Copyright (c) 1994 Trionum Inc. All rights reserved. ORCHIS, TRIONUM and PEP are trademarks of Trionum Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

The name ORCHIS stands for "Org Chart Imaging Software". ORCHIS makes it easy to create and maintain org charts. An org chart is a picture of a tree-like hierarchy. The most common use for such charts is to represent the structure of an organization by a diagram of who reports to whom, but there are many other applications. For example, org charts can represent menu structures, decision trees, sentence parsings, or taxonomies of plants and animals. With ORCHIS, pictures of these charts can be displayed on your computer's monitor, printed on your printer, and saved in graphic files compatible with other software packages. ORCHIS eliminates the necessity of actually drawing these charts yourself. Using simple data forms, you enter text for each chart element and specify its properties, such as type face and color. Using the graphical EDIT-CHART display <[2]>, you identify how the chart elements are linked together. The layout and drawing of the chart is done automatically by ORCHIS. Later, you can easily add to the chart, or change the text, properties, or linkages, and have ORCHIS instantly redraw the chart to your new specifications.

In order to install and use ORCHIS, you will need to be familiar with the basic commands of the DOS operating system. If you have any questions about using DOS, consult your operating system manual.

In order to run ORCHIS you need an IBM PC compatible computer running DOS 2.0 or a later version of DOS. You also need a color VGA display. You do not need a hard disk, or a mouse, but both of these are recommended. In order to print directly from ORCHIS, you need one of the following printers: an HP DeskJet, an HP LaserJet, a Canon Bubble Jet, a Postscript printer such as the Apple LaserWriter, an Epson printer, an IBM graphics printer, an IBM Color Printer, or a printer compatible with one of these. You can output pictures from ORCHIS to PDL files (the format of TRIONUM's drawing program, PEP: Picture Editing Package) <[7.1]>, to PCX files (a popular bitmap format) <[7.3]>, and to EPS files (the encapsulated Postscript format) <[7.2]>. Many word processors and desktop publishing packages accept graphics in these formats. Charts created in ORCHIS can be included, in this way, into documents, presentations and slide shows created by any of these compatible packages.

Before you can use ORCHIS, you must identify the kind of printer that you have and how it is connected to your computer. The utility INSTALL.EXE supplied with ORCHIS will guide you through this simple installation process. To be able to use ORCHIS, you must first run INSTALL. Full instructions for installing ORCHIS are provided in Chapter <[12]>.

In the present chapter, we provide the definitions and background information necessary to understand the chapters that follow. We recommend that you read this chapter before trying to use ORCHIS. Then if you need information about a particular command, you will be ready to turn directly to the relevant section in the reference chapters that follow. After this introductory chapter, is the main part of the ORCHIS manual, namely the individual command descriptions in Chapters <[2]> through <[10]>. In those chapters, you will find a complete explanation of each of the commands available in ORCHIS. Chapter <[11]> describes the HELP system, which allows you to view the information in this manual, on your computer's display, while you are using ORCHIS. Because the HELP system is context sensitive and includes a cross-reference facility, it is often a more convenient method of learning about ORCHIS than referring to the physical manual would be.

The individual nodes that make up an org chart are simply called boxes. Each box contains one or more text lines, sometimes simply call lines. The boxes have a hierarchical ordering relation shown by the relative positions of the boxes when the chart is drawn and the lines drawn between them called links. The ordering relation has the structure of a tree, but charts are drawn upside down, with the root of the tree at the top and leaves at the bottom. <[FIG16]> shows three typical examples of such charts. The relationship between a subordinate box and the box above it (for example, the relationship of boxes 2 and 1 in the any of the charts above) can be described in any one of the following ways: 1 is over 2. 2 is under 1. 1 is the parent of 2. 2 is a daughter of 1. We also say that two daughters of one parent (for example boxes 2 and 3, or boxes 6 and 7 in any of the illustrations) are sisters.

ORCHIS commands are presented in a series of menus organized into a menu hierarchy. The menu that is displayed when you first load ORCHIS is called the top menu. Most of the commands in this menu cause new menus to be displayed. In some cases, these new menus have commands leading to yet other menus. In all of these menus, one letter in each command is underlined. To execute a command, just type this letter. Alternatively, you can point to a menu item with the cursor. Then, if you press the left mouse button (or the ENTER key on your keyboard), the selected command will be executed. For example, in the top menu, if you type "X" (for "Export"), a new menu will appear as shown in <[FIG02]>. This new menu lists the file formats available for exporting org chart images. If you now type "E" (for "EPS") you will export the chart to a file in the Encapsulated PostScript format. (See Chapter <[7]> for complete information on file export options.) <[FIG15]> is a chart of the principal menus in ORCHIS.

The ORCHIS screen is divided into three windows: a menu window, a text window, and a chart windows. The menu window is used by ORCHIS to display its commands. The text window is used for prompts and error messages. The chart window is used either to display a data entry form for one org chart box or to display the chart itself. <[FIG10]> A different screen layout is used when you are in the HELP system. For more information see Chapter <[11]>.

