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1994-11-28
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57KB
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1,100 lines
CD SCAN Version 5.5
demo
Copyright (c) 1992-1994
By
Joseph K. S. Dunn.
All rights reserved.
USER MANUAL
28 November 1994
Contents
Chapter Page
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Copyright Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Registering Cd Scan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. Installation and System Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2. Starting the Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1. Getting Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3. Entering a New Cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1. Editing Keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2. Some brief notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4. Exiting Cd Scan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1. Command Prompt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5. Browsing Your Cd Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.1. Browse Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.2. Re-sorting the Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6. Displaying a Cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.1. Display Keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.2. Editing a Cd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.2.1. Edit Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.3. Deleting a Cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.4. Tagging and Pasting Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.5. Creating and Viewing Lyrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.5.1. Printing Lyrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.6. Summary of Display Symbols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7. Exporting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8. Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9. Print Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
9.1. Print Main Cd Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
9.2. Print All Cds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
9.3. Print Cd Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
9.4. Edit Text File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
9.5. Print Text File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
9.6. Printer Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
9.7. Notes about Printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
10. Utilities Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
10.1. Optimising the Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
10.2. Undeleting Cds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
10.3. Merging Catalogues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
10.4. Select Colour Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
10.5. Calculating Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
10.6. Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
10.7. Restoring From a Backup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
11. Errors and Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to:
- The Lord Jesus Christ who is my Inspiration and saviour, to whom I owe
everything. (Galatians 2:20)
- To my family for their support and patience,
- To Rohan Lewis and Tony Galliford for suggestions, help with the mouse
routines and testing of previous versions.
- To Florence Golingai, Leon Foote and Ben Pikl for testing this version of Cd
Scan.
- To Florence Golingai, Eufracia Villanueva and Susie Rasiah for proof reading
this edition of the manual.
- To you for choosing this software.
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Foreword
This project has taken over three years of hard work to complete. Though I
believe that quality software shouldn't be too expensive, I don't believe in
giving it away either. The price you pay for things in life determines the
value placed on them. If you like Cd Scan and find it useful, please register
it, see Registering Cd Scan for details on how to obtain a fully functional
version.
A bit about me: I am a blind student studying at The Flinders University of
South Australia. I hope to complete my B.Sc. degree and major in Computer
Science and use this as a basis to go on writing software to aid the disabled.
I enjoy listening to music, playing drums, singing, walking, programming and
just being with friends. I believe that anyone is capable of achieving
anything they put their mind to, provided they look to The creator for the
purpose to life. Fulfilment is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the truth
He both taught and lived. Once subject to His Lordship, all barriers in life
are merely psychological. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me (Philippians 4:13). He has provided salvation for mankind, (John 3:16-21,
3:36, 6:35-40, 14:6, Romans 1:16-21, 3:23, 6:23, 10:9-13), Revelation 20:15,
He has provided peace to those who will hear Him (John 14:27), He has provided
assurance of this salvation (1 John 5:11-12, John 14:1-4), He has provided all
we need to survive (1 Corinthians 10:13, James 1:5, Philippians 4:19, Psalm
37:4, Matthew 6:25-34, Romans 8:28-39), He cares about every need
(1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 11:28-30, Philippians 4:6-8 ...) and He is in the
perfect position to do all of these things because of His perfect knowledge of
us (Psalm 139, Isaiah 45:21-25, Romans 11:33-36).
Disclaimer
I Joseph Dunn, the author of Cd Scan, will not be made liable, under any
circumstance, regarding the use or inability to use this software. I will not
be made liable for any loss of data or loss of profits even if I am notified
of the possibility of such an event. This software comes as is, you use it at
your own risk. I have tested this program as extensively as time has permitted
and found it to perform as documented in this Manual. If you do find a bug in
the program, please report it. I will do my best to fix any bugs submitted to
me in writing.
Copyright Notice
The demo version of Cd Scan may be freely copied provided that the original
files are not added to, deleted from or modified in any way. The registered
version of Cd Scan is copyright and its documentation should be consulted for
the terms relating to that version.
Registering Cd Scan
To obtain a fully functional version of Cd Scan which accommodates 4000 cds,
each containing upto 99 tracks, instead of the limited 20 cds and 10 tracks
per cd accommodated on this demo, please send a cheque or money order of $100
Australian to the author at the address below, (include a clear mailing
address and preferred disk size):
Joseph Dunn:
1/58 Murray Terrace,
Oaklands Park S.A. 5046
Australia
Phone: +61 8 296-3899 Introduction
Cd Scan is a powerful music cataloguing system specifically designed for
cataloguing a compact disc collection. Up to 4000 cds each containing up to 99
tracks may be accommodated on the Registered version. This demo is restricted
to only 20 cds each containing upto only 10 tracks. To obtain the fully
functional registered version, see the section Registering Cd Scan. The
program includes a powerful and flexible search facility and a quick scan
browse facility which allows you to quickly browse through your collection.
The index may be sorted by the artist name, cd title or a unique id code at
the press of a key. A cd's contents may be displayed, and you may even browse
the lyrics of a given track if they exist, or jump into your favourite text
editor automatically to add them if they do not. The print facility allows you
to create title or artist lists as well as a complete record of your whole
catalogue and much more. These lists may be printed directly or exported to
your favourite word processor for further editing.
