Welcome 1

Using This Manual 1

Documentation Conventions 3

Related Documentation 3

Chapter 1 - Before You Start 4

Monitor Compatibility 4

Choosing a Language 5

Choosing a Keyboard 5

Software Installation 5

Installing System Software 6

Getting Started 7

Chapter 2 - Basic Concepts 8

Booting/Rebooting Your System 8

Special Boot Options 9

Using the Workbench Pointers 9

Mouse Pointer 10

Busy Pointer 10

Using the Mouse 10

Holding the Mouse 10

Mouse Operations 11

Using the Selection Button 11

Using the Menu Button 11

Using Menus 11

Ghosted Menu Items 12

Canceling an Operation 12

Using the Amiga Without a Mouse 12

Using Disk Drives 13

Inserting Floppy Disks 13

Using Floppy Disks 13

Using the Ram Disk 14

Backup Disks 15

Managing Your Files 15

Organizing Information on Disks 15

Paths 15

File and Drawer Names 16

Trashcan 17

Using Application Software 17

Chapter 3 - Fundamentals of the Workbench 18

Screens 18

Using Screens 19

Dragging a Screen 19

Menus 19

Using Menus 20

Windows 20

Working with Windows 20

Selecting Windows 21

Opening a Window 21

Dragging a Window 21

AppWindows 21

Gadgets 21

Window Gadgets 22

Title Bar 22

Depth Gadget 22

Zoom Gadget 22

Sizing Gadget 22

Scroll Gadgets 23

Close Gadget 23

Action Gadgets 23

Additional Gadgets 24

Check Box 24

Cycle Gadget 24

Radio Button 24

Text Gadget 24

Scrolling List Gadgets 25

Slider Gadget 25

Icons 25

Working with Icons 26

Selecting an Icon 26

Selecting Multiple Icons 26

Dragging an Icon 27

Copy by Dragging 27

Icon Tool Types 28

Uncommenting 28

Changing a Tool Type 28

Adding a Tool Type 28

Deleting a Tool Type 29

AppIcons 29

Requesters 29

Action Requesters 29

Message Requesters 29

Text Requester 30

File Requesters 30

Font Requesters 32

ScreenMode Requesters 32

Chapter 4 - Using Workbench 33

Workbench Screen 33

Workbench Window 33

Workbench Menus 34

Workbench Menu 34

Backdrop 35

Execute Command 35

Redraw All 35

Update All 35

Last Message 36

About 36

Quit 36

Window Menu 36

New Drawer 36

Open Parent 36

Close 37

Update 37

Select Contents 37

Clean Up 37

Snapshot 37

Show 37

View By 37

Icons Menu 38

Open 38

Copy 38

Rename 39

Information 39

Snapshot 41

UnSnapshot 41

Leave Out 41

Put Away 42

Delete 42

Format Disk 42

Formatting Hard Disks 44

Formatting Floppy Disks 44

Empty Trash 45

Tools Menu 45

Workbench Programs 46

System Drawer 46

FixFonts 46

Format 46

Intellifont 46

NoFastMem 46

RexxMast 46

Shell 47

Utilities Drawer 47

Clock 47

Tool Types 48

More 48

MultiView 48

Project Menu 50

Edit Menu 50

Windows Menu 50

Settings Menu 50

Tool Types 50

WBStartup Drawer 51

Tool Types 51

Expansion Drawer 51

Devs Drawer/Storage Drawer 52

Data Types 52

DOSDrivers 53

Using CD-ROM 53

Keymaps 54

Monitors 54

Printers 54

Chapter 5 - Preferences 55

Prefs Drawer 55

Editor Menus and Presets Drawer 56

Project Menu 57

Edit Menu 57

Settings Menu 57

Using the Presets Drawer 58

Workbench Preferences 58

Reaction Preferences 58

Keyboard Selection Delay 59

Font Editor 60

IControl Editor 60

Screen Drag 60

Screen Menu Snap 60

Text Gadget Filter 60

Avoid Flicker 61

Mode Promotion 61

Input Editor 61

Mouse Speed 62

Acceleration 62

Double-Click Delay 62

Key Repeat Delay 63

Key Repeat Rate 63

Keyboard Test 63

Keyboard Type 63

Locale Editor 64

Overscan Editor 64

Text and Graphics Overscan 65

