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============================================================================== B O B B Y - User Manual ============================================================================== (C) Copyright 1995 by Jimmy and Jon Yergaw July '95 C O N T E N T S I WHAT IS BOBBY? 1.1 Things To Know When Reading The Manual 1.2 Introduction 1.3 Things To Know After Installing BOBBY 1.4 A Note About Uninstalling BOBBY 1.5 Running BOBBY II FEATURES IN BOBBY 2.1 Directory Windows 2.1.1 What And Where Are They? 2.1.2 How They Work 2.1.3 Directory Window Information Bar 2.1.4 Directory Window Scroll Bar 2.1.5 Directory Window Path Input Box 2.1.6 Directory Window Pattern Input Box 2.1.7 Special Keys and Mouse Actions For Directory Windows 2.2 Drive Buttons 2.2.1 What And Where Are They? 2.2.2 How They Work 2.2.3 Default Drives When Entering BOBBY 2.2.4 Creating Active Drive Buttons 2.2.5 Drive Button's Scroll Bar 2.3 Icons 2.3.1 What And Where Are They? 2.3.2 How They Work 2.3.3 Icon Windows' Paging Arrows 2.3.4 Moving (Dragging) Icons 2.3.5 Creating Icons 2.4 Action Buttons 2.4.1 What And Where Are They? 2.4.2 How They Work 2.4.3 Special Action Buttons (BOBBY KeyWords) 2.4.3.01 All (ALL) 2.4.3.02 Copy (COPY) 2.4.3.03 Copy As (COPYAS) 2.4.3.04 Copy Smart (COPYS) 2.4.3.05 Copy Disk (COPYD) 2.4.3.06 Delete (DELETE) 2.4.3.07 File Hunt (HUNT) 2.4.3.08 Format (FORMAT) 2.4.3.09 Get Info (GETINFO) 2.4.3.10 Get Size (GETSIZE) 2.4.3.11 Make Directory (MAKEDIR) 2.4.3.12 Mark (MARK) 2.4.3.13 Move (MOVE) 2.4.3.14 Move As (MOVEAS) 2.4.3.15 None (NONE) 2.4.3.16 Parent (PARENT) 2.4.3.17 Play A Sound (PLAY) 2.4.3.18 Print (PRINT) 2.4.3.19 Rename (RENAME) 2.4.3.20 Run (RUN) 2.4.3.21 Show A Picture (SHOWPIC) 2.4.3.22 View A Text File (VIEWTXT) 2.4.4 Relations Of The Action Buttons + The Icons 2.4.5 Creating Action Buttons 2.5 The Options Screen 2.5.1 What And Where Is It? 2.5.2 Button Options (For Action + Drive Buttons) 2.5.2.01 Creating Buttons 2.5.2.02 Editing Buttons 2.5.2.03 Moving Buttons 2.5.2.04 Deleting Buttons 2.5.2.05 Adding KeyStrokes To Buttons 2.5.2.06 Quitting BOBBY On Execute 2.5.2.07 Adding Argument Windows {A} 2.5.2.08 Linking Files To Buttons {F} 2.5.2.09 Inserting The Source Path {S} 2.5.2.10 Inserting The Target Path {T} 2.5.2.11 The ABORT Button 2.5.2.12 The DONE Button 2.5.3 Icon Options 2.5.3.01 Creating Icons 2.5.3.02 Editing Icons 2.5.3.03 Moving Icons 2.5.3.04 Deleting Icons 2.5.3.05 The Icon Picture Selector Window 2.5.3.06 Adding KeyStrokes To Icons 2.5.3.07 Quitting BOBBY On Execute 2.5.3.08 Adding Argument Windows {A} 2.5.3.09 Linking Files To Icons {F} 2.5.3.10 Inserting The Source Path {S} 2.5.3.11 Inserting The Target Path {T} 2.5.3.12 The ABORT Button 2.5.3.13 The DONE Button 2.5.4 Alert Controls 2.5.4.01 The Delete "POP UP" Requester 2.5.4.02 Speaker Alert Effect 2.5.4.03 Flashing The Screen 2.5.5 Environmental SFX Controls 2.5.5.01 A Word On Sound Files 2.5.5.02 Sound For Action/Drive Buttons 2.5.5.03 Sound For The Help Window 2.5.5.04 Sound For The Left Dir. Window 2.5.5.05 Sound For The Right Dir. Window 2.5.5.06 Sound For BOBBY's Startup 2.5.5.07 Sound For The Quit Window 2.5.6 Showing New Files Since XX Days 2.5.7 Setting The Screen Blanker Time 2.5.8 Directory Buffering 2.5.9 Color Controls 2.5.9.01 Altering Palette Colors 2.5.9.02 Giving Color To Files 2.5.9.03 Giving Color To Directories 2.5.10 Startup Directories 2.5.10.01 Left/Right Dir. Window Path 2.5.10.02 Left/Right Dir. Pattern Box 2.5.11 Bobby's Main HotKeys 2.5.11.01 KeyStroke To Enter DOS 2.5.11.02 KeyStroke To Enter DOS + 2.5.11.03 KeyStroke For Online Help 2.5.11.04 KeyStroke For The Quit Window 2.5.12 The Path Finder 2.5.13 Option's USE Button 2.5.14 Option's SAVE Button 2.5.15 Option's ABORT Button 2.6 The Tech Info Window 2.7 The Search Button 2.7.01 What And Where Is It? 2.7.02 Things To Know When Searching 2.7.03 The Input To Search For 2.7.04 Dragging Around The Search Window 2.7.05 Searching As A Whole Word 2.7.06 UpperCase=LowerCase? 2.7.07 Searching From The Current Position 2.7.08 Searching Forward/Backward 2.7.09 Using The SEARCH Button 2.7.10 Using The "Next" Button 2.8 Online Help 2.8.1 What And Where Is It? 2.8.2 How It Works 2.8.3 The Online Help Scroll Bar 2.8.4 Online Help's MANUAL Button 2.8.5 Dragging Around The Help Window 2.9 Quitting BOBBY? 2.9.1 What And Where Is It? 2.9.2 The "DOS" Button 2.9.3 The "DOS +" Button III MISCELLANEOUS 3.1 BOBBY's Main Screen Diagram 3.2 The Built-In Keys and Mouse Actions in BOBBY 3.3 Glossary Of BOBBY's Special Words 3.4 The Next Version Of BOBBY Chapter One WHAT IS BOBBY? ============== 1.1 THINGS TO KNOW WHEN READING THE MANUAL -------------------------------------- As you read through the manual let me point out that if you ever see words written completely in "CAPTIAL LETTERS ENCLOSED IN DOUBLE QUOTES" this is a note telling you that these words can be found with their summarized descriptions in section 3.3 GLOSSARY OF BOBBY's SPECIAL WORDS found near the end of this manual. Once these words have been shown in this style for the first time don't expect to see them in this way again. 1.2 INTRODUCTION ------------ BOBBY is a file managing program. Not just another file managing program, but a unique multifaceted manager. BOBBY is designed to handle many if not all disk activities, therefore it can be called a Dos prompt replacer. Such disk activities as copying, deleting, moving, renaming are found standard in BOBBY and most often found in other file managers. But where BOBBY truly shines is at another level other managers fail to follow. Such unique features found in BOBBY and possibly only a hand full of other managers, if at all, are: Copy Smarting - a more intelligent file copier, PCX/GIF picture viewing with full "VESA" support, WAV/VOC sound playing, "LAUNCH"'ing your favourite programs from BOBBY with the ability of quitting BOBBY thus freeing up any needed memory, and once your program is done will reload BOBBY back up, and many more other features. The features just mentioned are but a few of the functions you can do with BOBBY. With BOBBY's smartly designed, easy to use 3D graphical interface, actions can be performed with the littlest of effort. By just clicking a specific pre-defined button that's either built into the program or from commands supplied by you for a button, any kind of action can be performed. Enjoy! 1.3 THINGS TO KNOW AFTER INSTALLING BOBBY ------------------------------------- The system requirements for BOBBY are: + IBM or Compatible 386 - 33 Mhz Machine or Higher + VGA Graphics Display Card + Ms-Dos 5.0 or Higher + 400K of XMS Memory or Higher (HIMEM.SYS should be set in your Config.sys file) + 200K of Conventional Memory Free or Higher + Mouse + Hard Drive with At Least 1 Megabyte of Free Space The recommended requirements for BOBBY are: + IBM or Compatible 486DX2 - 66 Mhz Machine or Higher + SVGA Graphics Display Card with VESA Compliency + Ms-Dos 6.21 or Higher + 4 Megabytes of Memory or Higher + Sound Blaster or Compatible Sound Card If you've used the install program that is included with BOBBY, "Install.exe", and everything installed properly with no complaints, you are reading the right section at this time. If you have not used the installer yet I strongly recommend you use it before attempting to run BOBBY. Briefly, what the installer does is put all of its needed files in organized directories (if it hadn't done so when unzipping) and it also adds a new line to your "Autoexec.bat" file to make BOBBY fully operational. If you've installed BOBBY correctly these directories and files should appear within your BOBBY directory (default: C:\BOBBY): --> = reps. Contents of that Directory * = reps. These Directories may not exist. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CONFIG <dir> --> Icons.bob ICONS <dir> --> Boblogo.ico, Cd1.ico, Cd2.ico, Cube.ico, Disk.ico, Drawer.ico, Extra.ico, Hd.ico, Note.ico, Paint.ico, Pen.ico, Smile.ico FONTS <dir> --> Font1.fnt, Font2.Fnt HELP <dir> --> Manual.hlp, Online.hlp * PICTURES <dir> --> Vinci_ma.pcx, Escher-h.gif * SOUNDS <dir> --> Chisel.voc, Ding.voc, Harp.voc, Click.wav, Hatecomp.wav, India.wav Bobby.bat Bob.exe Bobkeys.txt Install.exe Manual.txt Readme.1st All the files found in your main BOBBY directory (default: C:\BOBBY) are files that you can access either by running it or viewing it (depending on the file). Any of the files found in the directories are BOBBY's system files and contain no data that you can run or view in exception to the last two directories, "Pictures" and "Sounds", where you can view the pictures or listen to the sounds when in BOBBY. CONFIG <dir> ```````````````````` The "Config" directory is where BOBBY accesses its configuration files when it loads up for the first time. The file contained in it, "Icons.bob" is the configuration file for the icons window found in BOBBY. All the information you give to an icon for the icon window is stored in this file. Two other files can appear in this directory. They are "Butcfg.bob" and "Syscfg.bob". The "Butcfg.bob" file holds all information on the "ACTION BUTTONS" and "DRIVE BUTTONS" you have defined in BOBBY. The "Syscfg.bob" file holds all information on the system settings you have defined inside of BOBBY (ie. Palette Color changes). By deleting one or all of these config files BOBBY will resort to using its built-in default settings for that missing file. So it's not necessary to have any files inside the "Config" directory for BOBBY to run properly. ICONS <dir> ```````````````````` The "Icons" directory holds all the pictorial icons found in BOBBY. These icons are used inside the icon window when running BOBBY or can be found being used in built-in commands. FONTS <dir> ```````````````````` The "Font" directory holds the two fonts used inside BOBBY. They are specialized ones that can only be read in by BOBBY. HELP <dir> ```````````````````` The "Help" directory holds all the help display messages when using the program. The "Manual.hlp" file found in the directory holds the manual you are reading now and the "Online.hlp" is for the "ONLINE HELP" button to give brief descriptions, aids, and examples on nearly any button or zone found in the program. PICTURES <dir> ```````````````````` The "Pictures" directory is a none required directory which holds, after installing, two pictures; one a PCX file and the other a GIF file. I supplied these files to allow you to try out the picture viewing feature built into BOBBY. Since it is not a required directory you can delete it along with its contents. SOUNDS <dir> ```````````````````` The "Sounds" directory as you might expect holds sound files. More specifically WAV and VOC sound file formats. Like the "Pictures" directory the "Sounds" directory is not required by BOBBY and can be deleted if desired. This directory holds 3 WAV files and 3 VOC files after installing. You can play them in BOBBY with its built-in sound player. Bobby.bat ````````` This is the file you run to bring up BOBBY. By typing "Bobby" at the Dos prompt with out the ".bat" extension will still run this file. If you've looked ahead in the directory you might have noticed that there is a "Bob.exe" file. This is the real BOBBY program. But the "Bobby.bat" is a file that aids the "Bob.exe" file in making it completely functional. Bob.exe ``````` This is the other runable file in the main BOBBY directory. As mentioned in the "Bobby.bat" discussion above, this file is not recommended in running. Run the "Bobby.bat" file instead so that BOBBY can function more completely. Bobkeys.txt ``````````` This file holds a summarized listing of the special built-in keys and mouse activities used in BOBBY. For those people who want the quickest of information so as to get started right away this is for you. It also saves time in hunting for them inside this manual. Feel free to print it out and keep it along side of you while using BOBBY. Install.exe ``````````` The "Install.exe" file is the program you run to install BOBBY correctly. If you have not run this program yet please run it now. A special line will be added to your "Autoexec.bat" file to make BOBBY function correctly. After installing you will notice that this file still exists in the new installed BOBBY directory. This is to give you the ability to install BOBBY to another directory, hard drive, disk, or to give to a friend. Manual.txt `````````` The Manual that you are reading right now is found inside this text file. Since it is a lengthy piece of work you might want to print out the entire manual to make it more convenient when reading. Readme.1st `````````` This file just gives you a quick summary of what the program is, how to use it, and the system requirements + recommendations. This is the file for those people who want to get started right away without having to read monster sized documents like this. If while running BOBBY there are any memory problems (ie. not enough memory) the program will display the appropriate message and if serious enough will exit out and place you back in Dos where further instructions will be notified on how to resolve the problem. One last thing, if you've used the install program supplied with BOBBY you will have been informed during the installation process that a line was to be added to your "Autoexec.bat" file. For the default BOBBY directory C:\BOBBY the line would have looked like this: SET PATH=C:\BOBBY;%path% This line is used to set C:\BOBBY up to be recognized as a path to search through when BOBBY goes looking for its files. 1.4 A NOTE ABOUT UNINSTALLING BOBBY ------------------------------- If you've decided to uninstall BOBBY from your system don't forget to get rid of the added line placed inside your "Autoexec.bat" file. To do this, edit your "Autoexec.bat" file with your favourite text editor or by typing at the Dos prompt "Edit Autoexec.bat". Once inside your edit program look for a line that says "rem ** The Line Below Is For Bobby **". This line and the line found just below it should be removed from the file. Now resave your "Autoexec.bat" file and you are done. 1.5 RUNNING BOBBY ------------- After using the install program and successfully installing BOBBY, to start it just type "Bobby" at the Dos prompt. By typing "Bobby" it is actually loading a file called "Bobby.bat" found in your installed BOBBY directory. It is recommended that you DO NOT run the "Bob.exe" file instead because the "Bobby.bat" helps set up BOBBY more completely. If you have a SVGA (Super VGA) Graphics display card BOBBY can take advantage of it when viewing pictures. For BOBBY to take advantage of the SVGA modes it requires that you run a "VESA" complient program that usually comes with an SVGA graphics card. For example, I have an ATI Mach32 SVGA Board and I run a program called "Vvesa.com". If you do not have a VESA complient program try using a program entitled "Univbe.exe". This program detects most SVGA graphic cards and gives you the required VESA. If you have Internet access you can connect to: "wuarchive.wustl.edu" and get this file from there. By not having an SVGA card or not running a VESA setup program BOBBY will drop down to using its VGA graphic display modes. For more information pertaining to viewing pictures refer to section 2.4.3.21:SHOW A PICTURE. When using BOBBY you will immediately notice throughout the program a small square display found at the top left corner of a decision button for popped up windows, and a triangular display found at the bottom right corner of another button. The square display tells you that if you hit the ESC key on your keyboard it will perform the button action it appears on. The triangular display tells you that by hitting the ENTER key on your keyboard it will perform the button action it appears on. The square display almost always sits on the button that will cancel the window. The triangular display usually sits on the button that will perform the windows question. If you would like to set up BOBBY to pop up everytime you turn on your machine just edit your "Autoexec.bat" file and add the line "Bobby" at the very end of the file. Chapter Two FEATURES IN BOBBY ================= 2.1 DIRECTORY WINDOWS ----------------- 2.1.1 What And Where Are They? ------------------------ The "DIRECTORY WINDOWS" are the two large window displays found in the top half region of the main BOBBY screen (see section 3.1: BOBBY'S MAIN SCREEN DIAGRAM). These windows are used to hold the directory information of a chosen drive. If you look closely at either of the Directory Windows you will see that there are three labelled columns. The first, "Files", found at the very left of the Window (DIAGRAM:A,K) holds all directory and file names. All directory names come before file names and are displayed in all capital letters. Another noticeable differnce between directories and files are that directories have small pictures resembling drawers found to the right of their names. Directory names and file names are displayed in sorted ascending order. Since all directories come before files the directories are sorted in an order among themselves and the files are sorted also among themselves. The second column, labelled "File Size", (DIAGRAM:B,L) is the column that holds the byte size for that file. For example, the third file displayed in the directory window has the third file size displayed in this second column. Since directories are not files there are no visible file sizes for any directories shown in the directory windows. However, to get the size for a directory you must use the GET SIZE button (see section 2.4.3.10:GET SIZE). The third column, labelled "File Date", (DIAGRAM:C,M) is the column that holds the dates of when each file was last changed. Just like the "File Size" column the file date is only visible for files and not directories. When a file has been created or changed the file date column will reflect this. The "PATH FINDER" window, found throughout BOBBY, resembles these Directory Windows. What it really is, is a scaled down version of the Directory Windows. Because of this it is discussed in its own section, section 2.5.12: PATH FINDER. 