Preparation of recorded material is made easy by Cd Scan's ability to
accumulate selected track times and generate a list of these selections, which
perhaps could be used as a cassette label.
A Utilities Menu offers maintenance features like Optimisation to ensure the
most efficient access to your cd collection, an option to recover deleted cds,
a facility to merge two catalogues together, the ability to select a different
colour scheme and a function to calculate some statistics about your
collection like average track time etc. For your peace of mind, you can also
backup your valuable data files without leaving the program.
You may also "lock" Cd Scan so that if you are using it in a library or other
public display, data may be protected from unauthorised modification.
Besides Cd Scan's powerful features to make cataloguing your cds enjoyable and
efficient, the program will also do its best to protect your data. Cd scan
will automatically detect a missing or corrupt index and will attempt to
rectify the situation, if it is ever needed.
To ensure that you get the most out of this cataloguing system, the User
Manual may be called up from any of the menus at the press of a key (or the
click of a mouse button).
1. Installation and System Requirements
To run Cd Scan you need an IBM compatible with at least 384k ram and DOS 2.11
or later. If you intend to use Cd Scan near full capacity, 640k is required. A
hard disk is recommended for fastest and most reliable performance. Cd Scan is
distributed on a single floppy disk. The files on this disk should be placed
in a directory by themselves. For the uninitiated, a directory is a place on
the disk which contains files belonging to a particular group, i.e. all these
files belong to Cd Scan and therefore should be placed in an area by
themselves to distinguish their function from say your word processor files.
To make a directory and place Cd Scan into it do the following:
1. Exit any application you may be running and get to the DOS prompt. It may
look something like:
C>
2. From this point type:
CD\
(after pressing Enter) type:
MD CD-SCAN
(after pressing Enter), type:
CD\CD-SCAN
(and press Enter again).
3. Place the disk with the Cd Scan files on it into drive A and type:
COPY A:\*.*
then press Enter again.
4. Once you have been returned to the DOS prompt, you may run Cd Scan by
typing the command:
CDS
See your DOS manual about creating batch files if you wish to run Cd Scan from
a batch file or see the appropriate documentation if you wish to run Cd Scan
from a menu program.
Any lyrics files are assumed to reside in a subdirectory of cd-scan called
lyrics. To create this subdirectory, make sure you are in the cd-scan
directory by typing:
cd\cd-scan (followed by Enter)
then to create the directory type:
md lyrics (followed by Enter).
To use an editor to create or edit lyrics files from within Cd Scan you will
need to set an environment variable to point to the editor. You can do this
from the DOS prompt or include the command in your autoexec.bat file so that
the variable is set automatically each time you boot your computer. Use the
set command to set the cdsed variable to specify the drive, path and name of
your editor. The command should look similar to the following:
set cdsed=c:\utils\editor.exe
See section 6.5 for more information about creating, editing or viewing lyrics
files.
2. Starting the Program
To start Cd Scan, just type the command, cds, followed by enter from the DOS
prompt. If you are not in the cd-scan directory, and if this directory is not
in your path, you will have to change to it by typing: cd\cd-scan, first. A
basic knowledge of DOS is assumed, if you have problems, consult a friend or
the DOS Manual. You may wish to start the program from a menu system such as a
Shell program, see the relevant documentation for the installation procedure.
Cd Scan provides a mode of operation suitable for a public library, to prevent
unauthorised modification of data. To run Cd Scan in "Locked" mode, add the -l
command line option. In "Locked" mode, you will not be permitted to modify any
data whatsoever.
Run Cd Scan by typing the appropriate command, e.g. cds -l, or by choosing it
from your menu system.
Your screen will clear and a menu box will appear in the middle of your screen
with the option "3 Browse Cd Index" highlighted. By pressing the up and down
cursor keys, or by using a mouse to point to an option and pressing the left
button once you can move the highlight bar to any of the seven options. To
select an option, either press the left mouse button again or press Enter.
Alternatively, you can press the number next to the option to highlight it and
select it in one go. To cancel an option at any time, press the Escape key or
the right mouse button. Options may be selected from sub-menus in the same way
as the Main Menu, the first option of each sub-menu will return you to the
Main Menu as will the Escape key or right mouse button. (Options such as
Utilities Menu are examples of sub-menus).
2.1. Getting Help
Most of the instructions you need to operate the program will be displayed on
the Status Line (the last line on the screen).
You may view the User Manual by pressing the F1 key or by clicking the left
mouse button while pointing to the message "Press F1 for User Manual".
While viewing the User Manual with Cd Scan's built in text file viewer, you
may search for a particular Key-word by pressing F2 and typing the text to be
located.
After pressing Enter, the cursor will be located at the beginning of the text
if it is located. The search facility in the file viewer is case sensitive,
i.e. uppercase and lowercase characters are different. To locate the next
match, just press F2 followed by Enter. To exit the User Manual, press Escape
or click the left mouse button while pointing to the esc-exit message. You
will be returned to the Menu from which you invoked the User Manual.
3. Entering a New Cd
Well, lets get the show on the road! Lets begin by entering a compact disc
into the system. Select "Enter a New Cd" by using the mouse or keyboard as
discussed in the previous section. Cd Scan keeps track of several items of
information about your cds. These are: The Artist, Title, Unique
Identification Code (used when accessing lyric files), Track times, Track
names, and a short comment about the cd. If a cd contains various artists
(such as many compilation cds), these may also be recorded.
