GCW Games & More & Wacky Windows Companion/gcw.iso/win/util/filemag/v3_5.doc

Text File | 1994-03-01 | 104.8 KB | 2,049 lines

                               File Magician V3.5
                                      by
                                 Terry Bullard
                                 (c) 1993-1994
                                For Windows 3.1

This program is Shareware
Release Date: Nov. 29, 1993

Archive File Status:
Documentation: Unregistered
File Magician V3.5 - Unregistered
Evaluation Period - 10 days



    Welcome to File Magician V3.5!  As I've promised in the past to keep
updating File Magician with improvements and additions, here is additional
proof!  This is the fourth release of FM, with each release containing huge
additions to the program.  Version 3.5 is no exception and perhaps the largest
update so far, over 130K added to the executible!  One of my other promises
was NOT to improve my spelling, this too is being honored!!  grin.  Also I
beleive I made mention of my documentation not being so hot, well that holds
true also, hehe. With File Magician expanding to such a huge extent it would be
very time consuming to continuely rewrite the documention from start to finish
each time its updated so what I've done again is to add inserts and notes
from past documentation from the newest to the oldest.  I've taken great pains
to make File Magician easy to use and understand without the aid of docs and
most people find this possible.


 FOR THOSE THAT DON'T KNOW ABOUT "FILE MAGICIAN"!  (gasp)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    File Magician has now evolved past just another file manager or winzip type
program.  Its basically a home base program that you can configure to suit
nearly your every need.  It offers more abilities to handle archive files like
.zip, .lzh, .arg, then any other program for the PC.  Its File Management
system is beyond anything that exists commerical or shareware that I have seen
for windows or dos.  Its speed and low memory usage is great for a program of
its size.  Probably the most important feature of File Magician is the fact
that it has a programmer that is entirely devoted to making FM the greatest
management tool that exists for the PC and will Continue to do so!!  I think
I have proven that just in the last year.  Also I'm not a newcomer into the
programming field as many shareware programmers are.  I've had a acute
addictive habit for programming in 'C' for the last 10 years!! grin.
    The best way to describe File Magician is for you to simply load the
program.  If I tried to describe it All this archive would be a bit large to
download!



 GOLD NUGGETS?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Hopefully the description for this Archive mentioned something about FREE
 GOLD NUGGETS!  Yes this is true!!  All registered owners of FM will get 1
 Free Gold Nugget while the supply lasts.  This is a REAL 24K Gold Nuggent that
 I have personally found!  "While supply lasts" sounds really bad and kinda
 scammy, but its something that had to be stated.  I do have a large supply
 of Gold Nuggets and WILL be able to supply a large number of people that are
 the first to register File Magician.  When the supply runs out I will offer
 a raincheck.  For those that don't know what a raincheck is, it is a promise
 to fullfill a item when that item becomes available.  Everything will be on
 a first come first serve basis.  Expiration of this offer ends Nov 29, 1994!
 Please check out the file "Gold.txt" for additional information.
    The principle behind giving away free Gold Nuggets with this shareware
 product is for marketing, plain, simple, and honest!  The trust mail feature
 we offered before was a extreme hit, BUT only a small percentage of people
 actually paid and it just wasn't cost effective.  Secondly I do believe that
 this is the first time in all computer history that any Shareware or
 Commerical product has offered real Gold for buying their products.  Anyhow
 this offer is for real and there is no BS about it.

 TRUST MAIL?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    As stated above this feature is no longer in effect.  Its too bad it didn't
 work out and everyone did like it but it still comes down to dollars and cents.
 With every update and registration we pay the postage plus the cost of putting
 the package together, which all adds up quickly, so it doesn't take a lot of
 non-payers to operate in the red.

 COST
~~~~~~
    File Magician is still $40.00 US Funds by either personal check or money
 order.  Sorry but we do not accept Credit Cards and probably won't in the
 future for a number of reasons that I won't go into.  Located at the bottom
 of this file is the place to send for File Magician as is in the About menu.
 Future first time registrations for File Magician V4.0 could very well be
 in the $70.00 range.  This is high for shareware I know but FM is easily
 commerical material and the old saying goes, "You get what you Pay For!".
 It will be more cost efficent for you to register 3.5 now and buy the 4.0
 upgrade when its released.

 Heck I'll put this in again:

     Terry Bullard
     Bullard Software
     3291 Mt. View Rd.
     Ferndale, Wa. 98248
     206-384-6740 (voice) between 5:00pm and 9:00pm W.S.T.
     206-384-2591 (BBS) 24 hours - 14.4 USR  (not compatibles connect=2400)



 PARTIAL PAYMENTS?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    This was axcepted in previous versions of File Magician but cannot be any
 longer.  Payment must be made in full before FM is shipped.



 FMV3.5 UPDATE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(upgrade insert)

   First I want to thank all of those that Registered File Magician. Its people
like you that help make the continuation of shareware possible!  Still one of
the biggest problems with marketing shareware is exposure. Reviews are extremely
helpful but very difficult to achive unless there is a lot of public input to
the different magazines and bulletin boards.  Shareware is also real slow in
moving from BBS to BBS, we are still getting calls on Version 1 of FM which is
over nine months old.  We do need more and quicker exposure to obtain
registrations to guarentee the continuation of FM. There is so much more that
can be packed into this program!  I have hopes that you will be able to upload
the evaluation version of FM, listed in the root directory of your disk,
to all your local BBS boards and a additional hope would be to call or write
the different magazines that you read and tell them about FM.  All this would
help us beyond measure!!
     We do have a few new policy changes concerning File Magician, first the
trust mail did not work out and we are no longer honoring that benefit.  Less
then 20 percent actually paid for the program and that is by no means cost
effective, but it was still something that would have been wonderful if it had
succeeded!  As a new marketing tactic we are offering a Real Gold Nugget for
each new registration (while they last).  Even though you have already
registered, you will also receive one in this update, after all you have
supported me from the beginning and I haven't forgot you!!  See the info sheet
concerning the Gold Nugget (if you haven't already) for additional info.
Concerning updates from this point forward will not be free.  The cost of a
new update will vary depending upon the update.  The cost will be keep as low
as possible and addtional registrations will drive the cost even lower. The
cost will be based on mailing and handling fees, and programming time which
decreases according to the amount of registered users.  You will be notified
in advance by mail of the cost and new enhancements of FM to base your decision
on upgrading.

    If you have been following course of FM updates you will have noticed the
huge additions and improvements with each version. With FMV3.5, the same holds
true.  Version 3.0 of FM had a .exe size of approx. 250K, Version 3.5 .exe size
is +380K along with supporting .DLLs.  575,687 bytes (characters) have been
added to the new V3.5 update alone, in additional source coding for the project.
Large additions and changes have been made to V3.5, many from suggestions of
FM users and a few of my own.  These will be listed below, describing the
operation of each.

        Once Again,  Thank you!!!


Whats New?
~~~~~~~~~~~

    3D Look....
       FM now contains a new 3D look throughout entire program.

    Ghost Bug...
       Finally I have located the false file listing that appears on when
       a blank drive is selected or all the files have been deleted from.
       I do have to state that the bug was not mine but a bug of the compiler.
       Because of this compiler problem it was near impossible to track down,
       but at last it was found and I was able to make support corrections
       to the problem.

    Auto Configuration....
       With previous versions of FM you had to reconfigure a update.  Now FM
       will attempt to reconstruct your previous configuration and reconfigure
       it to the new version.  New 3.5 configurations will be supplied as a
       default.   I'm sure this is a relief to all of you!

    Configuration Checker....
      All problems that people have had with FM seem to stem to be their
      placement of important files (like Pkzip etc.) that FM uses and how
      windows acts with the path environment.  Documentation for Windows and
      Windows programming manuals do not seem to be correct concerning
      environmental paths.  Also many times the actually PATH strings used in
      the startup files are incorrect.  So I've built into FM a Configuration
      Checker, labeled under the Utilities menu "Check Configuration".  This
      function will reach into memory so to speak and find out what is really
      there and compare it with what you have currently configured and display
      a list of reports for each item.  Keep in mind this isn't 100% accurate
      but it sure will help.  Another thing all programs that FM uses for
      the Archive Commander should be either in your 'Dos' or 'Windows'
      directory for the best results.

    CMD Loader.....
      This function has been completely replaced with one that is much much
      simpler to run.   I think there was perhaps a overkill in the previous
      function and this new one did elimate 14K of .exe coding.  There are
      still 20 CMDs, 10 main screen buttons and 10 Menu Items.  The CMD Loader
      Panel consists basically of two colunms, one for the buttons and one for
      the menus.  To load a CMD, first click on the round button to indicate
      which CMD you wish to load or change.  Next Click on the corisponding
      "Load x" button, this will load a windows file locater.  Run through
      the tree of the file panel until you find the program.exe that you want
      to be a CMD, then click OK.  The full path name of the CMD will auto-
      matically be loaded into the 'CMD Pathname' Box. You must then fill in
      a new name for the button or menu item of the CMD in the 'CMD Name'
      box.  Now if you want the CMD to interact with a selected file listing
      you would next click on the "Add List Symbol".  This action will place
      a %s at the end of the CMD Pathname string.  Then when the CMD is
      activated, the selected file listing will be substituted for the %s.
      The "Delete This CMD" Button will clear any CMD that IS selected and
      classify that slot as "Empty".
      The "Save This CMD" will save all the current CMD selections to disk.
       This function need not be used for each indiviual CMD change but
       can be used all changes made during the session.
      The "Exit CMD Config" button only will keep all the CMD changes for
       just the current FM session.  Once FM is terminated, the CMD changes
       will not be restored.  Only "Save This CMD" will save the configuration
       to disk.
     I do hope this method is easier and faster for all of you.

