OS/2 Shareware BBS: SysTools/SysTools.zip/mse.zip/mse.INF

OS/2 Help File | 1998-03-21 | 37KB | 574 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. MSE installation, upgrading, startup, deinstallation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ


Please choose from the following topics:

Installation
Upgrading
Command line (startup)
Deinstallation


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1. MSE installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Unzip MSE.ZIP into an empty directory.

Review the READ.ME file.

Run INSTALL.CMD.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2. Upgrading MSE ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Review the new READ.ME file.

Exit MSE if it is running (Hint: "MSE.EXE /k" will cause MSE to close itself).

Unzip the new MSE.ZIP into the MSE directory, being especially sure to
overwrite MSE.EXE and MSEHOOK.DLL.  You can click the About button to check to
see if the compile time and date changed to be sure you did actually overwrite
the files.  If MSE gives you a version mismatch error and refuses to run, you
missed one of them.

Restart MSE.

If you used the Pick click button command, you may have to adjust that button's
command on the MSE main window.

In some circumstances, MSE's DLL (MSEHOOK.DLL) may be "stuck," and you can't
overwrite it even after exiting MSE.  In this situation, remove the MSE program
object from your Startup folder, if one exists (to prevent MSE from starting
automatically), reboot, unpack MSE, then run INSTALL.CMD.

The latest version of MSE can be found at http://www.bmtmicro.com/mse.

The HISTORY.TXT file will show you what's new in this version of MSE.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.3. MSE command line arguments ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 MSE's installation program builds program objects to launch MSE for you.
However, you may want to make others for specialized purposes.  MSE has some
command line arguments you can use if you have the need or desire.  It's not
required that you use any of these, or even know what they are.  Feel free to
skip this section.

The following command line arguments can be used with MSE:

/c   Show MSE clipboard manager of any running instance of MSE.
/d#  # sets the delay in seconds before MSE starts up (1-99).
/h   Hide MSE after startup.
/k   Kill any running instance of MSE.
/n#  # sets the number of clipboard entries retained by MSE (5-99).

MSE may be rerun to surface a running instance.  Only one instance will
actually be running on the system.

Note that command line arguments go in the "Optional Parameters" field of a
program object's Properties notebook (what we used to call the Settings
notebook in ye olde days).  Or you can just type 'em on a command line, you
dinosaur, you. :-)


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4. MSE deinstallation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Run UNINSTAL.CMD.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. MSE main window ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The MSE main window allows you to assign commands to mouse button/keyboard
modifier combinations. Command names prefaced with an asterisk (for example,
"*Roll up/down") work only when the mouse button is clicked on a titlebar
window.  Other commands should work anywhere the button is clicked.  Just
select the command for a given mouse button/keyboard modifier from the dropdown
listboxes.

A word about "keyboard modifiers" (called "Key mods" on the main window):  When
you click a mouse button, you can also hold down a Shift, Ctrl or Alt key, or
some combination thereof.  This is known as "modifying" the click.  With three
mouse buttons and three modifer keys, you get a total of twenty-four different
"modified" clicks (including "plain" clicks where no key is pressed).

In addition to the dropdown listboxes for button commands, there are a couple
of checkboxes and a few buttons on this window.  Here's the breakdown:

The Disabled checkbox disables MSE's mouse enhancements.  You can also
temporarily disable MSE by pressing the Scroll Lock key so that the Scroll Lock
light comes on.

The Not in list checkbox removes MSE from the OS/2 Window List.  Note that the
Disabled and Not in list checkboxes are mutually exclusive -- only one may be
checked at a time.  This is to prevent you from getting into "trouble" where
you have disabled MSE but can't use MSE to call the main window back up.  You
might then have to resort to running MSE from a command line <shudder> to make
it reappear so you can change it.

The Reload menus button causes all MSE user-programmable menus to be rebuilt.
If you modify one of the menu data files (MSEMENU#.DAT), click this button to
reload the data.  It also reloads virtual and file dialog exclusions.

The Settings button displays the MSE settings dialog.

The MSE icon can be clicked to call up the clipboard manager, if it's being
used.  You can request a context menu containing many useful MSE commands on
this icon, too.

The Exit button ends the MSE application.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. MSE button commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Here's a breakdown of the button commands available:


OS/2 default
No command -- just do what OS/2 would do.

Show MSE
Show the MSE main window.

*Close window/Close window
Well, close the window you clicked, of course.

*Window to back/Window to back
Send the window you clicked to the bottom of the ZOrder (window pile).