The first item you will be asked for is the Artist's name. If you are
cataloguing a various artist cd, just enter a # as the artist's name. This
tells the program to prompt you for the artist of each track. After you have
typed in the Artist's name and pressed the Enter key, (as in all cases of data
entry), Cd Scan will then respond with a prompt asking you to type the Title
of the cd. If you make a mistake during the entry of data and don't realise it
in time to correct it, i.e. you've pressed Enter, don't worry, you can correct
it later. (see 6.2). You will then be asked to enter a unique id for the cd.
You may accept a default id which is generated by Cd Scan at this stage by
just pressing ENTER or ESCAPE, or you may enter your personal coding scheme. I
use a scheme which gives each artist a number and for each disk by that
artist, a letter, i.e. the first disk I purchased had the code 01a, the second
by the same artist had the code 01b etc. After you have typed in the id of the
cd and pressed ENTER, Cd Scan will check the uniqueness of this code. If it is
found in the index, you will be asked to "try again".
Next, the screen will display a box with three columns in it and the artist
and title centred above the box. This box will become familiar to you as you
use the program. This screen will be referred to as the "Display Screen". The
three columns are the track number (1 to 99), the time (mm:ss) and the track
name. You will be asked to Enter the second two pieces of information, i.e.
the track duration and name. If you don't wish to enter a time in, leave it
blank by just pressing Enter.
If you specified that the cd contained various artists by entering a # at the
first prompt, you will also be prompted for the artist of each track. If you
leave this field blank, Cd Scan will record it as "NONE SPECIFIED".
Once all the tracks have been entered in, press Enter on a name field and you
will be asked to type in a comment for the cd. If you don't wish to include a
comment then just press Enter until the box disappears or press the Escape
key. Such information which might be included in the comment box could be the
copyright date, a favourite song or a music category etc. Once the data for a
cd has been entered, the program will store the cd on disk and add its
reference to the index. A Various Artist cd will be denoted by "VARIOUS
ARTISTS" when browsing the index (See chapter 5). Cd Scan will automatically
sort the index each time an addition is made.
To add lyrics for tracks entered, see section 6.5.
3.1. Editing Keys
When entering any data, the following keys may be used:
- Left and Right arrow keys: move cursor left or right one space,
- Backspace: move the cursor one space to the left and delete the character
there,
- Delete: delete the character at the current cursor position,
- Ctrl-w: delete to end of word,
- Ctrl-l: kill line (in comment box only),
- Ctrl-y: yank back line (in comment box only),
- Home and End: move the cursor to the first or last character in the field,
- Insert: toggle between insert or over-strike mode,
- Enter/Tab: give completed data to program,
- Escape: quit operation.
3.2. Some brief notes
1. The cursor is the flashing square which appears when you are asked for a
response and which indicates where the next character will be placed on
the screen.
2. Insert mode is where characters typed are inserted before other characters
on the line rather than over the top of them as in over-strike.
3. You will notice that all characters typed will be converted to uppercase.
This feature standardises all data as many publishing companies can't
make up their minds about how the information on cd covers should be
printed. If all text is in one case it is faster to search through.
4. The time for a track must be entered in the form mmss (you may omit leading
zeros, i.e. 355 is the same as 0355 and 50 is the same as 0050. If you
press Enter on a time field it will be left blank. Some cds don't have a
record of the track times.
5. Text fields may be up to 60 characters in length and the comment may be up
to 5 lines of 60 characters. When entering or editing a comment, Word
Wrap will allow you to make full use of the space provided without you
having to calculate remaining space on each line. As you type, words
which cannot fit on the current line are automatically shifted to the
next line until the comment box is full.
6. When entering filenames etc, moving the cursor with the arrow keys or
home/end before typing any characters will enable you to edit the default
response. If you just start typing, the default response will be replaced
by the new characters.
7. The left mouse button is interpreted as the Enter key in the context of
editing or accepting default responses such as in filename prompts. The
right mouse button is interpreted as the Escape key at all relevant
times. For all (y/n) prompts, the right mouse button is equivalent to a
negative response, i.e. pressing "n" or the Escape key, while the left
button is equivalent to a positive response, i.e. pressing "y".
4. Exiting Cd Scan
If you have had enough for this session and wish to Leave the program, you may
select this option from the main menu or just press the Escape key or right
mouse button until you are asked if this is your real intention. If you press
Escape again, the operation will be cancelled and you will not exit the
program. If you answer y for yes or hit the left mouse button you will leave
Cd Scan and return to DOS or your menu system.
It is important that you exit Cd Scan properly before turning your computer
off or data may be lost.( Choose this option rather than Command Prompt when
you wish to use another Application Program or Turn your computer off).
4.1. Command Prompt
Choosing this option allows you to go to DOS without actually quitting Cd
Scan. It temporarily suspends the operation of the program allowing you to
enter DOS commands. To return to Cd Scan, just type exit. Do not type cds
again or you will effectively have two copies of the program running. If Cd
Scan is locked or there is insufficient memory to start a new instance of
COMMAND.COM which may be the case if you are running the program near full
capacity, selecting this option will just immediately return you to Cd Scan.
