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________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 55 ________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER 4: MANAGING FILES Selecting the Home pad's Manage files button takes you to a pad called the DOS Shell, shown here. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ **** The Printed Documentation has a picture or screen shot here **** │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ The DOS Shell is an especially powerful pad that makes it easy for you to perform a wide range of file-management tasks without having to exit to DOS and type in complicated commands. At first glance, though, the DOS Shell looks pretty formidable! The screen seems chock-full of information, and you may be wondering just how "easy" it's going to be to operate this pad. Actually, you'll find it surprisingly simple once you understand how the DOS Shell works. ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 56 ________________________________________________________________________ In addition to such standard HyperPAD screen elements as the menu bar, the title bar, the command line, and the message line or status bar, you also see two main components when you look at the DOS Shell screen: 0 A group of three list boxes (titled Files, Directories, and Drives) in the middle of the screen. 0 A portion of the screen just above the list boxes (called the status area) that displays key information about the files shown in the Files list box. Of these elements, the Files list box is really the heart of the DOS Shell, because you must get your files displayed in the Files list before you can work with them. The first section of this chapter, "Displaying Files," shows you how to make the file(s) you're interested in working with appear in the Files list box. The second section of the chapter, "Working with Files," explains what you can do with those files once you have them displayed there. In the last section of the chapter, "Using the Tree View," you'll learn how the tree view, a tool accessible from the DOS Shell, can be used to change the structure of your directories. DISPLAYING FILES The DOS Shell offers you a number of ways to display the files in each of your directories. It also offers you a number of ways to zero in on particular files by displaying subsets of your files and by sorting your files in various ways. In this section of the chapter, you'll learn how to: 0 Change the directory whose files are displayed in the Files list box. 0 Create separate DOS Shell pages to display the contents of the directories you work with most often. 0 View specified subsets of the files in a particular directory. 0 Sort the files displayed in the Files list box according to specified criteria. 0 Find a particular file and view the contents of the directory containing that file. 0 Update the information in the DOS Shell and tree view to reflect any changes you've made to your drives, directories, and files while outside of HyperPAD. ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 57 ________________________________________________________________________ The preceding list reflects the order in which the topics in this section are presented. We'll start with the most basic operation (displaying all the files in a specified directory) and then progress to more sophisticated operations. DISPLAYING THE CONTENTS OF A DIRECTORY When you first go to the DOS Shell, the following information may appear in the three list boxes: 0 Files: A list of files (including the number of bytes in each file and the date and time that the file was created or last modified) 0 Directories: A list of subdirectories 0 Drives: A list of one or more drives The location of the files and subdirectories that you're viewing is displayed in the status area after "Directory." There are two ways to view the files and subdirectories in a different directory. The first is to use the DOS Shell's Drives and Directories list boxes, and the second is to use the tree view. In the following subsections, we'll take a look at each of these methods. SELECTING A DIRECTORY WITH THE DOS SHELL Sometimes you may want to work with files that are on a drive other than the one specified after "Directory" in the status area. To change the drive: 1. TAB to highlight the Drives list box. 2. Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the drive that you want to view. 3. Press ENTER. You can also change the drive by pointing to the desired drive with the mouse and double-clicking the left mouse button. The "Directory" portion of the status area is automatically updated to show the new directory for the drive you just picked. If the files that you want to work with are located on the same drive but in a different directory, select the desired directory from the Directories list box, using the procedure described above for changing the drive. ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 58 ________________________________________________________________________ To view the contents of the parent directory, just select the ". ." choice from the Directories list box. This simply moves you up one level in the directory hierarchy. As you use the Directories list box to move around between the parent drive and its directories, you'll see that the contents of the Files list box keep changing accordingly and that the information following "Directory" and "Number of Files" in the status area is also automatically updated. With a little practice, you'll soon become quite adept at using the Drives and Directories list boxes to display the contents of different directories. However, you may find it a bit cumbersome to use the Directories list box if you have to move between many subdirectories-- e.g., between C:\123\SHEETS\BACKUP and C:\WORD\DOC\PROJ1\BACKUP. Whenever complex DOS Shell navigation would be required to display a particular group of files or you can't immediately recall where the desired files are located, the tree view (discussed next) is an invaluable tool. SELECTING A DIRECTORY WITH THE TREE VIEW To display the tree view, shown here, select the Tree command (ALT+2) from the DOS Shell's command line. