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______________________________________________________________________________ MSI Menu System ______________________________________________________________________________ User's Manual ______________________________________________________________________________ MSI ShareWorks 2907 St. Tropez Dr. Ontario, CA 91761 (714) 923-2599 ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page i MSI Menu System User's Manual Copyright (C) 1991 Larry B. Rice & MSI ShareWorks All Rights Reserved This document is subject to change without notice. No warranty, implied or express, is made with respect to the contents of this document. The Author and MSI ShareWorks specifically disclaim any implied warranties of fitness for any particular purpose. Liability for the information in this document, and for the service described herein, shall be limited to the purchase price of the document. When sharing copies of MSI, please include unaltered copies of the documentation files. The printed and bound manual distributed or shared. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. PC-DOS is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page ii MSI Menu System Copyright (C) 1991 Larry B. Rice & MSI ShareWorks All Rights Reserved - DISCLAIMER - The MSI Menu System and the MSI User's Manual are distributed 'as is'. The Author and MSI ShareWorks make no warrants, either express or implied, as to appropriateness or suitability for any particular use of this product, or to the accuracy of this or other related documentation, nor to the error-free operation of the software. Except as may be provided by law, neither the Author nor MSI ShareWorks and its duly authorized representatives may be held liable for any damages or loss resulting from the use of, or the inability to use, this product. The MSI Menu System is distributed as Shareware. Unaltered copies of this program may be freely distributed on diskette or through Electronic means so long as no charge is made, other than a cost of diskette charge, without the prior written permission of the Author and MSI ShareWorks. Permission is hereby granted for recipients of this program to evaluate without charge the MSI Menu System for a period not to exceed 30 days. The software must be registered for use beyond that time. OnLine technical support is being established for the MSI Menu System on BBSs around the country. These boards, and the Official Distribution BBSs for MSI are listed in the file SUPPORT.MSI. The ABSCO EMBASSY, (714) 465-1549 HST D/S, now hosts a support conference which is echoed internationally through the RIME computer network. All public, routed and R/O mail should be addressed to Larry Rice. Address routed mail to ->EMBASSY. A regional support conference is echoed in the Wildnet computer network through The Library! BBS, (714) 780-6365 HST D/S. The author may also be reached through FidoNet Node 1:103/355. On all correspondence and Registrations PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR FULL NAME AND COMPLETE MAILING ADDRESS. MSI ShareWorks 2907 St. Tropez Dr. Ontario, CA 91761 ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page iii CONTENTS Section I Thank-You! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Who can use it?. . . . . . . . . . . 3 Installing MSI . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Program Files. . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Locating Program & Data Files. . . . 8 Section II Using MSI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Starting the Program . . . . . . . . 10 Important Terms. . . . . . . . . . . 12 Special Menu Types . . . . . . . . . 14 Special Menu Commands. . . . . . . . 18 Section III Creating Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 The Menus Editor . . . . . . . . . . 22 How Actions are executed . . . . . . 26 How Dual is executed . . . . . . . . 28 Creating a Sub-Menu. . . . . . . . . 30 Technical Note - Memory Allocation . 32 The Menu Settings. . . . . . . . . . . 34 The General Menu Settings. . . . . . 34 The Current Item's Settings. . . . . 38 Menu Editor's Function Keys & Commands 41 Text Editing Commands. . . . . . . . . 44 Section IV Step-By-Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Creating a Sub-Menu. . . . . . . . . 50 Creating an Action . . . . . . . . . 50 Creating a Dual Action . . . . . . . 51 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page iv List of Illustrations Figure 1 - The MSI Menu Screen . . . . 2 Figure 2 - Setting the Home Directory. 5 Figure 3 - Modifying AUTOEXEC.BAT. . . 7 Figure 4 - If MSI.DAT cannot be found. 9 Figure 5 - Component parts of the menu 11 Figure 6 - A 'Stepped' menu. . . . . . 13 Figure 7 - Non-Prompted menus may have 13 Figure 8 - F1 displays the menu's Help 15 Figure 9 - E, S and P call 'Help'. . . 