5. Browsing Your Cd Collection
Once the index contains at least one cd you will be able to browse. Select
Browse from the main menu and two boxes will be displayed, the number of cds
in the index will be written above these boxes and the bottom line (status
line) will display several options.
The two boxes (or windows) contain a list of artist names and cd titles. A
highlight bar will appear marking an artist and title. The cd's unique id
code, if it has one, will be displayed in the top right corner of the screen.
Note: the cd highlighted will be referred to as the current cd.
As you highlight a cd, its id code (if it has one) will be displayed in the
top right corner of the screen. You may go straight to a particular cd by
using the "go to" option. To select this option either press the F2 key or use
the mouse to point to it and click the left button. You will be asked to enter
a cd id code. If this code is located, the cd with that code will become the
current cd.
To exit the Browse facility, just press the Escape key or the right mouse
button.
5.1. Browse Keys
You may browse through the cds using the following keys:
- Up/Down: move the highlight bars up or down one cd,
- Pgup/Pgdn: move the bars forward or backward a page at a time,
- Home/End: move the bars to the first or last cd in the index.
- Tab: change sort order from artist to title to id code.
- F2: go to cd with a particular id code.
- Escape: return to the main menu.
You may also use the mouse to point to a cd and press the left button to
highlight it. To display the previous or next screen of cds using the mouse,
point to the top or bottom border of the windows and press the left button.
5.2. Re-sorting the Index
When you press the Tab key or press the left mouse button wile pointing to the
"tab-reorder" message on the status line, the index will be re-sorted.
Initially, the index is sorted by the artist's name. The first time you press
the tab key the two windows containing the artist names and titles will be
swapped and the index re-sorted by the cd titles. The next time you press the
tab key the index will be sorted by the unique id codes. A third press of the
tab key will return the index to its initial state of being sorted by the
artist names. The highlight bar will be placed on the same cd in its new
sorted position in the index. When you exit the browse screen, if Cd Scan is
not "Locked", the sort order will be remembered for the next time you browse
your collection. This doesn't apply if you are browsing the results of a
search.
6. Displaying a Cd
If you press Enter on the current cd or press the left mouse button while
pointing to the highlighted cd, the familiar box first encountered in the
"Enter a New Cd" option along with several other items will be displayed. The
first time of the first track will be highlighted. This highlight bar
indicates the current track.
If the cd contains various artists, the usual position for the cd artist will
be replaced by the artist of each track as you scroll through the tracks. The
words "VARIOUS ARTISTS" will appear above this.
6.1. Display Keys
You may move this highlight bar to particular tracks using the following keys:
- Up/Down: move to next or previous track,
- Pgup/Pgdn: move to the previous or next screen of tracks,
- Home/End: move to the first or last track on the cd.
- F2/F3: goto next/previous matching track or cd.
You can also use the mouse to highlight a time by pointing to the track and
pressing the left mouse button.
6.2. Editing a Cd
Cd scan allows you to edit the contents of a cd. This is useful if you find
that you've mistyped a name or if you missed some information. You are even
permitted to Reorder the tracks just in case they were printed on the cd cover
in a different order to what they were actually recorded on the cd. This
option also allows you to add tracks that may have inadvertently been left off
when you initially entered the cd.
The edit options are accessed by pressing Alt-e or by pressing the left mouse
button while pointing to the option on the status line.
If Cd Scan is not "Locked", pressing Alt-e or selecting this option with the
mouse will display options corresponding to the field names that can be edited
and the options of reordering and adding tracks.
6.2.1. Edit Options
You may select:
a - to correct the artist's name,
t - for the title of the cd,
i - for the id code,
n - for the current track name,
c - for the comment,
d - for the duration (length) of the current track,
l - to add or edit the lyrics of the current track (see 6.5),
r - to reorder the tracks,
m - to add more tracks.
Remember you can also make a selection using the mouse. Once a selection is
made, you are permitted to edit the selected field.
You will not be permitted to delete either the title, main artist or Id code
of the cd, only edit them. If you attempt to delete these fields, they will
just miraculously reappear when you press Enter.
If the cd contains various artists then selecting "a" for artist will allow
you to edit the artist of the highlighted track.
If you delete all the characters when editing the name of a track, you will be
asked if you really want to delete the track. According to your response, the
appropriate action will be taken. If you delete the track, all other tracks
will be moved up one position. If you delete all the tracks on the cd then the
empty cd will be deleted from the index and obviously irrecoverable.
To reorder the tracks, simply highlight the track you wish to move using the
keyboard or mouse, select the edit options, select reorder, then highlight the
track before which you want to insert, finally, press Enter or press the left
mouse button on the highlighted track. The initial track will be inserted
before the second track you selected and the rest of the tracks will be
shifted appropriately.
You may add tracks to a cd by selecting m. A cd may contain up to 99 tracks.
See section 6.5 for information about adding or editing Lyrics for tracks.
When you return to the browse screen by pressing Escape or display the next or
previous cd using F2 or F3, the changes will be written to disk. The index
will be re-sorted if need be only when you exit the browse screen. This means
that if you edit the artist, title or id code of a cd which causes it to take
a different position in the index, the cd will not be moved until you exit the
browse screen and go back in to it.
