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RFM version 1.00 by RH-Software Manual What is RFM ? ------------- RFM is a very extensive file manager for VGA and mouse. It is based on the program PUP (Paul's Utility Program) by Paul van der Linden, also available as shareware. PUP uses text mode, whereas RFM uses 640 x 480 VGA mode, so, if you don't have VGA try to acquire PUP (latest version is 3.31 (today is August 9 1992)). RFM can do almost anything you want just with a click of the mouse. It can : - Move, Rename, Del etc. files and directories - Execute programs just by clicking on them - Archive files with any archiver you like - View archive files, GIF, PCX, you name it , you can view it, thanks to the use of V.COM, a great program written by Paul van der Linden - Define a program to be executed when clicking on a file with a certain extension - much, much more ( To find out what exactly, just read on ) IMPORTANT !! Before you run RFM, first run RFMCFG, to configure RFM. You should at least specify the directory where RFM plus Accompanying files will be copied. (you have to copy them there yourself) It is best to also configure VIEW (V.COM) Once you have configured RFM you can start the program by typing RFM at the DOS prompt. A listing of all files and directories in the current directory will be shown, along with some windows and buttons. RFM can hold as many as 256 files per directory. If this is not enough, register RFM and let me know. It will then be enlarged. RFM uses all three buttons of the mouse, but if you have only two buttons, that's no problem. With the left button you can change directories or execute COM, EXE or BAT files. Click on a directory and you will change to that directory, click on an executable file and it will be executed after first asking you whether the program needs arguments. The middle button is used to mark files. Click on a file or directory with the middle button and it will be marked. Marked files can be copied, moved, archived etc. If you have only two buttons, you can mark files by pressing CTRL or ALT or SHIFT, and at the same time clicking any button (try it). I did not use both left and right button to be pressed together because the processor checks the button state of the mouse so fast that when you press one button a thousandth of a second later than the other, it will be interpreted as only one button being pressed. The right mouse button is used to view files or execute a program when clicked on a file with a certain extension. The program V.COM is used with this action. To learn more about V.COM read it's documentation. When not all files in a directory fit on the screen, a button PgUp and/or PgDn will apear on top left of the screen. Click on one of them and the list of files will move 39 files up or down. When no PgDn if present, you can't go down, when no PgUp is present, you can't go up. If you configured RFM to display a window on screen containing the date and time, it will be displayed on the bottom right of the screen. If you click any button on the date, a window will pop up allowing you to set a new date. Because you have to type someting on your keyboard here, such a window will be called a Keyboard-Input-Window from now on. If you click any button on the Time, a Keyboard-Input-Window will pop up allowing you to set a new time. For the keys you can use in a Keyboard-Input-Window, look at the Chapter "Keyboard-Input-Window" further on in this manual. THE BUTTONS : ------------- The buttons are on the right of the screen. I'll explain them from top to bottom. NOTE : Whenever a window pops up, clicking outside it closes it without anything happening Quit : Ends the program and returns you immediately to DOS, WITHOUT asking "Are you sure?" (I hate that line when quitting to DOS) ?: : Click on it to change the current drive. A window will pop up with the possible drives. Click on the drive letter you want. The last drive letter shown is equal to the letter of your "LASTDRIVE=" parameter in the CONFIG.SYS-file (If LASTDRIVE is not specified, default is "E") Read : Rereads the drive or directory, use it for instance after you have changed a diskette in drive A: or B:. Mdir : Allows you to create a new directory. A Keyboard-Input-Window will pop up asking you to type the name of the directory to be created. Typing in for instance "GIFDIR" will create a directory GIFDIR in the current directory, typing "C:\PICS\GIFDIR" will create the appropriate directory on drive C:. For the keys you can use in a Keyboard-Input-Window, look at the Chapter "Keyboard-Input-Window" further on in this manual. Copy : Allows you to copy all marked files and directories to elsewhere. After you have clicked this button, a listing of only directories contained in