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MSI Menu System Copyright (C) 1991 by Micris Softworks, Inc All Rights Reserved Except as Granted Herein 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 Micris Softworks, Inc. 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. The following Registration fees are effective with the release of Version 1.3: (All amounts in U.S. Dollars) $45.00 - Full Registration. This includes: * The latest version of MSI. * Printed & bound User's Manual. * Unlimited Technical Support. * Unlimited FREE upgrades (as available) * New Product Notices $25.00 - Technical Support Registration. You will receive a Registration number giving you access to UNLIMITED technical support, including support by telephone, plus notification of upgrades and new products. $15.00 - Simple Registration of software and inclusion in our notification list of upgrades and new products. On all correspondence and Registrations PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR FULL NAME AND COMPLETE MAILING ADDRESS. Micris Softworks, Inc. 2907 St. Tropez Dr. Ontario, CA 91761 Remember, Shareware is supported SOLELY by voluntary registration of the software. The registration fees allow us to continue developing MSI and to provide quality documentation and technical support. If you like MSI, are using it but don't really require the support and other benefits, you can now register for just $15.00. Help keep Shareware alive. REGISTER TODAY!! - DISCLAIMER - The MSI Menu System is distributed 'as is'. Micris Softworks, Inc. makes 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, Micris Softworks, Inc. and its duly authorized representatives may not be held liable for any damages or loss resulting from the use of, or the inability to use, this product. 'C' Programmers Note: MSI utilizes a simple text window driver compatible with Turbo C. TextWin, is also available as a shareware product. If you can't find a copy of it on your favorite BBS contact Micris at the address given at the beginning of this document to receive an evaluation copy. Using this Documentation. To help you find the information you need, this document contains special locators that you can use with the search feature of your editor or word processor to quickly find certain command or feature descriptions. Use your search command to locate any of the following words or phrases, using upper and lower case as shown. Do not type in the quotation marks. They are only there to identify the individual search strings. "What is MSI?" "Who can use it?" "How do I get started?" "PROGRAM FILES:" "TERMS:" "INSTALLING MSI:" "NAME:" "CURSOR BAR:" "EDIT:" "PROMPT:" "PROMPT LINE:" "MOVE:" "HELP:" "FOR THIS OPTION:" "DEFINE:" "SELECTION OPTIONS:" "SELECTS:" "DELETE:" "PASSWORD:" "MENU:" "STEPPED:" "ACTION:" "SHADOWED:" "DUAL:" "BORDER:" "TYPE:" "BACK:" "NORMAL:" "FORE:" "TEXT ONLY:" "QUIT:" What is MSI? Basically, MSI provides Dealers, Consultants and individual computer owners an easy-to-define set of windowed menus which tie together and provide easy access to the various programs on a computer system. 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. Individual users will find that the menus will 'clean up the workspace' while still providing fast and easy access to DOS when it is absolutely necessary. Who can use it? Primarily MSI was designed as a Consultant's and Dealer tool. This suggests some familiarity with DOS, in particular Batch File commands, but no special hardware or programming expertise. Of course the more you understand about DOS, the more involved and powerful your menus can become. However, if all you know is that "I type this to get into the program..." you can still make efficient use of MSI. Each menu option can be assigned to an 'Action'. When the option is selected the Action is performed. "I type this..." becomes the Action you define for a menu option. Now, instead of typing 'this...' you simply select the option from the menu. With MSI you can gather all of your hard-to-remember 'thises...' into one or more easy-to-use menus. Almost all of the commands you will need to create your menus will be there on screen while you work. How do I get started? Unlike some systems, MSI is nearly all self-contained. That means that there are only three files to the whole system, and you will only be working with one of them, ever. PROGRAM FILES: First, check to make sure that you received the following files: MSI.EXE - This is the program file. MSI.DAT - Menu definitions are stored here. The original MSI.DAT contains some sample menus for you to explore. When you are ready to define your own menus rename this file to MSI.SAV. M.Bat - This is the DOS batch file used to start MSI and control 'Actions'. README.DOC - Contains important information on each release of MSI plus installation instructions. MSI.DOC - This file, which you obviously have received... If you did not receive a .DAT file then you still have the complete program; MSI will create a new .DAT file when you make your own menus. -->> When MSI is first run it will check the CURRENT directory for MSI.DAT. If the data file is not present then MSI will create a new one containing a single menu and help screen. INSTALLING MSI: IMPORTANT: Read the sections marked '-->>'. If you have downloaded or received the MSIxx.ZIP file, where 'xx' is the version number, then you will need to 'unzip' this file first. Use PKUNZIP.EXE for this. If you don't have PKUNZIP you will need to dial up your favorite local BBS and download it. You may want to make a sub-directory on your hard disk to hold your MSI files. Type: md msi (RETURN) cd msi (RETURN) then IF YOUR FILE(S) ARE ON FLOPPY DISK USE: copy A:MSIxx.ZIP or copy A:*.