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1994-01-09
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The Night Owl Publisher's CD-ROM File Retrieval System
Copyright 1993,94
All Rights Reserved
Night Owl's Publisher, Inc.
1611 Falconer Stillwater
Jamestown, NY 14701
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 The Night Owl INSTALL Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3 The Night Owl Directory Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4 Operating the NIGHT Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5 The Main NIGHT Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.1 Main NIGHT Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5.2 The NIGHT Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5.3 NIGHT List Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6 Main NIGHT Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6.1 Drop to DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6.2 Viewing File Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6.2.1 Tagging Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6.2.2 Unpacking Compressed Files . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.2.3 Copying Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.2.4 Adding Files to the User List . . . . . . . . . 6
6.3 Formatting a Floppy Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.4 Browsing the User List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.5 The NIGHT Work Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.5.1 The Work Area Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.5.2 Printing Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.5.3 Executing an EXE or COM File . . . . . . . . . 7
6.5.4 Copy Work Area Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.5.5 Viewing Text or Graphics Files . . . . . . . . 8
6.5.6 Unpacking Compressed Files . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.5.7 Exiting the Work Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.6 The NIGHT Search Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.7 Deleting the User List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6.8 Tag All/None Toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7 NIGHT Printing Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
8 The NIGHT Text File Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9 Re-installing NIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
10 The NIGHT Screen Saver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
i
1 Introduction
Welcome to the Night Owl CD-ROM File Retrieval System. You have just
purchased the most up-to-date single source of Shareware, Freeware and
Public Domain software available on one CD-ROM. Many hours of work have
gone into making the Night Owl CD-ROM as enjoyable and user friendly as
possible.
Your CD contains many thousands of compressed files. Nearly 660 Mb to
be more precise. They are all Shareware, Freeware or Public Domain. Night
Owl's Publisher takes great pains to insure that no commercial software
appears on the ROM. Please tell us if you find any commercial software on
this CD!
The NIGHT program and accompanying files allow you to easily search
for, find, examine, and copy the desired file(s) from this cornucopia of
software. On-line context sensitive help, mouse support and many other
features are included to help you in this process. We believe (and have
been told by others) that it is this is the best CD-ROM file retrieval
system in the world today! We are interested in your suggestions to help
keep it that way.
Contact us at:
Night Owl's Publisher Inc. Office 716/484-3066
1161 Falconer Stillwater Rd. FAX 716/483-3920
Jamestown, NY 14701 BBS 716/483-3925
2 The Night Owl INSTALL Program
Before you attempt to operate the NIGHT program, you must run the Night
Owl Publisher's INSTALL program first. And before you run INSTALL, we
strongly advise you to read the INSTALL user's manual, which resides in the
text file named INSTALL.DOC.
If you have read INSTALL.DOC and have completed the installation of
NIGHT, then please continue reading this manual prior to operating NIGHT.
3 The Night Owl Directory Structure
The Night Owl Install program creates the following directory structure
on your hard disk (X denotes the drive you chose):
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X:\NIGHT
X:\NIGHT\TEXT
X:\NIGHT\WORK
X:\NIGHT\EXEC
Note that this example assumes that you chose NIGHT as the name of the
main directory during the installation. You have the option during
installation to give the main NIGHT directory the name of your choice.
The main directory, X:\NIGHT, contains the main night system files.
The two most important to you are NIGHT.EXE, the main program, and
NIGHT.INI, the initialization file. You normally won't need to access
NIGHT.INI unless you wish to change one or more of the graphics file viewer
paths you entered during the installation process.
The night TEXT directory will contain a number of text index files if
you elected to copy these files from your Night Owl CD-ROM in order to speed
up NIGHT operations, otherwise it will be empty.
The WORK directory will only contain files if you elect to unpack or
copy files to the Night work area when operating NIGHT and the UNZIP only
contains files temporarily when unpacking a compressed file for viewing.
4 Operating the NIGHT Program
NIGHT.EXE can be found in the main NIGHT directory. To run NIGHT,
simply change to that directory and execute NIGHT. If your NIGHT
installation proceeded properly, then NIGHT should load and present you with
the main display. If NIGHT fails to load, it will issue an error message
describing the problem.
