POPFMT.COM                           (1)           by M.Vassallo (Jan.1993)

                    Pop-Format: Smart Pop-up Formatter    

What is it?.............Pop-Format is a TSR Formatter that gives you the 
                      ability to Format *FLOPPY* Disks from within other 
                      text screen applications or within DOS itself.

How does it work?.......Upon installation, Pop-Format will determine the 
                      configuration of up to five drives.  To keep things 
                      simple (and small), the Pop-Format utility will 
                      check drives A: through E: to see if A) they exist 
                      and B) they are Floppy drives (Removeable Media).
                      If your disk system uses 5.25" or 3.5" drives with
                      either DOUBLE or HIGH densities in any of those
                      five drives, then the utility will install itself and 
                      display a brief message.  
                      
                      This utility can format: 360K and 1.2 M - 5.25" disks
                                               720K and 1.44M - 3.5 " disks
                      
What are it's limits?...Pop-Format will NOT give you access to any Hard 
                      Drives as a safety precaution. You will simply be told 
                      that the non-removeable drives are not available.  Also 
                      note that Pop-Format will sense when the screen is in a 
                      graphics mode and not display itself to avoid conflict 
                      with your graphics programs. In keeping with the 
                      Safe-To-Use style of programming that I prefer, I have 
                      avoided allowing any other applications to carry on 
                      while the formatter is active, they will simply be
                      suspended until the user presses ESC to exit the 
                      utility.  I have tried this program while running major
                      applications such as Word Perfect, Lotus, etc. and have
                      not found any problems with the utility but would 
                      appreciate your feedback if you discover ANYTHING.
                      
How do I use it?........At any time after the initial installation, the 
                      Pop-Format utility can be accessed by holding down
                      the CTRL and ALT keys and pressing the "F" key. 
                      Most of the keys to use are shown in the small 
                      display window and all of them are listed below: 
                      
                      Up/Down arrows..       Any of these 
                      -/+................    combinations will 
                      8/2................... select a FLOPPY drive
                      PgUp/PgDn..........    to format by moving 
                      Home/End........       the menu bar.
                         
                      SPACE - Toggles between HIGH and DOUBLE density
                              formatting IF the selected drive can
                              handle both styles. 

                      ENTER - Formats the selected drive.

                      ESCAPE- Clears the Pop-Up window and restores the
                              underlying text, colours (if applicable), 
                              and cursor position but keeps the Pop-Format 
                              utility in memory.







                                     
                                     (2)

Any set-up needed?......There is no set-up required to tell the program 
                      about your system so most people should be able to 
                      get it running without too much instruction.  Just
                      place POPFMT.COM in any directory or drive that you
                      can get to and type POPFMT at the DOS prompt. The
                      program does not require access to any disk files once 
                      it has installed itself so it can even be installed 
                      from a floppy if you wish. It is quite small (12.3 K) 
                      but uses more room in memory (21.7 K).  Since the 
                      Pop-Format window is black on white, you will not need 
                      to worry about MONO/COLOUR problems.
                      
How do I De-Install?....If you need to pull Pop-Format out of memory to run
                      a very large application just type POPFMT OUT at the 
                      DOS prompt. The program will recognize a few different 
                      De-Installation command styles for your convenience. 
                      
                      ALL of the following work:

                                       POPFMT OUT
                                       POPFMT OFF
                                       POPFMT REMOVE
                                       POPFMT /REM
                                       POPFMT /U

                      (/-+) Delimiters are accepted but not required 
                      except with the /U option.

* Please note that POPFMT will sense when it is already running and will not 
let more than one copy of itself reside in memory at one time. Also, you will 
not have any problem trying to de-install it if it is not already resident 
but for the sake of use from batch files etc., it will not default to 
installing itself nor will it wait for a response by asking if you meant to 
install rather than de-install.

Message from the Author: I hope that you find this little tidbit of use and,
although I don't honestly expect most people to feel compelled to reimburse
me for my time and effort, a small donation of, say five bucks? would
certainly make me feel that these projects are worth making. Again, thank you
for using this utility and please pass it on to whomever you think would 
likely benefit from its use.
                        
                        M.Vassallo   (416)632-0878
                        660 Francis Rd.,Burlington
                        Ontario, Canada.   L7T 3X7