*Window on screen/Window on screen
Move the the window you clicked so that it is entirely on the screen.

*Roll up/down/Roll up/down
"Roll up" a window so that only its titlebar shows.  If the window's already
rolled up, roll it back down.  Note that not all windows take kindly to such
treatment, but most don't mind.

*Move window/Move window
*Size window/Size window
*Maximize window/Maximize window
*Minimize window/Minimize window
Window list
The same as if you'd selected these commands from the window's system menu.

Switch list
Calls up MSE's switch list, from which you can select a window, close it, hide
it, or move it to the current desktop (if you're using virtual desktops).  The
switch list shows which desktop each application is running in, if you're using
virtual desktops.

Next window
Calls up the next window in the ZOrder (window pile).  Like pressing Alt+TAB.

B1 2-click
Mimics a mouse button one double-click.  Note:  This one works better if there
are no modifiers involved (i.e. assigned to mouse button three with no key
mods).  You can still use the chord shortcuts with this command, but you must
use them with the mouse pointer in a position on the screen where a button one
double-click won't evoke a reaction (for example, on an empty spot of the
desktop).

B1+2 Chord
Mimics a mouse button one + mouse button two chord (a chord is when you press
two or more mouse buttons simultaneously).

Win text->clip
Copies the clicked window's window text to the clipboard.

Win text->clip append
Appends the clicked window's window text to the clipboard.  Note that OS/2
seems to have a 64k limit to clipboard text...

Clip->Win text
Sets the clicked window's window text to the clipboard's text.

Start FM/2
Starts File Manager/2, best file manager around.  What, you don't have a copy
of the program that won a 1995 OS/2 Magazine Editor's Choice award, a 1996 OS/2
e-Zine! Reader's Choice award, and was nominated for SIA's best shareware
utility of 1997?!?  Get one! http://www.bmtmicro.com/fm2

Open object
Brings up a dialog that lets you open any file, folder or named WPS object.

Minimize all
Minimizes all windows.

Menu #1-#7
Brings up a user-programmable menu.  See the MSEMENU1.DAT that came with MSE
for an example (here's a copy of it in this help file).

Virtual desktops
Displays the virtual desktop pick window.

Clipboard manager
Displays the clipboard manager window.

Calculator
Displays a simple calculator.

OS/2 command line
Starts an OS/2 command line session.

Pick click
Brings up a menu from which you can pick an MSE command to apply to the clicked
window.  This allows you to get to any MSE command without having to use the
keyboard, for those who have physical problems with the keyboard modifiers.

Commands prefaced with an asterisk (*) only work if you click a titlebar.
Otherwise, the OS/2 default click is used.


Hint:  You should probably not assign a command to mouse button one or mouse
button two with no modifiers or with the Alt modifier -- these are used
extensively by the WPS and PM.  Ignore this advice at your peril.  If you try
it anyway and get yourself into a jam, remember that the Scroll Lock key will
temporarily disable MSE so you can fix it.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.1. MSE button menu sample ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

;
; MSEMENU1.DAT -- a sample for MSE
;
; You can place the name of a program to run or the objectID of a WPS
; object in this file, and it'll be accessible in a menu in MSE.  The
; commands "Menu #1" through "Menu #7" activate them.  This menu will
; be activated by the "Menu #1" command (hence the "1" in the filename).
;
; Note this is more of an example file than an attempt to do something
; actually useful...
;
;
; Hints:
; =====
;
; MSE will allow you to create a menu definition file if you try to
; access one that doesn't exist.  If you select a command from a menu
; while holding down the Ctrl key, MSE will allow you to edit the
; menu definition file instead of executing the command.  The menu will
; automatically be reloaded when you're done editing.  You can edit
; the file normally with some other editor, but then you'll need to
; use the "Reload menus" option to cause all menus to be reloaded the
; next time you try to pop them up -- no biggie.
;
;
; Rules:
; =====
; If the name of the program contains a space _and_ you wish to give
; an argument to the program after the name, you must enclose the
; program name in quotes (like on a command line).  For example:
; "MY TERRIBLY COOL.EXE" file.txt
;
; If you give a fully qualified path to the program, that path will be
; used as the initial starting directory when the program is run;
; otherwise, the default directory (MSE's) will be used.
;
; To specify a WPS object, it must have an objectID.  You can create
; named objects using REXX (see below).  ObjectIDs have the form: <OBJECTNAME>
; Examples of pre-named objects:
;  The system clock:         <WP_CLOCK>
;  The Drives object:        <WP_DRIVES>
;  The font palette:         <WP_FNTPAL>
;  The system setup folder:  <WP_CONFIG>
; Exception:  Folders and data files can be opened just by specifying
; their fully qualified path name (i.e. C:\OS2\BITMAP).
;
; Lines cannot exceed 1000 bytes in length.
;
; One entry per line.
;
; Lines beginning with a semi-colon (like this one) are comments, and
; are ignored.  They have to be read from disk, so don't go overboard
; (like this file :-).
;
; You can have up to seven of these menu files, named MSEMENU#.DAT
; where # is 1-7.
;
;
; /* Example of creating a WPS object with an ObjectID in REXX: */
; /* =========================================================  */
; call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
; call SysLoadFuncs
; SysCreateObject('WPFolder','My Folder','<WP_DESKTOP>,'OBJECTID=<My_Folder>,f)
;
;
; The actual menu items appear below:
;
e.exe
ib.exe
<WP_CLOCK>
<WP_DRIVES>
<WP_FNTPAL>
<WP_CONFIG>


