
SECTION 7. LOADING AND SAVING FLIPPER
CONFIGURATIONS.

This is some additional documentation for the FLIPSAVE,
FLIPLOAD, and FLIPEXT commands.  These commands are
used to load and save configurations.  It also explains how to
use Flipper's automatic configuration loading, so that Flipper
configures itself automatically each time you run a program. 
For a brief summary of the instructions, simply run these
programs without anything else on the command line.

There are many changes which you can make to Flipper's
settings.  You can select the speed, pitch, volume and inflection
of speech.  You can create windows, set all the Function Key
settings to your liking, and change a great many things in the
Definition Menu (D from within Review.)

Some of these things-- like the voice settings-- you will probably
want to set permanently.  Others, such as specific windows or
cursors, may be necessary for one particular application. 
Perhaps there are times, even within an application, when you
want different settings. Maybe sometimes you want to hear all
punctuation-- say when you are entering text into your word
processor-- and at times you would prefer to hear very little--
when you are reading a document for content, for instance. It
would be a lot of trouble to re-set all of these things each time
you needed them.  But you don't need to, because Flipper can
save the settings you have selected into a configuration file and
you can re-load them any time you want.  You can have as
many different configuration files as you want. 

Creating Configurations:
To create a configuration, first make the changes you want to
Flipper's settings.  You can save all changes you make to any
of Flipper's settings, including the voice control settings (speed,
volume, pitch and inflection), all of the Function Key settings in
Review Mode, all of the window definitions and all the items
you can define from within the Definition Menu (D in Review
Mode.)

Once you have everything set the way you want it, you are
ready to save the configuration.  Remember, you can always
save it again, if there's anything you want to change or add
later.

To save your configuration, you must be at the DOS level. (You
must have a prompt like C:\FLIPPER or A:\ or A> on your
screen.)

You will use the program called Flipsave to save the
configuration. By the way, if you get the error Bad command or
file name, when you try to run one of these programs, you need
to either move to the flipper subdirectory with the command:

CD \FLIPPER

or put the flipper directory in your PATH.  The install program
should have done this for you automatically, if you used it.  

Your configuration files will be saved in the current directory,
unless you specify a full path when you name your file.  You
may find it most convenient to keep your Flipper configurations
in one directory, where they can be found quickly and where
they can all be easily modified at once, should the need arise.
Many users keep all of their .flp files in their Flipper directory.

For this example, we will assume that Flipper is in a directory
all its own on drive C of your computer, and that you have
changed to that directory.  Your command line should then read:

C:\FLIPPER>


Like all DOS file names, a flipper configuration file has a name
which can be up to eight characters long, followed by a period
and then an extension, which can be up to three characters in
length.

Customarily, the extension .flp is used to indicate that a file is
a Flipper configuration file.

Decide what you want to call your configuration.  Ordinarily, a
configuration called START.FLP is loaded in the batch file that
starts Flipper.  If you want to use a number of different
configurations, each with settings for use with particular
applications,you might want to call the configurations the same
name as the program for which you created them.  You might
call your Lotus 1-2-3 configuration 123.flp or your
configuration for MicroSoft Word word.flp, for example.

If you are sharing the computer with other Flipper users, you
might use your own name as the first part of the configuration's
file name.  You could name it SUSAN.FLP or
WILLIAM.FLP, for example.  The only thing that matters is
that you can remember what you've called the configuration,
later when you want to use it again.
Let us say, for this example, that you want to change
START.FLP to be the way you would like Flipper to behave
when you load it.  To save the configuration, once you have
made the changes, you would type:

FLIPSAVE START.FLP

and press return.  Flipper will respond Flipper configuration
saved. It's that simple!  The file START.FLP in your Flipper
directory now holds a description of how you want your
computer to act and speak.

If you decide to save a configuration in another directory, for
example, SUSAN.FLP, you could have said:

FLIPSAVE C:\FLIPPER\SUSAN.FLP

and pressed return.  All of the settings currently in memory
would be saved to the SUSAN.FLP file.

Loading Configurations: If you want to use the settings you have
saved in susan.flp some other time, you can load the
configuration.  To do this, you will use the program called
flipload.

As with flipsave, you need to be in the same directory as the
flipload program to use it, or its directory needs to be on your
DOS path.

To load a configuration, you must be in the same directory as
the configuration you want to load, or you must specify the full
path name for the configuration file.  Let us assume that you
have put the configuration in your Flipper directory, on drive C
of your computer. The configuration name is SUSAN.FLP. 
Your prompt reads C:\FLIPPER>. You are ready to load the
Susan configuration as follows:

FLIPLOAD SUSAN.FLP

Flipper will say Flipper configuration loaded.

