Software of the Month Club 1994 December

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PADHD A Presentation Manager Utility Copyright (c) 1994 by Gary L. Robinson *** SHAREWARE *** ver. 1.1 ( 32 bit ) **** BE SURE TO READ THE SPECIAL SECTION ON "BUG FIXES + THINGS" *** WHAT IS PADHD PADHD ver. 1.1 is a "scratch pad" to jot notes in and organize small files into. While PADHD is NOT a WORD PROCESSOR It has several features to help make man- aging notes a lot easier - such as cut, clear, copy, paste, search, save to ASCII, import ASCII file, and an ASCII dump to the printer. At its simplest it is merely a note pad. At it's most it is a great note organizer for students, teachers, programmers ( source code files and examples ), and any one with a lot of information to handle. PADHD will keep up to 1000 records, each 29,999 bytes long, per data file. There can be an unlimited number of data files, so the amount that can be stored is un- limited. Each data file will grow and/or shrink as you add or delete records. Their size is not static. Find notes, source code, or any info when you need it, then copy and paste into almost any program to use it! Pad can save you hours of time search- ing your hard drive for files and makes it easy to organize! INSTALLING PADHD PADHD has no installation program. It consists of four files - PADHD.EXE , PADHD.DOC, WHATS.NEW, and ORDER.FRM. After you unzip it, copy PADHD.EXE and PADHD.DOC to a utilities directory or where ever you want them to reside. If you don't need the doc files, they may be erased but the PADHD.DOC file is used by the Help selection on the Menu Bar. If you do erase it, you will not be able to call it through using Help. The file ORDER.FRM is an order form to register PADHD and can be easily printed to make registering an easy and almost painless chore. The file WHATS.NEW is an ASCII text file that summarizes the new features/changes. Migrate PADHD to the desk top or use a program template to put an icon on the desktop for it. Or you could run it from the command line to test it. Whatever serves your purpose. When you run it for the first time it will ask you to type in the directory where the program files will be located at. If, for instance, you have put PADHD.EXE and PADHD.DOC in the C:\PADHD directory - type in the complete path when prompted. Actually, you can type in any VALID path but most people will want the associated data and initialization files in the same directory as the program. If you type in the WRONG path and want to change it later, just erase the PADHD.INI and PADHD.DAT files and start over again. After you run it the first time it will create three other files in the same directory. PADHD.PDF is the default data file that holds the info on your notes. PADHD.INI is an initiation data file that holds settings and screen coordinates. PADHD.DAT is a data file that stores the name of the .PDF files on your search list. You probably should run only one copy of PADHD on your system. When you first start PADHD and it prompts you for a path - that path is stored in your OS2.INI file. Every time you start PADHD it reads your OS2.INI file and retrieves that path. That is where the program looks for the PADHD.DAT and PADHD.INI file. If you ran another copy of PADHD in another directory or drive it would still look to the path in the OS2.INI file. So, if you want to move PADHD from one directory or drive to another be sure to erase the 'old' copy AND DON'T COPY THE PADHD.INI AND PADHD.DAT files to the new directory. The program will create new ones for you. Then when you start it in it's new home it will prompt you again for a new path string. USING PADHD Using PADHD should be rather simple and I hope intuitive. That's primarily why it was written. Double click on the PADHD icon and after you see the noxious shareware screen and you will see the main screen appear. You are presented with a list box which will show a list of your notes and six push buttons that will perform various tasks. Of course, when you first start with PADHD there are not any records listed. The first, obvious, thing to do is to use the Add button and create some records or import some ASCII files - either through the menu selection Import File or by simply dropping a text file directly on top the MAIN screen list box.. /******************** Controls on Main Screen ***************************/ QUIT : Rather obvious function. It ends the program. VIEW : Strictly for viewing - double clicking on the name of the record in the list box will also activate the View window. Copy, Search, Export, and Print controls are available in the View Window. EDIT : Edit a note and change it's content. Notes can be copied or imported from the clip board, imported from an ASCII file, or typed in. Copy, Paste, Cut, Clear, Print, Search, and Import/Export controls are available in the Edit Window. ADD : Use this to start a new note. Up to 1000 notes per data file. Copy, Paste, Cut, Clear, and Import controls are available in an Add Window. SEARCH : Use this to search through the text or name part of the notes for specific words or phrases. This global search button will search