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. MSE settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 This dialog, accessed from the Settings button on the main MSE window, allows
you to control many of the ways that MSE behaves:

The Sliding focus checkbox causes the window under the mouse to receive the
focus without clicking.  The No ZOrder change checkbox prevents the window from
being brought to the top.

The Wrap at screen edges checkbox causes the mouse pointer to wrap to the
opposite side of the screen instead of stopping at an edge. Note that when this
setting is checked, the "Shift required to bump desktops" setting below is
automatically selected as well.

Center mouse on selected windows causes MSE to place the mouse pointer over the
center of windows selected from the MSE switch list or virtual desktop
selection window.  Mouse to default button causes MSE to place the mouse
pointer over the default button of a dialog when it pops up.  The Center mouse
on dialogs without default buttons checkbox causes MSE to center the mouse over
dialogs that don't have a default button.  Test the last one -- it might sound
good, but you may not like it much in practice.

The Mouse motion reaction delay field tells MSE how many milliseconds
(1/1000ths of a second) to delay reacting when the mouse moves.  This delay
applies to sliding focus, desktop bumping, mouse wrapping and corner command
activation.  The default is 0 (no delay).

The Seconds until pointer hides field controls how many seconds MSE waits while
the mouse pointer doesn't move before making the mouse pointer invisible (move
the mouse to bring it back).  Enter 0, which is the default, to disable this
feature.  Note that this is only accurate to about ten second intervals.  There
is no interrelationship between this timer and the Mouse motion reaction delay
timer above.

You can Enable enhanced file dialog to have MSE provide an improved standard
file dialog. Applications that use custom file dialogs will not be "enhanced,"
but most don't.  You can selectively exclude programs from this by placing the
name of the program in a list file named FEXCLUDE.LST in the MSE directory.
The FileDlg exclusions button will allow you to edit this file.

If you Enable clipboard manager, MSE will provide extended clipboard
functionality. You can assign the clipboard manager window to a mouse button
command, or click the MSE icon on the MSE main window to call it up.  The
Autosave clipboards checkbox causes MSE to save and restore text clipboards to
and from disk when MSE starts and exits, respectively.  The Clips fldr button
opens the folder where these saved clipboard files are kept, for maintenance
purposes.

Hints:  Clipboards saved to disk are loaded even if the Autosave clipboards
option is turned off.  You can manually save and load clipboards to and from
disk using the context menu available on the clipboard manager window's tip
window.

The Enable screen capture checkbox allows MSE to save bitmaps of the screen
when you press the PrintScrn key.  Bitmaps are saved to the SCRNSHTS directory
off of the MSE directory and are named SCRN###.BMP, where ### is an
incrementing number to allow multiple captures.  Note that VIO windows eat the
PrintScrn when they have the focus -- change the focus to some other window, or
the desktop, in that case.  The Folder button beside this checkbox opens up the
WPS folder for the SCRNSHTS directory so you can do maintenance there. A
command file, AFTRSCRN.CMD, is run after screen shots are captured so that you
can further process the resultant bitmap file if desired. A sample came with
MSE which you can edit to taste.  Finally, you can set the number of Color bits
to use when capturing the screen.  A value of 1 gives a black-and-white bitmap,
a value of 4 gives a 16-color bitmap, a value of 8 gives a 256 color bitmap,
and a value of 24 gives a "true color" bitmap.  The higher this value, the more
diskspace and (very temporarily) memory the bitmap requires.

