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U S E R S' M A N U A L P O W E R M E N U Copyright (C) Brown Bag Software 1989 2155 South Bascom Ave Campbell Ca 95008 U. S. A. Tel: (408) 559 4545 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT Copyright 1989 Telemarketing Resources DBA Brown Bag Software. All rights reserved world wide. Both the PowerMenu program and documentation is copyrighted. It can not be disassembled or modified without our express written consent. PowerMenu is distributed on a ShareWare basis. You may use PowerMenu without charge for the purposes of evaluating it's suitability for your use. We suggest that this evaluation period be limited to 30 days of actual use. If you find that PowerMenu is worth continuing to use, then you are required to pay for it. We call the payment a "Registration Fee". Simply complete the registration form and mail it in to use with your payment. If your company requires an invoice, we suggest that you use a copy of this registration as the pro forma invoice. When you register your copy of PowerMenu, you'll receive the latest version of the program, along with a comprehensive printed user manual and free unlimited technical support for one year. We aggressively develop our products, and as a registered user you'll be entitled to upgrades to the newest versions as they are released, at a greatly reduced price. Most importantly though, by registering your copy of PowerMenu (or any ShareWare product), you'll ensure the survival of the convenient and risk free distribution method that brought you PowerMenu in the first place. If you have received this copy from a Users' Group, "Software Library" or "SIG", and have paid a small fee (usually $3 to $10), you have NOT acquired the registered rights or continued right to use PowerMenu. This fee was for the convenience of obtaining the diskette with PowerMenu on it. The fee does NOT apply to the registration fee. If you have obtained a "ShareWare" copy of PowerMenu from Brown Bag Software, and have paid a small fee, this fee IS applicable towards registration if you register your copy within 90 days. If you don't know whether or not your copy of PowerMenu is registered or not, then look for an original diskette with a printed Brown Bag Software diskette label. If in doubt, just call us or write us. As of January 1989, Brown Bag Software has offices in London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Cologne and Zurich. Our products are available locally in these cities with local technical support, payable in local currency and shipped from within the EEC without duty. If this version of PowerMenu does NOT support the European keyboard, then you will receive a version that DOES support the keyboard WHEN YOU REGISTER. You may freely copy PowerMenu for distribution under the ShareWare concept, without charge. You may NOT distribute PowerMenu or it's documentation in connection with ANY commercial venture, product, publication or service without our written approval. 1 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 INTRODUCTION WHAT IS POWERMENU? PowerMenu is an operating environment for your IBM PC or compatible which acts as a "super highway," providing easy access to any application on your PC. Word processing, spreadsheets, and all of your PC programs are just a keystroke away. PowerMenu is particularly suited for end-users who would rather not worry about subdirectories, command line parameters, and command names. For instance, you can set up your PowerMenu to run a word processor when the W key is hit. Users exit from word processing, are back in the main PowerMenu, and need never interact with the Disk Operating System (DOS)! User-Friendliness PowerMenu uses the familiar Sidekick like menu structure, and includes context-sensitive on-line help at the touch of a key. USER-DEFINABLE COLORS Customize PowerMenu to your individual color tastes. PASSWORD PROTECTION Each application or submenu can request a password before allowing the user to continue. SUBMENUS Up to 4 menus may appear on the screen at the same time, allowing for more than 10,000 selections. SCREEN SAVE FEATURE PowerMenu will clear the computer screen automatically when not in use. INSTANT DOS ACCESS Pop up a DOS window and compose commands directly. FAST; LOW OVERHEAD Written in Macro Assembler and C, PowerMenu requires less than 2.5Kb of RAM when running your applications. dBase III COMPATIBILITY PowerMenu's data and index files can be accessed through dBase III. A POWERFULL FILEMANAGER PowerMenu contains a full-blown filenamager, that will let you mark files across subdirectories, and perform all dos functions on these files. Press F2/D to activate (NB! this facility is only working if you have Version 3.00 or more). A SHORT LESSON ON SUBDIRECTORIES If you are an advanced user and understand the makeup of hard disks and subdirectories, you may wish to skip this section. The rest of you will find that reading this short section will make it much easier when it comes time to customize your PowerMenu. 