SB ET-Feel Auto-Saved Text-Slates (SB-ASTS) Manual

Shabda-Brahma ET-Feel Auto-Saved Text-Slates (SB-ASTS)
(A Brief Manual working as Addendum to the SB-Classic Manuals)

Shabda-Brahma ET-Feel Auto-Saved Text-Slates (abbreviated as SB-ASTS) is a new, novel-concept variant of SB-Classic (i.e., SB-Proper), designed to offer a faster and more direct auto-typing environment to the experienced users of SB. It gets auto-installed along with the installation of SB. As SB-ASTS does away with the concept of files in SB, introducing rather the concept of SB-slates, so we advise that users uninitiated in the working of the SB pair of text-processors shouldn't directly lay their hands on SB-ASTS, but should rather start with SB proper. After they learn how SB (i.e., SB proper) is used mostly as a provider of slates to fast-write one's unformatted texts, which texts are then copied and pasted onto a proper word-processor, they may safely move over to SB-ASTS!

As there are no file to work with in SB-ASTS, so you can't (and needn't) choose a file in SB-ASTS. You may, of course, choose the user (maximum 20 options) you want to work as (if not chosen, the Default User gets auto-selected), within 4-6 seconds of double-clicking at the program icon. After the dust settles and program window gets ready, the text you see on the working screen is just where the same user (say, User-05) left working in his/her/its last session. Yes, now you may type! The typed text gets auto-saved whenever the number of lines increase or decrease, or whenever SB-ASTS is closed (via File-Exit, or via a click at the 2nd X button). After you finish writing in the present session, or are just prevented to proceed further by the 33-line restriction in Free-SB (Free SB-ASTS also has the same 33-line restriction), you should press either Shift+F12 (or even Ctrl+L to clean slate, see next paragraph) to export the text as HTML-output. After this exporting step, you should open the SB5 Output link file, select and copy its displayed HTML-text, and paste that HTML-text to your desired file in your desired word-processor (i.e., Word/ FrontPage/ PageMaker etc.). In SB-ASTS, your created text may vanish into nowhere (after the text is cleared, say by the clean-slate operation), if you don't preserve its exported-form in this way!

To write something afresh on another topic, or to simply keep writing in spite of the free-33-lines restriction, the main recourse left to you in SB-ASTS is just the Clean Slate option (you can't open or create a new file, as there are no files at all in SB-ASTS!). However, your text obviously vanishes when you 'clean the slate'! So, to relieve you of this problem, the two following additional functions are kept associated with the Clean Slate (hotkey Ctrl+L) command in SB-ASTS: (i) HTML-Export (of the pre-cleaned slate's text) that automatically occurs, with the HTML-output going inside the SB5 Output link (ii) Inside the Data subfolder (within the working folder of SB), the pre-cleaned form of the text gets automatically saved in a file named by the date and exact time of the clean-slate operation.

So, we suggest the following easy steps for working in SB-ASTS
(particularly useful for the free variety of SB-ASTS):
Step 1. Open SB-ASTS (by double-clicking at the link file SB Auto-Saved Text-Slates v5), choose the desired user (and choose the desired language, if necessary).
Step 2. In the working screen write whatever you want (or the first 33 lines, until you're prevented by the free-33-lines restriction). Then press Ctrl+L to clean slate. (If you have to urgently leave, you may just close SB-ASTS and go - your text will get auto-saved. Even in case of a power failure, in SB-ASTS you'll lose only at most one line!)
Step 3. Minimize SB-ASTS, then open SB5 Output, select and copy its displayed text, then paste that into your desired file in your favorite word-processor, and save that file.
Step 4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until your typing work is over, and your final destination file is ready in your favorite word-processor. Then close SB-ASTS (and walk away).
Step 5. If you fail to copy and paste any piece(s) of slate-text generated with SB-ASTS (i.e., somewhere messed up doing Step 3), search the said Data subfolder, locate the particular text-file by the date and time (and, if necessary, the text-content), and then may open that text-file by using SB proper (i.e., thus you may get even that supposedly lost text duly HTML-exported and pasted into your favorite word-processor!).

Appendix: A List of Important Differences between SB v5.9+ and SB-ASTS v5.9+

Characteristic	SB v5.9+	SB-ASTS v5.9+
Runs when double-clicked at the link-icon named:	SB Word-Storm Processor v5	SB Auto-Saved Text-Slates v5
Does it asks for name of the file to work on?	Yes, it asks (auto-selects last-used file after 30 seconds).	No, question of a file doesn't arise.
When clicked at LastUser-LastFile:	The last-using user and the last-used file gets opened.	The last-using user gets opened, also shows blue Free-SB screen.
When clicked at newly offered button Undo:	Word being typed etc. is erased.	Line being typed etc. is erased.
When clicked at the lower close (X) button:	Option for saving, abandoning or save-cum-exporting appears.	Work gets saved, and program gets closed without any fuss!
When the Clean Slate operation is done:	Just all the lines are deleted!	Text gets exported and also saved as date-time named file in \Data, and then all the lines are deleted.
Does it auto-save?	No.	Yes, whenever the number of lines in the text increase or decrease!
Upon a sudden power failure, the text you lose:	Whatever you haven't saved!	At most the currently written line (only if you haven't saved that)!
When Esc is pressed in the free package:	First time displays text in text-editor, next times in text-viewer (messages on 1st & 2nd time).	First >100 times displays text in text-editor, next times in text-viewer (with no messages at all).
Files&Slates limitations in the free package:	1 extra file & 1 extra slate, OR 2 extra files.	Unlimited number of extra slates (the question of files doesn't arise).