2.1.2 How They Work ------------- To make one of the Directory Windows active use your mouse and click inside the window or click on one of the regions found adjacent to the window (DIAGRAM:A-J for the Left Dir. Window, K-T for the Right Dir. Window) The active window's information bar called the "Directory Window Information Bar" (DIAGRAM:D,E,F or N,O,P) will be shown in a different color. By doing this you will see that only one directory window can be active at any given time. The active window represents the source path from where activity will begin with, the non-active window representing the target path. By using the drive buttons or the "Path Input Box" (DIAGRAM:I or S) you can control what directory path from disk to display inside the active window. Once file information has been shown inside the active window you can use your left mouse button to click on any of the names that may appear inside it (directories or files). By clicking a name you are highlighting it and in BOBBY this is called "MARKING" a directory/file. By double clicking your left mouse button on a directory name you will be placed inside that directory and the window will show the contents of this new path. The displays found outside and around the window -- the Path Input Box (DIAGRAM:I or S), the Pattern Input Box (DIAGRAM:J or T), the Scroll Bar (DIAGRAM:G,H or Q,R), and the Information Bar (DIAGRAM:D,E,F or N,O,P) -- all aid in telling or showing what is being displayed in the window. By clicking one of these aiders, including the directory window, the window becomes active. 2.1.3 Directory Window Information Bar --------------------------------- The "Directory Window Information Bar" (DIAGRAM:D,E,F or N,O,P) is found right above each of the Directory Windows. There is one bar for each of the windows. This bar holds information concerning that specific directory window found below it. There are three pieces of information held here. The first, found on the far left of the bar holds the drive name (DIAGRAM: D) you are currently working in. So, for example, if you clicked a drive button entitled "A:" then in the information bar the "A:" would be displayed in that location. The second piece of information, found in the centre of the bar, holds the tallied bytes of all the marked file sizes in that directory window. By marking one or more directories you should see a '+' symbol appear at the end of this byte tally display. This is an indicator that the marked tally size can and actually may be larger than what is being shown. To get the accurate size and remove the '+' symbol from the display, use the GET SIZE button. This button will get the byte size count for each of the marked directories. The third piece of information, found at the far right of the bar, holds the free space of that drive you are currently working in, in bytes. 2.1.4 Directory Window Scroll Bar --------------------------- The "Directory Window Scroll Bar" (DIAGRAM:G,H or Q,R) located to the right of the Left directory window and located on the left of the Right directory window control the locational area in the path of that window. When the scroll bar is shown as completely full this represents that there are no extra directory or file names unseen in that window. But, if the bar isn't full this is an indication that there are more names unseen in that window, and by using the scroll bar you can access them. Hold your left mouse button on the "DRAG-BOX" portion of the bar and move in either the up or down direction. This will update the directory window display and show any of these unseen files. Every movement you make with the scroll bar will have an effect in updating the directory window. By clicking in the "JUMP ZONE" regions (the darker area) of the scroll bar, the drag-box will jump in that direction and have the effect of paging one full screen of display in that window (if possible). Found at the bottom of the scroll bar are directional arrows that control the direction of the scroll bar. By clicking on one of these arrows the drag-box will move in that direction and update the directory window by 1 unseen file at a time. 2.1.5 Directory Window Path Input Box ------------------------------- The "Directory Window Path Input Box" (DIAGRAM:I or S) is found right below the directory windows. If you were to look closely you will see that a divider exists in the box. This divider separates the "Directory Window Path Input Box" found to the left of the divider from the "Directory Window Pattern Input Box" found to the right of the divider. This box is used to hold the current path the directory window is viewing. This box can also be used to change to a different path by using your keyboard. If you haven't noticed, the contents of the path box is made up of a drive letter followed by accessible directory names. No file names are used here. Each directory name is separated by a '\' in the box. By using your mouse, click inside this box. By doing this you get access to manually change the path using your keyboard. By hitting the 'Enter' key on your keyboard this tells BOBBY to access the given path found in the box. If BOBBY can't find a given directory name in the path it will work its way backwards, moving back one directory at a time, until it does find a path it can access. By hitting the ESC key you can abort a typed input and replace the original path back into the box. By clicking a shown directory name in the directory window BOBBY adds that name to the path given in the box. Using the PARENT button will remove the last directory name from the box and show the contents of the remaining path. Special built-in key combinations exist in the box to help speed up the typing process. By using the the "Shift (Right cursor key)" this will signal BOBBY to help you finish an incomplete typed directory name. For example, if you wanted to get to the path : C:\EXAMPLES\DIRECTOR\SNAP you'd have to type this entire path in the box, which would take long if you are a slow typer. But by using the key combo mentioned above it can speed up this typing process considerably. So if I were to type C:\EXA and then hit the "Shift (Right cursor key)" combo BOBBY will try to find the closest matching directory name to what you were typing, in this case it would be the EXAMPLES directory. This is assuming that inside the C:\ directory there is no other directory name that starts with EXA and comes before the EXAMPLES directory. The more letters you provide BOBBY for a directory name the more accurate BOBBY will find the name you are looking for. By adding a '\' just before you begin typing another directory name the above process can be repeated to find the DIRECTOR and the SNAP directory just as fast. This can save a lot of typing time. Use the "Shift (Left cursor key)" to clear the entire line presently being shown in the path box. By not hitting the 'Enter' key on your keyboard to confirm a given path but clicking outside the path box with your mouse will cancel the changes you have made to the original path and reshow it in the box. Use the "Up cursor key" on your keyboard to flip through the previous paths that have been shown in there. This is equivalent to clicking your "Right" mouse button repeatedly in the left half region of the active path box. By using the "Down cursor key" this will flip forward through the paths that have been shown in this box. The equivalent action is performed by clicking your "Right" mouse button repeatedly in the right half region of the active path box. A maximum of 5 stored paths for each directory window exists. The 5 paths for the left directory window are different from the 5 paths for the right directory window. Names given to the drive buttons can be inputted in the path box as well. For example, a drive button called PICS:, which when clicked takes you to your directory of pictures, can be typed in the path box instead of the true path that PICS: represents. Once you type PICS: BOBBY will realize that it is a recognized drive button name and replace what you have typed in the box with the true path it represents. The orginial PICS: input will now appear in the top left corner of the Directory Window Information Bar (DIAGRAM:A or K). Please see section 3.2:THE BUILT-IN KEYS AND MOUSE ACTIONS IN BOBBY for more information on the keys found available to the Path Input Box. 2.1.6 Directory Window Pattern Input Box ---------------------------------- This box (DIAIGRAM: J or T), found below the directory windows and to the right of the noticeable divder, is used in controlling which files are to be displayed from the path inside the directory window. Special keywords exists to help segregate files. These keywords are: ALL, HID, SYS, NEW, and ~. The ALL keyword is used in displaying all the files that appear in that path (excluding hidden files and system files). This is the default keyword given when nothing is inputted inside the pattern box. The HID keyword is used in displaying hidden files that may exist inside that path. The SYS keyword is used in displaying system files that may exist. If you have set up BOBBY to show New files (see section 2.5.6: SHOWING NEW FILES SINCE XX DAYS) you can use the NEW keyword to show the new files that may exist inside that path. The ~ symbol represents the "Not" of a statment. So if you were to use this symbol with, for example NEW, to get ~NEW it will show all the files that are not new in that path. You can also input wildcard statements. Such wildcard statements include ie. *.exe, a*.dll, tail*, and z?.*. The pattern box is not limited to just one statment input. To input more than one statement you must separate each with either a space or a comma (,). The ~ symbol can only be used with the NEW keyword and any wildcard statments you type. The ~ symbol must be located as the first character of each statement to actually take effect. So for example, ~*.exe would show all the files that don't end with the '.exe' extension. You can also combine one of the three keywords: ALL, HID, or SYS with the NEW keyword, ~, and any variety of wildcard statments to get different and more precise displays in the directory window. So, for example, by typing: HID,NEW,~*.zip inside the pattern box and hitting 'Enter' would show all of the new Hidden files that do not end with '.zip' extension in the directory window and then from there you can perform any disk activities on just those displayed files. If you had previously marked files before changing the pattern in the pattern box this activity will unmark any of the files that don't fall into this new pattern. If no files were found for the given pattern, NO FILES will be displayed in the centre of the directory window's information bar. You can also use the 'Up arrow key' or 'Down arrow key' to flip through previously typed patterns for that directory window. The ESC key, when hit, will cancel the input you have made in the box and replace the original pattern that was once there. Please see section 3.2:THE BUILT-IN KEYS AND MOUSE ACTIONS IN BOBBY for more information on the keys found available to the Path Input Box. 2.1.7 Special Keys and Mouse Actions For Directory Windows ---------------------------------------------------- Highlighting/De-Highlighting Directory/File names While Scrolling Through The Directory Window: + Click and hold the 'Left' mouse button on a directory or file name + Move the mouse cursor pass the top or bottom of the directory window and if there are any unseen names in that direction the scroll bar and display will move in that direction and highlight/dehighlight these names. Scrolling Through The Directory Window Using Your Mouse without Using the Scroll Bar: + Click and hold your 'Right' mouse button in either the top half region of the directory window or the bottom half. If the directory window has any unseen files in that direction the scroll bar and display will move in that direction and show these names. Scrolling Through the Directory window Using Your Keyboard: + Use the 'Up' arrow cursor key to move up the directory window if possible + Use the 'Down' arrow cursor key to move down if possible. Movement is dependent on whether scrolling is permitted in the directory window. Paging One Screen Up/Down in the Directory Window: + Use the 'Page Up' key on your keyboard to jump up one complete screen in the directory window if possible. + Use the 'Page Down' key for jumping down. Setting The Directory Window To The Very Top or Very Bottom: + By hitting the 'Home' key on your keyboard you can make the active directory window reshow its names in the path from the very top. + The 'End' key jumps to the very bottom of the list in the directory window. Both of these keys can only take effect if scrolling is permitted in that path. Placing the "NON-ACTIVE DIR WIN" Into The Same Path As the Active One: + Click a file name inside the Active window and then double click your 'Right' mouse button in the non-active window. This will place the non-active window into the same path as the active one and will also make this window the new active one. + By clicking a directory name inside the Active window and then double clicking your 'Right' mouse button in the non-active window this will place the non-active window into the path of this directory name. ** Please refer to section 3.2:THE BUILT-IN KEYS AND MOUSE ACTIONS IN BOBBY for a more elaborate listing of special keys and mouse actions for the Directory Windows (and others). 2.2 DRIVE BUTTONS ------------- 2.2.1 What and Where are They? ------------------------ The "Drive Buttons" (DIAGRAM:U) are located at the bottom left corner of the BOBBY main screen. They are shown as 6 stacked buttons with the words "Drives" displayed above them. There are in fact 24 total drive buttons and what they do is they change the path of what the "ACTIVE DIR WIN" shows. By clicking on one of these buttons all of what is displayed in the directory window and in the windows' aiders (the scroll bar, the information bar, the path input box) can change. Drive buttons look very similar to Action Buttons (DIAGRAM:V). The difference between them is that, action buttons are for accessing commands or running programs that have opportunities to perform activities on marked files or directories (see section 2.4: ACTION BUTTONS). Drive buttons can't do that. 2.2.2 How They Work ------------- By clicking a drive button this tells BOBBY to get the path of what this button represents and make the "ACTIVE DIR WIN" reflect this new path location by changing it and its window aiders found around it. Drive names shown on the drive button will be displayed at the top left corner of the Directory Window Information Bar (DIAGRAM:D or N) when clicked. The path name the drive button represents will be shown in the Directory Window Path Input Box (DIAGRAM:I or S). As an alternative, by typing the exact name that is shown on a drive button inside a Directory Window Path Input Box this will also take you to the path that it represents. Drive Buttons can be given names of up to 5 characters long. So a valid drive button name could be 'PICS:'. 2.2.3 Default drives When Entering BOBBY ---------------------------------- When entering BOBBY for the first time there will be no existing system configuration file (BUTCFG.BOB) and therefore by default BOBBY will check your system for all active drives and place each in a drive button. This is a nice little feature to help you get started right away. It also saves the hassle of you creating these drive buttons manually for all of your existing drives. 2.2.4 Creating Active Drive Buttons ----------------------------- There are a possible 24 drive buttons you can define to hold any drives or paths for accessing your system. To create a new drive button please refer to section 2.5.2: BUTTON OPTIONS. 2.2.5 Drive Button's Scroll Bar ------------------------- This scroll bar found just to the right of the drive buttons is used in showing any of the possible 24 buttons. By clicking and dragging the drag-box of the scroll bar you will see the other drive buttons come into view one at a time. By clicking in the jump zone of the scroll bar it will make the bar jump by 6 and show 6 new drive buttons over the previous ones. 2.3 ICONS ----- 2.3.1 What And Where Are They? ------------------------ Icons are small pictures that represent program names. Icons can be clicked on or moved around by using the mouse. The icons are there to help you get easy access to commonly used files. By creating an icon for a program with the path C:\WP\WP.EXE, you only need to double click on the icon for WP to run and pop up. This way, you get into your favorite productivitity or entertainment programs faster instead of having to type the full path over and over again. The icons are always placed in the "Icon Window" (DIAGRAM:W) which is located near the middle of the screen, just above the action buttons. There are a maximum of 16 icons that you can create for the Icon Window. 2.3.2 How They Work ------------- As mentioned above, icons are there to give you a "mouse-click-away" access to running your favorite programs instead of you having to type the full path name over and over again. This works by you first creating an icon (see section 2.3.5:CREATING ICONS). After creating one, by using your left mouse button and double clicking the icon from the icon window, BOBBY will launch that icon. And in no time your program will be popped up in front of you. 2.3.3 Icon Window's Paging Arrows --------------------------- Found on the far right corner of the icon window are two directional arrows; one pointing up, the other down. These arrows are the "PAGING ARROWS" for the icon window (DIAGRAM:2). The icon window can hold 8 icons per page. If you have more than 8 icons you will be allowed to go to the next page to see the remaining icons by just using the paging arrows. By doing this, you have access to up to 16 different programs represented by icons. As an example let's say you have 10 icons (10 different favorite programs which you can run). Since the icon window can only hold 8 icons at a time, we need to flip to the next page to see the last 2 icons. Clicking the down pointing arrow of the icon window will flip to the next page to show the last 2 icons. Clicking the up arrow will take you back to the first page. As an indicator of what page you are on, BOBBY has small, dark square blocks at the 'very top left' and 'very bottom right' of the Icon Window. If you see the 'very top left' small block, this is to inform you that this is the first page of the icon window. If you see the 'very bottom right' small block, this tells you that this is the last page of the icon window. 