To powerfully navigate inside this help file that you are reading now, I should tell you here (lest you not yet know) that the underlined words here are hyperlinks, and by clicking (the left button of mouse) there you can arrive at another portion of this document explaining that term in more details. You may also look up an alphabetical index of such hyperlinks at the bottom of this document, in addition to the chapter-wise one at the top. (Para 03)

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BASICS

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USING SHORTHAND (I)

The earliest purpose of developing SB was to enable its users to use a form of a computer-based 'shorthand'. This is still possible, and is done with the help of a Shorthand Mode, which can be activated by pressing any of the keys F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, or F9 while typing in the Main Mode. The Shorthand Mode thus activated would now prompt the user to type a 2nd Key, which may be any alphabet. Every Abbreviated Matter (AM), which may be an up to 75-character long piece (such as "The University of California, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.", or it may be simply a long word such as "imagination") in SB can be abbreviated by a small 3-key Abbreviation (3KA) (say, F9uc or F1in respectively). Upon pressing the 2nd Key, the already defined 3rd Keys corresponding to the given 1st key-2nd key combination will be shown (a 3rd key may be an alphabet, a digit or another character); pressing such a pre-defined 3rd key will bring the Abbreviated Matter down to the text file, and then re-activate the Main Mode. If the required Abbreviated Matter is not already pre-defined, then on pressing a (previously undefined) 3rd key, the Shorthand Mode would ask to define the Full Form (i.e., the AM) in a highlighted region; then that is to be typed there, and then Enter key is to be pressed to complete the definition and to re-activate the Main Mode. (This newly defined AM can now obviously be brought down to any text-file anytime by just typing the corresponding 3KA.) Instead of an actual 2nd key or 3rd key, Space (or Backspace or ? sign) may be pressed to abort (cancel) the shorthand mode, or one of three keys F9, F10 or | may be pressed to choose among the range of abbreviated matters available (handy feature if an exact 3KA was forgotten by the user). (Para 06)

Similar shortcut method of getting a long 'Abbreviated Matter', by simply typing even one or two keys, is also available in most other word-processors e.g., 'Shorthand' facility in WordStar, 'Macro' facility in MS-Word or in WordPerfect etc., but what distinguishes this facility in SB is the sheer number of AMs that can be defined. Considering one of the 9 function keys (F1 to F9) as the 1st key, any one of the 26 alphabets as the 2nd key, and any one of the at least 43 digits, alphabets and possible other symbols as the 3rd key, the number of possible AMs that can be defined is more than the number 9 x 26 x 43 i.e., more than ten thousand, which far exceeds the number of commonly used English words! (Para 07)

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USING AUTO-SUGGESTIONS

Just as you take care of a pet, you may choose to feed the auto-suggestions wizard with texts already written by other people on the topic of your specialization (say quantum physics or welfare economics), so that it becomes knowledgeable enough with the keywords and phrases of your discipline. To feed it with text and HTML files is quite straightforward -- you just need to open the file with SB, click at the ReadWords button or at the ReadW&Sets coloured-button as is desired, to observe the wizard becoming wise with the keywords and word-sets. To feed files written in any other format, copy the text into windows clipboard, and paste that into an MS-Word (or FrontPage or FrontPage Express) new document, then choose Save As HTML (or Save As Webpage) File-Menu option (in case of FrontPage etc. simply Save) to create a new HTML file containing the same text. This HTML file can now be opened with SB (SB will never even attempt to open a file with .doc or .pdf etc. file extensions) (Para 10)

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CORRECTING TEXT

The Main Mode of SB allows one to perform corrective editing in the usual way excepting selection of a piece, but the main hindrance to fluent editing here comes from the reality that this mode is not completely a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) user interface. So an alternative is necessary. For using a sort of selection, cutting and pasting operations possible in Main Mode, see below. (Para 11)

Corrections in the text-file naturally make some too short lines, sometimes also some lines longer than the page-width. So there arises a necessity for alignment. This can be done by pressing Ctrl+F11 or by clicking at the Align button while in the 'Main Mode' of SB. Now the user will be asked whether the text file surely not contain any poem etc. (on alignment, the lines of a poem will naturally get thoroughly disrupted). Upon pressing the Y key (or clicking the appropriate button) to mean yes, alignment will be done. (Para 13)

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PAGE-SETTING AND OTHER SETTINGS

As mentioned above, as SB is more likely to be used to generate the text skeleton that the user would finally convert into a word-processor document (or into an web-page), a page-setting feature in SB is generally redundant. Nevertheless, in some cases you might want the SB generated text file to directly go to paper (or into some scientific / technical applications), and so this feature comes handy there. (Para 14)