* if the unzipped files are on the floppy. IF THE FILE(S) ARE ALREADY ON YOUR HARD DISK: either copy [path]\MSIxx.ZIP (to move it to the MSI directory) or pkunzip [path]\MSIxx.ZIP to just put the unzipped files in the new directory. -->> IMPORTANT: There are two VERY important steps you should take once you have the files unzipped. -->> FIRST: Check M.BAT... It has been assumed that MSI would be installed on the root directory of your primary disk drive, typically the 'C' drive on many hard drive equipped computers. If this is not the case you will need to make a minor adjustment to M.BAT. Use your word processor or editor to open M.BAT and make the following changes: 1. Locate the following at the bottom of the file; :getback c: cd c:\ goto menu These commands let MSI find its way back to the installation disk and directory after returning from the DOS Shell. 2. Make the following modifications: :getback -> Disk Drive: -> cd Path goto menu where Disk Drive is the installation drive, i.e. A:, B:, C:, etc., and Path is the FULL path to the disk AND drive where MSI.EXE and MSI.DAT reside. FOR EXAMPLE: Many users may want to use MSI.EXE from an F, G, (W, Z, etc.) drive, such as on a network. To do this change M.BAT to read: :getback -> F: -> cd F:\MSI goto menu Doing this will allow MSI to return properly to the menus regardless of which drive or directory you are in when you type EXIT from DOS or return from an application. SECOND: Make a copy of MSI.DAT... copy MSI.DAT MSI.SAV (or SAVE.DAT or other filename) This way you can experiment with the sample menus, but still have a fresh, unmodified copy to return to; copy MSI.SAV MSI.DAT (restores the file to mint condition!) TERMS: Most of the terms you encounter here will probably already be familiar to you. If you are not familiar with Batch File commands you should consult your DOS manual for more information. There are a number of these at your disposal and it is beyond the scope of this document to detail them all. Three important terms are used extensively here; Menu, Action and Options. Menu - The Menu is the largest bordered window area just slightly off-center in the middle of your screen. The Menu contains an optional Name at the top, an optional Prompt at the bottom and the selection Options lying between them. Menus can have up to 9 Selections if you define a Prompt line or 11 if you don't. Each Option you define on a Menu will have associated with its selection either an Action that is to be taken or another Menu that is to be displayed, or both. There are two types of Actions which are used. The first is used ONLY when an option selects an Action alone. This is nothing more than a DOS batch file that is created from the commands you will enter on the Action definition window. There are only two batch files used by MSI, M.BAT which controls entry into and out of MSI and ACT.BAT which is created from your commands each time an Action option is selected. For the technically inclined, MSI will terminate after creating ACT.BAT, passing control to it through M.BAT and returning again on termination of the commands to the Main entry menu. During execution of the ACT.BAT commands no other programs are in memory, at least not any associated with MSI. The other type of Action is used when a option Select is set to DUAL. This allows you to define TWO Actions, one prior to the display of a new menu and a second when the ESC key is pressed leaving the menu. (You will be defining the menu also.) This type of Action is issued as direct commands to the system with MSI still resident. This is useful for loading and unloading TSR's while the user is presented with program instructions or further use options. If the TSR or other program sends messages to the screen you may want to redirect them to a file instead ( >NULL or >>NULL to send to a file call null). With a DUAL setting you have the option of defining either a pre-menu Action or a post-menu Action or both. (And of course the menu itself can have other options each selecting menus, Actions or both.) An important aspect of the DUAL selection is that MSI remains resident when the action command is issued. The amount of memory used by MSI at the time will depend on the number of menus and Actions you have defined. It is also important to realize that loading a TSR in this fashion locks MSI into memory until the TSR is unloaded again. DEFINING A MENU: The Menus Editor When you first