HOW TO DOWNLOAD THE REQUIRED TOOLS

SETTING UP AOL

I'm including this step to make SURE  that the following steps 
will work well for you.  Begin using AOL, but DON'T sign on.  
Pull down the "Members" menu and choose "Preferences."  
Click on "Downloading Preferences" and make SURE that there 
is a check mark next to both "Auto UnStuff Files" and "Delete 
StuffIt Files." 

Close the Preferences window and click "Sign On."  As soon as 
you hear "Welcome!", we're ready to do some work.

DOWNLOADING FILES

While using AOL, pull down the "Go To" menu, and choose 
"Keyword."  Type the word "Palmtop" (without the quotes) and 
hit the return key.  You'll notice this brings you directly to 
where all of your Newton goodies dwell. This includes the 
"Palmtop Paperbacks" section, where you'll find many, many 
"ET" Etext files.

You may want to download the prerequisite files, so click on 
"Palmtop Paperbacks." You'll see a list of available books, and 
you might have to keep clicking on the "More Files" button 
until you see a file called "NE How2CreateNewtonBooks Pt. 1"  
Click on "Download Now" and you should see a dialog box 
which is asking you where you want to save your file.  Just hit 
the Return key, which tells AOL to save your file into the same 
folder as America Online.  Its name will be "MAKE_NB1.SIT," 
which is typical for a PC-format file.  I have tried my best to 
make these articles accessible to the 40% of Newton owners 
who use PC-compatible computers, even if it inconveniences 
my fellow Mac users.

After a while, the file transfer will be complete, and hopefully 
AOL's software will have decompressed the file and split it 
into its separate files.

DOWNLOADING THE MAC-COMPATIBLE TOOLS

I'm about to STRONGLY recommend that you download several 
shareware programs.  They will save you VAST amounts of 
work, and they are worth paying for.  They each come with 
instructions for payment.  I didn't use Add/Strip for the first 
collection of books I created, and I would have cut my 
workload by 80% if I had done so.

There are two tools you should download from America 
Online.  One will de-compress the PC-format Etext .ZIP files 
you'll download from AOL, and the other one will filter them 
to make them read nicely on a Macintosh or Newton screen, 
with paragraphs that are attractive, quotes that are curly, and 
no funny characters to annoy you.

Pull down the "Go to" menu and choose "Keyword."  Type 
"QuickFinder" and hit Return on your keyboard.  This section 
allows you to find ANY program or data file in the monstrous 
Mac program library.  Make sure that the dot next to "All 
Dates" is black, and that there is an "x" next to "All Categories."

Down at the bottom, there is a field that where you should 
now type "Add/Strip" and press Return.  After a short delay, 
you will see a list of choices.  Find the version of Add/Strip 
with the highest number (mine is currently version 3.03) and 
double-click on it.  Click on the button "Download Now", wait a 
while, and when you hear "File's Done!", close that window and 
the next window.  You should see the window that allows you 
to search for files.  Hit the Delete key on your keyboard until 
the words "Add/Strip" are gone, type "ZipIt" and then hit 
Return.  Download the newest version of ZipIt (mine is 1.2)  
and then Choose "Quit" under the file menu.  When asked if 
you are sure, click on "Quit" to exit from AOL.

If all goes well, you should have decompressed ZipIt and 
Add/Strip program and documentation files on your hard disk.  
Open up your America Online folder and make sure.  Drag the 
"A/S NewtonBook Settings" file I've included with this article 
into the same folder as Add/Strip.

HOW TO UNZIP FILES

This step is only necessary if you have downloaded a book or 
other text file that has a name that ends with .ZIP.  These ZIP 
files are compressed archives containing one or more files that 
have been compressed by a PC user, rather than a Mac user.  
ZipIt allows you to read the foreign ZIP files (which are quite 
plentiful in the world of bulletin boards) and extract the files 
contained within so that you can work with them on your 
Macintosh computer.

If you are using System 7 on your Mac, just drag ZipIt onto 
your desktop, somewhere near the Trash can.  If you spot a 
file that ends with .ZIP, just drag that file into ZipIt's icon.  If 
you are using System 6, double-click on ZipIt and open the ZIP 
file manually.

ZipIt will open up a window that may show only one file 
inside of the ZIP, or it may contain many, many files. I always 
use the same technique to decompress files from within a .ZIP 
file.  I hold down the Command key on my keyboard (the one 
with the Apple on it) and briefly press the "A" key.  This 
performs the "Select All" command.  I then hold down the 
Command key and briefly press "E", which is the shortcut for 
the "Extract" command.  Finally, I quit from the program, 
finding that whatever files were stored inside my ZIP file are 
now outside it in decompressed form.