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1989-08-05
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Hard Disk
DIRECTOR
Easy and fun directory and file management for IBM PCs
and compatibles.
Version 3.40
Helpware
100 Bayo Vista Way #6
San Rafael, CA 94901
(415) 453-9779
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
This program is produced by a member of the Association of
Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that
the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to
resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by
contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help.
The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem
with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support
for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at
P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a Compuserve
message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536"
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
This software and manual is sold "AS IS" and without
warranties as to performance of merchantability or any other
warranties whether expressed or implied. Because of the
various hardware and software environments into which this
program may be put, no warranty of fitness for a particular
purpose is offered.
Good data processing procedures dictate that any program be
thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on
it. The user must assume the entire risk of using the
program. Any liability of the seller will be limited
exclusively to product replacement or refund of the purchase
price.
You Probably Didn't Pay For This Software, But It Really Isn't Free.
DIRECTOR is being marketed as Shareware. A Shareware program
can be downloaded from numerous bulletin boards around the
country. It may also come on a disk with other Shareware
programs, the disk usually being sold for under $5.00. The
philosophy behind Shareware is simple. Good quality software can
be obtained for free, or practically so, for you to try out. You
are free to copy the programs and pass them on to friends. They
also can use the program and see if it meets their needs. If
only after trying out the product any of you decide you like the
program and find yourselves using it regularly, you are required
to register with the author and pay the usually low registration
fee.
Because Shareware authors don't have to pay the high costs of
advertising and distribution, they can provide you with high
quality software at very reasonable prices. However, Shareware
will only exist if you register for the programs you are using.
Major software companies are constantly announcing release dates
of new products and then later pushing forward those release
dates by many months. The reason for these delays is that good
software takes a long time to develop and debug. The same is
true for good Shareware. The DIRECTOR programs, DL.EXE, DB.EXE
and DM.EXE, took a long time to develop and I am constantly trying
to make them run faster and add new features. It is only through
your support that I'll be able to continue to do this. The
registration price for DL and DB are 30.00. When you register,
you will be sent the latest versions and a complete manual on
disk. For $ 5.00 more you can also get a printed copy of the
manual. I am also available by phone or on Compuserve, where my
ID # is 71320,1277, to answer any questions or receive any
suggestions for future releases.
DIRECTOR is constantly being improved. I am currently working on
a version where you can add command line arguments at run time when
running programs. If you register, you will get these additions
plus other improvements, plus unlimited support by phone, letter
or CompuServe. The registered version will also not have a trailer
on it telling you to register.
You have 30 days to evaluate DIRECTOR and and see if you like
it. If, after that you continue to use it, you are required to
register.
This is DIRECTOR Version 3.40. A complete set of DIRECTOR
Version 3.40 should include the following programs:
DL.EXE Directory and file manager.
DB.EXE File manager.
DM.EXE Pop up program menu.
DCONFIG.COM Configuration program for DL.EXE, DB.EXE and
DM.EXE.
DIRECTOR.DOC Complete manual for DIRECTOR.
DIRQUICK.DOC Quick start manual.
DIRREG.DOC Registration form.
DIRSITE.DOC Site license information.
DIRREV.DOC Revision information.
READ.ME This file will be on the diskette only if
there is last minute information that didn't
make it to the manual.
Table of Contents
What is Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About Disks and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Installing DIRECTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Configuring DIRECTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
DL.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
View Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Change Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Change Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Rename Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Move Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Make Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Remove Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Search for Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Util Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Print Directory Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Hide and Unhide Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Program Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Disk Usage Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
DB.EXE and the File View in DL.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
View file contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Editing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Marking Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Unmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Mark All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Unmark all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Remark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Copy Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Move files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Changing the filename when copying or moving . . . . . . 22
Delete Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Rename Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Sorting the File List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Running Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Util Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Print File List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Print File Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Changing File Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Using a File Specification Filter . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Disk Usage Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
DB.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
DM.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Adding and Changing Programs in DM . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Running Programs in DM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Command Summary for DL.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Command Summary for DB.EXE and the File View of DL.EXE . . . 33
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Registration form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
WHAT IS DIRECTOR
WHAT IS DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR is made up of three programs: DL.EXE, DB.EXE and
DM.EXE. DL and DB are designed to make managing your hard disk
easy. Type DL, and very quickly a directory tree of your hard
disk will pop up. From this tree, viewing, copying, deleting and
editing files is a snap. You can also add, move and remove
directories. You can also run programs without ever typing their
name. Typing DB will do the same except it will bypass the
directory tree and just show you the files of the directory you
specify, making it even faster. If you are a mouse user, you
will be happy to know that you can access all of DIRECTOR's
features without ever typing a keystroke. But, DIRECTOR is also
designed to be easy to use from the keyboard. These programs
will also work on all standard color and monochrome monitors,
plus in EGA 43 line mode or VGA 50 line mode.
DM is a pop up program menu and is a new addition to DIRECTOR.
With DM you can run programs within DIRECTOR. You pop up DM
either by pressing the slash "/" key or clicking on "/ MENU" in
the file view of DL and DB or clicking on "F9 UTIL" and then
clicking on "/ Program Menu" in the directory view of DL. You
can assign a hot key to any program in DM and when you press that
hot key in DM, DIRECTOR will run the program. You can also run
any DM program from DL and DB by merely pressing the ALT key and
the programs hot key. DM can also be run as a stand alone hard
disk menu. Please see the section on DM.EXE for complete
instructions on running DM.
DIRECTOR will run on all IBM compn oble PCs running DOS 2.0 or
later. This version has been made compn oble with many network
drives. However DIRECTOR does no file sharing or locking and is
not aware of other users on a network, so you will have to
determine its suitability for your network.
If on some monochrome monitors the screen seems too washed-out
for your liking, you can configure DIRECTOR to work only in
monochrome. DL.EXE wants a minimum of 200 kilobytes of memory to
run properly. Under DOS 4.0 where you are able to have hard disk
partitions of over 32 megabytes, DL may require more memory
depending on the size of the hard disk partition. DB would like
at least 100 kilobytes of memory to run in. DL.EXE can handle
drives with up to 350 directories and directories of up to 600
files. It can handle paths of up to nine directories deep.
Page 1
DIRECTOR
ABOUT DISKS AND DIRECTORIES
If you are familiar with DOS, and the way one uses it to manage
files and directories, you can skip this section and go right to
page 8. This section assumes you are very new to personal
computers. When you first start out using IBM compn oble PCs,
there is a lot of information that you need to know just to get
started, and the learning curve is very steep. DIRECTOR was
written to help you bypass some of this.
There are however some basic concepts that you must learn first.
It is not easy trying to explain a complex idea and make it
simple; so if sometimes I sound condescending, please forgive me,
passI just want to make sure you understand the information.
