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Suggestion Box

Voice Card  -  Volume 5  -  John Card Number 1  -  Wed, Mar 8, 1989 12:38 AM







This is a response to volume 4, John Card Number 1 ("Suggestion Box")...

Shortly after launching the last issue I spotted several minor bugs and design oversights. As a result I have devised various improvements and modifications, and I have also come up with some new features and even several new stacks! First the problems (and solutions):

  • Some of you may have noticed that Paul's address card did not properly install itself in the last update of the Member List. In order to fix this problem (and because Dionne left the group) I have included a re-release of the Member List stack in this issue. I gave the stack a slight facelift, but it works pretty much as it did before. The most noticeable change is that the stack now stays at the opening map screen until you click on one of the member icons (and just for fun, the member cities now twinkle).

    I still hope to do a major revision and expansion of this stack, but the current version should hold us for a while. Incidentally, we still need an Info Card from Cliff.

  • After installing the new voice font in our voice volumes, I forgot to install it into the transit stack as well. The result was that any of you who tried to make use of the new sticky punctuation marks saw obscure symbols instead. Those symbols automatically change into the correct punctuation as soon as they are harvested, but you shouldn't have to wait for that transformation. The latest edition of the transit stack now supports the full voice font. I have also started to employ sticky punctuation in the opening line of new response cards.
  • I have SUBSTANTIALLY ENHANCED the voice font. There are a host of new symbols and new features! I have also changed the "sticky" punctuation. See Vol 5 John 13.
  • FIND will now search for all occurances of a pattern unless you hold down the option key to contstrain the search to whole words only (it used to be the other way around). I made the change to ensure that matches will be found even when a word is preceeded by sticky punctuation. You can see how it works by typing F and finding the letter "i"; you will find i's in every other word. Now hold down the option key as you tap the key: you will only find the big I's (the pronouns).
  • I am delighted to announce that TWO new Archipelago stacks are included in this shipment. The first is the Pelago Notebook stack that Holly requested for jotting down ideas between sessions (See Vol 5 John 2).
  • The second offering, a Strategic Conquest Comparison stack, will probably be of interest only to Paul. See Vol 5 John 6.
  • As part of my continuing effort to make reading voice cards as easy and as fast as possible, I have enhanced the option scan feature of the two arrow buttons and created a "Speed Reading" mode. THIS FEATURE MAY REDUCE YOUR READING TIME! CHECK IT OUT BEFORE YOU READ ANOTHER CARD! See Vol 5 John 10.
  • For those of you who spend a lot of time bouncing all over a volume, I have added FOUR ingenious shortcuts. They have already saved me a tremendous amount of time, and I hope you will find them equally useful. See Vol 5 John 17.
  • Due to overwhelming popular demand, I HAVE REMOVED THE RESTRICTION ON MULTIPLE RESPONSES TO THE SAME CARD. You can now link several different responses to the same card (but please don't go overboard). In the unlikely event that we overrun the twelve existing reply boxes, I'll perform some kind of emergency surgery. (One of the reasons I gave in was that the new PRINT command makes tree structures more important than ever.)
  • I have modified my Harvesting procedures so that the index card of re-released "echo" voice volumes displays the total number of words in all text fields. You can see an example of this in the index card of volume four. I have also implemented a suggestion from Robert: the index field will no longer automatically scroll to the top whenever you return to the index!
  • Last but not least: we can now include PICTURES in our voice cards! See Vol 5 John 15!
I realize that all of these new voice card features may be a bit overwhelming. I am not going to update the voice card help manual until things have stabilized (Sorry, Paul), but I do have a tiny bit of help to offer! See Vol 5 John 11 or just tap ? for help!



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