XPOSTIT(1) RIACS/X11R3(2 January 1989) XPOSTIT(1)
NAME
xmpostit - X window system (Motif-like) Post-it® notes
SYNOPSIS
xmpostit [ -toolkitoptions ... ] [ -options ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Xmpostit provides a mechanism for manipulating on-screen Post-it® notes.
All three sizes of Post-it notes may be displayed, edited, and saved to
disk files or stashed in the main window as buttons. In addition, any
on-screen note may be resized to any arbitrary size either when it is
created or at a later time. This size will be retained if the note is
"saved."
When xmpostit is first invoked, it creates a small window. This is the
control window for xmpostit. Additionally, if any notes were stored in
the save directory (see below), these will become buttons on the control
window. The label on the button is the name of the note. Each Post-it
note, when created, prompts for a name to use and then makes a window for
the note. Xmpostit is controlled using the mouse buttons and a menu.
The Post-it notes are controlled using buttons and the scroll bars.
OPTIONS
Xmpostit accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line options along
with the additional options listed below.
-bs number
Specifies the size of the character buffer in which to save each
Post-it note. A note may not contain more than this number of
characters, including newlines. The default is 1024.
-dir path
Specifies the path name of the directory in which to store saved
Post-it notes. If path begins with a `/' it is taken as-is; if
it does not begin with a `/', the path is taken relative to the
home directory. The named directory must already exist if notes
are to be saved in it. The default is .postitnotes.
-sv Enables save-on-exit. When specified, this option tells xmpostit
to save all Post-it notes to disk files when exiting. If not
specified, notes will only be saved to disk files when saved
manually by the user.
X DEFAULTS
Xmpostit understands all of the core X Toolkit resource names and classes
as well as those listed below, which are all of class XmPostit.
bufSize Specifies the size of the character buffer used to store a Post-
it note. The default is 1024.
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noteDir Specifies the path name of the directory in which to store saved
notes. The default is .postitnotes.
saveNotes
Controls the state of the save-on-exit option. The default is
false.
scrollBar
Controls placing scroll bars on Post-it notes. The default is
false.
showPlaid
displays the 3M-like plaid background found typical of paper
postit notes. The default is True.
Because of the large amount of widget nesting in xmpostit , the following
constructions are recommended for setting resources on the various
widgets:
*XmPostit.resource
*XmPostit.plaid*resource
*XmPostit.Confirm*resource
*XmPostit.Confirm*confirm*resource
*XmPostit.Confirm*cancel*resource
*XmPostit.Menu*resource
*XmPostit.PostItNote*resource
*XmPostit.PostItNote*save*resource
*XmPostit.PostItNote*erase*resource
*XmPostit.PostItNote*destroy*resource
*XmPostit.PostItNote*text*resource
THE CONTROL WINDOW
Xmpostit allows two operations to be performed from its control window.
Pressing mouse button one on a button in the xmpostit main window causes
the note for that button to appear on the screen. Pressing mouse button
three in the control window raises the xmpostit menu.
THE MENU
The xmpostit menu provides the following selections:
Create 1.5x2 Note
Create a new Post-it note, 1.5 inches tall by 2 inches wide.
Create 3x3 Note
Create a new Post-it note, 3 inches square.
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Create 3x5 Note
Create a new Post-it note, 3 inches tall by 5 inches wide.
Raise All Notes
Raise all Post-it notes to the top.
Lower All Notes
Lower all Post-it notes to the bottom.
Save All Notes
Save all Post-it notes to disk files in the save directory.
Choose Printer
Change or specify the printer for the "Hardcopy" button. The
default is $PRINTER.
Exit Exit xmpostit . If the -sv command line option was given, or the
saveNotes resource is true, all Post-it notes will be saved to
disk first.
To select an item from the menu, move the mouse cursor to that item and
press the left mouse button.
THE POST-IT NOTE
Each Post-it note is made up of two parts: a scrolling text window where
the text of the note is stored, and a row of five buttons labeled
``Save'', ``Erase'', ``Destroy'', ``Hardcopy'', and ``Stash''.
To enter text into a Post-it note, simply move the mouse cursor into the
text window and start typing. Since the text window is actually a Motif
Text widget, all the Motif Text widget translations including cutting and
pasting are accepted.
After entering text in the Post-it note, you may wish to save the note in
a disk file. This way, if the machine goes down, or if you exit
xmpostit, the Post-it note can be restored when you restart xmpostit. To
save the note to a disk file, move the mouse cursor to the button labeled
``save'' and press the left mouse button. The note will be saved as the
file ``noten'' in your save directory, where n is some sequence number.
NOTE: it is important to remember that until you have pressed the
``save'' button, the data stored in the Post-it note is not saved on disk
and can be lost if the system goes down or xmpostit exits.
To erase the entire contents of the text window, you can press the left
mouse button in the ``erase'' button. This will bring up a confirmation
window, which has two buttons labeled ``confirm'' and ``cancel''. If you
press the ``confirm'' button, the text will be erased. If you press the
``cancel'' button, the operation is canceled, and nothing will happen.
NOTE: erasing the text in the window does not affect any contents of the
note you have saved on disk unless you press the ``save'' button again.
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To destroy a Post-it note, getting rid of its window on the screen and
the disk file it is saved in, move the mouse cursor to the ``destroy''
button and press the left mouse button. This will bring up a
confirmation window as described above. If you confirm the operation,
the Post-it note will disappear from the screen and the disk file it was
saved in will be deleted.
To send the current contents of a Post-it note to a printer, click mouse
button one on ``hardcopy''. If no printer is set (and $PRINTER is not
set) xmpostit will ring the terminal bell. Otherwise the current
contents of the note, whether or not saved, will be sent to the selected
printer. To select or change the printer, click on ``Choose Printer'' by
popping up the main xmpostit menu.
To "stash" the note as a button on the main xmpostit window, click the
mouse button one on ``Stash.'' This will make the button of the note's
name active and unmap the note from the screen. The note can also be
iconified using the currently running window manager's iconify
capability.
SEE ALSO
X(1)
BUGS
The sizes of the Post-it notes are only as acurrate as the display
dimension and resolution returned by the server. On the Sun server and
possibly others, this means they aren't all that accurate.
Without a color display for canary yellow notes and red plaid, the
aesthetic value of xmpostit cannot be fully appreciated. In such a case,
showPlaid should be set False.
AUTHOR
Original author of xpostit: David A. Curry, Research Institute for
Advanced Computer Science
Motif implementation and design: David Mischel, Genentech
``Post-it'' and the plaid design are registered trademarks of 3M.
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