Reading Envoy 7 Documents

According to an information of the manufacturers, the Envoy 7 format is no longer supported by them. But since I have deposited some documents in this format, the following informations are given to keep them readable, but they will not be updated.

The following informations are given to shortcircuit for other users the solution of some problems, which I encountered, before I became a convinced user of the Envoy 7 documentation system. The informations are given according to my best knowledge; but since I am only I private user, I refuse every liability for damage or loss of profit resulting from potential misinformations.

Although there are several 'browsers' (i.e., applications designed to view documents from the Internet), the author of the present document is experienced only with Netscape Navigator under Windows. Hence, the subsequent informations concentrates to this configuration, and users of other browsers must see, how the informations referring to Netscape Navigator under Windows can be tranferred to their software.

Contents:

General information

Viewing Envoy Documents

Limitations of the Plug-In

Serious problems with versions

Downloading and installing a viewer

E-mail Address for comments and questions

General information

'Envoy 7' is a format of output, which can be created by Windows applications and read on computers where the respective application isn't installed. There are also Macintosh versions, but I don't know enough about them. However, Envoy 7 documents created under Windows should be readable on the Macintosh.

More explicitly, two components of the system have to be distinguished:

The Envoy 7 driver is a program, which must be present on the computer creating an Envoy 7 document. This program had to be purchased; but the former manufacturer has stopped selling and supporting it.

The Envoy 7 viewer is a program, which is used mainly to view Envoy 7 documents with extension .evy. (Other uses: Creating bookmarks and hypertext links, writing comments, which can be sent to the author, saving the file after insertions of this kind, etc.) This viewer is free for downloading.

There are also Envoy 7 files with extension .exe. These files contain a reduced version of the viewer, and the document is embedded into the program, which can be startet immediately (doubleclick the filename in the Windows File Manager, or use 'Run' in the Windows Program Manager) without prior downloading of the viewer. Note, however, that the .exe-version is considerably longer (about 720,000 bytes). So it may pay off in the long run to install the viewer.

Viewing Envoy Documents

If you have an Envoy 7 Document on your hard disk, there are two ways of viewing it. If you have installed a stand-alone viewer, you start it and open the file (Ctrl-O, or Files/Open). If you have installed a Netscape Plug-In, you can load the file from Netscape (Ctrl-O or File/Open File). Note: Some versions of Netscape Navigator offer only the file types .htm, .txt and .exe in the Open dialogue, and only files of the chosen type are listed in the window. But if you have installed a Netscape Plug-In, you can nevertheless open Envoy 7 documents with extension .evy, writing the name of the file (which you must know) into the file name field.

When you download an Envoy 7 document from the Internet, then two things may happen, depending on the installation of your PC as well as on the web server from where you load the document. If you have installed a Netscape Plug-In and the web server is sufficiently prepared, then the document will appear on your screen. If you don't have a Plug-In installed or if the web server isn't prepared, then Netscape will open a 'Save As' window. You can then save the file into an arbitrary directory and under an arbitrary name with extension .evy, and view it as described in the preceeding paragraph.

Limitations of the Plug-In

Before you install a Plug-In, you should note some limitations. First, you need Netscape Navigator 2.0 or higher to use the Plug-in. Second, and more important, the Plug-In doesn't support all features available under the stand-alone viewer. In particular, the author of a document may support crossreferences within that document by links to 'bookmarks'. If you click a link of this kind in the stand-alone viewer (!), then the referenced passage appears on the screen, and returning to the previous view is also supported. But these intra-document-links are not supported by the Plug-In! Solution: Install the stand-alone viewer as well as the Plug-In. If a document is loaded into the Plug-In and you want to use the facilities of the stand-alone viewer, save the document as a file with extension .evy on your hard disk (e.g. using Option File/Save As in Netscape Navigator), and then view the saved file in the stand-alone viewer.

Serious problems with versions:

By an automated reply to a question, which I received on July 31 1996 from wptech@corel.com, I was informed about some problems with versions of the Envoy system. 'This is an issue of the change in file format between Envoy 1.0a and Envoy 7. Due to legal reasons, the compression technology was forced to change between the two versions of Envoy. Envoy 1.x using LZW and Envoy 7 using LZSS. The Envoy 7 viewer can read Envoy 1.x files and annotate them, but once they are saved, the file will become an Envoy 7 file and cannot be opened with an Envoy 1.x viewer. As soon as users begin to mix Envoy 7 files with an Envoy 1.x viewer, there will be some GPF's, hanging, and other compatibility issues.'

Downloading and installing a viewer:

Due to the above problems with versions, it is strongly advisable to install an Envoy 7 viewer or Plug-In.

Since the Envoy 7 format is no longer supported by the former manufacturer, the viewer is no longer available at their site. So I offer an alternative. Having purchased an Envoy 7 driver, I am entitled to distribute the Envoy 7 viewer with my documents, and this implies that I can deposit the viewer on the WWW server, which I use to distribute my Envoy 7 documents. (Click here for an index.)

For Windows NT, the Windows 95 versions should work according to an information from info@tumbleweed.com. Note that the stand-alone viewer for Windows 95 is only a Beta version - i.e., a version under test at the time of downloading -, whereas the Windows 95 Netscape Plug-in is a final version.

Clicking one of the following links, you obtain a file, whose execution leads through the installation. The files have been downloaded from the former downloading adress http://www.twcorp.com/download.htm on September 3, 1996.

vsetup16.exe: 'Stand-alone viewer' for 16 bit systems (Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups).

setup16.exe: Netscape Plug-in for 16 bit systems (Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups).

vsetup32.exe: Beta Version of 'Stand-alone viewer' for 32 bit systems (Windows 95 and Windows NT).

setup32.exe: 790,031 bytes: Netscape Plug-in for 32 bit systems (Windows 95 and Windows NT). Note: If you run a 16 bit version of Netscape Navigator, yo must take setup16.exe for the Plug-In, even if you run Windows 95 or Windows NT!

Comments and questions are welcome under e-mail iseler@zedat.fu-berlin.de.