The 640 MEG Shareware Studio 2

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Text File | 1992-02-24 | 30KB | 591 lines

**** Welcome to Playback! Version 1.9c 2/24/92 **** Think about it. How many times do you use your computer to do the same task over and over again? Maybe it's logging on to a bulletin board, backing up your hard disk, uploading files to the home office, printing a letter, etc.. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just turn on a recorder, record the complete task and then play it back with one keystroke whenever you needed to do that task again? Enter Playback. Playback differs greatly from most macro programs in that Playback replays your keystrokes at the same rate you typed them in. For example if you type in a program name and then wait for the program to load, Playback will too. You can launch these recorded keystrokes (keyfiles we call them) with the touch of a hot key, or turn them into stand-alone programs. As an example of the later, let's say you record a sequence to log on to Prodigy, get your stock quotes, save them to a file, exit Prodigy, import the file into your spreadsheet, and then print out the results. You could save this task into a stand alone program call "GETSTOCK" and then you would just enter "GETSTOCK" at the DOS prompt when you wanted to replay this task. You can even have Playback replay this task at some later time, completely unattended. If you want you can group several keyfiles together in a batch file. And if you want, you can start and stop your recordings from within a batch file, without user initiation. You can also use the included Menu program to playback your keystrokes using a point and select menu. The menu program also lets you view the contents of your keyfiles, delete them, change their playback speed, add explanatory notes to them, rename them, and launch them at some later time. OK, that last paragraph gave you a brief overview of what Playback does, but how would you use it? I hesitate here because I'm sure I've just scratched the surface on ways it can be used, and I don't want to discourage you from finding your own applications. Menu program: Use Playback to record the keystrokes to start each of your applications. Then use the Menu program to Launch them. Batch files: I use Playback to record "batch" files. Why? I just start recording the keystrokes using Playback and then save them to file. Next time I run the Menu program all the keystrokes sequences I saved are turned into keyfiles, and I just use the Menu program to rename them to whatever I want. No editing, nothing. Just record and save. And I can do so much more than normal batch files. Desktop publishing: I not only use the Menu program to launch my desktop publisher, but if I'm working on a large project I know I'll be doing for a while, I create a keyfile that loads the file I want and then goes to the page I want. In addition, when it comes time to print, I'm given a whole slew of options that I must select every time I print a page. Since my responses are always the same I just record the keystrokes and then play them back using the Playback "hot key". E-Mail: Use Playback to create a keyfile of the keystrokes to load your modem program, load an E-Mail macro, run it, and exit the program. If you want, you can instruct Playback to run this sequence automatically at a certain time so your E-Mail is waiting when you get to the office. One of my registered users uses Playback to grab his stock quotes, manipulate them, insert them into his spreadsheet, and print the results. All with one keypress. Keystroke expander: If I have occasion to replay the same set of keystrokes over and over I just record them and then use the "hot key" whenever I want to replay them. Fun: Try creating a keyfile of yourself writing a letter and then launch it at some later time when you're not there but someone else may be watching. It's eerie seeing a computer going about the business of writing and editing a letter with no one at the keyboard. Demos: I have customers who have used Playback to create self-running demos. Nothing like a real time demo, with no one at the keyboard! Monitoring: Since you can start recordings from a batch file, without user initiation, you can use Playback to monitor how people are using your computer. If you can duplicate the initial conditions, you can watch as what they did is played backed exactly as it happened. Basically Playback eliminates repetitive tasks. Isn't that what computers were meant to do in the first place? === How Much? === Playback (tm) is copyrighted 1990-91 by RSE Incorporated. It is user- supported shareware. This means you're given this copy in order to evaluate it. If after a 21 day evaluation period you decide to continue using it, you must become a registered user by sending the registration fee of $25 +$1 shipping (add $1 for 3.5 disk, $5 overseas) to: Playback Registration Mastercard or Visa customers: 1157 57th Drive SE Call or FAX (206) 939-4105 Auburn, WA 98002 Compuserve: 72371,1557 You are encouraged to freely distribute copies of the PB??.EXE file as long as you don't charge anything for the copies. DO NOT distribute the individual, extracted, files; only PB??.EXE. As a registered user you'll receive these additional benefits: 1. No more annoying messages asking you to register. 2. Latest version of Playback, PLUS a "decoder" to convert all future versions of Playback to registered versions. 