5 The Main NIGHT Displays
NIGHT has been designed to be intuitively easy to operate. Full mouse
and keyboard support are integrated into all the displays and context
sensitive help is always available via the <F1> key. All of the NIGHT
functions are accessed from the one of the main displays.
The top line of each NIGHT primary display contains a menu that can be
accessed (pulled down) via a mouse click or by pressing <Alt+M>. This menu
has items that duplicate the array of control buttons on the right side of
the display as well as some additional utility items.
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The bottom line contains a helpful hint that is releated to which
display item has the focus. The <Tab> is used to cycle from one control to
another and <Shift+Tab> reverses the direction. As the focus moves from
control to contol, the botttom line hint will change accordingly.
5.1 Main NIGHT Controls
All night functions can be activated through the keyboard or the mouse.
Each main display will have at least two labeled control buttons. One of
which is labeled "Exit", and always returns to the main NIGHT display. Use
the <Exit> button, or <Alt+X> to exit NIGHT to DOS. To exit any display
back to the previous display, press the <Esc> key.
To use a button control without a mouse, press the <Tab> key until the
desired control labeled is highlighted and then press the <Space Bar>. To
activate a button with the keyboard, press the <Alt> key simultaneously with
key that corresponds to the highlighted button label letter. For example,
to view a file list from the main NIGHT display, press <Alt+V>.
The <Enter> key and mouse double-click actions are used in conjunction
with NIGHT list boxes to signal action on the currently selected list item.
For example, to view files in a specific category in the main NIGHT display
list box, move the cursor bar to the desired category and press <Enter>. Or
double-click on the category name with the left mouse button.
For some functions a message bar containing information pertinent to
the current function appears at the top of the display.
Users with a color VGA video system will notice that the help button
and the exit button of each display appear in colors that are different from
the other buttons.
5.2 The NIGHT Help System
Context sensitive help is available via the <F1> key or the current
display <Help> button. A sizable, movable help window will appear that
contains text that corresponds to the display control that has the focus
when help is called. Help on using help can be accessed by pressing the
<F1> when viewing the help window. You may re-size and move the help window
and it will remain in the last location throughout your NIGHT session.
5.3 NIGHT List Boxes
Most NIGHT main displays have a box that contains a scrollable list of
items. For example, the list box in the main NIGHT display contains a list
of file categories and the box in the "View Files" display contains a list
of file names. Each list box contains a cursor bar which can be moved
through the list with the keyboard keypad keys (Dn/Up/PgDn/PgUp/End/Home) or
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the mouse and which indicates the currently selected item. Note that each
list box contains a scroll bar that indicates the current position of the
cursor bar in the list and can by used with the mouse to move through the
list. The <Enter> key acts upon the currently selected item.
6 Main NIGHT Functions
All NIGHT functions are accessed through the main NIGHT display.
Functions like the "View Files" and "Search" functions use the selected
category while functions like "List" and "Work Area" are independent of the
selected category. Access a main function by using the <Tab> key to
highligh the desired funcion button and pressing the <Space Bar>. Or you
may click on the button with the mouse or press the Alt plus the key that
corresponds to the highlighted character in the function button label.
6.1 Drop to DOS
You may temporarily drop to the DOS command level from the main NIGHT
display via the pull-down menu.
6.2 Viewing File Lists
NIGHT CD-ROM files are divided into descriptive categories and you can
view the list of files in any category by moving the cursor bar to the
desired category and pressing <Enter> or clicking on the "View Files"
button. The file list display that appears contains two main boxes. The
left box contains a list of the file names in that category and the right
box contains a textual file description that corresponds to the currently
selected file. Moving the cursor bar through the file list allows you to
browse the files and their descriptions.
Most of the files on your Night Owl CD-ROM are compressed files;
usually ZIP files. You may view a list of files contained in any compressed
files by pressing the <Enter> key with the cursor bar over the desire file.
This will activate the NIGHT compressed file viewer.
6.2.1 Tagging Files
Files may be tagged (marked) for "Copy", "UnPk", or "List" operations.
To tag/untag a file, move the cursor bar to the file name and press <Space
Bar>. Or you may tag/untag a file with the mouse by pointing at the file
name and pressing the right mouse button. Tagging is a toggle operation
which means if the file is tagged when <Space Bar> is pressed then the file
is untagged and vice versa. All files on the list may be tagged/untagged in
one operation by pressing the the "Tag +/-" button.
