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- ┌──────────────────┐
- │ PowerMenu Update │█
- ╘══════════════════╛█
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-
- The following screens contain the latest information on
- PowerMenu Version 4.0; anything you read here will supercede
- the PowerManual. You can print this file if you'd like by
- entering the DOS command:
-
- COPY A:\INFO.PM PRN
-
-
-
- »»» New Version!!! «««
-
- Version 4.0 of PowerMenu contains the following new features:
-
- ° User's Name Displayed (registered versions only!)
- Your name (or your company's) -- up to 35 characters --
- will now display in the Title Box on the main PowerMenu
- screen in the space labeled "Licensed To:" The first time
- that you run MINSTALL.EXE, you will see this message:
-
- You are the licensed owner of this copy of PowerMenu!
- Please enter your name:
-
- Consider the name you want displayed and type carefully.
- You will not be able to change it later.
-
- ° Installs from Any Floppy Drive
- The PowerMenu Installation program, MINSTALL.EXE now
- executes correctly from either Drive A: or Drive B:.
- Please refer to Chapter 1 of the PowerMenu Manual for
- instructions on using MINSTALL.
-
- ° Three Date Formats
- Now PowerMenu can display your computer's system date in
- one of three formats --
-
- · American -- MM/DD/YY
- · European -- DD/MM/YY
- · Asian -- YY/MM/DD
-
- ° File Locator
- Now you can search any drive or directory for a file and
- find its full pathname, even if you don't exactly remember
- the name of the file! Select [F]ile Locator from the [F2]
- Utilities menu and then type as much of the path and filename
- as you can recall, using the DOS wildcard characters ([?]
- and[*]) to fill in the blanks.
-
- ° Higher ASCII Entry
- You can now use your computer's [Alt] key with the number pad
- keys to enter nearly all of the 256 ASCII symbols into your
- "company name," passwords and menu items. Use of special
- symbols and foreign characters is not available in the Disk
- Manager program.
-
- ° Graphic Directory Tree
- With the new Graphic Tree Display option you can see the
- heirarchical structure of your hard disk in PowerMenu's
- Disk Manager. You can turn this feature on or off in the
- PowerOptions window (accessed with [F3]) or in the [D]irectory
- menu within DiskMan.
-
- ° FastRead in Disk Manager
- PowerMenu's DiskMan uses some shortcuts in getting all the
- information needed to display the directories and files on
- your disk drive. Network and other nonstandard types of
- drives require a little more work for the same result.
- PowerMenu will attempt to compensate for any problems it may
- encounter by switching modes, if it can. If you experience
- errors when DiskMan reads a new drive, [Esc] out and call the
- PowerOptions window with [F3]. Then change the Disable Disk
- FastRead selection to "Yes" and retry.
-
- ° Faster File Marking
- In PowerMenu's DiskMan you can use the [F]ile menu to Erase,
- Rename, Copy, Move, and toggle the Read Only (Protection) and
- Hidden status of the currently highlighted file. To perform
- these operations on several files at once, you should "mark"
- them before using the menu. When you hit [Spacebar] to mark
- the file under the highlighting bar, PowerMenu will now skip
- to the next file on the list. In this way, consecutive file
- marking can proceed without using the [Down] arrow key.
-
- ° Move Files across Drives
- You can now move files selected in DiskMan from one disk drive
- to another instead of only to another directory on the same
- drive. This makes PowerMenu truly useful for archiving unused
- files onto floppy disks.
-
- ° Using DOS in DiskMan
- You can pop up a DOS command line while you are in Diskman.
- From here you can enter one or several commands to your
- computer's operating system (See Chapter 5 in the PowerManual).
- The commands you enter will be issued from the directory con-
- taining the highlighted bar, as indicated by the DOS prompt.
- You can now enter up to 255 characters on the d[O]s line.
- WARNING --
- If you tell DOS to alter files or directories on the current
- drive, then when you return to DiskMan the disk information
- displayed will not be updated. To force an update, you can
- read the disk again by selecting [C]hange drive from the menu
- and choose the drive you are on as the drive to change to.
-
- ° Hidden File Display
- In the DiskMan the [Alt-H] key toggles display of "Hidden"
- and Protected (Read Only) files. Now the information window
- at the bottom of the screen shows the status of this toggle.
- When Hidden and Protected files have been made visible, you
- will see the legend "-Prot-" in the bottom right corner of
- this window.
-
-
-
- »»» Other Items of Interest «««
-
- I. Multiple Disk Drives
- PowerMenu can run any program, even if it is on another drive.
- You must include the DRIVE LETTER as part of the directory
- in the Edit Window Directory field.
-
- If you want to run a program in the \WS directory on the E:
- drive, the Edit Window Directory field would be:
-
- Directory--- E:\WS
- - A drive letter in the directory field
- will cause PowerMenu to switch to that
- drive before running the program, then
- automatically return to the original
- drive.
-
- This allows you to run any file on any disk drive.
-
- II. RAM Disk Support
- You can dramatically increase PowerMenu's speed by putting the
- files MENU.COM, MENU.OVL, MENU.DBF, MENU.NDX, MENU.CNF and
- DISKMAN.OVL on a RAM disk. Your DOS manual will tell you how
- to set up a RAM disk using VDISK.SYS.
-
- We recommend you have at least 512 Kb of system RAM so you
- can set up a RAM disk of 160 Kb and still have room for
- your applications.
-
- Remember to put the DRIVE LETTER in the Directory field, as
- you will be running programs on a different drive.
-
- III. Deleting, Packing, and Reindexing Submenus
- There are programs in your \MENU directory that allow you to
- manipulate your menu data file, MENU.DBF. If you want to
- list or delete submenus, use the program SUBMENU.EXE:
-
- SUBMENU -L lists all submenus
- SUBMENU -D <submenu name> deletes a submenu
-
- The only reason you should delete a submenu is if you
- are trying to save disk space.
-
- The submenu is not physically deleted until you pack and
- reindex the file. This is done by entering:
-
- REINDEX
-
- IV. Automatic Installation
- When you install PowerMenu with the MINSTALL command,
- it will search your hard disk for the most popular programs
- and create a custom, instantly useable menu system!
-
- V. User-defined Help Screens
- You can modify the file called HELP.MEN which contains keywords
- to help text which YOU write. Whenever the user hits a
- [Shift-Function Key], the corresponding help text will be
- displayed. To see the sample HELP.MEN file type [?] at
- Powermenu's main menu screen.
-
- VI. Resident Text Editor
- In the Disk Man you can use your favorite text editor or word
- processor to [E]dit a text file currently under the highlighted
- bar. The editing program you choose must be able to accept
- the path and filename of the file to edit as a command line
- parameter. Use the [F3] PowerOptions window to enter the path
- and the command name of your editor. You must include the
- .COM, .EXE (or .BAT) file extension.
-
-
-
- End of PowerNews
-
-