CD ROM Paradise Collection 4/CD ROM Paradise Collection 4 1995 Nov.iso/dskutil/flmas350.zip/MANUAL.HLP

Text File | 1995-01-15 | 29KB | 509 lines

                            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