If you Enable chord shortcuts, MSE will attempt to activate the following chord
shortcuts:  Hold down mouse button three, then press mouse button two to
display the MSE main window.  Hold down mouse button three, then press mouse
button one to show the virtual desktop window. Hold down mouse button three,
then press mouse button two while holding down either the Shift, Alt or Ctrl
keys to display the clipboard manager window.

MSE can provide "virtual desktops" if you check the Use virtual desktops
checkbox.  Basically, this expands the desktop into an area nine times larger
than the single screen usually available.  The WPS Desktop itself is available
in all virtual desktops. You can Mouse-bump desktops, which means you'll switch
virtual desktops when the mouse bumps up against the edge of the screen.  Note
that this is a 3-state checkbox -- when checked, mouse bumping is on; when
"greyed" (third state -- the funny looking one), mouse bumping is on and the
mouse will be positioned to the opposite side of the screen after bumping.  You
can opt to have Shift required to bump desktops which can help eliminate
accidentally bumping to another virtual desktop during normal mouse motion.  If
you don't like the little numbered button virtual desktop dialog, you can check
the Larger desktop selection window button to try a more powerful desktop
selection window.  MSE usually "normalizes" the desktops when it exits (in
other words, places all running programs back on the real desktop), but you can
check the Don't normalize on exit button to prevent this.  You can still use
the Reset desktops command, which places you on the real desktop, AKA the
center virtual desktop (#5), and moves all windows to that virtual desktop.

You may want to exclude some windows from the virtual desktop array (or think
of it as having some windows available on all virtual desktops). Simply place
the titles of the windows in a text file named EXCLUDE.LST in the MSE
directory.  The Virtual exclusions button will allow you to edit this file.
Partial titles are sufficient, one per line.

The Enable swapfile monitor checkbox causes MSE to display a small swapfile
counter on the screen.  The size of the swapfile and the amount of free space
on the drive holding the swapfile are shown.  If the free space falls below
32k, the background of this monitor window turns red.  The swapfile monitor has
some minor smarts -- it normally checks the swapfile about once every two
minutes, but when changes are noticed or freespace is below 32k, it checks more
often.

If you Enable clock, MSE displays a small clock on the desktop.  You can
Include date in the clock.  The clock is updated about once every minute.

If you'd like the clock and swapfile monitor to "float" to the top of the
window stack about once every thirty seconds, check the Float monitors to top
checkbox.

Hints:  Click the clock to call up the OS/2 System Clock.  Click the swapfile
monitor to call up the OS/2 Launchpad.  Drag the clock or swapfile monitor to
any position you like on the screen with mouse button two (the regular
drag-an-object button).  Change the colors and font of either by dropping
colors and fonts onto them from the system palettes (remember, use Ctrl while
dropping a color to change the text color).  Click and hold mouse button one on
either while "dragging" the mouse to show MSE.  Click mouse button two on
either to force an immediate window update.

The Corner commands button calls up another dialog that lets you assign
commands to the corners of the desktop.  These commands are activated when the
mouse is moved into the corresponding corner.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1. Corner commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 You can use the Corner commands dialog, accessible from the MSE Settings
dialog, to have MSE invoke a command when you move the mouse pointer into one
of the four corners of the desktop.

The dialog displays a dropdown listbox containing possible commands (a subset
of the usual button commands), and a representation of the desktop with radio
buttons in the four corners.

Select a radio button and the dropdown listbox shows the command associated
with that corner.

Select another command from the listbox, and that command becomes the command
for that corner.

The Nothing command can be used to make the corner behave normally -- nothing
happens when you move the mouse there.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2. About virtual desktops ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 This is what virtual desktops might look like if you could see them all at
once.  The desktop you start in is numbered "5" in the illustration -- it has a
couple of programs running in it.  Note that the WPS Desktop is present in all
virtual desktops. Clicking the button numbered five in this illustration would
result in the desktop numbered "5" in the top illustration being selected.

Hints:  Minimized and hidden windows don't "move" when you change desktops --
in other words, they restore to whatever the current desktop happens to be.
You can see which virtual desktop programs are running in by using the MSE
switch list button command.  The default action when you select a program from
that switch list is to change to the desktop that holds it, but you can hold
down the Shift key while clicking to bring that program to the current desktop.
The optional "larger desktop selection window" has more "grunt" than the small
button dialog.  It displays a graphical representation of all the desktops
combined, including open windows.  As you move the mouse pointer over the grid,
it shows the name of the top window, if any, under the pointer.  When you click
on a grid square, that desktop is made the active desktop, and if any open
window was under the pointer, that window is made the active window, as well.

