PDA Software Library/pdasoftwarelib.iso/FILE_MGR/FMV3_65/FM.DOC

Text File | 1995-02-21 | 89KB | 1,842 lines

File Magician V3.65
by
Terry Bullard
(c) 1993-2043
For Windows 3.1+

This program is Shareware
Release Date: Feb. 19, 1995

Archive File Status:
 Documentation: Unregistered
 File Magician V3.65 - Unregistered
 Evaluation Period - 10 days


    Welcome to File Magician V3.65!  First I want to thank you for taking the time
to download this archive. You will NOT regret it!  File Magician has been in
development for three years now and has grown over the years with suggestions
from users from all over the world.  Eighteen different countries plus every
state in the USA has registered owners of File Magician. Australia currently
holds the lead for Nations overseas with the highest number of registrations,
but they are followed very closely by New Zealand, England, Germany, Netherlands,
and France.

    File Magician V4.0? - You may have heard rumors of File Magician V4.0, yes
its true.  Currently we have File Magician V4.0 completed and in a shrink
wrapped software box just like you would find at any computer store.  V4.0 has
a huge number of additional features and improvements.  Its been tested by the
government and approved for their use, and, they have even purchased a large
number of File Magicians. When you register File Magician you will receive the
new File Magician V4.0.  Be sure to click the Registration icon for details!



 FOR THOSE THAT DON'T KNOW ABOUT "FILE MAGICIAN"!  (gasp)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    File Magician has now evolved past just another file manager or winzip type
program.  Its basically a home base program that you can configure to suit
your every need.  It offers more abilities to handle archive files like
.zip, .lzh, .arg, then any other program for the PC.  Its File Management
system is beyond anything that exists commerical or shareware that I have seen
for windows or dos.  Its speed and low memory usage is great for a program of
its size.  Probably the most important feature of File Magician is the fact
that it has a programmer that is entirely devoted to making FM the greatest
management tool that exists for the PC and will Continue to do so!!  I think
I have proven that in the last three years.  Also I'm not a newcomer into the
programming field as many shareware programmers are.  I've had an acute
addictive habit for programming in 'C' for the last 10 years!! grin.
    The best way to describe File Magician is for you to simply load the
program and turn on the viewport to your system.



 DID I TELL YOU ABOUT THE GOLD?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Yes Real 24K Gold!  Bullard Software has been conducting a continuous drawing
for Real Gold.  For each 500 registrations we receive we conduct a random drawing
from those registrations.  The lucky winner receives Real Gold as the prize.
To find out how much gold, well you will have to read the registration form in
the File Magician V4.0 box. The registration form is the ticket for the drawing.
Still, I'll give you a hint.  The amount of Gold that you could win is worth many
times the amount you paid for File Magician and you would have more then enough
left over to take your spouse or friend out to dinner more then once!