2.3.4 Moving (Dragging) Icons ----------------------- The icons you create can also be moved around the screen by your mouse. This gives you the opportunity to swap the positions of icons that have been created so as to allow you to have the most used programs in places that are conveninent for you. You can also use it to get into the path of an icon automatically. To move the icon around, all you have to do is click and hold the 'Right' mouse button on the icon you desire to move. Now, while still holding the mouse button, move the mouse around the screen. You will immediately notice that the icon you clicked is moving around with your mouse. You can move the icon anywhere on the screen. Now to move your icon to a new position on this page of the icon window, move to the desired position and let go of the mouse button. If you try to drop the icon in a non-icon-occupied area, the icon you were moving will return to its old position where you originally picked it up since there was nothing for the icon to do. Icons will "swap" positions only if you move one icon on top of another. For example: If you have 2 total icons and you move the 1st icon (located at position 1 of the icon window) and drop it on the 2nd icon (located at position 2), the 2nd icon will appear in the location that the 1st icon originally was in and the 1st icon in the 2nd icon position. The icons have 'swapped' positions. But if you tried moving and dropping the 1st icon in position 3 where there is no icon, the 1st icon will return to its old position not swapping since there was nothing to swap with. Now, to swap icons with the second page of the icon window, we must use the paging arrows and the left mouse button in what we have already learned about swapping icons. Let's say we have 10 icons; 8 icons on the 1st page of the icon window and 2 icons on the 2nd page. Let's assume we are on page 1 which means there are 8 icons on the screen. Click and hold your 'Right' mouse button on the icon you want to move. Now to get to the 2nd page of the icon window, we will have to somehow access the paging arrows. To do this, by holding onto the right mouse button, go to the paging arrows. Once there you will see the icon you are dragging disappear. Don't let go of your right mouse button because the icon you are dragging is still there. It is just hidden at the moment so you can see the paging arrows. Now to get to the 2nd page we 'Left' click the down arrow of the paging arrows while still holding the right mouse button. The 2nd page will now appear and you should see the 2 remaining icons of our total 10. Now move your mouse to the desired location you would like to have this icon be placed. Let go of the right mouse button. If you have dropped the icon on top of another icon, the 2 icons will have swapped positions; the icon you were dragging will be placed in the spot selected while the icon that was originally in that area will be placed in the spot of where you picked up your moving icon (somewhere on the first page for the example). If you like, you can also move icons to either directory windows (Dir Win). This is done by moving the icon to any part of the "DIR WIN" and letting go of the mouse button. The path of the icon will be used by the dir win and quickly you will see the contents of that path shown in the dir win. For example: Let's say you have the icon DOOM 3 in the icon window. The path for Doom is: C:\GAMES\DOOM3\DOOM3.EXE . Now if you move the icon and drop it into one of the Dir Wins, the path of Doom3: C:\GAMES\DOOM3 will be placed into the dir win. This gives you a quick route to the directory of the program represented by the icon. 2.3.5 Creating Icons -------------- Icons are created by using "Icon Options" found in the Options Screen. In this area you can select the desired icon picture, set the path + filename of the program to load, create a hotkey for the icon, and many other features. Once created, the icon is placed in the icon window, where there you can move it or run it. (See section 2.5.3:ICON OPTIONS) 2.4 ACTION BUTTONS -------------- 2.4.1 What And Where Are They? ------------------------ Action buttons are the 32 buttons found just below the icon window (DIAGRAM: X). Actually there are 64 buttons for the Action Buttons; 32 top facing buttons (accessable by the the 'Left' mouse button) stacked on top of another 32 buttons (underneath accessable by the 'Right' mouse button). Action buttons are buttons which perform a certain action, such as copying, deleting, getting directory sizes, playing sounds, showing pictures, viewing text files, and launching other programs to handle marked files. This area is the heart of BOBBY. If you want to do any action involving the dir wins other than showing different paths in the window (drive buttons do this), you use the action buttons. For example: if you want to copy multiple files from dir win 1 to dir win 2, you would select the built-in COPY button. This will handle the action of copying the highlighted directory/file names. 2.4.2 How They Work ------------- The Action Buttons work by you selecting an active action button (a button which has an action specified for it as determined under the Button Options-- see Section 2.5.2:BUTTON OPTIONS). The top 32 buttons are literally stacked on top of another 32 buttons. To access the top 32 buttons, you just click on it with your 'Left' mouse button. If there is a active button underneath the top one, BOBBY places a picture of a "PAPER FLAP" on the lucky top button. This makes it easier for you to identify those stacked buttons. By clicking and releasing the 'Right' mouse button on any one of the top 32 action buttons with flaps will show (and run) the underlying button. If you select one of the many built-in commands of BOBBY such as COPY or PLAYSND, you can literally perform that action on highlighted files found in the Active Dir Win. The action button you select can be one of 3 types: a built-in action button, a button created by you, or a non-active button. Action buttons created by you can launch other programs to handle, if you wish, the highlighted filenames in the Active Dir Win. The filenames will be passed to the launched program one after the other until completed. For example: if you had an MPEG movie player, you can have that as an action button. You can pass highlighted movie filenames to this MPEG Player and have it view the highlighted filenames and then on completion, return back to BOBBY. You can even use the action buttons to launch other programs just like what the icons can do. As you can see, the action buttons decrease your typing time at the dos prompt considerably and boost productivity. 2.4.3 Special Action Buttons (BOBBY Keywords) -------------------------------------- As mentioned in the last section, one of the 3 types of action buttons is the built-in action button. In BOBBY we call it the Keyword Action Button. These buttons which have a special keyword as there form of action (your created action buttons have paths+filenames for program to load as its action) tell BOBBY that this particular button is NOT an external program to launch. Once BOBBY sees the special keyword, it performs that special built- in function. By this, we involve the Active Dir Win and sometimes both dir wins. For example: highlighting files in dir win 1 and selecting the Delete button (which has the special keyword DELETE) will tell BOBBY to perform the built-in delete function on the highlighted files, and it will delete those files. The keywords, which are entered in the "Command Line" field of Button Options for Action Buttons only (see section 2.5.2:BUTTON OPTIONS), must be entered in and stored a certain way. For Bobby to recognize that a keyword was typed in and not a regular path+filename for a program to launch, you must enter the keyword in all CAPITAL letters. The keyword must also be the only letters typed in the field. So, in the command line field for a desired Action Button only, you'd type for example: FORMAT This built-in keyword is in all capital letters and is the only item typed in the command line field. Bobby will recognize its built-in keyword name and will perform the built-in action specified for it. There are a total of 22 built-in commands (22 special keywords) and they all, but FORMAT and COPYD, involve the Active Dir Win (the Source window). 2.4.3.01 All (ALL) --------- The ALL keyword is used to highlight all the filenames in the Active Dir Win. You could highlight all the files yourself by using the mouse button, but with this specialized button it makes that mundane job faster so you can be more productive. 2.4.3.02 Copy (COPY) ----------- After highlighting 1 or more files in the Active Dir Win, by clicking the COPY button will copy those highlighted files to the Non-Active Dir Win (the target). Make sure there is a target path to copy to in the Non-Active Dir Win otherwise BOBBY won't know where to copy the files. If you happen to copy files to a diskette, there is that situation where the total files won't fit on the disk, BOBBY will pop up a "DISK CHANGE" window where it will request for you to change to a different disk so as to fit the rest of the files. You also are given the ability to go format a disk at that time or stop the copy process. 2.4.3.03 Copy As (COPYAS) ---------------- This command is exactly like the COPY command, but gives you the ability to give a new name for the copied file. You can keep the original filename or change it before it gets copied into the target dir win. Hence the new name COPYAS. The Copy As command takes advantage of the "DISK CHANGE" window. 2.4.3.04 Copy Smart (COPYS) ------------------ Copy Smart (COPYS) is an intelligent COPY command. It is meant to be used with diskettes. If you select a certain number of files and use Copy Smart, Copy Smart will try to get the "best fit" of all those marked files onto the diskette. Thusly using the diskette(s) efficiently. For example: if you were to copy 5 files onto a 1.44 Meg 3.5" diskette with the highlighted files in the Active Dir Win having file sizes as follows: FILE A: 50,000 Bytes FILE B: 1,300,000 FILE C: 700,000 FILE D: 10,000 FILE E: 60,000 Copy Smart would first copy FILE B since it is the largest, then FILE E, FILE A, and FILE D. This is assuming that the disks they are to be copyied to are completely empty. The total bytes copied would be 1,420,000 Bytes onto the this 1.44 Meg diskette. Since the remaining file cannot fit on this disk BOBBY will realize this and pop up the "DISK CHANGE" window for the remaining file: FILE C. If the next diskette has enough space on it the file will be copied. Now notice that Copy Smart didn't copy FILE A, then FILE B, etc in the traditional linear copying style. By using the traditional way we would have only been able to fit 2 files on the first disk, and 3 files on the 2nd disk. With Copy Smarting we fit 4 of the possible 5 on one disk! As you can see... Smart! 2.4.3.05 Copy Disk (COPYD) ----------------- The Copy Disk command, as provided by the COPYD keyword, is your way of copying a diskette. This command doesn't copy file by file but copys the blue print content of the disk track by track. The copy disk command brings up a window allowing you to select the source drive and the target drive. By default it is set as an A: to A: copy. Upon completing the copy, if your system has enough free memory you will be permitted to use the AGAIN button where you can make multiple copies of the orginal source disk without needing to resort back to it. 2.4.3.06 Delete (DELETE) --------------- The Delete command will delete all the highlighted files in the Active Dir Win making more room on the hard drive or diskette for new data. The delete requestor, if on (default), will pop up and ask you if you are sure you want to perform this action (see section 2.5.4.01:THE DELETE "POP UP" REQUESTER). 2.4.3.07 File Hunt (HUNT) ---------------- File Hunt is the button which uses the HUNT keyword to find a specific directory/file name which is located on your hard drive/diskette. Once File Hunt finds its match, it places you in the path of the found dir/file by changing the Active Dir Win's path to this new path. BOBBY will even go the extra mile and highlight the matched file for you (if it is not hidden). 2.4.3.08 Format (FORMAT) --------------- The FORMAT command will bring up a window which will give you the ability to format (erase) an entire disk. The window contains settings for the disk capacity to format on, bootable disk creation, disk name. You can also check the disk contents before formatting in case you think you might be formatting the wrong diskette using the wonderful Path Finder disk icon (see section 2.5.12:PATH FINDER). When you are ready to format, you can choose the true "Format" which will take around 1 minute to format your diskette or "Quick" format which will take around 10 seconds. The 2 types of formatting differ by Quick format requiring that the disk be already pre-formatted to the MS-Dos format and not be corrupted in any way. If the diskette doesn't meet these requirements, you must use "Format". The FORMAT command calls the MS-Dos format command with the proper settings for you. Hitting CTRL-BREAK or CTRLC-C during the formatting process will return you back to BOBBY. 2.4.3.09 Get Info (GETINFO) ------------------ Use GETINFO to display more detailed information about highlighted dirs/ files from the Active Dir Win. The information it shows is the names' attributes. The attributes of a file tell the operating system that the file is either: Hidden, Read Only, System, or Archived. Setting these attributes is a very simple process of point and click. Just click on one or more of the toggleable attributes and click the "Done" button. The most commonly used feature in this window will probably be protecting files. By setting the Read Only button on you are saying that you want to protect this file from any possible altering or deleting. The Hidden button is used for hiding files. Selected files from the "DIR WIN" will show their attributes in this window by toggling on/off the 4 possible togglers according to what the files attributes are. The only attribute that can have an effect on a directory is the Hidden toggler. By setting it on you will hide the directory. By setting any one of the other three togglers the effect will be shown by changing the attributes of all of the files found in that directory. 2.4.3.10 Get Size (GETSIZE) ------------------ By using GETSIZE on highlighted directories you can determine the total byte size used in a directory. For example: if you highlighted the directory named: TEMP (with no byte size shown in the 'File Size' column of the "DIR WIN") and highlighted a file named: FILEX.EXE (with 10,000 Bytes shown), the "highlight tally" in the middle of the "Directory Window Information Bar" (DIAGRAM:E or O) will report "10,000+" which is the total highlight tally size in bytes. The "+" is there because the size of the directory is unknown. Clicking the GETSIZE button will determine the size of the unknown directory and thus remove the + and add the size of the specific directory to the tally size. The size of the directory will be placed next to the directory name under the 'File Size' column of the dir win much like a regular file has its own file size displayed next to it. 2.4.3.11 Make Directory (MAKEDIR) ------------------------ The Make Directory command will create a new directory in the Active Dir Win. With this new directory, you can place new files or even more directories in it. This gives you the ability to help organize your disk. 2.4.3.12 Mark (MARK) ----------- The Mark feature gives you the ability to mark specfic files found in the Active Dir Win. This is equivalent to manually looking and highlighting the files individually in the dir win. The input you can type can be: wildcards, filenames, the NEW keyword (a built-in word used only in MARK or the dir win pattern box),and ~ (Not sign). You are allowed to input more than one mark pattern. To do tihs you must separate each by a space or by a comma (,). The wildcard recogniser for MARK allows you to type all of the styles for wildcards ie a*.* a??.exe ba*a?.com. You can also type in specific dir/file names. Use the NEW keyword to mark only the new files (new files are considered new if they are within the specified "New File Since XX Days" found under the Options Screen (see section 2.5.6:SHOWING NEW FILES SINCE XX DAYS). You can also place the ~ symbol infront of wildcards or dir/file names or the NEW command so that MARK will exclude marking the pattern following the ~ symbol but will mark everything else. MARK will highlight all the individual patterns, which you entered in its text field, in the Active Dir Win. 2.4.3.13 Move (MOVE) ----------- The Move command will literally move the highlighted file(s) from the Active Dir Win (source) to the Non-Active Dir Win (target). Directories and all of their contents are allowed to be moved too. 2.4.14 Move As (MOVEAS) ---------------- Move As is exactly like MOVE except for the addition of a window which pops up and asks for a new name for the moving file that will be placed in the Non-Active Dir Win. Directories and their contents are permitted to be moved as well. 2.4.3.15 None (NONE) ----------- NONE will 'dehighlight' all the directories/files that are currently highlighted in the Active Dir Win. It is the opposite command to ALL. 2.4.3.16 Parent (PARENT) --------------- The Parent button uses the Active Dir Win's path to go back one previous directory in that path. Parent will stop functioning once you have reached the root directory ie. C:\. For example: Active Dir Win is window 1. Its path is C:\UTILS\MACH32 Hitting the Parent button will make our new path exactly one directory back from the old one. Therefore this would be path C:\UTILS. Hitting Parent again, the Active Dir Win will now be at C:\. The contents of the new path will automatically be shown in the active dir win. 2.4.3.17 Play Sound (PLAY) ----------------- Play Sound will allow you to hear VOC/WAV format sound files. By highlighting one or more VOC/WAV format files and clicking this button the Play Sound window will pop up and display information about the sound file while the sound is playing. Information about the format type (VOC/WAV) is shown, the Hertz (HZ) the sound file was recorded at, and the duration in hours:minutes:seconds is displayed with a visual fuel gauge showing how much of the sound is left to be heard. 