    Help....
     I've added Help buttons to nearly every FM function encluding buttons.
     This is NOT the standard Windows help program that nearly everyone uses.
     The main reason for this memory usage. Winhelp.exe is a 256K+ program,
     plus the associated .hlp file is loaded into memory to display any help
     that might be required.  It is possible that Winhelp was programed with
     overlays but still that has a huge chunck of memory to use and there is
     the difficulty of new users to add comments to a windows help file.
     FM's help uses a tad less then 10K and it works with a standard text file
     that any editor can edit.  This means that you can easily add to any
     help subject that FM has to offer as long as you follow a few basic FM
     rules.  The Help topic is case sensitive and must start in column 1, any
     text lines following a help topic must start in column 2 or greater, line
     length should be limited to 79 characters, and finally the body of text
     under and including the Help Header must not exceed 8100 characters,
     which is a lot!
     The filename for FMs help is FM.hlp and you can edit it from File Magician
     if you wish under the Utilities Menu "Edit Help".  FM will automatically
     find the correct file and invoke the editor to load it.  The Editor that
     will be used MUST be specified within the "Configuration Panel" under the
     Names section.
     When help is requested, FM will search FM.HLP for the matching Help Header
     and display it within a scrollable dialog box.  If the header isn't found
     then FM will issue a error notice with the proper name of the Help Header.
     Help for the main screen buttons is located under the "Help" menu.

    Panel Buttons.....
        The Biggie!  This has been the most requested item.  More configurable
     buttons.  Well you got them!  Three panels of them, each panel consisting
     of 28 buttons for a grand total or 84 additional buttons.  Each button
     in itself is a CMD, and the same rules apply to configuring the panel
     buttons as the CMD Loader.  To get to the configuration area for the panels
     you must enter the configuration screen and then click on the button marked
     Panelx, x being the panel number.  To invoke a panel you can either use
     the menu items under "Panels" or you can configure your mouse buttons
     (described below).  Each panel multitasks with FM, which means that you
     are free use the main screen of FM while a button panel is present and
     you may interface selected listing from the main screen of FM with the
     any of the Button Panels.
        When a panel is first booted it will center itself, moving if
     neccessary depending upon your resolution, to cover the FM's main screen
     buttons.  You may move the panel anywhere from that point if you wish to
     get to FM's main buttons.

    Drive Button Configurations....
        Now you can configure the 12 drive buttons to any device you wish and
     in any order.  From the Configuration Screen click on the "Dr Conf" button
     this will invoke the "Drive Button Configuration" Panel.  At the top of
     the panel are 12 buttons just like the main screen of FM.  These 12
     buttons are for show only and are only there to show you how your main
     button display wil work.  To change a drive you must not only change the
     drive letter but the drive number as well.  This is important for FM to
     keep track of its own location.  Drive numbers corispond with the letters
     A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc.  After you change the drive, Change the number
     in the next column!!  When you have completed this configuration you can
     select the "Save" button to write the changes to disk.  FM will
     immediately update the main screen to show your changes.

    Gauges....
        FM now has 3 fuel gauges on its main screen.  The yellow ones next to
     each view window show how full that drive is and the gauage at the bottom
     shows remaining resources in the system.  When using FM to execute other
     programs it will pay to note the resources left before execution and
     resources left after execution.   Many programs get very sloppy and DO NOT
     free up any or all resources used while running.  Properly freeing up
     resources with program termination is almost traditional with beginning
     programmers or at least a over assumpsion of freeing resources due to the
     large amount of different compiler available now.
         Currently the gauges will update themselves when some type of action
     is performed on the main screen, but will at a later date be under timer
     control.  Currently its unwise to use timer control until I see how many
     controls I have left.


    Mouse Button Configuration.....
        The middle and right mouse buttons can now be programmed to do
     4 different tasks.  The first task is "parent" which will cause a parent
     action to happen on the active view window.  Same as hitting the parent
     button.  The next three options invoke one of the three button panels.
     To Configure the mouse you must select the "Mouse" button in the
     "Configuration Screen".  There is two column of radio buttons listing
     5 possible selections.  The fifth selection "Menu Panel" is reserved for
     the next update of FM, but the first 4 are active.  You may only choose
     1 selection for each button.  Selecting "Save" will save the configuration
     to disk and you may immediately begin using that function.

    Macro Keys....
       There are 12 keys that can be programmed as macros,  F1-F12.  The Macro
     Keys are configured from the "Macros" button located in the "Configuration
     screen.  Here you are presented with 3 scroll boxes, "Macro Key",
     "FM Commands", and "Key List".  The "Key List" box is for display
     purposes only, it shows you which key is assigned to which command.
     To Configure a macro you must first select a Key from the "Macro Key"
     box, then you have a choice of assigning it a FM Command or using one
     of your own.   A FM Command is one of the enternal functions that FM has
     such as "Copy", "Delete", etc.   If you wish to use a FM Command click
     next on a command within the "FM Commands" box and that will appear in
     the edit box "Command".  If you wish to have the macro act as a CMD then
     instead of using a FM Command enter in your own command within the
     "Command" edit box.   Next select the "Accept" Button, this will assign
     that command to that macro key and will also display it in the "Key List"
     box as being assigned.  After you have Made your selections click the
     "Save" button and the configuration will be saved to disk.
     Located under the "Help" menu is a menuitem called "Macros",  this
     displays a list of all the Fx Keys and what they have assigned to them.
     This is for a reminder display only.  The macros will not execute from
     that menu.
          Additional keys and macro menu execution will be available in
     future versions of FM.


    File/Text Finder....
        This function will find either files or text strings within files.
     You may activate this feature by using the menus or as a macro key.
     Here you have several options.  You may search text files only,  binary
     files only, or both.  You may do either a text search or a file search.
     You may search only the files and directories that you have previously
     selected or you may search the entire contents of any drive.
        When first entering into the function it will automatically default
     everytime to "Both" - "File Search" - "Use Selected".  If this is what
     you want to do then just enter in the name of the file you wish to search
     for and click "Search".  The Finder will also accept the wild care '*'
     for a search pattern.  te*.* will match all files that start with te and
     any extentsion.  The asterix is the stopping point of the filename and
     cannot be used to substitute as a letter, so 'te*t.* would not work.
     If wild cards are used you must supply a extendsion as well such as
     te*.e* or te*.exe.   A Text search will not use wild cards but will
     scan specified files for any string that matches what you have entered.
     Keep in mind that the shorter the string you use for a text search the
     faster the search will take place.  I have wrote commerical programs
     that extensively search for strings in all sorts of files and Media
     including disk MFM formats and the search routines are fast and accurate
     but still the governing facter is the lenght of the string to find.
         After you have made a successful search and you may have found many
     matches you might want to save the contents of your search to a file for
     later use, this is what the "Save To File" button is for.   When activated
     it will present you with a "Save As" Panel where you can create or select
     a file to send the report to.


    User Notes....
        This feature allows you to store any notes that you might wish to make
     concerning anything and works under the exact same principle as the Help
     feature does.  You are allowed up to 15 Note Listings and each listing
     must have a Note Header just as the help file does.  To configure a note
     you must enter the "Configuration Screen" and choose the "Notes" button.
         When activated you will be presented with a panel that contains two
     columns of edit boxes, "Menu Name", and "Search Header".  The menu name
     column will contain the name of the note topic that will be displayed in
     the notes menu and the Search Header colunm Contains the name of the topic
     that you wish to use in the notes file.  This Header must be 1 word and
     must start in colunm 1 and all the rest of the body lines must start in
     column 2 or larger.  The text size cannot be greater then 8100 characters
     and will appear the exact same way the help screens appear.  You may also
     within the configuration panel edit the note file by clicking on the
     "Edit Notes" button.  You may also edit the notes file from the
     "Utilities Menu" under "Edit Notes".  To view a note you would use the
     menuitem "Notes" then slide to the topic you wish to view.


    Disk Menu....
         The menuitems under the menu "Disk" are not for this version of FM.
     I had thought about removing them but decided to leave them to give you
     a little insight of what is to come in future updates.  Of course this
     will not be all, I actually have a ton planned but it does take a little
     and I'm more the sure you are getting impatient for this release!


    Print Button....
        Future versions of FM will have much expanded features of printing
     files.  For now I have created a spooler that will take all selected files
     either in the main FM screen or the Archive Commander and send them to
     the printer manager where FM will instruct printer manager to begin to
     print the files.  After doing this FM will disconnect itself and allow
     the print manager to do its thing while you get on to something else.


   The Archive Commander!!!....
     This is one of the more important features of FM that people use the most
    and I have spent more time reconstructing this feature with a new look and
    many additional features.  I do believe that there is NO OTHER archive
    handler in existence that will do as much as with a archive as what the
    Archive Commander can do.  At least in my search for competing software
    either commerical or shareware, I have not run across anything put together
    that compares.  The following is a brief description on the Commanders
    features.
       The Commander will automatically detect the type of archive file that
    has been loaded into the Commander with the exception of self extracting
    archives.  These must be loaded manually and only a few features will
    apply to a self extraction archive, such as converting to a different
    archive format. (this is temporary)
       The Archive Commander now supports not only .zip files but .lzh and
    .arj as well.  The Commander also has a built in comment editor that
    can be used for viewing previously saved archive comments and many other
    things described below.

