Starting

Yes, Word Pro can perform fancier tricks than Ami Pro 3.1! But Word Pro is unpopular, since it requires more RAM and runs slower. Its price has therefore been reduced: you can get Word Pro for just $60 from discount dealers (such as USA Flex at 800-723-2261 or 630-582-6206). At such prices, Lotus has been having financial problems and has finally given up trying to survive as an independent company: in 1995, IBM bought Lotus.

This chapter explains how to use Ami Pro version 3.1. (Word Pro is similar.)

Before reading this chapter, learn how to use Windows by reading the Windows chapter. That chapter also explains how to use Windows Write, which is the word processor that comes free with Windows 3.1 (and 3.11). If you have one of those versions of Windows, practice using Windows Write before using Ami Pro.

Copy Ami Pro to the hard disk

Ami Pro comes on floppy disks. To use Ami Pro, you must copy it from those floppy disks to your hard disk. Here’s how.

Turn on the computer without any floppy in drive A. Start Windows (by typing "win" after the C prompt). You’ll see the Program Manager Window.

When you buy Ami Pro version 3.1, you get a big box that contains the main manual, several booklets, and eight 1.44M floppies. (If your computer requires 720K or 5¼-inch floppies instead, get them by phoning Lotus at 800-343-5414. Canadians call 800-Go-Lotus instead.)

Put Disk 1 in drive A. Type "a:install" (and press ENTER).

Type your name, press the TAB key, type the name of your company, and press the ENTER key. (If you don’t have a company, type "Ami Pro Lovers Association".)

Press ENTER five more times. The computer says, "Insert Disk 2". Put Disk 2 in drive A and press ENTER. When the computer tells you, do the same for Disks 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

If the computer asks "Modify AUTOEXEC.BAT?", click the "No" button (by using the mouse).

The computer will say, "Install complete". Press ENTER.

Exit from Windows (by choosing "Exit Windows" from the File menu, then clicking "OK"). Turn off the computer, so you can start fresh.

Launch Ami Pro

Here’s how to start using Ami Pro version 3.1.

Turn on the computer without any floppy in drive A. Start Windows (by typing "win" after the C prompt). The computer will say "Program Manager".

Double-click the Lotus Applications icon. Double-click the Ami Pro 3.1 icon.

The screen’s top shows this menu bar:

Customize Ami Pro

Ami Pro can act in different ways, to meet the needs of different people. When you use Ami Pro, it begins by acting however the previous user told it to. If the previous user was a jerk, Ami Pro will act jerky.

The following procedure makes Ami Pro act as a professional desktop publisher. The first time you use Ami Pro, do this procedure. The next time you use Ami Pro, you can skip the procedure — unless a colleague has used your copy of Ami Pro and given different commands instead.

Here’s the procedure.…

Make sure box next to "Custom view" contains 91. If it contains a different number, raise or lower that number (by clicking the nearby arrows) until that number becomes 91.

The other boxes don’t matter.

When you’ve finished, click "OK".

Type your document

Start typing your document.

Ami Pro uses the mouse and fundamental keys the same way as Windows Write. For details, read these sections on pages 98-99:

"Use the keyboard"

"Scroll arrows"

"Insert characters"

"Split a paragraph"

"Combine paragraphs"

Movement keys

right-arrow right to the next character

left-arrow left to the previous character

down-arrow down to the line below

up-arrow up to the line above

END right to the end of the line

HOME left to the beginning of the line

PAGE DOWN down to the next screenful

PAGE UP up to the previous screenful

Ctrl with right-arrow right (to next word or punctuation symbol)

Ctrl with left-arrow left (to beginning of a word or punctuation)

Ctrl with a period right to the next sentence

Ctrl with a comma left to the beginning of a sentence

Ctrl with down-arrow down to the end of a paragraph

Ctrl with up-arrow up to the beginning of a paragraph

Ctrl with PAGE DOWN down to the next page

Ctrl with PAGE UP up to the previous page

Ctrl with END down to the end of the document

Ctrl with HOME up to the beginning of the document

CONTROL key

To manipulate your document quickly, use the CONTROL key (which says Ctrl on it).

Click at the beginning of the document. (To search through just part of your document for "love", click at the beginning of that part.)

Press Ctrl with F. Type "love".

