ELEMENTS
Jonathan Rawle, January 1996



Editing data files
------------------

The text and draw files can simply be edited when displayed, and saved back
in the same place.


Adding extra data files
-----------------------

Not all elements have have draw and text files associated with them. But it
is possible to add files for these elements.

Within the !Elements directory, there are four subdirectories: Draw, Draw+,
Text and Text+. 

 Each of these may contain up to 77 files (Acorn's restriction, not mine!)
 There may be a file for a particular element in each directory (4 files in
  total). If, for example, there was a file called Hydrogen in both the Text
  and Text+ directories, then both files would be loaded when the text icon
  in the element data window is clicked upon.
 There does not have to be a file for an element in Text or Draw, for there
  to be one in Text+ or Draw+. !Elements will look in both directories for
  files. This allows there to be at least one text and one draw file for
  each of the 109 elements.
 The files can be of any type you wish- they could be DTP or sprite files,
  for example, or even applications or whole directories of files.
 Files for elements with names longer than 10 characters can simply have
  their filenames truncated to 10 characters. For example, Praseodymium
  becomes Praseodymi. (The computer should truncate the filenames
  automatically. If not, have a look at !Configure, or type '*Configure
  Truncate on' at the command line.)

You may have noticd that the text and draw icons in the element data window
are 'greyed out' when no files exist. If you simply save new files, these
icons will still be greyed out. To prevent this, you must click on the file
'Install' in the !Elements directory after you have created any new files. 
(If Elements is already loaded, it will not recoignise the new files until 
it is quit and re-loaded).