Athena Harpoon: Design Documents

A UNIX computer with Solaris Operating System
Java Virtual Machine

The following is required to run Harpoon Viewer:

Netscape Communicator 4.05 OR
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 OR
Any other Java Appletviewer

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Installation

To install Harpoon and Harpoon Viewer, copy the file harpoon.tgz into the directory in which the Harpoon directory will reside, and untar the archive. The subdirectories will create themselves.

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Using The Program

To open a presentation: Click on the open button on the main toolbar or select open file in the File menu. This will bring up a dialog box where you can either type in the path of the YAMAL presentation or find it.

To create a new presentation: Click on the new button on the main toolbar or select new in the File menu. This will open an empty slide in the drawing area.

To type text: Click on the text button in the paint toolbar. The click in the slide. A cursor will appear, allowing you to type. After you're done typing, click on the slide again, and the text can be selected to be moved.

To save the style of an outline: Select save Style Guide from the File menu. A file dialog box will appear where you can enter the name of a file where you want text style information stored. To load a preset text style: Select Load Style Guide from the File menu. A file dialog box will appear where you can enter the name of a file or choose a file that contains the text formatting information you want to load.

To draw: Select drawing tools from the paint toolbar and draw in the current slide. For more detailed information, see the commands section.

To make a customized color: click on the customize button, then on the grid space of the color table that you want to change. A box will appear where you can enter three numbers: one for the red value, one for the green value, and one for the blue. These numbers must be between 0 and 255.

To save customized colors: Select Save Color Guide from the File menu. A file dialog box will appear where you can enter the name of a file to store the color information. The color information for the current color table will be stored in this file.

To load customized colors: Select Load Color Guide from the File menu. A file dialog box will appear where you can select a file that you want to load colors from.

To insert an image: Select image from the Insert menu, and a dialog box will appear where you can select an image in gif or jpeg format. The images selected will appear in the current slide.

To insert a new slide: Most people will want presentations longer than one slide. To do this, select slide from the Insert menu, and a blank slide will appear after the current one.

To change slide order: To change the order of slides, select Slide Sorter from the Layout menu, and thumbnails of all the slides in the current presentation will appear in a grid. You can then click and drag the slides into the desired positions.

To add notes: Harpoon has a Lecture Notes option where the slide will appear on the top half of an 8.5x11 inch paper, and space for notes will appear on the bottom. To do this, select the Lecture Notes option in the Layout menu.

To view the presentation: Select Slide Show from the Layout menu, and the presentation can be viewed like a slide show.

To save a presentation: Press the save button on the main toolbar. Or, select save or save as from the File menu. If it's the first time, a dialog box will pop up prompting you to enter a file name. On subsequent saves, just pressing the save button will be enough.

To print a presentation: Click on the print button or select Print from the File menu. This will bring up a dialog box where you can select whether you want to print in full size, two slides per page, or four slides per page.

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Commands

All of the commands can easily be executed from menus or buttons on either the main toolbar or the paint toolbar. In addition, Harpoon incorporates a tab system at the top of the program to easily identify different projects that are open and switch between them.

The Menus
The Toolbars

The Menus

The Harpoon menu bar consists of eight main menus: File, Edit, Insert, Layout, Drawing, Text, Window, and Help.

File - The File menu consists of the commands New, Open File, Open URL, Save, Save As, Print, Close, and Exit. New - Creates a new presentation.

Open File - Opens a file created in YAMAL format.

Open URL - Opens the contents of a Uniform Resouce Location.

Save - If a project has been saved before, this command saves it using the same name.

Save As - Save a new presentation using a specified name or an existing presentation using a different name.

Load Style Guide - Loads a style guide, which determines the format of the text.(Not yet implemented)

Save Style Guide - Saves a style guide, which saves information about the format of text in buttet and outline mode (e.g., font size and style on a tabbed line).(Not yet implemented)

Load Color Guide - Loads a custom set of colors into the color map.

