The 640 MEG Shareware Studio 2/The 640 Meg Shareware Studio CD-ROM Volume II (Data Express)(1993).ISO/menu/medley.zip/MEDLEY.DOC

Text File | 1992-07-30 | 30KB | 867 lines

            MEDLEY (tm)
            USERS' MANUAL






            (C)Copyright 1992 by ButtonWare
            (C)Copyright 1992 by Jim Button
            All rights reserved




                        ButtonWare, Inc.
                        P.O. Box 96058
                        Bellevue, WA  98009-4469
                        USA









TABLE OF CONTENTS

    WHAT IS MEDLEY
    INSTALLING MEDLEY
    SETTING UP MEDLEY MENUS
        USING MEDSET.EXE
            TITLE/COLORS:
            DELETE:
            ADD:
            CHANGE:
            QUIT:
            FILLING IN THE MENU QUESTIONS:
        USING A TEXT EDITOR
    USING MEDLEY
    ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
    IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS
    PERMISSION TO COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
    ABOUT BUTTONWARE




WHAT IS MEDLEY?

    Medley is a menu program. It displays a menu on the screen
    and lets the user select an operation from the menu. Menu
    selection is done with a single keystroke, or by moving a
    menu bar to the desired operation.

    The purpose of Medley is to make computers easier to operate.
    It's great for DOS-impaired or typing-impaired people. I
    wrote Medley several years ago for use at ButtonWare. It
    quickly gained wide popularity. Employees can do their daily
    computer work without having to learn DOS commands.

    Medley is lean and trim. The program itself is only 6K in
    size (when it's running, it actually uses about 12K of
    memory.) So Medley doesn't use up very much of your
    computer's resources. This makes it ideal for use on laptop
    computers or wherever disk space is a concern.

    Medley offers some nice features too. There's an automatic
    screen blanker (so that your menu lines won't get "burned in"
    to your screen image.) Users can be asked questions before a
    menu item is actually run. The answers to previous questions
    can be recalled, to save having to retype them.

    Is Medley for you? If you need to set up a complex menu
    system with many levels of menus and dozens of menu items,
    Medley probably is NOT for you. If, however, your
    requirements are simple (one or two levels of menus) then you
    should take a close look at Medley. Its ease of use and
    minimalistic approach make it ideal for most people.

    Best of all, Medley is free! ButtonWare asks for no payment for
    this program. If it fits your needs, please use it, share it
    with your friends, and enjoy. If you don't like it, toss it.
    I make my living by selling computer software; but I get my
    kicks by pleasing computer users.  I hope that Medley pleases
    you.

    -Jim Button


INSTALLING MEDLEY

    In most places, two people get involved with Medley. There is
    an "installer" and a "user". The installer knows enough about
    DOS to be able to set up Medley menus. After that, running
    Medley is strictly up to the user.

    If you received Medley in a ZIP file, you'll first need to
    UNZIP it using the PKUNZIP program. For example:

        PKUNZIP A:MEDLEY     [Enter]

    If you received Medley as a self extracting EXE file, you'll
    first need to extract the contents. For example, if the file
    is named MED.EXE,

        A:MED      [Enter]

    The following files are most important

        MEDLEY.COM  The Medley main program (required)
        MEDLEY.TBL  The default Medley menu (optional)
        MEDSET.EXE  An optional program for setting up your
                Medley menus

    We recommend placing MEDLEY.COM and MEDLEY.TBL into one of
    the subdirectories on the DOS Path, and then placing a MEDLEY
    command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This will bring up the
    Medley menu whenever the machine is rebooted.


SETTING UP MEDLEY MENUS:

    Medley gets its menus from files on the disk. You can name
    the files anything you want. The default menu name (if you
    provide none when Medley actually starts up) is MEDLEY.TBL.
    But if you have multiple levels of menus, or menus for
    different purposes or users, give your Medley menus any valid
    DOS file name.

    Medley looks first in the current subdirectory for the medley
    table file. If it can't find it there, it looks in the
    subdirectory from which DOS loaded MEDLEY.COM.

    The Medley table files can be created by two different
    methods.

