


XPOSTIT(1)               USER COMMANDS                 XPOSTIT(1)



NAME
     xpostit - X window system Post-it8r9 notes

SYNOPSIS
     xpostit [ -_t_o_o_l_k_i_t_o_p_t_i_o_n_s ... ] [ -_o_p_t_i_o_n_s ... ]

DESCRIPTION
     _X_p_o_s_t_i_t provides  a  mechanism  for  manipulating  on-screen
     Post-it8r9  notes.   All  three  sizes of Post-it notes may be
     displayed, edited, and saved to disk  files.   In  addition,
     any  on-screen  note  may  be  resized to any arbitrary size
     either when it is created or at a later time.

     When _x_p_o_s_t_i_t is first invoked, it  creates  a  small  window
     with  a  plaid  background.   This is the control window for
     _x_p_o_s_t_i_t.  Additionally, if any notes were stored in the save
     directory (see below), these will be placed on the screen at
     their last locations.   Each  Post-it  note,  when  created,
     makes  another  window on the screen.  _X_p_o_s_t_i_t is controlled
     using the mouse buttons and a menu.  The Post-it  notes  are
     controlled using buttons (Command widgets).

OPTIONS
     _X_p_o_s_t_i_t accepts all of the standard X Toolkit  command  line
     options along with the additional options listed below.

     -bs _n_u_m_b_e_r
             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  new-
             lines.  The default is 1024.

     -dir _p_a_t_h
             Specifies the path name of the directory in which to
             store  saved  Post-it  notes.  If _p_a_t_h begins with a
             `/' it is taken as-is; if it does not begin  with  a
             `/',  the  path is taken relative to the home direc-
             tory.  The named directory  must  already  exist  if
             notes  are  to be saved in it.  The default is ._p_o_s_-
             _t_i_t_n_o_t_e_s.

     -sb     Enables scroll-bars.  If  specified,  a  scroll  bar
             will be attached to each Post-it note.

     -so     Enables scroll-on-overflow.   When  specified,  this
             option tells _x_p_o_s_t_i_t to scroll the text of a Post-it
             note  upward  when  the  bottom  of  the  window  is
             reached.

     -sv     Enables save-on-exit.  When specified,  this  option
             tells  _x_p_o_s_t_i_t  to  save  all  Post-it notes to disk
             files when exiting.  If not  specified,  notes  will



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XPOSTIT(1)               USER COMMANDS                 XPOSTIT(1)



             only  be  saved to disk files when saved manually by
             the user.

WIDGET USAGE
     _X_p_o_s_t_i_t uses several widget types to construct  the  objects
     it uses.

     The control window is made  up  of  a  Plaid  widget  called
     ``plaid''.

     The menu is a pop-up shell  called  ``Menu'',  containing  a
     List widget called ``menu''.

     Each Post-it note is a pop-up shell  called  ``PostItNote'',
     containing  a  Form  widget called ``form'' which contains a
     Text widget  called  ``text'',  and  three  Command  widgets
     called ``save'', ``erase'', and ``destroy''.

     The confirmation box is a pop-up shell  called  ``Confirm'',
     containing  a Form widget called ``form'' which contains two
     Command widgets called ``confirm'' and ``cancel''.

X DEFAULTS
     _X_p_o_s_t_i_t understands all of the core X Toolkit resource names
     and  classes as well as those listed below, which are all of
     class XPostit.

     .bufSize
             Specifies the size of the character buffer  used  to
             store a Post-it note.  The default is 1024.

     .noteDir
             Specifies the path name of the directory in which to
             store saved notes.  The default is ._p_o_s_t_i_t_n_o_t_e_s.

     .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.

     .scrollOnOverflow
             Controls whether or not  a  note  window  should  be
             scrolled  when  the bottom of the window is reached.
             The default is false.

     Because of the large amount of widget nesting in  _x_p_o_s_t_i_t  ,
     the  following  constructions  are  recommended  for setting
     resources on the various widgets:




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XPOSTIT(1)               USER COMMANDS                 XPOSTIT(1)



        *XPostit._r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e

        *XPostit.plaid*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e

        *XPostit.Confirm*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e
        *XPostit.Confirm*confirm*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e
        *XPostit.Confirm*cancel*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e

        *XPostit.Menu*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e

        *XPostit.PostItNote*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e
        *XPostit.PostItNote*save*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e
        *XPostit.PostItNote*erase*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e
        *XPostit.PostItNote*destroy*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e
        *XPostit.PostItNote*text*_r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e


THE CONTROL WINDOW
     _X_p_o_s_t_i_t allows three operations to  be  performed  from  its
     control  window.  Pressing the left mouse button in the con-
     trol window will cause all Post-it notes on the screen to be
     raised  to the top.  Pressing the middle mouse button in the
     control window will cause all Post-it notes on the screen to
     be  lowered  to the bottom.  Pressing the right mouse button
     in the control window raises the _x_p_o_s_t_i_t menu.

THE MENU
     The _x_p_o_s_t_i_t menu provides the following selections:

     Create 1.5x2 Note
             Create a new Post-it note,  1.5  inches  tall  by  2
             inches  wide.   The  window will normally need to be
             positioned using the window manager.

     Create 3x3 Note
             Create a new Post-it note, 3 inches square.

     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.   This  is
             equivalent  to pressing the left mouse button in the
             control window.

     Lower All Notes
             Lower all Post-it notes  to  the  bottom.   This  is
             equivalent  to  pressing  the middle mouse button in
             the control window.

     Save All Notes



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             Save all Post-it notes to disk  files  in  the  save
             directory.

     Exit    Exit _x_p_o_s_t_i_t . 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.  If the mouse
     cursor exits the menu  window,  the  menu  will  be  lowered
     automatically.

THE POST-IT NOTE
     Each Post-it note is made up of four parts (plus an optional
     scroll  bar):  a  text  window where the text of the note is
     stored, and three buttons labeled ``save'',  ``erase'',  and
     ``destroy''.

     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 Text widget, all the  Text  widget
     translations  are accepted.  Essentially, this means you can
     use most of the EMACS control keys in the window.  Addition-
     ally,  the  various  mouse buttons used for manipulating the
     selections and cut buffer are understood.

     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  _x_p_o_s_t_i_t,  the  Post-it  note  can  be
     restored  when  you  restart _x_p_o_s_t_i_t.  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 ``note_n'' 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 _x_p_o_s_t_i_t 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 ``con-
     firm'' 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.

     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 cur-
     sor to the ``destroy'' button and press the left mouse  but-
     ton.   This will bring up a confirmation window as described



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XPOSTIT(1)               USER COMMANDS                 XPOSTIT(1)



     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.

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 _x_p_o_s_t_i_t cannot be fully appre-
     ciated.

AUTHOR
     David A. Curry, Research  Institute  for  Advanced  Computer
     Science

     ``Post-it'' and the plaid design are  registered  trademarks
     of 3M.
































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