RISC OS 3.7 User Guide

Table of Contents

Introduction

About this guide

The RISC OS operating system

Conventions used in this manual

Additional products and documentation

Documentation roadmap

1 - The desktop

Manipulating windows

Directory displays

Desktop colour and resolution

Advanced Filer operations

2 - Changing the computer's configuration

Changing configuration settings with !Boot

3 - Customising the desktop start-up procedure

Desktop boot files

Saving all of !Boot

Inside the !Boot application

4 - Managing the desktop

Introducing the Task manager

Controlling tasks and memory

Forcing tasks and applications to quit

Controlling tasks from the command line

Shutting the computer down

Managing memory

5 - Troubleshooting

6 - Using floppy and hard discs

Floppy and hard discs

Mounting and dismounting discs

Formatting discs

Backing up discs

Checking for disc defects (verifying)

Checking the amount of free space on a disc

Adding more applications to a hard disc

Using several floppy discs

What to do if something goes wrong

7 - Other storage devices and filing systems

Types of filing systems

Using DOS and Windows discs

Using PCMCIA memory cards

8 - Networking

Disc sharing on a network

Sharing other drives

To access a shared disc

Sharing private data

Printing over an Acorn Access network

File sharing on an Acorn Level 4 Fileserver network

Networking with non-Acorn computers

Types of network

9 - Setting up printers

Setting up the printer

Loading the printer manager

Configuring the printer

Configuring the printer connection

Activating the printer

Saving your choices

Editing paper sizes

Creating your own Printer definition file

10 - Printing your files

Starting !Printers

Printing a file

Things you can't print

Using more than one printer

Print queue control

Text printing and graphics printing

Using PostScript printers

11 - PrintEdit

Starting the application

The PrintEdit window

Saving and quitting

12 - FontPrint

Starting the application

Advanced information

Mapping symbol fonts

13 - T1ToFont

Converting a font

Using Macintosh and MS-DOS type 1 fonts

14 - RISC OS applications

Where to look for applications

Starting applications

Loading any file into Edit

Transferring data between applications

Setting application options in Boot files

15 - Using colour in applications

Using colour in Draw

Colour and the desktop

16 - Using fonts in applications

Choosing and using fonts in applications

How the Font manager works

Matching font performance to your needs

Printing with fonts

PostScript printers

Converting PostScript fonts to outline fonts

Changing the desktop font

Troubleshooting

17 - Draw

Draw reference section

Undoing and redoing operations

Using the Grid to place objects accurately

Zooming in and out of your drawing

Displaying two views of the same file

Creating objects (Enter mode)

Manipulating objects (Select mode)

Creating special effects in Draw (interpolation and grading)

Defining a path object's style

Defining text style

Superimposing text on a coloured background

Editing Draw objects (Path edit mode)

Importing (loading) files into Draw

Exporting (saving) files from Draw

Printing Draw files

JPEGs (photo-quality images)

Working with multiple Draw files

Saving Draw features in a Desktop boot file

Keystroke equivalents

18 - Edit

Formatting text

Changing the display font

Exporting (saving) text

Printing Edit files

Other features of Edit

Writing and editing BASIC programs

Saving Edit features in a Desktop boot file

Keystroke equivalents

19 - Paint

Painting with a sprite

Painting with the mask of a sprite

Paint reference section

Creating a new sprite

Handling sprite files

Manipulating sprites within a sprite file

Handling JPEG images

Choosing and using colours

Zooming in and out (scaling a sprite window)

Using Paint's tools

Changing a sprite's size, shape and orientation

Taking screen snapshots

Printing a sprite

Saving Paint features in a Desktop boot file

Types of sprite that can be created by Paint

20 - Alarm

Setting the time

Setting an alarm

When an alarm goes off

Configuring the Alarm setup options

Browsing through your alarms

Saving Alarm configuration features

Time and date display formats

21 - ARPlayer

Starting ARPlayer

Playing Replay movie clips

Configuration options and information

Playing movies without using ARPlayer

Compressing Replay movies

22 - CDPlayer

Starting CDPlayer

Playing an audio compact disc

CDPlayer window

Quitting CDPlayer

23 - ChangeFSI

Starting ChangeFSI

Using ChangeFSI

Icon bar menu options

Image menu options

Image file conversion

24 - Chars

Inserting a character

Using fonts with Chars

25 - CloseUp

Starting CloseUp

CloseUp options

26 - Help

What's in the Help window

Other help information

27 - HForm

Formatting your existing hard disc

28 - Maestro

Starting Maestro

Editing the score

The Maestro menu

Setting up your own score

Maestro's use of memory

29 - Patience

Starting Patience

Playing Patience

30 - PhotoView

Starting PhotoView

Loading a contact sheet

Loading an image

Displaying an image

Saving images to disc

Quitting PhotoView

Troubleshooting

31 - Puzzle

Starting the application

32 - SciCalc

Starting SciCalc

Entering numbers

Arithmetic functions

Memory functions

Advanced functions

Trigonometric functions

Changing the number base

Degrees, radians and gradians

Keyboard short-cuts

Technical notes

Saving features in a Desktop boot file

33 - Squash

Starting Squash

Compressing a file

Decompressing a file

Compressing a directory or application

Decompressing a directory or application

Checking your archive

Appendix A: - The command line

Accessing the command line

Using the Task window

Using the command line

Command line syntax

!Run and !Boot files within applications

System variables

Command and application options and other variables

Command scripts

Using GS formats in scripts

Appendix B: - Useful star commands

Useful star commands

Appendix C: - Configuring applications

Alarm configuration

Paint configuration

SciCalc configuration

Pinboard configuration

Edit configuration

Draw configuration

Saving display features

Appendix D: - BBC BASIC

BBC BASIC V and VI

Features in BASIC VI

Writing and editing BASIC files

Command line syntax for BASIC

Features available in RISC OS 3 Version 3.50 or later

Appendix E: - RISC OS file types

Acorn file types

Industry standard file types

Acorn Advance file types

BBC ROM file type

Acornsoft file types

Appendix F: - Old-type screen modes

Display manager

Backward compatible screen modes

Appendix G: - Removing a disc defect

What is a defect?

Removing a defect

Technical details

Appendix H: - Character sets

Loading an alphabet

How alphabets are initially set up

Keyboard short-cuts

Typing special characters

Latin1 alphabet (ISO 8859/1)

Latin2 alphabet (ISO 8859/2)

Latin3 alphabet (ISO 8859/3)

Latin4 alphabet (ISO 8859/4)

Cyrillic alphabet (ISO 8859/5)

Greek alphabet (ISO 8859/7)

Hebrew alphabet (ISO 8859/8)

Cyrillic2 alphabet (DOS code page 866)

BFont characters

Appendix I: - Error messages

End-user licence conditions for the RISC Operating System

RISC OS 3.7 User Guide - 21 JAN 1997