EnigmA Amiga Run 1995 October/EnigmA AMIGA RUN 01 (1995)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1995-10][Aminet 7].iso/Aminet/comm/cnet/pgntitledit11.lha/PGNTitleEdit.README!

Text File | 1995-06-13 | 11KB | 214 lines

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              PGN Title Edit, v1.1 READ_ME File by Dotoran!
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So, what does it do?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    This little utility came to mind while trying to rebuild from a major
hard drive crash I experienced April of '95. (It's for this reason my coding
efforts seem to have dropped; trying to rebuild)

    Have YOU spent hours trying to get the "look" of a particular GFile,
PFile, or News listing just to your liking?  Whether it's the color scheme
you wish to use, or the formatting of the line, etc?  You spend what seems
like forever creating the look that really impresses you, then you feel
satisfied, until the day comes when you have to add another item to the
listing, which 9 times out of 10 results in you having to spend MORE time
restructuring the "look" of the list to conform with the rest of the system.

    That's where THIS utility comes in REAL handy.  In no more than 10 - 15
minutes, I was able to completely colorize & format ALL my GFile, PFile, and
News areas using a common color scheme and text formatting "look and feel".

    If this doesn't sound like much to you, you haven't been on my bbs. With
over 60 various subdirectories in these areas, totalling over 400 files, this
was one area I spent a LOT of time colorizing to my liking.

Wow, so how do I install it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    A pretty painless installation really:

1: Copy the "PGNTitleEdit" file into your PFILES: directory(or wherever).

2: Add the following line to "Menu 2; available everywhere" in your BBSMENU
   file(located in your CNET: directory):

        PT, GT, NT  `31 | {#0 pfiles:PGNTitleEdit}
                    ^     ^
                    |     `---> Replace with a Control-Q character.
                    |
                    `---> Which Access Group(s) can use it?

   NOTE: If you chose to store the file somewhere OTHER than PFILES:, make
         sure you also make the change in path to the above line as well.

3: Save your BBSMENU file, then reload it by selecting your Control Panel,
   then pressing the RAMIGA - T keystroke combination.

4: That's It!

OK, that was easy, but how do I use it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Although you can use the above commands from ANYWHERE on your bbs, you
should NOT use it from inside the listing you wish to edit. (Mainly because
you won't see the changes until after you exit that area, then reenter it,
so that CNet can then reload the listing into memory) Also, if you edit the
listing from INSIDE the listing, then use the AT command to edit one or more
items further, you'll note those items take on their original title formats.

    I mainly use it from the Main> prompt. Depending on WHICH command you
use will determine which list(s) you'll be editing. Typing GT (GFile Titles)
will allow you to make changes to the listings in your GFiles section. Use
PT to edit your PFile listings, and NT to edit your News listings.

    The first screen presented to you will be the main directory listing for
the area you specified to edit. If you wish to edit this main listing, simply
press your ENTER key to go to the editing screen, however if you wish to edit
a listing within a subdirectory, select the directory(ies) in question, until
you see the pertinent listing on the screen, THEN press your ENTER key.

    The editing screen can only display 10 items from the list on the screen
at any given time, so use the <N>ext and <P>revious commands to view other
portions of the listing.

    The items in the listing will be shown to you in their CODED form, which
means if you've used MCI-Codes in the names for colorizing purposes, you'll
SEE these codes, so you'll know exactly what you have to work with.

    Pressing <Q> will QUIT the program without saving your current changes,
while pressing <S> will make the needed changes, then show you what the NEW
listing will look like. It will then ASK YOU if it's ok if these changes are
saved to disk. Pressing <B> will simply take you back to the previous menu
where you can choose to select a different listing to work from. For v1.1,
I've added a few aliases to the "B" command. You can also press: P, -, <.
If working on the EDIT screen, the "P" alias will only be active if you're
viewing the BEGINNING of the listing(so, if you do NOT see the P>revious 10
command listed, then the "P"arent alias is active!)

    The remaining commands deal with actually EDITING the data found in each
listing, and will be discussed more thoroughly below:

<,>  (comma)  Append characters to LEFT  side of item.
<.>  (period) Append characters to RIGHT side of item.

    These commands allow you to specify EXTRA text/mci characters to be
added to either end of every item in the specified item range. These commands
come in handy for adding text that might be the same for numerous entries
in the listing(like using DIR to represent a DIRECTORY, etc.)

<L>  Trim(Delete) a specific number of characters from LEFT  side of item.
<R>  Trim(Delete) a specific number of characters from RIGHT side of item.

    These commands will DELETE characters from either end of every item in
the specified item range. These commands are useful for removing MCI color
codes from existing listings. (Keep in mind that 1 mci color code uses 3
characters, so specifying a "3" here would only remove ONE mci code, not 3!)

