Software information: User Guide (Rev #30, changes)
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RISC OS 5 User Guide now published!
A comprehensive User Guide for RISC OS 5 is now available and can be downloaded in PDF form from the Miscellaneous downloads page.
The If you prefer a printed version copy of the User Guide, this can be purchased from theRISC OS 5 User Guide has now been published and can be purchased from the Merchandise page.
The remainder of this page has been retained for historical interest only.
Chapter contents
The User Guide contains chapters on the following subjects:
Part 1: Beginner’s concepts
- The RISC OS desktop
- Using the mouse
- Using the keyboard
- Windows
- Menus and dialogue boxes
- Using applications
- Files and directories
- Switching off the computer
Part 2: Managing the desktop
- The desktop
- Managing the desktop
- Changing the computer’s configuration
- The Boot application
- Using discs
- Other storage devices and filing systems
Part 3: Networking
- Local networks
- Setting up networking
- OmniClient
Part 4: Printing
- Setting up printers
- Printing your files
- PrintEdit
- FontPrint
Part 5: RISC OS applications
- RISC OS applications
- Using colour in applications
- Using fonts in applications
- Edit
- Draw
- Paint
- Alarm
- Help
- Chars
- CloseUp
- Maestro
- SciCalc
- Squash
Part 6: RISC OS diversions
- Blocks
- Flasher
- Hopper
- Madness
- MemNow
- Meteors
- MineHunt
- Patience
- Puzzle
Part 7: RISC OS utilities
- T1ToFont
- HForm
- ChangeFSI
- Usage
- Patch
- SparkFS
Appendices
- The command line
- Built-in application options
- BBC BASIC
- RISC OS file types
- Old-type screen modes
- Removing a disc defect
- Character sets
- Error messages
Obtaining the User Guide
A PDF version of the User Guide can be downloaded from the Miscellaneous downloads page.
If you prefer a printed copy of the User Guide, this can be purchased from the Merchandise page.
About the RISC OS 3.70 User Guide download
Updates and corrections to the User Guide
From The this intention page is you to can publish download a new edition of the User Guide to coincide with the next stable release ofPDF version of Acorn’s original RISC OS OS, 3.70 due User later Guide in exported 2020. as aPDF that should be sufficient for people to start looking at what edits need to be made.
The If you have spotted any errors in the existing User Guide, or if you have any suggestions for new material suitable for inclusion, you should in the first instance add your comments to thePDFUser Guide small corrections was page. generated fromRISC OS Open’s master FrameMaker document, which was copied straight off a DO (the Acorn Drawing Office) backup CD. There only seemed to be one issue number in there so is presumed to be the latest. As far as we can tell, Acorn didn’t print the 3.70 User Guide on paper, it was only ever released as HTML (likely exported from FrameMaker).
About the RISC OS 5 User Guide update project
A more structured approach to User Guide updates – as shown on the old User Guide update submissions? page – may be adopted as work progresses towards a new release, but for the time being all changes should be logged on the User Guide small corrections page.
We have uploaded the Acorn document to allow the community to assistRISC OS Open with the work involved in updating this (rather large!) document to address everything that has changed in RISC OS 5, which is almost twenty years of development. From time to time, ROOL will update the working version of the RISC OS 5 User Guide, as updates are folded into the master document.
This is our suggested plan of attack for bringing the User Guide fully up to date:
Scan the cover imageMilestone: Recreated RISC OS 3.70 manualDelete the dead chapters (eg.!PhotoView) & fix up any cross referencesNote new sections required where dead chapters were relevant (e.g. !CDPlayer is now integrated into CDFSFiler but we just deleted !CDPlayer chapter)Add new chapters for wholly new stuffRework existing chapters where radically different, e.g. !ConfigureIntegrate relevant text from the Welcome Guide, this covers primitives like using the mouse to control the filer, and is presupposed by the filer chapter (which just says “in the Welcome guide you learned how to…”)Tone down dated references, e.g. “RISC OS 3 PRMs” → “RISC OS PRMs”Edit technical inaccuracies (e.g. the description of how to map out a defect predates large >512MB drives)Top and tail with new Copyright blocks & trademark boilerplate, etc.Milestone: RISC OS 5.2x topics completeReview whether the chapter grouping still makes sense (it may not any more) in light of new materialCheck the nesting of the PDF index is sane, sprinkle index markers on new textReview cyclesMake the cover artwork & print
Our strong suggestion here is that the community would be most valuable contributing to items 4, 5, 6, 11 and 14 of the above. There is a forum thread for general discussion of this work.
The page User Guide update submissions? provided a list of topics that corresponded to chapters which were the subject of volunteers’ updates.
User Guide small corrections was a page on which contributors could log small editing errors (e.g. spelling and punctuation) that they had spotted in the draft of User Guide issue 1. As of May 2019 the page is repurposed for logging suggested changes to the next issue of the User Guide.
Guidelines for textual submissions
Please read and adhere to the Tech Pubs Style Guide – for example, the text needs to use the correct tense, with no Americanizations, and you certainly don’t want no double negatives.
Each new or updated chapter should be created as a child of this wiki page to allow community updates. Discussion relating to updates can be held on the forum thread.
Please avoid putting too much work into the formatting of the wiki pages; ROOL will need to redo all of this when the work is folded into the master document so anything more than a gentle hint in the wiki pages will just create more work for ROOL (unformatting it all first).
Guidelines for image submissions
Before capturing screenshots you must
- Install the Manuals theme which is based heavily on the Sovereign desktop theme with alternative window furniture
- Use Homerton 12 point as the desktop font
- Disable the Wimp’s background tiling for all screenshots
- Turn off the iconise icon
- Capture in EX1 EY1 screen modes
These settings must be used for the whole manual to be consistent and for there to be consistency across the whole range of RISC OS books that ROOL publish. They are chosen so the icons are easily visible and print well in greyscale.
Images should be supplied in 24bpp colour PNG format with and have no bleed area around them. Where menu trees are open the void space is solid white, not transparent.
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