6.3. Deleting a Cd
If you wish to delete a cd from the catalogue, you can do this from the browse
screen. Just make the cd you wish to delete the current one, i.e. highlight
it, then either press Alt+d or use the mouse to point to the option and press
the left button as usual. If Cd Scan is not "Locked", you will be asked if you
really want to go ahead with the deletion and then according to your response,
the appropriate action will be taken. (Don't worry if you delete a cd
accidentally, you will be able to undelete it later from the Utilities Menu.)
6.4. Tagging and Pasting Tracks
Once you have a cd displayed on the screen, you may use Cd Scan's functions to
help you compile a radio program, create a tape label or just create a list of
your favourite tracks from your collection.
The tag function may be viewed like the Program facility offered on most Cd
Players. If you tag a track, it is marked for pasting to a text file and its
time is added to the Total Time Box. You may unmark the track and subtract its
time just by tagging the track again. Alternatively, if you wish to create a
label containing all but one or two tracks, you only need mark those two
tracks and then use the Invert function to invert the status of all the tracks
on this cd, i.e. unmark all marked tracks and mark all unmarked tracks and add
the time of just the marked tracks to the Total Time Box.
To mark a track and add its time to the Total Time Box, simply make the track
the current one by highlighting it and then press the Space Bar. To unmark and
subtract this track's time, just press the Space Bar again. To perform a tag
invert, just press and hold down the Alt key and press the Space Bar. As
described above, the status of all the tracks will be inverted.
The tag facility is also selectable via the mouse as usual.
This facility allows the text of the track number, time, name and possibly
artist, to be added to a text file for later printing or editing. A "+" or "*"
will be placed in the right margin to indicate that a track has been tagged
for pasting, depending on whether the track also has a lyrics file linked to
it. When you use the Invert function (Alt-Space), you will notice the
indicator symbols (see 6.6) change to reflect the new status of each track.
When you exit this screen and return to the browse index or display the next
or previous cd using F2 or F3, you will be asked to enter a filename. A
default name will be offered, either accept this name or edit the field to
change it. The artist's name, cd title and all tagged tracks will be added to
this file. To edit this file you must use a text editor of some sort, although
you can print it as it is from the Print Menu.
If this file is not deleted, it will be added to each time you Paste a track
to it. You are given the option to delete this file from the "Print Text File"
option on the Print Menu.
Times will be accumulated as different cds are displayed. To clear the time
box and unmark all tracks on the displayed cd, press the Delete (Del) key.
Note: Times will not be accumulated above 99:59. If an attempt is made to
add times that total more than this, or to subtract times until total is less
than 0 then an error message will alert you. The Time box must then be cleared
using Del.
Play with this tag function and practice tagging tracks and creating text
files of your favourite songs. Remember you may even select another cd by
pressing F2 or F3 or by returning to the browse screen by pressing Escape and
selecting another cd. Notice that the time box is not cleared. Make sure you
clear the time box if you just want the total of one cd.
6.5. Creating and Viewing Lyrics
Cd Scan allows you to add lyrics to any track and thus be able to view them
just by selecting the track. To add or edit lyrics, do the following:
1. Cd Scan requires you to set an environment variable to specify the
location and name of the text editor you wish to use. You can do this
from the DOS prompt or include the command in your autoexec.bat file so
that the variable is set automatically each time you boot your computer.
Use the set command to set the cdsed variable to specify the drive, path
and name of your editor. The command should look similar to the
following:
set cdsed=c:\utils\editor.exe
2. From the display screen, make the track for which you want to add or edit
lyrics current, i.e. highlight it.
3. Press Alt-e followed by l, and the editor specified by the environment
variable will be invoked with the lyrics file. If lyrics do not currently
exist for the specified track, a new file will be created with the track
name, artist and cd title automatically entered. Cd Scan assumes that
your editor takes a single command line argument which is the name of the
file to edit.
4. Type in the lyrics to the given track and save the file as you normally
would.
5. Exit your editor and you will automatically be returned to Cd Scan's
display screen. An indicator symbol will appear in the right margin to
tell you that this track now has lyrics linked to it.
Once you have the lyrics to any of the tracks in your collection entered, you
may display them just by selecting the track, i.e. press Enter after
highlighting it. (of course you can just double click the left mouse button
while pointing to the track).
You may also use a word-processor to create lyrics files. A file must be saved
as ASCII text in the lyrics subdirectory under the name of idtk.lyr where id
is the unique cd identifier and tk is the track number, e.g. if the disk id is
01a and the track is 1 then the file should be called 01a01.lyr. If you use an
external word-processor to create lyrics as just mentioned, you should
optimise your catalogue and relink tracks and lyrics so that Cd Scan will
correctly identify your new lyrics file. (see 10.1).
When a lyrics file is displayed you may use the following keys to move through
it: up/down, pgup/pgdn, home/end. You may search for text by pressing F2 and
typing the pattern to be located. After you have entered the search pattern
and pressed Enter, the cursor will be placed at the start of the pattern if it
is located. This search facility is case sensitive, i.e. the case of the
characters typed in must match the characters in the text exactly if a match
is to be found. To locate the next match, just press F2 followed by Enter. To
exit the file viewer, press the Escape key. This file viewer will enable you
to view any strictly text document of up to 64k in size.
An attempt to display a nonexistent lyrics file will result in an error
message.