2 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 You could compare your hard disk to a department store building. Inside may be books, household utilities, sporting goods, you name it. Naturally, similar items are put in the same room; it would be pointless to put screwdrivers in the linen section. The store owners gave careful thought to the placement of their goods. Similarly, your hard disk has the capacity for many separate areas in which to place files of the same type. DOS refers to these imaginary "rooms" as directories (a.k.a. subdirectories). For instance, you can create a directory on your hard disk called WORDPROC which will contain all your word processing documents. Your computer utilities could be in a directory called UTILS, entertainment software in GAMES, and so on. Directories allow you to keep a well organized hard disk: your files are not all jumbled into one "room." PowerMenu needs to know which directory your particular application is in in order to run the program. When it comes time for you to set up your PowerMenu selections, you will be prompted for the directory. The DOS utilities mkdir, rmdir, and chdir allow you to make, remove, and change directories, respectively. However, we recommend that you use the PowerMenu Disk Manager, as the the creation and maintenance of directories will be much easier. You should have a basic understanding of the function and purpose of directories before trying to customize PowerMenu. If you don't understand them, there are several DOS books on the market which should prove helpful. (See Appendix C) CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS MANUAL In this manual there may be terms and type conventions that you don't immediately recognize. TERMS Most PowerMenu terms are defined in the glossary at the end of the manual (Appendix D). TYPE CONVENTIONS Whenever this manual tells you to press a key, that key will be enclosed in square brackets. For example, if you are instructed to press the Home key, you will be told to press [Home]. When you see two keys in the same set of brackets, such as [Alt-S], you should hold down the [Alt] key and hit the [S] key. 3 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL Although PowerMenu is easy to use, and gives you detailed help whenever you press [F1], we suggest that you first read Chapters 1-4. These chapters take you on a short tour of PowerMenu and contain a number of useful hints on its use. Chapters 1-4 are an introduction and tutorial to PowerMenu, and do not attempt to discuss PowerMenu in detail. Descriptions of PowerMenu commands, features, and concepts are collected alphabetically in Chapter 6 for quick reference. Chapter 6 will be especially helpful when you begin to explore PowerMenu on your own. If you have just received your copy of PowerMenu, Chapter 1 will tell you how to get PowerMenu safely up and running on your computer. 4 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Chapter 1 INSTALLATION INSTANT GRATIFICATION You probably want to try out your new PowerMenu system right away. This is fine, as PowerMenu is easy to install and even easier to use. All of the PowerMenu files will reside in a subdirectory called \menu. This allows PowerMenu to find the support files it needs from anywhere on your hard disk. For our purposes, we will assume you have a hard disk with drive letter C:. The PowerMenu files should be copied into a subdirectory called \MENU (this is where it will always look for its files if they do not exist in the default directory). To run PowerMenu, simply change into this subdirectory and issue the comand: MENU If you have \MENU in your DOS path you can also start menu from any other drive or directory. PowerMenu will look for any files in the \MENU directory if it can't find them in the default. Move the bar up and down a few times with the arrow keys. Hit the [F1] key to call up a help screen, and familiarize yourself with the key functions. Hit down-arrow for more information, or hit [Esc] when you are finished with help. Congratulations! You have just installed PowerMenu and seen a small part of its capabilities. You can exit from PowerMenu by hitting [Esc] and answering [Y]. HOW TO START POWERMENU To run PowerMenu, the command to type is: MENU Now let's go to Chapter 2 to find out what all these screens mean to you. 5 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Chapter 2 THE POWERMENU SCREEN KNOW YOUR SCREENS In the main PowerMenu screen you will probably want to change many, if not all, of our sample menu selections. We will tell you how to do this after we discuss the elements of the PowerMenu screen. PowerMenu's Main menu screen contains the Main Menu, from which all programs are run and submenus accessed. The topmost line is the PowerMenu Title Line which contains the PowerMenu Title and Version Number. Note the date in the box on the far left and the system time in the box on the far right. These can both be set through PowerMenu at any time (See Chapter 6 under Time & Date). The middle of the second line contains the serial number (registered versions only). If you have to call Brown Bag for technical support, you will need this information. Further down is the opening menu itself. Note the ten Description Line selections under the word "PowerMenu." There are three ways to activate these description lines: Highlight the selection by moving the cursor bar with the [up arrow] and [down arrow] keys, and then hit [Enter]. Press a number key. This immediately activates the corresponding program or submenu on that description line. Hit the first letter of the description line. This method is usually the fastest, since you don't have to leave the normal keyboard position. EXAMPLE Activate the "Utilities for Computer" selection on the tenth line by using the [down arrow] key and then pressing [Enter]. This will call a "Utilities" submenu. You will now see an entirely new menu appear on your screen! Again, this is a sample Utilities menu which you will probably change later. Now hit [Esc] to return to the Main Menu. The bottom line of your screen will be a Help Line as long as you remain in PowerMenu. The help line will give you quick hints as 6 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 to what functions are available to you. Remember that you can get detailed help at any time by pressing [F1]. POWERMENU HELP SCREENS The Help Screens are another important part of the PowerMenu system. Help screens pop up whenever you hit [F1]. As mentioned earlier, PowerMenu's help screens are "context sensitive." This means the help messages vary depending on where you are in PowerMenu or what kind of error has just occurred. EXAMPLE Hit [F1] right now and observe the help screen again. You should see descriptions of key functions, some of which we have already discussed. The [down arrow] key will take you to the next help screen, and [Esc] will exit to where you were before you hit [F1]. PowerMenu help screens give you a nudge in the right direction when you don't have the manual handy, but they are not a replacement for the reference section of the manual. ERROR MESSAGES It is possible that you will see some error messages if you make a mistake in setting up PowerMenu. These will appear on the second line from the bottom. They are usually self-explanatory, but hitting [F1] will explain the error in detail. 7 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Chapter 3 CUSTOMIZING YOUR POWERMENU When first installed on your system, PowerMenu may not yet know which application programs you have on your hard disk. You will have to give PowerMenu a little help in customizing your menu system. We are now ready to discuss PowerMenu's most powerful feature: user-definable menu choices. To set up our own description lines, we must introduce a screen normally hidden from our view; namely, the Edit Window. A description line's Edit Window, through which all changes and additions are made, contains the information PowerMenu needs to run your application. The edit window is opened by highlighting the description line and hitting the [Ins] key, and closed by hitting [Esc]. Each black-on-white area with a flashing cursor is called an Input Field, because you are expected to input data into this field. [up arrow] and [down arrow] keys move you from field to field. Let's discuss each part of the edit window, and then we'll set up some sample applications. TITLE FIELD Your description line, exactly as you want it to appear on your menu. DIRECTORY FIELD Contains the name of the directory in which your applications program resides. (Remember our discussion of subdirectories?) CMND NAME FIELD The filename and extension (the Command Name) of the command you wish to run. PARAMETRS FIELD These are the arguments (a.k.a. Parameters) you send to the Cmnd Name. PASSWORD FIELD If this field is not blank, PowerMenu will ask for a password before allowing editing or activation of this selection. 8 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 PAUSE FIELD If you put a Y in this field, PowerMenu will pause before returning to the Main Menu screen. PROMPT FOR PARAMETRS FIELD If you put a Y in this field, PowerMenu will prompt the user for the parameters. COMMAND NAMES AND PARAMETERS In the Introduction we discussed directories. Now we will take up the important issue of command name and parameter fields. Don't worry about these fancy DOS terms: a command name is just the name of the program you wish to run; a parameter is information sent to that program. COMMAND NAMES Command names in PowerMenu all have one thing in common: they all end with either a .EXE, .COM, or .BAT. (Resident DOS commands are exceptions; see Chapter 6). This is called the Extension of the command name. .EXE tells DOS that the file is EXEcutable, .COM stands for a DOS COMmand, and .BAT means the file is a BATch of DOS commands. Understanding the reasons behind these names is not as important as knowing the actual name of the program you wish to run. When you buy a word processor, spreadsheet, or