Using Different Text and Graphics Overscan 65

Overscan Edit Screens 66

Dimensions 67

Palette Editor 67

Pointer Editor 70

Printer Editor 72

PrinterGfx Editor 72

PrinterPS Editor 72

ScreenMode Editor 72

Using the ScreenMode Editor 73

Mode Properties 73

Width/Height 74

Colors 74

AutoScroll 75

Serial Editor 75

Baud Rate 75

Input Buffer Size 75

Handshaking 75

Parity 76

Bits/Char 76

Multiple Units 76

Sound Editor 77

Time Editor 78

WBPattern Editor 79

Applying Background Patterns 79

Applying Pictures 80

WBPattern Edit Menu 80

Chapter 6 - Localization 82

Localized Features 82

Locale Preferences Editor 82

Chapter 7 - Monitors 85

Your Video System 85

Monitor Guidelines 86

Types of Monitor 87

Choosing a Monitor 87

Monitor Drivers 87

Required Scan Rates 88

Video Monitors 89

VGA Monitors 89

Multiscan Monitors 89

Choosing a Display Mode 89

Monitor Drivers Available on All Amigas 90

NTSC Monitor 91

PAL Monitor 91

A2024 Monitor 91

NTSC Monitor 92

PAL Monitor 92

Monitor Drivers Available on ECS and AGA Amigas 92

NTSC Monitor 93

PAL Monitor 93

Multiscan Monitor 93

A2024 Monitor 93

Euro:36Hz Monitor 94

Euro:72Hz Monitor 94

Super72 Monitor 94

DBLNTSC Monitor 95

DBLPAL Monitor 95

Monitor Drivers Available on AGA Amigas Only 95

DBLNTSC Monitor 95

DBLPAL Monitor 96

Clearing a Display Mode 96

Screen Centering and Overscan 97

General AGA Information 97

Tips for Working with AGA 97

Mode Promotion 98

Enabling Mode Promotion 98

Chapter 8 - Fonts 99

Types of Fonts 99

Using Bitmap Fonts 99

Using Outline Fonts 100

Using Proportional and Non-proportional Fonts 100

Fonts 100

Font Requester 100

Font Preferences Editor 102

Selected Fonts Field 102

Font Selection Gadgets 102

Font Selection Requesters 103

FixFonts 104

Intellifont 104

Installing Outline Fonts 105

Modifying Outline Fonts 106

Changing Environment Variables 107

Chapter 9 - Printers 108

Setting Up Your Printer 108

Configuring Your Printer 108

Connecting Your Printer 109

Connecting Printer Output Devices 109

Connecting Multiple Devices 109

Printer Drivers 110

Choosing a Printer Driver 110

Activating a Printer Driver 111

Preferences Settings for Printers 111

Printer Preferences Editor 112

Printer Port 113

Print Pitch 113

Print Spacing 114

Print Quality 114

Paper Type 114

Paper Format 114

Paper Length 114

Left Margin 114

Right Margin 114

Device Unit 114

PrinterGfx Preferences Editor 114

Dithering 115

Scaling 116

Image 116

Aspect 116

Shade 116

Threshold 116

Density 117

Smoothing 117

Center Picture 117

Color Correction 117

Left Edge 117

Limits/Type 117

Hints for Faster Graphics Printing 118

printtofile.device 119

How to use it? 119

What happens when printing starts? 119

PrinterPS Preferences Editor 119

Driver Mode 120

Copies 120

Paper Format 120

Paper Width and Paper Height 120

Horizontal DPI and Vertical DPI 120

Panel Cycle Gadget 120

Text Options 121

Text Dimensions 121

Graphics Options 122

Graphics Scaling 123

Using Printer Escape Sequences 124

Standard ANSI Escape Sequences 126

Extended Commands 128

HP_DeskJet_CMY printer driver 129

Shingling and depletion 129

Gamma correction 129

Colour correction 129

HP_DeskJet_CMYK printer driver 130

Shingling and depletion 130

Gamma correction 130

Chapter 10 - Other Workbench Programs 131

Tools Drawer 131

PlayCD 132

Starting the program 132

The user interface 134