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6.2.2 Unpacking Compressed Files
Any compressed file in the file last may be unpacked (decompressed) to
the directory of your choice. Select a file to unpack with the cursor bar
and press the <UnPk> button or <Alt+U> to commence the unpacking. A window
will appear that prompts you to enter a valid DOS directory as the
destination for the unpacked files. The default is the NIGHT work area, the
\NIGHT\UNZIP directory. If you wish to examine and/or operate on the
unpacked files through NIGHT, then you should accept the default and unpack
to the work area.
Multiple files may be unpacked by tagging files but this is not
recommended since there may be files of the same name in different
compressed files which will overwrite previously decompressed files.
Upon completion of the unpacking process, NIGHT will automatically
activate the work area so that you may operate on the unpacked files. See
"The NIGHT Work Area" section below for more details.
6.2.3 Copying Files
You may copy file from the CD-ROM to any valid drive:\directory in your
system. Tag the files you wish to copy and press the <Copy> button or
<Alt+C>. You will be prompted to enter a valid destination directory.
6.2.4 Adding Files to the User List
NIGHT provides the powerful capability for you to build your own
category-independent list of files. You can add files from any category to
this list while viewing a category file list by tagging the desired file
names and pressing the <List> button or <Alt+L>. You will be informed as to
how many of your tagged files were added to your list and the total number
of files on the list. Since NIGHT will not add any duplicate file names to
the list, the "List" function may not add all the files you tagged. You can
access and browse your user list by exiting to the main display and pressing
the <User List> button or <Alt+U>.
6.3 Formatting a Floppy Disk
You may wish to format a fresh floppy disk on which to copy some of the
CD-ROM files. Pressing the <Fmt Disk> button or <Alt+F> will cause a dialog
box to appear in which you select the drive letter (A or B only) and the
drive size (360K, 1.2M, 720K, 1.44M). NIGHT will then call the DOS utility
FORMAT.COM to format your disk. Please note that NIGHT will inform you if
it is unable to locate FORMAT.COM in your DOS directory or in the DOS path
and abort the format request.
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6.4 Browsing the User List
The NIGHT user-defined list of files is built in one of two ways. You
may add tagged files to the user list while viewing a category file list or
you may add files to the user list by searching for text. This function
will be explained later.
To view your user list, press the "User List" button or <Alt+U>. NIGHT
will inform you if no files are on the list. The display and controls for
this function are exactly the same as when viewing a category file list.
6.5 The NIGHT Work Area
The NIGHT work area is actually the subdirectory named \NIGHT\WORK. It
is the default area for unpacking or copying files when in the file list
viewing function. You may access the work area by pressing the <Work Area>
button or <Alt+W>. This is a very useful feature in that it permits you to
unpack a file from your Night Owl CD-ROM into the work area and then read
text files, view graphics files, and/or execute programs.
6.5.1 The Work Area Display
The work area display has a list box which contains a list of all the
files currently in the work area. There are five functions in addition to
the <Help> and <Exit> functions. The file list box operates exactly like
other NIGHT list boxes except that tagging of file names is not available.
The main night display menu has an item that will permit you to clear
the work area of files so that you may start fresh when unpacking the next
ZIP file.
6.5.2 Printing Text Files
You may send any ASCII file to your printer by moving the cursor bar to
the target file name and pressing the <Print> button or <Alt+P>. NIGHT will
ask you to confirm that your printer is ready and then print the file,
informing you of the status as line-by-line printing progresses. Note that
NIGHT adds no formatting codes of any kind, including form feeds, as the
file is printed.
6.5.3 Executing an EXE or COM File
You may execute a COM or an EXE file in the NIGHT work area by
selecting the target file with the cursor bar and pressing the <Execute>
button or <Alt+E>. A box will appear which permits you to enter any special
command line parameters the program may require. If none are required,
leave the input line empty and press <Enter> or the <Ok> button to run the
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program. NIGHT will not execute a batch file because of the inadvertent
consequences that might result.
6.5.4 Copy Work Area Files
All of the files in the work area may be copied to a drive:\directory
of your choice by pressing the <Copy> button or <Alt+C>. Note that ALL of
the files are copied. There is no provision for copying individual files
from the work area.
