AAAAAAAAAAA LLL GGGGGGGGGGG AAAAAAAAAAAAA LLL GGGGGGGGGGGGG AAA AAA LLL GGG GG AAA AAA LLL GGG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA LLL GGG GGGGG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA LLL GGG GGG AAA AAA LLLLLLLLLLLLL GGGGGGGGGGGGG AAA AAA LLLLLLLLLLLLL GGGGGGGGGGG Application Label Generator COPYRIGHT (c) 1992, MyLife Software - all rights reserved. Ú---------¿ Ú-----Á---¿ ³ (R) --³ ³o ³------------------ ³ Ú-----ÁÐ--¿ ³ Association of ³ ³ ³-Ù Shareware À---³ o ³ Professionals ------³ º ³-------------------- À----Ð----Ù MEMBER Application Label Generator User's Manual CONTENTS Introduction.......................................... 1 What's in the package................................. 2 System Requirements What is the Application Label Generator............... 3 Why is the Application Label Generator important...... 4 Making the Application Label Generator work........... 5 On-line help Select Label Type 5.25" diskette labels 3.5" diskette labels Return address labels Product description labels. Edit Company Name Company name Company address Company city, state, and zip code Company phone Edit Application List Application name Copyright information Serial number Application description Diskette title Print Labels Number of labels to print Left margin Select attention line Redefine attention line Changing attention line Print serial numbers on disks Print serial numbers on all disks i Application Label Generator User's Manual Printer Selection Printer name 10 CPI on code 10 CPI off code 12 CPI on code 12 CPI off code 17 CPI on code 17 CPI off code Near letter quality on code Near letter quality on code Exit Application Label Generator In Closing............................................ 14 ii Application Label Generator User's Manual INTRODUCTION Before we get started let me introduce myself. My name is John Michael Sanders. I write custom business software and shareware. I began my humble little business originally called, Energy Software, in 1989. I later dissolved that business and began MyLife software to better reflect the efforts I was putting forth in the business. I had hopes and dreams of being another Bill Gates. Well I must admit it hasn't turned out that way, but I haven't given up either. I started my business by writing small utility programs. My first major application was a program that computed monetary savings using various energy saving appliances and devices as apposed to conventional products. It was a good program, no sales, the company I wrote it for folded shortly there after. Several major projects later, I designed a 30,000 line database application that would access 21,000 files spread across 12 drives in 600 subdirectories on a network environment. Some application huh! As I got deeper into the shareware arena I needed a way to label disks in large quantities quickly. I looked around bulletin boards and shareware distributors for an application that would work and none fit the bill. Well, as a programmer, I developed my own. It was just what I needed and had the features that a shareware author required. After passing this little program around to other programmers for a while, they found it useful and I realized that what I had developed was quite wonderful little shareware application. So I present this product to you, other shareware authors. The Application Label Generator has the following features; a. Prints the four types of labels used by authors the most; 1. 5.25" diskettes 2. 3.5" diskettes 3. Return address 4. Product 1 Application Label Generator User's Manual b. Prints serial numbers on labels 1. The 1st label in an application set 2. or, all labels in an application set c. The database stores information on up to 20 of your applications d. Each application can have up to 10 diskettes in a set and individual labels can be printed for each e. Four attention lines can be user defined for the return address label f. Three predefined attention lines for the return address label g. One user defined printer type h. Three default printer setups i. Seven lines of 68 characters each are available to provide an adequate product description of the application on the product labels WHAT'S IN THE PACKAGE The Application Label Generator contains the following files; ALG.EXE - Application Label Generator main program ALG.HLP - Help file for the Application Label Generator DESCRIPT.TXT - Description file of what the Application Label Generator is all about. LICENSE.TXT - Application Label Generator license agreement. READ.ME - File of latest Application Label Generator changes. REGISTER.TXT - The Application Label Generator registration form. WHY_ALG.TXT - This user's manual. 2 Application Label Generator User's Manual The Application Label Generator will create the two below files the first time the Application Label Generator program is accessed; ALG.DBF - File containing all the shareware authors' applications. ALG_1.DBF - File containing the authors' business name, address, and phone number. If you find any of these files missing or corrupt please call or write MyLife Software for a disk replacement. One will be shipped to you immediately. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS The Application Label Generator requires the following; a. Dot matrix printer b. One floppy disk drive (Harddrive recommended) c. Monitor monochrome (Color recommended) Ideally, you would want to make this application available from your harddrive for easy access. WHAT IS THE APPLICATION LABEL GENERATOR The Application Label Generator is an application specifically designed for the shareware author. The Application Label Generator will print the labels most used by the shareware author. Those labels are; a. 5.25" diskette labels b. 3.5" diskette labels c. Return labels d. Product description labels The sole function of the Application Label Generator is to print labels. This package will most likely replace several applications or methods you currently use to label, serial 3 Application Label Generator User's Manual number, and provide product labels for your shareware application. If you presently do not use any of these labels in your business then it will be easy to implement them with the Application Label Generator. WHY IS THE APPLICATION LABEL GENERATOR IMPORTANT The Application Label Generator provides a single application to manage the labeling needs of up to 20 of your shareware applications. You will no longer need to remember file names or which disk contains the particular label for an application, it's all in one program. The Application Label Generator is important for the following reasons; a. You'll save time b. You'll be better organized c. Your labeling will be consistent d. You will save money By using the Application Label Generator you'll save many hours of laborious work managing the labeling, product labeling, and addressing of your quality shareware applications. The time saved will come from several different areas. One area may be in the development of labels, another may be in the printing of return address labels. You will be better organized because all your application labeling needs can be managed from one quality shareware program. You will not be searching for disks that had that one label on it anymore. By using the Application Label Generator all your application labeling will retain a certain level of consistency. I have found it is much better to maintain a level of conformity in all my applications. Yes, it is true you will save money. Even if you only sell a few applications a month the Application Label Generator will save you, money. Professional multicolor labels cost about $100 per 1000 labels. This is expensive if you are 4 Application Label Generator User's Manual only selling one or two programs a month. Another thing to consider about purchasing custom printed disk labels is what if you change a program name or version number. If the version number is on the label you'll most likely have to trash the labels. Using the Application Label Generator will create quality disk labels for two of the most common sizes of diskette labels. By using common label sizes and then only printing what you need, you will definitely save money. MAKING THE APPLICATION LABEL GENERATOR WORK The first thing to do is make a working copy of the Application Label Generator. You can either make a disk copy or simply copy the Application Label Generator to your harddrive. I would suggest you create a subdirectory call ALG. If you desire to place the program on your harddrive follow the example below; EXAMPLE: C:\> MKDIR \ALG Once this is done press ENTER. Now change to the newly created \ALG subdirectory. Follow the example below; EXAMPLE: C:\> CD\ALG Now press ENTER. Copy all the files listed above in the 'What's in the Package' section. In order to access the Application Label Generator just type ALG, an example is provided below; EXAMPLE: C:\ALG> ALG Once you have done this the main menu screen will appear. From this menu you may go to the 6 other areas, they are; a. Help .................................. (F1) b. Select Label Type ..................... (F2) Use to define type of disk label to work with, valid types are 5.25" disk labels, 3.5" disk labels, return address labels, and product labels. 5 Application Label Generator User's Manual c. Edit Company Name ..................... (F3) You may change the software company name, address, city, state, zip code and phone number from this selection. d. Edit Application List ................. (F5) You may edit the label content of up to 20 different applicant label contents from the selection. Items that can be edited include; 1. Main application name 2. Copyright information 3. Serial number 4. Up to 7 lines of application description 5. Up to 10 individual diskette titles e. Print Labels .......................... (F6) This selection allows you to print the labels selected in F2 above. You may print up to 999 of any selected type. In addition, you can specify the column to begin typing on. The valid entries are 0 through 9. f. Printer Selection ..................... (F7) You define the default printer from this selection. Three selections are provided, one of which you may define. g. Exit Application Label Generator ...... (F10) When you select 'F10' Application Label Generator will save all settings and any information that you have changed and return you to the DOS prompt. HELP On-line help is always available by pressing the 'F1' key. The help system is context sensitive. You will find the Application Label Generator so easy to use that you may never need it, but its there just in case. 6 Application Label Generator User's Manual SELECT LABEL TYPE By pressing the 'F2' key a window will pop up displiaying the selected type of label. The Application Label Generator can print four types of labels, they are; a. 5.25" diskette labels b. 3.5" diskette labels c. Return address labels d. Product description labels. All defined labels will print on single wide tractor fed labels. The below information will assist you in purchasing the required labels. a. 5.25" diskette ....... 4" x 1 7/16" Avery style 4102 b. 3.5" Diskette ........ 2.75" x 2.75" Avery style 4104 c. Return address ....... 3.5" x 15/16" Avery style 4102 d. Product description .. 