 COST
~~~~~~
By Registering File Magician, You Receive..
    File Magician V4.0, in the box with disk and manual, plus a free chance of
winning a chunk of Real 24K Gold and is yours for $40.00 US Funds.  We offer same
day shipment and you may now order with Visa or Mastercard.  There are several
ways to order....
1) You may call us at.............               1-360-384-4849
2) You may order through the BBS at.  1-360-384-2591
3) Or you may send a check or money order to.............

   Bullard Software
   3291 Mt. View Rd.
   Ferndale, Wa. 98248





 Authors Comments
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   First I want to thank all of those that Registered File Magician. Its people
like you who help make the continuation of shareware possible!  Still one of
the biggest problems with marketing shareware is exposure. Reviews are extremely
helpful but very difficult to achieve unless there is a lot of public input to
the different magazines and bulletin boards.  Shareware is also real slow in
moving from BBS to BBS, we are still getting calls on Version 1 of FM which is
over two years old.  We still need more and quicker exposure to obtain
registrations to guarantee the continuation of FM. There is so much more that
can be packed into this program!  I have hopes  you will be able to upload
the evaluation version of FM to all your local BBS boards and an additional hope
would be to call or write the different magazines  you read and tell them
about File Magician.  All this would help us beyond measure!!

   I also want to thank all of you who have taken a lot of time to write and
mail me letters with suggestions and ideas of new things to add to File Magician.
With version 4.0, alot of you will see that your ideas have taken shape in
File Magician.

   To all the Amiga people that also have PCs, Yes this is the utility  you
have been searching for!  And yes it is styled after the two most popular utility
tools for the Amiga, "Directory Opus" and "Disk Master".  You will also see
that File Magician greatly surpasses both of them.  And yes I have
programmed on the Amiga since its beginning in 1985 and still love it!


Installation...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Installation is easy and safe!  The installation program does not in any
way change, add to, or subtract to any of your system or startup files. File
Magician is quite happy to just have its own directory and it doesn't really
even care what the name of the directory is, just that it does have a home
somewhere on your hard drive.
The program will suggest a home for File Magician C:\FM.  If you would like
to have the directory called something else feel free to relabel the suggested
directory name to anything you might like.  After you have made any changes
or you are happy with the default settings, click the 'Begin' button, this
will start the installation.  When the installation is complete the program
will terminate itself after creating a group for the program manager and the
associated icons.  Now your ready to begin!  Just double click on the File
Magician icon and the program will load.  When it loads it will inform you
that it is doing an auto-configuration.  What this means is that File Magician
can't find its config file and its creating a new one in its home directory.
File Magician also needs a temporary working directory as well, this will
automatically be created for you when its installed.  The default is C:\temp.
Thats it!
You've now accomplished the hardest task File Magician will present to you!





Drive Push Button Control
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    File Magician V3.65 has 12 Drive Buttons that may be assigned to any hard
drive, floppy drive, or CDRom Drive that you may have attached to your system.
(File Magician V4.0 has 24) When FM first boots it will check to see if you have
preconfigured the drive list and if so, display it as such on the main screen.
If not then FM will read the drive chain and attach each drive letter to a
button on the main screen.  In File Magician's configuration screen you may
adjust the drive letters to any button you desire or hide a drive completely.
    When you push a drive button with the LMB, the View Window that is active,
the one with the red square around it, will display the root directory of the
drive you selected.



Parent Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The 'Parent' button will direct File Magician to reassign the current
 directory back one directory.  For instance, when you double click a directory
 name the program will display the contents of that directory to the view
 window, then you click the parent button, the program will re-display the
 previous directory.  This command is completely harmless.  The parent button
 only works on the 'Source' window.


Del List Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The 'Del List' Button deletes any list that the 'Add2List' Button has
created.  Before beginning a new list of Paths it is quite important that
you press the Del List button first even if your sure you don't have an
existing list.  If File Magician can't find an existing list the command will
be ignored.  But the different functions that use the 'Add2List' feature can
produce some unexpected results if you don't start a new list from scratch.
Click on the Add2List button for a more complete description of Path Lists.


The All Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    The 'All' command will select all the files and all the directories that
 are in the current directory of the 'Source' view window.  If a directory has
 more files and directories then the view can be displayed, those files and
 directories will also be selected. So before selecting the Delete or Copy
 buttons you may at first want to be sure you have only selected the files or
 directories youwant to take action on.  By using the scroll bar at the side
 of each window you will be able to view everything that has been selected.


Copy As Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The purpose of the 'Copy As' Button is to allow you to copy a set of files
or directories to a different destination and before the copy process takes
place you will have the opportunity to give the files or directories a different
destination name.  The command will only allow you to name a selected directory
but will copy all nested directories and files within that directory.  All files
and directories within the selected directory will retain their original names.
The command will not allow you to name a directory or file to that of one that
already exists.  The original files or directories will not be changed or deleted.


The Clear Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    'Clear' will de-select any file or directory that has been previously
 selected from which ever View Window is Active. All files and directories
 outside of the view window will also be de-selected as well.


Move As Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The MoveAs button is nearly the same as the 'Move' button only the MoveAs
feature will allow you to change the Name of the destination files or directories.
Only the selected files or directories will be allowed the name change, all
nested directories and file will retain their original names.  As each file or
directory is moved the original file or directory will be deleted.


The Copy Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   To use the copy function, first select a view window that you wish to
become the Destination point.  Next go to the opposite window and select the
files or directories that you wish to copy.  Press the 'Copy' button. Thats it.
   Copy will copy all files or directories that have been selected to the
Destination device (view window).  If a directory has been tagged, the
program will create and copy all files and directories within the selected
directory to the Destination point.
   You also are provided with three methods of copying files...

    (Copy Standard)
    (Compress while Copying)
    (Decompress while Copying)

Copy Standard...
This is the standard copy procedure used in the previous
versions of FM. All selected files are sent to the destination
area and the originals are left untouched.

Compress While Copying...
This method will copy files to the destination area
and compress each file in route to the destination area. This
method uses MicroSoft's compression routines.  The filenames
are left unchanged and the command will maintain the directory
tree if any directory has been selected.  I've recorded up to
a 74 percent compression ratio in some tests.  The great
advantage to this function is there is always a visual reference
of the compressed files and the need to remember or view a
zip file for its contents is not needed.   The downside of this
function is it will pad extra bytes to a file when
compressing a file that has already been compressed by some
other archiver.  Those padded are stripped when the file is
recopied using the Decompress While copying mode.   FM is in
no way trying to compete with any other existing archiver but
simply gives you another file compression advantage.
All files are sent to the destination area and the originals are
left untouched.

Decompress While Copying...
This mode will decompress any file that has been
previously compressed with File Magician.  If multiple files
have been selected and only some have been previously
compressed, FM will decompresss only those files that are
compressed and standard copy the files that are not compressed.
There is no need for you to try and determine which files are
compressed and which files aren't. FM will do this automatically.
All files are sent to the destination area and the originals
are left untouched.

Also..

Check For Disk Space
With this button selected, File Magician will check the
destination area before each file it copies to make sure
there is enough free space.  If not enough free space is
available, FM will abort the process and inform you of the
problem.

Cancel...
The Cancel of course aborts the procedure either before the copy
process begins or will abort the process during the copy session.


The Dos Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Pushing the 'Dos' Button will give you the DOS shell with the current
directory of the shell pointing to the current directory of the current active
View Window. File Magician requires the file 'Bull.pif' to be in the same
FM directory or the Windows directory.  When File Magician is first installed
this file is placed there for you.



The Rename Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    To rename a file or directory first select the listing in one of the View
Windows that you wish to rename to something else, then press the 'Rename'
button.  A dialog box will appear.  Enter in the new name of the file or directory
only, Do not include the full path name of the file or directory. The program
keeps track of the location of the listings internally so just the new name will
be enough.  Select OK and the deed is done.  The View Window that you selected
will update and the renamed file or directory will be displayed.


The 'Ent Com' Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   This is short For 'Enter Command'.   Here you can enter most dos commands
from this line.  There are a few exceptions and there is a few rules for the
non exceptions.  Windows is not very understanding at times when you wish to
interface with DOS programs or commands.  Many DOS commands will not work with
the EntCom function, but!, many times there are work arounds.  For many of the
commands that simply won't work by calling them, simply create a batch file and
put the hard to use commands in the batch file.  Some of you may need to consult
your MS-DOS book at this point to understand batch files but in reality they are
quite simple.  After your batch file is completed you may type in the name of the
batch file, less the extension, on the Enter Command line.  This in most cases
will activate a windowed dos screen and accomplish your task.  If all else fails
you may use the Dos Button and do it manually from File Magician.


The Move Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   The move function will move all files and directories that have been
selected to the location of the destination area.  Moving a selected listing
means that basically the file is copied to destination area and then deleted
from the source area.  So once a listing is moved it will no longer reside
in the source area!  If a directory is selected, all files and directories
that are buried within that selected directory will also be moved.  Only files
and directories that are selected in the Active View Window will be moved.
Anything that was previously selected in a Destination View Window will be
deselected after this function is called.



Print Button....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Future versions of FM will have much expanded features of printing
files.  For now I have created a spooler that will take all selected files
either in the main FM screen or the Archive Commander and send them to
the printer manager where FM will instruct printer manager to begin to
print the files.  After doing this FM will disconnect itself and allow
the print manager to do its thing while you get on to something else.

Note: File Magician V4.0 has extensive text file printing capabilities and
printer driver management.  We had the unique opportunity to work with the
government in developing File Magician to suit their printing needs which of
course is quite extreme! Its called RED TAPE and they have truck load after
truck load of it that needs to be printed out!   They needed speed, something
they could just press a button and dozens of files could be printed at the
same time. Something the operator didn't need any knowledge of how it worked
just that it did.  Well File Magician works for them!



The Delete Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  The 'Delete' button will delete all selected files and directories that have
been selected from the 'Source' window.  All files and directories that are
buried within a selected directory will Also be deleted.  With this version
of File Magician, when the 'Delete' is first invoked, a dialog box will appear
and ask you if you are sure.
    File Magician V4.0 contains an additional feature which when selected will
first Shred the File before deleting it.  This method assures that there is no
chance of data within this file being recovered.  The option works on all nested
files with directories as well.


Empty Buttons & Menus
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Any button or menu item that is labeled 'Empty' is a program launcher that
currently doesn't have any program assigned to it.  By assigning a program to
a button or menu means that you will be able to start almost any program, DOS
or Windows, just by pushing that button.  Programs that are launched are sometimes
called CMDs and will be referred to as that.  Many CMDs have the ability to work
on other files. Those files are referred to as 'Command Line Arguments', or just
arguments.  With File Magician you may use any selected files as arguments to a
CMD by highlighting the file. When the CMD button is pushed the highlighted file
which is in the Active (or Source) View Window will be passed to the CMD as a
argument.  For instance, if Pagemaker is your CMD button and you select a file
called invoice.pm5 then push the Pagemaker button. Pagemaker will start and
automatically load the invoice.pm5 file.  Refer now on how to set up a CMD in either
the Menu or Configuration section of this documentation.



The Read Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    To read a text file first select the file with the LMB and then push the
FView button.
    Included on this disk is an archive called Fview12.zip.  This is a
file reader/viewer that I use with FM.  Its the best reader that I have found
to date and I do have permission from the author to distribute it with the
FM updates  Fview is evaluation shareware software that doesn't have the
typical nag screens and handles large files very quickly.  And I haven't
found any bugs in the program.  The price of FM does not cover the shareware
cost of Fview! If you wish to use it, you must register it.
    If you have a favorite file reader of your own you may replace FView by entering
the configuration screen and replacing FView with your program's name.  Your
program must be located in your PATH environment.



The ByteReq Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    This function will total the bytes of all selected listings.  If a
 directory is selected, all the bytes of all the files that are embedded within
 that selected directory will be totaled and displayed in a Dialog Box. This
 function is very handy to use before moving or copying files to another device
 and just to know how large a directory might be.  You may end up shocked at what
 space hogs you will find!



The Archive Commander!!!....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    This is one of the more important features of FM that people use the most
and I have spent more time reconstructing this feature with a new look and
many additional features.  I do believe that there is NO OTHER archive
handler in existence that will do as much  with an archive as what the
Archive Commander can do.  At least in my search for competing software
either commerical or shareware, I have not run across anything put together
that compares.  The following is a brief description on the Commanders features.
   The Commander will automatically detect the type of archive file that
