INQUA Sub-Commission on Data-Handling Methods

Newsletter 17: February 1998

FIRST AID FOR Windows95^TM, DEP-AGE, and SLOTDEEP Users

Dear Dr. Triage: I use Windows95, but I was running the DOS program DEP-AGE in a DOS window. I need to print a copy of the depth-age diagram for Kirchner Marsh for a publication I am writing. Can Do?

Dear Can Do: I am suggesting that -- while running DEP-AGE in a full-screen DOS window of Windows95 -- you capture the graphic screen to Windows' "clipboard." You can then use Windows' accessory program "Paint" to recover the clipboard and edit the screen.

I am assuming that you want a black and white image that can be output to your printer. Here are my suggestions:

1. Use DEP-AGE to graph your data on a Depth-Age plot.
2. From its menu screen, choose "C" to change the colors. Make the background black (0) and all text, lines, and curves bright white (15).
3. DEP-AGE has an undocumented feature for changing the size of the actual depth-age plot rectangle. From the menu screen, type "S" to change the Size of the plot. You can change the scale of both the X and Y axes. If you reduce the plot size from 1 to, say, 0.8, you will have an easier time editing later.
4. When you have the screen plot as you want it, simply touch the "Print Screen" key. That is Windows' way of saving the DOS screen to its clipboard.
5. Press ALT + TAB keys to return to Windows while leaving DEP- AGE running in the background. (If you find you need to make changes, you can restore the DOS screen, make your changes, and save the new results to the clipboard very efficiently.)
6. Start Windows' PAINT program. (It is in the "Accessories" folder.)
7. In PAINT's commands along its top margin, click on "Edit" and choose "Paste." You should see the Dep-Age screen that you captured.
8. In PAINT's commands along the top margin, click on "Image," followed by "Attributes," and choose "B&W" rather than "Color." Windows will tell you that is a non-reversible option and ask whether you really want to do so. Choose Yes.
9. Click on "Image" again and choose "Invert Colors"; you should then see the diagram drawn with black lines on a white background.
10. PAINT allows you to insert text. You get to choose the font and erase all the "typewriter" font used by DEP-AGE, replacing it with what you want. You can also add time and depth units at the margins of the plot. If you have not used PAINT before, it will take a little learning, but it has "help," and it soon gets pretty intuitive. You can save the edited file as a named bitmap file, and/or you can print the results. The figure is a depth-age plot I made of the spline fit to the C-14 dates for Kirchner Marsh's C-14 dates. D.T.

Dear Put Out: I agree with you, and I have finally convinced Lou to see the light. In SLOTDEEP v. 1.6, menu choice (3. SHOW Matrix Map) uses the non-expanded menu map of SLOTSEE. You can get the VGA version (SLTDEPVG.EXE) in the File Boutique. Lou refuses to update the EGA version saying everyone uses VGA now. D.T.

Copyright © 1998 Dr. Triage