enter MSI you should see a small window on the middle-left of your screen displaying "F5 - Menu". If instead of this window you see a magenta window displaying "ESC -" then your current menu definitions have been 'Locked'. Locked menus cannot be accidentally changed. To unlock the menus press CTRL-F10 and verify unlocking by pressing 'Y'. IMPORTANT NOTE: Your menu definitions are saved on disk in a file called MSI.DAT. MSI will automatically update this file when you Lock or Unlock the menus or leave the Menus Editor after changes have been made. Normally this is desirable but if you want to preserve a current .DAT file you should rename it to MSI.SAV or other extension other than .DAT. To restore the data copy the contents of MSI.SAV back to MSI.DAT. ALSO, if you are defining an extensive set of menus you may want to save your definitions without leaving the Menus Editor. The ALT-S command is available any time in the editor to do this. Saving is a very fast operation, much faster than redefining the menus if the power goes out... Press the F5 key to enter the Menus Editor. Two things should happen. First, a green window containing various Menu Options will appear on the left of your screen. Second, the Copyright line at the bottom of the screen will be replaced with some command aids. The commands shown on this line will change as you enter or perform various functions. The Menu Options on the left allow you to define the 'look' for each menu, and how it operates. Each option description contains one red letter. Press these letters to access and modify the matching option. Before going into the options in detail, you will need to know how to get around to your various menus while in the Menus Editor. Basically this is the same as in normal operation with two important differences: pressing the first character of the selection will NOT work (you may define a key used to access an option in which case you wouldn't be able to change it). Secondly, any Actions defined WILL NOT be executed. You will need to test your Actions outside of the Editor. Inside the Editor you will always have the Cursor Bar. Use this to highlight a selection and press the ENTER key to access a sub-menu, if there is one. Press the ESC key to return to a previous menu. The Menu Options SELECTION OPTIONS: - S - This command allows you to define the 'look' and operation of the menu selections themselves. These include defining background and text colors for the selection strings, whether or not the Cursor bar will be used with these selections, and the Type and function of each selection. There are several options available to you here which will be discussed in detail later. NAME: - N - This is the name to print at the top of the menu. When you press N the cursor will move to the first line in the menu window. A command aid of the editor commands available to you will appear at the bottom of the screen. Use the left and right cursor keys, Home and End to position the cursor on the line and begin typing. The Insert, Delete and Back Space keys may also be used. See "Editor Commands" for more information. PROMPT: - P - Use of a prompt line at the bottom of your menu is optional. If you define one, by pressing P and typing in a prompt string, MSI will display the line and place a cursor immediately following it. The prompt has no functional job other than to indicate to the user that MSI is waiting for input. If you do define a prompt line you will lose two potential menu selections. MSI will leave a blank line above any prompt defined to make it stand out more on the menu. This line, and the prompt line itself, may be used for Menu Options if a prompt is not used. HELP: - H - When you first entered MSI you may have noticed the "F1 - Help" window on the left of the screen. Each menu you define can have its own help screen associated with it which the user can view by pressing F1. Pressing H allows you to create this help window. See "Editor Commands" for more information. STEPPED: - T - This is a special feature that allows you to arrange your menus and sub-menus so that they are slightly offset from each other. Stepped menus give the viewer a 'depth perspective' as they move further into sub-menus. This gives a very important visual reference as to location within your menus and helps to avoid the feeling of panic new (and some not so new) users often experience when they aren't sure how to get back out. After pressing T, use the right and left cursor keys to change the value and press ENTER to accept it. The change will be made immediately so that you can view the result. SHADOWED: - D - Using shadows underneath your menus gives the screen a 3-D appearance. This option allows you to use or not use a shadow for each menu you define. After pressing D, use the right and left cursor keys to change the value and press ENTER to accept it. The change will be made immediately so that you can view the result. BORDER: - R - There are a number of different borders which you can use to give each menu a different look. After pressing R, use the right and left