has been loaded into the Commander with the exception of self extracting
archives.  These must be loaded manually and only a few features will
apply to a self extraction archive, such as converting to a different
archive format. (this is temporary)
   The Archive Commander now supports not only .zip files but .lzh and
.arj as well.  The Commander also has a built in comment editor that
can be used for viewing previously saved archive comments and many other
things described below.

Upper right Scroll Box
Contains the files that are within an archive
that has been processed.

Middle Scroll Box
Contains all archive files that were selected
before the Commander was activated.

Process Button
Will process the selected archive and display the
files it holds in the right file box and if a
comment is embedded within the archive, that
comment will be displayed in the editor.

Extract Button
This button will extract all files  you have
selected to one or all 3 locations in a single
pass.  You will be presented with a panel that
will contain 2 check boxes, one for the right
view window and one for the left view window. A
third check box is available to send the files
to any path that you describe in the ajoining
edit box.  1, 2, or all 3 maybe checked if you wish.

Delete Button
This will delete from the archive any files that
you have selected for deletion.

Run  Button
This will execute any file within an archive, but
keep in mind that if this file needs to have
supporting .dlls it probably will not run.  It
would be best to decompress to a temp directory
and execute it there.

Test Button
Test for corruptness of the archive and gives
you the report that was issued by the archiver.

All Button
Will select all the files in Archived Files Box.

Clear Button
De-selectes all files in the Archives Files Box.

Help  Button
Brings up the help screen as described above.

Quit  Button
Exits out of the Commander.

Clr Comment Button
Erases and resets the comment editor.

Load Comment Button
This neat little feature will allow you to load
a pre-existing file into the comment editor where
it can be resaved back to the archive as a new comment.

Load Last Button
The Commander keeps a 1 comment history which
means that if you process another file you can
recall the last comment from the previous file
and reload it into the editor.

Save Comment Button
Here you may save any comment to a file of your
choice. Of course the comment must be in the
editor at the time.

Insert Comment Button
This will add the comment to the selected
archive and save it.

Print Comment Button
This will send the current comment out to the printer.

Show Comment Button
You may wish to re-establish the original comment
that came with the archive if you haven't changed
and saved a new comment.  This forces a re-read
of the archive comment area.

Convert 2 Zip Button
This will convert a .lzh or .arj to a .zip file

Convert 2 Lha Button
This will convert a .zip or .arj to a .lzh file

Convert 2 Arj Button
This will convert a .zip or .lzh to a .arj file

Add Description Button
This feature will take whatever is in the editor
box and ask you for a filename.  Once this is
given, the Commander will create a file with the
contents of the editor and place it within the archive.

Add Files Button
This feature will add any selected files from
a drive or directory to the selected archive
with one pass.  The feature is simple to use
but a bit tricky to understand. Upon entering
this feature it is best to first click the
'Del List' button.  This clears any forgotten
listings that might be left there.
The idea behind this is to create a path list
of files that might reside in different
directories or on different drives from where the
archive is.  After this path list has been
created then the archiver can be called to pack
everything within the path list to the selected
archive.  So the proper procedure is first to
Delete the list.  Then run through the tree and
select the files you wish to have added to the
archive.  After selecting the file and before
changing to a different path click the
"Add2List" button, this writes your current
selection.  Then change paths and and repeat the
process if more files are desired.  After all
your selections have been made and the Add2List
button has been pressed for each set of files
Click on the "Do It" button.  This will active
the archiver and the deed is done.  You might
want to get into the practice of deleting the
list before canceling out of the function.
In the Files column the directory selection is
at the bottom of the list, they may be double
clicked to enter that directory just as double
clicking the drive letters will give you the
root directory of that drive.

Make Lha Button
Same as below
Make Arj Button
Same as below

Make Zip Button
This button will take all the selected files from
a processed selected archive and create a new
archive with a different name and contain only
the file(s) that were selected.

Make .EXE Button
This function will take the selected archive and
make it into a self extracting archive.  With
.zip files you must be sure to have the zip2exe
program located within your dos or windows
directory and have its name in the Names area of
the configuration screen.  Arj and Lha handles
this feature  quite well and does so internally.

Repair Zip Button
With this feature you must have the pkzipfix
program and have it within your dos or windows
directory.  Also it must be named with in the
Names area of the Configuration Screen.  This
feature works only for .zip files.

Print File Button
The Print File function is basically the same as
the main screens print button.  It will take all
of the selected files from a processed archive
and spool them out to the print manager.

Read File Button
Read File will invoke the reader to read the
file that you have selected within the archive.

Double Clicking...
 The File Commander double click features work the same as FMs double
 click feature.  It does NOT work by recognizing extensions but by recognizing
 the files personal binary header.  I've had a couple of requests for FM to
 recognize the text extensions of files but I still maintain the belief that
 this is a most crippling aspect of programming concepts and does nothing but
 have the potential of misleading software and the spreading of computer
 viruses.  It is a standard that should have been dropped years ago!!  But I
 will still keep an open mind to all things.




The MakeDir Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    'MakeDir' will create a directory in the location that the 'Source'
 window is displaying.  Push the 'MakeDir' button, a dialog box will appear.
 Enter in the name of the new directory that you wish to create.  Press 'OK'
 Thats as hard as it gets!



The Config Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The Config Button gains you access to the heart of File Magician, the
Configuration Panel. Please see the Configuration section for more details.



The Run Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   The 'Run' function will attempt start any program that has been selected.
 'Run' works on: .pif , .bat, .exe (dos or windows), .com (dos or windows),
 files.   A little care must be used when using this command, it is not harmful
 but currently it has no way of checking to see if the application needs to run
 in full screen mode.  Usually Windows will inform you of such and you may adjust
 the DOS screen's system settings menu to show full screen.  This can be done on
 the fly so you need not worry a lot about it.



The Split Button   (Split & Join Files)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    To Date I haven't seen this feature in any Windows program yet and only a
very limited version for DOS. This feature will take any size file from 2 bytes
to 200 megs or larger and split it into multiple file segments that will span
multiple floppies or directly to a HD destination area.  The segment sizes can
be completely configurable and the program will calculate the number of segments
and the number of floppies that are needed to complete the operation.  The program
will allow you to only proceed as each entry is entered in correctly.  When the
actual splitting occurs the original file is left intact and the segments are
duplicated on the destination device.  You may also, within the same panel,
re-assemble the split files back into an exact duplicate of the original file.
   Memory management for both processes has been given special attention to create
the absolute fastest transfer of data possible, but still the options exist to
change the memory management before splitting the file.  File Magician will
automatically determine the best route to manage the memory and adjust the settings
accordingly, but before the split process begins you have the option to override
File Magician.  The Join segment is a bit different and doesn't allow management
options but does contain drop down memory internal requirements.  Realigning the
management for this feature is a bit critical and File Magician must retain
control for a successful operation.
   To split a file you must load it first with the 'Load File' button, no other
options are accessible until you do this.  After the file is loaded you may then
select the destination device.  If you choose drive A: or drive B: the
'Removeable Disk Size' button will become available.  Here you would select the
size of the media that is supported by your drive that you have selected as
the destination device.  If you choose 'Specify' instead, this will let you specify
an alternate device like a HD directory etc.  Once your destination device has
been picked the 'Max Chunk Size' section will become active.  Here you can choose
how big you want each segment to be.  Matching segment sizes from 1.4 megs to
360K can be selected to match your existing floppy drive medias or you may choose
'Specify'.  Specify will allow you to define any size segment by the number of
bytes you enter.  Example:  If you want 100K segments you would enter 100000 to
indicate a hundred thousand bytes or 100K.  It is most advisable that you Specify
smaller segment chunks then what your disk will actually contain.  Too often
pre-formatted disks can contain bad areas and a large segment wouldn't be able
to jump over a faulty cluster area.
    After you have specified the segment size the program will calculate the number
of segments and the number of disks required to split the selected file.  If this
is satisfactory to you, click on the Split Button which has newly appeared. The
Split button will only appear if all your entries have been correct.  You would
have been well informed in advance if you had made the wrong choice.  Because of
the exact nature of this procedure there has been built into this feature extreme
error control, so if something goes wrong you will be the second to know!
    Once you have selected the Split button the program will pop up a status window
informing you of its progress and displaying the number of segments created, and
the number of disks used, plus the name of each segment as it is processed.
    When the operation is complete the feature will reset itself and let you know
its done!
    You will find the Split feature is far easier to use then it sounds.  The
best way is just to dive right in and give it a try.  Its pretty difficult to
harm anything.

 Joining the File Back...........
    To re-assemble the file, first select the 'Source Device'. 'Specify', is for
an alternate source device then the floppy drives such as a hard drive directory.
Next the 'Destination Device' options will become active.  if your dealing with
large files that won't fit on a floppy you will want to use 'Specify' to indicate
a HD directory as the destination.  When the Specify box appears you would want to
enter in the full path name of the HD directory you wish to send the assembled file.
    Example: C:\temp  Do not specify a filename as a destination,  only the
destination directory name.  The program will provide the correct filename of the
original file.  When this has been completed select the OK button which will appear
on your screen.  This will indicate that your assignments are complete and you wish
to begin the re-assembly process.  If your selections are correct (File Magician
will make sure of that), the 'Join' button will appear.  Click on the Join button
and the program will ask you to insert disk 1.  After disk 1 has been inserted click
on the OK button to proceed with the process.  A status window will also appear here
as well, informing you of the progress.
    When a new disk is required, File Magician will prompt you to insert the next
disk.  You may abort the process at any disk change if you wish.  Well, thats as
hard as it gets!



The Duplicate Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     The Duplicate functions will duplicate a file in the same directory as
 the selected file.  It too will take the first four letter and tack on a
 _Dup to the end. The file can then be renamed to something else.  This
 command works on files only.  I have thought about duplicating entire
 directories and files but before I do that I would like to hear some
 feed back on it if there is a need.



The Add2List Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     I've added the 'Use List' Function to Pkzip, Lha, and Arj.   This allows you
 to archive any files or directories from any drive with a single call from any
 of the archivers.  This works for archiving from multiple drives at the same
 time too.  Its quite easy to do..

Select the 'Del List' button.  This clears the list.

Use either View Window to select any file or directory that you wish to
archive.  Then select the 'Add2List' button.  You can then change
directories or drives and select additional files.  Each time you
select files or directories, use the 'Add2List' button before
moving on to the next drive or directory listing.

Call up whatever archiver you will use and select the 'Use List'
button from the dialog box.  Then enter the balance as you normally
would when creating a archive.

Thats it!  How this works is when everytime you push the 'Add2List' button FM
will write all your selected files to a file called 'Selected.Lst' in your
configured 'Work Directory'.  File Magician appends each selection to the end
of this file, so the 'Selected.Lst' will continue to grow for each Add2List
entry you make (the file is NOT over written, but continued).  So this is why
you should use the 'Del List' button when you begin something new.  If you
don't then all the previously selected files from another process that you
did before would be included with whatever you are currently doing.  Remember
'Selected.Lst' is a file and will always be there every time you boot FM,
unless you push the 'Del List' button.  Ok I'm going over this several times
but I just wanted to get it clear <grin>



File Magician's Menus
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    File Magician's Menus are now located at the top of the screen.  Select a
menu item to find out what each menu or group of menus does.  Some menu items
are grouped together if the documentation is grouped together for that column.
If a menu item has no documentation then none is necessary for that item.



The Compression Menu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    File Magician has more options for handling ZIP, ARJ, and LZH, then any other
program for the PC.  The Commander menu item is exactly the same as pushing the
'Command' button.  For information on the Archive Commander and its many tools for
handling compressed files, push the 'Command' button under the Buttons section of
this documentation program.  The other menu items are for archiving a file or groups
of files and extracting files from a archive using Arj, Zip, or Lzh.  The balance
of the menu items allow you to adjust the many different archive argument settings.
Before adjusting settings for the different archive utilities you should have a
good working knowledge of how each utility works.  This information is supplied to
in the documentation of each archive utility and will not be covered here.
The standard default settings which File Magician provides will pretty much cover
the most common needs.  If you do need to make additional setting changes or just
want to check existing settings, check the settings menu item of the archive you
intend to use before creating the archive.

  To create an archive, first select the files you wish to compress as one archive.
Select the 'Create Archive' menu item.  A dialog box will appear requesting you
to supply it with a archive name, enter the name of the archive you wish to create.
The lower edit box in the Dialog will indicate the current path of the destination
View Window.  If you wish to create the archive at some other location, simply
change the path to that location.  The 'Use List' box may be selected if you had
previously created a list of files by using the 'Add2List' feature.  This feature
will allow you to archive a group of files that can be scattered across many
different directories or drives.  If you don't have a list be sure this box is
left unchecked.  When you are comfortable with your selection click the 'Do It'
button.  This will cause a DOS screen to come to the front and you will be able
to watch your archive utility compress the files you have selected.  Once the
procedure is complete the DOS screen will close and your archive has been created.
Next refresh the destination window by clicking above it or move your view window
to where your archive has been created.  At that point you may do what you want
with the archive.  Note: When first naming the new archive it is not necessary