In the above-mentioned third opening screen of SB, you may change the SB - text page setting from the default value of 065-08-55 by typing in new entries. These three entries respectively mean the page-width in columns i.e., characters (default 65, allowed 25-125), gap between respective tab positions in columns (default 8, allowed 3-33), and page length in rows (of single-spaced lines) with a default value of 55 (allowed 10-99). An interesting and awkward point to note is that these values are not document-specific, so if you change those setting values for any file and finally save that file, in the subsequent session of SB these new setting values will appear as if like a default value, even for another old file! So if you plan to have the SB-generated text file as a final end-product, beware of the page-setting offered in the current session, and change that if necessary. To change the setting after you've already entered Main Mode, press Ctrl+U key to generate FullHnG Menu and then press / (slash key) in that FullHnG Menu, so as to make the third opening screen reappear. (Para 15)

It is also possible to change the way (American or British etc.) of writing dates, assumption about paper-length during printing, font assignments for the three possible custom scripts, word-processors (MS-Word etc.) to be used as file importers from SB etc., Pipu-Phiho Shorthand key assignments etc. settings, by using the SB: Fonts, Importers and Other Settings Wizard. To call this wizard, press 0 (the number 0) while in the FullHnG Menu (the one obtainable by pressing Ctrl+U), then follow the directions on the screen to change those settings. (Para 16)

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EXPORTING TEXT AND HTML FILES FROM SB

As has been discussed, SB is more likely to be used by you to get text skeletons exported to another word-processor such as MS-Word (or at least, say, to WordPad), wherein you could do all the text & graphics formatting not possible in SB itself. After you finish writing a text file in SB, exporting it is very easy. The simplest way is to click the inner top-right cross (X) sign (or nearby Exit button) so as to leave SB. In addition to the usual bigger command buttons named Save file, Not be saved  & Cannot decide, you'll see two thinner command buttons below named Save & Text-Export and Save & HTML-Export -- click either of these two to have it exported. If you click the first one, you can have the text file (or a copy of the file with the .txt extension) appear under MS-Word, WordPad or Notepad within a few seconds by just pressing the Y, W or the N key respectively. Yes, you don't have to manually open MS-Word or WordPad etc., and open the text file with it -- SB will do that for you (the bulky appllication MS-Word may take a few seconds to fully appear - just be patient.) Yes, once within MS-Word or WordPad, you can of course save the text (.txt) file as a document (.doc) file, and do any desired formatting there. (Para 17)

When you click the thin command button 'Save & HTML-Export' from the above-mentioned Exit Screen, you are asked for the title of the HTML-file if you are editing a text file (if you are an HTML-nerd editing the HTML file directly in SB, the title is already available). Every HTML file generally have a title that appears at the top bar when browsed by a browser, and you should offer one too. (The presence of a non-null title helps the Text to HTML Conversion Wizard in SB to properly distinguish any hidden paragraphs in your text, and for the wizard to work best you should also have a final SB Text-Alignment (hotkey ^F11 ) performed and its result checked, just before HTML-Exporting.) The wizard may ask you a few more questions (in case of the two package buttons mentioned above, the wizard assumes default answers for some of these questions), and after answering them you'll arrive in the 'Farewell from SB' screen similar to the one in the Text-Export process -- therein you can press the Y, I or F key to invite MS-Word, Internet Explorer or MS-FrontPage respectively to take care of the HTML file generated by SB. In case of MS-Word, you can then even save the HTML file as a document file. (Para 19)

A much smaller hitch about saving an HTML file as a document file might trouble you a little. This hitch is that such a document file is not exactly similar to one you directly type in MS-Word, it as if has some web or HTML smell about it. To completely remove this web-smell and to get a proper, familiar-looking Microsoft Word document (to be saved as a *.doc file) with this, next you should Select All (i.e., select all the text) using Ctrl+A (say), then using a drop-down list-box in MS-Word (generally placed at the left-top corner), transform those selected text to the Normal pattern from the Normal (Web) pattern. (Para 20)

If you are an HTML-expert, you may prefer to directly write the HTML file in SB. This is fine, more particularly because HTML tags become good occasions for using shorthand and auto-type features in SB. In such cases, HTML-Export option just saves and export the HTML file, and obviously does not perform any Text-to-HTML conversion. However, if you choose the Save & Text-Export option here, something interesting happens: a wizard named HTML to Text Conversion Wizard gets activated, and forms a text file (with .txt extension) by removing all the HTML tags. This is a rather funny option, however this wizard also gets used by the Auto-suggestions Wizard to learn the text hidden in HTML file without learning the HTML tags. (Para 21)

For the users who prefer other word-processors instead of MS-FrontPage or MS-Word, a useful tip may be provided here: while installing SB, the installer will ask you to confirm the locations of MS-Word, MS-FrontPage and Internet Explorer (usual locations of these three are, respectively, "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Winword.exe", "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\FrontPg.exe" and "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IExplore.exe"). If you want to use other word-processors instead of them, just change those pathnames to your desired ones. Thus, if you want to use FrontPage Express instead of MS-FrontPage, change the given pathname of MS-FrontPage to that of FrontPage Express (say, to "D:\Program Files\FrontPage Express\Bin\FPXpress.exe"). These importer word-processor assignments can also be changed any time later by calling the Fonts, Importers and Other Settings Wizard, see above. (Para 22)