Computers use floppy diskettes and hard disks for permanent
storage of information. Anything that is stored on a hard disk
or a floppy diskette is called a file. Programs, documents and
databases are all stored in files.
All files are identified by their names, and a file name has two
parts. The first part is the filename. This can consist of any
combination of up to eight letters or numbers. The second part
of a file name is the extension. The extension is optional; many
filenames don't have them. Certain files (like programs) must
have them. An extension can consist of any combination of up to
3 letters or numbers. The only characters DOS doesn't allow in a
filename are: . " / \ { } : | < > + + ;,.
A period "." always separates a filename from an extension.
Some examples of filenames are:
WP.EXE
LOTUS.COM
DBASE.EXE
README.DOC
COMMAND.COM
AUTOEXEC.BAT
Page 2
ABOUT DISKS AND DIRECTORIES
Programs that you run on your computer must have an extension.
This extension tells DOS that they are programs, and therefore
how they have to be loaded. The extension for programs is always
"COM", "EXE" or "BAT". You can see which files are on your hard
disk or diskette by typing "DIR" at your DOS prompt and pressing
the Enter key. Your screen will look something like this:
COMMAND COM 23612 5-15-87 3:20a
ANSI SYS 1651 5-15-87 3:20a
ASSIGN COM 1523 5-15-87 3:20a
ATTRIB EXE 8234 5-15-87 3:20a
BACKUP COM 17216 5-15-87 3:20a
CHKDSK COM 9819 5-15-87 3:20a
COMP COM 3241 5-15-87 3:20a
DISKCOMP COM 5776 5-15-87 3:20a
DISKCOPY COM 6224 5-15-87 3:20a
DRIVER SYS 1350 5-15-87 3:20a
EDLIN COM 7495 5-15-87 3:20a
FDISK COM 6731 5-15-87 3:20a
FIND EXE 6403 5-15-87 3:20a
FORMAT COM 11649 5-15-87 3:20a
Even though DOS demands that we use a period between a filename
and extension, it conveniently forgets to do so when showing you
its file list. Instead you see the file name, a number of
spaces, the extension, the size in bytes, and date and time of
the last change to the file. By the way, a byte is a computer's
unit of storage. A byte is basically equal to one letter.
Therefore if your file is 12000 bytes long, it contains the
equivalent of 12000 letters, including spaces.
Typing DIR only gives you a list of files. If there are a lot of
them, some will scroll off the screen before you can read them.
If you want to copy any of them or view their contents, you have
to use other commands. That's why DIRECTOR was written.
Page 3
DIRECTOR
Typing DB on the same disk will give you a screen like this:
EXIT │VIEW │EDIT │COPY │DELETE │RENAME │MOVE │SORT │MARK │RUN IT
ESC │──┘ │^──┘│F1 │F2 │F3 │F4 │F5 │F6 │F7
ANSI.SYS 1709 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
│ APPEND.EXE Program 5794 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
│ ASSIGN.COM Program 1530 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
│ ATTRIB.EXE Program 10656 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
│ BACKUP.COM Program 30048 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
│ CHKDSK.COM Program 11923 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
│ COMMAND.COM Program 25332 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
│ COMP.COM Program 4183 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
│ DEBUG.COM Program 16000 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
│ DISKCOMP.COM Program 5848 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
DISKCOPY.COM Program 6264 9-16-1987 12:00 PM
You see the filenames and the extensions separated by a period.
You see the same information that a DIR command gives you but the
information doesn't scroll off the screen. You can scroll up and
down a page at a time. There is a highlighted bar that you can
move by using the arrow keys to highlight a particular file.
Once that file is highlighted, you can press Enter and view its
contents. You can also copy it or delete it while in the
program. And if you have a mouse, you can use it to perform all
of these operations.
Since floppy disks don't have a very large capacity, you can
store all the files in one place and see them by typing DIR.
However, hard disks have a very large capacity, and it would be
very unwieldy to store all our files in one place; so we break up
hard disks into what are called directories.
Directories have names just like files. A directory name can
have an extension also just like a file (but they rarely do).
Most directory names just consist of any combination of eight
letters or numbers.
Hard disks are divided up into what is called a directory tree.
At the base of the tree is what is called the root directory and
branching out are what are called sub- directories. You can move
from one subdirectory to another by the CHDIR or CD command and
you can create subdirectories by the MKDIR or MD command.
Page 4
ABOUT DISKS AND DIRECTORIES
You can find out which subdirectories are on your hard disk with
DOS's Tree command.
However, like the DIR command with too many files, if you have
too many directories on your hard disk they will just scroll off
the screen with TREE.
DL.EXE was written to provide you with a visual display of the
layout of your hard disk. Once inside DL you can make
directories, remove directories, rename directories, view the
files in any directory as well as change directories with ease
and without having to use DOS commands.
A portion of a typical screen in DL looks like this:
EXIT │VIEW │DRIVE │CH DIR │RENAME │MOVE │MAKE │REMOVE │SEARCH
ESC │──┘ │F1 │F2 │F3 │F4 │F5 │F6 │F7
C:\DOS\AST
ROOT
│ ╠══════BAT
│ ║ ╚══════AAA
│ ╠══════DOS
│ ║ ╚══════AST
│ ╠══════FONTWARE
│ ║ ╠══════BCO
│ ║ ╠══════CSD
│ ║ ╠══════DDF
│ ║ ╚══════TDF
╠══════PAINT
You can see the tree layout of your directories. You can use the
arrow keys to move up and down the directory tree. As you do
this, the row above the directory tree will show you what your
current path is. A path not only tells you what directory you're
currently in, but also the subdirectories before it. In other
words, it tells you the path you need to take to get from the
main or "ROOT" directory of your disk to the directory you're
currently in. The directory you're currently in is called the
"current directory". In this example the path says "C:\WP\DOCS".
That means I am in the "DOCS" sub-directory of "WP". "WP" is a
sub-directory of the root directory of drive C:.
Page 5
DIRECTOR
In DL you don't need to know that. You just have to highlight
the directory you want and DL takes care of the rest. There is
one more thing you need to know before you're ready to learn
about DIRECTOR: DOS's path command. DOS is not very smart or
intuitive so we have to give it help. When you want to run a
program you must be in the subdirectory where the program resides
in order to run it. For instance, say you wanted to run your
word processor. To do so you normally type the name of your word
processor. The name of my word processor is "WP.EXE" so I type
"WP.EXE" or just "WP" and press Enter. However you must be in
the subdirectory where your word processor resides or you will
get one of DOS's infamous messages: "Bad command or file name".
The same holds for running DB.EXE from DL.EXE which you will want
to do if you want to see what files are in a particular
directory. For that we have the PATH command.