Stopping the program 135

Mounter 136

The graphical user interface 138

Calculator 139

Calculator menus 140

CMD (Change Main Device) 140

GraphicDump 141

Tool Types 141

IconEdit 142

Color Selection Gadget 142

Magnified View Box 143

Fill pattern Gadgets 143

Freehand Gadget 143

Continuous Freehand Gadget 143

Circle Gadget 143

Filled Circle Gadget 143

Box Gadget 143

Filled Box Gadget 144

Line Gadget 144

Fill Gadget 144

Undo 144

Redo 144

Clear 144

Normal/Selected Radio Buttons 144

Arrows 145

Project Menu 145

Edit Menu 146

Type Menu 146

Highlight Menu 146

Images Menu 147

Extras Menu 148

Settings Menu 148

Tool Types 149

IntiPrinter 149

KeyShow 150

Lacer 151

MEmacs 151

PrepCard 151

PrintFiles 152

ShowConfig 153

Commodities Drawer 153

Using Commodities Tool Types 154

Acceptable Key Combinations 154

AutoPoint 156

Blanker 156

Tool Types 156

ClickToFront 156

Tool Types 156

CrossDOS 157

Exchange 157

FKey 158

MouseBlanker 159

NoCapsLock 159

Chapter 11 - CrossDOS 160

CrossDOS Drivers 160

Activating CrossDOS Drivers 160

Adding CrossDOS Drivers 160

Using CrossDOS 161

Names 161

Invalid Characters 161

File Name 162

File Extension 162

Workbench Extension (".info") 162

Root Name Qualifier (:) 162

Volume Name 162

Directory Name Qualifiers 162

Icons 163

Formatting Disks 163

CrossDOS Mount Files 163

CrossDOS Commodity 164

Text Filtering 164

Text Translation 164

Translation Types 165

Chapter 12 - ED Editor 166

Starting ED 166

Using ED 167

Immediate Commands 167

Moving the Cursor in Immediate Mode 168

Inserting Text in Immediate Mode 169

Deleting Text in Immediate Mode 169

Changing Case in Immediate Mode 169

Extended Commands 170

Using String Delimiters 170

Using a File Requester 170

ED Menus 171

Enabling Expanded Menus 171

Project Menu 171

Edit Menu 172

Movement Menu 173

Search Menu 173

Settings Menu 174

Set FN Key 175

Example Script 175

Special Key Mappings 175

Command Menu 177

Other ED Commands 177

Program Control 177

Cursor Control 177

Modifying Text 178

Repeating Commands in Extended Mode 178

Customizing ED 179

Set Menu Item 179

Example Script 180

Printing From ED 180

Quitting ED 180

Appendix A - Trouble Shooting 182

Appendix B - Using Floppy-Only Systems 184

Booting Floppy-Based Systems 184

Using Different Languages 184

Boot Tasks 185

Booting for the First Time 185

Copying Your System Disks 185

If you have a second floppy drive: 185

If you do not have an external floppy drive: 185

Rebooting 185

Copying Information From Your Disks 186

Setting Preferences 186

Subsequent Preferences Editing 187

Tow or more floppy drives: 187

Working Faster with Floppies 187

Making Commands Resident 187

Recommendations 188

Preloading Resources 189

Making Room on Your Workbench Disk 189

Files You Can Delete 190

Files to Avoid Deleting 190

Using the ASSIGN Command 190

Placing FONTS: on Your Workbench Disk 191

Using the Ram Disk 192

Recoverable Ram Disk 192

A Bootable RAD: 192

Using Directory Caching on Floppy Disks 192

Directory Caching on System Disks 193

Appendix C - AmigaGuide 194

Accessing AmigaGuide 194

Using AmigaGuide 194

AmigaGuide Menus 195

Project Menu 195

Edit Menu 195

Window Menu 195

Prefs Menu 196

Appendix D - Special Early Startup Control Options 197

Disabling Devices and Caches 197

Choosing Display Options 198

Diagnosing Expansion Board Failures 199

Glossary 201