Press ENTER several times. Each time you press ENTER, the computer moves to the next "love" in your document. When the computer can’t find any more "love" in your document, the screen’s bottom left corner briefly displays a message saying how often your document says "love".

The computer ignores capitalization. If you tell it to find "love", it will also find "Love" and "LOVE".

The computer looks for complete words. If you tell it to find "love", it will not find the "love" in "loves" or "glove".

That makes the computer copy the document onto the hard disk. For example, if you named the document "jennifer", the computer will put onto the hard disk a file called "JENNIFER.SAM", which means "JENNIFER created by SAMna. (Samna is the division of Lotus that invented Ami Pro.) The file will be in the documents subdirectory (called "DOCS"), which is part of the AMIPRO subdirectory.

Afterwards, if you change your mind and want to do more editing, go ahead! When you finish that extra editing, save it by pressing Ctrl with S again.

For example, if you accidentally deleted some text, pressing Ctrl with Z will make the text reappear.

Pressing Ctrl with Z tells the computer undo your previous action. But what’s your "previous action"? When you press Ctrl with Z, the computer might undo a different action that you expected.

If pressing Ctrl with Z accidentally makes the text look even worse instead of better, and you wish you hadn’t pressed Ctrl with Z, do this: press Ctrl with Z again! That "zaps the zap" and returns your text to its original state.

Fonts

Click that typeface name. You see an alphabetized list of typefaces, like this:

Arial

Courier New

LotusLineDraw

Modern

Roman

Script

Symbol

Times New Roman

WingDings

(You might also see some extra entries contributed by your printer’s manufacturer or by any font packages you bought.)

The best typefaces are Times New Roman (for most typing), Arial (for big headlines and tiny type), and Courier New (for tables of numbers). Click the typeface you want.

4

6

8

9

10

11

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

30

36

42

48

60

72

Click the point size you want. (The bigger the point size you choose, the bigger the characters will be.)

After you’ve chosen a typeface and point size, type some words. They’ll be in the typeface and point size you selected. (Your document’s other words, which you typed earlier, remain unaffected.)

You’ll be typing in the typeface and point size you chose, until you switch to a different typeface or point size or hop to a different part of your document.

Select text

Here’s how to dramatically change a phrase you typed.

Then say what to do to the phrase. For example, choose one of these activities:

To underline the phrase, press Ctrl with U.

To make the phrase be bold, press Ctrl with B.

To italicize the phrase, press Ctrl with I.

To delete the phrase, press the DELETE key.

To replace the phrase, just type whatever words you want the phrase to become.

To make the phrase be a different typeface,

click the typeface at the bottom of the screen, then click the typeface you want.

To make the phrase be a different point size,

click the point-size number at the bottom of the screen, then click the point size you want.

Method 1: point at the phrase’s beginning, then drag to the phrase’s end.

Method 2: click the phrase’s beginning; then while holding down the SHIFT key, click the phrase’s end.

Method 3: by using your keyboard’s movement keys (such as the up-arrow, down-arrow, left-arrow, and right-arrow keys), move to the phrase’s beginning; then while holding down the SHIFT key, use the movement keys to move to the phrase’s end.

Method 4: to select just one word, double-click in its middle.

Method 5: to select just one sentence, click in its middle while holding down the Ctrl key.

Method 6: to select just one paragraph, double-click in its middle while holding down the Ctrl key.

First, select the phrase you want to move, so the phrase turns black.

Then take your finger off the mouse’s button. Move the mouse’s pointer to the phrase’s middle.

Finally, hold down the mouse’s button; and while you keep holding down the mouse’s button, drag the mouse pointer (which is a vertical line) wherever you want the phrase to move. (Drag the vertical line anywhere you wish in the document, or drag to the end of the document, but don’t try to drag past the document’s end. During the drag, the vertical line turns blue, then red.)

At the end of the drag, lift your finger from the mouse’s button. Presto, the phrase moves where you wished!

Page menu

You can improve how your text is placed on the page.

Finishing

Didn’t save?

If you didn’t save your document before doing those procedures, the computer asks, "Save?" If you click "Yes", the computer copies your document’s most recent version to the hard disk; if you click "No" instead, the computer ignores and forgets your most recent editing.

Congratulations!

You’ve learned all the fundamental commands of Ami Pro!

Vocabulary

The computer can improve your vocabulary.

Spelling

Here’s how to check the document’s spelling.