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NON-ENGLISH SCRIPT SUPPORT

SB supports writing in non-English scripts also, provided you have a True Type Font (.ttf font) for that script installed in your computer. In the third opening screen of SB mentioned above, you can set the session's script to Another European, Hindi or Assamese by pressing appropriate buttons or by replacing E with O, H or A in the appropriate entry as explained in the screen. You may also similarly change the script, using a corresponding Edit Menu option in the Main Mode of SB. So if you have the true type fonts "Kiran" or "Aadarsha Ratne Internet", you can write in Hindi or Assamese. However, this assignment only changes the font in SB Main Mode. In the TextEditor Window (Mode); the font assignment of the TextEditor again needs to altered by clicking first at the Format menu bar option, and then at its Font menu option. (Para 23)

By default, the Another European is set to the "Times New Roman" font installed in most computers, and so it writes Greek alphabets if required. Also, Assamese has been set to "Aadarsha Ratne Internet", and Hindi to "Kiran"; if you don't have these two fonts installed (to install a font via Control Panel - Fonts, may consult Windows Help), you'll just see a different English font when you try to use any of them. (To download the last two extremely convenient Indian-language fonts you may log on to assam.faithweb.com or to  kiranfont.com respectively). You can change the font assignments for these three scripts to any installed font, and that too even for any language. Thus, in your computer's SB, you may actually choose to mean a Thai font when you choose Assamese. 
[N.B. If you use the Hindi or Assamese script-setting in SB, you may now avail of the Symbolizer technology inside SB, which helps you get all the conjunct consonants (juktakshar-s) in the Assamese (Bengali) or Hindi with ease into your HTML output file made by SB. You may also use an onscreen keyboard for these three fonts, which may be activated by clicking at the OnScK button at the top part of the Main Mode screen. (If interested, click for a specific discussion about SB and South Asian Languages.)] (Para 24)

One tip is however necessary here: the auto-suggestions wizard maintains three separate auto-suggestions database (in files Hindi.dbf & Hindi.dtb, Assamese.dbf & Assamese.dtb, and Other_Eu.dbf & Other_Eu.dtb) for these three custom scripts, in addition to the database (in files 99.dbf & 99.dtb) maintained for default English script, so if you change, within the same user-entity, the font for any of these three custom scripts in the middle of your writing career, your already developed auto-suggestions wizard may, at least temporarily, lose its wizardry (in that custom script only). Another tip about having custom fonts is this:  though you might know that a text file cannot have an intrinsic font assignment, an HTML files generated from a text file (by the Text to HTML Conversion Wizard in SB as detailed later) does have the font assignment of the SB-session during which this said conversion took place. (Para 25)

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TRANSFORMING TEXT

The facility of adding left margins or having non-single line-spacing described in this section becomes valuable only if you plan to have the text file as the final product. In the flourishing HTML-Export (of text files) business of SB, a non-zero left margin or a non-single line-spacing can only be a big nuisance. So if you are going to do HTML-Export of a text file, use the knowledge of this section only for the destructive purpose of destroying line-spacing, removing left-margin, or of alphabetically sorting lines. (Para 26)

Particularly in case of text files as end products, you might want to have (or change) a left-margin, or want to alter the inter-line spacing of the text, or even to sort the lines alphabetically. To do such things in SB, one has to press the Ctrl+U key while in the Main Mode, followed by pressing the greater-than ( > ) key as directed in the consequent Full Help & Guidance Menu (FullHnG Menu), and then follow the directions in the screen, explained in next paragraph. It must be specified here that while typing in SB, there is no provision for having a left-margin, or of having blank lines automatically generated between the typed lines. So, it is advisable to do these transformations only after typing, correcting and aligning the complete file. If, by mistake, one has anything more to type after creation of a (non-zero) left-margin or a (non-single) spacing, it is advisable to have another 'transformation' done before typing (or before the final transformation), in which the left-margin should be 'removed' and the inter-line spacing should be 'destroyed', so that any Alignment operations, if necessary, can be fruitfully done. (Para 27)

After pressing the > key in FullHnG Menu, you are first asked whether you want to have the all lines alphabetically sorted. You might require this option in some rather rare cases, such as converting a non-sorted book-index text-file you have written in SB to a file with sorted index lines. You may press Y or N key to mean yes or no, or press C to mean yes with a case-free (insensitive of upper or lower case alphabets) sorting. As this is rather a disastrous option for most texts (e.g., a poem) that you write, you are asked another confirmation of Y key-press if you answer Y or C. To mean no, press N or Enter or Esc in the first time itself, and enter the world of common textual transformations. You'll be then asked whether to Increase by 1, Destroy or Keep the current line-spacing, press I or D or K to change as you wish (D option removes all blank lines, while Enter or Esc works like the ineffective K option). Next you'll be asked whether to Add, Remove, Subtract or Keep the current left-margin, press A or R or S or K key as you wish (here also Enter or Esc works like ineffective K option). If you choose the A or the S option, you'll offered a place to type in the desired number of left-margin columns to be added or subtracted, and to press Enter to have that accepted. After doing these, wait for the transformation to complete within a second or two, resulting in a transformed text file shown at the Main Mode. (Para 28)

