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The Arsenal Files 8
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The Arsenal Files Collection #8 (Arsenal Computer) (1996).ISO
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PDMENU.TXT
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P U L L - D O W N M E N U S Y S T E M
Version 3.32 PD MENU For Wildcat! 5
________________________________________________________________
Developed by Crazy Larry's Online Art 503-357-2710
http://www.europa.com/~cloa cloa@europa.com
________________________________________________________________
Crazy Larry's Online Art is a division of Bitwise Computers
P.O. Box 829 Forest Grove, Oregon 97116-0829
Table of Contents
Overview ........................................... 2
Packing List ....................................... 2
Upgrading from a Wildcat 4 version ................. 2
Installing PD Menu ................................. 3
Maintaining PD Menu ................................ 4
Using the PD Menu Editor ........................... 5
Editing Menu properties ............................ 5
Changing the color of your menus ................... 6
Describing your Menus .............................. 6
Using your own ANSI's with PD Menu ................. 6
Selecting your own personal background menu ........ 6
Disabling PD Menu .................................. 7
Shareware Notice ................................... 7
Disclaimer ......................................... 7
Your suggestions are welcome ....................... 7
Aknowledgements .................................... 7
Page 2
OVERVIEW
________________________________________________________________
The PD Menu (Pull-Down Menu) System was originally developed to
take the work out of designing menu display files, by creating
them automatically. This also provided a new, modern interface
for the text-based Wildcat! BBS.
Version 3.0 (and above) now goes one step further by interfacing
directly with Wildcat! 5. PD Menu now replaces the internal WC!
structure that dynamically creates your menus for you when the
appropriate menu display files (i.e. main5.bbs) do not exist.
For more information on how this program works, be sure to read
the following section on installation. I think you'll find that
this one program can free up a lot of the time required to run
and maintain a Wildcat! 5 BBS.
PACKING LIST
________________________________________________________________
The following files should be included in the original archive.
MENU.WCX The actual program executable file
PDMENU.WCX The configuration program
WCMENU.WCX Used if a caller logs on without color
PDUSER.WCX Allows users to select a background ANSI
PDMENU.TXT This document
PDMENU.BBS This is a sample PD Menu background ANSI
PDMENUn.BBS User-Available menu choices (n = 1 to 8)
FILE_ID.DIZ Long file description
DESC.SDI Short file description
REGISTER.FRM The registration form for all CLOA products
If any of these files are missing, please do not distribute, or
use this program. Contact the support BBS at 503-357-2710 for a
copy of the latest version. Please distribute this program only
in with all the original files intact!
UPGRADING FROM THE WILDCAT! 4 VERSION OF PD MENU
________________________________________________________________
When you upgraded your BBS to Wildcat! 5, you probably found out
the way I did, that a lot of things have changed, and that you
would have to spend some time re-learning it. Well, it doesn't
stop there folks! This version of PD Menu is totally different
than all prior versions. You no longer have to re-create menus
to get PD Menu to work! However, none of your old PD Menus will
be supported.
If you registered a prior version of PD Menu, you will need to
copy the file PDMENU.KEY from your old Wildcat home directory to
the new Wildcat! menu (C:\WC5\MENU), or enter your registration
number in the PDMENU.WCX configuration program.
Page 3
INSTALLATION
________________________________________________________________
The installation process for PD Menu should be very simple, but
it is important to read this entire section. Failure to follow
these steps can result in damage to some of your BBS data files.
Please read this section carefully!
For this section of the manual I will be refering to the Wildcat
home directory as C:\WC5. Please make note of this, and adjust
it for your needs.
1] Go to your language directory, (C:\WC5\LANGUAGE), and backup
the file WILDCAT.MNU. To back up this file, simply create a
.ZIP file in a separate directory by adding this file to it.
This step serves only to protect you from the possibility of
your data files becoming corrupted for ANY reason.
If your system supports more than one launguage, you should
back up each additional .MNU file as well.
2] Go to your menu directory (C:\WC5\MENU), and backup all your
.BBS files. As you did above. You might want keep this new
.ZIP file in this directory. If you plan to use PD Menu the
way it was intended, you can delete all your menu .BBS files
at this time. You can, alternatively, create new menu files
to use as backgrounds for each individual menu.
