Following is a quick run through of DAAP and it's new features. For more complete information see the "DAAP" help file. (Click "Help" and "Help Topics")

RUNNING DAAP

DAAP can be run on it's own or with the Director's Assistant running in the background. You can launch DAAP directly from the Director's Assistant by clicking on the DAAP icon in the main toolbar. It is recommended that you run DAAP alone (launching it from the Start menu without the Director's Assistant running) if you are using a 486 or lower and have 12 meg or less of RAM memory.

DAAP MODES

Daap has 3 main modes and behaves very differently in each. You can toggle the modes with the mode button on the floating tool bar. If you close the floating tool bar you can open it again by selecting "Tools" from the "View" menu. Clicking the mode button repeatedly will change modes from publisher to word processor to postcards and back to publisher. When you open a file, DAAP will automatically configure to the mode of the file.

When you first run DAAP you will be in the Publisher mode. (Blue border around document) The publisher mode let's you create documents in a "paste up" fashion. You can position text and graphics anywhere on the page. This makes the publisher mode ideal for newsletters, brochures and anouncements. Publisher files are saved with a "pub" file extention and defaulted to save in your dawin\newlttr directory.

Word Processor mode is setup for writing letters, with DAAP behaving much more like a word processor. Text wraps around any inserted graphics. The word processor mode is identified by the red border around the document. Word processor files are saved with a "wpr" file extention and defaulted to save in your dawin\docs directory.

The last DAAP mode is for creating postcards. The postcard mode is identified by it's purple border. When you are in postcard mode you only work on the upper left hand corner of the document. When printing in postcard mode, DAAP duplicates the upper left hand quarter of the document 3 more times on each quarter of the page. Poscard files are saved with a "pcd" file extension and defaulted to save in your dawin \postcard directory.

When you open a file in DAAP, the open file window will default to the different document directories depending on what mode you are currently in. Document files which where created with the previous version of DAAP (txp) can be opened and edited but template files from previous versions will not work properly.

DAAP DESKTOP

The DAAP desktop displays 2 pages at a time which can be viewed with zoom settings from 30% to 200% of normal size. You can swith the zoom setting from 100% to the Full Page setting by clicking on the document with the right mouse button. Zoom settings can also be set with the Zoom list box located on the floating tool bar.

DAAP automatically sizes to the screen resolution that you have set on your system. You can change the area of the desktop which is displayed with the large scroll bars on the bottom and right side of the DAAP desktop. The small scroll bar in the bottom right corner is used to advance pages 2 at a time. With a 4 page document, the small scroll bar advances the view from pages 1 and 2, to pages 3 and 4.

The floating tool bar is used to access various features within the system. It can be positioned anywhere on the desktop.

TEXT BOXES

DAAP utilizes text boxes in different ways depending on which mode it's in. It is important to understand the basic properties of text boxes and what they can do to understand how to get the most out of DAAP.

A text box in DAAP is basically a square area of the page into which you can insert text and/or graphics. Text boxes can be of any size and position within a page. You can resize and move text boxes around anywhere within a page. You can utilize as many text boxes as needed on a page but should keep in mind that the time it takes DAAP to redraw a page is affected by the number of text boxes.

Creating Text Boxes

Text boxes can be created in publisher and postcard modes. When working in Word Processor mode, you cannot insert additional text boxes. (although you're actually working in one large text box) To insert a text box click the left mouse button anywhere on the page, holding it down for a moment before you drag the mouse down and to the right. As you drag the mouse you'll see a blue box growing from where you first clicked to where you release the mouse button. When you release the mouse button the blue box will turn black indicating that a new text box has been created. You cannot create text boxes within other text boxes although they can overlap.

Text Box Borders

Text box borders are only used to identify the size and location of text boxes, they are not printed. There is a tool in the floating tool bar which turns all text box borders and page margins on or off. This is used to view what will be printed to the printer. Printed borders are added with the "Frames" feature.

Resizing and Moving Text Boxes

After a text box has been created it can be resized and positioned anywhere within the page that it was created. Hold down the Alt key and click and drag your mouse inside the text box to move it to a different location. If you position your mouse on the border of a text box while holding the Alt key, your cursor will switch to a double arrow indicating that you can click and drag to resize the text box. Whenerver you resize or move a text box, guide lines will appear from the text box to the rulers located at the top and left side of the desktop. These are used to help position and size the various text boxes on the page.

Text Formating

Text is typed directly into a text box. To insert text, click in a text box and begin typing. Text can be formatted just like most word proccesors utilizing your own Windows fonts. Text boxes can contain text of various sizes, fonts and colors at the same time. The tool bar at the top of the desktop is used to change fonts, sizes and alignment. Text formating can also be changed by selecting "Character" from the "Format" menu. You can adjust line spacing and alignment by selecting "Paragraph" or "Indent" from the "Format" menu. Format changes are applied to selected text or at the cursor location if no text is selected. For more information on text formating see the DAAP help. (Select "Help topics" from the "Help" menu or press F1)

Inserting Graphics

Text boxes can contain text, graphics or both at the same time. DAAP supports 3 different types graphic files. Windows Bitmaps (file extentions of BMP), TIFF images (file extentions of TIF) and Window metafiles (file extensions of WMF). Most comercial clip art is in at least one of these graphic formats. To insert a graphic into a text box, click in the text box so the cursor is flashing within the text box. Click on the Insert Graphic icon in the floating tool bar to open the open graphic window. The open file window will default to the dawin\graphics directory. Select the graphic file you wish to insert, changing directories and file formats as necesary. If you are inserting graphics from a cdrom or other graphics directories, navigate the open file window to the desired directory and select the file format filter to the format of the graphics you wish to insert. (if you want to insert a Windows metafile (WMF) you need to select Windows Metafile in the "List Files Of Type" listbox) Click on the desired file to insert the name in the file name field and click "OK".

Resizing Graphics

Graphics are inserted and automatically resized if necesary to fit into a text box. After the graphic has been inserted, click on the graphic to select it. A selected graphic is displayed with a dotted border around the graphic. With the graphic selected, hold the Alt button to move and resize the graphic just like moving and resizing text boxes. Any text in the text box will automatically wrapp around the graphic as you move and resize it. If you insert a graphic into a text box which is too small to properly resize the graphic, you will recieve an error message indicating that you should resize either the text box or the graphic to insure that the text box will function properly.

Linking Text Boxes

Text boxes can be linked so that text automatically flows from one box into another. This can be used for colums where text flows from colum to colum. You can link as many text boxes as you wish. Text boxes can also be linked from page to page. To link 2 text boxes, hold the Ctrl key down while you click and drag one text box into another. This will not change the position of the either text box. You will recieve a message indicating that the two text boxes will be linked. To remove the link, repeat (hold Ctrl while drag and drop) and you will recieve a message indicating that the link will be removed. The newsletter templates have been updated to include this feature.

Template File Extentions

The file extentions for templates have been changed so that you can identify the type of file by it's name. Template files have the extensions of "tpb" for publisher mode, "twp" for word processor mode and "tpc" for postcards. Super templates replace the "t" in the extention with an "s".