4" x 2 15/16" Avery style 4201 Any label may be used as long as the defined size is a match and you are not limited to using the Avery labels. EDIT COMPANY NAME You should immediately edit the company information. The company information will be displayed at the top of the main menu screen on the Application Generator and on all labels generated. Company Name The first area to modify is the software company name. Simply type in your business name. When you are satisfied press ENTER. 7 Application Label Generator User's Manual Company Address The company street address is the second block of information. Once you are content with the information press ENTER. Company City, State, and Zip Code The City, State, and Zip Code is entered in the third block. Again press ENTER when the information is correct Company Phone The final block to require information is a phone number. Place the phone number you'll use for providing Technical Support. You can press the TAB key to move forward one block and SHIFT-TAB to move backward one block. Once all the information is correct continue to press the ENTER key and a status message will ask you if all the information is correct. The valid selections are 'Y'es, 'N'o, and 'Q'uit. If the information needs further correcting press 'N' and you will be returned to the edit company information area. If you press 'Q' then you will immediately be returned to the main menu screen. If the entries are correct then press 'Y'. You are then asked if desire to save the information, press 'Y' or 'N'. EDIT APPLICATION LIST Application Name Enter your application name in this block. As an example for the registered version of the Application Label Generator I have entered 'Application Label Generator v1.0'. The application name will be printed on both diskette labels and the product description label. Thirty two spaces are defined for this entry. 8 Application Label Generator User's Manual Copyright Information Enter your copyright information on this line. As an example for the registered version of the Application Label Generator I have entered '(c) 1992, MyLife Software'. The copyright information will be printed on both diskette labels and the product description label. Thirty two spaces have been defined for this entry. The '- all rights reserved.' line is automatically added on the next line of the respective labels. The 'all rights reserved' line assists in protecting any software that might happen to get outside the United States. It is very similar to the copyright line in meaning. Serial Number Enter a beginning serial number for your application. Four spaces are provided. The Application Label Generator will use this information allow with the application name and current year to develop a serial number for you. If you were to enter '0001' in this block, with an application name of 'Application Label Generator' and current year of '1992' the program would generate a serial number of 'AL-92-0001'. The Application Label Generator will take the first letter from the first two words of the application name or in the case of a single worded application name the first two letters. When printing serial numbers on labels the Application Label Generator will automatically increment the serial number each time a label is printed. Application Description The Application Label Generator provides up to 7 lines of product description space. Each line is 68 spaces long. Enter any information desired to describe your application. This information will be printed on the product label. Diskette Title The Application Label Generator has provisions for printing up to 10 different diskette labels for each application. If your application requires 6 disks you may choose the following entries; 9 Application Label Generator User's Manual a. Install Disk b. Disk 1 c. Disk 2 d. Disk 3 e. Disk 4 f. Disk 5 When printing diskette labels each label will be printed once before proceeding to the next set. You can press the TAB key to move forward one block and SHIFT-TAB to move backward one block. Once all the information is correct continue to press the ENTER key and a status message will ask you if all the information is correct. The valid selections are 'Y'es, 'N'o, and 'Q'uit. If the information needs further correcting press 'N' and you will be returned to the edit application name block. If you press 'Q' then you will immediately be returned to the main menu screen. PRINT LABELS The print labels selection of the Application Label Generator will print your labels. Several pieces of information are required before labels can be printed. The required information is explained in the following paragraphs; Number Of Labels To Print This is the number of labels you desire to print. Up to 999 labels may be printed. For return address and product labels the number selected will be printed. If a diskette label is selected the number of labels printed will be the number of labels selected to print multiplied by the number of diskettes in an application set. An example is if your application has 6 diskettes and you want 10 label sets to be printed then 60 labels will spit out of your printer before it is done. 10 Application Label Generator User's Manual Left Margin This is the space(s) between the 1st printing position of your printer and the beginning, left side, of your labels. The only valid entries are 0-9. If you have selected to print diskette labels then the Application Label Generator will then ask is you desire to have serial numbers placed on your diskette labels. Entering 'N'o will cause the Application Label Generator not to print serial numbers on any diskette labels. If the answer is 'Y'es then you will be asked if you desire to have serial numbers printed on all labels in an application set. Again if the answer is 'Y'es serial numbers will be placed on each label in the set. If you enter you answer 'N'o then a serial number will only be printed on the first label in a diskette set. Once you have selected the above