The PATH command tells DOS where to look to find a program that
isn't in the directory you are currently in (the current
directory). For example if you put DL and DB in a directory
called "UTILITY" on drive C:, you could tell DOS to look in the
"UTILITY" directory after the current directory by typing
"PATH=C:\UTILITY;".
However most of the time you put your PATH command in a file
called AUTOEXEC.BAT. This file is always read when you start the
computer and consists of certain DOS commands. If you're using a
hard disk, chances are you already have an AUTOEXEC.BAT file in
your root directory. If it doesn't have a PATH command, you can
add one or you can modify an existing PATH command with DOS's
editor EDLIN or any text editor. The PATH command tells DOS all
the different paths where it should look for programs. Each path
is separated by a semicolon. The path command in my AUTOEXEC.BAT
file is: "PATH=C:\UTIL;C:\DOS;C:\;C:\NORT;C:\BAT";
You will find numerous references to "wild cards" in the
documentation. In poker, a wild card can be used as any card you
want, whether it be an ace or a two. Similarly a DOS wild card
can represent any letter or number in a filename. A "?" can
represent any letter and a "*" can represent any group of
letters. "*.COM" is translated by DOS to mean any file with a
"COM" extension. "??CONFIG.EXE" will be translated by DOS as any
file where the last six letters of the filename is CONFIG and the
extension is "EXE".
Page 6
INSTALLING DIRECTOR
INSTALLING DIRECTOR
The DIRECTOR diskette has 4 programs, DL.EXE, DB.EXE, DM.EXE and
their configuration program DCONFIG. There also might be a file
called READ.ME that has last minute information that is not in
the manual. You'll want to put the DIRECTOR programs in a
directory that is on your path. If you don't know what a path
is, you might want to read the section at the beginning of this
manual titled "ABOUT DISKS AND DIRECTORIES".
You can either create a directory to put DIRECTOR in, or you can
use a directory that you are using with other utility programs.
Make the directory that you want to use the current directory and
put the DIRECTOR disk in drive A: Type "copy a:*.*". That will
copy all of the DIRECTOR programs to that directory on your hard
disk.
Page 7
DIRECTOR
CONFIGURING DIRECTOR
You can start DIRECTOR immediately and access most of its
features. However if you want to install a text editor or word
processor, and customize DIRECTOR, you should first run the
configuration program DCONFIG.
Go to the directory where the DIRECTOR programs are and type
"DCONFIG". The following menu will pop up on the screen.
┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│ configure dL.exe │
│ configure dB.exe │
│ configure both Dl.exe and Db.exe │
│ configure dM.exe │
│ Exit │
└──────────────────────────────────┘
You can see that you have the options of configuring just DL or
just DB both DL and DB or just DM. We will first go through the
process as if we were going to configure both DL and DB. Then we
will go through configuring DM. The operation will be very
similar for the other options.
To choose an option, you can either highlight it by using the
arrow keys and then press Enter, or you can press the one letter
that is capitalized in the option. For configuring both DL and
DB, that letter would be "D". Once you've chosen an option,
DCONFIG will try to find the program and read in what options are
already set. DCONFIG will first look in the current directory to
find DL; if it can't find DL there, DCONFIG will then search the
directories of your path. If it still can't find , DCONFIG will
exit with the error message "Can't find DL.EXE." Likewise, if
you have an earlier version of DL, DCONFIG will exit with the
message "Wrong Version of DL.EXE".
Page 8
CONFIGURING DIRECTOR
You can move forwards and backwards through DCONFIG using the
down arrow or Enter key and using the up arrow respectively. You
can always exit from DCONFIG by pressing the F10 key. You will
then be prompted if you want to save the changes you have made
and then you will return to the main menu.
DIRECTOR allows you to run a text editor or word processor to
edit the highlighted file. You are first asked to enter the
drive and directory of the text editor and then you need to
supply its name. I use the shareware program Qedit which resides
in a directory on my drive D:, so I would enter "D:\QEDIT " and
"Q.EXE".
You can view any file in DIRECTOR by highlighting the file and
pressing Enter. Many users have requested the option of
installing a more featured viewing program such as Vernon Beurg's
LIST. If you want to install a separate viewing program, you can
do so by filling in the information in the next screen. If you
want to use DIRECTOR's file view, just leave that screen blank.
DIRECTOR should run perfectly on most monochrome and color
monitors. However on some monochrome screens, DIRECTOR might
look somewhat washed out. If that is so, you can configure
DIRECTOR to run specifically in monochrome. The next question
asked by DCONFIG will give you the chance to modify DIRECTOR to
run only in monochrome.
After DL reads the directory tree, it will save a copy of this
tree to disk, so that future loads of DL will be much faster. If
you make, rename or remove any directories, this tree file will
be updated automatically. If you create a directory through the
file view of DL, by copying files to a non existent directory,
the tree file will be automatically erased so the next run of DL
will read the disk again. You can always force a reread of the
drive by pressing F2 (CHANGE DRIVE) and choosing the drive that
you already are on. The next question DCONFIG will ask you is if
you want DL to save the tree information to disk. The default is
"Y" (yes). If you don't want DL configured to save the tree,
press "N" (no) and press Enter.
The file list of DIRECTOR is normally sorted by filename. The
next question asked by DCONFIG is if you'd like to have it sorted
differently. Your sort choices are filename, extension, date,
size and unsorted.
Page 9
DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR will allow you to move and copy files even if they
overwrite files in the target directory. Here you are given the
choice of being warned before the overwriting will take place.
Mouse users are provided with a scroll bar in the directory and
file views of DIRECTOR. By clicking on the scroll bar, you can
scroll up or down one page or one line at a time. When you are
viewing the contents of files, mouse users will also have a
scroll bar on the left side of their screen. Some users have
complained about the loss of a full screen for viewing files
because the scroll bar takes up the left 2 columns. If you are
one of these people, you can choose not to have the scroll bar
visible at this time. Even if the scroll bar is not shown, you
will still be able to scroll up and down by clicking on the
leftmost column of your screen.
On your computer screen, DL uses the IBM extended character set
box drawing characters to display the directory tree. Some
printers can't print these characters so DL uses "+" and "=" when
printing. DCONFIG will ask you if your printer can print these
characters and if you want your printer to use them to print the
directory tree.
DCONFIG will then ask you if you want to have DIRECTOR send a
particular setup string to the printer before it prints. You can
enter any setup string such as bold or compressed; and each time
you print, DIRECTOR will first send the string to the printer.
If your printer needs to have the Escape key in the setup string,
you can easily enter it here by pressing Escape.
DCONFIG will next ask you if you want a form feed sent to the
printer after printing. Some printers automatically do a form
feed after printing so if DIRECTOR does one also, you'll be
wasting sheet of paper.
