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Home
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Documentation
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General Notes
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PyGETS Guide
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PyGEMZ Guide
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PyGERS Guide
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Credits
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Project Page
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Downloads
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Python Gutenberg E-text Project |
Because individual readers will have their own personal preferences on what meets their needs and what looks good to them, PyGERS provides several ways for users to customize how e-texts are displayed. This flexibility is important to accomodate people who may have trouble reading text that is too small, who may wish to read e-texts under unusually dim or bright lighting conditions, and who may use computer displays ranging in size from compact to very large.
The process of changing view settings is simple. With a few basic controls, users can adjust specific view characteristics until they like what they see. Once a desirable set of viewing characteristics has been selected, the user can easily name and save those settings for use in future reading sessions.
PyGERS provides controls for users to adjust the following settings:
The PyGERS application window can be repositioned and resized just like other windows on the same system. If you are unsure how to move or resize windows for a particular environment, refer to the user's manual or other documentation available for the system.
Position. For example, in MS Windows and other popular graphical environments, a window can be moved by placing the mouse cursor on the title bar of the window and dragging the window to a new position while holding down the left mouse button.
Size. Window resizing can often be done by placing the mouse cursor on the edge of a window such that the cursor shows a two-headed arrow shape, and then dragging the edge in or out while holding down the left mouse button.
Control over the text and background colors used in the main application window depends on the underlying graphical environment.
GTK. On GTK-based environments, often found on Linux and Unix platforms, general application colors are set by installing GTK themes which serve to give all theme-enabled applications the same consistent look. On GTK-based systems, PyGERS will automatically exhibit the color scheme specified by the currently installed GTK theme.
Others. On other graphical environments, such as MS Windows, users are free to change the application text and background colors by invoking the menu command Edit->Colors. This command will bring up a dialog window with buttons for adjusting general foreground and background colors.
Within the dialog window, clicking either the TEXT COLOR or BACKGROUND buttons brings up a color selection window that allows selection of a new color for text or background. The dialog window will reflect how chosen colors will look when applied to the main application window.
Clicking on the dialog OK button will apply the newly selected color scheme, while clicking on the Cancel button will leave the color scheme unchanged.
Control over the appearance of e-text material in the PyGERS display area is available on all supported platforms. Invoking the menu command Edit->Text style results in a Style Chooser dialog box containing controls for changing the font, foreground and background colors of displayed text.
Font. Clicking on the FONT button brings up a font selection dialog which allows selection from a list of available font choices. The choices will include the font family, font size, and special font characteristics like bold and italic styles.
Text color. Clicking on the TEXT COLOR button brings up a color selection dialog which allows selection of the color that will be used to display characters in the text display area.
Text background. Clicking on the BACKGROUND button brings up a color selection dialog which allows selection of the color that will be used as the background color in the text display area.
A preview of how text will look with the chosen characteristics is shown in the Sample Text box of the Style Chooser dialog. Additional text can be entered into the Sample Text box by simply left clicking with the mouse cursor inside the box and typing in new characters.
Clicking on the Style Chooser dialog OK button will apply the newly selected text display settings, while clicking on the Cancel button will leave the text display settings unchanged.
E-texts from Project Gutenberg are plain text files that do not contain page divisions. Some e-text reading programs present this material as a continuous stream, making the reading experience similar to reading a single large scroll. In contrast, PyGERS is designed to present e-text material in the form of pages to make the reading experience closer to that of reading a physical book. This means the PyGERS program must first divide the e-text material into page-sized pieces before displaying them to the user.
The choice of how much text to place on each page is dependent on a number of factors which include: the available size of the text display area, the font style being used, and the personal preferences of the user. One consideration may be wanting to keep the quantity of text on each page small enough to not require scrolling to see the full contents of any page.
Control over the amount of text shown on each page is exercised by changing the two pagination parameters, page lines and page columns. An example view of the control elements for adjusting these pagination parameters is shown below.
The parameter values can be changed by either left mouse clicking on the increment or decrement arrows to the right of each value, or left mouse clicking on the parameter fields themselves and typing in new values followed by pressing Enter on the keyboard.
After new pagination values have been entered, PyGERS will recalculate the division of text into pages and display the resulting number of pages under the text display area. The user can keep adjusting the values until an acceptable look for a given page size is achieved for all pages within the e-text being displayed.
Once an acceptable combination of view settings has been achieved with the controls described above, many of the results can be saved for use in future reading sessions. Settings which can be saved include: window position, window size, text font, text color, text background, and amount of text displayed per page.
Three approaches to saving view settings are employed in PyGERS: automatic saving of settings associated with a particular e-text, manual saving of view settings by a user-supplied name, saving a default set of view settings.
Each e-text from Project Gutenberg has an e-text number associated with it. Whenever the PyGERS program is closed with the File->Exit menu command, the current view settings are automatically saved under the current e-text number. Thereafter, each time an e-text with a saved setting is opened with the File->Open menu command, its view settings can be restored to what they were the last time that e-text was viewed with PyGERS.
View settings can also be saved for future use under names chosen by the user. This allows preferred settings to be easily applied to new e-texts that have not been previously opened and which do not have settings saved under their e-text number.
Named view setting saves are invoked with the Edit->Save configuration menu command. This brings up a Save Configuration dialog that allows the user to either pick from a list of existing names or enter a new name for the settings to be saved.
Clicking on the Save Configuration dialog OK button will save the current settings with the specified name, while clicking on the Cancel button will not cause any settings to be saved.
Current view settings can be saved as the default setting used by PyGERS when it first starts up, before any e-texts are loaded for display. Default settings can be created by invoking the Edit->Set default configuration menu command. This command immediately sets the current state of view settings as the one to use for future invocations of PyGERS.
At any time, view settings that have been saved under a name can be restored to active status. Restoring named view settings can be invoked with the Edit->Load configuration menu command. This brings up a Load Configuration dialog which allows the user to select the name of a saved setting to restore.
Clicking on the Load Configuration dialog OK button will replace the current settings with the settings saved under the selected name, while clicking on the Cancel button will not cause any changes in the current settings.
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Last modified: Mon Aug 04 19:45:06 PST 2003 |
Copyright © Gary Shao, 2003. All rights reserved. |