through all records and find any occurrences of your search string. It can also search through multiple ( up to 25 ) .PDF modules. DELETE : Destroy the note and remove it from the data file. When you first start the program, of course, you have no notes. So the first push button you'll use is the ADD function. ( alternately you could use the Import File sel- ection on the menu bar to directly import ANY size ASCII directly into the .PDF file or use direct manipulation and DROP an ASCII file onto the MAIN screen list box ) When you press the ADD button you'll be presented with the Add Record window. There you can type in the name of the note that will appear in the initial screen's list box. Then type in the body of the note. The maximum size for a note is 29999 characters which includes empty spaces between words. To the right of the Record Name field will be a read out of the current number of bytes you have left in that record. Then you have several choices. /******************** Controls in Add Window ***************************/ COLORS : This starts an instance of the system Color Palette which can be used to Drag and Drop colors on the ADD entry box - not the record name entry box. Hold the CTRL key down while dragging colors to change the TEXT FOREGROUND color. ONLY SOME colors will work correctly. Please read section on BUG FIXES AND THINGS. FONTS : This starts an instance of the system Font Palette which can be used to Drag and Drop fonts on the ADD entry box. NOT ALL font characteristics are supported. Please read section on BUG FIXES AND THINGS. HOME : Moves cursor to BEGINNING of record. ( CTRL + HOME ) END : Moves cursor to END of record. ( CTRL + END ) OK : Closes the Add window and saves the record to disk. CANCEL : Backs out with out saving or setting anything. COPY : Copies highlighted text to the clip board. PASTE : This button copies whatever is in the clip board and pastes it into the cur- rent record starting at the current cursor position. CUT : This deletes any highlighted text from the record but also copies it to the clip board at the same time. CLEAR : This will delete any highlighted text. IMPORT FROM FILE : Import From File presents the user with an Open Dialog box which is used to select a TEXT file and import it into the current record at the current cursor location. The maximum size file that can be imported is 29,999 bytes in a new record or whatever the Bytes Available field to the right of the Record name field tells you is available. After you have saved one or more records then the Edit, View, Search, and Delete buttons will be usable. Below is a list of controls on the Edit and View windows : /************************* Controls in Edit Window *********************/ COLORS : This starts an instance of the system Color Palette which can be used to Drag and Drop colors on the EDIT entry box - not the record name entry box. Hold the CTRL key down while dragging colors to change the TEXT FOREGROUND color. ONLY SOME colors will work correctly. Please read section on BUG FIXES AND THINGS. FONTS : This starts an instance of the system Font Palette which can be used to Drag and Drop fonts on the EDIT entry box. NOT ALL font characteristics are supported. Please read section on BUG FIXES AND THINGS. SAVE NOW : Saves current record to disk but does NOT close window. Located above the Record Name. HOME : Places cursor at the BEGINNING of current record. Located above Bytes Available field. ( CTRL + HOME ) END : Places cursor at the END of current record. Located above Bytes Available field. ( CTRL + END ) OK : Closes the Edit window and saves the record to disk. CANCEL : Backs out with out saving or setting anything. COPY : Copies highlighted text to the clip board. PASTE : This copies whatever is in the clip board and pastes it into the current record starting at the current cursor position. CUT : This deletes any highlighted text from the record but also copies it to the clip board at the same time. CLEAR : This will delete any highlighted text. PRINT : This will do a straight, no frills, ASCII dump to the printer. If you need formatted printing, save the record to an ASCII file then load into your fav- orite word processor. SEARCH + : Press + to initiate a forward search. You'll be presented with a dialog entry box to enter a search string. Press OK to start, Cancel to quit, and check the case sensitive box if you need that. The Default is to be non case sensitive. The program will find your search string and highlight it. If It can NOT find it you will hear a musical note. Continue to press + to forward search through the record or - to search in reverse. ALL SEARCHES START AT CURRENT CURSOR POSITION. ( F2 ) SEARCH - : Reverse search. ( F3 ) SEARCH clr : Clears the search string. After using this button, the next time you press either + or - you will be prompted for a new search string. ( F4 ) EXPORT TO FILE : Export From File presents the user with a dialog entry box. Type in the FULL path and name of the file you want to save the current record in. Press OK or Cancel. IMPORT FROM FILE : Import From File presents the user with an Open Dialog box which is used to