Navigator

Purple Software's Navigator


Introduction
One aspect of the Series 5 that has come in for criticism is the absence of a file manager. In fact, the System screen is a form of file manager, and there's a very rudimentary alternative available by pressing the <Tab> key from the System screen. That isn't terribly useful, as it does little more than let you move around the file system, and provides no way of moving or renaming files or directories. People seem to have been looking for a version of the file manager included in the Series 3c, and Serge Shestopalov (the author of S5Zip) is known to be working on just such an application. Purple Software have taken a slightly different approach, and have produced Navigator to create a desktop rather reminiscent of Windows 95. As an Acorn user, I immediately wanted to hate it on principle, but there are actually a lot of very good features and I've found I've come to like it despite myself.

Installation
The package consists of a DOS format floppy and an excellent A5 size manual in English, French, and German. Each section consists of some 25 pages of well-written instructions for the application. Many of these are repeated in the Help file, so you get a useful choice of how to take the information in. As Navigator is both very powerful and very flexible, I'd recommend reading the manual and the Help file through a few times during the first couple of weeks of use in order to become familiar with the possible ways of using it. One thing that I feel would help in that process is a few screen shots to illustrate the manual. Installation is from the now familiar .SIS format file, and I used PsiRisc to transfer that to both the Series 5 and Geofox One. It takes up around 330 kb of disc space, and I'd recommend installing it on the internal drive, as it seems to be one of those applications that benefits from the reduced access times of the main RAM over a Compact Flash device.

Using It
Amongst the many things it will do are the following:

The Browser and Workspace
The most obvious characteristic is the Windows 95 style of filer display. That generally works well, although I find it suffers slightly from the fact that the sliders and little tools on the filer windows are a bit big (otherwise you'd have problems using the pen on them), but they are liveable with. Also, there's a pause while it updates itself after you've done anything with it (moved a file, for example). At first this is a bit annoying, but at least you get a little message to let you know things are happening. I also realised that doing similar operations from the System screen will involve a short wait, and hence feel that Navigator isn't slowing things down too much.


The Browser View on a Series 5

The extra screen area of the Geofox One makes the proportions of everything seem more appropriate than on the S5. It also realises that it has a bigger screen and adjusts the machine name and the number of buttons on the toolbar accordingly. Compare the screen shots above and below, and you'll see what I mean. That is such a clever idea, and makes me wonder why no-one else has thought of doing it!


Setting up a Shortcut on a Geofox One

One very useful feature is being able to pin applications or directories onto the backdrop (or Workspace), so you can get to them very quickly. You can set Navigator to respond to the System button, and make the machine switch to it when another application closes, and both of those make it more viable as an alternative filer to replace the System screen. The biggest problem with that is that it doesn't duplicate some of the most important features of the System screen. I especially miss having a constant display of the amount of memory left, and being able to see the Battery status, turn the Link on and off, and access the Control Panel, from Navigator's Workspace. A workaround is to create a shortcut to the System screen by going to the "Applications" shortcut and picking the System entry out of that list. Once you've copied it and pasted it onto the Workspace, you can change its properties to give it a keystroke of its own as in the screen shot above. That isn't global, as it only functions from the Workspace, but it does allow you to get back to the System screen when you need to. Another shortcut to the Control Panel would be very handy, but so far I haven't found out how to create one.
Another approach is to use one of the so-called plugins for Navigator that PD authors have started to produce. These can be put on the Workspace, and called up when needed to allow you to access some of the missing functions, although I don't actually find them to be very convenient to use especially as they don't let you get to the Control Panel.

Other Features
Here are some other things you can do with Navigator, including some undocumented ones that Purple have told me about:


Setting up a Search Within a ZIP Archive

ZIP Archives
It handles ZIPs extremely well and very quickly, making it easy to expand or create them. You can keep a shortcut to one on the desktop and drop new files onto the icon to add them to the ZIP. When you do so, the text for the ZIP file icon inverts to show it accepts files being dropped on it. The screen shot below shows a ZIP archive open, with another one on the workspace containing my reviews, which I mostly prepare on the Geofox One these days.


Viewing a ZIP Archive on the Geofox One

I did find a couple of very minor idiosyncrasies associated with ZIP archives that I reported to Purple, and they have now released an upgrade to deal with those problems. The more obvious of these is a side-effect of the excellent feature whereby it is possible to open a ZIP archive by double-tapping on the file from the System screen. If the machine is set to open multiple files with <Enter> rather than the default of <Fn><Enter>, then that will launch Navigator even if it is already running. I did have three instances of it open at once before I realised what was going on! Anyone affected by that can send their original disc back to Purple with return postage for an upgrade.
ZIPs can also be opened from Navigator's own browser view, and that really is handled extremely cleverly. Even though the file will not have a UID, Navigator recognises it from its contents and gives it an icon. You don't even need a file extension to identify it. S5Zip has just implemented exactly the same thing in its latest version.

That feature got me excited, as Purple have obviously solved one of the things that I've found most annoying about EPOC32: the fact that files without a UID cannot be opened directly, and have to be imported into an application. That even extends to MBM files (such as screen dumps), but is most obvious with text and HTML files. The Message Suite refuses to open an HTML file unless it has an extension, and even then won't respond to it being double-tapped, and the only way to get Word to display a text file is to import it into an open Word file.
Oh for something like the RISC OS facility to force the default text editor to load any file by holding down <Shift> while double-clicking on it! Henry Hirst's HotKeys goes some way to dealing with this by allowing you to run a file directly from the File|Run menu.
I got more excited when Purple told me of an undocumented feature whereby the user can add their own items to Navigator's "Copy to" menu by copying or moving shortcuts from the Workspace into C:\System\Apps\Navigator\CopyTo\. This means that you can put a shortcut to C:\Documents there and use it as a quick way of copying files into that directory. In the spirit of enquiry, I tried seeing if a shortcut to Word would let me send text files to directly to Word, but alas not!
I could say it might be worth keeping an eye on Purple's Web site over the next few weeks to see if another solution appears. :o)

Conclusions
This is a very powerful set of utilities, which becomes even more impressive when you look at the remarkably keen pricing. At £29·95 it is outstanding value for money. The Shareware S5Zip costs £15, and doesn't include a filer replacement. Until Serge has finished his filer we won't be able to compare that with Navigator, and so this has to be yet another area where Purple have produced a superb application with no real competition.
Purple Software are at

PO Box 7535,
London,
NW1 2WF,
tel. 0171 387 7777,
and don't forget that you can now download a demonstration version from their Web site so you can see if you agree with me before you decide whether to buy or not.

Connectivity - Support - Education - Programming - Acorn Reviews - EPOC32 Reviews - Acorn Links - Psion S5 Links - Home


Any comments? Please let me know.
The pages on this site are all © John Woodthorpe, and are my personal opinions. All trademarks are acknowledged.