Page 10
CONFIGURING DIRECTOR
CONFIGURING DM.EXE
DM comes preconfigured to park the heads of up to 2 physical hard
disks and blank the screen when it is popped up over DL and DB or
just used alone after 5 minutes of no keystrokes or mouse moves.
Unlike some head parking programs, you can continue to use your
computer after the heads have been parked.
When the screen is blanked, it will be made completely black.
There will be no warning messages. After the screen is blanked,
entering any keystroke will restore it. By choosing the option
"configure dM.exe" you can turn on or off either or both of these
features. It is very important to park the heads of your hard
disk when you power down or if you are not using your computer
for a period of time. For your convenience, DM also comes with a
stand alone head parking program that you can install in DM.
Page 11
DIRECTOR
DL.EXE
To run DL.EXE type "DL" at the DOS prompt and press Enter. DL
will load up and give you a directory tree for your drive. The
current directory will be highlighted. You can also specify a
particular drive at the command line and it will load up with
information about that drive. For example, to run DL on drive D:
type "DL D:"and press Enter.
Once in DL, the UP and DN arrow keys, the PGUP and PGDN keys and
the Home and End keys will let you scroll the highlight bar
through the directory tree. If you have a mouse and the mouse
driver is loaded, there will be a mouse cursor on the upper left
hand side of the screen just below the menu bar. The two arrows
at the far left of the screen are scroll bars.
Clicking anywhere on the top arrow with the left mouse button
will scroll down 1 directory at a time. The right button will
scroll down one page at a time. Similarly clicking anywhere on
the lower arrow with the left button will scroll up one directory
at a time and the right button, one page at a time. Holding a
mouse button down, will have the same repeat effect as holding a
keyboard key down. You can also highlight a directory by
clicking on it with either button.
Typing the first letter of a directory, will cause the highlight
bar to move to that directory. For example, on my computer,
typing a "b" will highlight the "BAT" directory. Typing a "b"
again will then scroll down to the "BENCH" directory. This
letter search is circular so if you are in the "UTIL" directory,
you can type "b" to get back up to the "BAT" directory. If any
directories in the tree are hidden, they will have an "(H)" after
them.
After DL reads the directory tree, it will save a copy of this
tree to disk, so that future loads of DL will be much faster. If
you make, rename or remove any directories, this tree file will
be updated automatically. If you create a directory through the
file view of DL, by copying files to a non existent directory,
the tree file will be automatically erased so the next run of DL
will read the disk again. You can always force a reread of the
drive by pressing F2 (CHANGE DRIVE) and choosing the drive that
you already are on. If you don't want DL to save the tree
information to disk, you can turn off this option in DCONFIG.
Page 12
DL.EXE
On the top two rows of the screen you will see a menu bar naming
particular functions and the particular keys associated with
those functions. Mouse users can also click on the menu bar to
run those functions. In addition there are a number of keyboard
commands to run those functions. The additional keyboard
commands are accessed by entering a particular letter with the
CTRL key or the Alt key. The use of the CTRL key is indicated by
putting a "^" before the letter. For example a CTRL-C will be
indicated in this documentation by ^C. The use of the Alt key is
indicated by putting a "@" before the letter. An Alt-P is
therefore indicated by @P.
Page 13
DIRECTOR
EXIT Pressing the Escape key or clicking your mouse on the ESC
part of the menu will exit DL and get you back to DOS in the
directory you started DL from.
FILES Pressing the Enter key or clicking on the FILES part of
the menu will give you a listing of files for the highlighted
directory. Also clicking with either mouse button on a
highlighted directory will get you a file list for that
directory.
DRIVE (Change Drive) If you press F1, enter a ^C or click on the
DRIVE part on the menu, a dialog box will appear on the screen
asking you what drive you want to change to. You can enter the
first letter of the drive or click on the drive letter and you
will get a directory tree for that particular drive. When you
exit DL you will return to the drive and directory you started
from.
CH DIR (Change Directory) If you press F2 or click on the CH DIR
part of the menu, DL will exit, leaving you in the highlighted
directory.
RENAME (Rename Directory) If you press F3, enter a ^R or click
on RENAME and a directory other than the root directory is
highlighted, you will be presented with a dialog box prompting
for a new name for the highlighted directory. Enter the new name
and press Enter or click on the Enter Bar; DOS willing, the
directory name will be changed and the new name will then be
highlighted. If the directory name you entered already exists or
DOS doesn't like what you entered, you will get a beep and an
error box telling you so. You can then press or click on Enter
to try again, press or click on Escape to cancel. This program
uses a DOS function to rename a directory, and therefore it won't
accept blanks or the characters ."/\[]:|<>+=;,. DOS 2.XX does
not allow renaming directories.
MOVE (Move directory) Through this function you can move an
entire directory and all the files to another subdirectory or
drive. Pressing F4 or clicking on MOVE will bring up a dialog
box asking where you want to move that directory to. For
example, let's say you have a directory of Lotus 123 spreadsheets
called "ACCTS" and you want to make it a subdirectory of your
directory "LOTUS". Highlight the "ACCTS" directory and press F4.
In the dialog box enter "\LOTUS" and press Enter and the entire
directory will be moved. The new path will now be
"\LOTUS\ACCTS".
Page 14
DIRECTORY VIEW COMMANDS
MAKE (Make Directory) Press F5, click on MAKE or press ^M and
you will be presented with a dialog box prompting for a new
directory name to be added to the highlighted directory. Enter
the new name and press Enter or click on the Enter Bar; again,
DOS willing, the directory will be created and the screen
updated. If the directory name you entered already exists or DOS
doesn't like what you entered, you will get a beep and an error
box telling you so. You can then press or click on Enter to try
again, press or click on Escape to cancel. A DOS function call
is used to make a directory; therefore entries with blanks or
the characters ."/\[]:|<>+ =;, won't be accepted.
REMOVE (Remove Directory) DL will let you remove a directory
with files in it but first you will get a beep and a warning
about the files that will be lost. If you want to continue,
press Enter at the warning. DL will start by first deleting all
the files in that directory. If at any time you want to stop,
pressing any key or clicking the mouse will stop the process
immediately. Once all the files have been deleted, DL will
remove the directory. If the directory is not the last one in
the chain or the directory name has characters DOS considers
illegal, DL will be unable to remove the directory and will tell
you so. You activate the Remove Directory feature by pressing
F6, ^V or clicking on "REMOVE" on the menu bar.
SEARCH DL will let you search the whole disk for a particular
file. Press F7, click on SEARCH or press ^H and a dialog box
will prompt you for the file name to search for. If you are not
sure of the name or you want to search for files with similar
names, you can use the DOS Wild Cards * and ?. After pressing or
clicking on Enter, DL will start with the root directory and go
through the entire disk looking for a match to your entry. If a
match is found, DL will show a sorted file list with the desired
file highlighted. When it is through searching one drive, DL
will give you the options of continuing the search on other
drives.