the current directory will appear. You can now move to the drive or directory you want the files and directories copied to, and the click the "Go"-button. Notice the buttons on the right side of the screen after you have clicked "Copy". The "Quit" button abandons the copy operation, doing nothing, the "?:" button allows you to change drive, "Read" lets you reread a drive or directory, and "Mdir" lets you create a new directory (NOTE : if you want to copy the marked files and directories to a new to be created directory, you DON'T have to create this directory BEFORE you click the "Copy" button. You can create it after you have clicked the "Copy"-button, and, of course, before you click the "Go"-button). Finally "Go" copies the marked files and directories to the directory you were in when you pressed the "Go"-button. If your destination directory is the same as the source directory (so both destination and source are the current directory), RFM assumes that you want to copy the marked files and directories to a new name in the current directory. Therefore a Keyboard-Input-Window will pop up asking you for the new name to copy the file or directory to. Type in the new name and press ENTER, or press ESC to cancel this file or directory. See the chapter "Keyboard-Input-Window" below to find out what other keys you can use inside such a window. Move : Same as Copy except that the source files and directories are deleted after having been copied. When the files are to be moved to a different directory but on the SAME drive, they are renamed, in order to save (a lot of) time. Del : Deletes all marked files and directories. First an "Are you sure?"- window will appear, and after confirmation all files and directories will be deleted. NOTE that if you delete a directory, all files and subdirectories in it will be deleted, so a directory does not have to be empty in order to be able to delete it. IMPORTANT : If you delete a directory, EVERYTHING in it will be removed, whether or not they are Write-protected. Ren : Renames the marked files and directories. For each file a Keyboard- Input-Window will appear asking you the name of the new file. You have a limited way to use wildcard "*", namely if the name or extension of the file are to be the same as in the old file. Example : You can rename file AAAAA.BBB to CCCCC.BBB by typing CCCCC.* in the rename window. Likewise you can rename AAAAA.BBB to AAAAA.CCC by typing *.CCC. The wildcard handling will not go beyond that. Sort : Allows you to display the files and directories in a different sorted order. A window will pop up with the possible sort orders. These are: Name : Sort by name. Extension : Sort by Extension. Size : Sort by Size, biggest file first. Time : Sort by date and time, newest file first. Don't Sort : Display files in the order they are written onto disk Attr : Change the attributes of the marked files. A window will pop up with the attribute names. Click on a line and the word after the attribute name will toggle through "ignore", "on" and "off". Ignore means leave it as it is, "on" sets the attribute on(oh, really?), and "off" set it off. Click on "ok" to change the attributes of the marked files. Disp : A window will pop up with three lines in it. The first line lets you toggle between one- and two-column display. The second line lets you toggle the Date-Time window to be present or not. Finally, the third line lets you blank the screen. This option is to save your screen if you don't need to look at it for a little while or go away for some time, but want to leave your monitor and/or computer turned on. After choosing this option, any button on the mouse or any key on your keyboard, even ALT, SHIFT, or CTRL, will bring your screen back. Arch : Gives you the possibility to convert all marked files into an archive file. You can pick any archiver, you configured for. A window will pop up containing the possible archivers. After you picked one, say ARJ (the best) a Keyboard-Input-Window will pop up asking you the name of the file to archive the marked files to. You can specify "ARCHIVE", or "ARCHIVE.ARJ", no extension is needed (instead of the word "ARCHIVE" you type in the filename you want to give to the file, of course). The commands for archiving files are contained in the file RFM_ARCH.DAT, about which more in RFMCFG.DOC. Exec : A Keyboard-Input-Window will pop up asking you for the program plus arguments. Type anything as you would on the DOS command line, or Escape to cancel. See the chapter "Keyboard-Input-Window" below to find out what other keys you can use inside such a window. Mark : A window will pop up with four options: All : Mark all files, files that were already marked will be unmarked, so "All" has the same effect as clicking the middle