information, an example of the label will be displayed on the screen. If it is correct press 'Y', if not press 'N' and you will have the opportunity to reenter the information. If you had selected to print return address labels these instructions will apply; Select Attention Line Select an attention line to print on the return address label. Press any of the highlited 'F' keys. Four lines are dedicated for your customizing. To customize a line press the 'F9' key. You are will then be given the opportunity to enter your custom attention line. Redefine Attention Line If you desire to redefine an attention line press the 'F' key you wish to redefine. Valid keys are; 'F5' thru 'F8'. This allows you to create a customized line if one of the predefined options are not to your tastes. Changing Attention Line Type your custom attention line. This is the 2nd line of the return address label. It will be printed exactly as entered on this line. 11 Application Label Generator User's Manual PRINTER SELECTION The Application Label Generator allows you to select between 3 different types of printers. One of which you may define on your own. If you are unsure of the type to select then use the Epson FX/LX and ensure your printer is setup to emulate an Epson compatible printer. Select the highlited 'F' key to define the printer. To define or redefine the user configured printer press 'F9'. The below instructions will help you in setting up the default printer. Printer Name Enter the defined printer name. Select any name so that you will equate it with the desired printer. The name entered should most likely be the printer name. 10 CPI On Code Enter the DECIMAL codes that equates to printing at 10 character per inch. If multiple codes are required separate each individual code with a space. If you are unsure of the specific codes required for your printer then refer to your printers user's manual. If no code is available then you may leave it blank. An example is shown below; EXAMPLE : 10 CPI On..... ESC G 27 71 10 CPI Off Code Enter the DECIMAL codes that equates to turning off printing at 10 character per inch. If multiple codes are required separate each individual code with a space. If you are unsure of the specific codes required for your printer then refer to your printers user's manual. If no code is available then you may leave it blank. An example is shown below; EXAMPLE : 10 CPI Off.... ESC G 27 71 12 Application Label Generator User's Manual 12 CPI On Code Enter the DECIMAL codes that equates to printing at 12 character per inch. If multiple codes are required separate each individual code with a space. If you are unsure of the specific codes required for your printer then refer to your printers user's manual. If no code is available then you may leave it blank. An example is shown below; EXAMPLE : 12 CPI On..... ESC G 27 71 12 CPI Off Code Enter the DECIMAL codes that equates to turning off printing at 12 character per inch. If multiple codes are required separate each individual code with a space. If you are unsure of the specific codes required for your printer then refer to your printers user's manual. If no code is available then you may leave it blank. An example is shown below; EXAMPLE : 12 CPI Off ... ESC G 27 71 17 CPI On Code Enter the DECIMAL codes that equates to printing at 17 character per inch. If multiple codes are required separate each individual code with a space. If you are unsure of the specific codes required for your printer then refer to your printers user's manual. If no code is available then you may leave it blank. An example is shown below; EXAMPLE : 17 CPI On..... ESC G 27 71 17 CPI Off Code Enter the DECIMAL codes that equates to turning off printing at 17 character per inch. If multiple codes are required separate each individual code with a space. If you are unsure of the specific codes required for your printer then refer to your printers user's manual. If no code is available then you may leave it blank. An example is shown below; EXAMPLE : 17 CPI Off ... ESC G 27 71 13 Application Label Generator User's Manual Near Letter Quality On Code Enter the DECIMAL codes that equates to printing in near letter quality. If multiple codes are required separate each individual code with a space. If you are unsure of the specific codes required for your printer then refer to your printers user's manual. If no code is available then you may leave it blank. An example is shown below; EXAMPLE : NLQ On..... ESC G 27 71 Near Letter Quality On Code Enter the DECIMAL codes that equates to turning off printing at near letter quality. If multiple codes are required separate each individual code with a space. If you are unsure of the specific codes required for your printer then refer to your printers user's manual. If no code is available then you may leave it blank. An example is shown below; EXAMPLE : NLQ Off ... ESC G 27 71 EXIT APPLICATION LABEL GENERATOR When you desire to exit the Application Label Generator simply press the F10 key. When this is done all information will saved to a disk file for later use. IN CLOSING I hope that you have found the Application Label Generator meets your needs. The consolidated approach makes it extremely useful for the small business, or a business that likes to stay very organized. I have found that it is better than any of the other 10 or 15 labeling programs that I've seen. Once again, its use as a consolidated software labeling program is truly a time saver. If the Application Label Generator has a feature you feel would be useful for other shareware authors or yourself please feel free to call or write and we'll see about improving the program. After all shareware only works if you make it! 14 Application Label Generator User's Manual NOTES 15