3. The latest shareware versions of our other products, including PC- FileNotes, PC-Directory, Conjecture, Remind Me!, Nabbit, BriteLine, PC-Images, Hide-It and Trash-It. 4. Technical support 5. A sincere "Thank you" for supporting our efforts to develop quality software and offer it at reasonable prices. Those using Playback in a commercial or educational environment must register. Site licenses are available, as well as quantity discounts. An Instruction Manual containing printed documentation for all twelve of our shareware products (including Playback) is available for an extra $5. === Let's Get Started === * Make sure you've created a new subdirectory for Playback. It's important that the Playback files be the only files in the subdirectory! * Go to the subdirectory where the Playback files are located and enter "init" at the DOS prompt. Among other things, the "init" program modifies your "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file in your root directory to include this subdirectory (where the Playback files are) in the "path" statement. Your original "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file will be saved as "AUTOEXEC.OLD". Init also tells Playback where your Keyfiles should be saved and the Menu program where to look for Keyfiles. * After running Init, reboot your computer so the changes in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file take affect. *** IMPORTANT *** You must run the INIT program or Playback won't work correctly. It should only be run once. DON'T run it every time you use Playback. One more time - To install Playback: - Create a new subdirectory for Playback. Move to the new subdir. - Extract the Playback files inside the new subdirectory. The Playback files should be the ONLY files in the subdirectory. - Run the initialization program by entering "init" at the DOS prompt. - Reboot your computer Playback consists of two separate programs, the Playback program which captures and plays back the keystroke sequences, and the Menu program which we briefly discussed earlier. === The Playback Program === Playback (PB.COM) is a small TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) program. You load it once at the beginning of a session and it stays hidden until you press one of its "hot keys". Then it goes to work. When you're done with it, your original program continues as though nothing had happened. PB.COM only takes up about 3K of memory, plus whatever you allocate for the keystroke buffer (more on that later). To load Playback into memory enter "pb" at the DOS prompt. If you'd like Playback automatically loaded whenever you turn on your computer then put the phrase "PB" in your "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file on a separate line AFTER the "PATH ..." statement. When you load Playback into memory a few words appear telling you the "hot keys" that Playback uses. (All the rest of the info encourages you to register. When you do, this info will no longer appear.) Playback has 3 hot keys: one to start and stop recording keystrokes, one to playback the keystrokes, and one to save the keystrokes into a file. Although the default values are Ctrl-R (press the Ctrl and R keys at the same time) to record, Ctrl-P to Playback, and Ctrl-S to save, you can change these using the Menu program. == Recording == When you press the Record "hot key" (Ctrl-R by default) you will hear an ascending series of beeps. This signals that Playback is now recording your keystrokes. When you've finished recording you press the Record "hot key" again. This time you'll hear a descending series of beeps letting you know that the recording is complete. If you try to record more keystrokes than the keystroke buffer can hold, Playback will automatically terminate the recording when the buffer gets full. You can increase the size of the keystroke buffer by using the Menu program. == Saving == If you want to turn the recorded keystrokes into a keyfile then you press the Save "hot key" (Ctrl-S by default). When you press the Save "hot key" the recording will be stopped (if you haven't stopped it already) and the keystrokes will be saved in a file. The next time the Menu program is run it will turn the keystrokes in this file into keyfile. == Playback == When you press the Playback "hot key" (Ctrl-P by default) the keystrokes in the keystroke buffer will be replayed just as you entered them, with the same delay between keystrokes. By the way, you can cancel the playback of keystrokes by pressing the Escape key. This holds true no matter how the playback is initiated. You can also pause during a playback by pressing the space bar. When you want the playback to resume you just press any key. Exercise: If you haven't already loaded Playback into memory do so now by entering "pb" at the DOS prompt. Record a keystroke sequence (start by pressing Ctrl-R). Save it (by pressing Ctrl-S). Play it back (by pressing Ctrl-P). Do this with several different keystroke sequences. It doesn't matter what you record, we're just getting familiar with the way things work. == On/Off == There may be times when Playback's hot keys are the same ones you need to use within an application. You can turn Playback Off or On by pressing the Off/On hot key which is Ctrl-O by default. It is a toggle: press it once and Playback becomes inactive, press it again and Playback becomes active again. == Un-installing Playback == If you'd like to remove Playback from memory then enter "pb/u" at the DOS prompt. However, remember that you must un-install TSR's in the reverse order from which they were loaded. If you don't it's possible your computer will "lock up" and require a re-boot. === The Menu Program === Note: If you have another program that uses "menu" to activate then you can rename MENU.COM to PBMENU.COM to eliminate the conflict. You'd then enter "pbmenu" at the DOS prompt to activate the menu program. DO NOT RENAME MENU.COM TO ANYTHING ELSE BUT PBMENU.COM. To run the Menu program