Û                         MAIN MENU                          
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°  The MAIN MENU is the point of departure for all funct-    
°  ions of ALPHAQUOTE.  Enter the selection number for       
°  the desired function to use.                              
°            The functions and a brief descripton:           
°                                                            
°  Setup          Contains the hourly rates, penalty         
°                 factors, credit factors, and the data      
°                 necessary to print a report.               
°                                                            
°  Estimate/      The major function for pricing and         
°     Copyfit     pagination.                                
°                                                            
°  Print          Prints a formatted report to a line        
Û                 printer                                    
Û                                                            
°  View Status    Displays a window that shows current       
°                 calculation with an optional summary.      
±                                                            
±  Reset Status   Initializes the STATUS display to zero     
°                                                            
°  Disk           Saves, retrieves or displays a directory   
°                 of the estimates.  Note: The setup rates   
°                 are saved with the estimate.               
°                                                            
°  Help           Help text files.  They may be accessed     
°                 anywhere in the program by pressing F1     
°                                                            
°  Calculator     A pop-up calculator featuring, addition,    
°                 subtraction, multiplication and division   
°                 as well as conversion of picas & points    
Û                 to inches and inches to picas & points.    
Û                                                            
°  Quit           Close the program and return to DOS        
°                                                            
°                                                            
°                           STRATEGIES                       
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±                                                            
°     ALPHAQUOTE can be used to estimate many different      
°     types of publications such as magazines, newspapers,   
°     newsletters and books.  There are two basic estimat-   
°     ing strategies to use with ALPHAQUOTE, one for a       
°     consistent layout and another for an inconsistent      
°     layout.                                                
°                                                            
°     For example, books and technical documents are         
°     consistent.  Page after page is virtually the same     
Û     with an occasional chapter drop or piece of spot art.  
Û     For these projects ALPHAQUOTE is quite straight-       
°     forward, answer the questions from the various menus   
°     as they are presented.  When finished press 'V' from   
°     the MAIN MENU to see the results.                      
°                                                            
°     Magazines are an example of an inconsistent layout.    
°     The first pages may be two columns and the second      
±     three columns.  The typeface and point size may vary   
±     and some pages may be more complex than others.        
°     The best approach to an inconsistent layout is to      
°     estimate each page separately.                         
°                                                            
°     ALPHAQUOTE allows input based on the number of         
°     characters or number of pages to describe the          
°     length of the document to be estimated.  For           
°     an inconsistent layout, answer the Number of           
Û     Characters question with zero (0) and the Number       
Û     of Pages with 1.  Answer all of the other questions    
°     appropriately.  Press 'V' from the MAIN MENU to see    
°     the results for page 1.  Select 'E' from the MAIN      
°     MENU.  Using the PGDN, PGUP and CURSOR keys,           
°     navigate to the items that change for page 2.          
°                                                            
°     For example, page 1 is a 2 column page, but            
°     page 2 is 3 columns.  Navigate to the columns          
°     question change the 2 to a 3 then press F2 for the     
±     result.  ALPHAQUOTE will quickly recalculated using    
±     the new information.  Go through the entire job        
°     looking for exceptions make just those changes         
°     then press f2 for immediate results. Magazines tend    
°     to have sections that are the same.  Lumping like      
°     sections together will speed the estimating process.   
°                                                            
Û     Unfortunately, version 2.0 of ALPHAQUOTE does not      
Û     keep track of the individual pages when estimating     
°     an inconsistent layout.  Keep track of each page       
°     then add them together for a total.                    
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