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CD ROM Paradise Collection 4 1995 Nov.iso
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flmas350.zip
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MANUAL.HLP
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²W E L C O M E T O²
√F L O P P Y M A S T E R√
ⁿ* Version 3.5 *ⁿ
■INTRODUCTION■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Floppy Master is a simple but powerful program, written to make work with
your floppy disks easier. Basic purpose of program is keeping data of all
floppy disks in one place. With this data, program can let you find any file
on yours floppies within few seconds, or it can advise you how to rearrange
data to fill disks more efficiently. It is also possible to browse floppy
disk's contents without bother having floppy disk available. If you want to,
you can also use it to manage hard disk data, too.
Because Floppy Master handles floppy disks by their numbers, each floppy
disk should have unique ID number on it. This way it will also be easier for
you to locate desired floppy disk, especially if you keep them sorted by
numbers.
■STARTING FLOPPY MASTER■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are no special requests how to install Floppy Master. You should put
FMASTER.EXE in any directory where it can be reached by PATH statement or by
a batch file. You may also want to rename main .EXE file for easier access
(i.e. FM.EXE). When you start program for the first time, it will create a
few more files, named FM.DSK, FM.FIL, FM.CMT and CM.FDS. Those files are the
database, where your disk data is stored. They won't require much space (for
200 floppy disks without file descriptions and archive browsing they will
grow on about 100 kB all together). All files depend on each other so they
shouldn't be mixed or rearranged. If you will be using archive browsing or
file comments, database size may grow considerably (about 5 times as without
those features).
Floppy Master does have one optional ²switch². It is called ·-BW· and it
bypasses graphics card recognition routines, thus forcing program in mono
mode. You should use it on systems with color supporting graphics card and
monochrome monitor. The same switch can also be referred to as ·-MONO·.
Before you can start using Floppy Master's disk options, you have to
supply program with some floppy disk data (see √Adding and modifying disk√
√data√).
■GETTING STARTED■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Floppy Master provides windows environment and menus with one-key selection
so you can get to your work fast. Average time spent in program when looking
for specific file or disk is around 10 seconds! When you get accustomed
to that few hot-keys in the program, you may find it out for yourself.
Basically, you may choose options in menus in three ways. Most common way
is using ·cursor keys and ENTER· for selection, but the fastest way is
pressing option's ·hot-key·, highlighted in menu. Third way is by using a
·mouse·, but since mouse functions only simulates moving with cursor keys, it
is the slowest and most unpleasant way. For the expert users, hot-keys are
the only thing they will ever need.
When using hot-keys, keep in mind not to press any other keys like ·ALT·,
·CTRL·, ·SHIFT· etc. - just press the key alone. There is no need to make life
complicated, is it?
You can also use hot-keys in some other dialog boxes. When selecting disk
drive letter, you are allowed to do this by pressing a corresponding key. If
program expects the "yes - no" style answer, use only the first letter key,
pressing ·Y· for Yes, ·R· for Retry and so on.
There are also some other hot-keys available in the program. Obviously,
you have already found ·F1·, which brings up this on-line user manual. Use it
wherever you think you need it, it will pop-up. Other very commonly used
hot-key is ·ALT+X· - it terminates program on any level and kicks you back to
DOS. You may also leave the program in more polite way, of course - trough
program's main menu (believe me: nobody uses that anymore...)
ⁿM A I N M E N U O P T I O N Sⁿ
■PROGRAM INFO■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topmost option in main menu is √About Program√ and, of course, it displays
information about program ²version and registration². You can get rid of it by
pressing ·ESC·.
■SELECTING, CREATING AND DELETING DATABASES■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Floppy Master can handle more than one single database, but not at the same
time. In fact, you can have up to 255 databases, but you have to select one
of them to work with. This menu option allows you to handle databases,
supported by Floppy Master. Press ·D· or choose √Database options√ from the main
menu.
You will get list of all databases currently available to Floppy master.
Every database may be equipped with brief description, also shown in the
list. In here, you can select database to work with, create new database,
delete existing database (careful with this one!), change or add a descrip-
tion to one of the databases or select a primary database. Currently active
database is marked with asterix (*) by its number. To move the highlighted
bar, use ·standard cursor keys· and ·PgUP·, ·PgDN·, ·Home· and ·End·. If you have
changed your mind, you can go back to main menu with the ·ESC· key.