15 Figure 10 - The Control Key help line. 17 Figure 11 - CTRL-F2 lets you display . 19 Figure 12 - Menus are Locked when the. 21 Figure 13 - Unlocked menus may be. . . 21 Figure 14 - The initial Menus Editor . 23 Figure 15 - F2 adds or edits the . . . 25 Figure 16 - Command flow for an Action 25 Figure 17 - Command flow for Dual. . . 27 Figure 18 - Using Dual options to. . . 27 Figure 19 - Memory will be allocated.. 29 Figure 20 - The new sub-menu is drawn. 29 Figure 21 - The new sub-menu in normal 31 Figure 22 - Press N to add or edit a . 33 Figure 23 - Press P to add or edit a . 33 Figure 24 - Menu's Help screen opened. 35 Figure 25 - The top window settings. . 37 Figure 26 - Selectable items will be . 40 Figure 27 - An Action window opened. . 40 Figure 28 - Command Assistance Line. . 43 Figure 29 - ALT-D has been used to . . 46 Figure 30 - Checking PATH and MSIPATH. 48 ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 1 Section I Thank-You! for your interest in the MSI Menu System. We sincerely hope that you will find MSI a valuable addition to your computer system. If you do, registering your copy will help in the effort to further develop and enhance MSI. The registered version includes the Menus Lock-out feature, plus; A $10 registration fee entitles you to: -> The latest version of MSI This will include your registration number on the Copyright bar at the bottom of the opening MSI menu. You should replace your current version of MSI with this registered version. Please see "Installing MSI" in this manual. -> A Password which allows you to remove the registration credit on the MSI backdrop screen, if preferred. A $20 registration fee entitles you to the above, plus: -> Technical Support You may call our technical support line, (714) 923-2599, any time Monday through Friday, except holidays, from 8AM to 5PM Pacific Standard Time for answers to questions or help with problems. Have your registration number handy. -> The Printed & Bound "MSI User's Manual" A $30 registration fee entitles you to ALL of the above, plus: -> Unlimited FREE Upgrades! As a fully registered owner of MSI you are entitled to ALL new releases of the MSI Menu System, FREE! You can upgrade with shared or downloaded copies at no cost. You may also receive the latest version directly from MSI ShareWorks. Please enclose $3.00 U.S. to cover Postage & Handling costs. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 2 MSI replaces this: ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ C:\ > _ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ -------------------------------------------------------------------- with this: ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 9:46 April 21, 1991 ║ ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ ║ ║ █│ F1 - HELP │ ╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ Your Programs ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ ║ ║ ║ █║ ║ ║ ║ █║ 1. Editor ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ █║ 2. Spreadsheet ║ ║ ║ █│ F5 - MENU │ █║ 3. Paint Program ║ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ E)ditor Help ║ ║ ║ █║ S)preadsheet Help ║ ║ ║ █║ P)aint Program Help ║ ║ ║ ┌─────────────┐ █║ ║ ║ ║ █│ ESC To QUIT │ █║ ║ ║ ║ █│ MSI Menus │ █║ Your Selection _ ║ ║ ║ █└─────────────┘ █╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝ ║ ║ ██████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ MSI Menu System 1.54 Copyright (C) 1991 L. Rice & MSI ShareWorks ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Figure 1 - The MSI Menu Screen. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 3 Introduction MSI provides individuals, dealers and consultants with a convenient method of defining menus for easier access to the various programs and functions of a computer system. Individual users will find that the menus 'clean up the workspace' while still providing fast and easy access to DOS when it is absolutely necessary. Dealers and consultants will find this an invaluable tool for easing new users past DOS and into the applications for which they purchased the computer in the first place. Who can use it? Anyone currently using DOS can use MSI. While no programming skills are required or special 'script languages' need be learned, a basic familiarity with DOS is assumed and some knowledge of DOS batch file commands. Even if all you know is that "I type this to get into the program..." you can make efficient use of MSI. Each menu option can be assigned an 'Action'. When the option is selected the Action is performed. The "I type this..." that you normally enter as a command to DOS, is entered as the Action defined for a menu option. Now, instead of typing 'this...' you simply select the option from the menu, and MSI issues the command for you. Depending on the operation you select for the menu, an option might be selected by highlighting it with a Cursor Bar and pressing RETURN (ENTER), or by simply pressing the first character of the option string. With MSI you can gather all of your hard-to-remember batch file names into one or more easy-to- use set of menus. Nearly all of the commands you will need to create your menus will be conveniently found on screen while you work. