










                             P O W E R M E N U

                         U S E R S'    M A N U A L


                             V E R S I O N    5

                                 JUNE 1990


                   Copyright (C) Brown Bag Software 1990


                           2155 South Bascom Ave
                             Campbell  Ca 95008
                                  U. S. A.


                            Tel:  (408) 559-4545


      PowerMenu Users' Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990

      THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT
  
      Copyright (C) 1990 Brown Bag Software, Inc.. All rights re-
      served world wide. Both the PowerMenu program and documentation 
      is copyrighted. It can not be disassembled or modified without 
      our express written consent.
  
      PowerMenu is distributed on a ShareWare basis. You may use 
      PowerMenu without charge for evaluation purposes. We suggest 
      that this evaluation period be limited to 30 days of actual use. 
      If you find that PowerMenu is worth continuing to use, then you 
      are required to pay for it. Simply complete the registration form 
      and mail it to us with your payment. A copy of this registration 
      can be used as a pro forma invoice. When you register your copy of 
      PowerMenu, you'll receive the latest version of the program, 
      along with a comprehensive printed user manual and free unlimited 
      technical support for one year. We aggressively develop our 
      products, and as a registered user you'll be entitled to upgrades 
      at a greatly reduced price. Most importantly though, by registering 
      your copy of PowerMenu (or any ShareWare product), you'll ensure 
      the survival of the convenient and risk free distribution method 
      that brought you PowerMenu in the first place.
  
      If you have received this copy from a Users' Group, "Software 
      Library" or "SIG", and have paid a small fee (usually $3 to 
      $10), you have NOT acquired the registered rights or continued 
      right to use PowerMenu. This fee was for the convenience of 
      obtaining the diskette with PowerMenu on it. The fee does NOT 
      apply to the registration fee. If you obtained this disk from 
      Brown Bag Software, the fee IS applicable towards registration 
      if you register your copy within 90 days.
  
      You may freely copy this version of PowerMenu for distribution 
      under the ShareWare concept, without charge.

      You may NOT charge any fee for the PowerMenu program or docu-
      mentation without our WRITTEN APPROVAL (usually granted). 
  
      You may NOT distribute PowerMenu or it's documentation in 
      connection with ANY commercial venture, product, publication or 
      service without our written approval. This includes, but is not 
      limited to, the sale of computer systems or components. 
  
      WHAT IS POWERMENU?
      PowerMenu is a DOS operating environment for your IBM PC or 
      Compatible which provides easy access to any program on your 
      hard disk. When you want to start a program, select it from the 
      menu. After you install the program into PowerMenu, no interac-
      tion with DOS is required to run it. You press one or two keys 
      and you are ready to use the program. When you're done, 
      PowerMenu returns automatically, awaiting your next command.

      POWERMENU LAN
      There is also a LAN version available. The single user version
      is for a single users on a single CPU and should not be installed
      on a LAN where it will be accessed by multiple users.


      PowerMenu Users' Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990

      USING THIS MANUAL
      This manual is shorter than previous on-disk documentation 
      because of disk space constraints. This version of PowerMenu is 
      also more powerful than any previous. A comprehensive printed
      manual will accompany the registered version. Also, features may
      only be mentioned once in this documentation, so read it all.
  
      TYPE CONVENTIONS
      Whenever this manual tells you to press a key, that key will be 
      enclosed in square brackets. For example, if you are instructed 
      to press the Home key, you will be told to press [Home]. When 
      you see two keys in the same set of brackets, such as [Alt-S], 
      you should hold down the [Alt] key and hit the [S] key.
  
      INSTALLATION
      All of the PowerMenu files will reside in a subdirectory called 
      \MENU. This allows PowerMenu to find the support files it needs 
      from anywhere on your hard disk. For our purposes, we will 
      assume you have a hard disk with drive letter C:. 
  
      The PowerMenu files should be copied into a subdirectory called 
      \MENU (this is where it will always look for its files if they 
      do not exist in the default directory).
  
