.TIF (Tagged Image File Format)ToolBook has a built-in object-oriented scripting language called OpenScript which is used to create scripts that respond to user events or Windows messages. Although OpenScript has an English-like syntax, a familiarity with programming concepts or macro languages will assist the author in taking full advantage of OpenScript's extensive features. OpenScript offers a full complement of expression-evaluation constructs, built-in and custom message handling, built-in and custom object properties, and the ability to define custom functions.
OpenScript is a compiled pseudocode language; statements are compiled to a compact binary format for faster execution and source-code security.
Through OpenScript, ToolBook can launch and communicate with other Windows applications to share data and execute commands using the Windows DDE protocol. ToolBook can also call dynamic-link libraries, or DLLs, which are external libraries written in C that perform special tasks and are loaded and unloaded from memory as needed by the application. ToolBook can also process messages from Windows while a script is executing, and a DLL can send messages to ToolBook objects.
These features make ToolBook extremely extensible, and allow developers to build functionality into applications that isn't present in the standard ToolBook product.
In ToolBook running on a standard VGA display, you can color fields, buttons, and graphics from a broad spectrum. Each object can have two colors: a stroke color for borders, text, or pattern, and the fill pattern for the rest of the object. ToolBook can also display 256-color bitmaps on a page. These images can be placed anywhere and can be framed and moved by the author.
ToolBook includes drawing tools for creating simple to complex graphics for buttons, icons, or animations. Each graphic has a set of properties associated with it, including visibility, position, and visual styles. These properties are modifiable from a script, so a script can move or change graphics to create animation. ToolBook includes a clip art library of graphics, and a commercial library of clip art is also available.
ToolBook can import the following graphic file formats:
.TIF (Tagged Image File Format)
.EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)
.DRW (Micrografx Draw)
.CGM (Computer Graphics metafile)
.PCX (PC Paintbrush)
.DIB (Device-Independent Bitmap)
.BMP (Windows Bitmap)
.WMF (Windows metafile)
ToolBook supports two types of editable text fields: fields and record fields. Fields hold text that is unique to a page. Record fields are used for database-style applications where the size and position of the field is constant from page to page, but the data varies.
ToolBook also supports Rich Text, and so you can freely mix fonts and styles. In addition, ToolBook supports hotword assignments within a field, allowing you to create scripts for text, just like other objects, that links words to other objects, books, applications, or devices.
ToolBook supports playback from a script of any waveform audio files with the .WAV extension. Audio can be triggered to begin immediately before or after a script executes, or an animation sequence or other event occurs, so the user perceives simultaneous playback of images and sound. Because ToolBook can process Windows messages and callbacks, synchronized audiovisual events are also possible.
ToolBook supports two types of animation: ToolBook object animation and playback of Macintosh MacroMind Director files. ToolBook can animate objects by showing, hiding, moving, or sizing an object, by changing an object's style, or by flipping pages. Playback of Director files can be called from a script and displayed in a ToolBook pop-up or child window.
Toolbook supports playback of MIDI music with the Microsoft Windows multimedia extensions, which can be called from a script, allowing MIDI music to be played in the background while the user works with the book or views an animation or video sequence.
ToolBook can import and export both fixed-length and delimited ASCII files. In addition, ToolBook can read and write dBASE III files with an included DLL and ToolBook front end.
ToolBook has report generation capabilities based on the contents of record fields, which store data in a conventional flat-file database structure. Record fields can be searched for individual words or phrases. Data stored in record fields can be sorted based on the first word in the record field, using up to eight key fields. Reporting and sorting capabilities can be supplemented by DLL routines.
Hypertext browsing can be performed with hotwords, buttons, and other navigational links created by the ToolBook author. Searching is handled through a search algorithm that is case-sensitive and phrase-sensitive. ToolBook also explicitly supports record field searching, which is a significant attribute for database and catalog applications.
ToolBook includes a script recorder, which records actions as OpenScript statements that can be pasted into any object's script. In addition, links can be created quickly with a dialog box interface. Many other tasks can be automated with scripts.