When you load a chart into ORCHIS, the initial display in the chart window is a data entry form for one box of that chart. Such forms are the tools you use to change the text contents and properties of the various boxes in the chart. A typical data entry form is shown in <[FIG17]>. To change a line of text, activate its entry field by using the TAB key or by clicking on the field with the cursor. To display a property sheet for the box or for any one of its text lines, click on the appropriate [P]-button. You can also access property sheets through the PROPERTIES command in the top menu. For more information on using property sheets see Chapter <[3]>. The data entry form lists the boxes linked to the current box. To switch to the entry form for another box, either use the left, right, up, and down goto buttons in the data entry form, or display the entire chart by using the EDIT-CHART command <[2]> and then select the new box with the EDIT-BOX command <[2.1]>. Invoking EDIT-CHART also provides access to the commands for creating, deleting, linking and unlinking boxes. See Chapter <[2]> for more information on these commands.

A scroll bar is a tool for using the mouse to move the view in a given window. In ORCHIS, scroll bars may appear in the menu window, in the chart window, or (if you are in the HELP system) in the help document window. In this section, we will assume that you have a mouse. (If you do not have a mouse, there are commands for adjusting window views from the keyboard. See Chapter <[10]> for the single keystroke commands relevant to the chart window and the menu window. See Chapter <[11]> for the commands relevant to the help document window.) Scroll bars will be automatically created in the menu window, the chart window, and the help document window whenever they are needed. For example, the LOAD-CHART command <[5.1]> displays a menu of all available org chart files. If there is not enough room in the menu window to display all of the file names, a horizontal scroll bar is created at the bottom of the window. You can use this bar, as described below, to control which part of the file name list is to be displayed. In the chart view window, two scroll bars are required, a horizontal bar to control left/right motion and a vertical bar to control up/down motion. A scroll bar contains three buttons, an arrow button at either end and an unmarked button that can moved freely along the bar between these. This latter button is called the slider. The position of the slider shows the current location of the window view in its range of possible positions. The size of the slider shows what fraction of the range is currently visible in the window. For example, when you shrink a chart window (so that twice as much is displayed in it), the sliders expand to twice their former size. To adjust the window view by a small amount, click on the appropriate arrow button. One click will move a menu window or a help document window up or down by a single line of text. A graphic window will be moved by a small fraction of the total range of motion. If you hold down an arrow button (that is, you click on it and do not release the mouse button), the window motion will be automatically repeated. To adjust the window view by a larger amount, click on the scroll bar outside the slider (above or below the slider on a vertical bar, to the left or right on a horizontal bar). One click will move the window view by one half of the size of the window. If you click on the slider, the mouse becomes locked to the slider. By moving the mouse, you now move the slider. When you click a second time, the slider and the window view become fixed in their new positions.

There are several ways to move the cursor in ORCHIS. These are described below.

If you have a mouse, you can move the cursor by simply moving the mouse.

The four arrow keys on the numerical key pad move the cursor in the direction of the arrow. See <[FIG09]>. These keys are also called the cursor motion keys.

If you need to move the cursor over a large distance, using the cursor motion keys can be tedious. If you do not have a mouse, you may want to use the automatic cursor motion capability. You can start the cursor moving, accelerate it, change its direction, and stop the motion when the cursor arrives at its destination. To start the cursor moving, press the Grey-plus key, and then press one of the cursor motion arrow keys. The cursor will begin to move at a constant speed in the direction indicated by the motion key. To make the cursor move faster, press the same key again. To change direction, press a different cursor motion key. To stop the cursor, press the Grey-plus key a second time.

There are three ways to move up the menu hierarchy. Most menus include an explicit QUIT or CANCEL command. This command will take you back to the previous menu, the next higher menu in the hierarchy. The second method is to use the super-escape key (function key F10) <[10.1.5]>. Pressing this key takes you in a single step to the top level menu no matter where you are in the command structure. Finally, you can use the Escape key (ESC). Pressing this key takes you back one step in the command execution. Often, ESC is equivalent to QUIT, taking you back to the prior menu. Sometimes, however, it takes you back to an earlier stage in the current operation. For example, in the EDIT-CHART menu <[2]>, when you move a box you first choose the box you want to move and then choose a new parent box for it. If you are at the second stage (choosing the parent), pressing ESC takes you back to the first stage (choosing the moving box). In any case, if you continue to press ESC, you eventually return to the prior menu and ultimately to the top level menu. If you have a mouse, pressing the right mouse button is equivalent to using the ESC key.

ORCHIS has been designed so that you can use a mouse if you have one, but a mouse is by no means necessary. Every function can be accessed directly from the keyboard. Cursor motion, in particular, can be controlled from the keyboard in a number of ways which have been described above. If you do have a mouse, pressing a mouse button is equivalent to pressing one key on the keyboard. Pressing the left mouse button is equivalent to pressing ENTER (carriage return). Pressing the right mouse button is equivalent to pressing ESC (the escape key). See <[FIG11]>. In the discussion below, we use the key names ENTER and ESC without explicitly mentioning the mouse. In each case you can use the equivalent mouse button instead.

ORCHIS stores org charts in files with the extension "ORG". These are pure ASCII text files using a simple context sensitive format. This simple text based format makes it easy for third party programmers to create compatible utilities, such as, for example, a program to automatically generate ORCHIS files by extracting information from a data base. To assist such third party developers, TRIONUM will provide a file format specification document, free of charge, to any registered user upon request.