QuikView v1.0 - Written by Sean Dennis - (C) 2006 Sean Dennis All rights reserved. Another fine Cheepware release! You can check out the entire Cheepware line online at http://outpostbbs.net/cheepware.html =========================================================================== QuikView is a small utility that will allow you to view an ANSI (.ANS) file at the command prompt or use it as an external ANSI viewer with programs such as timEd (a sysop mail reader for FTN-style mail). LICENSE ======= QuikView was written by Sean Dennis and is distributed as freeware. Freeware means that you may use this program without paying me a fee for use, but this does not mean this program is open source or is public domain. Freeware is property of Sean Dennis and may not be reverse engineered, disassembled or otherwise altered by any means. You may redistribute this program and its documentation in any form, but the archive must remain in its original unaltered state. This program is guarenteed to do nothing except take up space on your hard drive. It worked when I used it on my computers and it should work for you. If it breaks, you own both pieces. WHAT IS QUIKVIEW? ================= QuikView ("QV" for short) was written with the BBS sysop in mind. I originally wrote this program as an ANSI viewer to use with timEd. This program will work with ANSI files only. You MUST have ANSI.SYS installed for QV to work. You may use QV as a standalone ANSI viewer or as an external ANSI viewer with other programs. QV was designed for use with ANSI screens that are 25 lines in length or less. If you use it with longer screens, they will scroll. At the end of the file, there is a pause so you can view the screen. You must press the Enter or Return key to end the program. There are versions for OS/2, Win32 and DOS. I've tested this mainly under OS/2 on my own BBS system, but QV should have no problems with other systems. All three versions are included in this archive. They are named as: - QUIKVIEW.EXE : DOS 16-bit executable - QUIKVIEWW.EXE: 32-bit Win32 executable - QUIKVIEWP.EXE: 32-bit OS/2 executable You can delete any of the executables that you don't need. REGULAR USAGE ============= To use QV by itself, just type in: quikview You must put the extension on the filename, such as PICTURE.ANS. To use QV as an external file viewer, you can use the above to do so, but you have to pass the filename to the program. EDITOR USAGE ============ There is a special command line for use with timEd. I discovered that timEd cannot simply delete a temporary file it makes, so I built in the "/T" mode into QV. Basically, you pass that parameter and the temporary filename to QV. QV then displays the file, waits for you to press Enter and then deletes the temporary file. Here's how I have everything set up here with my system: Make sure QV is in the main timEd directory. In TIMKEYS.CFG, I added this line to the first [menu] block, placing this command in the user menu (accessed from the message reading screen by pressing U): MenuAll "~A~NSI view" READwriterealbody "d:\timed\timed.msg" enter READ runexternal "d:\timed\quikview /t timed.msg" enter enter That is ALL on ONE line above! You HAVE to enter that line as a single line exactly. QV will not work right if that line is off. Of course, you can substitute the directory and even the tempfile name for your system. To use QV and timEd now, simply view a message that has ANSI in it. Press U and then A. You should see the ANSI file translated and a cursor blinking, waiting for you to press Enter. You press Enter and then you will see "Press any key to return to timEd..." on the screen. Press Enter once more and you'll be returned to timEd. It sounds more complicated than it actually is. CREDITS AND THANKS ================== QV was written using Virtual Pascal v2.1 build 279 under Windows 2000 Professional. The DOS version was compiled with Turbo Pascal v7 (RTE200 patched). This program uses code written by SWAG (Shareware Authors Group) and I thank them for their many years of great code snippets for us programmers to use. I like to know who uses my programs. I'd appreciate it if you'd drop me a line and let me know how you like my little projects. You can contact me via the following ways: Netmail: 1:18/200@Fidonet Email : sean@outpostbbs.net WWW : http://outpostbbs.net/cheepware.html BBS : telnet://bbs.outpostbbs.net If you'd like to get more info about my Cheepware line of BBS doors and sysop utilities, you can check out the website mentioned above. Thanks for using QuikView. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Support your local BBS scene! Thanks, Sean Dennis Cheepware Author