When you optimise the catalogue, you will be given the option to update any
links to lyrics files, in case new lyrics have been added or files have been
deleted.
If you re-order the tracks on the cd, the program will automatically check to
see if there are lyrics files which need to be renamed and perform the
appropriate housekeeping. If you delete a track, its lyrics file will be
renamed with the "old" extension and the subsequent tracks will be renamed as
appropriate. If you edit the cd's id and change it, all lyrics files linked to
that cd will automatically be renamed. If a cd is deleted, no action is taken
with regard to its lyrics files if they exist.
6.5.1. Printing Lyrics
You can print the lyrics to a track just by pressing Alt+p (or clicking the
left mouse button while pointing to the "Alt+p-print" message) while viewing
the lyrics on the screen. You will be asked to align the paper in the printer
after which you must press a key to start printing. Make sure the printer is
correctly connected, switched on, loaded with paper and correctly aligned to
avoid annoying errors.
6.6. Summary of Display Symbols
Symbols appearing in the right margin while displaying a cd indicate a track's
status as follows:
A blank indicates that this track has no lyrics file,
An "X" indicates that this track has a lyrics file,
A "+" indicates that this track will be pasted to a text file on exit from the
Display Screen,
A "*" indicates that this track has a lyrics file and will be pasted to a text
file on exit from the Display Screen.
7. Exporting Data
Besides being able to export text for printing or editing, you can export part
or all of your catalogue to a set of Merge (*.MRG) files to be incorporated in
another catalogue.
To do this, from the browse screen (option 3 from the Main menu or as a result
of a search), press Alt+x (or select it with the mouse in the usual way). You
will be asked to enter the drive and path to save the Merge Files to. Type the
drive and path, e.g. A:\ and press Enter. Two files, CDS5.MRG and CDS5NDX.MRG
will be created. (You must include the trailing Backslash character in the
path specification, as in D:\TEMP\)
This facility is useful if you wish to share cd data without having to re-
enter it. You can, for instance, search for all the cds by White Heart and
export them so that other White Heart fans don't have to type in all the
information on these cds.
See section 10.3 for information about incorporating these files into another
catalogue.
8. Searching
Cd Scan allows you to search for any part of any field in the catalogue except
the id. Select "Search Menu" from the Main Menu and you will be given the
options of searching the different fields. Select the field you wish to search
and enter the text to be located. The text may appear anywhere in the field.
If you select Artist, all various artist cds will also be searched.
Selecting the "Track Length" field allows you to either search for all tracks
which are a specific length, which are in a range of lengths, less than a
given length or longer than a given length.
Here are some examples of how track length searches are entered:
1. 233 - search for all cds containing tracks exactly 02:33 in length.
2. <30 - search for all cds containing tracks of length < 30 seconds.
3. >1000 - search for all cds containing tracks with length > 10 minutes.
4. 233-302 - search for all cds containing tracks whose lengths are in the
range 02:33 to 03:02 inclusive.
An example of entering a time specification is given on the status line when
you choose this option.
Note: Searching by artist or title will be significantly faster as these
fields are held in memory.
If you select the option to search for all tracks which have a Lyrics File
attached to them, you can quickly and easily locate the lyrics of a particular
track without having to browse through the whole catalogue.
Once the search has taken place, you will be presented with a secondary Search
Results Menu. From this menu you can view the search results, print or create
text files of the search results or calculate statistics on all cds located
during the search.
If you select the View Search Index option, the results will be presented in
the same form as the browse screen. See chapters 5 and 6. When you display a
cd after being presented with a list of cds containing matches, the first
matching track will be highlighted if appropriate. To jump to the next
matching track, press F2 or use the mouse; to jump to the previous matching
track, press F3 or use the mouse. This facility will only be relevant if you
searched by either Track Name or Track Length or if the cd has various artists
and you've searched by Artist Name.
If you select any of the Print options from the Search Results Menu, you will
be able to export the search results in several formats to either a file or to
a printer directly. The three print options are similar to those on the print
menu for printing the cd index, all cd data or a comment summary, however,
these options only print the results of the search just performed. (See
section 9.1-9.3 for information about the more general versions of these
options available from the Print Menu.)
The final option on the Search Results Menu will calculate some statistics on
the search results. The statistics will be presented in a similar table to
that mentioned in section 10.5 except that only the cds located during the
search will be included.
9. Print Menu
Printing is very useful because it gets the words out of the computer's grubby
hands and onto paper like we are all used to. The print facility offers you
the options of printing an artist list containing a list of artist names and
titles, a full compact disc list containing all the information you entered
and a summary just containing Titles, Artists, Id codes and Comments.
Any lists that are generated may be sent to a file or to any printer connected
to the Parallel (LPT1) port. (Actually, if lists are sent to the printer, the
DOS device name PRN and STDLIST are used).
You may invoke a text editor to add further comments before printing a file,
and of course, you can print the file and send control codes to the printer.
9.1. Print Main Cd Index
Selecting this option will print a list containing the artist names and titles
of all your cds. When you select this option, you will be asked to enter the
name of the output file or device. If you wish to send the list to the
printer, just accept the default name, otherwise, enter a valid filename to
create. This file may then be imported into a text editor for further editing.