any other program for your PC, you call it up by typing the command name. To run a program, PowerMenu must know both the file name and the extension. Some common programs and their command names are: WordStar ws.com Microsoft Word word.com dBase III dbase.com PathMinder pm.exe PARAMETERS Parameters are information passed to a command name. They are more easily explained by example than discussion. For instance, if you wanted to edit a document on your computer, the DOS command would be: C>edlin letter.doc The command name is edlin.com, and the parameters are letter.doc. These examples illustrate the meaning of parameters: 9 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 If DOS Command is Parameters are C>word /c letter.doc /c letter.doc C>ws thesis.txt thesis. txt C>pm /x/m /x/m C>print report.prn /nb report. prn /nb All of this might seem intimidating, but it's very simple once you get the hang of it. This next example shows our point. EXAMPLE Suppose you were using your word processor to work on a report called REPORT.TXT. You want selection 1 of your PowerMenu to call up the word processor when you hit [1]. Let's assume your word processor is Microsoft's Word and is located in a directory called \word. To do this through DOS, you would have to type: C>cd \word C>word /c report.txt C>cd \menu With PowerMenu, all you have to do is install this menu selection once, and editing your report is one keystroke away. This is how you would input the information in Figure 3-2 to your PowerMenu: Highlight description line 1 with the [down arrow] or [up arrow] keys. Delete the sample 1 selection by hitting the [Del] key. Next, hit [Ins] to open the Edit Window. All the fields should be blank. Type in the fields and then hit [Esc] to close the edit window. You have just installed your first menu selection! Note that you won't be able to activate this selection unless you happen to have Microsoft Word on your hard disk in the \word directory. If you know which programs you have on your hard disk, you can now customize PowerMenu to your heart's content. 10 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 PASSWORDS In the preceding example, we told you to leave the password field blank. However, the ability to assign passwords is a powerful feature. If you put a word or phrase into the password field, anyone who uses your computer system must type this password. Otherwise, PowerMenu will reject all attempts to edit or activate the selection. Don't forget your password! You can't open an edit window without its assigned password. Pausing before return On occasion you will want to read the screen before returning to PowerMenu. Whenever this is the case, put a Y in the Pause field. For example, you would not want a directory listing to disappear before you have time to read it. PROMPTING FOR PARAMETERS A PowerMenu selection can be set up to prompt the user for parameters. This is done by putting a "Y" in the Prompt Field. This is useful if a selection's parameters are subject to frequent change. For instance, you could set up a selection that types a file on the screen. Putting a Y in the Prompt Field would let you enter the file name to be typed without having to open up the edit window each time. In most cases, parameters are not likely to change, and the Prompt Field should contain an N. SUBMENUS It is possible to display as many as 4 menus on the PowerMenu screen at once. You can do this by setting up a selection to call a submenu. Submenus are set up by putting [menu] in the directory field, and putting a 1-8 letter menu name in the Cmnd Name field. You will need to remember the names of your submenus in order to call them up. Your selection can call any existing submenu; if the submenu does not exist, it can be created. If you create a new submenu, it will contain blank selections until you fill them. Your initial PowerMenu screen shows you an example of a submenu call. If you open the Games edit window, you can see how it activates a submenu named GAMES. 11 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Using what you have learned in Chapters 1-3, you should be able to set up PowerMenu to run every application on your hard disk. This assumes, of course, that you know the command and directory names of your applications. Chapter 4 will discuss PowerMenu's special commands and show you how to customize your PowerMenu color scheme. 