        1. You can use the MEDSET.EXE program provided
        2. You can use a text editor program



    USING MEDSET.EXE

    You can use the provided utility program MEDSET.EXE to create
    or modify your medley menus. To use MEDSET, type a DOS command
    line like this:

        MEDSET filename

    Where filename is the name of the medley table file you would
    like to create or modify. If you provide no filename, MEDSET
    will use the default file MEDLEY.TBL.

    MEDSET brings up a screen that looks very much like the
    actual MEDLEY menu. The menu selections are inside the medley
    box, and an operation line is at the bottom. It asks:

         (A)dd (C)hange (D)elete   (T)itle/colors   (Q)uit

    Press the letter corresponding to the operation you wish to
    perform.


    TITLE/COLORS:

        Press "T" change the Title or colors of the medley table.

        THE TITLE:

        This is the text that Medley displays at the top of the
        Medley menu. Also, when Medley goes into screen-blanking
        mode, this text is displayed inside a wandering text box.
        The maximum title length is 65 characters.

        Enter the title to be used, and press [Enter].


        FOREGROUND COLORS:

        You are asked to select a color to be used for the text
        foreground.

                0 - Black      8 - Grey
                1 - Blue       9 - Light Blue
                2 - Green     10 - Light Green
                3 - Cyan      11 - Light Cyan
                4 - Red       12 - Light Red
                5 - Magenta   13 - Light Magenta
                6 - Brown     14 - Yellow
                7 - White     15 - Light White

        Type in the appropriate number and press [Enter].


        BACKGROUND COLORS:

        You are asked to select a color to be used for the screen
        background.

                0 - Black
                1 - Blue
                2 - Green
                3 - Cyan
                4 - Red
                5 - Magenta
                6 - Brown
                7 - White

        Type in the appropriate number and press [Enter].

        At this time, you'll see the new Medley screen with its
        revised title line and colors.


    DELETE:

        Press "D" to delete an operation. You'll receive the
        prompt:

            "Pick an operation to DELETE".

        Select an item to be deleted. You can do this in one of
        two ways:

        1. Using the cursor movement arrows on your keyboard,
           move the selection bar to the menu item to be deleted
           and press [Enter], or

        2. Press the Hot Key character corresponding to the item
           to be deleted.

        The menu line will be deleted and the new Medley menu
        will be displayed.

        Note: MEDSET will not let you delete the last operation in
        the menu. Because at least one operation is required, it just
        beeps at your final Delete command.


    ADD:

        Press "A" to add a new operation to the menu. You'll be
        prompted with:

            "ADD near which operation".

        You can add a new line either above or below one of the
        existing current menu lines. Just move the selection bar
        to a current menu line that is adjacent to the spot where
        you would like to add the new line, and press [Enter];

        The line you selected will me marked, and you are asked

            Add (A)bove or (B)elow

        Answer "A" to add Above the selected line, or answer "B"
        to add Below the selected line.

        Next, you'll be prompted with a full screen allowing you
        to fill in all the information for a single menu line.
        See the section below titled "FILLING IN THE MENU
        QUESTIONS".


    CHANGE:

        Press "C" to change one of the operation lines. You'll
        be prompted to:

            "Pick an operation to CHANGE".

        Select an item to change. You can do this in one of two
        ways:

        1. Using the cursor movement arrows on your keyboard,
           move the selection bar to the menu item to be changed
           and press [Enter], or

        2. Press the Hot Key character corresponding to the item
           to be changed.

        Next, you'll be prompted with a full screen allowing you
        to change all the information for a single menu line. See
        the section below titled "FILLING IN THE MENU QUESTIONS".

    QUIT:

        If you press "Q", the medley file is saved away on disk
        (in the current subdirectory) and you are returned to the
        DOS prompt. If you press [ESC] instead of Quit, MEDSET
        exits to DOS without saving the file.



    FILLING IN THE MENU QUESTIONS:


    "A 1-character Command for quick selection"

        This can be any one character on the keyboard. This is
        the single keystroke "hot key" that the operator can hit
        to trigger the operation. Make sure that this key is
        unique (different from the quick command for any of the
        other operations).

        If you use the space character for this, the entire line
        will be treated as a separator line.


    "A verbal description"

        This is the text that will appear on the menu line. Use
        words that the operator will easily understand.


    "Disk drive to switch to, before the operation (optional)"

        This parameter is optional. If you put a disk drive
        letter here, Medley will do a DOS "change" to that drive
        before running the operation.