2.4.3.18 Print (PRINT) ------------- PRINT will print out the highlighted files of the Active Dir Win to your printer. Files can be of ASCII or binary format. Directories are not permitted to print. 2.4.3.19 Rename (RENAME) --------------- The RENAME command will do just that, rename highlighted files in the Active Dir Win to whatever name you give it. A window is popped up and the request is made there. 2.4.3.20 Run (RUN) --------- The RUN command will take the highlighted file(s) of the Active Dir Win and run (launch) them. You can also get here by double clicking the 'Left' mouse button on a filename that have the extensions .EXE, .BAT, or .COM. The files selected must be executable files (.EXE or .COM) or be a batch file (.BAT). Any other filenames highlighted may not run successfully. If you highlight 2 or more files, BOBBY will run the 1st file and on completion of the 1st file, run the 2nd file, and so on. By selecting the RUN Button or by double clicking on either a .EXE, .COM, or .BAT file, the Run "ARGUMENT WINDOW" will pop up. You can type in arguments for each individual highlighted file to be passed to the 'runned' program. Special keywords that can be used in this window are: {S} : It stands for 'Source'. It holds the exact path name shown in the active "Directory Window Path Input Box". {T} : It stands for 'Target'. It holds the exact path name shown in the non-active "Directory Window Path Input Box". When you use these keywords the dir win's path is inserted wherever the {S} and {T} appear. This helps you from having to type the source or target window's path. These keywords are optional and do not have to be inserted. They are only there for conveniene if one day you decide to use them. Please see section 2.5.2.09:INSERTING THE SOURCE PATH {S} and section 2.5.2.10: INSERTING THE TARGET PATH {T} for more details. Here's an example: The Active Dir Win is dir win 1. It has the path C:\SHOWPIC shown in the dir win path box. Now if you click on the executable file entitled SHOWPIC.EXE (highlighting it) and then select RUN you will then see the RUN Argument window. Here you can type in any arguments for the executable file, if the file requires any. In dir win 2 (Non-Active Dir Win) the path is C:\PICS and has the picture entitled FLOWER.GIF. Let's view this picture with the SHOWPIC.EXE viewer. To show the picture SHOWPIC.EXE requires the path and file name of the file to view. So in the input box in the Argument Window you woud type: {T}\FLOWER.EXE Once you proceed with the Argument window by either clicking 'Run' or hitting the 'Enter' key, the {T} you had entered will be 'replaced' with C:\PICS and so the full path will read C:\PICS\FLOWER.EXE which will be passed to SHOWPIC.EXE. A rule of thumb, if you are going to specify a filename after the {S} or {T} keywords, add a '\' before giving one. This is done in the above example. If you don't do this you could get the incorrect path: C:\PICSFLOWER.EXE. The only other thing not mentioned yet which is found in the Argument Window is a toggle button entitled "Quit Bobby On Execute". This button gives you the option of closing down BOBBY just before running the program or leave BOBBY in memory while the program is ran. If you leave BOBBY in memory (Quit Bobby button is not highlighted) your computer will not have its complete free memory to run the file. For most programs, this is okay and they will run just fine. On completion of those programs, BOBBY will return immediately. On some occasions there will be those programs that need more memory to run. This is what the "Quit Bobby On Execute" button is used for. This will give your computer all of its memory back so as to run the program. BOBBY will reload itself back into memory on completion of the program(s). The reloading part takes a few seconds since BOBBY must reload from your hard drive again. 2.4.3.21 Show A Picture (SHOWPIC) ------------------------ SHOWPIC will take the highlighted files of the Active Dir Win and try to view them one after the other. BOBBY can read and display PCX and GIF file formats, 2 very popular picture file formats. BOBBY can view pictures with colors ranging from 2 to 256 in resolutions from 320x200 to 640x480 for regular VGA cards and monitors. If you have an SVGA card and monitor and your SVGA card supports the VESA standard (your card should have come with a VESA driver - An industry standard driver which helps SVGA cards and monitors display under BOBBY), you can get resolutions up to 1280x1024 with 256 colors if your SVGA card supports it. People that do not have SVGA cards or even a VESA driver cannot display high resolutions/colors. If a picture is a resolution of let's say 1024x768 with 256 colors, a normal VGA monitor will not allow the display of such a picture. BOBBY does not leave those people out in the cold. BOBBY will pain-stakingly scale the picture of 1024x768 256 colors to a resolution your computer can display, and that is 320x200 256 colors. Due to the original size of the picture being very large, BOBBY will allow you to "scroll" around and let you see the picture by allowing you to use the 'Up/Down/Left/Right' keyboard cursor keys or by your moving the mouse. So no matter what the case, BOBBY will be able to show the picture on your screen! For SVGA/VESA users, pictures higher than the maximum VESA display or pictures that are higher than what your monitor can display will make BOBBY resort to the to the highest resolution VESA can display (1280x1024) or the highest resolution your monitor can display (which ever is lower) and show the picture in that mode. If the picture is larger than the display you will be permitted to scroll. SHOWPIC pops up an information window to tell you information about the presently reading-in picture file. Starting from the very top of the window and working down the information displayed are: 1. - Filename and the file's size in bytes 2. - The picture's stored resolution (ie. 320x200, 640x480, 1024x768, etc) 3. - The resolution the picture will be displayed at on your screen. If this resolution is smaller than #2 then the word "SCROLL" will appear following your screen resolution telling you that you will be able to scroll around the canvas. 4. - This is located at the top right area just below file size. The word VESA is placed here if you try to view a picture which has resolutions from 640x480 256 colors and up or 800x600 16 colors and up. You must have the VESA driver pre-loaded for this to occur. 2.4.3.22 View Text (VIEWTXT) ------------------- This button will take all highlighted files found in the Active Dir Win and tries to view the files in its View Screen. Ascii and binary files are handled accordingly. In the view screen you will be informed as to the size of the file, the number of pages in the current file and how many files you have highlighted which will be or have been viewed. You have the option of searching for words in the file. You also can quit while a file is loading by hitting ESC. This is equivalent to using your mouse and clicking on the "Exit" button (if available). You can also jump over to next available files by hitting the ENTER key. This is equivalent to using your mouse and clicking on the "Next" button (if available). If the file that is double clicked in the Active Dir Win couldn't be determined as a .EXE, .COM, .BAT, VOC/WAV sound format or PCX/GIF picture file format, then the file is viewed in view screen. 2.4.4 Relations Of the Action Buttons + The Icons ------------------------------------------- If you've noticed, the icons are able to launch programs and action buttons are able to launch programs too. The reason being is, we felt by providing icons this would be the most organized way of presenting your easy access to launching programs. You then don't have to worry about looking at all 64 possible action buttons to pick out your launch program. Easy access launching is more in favor for the Icon Window method. You do have the option of placing your favorite program(s) in any of the Action Buttons. This is still an easier access route to launching your favorite programs as opposed to typing in the path then 'running' the file. An idea would be to use the Icon Window for application programs and/or entertainment software, and have the Action Buttons dedicated to built-in commands and external utility software. This could provide you with a nicely organized workspace. The four special commands: {S} {T} {F} {A} are allowed in both Action Buttons and for Icons. + See section 2.5.2.07:ADDING ARGUMENT WINDOWS {A} to section 2.5.2.10: INSERTING THE TARGET PATH {T} for Action Buttons. + See section 2.5.3.08:ADDING ARGUMENT WINDOWS {A} to section 2.5.3.11: INSERTING THE TARGET PATH {T} for Icons. 2.4.5 Creating Action Buttons ----------------------- There are 32 buttons on the top and 32 buttons on the bottom giving you a total of 64 Action Buttons. Action buttons can be created under the Button Options Window found in the Option's Screen (see section 2.5.2:BUTTON OPTIONS). 2.5 THE OPTION SCREEN ----------------- 2.5.1 What And Where Is It? --------------------- The Option Screen is the screen which configures BOBBY to your needs. All configurations are done here. The Option Screen holds the configurations for such things as dir window startup paths, delete requestor on/off, speaker on/ off, sfx on/off, flash screen on/off, new file since XX days, blanker time, main screen hotkeys, and color palette adjustment. This is also the screen to access to access the Icon Options and Button Options. To get into Options, go to the bottom right corner of the main screen. There you will see a "smiling" face (DIAGRAM:1). By clicking your 'Left' mouse button on this face you will pop up the Options Screen. 2.5.2 Button Options (for Action And Drive Buttons) --------------------------------------------- 2.5.2.01 Creating Buttons ---------------- There are two types of buttons in BOBBY: Action and Drive Buttons. Action Buttons allow you to launch other programs to possibly aid BOBBY in handling files. The Drive Buttons hold a path name so as to be used to change the path of the Active Dir Win. This is a quick way to get to directories without having to type anthing at all. To Create a new Action Button or Drive Button you will have to access the Button Options Screen. This can be done by clicking the button labelled "Button Options" found on the far right corner of the Options Screen. The creation process is very simple. After bringing up the Button Options you should see a message saying "Please Select A Button To Edit". To create an Action Button select either one of the unused 32 top facing buttons with your 'Left' mouse button or one of the unused 32 bottom facing buttons with your 'Right' mouse button (DIAGRAM:X). For Drive Buttons, select an unused area in the Drive Buttons location (DIAGRAM:U) with your 'Left' mouse button. You are allowed to scroll through the Drive Buttons by using its provided scroll bar (DIAGRAM:V). With this you can choose from a possible 24 drive buttons. By selecting one of these buttons, the message "Please Select A Button To Edit" will disappear. This message is shown in the first place to let you know that BOBBY has no idea of which button you want to perform an action on. After selecting an unused button, BOBBY will understand that you want to perform some action on the selected button, and the message will disappears. To give a name to this new button go to the area labelled "Button Name" and click inside the 3D button representation found just below it. By doing this a cursor should appear in the button, giving you access to type in a name for that button. The button will now require a full path+filename to launch (if you selected an Action Button) or just a path name (if you selected a drive button). The path for the button is entered in the window found under the "Command Line" heading. Selecting this button will allow you to type in a path. For example: -Action Button requires the full path+filename to successfully find and launch a program: C:\PROGRAM\UTILS\TC.EXE -Drive Buttons require only a path so that the dir wins can switch to: C:\PROGRAM\UTILS For Action Buttons only, the command line area allows you to add special keywords for the new button: {S} : Use this to insert the Active Dir Win's path in that location of the command line. {T} : Use this to insert the Non-Active Dir Win's path in that location of the command line. {F} : Use this to insert highlighted filenames as seen in the Active Dir Win in that location of the command line. {A} : Use this to pop up the "ARGUMENT WINDOW" to get input to be inserted at this very position. Casing plays an important part for these keywords. To take effect the above keywords must be inputted in capital letters. The areas in the command line where you decide to place these keywords will be the placing for their respective incoming data. With the {A} keyword (which brings up the argument window just before launching the desired button's command line) you are also given the opportunity to give a 30 character sentence describing what the Argument Window requests. To do this use the {""} input: {"??"} : If using the {A} keyword you are allowed to plug this in and display a message in the popped up Argument Window. The ?? is your message you want to display. Note: To take effect this message indicator must be used with the {A} keyword and must also be the first input of the command line. A space following the '}' of the {"??"} input is required. ie. {"Insert Arguments For Edit"} C:\EDIT.COM {A} [space required here] ^ For Action Buttons only, you can enter in one of the many Bobby keyword names (see section 2.4.3:SPECIAL ACTION BUTTONS). They must be entered in "Command Line" field in a special way. The keyword you select must be in all CAPITAL letters and must be the only item entered in the field. ie. Command Line: FORMAT Once Bobby sees the special keyword, it will use its designated built-in procedure for the keyword. Found just to the right of the Command Line input window is the "PATH FINDER" disk. Here you can look for a path+filename from disk and insert it into your command line. Found above and to the right of the Command Line Window is the color control area. Here you can control the colors of how an action/drive button appears on the screen. You have the option of changing the color of the Button Name and the color of the Button itself to any of the shown 16 colors. To do this, select the TEXT or BUTTON 3D button. By doing this either the words TEXT or BUTTON will be highlighted (depending on your choice). This tells you that you will be changing the color of this parameter. Now selecting one of the 16 colors will change the parameter to this color. Results of your selection can be seen in the button found under the "Button Name" heading. Some programs, once they are launched, don't like having other programs in memory and so do not function properly. There are also some programs out there that require a lot of computer memory (big enough to take your entire computer memory). For this reason BOBBY has the "Quit BOBBY On Execute" button. This button is only available for the Action Buttons and not for the Drive Buttons. This button, if on, will tell BOBBY to remove itself from memory just before launching the program. If not on, BOBBY will launch the program and keep itself in memory. Most programs can run with BOBBY still in memory but if you experience problems then you better set the "Quit Bobby On Execute" to ON. Once the program(s) have completed, BOBBY will reload itself back into memory and repop-up on screen. One last area is the HotKey for the button. All Drive and Action buttons can be accessed by a hotkey (any keystroke on the keyboard to substitute for the similar mouse clicks) defined by you. The Hotkey window is located to the right of the "Button Name" input box and is labelled "HotKey". For example: By default the PARENT command is accessed by the hotkey F6. It does this by having the hotkey F6 inserted in this hotkey window. If you'd like a hotkey for a button, click in this window and hit the key(s) you'd like for this button. Key combinations are permitted. Any duplicate keystrokes that are found in BOBBY will be notified to you and will allow you to re-enter another keystroke. Creating an Action/Drive button really isn't that difficult. The "Button Name" area is the confirmation button for the newly edited button. By clicking your 'Right' mouse button you confirm this new button and make it appear among the others in the action buttons or the drive buttons. Confirmation of a new button can also be made by selecting the DONE button of the Button Options. If you originally selected one of the top facing 32 Action buttons or Drive Buttons, once editted and confirmed, you will see this newly editted version in its orginal location. If you had selected a 'bottom' Action Button, you won't see it appear. What you will see though is a flap appear on the top Action Button to inform you that some active button is underneath this top one! 2.5.2.02 Editing Buttons --------------- To edit a buttton, you simply use your 'Left' mouse button and select the button you would like to edit. For Action Buttons, you can also use the 'Right' mouse button to get to the bottom button lying underneath the top one. After selecting a button, the information, if any, is placed in the Button Options window automatically. You can change the button name/command line/hotkey/color of the button by clicking in the area of the desired attribute. Select the "Quit Bobby On Execute" to toggle its setting on or off. On completion of editing the button, simply right mouse click the 3D button found under the "Button Name" heading or select the DONE button of the Button Options. Either choice confirms to BOBBY that you want to store the changes made. For Action Buttons, if you edit the bottom button and confirm storing it, a "PAPER FLAP" will appear on the top button (assuming there was no flap there in the first place). 