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 4 Installing MSI ══>> Program Files First, make sure that you have received the following files: RUNMSI.BAT - This is the DOS batch file used to start MSI and control 'Actions'. MSI.EXE - The MSI program file. MINSTALL.EXE - The MSI Installation Utility. MSIINTRO.EXE - This is the MSI Shareware screen. This file MUST be present or unregistered copies will not run. SAMPLE.DAT - A set of sample menus for you to explore. Other files you should have received: MSI1 - MSI3.DOC - These are the MSI User's Manual files. If you share a copy of MSI with a friend (and by all means, please do!) make sure they have these files. The printed and bound MSI User's Manual is copyrighted and may not be copied and shared. PRINTQWK.BAT - A DOS batch file to print the supporting documentation files. MANUAL.BAT - A DOS batch file to print the manual files. README.1ST - This file is MUST reading for first-time MSI users or those upgrading to a new release. SUPPORT.MSI - Lists the Online Regional Support BBS's and Official Distribution BBS's for MSI. README.DOC - This file contains installation instructions. WHATS.NEW - Contains changes and new feature information for the current MSI release. HISTORY.MSI - A complete revision history. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 5 Setting the Home Directory MANUALLY 1. With your Editor or Word Processor, create HOME.DIR ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ C: │ │ CD C:\MSI │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ -------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. On the first line put the DRIVE LETTER of the disk drive where MSI has been installed. 3. On the second line, put the DOS Change Directory Command (CD) and the full pathname to the installation directory. 4. Save the new file. Figure 2 - Setting the Home Directory (HOME.DIR) ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 6 ══>> Installation - The 'Home' Directory When you first run MSI, the Installation Utility will appear. It will prompt you for the Drive Letter and Directory where your MSI files are stored. You can also do the following, BUT using the Installation Utility is faster and easier. You can re-install MSI at any time by entering the Menus Editor (F5) and pressing CTRL-F6. MSI needs to know how to get back to the Home disk and directory when returning from an application or set of Action commands. This is the directory that contains RUNMSI.BAT. Use your word processor or editor to create a new file called HOME.DIR. ! NOTE: For MANUAL Installation ONLY! 1. On the first line of the file put the drive letter of the disk drive where your MSI files are installed. C: 2. On the second line, use the DOS Change Directory (CD) command to move to the directory containing your MSI files. CD C:\MSI FOR EXAMPLE: If you've installed MSI on an F drive, in a sub-directory off of a directory called UTILITY, HOME.DIR should contain these two lines: F: CD F:\UTILITY\MSI These allow MSI to return properly to the menus regardless of the drive or directory you are in when a set of Action commands is completed or you return from an application. NOTE: Version 1.5 and later include an Installation Utility. However, if the file HOME.DIR is not found in the current directory when MSI is first run, the Utility will assume the program has already been installed. Shared copies may include the file HOME.DIR. IN THIS CASE, run the program, enter the Menus Editor (F5) and press CTRL-F6 to re-install MSI to YOUR specifications. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 7 To add MSI to your AUTOEXEC.BAT Use the Installation Utility OR With your Editor or Word Processor open AUTOEXEC.BAT... ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ (your commands) │ │ . │ │ . │ │ . │ │ REM Allow MSI to locate important files │ │ REM from anywhere on your system │ │ │ │ SET MSIPATH=C:\MSI │ │ │ │ REM Allow DOS to find the MSI program files. │ │ │ │ PATH=c:\;C:\MSI │ │ │ │ REM Call MSI to display your menus │ │ REM at power-on or re-boot. │ │ │ │ RUNMSI │ │ │ -------------------------------------------------------------------- ...and add the lines above. 