletext window to a file
File 1, 2, 3, 4	Open a recently used Teletext file
File Exit	Prompt to save changed groups and exit TvText


Menu - File - 1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4 command (File menu)

Use the numbers and filenames listed at the bottom of the File menu to open the last four documents you closed.  Choose the number that corresponds with the document you want to open.


Menu - File - Exit
Exit command (File menu)

Use this command to end your TvText session.  You can also use the Close command on the application Control menu.  TvText prompts you to save documents with unsaved changes.

Shortcuts

Mouse:	Double-click the application's Control menu button.

Keys:	ALT+F4


Menu - File - Load
Load command (File Menu)

Use this command to load a file of Teletext information into the active window. You can save Teletext information in raw or ASCII text format using Save As from the File menu.


Menu - File - Open
Open command (File menu)

Use this command to open saved file of Teletext data in a new window.  You can open multiple files at once.  Use the Window menu to switch among the multiple open files and live Teletext pages.  See Window 1, 2, ... command.


Menu - File - Save As
Save As command (File menu)

Use this command to save and name the active page of Teletext data.  TvText displays the Save As dialog box so you can name your file.


Menu - Group
Group Menu Commands

The Group menu is used to create manipulate and save groups of Teletext pages. You can maintain multiple groups of pages and quickly switch between them.

Typically, groups are used to view Teletext pages containing related information. For example you could set up groups called "BBC News", "Channel 4 Shares" and so on.

New	Create a new group of Teletext pages
Save	Save the current state of the group.
Restore	Restore a group's last saved settings.
Show	Show a chosen group and hide the current one.
Edit	Present a list of all groups so characteristics can be edited.
Previous	Show the previously active group and hide the current one.
Capture Layout	Remember the size and position of windows belonging to the active group.
Restore Layout	Restore the last captured layout for the active group.
Group 1,2,3,4	Show a recently active group.


Menu - Group - 1,2,3,4
1,2,3,4 command (Group menu)

Use the numbers and  group names listed at the bottom of the Group menu to activate the last four groups you have visited.  Choose the number that corresponds with the group you want to open.

See Also

Previous command (Group menu)

Show command (Group menu)


Menu - Group - Capture Layout
Capture Layout command (Group menu)

Use this command to cause the group to remember the current size and position of all its Teletext page windows. You can later restore the windows to the captured size and position using the Restore Layout command from the Group menu.

If you want the group to retain its layout for future sessions to TvText, you must use Capture Layout and then use the Save command from the Group menu to make sure that the captured layout is stored after you finish using TvText.


Menu - Group - Edit
Edit command (Group menu)

Use this command to open the edit group dialog for renaming and deleting groups, or for editing other group characteristics.

You can choose to keep individual groups always visible, even when not the active group, or for their pages to be always updated, so that their pages are always up to date.


Menu - Group - New
New command (Group menu)

Use this command to create a new group of Teletext pages. You will be prompted for a name for the new group, and an initial Teletext page window will be opened.


Menu - Group - Previous
Previous command (Group menu)

Activates the group that was active before the current group. Using the Previous command repeatedly enables you to alternate quickly between a pair of groups.

See Also

1,2,3,4 command (Group menu)

Show command (Group menu)


Menu - Group - Restore
Restore command (Group menu)

Use this command to restore the group to its state when you last used the Save command from the Group menu.

When you restore a group, you restore the settings, but not the content, of all the Teletext page windows in the group. All the settings configured using the Page menu will be restored for each Teletext page, including the Teletext page channel, number and timecode.

If you previously used the Capture Layout command before saving the group with the Save command (both on the Group menu), then the Restore command will also restore the captured size and position of the Teletext page windows.


Menu - Group - Restore Layout
Restore Layout command (Group menu)

Use this command to restore the size and position of all Teletext page windows within the active group, to their sizes and positions when you last used the Capture Layout command from the Group menu.


Menu - Group - Save
Save command (Group Menu)

Use this command to save the current state of the group so that it will be remembered for future TvText sessions. Once saved, you can also restore the saved state using the Restore command from the Group menu.

When you save a group, you save the settings, but not the content, of all the Teletext page windows in the group. All the settings configured using the Page menu will be saved for each Teletext page, including the Teletext page channel, number and timecode.

If you have used the Capture Layout for this group, then the Save command will also save the captured size and position of the Teletext page windows.


Menu - Group - Show
Show command (Group menu)

This command opens the show group dialog listing all your Teletext groups so that you can choose the one you want shown.

See Also

1,2,3,4 command (Group menu)

Previous command (Group menu)


Menu - Help
Help Menu Commands

The Help menu offers the following commands, which provide you assistance with this application:

Contents	Display the contents of TvText help.
Using Help	General instructions on using help.
On Next Action	Provide help about the next menu item chosen.
Report Problem	Report a problem you are having with TvText.
License Details	Display information about your TvText license.
Get A License	Display information on how to obtain a full TvText license
Install License Key	Install a license key to enable TvText features.
About	Displays the version number of this application.


Menu - Help - About
About command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the copyright notice and version number of your copy of TvText.


Menu - Help - Contents
Contents command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the opening screen of Help for TvText.  From the opening screen, you can jump to a step-by-step tutorial and various types of reference information.

Once you open Help, you can click the Contents button whenever you want to return to the opening screen.


Menu - Help - Get A License
Get A License command (Help menu)

Use this command to show help about registering TvText in order to obtain a license key that will enable TvText facilities.


Menu - Help - Install License Key
Install License Key command (Help menu)

This command opens the install license dialog which you will use to install an evaluation license key which you may have received with the software, or a full license key which is supplied when you register your copy of TvText.

You can run TvText without installing a license key, but some functions will be disabled.


Menu - Help - License Details
License Details command (Help menu)

Use this command to open the license details dialog which shows the reference number and other information about your TvText license.


Menu - Help - On Next Action
On Next Action command (Help menu)

Use the On Next Action command to obtain help on some portion of TvText. The mouse pointer will change to an arrow and question mark.  Then click somewhere in the TvText window, such as on another menu command.  The Help topic will be shown for the item you clicked.

Shortcut

Keys:	SHIFT+F1


Menu - Help - Report Problem
Report Problem command (Help menu)

Use this command to open the report problem dialog which helps you generate a text file containing details about your installation of TvText and the problem you are having.

This command will save you time gathering information and will help us to identify and solve your problem more quickly.

Even if you don't want to send in a "formal" problem report it will be worth using the dialog to generate a report and then print it out before you contact us. The report contains information which we may want to ask for and which you may not be able to provide from memory.

See Also

Reporting A Problem


Menu - Help - Using Help
Using Help command (Help menu)

Use this command for instructions about using Help.


Menu - Page
Page Menu Commands

The page menu is used to control the behaviour and appearance of the current Teletext page window.