In order to ²select database² to work with, just move the highlighted bar
to it and press ·ENTER·. You will be returned back to main menu with selected
database active in memory.
If you would like to change ²database description², press the ·D· or ·E· key
(they both have the same effect). You will be prompted for a new description
in a special window. Just type-in what ever you like to see by the database
and press ·ENTER·. You may cancel description changes by pressing ·ESC·.
To ²create a new database², you should press the ·Insert· key. New database
will get an unique ID number and will be placed in the list with your cursor
on it. Creation will be denied, if maximum database number (255) has been
reached. Program will then also prompt you to enter database's description.
²Deleting existing database² is almost as easy, so be cautious when playing
with it. It is activated with ·Delete· key, and Floppy Master will ask for
confirmation on it. After that, the database is history.
Selecting ²primary database² will be quite useful to you when using more
than one database (otherwise it is irrelevant). Primary database is like all
others, except it is made active on program startup in ready for you to work
on - thus you won't have to select database every time program starts. Just
move highlighted bar to most often used database and press ·P·. There can of
course be just one primary database.
■DATABASE STATISTICS■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
√Statistics√ in Floppy Manager displays miscellaneous information about yours
system as well as some calculations from the currently selected database.
Here you may find some interesting stuff, like how good are you in filling
your disks etc. When you get enough of it, ·ESC· puts you back in control.
■ADDING AND MODIFYING DISK DATA■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whenever you would like to introduce Floppy Manager with some disk data, you
will press ·M· to access √Modify current data√ option. It doesn't matter if the
disk is handled for the first time or you just want to update existing data.
First, you will be asked to enter ²disk drive letter², where is your disk
waiting to be read. If you choose to update floppy disk (usually in drive A
or B) or a CD-ROM, you will also have to enter disk ²ID number² for keeping
record in the database. Hard disks do not have ID numbers, since they can
hardly get mixed up - they are referenced by the drive letter. Floppy disks
and CD-ROMs have separate numbering system, so there is nothing wrong if you
have floppy disk No. 1 and CD-ROM No.1. If the number is floppy disk number,
then the ID number you just entered is written back in free space in boot
sector of floppy disk, so next time you'll update data, you won't have to
look it up again. Program will recognize disk number by itself and offered
it to you. You may accept the number or you may change it, if it suits you
better.
When entering disk number, you may also ²change some settings², normally set
in the config programs (if you are working on hard disk (no disk number,
remember?), program will stop and allow you to access those setings). At the
bottom of screen there is a small window, containing two switches. They may
be accessed by pressing ·ALT + higlighted letter·. The first one is to set
browsing archive files on or off, and the second one for allowing program to
search for file comments when modifying disk data. See FMCONFIG.DOC for
detailed explanation of those two. All changes you make here will not be
stored in the config file and will ramain as set until you leave program.
If disk is already in the database and you have enabled disk confirmation
in the config program, Floppy Master will require you to confirm replaceing
old data with the new one.
After that, program will scan disk's directory tree and collect the
necessary information it needs. If you have enabled browsing archive files
and/or file comments, this may take a while. The progress bar will tell you
how fare it came co far.
If the disk is empty, this will be the end of procedure, otherwise you will
be asked to enter short (max. 20 characters long) ²disk description². This
description is meant only to help you, so you can tell on first glance what
is on that disk when you see descriptions listed in the database.
If the disk is not new in database, old description will be offered to
edit it. Because most people usually don't really know what they have on
disks, Floppy Master will try to refresh your memory by displaying some
files and directories in disk's root directory. I hope this will be enough
for you to write disk description.
The last thing left to do is to ²mark file groups², currently present on the
new disk. If disk has been known to program before this update, then
previous settings will be offered. Use the ·vertical cursor keys· and ·Space·
·key· to mark groups of files and press ·Enter· when finished.
■DISPLAYING DISK INFO, BROWSING DISKS, REMOVING DISK DATA■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disk information is probably the most often used option in this program. It
provides you with list of all disks and CD-ROMs handled by Floppy Master,
together with disk number, short description, format size, free bytes on
it, last date disk has been updated and so on. You can access this list by
pressing ·I· in main menu, or by choosing √Display disk info√ option.
On the list you can notice ²highlighted bar², selecting one of disks currently
displayed. Use both ·vertical cursor keys· to move the bar across the window.