2.5.2.03 Moving Buttons -------------- BOBBY allows you to move any of the 64 Action Buttons or 24 Drive Buttons around in there respective zones. All you have to do is select with the keyboard the letter 'M' or use you mouse and select the MOVE button. You will be prompted to select a button to move. On selection in either the Drive or Action Button area, you will be asked on where to move this button to. You can only move Action Buttons to other areas in the Action Buttons and Drive buttons to other areas in the Drive Buttons. For Action Buttons, to move a top button to another top location, simply select the top Action Button with your 'Left' mouse button and then select its destination area with your 'Left' mouse button as well. The two action buttons will swap places. To move a top button to a bottom button, simply 'Left' mouse click the top button to move and then 'Right' mouse click the are to move to. You will see a swap occur between the two locations; the top button moving to the location of the bottom button and the bottom button moving to the location of the top button. If you move an active button to a bottom location, a 'paper flap' will appear on the top button of the area it was moved to. As you can see, using the 'Right' mouse button with the Action Buttons gives you access to deal with bottom buttons and the 'Left' mouse button lets you deals with top buttons. For Drive Buttons, click the 'Left' mouse button to move (you can scroll through to any of the 24 buttons by using the scroll bar next to the Drive buttons) then scroll through to the desired location and click your mouse button again to move the button to this area. This will swap it with whatever was originally there. Selecting a button to move will display the contents of that selected button in the Button Options Window. If while moving you change your mind and would like to cancel the move process, you can hit the ESC key or click the MOVE button once again to cancel the operation. 2.5.2.04 Deleting Buttons ---------------- Deleting Buttons is very simple. By hitting 'D' on your keyboard or using your mouse and to select the DELETE button gives you access to delete an Action Button or a Drive Button. You will be prompted to choose a button to delete. If you are in the Action Button area, you can use your 'Left' or 'Right' mouse button to get at all 64 buttons. For the Drive Button area you can only use your 'Left' mouse button and its scroll bar to access all of its 24 buttons. After selecting one of those buttons, the contents for that button will appears in Button Options window. You are then prompted with a message asking you for confirmation of the deletion. To confirm the deletion you must select DELETE again or 'Right' mouse click the "Button Name" area. On confirmation, the button will be deleted. If you change your mind about deleting a button during the confirmation process, simply hit the ESC key on your keyboard to cancel the operation. 2.5.2.05 Adding KeyStrokes To Buttons ---------------------------- The area to do this is the HOTKEY button field. First select a button to edit. Now click inside the window just below the HOTKEY heading and you will be faced with a message asking you to enter a key combination for this particular button. You can enter almost any 1 key/2 key combination. If you type a key combo which is already used, you will be informed as to who is using it and be allowed to re-enter a new combo. Hit the ESC key to cancel the operation or the ENTER key to make the Hotkey field empty. 2.5.2.06 Quit BOBBY On Execute ---------------------- This button is located near the top left corner of the Button Options window. When highlighted it allows you to shut down BOBBY just before the launching of the program. By doing this you free up all of the memory that BOBBY is using. This is a good feature to use for memory intensive programs. If the button is not highlighted, BOBBY will remain in memory while the program is launching. This leaves the launching program with a smaller amount of memory to work with since BOBBY is stored in some of it. Most programs don't mind when such a small amount of memory of the total is not there. So, most of the time you can usually leave this button off. But if you do experience problems in launching the program, then it probably is due to not having enough memory, and so turning on the "Quit Bobby On Execute" will resolve this problem. The advantage of having the button off is that BOBBY can quickly return to the exact area you left off before launching so that you can continue your work. Once again though, the con is that the program being launched will 'probably' have problems running due to lower memory. The advantage of having the 'Quit' button on is that BOBBY will be able to run all programs since all of your computers memory will be handed over to it (assuming nothing was in memory before you came into BOBBY). The con is that on completion of the launched program, returning to BOBBY will take only a few seconds since BOBBY must reload itself from your hard drive. Once back in you will be faced with your original startup configurations (a fresh screen). 2.5.2.07 Adding Argument Windows {A} --------------------------- This special keyword is added by you into your "Command Line" input and will inform BOBBY to open an Argument Window on screen so as to accept additional required commands before launching the program. The location of where you place the {A} is where the input from the window will be placed. Make sure the keyword is presented as a capital letter 'A' enclosed in the { } brackets. For the popped up Argument Window you are allowed to give a one line message describing what the window is for when displayed to the user. To do this use the {"??"} indicator: {"??"} : If using the {A} keyword you are allowed to plug this in and display a message in the popped up Argument Window. The ?? is your message you want to display. A maximum of 30 characters can be typed. Note: To take effect this message indicator must be used with the {A} keyword and must also be the first input of the command line. A space following the '}' of the {"??"} input is also required. ie. {"Insert Arguments For Edit"} C:\EDIT.COM {A} [space required here] ^ This keyword, like all keywords is optional in inserting into your command line. 2.5.2.08 Linking Files To Buttons {F} ---------------------------- This special keyword is added by you into your "Command Line" input and will inform BOBBY to pass highlighted Active Dir Win's files to the launched program. All highlighted dirs/files will be passed. The place you insert {F} will be the area where BOBBY will insert each name individually. Once the process with the first highlight file has been completed the next highlighted one will be performed. The name passed to the launched program will have the complete path+filename. Make sure the keyword is presented as a capital letter 'F' enclosed in the { } brackets. This keyword, like all keywords is optional in inserting into your command line. 2.5.2.09 Inserting The Source Path {S} ----------------------------- This special keyword is added by you into the "Command Line" input and will inform BOBBY that you would like the Active Dir Win's path (as seen in the dir win's Path Box) inserted at that spot in the input. This can save time in having to type in the current source path everytime. You can use this keyword more than once in the input. If there is an appending filename following the keyword make sure you input a '\' to separate the two (ie. {S}\BOOM-BOX.EXE). This keyword, like all keywords is optional in inserting into your command line. 2.5.2.10 Inserting The Target Path {T} ----------------------------- This special keyword is added by you into the "Command Line" input and will inform BOBBY that you would like the Non-Active Dir Win's path (as seen in the dir win's Path Box) inserted at that spot in the input. This can save time in having to type in the current target path everytime. You are allowed to use this keyword more than once in the input. If there is an appending filename following the keyword make sure you input a '\' to separate the two (ie. {T}\BLASTER.EXE). This keyword, like all keywords is optional in inserting into your command line. 2.5.2.11 The Abort Button ---------------- This button does just that, it aborts the Button Options. All the new changes made while you were in Button Options will be restored to their original settings. This button will return you to the Options Screen. 2.5.2.12 The Done Button --------------- This button confirms all that you've done while you were in Button Options. Buttons that have been edited but not yet confirmed will be confirmed and added amongst the Action/Drive buttons once the DONE button is clicked. The Button Options will then closedown and return you back to the Options Screen. 2.5.3 Icon Options ------------ 2.5.3.01 Creating Icons -------------- Icons are those little pictures that appear inside the Icon Window. They are used in BOBBY to launch programs. Icons can be created and placed in this Icon Window very easily. By clicking on the Icon Options button found on the far right part of the Option Screen you get access to a wide variety of options dedicated to the icons. The process of creating a new icon involves clicking the ADD button found at the top of the Icon Options (or by hitting the letter 'A' on your keyboard), giving a name to the icon, inputting a path for what the icon will launch, and selecting an icon picture for how it will be seen in the icon window. To insert a name for our new icon, go to the "Icon Name" heading and click the window found below it. A cursor will appear and you will be able to type in a name. Now to give a path+filename for the icon to launch, click in the "Command Line" window and type in a full path+filename. You can also use the Path Finder disk, found to the right of the Command Line window, to help you locate the specific path+file. Now to select an icon picture for our new icon use your mouse and select 1 of the 6 icon pictures seen inside the "Icon Picture Selector Window" (see section 2.5.3.05:ICON PICTURE SELECTOR WINDOW). Click on the "Quit Bobby On Execute" toggle button found on the top left corner of the Icon Options for either quitting BOBBY just before launching the icon or keeping BOBBY in memory. Click inside the Hotkey area if you would like to provide this icon with a keystroke. By doing this only the specific keystroke would be required to run the icon (an alternative to double clicking the icon with your mouse). Once you have finished creating your new icon you can confirm its creation by clicking the ADD button again or 'Right' mouse clicking the "Icon Name" window. By clicking the DONE button of the Icon Options, confirmation can also be made for a new icon. Once confirmed the new icon will appear inside the Icon Window. If for any reason you decide that you do not want to ADD a new icon during the process, by just hitting the ESC key on your keyboard the operation will be cancelled. 2.5.3.02 Editing Icons ------------- To edit an icon, simply click an already created icon found in the Icon Window. The information about that icon will appear in the Icon Options. You now can edit any of the fields found in the Icon Options for that icon. On completion, 'Right' mouse click the "Icon Name" or select the DONE button of Icon Options to confirm changes. 2.5.3.03 Moving Icons ------------ Moving icons are very simple. By clicking and holding your 'Right' mouse button in the icon window you can pick up and drag around any of its visible icons. With this ability you are able to drop an icon anywhere in the icon window. If you drop an icon on top of another icon, the 2 icons will swap positions. If you decide to move the icon to the second page of the Icon Window, you must go to the Paging Arrows of the Icon Window and if you have more and 8 icons you will be allowed to 'Left' mouse click the Down arrow of the Paging Arrows. Make sure not to let go of the 'Right' mouse button when using the Paging Arrows (even though the icon disappears when you drag it over the Arrows, the icon is still there). (See section 2.3.4:MOVING (DRAGGING) ICONS) 2.5.3.04 Deleting Icons -------------- To Delete an icon, either hit the 'D' key on your keyboard or click the DELETE button found at the top of the Icon Options window. By doing this you will be asked to select an icon to delete. After selecting an icon from the icon window with your 'Left' mouse button you will see the icon's information placed in the Icon Options. To confirm deletion, either hit the 'D' key again, click the DELETE button again, or 'Right' mouse click on the "Icon Name" window. The icon will be removed from the Icon Window. If you decide not to delete the icon during the deleting process, just hit the ESC key on your keyboard to cancel the operation. 2.5.3.05 The Icon Picture Selector Window -------------------------------- This window, found on the far right corner of the icon options, holds 6 of the possible icons you can choose from when creating an icon. By clicking with your 'Left' mouse button on one of these icon pictures you will be selecting that picture for the icon. A outline will appear around your choice. For icons that have been previously created, the outline will appear around the picture that the icon is currently using. 2.5.3.06 Adding KeyStrokes To Icons -------------------------- By clicking inside the HOTKEY field of the Icon Options you are given the opportunity to add a keystroke to an icon. If you click inside the HOTKEY window with your 'Left' mouse button you will be faced with the HOTKEY window. Here, you can enter the desired hotkey for launching the icon with. If a duplicate match for a keystroke was found in BOBBY you will be informed and allowed to re-input a new keystroke. When the HOTKEY window is up you can hit the ESC key to cancel the operation or the ENTER key to make the HotKey field empty. 2.5.3.07 Quit BOBBY On Execute ---------------------- This button is located near the top left corner of the Icon Options window. When highlighted it allows you to shut down BOBBY just before the launching of the program. By doing this you free up all of the memory that BOBBY is using. This is a good feature to use for memory intensive programs. If the button is not highlighted, BOBBY will remain in memory while the program is launching. This leaves the launching program with a smaller amount of memory to work with since BOBBY is stored in some of it. Most programs don't mind when such a small amount of memory of the total is not there. So, most of the time you can usually leave this button off. But if you do experience problems in launching the program, then it probably is due to not having enough memory, and so turning on the "Quit Bobby On Execute" will resolve this problem. The advantage of having the button off is that BOBBY can quickly return to the exact area you left off before launching so that you can continue your work. Once again though, the con is that the program being launched will 'probably' have problems running due to lower memory. The advantage of having the 'Quit' button on is that BOBBY will be able to run all programs since all of your computers memory will be handed over to it (assuming nothing was in memory before you came into BOBBY). The con is that on completion of the launched program, returning to BOBBY will take only a few seconds since BOBBY must reload itself from your hard drive. Once back in you will be faced with your original startup configurations (a fresh screen). 2.5.3.08 Adding Argument Windows {A} --------------------------- This special keyword is added by you into your "Command Line" input and will inform BOBBY to open an Argument Window on screen so as to accept additional required commands before launching the program. The location of where you place the {A} is where the input from the window will be placed. Make sure the keyword is presented as a capital letter 'A' enclosed in the { } brackets. For the popped up Argument Window you are allowed to give a one line message describing what the window is for when displayed to the user. To do this use the {"??"} indicator: {"??"} : If using the {A} keyword you are allowed to plug this in and display a message in the popped up Argument Window. The ?? is your message you want to display. A maximum of 30 characters can be typed. Note: To take effect this message indicator must be used with the {A} keyword and must also be the first input of the command line. A space following the '}' of the {"??"} input is also required. ie. {"Insert Arguments For Edit"} C:\EDIT.COM {A} [space required here] ^ This keyword, like all keywords is optional in inserting into your command line. 2.5.3.09 Linking Files To Buttons {F} ---------------------------- This special keyword is added by you into your "Command Line" input and will inform BOBBY to pass highlighted Active Dir Win's files to the launched program. All highlighted dirs/files will be passed. The place you insert {F} will be the area where BOBBY will insert each name individually. Once the process with the first highlight file has been completed the next highlighted one will be performed. The name passed to the launched program will have the complete path+filename. Make sure the keyword is presented as a capital letter 'F' enclosed in the { } brackets. This keyword, like all keywords is optional in inserting into your command line. 2.5.3.10 Inserting The Source Path {S} ----------------------------- This special keyword is added by you into the "Command Line" input and will inform BOBBY that you would like the Active Dir Win's path (as seen in the dir win's Path Box) inserted at that spot in the input. This can save time in having to type in the current source path everytime. You can use this keyword more than once in the input. If there is an appending filename following the keyword make sure you input a '\' to separate the two (ie. {S}\BOOMBOX.EXE). This keyword, like all keywords is optional in inserting into your command line. 2.5.3.11 Inserting The Target Path {T} ----------------------------- This special keyword is added by you into the "Command Line" input and will inform BOBBY that you would like the Non-Active Dir Win's path (as seen in the dir win's Path Box) inserted at that spot in the input. This can save time in having to type in the current target path everytime. You are allowed to use this keyword more than once in the input. If there is an appending filename following the keyword make sure you input a '\' to separate the two (ie. {T}\BLASTER.EXE). This keyword, like all keywords is optional in inserting into your command line. 2.5.3.12 The Abort Button ---------------- This button does just that, it aborts the Icon Options. All the new changes made while you were in Icon Options will be restored to their original settings. This button will return you to the Options Screen. 