to add an extension, the archive utility will do that for you.

   To extract the contents of an archived file, first select the archive you wish
to extract from.  Next select the 'Extract Archive' menu item for the matching
archive utility. A Dialog box will appear with the destination View Window's
path in the edit box.  You may change this path to extract the archive's contents
to anywhere you wish at this time.  If you are happy with the settings select the
'Do It' button and the files will be extracted to that path.




Drive Status - Menu Item
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Drive Status when selected will access the current device for each View Window
and display the number of bytes of Free Disk Space for that device.


Palette Control
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   The Palette control is located under the utilities menu.  The palette control
consists of 48 different items which enables you to change the current color. The
first 21 are the standard Project Manager controls and the last 27 are independent
items for FM.  This will give you almost complete control over FM's color
selections, you can change it to what is pleasant to your eye.  The
function 'The Exchange' explained below will allow you to save your palette as
an independant file or load up someone elses palette.
  After loading the palette selector you will be presented with a dialog box
containing the different controls you can use to make the necessary changes.
The upper left quarter of the box are three slide gadgets that will allow you
to adjust the different color shades.  The upper right quarter of the box contains
a list box of all the different items you can change.  The bottom third of
the dialog box contains six push button controls and a comment field.

OK BUTTON
This button accepts the color selection you have chosen for any
particular item.  Once you are satisfied with an items color, press
this button.  Ok must be pressed for each item you change
if your satisifed with the color.

SAVE BUTTON
The save button only needs to be pressed once when you have
finished with all your selections.  Save will save the entire
palette configuration to disk.

TEST BUTTON
This button will change the color of the current item you are
working to see how it actually looks. For me and I'm sure
everyone else it is difficult to see how something will look
like without actually seeing it visually. After choosing
'Test' you must either choose 'OK' or 'Stop Test'.

STOP TEST
Stop Test will stop the testing mode of the palette selecter and
reset the selected item back to the orginial color plus reset
the color selector gadgets back to what they were orginally.
There were pros and cons in reseting the color selector gadgets
back to where they were orginally or just leaving them at the
last current state of selection.  Returning back to the default
won out for the simple reason that it was too hard to remember
exactly where default really was and it was best to just start
out with a new selection.

DEFAULT
This button will reset any selected item back to my original
color selection for FM.  The Color basis is from the stock
settings of Windows.

CANCEL
Cancel is the Same as Exit.  Cancel means to cancel any further
palette Selections.  Perhaps it should have just been called Exit.

COMMENT
This comment field can contain up to 80 characters. The reason
for this comment section is so you can label your different
palette creations with your name or any comments you might have
concerning that palette.  Also when using "The Exchange" to load
other peoples palettes you can see who and what they have to say
concerning that palette.  See the 'The Exchange' section below
for further info.



PROCEDURE
The best way to use the palette selector is to first select a
item from the list box in the upper right corner than adjust
the color control bars.  When you find something that might look
neat, push the 'Test' button.  If it looks suitable then go
ahead and select ok.  Then proceed onto the next item.  Now if
you are totally satisfied with your selections you may select
either 'SAVE' or 'CANCEL'.   Selecting 'SAVE' will write the
configuration to disk. Selecting 'CANCEL' will allow you to use
the palette settings only for the current secession.

PALETTE BACK
This menu item will read your disk configuration and load the
palette you last saved to disk.  This comes in handy if
you decide your palette choices weren't all that neat after all.



CMD Loader.....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This function has been completely replaced with one that is much much
simpler to run.   I think there was perhaps an overkill in the previous
function and this new one did eliminate 14K of .exe coding.  There are
still 20 CMDs, 10 main screen buttons and 10 Menu Items.  The CMD Loader
Panel consists basically of two colunms, one for the buttons and one for
the menus.  To load a CMD, first click on the round button to indicate
which CMD you wish to load or change.  Next Click on the corresponding
"Load x" button, this will load a windows file locater.  Run through
the tree of the file panel until you find the program.exe that you want
to be a CMD, then click OK.  The full path name of the CMD will automatically
be loaded into the 'CMD Pathname' Box. You must then fill in a new name for
the button or menu item of the CMD in the 'CMD Name' box.  Now if you want
the CMD to interact with a selected file listing you would next click on the
"Add List Symbol".  This action will place a %s at the end of the CMD Pathname
string.  Then when the CMD is activated, the selected file listing will be
substituted for the %s.  The "Delete This CMD" Button will clear any CMD that
IS selected and classify that slot as "Empty".
    The "Save This CMD" will save all the current CMD selections to disk.
This function need not be used for each individual CMD change but
can be used on all changes made during the session.
The "Exit CMD Config" button only will keep all the CMD changes for
just the current FM session.  Once FM is terminated, the CMD changes
will not be restored.  Only "Save This CMD" will save the configuration to disk.

I do hope this method is easier and faster for all of you.



THE EXCHANGE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   The Exchange is a feature that will allow you to load or save different
parts of your configuration of FM.  If you have come up with a really neat
palette selection for FM and you want to share it with others on a bulletin
board, computer club, or just friends you can save the palette as a seperate
file and upload it or pass it out on disk.  Or if you wish to view someone elses
idea for a palette you can load theirs and keep it or modify it as you wish.
The exchange also supports configuration segments for Pkzip, Pkunzip, Lha, and
Arj.  For most people including myself it is somewhat confusing to understand
just what setting does what etc. without going into great study.  Well some
people have a real knack for it and with any luck these talented people will
allow others to see their talents in creating settings files for other
people to use.  The Palette and all the Archive settings dialog boxes have a
'Comment' box which can be used for notations or signatures of who created
it.  To use The Exchange use the following steps.

Step  1:
To load or save a file you can first click on a file before
loading The Exchange.  After the file is highlighted you would
use the menu to start The Exchange.  When the exchange appears
the file you selected will show up in the 'Selected File'
box.  If you wish to use that filename select the 'Use Selected'
button.  I know this is more then one step but...

Step  2:
If you do not use the 'Use Selected' step enter in the 'Filename'
box the name and path of the file you wish to load or save.

Step  3:
Select one of the configuration buttons, 'Palette','Pkzip' etc.

Step  4:
Click either load or save depending on what you are doing.

Thats it.!  The new configuration will take effect immediately.  If you wish
to retain these settings you must load up the configuration screen and chose
'Save' to save to disk.



FONT SELECTER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The Font Selecter will allow you to use two different fonts in the main view
of FM.  The first menu item is 'View Windows'.  'View Windows' are the fonts that
display the files and directories located in the right and left view windows.
Any type or size of font may be used.  FM will adjust accordingly.  Of course
if you pick too large of a font the file name and file size will interweave
making for a very difficult display to read, hehe.  Keep in mind when a
different font other then the system font is used, the display when repainting
is noticably slower.  At least it is on my low end clone.  It would be interesting
to see how it reacts on a good machine.
  Underline and Strikeout are allowed as well as the different point size but color
is not, even though it is indicated.  The font color can be set with the
palette control.  I have a rather limited supply of fonts to test but everything
I do has seemed to work well.  My favorite selection is having "small.fon" with
point size 6 as the buttons and "Terminal.fon" 9 as view.
  The 'Background Fonts' menu item is set for the button controls of the main view
screen.  Once you are happy with your font selection, choose 'Save Font's' from
the menu.  This will save to disk the font structure and when you boot up FM
next time your fonts will be displayed.  Also depending upon your machine keep
in mind it takes a bit to load the fonts from disk when first booting.




DLCLK TASK CONTROL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Here is the real work horse of File Magician!  DlClk Task Control is ONLY
similar to Windows File Manager in one way.  You can double click a file and
the appropriate program is loaded to run the associated double clicked file.
Most programs use the file extension method to associate a given file to a
given program. FM DOES NOT!  Too many different types of files have the same
bloody extension and there is nothing more aggrevating then getting an
unrecognized winhelp file or you have to make an extension association with
every bloody .txt, .doc, .c, .h, etc etc.   The only true way, is to recognize
the files binary header which 99 percent of them have that identifies what type
of file they really are.  Well this is what FM does.   Ok, now I was presented
with a couple of different choices on how to do this.  The first and most obvious
was to examine every file I could get my hands on and construct FM to
recognize that header and do its thing provided you had the correct manager
to run that file.  Well I sure couldn't afford to cover the hundreds or, better
yet thousands of filetypes available to the PC and I had to have some
way to satisfy everyone.  So, one of the two days I took off since starting
FM,( it came to me while panning gold in one of Canada's beautiful rivers), why
not give FM the ability to learn the different filetypes and store them away
for use.  That day was a nice one and I did find more gold then usual but I
cut it short and headed home to add the feature to FM.  It wasn't an easy task
in making it easy to use for everyone at all levels, but I think it came out
well as long as the users take the proper steps in setting it up.

  A double click function must have a task to work on the double clicked file.
For instance if you wish to view a .gif picture file you would use one of
the many great gif viewers that are available.  So you would do the same when
setting up a double click configuration.  From now on I'll refer to the Task
(gif viewer) as a Manager.  So the first thing to do is figure out what type
of file we wish to have as a double click control.  We'll use the .gif
as an example and the name of manager can be GifView.exe. Now the first thing
that has to be done is to load the Manager.  The best way to do this is to
use the search functions.  So step by step

Step  1:
Load the Task Dispatcher from the menu.

Step  2:
Select the drive to search from in the drive box.

Step  3:
Enter in the full Manager's name or first few letters of the
Manager's name in the entry box labeled 'Search Name or .ext'
If you are unsure of the filename enter .EXE  to search for all executibles.

Step  4:
At the end of the search, select the listing  you believe is the
correct manager for the task you wish to do.

Step  5:
Select the Manager Button.  The name of the manager will appear in
the entry box labeled 'Manager name'.  Now it is time to teach FM
what type of files that manager should work on.

Step  6:
On the bottom of the dialog box are four radio buttons labeled
'Match' and then a number 1-4.

NOTE:
Match is the number of bytes FM will compare when learning about
the different filetypes.  Selecting Match 3 (default) is quite
accurate but some files like .bmp, .pif have only 1 or 2 beggining
header bytes that are the same.  So if at first you don't match
3 or 4, try a lower number.  FM will tell you what your odds are.
The next step is to locate a number of files that contain the same
.ext as the manager should work on. Keep in mind that many files
have the same extension so you may very well have to adjust the
extension file selection.  Ok now use the search feature again.

Step  7:
Enter in the 'Search Name' box the name of the extension you wish to use  like .gif

Step  8:
Choose the drive you wish to search, if it is different then the
one you used to search for the manager.

Step  9:
Push the Search button.

Step 10:
After your search ends you may select all the entries in the search
box by pushing the 'Select All' or you can select any number of
entries manually with the mouse.

Step 11:
 Push the 'Learn' Button.

NOTE:
FM will scan all of the selected files and compare them with the
first entry in list.  If no matches are found you will be told to
deselect the first entry and try again.  Hopefully you won't have
to do this too much before FM Finds a successful match.  If the
first entry only matchs a few of the files FM will give you the
percentage of matches and deselect all of the files that didn't
match.  At that point you take over and decide if you wish to
accept this selection.  If so then use Step 12


Step 12:
 Push the 'Accept' Button.

Thats it.  See, piece of cake!   Now you can double click any .gif file
in either view window and FM will call GifView.exe to load and show the selected
.gif file.  Hm... almost makes drag and drop obsolete huh..

The three buttons "Clear Sel", "Select All", "Clear Box", are pretty basic.

Clear Sel
Clears all the selected listings in the search list box.

Select All
Selects all the listings in the search box.

Clear Box
Deletes all the listings in the search box and resets the box to zero.

The two buttons "Task List", and "Del Entry" are for viewing and deleting
previously accepted Matches.  To view the list of matches, press the 'Task List'
button.  To delete a match, select a match from the search list box and then
press the 'Del Entry' Button.

The last button that hasn't been described yet is the 'Load List' Button.
This button loads a previously selected list of files that were selected on the
Main screen of File Magician.  The Main screen of FM has two collective buttons,
'Add2List' and 'Del List'.  Currently these buttons are dedicated to the
DlClk Task Controller in selecting files for FM to learn from.  Later these
same buttons will be used to Archive files from different directories and
different drives all in one shot.  In using the buttons with DlClk Task
Controller you would first Clear the list by pressing 'Del List'.  Then you
can roam around your HD and select different files with the proper extension
you want FM to learn about.  After you select these files, push the button
'Add2List', then move on to the next directory or drive, select more files,
'Add2List', etc.  Once you have selected all the files you want to select
you can then load the DlClk Task Dispatcher.  You then enter in the Manager's
name and next you select the 'Load List' button.  This button will load all
the files you have previously selected with the 'Add2List' button.  Then
you can continue on with the learn process.
  Have no fear with this function, the worst that can really happen is the
manager program you selected won't work and the FM will just ignore your
double click message.  If FM does ignore it then you have either the wrong
manager or the manager tries to load the wrong files.

   Currently File Magician recognizes the following files.  .EXE, .ZIP, .LHA, .ARJ
and All text files.  Double Click editing should be avoided for these filetype
because FM will over ride the configuration.

   Text Files should be explained a little here.  FM is accompanied with a separate
file called read.exe.  This is a very simple text file reader that only took a
few hours to program.  When FM encounters a double clicked text file it will
load the reader to read the file.  Currently my efforts have been to add to File
Magician's abilities and as of yet I have not had enough waking hours to
enhance the reader problem and for this reason I have added a slot within the
configuration window where the reader program can be substituted for some other
reader or editor of your choice.  Qedit works very well for large files and
notepad is quite good for files under 32k.  To accomplish this, open the config
window by pushing the "Config" button and in the group box labeled Names, replace
the Read name with the filename of your choice.  The filename must either be
in the same directory as FM or it must reside within the Path Environment.



CLOCK
~~~~~~~~~

