Fellas,
I'm probably easily amused, but thanks to being off from work and having my
wife out of town for a few days, I've finally perfected a method to generate
.pdf files from AppleWorks Word Processing, Database, and Spreadsheet files,
and to do it from _within_ AppleWorks 5.1.
This is _not_ an epic effort, like the coding of Eric, Ewen, Antoine, Ivan
and the many other Apple II 'pros' has been, and admittedly it uses bits and
pieces of existing works, but I must say, the end results are slicker than
Shinola.
So many Apple II-based documents over the years were stored in AppleWorks
Word Processor format, and include, in addition to formatting codes (Bold /
Italic / Underline / Center / Justification), different font sizes and font
styles, page headers, page footers, page numbers, etc...
Even data base reports and spreadsheets, while not as 'format-rich', contain
information that would benefit from being inside a modern .pdf file.
Since AppleWorks 5.1 also loads standard text files and Merlin Source files,
they are also candidates for easy conversion.
Moreover, there are still a few of us (OK, very few, but I'm one) who still
use AppleWorks daily in a business setting to generate documents, including
Purchase Orders, Invoices, Quotations, Financial Schedules and the like, and
who have gotten tired, in today's modern climate, of having manually to scan
in AppleWorks documents to comply with the new-age request of 'Just email it
to me.'
AppleWorks 5.1, out-of-the-box, contains an HP PCL printer driver that
allows many formatting options, including a myriad of different fonts
(including a proportionally-spaced Times Roman). Advanced users, by
embedding certain Escape codes in the documents, are able to select PCL
printer macros, which allow complex Logos and forms to be stored in the
printer and to then be used on demand from within documents. These are
especially great for having things like a built-in letterhead or a built-in
invoice form. Neat, neat, stuff, or at least it seems so to me. But, then
again, I'm easily amused. <grin>
Anyway, I'll document all this next year, and if Sean thinks it's good
enough, maybe he will put it up under 'Howto' on his A2Central.com website
as a companion piece to my Apple II - Unix serial terminal article. Even if
it doesn't make it to the prime time, I'll put it up someplace.
It's not that involved, but it does require you have access to a 'modern'
computer to which you will cable your Apple II serially. That 'modern'
computer will become your PDF Printer.
Some key points.
1. The Apple II part of this works automatically from within AppleWorks. You
load your file to the AppleWorks Desktop, enter 'TimeOut Print2PDF', and
within seconds, your file shows up as a .pdf on your 'modern' computer.
2. The 'modern' computer will need to have Unix underpinnings. I'm using Mac
OS X, but Linux or other variants should work as well if not better.
3. The pdf engine on your 'modern' computer will use the open-source
GhostPCL from the GhostScript folks. (But we will _NOT_ use the substituted
monospaced Courier and Letter Gothic fonts supplied, as they are much too
thin and just don't look good, either when printed or when viewed on the
screen. - The other 70+ fonts are fine, though.)
4. On the Apple II, the TimeOut Application (a compiled series of fairly
involved macros, BTW - source code provided) will automatically Log on to
the Unix machine, change the Unix directory to the desired default location
for the file (I like the Desktop on the Mac), invoke the pcl to pdf engine,
print/send the document, close the pcl to pdf engine, and Log off the Unix
machine.
If you'd like to see a sample of the output this produces, I will direct you
to the usual ftp 'suspect' for downloading all things Apple II. I can't
recall its name at the moment. Someone else will know. <grin>
In the 'documentation' folder, go to the 'applications' subfolder, and then
to the 'appleworks' subsubfolder.
The file to examine is:
AW5UltraMacrosReferenceV1.pdf
This is Joe Walter's beautifully-done UltraMacros Reference Manual. It
numbers 150+ pages, includes both mono spaced and proportional fonts,
italics, bold face, page headers, etc... Joe even included a Table of
Contents and a couple of indices.
That pdf was made with this technique straight from within AppleWorks 5.1,
although I added the author name to the pdfmarks after-the-fact. Otherwise,
it's untouched.
For the record, Joe made the manual freeware and it has been available for a
number of years as a series of macros and data files that allow you to
'build your own'. This is a very cumbersome process that I'll bet dissuaded
more than a few people. Now in .pdf form, it is far more accessible.
{Since there were a small handful of UltraMacros .dot commands written by
various authors after Joe wrote his reference and were therefore not
included in the book, I term this pdf Volume 1. We'll see about a Volume 2
addendum someday.}
Finally, this same TimeOut application will be improved to allow FAXing from
within AppleWorks 5.1.
I've already got it coded, but not tested, since the doggone Dash2 Internal
Modem on my Mac has been flaky for years and is just not cooperating. It
dials the number, but hangs up on a 'protocol error'. I plan to replace it
with an external FAX modem and go at it again. That's for those requests
from customers to 'Just FAX it to me'. Hey, the customer's always right,
right? OK.
In the meantime, if you've just _have_ to have one of your AppleWorks
documents converted to .pdf, let me know. Maybe I can do it for you.