'REM' lines are optional. Save the edited file. The Installation Utility will add these lines for you, saving your old AUTOEXEC.BAT as AUTOEXEC.BAK. Figure 3 - Modifying AUTOEXEC.BAT ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 8 ══>> Locating Program & Data Files DOS uses the 'PATH' variable to locate program files. Figure 3 and the instructions on this page show you how to add your Home directory to this variable. Also, the environment variable, MSIPATH, was introduced with Version 1.5 to help MSI locate important data files. If you use the second part of the Installation Utility, this will be done for you. The following instructions are for those who would prefer to edit AUTOEXEC.BAT themselves. The Installation Utility will allow you to quit, after the Home Directory is set (this is required) but before the AUTOEXEC.BAT file is changed. The Utility will also let you add MSI as a start-up program if you like. ! NOTE: For MANUAL Installations ONLY. You may want to start MSI from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that the menus always appear when your computer is turned on or re-booted. The AUTOEXEC.BAT file will be found on the root directory of your boot drive. If you have a hard disk, this will probably be drive C:. NOTE: It is possible that AUTOEXEC.BAT may not be on your system. DOS looks for this file on boot-up and, if found, executes any commands it contains before presenting you with the system prompt. AUTOEXEC is not a mandatory file but will be found on most systems. Figure 3 illustrates the changes required in AUTOEXEC.BAT. 1. MSI uses MSIPATH to locate important data files. If this is not set to the proper drive and directory, MSI may not be able to locate your menu definitions, among other things. 2. Adding the MSI directory to the DOS 'PATH' variable enables DOS to locate program files regardless of the current working directory. Unregistered copies of MSI MUST be able to locate the program file MSIINTRO.EXE or MSI will not execute. 3. The example in Figure 3 uses C:\MSI for the Home directory. Your Home directory may be different or you may have the program files located in one directory and data files in another. A. Set PATH to locate PROGRAM files. B. Set MSIPATH to locate DATA files. 4. Add the RUNMSI command to have your menus available when the system is turned on or after re-booting. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 9 ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ Menus Data File not found. Use Sample Menus? (Y/N) _ ║ ║ ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Figure 4 - If MSI.DAT cannot be found. Sample menus show you how various menus are constructed, and let you experiment. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 10 Section II Using MSI Starting the Program If you have entered your MSI Home Directory into the DOS PATH variable and set MSIPATH to your data file directory (normally the same as the Home Directory), as described in "Locating Program and Data Files", then from any drive and/or directory on your system you simply need to enter; RUNMSI MSI will search the MSIPATH directory, or the current directory if MSIPATH is not defined, for a menus data file, MSI.DAT. If one is not found then MSI will search the same directory for the Sample Menus file, SAMPLE.DAT. If SAMPLE.DAT is found, you will be prompted with the following: ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ Menus Data File not found. Use Sample Menus? (Y/N) _ ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Press Y (Yes) to create a menus data file using the Sample Menus found in SAMPLE.DAT. The resulting MSI.DAT file will be placed in the directory given by the MSIPATH variable, or in the current directory if MSIPATH is not defined. If you press N, OR if MSI cannot locate either MSI.DAT or SAMPLE.DAT, a default data file will be created. The default file contains a single menu and a Help Screen to go with it. This is a good place to start after you have experimented with the Sample Menus and are ready to create menus for your own system. After examining and experimenting with the Sample Menus, enter the Menus Editor and press CTRL-F10. This is the delete all menus command, so use it carefully! You will be asked to verify that all the menus are to be deleted. Press Y (Yes). A single menu will be created, titled MAIN MENU. The rest is up to you. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 11 ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ Today's Time & Date ║ ║ System Prompts ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ ║ ║ █│ F1 - HELP │ ╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ Menu Name on this line. ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ ║ ║ ║ █║ Item #1 ║ ║ ║ █║ Item #2 ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ █║ . ║ ║ ║ █│ F5 - MENU │ █║ . ║ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ . ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ . ║ ║ ║ █║ . ║ ║ ║ █║ . ║ ║ ║ ┌─────────────┐ █║ Item #9 ║ ║ ║ █│ ESC To QUIT │ █║ ║ ║ ║ █│ MSI Menus │ █║ Prompt Line goes here. ║ ║ ║ █└─────────────┘ █╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝ ║ ║ ██████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ MSI Menu System 1.54 Copyright (C) 1991 L. Rice & MSI ShareWorks ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Figure 5 - Component parts of the menu. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 12 Important Terms Most of the terms encountered here will probably already be familiar to you. If you don't have a working knowledge of Batch File commands and would like to know more, consult your DOS manual. There are a number of these commands, and it is beyond the scope of this manual to detail them all. There are only a few terms that you will need to be familiar with to use this manual effectively: Menu, Action, Selection Options, Resident and non-Resident. Menu - The Menu is the largest bordered window area on the screen. The Menu contains an optional Name at the top, an optional Prompt at the bottom and the Selection Items lying between them. Menus may have up to nine items if a Prompt Line is used, or up to eleven if it isn't. Menu Items - These are the selectable and non-selectable strings which you define on a menu. Figure 5 shows the location of the items on the menu. Actions - A selected Item may send a set of commands to DOS. These commands are defined in an 'Action Window'. A set of Action commands is identical to a set of batch file commands. In fact, your Action may call a batch file. The Action Windows simply give you a convenient place to store and maintain batch commands. Since most of your Menus will use Actions, they are covered in detail later in this manual. Resident & non-Resident - MSI can remain in memory and send Action Commands to DOS. In this mode MSI is said to be 'Resident'. RSIDNT and DUAL items execute in Resident mode. MSI will NOT be in memory when Options set to ACTION are selected and the Action commands executed. This is the non-Resident mode. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 13 ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 9:46 April 21, 1991 ║ ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ ║ ║ █│ F1 - HELP │ ╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║╔══════════════════════════════════════╩╗ ║ ║ ████████████ ██║ Stepped Menu ║ ║ ║ ██║ ║ ║ ║ ██║ 1. Edit Month-End Report ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ ██║ 2. Year-End Report ║ ║ ║ █│ F5 - MENU │ ██║ 3. Telephone List ║ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ ██║ ║ ║ ║ ████████████ ██║ Note: #1 Due by the 5th ║ ║ ║ ██║ Note: #2 Due by 1-15 ║ ║ ║ ██║ #3 - Office Numbers ║ ║ ║ ┌─────────────┐ ██║ ║ ║ ║ █│ ESC To QUIT │ ██║ ║ ║ ║ █│ MSI Menus │ ██║ My Selection _ ║ ║ ║ █└─────────────┘ ██║ ║ ║ ║ ██████████████ ██╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝ ║ ║ ████████████████████████████████████████ ║ ║ ║ ║ MSI Menu System 1.54 Copyright (C) 1991 L. Rice & MSI ShareWorks·║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Figure 6 - A 'Stepped' menu. (Last three items are 'Text Only') ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 9:46 April 21, 1991 ║ ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ ║ ║ █│ F1 - HELP │ ╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ Prompted Menu ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ ║ ║ ║ █║ Item #1 ║ ║ ║ █║ Item #2 ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ █║ . ║ ║ ║ █│ F5 - MENU │ █║ . ║ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ . ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ . ║ ║ ║ █║ . ║ ║ ║ █║ . ║ ║ ║ ┌─────────────┐ █║ Item #9 ║ ║ ║ █│ ESC To QUIT │ █║ ║ ║ ║ █│ MSI Menus │ █║ Prompt String Here _ ║ ║ ║ █└─────────────┘ █╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝ ║ ║ ██████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ MSI Menu System 1.54 Copyright (C) 1991 L. Rice & MSI ShareWorks·║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Figure 7 - Prompted menus may have up to 9 items. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 14 Special Menu Types MSI lets you create three special types of menus: 1. Stepped 2. Prompted 3. Help Only A sample of each of these has been defined in the Sample Menus found in the file SAMPLE.DAT. 1. Stepped Menus (Figure 6) A stepped menu will not display directly atop the previous menu. Instead, it will be offset slightly so that a portion of the previous menu is still visible. The purpose of the stepped menu is to provide a visual reference to the user's location within a set of sub-menus. If several sub-menus are defined, the stepped menu can help to keep the user oriented with respect to the main (first) menu. See option #1 of the Sample Menus. See option #2 for samples of non-stepped menus. 