home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Progman-Groups 1.7 - Groups in groups with program manager
- Copyright 1992,93 by Andreas Furrer
- ==========================================================
-
- This is version 1.7 of Progman-Groups.
-
-
- Progman-Groups gives you the possibility to have groups in
- groups in the progam manager of Windows.
- Because PRGGRP uses normal progman groups, you don't have
- any limitations.
-
- PRGGRP will work with Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1.
-
-
- Installation
- ============
- 1) Copy PRGGRP.EXE and PRGGRPH.DLL into your windows directory
- 2) Create an item for PRGGRP.EXE in your startup group and restart Windows.
-
-
- Creating Subgroups
- ==================
- The use of PRGGRP is very simple.
-
- For each subgroup you want, create a program item in the parent group with
- program managers new command and the following settings:
-
- Name : <name of the subgroup>
- Command: PRGGRP.EXE <name of the subgroup>
-
- For example if you want to have a subgroup 'Graphic Tools' in the group
- 'Tools', you have to create a program item in the group 'Tools' with:
-
- Name : Graphic Tools
- Command: PRGGRP.EXE Graphic Tools
-
- If you want to have a different icon for a subgroup you can change it in the
- properties dialog of the item. PRGRP itself contains 8 icons but you can also
- use any icon you have.
-
- Now if you open the new created item, you will be asked if the new subgroup
- should be created. If you click on Yes, the new group will be created and
- you can use it as a normal program manager group.
-
- If you minimize the subgroup, it will disappear and if you doubleclick on its
- icon in the parent group, it will be visible again.
-
-
- You can have as many subgroups you want (up to the limit of program manager
- which lets you only have 40 groups), but they must all have an unique name.
-
- Also you can have a group in a group in a group.... in group.
-
-
- Because PRGGRP has to distinguish between top level groups and subgroups,
- the name of a subgroup must begin with a space or must end with a period.
- Now, if a subgroup will be created, and you don't add a period at the end
- of the commandline, the name of the subgroup will begin with a space.
- If you add a period at the end of the commandline, the name ot the group will
- not begin with a space but will end with the period.
-
- Example:
- The command
-
- PRGGRP.EXE Graphic Tools
- will create a group with the name ' Graphic Tools' and
-
- PRGGRP.EXE Graphic Tools.
- will create a group with the name 'Graphic Tools.'.
-
-
- For Windows 3.0 only:
- The program manager of Windows 3.0 doesn't support the DDE interface to
- create groups so the automatic creation of groups will not work with
- Windows 3.0. You have to create a subgroup with the normal 'New..' command
- of your program manager. For the name of the group you have to add a space at
- the beginning or a period at the end of the name (see above).
-
-
- Advanced features
- =================
- If you open a subgroup with <SHIFT> pressed, the parent group will be
- closed. This is very useful if you want to open a program in a
- subgroup and you don't want to have the parent group open.
- If you want, that the parent group is closed every time the subgroup
- is opened, you can check the button 'Run minimized' of the icon of
- the subgroup.
-
- If you close any group with <SHIFT> pressed, all subgroups will
- be closed. This will also work when closing a group with <CTRL>+<F4>
- (just use <CTRL>+<SHIFT>+<F4>)
-
-
- More Options of PRGGRP
- ======================
- IF you start PRGGRP twice you can see an icon with a system menu
- and if you start it again the icon will be hidden and so on.
- (If you like the icon, you can place TWO PRGGRP-icons in the
- startup group and you will always see the icon.)
-
- In the system menu of the icon you will see the following items:
- - Enabled:
- This menuitem is checked if PRGGRP is enabled.
- With this menuitem you can disable PRGGRP.
- IF you disable PRGGRP, all hidden groups are shown.
- The next time you enable PRGGRP, the groups are hidden again.
- Disabeling PRGGRP is usefull, if you want to arrange icons
- or want to change the properties of hidden groups.
- - Hide desktop icon
- This will hide the desktop icon of Progman-Groups.
