Overview

WordCab is a file cabinet for Microsoft Word for Windows versions 1.x and 2.0. It allows you to manage WinWord files by title instead of by filename.

The WinWord title is set using the Summary Info dialog under the File menu. You can set an option (Tools menu, Options dialog, Save option group, Prompt for Summary Info option) that will cause WinWord to prompt you for a title whenever a new document is saved. WordCab only shows the first 64 characters of the title.

WordCab only displays files with a .DOC suffix.

WORDCAB.EXE and WORDCAB.HLP can be installed together in any directory. Files WORDCAB.INI and WORDCAB.DAT will be created in this same directory the first time WordCab is run, and updated each time WordCab is run thereafter. The .INI file contains the screen position,  directory from the last time WordCab was invoked and similar information. The .DAT file contains some directory cache information to make WordCab start up faster. WordCab makes no other changes to your system besides creating these two work files. To uninstall WordCab, just delete the files WORDCAB.EXE, .HLP, .INI and .DAT.

If you are using a non-English version of WinWord, then you may need to do the following to make WordCab work correctly. Run WordCab and immediately exit. This will cause the .INI file to be created (or updated if you had been using a previous version of WordCab). Then change the FileOpen and FileNew parameters in the .INI file to match the WordBasic syntax appropriate for your version of WinWord. For example, users of the German version of WinWord should make these parameters look like the following (the O in Offnen needs an umlaut):

FileNew=[DateiNeuStandard]

FileOpen=[DateiOffnen .Name = %s]

The leading and trailing square brackets and the %s are not standard WordBasic, but are required by WordCab. You should be able to find the appropriate WordBasic syntax in the online WinWord help.

WordCab accepts an optional pathname as a command line parameter. This pathname can be either a directory or a file. If a directory, WordCab will use this directory as its starting directory, instead of the directory from WORDCAB.INI. If a file, WordCab will open this file in WinWord before displaying the WordCab list box. This allows you to drop a file on the WordCab icon, if you are using Norton Desktop.

The Refresh command on the View menu causes WordCab to read the current directory and update the list box to reflect documents deleted, added or changed since WordCab was started. A Refresh is needed, for example, when the title of a document is changed using WinWord and the file is saved. WordCab will not reflect this new title in its listbox until a refresh is performed. A Refresh is automatically performed whenever WordCab is started or when the WordCab current directory is changed. Also, deletes performed using the WordCab file menu are immediately reflected without requiring a refresh.

The maximum number of files in a single directory that WordCab can show in its list box is 780. If there are more than 780 .DOC files in a directory, only the first 780 will be displayed and you will be notified by a message box.

A good way to use WordCab is as follows. Invoke WordCab instead of WinWord. Select a document. Edit the document in WinWord. Close the document, but do not close WinWord (CTRL+F4). Use ALT+TAB to switch back to WordCab. Select another document to be edited in WinWord. By keeping WinWord active between documents, the second and subsequent documents can be opened much faster.