If there are more files as they can be displayed at once, list will scroll
up or down when moving bar to window's border. Use also ·PgUP· and ·PgDN· keys
for moving bar with greater steps and ·Home· and ·End· keys to move it on top or
bottom of list. There is also a ⁿshort-cutⁿ how to select desired floppy disk
within a second - simply ·type in its ID number·. Selection bar will follow
disks on the list as you are typing numbers. If you want to move the bar on
floppy disk No. 145, type in 1, 4, 5. Bar will jump first on disk 1, then on
disk 14 and at last on 145. If you would like to type in new ID number, just
move the selection bar once in any direction - this will get the type-ahead
buffer cleaned.
Floppy Master also allows you to ²search for disks by their description² (do
not mix this with comments). When you press the ·F· key, a small dialog box
will appear, allowing you to enter substring to search for. Floppy Master
will try to find disk with this substring in it's description (i.e., if you
enter the substring "word", Floppy Master will look for disks with descrip-
tions like "WordStar 7.0" or "Winword 2.0", because all of them contain the
word "word"). Searching will be stopped at the first disk matching search
substring. Selection bar will be placed on that disk and substring high-
lighted in disk description. After first search, you are allowed to search
forward (·N· key) or backward (·ALT+N·), trying to find next match. If search
was not successful, you will be notified in the status line. After search
is complete, you may continue your work without any special actions
necessary.
The disk list actually consists of two parts, so called ²primary and²
²secondary display.² The first one is the default one and shows all basic
information (disk number, description, size, free space, groups of files on
disk), while the second display is auxiliary, representing disk number, disk
comment and last updation date. You can select one or another by using ·left·
·and right arrow key·, or you can switch between them with ·Space Bar·.
If you would like to send disk list to the ²printer², fill free to press ·P·.
Make sure your printer is connected and ready to print, otherwise program
will request from you to do so before resuming action. Output will be made
in pure ASCII code, so there should be no problems with type of printer you
have. You may also use some program to capture this output to the file.
Using selection bar you can select any disk on the list and by pressing
·ENTER· you can actually get to ²browse² on it. You will get the contents of
selected disk's root directory on your screen, and a new selection bar to
move on it. All files on list are sorted, directories first, followed by
extension- and filename-sorted files. If disk has more ⁿsub-directoriesⁿ, you
can enter them by moving selection bar to their name and pressing ENTER. If
you would like to print list of files in the current directory, press ·P·.
If there are some ²archive files² in the current directory and they contain
some files, you may enter them the same way as they were directories. You
can recognize archive files by the 'Arc' keyword displayed on the left side
of file's attributes. If you are allready browsing an archive file, all
files on the list have an asterix ('*') sign on the same spot, meaning they
are compressed inside archive file.
If you put a bar on a non-directory and non-archive file name and press
·ENTER·, or if you press ·I· key on a non-directory file, you will get an extra
window with ⁿextended file infoⁿ, all the data Floppy Master has about that
file. There you may also ²check or edit file description² for that file. You
have almost 250 characters of user space available for each file to write
your own file description, but try to make them as short as possible, since
database will get considerably larger and slower. Press ESC to return from
extend file info box and to continue browsing selected disk.
To step a level back in directory tree move the bar to the '..' directory
and select it by pressing ENTER, or press the ESC key. If you press ·ESC·
while in root directory, you will exit back to the disk list.
All disks on the list are by default ²sorted² by their numbers, lower
numbers first. While you have disk list displayed on the screen, you can
press the ·S· key to get sorting menu. There you may choose from sorting by
disk numbers, disk free space, disk data space (used by files), disk total
space (formatted size), disk description (ascending), disk usage percent
(number of bytes used by files), on-disk info (which groups do files on disk
belong to; games, utilities etc.), or by last updation date. Program also
allows you to sort disks by more than one key. If primary sorting should be
by disk free space and secondary by disk numbers, then first sort by disk
numbers and then sort again by disk free space.
Besides short, 20 character long disk description program also allows you
to enter your own ²disk comments² about specific disk. This comments are
allowed to be significantly longer than disk descriptions, about 55 chars
each. As told before, you can access disk comments by using ·right arrow· or
·space bar· to switch between primary and secondary disk list display. You may
also want to ²edit disk descriptions², entered after storing disk data in
the database.