      Novice users can put the PowerMenu disk in the A: drive and 
      issue the following commands:

      C:[Enter]       (If your hard disk is D: or other, use that letter)
      MD \MENU[Enter]  (This creates the MENU subdirectory)
      CD \MENU[Enter]  (This moves you into the new directory)
      COPY A:*.*      (This copies everything from the PowerMenu disk in A:) 

      To begin PowerMenu change your default directory to \MENU. At the
      DOS prompt type MENU. The initial screen you see is the PowerMenu
      Shareware screen which briefly explains the Shareware concept. By
      pressing any key you will be prompted to hit the spacebar to run
      PowerMenu, "R" to register your copy, or "P" to print the PowerMenu
      documentation.

      After hitting the spacebar you will be presented with a login screen.
      You are prompted for your name, type "BROWNBAG"; for password type
      "MENU".

      The main menu will then be displayed. The will be 7 examples entries.

      To change or add new users to PowerMenu, hit F2 to bring up the
      utility menu. From this menu select "USER ACCOUNTS". To change the
      supervisor name from "BROWNBAG" to your own, hit key F7 to edit this
      information. Once it has been changed, hit key F7 again to save the
      changes. You can then hit [ESC] until you return to the main menu.

      You can exit from PowerMenu anytime by hitting [Esc].

      THE POWERMENU SCREEN
      In the main PowerMenu screen you will probably want to change many,
      if not all, of our sample menu selections. We will tell you how to
      do this after we discuss the elements of the PowerMenu screen.


      PowerMenu Users' Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990

      The top box contains Brown Bag's copyright notice, the date on
      the far left and the system time on the far right. These can be 
      set through PowerMenu at any time (Press [F2] to see the Utili-
      ty menu and select Time or Date). The middle of the second line 
      contains the version and serial number of your PowerMenu pro-
      gram. If you have to call Brown Bag for technical support, you 
      will need this information.

      SELECTING ITEMS FROM THE MENU
      Further down is the opening menu itself. Note the ten Descrip-
      tion Line selections under the word "PowerMenu." There are 
      three ways to activate these description lines:

      1.  Highlight the selection by moving the cursor bar with the 
          [up arrow] and [down arrow] keys, and then hit [Enter].
      2.  Press a number key. This immediately activates the correspond-
          ing program or submenu on that description line.
      3.  Hit the first letter of the description line.

      The bottom line of your screen will be a Help Line as long as 
      you remain in PowerMenu. The help line will give you quick 
      hints as to what functions are available to you. Remember that 
      you can get detailed help at any time by pressing [F1].

      CUSTOMIZING MENUS
      When first installed on your system, PowerMenu may not yet know 
      which application programs you have on your hard disk. You will have
      to give PowerMenu a little help in customizing your menu system.

      The edit window is opened by highlighting the description line 
      and hitting the [Ins] key, and closed by hitting [Esc]. Press 
      the [Ins] key now.

      Each white-on-black area is called an Input Field, because you 
      are expected to input data into this field. [up arrow] and 
      [down arrow] keys move you to the next field.
      TITLE FIELD
      The top line is the description that will appear on the menu. 

      DIRECTORY FIELD
      Contains the name of the directory in which your applications 
      program resides.

      CMND NAME FIELD
      The filename and extension (the Command Name) of the command 
      you wish to run.

      PARAMETERS FIELD
      These are the arguments (a.k.a. Parameters) you send to the program.

      PASSWORD FIELD
      If this field is not blank, PowerMenu will ask you to type this 
      password before allowing you to edit or run this selection. 

      PAUSE FIELD
      If you put a Y in this field, PowerMenu will pause before 
      returning to the Main Menu screen. 


      PowerMenu Users' Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990

      PROMPT FOR PARAMETERS FIELD
      If you put a Y in this field, PowerMenu will prompt you for
      new parameters each time.

      COMMAND NAMES AND PARAMETERS
      Don't worry about these fancy DOS terms: a command name is just 
      the name of the program you wish to run; a parameter is addi-
      tional information the program needs.

      Command names in PowerMenu all have one thing in common: they 
      all end with either a .EXE, .COM, or .BAT. (The resident DOS 
      commands COPY, DIR, ERASE, REN, and TYPE are exceptions). 
      This is called the Extension of the command name.