Something should also be told about the nature of the 'Alignment' process in SB. As SB generates a purely text file, it cannot distinguish a paragraph from another in a inherent way, unlike MS-Word, WordPerfect or WordPad does! So, it tries to distinguish a so-called 'paragraph' by looking for either a blank line just before the beginning of the paragraph, or one or more blank spaces at the beginning of the first line of the paragraph. So if neither is there (because of the writing habit of the user) SB, during the 'alignment' process, would not recognize the start of a new paragraph, and so join the new paragraph with the earlier one! (Para 29)

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DOING ARITHMETIC AND EVEN VISUAL FOXPRO

While typing in SB, one may come across the need to do a small numeric calculation. For this you don't need to minimize SB and open the Windows calculator. While in SB Main Mode, you may press Ctrl+U to open the FullHnG Menu, and then press . (a period) to open a prompt (that mimics the dot prompt in dBase) wherein you can type your arithmetic expression and press Enter to see the result. If you press Esc, (or press Enter alone without an expression), you can Exit this command prompt and come back to the Main Mode. For example, you can type 25.5*(4/7) and press Enter to see the result (14.5714286), then press Enter to arrive at Main Mode. However, if you just enter an number instead of an arithmetic expression, the ASCII character corresponding to the number will be displayed, provided the number is an integer between 32 and 255. (To actually get an ASCII character into your text file, type 1 instead of a period in the FullHnG Menu, and then, in the resulting screen, change the offered number from 255 into the desired number, and press Enter.) (Para 30)

This command prompt can have an additional use for some advanced users with knowledge of dBase, FoxBase, FoxPro or Visual FoxPro programming language. They can type in a command in any such language and change the text file in any eerie way they please. If the command has any syntax error, nothing wrong will happen to SB or to the text - just an error message will appear stating that the command did nothing! (Para 31)

To add or subtract a series of numbers, SB offers the unique Shabda-Brahma Number Adder wherein you can type each number to add (negative number to do subtraction) and press Enter, while the numbers get listed in a aligned way as if in a primary school blackboard. To complete the process, type 0 and press Enter, which results in a completed sum. To access the number-adder, press 3 (instead of a period)  in the FullHnG Menu; you can exit the Number Adder  by just pressing Esc, so as to come back to the Main Mode. (Para 32)

Instead of typing 3 in the FullHnG Menu, if you type 2, then the Shabda-Brahma Calendar Viewer will appear, and ask for a date of the required month. You may type in any date of a particular month (in any year from 1 AD to 9999 AD) as desired (and press Enter) to view a calendar for that month. The current (today's) date is initially shown  (Para 33)

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SHORTHAND FOR ADVANCED USERS

Defining AMs is easy, but remembering which 3KA corresponds to which AM is difficult. To simplify matters, each of the possible 1st-keys F1 to F9 could be related to a part of speech (grammatical form); this author suggests the following allotments: (Para 34)

F1 ------- Singular Nouns, Similar Uncountables & Pronouns

F2 ------- Plural Nouns, Similar Uncountables & Pronouns

F3 ------- Gerunds (or Continuous Tense Verbs)

F4 ------- Present Indefinite Tense Verbs

F5 ------- Present Indefinite Third Person Singular

F6 ------- Past Indefinite & Present/Past Perfect

F7 ------- Adjectives & Names

F8 ------- Adverbs, Prepositions & Conjunctions

F9 ------- Word Collections, HTML Tags, Symbols etc.

(These suggestions are shown in the last Opening Screen of SB, and is also indicated in brief at the top of the Main Mode screen.) (Para 35)

For every AM, the '2nd-key' and the '3rd-key' may be chosen so as to have an obvious relation with the AM. Thus we may suggest the following abbreviations: (Para 36)

realization ----- F1rs

realize --------- F4rs

realized ------- F6rs

however ------ F8he

as well as ----- F9aw

However, in some situations the abbreviations cannot be defined to be so obvious; for example, "midnight" and "morning" both would compete for the same abbreviation, namely, F1mn (both are singular nouns); in such cases, one of them must be allotted a less easily recalled 3KA! (Para 37)