select a TEXT file and import it into the current record at the position where the cursor is located at. Maximum size file that can be imported is 29,999 bytes in a new record or whatever the Bytes Available field to the right of the Record name field tells you is available. /************************* Controls in View Window *********************/ COLORS : This starts an instance of the system Color Palette which can be used to Drag and Drop colors on the VIEW entry box - not the record name entry box. Hold the CTRL key down while dragging colors to change the TEXT FOREGROUND color. ONLY SOME colors will work correctly. Please read section on BUG FIXES AND THINGS. FONTS : This starts an instance of the system Font Palette which can be used to Drag and Drop fonts on the VIEW entry box. NOT ALL font characteristics are supported. Please read section on BUG FIXES AND THINGS. HOME : Places cursor at the BEGINNING of current record. Located above Bytes Available field. ( CTRL + HOME ) END : Places cursor at the END of current record. Located above Bytes Available field. ( CTRL + END ) OK : Closes the View record window. COPY : Copies highlighted text to the clip board. Text can be highlighted in the us- ual ways. Hold down on Shift button and use arrow keys. Or hold down on mouse button 1 and drag the pointer to highlight the text. SEARCH + : Press + to initiate a forward search. You'll be presented with a dialog entry box to enter a search string. Press OK to start, Cancel to quit, and check the case sensitive box if you need that. The Default is to be non case sensitive. The program will find your search string and highlight it. If It can NOT find it you will hear a musical note. Continue to press + to forward search through the record or - to search in reverse. ALL SEARCHES START AT CURRENT CURSOR POSITION. ( F2 ) SEARCH - : Reverse search. ( F3 ) SEARCH clr : Clears the search string. After using this button, the next time you press either + or - you will be prompted for a new search string. ( F4 ) EXPORT TO FILE : Export From File presents the user with a dialog entry box. Type in the FULL path and name of the file you want to save the current record in. Press OK or Cancel. PRINT : This will do a straight, no frills, ASCII dump to the printer. If you need formatted printing, save the record to an ASCII file then load into your fav- orite word processor. /*********************** Global Search Window *************************/ Global Searches are those searches that are initiated from the search button on the main program window - not a search conducted while in an Edit or View Window. When you press the search button for a Global search, you will be presented with a dialog entry box. Select either of the two check boxes depending on whether you want to search the Name or Text fields of the record and whether you need the search to be case sensitive or not. The Default is to search the Text field of the record and NOT be case sensitive. Enter a search string in the entry field and press OK to begin. Search strings must at least be 3 characters long. The program will then start searching, one at a time, through every record you have. If you have 1000 records the search may take 2-3 minutes depending on the speed of your computer and if what you are looking for is in the last record it looks at. If you have more than one .PDF module designated in your Global Search list it will load in all of them one after the other until you cancel the search or it reaches the end. If it finds a match for your search string it will open that record in a Search --- View Record Window and highlight the found string. You will then be presented with several choices : COLORS : This starts an instance of the system Color Palette which can be used to Drag and Drop colors on the SEARCH entry box - not the record name entry box. Hold the CTRL key down while dragging colors to change the TEXT foreground color. ONLY SOME colors will work correctly. Please read section on BUG FIXES AND THINGS. FONTS : This starts an instance of the system Font Palette which can be used to Drag and Drop fonts on the SEARCH entry box. NOT ALL font characteristics are supported. Please read section on BUG FIXES AND THINGS. HOME : Places cursor at the BEGINNING of current record. Located above Bytes Available field. ( CTRL + HOME ) END : Places cursor at the END of current record. Located above Bytes Available field. ( CTRL + END ) CANCEL AND RETURN : CURRENT : Quit the search. This will close the Search --- View Record window. The currently displayed .PDF module ( file ) will stay loaded. The record will be highlighted in the list box so you can now perform any of the main actions on it. ( Edit, View, Delete ) ORIGINAL : Quit the search. This will close the Search --- View Record window. The original .PDF module ( file ) you started with will be reloaded. CONTINUE GLOBAL : This will close the current window and continue to search the rest of the records for a match of your search string. If another match is found it will open a window and highlight the string again. And on and on until it runs out of records and notifies you that there are no