Settings	TV channel, page number, subcode, update frequency and error checking.
Auto Save/Load	Automatic saving and loading of files of Teletext information.
Font	Font for normal or text-only Teletext page windows.
Text Colour	Colour of text in a text-only Teletext page window.
Background Colour	Colour of the background in a text-only Teletext page window.
Fast Text Auto	Toggle preemptive capture of the current page's Fast Text links.
Numbers Auto	Toggle preemptive capture of any page number shown on the current page.
Subpage Auto	Toggle preemptive capture of this page's subpages in the background.
Toolbar	Show or hide the Toolbar in the Teletext page window.


Menu - Page - Auto Save/Load
Auto Save/Load command (Page menu)

This command opens the File Auto Save and Load dialog which allows you to save Teletext information in files as it is received. You can also set a Teletext page window to load the contents of a saved file when you first start TvText.


Menu - Page - Background Colour
Background Colour command (Page menu)

Use this command to change the background colour of a Teletext page window. This command only applies to pages displaying ASCII text versions of Teletext information

When you save a Teletext page to a file, for example by using the Save As command from the File menu, you can choose to save it in Teletext format or as ASCII text.


Menu - Page - Fast Text Auto
Fast Text Auto command (Page menu)

This command controls Fast Text Auto for the current Teletext page window.

Each time you use this command, the feature will be turned on or off. A tick mark next to this item on the Page menu indicates that the feature is enabled.

Toolbar Shortcut

The Teletext Toolbar contains a button which can be used for this command and which also indicates the state of Fast Text  Auto:


Menu - Page - Font
Font command (Page menu)

Use this command to change the font used in a Teletext page window.

Different dialogs will be shown depending on whether the Teletext page is displaying Teletext format information or ASCII text information.

For a window showing Teletext format you can only alter the size of the font. For a window showing ASCII text you can choose the typeface and font style as well as its size.

See Also

ASCII Text Font Dialog

Teletext Font Size Dialog


Menu - Page - Numbers Auto
Numbers Auto command (Page menu)

This command controls Numbers Auto for the current Teletext page window.

Each time you use this command, the feature will be turned on or off. A tick mark next to this item on the Page menu indicates that the feature is enabled.

Toolbar Shortcut

The Teletext Toolbar contains a button which can be used for this command and which also indicates the state of Numbers Auto:


Menu - Page - Settings
Settings command (Page menu)

This command opens the Page Settings Dialog which can be used to choose set the Teletext page, update frequency and error checking for the current Teletext page window.


Menu - Page - Subpage Auto
Subpage Auto command (Page menu)

This command controls Subpage Auto for the current Teletext page window.

Each time you use this command, the feature will be turned on or off. A tick mark next to this item on the Page menu indicates that the feature is enabled.

Toolbar Shortcut

The Teletext Toolbar contains a button which can be used for this command and which also indicates the state of Subpage  Auto:


Menu - Page - Text Colour
Text Colour command (Page menu)

Use this command to change the text colour in a Teletext page window. This command only applies to pages displaying ASCII text versions of Teletext information

When you save a Teletext page to a file, for example by using the Save As command from the File menu, you can choose to save it in Teletext format or as ASCII text.


Menu - Page - Toolbar
Toolbar command (Page menu)

Use this command to show or hide the Teletext Toolbar, which provides status information about Teletext page windows and also gives quick access to a selection of commands.


Menu - Teletext
Teletext Menu Commands

The Teletext menu provides control over the collection of Teletext pages, enabling you to suspend Teletext access and to adjust the balance between time spent checking for the arrival of Teletext pages and the time available for other activities by TvText and other applications.

Enable	Toggle Teletext collection on and off. A tick is show on the menu when Teletext is enabled.
Cache	Configure the cache of recently received pages.
Set PC Clock	Tell TvText to use Teletext time to set your computer's real time clock.
Sync Clock Settings	Configure automatic setting of your computer's clock with Teletext time.
Configure Driver	Configure the software driver your Teletext interface.
Poll Settings	Tune performance of Teletext collection.


Menu - Teletext - Cache
Cache command (Teletext menu)

This command opens the Teletext Page Cache Dialog which configures a store of received pages which enables TvText to supply many Teletext pages as soon as you request them.

You can increase or decrease the number of pages that the cache can contain, and so adjust the balance between speed of access and the amount of memory used.


Menu - Teletext - Configure Driver
Configure Driver command (Teletext menu)

This command opens a dialog which allows you to configure the software driver for your Teletext interface.

See Also:

Teletext Interface Setup


Menu - Teletext - Enable
Enable command (Teletext menu)

Enables or disables the collection of live Teletext information. When enabled, a tick will be shown next to this item in the menu.


Menu - Teletext - Poll Settings
Poll Settings command (Teletext menu)

This command opens the Poll Settings dialog which controls the way TvText polls for Teletext information. You use this dialog to adjust the balance between time spent checking for new Teletext information and time available for TvText and other applications.


Menu - Teletext - Set PC Clock
Set PC Clock command (Teletext menu)

This command instructs TvText to wait for a suitable Teletext page to be received and use it to set your computers real time clock.


Menu - Teletext - Sync Clock Settings
Sync Clock Settings command (Teletext menu)

This command opens the PC Clock Synchronisation dialog which controls how and when TvText will set your computer's real time clock to synchronise it with Teletext time.


Menu - Window
Window Menu Commands

The Window menu is used to create and manage Teletext page windows.

New Teletext	Create a new Teletext page window for the current group.
Toolbar	Show or hide the shared (main window) Teletext toolbar.
Status Bar	Show or hide the status bar at the bottom of the main TvText window.
Cascade	Arrange Teletext page windows so that they overlap.
Tile	Arrange Teletext page windows as non-overlapping tiles.
Arrange Icons	Arrange the icons of any minimised Teletext page windows.
Window 1,2...	Activate a particular Teletext page window.


Menu - Window - 1, 2, ...
1, 2, ... command (Window menu)

TvText displays a list of currently open windows at the bottom of the Window menu.  A check mark appears in front of the name of the active window.  Choose an entry from this list to make its window active.


Menu - Window - Arrange Icons
Arrange Icons command (Window menu)

Use this command to arrange the icons for minimised windows at the bottom of the main window.  If there is an open Teletext page window at the bottom of the main window, then some or all of the icons may not be visible because they will be underneath this window.


Menu - Window - Cascade
Cascade command (Window menu)

Use this command to arrange multiple opened windows in an overlapped fashion.


Menu - Window - New Teletext
New Teletext command (Window menu)

Use this command to open a new window to display a page of live Teletext.  You can open multiple windows at once.  Use the Window menu to switch among the multiple open windows.  See Window 1, 2, ... command.


Menu - Window - Status Bar
Status Bar command (Window menu)

Use this command to show or hide the Status Bar which provides status information about commands and what TvText is doing.


Menu - Window - Tile
Tile command (Window menu)

Use this command to arrange multiple opened windows in a non-overlapped fashion.


