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                              BookMaster Tags
 
BookMaster is a document formatting language that consists of a set of tags
that define a document's structure and appearance. You use BookMaster tags
to create help panels and to format the text and art in your help panels.
Each tag directs the IPF compiler to process or format subsequent text in a
given way. For example, the :h1 tag directs the compiler to create a new
help panel; the :dl tag directs the compiler to skip to a new line and start
a two-column list.
 
To use BookMaster tags in your source file, you insert each tag immediately
before the text that you want to have the given format. You can place the
tags anywhere in the file, not just the beginning of a line. A tag consists
of a colon (:), a tag name, optional parameters, and a period (.), so you
can insert the tags by using your text editor. Some tags may be used only in
the context of other tags──for example, a figure caption tag may be used
only in a figure. There are the following tags:
 
    :afnref. :ehpt. :inform.
    :ahdref. :elines. :launch.
    :ainform. :ent. :li.
    :alaunch. :eol. :lines.
    :artwork. :eparml. :lp.
    :aspotref. :esl. :note.
    :body. :eul. :nt.
    :caution. :euserdoc. :ol.
    :cgraphic. :ewarning. :p.
    :dd. :exmp. :parml.
    :ddhd. :fig. :pd.
    :dl. :figcap. :pt.
    :docprof. :fn. :sl.
    :dt. :fnref. :spot.
    :dthd. :h. :spotref.
    :ecaution. :hdref. :title.
    :ecgraphic. :hp. :toc.
    :edl. :hpart. :ul.
    :efig. :hpt. :userdoc.
    :efn. :i1. :warning.
    :ehp. :i2. :xmp.
    :ehpart. :index.
 
In addition, there are special control tags that start with a period (.)
instead of a colon and must appear at the beginning of a line. There are the
following control tags:
 
    .*
    .br
    .ce
    .im
 
Finally, BookMaster includes a set of symbols that represent characters.
Most symbols represent characters that are not found on the keyboard or
conflict with the IPF compiler. For example, the symbol "&colon." should be
used instead of the colon (:) to prevent the compiler from trying to process
the colon as a BookMaster tag.
 
The general format of a help source file that uses the BookMaster tags is as
follows:
 
    .* Sample help document
    :userdoc.
    :title.Sample help document
    :h1 res=1234.Selecting a Choice
    :p.After you select a choice, choose an option
    from the action bar pull-down to work on the
    choice, then press Enter.
    :p.If you decide not to select a choice, then press
    the Esc key to exit the panel.
    :euserdoc.
 
The :userdoc and :euserdoc tags are required. They define the beginning and
end of the help document. The :title tag sets the help document title. The
:h1 tag is required for each help panel. The res parameter with the :h1 tag
specifies the resource number for the help panel. This is the number used by
the application to access and display the help panel. The text immediately
following the :h1 tag is the title of the help panel. This title appears in
the table of contents for the help document. Text can be formatted as
paragraphs using the paragraph tag, :p.
 
The IPF compiler can compile existing BookMaster source files to create help
panels for programs ported to Presentation Manager. If the compiler
encounters tags that it does not process, it displays a warning message
and/or ignores the tag. In particular, the compiler ignores the following
tags:
 
    :address.
    :appendix.
    :author.
    :backm.
    :frontm.
    :prolog.
 
See Also
 
 DTL, IPFC
 
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