     Upper right Scroll Box - Contains the files that are within a archive
                              that has been processed.
     Middle Scroll Box      - Contains all archive files that were selected
                              before the Commander was activated.
     Process Button         - Will process the selected archive and display the
                              files it holds in the right file box and if a
                              comment is embedded within the archive, that
                              comment will be displayed in the editor.
     Extract Button         - This button will extract all files that you have
                              selected to one or all 3 locations in a single
                              pass.  You will be presented with a panel that
                              will contain 2 check boxes, one for the right
                              view window and one for the left view window. A
                              third check box is available to send the files
                              to any path that you describe in the ajoining
                              edit box.  1, 2, or all 3 maybe checked if you
                              wish.
     Delete Button          - This will delete from the archive any files that
                              you have selected for deletion.
     Run  Button            - This will execute any file within a archive, but
                              keep in mind that if this file needs to have
                              supporting .dlls it probably will not run.  It
                              would be best to decompress to a temp directory
                              and execute it there.
     Test Button            - Test for corruptness of the archive and gives
                              you the report that was issued by the archiver.
     All Button             - Will select all the files in Archived Files Box.
     Clear Button           - De-selectes all files in the Archives Files Box.
     Help  Button           - Brings up the help screen as described above.
     Quit  Button           - Exits out of the Commander.
     Clr Comment Button     - Erases and resets the comment editor.
     Load Comment Button    - This neat little feature will allow you to load
                              a pre-existing file into the comment editor where
                              it can be resaved back to the archive as a new
                              comment.
     Load Last Button       - The Commander keeps a 1 comment history which
                              means that if you process another file you can
                              recall the last comment from the previous file
                              and reload it into the editor.
     Save Comment Button    - Here you may save any comment to a file of your
                              choice. Of course the comment must be in the
                              editor at the time.
     Insert Comment Button  - This will add the comment to the selected
                              archive and save it.
     Print Comment Button   - This will send the current comment out to the
                              printer.
     Show Comment Button    - You may wish to re-establish the orginal comment
                              that came with the archive if you haven't changed
                              and saved a new comment.  This forces a re-read
                              of the archive comment area.
     Convert 2 Zip Button   - This will convert a .lzh or .arj to a .zip file
     Convert 2 Lha Button   - This will convert a .zip or .arj to a .lzh file
     Convert 2 Arj Button   - This will convert a .zip or .lzh to a .arj file
     Add Description Button - This feature will take whatever is in the editor
                              box and ask you for a filename.  Once this is
                              given, the Commander will create a file with the
                              contents of the editor and place it within the
                              archive.
     Add Files Button       - This feature will add any selected files from
                              and drive or directory to the selected archive
                              with one pass.  The feature is simple to use
                              but a bit tricky to understand. Upon entering
                              this feature it is best to first click the
                              'Del List' button.  This clears any forgotten
                              listings that might be left there.
                              The idea behind this is to create a path list
                              of files that might reside in different
                              directories or on different drives from where the
                              archive is.  After this path list has been
                              created then the archiver can be called to pack
                              everything within the path list to the selected
                              archive.  So the proper proceedure is first to
                              Delete the list.  Then run through the tree and
                              select the files you wish to have added to the
                              archive.  After selecting the file and before
                              changing to a different path click the
                              "Add2List" button, this writes your current
                              selection.  Then change paths and and repeat the
                              process if more files are desired.  After all
                              your selections have been made and the Add2List
                              button has been pressed for each set of files
                              Click on the "Do It" button.  This will active
                              the archiver and the deed is done.  You might
                              want to get into the practice of deleting the
                              list before canceling out of the function.
                              In the Files column the directory selection is
                              at the bottom of the list, they may be double
                              clicked to enter that directory just as double
                              clicking the drive letters will give you the
                              root directory of that drive.
     Make Lha Button        - Same as below
     Make Arj Button        - Same as below
     Make Zip Button        - This button will take all the selected files from
                              a processed selected archive and create a new
                              archive with a different name and contain only
                              the file(s) that were selected.
     Make .EXE Button       - This function will take the selected archive and
                              make it into a self extracting archive.  With
                              .zip files you must be sure to have the zip2exe
                              program located within your dos or windows
                              directory and have its name in the Names area of
                              the configuration screen.  Arj and Lha handles
                              this feature  quite well and does so internally.
     Repair Zip Button      - With this feature you must have the pkzipfix
                              program and have it within your dos or windows
                              directory.  Also it must be named with in the
                              Names area of the Configuration Screen.  This
                              feature works only for .zip files.
     Print File Button      - The Print File function is basically the same as
                              the main screens print button.  It will take all
                              of the selected files from a processed archive
                              and spool them out to the print manager.
     Read File Button       - Read File will invoke the reader to read the
                              file that you have selected within the archive.
                              You may also do the same with double clicking.

     Double Clicking...
      The File Commander double click features work the same as FMs double
 click feature.  It does NOT work by reconizing extendsions but by reconizing
 the files personal binary header.  I've had a couple of requests for FM to
 reconize the text extendsions of files but I still maintain the belief that
 this is a most crippling aspect of programming concepts and does nothing but
 have the potential of misleading software and the spreading of computer
 viruses.  It is a standard that should have been dropped years ago!!  But I
 will still keep a open mind to all things.

     Installation...
         As of this writing I have not created a installation program yet for
 FM but hope to before the sending date.  If not there will be instructions
 on how to do so, which isn't too hard, a simple matter of coping files but
 I'll try like the dickens to make it easy for everyone.

     FView...
         Included on this disk is a archive called Fview12.zip.  This is a
 file reader/viewer that I use with FM.  Its the best reader that I have found
 to date and I do have permission from the author to distribute it with the
 FM3.5 update.  Fview is evaluation shareware software that doesn't have the
 typical nag screens and handles large files very quickly.  And I haven't
 found any bugs in the program.  The price of FM does not cover the shareware
 cost of Fview! If you wish to use it, you must register it.  All the
 information is within the archive and it is the latest version.  I received
 it directly from the author via modem on Nov. 19.  This program after its
 been de-archived should be placed in your dos or windows directory and its
 name FView be place in the read box in the names column of the Configuration
 Screen.

     Conclusion:
   That is about all of the visible stuff for this update.  As far as internal
 things go, FM has been basically completely re-organized, mainly because of
 its large program size and much coding has been rewrote to provide tighter and
 faster execution plus run under low memory environments.  Also I still do not
 see a end to the amount of things that FM can do in future releases.  But
 still everything depends upon future registrations so any help you can give
 in talking with other people, posting on Bulletin Boards, writing or phoning
 magazines will be of great importance of making File Magician a great success!

                 Thanks for your Support!!!
                     Sincerely
                        Terry Bullard.





 THINGS TO COME?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    You bet!  Not only just the Disk Menu Stuff and the Menu Panel but tons
more to say the least.  One thing that will be a definite add in, will be for
our overseas supporters, which are increasing in number from nearly all
nations.  FM will be able, by configuration, to support all language texts.
Provided of course it there is a translation made for that language.
   There is so many ideas that I have to add and I'm sure as always I'll get
a ton more from lots of people everywhere.  I know you'll be amazed!





                               File Magician V3.0

                               Copyright 1993-1994
                                by Terry Bullard
                                 for Windows 3.1



Release Date: Apr. 3, 1993


    TOPICS in ORDER
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Introduction
     A Couple of Questions
          Ordering Hours
          Calls of Thanks
          Can I Improve my HD Performance?
          Upgrades
          Site Licenses
     What you can do for us
     Whats New in V3
          Palette Control
          CMD/Task Loader
          The Exchange
          Font Selecter
          DlClk Task Control
          Auto File Listing on Bootup
          File Copy Modes
          Double Clicked .zip Files
     Last Minute Stuff
          Add2List  for Archiving
          Dos Button
          Ent Com
          Move Drive Selections
          Multiple Mouse Selections
          Menu
             Save Configuration
             Use Desktop Palette
             Use System Desktop Palette
             Clock
     New Stuff to Come

     Installation
          With PCTools
          With Program Manager
          With Norton Desktop

     Some of the Old Stuff
          Description
          Just What is File Magician
          Requirements
          How To Register
          Trust Mail
          What You Get
          First and MOST important before running File Magician!
          Next Important thing
          CMDs or Tasks
          Archive compressers (Pkzip, lha, arj)
          Archive Commander
          Double clicking
          Path Bars
          Split
          Duplicate
          Menus
             Compression
             Utilities
          View Windows
          Selection
          Title Bar
          Keyboard
          Push Buttons
             Drive Buttons
             Parent
             All
             Clear
             Copy
             Rename
             Move
             Delete
             Read
             Byte Request
             MakeDir
             Run




    INTRODUCTION
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


   Welcome to File Magician version 3.0!  For those of you unfamiliar with
 File Magician Please read the setup section for FM carefully, pay particular
 attention to the steps in changing the _default.pif file.  For those of you familiar with
 FM will find huge differences from version 2.0.   First and most important
 FM does not gobble resources as it did in v2.0.  I have a hard time labeling
 this as a FM bug when in reality it is a compiler problem.  This sounds like
 passing the  buck but it really isn't! Anyway I found a way to work around it and now
 the resources behave properly.  FM has added 123K to the .EXE coding and to
 keep FM as independent as possible I had to change a few things to keep it within
 the hardware limits for a basic 4 meg setup. The F1 help has been removed to
 make room for additional error control coding, this was all pretty basic stuff
 and is covered quite well in the documentation.  If this is unsatisfactory to
 everyone I'll bring in winhelp (gasp).  The other behind the scenes thing with
 FM is the directory and file limitation.  FM will handle up to 100 directories
 and 300 files per root listing instead of the 50 and 200 as before. This was an
 oversite on my part and I just don't have a good excuse!  The next release
 of FM will have unlimited file and directory listings.  I plan to bring in a
 Amiga method of virtual memory control to handle it.  This will take 80 to 100
 hours of time to make the conversion so it will have to be in the next release.

   File Magician has been tested with 'Norton Desktop', 'PCTools', and 'Dash
 Board', without encountering any problems.  Also FM does does quite a good job
 of running all of their fine utility programs too, so one might keep in mind
 that one could benfit by their programs and still remain under MS's program
 manager.  Oh yes almost forgot, FM was tested with the Program Managers too.


    A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   There are a couple of questions and reasons to clear up before proceeding with
 what is new in V3.0


   Calling Hours.  As stated before they are 4:00pm to 9:00pm Pacific Standard
 Time.  You may call during the day if you wish but you may very easily get one
 of those nasty answering machines.  If you do, please leave your name and phone
 number and I WILL call you back.  As soon as I get enough registrations I
 WILL put in a toll free number and WILL be here during the day.