cursor keys to change the value and press ENTER to accept it. The change will be made immediately so that you can view the result. BACK: - B - This allows you to set the background color for each menu. After pressing B, use the right and left cursor keys to change the value and press ENTER to accept it. The change will be made immediately so that you can view the result. FORE: - F - This allows you to set the color used for printing the menu border, Name and Prompt line. The Menu Options can have their own colors defined from the Selection Options window. After pressing F, use the right and left cursor keys to change the value and press ENTER to accept it. The change will be made immediately so that you can view the result. At the bottom of the screen you will find additional commands available to you. These will change as you perform various functions. When you first enter the Menus Editor the following is shown: Press ALT-Q to Quit Select F2 Edit F3 Move F4 Define F10 Delete QUIT: Use the ESC key to leave the Menus Editor. When you do, and if you have made any unsaved changes, MSI.DAT will be updated. The other commands allow you to define the options your menu will have. Use the cursor up and down keys to move the cursor bar to an option line. There are 11 lines available to you for options if you are not using a prompt line: 9 available if you are. You do not need to use all of the lines, or use the lines one after another. In fact, if you have only a few options your menu will look better if you space them over the length of the menu rather than grouping them at the top or in the middle. MSI keeps track of which lines are being used and handles them appropriately for the user. EDIT: Pressing F2 will allow you to edit the line currently highlighted by the cursor bar. All of the Editor Commands are available for this (the help line at the bottom of the screen will show these to you). When the lines reads the way you want it to press ENTER. Two important things occur when you do this. First, MSI looks for the FIRST non-space character on the line and SETS IT UP AS THE SELECTION KEY THAT THE USER CAN PRESS to select this option from the menu. For this reason you will want to be careful to use different first characters for each option. Numbering your options is one choice, though it is not required. (If you have enabled the cursor bar for this menu BOTH methods will work: the user can make selections either by pressing the first character on the line or by highlighting the option with the cursor bar and pressing RETURN. Note that you can use duplicate first characters. MSI will always go to the first option using the character. This might be useful in some applications.) MOVE: Pressing F3 allows you to move the highlighted option to a different line on the menu. This is the same as swapping the option with the option immediately above or below it. This is a more complex operation that might at first be evident. Each option consists of more than just the string descriptor and the selection character. Each option may have a sub-menu attached (defined) for it or an Action or both. Moving the option involves moving all of its characteristics and associated Actions or menus. While you could do this by hand the Move command is faster and more economical. DEFINE: The F4 key allows you to define an Action, sub-menu or both for the highlighted option. What you define is determined by the 'Selects:' setting from the Selection Option window, covered in detail later on. If this is the first time an Action or menu is defined for the option a warning window will appear. MSI allocates memory only as needed in order to keep memory use and the data file size to a minimum. Defining a menu uses the least amount of memory, followed by an Action and, obviously, defining both uses the most memory per option. If a menu or Action has already been defined or allocated, no warning window will appear. Instead, the appropriate Action window or menu will appear ready for editing. A special Select setting is 'DUAL', allowing you to define a menu for which an Action will occur prior to the showing of the menu AND a second Action when the user leaves the menu. In this instance Define will first display the pre-menu Action, then the post- menu Action followed by the menu itself. Watch the help line at the bottom of the screen for the commands available to you as you define Actions and menus. DELETE: Like Move, Deleting an option is more than just removing the string defining the option. If an Action, single or Dual, is defined for the option then the Action(s) will be deleted and reserved memory restored. Sub-Menus, however, will be left alone. SELECTION OPTIONS: As mentioned earlier, at the top of the Menu Options window is a Selection Options command. Pressing S will open two windows; one for general options (the top window) and the other for options specific to the Selection highlighted on the menu. General Options The General Options apply to all of the options defined for the current menu. These are: MENU OPTIONS: - M - Takes you back to