12 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Chapter 4 SPECIAL COMMANDS AND FEATURES MOVING MENU SELECTIONS (SWAP) Do you want to move your Word Processing selection to another place on the menu? You can do it with the PowerMenu Swap function. Hitting [Alt-S] lets you drag a selection to any location on the menu. For example, dragging the 1 selection to the 5 position and then hitting [Enter] will exchange their contents. [Esc] aborts any swap operation. DELETING A MENU SELECTION Delete an unwanted selection by highlighting it and hitting the [Del] key. This will blank out all fields in the edit window. INSTANT EDIT Hitting a function key while holding down the [Alt] key instantly opens the Edit Window for that function key. COMPOSING A DOS COMMAND This feature allows you to run DOS commands without ever having to leave PowerMenu. Pressing [Alt-C] will cause a DOS Window to pop up, so you can compose your command just as if you were in DOS. If you want to read the screen before returning to PowerMenu, put a Y in the Pause field. SETTING THE TIME AND DATE To set the system time or date, press [Alt-T] or [Alt-D], respectively. This will set them for your current computer session, but will not permanently change battery backed up clocks. FIXING BAD DATA FILES In the unlikely event that something should damage the PowerMenu data file MENU.DBF, you can attempt to repair it with the program REINDEX.EXE. NOTE TO DBASE III USERS You can try to rebuild MENU.DBF and MENU.NDX through dBase. A word of caution: Don't play with the ID field. This field is very sensitive to change. Each menu has exactly 10 records, and PowerMenu will not run properly if records are changed at random. See Chapter 6 for more information on dBase III and PowerMenu. The best way to avoid loss of any data is to frequently copy MENU.DBF and MENU.NDX to a backup disk. 13 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Chapter 5 ADVANCED SYSTEM INFORMATION WHERE POWERMENU LOOKS FOR ITS SUPPORT FILES The installation section of this manual alluded to the fact that all of the PowerMenu support files would be located in one subdirectory called \menu. PowerMenu can be run from anywhere on your hard disk regardless of the current DOS path (with the exception of MENU.COM) because it knows its files are in the \menu directory. Appendix A gives a description of all the support files and their functions. SEQUENCE OF EVENTS UPON INVOKING POWERMENU When you type 'menu' at the DOS prompt, DOS searches the current directory and path for MENU.COM, and runs it if it is found. Next, MENU.COM looks in the current directory for MENU.OVL. If MENU.OVL is not there, MENU.OVL is loaded from the \menu directory on the current drive. MENU.OVL then looks for four (4) files: MENU.HLP, MENU.CNF, MENU.DBF, and MENU.NDX. If these files are in the current directory, they are loaded. If any one of these files is NOT in the current directory, MENU.OVL will look in the \menu directory for it. Most users can just put MENU.COM in the current DOS path and never worry about support files again. PowerMenu was designed with this in mind. However, you can see the powerful implications of multiple PowerMenu data files with a little explanation. USING MULTIPLE POWERMENU DATA FILES Because of the way PowerMenu loads its data files, it is possible to have many different PowerMenu systems on one computer. For instance, if you invoke PowerMenu from a directory called \legal, to which you have copied the files MENU.DBF, MENU.NDX, and MENU.CNF, PowerMenu will load these files first, instead of those in the \menu directory. This means that you can have entirely different menu choice data and color configurations based upon the directory from which you type 'menu'. IMPORTANT NOTE: The files MENU.DBF and MENU.NDX must always be together in a directory. DO NOT try to copy either one by itself to a new directory. This will cause random results and corrupt the respective index files, and they will have to be rebuilt with REINDEX.EXE. 14 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Chapter 6 POWERMENU REFERENCE GUIDE This chapter contains an alphabetical listing of PowerMenu's commands, features, and concepts. We suggest that you read this chapter while PowerMenu is on your screen so you can experiment with these features. You can also use Chapter 6 as a guide when you need a quick reference to the PowerMenu commands. Some of the features listed here have already been covered in Chapters 1-5. Chapter 6 assumes that you have installed PowerMenu and have a basic understanding of DOS. If this is not the case, please complete the tutorial in Chapters 1-4 and/or refer to one of the DOS reference books listed in Appendix C. ACTIVATING MENU SELECTIONS There are three ways to activate the description lines: Highlight the selection by moving the cursor bar with the [down arrow] and [up arrow] keys, and then hit [Enter]. Press a number key. This immediately activates the corresponding program or submenu on that description line. Hit the first letter of the description line. This method is usually the fastest, since you don't have to leave the normal keyboard position. If two selections begin with the same letter, only the first one will be activated by hitting that letter. AUTOMATIC EXECUTION WITH AUTOEXEC.BAT You can have your system automatically invoke PowerMenu whenever you reboot on your computer. Just put the command menu as the last line in a file in the root directory called AUTOEXEC.BAT. The contents of a typical AUTOEXEC.BAT file might look like this: time rem Set the System Time date rem Set the System Date path=\dos rem Set search path to \dos sk 15 