Menu - Window - Toolbar
Toolbar command (Window menu)

Use this command to show or hide the Teletext Toolbar, which provides status information about Teletext page windows and also gives quick access to a selection of commands.


Menu Commands
Menus (Reference)

File menu

Group menu

Teletext menu

Page menu

Window menu

Help menu


Mouse Commands
Mouse Commands (Reference)

You can of course use the mouse with TvText menus and Toolbar, but this section explains one or two less obvious uses of the mouse, which are specific to TvText.

Using The Mouse To Select Teletext Pages

The mouse can be used to select a page number, using either a three digit page number from a displayed page, or one of the four fast text link topics displayed at the bottom of most Teletext pages:

Double Click on a number or fast text link to select it for the current page.

Drag and Drop a number or fast text link to select the page number for any Teletext page window.

Drag and Drop is extremely useful in conjunction with Numbers Auto and Fast Text Auto settings. These settings cause pages to be collected while the current page is being displayed. As the pages are collected, their page numbers and fast text links will be highlighted indicating that they will be displayed immediately if dragged onto an adjacent Teletext page. See the Tutorial section Using Two Pages In Tandem for more details.


Move command (Control menu)

Use this command to display a four-headed arrow so you can move the active window or dialog box with the arrow keys.

Note:  This command is unavailable if you maximise the window.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+F7


Next Pane Command
Next Pane

Activate the next Teletext page window


Next Window command (document Control menu)

Use this command to switch to the next open Teletext window.  TvText determines which window is next according to the order in which you opened the windows.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+F6


No Context Help

There is no help available for the current context (when pressing F1 or using the On Next Action command on the Help menu).


No Help Available

No help is available for this message box.


Numbers Auto

When enabled using the Toolbar or Numbers Auto command, all three digit numbers on the displayed page will be assumed to be Teletext page numbers and will be collected so long as the page is displayed.

As each page is received, it will be highlighted on the displayed page, indicating that it may be viewed immediately.


OK / Cancel
Click

OK to accept the displayed settings or

Cancel to close the dialog and leave the previous settings unchanged.


OK button
Close the dialog.


Obtaining A License
Obtaining A License (Appendices)

TvText uses a license key to control access to its features. Some features will only work when a valid license key has been installed. This is because TvText is protected by copyright and should only be used in accordance with terms of the TvText license described in LICENSE.TXT (see additional information files.)

You must register in order to obtain a license to use TvText, or you may use an evaluation key for a limited period, as described in the TvText license file LICENSE.TXT (see additional information files.) Note that an evaluation key may not give access to all TvText's features, and may be valid for a limited period.

How To Register

Registering involves purchasing a license to use the software, which includes supply of a license key. Full details of how to register, and a registration form are included in the file ORDER.TXT (see additional information files.)

How To Obtain An Evaluation License Key

We don't promise to make evaluation licenses available, or to keep them up to date. Having said that, we do want people to try TvText, because we feel that once you've tried it you'll be so impressed that you'll want to do the decent thing and register it. The file EVALUATE.TXT (see additional information files) contains the latest information on how to obtain an evaluation license key.

Don't forget though, evaluation means just that. Once you have tried TvText out you must make a decision to keep using it, in which case you must register, or stop using it.

If you don't register but continue using TvText beyond the terms of our evaluation license, you are breaking the law and, more importantly, depriving me of some hard earned cash. If only you knew how much time and effort I have put into this little program, you'd surely register.


Overview

What Is TvText?

TvText takes the irritation out of reading live Teletext information. It uses the power of software to make using Teletext much easier, and to make pages available as soon as you select them.

TvText is copyright and must be registered before you will be able to use it properly, unless you obtain an evaluation license, as described in the file EVALUATE.TXT (see additional information files).

Please try it. If you do we think you'll buy it.

Why TvText Is Best

TvText contains several innovations which solve the problems of reading Teletext on other systems or on a Television set. These innovations produce stunningly fast access and an interface which is both quick to learn and easy to use.

The end result is that you are in control and can read Teletext entirely at your own speed, rarely having to wait for pages to arrive, and never having a page change before you've finished reading it.

See Highlights for a quick review of the features that make TvText stand out from other Teletext viewers.

Teletext Hardware

To read live Teletext information with TvText you will need suitable Teletext hardware, although TvText will run without Teletext hardware so that you can get some idea of the facilities it offers. Details of suitable hardware is included in README.TXT (see additional information files).

A description of how to setup TvText for your Teletext hardware is included in Teletext Interface Setup.


Page Hold

Page hold is used to freeze the contents of a page so that you can read it at your leisure without it being overwritten by an untimely update. Page hold can be turned on and off manually using a keyboard shortcut, or turned on automatically by choosing "update once and hold" in the Page Settings dialog.

When page hold is on, a capital H is shown in the title bar of the Teletext page window.

The best way to read pages is with the page settings configured for

"update once and hold", which activates page hold after every update (see the Settings command); and

automatic collection of subpages, which collects any subpages for a displayed page but does not display them until asked to do so.

These are the default settings used by TvText.


PageDn
Press the PageDn key.


PageUp
Press the PageUp key.


Prev Pane Command
Prev Pane

Activates the previously active Teletext window.


Previous Window command (document Control menu)

Use this command to switch to the previous open document window.  TvText determines which window is previous according to the order in which you opened the windows.

Shortcut

Keys:	SHIFT+CTRL+F6


Readme Once!

TvText Help has been carefully designed to work in several ways:

to give fast answers to specific questions such as "how do I?" or "what is this for?";

to allow you to browse through topics for useful tidbits;

to explain why TvText is best, and how to get the most from it.

There are several ways to access help:

the Contents command on the Help menu takes you to the help contents page;

the On Next Action command from the help menu finds help on a feature such as a menu item;

the F1 function key accesses help about the current context, such as a currently open dialog.

Four hints to help you get the best out of TvText Help:

clicking on Highlighted Text Like This will take you to information on a new topic;

whereas Text Shown Like This shows information in a little popup window;

and clicking on parts of a picture, such as a dialog, will give you information about the picture;

use the [image] and [image] buttons to browse back and forth through the topics in the current section.

I hope you feel all the effort has been well spent. Thanks for trying, or especially for buying, TvText.

Mark Hughes

Compware


Reference

The following sections provide a comprehensive reference to TvText's commands, dialogs and Toolbar:

menu commands

keyboard commands

mouse commands

dialogs

toolbar

teletext interface setup


Reporting A Problem
Reporting A Problem (Appendices)

If you have a problem using this software we will always try to help solve it. We recommend that you carry out the following steps before contacting us about a problem. This will help us to help you.

1.	Check the README.TXT file and make sure that your system meets TvText's requirements for hardware and software.
2.	Check the PROBLEMS.TXT file to see if the problem is already known and if so, to see if a suitable workaround is available.
3.	Attempt to determine if the problem is only related to TvText, or if it seems only to occur when another particular program is running.
4.	Attempt to identify any particular circumstances which are associated with the problem occurring, or which alleviate the problem.
5.	Attempt to identify a reliable and repeatable way of causing the problem.