UTIL Pressing F9 or clicking on the UTIL part of the menu bar
will pull down the utility menu. From the utility menu you have
the options of printing the directory tree, hiding or unhiding
directories or popping up the program menu DM. You can use the
up and down arrow keys to move the menu bar to the desired
option, press the capitalized letter of the desired option, or
click on the desired option.
Page 15
DIRECTOR
PRINT DIR LIST This option will send a copy of your directory
tree to the printer. If the printer is turned off or not on-
line, DL will give you an error message and give you the chance
to try again. You can also print a copy of the directory tree
from outside the UTIL menu by pressing F8 or ^P.
HIDE/UNHIDE While in the UTIL menu clicking on Hide/unhide or
pressing "H" will hide an unhidden directory or unhide a hidden
directory. When a directory is hidden, it won't be displayed by
a DIR command in DOS. However you can still access it with a CD
command. A hidden directory is displayed with a "(H)" after the
name.
/ PROGRAM MENU DIRECTOR comes with a pop up program menu called
DM.EXE. You can pop up DM by pressing 'M' or by clicking the
mouse on " / Menu". You can also pop up DM without the UTIL menu
by pressing the slash "/" key.
STATS (Statistics) Pressing F10, ^S or clicking on STATS will
bring up a box showing you the particular file and byte
statistics for the drive you are on.
Page 16
FILE VIEW COMMANDS
The File View in DL.EXE and
DB.EXE
Highlight any directory in DL and press Enter, and a new screen
with a sorted list of files for that particular directory will
pop up. You can also obtain this file view from DB.EXE. Just
type DB at the DOS prompt and the same file view will pop up.
Features specific to DB and command line options for DB will be
found in the section "DB.EXE".
This file view is similar to the directory view with a menu bar
along the top and a mouse scroll bar along the left side.
Pressing PGUP or PGDN will scroll a screen's worth of files at a
time. Just like in the directory view, you can scroll through the
files by clicking your mouse on the left scroll bar. The left
button will move one file at a time and the right button will
moving one screen at a time. Home and End will take you to the
beginning and end of the file list. Holding the mouse buttons
down will have the same repeat action as the keyboard. You can
click on a file with either button to highlight it. Once a file
is highlighted, clicking the left button on the file will mark it
with a little arrow head and clicking the right button on it will
show you its contents.
Clicking with the left button on a highlighted file that is
already marked will unmark it. Just like in the directory view,
typing the first letter of a file will cause the highlight bar to
move to that file. For example, on my computer, typing a "d"
will highlight DB.EXE. Typing a "d" again will highlight
"DL.EXE". This letter search is circular; so if the file
"WP.EXE" is highlighted, you can type "d" to get back to DB.EXE.
EXIT Pressing Escape, or clicking on ESC will exit back to the
directory view or in DB exit back to DOS.
VIEW Clicking on VIEW or pressing Enter will give you a screen
displaying the contents of the file. Binary files can be viewed
this way also. You can scroll through the file just like in a
word processor with the UP, DN, PGUP, and PGDN keys. Pressing
the End key will take you the end of the file. DIRECTOR must
read the entire file to go to the end, so this may take a while
on large files. Pressing Home will take you to the beginning of
the file.
Page 17
DIRECTOR
Mouse users can have a scroll bar on the far left that works just
like the one in the main screen of DIRECTOR if they specified it
in DCONFIG. Even if you specified that you don't want to see the
scroll bar, the left-most column will act as if there were one
there if you click your mouse on it. Along the top of the screen
there is also a menu bar. Mouse users can use the HOME and END
choices to go the beginning and end of the file being viewed.
Pressing F1 or clicking on the HEX part of the menu bar will
allow you to view the file in hexadecimal.
Pressing Escape, clicking on EXIT, or pressing Enter will land
you back in the file list. You can print the file by clicking on
the PRINT portion of the menu, pressing ^P or pressing F8.
Since DIRECTOR does no print spooling, you have to wait while the
file is being printed before doing anything else.
If you are viewing a binary file or one with particularly long
lines, you can use the left and right cursor arrows or click on
the left and right arrows on the menu bar to see more of the
file. For your convenience in viewing binary files, all lines
longer than 130 characters will be wrapped at column 130.
If you are unable to get the view function to work in DIRECTOR,
it may be that you don't have enough available memory. DL needs
at least 200 kilobytes to run.
EDIT If you've run DCONFIG and specified a text editor, you can
press the Ctrl key and the Enter key together (this is
abbreviated as ^Enter), or click on the EDIT choice of the menu
bar. DIRECTOR will run your text editor and if possible, have it
load up the highlighted file.
MARKING FILES In DIRECTOR you can mark a group of files for
copying, deleting, moving, or printing. If no files are marked,
DIRECTOR will act only on the highlighted file.
MARK You can mark a file in 5 ways. First, highlight the file.
1. Press the Plus (+) key.
2. Press the space bar on an unmarked file.
3. Press the right arrow key .
4. Click on the highlighted file.
5. Use the mark menu.
Page 18
FILE VIEW COMMANDS
A marked file has a little arrow head pointing to the file in the
far left column. You access the mark menu by pressing F6 or
clicking on mark. From the mark menu you can also unmark files,
mark all files, unmark all files and remark previously marked
files. You can mark as many files as you like.
UNMARK Similarly you can unmark a marked file in 5 ways. First
highlight the file.
1. Press the Minus (-) key.
2. Press the space bar on an marked file.
3. Press the left arrow key .
4. Click on the highlighted and marked file.
5. Use the mark menu.
MARK ALL Press Ctrl key and the right arrow key or use the mark
menu to mark all the files.
UNMARK ALL Press Ctrl key and the left arrow key or use the mark
menu to unmark all the files.
DIRECTOR will not permit you to mark a hidden file. To find out
more about hidden files and how to unhide them, please read the
section on changing file attributes.
REMARK Once a file has been operated on (copied, moved, or
printed) the mark arrow is replaced by a little circle. If you
want to repeat an operation on the same files, pressing the
asterisk "*" or clicking on the on the mark menu and choosing
Remark will mark all the files with a little circle preceding it.
COPY Clicking on COPY, pressing F1 or ^C will bring up a dialog
box asking where you want the files to be copied. You can copy
to any directory or drive. DIRECTOR allows you to change the
filename when copying. You can also use the DOS wild cards, "*"
and "?",when you copy. You can even copy the file to the same
directory but with a different filename. The only thing DIRECTOR
won't let you do is copy a file on top of itself. DIRECTOR
checks the path that you've entered to see if it exists. If
DIRECTOR can't find it, it assumes that you want to change the
filename and will do so if it can make a pathname and filename
out of your entry. Be careful, because if the last part of your
pathname is entered incorrectly, DIRECTOR will copy the file to
the first part of the pathname and change the file's name to the
last part of the pathname. For more information on
Page 19
DIRECTOR
how DIRECTOR changes file names when copying, see the end of the
section on moving files.
