A new version of the View utility has been released at the web address http://mdrury.hypermart.net/view150.zip In my opinion, this is the best utility for accessing files in various word processor formats if one does not have the particular authoring software. Through an agreement with the author, Malcolm Drury, View may be used for conversion purposes with the Talking Directory program (http://www.empowermentzone.com/td20.zip for a trial version). Simply rename view.exe to td1util.exe and copy it into the TD directory, replacing the previous version. Below is a review of View, followed by a list of recent changes. Note the developer's interest in accessibility. Regards, Jamal ---------- ZDNet Software Library Utilities View | 10-19-98 Malcolm Drury View is an excellent DOS viewer and converter for WordPerfect DOS, Word DOS, WinWord, Write, Notepad, MS Publisher, Ami Pro, WordStar, ASCII, and ANSI files. It also provides ASCII/ANSI and Unix/DOS file conversion. It displays HTML files along with tags and provides 2COL and JETCOL printing support. A built-in utility lets you customize screen colors and video modes. View supports Rich Text Format (RTF) files, bookmarks, and WordPerfect 7/8 files and decodes Word 97 files. It also offers support for accented characters in HTML documents and for function-key arrangement, to help accommodate visually impaired users. It's ideal as a stand-alone program or a DOS shell. This trial copy is fully functional and without nag screens. Reviewed on Oct 17 1998. System Requirements DOS 3.0 Purchase Information Shareware: Free to try, $30 if you decide to keep it. Desktops Printers Modems and MORE! look in basket See Related Titles Rating Version Number 15.0 Downloads to Date 4,821 Compressed Size 135,254 bytes ---------- What's new in VIEW *** VIEW Version 15.0 October 1998 *** Recent history NOTE: Versions of the form 14.0(2) are minor maintenance releases and are generally not documented here. VIEW Version 13.0 ================= Added support for Rich Text Format (RTF) files. Please see also trouble.doc for a note on these. Also in this version I have added a "save configuration" function to the configuration program, viewcfg. This will allow you to configure future versions of VIEW without having to re-enter the configuration parameters. VIEW Version 13.1 ================= Added a function to display a user-prepared file VIEWHELP.CST. You can edit this file in your preferred language to display an alternative help file. It is called from VIEW (while viewing a file in non-scrolling mode) by pressing Shift-F1. There are four rules for the format of the file. 1. Lines must be less than 80 characters long. 2. Lines must end in a hard return. 3. There must be no more than 22 lines. 4. The file viewhelp.cst must be in the root directory of your C drive. Tidied up the function key arrangement in the file selection help menu. Moved the grey + and - key functions, in order to accommodate visually-impaired users whose speech synthesis software needs these keys. To move to the next bookmark (if any) press 'd" (for down); to move to the previous one, press "u". Note: version 13.1a has a minor change in the way Wordperfect 5.0-5.2 files with right-aligned text are displayed. There are no other changes. Note: version 13.1b has an improved algorithm for detecting Microsoft Publisher files. There are no other changes. VIEW Version 13.2 ================= Added a command line switch /w to allow you to override the line wrap used as a default by VIEW when viewing ASCII or ANSI files (which contain hard return codes at the end of each line). The default can be set using] VIEWCFG.COM. There are two possibilities: use the file's line wrap, or use VIEW's line wrap. Normally you would use the file's hard returns, but if the file contains lines longer than 80 characters you might wish to use VIEW's setting. Note that you can switch between the two while viewing a file by pressing Ctrl-F10. /w can be used in conjunction with /lnnn to control the appearance of files that you convert or print directly. VIEW Version 13.3 ================= Improved viewing of customised help file VIEWHELP.CST, which must be in the root directory of your C drive. There are no longer restrictions on the file size or type - you can edit it and save in any format that VIEW supports. ASCII is recommended, as these files are much smaller than those in native word processor formats. All the normal functions of VIEW are now available when you view this file. Enabled VIEW to incorporate bookmarks you have added as form feeds in saved files. When you read such files, the embedded form feeds are interpreted as bookmarks. This gives you a way to save bookmarks. Added a "quick save" function - Alt-F6 - to allow you to save a file in the same format as the on-screen display. There are no options to save as DOS or UNIX, include line numbers etc. with this function. You are asked to provide a file name; if you just press enter a default name of myfile.sav is used. The saved file is in your c drive root directory. VIEW Version 13.3a ================== Restored F11 (exit with error level 2) function, which somehow got lost along the way. VIEW Version 13.4 ================= Added decode routine for Word97 files. Note that this may not work for all such files because of their complexity. Minor improvement to Wordperfect 7/8 files. Note that these may also not display correctly because of their complexity. VIEW Version 13.4a ================== Improved handling of accented characters in HTML documents. VIEW Version 14.0 ================= Added functionality for HP Palmtop computers. Pressing h while viewing a file allows you to toggle among the different Palmtop display modes. Please see hpusers.doc for more details. Improved algorithm for detecting ASCII/ANSI files containing high order characters. Improved "change drive" routine to accommodate systems with a CD-ROM drive in which a CD is not inserted. Fixed problem with system hanging if user tries to load custom help file c:\viewcust.hlp and it is not present. Improved algorithm for displaying Word97 files. VIEW is now bundled with BATCHCNV.EXE, a utility that works with VIEW to allow you to do batch conversions of files to ASCII, and VIEWSEEK.EXE, a utility that allows you to search for text strings in a list of files. VIEW Version 14.1 ================= Changed tracking of HTML coding errors of the form e - special characters - with missing terminating; - VIEW no longer tracks such errors by default, as there are other, much more powerful HTML validators available. You can restore the feature by using the command line switch /& VIEW Version 14.1a ================== Fixed bug that caused VIEW to hang when trying to decode OLE compound file it does not recognise. Also fixed bug in accompanying program BATCHCNV that caused the cursor to disappear if Ctrl-Break is pressed. Corrected problem of missing blank lines between paragraphs when file saved in format for importing to word processor. VIEW Version 14.2 ================= Added facility to retain tabs in documents saved in format for importing into word processors. This is only available from a batch command conversion. For example, to convert myfile.wpd to myfile.asc use: view myfile.doc /Cmyfile.asc Note that the /C is case sensitive. Added a switch /1 (that's numeral one, not letter "ell"). It forces the alternate decode algorithm of Word 6 files, obtained from the view screen by pressing Ctrl-F10. Use it when printing or converting a file directly (that is, with the /C or /c switches). Added a switch /6 to override VIEW's default decoding of the end of Word 6 files. In some files a block of characters appears that cause VIEW to think it has reached the end of the text. The /6 overrides this. However, please note that you will almost certainly see a lot of "garbage" characters at the end of the file. The switch is most useful when used with the /C or /c switches for printing or converting files directly. Improved the algorithm for decoding Word 97 files. VIEW Version 15.0 ================= Added facility for visually impaired users to toggle between positioning the cursor at the beginning or the end (column 80) of the top line of text. The default is at the beginning. To switch to putting the cursor at the end either use the /x switch on the command line (see below), or just press x while viewing the file. To use the command line the syntax is view myfile.doc /x Improved the algorithm for decoding HTML files with errors in the coding of special characters. These have the form &xxxx; but a common error is that the closing ; is missing. (15.0 a) - added function to remove leading blanks from lines. Press z while viewing a file, or use the /z command line switch. This is useful for making files such as HTML format more readable. However, note that if you use the /z switch in combination with the /C switch (save converted file in a format suitable for import into a word processor), any leading tabs will also be removed. (END OF DOCUMENT) VICUG-L ARCHIVES http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html