Please bear in mind that we will find it difficult to help if we can't replicate the problem ourselves or if you omit some information that is in fact crucial to us understanding what is happening or which is a key contributory factor.

To access the README.TXT and PROBLEMS.TXT, see the section on additional information files.

Describing The Problem

When you report a problem, please

give a precise description of the problem;

include the exact text of any error messages;

say if the problem occurs randomly or is repeatable;

provide instructions on how to replicate it, or any circumstances that contribute to it or which prevent it; and

include any other information which you feel may be relevant.

Problem Report Dialog

To help you provide this information, TvText incorporates a report problem command on the Help menu. This command opens a dialog which prompts you for the information we need and automatically gathers additional background information that will help us identify the cause.

The dialog will generate a text file including the details filled in plus the additional background information.

After generating the report file, you can email it or print it out and send it to us, or use it to help answer questions we have when you contact us.


Restore command (Control menu)

Use this command to return the active window to its size and position before you chose the Maximise or Minimise command.


RightArrow
Press the right arrow key.


Scroll bars

Displayed at the right and bottom edges of windows.  The scroll boxes inside the scroll bars indicate your vertical and horizontal location in the window.  You can use the mouse to scroll to other parts of the window.


Shift-F1
Hold down the shift key and press function key F1.


Shift-LeftArrow
Hold down the shift key and press the left arrow key.


Shift-N
Hold down the shift key and press N.


Shift-P
Hold down the shift key and press P.


Shift-RightArrow
Hold down the shift key and press the right arrow key.


Size command (System menu)

Use this command to display a four-headed arrow so you can size the active window with the arrow keys.

After the pointer changes to the four-headed arrow:

1.	Press one of the DIRECTION keys (left, right, up, or down arrow key) to move the pointer to the border you want to move.

2.	Press a DIRECTION key to move the border.

3.	Press ENTER when the window is the size you want.

Note:  This command is unavailable if you maximise the window.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Drag the size bars at the corners or edges of the window.


Subpage Auto

Use the Subpage Auto command to collect, but not necessarily display, the subpages for the currently displayed page in a Teletext window.

You can then use Teletext Toolbar or keyboard commands to scroll back and forth through the subpages without having to wait for each page to come along, and without a subpage overwriting the displayed page before you've finished reading it. To prevent subpages from overwriting the currently displayed page, you should select Update Once And Hold in the Page Settings dialog.

When browsing subpages, it is best to show the Teletext Toolbar, as this contains a subpage status display to show which subpage is currently being viewed, which are available immediately and which are still awaiting collection.


Switch to command (application Control menu)

Use this command to display a list of all open applications.  Use this "Task List" to switch to or close an application on the list.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+ESC

Dialog Box Options

When you choose the Switch To command, you will be presented with a dialog box with the following options:

Task List

Select the application you want to switch to or close.

Switch To

Makes the selected application active.

End Task

Closes the selected application.

Cancel

Closes the Task List box.

Cascade

Arranges open applications so they overlap and you can see each title bar.  This option does not affect applications reduced to icons.

Tile

Arranges open applications into windows that do not overlap.  This option does not affect applications reduced to icons.

Arrange Icons

Arranges the icons of all minimised applications across the bottom of the screen.


System Maximise Command
Maximise command (application Control menu)

Use this command to enlarge a TvText window to occupy the whole screen.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Click the maximise icon on the title bar.


System Minimise Command
Minimise command (application Control menu)

Use this command to reduce a TvText window to an icon.

Shortcut

Mouse:	Click the minimise icon on the title bar.


Teletext
Many television broadcasts now include Teletext information which can be received and viewed on a suitably equipped television receiver or on a personal computer with the aid of Teletext interface hardware..

Teletext consists of pages containing 25 lines of 40 characters including coloured text and simple graphics.


Teletext Interface Setup
Teletext Interface Setup (Reference)

Before you can use TvText to receive live Teletext information you must install a Teletext interface and then configure its software driver for use with TvText.

You should install your Teletext hardware according to the manufacturer's instructions and then refer below for details of how to set it up for use with TvText.

Microtext and Optimum Technology (OPT-III and OPT-III/S)

This section describes how to setup TvText to use a Microtext or Optimum Technology (OPT-III or OPT-III/S) Teletext interface.

Once you have installed your Teletext interface according to the instructions supplied with it by the manufacturer, start Windows and then TvText.

Setup is carried out using a group of dialogs beginning with the Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup dialog. Open this dialog using the Configure Driver command on the Teletext menu. If you have not yet configured your Teletext driver, you will be given the opportunity of opening this dialog when you first start TvText.

Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup Dialog

The Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Setup dialog is used to indicate whether your Teletext interface is internal or external, and how it is configured.

Use the dialog to indicate whether you have an internal adapter card (installed in a slot in your computer), or an external Teletext receiver (attached to a serial port).

If you have an internal adapter card, indicate the setting chosen for the hardware link as position A or B. See the manufacturer's documentation for details of which setting you should use (normally A). Now press Tune. If you have chosen the wrong setting for the link, or if for some other reason the driver is unable to communicate with your Teletext adapter card, the message "Teletext Adapter not fitted" will be displayed.

If you have an external receiver, indicate which serial port it is attached to (COM 1, 2, 3 or 4). (Note that most computers come with serial ports COM 1 and COM 2 as standard, but not normally with COM 3 or COM 4.) Now press Tune. If the chosen COM port is in use by some other software, the message "Can't open Com port" will be displayed.

After pressing Tune, if all is well, the Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning dialog should be displayed.

Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning Dialog

The Microtext/OPT-III Teletext Tuning dialog can be used to initiate automatic or manual tuning of the channels used by TvText and your Teletext interface for receiving Teletext information. The following description is restricted to using automatic tuning. For information on manual tuning, please refer to the description of the Microtext/OPT-III Manual Tuning dialog.

Choose Automatic for the Tuning Method and select the TV System appropriate for the source of your television signal. The chosen TV System is used to determine the range of television frequencies appropriate to this installation.

Now press OK, and the Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning dialog.should be displayed.

Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning Dialog

When opened, the Microtext/OPT-III Automatic Tuning dialog.immediately starts scanning the television frequencies.

Each time a signal is detected, the OK button will become ungreyed and you must save the detected frequency on a specified channel. Set the channel number appropriately (using the displayed Teletext header as a guide), and press OK to save it.

Repeat this process for each detected signal. You can press Cancel to stop the process if you have configured all the channels you wish to use, or you can wait until the entire frequency range has been scanned, at which point the dialog will close automatically.

In the UK, BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4 should be recognised automatically and have the correct channel numbers suggested for them. If additional television signals are found they can be assigned to unused channel numbers.

