APPLICATION NOTE #131 USING XYWRITE III PLUS ON A COLOR MONITOR Rev. 02 XyWrite allows you to maximize the use of your color monitor by giving you the ability to customize your character display modes. This application note describes the procedure for setting the display modes to the colors you want. STANDARD DISPLAY MODES XyWrite comes with the following display modes built in: MD NM=7 White characters on black MD BO=15 Bright white characters on black MD UL=1 Blue characters on black MD BU=9 Light blue characters on black MD BR=120 Gray characters on white MD RV=112 Black characters on white MD SU=122 Light green characters on white MD SD=121 Light blue characters on white MD FL=135 Blinking white on black MD FU=129 Blinking blue on white MD FR=240 Blinking black on white MD SO=143 Blinking bright white on black MD FN=122 Light green on white To change how the modes are displayed on your color monitor, simply select the colors you want, and then use the mode command to modify your printer file. These steps are described below. SELECTING COLORS XYQUEST provides two tools to help you select colors. You cannot use the same color for multiple modes, so be careful in your selections. 1. You can view the available colors on screen by using the Help file: a. Be sure LONG.HLP is loaded. b. Press: Alt-F9 Result: The help screen appears on the screen. c. Move the cursor to WORD and press . Result: A fill-in-the-blank menu appears on the screen. d. Enter the phrase "color table" and press . Result: A color table appears on the screen. This table displays the number of each mode in its associated color. e. Write down the numbers of the colors that you want to use. f. Exit from help. Press: Alt-F9 2. Chapter 6 of the XyWrite Reference Guide contains a table that lists the numbers for character colors and the numbers for the background colors. To use this table, select the number associated with the character color you want (e.g., 2 for green); then select the number of the background color you want (e.g., 16 for blue). Add the two numbers together to determine the mode setting you will enter in the printer file. (For green characters on a blue background, use the number 18.) Keep track of the numbers you select so you can modify the printer file. MODIFYING THE PRINTER FILE Once you have determined what colors you want to display, you enter the new settings in the printer file with the MD command in the following format: MD nm=n where nm is a two-letter mode command (NM, UL, BO, etc.) and n is the color setting you want to assign to the mode. You enter the MD commands at the beginning of the printer file, before the PT tables. You can also create a separate printer file just for these settings. As an example, let's change the mode settings for bold and bold reverse. In this example, we'll create a special printer file for color modes. 1. Create a printer file for the mode settings. F5new color.prn 2. Enter the label that identifies this file as a printer file. Type: ;PR; 3. Enter the mode settings you want to change. In this case, we'll change the bold display to red characters on a black background and bold reverse to red characters on a white background: Type: MD BO=4 Type: MD BR=116 4. Store the new printer file. 5. Modify the startup file so that your new display modes are automatically loaded every time you load XyWrite. (XyWrite III users, refer to Note #1.) You must load the file that defines the display modes (e.g., COLOR.PRN) before you load your printer-specific file. Type: F5call startup.int Locate the line that loads your standard printer file (for example, 3EPSONFX.PRN). Edit the line so that it looks like this: BC load color.prn+3epsonfx.prn 6. Store the startup file. Result: The next time you load XyWrite, the new color modes will be in effect. USING ADDITIONAL DISPLAY MODES XyWrite does not limit you to the thirteen standard display modes described in the first section of this application note. You can use the MD format command to display text in up to 255 additional modes. To do this, pick the color you want to use (for example, 31) and, with your text file displayed on the screen: Type: F5md 31 Result: The text that follows the command appears in bright white colors on a blue background. You can use any number from 1 to 255 to specify the color you want (as shown in the color table). If you want to take advantage of the additional display modes, be sure to modify the PT (Print Type) tables in the printer file so that each of the display modes has a printing style associated with it. (The default is to use the printing style associated with normal mode in the default PT.) See Chapter 6 in the XyWrite Reference Guide for information on modifying the PT tables. Note #1 XyWrite III Users. The LOAD command is not available in XyWrite III. In the example above, you would modify the STARTUP.INT file as follows. Define and copy an existing line in the file. Be sure the new line is before the line that loads your printer file. Edit the line you copied so that it looks like this: BC lp color.prn Note #2 Header Colors. The default colors for the header are 7 (white colors on black) for the information that appears within the field and 112 (gray characters on white) for the field names. The procedure for changing these colors is slightly different. 1. Select the colors you want to use, as described above. 2. Enter the HR (Header Reverse, for field names) and HN (Header Normal, for field content) settings in the printer file you set up for display modes. For example, call the file COLOR.PRN and type: HR=113 HN=31 Result: After you load your printer file, the field names will appear in blue characters on a white background (113) and the information in the fields will appear in white characters on a blue background (31).