- - About
- Shows the about dialog
-
-
- Changes to the 'More Windows' dialog of the program manager
- ===========================================================
- PRGGRP adds a 'Show all groups' checkbox to the 'More windows' dialog
- of the program manager. If this checkbox is checked, the listbox will
- contain ALL groups (not only the currently visible). This is useful if
- you want to switch quickly to a subgroup which you can normally only get
- if you open many other groups.
- Also the names of the groups in the listbox are now sorted. Normally they are
- not sorted.
-
-
- Known bugs
- ==========
- PRGGRP works very fine, but there are two little restriction
- - The submenu 'windows' of the program manager shows up to 9 groups out of
- ALL groups and not only the visibles.
- - You can't have more than 40 groups in the program manager. This limitation
- is given by the program manager, not by PRGGRP.
-
-
- How does PRGGRP work?
- =====================
- The main function of PRGGRP is very simple.
-
- If you start PRGGRP with a parameter, then PRGGRP only shows the group which
- is named by the parameter.
-
- If you minimze a group window, then PRGGRP checks if the group is
- a subgroup (Here is the reason why a subgroup must have a blank as the
- first or a period as the last character of its name. With this naming
- convention PRGGRP can say that the group is a subgroup or not).
- If the group is a subgroup then PRGGRP hides the group.
-
-
- Freeware-Note
- =============
- You can use and distribute PRGGRP free, as long as the following files are
- not changed and you distribute all files together
-
- - prggrp.exe
- - prggrph.dll
- - prggrp.txt
-
- I am programming PRGGRP because I have fun and not to make any profit. That's
- why PRGGRP is free and you don't have to pay more or less high registration
- charges. I think it is a bad habit, that more and more program authors want to
- have money even for the smallest programs.
-
- Long live Freeware!
-
-
- If you have problems, comments, suggestions or you detect one error,
- please E-Mail to
-
- s_furrer@ira.uka.de
-
-
- (c) 1992,93 by Andreas Furrer
-
-
- Version history
- ===============
- 1.7: - PRGGRP will now also work correct if it is started BEFORE the program
- manager (when you don't have the program manager as your shell).
- - Now the features of PRRGP 1.4 - 1.6 do also work with Windows 3.0
- (except the automatic creation of a subgroup if it doesn't exist).
- - PRGGRP now contains 8 different icons for the subgroups to make it
- more easier to change the icon for a subgroup.
- 1.6: - PRGGRP adds a 'Show all groups' checkbox to the 'More windows' dialog
- of the program manager. If this checkbox is checked, the listbox will
- contain ALL groups (not only the currently visible).
- This is useful if you want to switch quickly to a subgroup which you
- can normally only get if you open many other groups.
- - The names of the groups in the listbox of the 'More windos' dialog of
- the program manager are now sorted. The currently active program manager
- group is selected.
- - Fixed a bug that would sometimes prevent PRGGRP from minimizing all
- subgroups when closing one group with <SHIFT> pressed.
- 1.5: - Added the function of closing the parent group everytime a subgroup
- is opened and the button 'Run minimized' of the icon of the subgroup
- is checked.
- - Added the automatic creation of a subgroup if it doesn't exist.
- This will make the creating of subgroups more easier.
- - Changed the system menu. Now it is more clear and easier to use.
- ( Thanks to Ronald Beekelaar for the ideas for the new features)
- - Fixed a bug: If you opened a group with <SHIFT> pressed,
- all subgroups were hidden.
- 1.4: - The 'More windows' dialog of program manager will now switch to
- the right group window.
- - You can now use the 'Minimize on run' option of the program manager
- - Now if you want to open a subgroup which is already open,
- the subgroup will be brought to the top.
- - Added the function to close the parent group when
- opening a subgroup with <SHIFT> pressed.
- - Added the function to close all subgroups when closing
- one group and holding down <SHIFT>.
- - After a complete redesign, the program has now a more compact
- code (only 1/3 of version 1.3 !!).
- 1.3: Fixed a bug that will prevent PRGGRP to start on some ATs
- 1.2: Now you can have blanks in the name of groups
- 1.1: The first good version of PRGGRP:
- - Now, subgroup icons will disappear.
- - You can now arrange your icons and have progmans 'arrange automatically'
- enabled.
- 1.0: First version of PRGGRP.
- This was a only a simple version of PRGGRP.
-