:cfg
>.margin[ left 2 ] .window .next

:intro

About Topx ..

Topx is a stand-alone topical "page indexer" for
Iris-style virtual books.

An index in a conventional book lists topics on the
left, and one or more page numbers on the right. When
readers see an interesting topic, they start flipping
to the cited page numbers.

Topx lets you set up a similar system for your virtual
books. Of course, instead of page "numbers", page
"names" are used, and Iris does all the page flipping.

:setup

Setting up ..

To use Topx, you must first go through your virtual
book and add some special comment lines, so Topx knows
what to do. You could do this after the book is
written, or while you're writing it, or both.

An topic line simply begins and ends with an
exclamation mark (!).  Iris will ignore these as
comments, but Topx will read them as topic lines.

Between the exclamation marks, type the topics     Ý
pertinent to the current page. The topics can be   Ý  :SomePage
anything you want so long as they are in the Iris  Ý
page name format. You can put as many as you want  Ý  ! Topic1 Topic2 !
on the same topic line. Just be sure that the      Ý
line begins AND ENDS with an exclamation mark.     Ý
                ----                               Ý

:running

Running ..

To start Topx, just type TOPX at a DOS prompt. Topx
will display a short help screen, and ask you what book
you would like indexed. Topx will then read through the
book looking for the special topic lines.

When done, Topx will ask if you want the index pages
written to a separate file or appended directly to your
book. If a separate file is chosen, Topx will use the
same book name but with a ".TPX" extension. (Be sure
that the index pages are eventually added to book,
though.)

:Using

Using ..                                               Ý  {..Index..}
                                                       Ý
The index Topx builds starts with a page named         Ý    }Topic1
{..Index..}. This page contains a number of "menu      Ý    }Topic2
lines" listing all the topics found in your book (on   Ý    }Topic3
your topic lines).                                     Ý
                                                       ÝÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
When a topic is chosen, a new menu displays listing    Ý
all the page names indexed to that topic. Of course,   Ý    }Topic2
if one of the pages is then chosen, Iris will          Ý
immediately take you there.                            Ý    SomePage
                                                       Ý    ThatPage
                                                       Ý    ThisPage
And that's all there is to it!                         Ý

:end
>.clw