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                            R · E · A · D

                                M · E

                  Particulars for the new Operator

                    of THE APPARATUS FACTORY™

                              ── ❦ ──

                In which is set forth, with admirable clarity
              & moderate pomp, all that the new Owner shall
                  require for the prompt commissioning
                          of his new Engine.

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                    OFFLINE LTD., Pulchritudinis Officina
                          Patent N° 4,021,114



A WORD OF GREETING.

  Esteemed Operator, —

  The volume you hold in your hand — or, more precisely, the file you
  have caused your Computing Engine to display — accompanies your recent
  acquisition of THE APPARATUS FACTORY, a most handsome Engine for the
  Composition, Adornment, & Inspection of HyperText documents.

  We at OFFLINE LTD. take considerable pride in our craft, & hope that
  the Apparatus shall serve you faithfully through many a productive
  morning at your writing-desk. We have written these particulars in
  the firm conviction that the well-instructed Operator is the
  contented Operator; & that nothing repays a few minutes of patient
  reading like the avoidance of an hour's later perplexity.



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I.  ·  WHAT THE APPARATUS DOES
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  The Apparatus Factory is a self-contained Engine by which a person
  of ordinary capacity may compose documents of HyperText, observe
  their appearance in a live Lens, & emit them upon his disk for
  distribution to the wider Inter-network or for private archival.

  It is delivered as a single file of HyperText, contains no external
  dependencies, & shall — barring acts of God, gross neglect of the
  hosting machine, or catastrophic failure of the public Inter-net —
  operate in any Browser of modern manufacture without further
  preparation.

  The work-product of the Apparatus is itself an ordinary HyperText
  file, suitable for upload to any web-server of the Operator's
  choosing, or for direct opening by the recipient.



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II.  ·  REQUISITES FOR PROPER OPERATION
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  The Apparatus shall require, in good working order: —

      (a) A Computing Engine, of recent or moderately-recent manufacture;
      (b) A Browser of modern make: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge,
          in any version released since the year of grace 2018;
      (c) An expanse of attention sufficient for the composition of
          prose; &
      (d) A degree of curiosity, of which we shall not specify the
          magnitude.

  It shall NOT require: —

      (a) An Inter-net connection. The Apparatus is wholly self-
          contained, & shall function aboard a vessel mid-Atlantic
          as readily as in a metropolitan office.
      (b) A licence-server, or other galling apparatus of supervision.
      (c) The submission of personal data of any kind whatsoever.
      (d) The installation of any auxiliary programme, plugin, or
          extension.

  The Apparatus retains the Operator's labours within the Browser's
  own private store (technically, the IndexedDB of his Browser), & no
  byte of his composition shall, by the Apparatus's own action, ever
  leave the said Browser.



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III.  ·  TO COMMISSION & OPERATE
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  1. Cause the file `apparatus_factory.html` to open in the Browser of
     your choice. This is most readily accomplished by a double-click
     of the suitable rodent upon the said file's representation in
     your Engine's file-finder.

  2. The Apparatus shall present itself in two principal sections:

       — UPON THE LEFT, the Editor: a parchment-tinted region wherein
         the HyperText itself is to be composed, with proper
         highlighting of the several syntactical elements;

       — UPON THE RIGHT, the Lens: a live preview of the document as
         the Browser shall ultimately render it. The Lens updates
         itself automatically as the composition proceeds.

  3. Above these stand two further fields: the Title of Apparatus, in
     blue ink, & the Salutations & Felicitations editor (formerly
     called the description), which shall together name & describe
     the document for the wider world.

  4. Inscribe such text as you desire. As you proceed, the small
     marker at the foot of the Apparatus shall report the Apparatus's
     state — "unsaved..." in dirty hand, or the time of last save in
     contented green.



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IV.  ·  PRINCIPAL CONTROLS & THEIR USES
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  The Apparatus is provided with two prominent buttons, of which the
  Operator should be made acquainted at once: —

  ❦  STRIKE A FINISHED IMPRESSION TO DISK ......... (⌘ S)
     The principal commission. Causes the Apparatus to bundle the
     present composition into a single, self-contained HyperText file
     & to deliver it to the Operator's downloads-cellar. This file
     may be uploaded to any web-server, attached to electronic mail,
     or simply viewed in any Browser.

  ❦  EMPTY THE PRESS  ............................. (⌘ R)
     A complete & irrevocable purgation of the Apparatus's contents.
     To be employed only when the Operator is wholly certain he no
     longer requires the present composition. The Apparatus shall
     prompt for confirmation before the act, but the act itself,
     once confirmed, cannot be undone.

  In addition: —

  ❦  RECEIVE AN EXISTING MANUSCRIPT
     The button accompanied by the upward-pointing arrow shall, when
     depressed, summon the file-finder, by which the Operator may
     load a previously-composed HyperText file into the Apparatus
     for further work.



─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
V.  ·  KEYBOARD SHORT-CUTS
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      (⌘ S)  ........  Strike Impression — save the present work.
      (⌘ R)  ........  Refresh the Lens — force a re-rendering.

  Substitute (Ctrl) for (⌘) upon Engines of the Microsoft persuasion.



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VI.  ·  PERSISTENCE OF LABOUR
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  The Apparatus, being civilised, retains the Operator's work between
  sessions in the Browser's private store. The Operator may safely
  close the Browser, restart the Engine, or take a sea-voyage to the
  South of France, & shall find his composition exactly as he left it
  upon his return.

  Should the Operator wish to clear the Apparatus's memory entirely,
  the "Empty the Press" button shall accomplish the same; or, for the
  more thorough-going, his Browser's settings shall include a means
  for purging the said private store.



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VII.  ·  IN CASE OF MALFUNCTION
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  Should the Apparatus fail to commission, or fail in the course of
  its operation, the Operator is invited to perform, in order, the
  following remedies: —

      1. Refresh the Browser. (Most ailments are thereby cured.)

      2. Open the Apparatus in a different Browser. (The remainder
         of ailments are thereby revealed as Browser-specific.)

      3. Consult the Browser's developer-tools — opened, in most
         Browsers, by the key F12 — & inspect the Console for
         reports of any error.

      4. Apply by post or by electronic mail to the Proprietor at
         the address last printed upon the wrapper, enclosing: —

             (a) A particular description of the malfunction;
             (b) The make & version of the Browser employed;
             (c) The make & operating-system of the Computing
                 Engine in question;
             (d) Such words of imprecation as the Operator deems
                 appropriate, but no more than three.



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VIII.  ·  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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  The Apparatus could not have been brought to its present state of
  refinement without the considerable labours of: —

      Professor Q. Eldritch Horncastle, of Cambridge, who composed
      the accompanying Manual upon the noble Art of HyperText.

      The several typographers of antiquity & the present age, whose
      faces (Cormorant Garamond, IM Fell English, IM Fell English
      Small Caps, Special Elite, & Caveat) lend the Apparatus its
      distinctive character.

      The patient subscribers of OFFLINE LTD., whose corrections,
      suggestions, & occasional outright complaints have shaped the
      Apparatus through its several Impressions.

      The Office of Letters Patent of the United States, District of
      Columbia, who have not yet replied to our most recent enquiry,
      but to whom we extend our continued cordial regards.



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                  We wish you many productive hours in
                  the pleasant company of the Apparatus.

                              ── ❦ ──

                          OFFLINE LTD.
                  Publishers, Engravers, & Stationers
                            of London.

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