Loading and Using Multiple Configurations: There are times
when you may want to switch quickly back and forth between
two configurations.  Maybe one set of settings works best in one
part of a program, while you need other settings for another area
of the application.  Or perhaps you use one configuration for
proof-reading a document, and another for scanning through it
for content.

You can load two configurations into Flipper's active memory
and flip back and forth between them at any time with the alt F
flip in another configuration command.  For this example, let's
say you have two configurations for your word processor; one
to use when writing and another for use when proof-reading
your finished document.  They are called WP1.FLP and
WP2.FLP.

To load both files into memory and prepare you to switch
between them with the alt F command, type the following at
your DOS prompt:

FLIPLOAD WP1.FLP WP2.FLP 


Remember to put a space between the two configuration file
names.  Flipper will say primary configuration loaded,
secondary configuration loaded.

Now, you can flip between the WP1 and WP2 configurations
with alt F (or F, by itself, in Review Mode.)  Flipper will say
the name of the configuration which is flipped into use when
you give the command.

Flipext: When two Configurations Just Aren't Enough: There
may be times when you would like to have more than two
configurations readily available for use without having to go to
DOS to load them.  To do this, you use the FLIPEXT.

The two configurations which can be loaded with Flipload are
put straight into Flipper's working memory for you to use.  But
you can also load up to 30 additional configurations externally--
into your computer's memory outside of Flipper.  They will
wait there until you enter Review Mode and tell Flipper to go
look for one of them to use instead of one of the two you have
currently loaded.

To load a configuration file externally, you will use the program
Flipext.  Again, you must be in the same directory as the he
Flipext program, or it must be on your path.

The configuration file which you wish to load must also be in
the current directory or you must specify the full path name
when running flipext.

As an example, let's say you want to load susan.flp into
memory, just in case you need it instead of the two WP
configurations which are currently in place.  You would type the
following:

FLIPEXT SUSAN.FLP

and press return.  Flipper will say susan.flp loaded.  One
external configuration loaded.

To use the external Susan configuration, you must enter Review
Mode (unlike using one of the two currently loaded
configurations, which you can access with the alt F command.) 
First press the number of the external configuration you want to
load, followed by the letter F.  In our example, only one,
Susan.flp, is loaded, so you would press 1 F. Flipper will say
Susan loaded.

Now, when you flip back and forth with alt F, you will be
switching between the Susan.flp configuration and the
secondary configuration. Susan.flp has replaced the primary
configuration.

Therefore, if you want three configurations instantly available,
you will probably want to load all three externally, as well as
loading two of them with Flipload for immediate use.

You can load up to 30 configuration files with Flipext.  To load
the two WP configurations and the Susan configuration with
Flipext, you would type:

FLIPEXT WP1.FLP WP2.FLP SUSAN.FLP

and press return.  Flipper will say the name of each file loaded,
followed by three external configurations are loaded.

To bring one of these configurations in for use, enter Review,
type the number of the configuration-- 1 for WP1, 2 for WP2
and 3 for SUSAN-- and f.  That configuration will replace the
one currently in use.  You can flip back and forth between it
and the other loaded configuration with alt F, or F, by itself in
Review.

If you run Flipext again, to load in additional configurations,
they will be added at the end of the stack of configurations
already in memory.  If, for instance, you had loaded the three
configurations as shown above and then later wanted to load
william.flp, as well, you would only need to type:

FLIPEXT WILLIAM.FLP

and press return.  Flipper would say William.flp loaded.  Four
external configurations loaded.  To replace one of the two
current configurations, you would need to enter Review and
press 4 F.  Flipper would say William loaded.

Flipper can load configurations automatically, each time you
start a program.  You simply list the configurations that you
want loaded in a text file, one per line.  The text file should
have with the same name as the program that you run, but with
an extension .FAC.  The first two listed will be loaded into
Flipper, and the rest will replace external configurations.  If you
want to skip one, and not have it be replaced, you can leave a
blank line.

For example, you could set for wordperfect automatically by
having a file with the name WP.FAC, and including the
following line:

WP.FLP

If you want to automatically load a configuration for the dos
command processor, the file should be named
COMMAND.FAC.  If you want to load external configurations
automatically, you need to create space for them first with the
flipext command.  

Autoloading errors include flipper not being able to find or load
a listed file, and the configuration not being for the correct
version.  If you have not created enough spaces, Flipper will say
not enough external configurations for this autoload.  If you
want to turn autoloading on or off, it needs to be done manually
or by using the FLIP command, FLIP AUTOLOAD ON, for
example.  It is not saved as part of a configuration of course!