Save Color Guide - Saves the current color map into a file that can be loaded for use at a later time.(Not yet implemented)

Print - Print a slide, multiple slides, or a full presentation.

Close - Close an individual presentation.

Exit - Exit the program.

Edit - The Edit menu consists of the commands Cut, Copy, and Paste. Cut - Cut a section of text or a drawn object.

Copy - Copy a section of text or a drawn object.

Paste - Paste a section of text or a drawn object.

Insert - The Insert menu consists of the commands Insert Slide and Insert Image. Insert Slide - Insert a new slide into a presentation.

Insert Image - Insert an image in gif or jpeg format into the current slide.

Layout - The Layout menu consists of the commands Normal, Lecture Notes, and Slide Sorter. Normal - Shows the presentation in Normal Layout, one slide at a time on the screen.

Lecture Notes - Shows each slide as the top half of an 8.5x11 piece of paper, with the bottom half as lecture notes.

Slide Sorter - Displays thumbnails of all slides on a presentation in a grid so they can be sorted.(Not yet implemented)

Slide Show - Display the presentation as a slide show.(Not yet implemented)

Drawing - The Drawing menu consists of the commands Line, Arrow Line, Empty Rectangle, Fill Rectangle, Bordered Rectangle, Empty Round Rectangle, Fill Round Rectangle, Bordered Round Rectangle, Empty 3D Rectangle, Fill 3D Rectangle, Empty Ellipse, Fill Ellipse, Bordered Ellipse, Empty Polygon, Fill Polygon, Bordered Polygon, Paint Bucket, Move To Front, Move To Back, Step Up, and Step Down. Line - Draws a line.

Arrow Line - Draws a line with an arrow, that connect two other objects.

Empty Rectangle - Draws an empty rectangle. If shift is held down, it draws a square.

Fill Rectangle - Draws a filled rectangle. If shift is held down, it draws a square.

Bordered Rectangle - Draws a rectangle with a colored border. If shift is held down, it draws a aquare.

Empty Round Rectangle - Draws an empty round rectangle. If shift is held down, it draws a square.

Fill Round Rectangle - Draws a filled round rectangle. If shift is held down, it draws a square.

Bordered Round Rectangle - Draws a round rectangle with a colored border. If shift is held down, it draws a square.

Empty 3D Rectangle - Draws an empty rectangle that looks slightly raised. If shift is held down, it draws a square.

Fill 3D Rectangle - Draws a filled rectangle that looks slightly raised. If shift is held down, it draws a square.

Empty Ellipse - Draws an empty ellipse. If shift is held down, it draws a circle.

Fill Ellipse - Draws a filled ellipse. If shift is held down, it draws a circle.

Bordered Ellipse - Draws an ellipse with a colored border. If shift is held down, it draws a circle.

Empty Polygon - Draws an empty polygon with any number of edges.

Fill Polygon - Draws a filled polygon with any number of edges.

Paint Bucket - Fills an empty object or changes the color of a filled one.

Move to front - Takes the currently selected object and moves it to the front.

Move to back - Takes the currently selected object and moves it to the back.

Step Up - Takes the currently selected object and moves it in front of the object currently in front of it.

Step Down - Takes the currently selected object and moves it behind the object it is currently in front of.

Text - The Text menu consists of the commands Normal Layout, Bullet Layout, and Outline Layout. Normal - Displays text normally with no bullets.

Bullet - Displays text with bullets.

Outline - Displays text outlined.

Window - The Window menu consists of the commands Cascade, Tile, and Lists the open presentations. Cascade - Displays all open presentation windows in a casacded format.

Tile - Displays all open presentation windows tiled so all are visible.

List of open presentations - Under the above two menu options, the names of all open presentations are listed and clickable.

Help - The Help menu consists of the commands Help and About. Help - Brings up the program's help file

About - Gives information about Harpoon and its authors.