 3.5 Note: At times it might be very difficult to call everyone back but please
           make good use of the bbs number listed on the About panel of the
           program.  I've found that is far simpler to describe a problem and
           reply to a problem with a solution by EMail. (206)-384-2591 BBS


  NOTE: When leaving a message on the answering machine, please speak slowly when
        leaving your name and number.  Its either me or the machine that doesn't
        hear so well <grin>


   Several people who have called have thanked me for being here for them.  This
 surprised me a bit.  In my opinion if a programmer releases software to the public
 he or she SHOULD be there for the people who use or want to use their
 software!  If not then they had better find a new line of work!!  I AM here for
 everyone and WILL continue to upgrade FM to the best of my ability, and your
 calls help me acheive those goals.

   How can I improve my Hard Drive Performance?
 This question has been asked me many times.  Optimizers are good but you must
 keep your hard drive organized.  Do NOT have a lot of files and directories
 in a single root directory.  Create new embedded directories and store your
 files in a organized manner.  Anything more then 200 listings in a root directory
 slows hd performance and a great number of other things.  Plus a good guess is
 that your hard drive will need to be replaced sooner.


   Site Licenses.  Yes we do have Site Fees.  These are NOT Site copy fees but
 reduced fees based upon the number of copys ordered from us.  You will need
 to call for pricing.

   Keep in mind that I'm from a small hick town in Washington state and  I'm
 a good generation older then 90 percent of the current shareware programmers.
 So it is safe to assume that my beliefs and business practices are a bit old
 fashion especially in regards to where the customer comes first!  But as to
 new ideas and mechanical programming, those young whippersnappers had better
 sit back and watch how its done! <grin>


    WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR US
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   One final thing and we'll get to whats new.  Please upload this evaluation
 copy of FM to all the Bulletin Boards you call.  Fast distribution is always
 a problem.  Then if you like FM please call or write your favorite computer
 magazine.  All of the above would help me and you!  For me, it gets FM known.
 For you, it allows me to devote more time to FM's continued development!
 Now if you don't like FM, call me and tell me why, this will help me make
 FM even better!  File Magician WILL be if its NOT ALREADY the best file
 managing and archive managing program for the PC.  With your help it will be
 and remain to be Number One! (Documentation might be another story!) EEK!



 ********
Below is a insert from Version 3.0 of File Magician.  With a few slight changes
made in version 3.5
 ********

OK On to What's New........


  Palette Control
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   The Palette control is located under the utilities menu.  The palette control
 consists of 48 different items which enables you to change the current color.The
 first 21 are the standard Project Manager controls and the last 27 are independent
 items for FM.  This will give you almost complete control over FM's color
 selections, you can change it to what is pleasant to your eye.  The
 function 'The Exchange' explained below will allow you to save your palette as
 an independant file or load up someone elses palette.
   After loading the palette selector you will be presented with a dialog box
 containing the different controls you can use to make the necessary changes.
 The upper left quarter of the box are three slide gadgets that will allow you
 to adjust the different color shades.  The upper right quarter of the box contains
 a list box of all the different items you can change.  The bottom third of
 the dialog box contains six push button controls and a comment field.

  OK Button   - This button accepts the color selection you have chosen for any
                particular item.  Once you are satisfied with an items color, press
                this button.  Ok must be pressed for each item you change
                if your satisifed with the color.

  SAVE Button - The save button only needs to be pressed once when you have
                finished with all your selections.  Save will save the entire
                palette configuration to disk.

  TEST Button - This button will change the color of the current item you are
                working to see how it actually looks. For me and I'm sure
                everyone else it is difficult to see how something will look
                like without actually seeing it visually. After choosing
                'Test' you must either choose 'OK' or 'Stop Test'.

  STOP TEST   - Stop Test will stop the testing mode of the palette selecter and
                reset the selected item back to the orginial color plus reset
                the color selector gadgets back to what they were orginally.
                There were pros and cons in reseting the color selector gadgets
                back to where they were orginally or just leaving them at the
                last current state of selection.  Returning back to the default
                won out for the simple reason that it was too hard to remember
                exactly where default really was and it was best to just start
                out with a new selection.  It worked for me, I hope it works for
                you.

  DEFAULT     - This button will reset any selected item back to my orginal
                color selection for FM.  The Color basis is from the stock
                settings of Windows.

  CANCEL      - Cancel is the Same as Exit.  Cancel means to cancel any further
                palette Selections.  Perhaps it should have just been called
                Exit.

  COMMENT     - This comment field can contain up to 80 characters. The reason
                for this comment section is so you can label your different
                palette creations with your name or any comments you might have
                concerning that palette.  Also when using "The Exchange" to load
                other peoples palettes you can see who and what they have to say
                concerning that palette.  See the 'The Exchange' section below
                for further info.



  Proceedure: - The best way to use the palette selector is to first select a
                item from the list box in the upper right corner than adjust
                the color control bars.  When you find something that might look
                neat, push the 'Test' button.  If it looks suitable then go
                ahead and select ok.  Then proceed onto the next item.  Now if
                you are totally satisfied with your selections you may select
                either 'SAVE' or 'CANCEL'.   Selecting 'SAVE' will write the
                configuration to disk. Selecting 'CANCEL' will allow you to use
                the palette settings only for the current secession.

 PALETTE BACK - This menu item will read your disk configuration and load the
                palette you last saved to disk.  This comes in handy if
                you decide your palette choices weren't all that neat after all.






  CMD LOADER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  This has been change around completely, see the above section for 3.5



  THE EXCHANGE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    The Exchange is a feature that will allow you to load or save different
 parts of your configuration of FM.  If you have come up with a really neat
 palette selection for FM and you want to share it with others on a bulletin
 board, computer club, or just friends you can save the palette as a seperate
 file and upload it or pass it out on disk.  Or if you wish to view someone elses
 idea for a palette you can load theirs and keep it or modify it as you wish.
 The exchange also supports configuration segments for Pkzip, Pkunzip, Lha, and
 Arj.  For most people including myself it is somewhat confusing to understand
 just what setting does what etc. without going into great study.  Well some
 people have a real nak for it and with any luck these talented people will
 allow others to observe their talents in creating settings files for other
 people to use.  The Palette and all the Archive settings dialog boxes have a
 'Comment' box which can be used for notations or signatures of who created
 it.  To use The Exchange use the following steps.

     Step  1:  To load or save a file you can first click on a file before
               loading The Exchange.  After the file is highlighted you would
               use the menu to start The Exchange.  When the exchange appears
               the file you selected will show up in the 'Selected File'
               box.  If you wish to use that filename select the 'Use Selected'
               button.  I know this is more then one step but...
     Step  2:  If you do not use the 'Use Selected' step enter in the 'Filename'
               box the name and path of the file you wish to load or save.
     Step  3:  Select one of the configuration buttons, 'Palette','Pkzip' etc.
     Step  4:  Click either load or save depending on what you are doing.

  Thats it.!  The new configuration will take effect immediately.  If you wish
 to retain these settings you must load up the configuration screen and chose
 'Save' to save to disk.




  FONT SELECTER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    The Font Selecter will allow you to use two different fonts in the main view
 of FM.  The first menu item is 'View Windows'.  'View Windows' are the fonts that
 display the files and directories located in the right and left view windows.
 Any type or size of font may be used.  FM will adjust accordingly.  Of course
 if you pick too large of a font the file name and file size will interweave
 making for a very difficult display to read, hehe.  Keep in mind when a
 different font other then the system font is used, the display when repainting
 is noticably slower.  At least it is on my low end clone.  It would be interesting
 to see how it reacts on a good machine.
  Underline and Strikeout are allowed as well as the different point size but
 color is not, even though it is indicated.  The font color can be set with the
 palette control.  I have a rather limited supply of fonts to test but everything
 I do has seemed to work well.  My favorite selection is having "small.fon" with
 point size 6 as the buttons and "Terminal.fon" 9 as view.
  The 'Background Fonts' menu item is set for the button controls of the main view
 screen.  Once you are happy with your font selection, choose 'Save Font's' from
 the menu.  This will save to disk the font structure and when you boot up FM
 next time your fonts will be displayed.  Also depending upon your machine keep
 in mind it takes a bit to load the fonts from disk when first booting.




  DLCLK TASK CONTROL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Here is the real work horse of File Magician!  DlClk Task Control is ONLY
 similar to Windows File Manager in one way.  You can double click a file and
 the appropriate program is loaded to run the associated double clicked file.
 Most programs use the file extension method to associate a given file to a
 given program. FM DOES NOT!  Too many different types of files have the same
 bloody extension and there is nothing more aggrevating then getting an
 unrecognized winhelp file or you have to make an extension association with
 every bloody .txt, .doc, .c, .h, etc etc.   The only true way, is to recognize
 the files binary header which 99 percent of them have that identifies what type
 of file they really are.  Well this is what FM does.   Ok, now I was presented
 with a couple of different choices on how to do this.  The first and most obvious
 was to examine every file I could get my hands on and construct FM to
 recognize that header and do its thing provided you had the correct manager
 to run that file.  Well I sure couldn't afford to cover the hundreds or, better
 yet thousands of filetypes available to the PC and I had to have some
 way to satisfy everyone.  So, one of the two days I took off since starting
 FM,( it came to me while panning gold in one of Canada's beautiful rivers), why
 not give FM the ability to learn the different filetypes and store them away
 for use.  That day was a nice one and I did find more gold then usual but I
 cut it short and headed home to add the feature to FM.  It wasn't an easy task
 in making it easy to use for everyone at all levels, but I think it came out
 fairly well as long as the users take the proper steps in setting it up.