When the process is complete, the settings will be saved to disk in file "TELETEXW.INF".


Toolbar - Teletext - Subpage Status
Subpage Status and Browsing (Teletext Toolbar)

TvText makes it quick and easy to view a series of pages transmitted with the same page number. On a television, this is one of the most annoying features of Teletext because the speed of update is rarely in step with your reading speed. With TvText, you can read each page at your own speed and flip forwards and backwards through the subpages as you wish.

This is achieved by enabling automatic collection of subpages and then using the subpage status and browsing features of the Teletext Toolbar.

As subpages are collected, the Toolbar shows how many TvText is aware of, which are available immediately, and which subpage is currently being displayed:

a white tick mark indicates a subpage which is available immediately

a black tick mark indicates the subpage has not yet been received

the numbers at each end indicate the lowest and highest subpages received so far

the currently displayed subpage is indicated by both the central figure, in brackets, and the small green cursor underneath the tick marks

Examples:

	Subpage 2 is currently displayed and subpages 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 are available immediately.
	Subpage 4 is currently displayed while 2,4,5,6 and 7 are available immediately. We can't be sure subpage 1 exists, but we deduce that page 3 exists but is not yet stored in the Teletext page cache.

Click on [image] and [image] (or left and right arrow keys) to browse back and forth through the subpages, but note that these buttons won't skip over missing pages, or past the start or end subpages. When at the start or end, or up against a missing subpage, these buttons have no effect. Use them when you want to avoid reading ahead of missing subpages.

Using [image] and [image] you will still move back or forward one page at a time, except when a missing page is encountered or you attempt to move past the first or last subpage. When this happens, the next available subpage will be selected. Shift-left-arrow and shift-right-arrow keys have the same effect.


Toolbar - Teletext Page
Teletext Page Toolbar (Reference)

The main TvText window and each individual Teletext page window can have a Toolbar like the one shown below. These can be shown or hidden by commands on the Window menu and the Page menu respectively.

The Toolbar in the main TvText window will always be associated with the active Teletext page window. If a Teletext page window has its own Toolbar, you can use either the main Toolbar or the page window's own Toolbar.

 Teletext request status.

 Fast Text Auto on/off.

 Numbers Auto on/off

 Subpage Auto on/off.

 Subpage status and browsing.


Toolbar - Teletext Page - status LED
Status LED colours:

 no request active for this page.

 request active, current display probably invalid.

 request active, current display probably valid.


Tutorial - Creating and Using Groups of Pages
Creating and Using Groups of Pages (Tutorial)

You probably find more than one topic of interest on Teletext, or at least want to look at the coverage of a single topic on more than one channel. For each topic, there will probably be a particular set of pages that you like to visit, and it would be very nice if you could get to them at the press of a button wouldn't it? Well, TvText let's you get there with the click of a mouse on a menu item, which is not bad.

This is achieved by letting you set up multiple groups of pages. When you first start TvText you will have only one group, but it is easy to create more and to switch from one to another.

Normally, you will only see the Teletext page windows of one group at a time and, for efficiency, the pages of hidden groups are not normally updated. However, you can override this behaviour and choose to have some groups of pages that are always visible or always updated.

The following sections explain how to create and use groups of pages:

organising pages into groups

naming a group

showing different groups

editing group settings

Organising Pages Into Groups

When you first start TvText it creates a default group and, somewhat imaginatively calls it "Group1". This is fine if there are only three or four Teletext pages which you visit regularly.

If, like me, you like to look at news on two channels, sport on one channel, financial news on another, and so on, you'll find it handy to be able to set up a group of pages for each of these topics, and to be able to give them meaningful names like "News - BBC", "News - ITV", "Sport - BBC" and so on. If so, read on.

Setting up a group of pages is simple. You can start with the current group, or create a new group using the New command on the Group menu. Each time you create a new group, TvText hides the previously active group and opens a single Teletext page window for the current group. You can switch between different groups of pages in several ways, as explained in Showing Different Groups below.

The following steps explain how to set up a group of pages for viewing some of the BBC's news pages. Suppose that we want three index pages, 110 (UK headlines), 130 (UK politics) and 160 (world news). We'll also want another page for viewing page numbers dragged from the index pages as explained in a previous section of the tutorial (Using Two Pages in Tandem).

Steps to Set Up a Group of BBC News Pages

1.	Use the New Teletext command to create sufficient Teletext page windows (we need a total of four).
2.	Select the first window and type "C1" and "110" (five keys in total) to set it to receive page 110 on BBC1.
3.	With the same page active, open the Page menu (by clicking on "Page" in the main menu) and ensure that Numbers Auto, Fast Text Auto and Subpage Auto menu items all have tick marks to their left. If any are do not, use the Numbers Auto command, Fast Text Auto command and Subpage Auto command, as appropriate to ensure they are all checked.  These settings are particularly useful for index pages as explained in an earlier section of the tutorial (Quick Start - Viewing Pages Efficiently).
4.	Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the remaining two index pages, but setting them to page 130 and 160 respectively.
5.	Use the mouse to position and resize the four windows how you want them to appear whenever you start TvText.
6.	Open the Group menu and use the Capture Layout command to capture the size and position of the four windows.
7.	Open the Group menu and use the Save command to save the page settings and window layout to disk. These settings will be restored whenever TvText is started.

The final touch will be to give the group a more meaningful name, such as "News - BBC1". This is described in below in Naming a Group.

You can create multiple groups for different topics using the New command on the Group menu and then following a similar procedure to the one described above.

Note: it is advisable not to mix pages from multiple TV channels within a group because most Teletext interfaces can only "listen" to one channel at a time. If TvText is trying to collect pages from multiple channels, it has to flip from channel to channel, which reduces the speed of page updates. See Tuning Teletext Performance for additional tips on how to keep things fast.

Editing Group Settings

A single dialog is provided to help you edit a number of group settings and for deleting unwanted groups. This Edit Groups dialog, which is shown below, is opened with the Edit command on the Group menu. It lists all the existing groups by name, each of which can be selected by clicking on its name with the mouse.

With this dialog you can:

show a hidden group

change the name of a group

delete a group

save a single group's settings

save the settings of all groups in one go

change the Update Always status of a group

change the Visible Always status of a group

The dialog shows five groups, with "Shares - C4" currently selected. To show, rename, delete or delete this group, click on the Show, Rename or Delete button. To operate on a different group, use the mouse to highlight the group first.

To change the Update Always or Visible Always settings of a group, click on the checkboxes at the bottom of the dialog.

Once you have changed settings you can click on Save Group to save the settings of a single group, or on Save All to save all changes to all groups.

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.
Note: you can also open the edit groups dialog using a keyboard shortcut, by typing Ctrl-E.

Naming a Group

When you create a new group using the New command on the Group menu, TvText opens the New Group dialog so that you can provide an initial name.