    File Magician has two types of clocks.  One a window and one for the menu
 bar, your choice.  If you would like the clock to be present when you boot up
 just save the configuration while one of the clocks are active.  When FM first
 boots windows does it thing in a certain order so when you pass your mouse over
 a section of the background window the clock will auto-activate.  The background
 window is classified as anything other then the view windows.  To de-activate
 the window clock you can do one of the following...  Use the box clock menu
 again, it is always on toggle.  Click on the clock to activate the window and
 use the close gadget, ESC key, or ENTER key.  To de-activate the menu clock you
 must toggle the menu item again.



Notes..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    These Menu Items are supplied for easy access to any notes you may wish to
leave to yourself.  Up to 15 different topics can be viewed quickly here.  See
'Edit Notes' on how to set up Note Topics.



User Notes....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   This feature allows you to store any notes that you might wish to make
concerning anything and works under the exact same principle as the Help
feature does.  You are allowed up to 15 Note Listings and each listing
must have a Note Header just as the help file does.  To configure a note
you must enter the "Configuration Screen" and choose the "Notes" button.
   When activated you will be presented with a panel that contains two
columns of edit boxes, "Menu Name", and "Search Header".  The menu name
column will contain the name of the note topic that will be displayed in
the notes menu and the Search Header colunm Contains the name of the topic
that you wish to use in the notes file.  This Header must be 1 word and
must start in colunm 1 and all the rest of the body lines must start in
column 2 or larger.  The text size cannot be greater then 8100 characters
and will appear the exact same way the help screens appear.  You may also
within the configuration panel edit the note file by clicking on the
"Edit Notes" button.  You may also edit the notes file from the
"Utilities Menu" under "Edit Notes".  To view a note you would use the
menuitem "Notes" then slide to the topic you wish to view.