The list will be printed in a similar form and in the same order as the browse
presentation, i.e. if your index is sorted by cd title then the cd titles will
be in the left column otherwise the artist names will be in the left column.
Titles or Artist names of more than 39 characters will be truncated. The pages
will be automatically numbered and a heading printed at the top of each page.
9.2. Print All Cds
Selecting this option will print a full listing of all your cds, i.e. each cd
will be listed in the order specified by the browse presentation. All the
information will be printed including the comments. Pages will be
automatically numbered and a heading will be printed at the top of each page.
If a cd must be split across a page boundary, a continuation message is
printed after restating the title of the continued cd.
When you select this option, you will be asked to enter the name of the output
file or device. If you wish to send the list to the printer, just accept the
default name, otherwise, enter a valid filename to create. This file may then
be imported into a text editor for further editing.
9.3. Print Cd Comments
This option generates a summary of your catalogue containing the Artist name,
cd title, id code and comments.
When you select this option, you will be asked to enter the name of the output
file or device. If you wish to send the list to the printer, just accept the
default name, otherwise, enter a valid filename to create. This file may then
be imported into a text editor for further editing.
9.4. Edit Text File
If you have set the CDSED environment variable discussed in a previous
section, you may invoke this editor on any file you specify. The CDSED
variable is set from the DOS prompt to point to the path and name of the
editor. The command would look something like SET CDSED=C:\UTILS\EDITOR.EXE.
If you select this option, you will be asked to enter a file to edit. Cd Scan
assumes that the editor takes the file name as the command line argument, i.e.
after you enter the file to edit, it is passed as a parameter to your editor.
On exit from your editor, you will be returned to the Print menu.
If you are using Cd Scan in locked mode then it is wise to use an editor which
doesn't allow you to shell to DOS, otherwise the lock will not protect access
to data. A Shell to DOS option in your editor's menu may be called Push to DOS
or Command Prompt. Consult your editor's documentation.
9.5. Print Text File
If you used the Paste Track facility discussed in section 6.4 then you may
print the text file created by selecting this option. If you select "Text
File", you will be asked for the filename and offered a default name. Either
select this name or edit it to change it. After printing this file, you will
be asked if you wish to delete it. If you respond affirmatively, the file will
be deleted and any subsequent pastes will be written to a new file. If you
respond negatively or just press Escape, the file will be left intact and any
subsequent pastes will be appended to the end of the old file.
9.6. Printer Control
When you select this option, you will be prompted to enter codes to send to
the printer. You will need to refer to your printer's documentation to
determine what codes to send. Once you know what control codes to send, the
characters can be generated by holding down the Alt key and pressing the
corresponding number on the numeric keypad. For example, to send a Formfeed
character, control code 12, hold down the Alt key and type 12 on the numeric
keypad then press Enter. You will be asked if you want to send the string and
according to your response an attempt is made to send the string to the
printer. This facility is useful for setting up your printer for say a tape
label for which compressed print is appropriate. If you have trouble
generating the characters with the numeric keypad, check the state of your
Numlock key (it should be on).
9.7. Notes about Printing
1. The print facility assumes you are using A4 paper and prints 60 lines to a
page.
2. A printer error will result if you attempt to print without paper or if the
printer is off-line. Press a key when you have fixed the problem or press
Escape to cancel printing.
10. Utilities Menu
This menu offers such facilities as optimisation, undeletion, merging, colour
scheme selection, statistical analysis and backup.
Note: If Cd Scan is "Locked" then the only valid options will be Select
Colour Scheme, Calculate Statistics and Backup. Also, the Colour Scheme will
not be remembered when you next use the program.
10.1. Optimising the Data File
Note: If you wish to undelete any cds, this must be done before Optimise
is selected, see 10.2.
Before I discuss what Optimisation does, you need to understand a bit about
the way Cd Scan stores its information. I mentioned earlier about an index
file, a file containing a list of reference pointers to the main text. The
index file is generally the file which undergoes the most modification when
adding or modifying data. In fact, when a cd is deleted, its reference pointer
is just removed from the index and placed in a special deletion tracking file
allowing undeletion which will be discussed soon. The information stored in
the main data file is not modified in any way, this eliminates the possibility
of disk error and minimises disk operations. When a cd is modified, a new copy
of the cd is added to the end of the data file and the old pointer in the
index is updated to point to the new copy. After many modifications have been
made, the speed of the program may be affected. This is where Optimisation
comes in.
What Optimisation does is reads each cd from the index and writes a new copy
of the data file, writing the cds in their correct alphabetic order and
eliminating obsolete data. Optimisation need only be performed when many
modifications have been made. Optimisation also gives you the option of
updating links to lyrics files which may have been added or deleted.
When Optimise is selected from the Utilities Menu you will be asked if you
wish to update links to lyrics files during the operation. Choosing to update
these links will cause the optimise process to take a little longer. Before
the optimisation begins, a backup of the catalogue is automatically made. You
must not disturb the disk activity in any way until the Optimisation is
complete or data may be lost and irrecoverable.
Note: With a large catalogue, an XT type computer or a floppy disk system
may take a while to perform the Optimisation. Please be patient and don't
disrupt the operation.