   A double click function must have a task to work on the double clicked file.
 For instance if you wish to view a .gif picture file you would use one of
 the many great gif viewers that are available.  So you would do the same when
 setting up a double click configuration.  From now on I'll refer to the Task
 (gif viewer) as a Manager.  So the first thing to do is figure out what type
 of file we wish to have as a double click control.  We'll use the .gif
 as an example and the name of manager can be GifView.exe. Now the first thing
 that has to be done is to load the Manager.  The best way to do this is to
 use the search functions.  So step by step

   Step  1:  Load the Task Dispatcher from the menu.
   Step  2:  Select the drive to search from in the drive box.
   Step  3:  Enter in the full Manager's name or first few letters of the
             Manager's name in the entry box labeled 'Search Name or .ext'
             If you are unsure of the filename enter .EXE  to search for all
             executibles.
   Step  4:  At the end of the search, select the listing  you believe is the
             correct manager for the task you wish to do.
   Step  5:  Select the Manager Button.  The name of the manager will appear in
             the entry box labeled 'Manager name'.  Now it is time to teach FM
             what type of files that manager should work on.
   Step  6:  On the bottom of the dialog box are four radio buttons labeled
             'Match' and then a number 1-4.

   NOTE:     Match is the number of bytes FM will compare when learning about
             the different filetypes.  Selecting Match 3 (default) is quite
             accurate but some files like .bmp, .pif have only 1 or 2 beggining
             header bytes that are the same.  So if at first you don't match
             3 or 4, try a lower number.  FM will tell you what your odds are.
             The next step is to locate a number of files that contain the same
             .ext as the manager should work on. Keep in mind that many files
             have the same extension so you may very well have to adjust the
             extension file selection.  Ok now use the search feature again.

    Step  7: Enter in the 'Search Name' box the name of the extension you
             wish to use  like .gif
    Step  8: Choose the drive you wish to search, if it is different then the
             one you used to search for the manager.
    Step  9: Push the Search button.
    Step 10: After your search ends you may select all the entries in the search
             box by pushing the 'Select All' or you can select any number of
             entries manually with the mouse.
    Step 11: Push the 'Learn' Button.

   NOTE:     FM will scan all of the selected files and compare them with the
             first entry in list.  If no matches are found you will be told to
             deselect the first entry and try again.  Hopefully your won't have
             to do this too much before FM Finds a successful match.  If the
             first entry only matchs a few of the files FM will give you the
             percentage of matches and deselect all of the files that didn't
             match.  At that point you take over and decide if you wish to
             accept this selection.  If so then use Step 12

    Step 12: Push the 'Accept' Button.

    Thats it.  See, piece of cake!   Now you can double click any .gif file
 in either view window and FM will call GifView.exe to load and show the selected
 .gif file.  Hm... almost makes drag and drop obsolete huh..

 The three buttons "Clear Sel", "Select All", "Clear Box", are pretty basic.

   Clear Sel  - Clears all the selected listings in the search list box.
   Select All - Selects all the listings in the search box.
   Clear Box  - Deletes all the listings in the search box and resets the box to
                zero.

   The two buttons "Task List", and "Del Entry" are for viewing and deleting
 previously accepted Matches.  To view the list of matches, press the 'Task List'
 button.  To delete a match, select a match from the search list box and then
 press the 'Del Entry' Button.

   The last button that hasn't been described yet is the 'Load List' Button.
 This button loads a previously selected list of files that were selected on the
 Main screen of File Magician.  The Main screen of FM has two collective buttons,
 'Add2List' and 'Del List'.  Currently these buttons are dedicated to the
 DlClk Task Controller in selecting files for FM to learn from.  Later these
 same buttons will be used to Archive files from different directories and
 different drives all in one shot.  In using the buttons with DlClk Task
 Controller you would first Clear the list by pressing 'Del List'.  Then you
 can roam around your HD and select different files with the proper extension
  you want FM to learn about.  After you select these files, push the button
 'Add2List', then move on to the next directory or drive, select more files,
 'Add2List', etc.  Once you have selected all the files you want to select
 you can then load the DlClk Task Dispatcher.  You then enter in the Manager's
 name and next you select the 'Load List' button.  This button will load all
 the files you have previously selected with the 'Add2List' button.  Then
 you can continue on with the learn process.
  Have no fear with this function, the worst that can really happens is the
 manager program you selected won't work and the FM will just ignore your
 double click message.  If FM does ignore it then you have either the wrong
 manager or the manager tries to load the wrong files.


   Currently File Magician recognizes the following files.  .EXE, .ZIP, .LHA, .ARJ
 and All text files.  Double Click editing should be avoided for these filetype
 because FM will over ride the configuration.

   Text Files should be explained a little here.  FM is accompanied with a seperate
 file called read.exe.  This is a very simple text file reader that only took a
 few hours to program.  When FM encounters a double clicked text file it will
 load the reader to read the file.  Currently my efforts have been to add to File
 Magician's abilities and as of yet I have not had enough waking hours to
 enhance the reader problem and for this reason I have added a slot within the
 configuration window where the reader program can be subsituted for some other
 reader or editor of your choice.  Qedit works very well for large files and
 notepad is quite good for files under 32k.  To accomplish this, open the config
 window by pushing the "Config" button and in the group box labeled Names, replace
 the Read name with the filename of your choice.  The filename must either be
 in the same directory as FM or it must reside within the Path Environment.




  Auto File Listing on bootup
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    File Magician can now be set to have either view window contain a pre-defined
 file and directory listing.  To accomplish this, enter the configuration control
 and in the group box that is labeled "Paths" you will see ..

       Left Boot      Drive
       _________      _____
      |         |    |     |
      |_________|    |_____|

      Right Boot      Drive
       _________      _____
      |         |    |     |
      |_________|    |_____|


 Left Boot of course is for the Left view window and Right Boot is for the right
 view windows.  Enter in the drive and or directory you wish File Magician
 to load when you first load File Magician.  The drives and or directories should
 be entered in as the following example.

        C:
        C:\windows
        etc.

 The drive box contains the actual number of the drive.  Only a number can be
 entered here and it must relate to the drive that is indicated in boot box.
 Failure to enter the correct drive number could result in some unexpected results.
 The values are as follows

        A: = 1
        B: = 2
        C: = 3
        D: = 4
        E: = 5

         etc.





  FILE COPY MODES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The copy command button has been changed.  You now have available three
 different copy methods when copying file or directories.

  1)  Copy Standard
  2)  Compress while Copying
  3)  Decompress while Copying

  Copy Standard - This is the standard copy procedure used in the previous
                  versions of FM. All selected files are sent to the destination
                  area and the originals are left untouched.

  Compress While Copying - This method will copy files to the destination area
                  and compress each file in route to the destination area. This
                  method uses MicroSoft's compression routines.  The filenames
                  are left unchanged and the command will maintain the directory
                  tree if any directory has been selected.  I've recorded up to
                  a 74 percent compression ratio in some tests.  The great
                  advantage to this function is there is always a visual reference
                  of the compressed files and the need to remember or view a
                  zip file for its contents is not needed.   The downside of this
                  function is it will pad extra bytes to a file when
                  compressing a file that has already been compressed by some
                  other archiver.  These padded are stripped when the file is
                  recopied using the Decompress While copying mode.   FM is in
                  no way trying to compete with any other existing archiver but
                  simply giving you another file compression advantage.
                  All files are sent to the destination area and the orginals are
                  left untouched.

  Decompress While Copying - This mode will decompress any file that has been
                  previously compressed with File Magician.  If multiple files
                  have been selected and only some have been previously
                  compressed, FM will decompresss only those files that are
                  compressed and standard copy the files that are not compressed.
                  There is no need for you to try and determine which files are
                  compressed and which files aren't. FM will do this automatically.
                  All files are sent to the destination area and the orginals
                  are left untouched.

  Check For Disk Space - With this button selected, File Magician will check the
                  destination area before each file it copies to make sure
                  there is enough free space.  If not enough free space is
                  available, FM will abort the process and inform you of the
                  problem.

  Cancel     -    The Cancel of course aborts the procedure either before the
                  copy process begins or will abort the process during the
                  copy session.





  DOUBLE CLICKED .ZIP FILES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Double clicking of any .zip file has been changed.  Now when a .zip file is
 double clicked a dialog box will appear and give you the option of extracting
 the file to the indicated destination area or loading the file into the 'Archive
 Commander'.  You also have the option of changing the destination area that
 is indicated in the entry box.  The entry box will automatically be defaulted
 to what path is showing in the destination area.  Lha and Arj will still auto
 extract to whatever the destination area is when double clicked.






  LAST MINUTE STUFF
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Add2List - Use List   for Archiving

     I've added the 'Use List' Function to Pkzip, Lha, and Arj.   This allows you
 to archive any files or directories from any drive with a single call from any
 of the archivers.  This works for archiving from multiple drives at the same
 time too.  Its quite easy to do..
     Step 1:  Select the 'Del List' button.  This clears the list.
     Step 2:  Use either view to select any file or directory that you wish to
              archive.  Then select the 'Add2List' button.  You can then change
              directories or drives and select additional files.  Each time you
              select files or directories, use the 'Add2List' button before
              moving on to the next drive or directory listing.
     Step 3:  Call up whatever archiver you will use and select the 'Use List'
              button from the dialog box.  Then enter the balance as you normally
              would when creating a archive.

  Thats it!  How this works is when everytime you push the 'Add2List' button FM
  will write all your selected files to a file called 'Selected.Lst' in your
  configured 'Work Directory'.  File Magician appends each selection to the end
  of this file, so the 'Selected.Lst' will continue to grow for each Add2List
  entry you make (the file is NOT over written, but continued).  So this is why
  you should use the 'Del List' button when you begin something new.  If you
  don't then all the previously selected files from another process that you
  did before would be included with whatever you are currently doing.  Remember
  'Selected.Lst' is a file and will always be there every time you boot FM,
  unless you push the 'Del List' button.  Ok I'm going over this several times
  but I just wanted to get it clear <grin>


  DOS BUTTON
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Pushing the 'Dos' Button will give you the dos shell.  File Magician expects
 to find the Windows supplied, "dosprmpt.pif" file.  This file can reside in the
 windows directory or any directory that is included in the Path Environment.