Help....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is NOT the standard Windows help program that nearly everyone uses.
The main reason for this memory usage. Winhelp.exe is a 256K+ program,
plus the associated .hlp file is loaded into memory to display any help
that might be required.  It is possible that Winhelp was programed with
overlays but still that has a huge chunck of memory to use and there is
the difficulty of new users to add comments to a windows help file.
FM's help uses a tad less then 10K and it works with a standard text file
that any editor can edit.  This means that you can easily add to any
help subject that FM has to offer as long as you follow a few basic FM
rules.  The Help topic is case sensitive and must start in column 1, any
text lines following a help topic must start in column 2 or greater, line
length should be limited to 79 characters, and finally the body of text
under and including the Help Header must not exceed 8100 characters,
which is a lot!
The filename for FMs help is FM.hlp and you can edit it from File Magician
if you wish under the Utilities Menu "Edit Help".  FM will automatically
find the correct file and invoke the editor to load it.  The Editor that
will be used MUST be specified within the "Configuration Panel" under the
Names section.
When help is requested, FM will search FM.HLP for the matching Help Header
and display it within a scrollable dialog box.  If the header isn't found
then FM will issue a error notice with the proper name of the Help Header.
Help for the main screen buttons is located under the "Help" menu.



File/Text Finder....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This function will find either files or text strings within files.
You may activate this feature by using the menus or as a macro key.
Here you have several options.  You may search text files only,  binary
files only, or both.  You may do either a text search or a file search.
You may search only the files and directories that you have previously
selected or you may search the entire contents of any drive.
When first entering into the function it will automatically default
everytime to "Both" - "File Search" - "Use Selected".  If this is what
you want to do then just enter in the name of the file you wish to search
for and click "Search".  The Finder will also accept the wild care '*'
for a search pattern.  te*.* will match all files that start with te and
any extentsion.  The asterix is the stopping point of the filename and
cannot be used to substitute as a letter, so 'te*t.* would not work.
If wild cards are used you must supply an extension as well such as
te*.e* or te*.exe.   A Text search will not use wild cards but will
scan specified files for any string that matches what you have entered.
Keep in mind that the shorter the string you use for a text search the
faster the search will take place.  I have written commerical programs
that extensively search for strings in all sorts of files and Media
including disk MFM formats and the search routines are fast and accurate
but still the governing factor is the length of the string to find.
After you have made a successful search and you may have found many
matches you might want to save the contents of your search to a file for
later use, this is what the "Save To File" button is for.   When activated
it will present you with a "Save As" Panel where you can create or select
a file to send the report to.



Configuration Checker....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All problems that people have had with FM seem to stem to be their
placement of important files (like Pkzip etc.) that FM uses and how
windows acts with the path environment.  Documentation for Windows and
Windows programming manuals do not seem to be correct concerning
environmental paths.  Also many times the actually PATH strings used in
the startup files are incorrect.  So I've built into FM a Configuration
Checker, labeled under the Utilities menu "Check Configuration".  This
function will reach into memory so to speak and find out what is really
there and compare it with what you have currently configured and display
a list of reports for each item.  Keep in mind this isn't 100% accurate
but it sure will help.  Another thing all programs that FM uses for
the Archive Commander should be either in your 'Dos' or 'Windows'
directory for the best results.



Panel Buttons.....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Biggie!  This has been the most requested item.  More configurable
buttons.  Well you got them!  Three panels of them, each panel consisting
of 28 buttons for a grand total or 84 additional buttons.  Each button
in itself is a CMD, and the same rules apply to configuring the panel
buttons as the CMD Loader.  To get to the configuration area for the panels
you must enter the configuration screen and then click on the button marked
Panelx, x being the panel number.  To invoke a panel you can either use
the menu items under "Panels" or you can configure your mouse buttons
(described below).  Each panel multitasks with FM, which means that you
are free use the main screen of FM while a button panel is present and
you may interface selected listing from the main screen of FM with the
any of the Button Panels.
When a panel is first booted it will center itself, moving if
neccessary depending upon your resolution, to cover the FM's main screen
buttons.  You may move the panel anywhere from that point if you wish to
get to FM's main buttons.



Help Menu Items
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    These help items will give you a quick access to specialized areas where
you can quickly access brief information on different functions without having
to search through the documentation for that item.



Help Topics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Help Topics provide a master list of all the different help topics available.
Highlight any topic and then push the 'Go To' button.  This will bring up a
screen displaying all the help available for that topic.



Macro Menu Items
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are 14 Fx keys that you may program to perform internal functions or launch
external programs.  The Fx menu items are for informational display only, they
are not functional. One sometimes needs a reminder of what key is assigned to
what function.  The menu items are provided for just that alone.  See the
configuration section for Macros for complete details.



