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Text File | 1992-04-08 | 25KB | 630 lines

KWmenu Version 1.0 User Reference Manual Copyright (C) 1991 by KeenWare All Rights Reserved KeenWare 3080 Shaw Road Marietta, GA 30066 ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ 1.0 INTRODUCTION │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ This chapter discusses the following: ■ Objectives of KWmenu ■ KWmenu's features ■ Program limitations ■ License, registration, and warranty ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ 1.1 Objectives of KWmenu │ └───────────────────────────┘ Our design objective for KWmenu was very straightforward: Provide users of IBM-PC compatible computers with a high-quality user-friendly menu at a very competitive price. The competitive price part was easy enough: KWmenu costs only $10. Ensuring a high-quality, user-friendly menu was more difficult, of course. However, the comments we received from Beta tester's of KWmenu, which included several Sysops of major bulletin board systems, indicates that this objective has been fully met. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ NOTE │ │ If you do experience any problem with │ │ KWmenu, please leave us a comment on │ │ │ │ David's Express PCBoard │ │ │ │ (404) 963-5514 │ │ │ │ You may also obtain a registered copy │ │ of KWmenu on this bulletin board, │ │ which is operated by the authors. │ │ (This board also contains over 35,000 │ │ files, and numerous conferences.) │ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘ NOTE: On May 3, 1992, the area code for Georgia will change from 404 to 706, changing the number for David Express PCBoard to (706) 963-5514. ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ 1.2 KWmenu's features │ └───────────────────────────┘ KWmenu has the following features: ■ Helps you easily run as many as 100 of your favorite programs or DOS commands ■ Lets you add, delete, or move menu entries with ease ── there's no need to learn any special commands ■ Displays a calendar of the current month, as well as the date and time ■ Menu colors are easy to change to suit your taste ■ Easy-to-understand, popup help screens are available at the press of a key ■ You can password-protect programs you do not want others to access. You can also password-protect the editing, so that only you can edit the menu ■ The menu frees itself completely from computer memory when it runs the program you select. Hence, no matter how large the program you select to run, if you can run it without KWmenu, you can run it with KWmenu ■ Runs memory-resident programs as well as regular programs ■ Lets users of older model Color Graphics Adapters (CGAs) use the menu without any screen snow ■ Lets you personalize the menu title ■ If no keys are pressed during any 2-minute period that the menu is being displayed, the screen is blanked to preclude its "burnout." The menu is fully restored when any key is pressed. These features are available to all users, whether registered or not. However, technical support is available only to registered users. Additionally, non-registered versions of KWmenu prominitely display the message "Unregistered Copy." Customized features can be added for corporate purchasers. ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ 1.3 Program Limitations │ └───────────────────────────┘ As is the case with a number of other utility programs, KWmenu is not designed to work on every computer system. It is designed for IBM compatibles only, and is designed to run under MS-DOS. Other operating restrictions are: ■ KWmenu requires approximately 128 Kbytes of free memory, except when it is running a program. As previously noted, KWmenu frees itself completely from memory when running a selected program. KWmenu itself is small (the executable file is less than 50 Kbytes), but it has to reserve some memory to hold data from the KWmenu.dat file, to show help displays, etc. ■ KWmenu is not designed to operate within a windowing environment ■ KWmenu is designed to run only on hard-drive systems. It is not designed to work on systems that have only floppy drives ── one reason for this is that menuing programs are generally of little value on such systems ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 1.3 License, Registration, and Warranty │ └──────────────────────────────────────────┘ KWmenu ("The Software") is Copyright (C) 1991 by KeenWare. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. KWmenu is NOT a public domain program and is not free. You may freely distribute Non-Registered copies the software, provided that you do not modify the software in any way and provided that you do not distribute the software for profit. You may purchase a registered version of KWmenu for only $10 from David's Express PCBoard, 404-963-5514, using either your Mastercard or Visa card. Or you may obtain a registered version by sending your check or money order in the amount of $12.50 ( including $2.50 for shipping and handling ) to KeenWare 3080 Shaw Road Marietta, GA 30066 When ordering by mail, please specify whether you prefer 3½" diskettes or 5¼" diskettes. Non-registered users are granted a LICENSE to KWmenu to use it for an evaluation period of 30 days, subject to items 2) and 3) of the restrictions and limitations listed below for registered users. Registered users of KWmenu are granted a LICENSE to KWmenu to use the program, subject to the following restrictions and limitations: 1) This license is not transferrable under any conditions. 2) You may not provide copies of KWmenu to anyone else. However, as long as KWmenu is running on your system, other users of your system may use the software. 3) You may not engage in, nor permit third parties to engage in, any of the following: a) Attempting to disassemble, decompile, or reverse engineer the software in any way. b) Granting sublicenses, lease or other rights in the software to others. The authors of the software reserve the right to terminate this license if there is a violation of its terms or default by the user. Upon termination for any reason, all the user's copies of the software must be destroyed and the user will be liable for any and all damages suffered as a result of the violation or default. The authors of this software are not liable for damages suffered as a result of the improper use, proper use, or inability to use this software. This type of disclaimer is prohibited in some states, and is therefore void in those states. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ 2.0 INSTALLATION │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ This chapter provides instructions for installing KWmenu. ┌────────────────────────────┐ │ 2.1 How to Install KWmenu │ └────────────────────────────┘ If you purchased KWmenu directly from KeenWare, simply ■ Install the KWmenu diskette in one of your floppy drives ■ Change to the drive containing the KWmenu diskette (e.g., if you put the diskette in your "A" drive, simply type A: at the DOS prompt) ■ Type KWSETUP and press the ENTER (or RETURN) key. The KWsetup program will then make the directory C:\KWMENU on your hard drive, and will copy the following files to that directory: KWMENU.EXE KWDOC.EXE KW.BAT KWMENU.DOC KWDATA.DAT KWSETUP.EXE KWHELP.HLP It is essential that KWmenu be installed in a directory named C:\KWMENU, and that the directory contain these files. KWsetup will also make the directory C:\KWMENU\SAMPLES and will copy the following files to it: DIRSIZE.COM KWKEY.COM KWKEY.DOC STAR.BAT If you have downloaded KWmenu from a Bulletin Board, it is almost certainly in a compressed format. Once you have used your file compression utility to decompress the file, simply change to the directory that the uncompressed files are in and run the KWsetup program. As with the above procedure, the directory C:\KWMENU will be formed and the necessary files will be copied to it. A final note. It is not essential that the directory C:\KWMENU be added to the PATH statement in your autoexec.bat file. However, we recommend that you do, as a convenience. It is also recommended that you make the following the las two lines in your autoexec.bat file: CD\KWMENU KW ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ 3.0 USING KWMENU │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ KWmenu is very easy to use. Easy-to-read prompts will guide you through its various features. And, the F1 key will bring up a help screen any time you desire. Hence, if you are an experienced computer user, you can probably bypass this chapter. Otherwise, this documentation is designed to assist you in using KWmenu. If you find it lacking in this regard in any way, please let us know. This chapter discusses the following: ■ Running programs from KWmenu ■ Adding your programs to KWmenu ■ Changing KWmenu's appearance ■ Password protection ┌───────────────────────────────────┐ │ 3.1 Running Programs from KWmenu │ └───────────────────────────────────┘ A sample 'kwdata.dat' file is provided with KWmenu so you can immediately begin experimenting with KWmenu's operation. If you have added the directory C:\KWMENU to your PATH statement, you can run KWmenu from any directory by simply typing KW at the DOS prompt. Otherwise, change to the directory C:\KWMENU and type KW. (For those who are new to DOS, exit any program(s) you are running until you reach the DOS prompt. Then, enter C:, then CD:\KWMENU, and then KW.) ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ IF YOUR SCREEN DISPLAYED SNOW when you │ │ entered KWmenu: │ │ │ │ press function key F2, press S to │ │ edit the screen-writing speed, and │ │ press S again to set the speed to │ │ 'No Snow'. │ │ │ │ You may exit the F2-popup menu with │ │ either the ESC or Q keys. (Note that │ │ a small 'q' works just as well as a │ │ capital 'Q'. KWmenu operation is │ │ completely case-insensitive.) │ │ │ │ You should then exit KWmenu by pressing │ │ F3. This saves the no-snow setting │ │ for future KWmenu operations. When you │ │ run KWmenu again, the screen will be │ │ free of snow. │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘ The menu will display a sign-on screen for five seconds the first time it is run each day. The sign-on is displayed only once each day. When the menu is displayed, you will note that it is organized into 10 'submenus' ── namely, 'A' thru 'J' ── and that each of these submenus is capable of running 10 of your programs. The menu contains some sample data so you can immediately begin experimenting with running programs/commands from KWmenu. Submenu 'A', for example, lets you run a couple of simple directory commands: 0 Show files in Root Directory 1 2 Show files in KWmenu Directory 3 4 Show KWmenu\Samples Directory 5 6 7 8 9 Show Disk Usage by Directory You can run any of these items by: Using the Arrow Keys (Up or Down) to highlight the item you want to run, and then pressing the ENTER key. OR Pressing the number key corresponding to the desired item. For example, to show the files in the root directory, press the Down key once to highlight item 2. (Note that empty item 1 is skipped over when you press the Down key.) Then, press the ENTER key. You may also wish to run the item by just pressing the '2' key. To run a program in another submenu, you may: Press the arrow keys until you reach the desired submenu OR Press the letter key corresponding to the desired submenu. For example, to select submenu 'D', you may press 'D' or 'd'. You may then run the items on submenu 'D' as discussed above for submenu 'A'. ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 3.2 Adding Your Programs to KWmenu │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ The F2 key is used to initiate all editing of the menu. When you press F2, a popup menu is presented that provides the following choices: ┌──────────────────┐ │ Menu Item │ │ Colors │ │ Title │ │ Screen Speed │ │ Set Password │ │ Edit Protection │ │ Quit │ └──────────────────┘ The popup menu item of interest to us for now is the 'Menu Item' selection. You may select the 'Menu Item' option by pressing 'M' or 'm' or by ensuring the option is highlighted (using the Up/Down keys) and then pressing ENTER. When you do this, you will be prompted to select the item you want to edit. You select the desired item in the same way as if you were selecting it to be run. For example, to add an item to submenu 'B' item '4', simply press 'b' and '4'. You will then be presented with an editing screen that lets you modify any or all of the following: Menu Name - The name associated with submenu 'B'. (For example, in the sample menu provided, the Menu Name for submenu 'A' is 'Main Menu.' ) Program Name - The name you want to assign to item '4' of submenu 'B'. Command String - The commands that are run by DOS when item 'B4' is selected to run. For practice, let's go ahead and install a program at menu position 'B4'. We'll install a small program called 'dirsize' that was copied to a directory called C:\KWMENU\SAMPLES when you ran the KWsetup program. If we were to run this sample program from the DOS prompt, we would have to enter the following: c: ( Change to drive C: ) cd\KWmenu ( Change to the appropriate directory ) cd\samples dirsize ( Run the program ) To have KWmenu run the program for us, we just need to enter the following Command String for position B4: c:,cd\kwmenu,cd\samples,dirsize Note that commas are used to separate individual commands within the Command String. Hence, to install this program at position B4, we would do the following: 1. Press F2 to initiate editing 2. Select the 'Menu Item' option from the popup menu 3. Press the B key (to select submenu B) 4. Press the 4 key (to select item 4) 5. Type in a name for the B submenu (if you want to change its name). For example, you might want to type in the following: Demo Programs. (The editor will not allow you enter a name that is more than 16 characters in length.) 6. Press the ENTER or the Down key to move the editor to the 'Program Name' entry 7. Type in a program name, such as Dirsize: A Demo Program (The editor will limit the length of this name to a maximum of 40 characters.) 8. Press the ENTER or the Down key to move the editor to the 'Command String' entry. 9. Type in the following: c:,cd\kwmenu,cd\samples,dirsize (The editor limits the length of the Command String to 80 characters.) 