    "Path to switch to, before the operation (optional)"

        This parameter is optional. If you put a subdirectory
        specification here, Medley will do a DOS "change" into
        that subdirectory before running the operation.


    "The program id or batch file id, example:  PGMNAME.EXE"

        This is the name of the "EXE", "COM", or "BAT" file that
        is run for this operation. If you leave this empty,
        Medley exits when the Operator selects this command. This
        is provided as a method for letting the operator return
        from one Medley menu to the one that invoked it at a
        higher level.


    "The parameter line you would use, if doing operation from DOS"

        This the optional command line that you would use when
        running the program directly from DOS. Everything after
        the DOS program name would go here. For example, if you
        run the DOS command "PCF MYNAMES", you would place
        "MYNAMES" here. "PCF.EXE" would go in the 6th parameter
        (Program name).

        If you put a "?" in front of a word, the operator will be
        asked to supply the word each time the operation is run.
        For example, "?Master_File" will cause medley to ask
        "Master_file?" and accept from the operator whatever is
        entered. Then, the operator entry will be placed on the
        DOS command line.

        You can use as many words or DOS parameters or questions
        as you like here.

        Here are some sample parameter entries:

            *.* /W
            ?FileSpec
            -D?Date -T?Time -nopause


    "PAUSE after operation, before returning to Medley?"

        Answer "Y" for Yes, or "N" for No to this question. If
        Yes, Medley pauses after completing the operation
        (before returning to the Medley screen.) Otherwise, the
        pause will not occur.

        For example: if the operation is to do a DOS directory
        display, you would want the Pause to occur so that you
        could view the output on the screen before returning to
        the Medley menu.



    USING A TEXT EDITOR:

    Any editor or word processing program can be used to change
    the Medley menu file, as long as the output is saved in a
    straight ASCII format.


    Here's a sample Medley menu file:

        15,1,1,Jim's PC
        F, ,PC-File,C,\pcf,pcf.exe,/DRIVE,C
        E, ,Electronic Mail,,,email.bat,
        N, ,Text Editor,,,NED.EXE,?FileName
        W,P,Where is a file,,,whereis.bat,?Filespec
        D,P,DOS (any command),,,command.com,?DOS_Command
        B, ,Daily Backup,C,\,backup.bat,


    There are two types of lines in the file. The first (top)
    line in the file is the profile line. All the rest of the
    lines are operation description lines.

    Each line is comma-delimited. That is, the parameters on the
    line are separated from each other by commas.

    The Profile line:

        There must be one (and only one) of these in each Medley
        file. It must be the first line in the file.


        1st parameter:
        Foreground color

            This is a number from 0 to 15;
                0 - Black      8 - Grey
                1 - Blue       9 - Light Blue
                2 - Green     10 - Light Green
                3 - Cyan      11 - Light Cyan
                4 - Red       12 - Light Red
                5 - Magenta   13 - Light Magenta
                6 - Brown     14 - Yellow
                7 - White     15 - Light White


        2nd parameter:
        Background color

            This is a number from 0 to 7:
                0 - Black
                1 - Blue
                2 - Green
                3 - Cyan
                4 - Red
                5 - Magenta
                6 - Brown
                7 - White


        3rd parameter:
        Border color

            This is not used by this version of Medley. Just make
            this number the same as the Background color.


        4th parameter:
        Title Bar / ScreenBlanker box

            This is the text that Medley displays at the top of
            the Medley menu. Also, when Medley goes into
            screen-blanking mode, this text is displayed inside a
            wandering text box. The maximum title length is 65
            characters.


    The Operation lines:

        There must be one or more of these in each medley file
        Each line describes an operation that the operator can
        do. There is a maximum of 20 operation lines allowed in
        each medley file.


        1st parameter:
        Quick command character

            This can be any one character on the keyboard. This
            is the single keystroke "hot key" that the operator
            can hit to trigger the operation. Make sure that this
            key is unique (different from the quick command for
            any of the other operations).

            If you use the space character for this, the entire
            line will be treated as a separator line.


        2nd parameter:
        Pause option

            This should be either a space, or a "P" character. If
            it's a "P", Medley will pause after completing the
            operation (before returning to the Medley screen.)
            Otherwise, the pause will not occur.