  ENT COM
~~~~~~~~~~~
    This is short For 'Enter Command'.   Here you can enter a most dos commands
 from this line.  There is a few exceptions and there is a few rules for the
 non exceptions.  Windows is not very free with giving programmers control using
 dos functions and one would think that it is strongly discouraged at times. So
 if you wish to run a .pif file or a .com file you must include the extension.
 .EXE file are fine without the extensions.  Anything that is within the Path
 Environment can be called without using the full path name, other then that you
 must use the full path name.


 Example in command line...

      format.com a:

 The MS_DOS commands such as 'dir', 'type', well forget it.



  MORE DRIVE SELECTIONS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    FM now supports up to 12 drives.  At least I hope it does.  I've only been
 able to test a: to d:, but the coding is basically the same so there shouldn't
 be a problem. If so please notify me.  With screen space getting very limited
 I split the orginal drive button space to add the additional 6 drives.  In a
 higher resolution mode it looks quite cool.  Well at least I think so.




  MULTIPLE MOUSE SELECTION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Multiple files and/or directories can be selected or de-selected by holding
 down on the Left Mouse Button and moving the pointer up or down the view
 window.


  MENU - SAVE CONFIGURATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   When selecting this item from the utilities menu, this will save all branches
 of the configuration, such as palette, Archive Settings etc.


  USE DESKTOP PALETTE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   This item will absorb the current palette setting that you have made for your
 program manager desktop and apply them to FM's base palette.

  USE SYSTEM DESKTOP PALETTE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This Menu Item will load the stock Program Managers system palette settings and
 apply them as FM's base palette.


  OPTIMIZATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    In laymen terms I've applied some special optimized coding to bring the
  .exe filesize down from 284K, to at this writing, 246K, almost 40K of disk
  savings and much faster execution.   With the last minute stuff there still
  was 148K of additional .EXE coding to FM V3.0 over FM V2.0, just in case
  anyone was interested.  Remember the 18K of F1 help was removed also.



  CLOCK
~~~~~~~~~
    File Magician has two types of clocks.  One a window and one for the menu
 bar, your choice.  If you would like the clock to be present when you boot up
 just save the configuration while one of the clocks are active.  When FM first
 boots windows does it thing in a certain order so when you pass your mouse over
 a section of the background window the clock will auto-activate.  The background
 window is classified as anything other then the view windows.  To de-activate
 the window clock you can do one of the following...  Use the box clock menu
 again, it is always on toggle.  Click on the clock to activate the window and
 use the close gadget, ESC key, or ENTER key.  To de-activate the menu clock you
 must toggle the menu item again.




  NEW STUFF TO COME
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    You bet!  I still have a slug of ideas that I want to put into FM and I'm
 getting a slug more from the people that have called me.  I know that many of
 the people that have called with suggestions will see that these ideas are
 in this version of FM.  Thank you all very much!!!!   A couple of the things
 that will be different with the next version of File Magician will be first,
 The Archive Commander.  This will not only have a different look but it will
 have twice the control over the archives as it does now.  I've been holding
 off a bit on this because I wanted to hear from the Pkware boys but I guess
 they must be too busy.  Anyhow this will be a lot different.  A second thing
 will be the actual archiving controls, this will change and give you more
 power over what you are doing.  And a third is the graphic look of FM. Right
 now it is quite plain and it was left purposely this way until I had a chance
 to do something about it.  Also I can't see why this can't be configured by
 the user of FM and why FM cannot have these configurations saved and loaded.






  INSTALLATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    V3.5 Note.  The registered version of FM does contain a Installation program
 on disk.  The evaluation copy does not. Follow the directions below with the
 addition of copying the .DLL file to your Windows\Systems directory.

    Currently there is not a installation program that goes with FM, its been
 a debate with me if there should even be one.  Personally I feel a great deal
 of discomfort with installation programs that change what I've so painfully
 set up without even telling me about to begin with.  File Magician has no need
 to change or add to any of your startup files or any .ini files in your windows
 directory.  The best method to install FM is.

     Step  1:  Create a directory on your hard drive with File Manager or whatever
               you are currently using as a file manager, call the directory
               FM or whatever name you wish to use. (as long as it is nice)

     Step  2:  Copy all the files from the FM disk or .zip archive to that
               directory.

      Installation complete.  Now all you need to do is assign it a icon and
 throw it in a group somewhere.


    With PCTools.
   ---------------

     Step  1:  Go to the File Menu and Select 'New File'.
     Step  2:  Enter in the Title box   File Magician V3  .
     Step  3:  Click on the 'Browse' Button and find your way to the FM Directory
               that you created and select FM.EXE, then push 'OK',  the
               command line entry box will fill in automatically.
     Step  4:  Click on the 'Icon' button.  Select the icon that turns you on
               and select 'OK'.
     Step  5:  Select 'OK' again from the File Item Box.

     Thats it.  for PCTools


    With Program Manager
   ----------------------

     Step  1: Go to the File Menu and Select 'New'.
     Step  2: Select 'Program Item'  then 'Ok'
     Step  3: Enter in the Description box.  File Magician V3
     Step  4: Click on the 'Browse Button' and find your way to the FM Directory
              that you created and select FM.EXE, then push 'OK', the command
              line entry box will fill in automatically.
     Step  5: Click 'Change Icon'.  You will get a message that says "There are
              no icons available for the specified file", no sweat, select 'OK'.
     Step  6: Select a Icon that you like and click on 'Ok'.
     Step  7: Select 'Ok' again.

    See, piece of cake.

    With Norton Desktop
   ---------------------
     Step  1: Go to the File Menu and select 'New'
     Step  2: Choose the group list you want.  I would hope it would be
              'AutoStart'.  Select 'OK'
     Step  3: Select 'Item' for Type.
     Step  4: In Title section type 'File Magician V3', don't press return,
              use the mouse pointer to select 'Program/document/script:'
     Step  5: Click browse, find your way to the FM Directory that you created
              and select FM.EXE, then push 'OK', the entry box will file in
              automatically.
     Step  6: Click the 'Startup Directory' box and enter in the directory path
              that you used for FM.  examp.    c:\fm
     Step  7: Click on 'Icon'.  Then select that icon that suits and select 'OK'.

  Thats it for Norton.  His is probably the most difficult to set anything up
  for but it really isn't that bad.  Presently I favor Norton in a number of items
  even if the rumors are true.  Quite often rumors are simply user error created
  with impatience.  I haven't examined PCTools all that well but it too seems to
  be a fine program.  So far I don't realy see a need to switch desktops from
  the program manager but the utilities that accompany Norton and PC are quite
  quite handy when used by File Magician!!





   SOME OF THE OLD STUFF
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


 What I'm going to do is to insert a lot of the old docs and COMMENT: the
 different changes that have been made.  After that a NEW ADDITIONS: section.
 Also bare with me on this, documentation is a definate short coming for me!



Description  (old)
~~~~~~~~~~~
   Well, enough said on that subject!  Now to tell a little about File Magician.
 File Magician has a similar interface as Disk Master v1.4 for the amiga, if
 you own a amiga and don't have Disk Master, get it , it is a must have.
 File Magician has two view windows, one is always the 'Source Window' and one
 is always the 'Destination' window. Source and Destination can be swapped by
 clicking the LMB in the window or in the path bar above the window.  The
 clicked area will then become the 'Source' window.  The 'Source' window will
 have a red box around it plus the little toggle bar between the windows at the
 top of the screen will also point to it.  In the center of the screen between
 the two windows will be a column of push buttons. The first six buttons are
 for your drive configuations.  The program will automatically configure to
 your current devices. The following buttons will perform the different
 functions as is explained below.  Let me add at this point that File Magician
 is a shareware program and that it is for evaluation only.  Somewhere there
 had to be a stopping point with File Magician as a evaluation program.
 File Magician can only grow from this point.  I have over 50 planned functions
 that File Magician will have as time goes on, not counting new ideas that will
 be generated by time and user input. Basically File Magician has unlimited
 growth potential!  User registation increases that potential many times over.

 Comment: I keep saying over 50 planned functions.  jeez that has still has to
          hold true.  The further along I get the ideas start doubling.
          File Magician V3 is evolving way past just a "File Manager" or "WinZip"
          type program.  I don't look at it as a desktop replacement, even when
          it will easily double as one.  Hm..  well, File Magician will be a
          tool that they always wished they had before, one that can do what
          others have always lacked.  With the great response that I'm getting
          from people, I really don't see how it can be anything else.



So Just What Is File Magician?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    File Magician is a program that EVERY PC owner must have.  If you own a
 computer, at sometime during your computer lifetime you will Have To make
 some type of file or directory adjustment to your hard drive or floppy disks.
 File Magician is designed to be as simplistic as possible in allowing you to
 manage your files and directories.  File Magician is for all levels of users,
 beginning to advanced.

Requirments
~~~~~~~~~~~
    A computer
    Windows 3.1
    Be Registered


How To Register
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Send a check or money order for $40.00 in US Funds to:

    Terry Bullard
    Bullard Software
    3291 Mt. View Rd.
    Ferndale, Wa.   98248

    Sorry but we don't accept credit card numbers.



What You Get
~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Once you register, we will send you 'File Magician' without the dialog boxes
 that appear when any item is first clicked.  The program will be the lastest
 update of File Magician.  A printed manual that to begin with will be soft
 bound.  With the planned growth of File Magician it is not feasible to have
 any other type of manual.  The cost of re-printing such would be terribly high
 and unfair to pass this unneccessary cost on to you..  You would be placed
 on our mailing list and would be notified immediately by mail of future
 updates of File Magician and any new products we develop. The package will
 be postage paid by us.