6.5.5 Viewing Text or Graphics Files
You may view text or graphics files in the work area by pressing the
<View> button or <Alt+V>. Text files are loaded into the internal NIGHT
file browser for viewing. See the section titled "The NIGHT Test File
Viewer". Graphics files are passed the the viewer of your choice. NIGHT
will automatically detect a graphics file and prompt you to select from one
of your predefined graphics viewers.
Note that you may also view the contents of a compressed file in the
work area. This function works exactly like viewing compressed file from a
category or user file list.
6.5.6 Unpacking Compressed Files
Sometimes authors will place a compress file inside a compressed file.
You can unpack this file into your work area by selecting the target file
with the cursor bar and pressing the <Unpack> button or <Alt+U>.
6.5.7 Exiting the Work Area
Each time you exit the work area you will be asked if you wish to
delete the files in the area. We recommend that you do this unless you plan
to return to manipulate the current set of files in the work area during the
current session.
6.6 The NIGHT Search Function
The powerful NIGHT search function allows you to search the textual
file descriptions for a text string that you specify. And you can search
the files in just one category or in all of the categories. To search just
one category, start the search with no files tagged and the cursor bar on
the target category. To search multiple categories, tag the desired
categories. Start the search by pressing the <Search> button or <Alt+S>.
You will be prompted to enter a string of text up to 24 characters in
length. The search is not case sensitive so you may enter a upper or lower
case search string. NIGHT will display a window that informs you of the
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progress of the search and how many "finds" have been encountered. Each
time a match of your text to text in a file description is found, NIGHT will
add that file name and description to your user file list as long as that
file name is not already in your user list. That way, no duplicates are
added to your list. You can then go into the user list and browse the files
that your search produced.
6.7 Deleting the User List
It is often useful to delete your user-defined file list and start
fresh. To do this, press the <Del List> button or <Alt+D>. NIGHT will
confirm the deletion.
6.8 Tag All/None Toggle
You may wish to tag all the categories at once or to remove all tags at
once. Pressing the <Tag +/-> button or <Alt+T> will tag all categories if
none are currently tagged and remove all tags if one or more are currently
tagged.
7 NIGHT Printing Functions
NIGHT provides extensive support for the printing of lists and text
files. The <Alt+P Print> zone of the bottom mouse menu line can be clicked
on to print the current list. If you are in the main display, NIGHT will
print a list of categories. If you are in the file or user list viewer,
NIGHT will ask if you wish only file data lines or data lines with full text
descriptions to be printed.
8 The NIGHT Text File Viewer
The built-in NIGHT text file browser is not limited by file size but is
limited to 32,767 file lines. The following commands are available when
browsing a text file:
F3 - Autoscroll down
F4 - Autoscroll up
F5 - Go to a specified line number
F7 - Toggle line number display
F8 - Search for text
F9 - Mark end/begin of text block
Ctrl+H - Clear marked block
Ctrl+L - Continue search
Ctrl+P - Print marked block
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Ctrl+W - Write marked block to file
DnArrow - Increase autoscroll rate
UpArrow - Decrease autoscroll rate
The mouse is used in the following way:
Left button - Move bar to line
Right button - Mark block begin/end
Double-click - Clear marked block
The autoscroll function automatically scrolls the text one line at a
time at a user-adjustable rate. Use the down arrow to increase the
scroll rate and the up arrow to decrease it. Autoscroll can be
terminated by pressing F3, F4, Space Bar, or the Esc key.
9 Re-installing NIGHT
The Night Owl retrieval system may be re-installed to another drive via
the display menu. You will be prompted to enter a new main directory path
name and this directory MUST reside on a drive that is different than the
one that NIGHT is currently installed on. You will have the option of
deleting the original directory structure and files. Be sure to exit NIGHT
and restart it from its new location after using this feature.
10 The NIGHT Screen Saver
If the "ScreenSave" line in the NIGHT.INI file under the "[Screen]"
category is set to 10 or greater, screen saver will be active. When active,
the screen saver will activate after the amount of seconds set on the
"ScreenSave=" line with no keyboard or mouse activity. Here are some
examples:
Screensave=0 Disables the screen saver.
Screensave=30 Activates after 30 seconds of no
activity.
Screensave=120 Activates after 120 seconds(2 minutes)
of no activity.
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