Û MAIN MENU ± ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ± ° 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 or disk file 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 and recalled 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 ° Breakout A pop-up window keeps track of all pages ° while keeping a running total. ° ° Quit Close the program and return to DOS ° ± STRATEGIES ± ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ° 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 Û consistent. Page after page is virtually the same Û with an occasional chapter drop or piece of spot art. ° 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 view 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 Û an inconsistent layout, answer the Number of Û Characters question with zero (0) and the Number ° 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 Û Starting with version 3.0, ALPHAQUOTE will keep ° track of individual pages when estimating an ° inconsistent layout. The Breakout By Pages feature ° will itemize each page and keep a running total. ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ± ± Û Û