2. Prompted Menus (Figure 7) A Prompted Menu has a Prompt Line defined at the bottom of the menu. The normal underline cursor will appear immediately following the prompt string. The prompt has historically been used to indicate to a user that the computer is awaiting a command. The prompt option has been provided pretty much for this purpose only. To allow for more responsive operation, MSI will execute an option just as soon as a valid key is pressed, or when the RETURN key is pressed on a highlighted option. Using the prompt will reduce the maximum number of selections on a menu to 9. Options #2 and #4 of the Sample Menus display prompted menus. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 15 ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 9:46 April 21, 1991 ║ ║ ┌────────────────────────┐ ║ ║ ┌──────█│ Press ESC when Done. │ ║ ║ █│ F1 - █└────────────────────────┘════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ █└──────█████████████████████████───────────────────┐ ║ ║ ║ █████████████│ │ ║ ║ ║ █│ Each Menu may have a Help Screen │ ║ ║ ║ █│ │ ║ ║ ║ ┌──────────█│ like this one which you define. │ ║ ║ ║ █│ F5 - MENU█│ │ ║ ║ ║ █└──────────█│ The blank lines you see here are │ ║ ║ ║ █████████████│ │ ║ ║ ║ █│ shown for example only. There are │ ║ ║ ║ █│ │ ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────█│ 10 full lines for your use. │ ║ ║ ║ █│ ESC to QUI█└──────────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ║ ║ █│ ^F1 - DOS███████████████████████████████████████ ║ ║ ║ █└─────────────┘ █╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝ ║ ║ ██████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ MSI Menu System 1.54 Copyright (C) 1991 L. Rice & MSI ShareWorks ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Figure 8 - F1 displays the menu's Help screen. ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 9:46 April 21, 1991 ║ ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ ║ ║ █│ F1 - HELP │ ╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ Your Programs ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ ║ ║ ║ █║ ║ ║ ║ █║ 1. Editor ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ █║ 2. Spreadsheet ║ ║ ║ █│ F5 - MENU │ █║ 3. Paint Program ║ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ E)ditor Help ║ ║ ║ █║ S)preadsheet Help ║ ║ ║ █║ P)aint Program Help ║ ║ ║ ┌─────────────┐ █║ ║ ║ ║ █│ ESC To QUIT │ █║ ║ ║ ║ █│ MSI Menus │ █║ Your Selection _ ║ ║ ║ █└─────────────┘ █╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝ ║ ║ ██████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ MSI Menu System 1.54 Copyright (C) 1991 L. Rice & MSI ShareWorks ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Figure 9 - E, S and P call 'Help' menus. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 16 3. Help Only Menus Actually each menu can contain both selectable and non-selectable ('Text Only') items. However, the Help Only menu can be a useful feature. For this type of menu all Selection Items used are defined as 'Text Only'. MSI will only allow the ESC key to be active, in this instance, so that the user can return to the previous menu. Each menu does have a Help Screen which can be displayed by pressing F1. While sufficient for most situations, there may be instances in which additional help space would be useful. You can define a Text Only item on the menu itself to expand on an item's description. This is illustrated on the main Sample Menu. However, you might want to create a menu like the one shown in Figure 9. The first three options, 1, 2 and 3, select Actions to execute an Editor, Spreadsheet or Paint Program. The E, S and P options each display a sub-menu containing additional help on the use of each program, or perhaps goals and deadlines for a project. Each Help menu may have up to 11 lines of text. That's quite a lot of extra help! Note: The last line on a Help only sub-menu might be: Press ESC to Return... ----------------------------------------------------------------- MSI User's Manual Page 17 ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 9:46 April 21, 1991 ║ ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ ║ ║ █│ F1 - HELP │ ╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ MSI Sample Menus ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ ║ ║ ║ █║ 1. Lots of Stepped Menus ║ ║ ║ █║ A 'Text Only' Option... ║ ║ ║ ┌───────────┐ █║ ║ ║ ║ █│ F5 - MENU │ █║ 2. Non-Stepped Menus ║ ║ ║ █└───────────┘ █║ ...could be additional help. ║ ║ ║ ████████████ █║ ║ ║ ║ █║ 'Text Only' cannot be selected. ║ ║ ║ █║ ║ ║ ║ ┌─────────────┐ █║ 3. Password Menu (PW = Pass) ║ ║ ║ █│ ESC To QUIT │ █║ ║ ║ ║ █│ MSI Menus │ █║ 4. Print Document Files...! ║ ║ ║ █└─────────────┘ █╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝ ║ ║ ██████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ CTRL/ F1: Use DOS F2: Dir On/Off F3: Reserved F4: Reserved ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Figure 10 - The Control Key help line.