For example, type a short document that contains just this one sentence:

Be huppy!

Click "OK".

The computer looks up each word in the dictionary. The computer finds "Be" in the dictionary but can’t find "huppy". The computer highlights the strange word "huppy" and prints this list of suggestions:

hoopoe

happy

guppy

puppy

Notice that the computer’s immense vocabulary even includes "hoopoe", which is a European bird that looks like a cross between a parrot and a zebra!

You have several choices:

If you meant "hoopoe", "happy", "guppy", or "puppy", click what you meant & then click "Replace".

If you meant "huppy" and want to add that slang word to the dictionary, click "Add To Dictionary".

If you meant "huppy" but don’t want to add that slang word to the dictionary, click "Skip".

If you meant some other word instead, type it (without pressing ENTER) and click "Replace".

When the computer finishes checking the entire document, the screen’s bottom left corner briefly say "Spell check complete."

Thesaurus

cosset

cuddle

dandle

fondle

love

pet

If you want to replace "caress" by a synonym, click the synonym you want then click "Replace".

When you finish using the Thesaurus window, double-click its control box (or click "Cancel").

Frames

You can draw a box and put information inside it. For example, if you’re creating a newspaper, you’ll want to draw a big box and put a big masthead or headline inside it. Underneath, you’ll want to draw a smaller box and put a picture inside it. Yes, Ami Pro lets you draw a box and put text or a picture inside it!

Here’s how to draw a box (frame).

Click the Frame icon. Point in your document, where you want the box’s top left corner to be, and drag to where you want the box’s opposite corner. For best results, make the box’s top left corner be in the middle of the page, and make the box’s opposite corner be below that and far to the right, where the page’s text area meets the right margin.

The box appears. All your document’s words and columns move out of the way to make room for the box.

To make sure that the box doesn’t bump into nearby text, the computer makes the box slightly smaller than you requested. To make the box beautiful, the computer gives the box rounded corners and a shadow.

In the box, you can put text or a drawing (but not both).

Text

To put text in the box, double-click in the box and then type the text.

Drawing

slanted line Click the Slanted Line icon.

Start where you want the line to begin,

and drag to where you want the line to end.

horizontal, vertical, or 45° line It’s similar to drawing a slanted line,

but depress the SHIFT key during the whole process.

zigzag Click the Zigzag icon.

Click where you want the zigzag to begin.

Click where you want each bend in the zigzag.

Double-click where you want the zigzag to end.

polygon Click the Polygon icon.

Click where you want the polygon’s first corner.

Click where you want each additional corner,

but double-click at the last corner.

rectangle Click the Rectangle icon.

Start where you want the rectangle’s top left corner,

and drag to where you want the rectangle’s opposite corner.

square It’s similar to drawing a rectangle,

but depress the SHIFT key during the whole process.

rectangle with rounded corners It’s similar to drawing a rectangle,

but click the Rounded Rectangle icon.

square with rounded corners Draw a rounded rectangle while depressing the SHIFT key.

oval Click the Oval icon.

Imagine a rectangle big enough to hold your oval:

start where you want that rectangle’s top left corner,

and drag to where you want that rectangle’s opposite corner.

circle It’s similar to drawing an oval,

but depress the SHIFT key during the whole process.

arc that’s a quarter of an oval Click the Arc icon.

Imagine the entire oval:

start at the oval’s leftmost or rightmost point,

and drag to where you want the arc to end.

title in the middle of the drawing Click the Text icon (which says "abc").

Click where you want the title to begin.

Type the title.

To nudge the entire drawing slightly — but without moving the frame that it’s in — do the following: click the Hand icon, then start in the middle of the drawing and drag in the direction that you want to nudge.

Here’s how to edit an object that you drew. Click the Arrow icon. Click the middle of the object, so that the object gets handles (bumps). Then choose one of these activities:

Delete the object Press the DELETE key.

Change the object’s size Point at one of the handles.

Drag the handle in the direction you want the object to stretch (or shrink).

Move the object Point at the object’s center (not at a handle).

Drag in the direction that you want the object to move.

Edit a frame

Here’s how to edit an entire frame. Click outside the frame, then click inside the frame. The frame gets handles. Then choose one of these activities:

To delete the frame, press the DELETE key.

To change the frame’s size, drag a handle.

To move the frame, point at the frame’s center and drag.