After Optimisation has finished, searching and browsing will be more efficient
and the main data file will probably be smaller. If something does go wrong
during Optimisation the old files which were renamed with the "bak" extension
may be renamed with the "dat" extension and the old catalogue restored. See
your DOS manual with regard to renaming files. Installing a Disk Cache such as
SMARTDRV.EXE, which comes with DOS, will speed up optimisation significantly.
10.2. Undeleting Cds
If you accidentally deleted a cd or you just decide that you want back a cd
which has been deleted, and if you haven't Optimised the catalogue, you may
Undelete it. When "Undelete Cds" is selected from the Utilities Menu an
attempt to locate a deletion tracking file is made. If found, you will be
asked if you wish to undelete any cds contained in this file. If you undelete
the cds at this point they will be added to the index again and will be
accessible. If you choose not to undelete the cds at this point and decide to
Optimise the catalogue they will be lost forever as the obsolete data will be
removed from the main data file. (obsolete data includes deleted cds or old
copies of a cd which have since been modified). The Deletion Tracking File
DELETED.DAT will be deleted when the catalogue is Optimised.
Note: If you undelete a cd, remember to check its id code as Cd Scan will
not verify its uniqueness.
10.3. Merging Catalogues
This facility allows two catalogues to be merged into one. If you know someone
who has already catalogued some cds which you have obtained and don't wish to
re-type all of the details, you may incorporate those cds into your own
catalogue.
When you select this option, you will be asked to enter the Drive and Path of
the Merge Files. To Merge from the TEMP directory on drive D, type D:\TEMP\
(you must include the trailing backslash). If the files are found, the data
contained in them will be merged into your catalogue.
Note: Remember to check the id codes of the merged cds as Cd Scan will not
verify their uniqueness.
10.4. Select Colour Scheme
This option will cycle through 4 colour schemes, one is suitable for a
monochrome monitor or a lap-top, the others are just varying colour schemes.
Once you have selected the desired scheme, it will be remembered the next time
you use the program, that is, unless the catalogue is locked.
10.5. Calculating Statistics
When you select this option from the Utilities Menu, Cd Scan will go away and
calculate some information about your cd collection. (All the vital statistics
you just were dying to know about and which will cure your insomnia, at least
for tonight). The following information will be presented in a table:
minimum, average (mean) and maximum track length, minimum, mean and
maximum cd length, minimum, mean and maximum number of tracks per
cd, number of cds in index, total number of tracks, number of tracks
with lyrics files and approximate playing time.
10.6. Backup
This option will make a backup of your catalogue files to a specified
location. You will be asked to Enter the Drive and Path to write the backup
data to. To backup your catalogue on drive b: in the Back directory, type
B:\BACK\ (remember the trailing backslash).
The two data files maintained by Cd Scan will be copied from their current
location to the new location and their extension will be changed to BAK.
10.7. Restoring From a Backup
If you ever need to restore your catalogue from a backup, just locate the disk
with the backup files and copy them into your CD-SCAN directory as follows.
(Assuming your backup files are on drive A in the Root directory)
COPY A:\CDS5.BAK C:\CD-SCAN\CDS5.DAT
COPY A:\CDS5NDX.BAK C:\CD-SCAN\CDS5NDX.DAT
If DOS asks if you wish to overwrite existing files, respond with y for yes.
(If you type these commands from the DOS Command Prompt in Cd Scan, you must
exit Cd Scan properly and restart it to load the restored data see chapter 4).
11. Errors and Troubleshooting
If Cd Scan does not run correctly, check the following:
1. Your CONFIG.SYS file contains at least 20 files and buffers. (See your DOS
manual for more information)
2. Your cds5ndx.dat and cds5.dat files are both present in the same directory
as the cds.exe file.
3. If Cd Scan runs too slow, try Optimising it. If you have several thousand
cds, Cd Scan will operate significantly slower than with a smaller
catalogue.
4. If your system locks up on start up, check how much memory your system has
free. You may have to remove a device driver or other memory resident
program.
5. When the index is either empty or full, you will be notified. If full, no
more cds may be added and if empty, there will be no data to search,
browse or print.
6. A printer error can usually be rectified just by ensuring that the printer
is on line and that the paper is correctly aligned. If you still have
trouble printing, consult your printer manual.
7. Note on Deletion: The deletion tracking file, created when a cd is deleted,
is called deleted.dat. Do not delete or modify this file or you will not
be able to undelete any cds. Do not try to undelete a cd from an obsolete
deletion tracking file as its reference may not be valid. Suffice to say,
don't try to do the programs work for it or you may find yourself in
trouble!
8. When Cd Scan is "Locked" via the -l command line option, the message
"Access denied" will be displayed when any attempt is made to modify
data.
9. Be sure to set the cdsed environment variable before running Cd Scan if you
plan to edit or add lyrics files to any tracks from within the program.
(see section 6.5). If you do not set this variable correctly, you may get
the message "File not found" when you try to use the editor. Be sure to
correctly specify the drive, path and name of the editor. You cannot use
the MSDOS editor, edit.com, because it requires qbasic.exe which uses too
much memory.
10. If a lyric file is not found when you select a track, check that you have
correctly named the file and that the cd has the id you think it should.
If a cd has no id, Cd Scan will just look for a file with the track
number and extension "lyr" as its name.
11. The file viewer is strictly for text, it will convert any non-printable
characters to spaces.
THE END