In many cases, one need to have the abbreviated matter with its first letter capitalized. This can be easily done by typing the '2nd-key' in uppercase. Thus, if F1rs corresponds to realization, then F1Rs would correspond to Realization. Similarly, if one types F1rS, in this case REALIZATION would appear in the text (the last facility is obviously available only with the abbreviations with an alphabetical '3rd-key'). Another important facility in the 'Shorthand Mode' here is that of defining an abbreviation after already writing the abbreviated matter in the 'Main Mode'. Many times, it is only natural that during the flow of typing a given text material, the possibility of future importance (i.e., of future repeated appearance) of a certain piece of text is realized only after already typing that, and so a sigh may then come: 'had I defined a 3-Key abbreviation for this, instead of directly typing this into the text material!' There is an answer to this in SB: just after typing the lucrative piece, devour it with one or more F11-pressings (provided the piece is less than 75 characters); a message 'F11ERASED READY TO REPLACE ANY ABBREV., nn' will appear, just then type the desired 3KA (say, F1rs), and the lucrative piece gets defined as an AM with that 3KA! (Para 38)

By pressing Ctrl+U in the 'Main Mode', the 'Full Help & Guidance Menu' (FullHnG Menu) appears. Here also a form of shorthand is available, named the 'Pipu-Phiho Shorthand Menu' (in Assamese, the word 'Pipu-Phiho' indicates extreme laziness). To use this, one types an alphabet as directed by the above menu, to get very commonly used small words (like 'one', 'some', 'done', 'the', 'there' etc.). The allotments in this shorthand menu may be altered by pressing 0 or by clicking at the appropriate button in this FullHnG Menu, and then following the directions in the screen. (At first, the Pipu-Phiho database is shown, wherein you can change the assignments, and then click the database window's own top-right X button or press Ctrl+End when you've finished changing!) (Para 39)

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USING BUTTONS, MENUS AND HOTKEYS

The user-options structure in SB is mainly confined to the two screens offered by the SB Main Mode (MM) and to the Full Help & Guidance Menu (FullHnG Menu). Other than the Notepad-like familiar text-file operating menu options offered by the SB TextEditor Mode (TEM), all  the user-options in SB are directly accessible from either of these two screens. Even the three opening screens of SB are accessible from FullHnG Menu, giving the user freedom to open another (text or HTML) file to work on, after closing the current file (two or more documents cannot be simultaneously opened in SB -- it is a Single-Document-Interface (SDI) application). These two basic screens are directly connected -- you press Ctrl+U in MM to access FullHnG Menu, and press Esc or Space or click anywhere in FullHnG Menu to access MM. MM and TEM both being file editor screens, you can switch between them very easily -- press Esc (or click Use TextEditor button) in MM to access TEM, click its own X sign or File / Close menu option in TEM to reach MM. The main idea in navigate inside SB is to look closely at the screen, and follow the directions written thereon. There are too many shown command buttons to click, mentioned hotkeys to press, and also the familiar menu bar to click onto. (Para 40)

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THE CUT-PASTE AND OTHER ADVANCED WIZARDS

Though you can easily cut and paste text segments in the TextEditor Mode in a familiar way, there is a provision for exotic, unheard of cut & paste operations for text using the File Segments Cut & Paste Wizard. This wizard lets you even vertically cut a portion from one text file, and also can vertically join that with another portion from the same or a different text files. Such operations sometimes gets necessitated in some scientific or technical applications such as Gaussian used for theoretical-chemical calculations. Doing such an operation manually (i. e., line by line) takes a lot of time. In this wizard, you have to specify the text segments to be cut by their limiting row or column numbers, and can view the result or store that in another text file. (Para 46)

The text-explanation wizard does another esoteric operation of replacing difficult words / phrases with simpler words / phrases to produce a simpler text, easy to understand by a less verbally efficient person. Before doing that, you are offered an opportunity to modify or enlarge a list of user-defined difficult words and their so-called meanings or simpler synonyms. The process is blind and can result in a ridiculous so-called explained file, but everything depends on your choice of synonyms and of so-called difficult words. The result file, however, gets gracefully aligned automatically. The wizard may have future scope in any mass-production of simplified text and translations, particularly in the arena of internet texts. (Para 47)

You open both wizards from the FullHnG Menu, by respectively typing ? (question mark) or ! (exclamation mark) in the FullHnG Menu. These hotkeys refer to the emotions generated in the user's mind while first learning about these two wizards. (Para 48)

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INSTALLATION AND AUTHENTICATION

The installation & authentication set of SB generally comprises of a compact disk (CD) and 3.5 inch sized floppy diskette. The CD contains the installer program in its main folder as a file named SB5Setup.exe, with copies of this and of the AO (Abhibhavak Organizer, developed by the same developer) installer file in sub-folders below (the multiple copies help if one copy of an installer file gets affected by any unfortunate data corruption). The floppy diskette is also a requirement for authentication purpose for the registered variety, i.e. it lets the program ascertain that the registered-variety installation set was obtained through legal means. (Para 49)

So, now, to install SB insert both the CD and the floppy diskette into their respective drives. (If you have already installed the unregistered variety from the internet, skip these steps: you may authenticate it to convert it to the registered variety just while running SB.) Now you need to browse the CD drive (say, by opening My Computer) and locate the SB5Setup.exe file just on the main folder of the CD. Double-click this file icon to start installation. Respond to the Installation Wizard dialog boxes as per directions in the installation screen. (Para 50)