To name or rename a group, use the Edit command on the Group menu to show the Edit Groups dialog. Click on the name of the group you wish to change and then on the Rename button. This is described above in Editing Group

Settings.

Showing Different Groups

There are several ways of causing a group's pages to be shown.

First of all, if we assume that only the active group's pages are being shown, which is the default setting for all new groups, you show a group by making it active. There are three ways of changing the active group:

use the Show command on the Group menu to show any existing group

use the Previous command on the Group menu to show the previously active group (shortcut Ctrl-P)

use the 1, 2, 3 or 4, command on the Group menu to show one of the four previously shown groups

In addition to showing the active group, you can use Visible Always to ensure that one or more group's pages are visible, even when they are not the active group. See Editing Group Settings above for an explanation of how to modify the Visible Always setting.


Tutorial - Introduction
Introduction (Tutorial)

This tutorial provides guidance on how to use the main features of TvText. It doesn't cover every detail of TvText and so you may also find it useful to browse the reference sections listed in TvText help contents.

The tutorial assumes that you have installed and set up suitable Teletext interface hardware. See Teletext Interface Setup for instructions on how to do this.


Tutorial - Quick Start - Viewing Pages Efficiently
Quick Start - Viewing Pages Efficiently (Tutorial)

The following sections start with the basics of selecting and viewing Teletext pages and then explain how to get the most out of some of TvText's most most excellent features:

viewing a page

viewing multiple pages

updating a displayed page

using two pages in tandem

drag and drop

prefetching referenced pages

prefetching fast text links

browsing subpages

saving and restoring the window layout

Viewing a Page

When you run TvText for the first time, a single Teletext page window will be shown within the main TvText window. After a short delay, this window should be filled with a page of Teletext information (assuming that your Teletext interface is receiving Teletext correctly).

By default, this page will remain displayed until you either ask for it to be updated or change the Teletext page window settings to show a different page. Each time you select a different Teletext page to be displayed there will be a delay until the page is received, unless TvText has already received and stored the page you requested, in which case, the new page will be shown immediately.

One of the easiest ways to change the displayed page is using keyboard commands, are given below:

Keys Typed	Effect
160	Select page 160
c3	Select channel 3
c4500	Select channel 4 page 500
h	Turn page hold on or off

There are many more keyboard commands for selecting different pages, all of which are described in keyboard commands.

You can also change the displayed page using mouse commands, including drag and drop, and the Settings command on the Page menu.

Viewing Multiple Pages

You can open additional Teletext page windows using the New Teletext command on the Window menu (shortcut Ctrl-N). Each page window can be set to display a different page. You can even display pages from different channels at the same time, although this is not the most efficient way of using TvText, as explained in Tuning Teletext Performance.

When you've opened a few hundred Teletext page windows you'll be pleased to find that you can close them (albeit one by one) using Ctrl-F4 or the Close command on the corresponding window's system menu.

You can select a particular Teletext page window and bring it to the top using the 1,2 ... command on the Window menu. You can cycle through the displayed Teletext page windows using Ctrl-F6.

Note that if you open multiple Teletext page windows and then close down TvText, you must save the corresponding group if you wish the additional pages to be restored next time you run TvText. You can save these changes using the Save command on the Group menu, or by pressing the Yes button when TvText prompts you to save changes to the corresponding group, when you exit from TvText.

Updating a Displayed Page

Once a page has been displayed, the default configuration means that it won't be updated again until you request it. This prevents the display from being overwritten before you've finished reading it, which is one of the most annoying features of Teletext.

Press H: TvText uses the Once and Hold update setting to prevent unwanted updates of the page (see the Settings command). This update setting automatically puts the window into Page Hold mode every time a new page is displayed. Pressing H once will turn page hold off and cause the page to be updated the next time it is received from Teletext, at which point page hold will become active again. Note that each time you press H, page hold will be turned on or off, so pressing H twice has no effect.

Automatic Update: You can use a different update setting, Every N Minutes, to cause the page to be updated at regular intervals without intervention (see the Settings command).

Note: while the page is displayed, any subpages will be being collected and stored by TvText so that they will be available as soon as you want to read them. See Browsing Subpages below.

Using Two Pages in Tandem

One of the nicest ways of reading Teletext is to have two Teletext page windows open side by side. One is used as an contents page, for example a list of news headlines, and the other is used as a viewing page to display the Teletext page for a particular headline.

You can use the mouse to drag page numbers from the contents page and drop them onto the adjacent viewing page as explained next.

Drag and Drop

If you have opened more than one Teletext page window (using the New Teletext command) you can use the mouse to drag a page number or fast text link from one page and drop it on another. This sets the recipient's page number to the number dropped, or to the number associated with the fast text link, as appropriate.

This is extremely quick and easy but is made doubly effective when combined with prefetching referenced links and prefetching fast text links as explained below.

Prefetching Referenced Pages

When viewing a page which contains the numbers of other pages, such as a contents page in the example above (Using Two Pages in Tandem), you can enable automatic collection of the referenced pages by enabling Numbers Auto. This setting can be turned on and off using the Numbers Auto command or using a button on the Teletext Toolbar.

When a Teletext page window has numbers auto enabled, the number of each received page will be highlighted in the page window to indicate that the received page is available immediately.

Prefetching Fast Text Links

In the same way that referenced pages can be collected automatically as described above, you can enable automatic collection of the pages corresponding to the four fast text links displayed at the pages by enabling Fast Text Auto. This setting can be turned on and off using the Fast Text Auto command, or the corresponding button on the Teletext Toolbar.

When a Teletext page window has fast text auto enabled, the fast text link of each received page will be highlighted in the page window to indicate that the received page is available immediately.

Browsing Subpages

By default, Teletext page windows continue to collect subpages while a received page is being displayed, although the display will not be updated until requested. If subpages have been received, you can move back and forth through the available subpages using keyboard commands, or the buttons on the Teletext Toolbar.

The Subpage Auto setting controls collection of subpages, and can be enabled or disabled using the Subpage Auto command.

Browsing Using the Toolbar

The Teletext Toolbar, shown below, is the easiest way of browsing subpages.

The Teletext Toolbar contains a status display showing available subpages, and buttons for moving back and forth among them.

Use the  [image]  and  [image]  buttons to move forward and backwards through the available subpages. Note though that these keys stop at any missing subpages or at the first or last subpage.

Use the [image] and [image] buttons to skip over missing subpages and to move from last to first and vice versa. The section describing subpage status and browsing gives more details.

Browsing Using the Keyboard

Use the N and P keys or the left and right arrow keys to move forward and backwards through the available subpages. Note though that these keys stop at any missing subpages or at the first or last subpage. Combining them with the shift key allows you to skip over missing subpages and to move from last to first and vice versa. The section describing keyboard commands gives more details.

Saving and Restoring the Window Layout

If you work with more than one Teletext window you may want to have the number and layout of your windows the same each time you start TvText. TvText allows you to save the settings of your page windows, and if you want, you can also their size and position, or layout.