enter "menu" at the DOS prompt. The first thing the Menu program does is look to see if you have saved any keystroke sequences since the last time the program was used. If you have, then they will be converted into Keyfiles. These Keyfiles will be given a name. The first will be "-B", the second "-C", and so on. * Run the Menu program at this time by entering "menu" at the DOS prompt. You can enter "menu" at any DOS prompt, at any time, and the Menu program will appear. You don't have to be in the Playback subdirectory to run the Menu program. The list to the left of the screen is a list of all the Keyfiles you've created. Select the one you want by using the up, down, home, end, PgUp or PgDn cursor keys. To the right of the screen are three areas. The top area displays the keystroke sequence of the hi-lited Keyfile. Normal ASCII characters are hi-lited. Shift states (the state of the Insert, Scroll Lock, and Caps Lock keys) are enclosed within [ ] and are displayed only when they change. All others keystrokes are displayed within < >. For example, <enter> means the enter key has been pressed, <bs> means the backspace key, <Ins> means the Insert key, etc.. The middle area on the right contains two values: the Playback speed and the Launch Time. Playback speed: You can playback your keystroke sequences in one of three ways. "Normal" (the default value) means that it's played back at the exact speed it was recorded. "Turbo" means that it's played back at max speed. The middle value "Boost" is a combination of the two. When you select "Boost" a delay between keystrokes of more than 1.5 seconds (this value can be adjusted) is retained. Delays less than 1.5 seconds are ignored and the keystrokes are played back at 18 characters a second. This option is very useful for situations where you want to eliminate insignificant pauses (typing delays for example) but want to retain the important delays. Which speed should you use? Well try "Turbo" first. If that doesn't work then "Boost" probably will. If "Boost" doesn't work then select "Normal". To change a Keyfile's Playback speed: hi-lite the desired Keyfile and press the left or right cursor keys until the desired speed is hi-lited. Launch (not lunch) time: This is the time you want the program to be launched at. We'll talk about this later when we discuss launches. The bottom of the right side of the screen is the "Note" area. You can leave notes of up to 160 characters on the contents and purpose of each of your Keyfiles. Those using "PC-Directory" or "FileNotes" will recognize these notes as being the same as the filenotes you're used to. === Menu Options === The top line of the screen displays a menu of your options. You just press the hi-lited key to exercise that particular function. * Escape: Pressing the Escape key exits the Menu program. * Store: Pressing S for "Store" exits the Menu program and puts the hi-lited Keyfile into Playback's keystroke buffer. To playback the keystrokes just press the Playback "hot key" (Ctrl-P by default). * Edit: When I first released Playback I didn't put a keyfile editor in it. I thought it would be easier just to record a new keyfile rather than trying to edit an existing one. Since Playback keeps track of shift states, scan codes, and delays, in addition to the ASCII values, editing a keyfile is an extremely complex task. It wasn't long before I started getting requests from customers for an editor. As a result, I created a simple overstrike editor for Playback that lets you change the ASCII values, and the delays of keystrokes in the file. You can't add or delete keystrokes, and you can't edit the shift states (Ctrl, Alt, Shift). In addition you can't change non-ASCII keystrokes like pressing the F1 key, insert key, delete key, etc.. It's just for changing the ASCII values and the delays. An example: You create a keyfile that gathers up data from different sources and then transfers this data somewhere else. Part of the transfer process involves inputting today's date. It's a big keyfile and you don't want to re-record it every day just because you have to change the date. In this case using the editor would make a lot of sense. To use the editor, highlight the desired file and then press E for edit. The file will be listed on the screen. Characters that you can edit will appear as they are, those you can't edit will appear as small dots. You can use the cursor keys and the Tab, Home and End keys to position the cursor at the value you want to change. Press the desired key. The value will change from the old to the new and the cursor will move to the next value. You may edit as many characters as you wish. Editing keystroke delays is much the same. The delay that will occur between the previous keystroke and the keystroke the cursor is at each is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen. Press F10 to increase the delay or F9 to decrease it. (Although not displayed on the Edit screen, F7 and F8 also let you change the delay but in 1 second steps rather than in steps of 1/18th of a second.) At any time during the edit process you can press the Esc key to return to the Menu program without saving any changes you may have made. If you want to incorporate the changes into the keyfile then press F1. If you want to create a new keyfile with another name then press F2. * Configure: Pressing C for Configure brings up another screen of information. All of the items you can change will be listed to the left of the screen along with their current values. To change a particular item: - Use the up and down arrow keys to select the item you want to change. - Press the left or right arrow keys to change the value of the selected item. To change a "hot key" you