10. Press F2 to save the changes we just made. You may now run this program by selecting item B4. Note that if you wish to retain this demonstration program but want to move it to a new location (such as B8 or E1), you may do so by pressing the F4 key. Simple prompts will guide you through this process. If you wish to delete this demonstration program from the menu, select F2 and select item B4 as before. (Note that deleting the program from the menu does not delete the program from the disk.) When you have reached the editing screen, press the ENTER or Down keys to move the editor to the 'Program Name' entry. Press the CTRL D key combination (that is, while holding down the CTRL key, press the D or d key), and this 'Program Name' entry will be deleted. Then, press the ENTER or Down keys to move the editor to the 'Command String' entry. Press CTRL D again to delete that entry. To save these changes, press the F2 key. Otherwise, if you decide you do not want to make the changes after all, press the ESC key. To add your own programs, use the same process as outlined above. One final point: if you wish to run a program having an extension of 'BAT' (instead of 'EXE' or 'COM'), that batch file will need to have 'kw' as its last entry in order for the batch file to return control back over to KWmenu. For example, if you have a batch file that contains the following entries c: cd\wordpro wordpro file.doc cd\ you will need to change it to the following to run it from KWmenu: c: cd\wordpro wordpro file.doc cd\ kw Of course, you may instead decide to just delete the batch file and instead use the following 'Command String' as one of your menu entries: c:,cd\wordpro,wordpro file.doc,cd\ ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 3.3 Changing KWmenu's Appearance │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ The following "appearance characteristics" may be modified using the F2 key: ■ screen colors ■ menu title As previously noted, the 'Screen Speed' option on the F2 popup menu can also be used to eliminate "snow" or flicker when using KWmenu on color adapters that produce flicker. When you select 'Colors' from the F2 popup menu, you are presented with another popup menu that gives you several choices of menu items you can recolor. Once you have selected the item you want to recolor, use the Up or Down keys until you have the desired color and then press the ENTER key. You will then be returned to the popup menu so that you can change other colors if desired. Once you are satisfied with the colors, you select the 'Save changes' option from the popup menu. If you decide not to save the changes you may simply press the ESC key. (Note that even after pressing the ESC key, the colors you selected will remain in effect until you either run a program or exit KWmenu using F3 and then return by typing KW. The menu will then resort to using the colors that were present before you started making the changes.) If you would like to change the title from its default of "KWmenu Version 1.0," simply select the 'Title' option from the F2 popup menu. This will invoke an editor that will allow you to enter your own 40-character title. To save the title as your "default," press the F2 key when you have finished entering the title. ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 3.4 Password Protection │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ If others will be using your computer and you want to keep them from running one or more of the menu entries, you may set a password for those entries. To set a password, simply select the 'Password Protection' option from the F2 popup menu. You will then be prompted for which entry you want to protect. After you have selected the desired entry, simply enter the password you want to use any time that entry is selected. You may use up to 8 characters. When you have entered the desired password, simply press the ENTER key. (If you make a mistake during entry of the password, you may back over it using the BackSpace key.) To remove password protection from an entry, go through the same steps as if you were going to set the password the first time. You will then be prompted for the current password. When you have entered it correctly, you will be prompted to enter a new password. If you do not want the item to have a password, simply press the ENTER key at this point. Note that, if you press any other key prior to the ENTER key, that key will become the new password. Hence, it pays to use a little extra care at this point. In addition to password protecting menu entries, you can password protect the F2 popup menu. This will prevent anyone who does not have your password from editing any of the menu entries, colors, etc. To do this, simply select the 'Edit Protection' option from the F2 popup menu and follow the above procedure. That's all there is to it. As you can see, KWmenu is easy-to-use. If it suits your needs, please register your copy today. This will help ensure the continued availability of high-quality, inexpensive software from KeenWare.