3] Place each of the "PDMENU*.BBS" files in your Wildcat! menu
directoryWC5\MENU). These are the background ANSI files for
PD Menu. These files act similar to the way a *.BMP file is
used for a "Wallpaper" in that all too familiar program from
you know who.
4] Place files MENU.WCX, PDMENU.WCX, WCMENU.WCX, and PDUSER.WCX
your Wildcat home directory (C:\WC5).
5] Run wcMenu, and add the file PDMENU.WCX to your Sysop menu.
If you would like to allow your users to change select their
own background ANSI, add the file PDUSER.WCX to a menu that
they will have access to. Be sure to set the access to these
files accordingly. Refer to your Wildcat! System Operator's
Guide for information on how to add wcCodes to your menus.
6] Now log onto your BBS, and goto EVERY menu you have defined
in wcMenu BEFORE you run PDMENU.WCX. When you goto a menu,
PDMenu automatically creates a PDMENUn.CFG file for it. The
program PDMENU.WCX is used for editing these configurations.
7] Once you have displayed every menu, run PDMENU.WCX from your
sysop menu. This program allows you to configure all of the
properties of PD Menu. More information on using the config
program is discussed later in this document.
Page 4
MAINTAINING PD MENU
________________________________________________________________
Contrary to previous versions (1.0 to 2.2) of PD Menu, to change
any menu commands, security level settings, etc., you only need
to use wcMenu.
If you decide to add a menu to your system, be sure to visit the
menu first, before you PDMENU.WCX to edit it. This is so that a
default PD Menu configuration file can be made for the menu.
When displaying a menu, PD Menu will use the information in the
description field from wcMenu. By default, Wildcat! enters this
information in this format:
[A] ............A menu command
PD Menu will look for the command key, ("A" in this example), at
the second character in the description. The description itself
will be pulled from the text after the third character. If you
prefer not to have the periods in the descriptions, you need to
use wcMenu to edit format the descriptions as you prefer.
The most critical thing to remember is that the command key must
be placed as the second position. You can also use wcMenu to add
separators to your menus. To do this follow these simple steps:
1] With the desired menu in view, right-click on the list
of menu item, and click "Add"
2] When the menu item properties window pops up, enter the
command of your choice from the list, or by typing it
in the text window provided.
3] In the description field, enter only a hyphen "-".
4] Make sure that the access level required for this item
is set for the security levels you wish to have see it.
5] Click okay to save this new command. Now wherever you
place this command, a separator will appear on your
pull-down menu.
A new feature of PD Menu 3.0, is it's ability to accomodate more
items than prior versions would. Wildcat! limits the amount of
menu commands to 40, and PD Menu 3.0+ is now able to handle them
all if configured properly.
When displaying a menu, PD Menu will check to see how close the
bottom of the menu is to the bottom of the screen. If the menu
gets too close, it will create another menu right along side of
the original one, displaying all the commands to the caller. If
you position your menus to close to the center though, the next
row of commands will slightly overlap the first. The best way to
find what works the best for you, is to just play with the menu
positioning a bit.
Page 5
USING THE PD MENU CONFIGURATION PROGRAM (PDMENU.WCX)
________________________________________________________________
PDMENU.WCX allows you to edit the properties of each menu, edit
the description for the different background menus, and select a
default background menu. You can also enter your registration
number for PD Menu from this menu, once you have registered it.
Editing menu properties:
________________________________________________________________
When you select [E]dit menu properties, it starts with the first
menu defined in wcMenu (normally your main menu).
Available commands:
[M] Allows you to adjust the horizontal and vertical position.
When you select this option, you will be able to use your
cursor keys to adjust the position of a sample menu.
[B] Allows you to toggle the option of displaying the actual
menu display file name for the current menu, instead of
displaying the PDMENU.BBS background instead. Note that
this option still displays the Pull-Down menu itself, and
that this is to provide different backgrounds per menu.
[S] This option allows you to toggle the option of displaying
the name of the menu at the top.
[C] Allows you to toggle between using PD Menu (grey-tone)
colors, or the menu colors defined in wcConfig. The colors
used from wcConfig are listed below
[L] Toggles the option for clearing the screen before and after
executing commands.
[N] Goes to the next menu defined in wcMenu
[P] Goes to the previous menu defined in wcMenu
[Q] Quit the program, and return to your Sysop menu
[R] Allows you to enter your registration number if you have
not already registered
Each time you press [N]ext or [P]rev, your current menu settings
are saved. The actual files you are editing exist in your menu
directory (C:\WC5\MENU) and are named "PDMENUn.CFG" where the
n is equal to the menu number as defined in wcMenu.