2.5.3.13 The Done Button --------------- This button confirms all that you've done while you were in Icon Options. Icons that have been edited but not yet confirmed will be confirmed and added amongst the other icons in the Icon Window once the DONE button is clicked. The Icon Options will then closedown and return you back to the Options Screen. 2.5.4 Alert Controls -------------- The Alert Controls Area is the section for setting (ON/OFF) Bobby's 'User Attention Getters'. The attenton getters Bobby uses are speaker beeps, screen flashes, and the Delete "POP UP" Requestor. 2.5.4.01 The Delete "POP UP" Requestor ---------------------------- If this button is ON (highlighted), whenever you select the DELETE command to delete highlighted files in the Active Dir Win, a 'Confirmation Window' will pop up just before the deleting action occurs. The 'Confirmation Window' will ask you if you'd like to: CONTINUE and delete the file, CANCEL the whole deleting action, SKIP the deletion of the particular file, delete ALL the highlighted files in the Active Dir Win. The Delete Requestor helps you from inadvertantly deleting any important files. 2.5.4.02 Speaker Alert Effect -------------------- If this button is ON (highlighted), whenever a warning/error message window pops up a "beep-beep" will be heard from your computer speaker. This can be very useful to get your attention focused on a possible problem. 2.5.4.03 Flashing The Screen ------------------- If this button is ON (highlighted), whenever a warning/error message window pops up your screen will flash. This can be very useful to get your attention focused on a possible problem. 2.5.5 Environmental SfX Controls --------------------------- These controls, found at the top centre of the Option Screen, is an optional feature that gives you the capability of setting a sound file to certain areas in BOBBY. As mentioned in section 2.4.3.17:PLAY A SOUND, BOBBY is capable of playing .wav and .voc sound file formats. These controls are made up of six buttons that can be defined in having a sound. They are: Action/Drive Buttons, Help Button, Left Directory Window, Right Directory Window, BOBBY's Startup, and the Quit Window. Found just below these 6 buttons is an input area which informs you of the current path to a sound file for one of these buttons or can be used to type a path to a sound file. Found to the right of this is a pictorial display of a disk. This disk is used to access the Path Finder (see section 2.5.12:PATH FINDER) which can make finding paths and files much faster. To add a path to a sound file either click inside this path window and type in the path with the file name of the sound file, or click on the disk icon bringing up the Path Finder to help you locate this file. Found inside the Path Finder is a special 'Hear' button that will allow you to hear the located sound file before accepting its path. 2.5.5.01 A Word On Sound Files --------------------- Because these controls can run sound files some points must be made about the files you choose. If a sound file is less than or equal to 65 Kbytes in size BOBBY will play the sound in its entirety. But if greater there is that possibility of being stopped during its play when the mouse button or keyboard is hit. It is recommended that you select files less than or equal to 65 Kbytes, but it is not required. Six sound files have been supplied with BOBBY for you to possibly use. 2.5.5.02 Sound For Action/Drive Buttons ------------------------------ The Action/Drive buttons are, as you may already know, the user defineable buttons found in the bottom half region of the main BOBBY display screen (DIAGRAM:U,X). You can define a sound file for these buttons so that when you click on any of them it will make a sound. To set up a sound file for the Action/Drive buttons select the 'BUTTONS' button in this control area. And once it changes color this indicates you have selected it for either displaying the path inside the path window found below these buttons or giving/editing a path in it. The Path Finder icon is also available for use. 2.5.5.03 Sound For The Help Window ------------------------- The Help button,located at the bottom right corner next to BOBBY's Information Bar (DIAGRAM:0), which is displayed with an enigma (?), is used to pop up the Online Help window. You can define a sound file for when this Help window does pop up. To set up a sound file for the Help window select the 'HELP' button in the SFX Control area. And once it changes color this indicates you have selected it for either displaying the path inside the path window found below these buttons or giving/editing a path in it. The Path Finder icon is also available for use. 2.5.5.04 Sound For The Left Directory Window ----------------------------------- The Left Directory Window is located as the large left window found in the top half region of the main BOBBY display screen (DIAGRAM:A-C). By setting up a sound file for this window everytime you make this window active from a non-active state it will cause this sound file to be played. The directory window aiders--the dir win Information Bar, Scroll Bar, Path Input Box, and Pattern Input Box -- will also play the sound file since they too can make the window active. To set up a sound file for the Left Directory Window select the 'LEFT DIR' button in this control area. And once it changes color this indicates you have selected it for either displaying the path inside the path window found below these buttons or giving/editing a path in it. The Path Finder icon is also available for use. 2.5.5.05 Sound For The Right Directory Window ------------------------------------ The Right Directory Window is located as the large right window found in the top half region of the main BOBBY display screen (DIAGRAM:K-M). By setting up a sound file for this window everytime you make this window active from a non-active state it will cause this sound file to be played. The directory window aiders--the dir win Information Bar, Scroll Bar, Path Input Box, and Pattern Input Box -- will also play the sound file since they too can make the window active. To set up a sound file for the Right Directory Window select the 'RIGHT DIR' button in this control area. And once it changes color this indicates you have selected it for either displaying the path inside the path window found below these buttons or giving/editing a path in it. The Path Finder icon is also available for use. 2.5.5.06 Sound For BOBBY's Startup ------------------------- When BOBBY begins for the first time, on its startup, you have the option of playing a sound at that time. To set up a sound file for BOBBY's startup select the 'STARTUP' button in this control area. And once it changes color this indicates you have selected it for either displaying the path inside the path window found below these buttons or giving/editing a path in it. The Path Finder icon is also available for use. 2.5.5.07 Sound For The Quit Window ------------------------- The Quit window is the window you see just before quitting out of BOBBY. It is accessible either by clicking on the 'Q' button found at the bottom left corner of the main BOBBY display screen, next to BOBBY's Information Bar. By adding a sound to the window you get to here a sound just before decisively quitting or entering Dos. To set up a sound file for the Quit Window select the 'QUIT' button in this control area. And once it changes color this indicates you have selected it for either displaying the path inside the path window found below these buttons or giving/editing a path in it. The Path Finder icon is also available for use. 2.5.6 Showing New Files Since XX Days ------------------------------- This section of the main Option Screen, located just off to the right of the centre of the Screen, and below the Environmental SFX Controls, is used in controlling the new files that are displayed in the directory windows. The range for new files go from 0 to 365 days. A 0 input tells BOBBY to turn off the new files display. The range from 1 to 365 days tells BOBBY to look for all the files that lie in the range from today's date and back as many days specified in this input area. New files in the directory window are seen as those files with there file dates in a different color. By default this color is Blue. There is a keyword called NEW that can be used inside either of the Directory Window's Pattern Input Box (section 2.1.6:DIRECTORY WINDOW PATTERN INPUT BOX) or the Mark button (section 2.4.3.12:MARK). This gives you the ability to access these New files and do what ever you'd like with them. For the New feature to work properly make sure your system clock is set to today's date. 2.5.7 Setting The Screen Blanker Time ------------------------------- The screen blanker time setting window is located just to right of the New Files Since window. This is found near the far right corner of the main Options screen. The screen blanker is a timed delayed screen dimmer. By using this you can help prevent any damages that can occur to your monitor and even increase its life. This window controls the length of time that must go by without any mouse or keyboard activity before screen dimming. The range goes from 0 to 10 minutes. 0 tells BOBBY to turn off the screen blanker all together. 2.5.8 Directory Buffering ------------------- The Directory Buffering toggle (radio) button found right below the New Files Since window is used to toggle the memory of previous directories in a path. By having such a memory, marked (highlighted) files and directories of the previous directories found in the path will be remembered on return. This feature is dependent on the amount of memory you have installed on your system. The more memory you have the larger the directory buffering. 2.5.9 Color Controls -------------- Color controlling for different parts in BOBBY is permitted. You can adjust the system color palette, change the color of how files or directories are displayed in BOBBY, and change the the highlight background color for files or directories. With this feature you can make BOBBY more like home. The color controls are found on the far left corner of the main Options Screen, just below the Alert Controls. 2.5.9.01 Altering Palette Colors ----------------------- Found in the far left portion of the color controls is the palette adjuster. There are visibly three scroll bars paralleling each other. The first scroll bar represents the Red color control, the second is the Green color control, and the third is the Blue color control. By using these three bars together you can change an existing color found in the system palettes. The window display found to the left of the scroll bars is the color you are currently working with. So any changes you make on the scroll bar will have an effect in changing that color. To change to a different color of the 16 possible click one of the 16 displayed color boxes found to the right of these scroll bars. Once you choose a color the box holding that color will stay pressed down indicating to you which color you will be working with. The drag-box on the scroll bar can be clicked and dragged in the up or down direction. Moving the scroll bar up increases the intensity of that color control. Moving the scroll bar down does the reverse and decreases the intensity. Jump zones are provided in the scroll bars as well. You can take advantage of this capability by clicking in the dark regions of the scroll bar. You can also use the provided directional arrows for color adjusting too. 2.5.9.02 Giving Color To Files --------------------- You can change the color on how files are displayed in the directory windows and their background highlight color. To do this select either the 'Files' button under the NO HIGHLIGHT heading to change the color of how files are displayed in the directory windows or select the 'Files' button under the HIGHLIGHT heading to change the background color of how files will look when they are highlighted. Once clicked the currently given color becomes the active color you are working with. By choosing a different color or adjusting the present working color this will have the effect of determining how files will look in the directory windows. Found below, pass the 'Directory' button is a provided example that shows the file name in the new color so it will be easier to make decisions on how files are displayed. 2.5.9.03 Giving Color To Directories --------------------------- Like files, directories can also change their color appearances in the directory windows. The color of the directory name or its highlight back- ground can be altered. To do this select either the 'Directory' button under the NO HIGHLIGHT heading to change the color of how directories are displayed in the directory windows or select the 'Directory' button under the HIGHLIGHT heading to change the background color of how directories will look when they are highlighted. Once clicked the currently given color becomes the active color you are working with. By choosing a different color or adjusting the present working color this will have the effect of determining how directories will look in the directory windows. Found below this area is a provided example that shows the directory name in the new color so it will be easier to make decisions on how directories are displayed. 2.5.10 Startup Directories ------------------- When BOBBY begins for the first time, everytime, it looks to the Startup Directories for any paths to put into the empty directory windows. This gives you the ability to get started right away in commonly used paths when you come into BOBBY. These Startup Directories are located at the bottom left of the main Options Screen. 2.5.10.01 Left/Right Directory Window Path -------------------------------- The 'Left Directory Window Startup Path' is found above the 'Right Directory Window Path'. By clicking inside one or both of these path inputs you can input from the keyboard the path for where BOBBY should access on its startup. By using the 'Up arrow cursor' or the 'Down arrow cursor' on your keyboard you can flip through paths that have been previously provided to that directory window. So by using the arrow keys inside the left window startup path you can flip through paths that have been given to the actual Left Directory Window Path Input Box found on BOBBY's main screen. The same is true with the 'Right Directory Window Startup Path'. You can also use the 'Shift (Right arrow cursor)' to help finish directory names that you are typing. The 'Shift (Left arrow cursor)' can also be used to clear the current line you are working with. Actually the Startup Directory Window Path performs exactly like the ones found on BOBBY's main screen (see section 2.1.5: DIRECTORY WINDOW PATH INPUT BOX or section 3.2:THE BUILT-IN KEYS AND MOUSE ACTIONS IN BOBBY for details). Found to the right of either of the startup directories is the Path Finder disk icon, these give you the ability to go hunting throughout your disk systems for a specific path. Once found the Path Finder will place this path inside the chosen Startup Path Box. 2.5.10.02 Left/Right Directory Window Pattern Box --------------------------------------- The pattern box for the left and right directory windows are also available for startup use. This area controls the pattern of files to show for the given startup path. By default if nothing is entered here it represents ALL and will show all the files in the given path. The pattern box actually is linked to its appropriate Directory Window Pattern Box found on BOBBY's main screen and so the capability of flipping through previous inputted patterns are available (see section 2.1.6: DIRECTORY WINDOW PATTERN INPUT BOX or section 3.2:THE BUILT-IN KEYS AND MOUSE ACTIONS IN BOBBY). 2.5.11 BOBBY'S MAIN HOTKEYS -------------------- Found on the far right corner of the Options screen is BOBBY's Main Hotkeys. These are the user given key combos for specific activities in BOBBY. There are a total of four main hotkeys in BOBBY. They are the keystroke to Enter Dos, to Enter Dos +, for popping up the Online Help, and for popping up the Quit Window. By clicking inside the window that shows the keystroke for one of headings: 'To Dos','To Dos+', 'Help', or 'Quit' this will pop up a window asking for the key combo you would like to give for this action. By hitting the ESC key you can cancel this window and pop it down. By hitting the ENTER key no key combo will be assigned to that action. By providing a keystroke from your keyboard (besides the ESC and ENTER keys) this will tell BOBBY to assign that key combo to that activity. So if I had assigned the ALT-X (the 'alt' key with the letter 'x') key combo to the Quit Window then by using this combo on the main screen it would automatically pop up the Quit Window. Any keys given for the key input that are duplicates of any already used keys in BOBBY will display an error message telling you of this, tell you which action uses it, and allow you to input a different key combo. If no duplicate key combo was found in BOBBY this window will pop down and your newly provided keystroke will appear under that specific window heading. 2.5.11.01 Keystroke To Enter Dos ---------------------- This keystroke is used in accessing Dos immediately. By hitting this combo on BOBBY's main screen it will take you to Dos immediately. 2.5.11.02 Keystroke To Enter Dos+ ----------------------- This keystroke is used in accessing the Dos+ feature immediately. See section 2.9.3:THE DOS+ BUTTON for details on what Dos+ is. By hitting this key combo on BOBBY's main screen it will take you to Dos+ immediately. 2.5.11.03 Keystroke For Online Help ------------------------- This keystroke is used in accessing the Online Help feature found available in almost every location of BOBBY. The Online Help button is the button always found at the bottom right corner of the screen with an enigma (?) shown in it. By using this key combo in most places in BOBBY you can bring up the Online Help feature immediately. Please see details on the Online Help in section 2.8:ONLINE HELP. 2.5.11.04 Keystroke For the Quit Window ----------------------------- This keystroke is used in bringing up the Quit Window where there you can decide to quit BOBBY or go to Dos/Dos+. By using this keystroke combo in BOBBY's main screen you can bring up the Quit Window immediately. Please see details on the Quit Window in section 2.9:"QUITTING BOBBY?". 