      The extension .EXE tells DOS that the file is EXEcutable, .COM 
      stands for a DOS COMmand, and .BAT means the file is a BATch of 
      DOS commands. When you buy a word processor, spreadsheet, or 
      any other program for your PC, you call it up by typing the 
      command name. To run a program, PowerMenu must know both the 
      file name and the extension.

      Some common programs and their command names are:
                 Program              filename/extension
                 WordStar                   ws.com
                 Microsoft Word          .com

      PARAMETERS
      Parameters are information passed to a command name. Sometimes 
      you need to tell the program what file to work on. you would do 
      that with a parameter. For instance, if you wanted to edit a 
      document on your computer, the DOS command might be:
               C>edlin letter.doc

      When you install a program in PowerMenu, that program's manual 
      will probably explain what command to give DOS. Everything 
      after the first word are parameters.

      If DOS Command is...               Parameters are...
      --------------------               -----------------
      C>word /c letter.doc /c           /c letter.doc /c
      C>ws thesis.txt thesis            thesis.txt thesis

      With PowerMenu, all you have to do is install this menu selec-
      tion once, and editing your report is one keystroke away.

      If your word processor is Microsoft Word, and the program is in 
      the \WORD subdirectory:

      The description would be "Microsoft Word" or "Word Processing"
      The directory is C:\WORD
      The command is WORD.COM

      This is how you would input the information into your menu:
      Highlight description line 1 with the [down arrow] or [up 
      arrow] keys.

      Delete the sample 1 selection by hitting the [Del] key and answer "Y".


      PowerMenu Users' Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990

      Next, hit [Ins] to open the Edit Window. All the fields should
      be blank.

      Fill in the fields and then hit [Esc] to close the edit window.
      You have just installed your first menu selection!

      Note that you won't be able to activate this selection unless 
      you happen to have Microsoft Word on your hard disk in the 
      \word directory. If you know which programs you have on your 
      hard disk, you can now customize PowerMenu to your heart's 
      content.

      AUTOINSTALL
      With the registered version of PowerMenu you have the option
      of running the Autoinstall. Autoinstall will search you hard
      drives for popular programs and set up your menu automatically.

      SUBMENUS
      It is possible to display as many as 4 menus on the PowerMenu 
      screen at once. You can do this by setting up a selection to 
      call a submenu.

      Submenus are set up by putting "[MENU]" in the directory field, 
      and putting a 1-8 letter menu name in the Cmnd Name field.

      You will need to remember the names of your submenus in order 
      to call them up. Your selection can call any existing submenu; 
      if the submenu does not exist, it can be created. If you create 
      a new submenu, it will contain blank selections until you fill 
      them. Your initial PowerMenu screen shows you an example of a 
      submenu call. If you open the Utilities for Computer edit window,
      you can see how it activates a submenu named UTILITY.

      ERROR MESSAGES
      It is possible that you will see some error messages if you 
      make a mistake in setting up PowerMenu. These will appear on 
      the second line from the bottom. Hit [F1] to see a detailed 
      explanation of the error.

      USER ACCOUNTS
      Version 5 has the ability to maintain an almost unlimited
      number of separate user accounts. Each user having their own 
      customized menus, colors, and security. The pre-installed 
      supervisor is "BrownBag" and the password is "MENU".

      User accounts does NOT allow more than one person to use PowerMe-
      nu at the same time. A version of PowerMenu for use on a LAN is 
      available for that purpose.

      NEW USERS
      From the Utility menu, select USER ACCOUNTS to create or maintain 
      your users. The available commands are displayed across the 
      bottom line of the screen. The function keys allow you to add or 
      change the users at will. 


      PowerMenu Users' Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990

      USAGE LOG
      When enabled, PowerMenu will keep a log of who did what, when and 
      for how long. There is also a powerful feature that allows crea-
      tion of projects and the assigning of costs to the projects. This 
      would allow the user to maintain billing information accurate to 
      the minute based on projects or to analyze performance.

      MOVING MENU SELECTIONS (SWAP)
      Hitting [Alt-S] lets you drag a selection to any location on 
      the menu. For example, dragging the 1 selection to the 5 posi-
      tion and then hitting [Enter] will exchange their contents. 
      [Esc] will abort.