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 rem Load SideKick cd \menu rem Call up PowerMenu menu All RAM-resident applications should be loaded first, as this will prevent "holes" in memory. If the file MENU.COM is somewhere in your DOS path, you do not need to be in the \menu directory to call up PowerMenu. BACKING UP YOUR POWERMENU FILES You should make it a practice to routinely copy your important files to a backup disk. This is true for all of your applications, and not just PowerMenu. Your customized menu information is contained in the files: MENU.DBF MENU.NDX MENU.CNF If you have copies of these files on a backup disk, you can recover your entire PowerMenu setup if it ever becomes damaged. COLOR SETTINGS Selecting "Colours" from the [F2] menu allows you to change your PowerMenu colors. You may run this program from the PowerMenu Utilities submenu. Make your changes to the color table, return to PowerMenu, and see how you like them. Most users will want to experiment with many color schemes before deciding on a favorite. Owners of monochrome monitors should not attempt to change the color table, as monochrome adapter boards are unpredictable with color settings. COMPOSING DOS COMMANDS You can talk directly to DOS from PowerMenu by using the [Alt-C] command. Pressing [Alt-C] causes a DOS window to pop up, and you may enter any command as though you were actually in DOS. All valid DOS constructions may be used, and DOS's COMSPEC and PATH are valid. For example, if you wanted to get a directory list of the \ws directory and have it pause page by page, you would compose the command: C>dir \ws | more 16 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Changing directories through the [Alt-C] command has no effect, as PowerMenu always returns to the original directory. If you want to read the screen before returning to PowerMenu, put a Y in the Pause field. SETTING THE DATE You can change the date whenever you are in the main PowerMenu screen by hitting [Alt-D]. This calls up DOS's date function, and sets the date for your current computer session. DOS's date function does not set the date permanently in any battery backed-up clock cards you may have installed in your system. If you have a clock card, the only way to permanently set the date is by using the utilities which should have come with the machine. Enter the date in the form: month/day/year - for example, July 4, 1989 would be: 7/4/89 You should always have the correct date on your computer, as DOS frequently "stamps" files with this date for later use. dBase III AND POWERMENU As mentioned earlier, PowerMenu uses two dBase III compatible files: MENU.DBF and MENU.NDX. This makes it possible for you to manipulate, reindex, and repair me nu files if you happen to own dBase III. We want to discourage you from using PowerMenu data files in dBase except in the rare case of menu data corruption. You can use dBase's 'reindex' command to rebuild an index, and 'browse' to view and delete menu selections. Each submenu consists of 10 dBase III records; the ID field is a concatenation of a menu name and its location on the PowerMenu. All the other fields are self explanatory. If you want to delete submenus to save disk space, you must delete all 10 records associated with that menu, and then pack and reindex the data file. IMPORTANT: Please make a copy of your PowerMenu data and index files before using them in dBase. EDIT WINDOW All changes to PowerMenu selections are made in the edit window. It is opened by highlighting the desired description line and hitting [Ins], and closed by hitting [Esc]. The edit window contains the following fields: 17 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 TITLE FIELD. Your description line, exactly as you want it to appear on your menu. DIRECTORY FIELD. If this is not blank, PowerMenu changes to this directory before running your program. CMND NAME FIELD. The filename and extension (the Command Name) of the command you want to run. PARAMETRS FIELD. These are the arguments (a.k.a. Parameters) you send to the Cmnd Name. PASSWORD FIELD. If this field is not blank, PowerMenu will ask for a password before allowing editing or activation of this selection. PAUSE FIELD. If you put a Y in this field, PowerMenu will pause before returning to the Main Menu screen. PROMPT FOR PARAMETRS FIELD. If you put a Y in this field, PowerMenu will prompt the user for the parameters. Normal PowerMenu commands ( e.g. [Alt-C], [Alt-S]) are disabled while the edit window is open. KEYBOARD ENHANCERS PowerMenu is compatible with keyboard enhancement products such as SuperKey, Prokey, and Keyworks. Just be aware that these types of programs intercept keystrokes before PowerMenu ever sees them. Thus, if you redefine, say, [Alt-C], you might disable PowerMenu's Compose function. PowerMenu's "reserved" keys are: [F1] - [F5] [Alt-F1] - [Alt-F10] [1]-[0] [Alt-S] [Alt-C] [Alt-D] [Alt-T] [Home] 18 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 [Ins] [Del] [down arrow] [up arrow] [Esc] Try