more matches. CONTINUE LOCAL + : Press + to initiate a forward search. You'll be presented with a dialog entry box to enter a search string. Press OK to start, Cancel to quit, and check the case sensitive box if you need that. The Default is to be non case sensitive. The program will find your search string and highlight it. If It can NOT find it you will hear a musical note. Continue to press + to forward search through the record or - to search in reverse. ( F2 ) CONTINUE LOCAL - : Reverse search. ( F3 ) CONTINUE LOCAL clr : Clears the search string. After using this button, the next time you press either + or - you will be prompted for a new search string. ( F4 ) COPY : Copies highlighted text to the clip board. Text can be highlighted in the us- ual ways. Hold down on Shift button and use arrow keys. Or hold down on mouse button 1 and drag the pointer to highlight the text. /*********************** MENU ITEM SELECTIONS **********************/ OPTIONS : About ... : Under Options on the main menu bar. View the noxious Shareware money grubbing beg screen. Import File : Import any ASCII text file into the current .PDF file. Theoretically, will load in ANY SIZE ASCII file. You will be presented with a Select File box. Select an ASCII file then press OK to accept or CANCEL to quit. If the file can NOT be loaded into one record it will be loaded into as many records as needed - as long as there is enough space left in the .PDF file. Trying to load a file that is NOT ASCII text may get un- predictable results! SETTINGS : Toggle Word Wrap : Will turn the word wrap feature on or off. The title bar of the main window will say what the current state is. With word wrap on you won't need to use the horizontal scroll bar. This is lo- cated under the Options selection on the main menu bar. Prompt For Record Name : Prompt for a record name instead of using default name when importing ( through menu or drag + drop ) an ASCII file into the current .PDF file. Default Colors : Select EDIT, ADD, SEARCH, or VIEW to place a check mark and force the use the DEFAULT colors. Set Modules : This will open up a whole new screen that is used to set which .PDF modules you want to be included in a search or to create a new .PDF file. See details below under SET MODULES. HELP : Brings up a scrollable text box to view the PADHD.DOC file - if it is located in the same directory as PADHD. /*********************** SET MODULES SCREEN *************************/ OK : Accept and Save all changes made. CANCEL : Cancel and do NOT accept changes. ADD : This presents you with a file selection box. If you have several .PDF files - any where on the system - select them and add to the search list. A MAXIMUM of 25 .PDF files can be on the search list. REMOVE : Removes .PDF file from search list. It does NOT erase or affect the file itself. NEW : Create a new .PDF file and give it a name. This is the ONLY way to start a new .PDF data file in the program. ATTENTION ------ DOUBLE CLICKING on any entry will put it at the top of the search list. This will make it the default .PDF file. The default .PDF file will be the one listed when the program first starts. Of course, if you only have one .PDF file in the search list this is a moot point. All changes become effective after selecting OK - which will save all changes and exit this screen. /*********************** BUG FIXES + NEW STUFF ***********************/ Version ( 1.0b ) fixes several bugs that were in earlier versions. Early versions would quit and close if you tried to import an ASCII file that was READ ONLY. This has been corrected so that PADHD will now import files with the read only attribute set on. PADHD also would quit and close down if you attempted to PASTE from an EDIT or ADD window when the clipboard was EMPTY. Now PADHD will not shutdown if the clipboard is empty and you try to paste. It will, instead, notify you with a dialog box that the clipboard is empty. This fixes a bug so that the TAB will work correctly in an Edit of Add box. The ALT-G hot key now works correctly in a View box. DRAG AND DROP SUPPORT is now included as well as ASSOCIATION. You can now drop a .PDF object from a DRIVES folder on the PADHD icon. HOWEVER, if you try to drop a COPY of a .PDF object on the PADHD icon it may not work. So if you want to have a bunch of .PDF objects in a folder or on the desktop make SHADOWS ( CTRL+SHIFT ) of the originals from the drives folder. The originals or shadows of objects can be dropped on or associated with PADHD in the normal OS/2 way. To associate .PDF files to PADHD open the settings menu for PADHD , tab to the associations page, and at the bottom add in *.PDF in the New name field. ******** NEW for VERSION 1.1 ******** ASCII text files of ANY size can also be Dropped on the MAIN screen list box. The file will automatically loaded into as many records as needed ( if there is room ) and named appropriately. You can also Drag the currently highlighted record from the MAIN screen list box. It can be dragged to any place that an ASCII file can be dragged to - such as a word processor, printer, or viewer. If you drop it on the DESKTOP it will create a file named