      LIST, DELETE, OR REINDEX THE DATA FILES
      In the unlikely event that something should damage a PowerMenu
      data file, you can attempt to repair it with the program 
      MENUFUN.EXE. The program is run with parameters. 

      To reindex the menu datafile, run 
                      MENUFUN -R
      To list the Submenus in your menu structure, run
                      MENUFUN -L
      To delete a submenu from your menu datafile, run
                      MENUFUN -D {submenu}

      If you are running with multiple user accounts, MENUFUN will
      prompt you to enter a user and supply the password.

      AUTOMATIC EXECUTION WITH AUTOEXEC.BAT
      You can have your system automatically invoke PowerMenu whenev-
      er you reboot on your computer. Just put the command menu as 
      the last line in a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT in the root directory.       

      The contents of a typical AUTOEXEC.BAT file might look like 
      this:
               TIME
               DATE
               PATH=C:\DOS
               SK
               CD \MENU
               MENU

      BACKING UP YOUR POWERMENU FILES
      You should make it a practice to routinely copy your important 
      files to a backup disk. This is true for all of your applica-
      tions, and not just PowerMenu.

      COLOR SETTINGS
      Selecting "Colors" from the [F2] Utilies menu allows you to 
      change your PowerMenu colors.

      Use the arrow keys to move the pointer up and down. To change  
      the text color, use the plus [+] and minus [-] keys. Change 
      the background color by holding down the [shift] key while   
      pressing the [+] and [-] keys. ([ESC] will exit) To save your
      changes, either exit the program and come back in, or run an
      application.


      PowerMenu Users' Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990

      DOS WINDOW
      You can directly access DOS by using the WINDOW TO DOS command. 
      When you press [F4] you'll be given a blank screen with a DOS 
      prompt. All DOS commands are valid, and you may remain in DOS 
      for as long as you like. When you are finished, type 'EXIT' and 
      hit [ENTER] and you'll be returned to PowerMenu. Remember, all 
      DOS commands (and even some commands DOS DOESN'T support) are 
      available from the Disk Manager.

      KEYBOARD ENHANCERS
      PowerMenu is compatible with keyboard enhancement products such 
      as SuperKey, Prokey, and Keyworks. However, if you redefine one
      one of PowerMenu's reserved keys, you might disable some of 
      PowerMenu's features.

      PowerMenu's "reserved" keys are:

               [F1] - [F5]
               [Shift-F1] - [Shift-F10]
               [Alt-F1] - [Alt-F10]
               [1]-[0]
               [Alt-S]
               [Alt-D]
               [Alt-T]
               [Home]
               [Ins]
               [Del]
               [down arrow]
               [up arrow]
               [Esc]

      Try to avoid redefining these keys while you are in PowerMenu.

      RAM-RESIDENT PROGRAMS
      PowerMenu is fully compatible with RAM-resident programs such 
      as HomeBase, SuperKey, and Turbo Lighting; just follow one 
      simple rule: Don't load RAM-resident programs through PowerMenu!

      In general, you should initialize all of your RAM-resident 
      programs when you boot your machine.  Never have a PowerMenu 
      selection to "Load Sidekick." (Better yet never USE SideKick! 
      Use our HomeBase instead!).

      If you load RAM-resident programs through PowerMenu, you will 
      create a "hole" in memory when you exit, and you may have to 
      reboot.

      SCREEN SAVE FUNCTION
      PowerMenu has a screen saver which turns the PowerMenu screen 
      off after 1-9 minutes of non-use. This prevents "burn in," 
      (permanent damaage to your screen from the same image being 
      displayed for too long.) PowerMenu displays the message 
      "Hit space bar to return .  .  ." at a random place on your 
      screen and moves it from time to time.
      Screen save is only in effect in PowerMenu and will not 
      blank the screen in your applications programs.


      PowerMenu Users' Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990

      SUBMENUS
      It is possible to display as many as 4 menus on the PowerMenu 
      screen at once. You can do this by setting up a selection to 
      call a submenu.

      Submenus are set up by putting [menu] in the directory field, 
      and putting a 1-8 character menu name in the Cmnd Name field.