need to select the shift state (Ctrl, Alt, or Ctrl and Alt) and then select a key. For example to change the Playback "hot key" to Ctrl-D you would first select "Playback Shift State", press the right arrow key until "Ctrl" appeared, then press the down arrow to select "Playback Key", press the right arrow (to indicate you want to change it) and then press the desired key: D. Clear as mud? Try it and it'll all make sense. Some of the items need explaining: Color Monitor? If you have a color monitor then select "Yes". This just affects whether the Menu program displays in color. Flickering? If when the cursor is on the "Flickering?" line your monitor begins to flicker then select "Yes" else select "No". Buffer Size: Change this value to change how many keystrokes the keystroke buffer holds. Remember that each keystroke adds 5 bytes to the amount of memory that Playback uses. For example, if you select 200 keystrokes, then Playback will take up about 4K of memory, 3K for the program and 1K (200*5) for the keystroke buffer. Boost Threshold: Remember how Boost works? Any delays above a certain threshold are acted on, any below the threshold are ignored. This value sets that threshold. I've found that a threshold of 1.5 seconds works well. You may want to lower or raise it depending on how fast you type and the type of applications Playback is activating. Experiment. Default Playback Speed: Playback normally defaults to the normal playback speed, i.e. the keyfiles play back at the exact speed they were recorded. You can change this value to boost, or turbo, if you want. This only affects newly created keyfiles. Remember, this is just the default, you can still change the playback speed of each individual keyfile by using the Menu program. Press Escape when you've made all your changes. The Menu program will re-appear. If Playback is in memory (and it should be when you use the Menu program) then you'll have to reboot the computer and reload Playback to notice changes made to the Hot Keys, Buffer Size, and Boost Threshold. * Rename: you'll obviously want to rename your Keyfiles to something other than the default names the Menu program gives them. Just hi- lite the desired file and press R for Rename. * Launch: when you press L for "Launch" another menu will drop down giving you three options: Launch Now, Launch Later, Launch Time. If you press N to "Launch <N>ow" the Menu program ends and the hi- lited Keyfile runs immediately. Pressing L for "Launch <L>ater" selects the hi-lited file to be launched at a later time: the time specified on the right middle of the screen under "Launch Time". Select <L>ater Launch only if the Launch Time value for the hi-lited file is the time you want the keyfile to be launched at. If the time isn't correct the use the next option "Launch <T>ime" to effect the delayed launch. You can only select one file for Later Launch. The file selected for a later launch is marked with a "*" to the left of its name. If you want to un-select a file that you've already selected for a Later Launch simply select it again and the mark will disappear. When you exit the Menu program, an alarm is set so that at the launch time the keystrokes in the keyfile selected for later launch (the one with the "*") get loaded into Playback and get played back just as if you'd pressed the Playback hot key. For example, if you leave your computer on at night you could have Playback launch a Keyfile to retrieve your E-Mail right before you get to work in the morning, so it's waiting for you when you arrive. The third option is to press T to select "Launch <T>ime". This lets you adjust the Launch Time of the hi-lited file. When you've finished adjusting the launch time then press Return and the keyfile will be marked for later launch with a "*". Just exit the Menu program by pressing Escape and the file will be launched at the time you just set. == NOTE == Obviously, launching a file normally, or as a delayed launch, won't do anything if Playback isn't loaded into memory. * Insert_Note: Pressing the Insert key lets you leave a 160 character note on the contents or purpose of the hi-lited Keyfile. Type in your note and press Enter. Pressing Escape lets you escape without changing the note. Entering a note only one character in length deletes the note. * Delete: Press the Delete key to delete the hi-lited Keyfile. === Keyfile Operation === As we've discussed several times, you can have your keyfiles playback just by entering their name at the DOS prompt. However, there are a couple of other options you can also execute from the DOS prompt by adding command line options to the keyfiles name. Storing a keyfile: If you just want to load the keyfile into Playback so you can activate it later using the Playback hot key, then use the command line option "/s" where "s" stands for store. As an example entering "test /s" at the DOS prompt would load the "test" keyfile into Playback, but not replay it until you press the Playback hot key. Delayed Launches: You can have a specific keyfile launched at some later time by using the command line option "/hhmm" where "hhmm" is a 4 digit number with the first two digits specifying the hour (in 24 hour military time) and the last two digits representing the minutes. The 4 digit number MUST be exactly four digits long or things will get messed up. DON'T seperate the hours and minutes by a colon, or anything else. As an example entering "test /0330" would load the keyfile "test" into Playback and replay it at 3:30am. Likewise "test /1750" would playback the "test" keyfile at 5:50pm. Running Keyfiles from within a batch file: Normally, you can only run a keyfile from a batch file if it is the last item in the batch