Copyright 1992, Hyperion Softword THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS INTENDED FOR THE USE OF SHAREWARE DISTRIBUTORS PROGRAM TITLE: Orpheus VERSION: 1.21 NEW IN THIS VERSION: (See the WHATS.NEW file) PROGRAM AUTHOR: Rod Willmot Hyperion Softword 535 Duvernay Sherbrooke, QC Canada J1L 1Y8 (819-566-6296) INTENDED USER: Writers of online books, manuals, tutorials, or any other form of electronic documentation with a hypertext component. SHORT DESCRIPTION: Orpheus is a writer-friendly hypertext authoring system. WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE: (1) Unlike other authoring systems, Orpheus lets you write hypertext quickly and intuitively, without having to think about the mechanics of linking. There are no special characters to insert, no program codes; you always see what your intended reader will see. (2) In most hypertext systems the reader is expected to scroll through long text files. This makes navigation difficult because linkwords might be just offscreen; it also makes for a boring, unattractive presentation. Orpheus focusses on the screen as the medium of communication: during the authoring phase, each card has a 50-line workspace, but only the top 24 or 25 lines go into the finished work. (If you choose 24-line cards, the Orpheus Reader displays your work with a Titlebar at the top.) With a plethora of formatting and text-drawing tools, Orpheus makes it easy to create eye-catching, informative screens. End-users find it easy to navigate through your hypertext network because they can always see at a glance what paths are available. As a result your end-product looks fantastic and is a pleasure to read. (3) Orpheus offers an unbeatable combination of power, ease of use, beauty, polish, and flexibility. CAPACITY AND LIMITATIONS: Documents can contain up to 32,000 linked cards and graphics. A text card can hold up to 250 links to any combination of text cards and graphics. There are 7 link types, of which one can be reserved for the author's notes and excluded from the compiled version, while two others are intended for programmable features that will enable interactive tutorials. REQUIREMENTS: Orpheus requires an IBM XT- or AT-compatible computer with DOS 3.1 or later. The authoring program requires a hard disk; the Orpheus Reader does not. IS A MANUAL INCLUDED? Yes. MANUAL.DOC on disk 2 provides an introduction to hypertext and a series of step-by-step tutorials on how to make hypertext with Orpheus. However, everything that you will ever need to know about Orpheus is in online Help. HOW TO START THE PROGRAM: At the DOS prompt, "OH [Enter]" starts up the authoring program; you can also give the name of a file. For example, to start up Orpheus Author and simultaneously initiate a new project called "Test", you would give the command "OH TEST [Enter]". See MANUAL.DOC, Chapter 1, for more information. To start up the Orpheus Reader with the demo book "Introducing Orpheus", give the command "OHREAD INTRO.HTX [Enter]" at the DOS prompt. REGISTRATION: Orpheus is distributed as shareware and costs $49 to register. Registered users receive bonus utilities and an unlimited licence to sell, give away, or otherwise distribute their compiled works together with the Orpheus Reader. Registration numbers are built right into compiled books as the ultimate proof of copyright. CATALOG TEXT (suggested): For hypertext writers, for anyone wishing to create electronic books and manuals, Orpheus is a dream come true. The system is two programs: Orpheus Author (OH.EXE), an Integrated Development Environment for composing hypertext; and Orpheus Reader (OHREAD.EXE), a slick but easy-to- use program for registered users to distribute with their finished works. Both programs come with pulldown menus and online help, mouse support, and configurable colors. Orpheus Author gives you seamless integration between the act of writing and the act of hypertext linking. All features are accessible through menus and dialogs, and most have keyboard accelerators. There are no special codes or brackets to insert; you can quickly develop a complex hypertext network that is a joy to navigate and a pleasure to read. Extensive word processing tools include reformatting, search and replace, block operations, a boxdraw mode for making tables and boxes, everything you need to write well and make text look great onscreen. Hypertext tools let you refine and restructure your hypertext network at will, letting it grow and change following the flow of ideas -- safely and easily, with a couple of keystrokes or clicks of the mouse. With 4 independent Edit windows you can keep separate "growing points" of your work close to hand (Orpheus saves your window configuration when you end a session). A fifth window provides read-only access to other files for quickly importing external text. Every Orpheus book can hold up to 32,000 cards; each card can have up to 250 links to any combination of text cards and graphics; graphics in turn can have hotspots linked to other graphics or to text. Finished works are compiled into two or more compressed files for efficient distribution with the Orpheus Reader. The Orpheus Reader is the public's gateway to you and your work. It offers a user-friendly interface combined with the under-the-hood sophistication to take full advantage of the user's hardware. (Even if you wrote your book in monochrome, users with color will get glorious color; but if you used graphics that the reader's system can't display, Orpheus handles this gracefully.) Features on the menu include a notepad with hypertext linking, a bookmark dialog where the user can enter descriptive comments for up to 10 bookmarks, a navigable map, and printing. The Print dialog is intentionally more restrictive than in Orpheus Author, but permits sending a card at a time (in plain text form) to either the printer or a disk file. The author of Orpheus provides support through GEnie and Internet addresses, as well as the shareware conferences of several public echomail networks. A sample book included with the Reader (INTRO.HTX) demonstrates what the system can do. FILES IN THIS PACKAGE: On Disk 1: README ....................... file with this list and other info OH.EXE ....................... Orpheus Author, the authoring program WHATS.NEW .................... new features, fixes in this version REGISTER.DOC ................. order form On Disk 2: OH.HLP ....................... online help for the authoring program MANUAL.DOC ................... manual/tutorial on OH.EXE SCORPIO.PCX .................. graphic for tutorial On Disk 3: OHREAD.EXE ................... the Orpheus Reader OHREAD.HLP ................... its online help INTRO.HTX .................... demo book to read with Reader INTR_.1 ...................... part of demo book WORLDMAP.PCX ................. graphic for demo HOME16.PCX ................... graphic for demo SHOWRUN.BAT .................. sample batch file called by demo