            For example: if the operation is to do a DOS
            directory display, you would want the Pause to occur
            so that you could view the output on the screen
            before returning to the Medley menu.


        3rd parameter:
        Command description

            This is the text that appears on the menu line. Use
            words that the operator will easily understand. This
            has a maximum length of 40 characters allowed.


        4th parameter:
        Disk drive

            This parameter is optional. If you put a disk drive
            letter here, Medley will do a DOS "change" to that
            drive before running the operation.
        5th parameter:
        Subdirectory

            This parameter is optional. If you put a subdirectory
            specification here, Medley will do a DOS "change"
            into that subdirectory before running the operation.


        6th parameter:
        Program Name

            This is the name of the "EXE", "COM", or "BAT" file
            that is run for this operation. If you leave this
            empty, Medley exits when the Operator selects this
            command. This is provided as a method for letting the
            operator return from one Medley menu to the one that
            invoked it at a higher level.


        7th parameter:
        Prompts and command line parameters

            This the optional command line that you would use
            when running the program directly from DOS.
            Everything after the DOS program name would go here.
            For example, if you run the DOS command "PCF
            MYNAMES", you would place "MYNAMES" here. "PCF.EXE"
            would go in the 6th parameter (Program name).

            If you put a "?" in front of a word, the operator
            will be asked to supply the word each time the
            operation is run. For example, "?Master_File" will
            cause medley to ask "Master_file?" and accept from
            the operator whatever is entered. Then, the operator
            entry will be placed on the DOS command line.

            You can use as many words or DOS parameters or
            questions as you like here.

            Here are some sample parameter entries:

                *.* /W
                ?FileSpec
                -D?Date -T?Time -nopause


USING MEDLEY

    STARTING MEDLEY

        Hopefully, Medley was installed for you so that it comes
        up automatically when you turn on your computer. If this
        doesn't happen, you can ask your installer to place a
        MEDLEY command into the AUTOEXEC.BAT file for you.

        If you want to start Medley yourself, from the DOS
        prompt, just type MEDLEY and press [Enter].


    RUNNING MEDLEY

        THE MEDLEY MENU SCREEN

        Here's a snapshot of a sample menu screen:
        ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

                           ╔═══════════════════════╗
                           ║       Jim's PC        ║
                           ╟───┬───────────────────╢
                           ║ F │PC-File            ║
                           ║ C │  "        contacts║
                           ║ U │  "        users   ║
                           ║ E │EMAIL              ║
                           ║ W │Where is a file    ║
                           ║ N │NED Editor         ║
                           ║ D │DOS (any command)  ║
                           ╚═══╧═══════════════════╝

        4:29 p.m.
        June 27, 1992                                  C:\UTIL
        ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

        The Menu box appears in the center of the screen. The
        title bar in the box ("Jim's PC") can be set up to say
        whatever you like it to say.

        In the box, below the title, are the individual menu
        items which you can select to run. See "PICKING AN
        OPERATION" below for instructions.

        At the bottom left of the screen, you see the current
        date and time.

        At the bottom right of the screen, the current DOS "Path"
        is displayed.


        PICKING AN OPERATION

        You select a menu item in one of two ways:

        1. Using the cursor movement arrows on your keyboard,
           move the selection bar to the menu item to be deleted
           and press [Enter], or

        2. Press the Hot Key character corresponding to the item
           to be deleted. The Hot Key is the single character
           showed at the left of the menu description. For example,
           "F" is the Hot Key for PC-File in the sample Medley box
           above.


        ANSWERING PROMPTS

        After you select an item from the menu, you may be taken
        directly into the corresponding program. However, for
        some menu items, more information may be required. In
        these cases, a question box will appear and you can type
        in the answer to the question.

        Medley has a nice feature which can sometimes save you a
        lot of typing. Medley memorizes your answer to a question
        and keeps it in memory. The next time you are asked a
        question, you can retrieve the previously memorized
        answer. To do this, just hit the up-arrow cursor movement
        key. key. You can then use this as your answer, or change
        it if necessary.


        THE SCREEN BLANKER

        Computer screens which show the same image for long
        periods of time sometimes suffer the malady of image
        "burn in." The image becomes forever marked lightly on
        the screen.