PD Menu version 3.30 and above now include a sysop-configurable
"Task Bar". You should find the settings for this optional new
to be self-expanatory.
Page 6
CHANGING THE COLOR OF YOUR MENUS
________________________________________________________________
You can now use Wildcat's user-defined menu colors from wcConfig
by toggling option "[C] Use PD Menu Color" to "No". PD Menu will
then use the following color codes:
Menu Title and Hotkeys: @P@
Menu Item descriptions: @Q@
Menu Highlight color : @O@
Menu Shadow color : @S@
This means that you can change the color of all your PD Menus by
simply changing them in wcConfig_Colors.
DESCRIBING EACH OF YOUR BACKGROUND MENUS
________________________________________________________________
You may want to change the descriptions of your menus from time
to time, and it can be done by selecting [D]escribe background
menus. This is particularly helpful when you want to use your
own menus. To change the description of a background menu, all
you need to do is select the menu you want to change (1-8), and
you will be prompted to enter a new description.
USING YOUR OWN ANSI MENUS WITH PD MENU
________________________________________________________________
You will notice that in your menu directory, you have 8 files
named PDMENUn.BBS, and one file called PDMENU.BBS. The 8 files
that include a number, are associated with the number provided
when selecting a background menu. You, the SysOp, can select a
menu to be used as a default, which will be copied, and named
PDMENU.BBS. When the user selects a menu, it is recorded in a
data file, and will not change the default menu that you have
pre-selected. When the caller returns to your BBS, PD Menu
reads this data file, and uses only the menu that they prefer.
Remember that if you don't want to give your users this option,
you can simply remove the program PDUSER.WCX from the menu, or
change the access required to run it.
To use your own menus, just remember to copy, or rename them to
PDMENUn.BBS, and then change the description for that menu by
running PDMENU.WCX (Configuration), and selecting [D]-Describe
background menus.
SELECTING YOUR OWN PERSONAL BACKGROUND MENU
________________________________________________________________
You, and your users can use PDUSER.WCX to select the background
menu of your choice. By using this program, you can select one
of the eight available background menus you have available.
Once you have selected the background you prefer, your choice
is saved, and will be used next time you login as well. Giving
your users the option to select their own menus will not affect
the menu that you select to be used as the default.
PAGE 7
All selections are saved to a filed called PDMUSER.DAT in your
menu directory. Each user will take up 61 bytes. To figure
out how large this file will be, multiply this number by the
amount of users you have.
DISABLING PD MENU
________________________________________________________________
If you suspect that PD Menu is causing your BBS to crash for any
reason, you can disable it by running PDMENU.WCX, (configuration
program), select [E] to edit the properties of your menus, and
select [D]isable PD Menu. This will force your BBS to use the
file WCMENU.WCX, which is a copy of the original Wildcat! menu
system.
SHAREWARE NOTICE
________________________________________________________________
This product is released as shareware, which means that if you
continue to use it for more than the 30-day trial period, it's
time to consider registering it with the author. You can also
support the shareware concept by "subscribing" to C.L.O.A. which
registers all wcCode applications for Wildcat! 5. For more info
please refer to REGISTER.TXT and CLASS.TXT, both of which should
always be included with all CLOA wcCode products.
There are no limitations to the un-registered version, however,
an intro screen will be displayed when a caller finishes the log
on process, and enters the menu system.
DISCLAIMER
________________________________________________________________
By using this, and any other CLOA product, you assume liability
for it. The author cannot in any way be held responsible for any
damages that occur from the use, or misuse of such products.
YOUR SUGGESTIONS AND COMMENTS ARE WELCOME
________________________________________________________________
If you have any suggestions on how to improve this, or any other
CLOA wcCode product, please send them my way! I appreciate all
the input I can get! See the top of this document for where to
contact me.
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
________________________________________________________________
My thanks to the folks at MSI for continuing to provide us with
the very finest in BBS software, and the supurb means for which
to customize it!
My BIG thanks go out to all my alpha and beta testers! I could
never write such quality software without every one of you!
My warmest regards to all the folks that have supported my never
ending quest to provide top-quality wcCode products to Wildcat!
SysOps around the world.