TEMP.TXT which can renamed to anything you like that will have the currently selected record in it. Any size ASCII file can also be imported into the current .PDF file using the menu selection Import File - under Options. Files ( less than 30,000 bytes ) can be dropped directly on an EDIT or ADD entry box while the record is open. If there is room it will be inserted at the current cursor location. It acts just like the IMPORT button. Files can be dragged OFF the EDIT, ADD, VIEW, OR SEARCH entry boxes directly while they are open. If the file is dropped on the DESKTOP it will be named TEMP.TXT and will contain the current record. .PDF files can be dropped directly on the module search list ( set modules ) to add them to the list. They CANNOT be dragged off the list. Use Remove button to take them off. View, Edit, Add, and Search View windows CAN now be minimized. They can be retrieved through the window list. Click on both right and left mouse buttons at the same time in an empty place on the desktop to bring up the window list. FONTS and COLORS can be dragged and Dropped onto EDIT, VIEW, ADD, and SEARCH box Multi Line Entry boxes. However, not all font characteristics are sup- ported. Italics, bold, underline, or other special characteristics may not work. Only PRIMARY colors are supported. These limitations seem to be built into the Multi Line Entry boxes. If there is a work around for this I can't find it yet. Either I eventually stumble on a way to work around this ( or I.B.M. 'fixes' this oversight ) or were stuck with this limitation. Strangely enough, the single line entry boxes don't seem to have this limitation. Anybody have any good suggestions? EDIT, VIEW, ADD, and SEARCH windows can now be HIDDEN. Click the mouse on the small box in the upper right hand corner of the window and it will hide it. To re- trieve it, bring up the OS/2 window list and select it. Hopefully, in the future they will be sizable - but to do so I will have to go to a tool bar type system which entails a major rewriting of the code. The current line number is now shown at the top of every EDIT, VIEW, ADD, or search box. However, the line number is only updated when keys are released. For example - If you hold down on the DOWN arrow key and scroll down through a record, the line number at the top of the screen won't be updated until you let up on the key. This was done to keep scrolling performance from degrading badly. If set to update for any keystroke, the scrolling rate was atrocious. The currently loaded .PDF modules name is listed at the bottom of the MAIN screen with the current number of records in that module. The module name is also listed in the titlebar of any ADD, EDIT, VIEW, or SEARCH screen. The ONLY way to create a NEW .PDF file is through the Set Modules menu selection on the MAIN MENU. This is different than ver. 1.00x. Select Set Modules on the MAIN screen menu bar, then press NEW on the Global Search list screen. Type in a name for a new .PDF file and press OK. File name MUST have the .PDF extention. /******************* PROBLEMS & BUGS & NOTES ************************/ A lot of work and a lot of extra code has gone into this release ( 1.1 ) and I have tested it for quite some time. However, I am NOT I.B.M. I don't have the resources to test extensively. Be sure to back up ALL data before upgrading to this release. I be- lieve this release to be bug free - but then I also thought Microsoft would continue to make OS/2 apps in 1991. Please report any bugs you may find to either my mail ad- dress or to my GENIE address listed below. One possible bug that has already been reported by one user is an incompatability with the installable file system HPFS386. This is NOT the HPFS that ships with OS/2. Since I do not use or have access to HPFS386 I cannot personally confirm this. The user says that when attempting to delete a record the ENTIRE record is deleted. I have raised the price of PADHD. Starting January 1, 1995 it will cost $35.00 to help justify spending all these weekends and extra hours working on it. All currently registered users are not affected since they get all updates free and the registration code word stays the same. Anyone who registers before that date still can do so for $20.00. Plans for future updates - not counting bug fixes - will hopefully include simple Boolean searches, perhaps sizable windows and a tool bar, and any other good suggest- ions that may come from users. HINT! HINT! /************************* ALMOST THE END *************************/ That's about it. Sheeeew! I hate document files! Registration is a paltry $20.00 if you mail your registration before January 1, 1995. AFTER DEC. 31, 1994 PADHD -- REGISTRATION IS $35.00. Upon registration you'll receive a postcard with the appropriate code to get rid of the ugly Shareware "About PADHD" screen. Upgrades or bug fixes will of course be posted on Several BBS's. All current users of course can still use their same code words on this or ANY future updates. Suggestions for new features or comments may be sent to the address below or posted on Genie to : G.ROBINSON13 Gary L. Robinson 600 Apt. D. Mumford Dr. Troy, OH 45373