During installation, you'll be asked about the desired installation (working) folder of SB in your computer, i.e., the folder in which SB will be kept. The installer suggests the folder C:\SB5th -- you may accept that and click OK. However, if C:  is not a valid hard disk drive in your computer (very rare possibility), or if your C-drive has any problem, then you can of course decide to install it into another hard disk drive (only D: or E: , depending on they being hard-disk drives in your computer). In that case, you are advised not to change the folder-name part, i.e., the "SB5th" part of  the name: i.e., if you want to install into D-drive, change the installation folder name to D:\SB5th (from C:\SB5th). This advice is offered to save you the unnecessary trouble of modifying the tiny link file named SB Word-Storm Processor v5, the modification being required to ensure that the link (shortcut) file properly points to the SB program file. (In case you are an advanced user not taking this advice, learn to change or create the link file by knowing that the program resides in the file sb.exe in the DontOpen folder just beneath the working folder of SB, and a link file (to this sb.exe) is a must as only through a link file you can make SB always open in a Maximized Window (which is required) form, so choose the Run Maximized option if creating the shortcut.) (Para 51)

After copying the application's files into the installation folder, the installation wizard plans to copy the program link file explained above into your Windows Desktop as well as into your Start Menu [Desktop is the final stable screen (with the Start button at the bottom-left corner) which appears whenever you turn your computer on and log on as an user]. To locate the folder represented by the Desktop, the wizard asks you your username, and copies the link file thereto, so that you can open SB just by double-clicking its icon (or by selecting it & pressing Enter) on your Desktop. Next, the wizard tries to locate your My Documents folder, wherein MS-Office etc. put their created documents. SB likes to puts its work in a folder named HTML and Text Files lying just beneath this My Documents, so it creates this folder if not already present. After that, the wizard looks for the location of the drive containing Windows, and for the pathname of the program files for the three importer applications (that takes care for files exported from SB) Internet Explorer, MS-FrontPage and MS-Word -- offer the wizard any help, if its asks for, to locate these three. You may also fool the wizard into accepting Mozilla Firefox for Internet Explorer, FrontPage Express for MS-FrontPage, or RoughDraft for MS-Word (and so on), if you so please. (Para 52)

In case of any failed authentication because of data corruption in the floppy diskette or for any other reason, you should contact the distributor for a replacement. In case of any partial installation or improper working because of minor data corruptions in the CD or in the hard disk, you can safely re-install SB using the any of the other two copies of the installer file (SB5Setup.exe) inside the inner folders in the CD -- no further authentication will be required if that was once successfully over. But in case the hard disk (at any time) gets formatted and all data in the hard disk was lost, a new installation will require a new authentication, including a newly obtained installation floppy-diskette! Similarly, un-installing SB is not advisable, because if you need to install again, a fresh installation floppy-diskette might be required, particularly if you manually delete some key files yourself or install next time into another folder. (Para 55)

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

Whenever I try to open Shabda-Brahma, an error message comes: row or column position is off the screen. What is the problem?

I am getting an strange problem with your program. Whenever I contemplate for a while keeping SB open, thus let the screen saver (or monitor dimmer) run, I cannot get back the original screen of SB and the screen goes blank-white. Such a problem has never occurred in any other application! What to do when this occurs?

What is new in SB?

The ability to offer tens of thousands of auto-suggestions (in contrast to a few in MS-Word and a few tens in RoughDraft ), around ten thousand shorthand 3-key abbreviations (in contrast to a few tens everywhere) and automated updating facility for the auto-suggestions wizard from text-based text and HTML files. (Para 58)

Won't the definition of ~10,000 live AMs and 15,000-25,000 auto-suggestions in full-blown SB make it slow?

No. Even 10,000 AMs and 50,000 auto-suggestions will only consume less than 5 MB of memory, whereas nowadays a computer has at least 64 MB of memory (for computers with lesser RAM, SB will itself regulates its auto-suggestions size). The hard disk requirement varies from 3-4 MB in early stages to at most 12-15 MB in full-blown stage, covering a miniscule corner of even a 20-GB hard disk. (Para 59)

I understand that the auto-suggestions wizard learns every word longer than 5 alphabets, and there aren't so many of such actually used words in most languages including English. But with these limited number of words, you can make an ocean of word-sets up to 75-character long. How can the wizard know which are valuable ones, i.e., would appear in future pieces of text yet to be written?

To distinguish commonly occurring word-sets (e.g., made from & as well as) from the uncommon ones (e.g., please perform carefully) the wizard uses a very simple technique -- it looks for repetition of the word-setts in the opened file only. So, learning words work the same way in both smaller and larger files, learning word-sets is better only in larger text files. So to fatten your auto-suggestion wizard in the best way, feed it with large files (written on your discipline). (Para 60)

Won't it be faster to freely go on typing than to bother about when and where to use 'shorthand'?