 Plus With Version 3.5 don't forget about the GOLD NUGGET!  Re-read above.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW For Version 2.0

   First and Most important before running File Magician!
     For Best results..
       1.  Double Click on Window's pif editor.
       2.  Select 'Open' from the File Menu.
       3.  Select _default.pif from the selection box, then press 'OK'.
       4.  Locate 'Windowed' button and select to on.  This is a radio button
           and if a dot appears in the middle of the circle it is then on.
       5.  Locate 'Close Window On Exit' button and select to on.  This
           is a X type button and a 'X' in the square is on.
       6.  Now from the File Menu select 'Save As'.
       7.  The filename and path "C:\Windows\_default.pif" should be hi-lited
           in the file name box, if so, press 'OK', if not enter in your
           windows path adding the _default.pif filename and click 'OK'
       8.  A Dialog box will appear and inform you that the file already
           exists and ask you if you wish to 'Replace existing file?'. Select
           'Yes'

   Doing this is the only windows adjustment that you must make.  You may then
   decide where you wish place File Magician and what icon you may want it to
   have.


   NEXT Important thing..  File Magician's Configuration..

      Nothing to it really but it might seem a bit complicated at first.  V1.0
 had a seperate configuration program, it was scrapped in favor of using
 multiple dialog boxes and just to avoid confusion.

   The configuration is done within the program during runtime.  When the
 configuration is saved, a file called Magic.dat is created which contains your
 configuration in binary form.  This can be changed at anytime and resaved.
 Included in the archive should be a sample of the configuration that I use,
 examine it if you wish and change it to suit your needs.  When the program
 first boots up it will search for the Magic.dat file, once finding it, it will
 then load the settings.  If the file is not available a requester will inform
 you of such and switch automatically to a default settings mode.

   Next click on the 'Config' button, a rather large dialog box should appear.
 The three boxes to the left of the dialog contain configurations for Pkzip,
 Pkunzip, Lharc, and Arj.  To use these compression programs you must have the
 compression programs located in your path stream, such as c:\dos etc.
 change the default settings you must first have a working knowledge of these
 fine programs or except my usage of them.  No attempt to explain their usage
 is located within the program.  By clicking on the button with the programs
 name will open another dialog box where you may change the current settings
 to what you desire.  The Dlbck button in each box tells File Magician to
 decompress a file when it is double clicked. (see below on double clicking)

   The next box to the right labeled 'Warn' tells the program to warn you if
 you are about to 'Copy', 'Delete', or 'Move' Files, if these boxes are not
 checked then the operation will commence without giving you the choice of
 backing out.

   The Next box to the right called 'Paths' is, for this release, a tempory
 working directory for the program.  Here File Magician will sometimes write
 necessary files for its operation when handling dos assignments.  The program
 will clean up after itself with the exception of two files that it re-uses
 at times.  This directory will not grow, nor is there a real need to worry
 about it. BUT it must be there for the program to function properly!!!

   The final box for this release is called 'Names'.  The top 4 entries are
 for Pkzip, Pkunzip, Lha, and Arj.  If by some chance you call these programs
 by a different name you may enter your name to the right of the orginal
 programs name.  The next choice down is 'Read'.  There are many fine file
 reading programs available and the one I supply hasn't had enough time to
 be developed to a full potental, so if you wish to supply a different file
 reading program, enter in the programs name in the right box.  The other
 program must be in the path stream or located in the same directory as
 File Magician.  The following five boxes are left blank.  For now these boxes
 can be used as CMDs and follow the same rules for Cmds, a bit further down
 will explain Cmds.

   Attributes - Pressing this button will display a configuration box that
 will allow you to chose what files with what attributes that you would like
 File Magician to display for your use.  The 'Help' button will give you a
 very brief description of what each attribute is. 'OK' will allow the changes
 to be saved in the configuration save option.

 CMDS
~~~~~

   CMDS - Short for Commands.  File Magician allows you to run other programs,
 either dos or windows, ones that operate on files or are stand alone. There
 are 10 Command Button Cmds and 10 Menu Command Cmds. After you press the 'Cmd'
 button you will see 4 columns of string boxes. The first two columns are for
 buttons on the command screen and the second two columns are for the menus.
 The first row for either set, labeled 'Prg. Name' is the name of the program
 that you wish to use and it will be the name that will appear in the button
 box or menu box.  The .exe extension is not necessary.  The second column in
 either section labeled 'Argument' is the Path of the program if it isn't in
 the path stream or the program argument that is needed to make the program
 run.  Most argument type programs work on files and/or have optional settings,
 needed to run the program.  So in the second column you supply the needed
 settings/arguments and if part of those setting require a file name you would
 add '%s' without the quotes.  This tells File Magician to substitute the %s
 with the file that has been selected in the active window.
      Again:   %s  =  File selected in active window.
      Example  Pkunzip (1st col.)  -d -$ %s a:\ (2nd col.)
 You would click on a .zip and then click the Pkunzip (example name). Pkunzip
 would then decompress the selected .zip file to drive a:
    Now for a program that you like that isn't located in your path stream.
 We'll use WFinder.exe as a example
      WFinder (1st col.)  Path c:\utils\ (2nd col.)
 Path tells the program that it is a path file not a argument file.

     You may run nearly anytype of program using cmds.  The power that this
 configuration set gives you can be pretty awesome indeed!!
     Clicking the default button will preset everything back to my orginal
 settings. Clicking save will save all the adjustments that you have made to
 Magic.dat which will reside in the same directory as where you placed File
 Magician, so if you move File Magician be sure to move the Magic.dat file
 as well.


    Now that you have configured File Magician you can put it to work.  The
 program has all the Copy, Move, and Delete functions of multiple files and
 directories (explained below) as a lot of the rest of the management programs
 but also has some other goodies.

   I should insert here about selecting file(s).  File Magician has the ablility
 to select (tag) any amount of files at one time.  You need not select all or
 only one as I've seen a  lot of programs do.  For those that wonder, I
 do NOT use the Windows List Box proceedure.  It is a good idea and everyone
 uses it but I find it too limiting and to tell the truth a bit ugly.  So
 everything is handled enternally with a big glob of extra coding by me.
 Yes I know that list boxes can select multible files but like I said I just
 don't like it.




  Compression:

     There are several ways to decompress .zip, .lha, arj files.

 1.  The File menu.  First click on the file to decompress then go to the
     menu method and choose 'Extract'.  If you only have a source window
     active the program will assume you wish to extract to the same directory
     as the source window indicates.  A dialog box will appear asking you to
     'Enter destination path', if you wish to extract there choose 'OK'. If
     you wish to extract to a different directory or drive, enter that path
     and choose ok.  Or you may cancel the operation if you wish.
     Now if you have a destination window operational the program will assume
     that you wish to extract to that directory. If not you may follow the
     same proceedure above.

 2.  Double clicking.  Provided that you have set your configuration section
     to double clicking you can use this method.  Double clicking does not
     give you a choice to cancel, it is for fast and dirty work.  If you do
     not have a destination window operational the program will extract to
     the source window.  If the destination window is visible the program will
     automatically extract to destination window.
     This method works for all .zip, .arj, .lha files!  File Magician can
     determine what type of file it is dealing with by binary means, extensions
     mean absolutely nothing and when a program deals with extensions in my
     opinion is a pretty stupid program.
     For .exe compression files, the file will only decompress in the source
     window area for now. This will be explored later.
     See double clicking below for additional abilities.

 3.  The Archive Commander...  see below..


  Archive Commander Note:
    The bottom still hold true but see above for additional functions.

 Archive Commander!
    For now the commander deals with .zip files only, later releases will
  have additional functions and possiblily other compression types.
  With the commander you can select up to 30 .zip file for enhanced
  handling.  The program will do the counting for you so don't worry about
  being exact.  Select the files that you wish to work on and then either
  from the menu select 'Archive Commander' or click the push button
  'Command'.   You will then be presented with a whole new screen.
  The two view windows, one called 'Archived Files', which is the big one
  on the left, and the other called 'Selected Archives', which is the
  smaller one in the center, then to the right are nine buttons.  In the
  Selected Archives window will appear the .zip files you have previously
  selected, you may work on only one at a time for now (what I have planned
  is totally awesome but damned if I want to give the idea to someone else
  right now!).  Select a file and click the 'Process' button or just
  double click the .zip, same thing, things will hum for a bit and the files
  that are within the archive will be displayed in the left view window.
  Here you may extract, read, delete any of the files by first selecting
  them and then choosing the operation button.  If you wish to read or
  run a archive file just double click on it, the program determines
  the type through a binary method and works accordingly.
     To extract a file(s) first pay attention to the 'Destination' button.
  This button indicates below the button column as to where the extracted
  files will be sent.  The options are ..

     'Destination Window' - The destination path of the main command screen.
     'Source Window'      - The Source path of the main command screen.
     'Your Specification' - Here a Dialog box will appear and allow you
                            to type in the path of where you wish the extracted
                            file to be sent to.

  Now Select the File(s) and push the extract button.  The selected files will
  be sent to where you have set the Destination to be.

   The Commanders buttons:
      Process - Displays the selected .zip file's contents to the left window.
                same as double clicking the .zip file
      Extract - Explained above. Extract one or more of the contents of a
                archive.
      Delete  - Deletes one or more of the archives contents.  Just select
                which files you wish to delete and pust this button.
      Run     - Select a file to run in the left window then pust this button.
                If the file is a stand alone program it should function
                correctly.  Double clicking the file will also run it or read
                it if it is a .exe or any type of text file.  Extensions DO NOT
                apply.
      Test    - This Calls Pkunzip to test the archive and the File Magician's
                'Reporter' displays the results.
      All     - Selects all the files in the 'Archive Files' Section.
      Clear   - De-selects any selected file in the 'Archive Files' Section.



  Double-Clicking
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     File Magician does NOT use the extension method to determine filetypes.
 The program will read a binary header from the file and determine what type
 of file it is dealing with.  Currently File Magician understands .exe, .lha,
 .zip, .arj and text files.  Must time WILL be spend in expanding the different
 filetypes for future updates.  This will be one of the many major strengths
 that File magician will have.  Currently you can double click a text file to
 read it, a .exe file to launch it and de-compress archived files as explained
 above.



  Path Bars
~~~~~~~~~~~
     The path bar which is located above each view window shows the complete
 directory/device path to the current directory that the view window is
 displaying.  With version 2.00 you can revalidate the file listing for that
 window just by clicking somewhere in the path bar.  This is a lot better then
 hitting f2 or f3, which btw are still active for this function.