If you just want to have TvText open the same number of windows, and to remember which pages they are configured to view (and other page settings), then use the Save command on the Group menu.

If you also want TvText to restore the arrangement or layout of your Teletext page windows, then use the Capture Layout command, and then the Save command, both on the Group menu.

You can use the Restore command and the Restore Layout command from the Group menu to restore the last saved Teletext page window settings and layout respectively. Note that once you have captured the layout and saved it, the layout will be restored automatically whenever you start TvText or use the Restore command.


Tutorial - Setting Your PC Clock from Teletext
Setting Your PC Clock from Teletext (Tutorial)

TvText can help to keep your computer's real time clock bang on time by synchronising it with the time information transmitted by Teletext. You can either synchronise the clock manually, or set it up to be done automatically while you are using TvText.

The following sections explain how to set your computer's real time clock using TvText:

manually setting the clock

automatically setting the clock

Manually Setting the Clock

To set the clock manually, use the Set PC Clock command on the Teletext menu. This tells TvText to use the next valid time received from a Teletext page to set your computers real time clock. While TvText is waiting for a suitable page, the Set PC Clock command will be greyed out so. As soon as the option becomes ungreyed, it means that TvText has succeeded in setting the clock.

If the clock has not been set after a few minutes, TvText will issue a warning and will repeat the warning periodically until the clock is set (unless you disable the warning using the Sync Clock Settings command on the Teletext menu). This failure may be because TvText is not receiving pages or because the pages it is receiving contain too many errors. You may get better results by choosing to set your clock using the television channel which you know to be the strongest signal.

You can use the Sync Clock Settings command on the Teletext menu to open the PC Clock Synchronisation dialog in order to choose a specific television channel. (By default, TvText will use any channel).

You may also want to select a specific television channel to be used for synchronisation for improved reliability and accuracy. The times transmitted by different channels frequently vary, and even between regional television areas on the independent television channels (in the UK).

Automatically Setting the Clock

In addition to being able to manually setting the clock, TvText can be configured to set the clock automatically, either once, whenever TvText is started, or periodically throughout the time that TvText is running.

To configure TvText to set your computer's clock automatically, use  the Sync Clock Settings command on the Teletext menu to open the PC Clock Synchronisation dialog and then set the Synchronise option to either At Startup Only, or Every N minutes.


Tutorial - Storing And Viewing Teletext Files
Storing And Viewing Teletext Files (Tutorial)

The following sections explain how to save Teletext pages in files, including converting them to a simple text format (ASCII). You can save pages manually or automatically, and later use TvText to view saved files.

saving a page

viewing a saved page

adjusting font size and colours

saving pages automatically

saving a set of subpages

Saving a Page

To save the contents of a Teletext page window to a file, first make it the active window, and then using the Save As command on the File menu.

This command will open the File Save Format dialog asking if you want to save the page in Teletext or ASCII text formats:

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.
You should choose Teletext format if you wish to preserve the full details of the displayed page for later viewing with TvText.

You should choose ASCII Text format if you wish to view or import the information into other applications, and are happy to lose the colour and graphics information. You can use TvText to view files save in text format, but the display will only include textual information.

When you have chosen the format to be saved and pressed OK, TvText shows the Save As dialog so that you can specify a location and name for the file to be saved.

TvText suggests a suitable name for the file based on the channel number, page number and timecode of the displayed Teletext page:

Viewing a Saved Page

TvText can be used to view pages saved in Teletext or ASCII text format. Use the

Open command on the File menu to display a file in a new Teletext window; or the

Load command on the File menu to display a file in the active Teletext window.

Each of the above commands opens the Choose Teletext File dialog which allows you to select the file to be displayed:

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.
By default, the dialog only lists files saved in Teletext format. Click on the list headed "List files of type" in order to show just ASCII files, or both Teletext and ASCII text format Teletext files. When you have chosen the file, click on OK and the file will be loaded and displayed.

Adjusting Font Size and Colours

For windows displaying full Teletext information, you can only change the size of the font used. Activate the Teletext window and then use the Font command on the Page menu to open the Teletext Font Size dialog and choose from the available sizes:

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

Note: as you choose different font sizes in the dialog, the active Teletext page window immediately reflects the changes to help you select the best size. If you want to leave the size unchanged and revert to the original size, just press the Cancel button.

For windows displaying Teletext information which has been saved in ASCII format, as described above, you can change the font and its characteristics, and the colours of both the text and window background.

To change the font and font characteristics, activate the Teletext window and then use the Font command on the Page menu to open the ASCII Text Font dialog and choose from the available fonts and their characteristics:

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

Saving Pages Automatically

You can configure a Teletext page window to save its contents to a file each time it is updated, and can specify whether or not the contents are saved as full Teletext, ASCII text, or both. For example, select a Teletext page window and use the Auto Save/Load command on the Page menu, you will open the File Auto Save and Load dialog:

	Click on the picture where you see this cursor.

If you use the above settings, but check the "Save On Update" checkbox, then every time the file is updated, TvText will save the contents in Teletext format using an automatically generated file name. For example BBC 1 page 123 subpage 5 would be saved as file "1123005.TTR".

If you want to save each subpage separately, you must use an automatically generated filename, but otherwise, you can type in a fixed file name and each time the page is updated, the specified file will also be updated.

Note that you can choose to save the file in ASCII text format, resulting in a file with a ".TTA" suffix instead of ".TTR" as above. You can also choose to generate two files, one in Teletext format and one in ASCII text format.

If you specify a fixed file name, then you can check the "Load From File At Start" to tell TvText to load the contents of the file and display them in this Teletext window whenever TvText starts.

Saving a Set of Subpages

To save a full set of subpages automatically:

1.	Use the  the Auto Save/Load command on the Page menu and choose Auto Name, and check Save On Update In Formats.
2.	Use the Settings command on the Page menu to open the Page Collection Settings dialog and ensure that the Update option is set to "Every N Minutes". If it is left in the default state, "Once and Hold", only the first received subpage will be saved.


Tutorial - Tuning Teletext Performance
Improving Teletext Performance (Tutorial)

Teletext performance is measured by the speed at which TvText is able to provide the pages that you request. This is influenced by two main factors:

whether or not the page is available immediately from the Teletext memory cache; and if not

the time it takes to collect a page from the live Teletext broadcast.

TvText provides several features designed to maximise the likelihood of the pages you want being available from the cache, and to minimise the time to collect a page from the broadcast. The following sections describe how to use these features, and other measures which you can take in order to improve Teletext performance:

page prefetch settings

page update setting

page integrity setting

page groups

page cache settings

poll settings

Page Prefetch Settings

Several settings have been provided to allow TvText to gather pages in the background based on the content of the current page: This means that by the time you finish reading the current page, it is likely that the next page you want is available immediately.