file. Why? Because all a keyfile does is load its keystrokes into Playback and initiate a replay. The keyfile program then quits and Playback goes about its business of stuffing in keystrokes totally in the background. So what happens if you run a keyfile from a batch file anywhere but as the last item? The keyfile will load its keystokes into Playback, initiate the Playback, and then end. The rest of the batch file will continue to execute even tho the playback of the keystrokes has just started. However, due to popular demand, I've created a batch file command line option that lets you use keyfiles anywhere in a batch file. You can even put several of them in a batch file if you want, or call one keyfile from inside another. To do this just append the keyfile name with the "/B" command line option when you specify it in the batch file. For example, the "test" keyfile would become "test /b". There is a limitation though: The keyfile must exit at the DOS prompt. In other words, whatever task you have the keyfile performing, it must return to the DOS prompt when it's finished. In addition, you don't need to use the "/B" option if you're using the store or delayed launch command line options because the Playback of keystrokes in this case isn't immediate. Starting (and stopping) a recording from within a batch file: Instead of using the hot keys to start and stop a recording, you can do it from within a batch file by using "pb /r" to start the recording and "pb /s" to stop the recording. Playback disables its hot keys when a recording is initiated this way so you must use "pb /r" to stop the recording. In addition, since you don't know how many keystrokes the user may enter, you'll probably want to use the "Configure" portion of the Menu program to greatly increase the keyboard buffer size. This feature can be a real boon for those of you looking to see how users react to a new piece of software. You can create a batch file to start the program that uses "pb /r" to initiate a recording, then loads the software, and finishes with "pb /s". You'll then have a keyfile of everthing the user did as he/she tried the software. === Problems? === "When I run Menu I get an 'Aborting - No files' message." The Menu program can't find any Keyfiles, or information to make Keyfiles. This can happen for two reasons. The obvious is that you haven't saved any keystroke sequences. Remember, to create a Keyfile you need to record the keystroke sequence and then press the Save hot key. The second reason is that you didn't install Playback correctly. More than likely you didn't run the initialization program. Delete all the Playback files, return your autoexec.bat file to the way it was and reinstall again according to the instructions given earlier. If Playback is not installed correctly, things won't work right. "Playback doesn't capture my mouse moves." You're right, Playback only captures keystrokes. But most mouse programs have keyboard commands as well. Use them. "Playback signaled the end of the recording session (descending series of beeps) before I instructed it to." You attempted to record more keystrokes than the keystroke buffer can hold. Use the Menu program to increase the size of the keystroke buffer, reboot, reload Playback, and try again. "Some of my keystrokes weren't captured." It's possible for programs to intercept keystrokes and not pass the information on to the rest of us. As a result there are situations where we can't get the information we need. These situations are very rare. The only place I've seen them is in the activation of TSR programs and games. What they do is intercept the information coming from the keyboard, act on it, and then fool the computer into thinking there never was a key pressed (much like what happens when you press one of Playback's hot keys). In addition, some programs take complete control over the computer, in many cases ignoring previous TSR programs. Microsoft Windows does this. For information on using Playback within MS Windows consult the file "WINDOWS.TXT" on your Playback disk. "While trying to activate a function in one of my applications I end up activating Playback instead." The function you're trying to use in your application uses the same key sequence as one of Playback's hot keys. To eliminate the conflict use the configuration function in the Menu program to change Playback's hot keys to something that won't interfere with your other applications, or use Playback's On/Off hot key to turn off Playback. "When I try to run MENU the program locks up or starts generating 'divide overflow' error messages." Chances are you've got a .COM file in the Playback subdirectory that isn't one of the Playback files or a Keyfile. Remember, there shouldn't be any .COM files in the Playback subdirectory (other than the keyfiles) except AL.COM, PB.COM and MENU.COM. Don't rename any of these files. === Technical Assistance === Call 1-206-939-4105 for technical assistance, or leave a message on Compuserve at 72371,1557. Please have your registration number handy. === Distributing your Keyfiles === You can freely distribute the keyfiles you create using Playback to others. Of course they won't run unless the end user also has Playback. However, we do have a program that converts your keyfiles to autonomous keyfiles that don't require Playback to execute. For a $995 license fee we will supply you with the conversion program, a registered copy of Playback, and a license that grants you unlimited distribution rights for all of your converted keyfiles. Contact Scott Chaney at (206) 939-4105. === So long ==== That's it folks. Hope you find Playback worthy of your support. Why don't you give our other programs a spin as well? Take care.