to avoid redefining these keys while you are in PowerMenu. PASSWORDS If a description line's Password field is not blank, you will be required to enter the password before you can access that selection. When a selection is password protected, you will see a password window pop up whenever you try to activate or edit it. All passwords are automatically converted to upper case. For security reasons, the password will not appear in the Password Window whenever it is typed. Passwords may be up to 32 characters long, so be imaginative with them. "DTE67-UT3" is a bad password, and not easily remembered. A phrase such as "MY COAT IS GREEN" is much less likely to be forgotten. If you forget the password, you won't be able to open up the edit window. RAM-RESIDENT PROGRAMS PowerMenu is fully compatible with RAM-resident programs such as HomeBase, SuperKey, and Turbo Lighting; just follow one simple rule: Don't load RAM-resident programs through PowerMenu! In general, you should initialize all of your RAM-resident programs when you boot your machine. Never have a PowerMenu selection to "Load Sidekick." (Better yet never USE SideKick!). If you load RAM-resident programs through PowerMenu, you will create a "hole" in memory when you exit, and you may have to reboot. RESIDENT DOS COMMANDS There are some DOS commands that are memory resident, and do not exist anywhere on your disk. For instance, the DOS command ERASE is a resident DOS command. 19 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 The resident DOS commands supported by PowerMenu are: copy dir erase ren type (Any others can easily be run by putting them in a batch file.) Put the command name in the Cmnd Name field WITHOUT the .COM, .EXE, or .BAT extension. Put the parameters in the Parametrs field as you normally would. EXAMPLE If you wanted a selection to copy your file REPORT.TXT to the A: drive, you would put: "copy" in the Cmnd Name field, and "report.txt a:" in the Parametrs field. The only way PowerMenu can run these commands is by loading a copy of COMMAND.COM. SCREEN SAVE FUNCTION PowerMenu has a "screen save" feature which turns the PowerMenu screen off after 3-5 minutes of non-use. This protects your screen against "burn in," which occurs if the same picture is displayed for a long period of time. Screen save is only in effect when a menu or Edit Window is on the screen, and does not affect your applications programs. True screen protect systems, such as the one with SuperKey, blank out the entire screen. We have found this causes some users to actually forget their PC is on. For this reason, PowerMenu displays the message "Hit space bar to return . . ." at a random place on your screen. SUBMENUS It is possible to display as many as 4 menus on the PowerMenu screen at once. You can do this by setting up a selection to call a submenu. Submenus are set up by putting [menu] in the directory field, and putting a 1-8 character menu name in the Cmnd Name field. You will need to remember the names of your submenus in order to call them up. Your selection can call any existing submenu; if the submenu does not exist, it can be created. If you create a 20 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 new submenu, it will contain blank selections until you fill them. Keep in mind that each submenu requires about 1.8 Kb of disk space. If you need to delete or list submenus, you can do this through SUBMENU.EXE, a program in your \menu directory. SWAPPING SELECTIONS You can exchange 2 menu selections with the PowerMenu swap command. Highlight the selection you wish to move, and hit [Alt-S]. Next, drag the selection to the desired destination and hit [Enter]. This physically exchanges the title and contents of the selections. [Esc] aborts any swap operation. TIME You can change the system time whenever you are in the main PowerMenu screen by hitting [Alt-T]. This calls up DOS's time function, and sets the time for your current computer session. DOS's time function does not set the time permanently in any battery backed-up clock cards you may have installed in your system. If you have a clock card, the only way to permanently set the time is by using the utilities which should have come with the machine. Enter the time in the form: hours/minutes/seconds - for example, 2:37 P.M. would be 2:37:00 in normal format, or 14:37:00 in 24-hour format. You should always have the correct time on your computer, as DOS frequently "time-stamps" files for later use. 21 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Appendix A FILE DESCRIPTIONS Files which are present on your PowerMenu disk MENU.COM Main PowerMenu driver program MENU.OVL Main PowerMenu overlay program MENU.DBF PowerMenu selection data file MENU.NDX Index file for MENU.DBF MENU.CNF PowerMenu configuration data file MENU.HLP PowerMenu help file DISKMAN.OVL Disk Manager Overlay MANUAL.PM This manual PMNEWS.TXT Latest PowerMenu information MINSTALL.EXE PowerMenu installation utility AUTOINST.OVL MINSTALL Overlay REINDEX.EXE Menu index utility SUBMENU.EXE Sub-Menu utility WHEREIS.EXE File locator utility COPYRITE.TXT Copyright notice README.1ST Read this file first! (if present) 22 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Appendix B SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS The minimum system requirements to run PowerMenu are: IBM PC, XT, AT or compatible computer A hard disk A floppy disk drive 256K Bytes of RAM PC- or MS-DOS Version 2.10 or greater Color monitor (optional) PowerMenu takes about 3Kb of RAM overhead when running your programs. Each submenu you add requires about 1.8Kb of disk space. 