Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/009a/diskman.zip/DISKMGR.DOC

Text File | 1990-10-10 | 9KB | 176 lines

Diskmgr.exe  (The Disk Organizer)  Freeware from A.C.Software

You are welcome to copy and hand out this program, upload it and
enjoy it...

This program makes all its own databases and indexes.  You can have up
to 1 million records in the database or how ever much your drive will
hold.  But after 100,000 records, it would get kind of slow to handle
the database.  I have 7 boxes of 5.25 inch floppies and my 5.25 inch
floppy database has 6089 records in it.  So chances are you will never
run out of room...

This program will help you organize all your floppy disks.  It reads
all the filenames of a disk into a database.  It assumes that you keep
your floppies in several boxes and will name each box and number each
floppy in the box.  The reason it files floppies under numbers and
boxes instead of 'volume names' is because if you have a whole bunch
of boxes, how do you know WHICH box, WHICH volume name is in?  Also,
it's alot easier to find a 2 digit number in a box than an alpha name
(especially if you flunked filing 101 like I did!).

Suggested names for boxes are:

B1  B2  AA AB L1 etc.

I name my 3.5 disk boxes B1,B2 etc.  and my high density 3.5 disk
boxes H1 H2 etc and my 5.25 floppy boxes, L1, L2 etc (L=Large).

Disks are numbered 01-99.  So a disk in Box B1 would look like B1-01
in the database.

LABELS:  It will print a label on a one up mailing label, if you
select "Y" for label.  IT defaults to printing a label on a READ or
INSERT record and defaults to NOT printing a label on a modify record.

F2:  When you are reading disks, it will retain all the information of
the last disk you entered.  That way, if you are entering all the
disks from a box, all you need to do is change the first field, the
number, and press F2 (i.e. leave all the rest - drive, box # etc - the
same).

READING DISKS:

After you specify the number etc on reading in disks, it shows you a
directory showing any subdirectories.  You need to copy down the
subdirectories or do a print screen as this version does not
automatically read in subdirectories (that is coming in a future
upgrade!).  Then, when you see the "Enter the path prompt", type in
all the subdirectories you saw in the last screen and also, press
RETURN to read in the files on the ROOT directory.  If the directory
shown says "no files found" that means you have no subdirectories on
the disk you are trying to read in so only press RETURN on the "Enter
the path" prompt.

If the program can't read the disk, it will give you an error message
on the directory screen.  So when you get to the "Enter the path
prompt", just press RETURN, and figure the disk as a frisbie or
something.

DISKMANAGER FILE MANAGEMENT:

In this program, you can add, delete or change filenames, dates etc
from the keyboard.  This is handy if you change one or two files and
don't want to bother reading in the disk again.

This part has everything to do on one screen and you don't go to
separate menus to do things like other programs .....    You see
the "file window" on the screen which is like a list.  If you want
to browse through it, you can press the UP or DOWN arrow keys or you
can go a screen down by pressing the PgDn key and a screen up, by
pressing the PgUp key.  You can go to the END of the file by holding
down the CTRL key and tapping the PgDn key.  You can go to the TOP
of the file by holding down the CTRL key and tapping the PgUp key.

The light bar on the screen tells you what record you are on.  If you
want to EDIT a record, move the light bar that THAT record and press
the RETURN [or ENTER] key.  You will see a window appear on the screen
and you can change anything on the record you want.  If you decide to
not make any changes or don't want to save the changes you made, just
press the ESCape key and the record will remain the same as it was
before.  Pressing F2 or RETURN on the last field will write the changes
you have made to the file.

To ADD a record to the file, press the INSert key.  Just fill in the
blanks in the window which appears on the screen and then, when done,
press RETURN [or ENTER] on the last field, or press F2.  Press ESCape
if you change your mind about ADDing a new record.

DELETING or removing a record is a two part process.  First, you press
the DELete key and select "Delete" from the little menu which pops up.
It will mark the record which the light bar is on as a DELETED record.
If you change your mind and don't wish to DELETE that record, then,
press the DELete key again and you will see that the word, "Delete",
has been replaced with "UNdelete" <because the record is already deleted.>
Select "Undelete" and the record will be UNmarked as deleted.  If you
HAVE deleted the correct record, then you need to take the second step.
You need to get rid of the record forever.  This you do by pressing the
DELete key again, and selecting "PACK" from the menu.

You can delete an entire disk out of the database by pressing F3.  It
will ask you what disk number you wish to delete. If the disk number
you select is already deleted or has deleted files on it, it will ask
if you wish to UNdelete it or still delete all undeleted files on that
disk.  If you press ESCape on this question, it will leave things as
they are right now and not do anything.  After you delete an entire
disk (you might do this if alot of files on a disk had changed and you
wanted to re-read in the disk), you need to press the DELete key and
select the PACK option to get rid of the deleted records forever.

To see how much space is left on a disk, press F4.

Sometimes you might want to find a record really fast or sort the file
in a different order.  You use the SEARCH option for this.  Press F5
<function key 5>.  It puts up a template (form) on the screen. Fill
in the thing you want to search on, either filename (you don't need to
put in the entire name) or Disk Number or file extension (like .EXE etc).
It will search on the first field it finds with data in it.  When you
get back to the file window, the file you are searching for will be
highlighted or else if it is NOT in the file, the file which would come
right AFTER it, will be highlighted.  Also, the file will be in order
of whatever you decided to search on.  Like if you are searching on
the file extension, then the file will be in order of the file
extensions.  If you want to get it back into alphabetical order, press
F5 again and type in something in the filename field.  Then the file
will go back into alpha order.

If you want to have to press RETURN before it will go to the next
field, SET CONFIRM on with pressing F6.

PRINTED REPORTS:

You can two three reports to the printer.
You can print all the files on ONE disk (in order of oldest to newest date)
by pressing F7 <function key 7>.

If you press F10 <function key 10>, you can
print a list of all filenames in the database.  If you have alot of disks
that can take alot of pages!

If you are done using the program and want to quit, Press the ESCape
key.  A small MENU will pop up and give you the choice of Quitting,
or PACKing or returning to the program.  You would PACK if you
search for something that you know is in the file but it doesn't find it.
You would also PACK to get rid of deleted records forever.
Or if you get an error message at the top of the screen about it being
"unable to open NAMEX.NTX" or the like.  Sometimes after a storm, the
indexes may be messed up.  Just select the PACK option from the QUIT
menu and you will be "in business" again.

If PACKing doesn't help the indexes, simply go to DOS and delete
all the files with an ".NTX" extension.  Then, when you run the program
again, it will remake all the indexes.  DO NOT DELETE THE FILE WITH
a ".DBF" extension. This is your DATA file!

When you are in the file window part, the DATA FILE is OPEN at all times
and so, BE CAREFUL to NEVER NEVER NEVER leave the terminal while in this
there!!!  If you need to walk away, EVEN FOR A FEW MOMENTS, press
the ESCape key and EXIT to the menu!  ALSO, be SURE to make REGULAR
backups with FULLBAK or FASTBACK.  Taking this care may save you work
later!

The following Control Keys work while adding or changing a record:

      CTRL and y: this will clear out a field in the record or delete a
                  line in a comment.
      CTRL and f: moves one word to the right.
      CTRL and a: moves one word to the left.
      CTRL and t: deletes the word the cursor is on.
      END <key> : moves to the END of the line.
      HOME <key>: moves to the beginning of the line.

                   A.C. Software
                   PO Box 7643
                   Phoenix, AZ 85011
                   [phone]