Uploading files from XyW to E-mail

[Eric Van Tassel 101233.342@xxxxxxxx]

A comment, followed by a couple of queries.

On 22-7-99 Dick Giering wrote (in part)

>... Use the Shift down arrow to select a few paragraphs at a
>time (this is one of the "bugs" in XYWrite in that
>it has a size limit here) and click on EDIT and
>COPY TO CLIPBOARD. Alt tab back to your E-mail
>message composition window and EDIT PASTE. Repeat
>until you have the complete file.

This is also my procedure in Win 3.1, except that (partly because I avoid
mousing when I can) I have a variant. After opening an outgoing E-mail
screen in the E-mail program, here's what I do:
 (a) Save a duplicate copy of the file (the duplicate will eventually be
destroyed - see Note A below), on which
 (b) run a macro that eliminates all the formatting features that
experience has shown can confuse a non-Xy-using recipient: in practice,
that means that the only guillemet-framed strings that remain are mode
commands, which the macro changes to plain low-ASCII characters (e.g. it
converts both "≪MD[S]IT≫" and "≪MD[S]UL≫" to "_"); then
 (c) simply keep the XyWrite window and the E-mail window open and Alt+Esc
between them;
 (d) in XyWrite, define a block which is about a screen and a half in size
(as D.G. observed, there's a practical size limitation [see Query 1
below]);
 (e) save the defined block to the Clipboard - in XyWin under Win3, it
seems the only way to do this is to hit Ctrl+X;
 (f) switch (Alt+Esc) to the E-mail screen, and dump the contents of the
Clipboard there (Ctrl+V);
 (g) return to XyWrite (Alt+Esc) and repeat (d)-(f).


Note A: the reason for using Ctl+X to *delete* the defined block is that
with a longish file I'm going to be doing this sequence several times;
deleting the defined block means that when I dump that block and go back to
XyWrite my next task is to define from the top of the file.


Query 1:
Step (d) above could be effected by repeatedly hitting F4 - defining the
block para by para - but I prefer to keep all the blocks about the same
size and so avoid transgressing the size limitation that D.G. mentioned.
(If I do exceed that limitation, E-mail simply refuses to accept the
defined block; then I have to return to XyWrite, hit Ctl+V *there* to
reinstate the just-deleted block, go back to the top and define a slightly
smaller block, and resume.)
 I've been doing step (d) by keying
    F3
    PgDn [this lengthens the defined area by one screen's worth]
    Ctl+Alt+Shft+down-arrow x3
Ctl+Alt+Shft+down-arrow is my homemade shortcut which moves the cursor down
five lines at a time: doing this three times equals about half a screen.
I've been using this cumbersome method just because it works, but I've now
realized that I go through it so often in the working day that I really
ought to simplify the process: it should be possible to adapt a key to
define, move down 1-1/2 screens, and define again. I've just tried to write
such a routine, but I find that the string
    =NI,DF,PD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,CD,DF
just doesn't do anything. Where did I go wrong?
 (And isn't there a more elegant way to do CDx15?)


Query 2: I'm sure that everything I've so laboriously described could be
reduced to a macro, but I don't know how. Any suggestions? Would the right
approach be supra-XyW, via a Win3 batch file?
 (I plan to stay with Win3 for a while, both because Win9x would need a
faster PC with more RAM and a bigger hard drive than I can afford, and
because I rely so heavily on XyW and have been hearing on this list about
all sorts of problems connected with using the world's greatest WP under
Win9x.)

Was it Mme de Maintenon who apologized for writing a long letter because
she hadn't time to write a shorter one? Anyway, I apologize.

Cheers
Eric Van Tassel