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GeoPublish for non-GEOS Users
by Bruce Thomas

The purpose of this article will be to show that geoPublish (gP) can be used to quickly create simple flyers without having to spend a lot of time learning all of the complexities of the program. It is also possible to do these things with a bare bones system consisting of a C-64 and a single 1541 Disk Drive. I'm also trying to do this with very few words to get as much in as possible. Follow very carefully and do exactly as listed or something will go wrong with your poster. Have your gP manual close at hand in case you need to look things up.

As with any gP project, grab a pencil and a plain piece of paper and draw a rough sketch of what you want to create. Our creation will be a Garage Sale poster with a large headline, the date, time and address, a picture in the middle and a text box near the bottom describing some of the great bargains we have for sale. We will spruce it up a bit by drawing a border all the way around the page.

Start up GEOS and grab a blank floppy for a project disk. Onto this disk copy geoPublish, your printer driver, Mega Roma and Roma fonts and the Photo Scrap. This left me with 35 KB free on a 1541 disk.

GeoPublish has four operating modes - Master Page (create column layouts), Page Layout (import text files), Editor (edit your imported text files) and Page Graphics (add graphics and create large headlines). Since Page Graphics Mode (the mode that gP opens in) is one of the few programs for the 64 that lets you work on a full 8.5" * 11" page at once, gP is a great place to quickly get quality results. Start gP and create a new file - call it "UCUGA Demo".

For the headline click on the "T" in the Toolbox and then click on the Attributes Tool (2 below the "T"). We want a big headline so choose Mega Roma font. This font has a size of 48 points but we want bigger than that. You get the best results from GEOS fonts if you use the built-in sizes or multiples of those point sizes. For this headline set the point size to 96. Click OK and then move your mouse onto the page view to the intersection of the vertical (V) and horizontal (H) 1" ruler marks. Click to set the text location, type in "Garage Sale" and click OK to set the text.

Position the mouse just below the 'G' of Garage and click again. Type in the date of your sale, press return and then type in your address. Click on the "Attr" button and set the point size to 48. Click OK.

Click on the Icon beside the "T" and move over to the page at 4.5"V and 1"H and click to place the Photo Scrap image. Back to the toolbox and click on the arrow. Click on the graphic and then click on the Attributes tool. Select "Stretch and Scale to fit" and Click OK. Click on the resize box (lower right corner of picture), drag it down to about 9"V and 6"H, and click again to resize your picture.

Now click on the "T" again and then click on the Attributes Tool (2 below the "T"). Select Roma font and a point size of 24. Click OK and then place your mouse at 9.5V" and 2"H to position the text box. Type in any sort of text to describe the items in your garage sale and click OK to set the text.

To draw the border around the page select the 'box' tool from the toolbox. Move the cursor to the top left corner of the page and click your mouse button. Drag the box down to the lower right corner and click again to set the box.

Let's change the properties of this box. Click the Arrow Tool and then Click anywhere near the top of the page to highlight the box. Click on the Attributes box in the Toolbox and then make the box wider. Click OK. All you will see on the screen now is the highlighted box. Click on the "Move to Back" tool (lower right corner of the toolbox) and the screen will redraw to make your text and graphic visible. Click on the Arrow tool to remove the box highlight. Your poster is done and ready for printing.

For best printing results make sure you have a multi-strike or interpolating driver for your printer. Some of these drivers can get remarkably good results from even 60 DPI printers. Print out your flyer, make a lot of copies and post it around the neighborhood. When Sale Day comes you can proudly tell people you made the signs on your Commodore using a top-notch Desktop Publishing Program.

With these basics you can quickly make flyers for any occasion. Once you start using gP you will see more uses for it. When you want to learn more than just these basics join the COPS mailing list on the Internet. There you will learn lots of tricks to make gP really shine along with plenty of tips on how to improve your printouts with PostScript printing.

Until next time, enGEOy your Commodore!