The following page settings can be used to speed up access:

Fast Text Auto which prefetches the fast text links for a page.

Numbers Auto which prefetches any page whose number appears on a page.

Subpage Auto which gathers subpages but leaves you to finish reading each one in turn.

In addition to fetching pages in advance, the above settings indicate which pages or subpages are available so that you can pick them out and read them while waiting for others.

Note: When prefetching pages, TvText is in effect being given more pages to collect, which will slow down the rate at which each individual page is updated. The effect is negligible for subpage auto (1 extra), small for fast text auto (4 extra) but potentially large for number auto (up to about 20 extra). Although the prefetch feature has been designed to reduce this effect, you should avoid having large numbers pages using prefetch features at the same time.

Page Update Setting

TvText will be able to collect pages more quickly if the number of pages being collected can be reduced.

You can choose between repeated and one off updates. Using one off updates, which is the default setting, will reduce the number of pages being collected and so improve performance.

To choose one off updates, use the Settings command on the Page menu to open the Page Settings dialog and ensure that the Update setting is Once And Hold.

Page Integrity Setting

Unless you have very good reception, you will find that pages will frequently contain small errors. Usually odd characters jumbled or missing. Most of the time this doesn't matter, and often you won't even notice minor errors, but just in case it does matter, TvText includes Integrity settings which can be used to reject pages containing errors.

TvText will be able to collect pages more quickly if you avoid rejecting pages which contain errors.

To avoid rejecting errors, which is the default setting, use the Settings command on the Page menu and ensure that Integrity is set to Ignore All Errors.

Page Groups

TvText provides page groups for convenience and to help you improve Teletext performance.

You can use groups of pages to reduce the amount of time it takes to collect each page by reducing the number of pages being collected at once and minimising the number of television channels being viewed at once, as follows:

reduce the number of pages in each group;

try to have separate groups for each channel's coverage of a topic (e.g. BBC News, ITV News and so on);

use the Update Always group setting sparingly (see the Edit Groups dialog)

Page Cache Settings

TvText uses a memory cache to store each page collected so that it can be displayed immediately on request. When combined with the page prefetch settings described above, this can produce a tremendous improvement in Teletext performance.

The effect of the cache on Teletext performance is influenced by the amount of memory set aside for the cache, which determines how many pages it can hold. Once the cache is full, each page collected is still placed in the cache, but this means that one of the existing pages must be displaced. Since each page takes only about 1k (1024 bytes) of memory, even quite a small cache can hold quite a large number of pages.

The cache will be most effective if it can hold at least enough pages for the current group, or if you want to flip back and forth between groups, enough pages for all the groups you would typically view in a session. Much larger than this, and the performance benefit will not be significant.

For example, if a typical group contains two index pages with all the prefetch settings enabled (prefetching about 40 pages) and two viewing pages with only Subpage Auto enabled (adding two more page requests), then a cache of 40 pages or so pages (or 40k) would suffice, although it may be worth adding a little extra for good measure.

You will need to look at your groups to estimate how many page requests each typically contributes, and consider how many groups you tend to use in a session in order to estimate the maximum useful size of the cache. Generally, this amount of memory will be less than 100k (about 100 pages), which is relatively small and so can be allocated without worrying if this is the best use of your computer's memory.

To maximise the performance to the Teletext page cache:

estimate the maximum useful size of the cache, in terms of the number of pages, as described above;

use the Cache command on the Teletext menu to set the cache size, and ensure that the enabled setting is checked.

Poll Settings

TvText uses a Teletext interface to collect the pages it displays. This involves telling the interface which pages to collect and then waiting for them to be received. While waiting, TvText periodically asks the card if it has collected any pages (known as polling the card), and then displays any which are available.

If TvText polls more frequently, then the speed of collection may be improved but less time will be available for other things, such as displaying the collected pages, or for other applications.

You can adjust the balance between the time spent polling and the time spent on other things using the Poll Settings command on the Teletext menu.


Tutorial Contents

Introduction

Quick Start - Viewing Pages Efficiently

viewing a page

viewing multiple pages

updating a displayed page

using two pages in tandem

drag and drop

prefetching referenced pages

prefetching fast text links

browsing subpages

saving and restoring the window layout

Creating and Using Groups of Pages

organising pages into groups

editing group settings

naming a group

showing different groups

Storing And Viewing Teletext Files

saving a page

viewing a saved page

adjusting font size and colours

saving pages automatically

saving a set of subpages

Improving Teletext Performance

page prefetch settings

page update setting

page integrity setting

page groups

page cache settings

poll settings

Setting Your PC Clock from Teletext

manually setting the clock

automatically setting the clock


Update Always

Normally TvText only updates the pages of the currently active group. If you want to cause a particular group's pages to be updated even when it is not the active group, enable Update Always using the Edit command on the Group menu.


View Status Bar Command
Status Bar command (View menu)

Use this command to show or hide the Status Bar, which describes the action to be executed by the selected menu item or depressed toolbar button, and keyboard latch state. A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Status Bar is displayed.

See Status Bar for help on using the status bar.


Visible Always

Normally TvText only shows the pages of the currently active group. If you want to cause a particular group's pages to be visible even when it is not the active group, enable Visible Always using the Edit command on the Group menu.


drag and drop a page number
Drag and drop a page number or fast text link:

put the mouse cursor on a number or fast text link in a Teletext page;

press and hold the left mouse button;

drag the mouse until the cursor changes and move it over the page you wish to set;

release the mouse button.


fast text links
Most Teletext pages have four coloured topics at the base of the page, each of which corresponds to a Teletext page which is likely to be of interest to someone viewing the current page. This feature is called "fast text", and each topic corresponds to a fast text link.


license key
A license key is a sequence of alphabetic characters and digits, normally supplied in a file called license.cde but which could be supplied via email or in printed form.

TvText license keys can be read from a file or typed in manually.


memory cache
A memory cache is an amount of computer memory set aside for temporary storage of computer resources. This enables frequently accessed resources to be provided quickly, from the cache.

TvText uses a memory cache to hold Teletext pages so that they can be provided instantly for display, without waiting for them to be received.


most excellent
shwing!


Status Bar

The status bar is displayed at the bottom of the TvText window.  To display or hide the status bar, use the Status Bar command in the Window menu.

The left area of the status bar describes actions of menu items as you use the arrow keys to navigate through menus.  This area similarly shows messages that describe the actions of toolbar buttons as you depress them, before releasing them.  If after viewing the description of the toolbar button command you wish not to execute the command, then release the mouse button while the pointer is off the toolbar button.

The right areas of the status bar indicate which of the following keys are latched down:

Indicator	Description

CAP	The Caps Lock key is latched down.

NUM	The Num Lock key is latched down.

SCRL	The Scroll Lock key is latched down.


subpage
A subpage is one of a group of pages which Teletext transmits with the same page number. You can collect a specific subpage by specifying a subpage number, or timecode, in the Page Settings dialog.