If you are not sure of the pathname or if you want DL to enter
the pathname for you, you can press the TAB key which will switch
you back to the directory view. There you can also change drives
if you want to copy the files to another drive. You then
highlight the desired directory and click on it or press F1. You
will then be back in the file view with the highlighted path
entered in the dialog box. This will work in DL only.
Once DIRECTOR has copied a file, a little circle will appear in
front of the filename to let you know that it has been copied.
Before trying to copy a file, DIRECTOR first looks to see if the
target directory or drive has enough room. If it does, then
DIRECTOR copies the file to the new directory or drive. If there
isn't enough room for the file, DIRECTOR will move on to the next
file. DIRECTOR will go through all the marked files and copy
only those that fit. The remaining files will stay marked. If
the target disk gets full, DIRECTOR will stop, leaving the still
uncopied files, marked. If you are copying to a floppy diskette,
you can then change diskettes and repeat the copy procedure on
the remaining marked files. You can do this as many times as
necessary until all of the marked files are copied. If while
copying a group of files, you decide that you want to stop the
operation, press Escape and DIRECTOR will stop after copying the
file its presently working on.
If the file you are copying already exists on the target
directory or drive, DIRECTOR can warn you of its presence and
query you if you want to perform the copy anyway. You turn this
option on or off through using DCONFIG.
DIRECTOR will not copy hidden files. In order to do that you
must change the hidden attribute first. For information on how
to do this, see the section on changing file attributes.
MOVE Pressing F4, clicking on MOVE or pressing ^M will activate
MOVE. Move works like copy except that when the files are copied
to the new directory or drive they are removed from the current
one. If you are moving files to another directory on the same
drive, all that happens is that the file is renamed. If you are
moving files to another drive, the files will first be copied to
the new drive and then deleted from the old one.
Page 20
FILE VIEW COMMANDS
If the file you are moving already exists on the target directory
or drive, DIRECTOR can warn you of its presence and query you if
you want to perform the move anyway. You turn this option on or
off through using DCONFIG. If you are not sure of the pathname
or if you want DL to enter the pathname for you, you can press
the TAB key which will switch you back to the directory view.
There you can also change drives if you want to copy the files to
another drive. You then highlight the desired directory and
click on it or press F1. You will then be back in the file view
with the highlighted path entered in the dialog box. This will
work in DL only.
DIRECTOR will not move hidden files. In order to do that you
must change the hidden attribute first. For information on how
to do this, see the section on changing file attributes.
You can also change a file's name when moving. If in addition to
specifying a path, you add a filename or a filename with wild
cards, DIRECTOR will change the names of the moved files. This
can lead to ambiguity if, for instance, you entered an incorrect
pathname which could be mistaken for a pathname and filename. If
there is any question as to what your intentions may be, DIRECTOR
will query you.
Page 21
DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR will copy and move in the following manner:
ONE FILE MARKED
What Entered What DIRECTOR Will Do
Valid pathname Copies or moves to Path.
Valid pathname + filename Copies or moves to Path and
extension changes name to new filename.
Valid pathname + filename DIRECTOR will ask you if you
with no extension want copy or move and change the
name.
Filename entered with the DIRECTOR will change the
wildcards "*" and "?" name of the file by making
a new name out of the
wildcards.
MANY FILES MARKED
What Entered What DIRECTOR Will Do
Valid pathname Copies or moves to Path.
Valid pathname + filename Copies or moves to Path and
+ extension changes name to new filename.
Valid pathname + filename Since you are copying many
with no extension files, DIRECTOR will assume that
you entered a path that doesn't
exist and will give you the
opportunity to create it.
Filename entered with the DIRECTOR will change the
wildcards "*" and "?" names of the files, making new
names out of the wildcards.
Page 22
FILE VIEW COMMANDS
DELETE You can delete the highlighted file or the marked files
by clicking on DELETE, pressing F2 or pressing ^D. Before
deleting the files, DIRECTOR will ask you if you are sure.
Pressing or clicking on Enter will set DIRECTOR on its work. If
while deleting a group of files you decide to stop, Press the
Escape key and DIRECTOR will stop.
DIRECTOR will not delete hidden files. In order to do that you
must change the hidden attribute first. For information on how
to do this, see the section on changing file attributes.
RENAME You can only rename one file at a time, so when pressing
F3, clicking on RENAME or pressing ^R, DIRECTOR acts only on the
file that is highlighted. DIRECTOR uses DOS calls to rename a
file and therefore will only let you use a name that DOS will
allow. DOS doesn't like filenames with blanks or the characters
."/ \[]:;|<>+=, in it.
SORT Pressing F5 or clicking on SORT will bring up the sort
menu. You can enter the first letter of your sort choice or you
can scroll the highlighted bar to Filename, Extension, Date, Size
or Unsorted and press Enter and the screen will be updated with
the sorted or unsorted directory. The Unsorted option gives you
the file listings in the order that they appear on your disk.
You can also click a mouse on the choice and it will work the
same way.
There is also a quick way to sort with bypassing the menu. ^F
sorts by filename. ^E sorts by extension, ^T sorts by date and
^Z sorts by size.
RUN IT You can run any highlighted program whether it be and
EXE, COM or BAT file. Just press F7 or click on "RUN IT" on the
menu bar and DIRECTOR will immediately execute the program.
DIRECTOR creates a batch file and then completely exits so it
won't take up any memory while you are running programs. When
you are finished, the batch file will run DIRECTOR again. In DOS
3 and over, DIRECTOR uses the pathname that you entered in
DCONFIG to find itself. In DOS 2, DIRECTOR depends on being in a
directory on your path in order to find itself.
Page 23
DIRECTOR
UTIL Pressing F9 or clicking on the UTIL part of the menu bar
will pull down the utility menu. From the utility menu you have
the options of printing the file list, printing the contents of
the marked files, changing the attributes of the marked files,
and using a file specification to see only some of the files.
You can use the up and down arrow keys to move the menu bar to
the desired option, press the capitalized letter of the desired
option, or click on the desired option.
Print File List Press F8, ^P or choose print filelist from the
UTIL menu and DIRECTOR will print out a copy of the file list
just like it is displayed on the screen.
Print File Text You can print a copy of any group of marked text
files with this selection. If you have no files marked, DIRECTOR
will just print the highlighted file. DIRECTOR does no print
spooling, so you will have to wait for the file to be printed
before continuing. The default printer is LPT1, but this can be
redirected through DOS' mode command.