<D>  Delete specified text string from ANYWHERE in the item.

    This command will remove ALL occurances of the specified text string
found ANYWHERE in ALL specified items. This command is useful for removing
chunks of similar text found in the MIDDLE of listing items.

<T>  Truncate string STARTING at specified text string.

    This command will search out the given text string, then DELETE every
character STARTING with the text string to the END of the specified items.
An example of using this command would be to specify a colon(:) as the
truncate text, then applying it to CNet's Maintenance menu in the pfiles.
It will effectively delete the DESCRIPTIONS of the maintenance commands.

<C>  Cycle colors through the listing.

    This command makes colorizing a listing a snap. You simply specify the
string of MCI color codes you wish to use(for instance: 9fc), then SAVE the
listing. You'll then have a patriotic looking listing, as items will appear
in red, white, blue, red, white, blue, etc. The string should contain ONLY
the characters 123456789ABCDEF. Typing any other characters within the string
will abort the operation.

<E>  Edit a specific range of items from WITHIN this listing.

    You can also press <I> for this command, in addition to pressing <E>.
This command allows you to specify only a PORTION of the listing to edit.
For example, say 7 of 12 total items are directories, and you wish to add
some form of DIR text to these items, you'd specify a range that specified
ONLY those seven items. Use standard CNet Ranging techniques when entering
ranges(ex: 1-3,6,10- would edit items 1 thru 3, 6, and 10 thru 12 only).

Have any more tips for me?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    You can enter MCI commands in the , . D and T commands, in addition
to standard text characters. Using \c0 or {c0} commands are frowned upon,
as users capable of interpreting ansi colors will see NOTHING on their term
screens, so you'll be cautioned if it is seen that you've specified one of
these forms, although the command will NOT be removed. Using \c8 or {c8} are
also frowned upon, as they will also appear as BLACK to users using 2, 4, or
8 color terminal programs.

    Remember, if updating a color scheme, be sure to TRIM the correct number
of characters from the LEFT side of each item in the listing to make sure you
remove the OLD MCI-Coding, or else you'll append your NEW color codes in
FRONT of your OLD ones. This will result in you NOT seeing your NEW color
scheme, as well as adding three(or more) characters to the overall length
of item(s) being edited.

    The MAXIMUM length any given item can be is 63 characters. If the LENGTH
of the edited string EXCEEDS this limit, any characters OVER the limit will
be TRUNCATED from the item. If this should ever happen, a caution message
will be shown to you on the SAVE-List. Make sure you give a GOOD look at the
SAVE listing to be SURE it looks the way you wish it to. No "off" mci coding
is used in the SAVE-List routine, so if you forget to turn something OFF,
like a use the the \z, \r or \k commands, you'll see the results of this
"spill" on the SAVE-List screen. Take this as a WARNING you need to FIX
something!

    To make multiple DIFFERENT changes to the SAME listing, do them ONE at a
time, then SAVE the listing. When it asks if you'd like to edit MORE lists,
state YES. You'll be taken to the LAST listing you were editing, instead of
having to locate that listing again(as from the START of the program).

    If you've made the two-column modification to your g/p/news areas, as
described in the CNet ToolKit, then you might want to change the value of
the "width" variable at the start of this file. 63 should be the default
value used by CNet, however you should make this 28 or 30 if using the two-
column layouts. This will help you maintain uniformity on your two-column
layouts.

    If you find the need to append MORE than 38 characters to each item,
start by adding the initial 38 characters, SAVE the list, then continue to
edit the listing to add the remaining characters.

    It's possible to make the listing ALL ONE COLOR by simply stating ONE
MCI color code in the Color Cycle gadget. For the two column layouts, try
using a double layout, for instance for the patriotic color scheme mentioned
above, try using: 99ffcc, instead of 9fc. This way, each column will inherit
it's own scheme. Try some other variations with the two-column layouts also,
like this one: eadb (left column: cyan/purple, right column: green/yellow).

Is that all?!?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    I'm afraid so. :-) If you experience any problems with this file, PLEASE
get in touch with me. I've used this file to completely change the looks of
ALL THREE areas on MY bbs and didn't experience any problems. Keep in mind
that this file ONLY changes the look of the TITLES in these areas, and was
NOT written to replace CNet's editing of such things as sorting the list,
editing of specific toggle settings, etc. Use CNet's regular commands for
doing things of this sort.

    I can be reached at any of the following sources:

        InterNet: [e-mail]

         FidoNet: 1:260/121.0

           CLink: 911:6840/2.0

      Snail Mail: David M. Weeks
                  318 Woodside Avenue
                  Buffalo, NY 14220-2015

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