23 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Appendix C DOS REFERENCE BOOKS The following books may be helpful if you are just beginning to work with DOS: Running MS-DOS - The Microsoft Guide to Getting the Most Out of the Standard Operating System for the IBM PC . . ., Van Wolverton, ISBN 0- 914845-07-1, Microsoft Press DOS PRIMER for the IBM PC and XT by Mitchell Waite, John Angermeyer, and Mark Noble. Plume/Waite Books IBM Disk Operating System Reference, IBM Corporation. 24 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 Appendix D GLOSSARY [Alt] key The key labeled Alt at the left of your keyboard. This key is most often used by holding it down and hitting another key. AUTOEXEC.BAT The batch file run automatically by DOS whenever you reboot your computer. batch file A text file containing a list of commands to be carried out by DOS. burn in Damage caused to a computer screen when the same image is shown for a long period of time. This wears out the screen's phosphor, and faint images are seen even when it is turned off. clock/calendar card An accessory for your computer which keeps the correct time and date even when your computer is turned off. Some computer such as the IBM AT and the Compaq 286 have these as standard equipment. command name The name and extension of an executable DOS program. [Ctrl] key The key labeled Ctrl at the left of your keyboard. This key is most often used by holding it down and hitting another key. cursor The flashing underscore on your screen that indicates where text will appear should you press a key. Also directs your attention to a particular area of the screen. cursor bar The line of reverse video text on your PowerMenu menu. The cursor bar is moved with the [down arrow] and [up arrow] keys. dBase III A database management program for IBM PC's with which PowerMenu's data files are compatible. directory An imaginary "room" an your hard disk which contains files of similar types. There are DOS commands to allow you to create, change to, and delete directories. 25 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 DOS Your computer's Disk Operating System. DOS allows you to run programs and maintain your disks, among other things. Edit Window The window through which all PowerMenu changes and additions are made. The Edit Window is opened by highlighting the selection and hitting [Ins], and closed with [Esc]. [Enter] key The large key to the right of your keyboard. On some computers, this is labeled [Return]. [Esc] key The key on your computer labeled Esc, meaning Escape. extension The last part of a filename, preceded by a dot (.), specifying the file type. All commands which PowerMenu runs must have an extension of .COM, .EXE, or .BAT (except Resident DOS Commands). field A one-line area, highlighted in reverse video, in to which you can enter text. file Computer term for a group of data on your disk. The text of a report, the numbers in a spreadsheet, and instructions to a program are all examples of disk files. function keys The ten keys labeled F1 - F10 on your keyboard. help line The line at the bottom of your screen which gives abbreviated help whenever you are in PowerMenu. help screen A screen of helpful text which appears in PowerMenu when you hit [F1]. highlight A PowerMenu selection is highlighted when the cursor bar is over that selection. Main Menu The menu that appears when PowerMenu is first invoked. All subsequent menus are called from the Main Menu. /menu directory The directory on your hard disk where all of your PowerMenu files reside. parameters Information sent to a DOS program. 26 PowerMenu Users' Manual Copyright Brown Bag Software 1989 SITE LICENSES AND BUNDLING ARRANGEMENTS --------------------------------------- Corporate site licenses and bundling arrangements are available direct from Brown Bag Software. Site licenses can be used to distribute large quantities of PowerMenu and its documentation within a specific organization at very reasonable prices (hundreds of dollars less per copy than competing products). All users under a site license can become registered users at no extra fee and are automatically notified of updates. Bundling arrangements can be used to distribute copies of PowerMenu in order to promote some other product or service. Note that neither of these activities is permitted under the limited license granted to all users of PowerMenu without the expressed written consent of Brown Bag Software. 27