Page 24
FILE VIEW COMMANDS
CHANGING FILE ATTRIBUTES
Every file on your disk has a directory listing. This directory
listing, contains the file name, the extension, the size in
bytes, the date of last modification and other useful
information. This directory listing also contains a number
called the attribute byte. This attribute byte tells DOS if the
directory listing is that of a file, a subdirectory or a volume
label. A directory listing for a file, can be any one of 4
different numbers or any combination thereof. DIRECTOR shows
each files attribute as the last entry after the file
modification date.
The choices are:
System: Abbreviated as Sys. This attribute doesn't signify
much, except the DOS boot files usually have this attribute. A
file with the system attribute turned on cannot be seen by a DOS
"DIR" command and cannot be read by other files. However
DIRECTOR will show it.
Hidden: Abbreviated as Hid. This attribute also hides a file
from normal DOS operations. However, like Sys, DIRECTOR will
show it.
Read Only: Abbreviated as R/O. A file marked as read only
cannot be modified, or deleted by normal DOS operations. You
need not worry about this when using DIRECTOR to delete or rename
files.
Archive: Abbreviated as Arc. This is used as an indicator in
back up operations. A file marked with the archive attribute has
not been backed up since the last modification.
DIRECTOR allows you to change a file's attributes very easily.
Choose "Attributes" from the UTIL menu or just press ^A and a
screen will pop up showing the attributes for the highlighted
file, or if only one file is marked, the marked file. If the
attribute is turned on, an "ON" will appear before the attribute.
If the attribute is turned off, an "OFF" will appear before the
attribute. If more than one file is marked, all the attributes
in the dialog box will be off. Pressing the first letter of the
attribute or clicking the mouse on the attribute will turn it off
or on. When you have made the desired changes, pressing Enter
will change them permanently. Pressing Escape will cancel the
operation.
Page 25
DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR uses DOS function calls to perform the attribute change.
If for some reason you have a file with "illegal" characters in
it (a filename DOS doesn't consider valid) DIRECTOR may not be
able to make the change.
File Spec Looking for a few files in a large directory can be
trying even with the different possible sorts. For that reason,
I've provided a way to filter out the files you don't want to see
and displaying only those that you want to see. Choose
"Filespec" from the UTIL menu or press ^L and a dialog box will
prompt you for a file specification. This can be a particular
file name or a combination of a filename and wild cards.
DIRECTOR will use this file spec and reread the directory
displaying those files that meet your specifications. For
example, if I enter the filespec "D*.EXE", DIRECTOR will display
only those files that begin with the letter D and have an EXE
extension.
STATS (Statistics) Pressing F10, ^S or clicking on STATS will
bring up a box showing you the particular statistics for the
directory you are viewing.
Page 26
DB.EXE
DB.EXE
DB.EXE is the file list portion of DL.EXE. You can use DB when
you want to work in a specific directory and have no need for and
don't want to wait for a directory tree. Most of the time, I use
DB instead of typing DIR, to see what's in a directory and to be
able to scroll through it and view files.
Like DIR, You can also specify a specific filename and wildcard
combination on the command line, and DB will display only those
files meeting that specification. For example, entering "DB
*.DOC" will display only the files with a DOC extension.
The syntax for DB is:
DB [directory] [filename.ext] [/s]
The "/s" stands for what kind of sort you want. You can have DB
load up with a sort different from the one specified in DCONFIG
with this command line switch.
"/e" extension.
"/d" date.
"/s" size.
"/f" filename.
"/u" unsorted.
Page 27
DIRECTOR
DM.EXE
To facilitate running programs from Director, the pop menu
program DM.EXE has been added. You can pop up DM over the
directory view of DL and file view of DL and DB by pressing the
slash "/" key. Mouse users can pop up DM in the directory view
of DL by clicking on "UTIL" and then clicking on " / Menu". They
can pop up DM in the file view of DL and DB by clicking on " /
MENU" on the lower right of the screen.
You can also run programs from Director without popping up DM.
Merely press the ALT key and the hot key of the program that you
want to run and it will be run without DM ever popping up.
You can also use DM as a stand alone hard disk menu. Just type
"DM" at the DOS prompt and press Enter.
The DM menu looks something like this:
DM displays programs in 2 parallel columns. In order to run a
program you can use the arrow keys to highlight the program and
press Enter, use the mouse to move the highlight bar to the
desired program and click, or press the hot key for the program.
When DM has no programs loaded in it, the only choices are "A
ADD/CHANGE PROGS" and "X ESCAPE EXIT". The first letter is the
hot key and what follows is the function that the hot key
activates.
Page 28
DM.EXE
DM is designed to park your disk heads and blank the screen after
5 minutes of no keyboard or mouse action. The head parking will
work on up to 2 physical drives. Either one of these or both can
be turned off by the configuration program DCONFIG. When DM
blanks the screen, the screen will be made black. Pressing any
keystroke will restore the screen. When DM parks the disk heads.
The heads will be moved to the last track of the disk. Unlike
some parking programs, you can still go back and use the computer
after DM parks the drive heads.
Pressing the letter "X", pressing the Escape key or clicking on
"ESCAPE EXIT" will exit DM and return you to DIRECTOR or your DOS
prompt, wherever you started from.
To add or change program entries choose "ADD/CHANGE PROGS". The
menu will then be replaced with a data entry form. If there are
programs already entered, the last program will be displayed in
the form.
The form looks like this:
ESC EXIT You can press escape or click on the escape portion
of the data entry screen and you will be returned to the menu.
While you are entering or changing data, pressing Escape will
automatically save the entry before returning to the menu.
Page 29
DIRECTOR
F1 ADD Press F1 or click on ADD and a the space after "PROGRAM
NAME" in the entry form will be displayed in reverse video.
There you enter the name of the program just like you would if
you were running it from the DOS prompt. DM starts in overstrike
mode, but you can toggle insert by pressing the insert key. If
you are running DM from the file view of DL or DB, the
highlighted file will be automatically entered in the space for
program name. If you want to enter something different, just
start typing and what was previously entered will disappear. If
you are entering the name of a COM or EXE file, you only need
enter the filename and not the extension. If you are entering
the name of a batch file, you must enter the BAT extension. You
can move through the fields with the up and down arrow keys and
the Enter key. After pressing Enter or the down arrow key in the
last field, the entry will automatically be saved and the screen
will be cleared to be ready for a new entry.
Pressing Escape will always save the entry and return to the
menu. If you want to return to the menu and don't want to save
the entry press or click on
F10 DELETE.