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ **** The Printed Documentation has a picture or screen shot here **** │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 59 ________________________________________________________________________ The tree view illustrates the structure of the directories on a specified drive. Later in this chapter, we'll discuss the tree view more fully, but for now, you'll use the tree view as a way to quickly access the directory containing the files you want to work with so those files can be displayed in the DOS Shell's Files list box. When you call up the tree view, it shows the structure of the drive whose contents you're currently viewing on the DOS Shell. To see a tree view of a different drive, use the command line's View Tree command (ALT+1), which lets you pick from a list of drives. Once you have a tree view of the drive containing the files you want to work with, use the keyboard or the mouse to scroll through the tree view list box until you spot the location of the desired files. To select the target directory, either highlight it with the keyboard and press ENTER or point to it with the mouse and double-click the left mouse button. As soon as you select your target, the DOS Shell automatically reappears, showing the contents of the selected directory in the Files list box. CREATING DOS SHELL PAGES Since there are probably a number of directories whose files you work with often, HyperPAD lets you make separate DOS Shell pages to display the contents of those directories. By doing so, you can save yourself the trouble of having to access the drive and directory each time you want to work with that group of files. To create DOS Shell pages, just follow the instructions below. To create DOS Shell pages: 1. Use the DOS Shell's Drives and Directories list boxes or the tree view to display the desired files in the Files list box. 2. Select Misc. (ALT+7) from the command line. 3. When the pop-up showing miscellaneous commands appears, select New Page either by highlighting it with the keyboard and pressing ENTER or by pointing to it with the mouse and clicking the left mouse button. A dialog box then appears containing a text box that's already filled in with the path of the directory whose files are now shown in the Files list box. Just press ENTER or select <<Ok>> to make a separate DOS Shell page for the currently displayed information. ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 60 ________________________________________________________________________ Once you've created a few DOS Shell pages, you can navigate through them either by pressing the PGUP and PGDN keys on the keyboard or by selecting the on-screen paging buttons. The page number of the current DOS Shell page appears at the center of the title bar. If you want to remove DOS Shell pages that you no longer need, use the Delete Page command from the Edit menu. (This command only eliminates unwanted pages from the DOS Shell; it has no effect on the contents of your hard disk.) Once you remove a page from the DOS Shell, the remaining pages are renumbered accordingly. CHANGING THE FILESPEC Whether you realized it or not, up until now we've been telling you how to display all the files in a particular directory. (HyperPAD's default setting is to display all files.) But if you only want to view a portion of the files in a particular directory, select the FileSpec command (ALT+3) on the DOS Shell's command line. The FileSpec popup that appears can be used to change the file specification from All Files to a particular subset of files (and vice versa) in the directory whose contents you're viewing. The file specifications you can select from are shown in the accompanying table. FileSpec: Files displayed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ All Files Displays all the files in the directory you're viewing. Programs Displays only the program files in that directory. Mask Displays only the files in that directory with a certain extension. Search Displays only the files containing specified text. The currently selected file specification appears after "Viewing" in the status area, so you can always tell at a glance whether the Files list box shows all files or a given subset of files. In the following subsections, we'll take a closer look at the four FileSpec options. PROGRAMS Selecting Programs from the FileSpec pop-up makes the DOS Shell's Files list display only the program files in the directory whose contents you're currently viewing. (These are files having the file extension COM, EXE, or BAT.) ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 61 ________________________________________________________________________ If you then use the DOS Shell to view the contents of a different directory, HyperPAD continues to display only the program files in the newly selected directory until you change the file specification (for example, by selecting All Files from the FileSpec pop-up). MASK: Selecting Mask from the FileSpec pop-up produces a dialog box asking you for the mask of the files you want displayed. To display only the files in the currently viewed directory that have a particular extension, type an asterisk (*), a period (.), and the extension, like "*.DOC." When you press ENTER or select <<Ok>>, the files with the specified extension are displayed in the DOS Shell's Files list box. If, for example, you were in the HPAD2 directory and wanted to view the files in that directory with the extension PAD, you would type *.PAD in the dialog box's New mask text box. If you wanted to view only the files that start with the letter C and have the extension PAD, you would type C*.PAD. Once you use the FileSpec command to specify an extension and then use the DOS Shell to view the contents of a different directory, HyperPAD continues to display only the files (if any) with that extension in the newly selected directory until you change the file specification (for example, by selecting All Files from the FileSpec pop-up). ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 62 ________________________________________________________________________ SEARCH Selecting Search from the FileSpec pop-up produces the Search dialog box, shown here. You can use this dialog box to tell HyperPAD to search the contents of the files in the currently viewed directory for the word or string that you type into the Search for text box. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ **** The Printed Documentation has a picture or screen shot here **** │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Selecting the Case sensitive option tells HyperPAD to identify only files that contain the specified text exactly as you've typed it. If, for example, you type Bill in the Search for text box and select the Case sensitive option, HyperPAD lists the files in the currently viewed directory that contain the word "Bill" (i.e., capital "B," lowercase "ill," just the way you typed it). But if you don't select the Case sensitive option, HyperPAD lists all the files that contain the text string "bill"--including not only "Bill" but also such instances as "Brightbill" and "billing." Once you've typed in the text string and selected the Case sensitive option (if desired), select the Start Search button to initiate the search. HyperPAD uses the Found list box to display the files from the Search list in which it finds the specified text string. When HyperPAD has finished its search, select the Search dialog box's Set View button. The DOS Shell reappears, with the list of files containing the specified text string now displayed in the Files list box. ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 63 ________________________________________________________________________ ALL FILES When you're through viewing any of the file subsets, you can display all the files in the directory again by selecting the command line's FileSpec command (ALT+3) and then selecting All Files from the FileSpec pop-up. SORTING FILES HyperPAD offers a variety of options for sorting the files currently displayed in the DOS Shell's Files list box. The default is for files to be listed by name in ascending alphabetical order. However, you can also sort files by extension, size (in bytes), and the date and time that the files were created or last modified. To sort files, select the Sort command (ALT+1) from the command line. A popup appears from which you can select Name, Extension, Size, and DateTime. Once you select any one of these options, a second pop-up automatically appears showing the options Ascending and Descending. (This means you really have eight sort options because you could sort according to any of the four options in either ascending or descending order.) Once you've selected an option and specified ascending or descending order, the files in the Files list box are rearranged accordingly, and your sort option is recorded after "Sorted by" in the status area. If you selected descending order, the sort option in the status area is followed by a downward-pointing arrow. Once you select a sort option with the Sort command, if you then use the DOS Shell to view the contents of a different directory, HyperPAD continues to display the files in the newly selected directory according to the current sort option until you use the Sort command again to select another option (for example, HyperPAD's default setting--Name and Ascending). ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 64 ________________________________________________________________________ FINDING FILES Suppose you're trying to locate a file but you don't know which directory it's in? Worse yet, suppose you don't even remember the file's name?! To resolve this dilemma, select the Misc. command (ALT+7) from the DOS Shell's command line, and when the pop-up of miscellaneous commands appears, select Find File. The DOS Find File dialog box, shown here, appears. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ **** The Printed Documentation has a picture or screen shot here **** │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ To fill out this dialog box, type into the Find what text box the first letter of the filename (if you happen to know it), an asterisk (*), a period (.), and the extension of the desired file, like "*.BAT." Then use the Drive to search text box to specify the drive you think the file is located on. (Select the Pick button to choose a drive other than the one already shown.) Up to this point, the preceding explanation probably sounds a lot like using the Mask command on the FileSpec pop-up. However, the Mask command searches only the files listed for the currently viewed directory, whereas the Find File command performs a global search of all the directories on a particular drive. Once HyperPAD displays the results of its search in the DOS Find File dialog box's Found list box, you can use the keyboard or the mouse to ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 65 ________________________________________________________________________ select one of the files. As soon as you select a file, the DOS Shell reappears and displays the contents of the directory containing that file. REREADING DIRECTORIES AND TREES In order to keep your DOS Shell and tree view current, you should give HyperPAD a chance to update its information whenever you know that you've made changes that affect your drives, directories, and files. (If you happen to notice discrepancies between the information displayed on the DOS Shell or the tree view and the actual status of your drives, directories, and files, you've probably failed to advise HyperPAD of recent changes!) If you've made changes affecting the contents of a directory, start by displaying that directory on the DOS Shell. Then select the Misc. command (ALT+7), and when the pop-up of miscellaneous commands appears, select Reread Directory. HyperPAD rereads the currently viewed directory and automatically displays an updated version of it. If you've made changes affecting the structure of a directory, start by selecting Tree (ALT+2) from the DOS Shell's command line to bring up the tree view. Then, if necessary, use the View Tree command (ALT+1) on the DOS Tree's command line to select a drive other than the one whose tree view is displayed. Once you have a tree view of the drive containing the directory where you made the changes, select Reread Tree (ALT+2) from the command line. HyperPAD rereads the tree for the selected drive and automatically displays an updated version of it. Now that you've seen how to display selected files in the DOS Shell's Files list box so you can work with them, let's take a look in the following section at some of the operations you can perform on those files. ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 66 ________________________________________________________________________ WORKING WITH FILES Once you have the files you want to work with displayed in the DOS Shell's Files list box, you can use that list to run a program; browse the contents of files; and copy, move, and delete files. The subsections below explain how. If in the course of working with your files, you need to carry out a DOS command, there's a handy shortcut you should be aware of. Simply select Misc. (ALT+7) from the DOS Shell's command line and then select DOS Command from the pop-up of miscellaneous commands that appears. This takes you directly to the DOS Commands Index page, just as if you had selected the Home pad's Run a DOS command button. RUNNING A PROGRAM In this subsection, you'll learn how to use HyperPAD's DOS Shell to launch a program. To launch a program from the DOS Shell: 1. Get the program file displayed in the Files list box. 2. Select the program with the keyboard or the mouse. HyperPAD launches the program but does not ask you whether you'd like to load a work file. When you exit from the program, HyperPAD returns you to the DOS Shell. Another way to launch a program from the DOS Shell is to get the work file that you want to load displayed in the Files list box. When you select that file with the keyboard or the mouse, HyperPAD automatically searches for the program that uses that type of file and (assuming it finds the program) launches the program with the selected work file. When you exit from the program, HyperPAD returns you to the DOS Shell. BROWSING FILES Suppose you have a group of files displayed in the DOS Shell's Files list box but aren't quite sure which of the files contains certain material that you want to work with. You can view the contents of a file by highlighting the file in the Files list box and then selecting the Browse command (ALT+8) from the DOS Shell's command line. A dialog box appears with the name of the highlighted file, but if you want to browse a different file, you can type another choice in the text box. Once the name of the file you want to browse is shown in the text box, press ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 67 ________________________________________________________________________ ENTER to call up the View File dialog box, illustrated here, which displays the raw contents of the file. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ **** The Printed Documentation has a picture or screen shot here **** │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Some files contain readable text (e.g., HyperPAD's README.DOC). The contents of other files consist of both readable text and other data, which may look like strings of meaningless characters. Some files, in fact, contain no readable text at all. When you browse the contents of a file (even a file whose raw contents aren't deliberately made to be readable, such as the one shown here), you can usually pick out enough readable text strings to determine what's in the file. In short, the Browse command lets you take a quick peek at a selected file to see whether it contains the material you want to work with. If you'd like to browse the contents of more than one file from the DOS Shell's Files list box, first mark the files (by highlighting each file with the keyboard and then pressing SPACE or by pointing to each file with the mouse and clicking the right mouse button) and then select Browse (ALT+8) from the command line. The View File dialog box immediately appears. When you're finished browsing the contents of the first marked file, you can select the Next button below the scroll box in the View File dialog box to display the contents of the next marked file without having to return to the DOS Shell and make another selection. ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 68 ________________________________________________________________________ MANIPULATING FILES As shown in the accompanying table, three of the commands on the DOS Shell's command line can be used to manipulate the files that appear in the Files list box. Command: Result: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Copy Places a copy of the file in another location on you system while leaving the original file in its directory. Move Takes the file off the directory where it now appears and places it in another location on your system. Delete Removes the file from your system entirely. In this subsection, you'll learn how to perform each of these operations. COPYING AND MOVING FILES The procedures for copying and moving files are very similar. First, display the files you want to work with in the DOS Shell's Files list box and use the keyboard or the mouse to mark the files you want to copy or move. As you mark files, notice how the number of files marked and the total number of bytes they contain are recorded after "Marked files" and "Bytes marked" in the status area. This information can be useful if you're trying either to free up a certain amount of space on a drive or to make sure the marked files will fit on another drive. (We'll explain below how to tell whether the marked files will fit on your target drive.) ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 69 ________________________________________________________________________ Once you've marked the files you want to work with, select Copy (ALT+4) or Move (ALT+5) from the command line. If you're copying files, the Copy dialog box, shown here, appears; if you're moving files, a nearly identical Move dialog box appears. In either case, the files you just marked appear in the scroll box, and the number of marked files and their source are recorded immediately above the scroll box. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ **** The Printed Documentation has a picture or screen shot here **** │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ To use the Copy or Move dialog boxes, type the desired destination for the files in the Copy to or Move to text boxes. If you'd prefer to fill in the Copy to or Move to text boxes automatically by selecting the target destination from a tree view, just use the Pick button. The amount of free space on the target drive is shown after "Bytes free" to the right of the tree view, so you can determine whether the marked files will fit there. Select the Confirm overwriting option on the Copy or Move dialog box if you want HyperPAD to replace any existing files with the same names at the target location with the files that you're about to move or copy to that location. DELETING FILES To remove files from your hard disk, start by displaying the contents of the directory containing the files in the Files list box. Then use the keyboard or the mouse to mark which files you want to delete. If you're interested in freeing up space on the drive containing the files, you ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 70 ________________________________________________________________________ can check "Bytes marked" in the status area to see the total number of bytes in the marked files. After making sure the files you've marked are the ones you intend to delete, select Delete (ALT+6) from the DOS Shell's command line. A dialog box appears asking you to confirm your intention to delete the specified number of files. When you select <<Ok>>, the marked files are removed from your hard disk. In the first two sections of this chapter, you learned how to use the DOS Shell to display files that you're interested in working with and how to perform a number of common file-management operations on those files. We'll close the chapter with a look at some additional functions you can carry out with the tree view. USING THE TREE VIEW Earlier in the chapter, you were introduced to the tree view as a tool for specifying the directory whose contents you want to display on the DOS Shell and the directory to which you want to copy or move files. As you'll see in the next two subsections, in addition to these functions, the tree view is an excellent information resource as well as a tool that you can use to change the structure of your directories. USING THE TREE VIEW AS AN INFORMATION RESOURCE: Examining a tree view is a good way to get a feel for the structure of the directories on one of your drives, since it displays the hierarchy of directories, subdirectories, and sub-subdirectories at a glance. To make it easier for you to browse through the tree views of your drives, HyperPAD creates a separate tree view page for each drive the first time you call up a tree view of that drive. (This process is similar to creating separate DOS Shell pages, except that in the case of the tree view, HyperPAD performs this function automatically.) Once your tree list contains more than one page, you can use the keyboard's PGUP and PGDN keys or the on-screen paging buttons to travel between pages rather than having to use the command line's View Tree command (ALT+1) to specify a drive each time you want to see a tree view. If you find that your tree view is becoming cluttered with pages for drives that you seldom work with, just access each unwanted tree view page and remove it by selecting Delete Page (ALT+3) from the command ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 71 ________________________________________________________________________ line. Doing this simply eliminates the tree view page; it has no effect on the contents of your hard disk. The next time you have occasion to work with a drive whose tree view page you previously deleted, you can create another tree view page for that drive by using the command line's View Tree command (ALT+1). USING THE TREE VIEW TO CHANGE YOUR DIRECTORIES' STRUCTURE The tree view also lets you create a new directory and delete a directory from a drive. To create a new directory, call up a tree view of the drive on which you want to place the directory, use the keyboard or the mouse to select the directory to which you want to add a subdirectory, and then select Make Dir (ALT+4) from the command line. A dialog box appears containing the New directory text box, with the drive and directory information already filled in (e.g., C:\FX\SAMPLES). All you have to do is type in the name of the new directory and select <<Ok>>. To remove a directory or branch (including all the files and subordinate directories within it) from your hard disk, call up a tree view of the drive containing that branch, mark the branch with the keyboard or the mouse, and then select Delete Branch (ALT+6) from the command line. HyperPAD presents a dialog box asking you to confirm your intention to delete the specified branch, together with its contents. Selecting <<Ok>> removes the branch from your system. Be careful when you use the Delete Branch command, because if you take material off your hard disk with this command, it's gone for good. ________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4: Managing Files 72 ________________________________________________________________________ CONCLUSION Once you master the information presented in this chapter, you should be able to access the files you want to work with by using the DOS Shell and the tree view to display those files in the DOS Shell's Files list box. You should also know how to sort the currently viewed files, how to display subsets of the files in a particular directory, and how to find a file on a drive. And you'll be able to update your DOS Shell and tree view to reflect any changes you've made to the contents or structure of your directories. After you have the files you want to work with displayed in the DOS Shell's Files list box, you should know how to launch a program by selecting a program file or a work file on the list; how to browse the contents of one or more of the listed files; and how to copy and move files on the list or delete them from your system. And finally, you'll know how to use the tree view not only as an information resource that shows the structure of your directories but also as a tool for selecting directories in order to perform certain DOS Shell functions and as a tool for changing the structure of your directories. In short, you'll be able to manage your files simply by using HyperPAD's DOS Shell and tree view to display the contents of your directories and then selecting easily understandable options and commands from pop-ups rather than by manually entering a lot of hard-to-remember DOS commands.