  Split
~~~~~~~
     The Split function will split any selected file into two equal parts
 without harming the orginal file.  Split will use the first four letters
 of the filename (or less if the file has less) and create two equal halfs
 with the _D1 _D2 tacked on. If the file is a odd byte size the second half
 will be 1 byte larger then the first.  Files may be text to binary format.

  Duplicate
~~~~~~~~~~~
     The Duplicate functions will duplicate a file in the same directory as
 the selected file.  It too will take the first four letter and tack on a
 _Dup to the end. The file can then be renamed to something else.  This
 command works on files only.  I have thought about duplicating entire
 directories and files but before I do that I would like to hear some
 feed back on it if there is a need.


  Menus
~~~~~~~
     Menus are new in this version of File Magician.  In my opinion menus are
 nice only when you run out of room for push buttons!  grin.  With 38 push
 buttons on the main command screen and a ton more stuff to add, menus became
 necessary.

***  Compression Menu  ***


                  _ Create  Archive
                 /_ Extract Archive
         Pkzip--/__ Pkzip   Settings
                \__ PkUnzip Settings


        Create Archive   - Select the files in a source window that you wish
                           to compress as one archive.  Select this option from
                           the menu.  You will then be asked to supply a archive
                           name and supply a path for the archive to be created
                           in if you do not like the default path.  The default
                           path will be the destination window if it is
                           operational or the source if it isn't.  You may
                           specify whatever path to whatever device you wish.
                           Selecting 'OK' will start the process.

        Extract Archive  - Select the file to decompress and then select this
                           option.  A Dialog box will appear and ask you to
                           enter the destination path.  Default paths are the
                           same as above.
        Pkzip   Settings - If you wish to alter the current configuration
                           settings for Pkzip you may select this option to do
                           so.  Altering the settings at the menu DOES NOT save
                           to the configuration file.  The settings will be
                           active for the current session only.
        PkUnzip Settings - The same rules apply here as for Pkzip



               __ Creat   Archive
         Arj--/__ Extract Archive
              \__ Arj     Settings


               __ Creat   Archive
         Lha--/__ Extract Archive
              \__ Lha     Settings


    For Arj and Lha, the same proceedure applies to them as it does Pkzip


***   CMD's   ***

    See CMDs and The Configuration Section.   Once the Cmd configuration for
 the menu section is setup and the configuration file is saved, File Magician
 will automatically rename the menu items to your specification.


***  Utilities  ***

     Drive status - will access the device that are current to both the Source
                    and Destination window and display in the Title bar of the
                    main screen the number of bytes that the disk has free.
                    This function use to be automatic using a timer function
                    but the timer it seems would always go off at the wrong
                    time and access the drives therefore slowing down whatever
                    I was trying to accomplish at the time so the function was
                    stuck in a menu called extras. Extras will fill up as time
                    and demand goes on.  Now the only time a byte free function
                    is called is when it is currently accessing the drive for
                    some given reason.



  Command Buttons
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     All of the command buttons on the main view screen are pretty much
 described below not counting the CMD buttons.  Also there are seven buttons
 that are unaccounted for so to speak.  The first one is in the last position
 of the first column of buttons.  Currently it has no function attached to
 with this release.  The other six  are located in the right column starting
 with the fourth button from the top.  The First of the six is also blank
 with nothing attached to it.  The next five down have been temporary assigned
 as CMDs as explained above.  The reason for this is future expansion and
 screen layout.  The last five buttons that are assigned as CMDs will be
 assigned to something else unless public feedback demands that they stay as
 they are.  If so I'll figure something to attach the assignments too.

 With version 1.0 there was only 1 column of buttons with the first 6 buttons
 assigned to drive specifications.  Now the drive specifications are assigned
 to the first 3 buttons of each column.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Now the Grit  (old)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Now if you haven't already loaded File Magician you are one of the select
 few.  Who reads the docs anyhow?  (g)  I'll try and keep it as brief as
 possible, but please read below on "what you can do for us".

View Windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~
    File Magician has two view windows.  One is the 'Source' and one is the
 'Destination'.  The source window will always be the one with the red box
 around it.  The Source and the Destination window can be swapped. To activate
 a 'Source' window, click in the window itself or click in the path bar above
 the window.  Once a 'Source' window is established the opposite window
 automatically defaults to the 'Destination' window.    Often a directory will
 have more file and directory listings then the view window can display.  Use
 the scroll gadget to the right of the window to view the additional listings.
 The bottom scroll gadget is inactive with this release but is there for
 future compatability.

Selection
~~~~~~~~~~
    The left mouse button (LMB) is used to select a file or directory. Clicking
 once will select the listing and the listing will be hilited.  Double clicking
 a directory will instruct the program to enter and display to the view window
 that directory listing.  Double clicking a file listing causes No Action with
 this release of File Magician.  The next release of File Magician will contain a
 a smart mode file selection.  Smart Mode will be one of the main arteries of
 File Magician!
    When a file or directory is selected it means that the next command action
 will be taken on all files and directories selected.  Changing to a different
 directory will de-select automatically all of the previous selections.
    No action will be taken on any file or directory that has Not been selected.

Title Bar
~~~~~~~~~~
    The title bar is used as a action display.  There the program will show you
 the current action that is taking place such as, copying, deleting, or moving
 listings, bytes free on destination and source windows, files selected and
 total bytes of selected files.  Currently there is a 5 second timer after a
 title information display before it defaults back to a byte free display. This
 may change to something else, what I'm not sure yet.

Keyboard:
~~~~~~~~~

   ESC  -  Will exit the program.


Buttons:
**********

 Drive Buttons:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    The first six buttons from the top of the screen are reserved for your
 drive devices.  The program will automatically configure to the first six
 drive names in the list.  Clicking the LMB on one of these will display the
 root contents to the window that is active.  The view window will display
 yellow text as directories and white text as file.  To enter a directory
 double click the name of the directory.

 COMMENT:  See Drive Buttons for V3.5


Parent:
~~~~~~~
    The 'Parent' button will direct the program to reassign the current
 directory back one directory.  For instance, when you double click a directory
 name the program will display the contents of that directory to the view
 window, then you click the parent window, the program will re-display the
 previous directory.  This command is completely harmless.  The parent button
 only works on the 'Source' window.

All:
~~~~
    The 'All' command will select all the files and all the directories that
 are in the current directory of the 'Source' view window.  If a directory has
 more files and directories then the view can be displayed, those files and
 directories will also be selected.

Clear:
~~~~~~
    'Clear' will de-select any file or directory that has been previously
 selected.  All files and directories outside of the view window will also be
 de-selected.

Copy:
~~~~~
    To use the copy function, first select a view window that you wish to
 become the Destination point.  Next go to the opposite window and select the
 files or directories that you wish to copy.  Press the 'Copy' button.  Thats
 it.
    Copy will copy all files or directories that have been selected to the
 Destination device (view window).  If a directory has been tagged, the
 program will create and copy all files and directories within the selected
 directory to the Destination point.  This release Does Not have an option to
 check first to see if there is enough room in the destination area.  The next
 registered release will.  You may use the 'Byte Req' button on the Source
 directory before copying.
 COMMENT: See Copy for V3.0 above

Rename:
~~~~~~~
    To rename a file or directory first select the item then press the 'Rename'
 button.  A dialog box will appear.  Enter in the new name excluding the full
 path, the program keeps track of the location of the listings internally so
 just the new name will be enough.  Select OK.

Move:
~~~~~
    The move function will move all files and directories that have been
 selected to the location of the destination area.  Moving a selected listing
 means that basically the file is copied to destination area and then deleted
 from the source area.  So once a listing is moved it will no longer reside
 in the source area!  If a directory is selected, all files and directories
 that are buried within that selected directory will also be moved.
 COMMENT: See Move for V3.0 above

Delete:
~~~~~~~
   The 'Delete' button will delete all selected files and directories that have
 been selected from the 'Source' window.  All files and directories that are
 buried within a selected directory will Also be deleted.  With this version
 of File Magician, when the 'Delete' is first invoked, a dialog box will appear
 giving you the option of aborting.  A later version of the program will allow
 you to discontinue this option.

Read:
~~~~~
COMMENT: Read has been replaced with notepad.exe, until I can spare some time
         to make the reader that I really want to show.
         QEdit works very well for large files above 32K.


Byte Req.:
~~~~~~~~~~
    This function will total the bytes of all selected listings.  If a
 directory is selected, all the bytes of all the files that are buried within
 that selected directory will be totaled and displayed on the title bar at
 the top of the screen.  This function is very handy to use before moving
 or copying files to another device and just to know how large a directory might
 be.

MakeDir:
~~~~~~~~
    'MakeDir' will create a directory in the location that the 'Source'
 window is displaying.  Push the 'MakeDir' button, a dialog box will appear.
 Enter in the name of the new directory that you wish to create.  Press 'OK'


Run:
~~~~
   The 'Run' function will attempt start any program that has been selected.
 'Run' works on: .pif , .bat, .exe (dos or windows), .com (dos or windows),
 files.   A little care must be used when using this command, it is not harmful
 but currently it has no way of checking to see how much memory an external
 application will use.  Good judgement and a knowledge of how much memory your
 computer has and how fast your computer is makes a large difference with
 the results of this function.  Personally I haven't had too much trouble
 using a 486(25) with 4 megs of memory and I was actually surprised on just
 what it would handle.




   Jeez I hope I didn't miss anything (probably did but it should be easy to
   figure out, after all that is the idea!)

   Current source size is well over 3.8 megs.   So I'm sure I forgot something.
                                    GRIN




Note:
   If you have read down this far be damn sure order now!!!!

       Terry Bullard
       Bullard Software
       3291 Mt. View Rd.
       Ferndale, wa. 98248
        (206)-384-6740  between (5:00 P.M. to 9:00 PM PST)
        (206)-384-2591 BBS