the Menu Options Window. CURSOR BAR: - C - If set to Yes then the user can use the cursor up and down keys to move a highlighting bar through the menu's options, pressing the ENTER key to select the highlighted option. If set to No then the user must press the first character of the option string to select it. PROMPT LINE: - P - If you have defined a prompt string for the bottom of the menu and this is set to Yes then the string will be displayed and a standard flashing cursor positioned immediately following it. You may use BOTH a Prompt Line and Cursor Bar on a menu, if you really think you need to. BACK: - B - The selection strings on the menu can be printed using a background color different from the menu background color. Careful designers can create some striking menus in this way. FORE: - F - The selection string characters can also have a color different from the color used for the menu's Name, Prompt and Border. FOR THIS OPTION: These apply ONLY to the currently highlighted option on the menu. PASSWORD: - W - Each menu option may have a separate password attached to it. If a password is defined then the user will be presented with a window requesting the password before the Action occurs or the sub-menu is displayed. Passwords may be up to seven characters long. As additional protection the password will only be displayed when it is being edited. At all other times this option will show "None" if no password is defined for the option, or "*******" if one has been defined. SELECTS: - S - This defines what happens next when the user selects the highlighted option. These are: MENU: This allows you to define a sub-menu and another set of options for the user to select from. ACTION: This allows you to define series of Batch File commands to be used in the creation of, and during the execution of ACT.BAT. MSI will terminate and these commands will be issued to DOS. At the completion of all of the Batch File commands, M.BAT will direct that MSI is reloaded and the starting menu displayed. DUAL: This allows you to define a menu and two Actions; one executed prior to the display of the menu and the other when the user leaves the menu by pressing the ESC key. The series of Action commands defined here are NOT issued through a Batch File, but as individual system commands. MSI will remain resident. If the command causes a new program to execute, MSI will suspend itself until the program is terminated. TYPE: - T - A menu option may be one of two types: NORMAL: This is a standard option that when selected will perform as defined by 'Selects:'. TEXT ONLY: An option of this type MAY NOT BE SELECTED. The Cursor Bar will not highlight it nor will pressing the first character cause any action to occur. Text Only options can have several uses. They can be used to further describe an option immediately above or below. They can be used to define a menu that is a pre-action warning screen, giving the user fair warning, for instance, that the next selected option will thoroughly clean-up the Hard Disk (Format C:...) or, more likely, clean out the contents of a scratch directory: cd \scratch del *.* cd \ EDITOR COMMANDS: MSI has been specially designed so that you will always be using the same set of editing features whether you are defining the Name for a menu, a Password, a Help screen or a set of Action commands. The cursor keys are used to position the cursor as you would expect. If you are editing a single line, such as a menu Option, menu Name or Password, there is nowhere to cursor up or down to, so these have no effect. Otherwise the cursor keys will move the cursor within the limits of the item being edited. Press the End key to move the cursor to the end of the line and the Home key to move to the beginning of the line. If the cursor is positioned on the first character of ANY editable line, and this is the first character entered since the line was last edited, then the entire line will be CLEARED, then the typed character entered. Otherwise characters will be entered in an overstrike mode at the cursor position. Pressing the Insert key will cause spaces to be inserted into the line beginning at the cursor position. Characters at the end of the line will be lost as they are pushed beyond the line limit. Pressing the Delete key will delete the character under the cursor, moving all characters to the right of the cursor one character left. The Back Space key will delete the character immediately to the left of the cursor by moving the character under the cursor, and those to the right, one character left. ALT-D is used to Delete the current line. If you are editing a Help screen or Action commands the lines below the current line will all be moved up one line. ALT-I is used to Insert a blank line at the cursor location, moving the cursor line and all lines below it down one line in the window. If you are editing a single line item, like a Prompt or Password, this command will have no effect. The commands in MSI are not overly complicated but they do grant you a great deal of flexibility in defining your menus. END OF FILE