button on each file for one time None : All files will be unmarked User Specified : The user can enter a pattern to be marked. Wildcards ? and * are allowed, as in "?a?b*.c*" Write Marks to file : Writes all marked files (name+extension) to the file MARKED.RFM in the current directory Util : Allows you to execute programs that are in your PATH just by clicking on them. A window is opened containing the contents of file RFM_UTIL.DAT. Click on a line you want executed with the left or middle mouse button and it is done. This is handy for often used commands. You type them once in the file RFM_UTIL.DAT, and you don't have to type them in the "Exec"- window anymore. NOTE that in RFM_UTIL.DAT the extension of the program to be executed (COM,EXE,BAT) MUST be specified!!! To add or delete or change an entry in RFM_UTIL.DAT you have to edit the file yourself with a plain ascii-editor. If the file RFM_UTIL.DAT contains more than 31 lines, a blue "PgDn"- button will be present at the top left of the screen. If you click on this button, the next 31 lines from RFM_UTIL.DAT will be presented to you. You can also mark files and then pass these as arguments to the program you want executed. All you have to do then in RFM_UTIL.DAT is specify the word "FILE" (!!ALL CAPITALS!!) on the place in the line where you want the marked file to be placed. You can specify as many words "FILE" on this line as you like. RFM keeps on passing the marked files to this command line until either there are no more marked files to be passed, or there are no more words "FILE" in the line. VERY HANDY is the following feature: If you click on a line in the "Util"-window with the RIGHT mouse button, this line, with all marked files substituted for the words "FILE" (if appropriate), will be passed to the "Exec"-window, so that you can edit this line . This has the same effect as when you would type the entire command in the "Exec"-window in the first place. See the chapter "Keyboard- Input-Window" below to find out what keys you can use inside a Keyboard-Input-Window. Examples for the use of the word "FILE" in RFM_UTIL.DAT : If you want to execute Wordperfect with a file you mark in RFM, you put this in RFM_UTIL.DAT : wp.exe FILE or (if wp.exe is not in your PATH) C:\WORDPERF\wp.exe FILE , assuming C:\WORDPERF\ is your wordperfect directory. Inside RFM you mark the file you want to load into WP (e.g. MY_TEXT.WP), click on the "Util"-button, and then click on the line "wp.exe FILE". WP will now be started with file MY_TEXT.WP. (If you marked more than one file, only the marked file closest to the top of the directory will be passed, because there is only one word "FILE" on the line in RFM_UTIL.DAT) If you want to compare two marked files put this in RFM_UTIL.DAT: comp.exe FILE FILE Inside RFM you mark the two files you want to compare and click on this line from the Util-window. The two files will now be compared. If you want your editor (mine is q.exe) to start with as much as six marked files put this in RFM_UTIL.DAT : q.exe FILE FILE FILE FILE FILE FILE You can mark up to six files now and start q.exe with all six files loaded. If you mark less than six files, q.exe will be started with as many files loaded as you have marked. VERY NICE EXAMPLE: To create a slide show of GIF-, PCX-, and so on files using VPIC.EXE (Great program) do the following : Mark all the GIF-files, PCX-files, etc you want to be in your slide show. Click the "Mark"-button and select "Write marks to file". (This results in a file named MARKED.RFM in the current directory) Next mark this file MARKED.RFM and click the "Util"-button. Choose the line "vpic.exe /a /@FILE". The file MARKED.RFM will now be sub- stituted for the word FILE and you will have a slide show on your screen. NOTE: THE "UTIL"-FEATURE ONLY WORKS IN THE REGISTERED VERSION OF RFM (SEE ORDERFORM FOR REGISTERING RFM) THE KEYBOARD-INPUT-WINDOW ------------------------- A Keyboard-Input-Window is a window where you have to type something from your keyboard. The following keys can be used inside it : ESCAPE : Close the window, do nothing ENTER : OK, Go, Do It, Execute, whatever HOME : Puts the cursor at the beginning of the line END : Puts the cursor at the end of the line CURSOR LEFT : Move the cursor one place left CURSOR RIGHT : Move the cursor one place right CONTROL-CURSOR LEFT : Move the cursor 10 places left CONTROL-CURSOR RIGHT : Move the cursor 10 places right BACKSPACE : Delete the character on the left side of the cursor DELETE : Delete the character above the cursor INSERT : Toggle between INSERT MODE and OVERWRITE MODE CONTROL-END : Delete everything from the cursor position to the end of the line THE FILE RFM_ARCH.DAT : ----------------------- See the file RFMCFG.DOC for explanation about this file.