Hints:  Hold down Shift while clicking, and the window under the mouse pointer
(if any) is brought to the current desktop (the current desktop doesn't
change).  Requesting a context menu brings up the MSE switch list.  You can
drag fonts onto the window (both the main window and the tip window).  Need
smaller fonts in the main window?  You can enter a smaller point size than is
shown in the dropdown listbox for some fonts (try 6-point Helv, for example) in
the font dialog.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. MSE clipboard manager ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The MSE clipboard manager includes a clipboard viewer that displays text,
bitmaps and metafiles.  Context menus (also known as popup menus or button two
menus) are available on all windows to let you save files, load files into the
clipboard, adjust settings, etc.  You can also drag files to the various
windows to import them into the clipboard.

The clipboard manager automatically saves the last twenty-five text entries in
the clipboard for quick recall via context menu.  The two arrow buttons to the
right of the tip window let you cycle through those entries.  The command line
argument /n# can be used to increase or decrease the number of saved entries
available.  This argument is only valid when starting MSE -- you can't change
it on-the-fly.

The clipboard manager can be assigned to an MSE button command.  Clicking the
MSE icon on the MSE main window also displays the clipboard manager window.

Note:  To import pictures to the clipboard, they need to be in OS/2 bitmap
format (.BMP).  You can convert pictures in other formats to bitmap format
using the OS/2 image viewer (ib.exe) or IMAGE.EXE from the FM/2 Utilities
package, if desired.  Also, don't forget that doing an Edit->Copy in most image
manipulation packages places a bitmap in the clipboard.

If you're already running a clipboard viewer (for example, CLIPOS2.EXE), MSE's
clipboard manager won't install itself.  Close the other clipboard viewer
first.  If you run the OS/2 clipboard viewer, MSE's clipboard manager will get
knocked out of the loop (the OS/2 clipboard viewer is busted).  If this
happens, use the Settings dialog to turn the clipboard off and then back on.

Hints:  To save the clipboard manager's size and position, close (not minimize,
but close -- F3 is the accelerator key) the window.  This also saves any
clipboard entries to disk if you have Autosave clipboards turned on.  Don't
overlook the context menu on the tip window itself. If you want to copy
something to the clipboard and not have the clipboard manager save it, turn on
the Scroll Lock light before copying (don't forget to turn it back off after).


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. MSE enhanced file dialog ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 If you're tired of that dinky little file dialog that OS/2 uses -- you know,
the one that makes you scroll around a lot in tiny listboxes looking for files
and directories -- try enabling this enhancement in MSE's settings dialog.

MSE alters the standard file dialog to be full screen height to cut down on
scrolling, adds user-definable directory and file pulldowns, at-a-glance help,
and even allows you to open files and directories from the dialog.

Wave your mouse pointer around over the various fields in the dialog, and a
quick description of the basic function of the fields will be shown at the top
of the window as the pointer passes over them.

Not every program uses the standard file dialog box.  MSE tries to be
intelligent about when it steps in and when it doesn't, but if you run into
conflicts, you can exclude some programs from using this enhancement.  Click
the "FileDlg exclusions" button on the MSE settings dialog to do this.

Hints:  The File: and Directory: text fields are clickable -- they open the WPS
object for the first highlighted file or current directory, respectively.
Clicking the Directory text field with mouse button two (usually the right
button) will let you create a directory.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Registration and license ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 MSE isn't free, it's shareware.  You can evaluate it for up to 30 days, after
which you must either register it or discontinue its use and remove it from
your system.

You may redistribute the unregistered version of MSE only if the distribution
archive is unaltered.  You may not charge for distribution of the archive.
There is no warranty for MSE.  Support is not guaranteed to unregistered users.

(Whew.  Glad that's out of the way.)

To register MSE, either fill out the registration form REGISTER.TXT, then print
it, or run the internet registration program and email BMT Micro for a
registration key. Cost is only $25/machine (site licenses are available for
$2500).

When you register MSE, your name appears in the About box, and "MSE --
Registered" (instead of "Unregistered") displays in the Window List.  And it
makes you feel good.

Registrations ensure that the program will continue to be developed and
improved, which is the real reason, aside from your conscience, of course, that
you should always register the shareware you use -- it won't get any better if
you don't.

Thanks for the support!

     Mark ([e-mail])