      You will need to remember the names of your submenus in order 
      to call them up. Your selection can call any existing submenu; 
      if the submenu does not exist, it can be created. If you create 
      a new submenu, it will contain blank selections until you fill 
      them. Each submenu requires about 1.8 Kb of disk space. To 
      delete or list submenus, use MENUFUN.EXE.
                   SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

      The minimum system requirements to run PowerMenu are:

               IBM PC, XT, AT or compatible computer
               A hard disk
               A floppy disk drive
               256K Bytes of RAM  (only 3Kb RAM impact when running programs.)
               PC- or MS-DOS Version 2.10 or greater
               Color monitor (optional)

                            GLOSSARY

      [Alt] key           The key labeled Alt at the left of your
                          keyboard. This key is most often used by
                          holding it down and hitting another key.

      AUTOEXEC.BAT        The batch file run automatically by DOS
                          whenever you reboot your computer.

      batch file          A text file containing a list of commands to
                          be carried out by DOS.

      clock/calendar card An accessory for your computer which keeps the
                          correct time and date even when  your computer
                          is turned off. Some computers have these as 
                          standard equipment.

      [Ctrl] key          The key labeled Ctrl at the left of your
                          keyboard. This key is most often used by
                          holding it down and hitting another key.

      cursor              The flashing underscore on your screen that
                          indicates where text will appear should you
                          press a key. Also directs your attention to a
                          particular area of the screen.

      cursor bar          The line of reverse video text on your
                          screen. The cursor bar is moved with
                          the [down arrow] and [up arrow] keys.


      PowerMenu Users' Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990

      directory           An imaginary "room" an your hard disk which
                          contains files of similar types. There are
                          DOS commands to allow you to create, change
                          to, and delete directories.

      [Enter] key         The large key to the right of your keyboard.
                          On some computers, this is labeled [Return].

      [Esc] key           The key on your computer labeled Esc, meaning
                          Escape.

      file                Computer term for a group of data on your
                          disk. The text of a report, the numbers in a
                          spreadsheet, and instructions to a program
                          are all examples of disk files.

      function keys       The ten keys labeled F1 - F10 on your
                          keyboard.

      highlight           A PowerMenu  selection is highlighted when the
                          cursor bar is over that selection.

      \MENU directory     The directory on your hard disk where all of
                          your PowerMenu files reside.

      parameters          Information sent to a DOS program at runtime.




      PowerMenu User's Manual       Copyright Brown Bag Software 1990


                SITE LICENSES AND BUNDLING ARRANGEMENTS
                ---------------------------------------
      Corporate site licenses and bundling arrangements are 
      available direct from Brown Bag Software.

      Site licenses can be used to distribute large quantities of
      PowerMenu and its documentation within a specific
      organization at very reasonable prices (hundreds of dollars
      less per copy than competing products).  All users under a
      site license can become registered users at no extra fee and
      are automatically notified of updates.

      Bundling arrangements can be used to distribute copies of          
      PowerMenu in order to promote some other product or          
      service.

      Note that neither of these activities is permitted under the          
      limited license granted to all users of PowerMenu without          
      the expressed written consent of Brown Bag Software.

      A NetWork ("LAN") Version of PowerMenu.  Contact Brown Bag          
      Software, Inc in Campbell, CA USA via fax 408 559-7090 or          
      voice 408 559-4545 for information on the PowerMenu LANPAK 
      or see your Software Dealer.

      When you register your PowerMenu, please specify the disk          
      media you use.  We supply 5.25" and 3.5"

      REMEMBER, you get the latest version when you register.

      REGISTRATION IS NOT OPTIONAL.  If you want to continue to use          
      PowerMenu, you are required to register it.  If you don't know          
      if you're already using a registered copy, call Brown Bag 
      Software.


                  SPECIAL LIMITED-TIME OFFER:
      If you are a user of Direct Access, AutoMenu, TreeView or X-
      Tree, you may be able to obtain up to a $40 rebate.  Contact 
      Brown Bag Software (see registration information) by telephone 
      for details, availability and terms.  
      This offer is subject to change without notice, and will 
      expire at Midnight, October 31, 1990.