Drive Button Configurations....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can configure the 12 drive buttons to any device you wish and
in any order.  From the Configuration Screen click on the "Dr Conf" button
this will invoke the "Drive Button Configuration" Panel.  At the top of
the panel are 12 buttons just like the main screen of FM.  These 12
buttons are for show only and are only there to show you how your main
button display wil work.  To change a drive you must not only change the
drive letter but the drive number as well.  This is important for FM to
keep track of its own location.  Drive numbers corispond with the letters
A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc.  After you change the drive, Change the number
in the next column!!  When you have completed this configuration you can
select the "Save" button to write the changes to disk.  FM will
immediately update the main screen to show your changes.

With File Magician V4.0 you may configure 24 drive buttons. A real must for
networks!


Mouse Button Configuration.....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The middle and right mouse buttons can now be programmed to do
4 different tasks.  The first task is "parent" which will cause a parent
action to happen on the active view window.  Same as hitting the parent
button.  The next three options invoke one of the three button panels.
To Configure the mouse you must select the "Mouse" button in the
"Configuration Screen".  There is two columns of radio buttons listing
5 possible selections.  The fifth selection "Menu Panel" is reserved for
the next update of FM, but the first 4 are active.  You may only choose
1 selection for each button.  Selecting "Save" will save the configuration
to disk and you may immediately begin using that function.



Macro Keys....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are 14 keys that can be programmed as macros, F1-F9, F11-F15.  The Macro
Keys are configured from the "Macros" button located in the "Configuration
screen.  Here you are presented with 3 scroll boxes, "Macro Key",
"FM Commands", and "Key List".  The "Key List" box is for display
purposes only, it shows you which key is assigned to which command.
To Configure a macro you must first select a Key from the "Macro Key"
box, then you have a choice of assigning it a FM Command or using one
of your own.   A FM Command is one of the internal functions that FM has
such as "Copy", "Delete", etc.   If you wish to use a FM Command click
next on a command within the "FM Commands" box and that will appear in
the edit box "Command".  If you wish to have the macro act as a CMD then
instead of using a FM Command enter in your own command within the
"Command" edit box.   Next select the "Accept" Button, this will assign
that command to that macro key and will also display it in the "Key List"
box as being assigned.  After you have Made your selections click the
"Save" button and the configuration will be saved to disk.
Located under the "Help" menu is a menuitem called "Macros",  this
displays a list of all the Fx Keys and what they have assigned to them.
This is for a reminder display only.  The macros will not execute from that menu.
Additional keys and macro menu execution will be available in
future versions of FM.


Pkunzip - Pkzip, Settings..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two edit boxes 'UnComp' and 'Comp' show the current settings for Pkunzip and
Pkzip. The two pushbuttons 'Pkzip' and 'Pkunzip' open up dialog boxes to adjust
these settings to different arguments that you may need.  If you are not familiar
with the settings for either of these compression utilities you should consult
the documentation files that came with the archives before making any adjustments.
Its far past the scope of this manual to attempt to document them.
File Magician comes with a set of default settings that are automatically configured
when first installed.  These settings will cover the most common operations.



ARJ and LZH Settings...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Settings for Arj and Lzh are pretty much the same as the Pkware utilities with
the exception that each has a double standard settings dialog box.  This means
that after the dialog box is displayed there will be two buttons, 'Comp' and
'UnComp', which stand for compress and uncompress.  Selecting for example the
'Comp' for Arj would allow you to set the compression side of Arj, where 'UnComp'
would allow you to set the extraction arguments for Arj.  If you are not familiar
with the setting for either compression utility be sure to first check the
documentation that came with the archive for the settings.
Once you are happy with the new settings you have made select the 'Ok' button.
This action will change the edit boxes on the configuration screen to reflect
your selection.  If you wish to retain this selection be sure to select 'Save'
on the main Configuration screen.  Otherwise the selections will only be for the
current session of File Magician.  You also may adjust the settings from the
main screen menu.



WARN!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These check buttons are to enable or disable a Warning box that will appear before
you copy, delete, or move any files from either view window.  Its a real good
policy to leave these boxes in a checked state (enabled), it only takes a few
seconds to click the ok button and it gives you one last thought before the operation
begins.



Path Information....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To make matters simple, File Magician requires a work directory where it may read
and write different files for different chores that it performs and instead of
doing all this in its own directory I have it do it in a separate directory where
any of the files left there are unimportant.  If you happen to do a clean up you
won't have a hard time trying to figure out which are necessary files and which
aren't.  You may delete any file in the work directory if there are any.  File
Magician does a good job of cleaning up after itself.
When File Magician is first installed a directory called C:\temp is checked for,
if one isn't found then one is created for you.  In the configuration screen under
'Paths - Temp Work Dir' is a default listing of C:\temp.  If you wish the work
directory to be something else, just change the path to that of your choice and
Save the configuration.  Be sure also the path does exist.  If you have troubles
with the compression utilities not working, this is a good place to look and make
sure your Temp Work Dir is Correct!!


    File Magician can now be set to have either view window contain a pre-defined
 file and directory listing.  To accomplish this, enter the configuration control
 and in the group box that is labeled "Paths" you will see ..

       Left Boot       Drive
       _________      _____
      |                  |    |          |
      |_________|    |_____|

      Right Boot       Drive
       _________      _____
      |                  |    |          |
      |_________|    |_____|


 Left Boot of course is for the Left view window and Right Boot is for the right
 view windows.  Enter in the drive and or directory you wish File Magician
 to load when you first load File Magician.  The drives and or directories should
 be entered in as the following example.

        C:
        C:\windows
        etc.

 The drive box contains the actual number of the drive.  Only a number can be
 entered here and it must relate to the drive that is indicated in boot box.
 Failure to enter the correct drive number could result in some unexpected results.
 The values are as follows

        A: = 1
        B: = 2
        C: = 3
        D: = 4
        E: = 5

         etc.



Name Information...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

File Magician does need to know the name of the different utilities that you are
using for compression, editing, reading, etc.  These names are listed in the Names
column of the configuration screen.  The names need to be spelled exactly as the
program names less the extension.  File Magician will look for these names in your
PATH environment and once finding them execute them for the task at hand.



Help Buttons
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

File Magician has several help topic buttons to aid you while in the configuration
section of the program.  Clicking on any of these will bring up a brief help
display for that topic.



Configuration Default Button
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Pushing the default button on the configuration screen will reset all of
File Magician's configuration back to the way it was when File Magician was
first installed.



Panel Configuration..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To configure the three different panels first select which panel you wish to
configure.  A dialog box will open and you will see two sections of columns.
The first column labeled "But. Name", is the name you want to give a button
of the panel.  This name will signify the name of the program you wish to
launch.  The third column is a row of push buttons labeled "Loadx", select
this to load the external programs path.  Move your way to the program you wish
to launch and select it.  Select OK from the 'File Finder'.  The program you
will launch will appear in the second column along with its full path name.
If you wish the program to use a selected file listing from one of File Magician's
View Windows, put a space then a %s after the path name in the second column.
This tells File Magician to execute the program and use the selected file listing
as an argument.  Thats all there is to it!  Between the three panels you have
84 different external program launch sites.



File Attributes....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This feature determines what files File Magician should display to the View
Windows.  Each check box represents a different File Attribute, for information
about file attributes please refer to your MS-DOS manual.  File Magician when
doing a directory search checks each attribute and if your configuration matches
the file or directories attribute it will display it.  Caution should sometimes
be used when displaying system files.



Auto Make Directory while Uncompressing Archives
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When this check box flag is checked File Magician will automatically create a
directory when you are decompressing archives.  The directory name will be the
name of the archive without the extension.  All files that the archive contains
will be decompressed to that directory.  The directory will be created in the
destination view window or given path.



Save Configuration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This button saves the complete configuration for File Magician.  Before leaving
the configuration screen you should save the configuration so you may retain the
same settings for the next time you boot up.



Screen Gauges....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FM has 3 fuel gauges on its main screen.  The yellow ones next to
each view window show how full that drive is and the gauage at the bottom
shows remaining resources in the system.  When using FM to execute other
programs it will pay to note the resources left before execution and
resources left after execution.   Many programs get very sloppy and DO NOT
free up any or all resources used while running.
File Magician will update the gauges when the screen is repainted or when some
type of action is performed on the main screen like changing directory or
drive locations.


View Windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~
    File Magician has two view windows.  One is the 'Source' and one is the
 'Destination'.  The source window will always be the one with the red box
 around it.  The Source and the Destination window can be swapped. To activate
 a 'Source' window, click in the window itself or click in the path bar above
 the window.  Once a 'Source' window is established the opposite window
 automatically defaults to the 'Destination' window.    Often a directory will
 have more file and directory listings then the view window can display.  Use
 the scroll gadget to the right of the window to view the additional listings.
 The bottom scroll gadget is inactive with this release but is there for
 future compatability.

Selection
~~~~~~~~~~
    The left mouse button (LMB) is used to select a file or directory. Clicking
 once will select the listing and the listing will be highlighted.  Double clicking
 a directory will instruct the program to enter and display to the view window
 that directory listing.
    When a file or directory is selected it means that the next command action
 will be taken on all files and directories selected.  Changing to a different
 directory will de-select automatically all of the previous selections.
    No action will be taken on any file or directory that has Not been selected.

Title Bar
~~~~~~~~~~
    The title bar is used as a action display.  There the program will show you
 the current action that is taking place such as, copying, deleting, or moving
 listings, bytes free on destination and source windows, files selected and
 total bytes of selected files.  Currently there is a 5 second timer after a
 title information display before it defaults back to a byte free display.

Keyboard:
~~~~~~~~~
   ESC  -  Will exit the program.


Multiple Mouse Selection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Multiple files and/or directories can be selected or de-selected by holding
 down on the Left Mouse Button and moving the pointer up or down the view
 window.

Path Boxes
~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Each View Window has a box located across the top, in this box is displayed
the current path of the directory that is being displayed in that View Window.
To refresh the View Window click in this path box.  This forces File Magician
to search again for files and directories and redisplay them in the View Window.




Misc. Items
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Double Clicking Archive Files....
When you double click on an archived file a dialog box will appear and give you
the option of extracting the file to the indicated destination area or loading
the file into the 'Archive Commander'.  You also have the option of changing the
destination area that is indicated in the entry box.  The entry box will
automatically be defaulted to what path is showing in the destination area.

Double Clicking on Files..
Currently File Magician will detect .Zip, .Arj, .Lzh, .Exe, and Text files, and
act on the as specified.  All other files that are double clicked will cause
File Magician to display the binary header of the file (This no longer holds true
with Version 4.0), unless the file is recognized by the Double Click Task Controller.
If it is recognized by the DlClk Task Ctrl then the file is acted upon.  Nearly
every type of file can be double clicked on and action taken upon that file. Every
file type has a unique binary header to indicate what type of file it is. You
can teach File Magician all the different types of files that you normally use
by using the DlClk Task Ctrl.  For a complete description, go to the menus section
of this documentation.

Drag & Drop.....
When File Magician is Iconic it will accept any file dropped into it and act
accordingly.  If a file isn't recognized the binary header of the files is
displayed.




File Magician V4.0!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you register File Magician you will receive File Magician V4.0.  V4.0 is
packaged in a attractive shrink-wrapped box with a professional printed bound
manual and disk.  Be sure to fill out the registration card and send it back to
us so that we may enter you into the Real Gold Drawing.  Every 500 registrations
that we receive, we conduct a drawing for a large chunk of Real 24K Gold. You
will have to read the registration card to find out how big the the chunk of Gold
is!  But believe me its not a light weight offer, you will make many times over the
cost of File Magician when you win!

File Magician V4.0 is a commerical product and you may purchase File Magician V4.0
directly from us at the same price, $40.00 US Funds, as the registration cost for
the shareware version of File Magician.  Plus you get the chance of winning some
real Gold!

File Magician V4.0 is huge in comparison to this evaluation program.  It offers
dozens of additional features including a Security System that no Windows or DOS
program has ever seen.  Government and corporate entities have labeled File Magician V4.0
as their product of choice!

Multiple orders of File Magician V4.0 also comes with a Department Supervisor's
Security Key Code disk where the security for File Magician can be customized and
imported to multiple File Magician sites by the supervisor.

There are many reasons why you should purchase File Magician.  First and most
important is that You Need It!  File Magician is addictive, the more you use it
the more powerful it becomes and you'll find that you can't imagine life with a PC
before File Magician came to you.  Thats a pretty bold statement by me but I've
heard it time and time again from people all over the world and it holds true for
me as well. I'm helpless without File Magician to aid me in what I do!
THEN with your support, it helps independent programmers like myself fight the
giant inhibiting forces of xxxx, like Microsoft, etc., and allows us to bring
quality programs to the real people that count.  You!




At Bullard Software we always try and have one or more contests going, we love
them!  When you Call our BBS to order File Magician with Visa or Mastercard,
you will have the opportunity to play one of our contests for this release.
If you win, we will pay you $40.00 PLUS send you File Magician V4.0 postage paid
by Bullard Software. There is absolutely no expense out of your pocket, you are
The WINNER!

Here is how it works.

With your modem call 1-360-384-2591.
After you have logged on to the BBS (The Magic Land) type  ORDER  at the menu
prompt.  You will be asked if you wish to order File Magician by Credit Card.
Once you have completed the standard ordering questions you will be informed
that you are about to play this versions contest and to enter in a number between
1 and 25.  The computer also will randomly choose a number between 1 and 25. If
the numbers match, your name, address, etc. will be transfered to our No.1 Alpha
list. All people on our No.1 Alpha list receive File Magician V4.0 free and $40.00
for being on the list!
If you don't make it on the Alpha list your card will be billed $40.00 plus
shipping.  There are no handling charges for File Magician orders!
Don't worry about us not finding out that you are a winner, the BBS records every
move you make.

Don't delay in calling, this contest may end Apr. 2 1995 when the next version
of File Magician is released!!

If you don't win we are sorry BUT on the bright side you are getting a Super Great
program that has been 3 years in the making at a SUPER GREAT price!!!
Either way you can't loose!

We do limit one entry per purchase.



  PHONE COMPANIES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many of you that have downloaded previous versions of File Magician might have
tried to call us and received a "Number Disconnected" recording.  Two of our
lines have been disconnected by GTE for lack of payment, actually we refused to
pay them.  The reason for this is because we were being billed by two different
companies, GTE & AT&T, for the same calls and service.  We are located in a GTE
based area but our two lines were contracted to and installed by AT&T.  After
many months GTE still remains in a state of confusion, we are without service
for those two lines, and we are still waiting for some word from these people.
Our area code has also been changed from 206 to 360.  We are sure this has also
contributed to GTE's confusion and rate increases.
Microsoft, our neighbor of 70 miles, we believe is the reason for the area code
addition to the state.  With the introduction of GateNet and the support lines
required for Win95, Western Washington simply ran out of available numbers!
So as it stands...  You may reach us by calling..

360-384-4849  Voice
360-384-2591  BBS, used for Ordering and Support



  Microsoft Windows(tm) 1995
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will File Magician work with Win95?
Answer
Yes!

File Magician is a very independent program, just like its programmer!  It has
never accepted or liked the standard Windows or MSDOS limitations that have been
conditioned into Win3.1 (or earlier) and many window application programmers.
So from the very beginning File Magician has been ready for Win95.
The current File Magician will still be a 16 bit app. and when we are sure that
Microsoft doesn't have any more surprises in store for developers we will compile
a 32 bit version 4.0 and include it on disk with our main package.  Then you may
use which ever version suits your requirements.
If you are ordering File Magician for the first time you will automatically
receive the 32 bit version in the mail when its compiled if you haven't already
received it with V4.0 commerical package.



**********************************************************************
Planned File Magician Release Dates

Version 3.65              Feb. 29, 1995
Version 3.70              Apr. 02, 1995
Version 3.73              Jun. 15, 1995
Version 3.77              Jul. 15, 1995
 Version 3.80              Sep. 01, 1995

**********************************************************************



  MENU - SAVE CONFIGURATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   When selecting this item from the utilities menu, this will save all branches
 of the configuration, such as palette, Archive Settings etc.


  USE DESKTOP PALETTE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   This item will absorb the current palette setting that you have made for your
 program manager desktop and apply them to FM's base palette.

  USE SYSTEM DESKTOP PALETTE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This Menu Item will load the stock Program Managers system palette settings and
 apply them as FM's base palette.