The second field is "MENU ENTRY". This is the way the program
will appear in the menu. For instance, my word processor is
WP.EXE, but in the menu I want to see "WORD PERFECT" so I enter
"WP" under PROGRAM NAME and "WORD PERFECT" under MENU ENTRY.
You can add command line arguments or switches to some programs.
When I load Word Perfect I use the command line switch "/m
start". This has Word Perfect execute the macro "start"
immediately after it loads . You can enter any command line
arguments or switches in the "SWITCHES" field. To make use of
the menu easier and to enable you to run programs from Director
without even popping up the menu, you can enter any hot key from
"B" to "Z" in the "HOT KEY" field. "A" and "X" are already
taken. If you try to enter a hot key that is already in use, you
will hear a tone and an error message will be displayed on line
25 of the screen telling you that letter is in use. You don't
have to add a hot key if you don't want one.
DM is designed to be able to run as a stand alone menu as well.
When using DM as a stand alone menu, you have the choice of
whether to return to DM after running a program by selecting 'Y'
or "N" in the "RETURN TO MENU" field.
Page 30
DM.EXE
F2 CHANGE You can change any entry by clicking on F2 CHANGE or
pressing the F2 key. Mouse users can also highlight a particular
field to change by clicking on that field.
F3 LAST and F4 NEXT scroll through the program database.
F10 DELETE will delete any program that is displayed.
RUNNING PROGRAMS FROM DIRECTOR
You can run programs from Director without ever popping up DM.
Merely press the ALT key and the hot key of the program that you
want to run and it will be run without DM ever popping up.
When you run programs from the directory view of DL, just the
program will be run. When you run programs from the file view of
DL or DB, the program will be run and if possible load up the
highlighted file.
USING DM ALONE
You can also use DM as a stand alone hard disk menu. You can run
it by typing "DM" at the DOS prompt and pressing Enter. DM will
work exactly as it does when you run it from DIRECTOR. If you
don't want to return to DM when the program is finished running,
enter a "N" in the space after "RETURN TO MENU" in the program
entry form.
When turning off your computer, it is always good to park the
drive heads. Many new drives do this automatically but many also
don't. For your convenience, I've provided a head parking
program "PARK.COM" that you can install into DM. This program
will park up to 2 physical drives.
Page 31
DIRECTOR
COMMAND SUMMARY FOR THE DIRECTORY VIEW OF DL.EXE
Enter: View contents of highlighted
directory.
F1 or ^C: Change Drive.
F2: Exit DL to the highlighted directory.
F3, ^R: Rename directory.
F4: Move directory.
F5 or ^M: Make directory.
F6 or ^V: Remove directory.
F7 or ^H: Search disk for file.
F8 or ^P: Print directory tree.
F9: Pull down Utility Menu
s Show file count and disk usage.
h Hide or unhide directories.
m Pop up DM.EXE program menu
F10 or ^S: Show file count and disk usage.
/ Pop up program menu.
ALT key +
hot key Run programs without popping up DM.
Page 32
COMMAND SUMMARY
COMMAND SUMMARY FOR THE FILE VIEW
in DL.EXE and DB.EXE
Enter: View the highlighted file.
^Enter: Run Text Editor and load highlighted file.
F1 or ^C: Copy the highlighted or marked file(s).
F2 or ^D: Delete the highlighted or marked file(s).
F3 or ^R: Rename the highlighted file.
F4 or ^M: Move the highlighted or marked file(s).
F5: Sort Menu
e sort by extension.
f sort by filename.
d sort by date.
d sort by size.
u show unsorted listing.
^F: Sort by filename.
^E: Sort by extension.
^T: Sort by date.
^Z: Sort by size.
^U: Show unsorted listing.
Page 33
DIRECTOR
COMMAND SUMMARY FOR THE FILE VIEW
IN DL.EXE and DB.EXE
F6: Mark Menu.
+ or Right Arrow: Mark file.
- or Left Arrow: Unmark file.
Space Bar: Mark or Unmark file.
^Right Arrow: Mark all but the hidden files.
^Left Arrow: Unmark all files.
F7 or ^X: Run marked programs.
F8 or ^P: Print file list.
^F8: Print marked files.
^A: Change file attributes.
^L: File specification.
F9: Util Menu.
l Print file list.
t Print marked files.
a Change file attributes.
f Enter file specification.
m Pop up program menu.
F10, ^S: Display disk usage statistics.
/ Pop up DM.EXE program menu.
ALT key +
hot key Run programs without popping up DM.
Page 34
INDEX
INDEX
Attribute 20, 21, 23, 25, 26
AUTOEXEC.BAT 2
Byte 3, 16, 25
DB 1, 4, 6-8, 11, 17, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34
DB.EXE 8, 17, 27, 33, 34
Delete 29
DIRECTOR 1-3, 6-10, 16-26, 28-31
DL 1, 5-12, 14-18, 20, 21, 27, 28, 30-34
DL.EXE 1, 5-8, 12, 17, 27, 32-34
DOS 5, 25
Drive 6, 7, 9, 12, 14-16, 19-21, 29, 31, 32
Edit 4, 18
EGA 1
Exit 4, 5, 8, 9, 14, 17, 18, 28, 29, 32
Extension 2-4, 6, 9, 22, 23, 25-27, 30, 33
Hard disk 2, 3, 5-7, 11, 28, 31
Hidden 12, 16, 19-21, 23, 25, 34
Mark 4
Memory 1, 18, 23, 28
Move 4, 5, 14, 20
network 1
Path 29
Print 10, 16, 18, 24, 32, 34
Program 1, 4, 6-9, 11, 14-16, 23, 28-32, 34
Search 15
Sys 3, 4
System 25
Unhide 16, 19, 32
Unmark 17, 19, 34
VGA 1
View 4, 5, 17, 33, 34
Page 35
REGISTRATION FORM
____DIRECTOR Version 3.43 Diskette, Manual
and Registration.......................... @ $35.00 ea $________
____Director Version 3.43 Diskette, Manual
on Diskette and Registration.......... @ $30.00 ea $________
Subtotal $________
California residents please add 6% sales tax: tax $________
Total $________
Please make checks payable to:
Helpware
100 Bayo Vista Way #6
San Rafael, CA 94901
Name:_________________________________________________________________
Company:_______________________________________________________________
Address:_______________________________________________________________
Where did you obtain DIRECTOR__________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Any comments, suggestions or bugs?_____________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
My name is Dan Baumbach I am a member of ASP., The Association of
Shareware Professionals. I can be reached either at the above
address, on CompuServe electronic mail 71320,1277, or at
(415) 453-9779. Thank you for your registration.
For your convenience, you may now register for DIRECTOR through the
Public (Software) Library with their 800 number and use your credit
card. PSL will contact me the same day and I will send you the
latest release of DIRECTOR.
Their phone number is 1-800-2424-PSL