In order to access disk description and disk comment options, you should
press the ·E· button. A new window will appear on screen, allowing you to
enter new data for selected disk. Both ·vertical cursor keys· allows you to
switch between disk description and disk comment. When you are done with
editing comments, press the ·ESC· key to return to disk list and save the
changes.
Another quite useful option provided by Floppy Master is selecting groups of
files present on a disk. Those eight groups are predefined in program and
are covering all main aspects of file types. ²On-disk info², as this feature
is called, is accessible with the ·O· key. A menu will pop-up, listing all
available groups and allowing you to mark them according to selected disk.
When finished, press ·ESC· to save new data.
When looking on disk list, on-disk info is represented on the right side
of primary display as eight columns. Each column represent one of groups, in
the same order as they are found in menu (letters on top indicate groups
names). There is also a ⁿshort-cutⁿ available how to quickly set on-disk info
for selected disk. By pressing ·ALT + one of the letters from column header·,
you can toggle selection of corresponding group (i.e. pressing ALT+G will
toggle the Games group for selected disk).
²Removing disks² from database is another task you can accomplice when looking
on disk list. To remove (delete) disk from the database you should move a
highlighted bar to disk you want to remove and press ·R·, ·D· or ·Del· (they all
have the same effect). Program will make sure you really want to delete
selected disk, and after confirmation it will remove it from database (this
may take a while, on slow computers even few seconds).
Pressing key ·ESC· returns you to main menu.
■FINDING FILES■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finding files may be another useful option, if you can't remember where you
keep files you need. This option allows you to search for files in database
in four different ways. Choose √Find file(s)√ in main menu or press ·F· to
access corresponding submenu.
²Seaching by DOS mask²
Option allows you to enter fully DOS compatible file filter (i.e. TE??T*.E*)
and program will scan all floppy disk data for you. All DOS masking char-
acters are allowed in file filter, including '*' and '?'. If your file mask
ends with '*.*', you may leave this last three chars out - they will be
added automatically by the program (i.e. 'PROG' is the same as 'PROG*.*'
- if you would like to search for 'PROG', you should enter 'PROG.').
²Searching by a substring²
It is very similar to searching by DOS mask, except you may search for a
character order somewhere in file name. It might come in handy if you only
know an approximate file name, but can't find it with DOS mask (i.e., you
know its got something to do with Windows and keyboards, but you can't
remember if the name is WINKEY, KEYBWIN or something else. You should look
for substring 'WIN' or 'KEY'). It is also allowed to search by substring
between filename and extension, just place the '.' at right place (such as
'AT.Z' - it will find LIB_AT.ZIP, COMBAT.Z80,...)
²Sarching by file attributes²
This one is easy - if you want to find all system files, just mark the
system attribute (press ENTER or Space Bar). If you mark more than one
attribute to search for, Floppy Master will search for files with all of
them set. Attributes not marked for searching are disregarded. To start
searching for files, choose the OK at the menu bottom.
²Searching by file size²
When searching for files by their sizes, you may set up both upper and lower
limits. Choose the corresponding option in menu and enter a value. Both
limits should be in bytes. The margin value for lower limit is 0 and for
upper limit is infinite (you may enter infinitive by leaving input box empty
or by typing in INFINITE'. When you are finished entering limits, choose OK
to start searching.
As a result you'll get a list of all files matching your specifications.
All the files are sorted by floppy disk ID numbers, as they are found on
them. Every file is listed together with it's source floppy number, file
attributes and size. If you want to see this list on a paper and you have a
printer connected, press ·P·. The ·ESC· key returns you to main menu.
■OPTIMIZING FLOPPY DISKS■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Floppy disk optimization helps you to rearrange files on your floppy disk.
The aim is to get used floppy disks as full as possible and those free some
occupied disks. Because programs usually consist of many files, which must
be kept together, Floppy Master is programmed to take ²a directory² for the
smallest unit to handle. The optimize option will thus try to move your
floppy disk's directories to more appropriate destination, where disk space
will be used more efficiently. There is another option, however, to select
archive files (such as ZIP, ARJ, RAR...) as standalone files and allowe them
to be moved around as if they were directories. See FMCONFIG.DOC on how to
setup archive files to treat them as directories.
