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Foneword/32 (VERSION 1.00)
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
Written by Neil J. Rubenking
First Published in PC Magazine, US Edition, October 21 1997.
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About  Foneword/32...

When a telephone number is expressed using words, it's easier
to remember. These mnemonic phrases are sometimes called vanity
numbers, but we'll call them "fonewords".  Foneword/32 consults
a dictionary of nearly 80,000 words to help you find the best
foneword for your telephone number. Running under Windows 95 and
Windows NT 3.51 or later, Foneword/32 updates a PC Magazine
utility originally published in 1993. Foneword/32 is much faster
than the original Foneword, uses a proprietary compacted format
for storing the data, and offers an entertaining, telephone-
shaped interface.

USAGE:

Foneword/32 is supplied as a self-contained installation program.
Run this program to install Foneword/32 and all its files in the
directory of your choice. The installation program will add
Foneword/32, its help file, and an uninstall utility to your
Start menu or Program Manager. 

When you launch Foneword/32 for the first time, you'll see that
it's interface is rather special; it looks just like a telephone!
Start by pressing the keypad buttons to enter a telephone number
of up to ten digits, or simply type the telephone number. If you
type letters, they will show up as the corresponding number.
(Since U.S. telephones do not include a numerical equivalent for
Q or Z, these letters are ignored.) This is a handy way to
convert fonewords back into ordinary telephone numbers. Press
the Esc key or the Clear button to clear the telephone number
completely. Press the Backspace key or the Delete button to
delete the last digit.

The small speaker icon just below the telephone number controls
Foneword/32's beep tones. Click the icon or press Ctrl+B 
(B for beep) to toggle beeps on and off. If beeps are on, each
time you enter a digit you'll hear the same Dual Tone Multi-
Frequency (DTMF) tone that a touch-tone telephone makes for
that digit. Take note--they are precisely the tones generated
within your telephone. Try holding your telephone's mouthpiece
next to the computer's speaker while you type a number into
Foneword/32. In most cases, doing so will dial the telephone!
If you frequently work with a speakerphone turned on and your
computer's volume high, you should turn off Foneword/32's beeps.

Once you've entered the telephone number, press one of the
three action buttons below the number buttons, or press Alt plus
the first letter of the button's caption. Start with All real
words or Alt-A. Foneword/32's main window will open up to make
room for the results. You'll get a list of any perfect fonewords
-- ones in which every digit is replaced by a letter and the
letters spell actual words. For example, JAVA YUM and SYNERGY
are perfect fonewords. Because the digits 0 and 1 don't
correspond to letters, they are treated as real words, so you
can get results like NUMBER 1 or 0 CHARGE.

Some telephone numbers don't correspond to any perfect fonewords.
Others offer only undesirable results, such as I BE UGLY or
STINKER. In that case, press the Some real words button or Alt+S.
You'll get a list of partial fonewords containing at least one
real word of a reasonable length, like 5 BUCKS 5 or BREAK 31.
The list of fonewords is sorted to show those containing the
longest words first. Within the group of fonewords whose longest
word is the same length, those that have the fewest unprocessed
digits come first. Naturally, any perfect fonewords will also
show up in this list.

When you click on the Just letters button or Alt+J, Foneword/32
ignores its dictionary and displays all combinations of letters
that represent the input telephone number. There can be quite a
few of these. A ten-digit telephone number containing no 0's or
1's will have 59,049 possible text representations. Carefully
scanning this list can pay off, though. Words don't have to be
spelled correctly to be memorable. Nobody will forget your
barbershop's telephone number if the foneword is KUT-HAIR!

Each time you press one of the action buttons, Foneword/32
displays its results in the Possible fonewords list. When you
find a good one, you need to put it in the Selected fonewords
list. Double-click a foneword to select it, drag it to the
Selected fonewords list with the mouse, or right-click the
list and choose Select foneword from the menu. If you're using
the keyboard, highlight the foneword and press Enter.

You can save either the possible fonewords list or the selected
fonewords list to a text file for later perusal. Right-click
the desired list and choose Save list from the popup menu, or
press Tab until the desired list is active and then press F2.
Foneword/32 will propose a default filename consisting of the
telephone number followed by ".possible.TXT" or ".selected.TXT",
but you can choose any name you wish.

You can try the other action buttons while the foneword lists
are displayed, but when you want to work on a different
telephone number you must close the main window first. Press
the pound (#) button (also called number sign or octothorp) or
the # key on the keyboard. Press the asterisk (*) button (also
called star) or the * key on the keyboard to shut down Foneword/32.

As you move the mouse around, you'll notice that the text in
the panel below the action buttons changes to describe what's
under the mouse cursor. You can also right-click any of
Foneword/32's components and choose What's This? from the menu
for a more detailed description. That's all you need to know;
you're ready to start devising fonewords!

Note: The file FONESRC.ZIP contained in FONE32.ZIP is the 
source code for Foneword/32.  This will only be of interest to you 
if you are a programmer, and can be discarded if you choose.

Support for Foneword/32:
Support for the free utilities offered by PC Magazine can be 
obtained electronically in the discussion area of 
PC Magazine's Web site and in the Utilities section of ZD Net's 
TIPS Forum on CompuServe.

For PC Magazine's Web site go to the 
URL http://www.pcmag.com/discuss/ and select the Utilities 
area. You can also access the Utilities discussion area from 
the utility's download page. The authors of current utilities 
generally monitor the discussion area every day. You may find 
an answer to your question simply by reading the messages 
previously posted. If the author is not available and you have
a question that the sysops can't answer, the editor of the 
Utilities column, who also checks the area each day, will 
contact the author for you.

For ZD Net's TIPS Forum (GO ZNT:TIPS). The authors of current 
utilities generally visit this forum daily. You may find an 
answer to your question by reading the messages already posted 
in the forum. If the author is not available and the forum 
sysops can't answer your question, the Utilities column editor, 
who checks this forum each day, will contact the author for you.

Neil J. Rubenking is contributing technical editor of PC Magazine.
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