Most probably not. But even if you feel that, you can always press Insert key to at least some of the auto-suggestions popping up. Nevertheless, if you want to use shorthand also, the 'Difficulty in Remaining Alert While Typing' (DRAWT) about whether a 3KA exists (or whether a 3KA is worth defining) for the given long-word/phrase/clause just to be typed, is a real issue. In contrast to the problem of memorizing about which AM is meant by which 3KA, it is DRAWT that hinders the extensive application of SM (Shorthand Mode) in SB. However, the more one uses Shorthand Mode in SB, the less one would face DRAWT. (Para 61)

Why can't we always quit SB by simply closing its program window? Why should the dumb error message Can't Quit Visual FoxPro be encountered?

Because of some intrinsic problem in Visual FoxPro 6, I could not make a Save Works Dialogue Option be executed when the main program window is itself closed. So the window-closing operation is allowed to remain active only immediately after a Save operation. (Para 62)

Why does all lines are shown in SB Main Mode with a star (*) sign at its beginning?

Just to clearly identify every line in SB. It is just shown, doesn't actually remain. Doesn't cause a trouble, does it? (Para 63)

All other word-processors opens any existing file with the cursor at the top of the file. Why should SB open with the cursor at the bottom of the existing file?

Because you are more likely to add new text to the bottom of a file than to its top. So, let me dare do that. Anyway, you can always reach the top with just a single Ctrl+Home key-pressing. (Para 64)

While 'reading' the text to look for new long-words, it seems that SB avoids learning the plural forms, past-tense forms etc. (with 1-character or 2-character suffixes such as -s, -ed) in case of already containing root (main) words. Is it deliberate? What is the use of this?

Can you please tell me the fastest way to quit SB in case of an emergency, such as a power failure?

SB offers the facility of quitting faster any most other word-processors. First come to the Main Mode from anywhere (really anywhere) in SB by just pressing Esc key twice or 4-6 times to reach MM. Once at MM, you can save and quit fast by pressing Ctrl+Tab twice, or cancel and quit fast by pressing Ctrl+F12 twice, using either the left-most or the right-most corner of the keyboard alphabets respectively. (Para 66)

May I define thousands of fine-tuned shorthand-abbreviations and/or auto-suggestions in SB and sell them to other users?

Yes, if you are just a bona-fide end-user of SB, you have the full rights for defining and selling sets of shorthand-abbreviations and auto-suggestions to other users of SB, if and even if the sets include only one abbreviations/ suggestions newly defined by you. The auto-suggestions remain in the four files 99.dtb, assamese.dtb, hindi.dtb & Other_Eu.dtb within the sub-folder DontOpen in the working folder (say, C:\SB5th) of SB (99.dtb contains auto-suggestions in English), whereas the shorthand abbreviations remain in the ten files 1.dtb, 2.dtb, 3.dtb, 4.dtb, 5.dtb, 6.dtb, 7.dtb, 8.dtb, 9.dtb and sb_pipu.dtb within DontOpen. All these files are also kept together within the sub-folder Backup in the working folder. You may easily develop them by working in SB, and then copy them to floppy diskettes / CDs to sell them. Similarly, you may also develop and sell the text-explanation wizard's data file named 100.dtb. If you, however,  want to freely distribute such created resource to like-minded SB-users, the publisher of SB even provides a free platform for freely hosting such resources on the web. However, except these 15 (fifteen) files, you are NOT allowed to sell any other files or components of SB. (The text and HTML files typed in by the user using SB are not components of SB, and they are obviously the user's property, just as the word-documents typed in by an MS-Word user are not components of MS-Word.) (Para 67)

I have a horrible problem! After I install SB, whenever I try to run SB I get this message: "SB.exe is not a valid Visual FoxPro object file", and it never runs. What's happening?

You must be having a pre-existing virus infection that corrupts sb.exe just when it is born. Clean the virus from your computer, and also from the installation floppy diskette if it was already inserted, and re-install SB. (Para 68)

In case I uninstall Shabda-Brahma, would it require another key diskette from the seller to reinstall it?

How to back up the auto-suggestions, shorthand-abbreviations and text explanation settings to guard against hard-disk failure?

In addition to backing up (that you should obviously do) your typed text documents, you should also periodically back up (into floppy diskette etc.) your auto-suggestion file 99.dtb (as well as assamese.dtb, hindi.dtb & Other_Eu.dtb, if present), your ten shorthand files (1.dtb, 2.dtb, 3.dtb, 4.dtb, 5.dtb, 6.dtb, 7.dtb, 8.dtb, 9.dtb and sb_pipu.dtb), and the text explanation file 100.dtb (if present). You may note that all these document files needed to be backed up are conveniently kept together in the subfolder Backup in your working folder of SB, so that this subfolder (i.e., generally C:\SB5th\Backup) may be backed up wholly into a floppy disk (directly or in a zipped form), preferably as multiple copies inside multiple folders (e.g., A:\Backup1, A:\Backup2, A:\Backup3 etc.) of the floppy diskette. (If you prefer to backup into a CD, take care of the fact that all files and folders copied onto a CD automatically gets a read-only attribute, and after copying the files and folders back to the aforesaid hard-disk folder, this attribute must be removed therein for proper working of SB.) The key floppy diskette used in authentication of this text-processor is an otherwise new and practically empty diskette with such multiple folders, so it may be a handy one to be used for backup. (Para 70)