Choosing the option √Optimize floppy disks√ from main menu will bring up a
new menu on screen. This menu let's you select disks which will take part in
optimization process. There you will find the following options:
²Manual disk selection²
In manual selection, you'll get on screen very similar data as in Display
disk info option. On this list you can select any floppy disk you want to
take part in optimization. Each disk has a dot printed by it's number - a
small dot means that disk is NOT selected, while bigger square dot stands
for selected disk. Use ·+· to select disk pointed by selection bar and ·-· to
deselect it (·Space Bar· toggles disk selection). You are also allowed to use
most of the options from √Displaying disk info√ option (look-up this option
for details). When you finish selecting disks press ·ESC· to return to opti-
mization menu.
²Select only 5¼" disks²
Selects all 5¼" disks in database for optimization.
²Select only 5¼" disks²
Selects all 3½" disks in database for optimization.
²Select/Unselect all disks²
Selects or deselects all disks in database (hard disk data is not affected).
²Continue optimization²
Begins the optimization process.
When all disks are selected as you wanted them to, you should press ·C· in
optimization menu to ⁿstartⁿ the optimization process. This may take a while,
depending on number of directories you have on your selected disks. For 200
selected disks you'll have to wait for about 30 seconds (486/33Mhz). After
disk optimization is finished, you will get a new menu with three options.
Each of them provides you with list of data, containing the optimization
results. You can handle all list in the same way - use ·vertical cursor keys·,
·PgUP·, ·PgDN·, ·Home· and ·End· to move them, or press ·P· to print the list. The ·ESC·
key returns you back to results menu.
²Display action list²
Displays list of all directories which should be moved to other disks in
order to achieve calculated optimal state. Each directory has written source
and destination floppy disk number and it's size in bytes. If you will move
directories in the same order as they are displayed in the list, you will
not have to put all the directories on hard disk in order to rearrange them-
just move them from floppy to floppy as indicated in the action list.
²Show optimization results²
This option will display list of floppy disks as they will appear when you
are finished with moving directories as instructed in 'Display action list'.
Disks are sorted by free space (empty disks on top). With this list you can
check out how the optimization process did it's job.
²Display directory list²
Just displays a list of all directories which took part in the optimization.
Directories are sorted by size (largest on top). This list might help you to
do some optimization on your own or just to check if you can still do better
job as program did.
■EXITING TO DOS■
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The last option in main menu exits Floppy Master and informs you about the
time you spend working with program. Faster and more often used way to exit
program is by pressing the ·ALT-X· combination anywhere in the program, or
just to press ·ESC· while in main menu.
√WHERE TO PUT COMPLAINTS AND SUGGESTIONS√
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have found a bug in Floppy Master or if you have some suggestions how
to improve the program, please feel free to call or write to me. You may
also leave me a personal e-mail message on my FIDO address (OK, I know, I am
working on my InterNet account...)
In this version, Floppy Master has experienced some very major changes in
the program structure and is probably still volnurable to some bugs. If you
find some, please try to be patient, and, of course, let me know...
All suggestions are highly appreciated.
√LICENSE STUFF√
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By installing Floppy Master on your system you indicate your agreement to
the following terms.
You may give individual copies of the unregistered version to your friends.
You must preserve original FM350.ZIP file and distribute it only by giving
away this file. You may NOT modify or disassemble Floppy Master, nor
distribute such versions. Under no circumstances may this program be sold or
lend by any other person as author himself.
Floppy Master is a shareware program. You may test program out at no charge
for an initial trial period. If you want to continue using Floppy Master
after that period you must register. Please send a registration form to the
author (address is included at the end of manual). You should include the
registration fee (10 USD + 5 USD for postage costs) with the registration
form. If you are from Slovenia, you may want to send Slovenian Tolars
instead (1000 SIT, postage included).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
R E G I S T R A T I O N F O R M
Floppy Master (current version)
Company _______________________________________________
Name _______________________________________________
Address _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Phone _______________________________________________
Floppy disk type: [ ] 5¼" [ ] 3½"
Quantity: _________ x 10 USD = __________ USD
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
√CONTACTING THE AUTHOR√:
Authors address: Robert Galle
Matije Tomca 1
61230 Domzale
Slovenia (Europe)
FIDO-Net EMail: 2:380/102.26
2:380/103.30
ⁿ*** END OF USER MANUAL ***ⁿ