ASCII import/export Index

ASCII import

First of all select the text that is to be imported in the file selector. After this the following dialog appears:

On the right of the dialog you will see a large preview field, which will display the text according to the parameters set in the left half. With the arrow buttons at the top and bottom of the preview field you can scroll the preview contents back and forth line by line (single arrows) or page by page (triple arrows).

The ASCII import dialog offers the following selectable parameters:

Wrapping

Here you can specify how body copy should be formatted after importing. You can choose between the following options:

• as comment control code
  Line wrapping will not be executed, but only marked as a control code (recognizable as a red [K] in the Preview at the right of the dialog). With this you achieve text importation without any line wrapping.
• after each line
  Every line that ends with a line-end character in the source text will also have one in the Calamus Text frame. Which one that is can be set in the next parameter. With this setting you will almost always achieve the same line wrap positions as in the source file, which can be useful with data import, for instance.
• after empty lines only
  A check will be made during import whether the source text contained any empty lines (i.e. two line-end characters directly following each other). If this was the case, then each is replaced in the Calamus Text frame by a line-end character. Which one that is can be set in the next parameter. With this setting, paragraphs will be imported without line-wrapping markers, which is very useful for setting text for books etc., for instance.

with

This parameter determines how the wrapping set above (after each line or after empty lines only) is to be formatted. You can choose between the following line ends:

• hard line ends
• paragraph ends
• variable paragraph ends

Delete

It may be desirable to delete certain characters directly during import. The following options are offered for selection:

• Blanks at line start
• Blanks\Tab at line end

Convert

It may be desirable to convert certain characters directly during import. The following options are offered for selection:

• Control codes -> Comments
• Form-feed -> Forced page wrap
• Beta > Eszet
• Minus > Divis

Tabulator becomes

Tabulator characters are used in very different ways in various programs. Therefore there is also an option to convert a Tab character:

• [HT] comment The Tab will not be used but marked as a comment control code (recognizable as a red [K] in the Preview at the right of the dialog).
• Tabulator Tabulator characters are replaced by themselves, which means that Tabs remain unaltered.
• Blank + Tab As Calamus, unlike many other programs, uses so-called sticky Tabs, it is usually recommended to insert a space before the Tab character for source texts originating from other programs, so that it becomes a ranged-left Tab in the Calamus text frame.

Convert with

ASCII is a standardized format for the exchange of text. However, only the first 128 characters of the total of 256 possible characters are standardized. The second half of the ASCII characters (upper ASCII) can vary from country to country and computer to computer. (Actually the latter also applies to most control-code characters below ASCII 32).
So that you do not see incorrect umlauts or even strange special characters in Calamus running on a Windows computer after importing a text that was exported from, say, SimpleText on an Apple computer, there is a very powerful character converter built in that works with editable character transformation tables. Many different ones are included in the ASCII.TAB folder. You can alter or supplement these tables, or create new ones. How this works is described in detail in the ASCII tables section below.
So if you assume that the text to be imported contains umlauts or other accented characters that do not correspond to the Calamus character assignment, you can select one of several converters in this popup. If you don't want to do this, or if (!AIE) did not find its ASCII tables when launched, then the popup menu offers only the entry No conversion.

With the I button you can call up the Info dialog of the driver, in which you will find the current version number and information about the authors.

Naturally you can save the settings and load them again, so that you do not have to adjust them each time. That is what the two buttons Save and Load are for. (!AIE) on launching always looks for a file named (!AIE).SET in its start path, i.e. normally in the DRIVERS folder. Therefore you should save your most frequently used settings under this name and path.

If you want to save sets for less frequently required applications, just use a slightly different name, e.g. ASC_Mac.SET for special Apple settings etc.

With the [OK] button the text will be taken over into the Text frame, exactly as you see it in the Preview. The [Cancel] button breaks off the complete import function.