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Remarks & Hints
General Remarks
Record Length
All records are truncated after column 200, as they are read in. Therefore, if you make a record that is longer, the program will not notice it and you will not get an error. Your data will just be truncated. This is only likely to happen on records that allow freeform text (e.g. an Information Record ).
You should be especially careful when using an external bitmap on a fingering record (see Using Bitmaps on F Records) because the text could truncate in the middle of the bitmap filename and then the bitmap wouldn't load. Of course, this would show up in testing, and the RCDLOG.TXT file would show the truncation (see Loading Errors).
Because of the proportional font used by the program, sometimes freeform text will more than fill the area allowed for it on the screen, even when it doesn't exceed the maximum length. For example, if you put 120 "W" characters on a "message" F record (see F Record - Message), it would definitely more than fill the display area. You just have to try things out. Of course, version 2.67 introduced the ability to place the text cursor within these fields and scroll, so the text will still be viewable. But there will be no indication to the user that the text isn't fully seen.
The case (uppercase or lowercase letters) of records usually does not matter. For example, the first letter of each record (e.g. the "F" at the front of the fingering records) can be upper or lower case. There are several exceptions, however. The ";bmp=" designator used to add bitmaps to fingering records must be lowercase (see Using Bitmaps on F Records). The "%n" and "%b" special text variables must be in lowercase (see Text Variables).
Bitmap Images
Images used in Bitmap records (see F Record - Bitmap) and also on other F Records (e.g. F Record - Message) must be .bmp type files. They cannot be JPG, GIF, or any other image format (JPG and GIF image files are very popular, because they are used on web pages).
If you have a JPG or GIF image you want to use in Recorder Digits, you can easily convert it to the BMP format. To do so, load it into an image editing program (e.g. Paint Shop Pro, PhotoShop, Corel Paint, etc) and then SAVE it as a BMP file. If you don't have an image editing program, a very nice freeware program is available called IrfanView (click here to go to the website - http://www.irfanview.com/english.htm). Another inexpensive program that will do the conversion (plus a lot of other things) is ThumbNailer (click here to go to the website - http://www.SmallerAnimals.com).
BMP files allow full 24-bit color. The only real negative about them is that they are not compressed, so they can take up a lot of space on disk, compared to the JPG or GIF equivalent. One way to make a BMP file smaller is to reduce the number of colors it uses - say to 256 or 16, or even (for a black and white image) to just 2. If your image contains text, you will have better luck reducing the number of colors if you do not use anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing smooths text by gradually blending the text color into the background color, employing a lot of colors in the process. Text that does not use anti-aliasing can look somewhat jagged, but it can also look sharper.
Single Holes instead of double holes
If you are describing a historical recorder that only has single holes for the right-hand 3rd and 4th fingers, you can specify this type of hole by using the "s-" fingering designation described in the F Record - Full-Specification section.