2.5.12 The Path Finder --------------- The Path Finder found throughout the entire BOBBY program is a way of getting a path from disk by using a scaled down version of a directory window. With this capability you can get paths quicker and with no keyboard mistypes. The path finder is located more commonly inside the Options Screen and can also be found in the Format window. The path finder is represented throughout BOBBY as a disk icon picture that precides near an input window. By clicking the disk icon it activates the path finder and brings up its own window on top of what is presently on screen. Located below the Path Finder title heading, when the Path Finder window does pop up, is a description of who is calling the Path Finder. Found near the bottom part of the window is a PARENT button which will take you back one directory in the current path and a DONE button which confirms your path and closes down the window. In the centre portion of the window is a screen that resembles the directory windows seen on the main BOBBY sreen. There is also a scroll bar you can use to move through the directory listings and a path input bar for you to either type in and jump to a path or just display one. By selecting a file or double clicking on a directory name it will place that name down in its path bar. By double clicking a directory it will jump inside that directory and show you the contents of this new path. You will immediately see that this window truly is a scaled down version and it is not just referring to its small display size. Most of the special keys found available with the directory windows are eliminated in here. However, the up arrow key and the down arrow key are still available, which moves the scroll bar in the direction depending on the key, by a single name at a time, if possible. The other keys that are still are available can be found in section 3.2:THE BUILT-IN KEYS AND MOUSE ACTIONS IN BOBBY. The "Hear" Button, found at the bottom left corner of the Path Finder Window, will only be seen and be active for the "Environmental SFX Controls". Use this button to hear the sounds for the files before accepting them in to the path. To create an environmental sound refer to section 2.5.5: ENVIRONMENTAL SFX CONTROLS for details. 2.5.13 Option's USE Button ------------------- The USE button found at the bottom of the Option's screen is used to accept the current settings in Options so you can see the effect it has around BOBBY. This does not save the settings to disk so if you don't like something you had previously done in Options you can just quit BOBBY and reload it back again to reset BOBBY back to its original settings. If you like the settings make sure you go back to the Option Screen and click the 'Save' button to store these changes to disk. 2.5.14 Option's SAVE Button -------------------- The Save button is used to store the settings that have been made in the Option screen to disk. By doing this three files called "Syscfg.bob", "Butcfg.bob", and "Icons.bob" will be created and all of the configuration settings you have made in the Option Screen will be saved. Once saved, the Option Screen will close down and place you back at the main BOBBY screen with the new changes taking immediate effect around the environment. To revert back to BOBBY's built-in default Option settings delete the "Syscfg.bob", "Butcfg.bob", and "Icons.bob" files from the "Config" directory in your BOBBY directory and reload BOBBY over again. See section 1.3:THINGS TO KNOW AFTER INSTALLING BOBBY for a description on what each of these files are used for in BOBBY. 2.5.15 Option's ABORT Button --------------------- The Abort button is used to cancel any changes that you may have made in the Option Screen. This button does not cancel any changes made to the Button Options or the Icon Options. 2.6 THE TECH INFO WINDOW -------------------- This hidden window can be accessed by clicking in the area that holds the free/total memory displayS as shown at the bottom left corner of the screen on the BOBBY Information Bar (DIAGRAM:Z). This Window can only be accessed when in the main BOBBY screen. If you've ever caught the free/total memory display flashing at the bottom of the screen when you enter BOBBY for the first time this is just a way of getting your attention at where you can access the Tech Info window. The Tech Info Window is a window which holds the technical information about your machine. Such things as joystick activity, memory breakdowns, serial activity, etc. The reason it is tucked away so cleverly is because most non-technical people don't understand this stuff and so there is no point trying to promote it since it will make the program hard to understand for these people. What people do undertstand and need to be aware of is free memory space and total memory space which is displayed as I said outside the tech window, and even in it. There is a memory breakdown area found in this window which shows the real 'technical' breakdown of the free memory (XMS/EMS/Conventional). 2.7 THE SEARCH WINDOW ----------------- 2.7.1 What And Where Is It? --------------------- The Search Window is found available through a button labelled 'Search' when Viewing a text/binary file or when reading through the manual accessed through the Online Help window. It is located at the bottom right corner of the view/manual window. When clicked on this brings up the Search Window which gives you access to a variety of search functions for use on the currently reading text/binary file. You can hunt for a single word or even an entire sentence in the entire body of a file. 2.7.2 Things to Know When Searching ----------------------------- When you use the Search Window to search for text in a file you are given a maximum typing field of 120 characters. By bringing up this window you are only permitted to click the 'Search' button or the 'Done' button and not the 'Next' button since we are beginning a search for the first time. Once you click search and a match has been found, the 'Next' button will be available to jump to the next possible match. If a match has been found in the file, the view window found underneath the Search Window, will automatic- ally place you onto the page of the matched text and highlight it. Text that has been matched that appears partially on one line and the rest on the next are highlighted in these two different locations. 2.7.3 The Input To Search For ----------------------- The text input field for the Search Window is found near the top of the display. When entering the Search Window for the first time with no original text input you will be automatically placed inside this field so that you can type in a search name immediately. To confirm the inputted search name either use your mouse button to click on one of the buttons found below it or by hitting your 'Enter' key. 2.7.4 Dragging Around The Search Window --------------------------------- Found displayed at the top right hand corner of the search window is a small text display saying MOVABLE. What this is trying to tell you is that this window can be moved around the screen. If the search window happens to be in the way of the text display found underneath it just drag and drop the window somewhere else on the screen. To do this just click and hold your 'Left' mouse button on top of the "Search Window" heading zone. At this point you should see a neat outline display appear around the Search Window. What this is telling you is that you are about to move this window. Now while holding down your 'Left' mouse button move your mouse cursor around the screen. You should see a rectangular outline display that matches the size of the search window moving with your cursor. Now release your mouse button and you should see the search window move to this new location thus letting you see the information that was originally hidden underneath it. 2.7.5 Searching As A Whole Word ------------------------- This toggling button is used to determine if the input given in the text field is to be matched as a whole word if turned on or be part of other words if turned off. For example, if you were looking for the word MARKET and set the Whole Word button 'on' then matches will only be of words in the file that show MARKET by itself. But if the button is turned off MARKET could get matches like TELEMARKET, and MARKETING. What is considered a whole word is any word(s) that is separated at the beginning and end by any of the following: (space) " : ; . , ! [ ] ( ) - ? / \ 2.7.6 Uppercase=Lowercase? -------------------- A toggle button that determines if case sensitivity is to be a factor when searching for text in the file. If the toggle button is on, case sensitivity is not a factor, but content is. Toggling off will make it look for the matching text input with casing a very important part in finding a match. 2.7.7 Searching From The Current Position ----------------------------------- A toggle button that determines where the searching process should begin. If this button is toggled 'on' then the current location of where your view/ manual window is, is where the search process will begin. When it is toggled off the search begins either from the very top or from the very bottom (depending on if you have selected the Forward or the Backwards button). 2.7.8 Searching Forward/Backwards --------------------------- These buttons are found inside the search window which allow you to determine the direction of the search. It is located near the bottom of the search window with the Forward button on the left and the Backwards button on the right. Clicking the forward button will make the search move forward through the file while the backwards button will make it move backwards. Only one of the buttons can be on at any given time. 2.7.9 Using the "Search" Button ------------------------- This button is the button you click on to begin the search process. By using this button you can find the first match in the file as determined by the settings you have made in the window. Once a match is found, if the Search Window happens to be in the way of where the match is located on screen the search window will automatically move itself to a location that isn't in the way. 2.7.10 Using the "Next" Button ----------------------- This button becomes active once you have used and successfully have found a first match by the 'Search' button. With this button you can continue from the location of the first match and find any other matches that may exist thereafter. Once a match is found, if the Search Window happens to be in the way of where the match is located on screen the search window will automatically move itself to a location that isn't in the way. 2.8 ONLINE HELP ----------- The Online Help feature offered in BOBBY is your way of accessing help on most of the windows and buttons found in BOBBY auto-"magic"-ally. 2.8.1 What And Where Is it? --------------------- The Online Help button is located at the bottom right hand corner of the screen, near BOBBY's information bar (DIAGRAM:0). It is denoted with the enigma (?) symbol. By clicking on it this brings up the Online Help window which is a window for immediate help for use on the currently active window. The information presented serves as a summarized version of what is found in the manual. If the Online Help button is permitted to be used you will be able to click in this area and bring it up, but if it isn't you should see that the button will be dimmed down indicating you cannot use it at this time and it won't be able to activate when clicked. 2.8.2 How It Works ------------ By popping up the available Online Help window you are able to select possible zones or buttons for the currently active window. So if the Copy As window was up on the screen right now, by using the Online Help Window you can only select the zones and buttons that appear in thie Copy As window. By selecting one of these zones/buttons it brings up a summarized description on that zone/button and how to use it (with possible examples). 2.8.3 The Online Help Scroll Bar -------------------------- This scroll bar is used in controlling where in the display you would like to be in the Online Help window. If the help text pertaining to a zone/ button appears to go pass the possible size of the window the scroll bar will be permitted to be used. Drag-Box dragging, jumping to new pages, and using the directional arrow keys are all permitted via the mouse. You can also use the up arrow and down arrow keys on your keyboard to move the scroll bar in that direction too. 2.8.4 Online Help's MANUAL Button --------------------------- This button is used to access the manual you are reading now. The unique thing about it is that when accessed through the Online Help the manual will jump to the related topic of the current window. Once the manual is up it is like Viewing A File (see section 2.4.3.22:VIEW A TEXT FILE) but once you close down the manual the online help will have turned itself off thus giving you back full control over the current window. 2.8.5 Dragging Around the Help Window ------------------------------- Found displayed at the top right hand corner of the help window is a small text display saying MOVABLE. What this is trying to tell you is that this window can be moved around the screen. If the help window happens to be in the way of the text display found underneath it just drag and drop the window somewhere else on the screen. To do this just click and hold your 'Left' mouse button on top of the "Help Window" heading zone. At this point you should see a neat outline display appear around the help window. What this is telling you is that you are about to move this window. Now while holding down your 'Left' mouse button move your mouse cursor around the screen. You should see a rectangular outline display that matches the size of the help window moving with your cursor. Now release your mouse button and you should see the help window move to this new location thus letting you see the information that was originally hidden underneath it. 2.9 QUITTING BOBBY? --------------- 2.9.1 What And Where Is It? --------------------- The Quit Window for BOBBY can be brought up by clicking the bottom left button on BOBBY's main screen (DIAGRAM:Y). This button is labelled with a 'Q'. When this window is up you are given the opportunity to quit BOBBY, or jump to Dos/Dos+ (keeping BOBBY in memory). The Quit Window is only available to be brought up when on the main BOBBY screen. Anywhere else the 'Q' button will appear dimmed and won't be available to be clicked. The Quit button found in the window is explanatory, but the other two features, 'Jump To Dos', and 'Jump to Dos+' need to be explained. 2.9.2 The "DOS" Button ---------------- Found inside and to the far right of the Quit Window, this button is used to jump to Dos while still having BOBBY in memory. This feature gives you the ability to do whatever you'd like in ordinary Dos. To return back to BOBBY however you must type 'exit' at the Dos prompt. You can assign a key combo to this button so you can jump to Dos immediately instead of having to pop up the Quit Window all the time. To assign a key combo refer to section 2.5.11.01:KEYSTROKE TO ENTER DOS. 2.9.3 The "DOS+" Button ----------------- Found inside and to the far right of the Quit Window, this button is used to jump to Dos while still having BOBBY in memory. The unique feature that makes this button different from the Dos button, found just above it in the Quit Window, is when you jump to Dos the path you are placed in is the path that you had in the Active Dir Win. When EXITing from Dos, the path you were in last is passed to BOBBY and this path becomes the new path for the currently Active Dir Win. With this feature you can save time in getting to the same path as the Active Dir Win when jumping to Dos and to the same path as Dos when returning to BOBBY; Especially useful if it was a long path name that is hard to remember. You can assign a key combo to this button so you can jump to Dos+ immediately instead of having to pop up the Quit Window all the time. To assign a key combo refer to section 2.5.11.02:KEYSTROKE TO ENTER DOS+. Chapter Three MISCELLANEOUS ============= 3.1 BOBBY'S MAIN SCREEN DIAGRAM --------------------------- ________________________________ __ __ __________________________________ | [D] [E] [F] ||[G]|[Q]| [N] [O] [P] | |________________________________|| || ||__________________________________| ________________________________ | || | __________________________________ | [A] | [B] [C] || || || [K] | [L] [M] | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | || || || | | | | ||__||__|| | | | | ||[H]|[R]| | | |___________|____________________||__||__||_____________|____________________| | [I] | [J] || || || [S] | [T] | |_______________________|________||__||__||_________________________|________| _______________________________________________________________ _______ __ | | | | [U] ||[V]| [W] |[2] |_______|| || | | | || ||____________________________________________________________|__| |_______|| | ______________________________________________________________ | || || [X] | | | | | | | |_______|| ||________|________|________|________|________|________|________| | || || | | | | | | | |_______|| ||________|________|________|________|________|________|________| | || || | | | | | | | |_______|| ||________|________|________|________|________|________|________| | || || | | | | | | | |_______||__||________|________|________|________|________|________|________| ____ ______________________________________________________________________ |[Y]|| [Z] | |[0]|[1]| |___||______________________|_______________________________________|___|___| """""""""""""""""""""" LEFT DIRECTORY WINDOW: [A] : This Column Holds The Directory And File Names Of The Current Path [B] : This Column Holds The File Sizes In Bytes [C] : This Column Holds The File Dates LEFT DIRETORY WINDOW INFORMATION BAR: [D] : Drive Name Of The Current Path [E] : Tallied Marked File/Directory Bytes [F] : Free Space On That Disk LEFT DIRECTORY WINDOW SCROLL BAR: [G] : Dragabble/Jumpable