“BBS in a BOX” 

Using this CD-ROM for Personal Use ...

            
How do I find my favorite files on this CD-ROM?
At first sight the amount of data on this CD-ROM may seem more than one can easily handle. We have provided several tools so that you can search for your favorite files in a number of ways...

Filemaker
The Filemaker master database is located in the Exclusives folder along with a stand-alone version of FileMaker. You can easily find your favorite file by name, key word or other search paramaters using this tool. 

BBEdit Light
BBEdit is our text reader of choice. All of our directories are in BBEdit format. The nice thing about BBEdit light is that it opens any size text file without the nasty 32k limitation of many other text readers. You can also use grep searches to look for keywords in any of our directories. You will find three types of directories in our file areas. The "files by name" list which is an alphabetical listing of all files in that category. The "files by date" list which will show you all files in a category by date they were added to the BBS in a BOX CD. And the "files.db" list which allows you to import the category directory into your favorite database. All of these directories can easily be read by BBEdit.

System 7.5 find
We have found that System 7.5 find is the fastest way to find a file on the AMUG CD when you know a portion of its name. Simply use 7.5 and push command F to bring up the find box. Then, type a portion of the name, select contains, and make sure the CD is the drive selected. The program will then display the selections it has found and you can easily drag and drop them on Show Info from that folder to read the entire description.

Show Info...
On the CD-ROM desktop you will find a utility called Show Info. This tool, by AMUG, will allow you to drag and drop files on it under System 7. Once a file is dropped on this utility it will display the BBS in a BOX description(s) for that file or group of files that are dropped on it. System 6 users can launch it and open files for this same function. This tool is great to check the description of a file before you decompress it. As a special treat this tool to show a preview of all Art, Fonts, and QuickTime files in the files folder. Now see that font before installing it!

Allfiles.db
Should none of the approaches above meet your needs you will find a file titled AMUG Directory in the Files folder. This file once decompressed is approximately 7 megs and contains all files and their descriptions. You can use your favorite word processor or text editor to view these files, or you can use the BBEdit in the Exclusives:Directory Tools:Text Directory folder to view the allfiles.db text file. As this text file is 7 megs you may want to allocate more memory to BBEdit.

Font & Art Previews
If you want to preview what the art, font or QT movies look like on BBS in a BOX then use our Pict Preview player in exclusives to preview all your art, fonts and movies. The name of the file shown is located at the bottom of the preview should you wish to retrieve it. You can also do a find with our player if you know the name of the art, font or movie you are looking for.

Compression...
BBS in a BOX contains Stuffit Deluxe compressed files. Stuffit Expander is located in the CD Setup:Stuffit folder. Drag and drop System 7 decompression was never easier. Just place expander on your desktop then copy the file from the CD-ROM to your computer desktop that you wish to expand. Next drop that file on expander and watch it decompress the file for you. You may wish to use version 3.07 of Stuffit instead of 3.52 as a result of a bug in 3.52 that causes icons to stack on top of each other in your newly expanded folder. However, you can just change the view to be by name to overcome this bug. Should you desire to buy the full working version with Stuffit space saver, it is available from AMUG as well.  If you are running AppleEvents you can decompress right from Show Info 2.0 as well.

Remember that the CD-ROM is a locked drive, so all decompression will need to be done on your hard drive.

More Stuff...
There are thousands of files available on this CD-ROM and you will really have to go exploring to find them all. Apple tools and great BBS tools are provided in the Sysop section. All the Apple Tech Notes are on board and info on AMUG is in the AMUG Info folder. Apple Licensed software for distribution by User Groups is in the AMUG Info:Apple Lic. folder. Look around and have fun!

Here is a simple Map of the layout:

AMUG Info - This folder contains Apple Licensed software, AMUG information stacks, BBS info and much more AMUG inside info.

CD Setup - If you run a BBS this folder contains linking instructions and directories for 6 different Mac BBS's. Stuffit in a decompressed form is located here as well.

Exclusives - This folder contains the FileMaker Pro database, Directory Tools and Get Info for navigating through BBS in a BOX. Our Pict Preview player is located here as well.

Files - This folder contains the bulk of software available on BBS in a BOX. Text files on each folder are provided by date, name and tab delineated for your database use.

Sysops - This folder contains great tools for sysops running a BBS.

                          Support the Authors!

Only by supporting the shareware authors and sending in the requested shareware fees, will this type of software distribution continue. If you find a shareware file useful, please pay the shareware fee. When users are dishonest with the authors, they become soured on the shareware market and may stop updating their programs, publishing new programs, or they sell their products commercially.  Thanks again for supporting Shareware and authors!

                                                              
AMUG CD, Inc.                                                                 AOL:  AMUG
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Phoenix, AZ 85016                                               Internet: info@amug.org
(602) 553-0066 (voice)
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(602) 553-0144 (fax)                                                    
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