        To prevent this, Medley has a built in screen saver
        feature. After the Medley screen has displayed for three
        minutes with no keyboard activity, Medley blanks the
        screen and puts up a wandering title box. This will
        prevent image burn-in.

        To return to your Medley menu from the screen saver mode,
        just tap any key on your keyboard. The keystroke is
        thrown away, and the Medley menu reappears.

        You can manually invoke the screen saver without having
        to wait for the two minute timeout. Just hit the (Ctrl)B
        or (Alt)B key combination.

        The screen saver only comes up from within the Medley
        menu. If you have selected a menu item and are working
        within some other program, the screen saver cannot be
        activated until you return to the Medley menu.


    ENDING MEDLEY

        You can quit out of Medley completely. Just hit Ctrl-Break
        (while holding down the [Ctrl] key, press the [Break] key)
        or Ctrl-C while the Medley menu is displayed. This takes
        you out of Medley to the DOS prompt.



ADVANCED TECHNIQUES


    DROPPING TO DOS

    You might like to provide one line in the Medley table which
    allows running any DOS command, then returns to Medley.
    Here's the Medley table line we use at ButtonWare:

        D,P,DOS (any command),,,command.com,?DOS_Command

    PROVIDING AN EASY WAY TO QUIT MEDLEY

    You might like to provide a line on the menu that lets the
    user easily exit from Medley. To do that, leave the 6th
    parameter ("Program Name") empty.  Here's an example from
    the Medley table at ButtonWare:

        X, ,Exit Medley,,,,


    MULTIPLE MEDLEY SCREENS

    While we don't recommend Medley for complex menu
    requirements, it is very easy to set up multiple medley
    screens (sub menus) that are only one or two levels deep.

    Here's a sample Medley table line which brings in a second
    copy of medley with its associated table. Since Medley's
    memory usage is so tiny, this is a nice solution.

        S, ,Spreadsheets,,,MEDLEY.EXE,LOTUS.TBL

    This menu line runs a second copy of Medley, using the
    LOTUS.TBL file for its menu.

    In the secondary menu, you should provide a "return" to the
    main Medley menu. You can do this by leaving the Program Name
    parameter empty.

        M, ,Return to Main menu,,,,



IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS


    "It runs too fast and I don't see my answer"

        You probably need to use the Pause option so that Medley
        will stop after your DOS operation, before clearing the
        screen and putting up the menu. See the section on
        "SETTING UP MEDLEY MENUS".


    "I can't read the medley screen"

        You may have to try a different color combination.
        Run MEDSET.EXE and play with the Title/colors setup
        option.


    "Nothing happens"

        If you select a menu line and nothing happens, the usual
        cause is a wrong Disk drive, Path, or DOS COMMAND. DOS
        doesn't find the command which Medley is requesting, and
        it returns immediately to the Medley screen.


    Technical support

        Please do not call ButtonWare for help with this program.
        Since we receive no money for Medley, our small company
        cannot afford to provide free technical support for it.
        We don't like for life to be this way. It's one of the
        drawbacks of providing free software.


PERMISSION TO COPY AND DISTRIBUTE

    Medley is copyrighted free software.

    The programs MEDLEY.COM, MEDSET.EXE, and the file MEDLEY.DOC
    are
        (C)Copyright 1992 by Jim Button
        (C)Copyright 1992 by ButtonWare, Inc.
           All rights reserved.

    Jim Button and ButtonWare, the copyright owners, grant
    worldwide permission for unlimited copying and distribution
    of these files. You may copy them, give them away, sell them,
    distribute them, archive them, bundle them with your own
    products, and use them without restriction as long as you do
    not modify them in any way or disassemble or rename them.

    Modifying, changing, renaming, or disassembling any portion
    of any of these files is considered a violation of
    Copyrights, and violators will be prosecuted.


ABOUT BUTTONWARE

    Jim Button, often called "The Father of Shareware", pioneered
    the Shareware method of software distribution in 1982.
    ButtonWare Inc. was incorporated in 1984. Jim was also one of
    the founding fathers of the Association of Shareware
    Professionals and served as its first Chairman of the Board.


                         BUTTONWARE PRODUCT LINE
                         Current April 1, 1992


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    ButtonWare, Inc.
    P.O. Box 96058
    Bellevue, WA  98009-4469
    USA