Scrolling Region of the Bar [H] : Directional Arrows That Can Control The Bar [I] : LEFT DIRECTORY WINDOW PATH INPUT BOX [J] : LEFT DIRECTORY WINDOW PATTERN INPUT BOX RIGHT DIRECTORY WINDOW: [K] : This Column Holds The Directory And File Names Of The Current Path [L] : This Column Holds The File Sizes In Bytes [M] : This Column Holds The File Dates RIGHT DIRETORY WINDOW INFORMATION BAR: [N] : Drive Name Of The Current Path [O] : Tallied Marked File/Directory Bytes [P] : Free Space On That Disk RIGHT DIRECTORY WINDOW SCROLL BAR: [Q] : Dragabble/Jumpable Scrolling Region of the Bar [R] : Directional Arrows That Can Control The Bar [S] : RIGHT DIRECTORY WINDOW PATH INPUT BOX [T] : RIGHT DIRECTORY WINDOW PATTERN INPUT BOX [U] : DRIVE BUTTONS [V] : DRIVE BUTTONS SCROLL BAR - Dragabble/Jumpable [W] : ICON WINDOW [X] : ACTION BUTTONS [Y] : QUIT BUTTON [Z] : FREE/TOTAL MEMORY DISPLAY AND TECH INFO BUTTON [0] : ONLINE HELP BUTTON [1] : OPTIONS BUTTON [2] : ICON WINDOW PAGING ARROWS 3.2 The Built-In Keys and Mouse Actions Found in BOBBY -------------------------------------------------- LEFT/RIGHT DIRECTORY WINDOWS ---------------------------- Keys: ````` TAB : Make the Non-Active Directory Window the active one. (Up Cursor Key) : The Active Directory Window's scroll bar will attempt to move up. (Down Cursor Key) : The Active Directory Window's scroll bar will attempt to move down. PAGE-UP : Scroll Bar will attempt to jump one screen up of unseen names found in the Active Directory Window. PAGE-DOWN : Scroll Bar will attempt to jump one screen down of unseen names found in the Active Directory Window. HOME : Scroll Bar will jump to the very top of the active directory window path. END : Scroll Bar will jump to the very bottom of the active directory window path. Mouse: `````` + RIGHT BUTTON in the window will make the window active (if it wasn't) and attempt to scroll the display found in the window in that direction (half way up makes it scroll up; half way down makes it scroll down). This is equivalent to using the scroll bar. + LEFT OR RIGHT BUTTON on the Directory Window Information Box (found above each Directory Window) will make that window the active one (it will turn pink -- default color). + LEFT BUTTON while highlighting (or dehighlighting) names and moving just pass the last file displayed (or the first file displayed) of the window will make the window scroll and highlight (or dehighlight) names in that direction. + LEFT BUTTON on any of the names in the Active Directory Window and then a double-click by your RIGHT BUTTON in the Non-Active Directory Window will place the Non-Active Directory Window into the path that name represents (and make this window the active one). If the name was a directory you will be placed in the directory of that name. If the name was a file you will be placed in the same path as where this file is located. LEFT/RIGHT DIRECTORY WINDOW PATH INPUT BOX: ------------------------------------------- * You must make this Input Box active by clicking inside of it. You should see the box change color and a cursor appear. Keys: ````` (Up Cursor Key) : Flip through any available previous paths that may have appeared in this box. (Down Cursor Key) : Flip forward through any available paths that may have appeared in this box. (Right Cursor Key): Move the cursor found anywhere in the inputted path to the right. (Left Cursor Key) : Move the cursor found anywhere in the inputted path to the left. HOME : Jump to the very beginning of the path input. END : Jump to the very end of the path input. DEL : Delete the character(s) in the path found to the right of the shown cursor. BKSpce : Delete the character(s) in the path found to the left of the shown cursor. SHIFT-Right Cursor: Complete the unfinished directory name of the path you have inputted in the box. The more letters you provide for the directory name the more accurate its displayed choice. SHIFT-Left Cursor : Delete the entire path input found in the box and place the cursor at the very beginning. ESC : Cancel the input you have made in the box and put back the original path. ENTER : Confirm the input in the box and show it (as seen by its contents in the Directory Window). Paths that are given in the box that are not found will make the box move continuously back one directory until it does find a path it can access. Mouse: `````` + LEFT BUTTON will place the cursor on the character the button was clicked on. + RIGHT BUTTON in the left half portion of the box will flip through any available previous paths that may have appeared in this box. + RIGHT BUTTON in the right half portion of the box will flip forward through any available paths that may have appeared in this box. LEFT/RIGHT DIRECTORY WINDOW PATTERN INPUT BOX: ---------------------------------------------- * You must make this Input Box active by clicking inside of it. You should see a cursor appear. Keys: ````` (Up Cursor Key) : Flip through any available previous patterns that may have appeared in this box. (Down Cursor Key) : Flip forward through any available patterns that may have appeared in this box. (Right Cursor Key): Move the cursor found anywhere in the inputted pattern to the right. (Left Cursor Key) : Move the cursor found anywhere in the inputted pattern to the left. HOME : Jump to the very beginning of the pattern input. END : Jump to the very end of the pattern input. DEL : Delete the character(s) in the pattern found to the right of the shown cursor. BKSpce : Delete the character(s) in the pattern found to the left of the shown cursor. SHIFT-Left Cursor : Delete the entire pattern input found in the box and place the cursor at the very beginning. ESC : Cancel the input you have made in the box and put back the original pattern. ENTER : Confirm the input in the box and show the pattern of files that may appear in the path. Patterns that are given in the box that are not found will show NO FILES in that Directory Window. Mouse: `````` + LEFT BUTTON will place the cursor on the character the button was clicked on. + RIGHT BUTTON in the left half portion of the box will flip through any available previous patterns that may have appeared in this box. + RIGHT BUTTON in the right half portion of the box will flip forward through any available patterns that may have appeared in this box. ANY POPPED UP WINDOWS: ---------------------- * These are the windows that are brought up by clicked commands or available options found in BOBBY. Keys: ````` ESC : Cancel the activity and close down this window. Note: If the cursor is active in an input area of the window the ESC key will cancel out of the input and another ESC hit will close the window. ENTER : Accept and proceed with the activity that the window is presenting. The triangle display found on one of the windows' buttons is the button that the ENTER key represents. "VIEW A TEXT/BINARY FILE" WINDOW: --------------------------------- Keys: ````` (Up Cursor Key) : The text window's scroll bar will attempt to move up. (Down Cursor Key) : The text window's scroll bar will attempt to move down. PAGE-UP : Scroll Bar will attempt to jump one screen up of unseen lines found in the window. PAGE-DOWN : Scroll Bar will attempt to jump one screen down of unseen lines found in the window. HOME : Scroll Bar will jump to the very top of the file. END : Scroll Bar will jump to the very bottom of the file. ESC : Close down the View Window and go back to the manin BOBBY screen. ENTER : Proceed to the next file to view (if any). If no other files are left to view this key will close down the View Window and go back to the main BOBBY screen. Mouse: `````` + RIGHT BUTTON in the window that holds the text display will scroll through any of the display not seen in the window. The top half region of the window represents going up and the bottom half region going down. This is equivalent to using the available scroll bar. PATH FINDER: ------------ Keys: ````` *When in the Path Input Area* (Right Cursor Key): Move the cursor found anywhere in the inputted path to the right. (Left Cursor Key) : Move the cursor found anywhere in the inputted path to the left. HOME : Jump to the very beginning of the path input. END : Jump to the very end of the path input. DEL : Delete the character(s) in the path found to the right of the shown cursor. BKSpce : Delete the character(s) in the path found to the left of the shown cursor. SHIFT-Right Cursor: Complete the unfinished directory name of the path you have inputted in the box. The more letters you provide for the directory name the more accurate its displayed choice. SHIFT-Left Cursor : Delete the entire path input found in the box and place the cursor at the very beginning. ESC : Cancel the input you have made in the box and put back the original path. ENTER : Confirm the input in the box and show it (as seen by its contents in the Window). Paths that are given in the box that are not found will make the box move continuously back one directory until it does find a path it can access. *When NOT in the Path Input Area* (Up Cursor Key) : The window's scroll bar will attempt to move up. (Down Cursor Key) : The window's scroll bar will attempt to move down. ESC : Cancel the Path Finder Window and close it down. ENTER : Confirm the path found in this window to have placed in an input area. The window will close down. 3.3 GLOSSARY OF BOBBY'S SPECIAL WORDS --------------------------------- ACTION BUTTONS: ``````````````` These buttons (DIAGRAM:X) are used to hold the built-in commands found in BOBBY or hold commands supplied by you to have launched. There are a total of 64 Action Buttons: 32 top facing, and another 32 bottom facing. Please refer to section 2.4:ACTION BUTTONS for more detail. ACTIVE DIR WIN: ``````````````` (The Active DIRectory WINdow) This term is used to refer to the directory window which has the highlighted Directory Window Information Bar (DIAGRAM:D,E,F for Dir Win 1 or N,O,P for Dir Win 2). The Dir Win with the highlighted Information Bar is the active window and all action will occur in it; This window is the SOURCE for all actions. ARGUMENT WINDOWS: ````````````````` These windows are only available when launching a program. You can bring it up by using the RUN command found on one of the Action Buttons or by using the {A} keyword when creating a new action button or icon. They serve as a way of allowing you to input any special arguments that the launching program may require. You can also launch programs from these windows by inputting filenames to run. BOBBY'S INFORMATION BAR: ```````````````````````` This Information Bar is the long rectangular display found at the very bottom of the screen. This is the area that holds BOBBY's Logo. By clicking the Free/Total memory display found on the bar you can access the Tech Info Window (DIAGRAM:Z). DIR WIN: ```````` The Dir Win term is used to refer to either one of the two DIRectory WINdows (DIAGRAM:D-G,A-C,H-J for Dir Win 1 (left) or N-P,K-M,R-T for Dir Win 2 (right) ). DIRECTORY WINDOWS: `````````````````` The Directory Windows are found as the two largest displays of BOBBY's main screen (DIAGRAM A,B,C or K,L,M). There is a Left Directory Window and a Right Directory Window. They hold the contents of the current path for that window. There are 4 window aiders for each of the Directory Windows. They are the: Directory Window Information Bar, Directory Window Scroll Bar, Directory Window Path Input Box, and Directory Window Pattern Input Box. They all help determine what is shown or what will be shown in that Window. Please refer to section 2.1:DIRECTORY WINDOWS for further details. DISK CHANGE: ```````````` The Disk Change feature is only seen when using the Copy, Copy As, Copy Smart, Move, or Move As commands. It gives you the opportunity to swap disks once the present disk is full with the new data. By swapping disks you can continue the disk activity from where you left off. This popped up window will tell you how many disks will be required for the remaining files, and also give you access to use the Format command to erase disks. DRAG-BOX: ````````` This is the area of the scroll bar that resizes itself consistently when entering new paths. Visually it is a rectangular box surrounded by the scroll bar. It resizes to signify that there are more files/dirs in the window then are presently being shown. By clicking and holding onto the drag-box you can move it and start showing these missing names. DRIVE BUTTONS: `````````````` These buttons (DIAGRAM:U) are used in holding 24 possible drive paths that can be shown in the active Directory Window. By using the provided scroll bar (DIAGRAM:V) you can access any of these 24 buttons. There are only 6 Drive Buttons displayed at one time. Please refer to section 2.2:DRIVE BUTTONS for more information. JUMP ZONE: `````````` This is the area of the scroll bar that is used to make the drag-box jump. It is shown in the scroll bar as the dark regions revealed when the drag-box gets smaller. By clicking in these regions the drag-box will jump in that direction and will attempt to show one page of new names in the directory window. This same action will be seen in the Path Finder window. The View File window will attempt to show one page of new lines from the file. The three scroll bars used for the Color Controls will jump by 13 in its color intensity levels. LAUNCH: ``````` Launch is just another way of saying 'run', 'load', or 'execute'. Launch is used in running programs. It is taken advantage of in the Action Buttons, the Icons, and the popped up Argument Windows. MARKING: ```````` A term used in BOBBY to signify that a file or a directory has been high- lighted inside the Directory Windows. By marking files/directories any disk activities by the Action Buttons can be performed on these files/dirs. Icons can also access these marked files. NON-ACTIVE DIR WIN: ``````````````````` (Non-Active DIRectory WINdow) This term is used to refer to the directory window which does not have the highlighted Information Bar (DIAGRAM:D,E,F for Dir Win 1 or N,O,P for Dir Win 2). The Dir Win with the highlighted Information Bar is the Active Dir Win and all action will occur in it; The SOURCE for all actions. This Non- Active Dir Win is the TARGET side. Some commands, such as COPY, can get files from the SOURCE window (Active Dir Win) and transfer those files to the TARGET window (Non-Active Dir Win). ONLINE HELP: ```````````` The Online Help button is found as the enigma (?) entitled button found at the bottom right corner of the screen (DIAGRAM:0). It is used to access the Online Help Window so as to get help on nearly every button or zone found in BOBBY. When this button appears dimmed this serves as an indicator that 'Help' is not provided for that current window. PAGING ARROWS: `````````````` The Paging Arrows are found as the directional arrows displayed on the far right side of the Icon Window (DIAGRAM:2). Use these arrows to flip the page of the Icon Window (if possible). PAPER FLAP: ``````````` This little pictorial display is found only on ACTION BUTTONS. They serve as an indicator that there is an active button found underneath the top facing button. By clicking your 'Right' mouse button on any of the buttons that have this flap indicator it will show this hidden button on screen. PATH FINDER: ```````````` The Path Finder is a window that pops up on the BOBBY screen to allow you to find a path on any drive on your system. The Path Finder is usually found to the right of path input windows. They are represented by pictures showing a 'Disk'. They are more commonly used in the Options Screen. VESA: (Video Electronic Standards Association) ````` With the VESA standard this gives your SVGA card compatibility to be used in BOBBY to show pictures at higher resolution with higher colors. The VESA standard is provided by software that comes with most SVGA cards (ie. an ATI MACH 32 SVGA Card has the "Vvesa.com" program). VESA Complient software must be run before loading BOBBY for the higher resolutions/colors to occur. 3.4 THE NEXT VERSION OF BOBBY ------------------------- The next version of BOBBY will have as many as 250 new features. Some noteable features will be: + Stored Log Files. + Scripts: By using a supplied Record Button you can assign long and complex tasks to buttons. + 16-Bit Sound Support. + FLI, GL, and MPEG Movie Support. + JPG Picture Format. + Online Printer Options with available drivers. + Multiple Directory Windows Permitted. + User Name Input to Load up different Configuration Files. + All Windows and Buttons moveable around the screen for unlimited Configuration setups. + Icon Editor and Importer. + A "How to Handle User Defineable File Patterns" Window (not just extensions). + A Path History Selector Window. + Built-in Virtual Memory Manager if not enough memory is available. + Versions for Dos, Windows 3.1, and Windows '95. + Faster all around performances throughout BOBBY. + New Action Buttons. Including: Undelete, Format for ALL drives, Unmark,etc + Play Sound CD's, and MOD files. + A more advanced Search feature for text and binary files. + Online Help Contents Lister and Selector. + Read in Lotus 1-2-3, Word Perfect, Word, Excel, and Quicken file formats. + Change colors for specific objects on the screen (ie. Information Bar, Text Input, etc.) + Handle 255 character filename sizes (Windows '95) + Different directory display styles including Directory Trees, Icons, and Text or combos of any. + Different Font and Font Sizes support for most parts of Bobby. + A Marking feature that allows you to leave the marked files as marked after disk activities have been performed. + Higher Resolution Support when in BOBBY. + Pop up menu bar. + The ability to password protect and deprotect files. + Compare Directories and Disks. + More Techincal Disk Information. + Sort A Directory Listing by: Name, Type, Size, Date, and Extension. In Ascending or Descending order. + A more advanced File Hunt feature. + User defineable Directory Window Information Bar. + Resizable Directory Windows,Path Box,Pattern Box. + Action to occur on a highlighted file is visually tracked in the Directory Window. + Unlimited (depending on your memory size) number of launching Icons. + User defineable icons for certain patterned files in Directory Window. + User defineable icons or anim-icons in place of the built-in icons/anim- icons used during built-in actions. + and many, many more!!