In case of a hard-disk failure, you need to follow these steps: first, contact your program vendor to have Shabda-Brahma properly re-installed (as well as authenticated) in your computer. Secondly, you need to collect the above-mentioned contents of your Backup subfolder from your floppy disk or internet backup folder etc., and copy these contents directly to the Backup subfolder within the working folder of SB. You'll see that your old, familiar abbreviations and auto-suggestions etc. of  SB are breathing intact. Thirdly, you may restore the typed text documents from any such backup source to their original place in your computer. (Para 71)

Is there any known bug(s) or problem(s) associated with this word-processor?

After quite extensive use and corrections by the author, only a very minor bug was found -- however it could not be removed due to inherent difficulties in Visual FoxPro. It is about the appearance of a purely blank line at the beginning of any file text-saved by SB (note that no such problem appears at the HTML-exported .htm file): If a file during editing by SB had no blank line at its top, SB will add one blank line at its top while saving the file. If a file initially had one or more blank lines at the top and you make no changes during editing, SB will show one less number of such lines while editing, but finally keep the same number of blank lines in the saved file. Nobody need to bother much about one more or less number of purely blank line(s) at the top of a file, except some users of a few scientific or technical applications (e.g., Fortran program writers using SB), and you can always delete or add that line by calling Notepad, or by Text-Exporting to Notepad. (Para 72)

There is another small problem that may sometimes occur in case of an inexperienced user. However, this is not a bug in the sense that it is preventable. When you are inside the TextEditor, you may note a small square (or a similar odd character) at the bottom of the file -- this character is used by Visual FoxProo to indicate the end of the text file. So if you, by using Cut / Copy & Paste operations from the TextEditor Edit Menu, if you place any text below this odd character, this pasted text will be lost and won't be seen in the subsequent Main Mode. So always paste anything in the TextEditor only above (or at least at the left side of) this odd character sign always visible at the bottom. (Para 73)

Aren't you ready to face just that most benign bug and this tiny preventable problem? (Para 74)

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Acknowledgements                      End-User License Agreement

Software Webpage:  www.oocities.org/riturajkalita/shabda.htm

E-mail (Developer):  rkalita@rediffmail.com

Para Hyperlinks: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74

Index:  Introduction Basics Shorthand Auto-Type Edit Setting Export Non-English Transform Math More Shorthand Multi-Users Interface Adv. Wizards Install FAQ

Additional Alphabetical Para-Index (Use the Para-Hyperlinks Above): 3KA (06 34 37-38 61), AM (06-07 34 36 38 59 61), Author (01), Align (13 19 27 29 41 42 44), Auto-Read (04 09 42), Auto-Type (01 04 08 10 21 25 41-42 53 59 60-61 67), Backup (70), Blank (57), Bug (72-73), Buttons (17 40-42 44 56), Calendar (33), Command (30-31 44), Cut (11-12 43-44 46), Desktop (04 52 54), Developer (01), Dimmed (41), Explanation (44 47 67), Export/Exporting (17-21 26 44 52 72), FullHnG Menu (09 15-16 27-28 30 32-33 39-42 44 48 54), File (01 04-05 06 08-10 13-21 25-29  40-47 49-55 58 65 67), Find (43), Folder (04 51 52 54 67), Fonts (02 16 18 23-25 43 54), FrontPage (01 05 18 19 22 52), Help File (03 04), History (01), Hotkeys (40 42 44 48), HTML (01 04-05 09-10 18-21 25-26 44), Importers (16 22 44 52 54), Internet Explorer (01 05 19 20 22 52), Link-file (04 51 52 54), Opening Screens (04 15 23 35 40), Main Mode / MM (04 06 11-13 23 27 30 32 38 40-42 65 66 72), Margin (26-28), Menu (05 09 10 15 16 22 41-44), Messages (38 42 56 65), MS-Word (see Word), Notepad (01 12 17 43 72), Online Help (42), Page-Setting (14 15-16 44), Paste (10 12 20 42-44 46 73), Pipu-Shorthand (16 39 44), Problems (72 73), Programmed in (01), Read (04 09 42), Reinstall (69), Requirement (02), Save/Saving (05 10 15 17-21 41-44 65 66 72), Screen (57), Selling (67), Shortcut (04 07 51), Shorthand (01 04 06-07 34-39), Sorting (26 28 44), Spacing (26-28), System-Requirement (02), TextEditor / TEM (12 23 40-42 43 46 65 72 73), Skeleton (05 14 17 18), Uninstall (69), Version (04), Vertical (46), Visual FoxPro (01 04 31 44), Word (Microsoft-) (01 05 10 16-20 22 52), WordPad (01 05 12 17 20).