Shareware Overload Trio 2/Shareware Overload Trio Volume 2 (Chestnut CD-ROM).ISO/dir37/ezmenu38.zip/EZPAK.EXE/WHATSNEW.DOC

Text File | 1994-10-15 | 10KB | 192 lines

EZ-Menu 6.0 Enhancements

 - EZ-Menu 6.0 now has full multiuser features!  You can maintain a list
   of users, each with varying levels of security and configuration options
   and allow "login" to EZ-Menu.

 - There are several options in multiuser mode, which determine how users
   can "login" to EZ-Menu: they can pick from a list of all users, enter
   the username, or in LAN environments have EZ-Menu automatically pick
   the EZ-Menu username from the LAN login ID or node address.

 - A special EZUSER utility has been added, allowing maintenance of a list
   of user accounts when EZ-Menu is run in multiuser mode.  This program
   allows full-editing of all user configuration options as well as sorting
   of the userlist.

 - For LAN versions (and the Shareware version), the EZUSER utility when
   implemented in a LAN environment can display REAL-TIME reports of user
   activity on the network - showing exactly what application a user is
   running, when it was started and the elapsed time, as well as other
   information!

 - Each menu option, in addition to having passwords, can also have a
   "security level" associated with it.  In Multiuser mode, if the user
   does not have a high-enough security level, the menu option will not
   even appear.

 - To identify if a user has restricted access to a particular menu
   (meaning some items on the menu are unavailable to the current user)
   look for a block (■) at the end of the copyright notice at the top of
   the screen.

 - EZ-Menu also supports various security levels for adding/editing/erasing
   menu items, modification of user and system settings, and exiting to DOS.

 - The READLOG utility now has the ability, in addition to extracting
   activity on particular time periods, to be able to extract specific
   TYPES of activity.  You can now specify keywords to search the log
   files - extracting information on particular events or applications
   that were run!

 - DOS Command Menus have been completely re-written and better organized.
   During Installation, the program will update the DOS menus based on
   what MakeMnu finds and your specific DOS version

 - MakeMnu recognized many more applications, including Windows programs,
   and may also add pop-up help messages to specific choices.

 - You can now hit ESC during MakeMnu and abort the menu-building process

 - MakeMnu now will also automatically build/update your menu of timed
   events; giving examples of DOS & other utilities that should be
   automated to improve reliability & efficiency of your system.

 - You can now specify a message to be displayed in the screen blanker when
   pressing Ctrl-Home

 - In addition to EZ-Menu's unequalled timed-execution abilities, a new
   option has been added.  You can now set menu choices for "Incremental"
   execution - specifying the number of minutes between automated runs.
   Now you can specify that a menu item be run every x number of minutes!

 - When picking from a list of files or subdirectories, the list is now
   sorted in alphabetical order and more files/subdirectories can be
   listed (several hundred if necessary).

 - Previous problems with the clock display (in 24-hour time format)
   have now been corrected, as well as any inconsistencies with timed-
   events.

 - Passwords are now hidden from view in most areas of the program for
   added security.

 - For LAN users, EZ-MENU now supports multi-character drive specifications
   (such as  SYS:\ )

 - With Simplemenu enabled, you can now have the entire background color
   user-configurable.

 - User-definable help messages can be implemented; where up to 3 lines of
   text will be displayed when a user hilights a menu option; this pop-up
   help can be set to appear under a variety of user-specified conditions.

 - Pop-up help boxes can be set to appear when a menu item is hilighted,
   when the item is selected, or when SPACE is pressed.

 - A utility called EZUSER allows you to maintain a list of users under
   multiuser operation of EZ-Menu, with features such as adding, erasing,
   and sorting users as well as maintaining separate configuration options,
   security levels and passwords for each.

 - A file called EZABORT.BAT is executed if the user presses ESC and tries
   to abort the login process; if the file does not exist, the user is
   dropped to dos.  Note: This file can be set to read-only for additional
   security.

 - If the "Bottom Screen Message" is set to "STATUS" (all caps), EZ-Menu will
   display network status information at the bottom of the menu screen.
   (applicable only in a LAN environment - designed for Novell but may work
   with other LAN OS)

 - In addition to being able to configure separate colors for each menu in
   the system, each user/node/etc can have unique menu colors (settings are
   saved to the user's work directory).

 - The long-awaited SORT MENU feature has now been implemented!! (sorry for
   taking so long)  You can now press SHIFT-F6 to alphabetically sort the
   currently-displayed menu.

EZ-Menu 5.1 Improvements:

 - When reconfiguring the system, the MENU.BAT file will only be re-written
   if a configuration option that affects it has been changed (such as the
   drive/subdirectory where EZ-Menu is installed, LAN work directory or
   startup batch file name).  This allows custom configuration of the batch
   file that invokes EZ-Menu without causing the file to be overwritten each
   time the system is configured.

 - EZ-Menu 5.1 now identifies the current DOS version and uses special
   commands to increase performance when they are available.

 - The entry swapping function (F6) will now support copying a menu choice
   to the main menu (if you are moving/swapping items on a submenu).

 - When adding or editing menu choices, the F2 key can be used when you are
   prompted to enter a subdirectory or filename to display a list of
   available files or paths from which to choose.  This eliminates the
   possibility of mispelling subdirectory or program names, and allows
   adding applications to the menu by searching through what is on your
   computer.

 - EZ-Menu 5.1 now has full mouse support built-in.  Any Microsoft-compatible
   mouse will work with the system without any additional utilities (as long
   as the mouse driver is loaded, as is required with most mouse programs).
   The EZ-Menu utilities such as Readlog are also fully mouse supported.

 - EZ-Menu 5.1 now supports multiple time and date display formats, in
   both the main program, and the activity reporter.  Both 12 and 24 hour
   time formats are available, along with numerous date formats for usage
   in foreign countries.

 - EZ-Menu 5.1 also includes a new option called SIMPLEMENU which allows
   a more simplified single-column menu layout, with less information on
   screen.

 - The MAKEMNU utility has been enhanced to automatically search all drives
   available for applications.  It is no longer necessary to run the
   program once for each drive on your system.  MakeMnu is also more flexible
   in identifying applications, and as always, the number of programs
   MakeMnu recognizes has been increased.

 - EZ-MENU 5.1 includes a new INSTALL program which replaces the previous
   INSTALL and UPGRADE batch files.  The program will install the software
   from any drive and will automatically detect if you are using an older
   version of the program and offer the option to only upgrade the system
   files (and keep your existing menu structure).

 - Previously EZ-MENU did not allow high-order characters in input strings.
   This made it difficult to use such characters in international language
   usage.  EZ-MENU will not support foreign-language character input.

 - Made editing/configuration more consistent - the SPACEBAR is now used
   in all areas of the program to save current information.  Also descriptive
   identifiers have been made consistent throughout the program.

 - Added the ability during swapping to copy menu entries to other sub-
   menus.  If the 2nd item highlighted during swapping is a sub-menu, the
   program will ask the user if he wants to swap on screen, or copy the
   highlighted entry to the indicated submenu.  This feature allows the user
   to easily organize all selections across multiple menus & submenus WITH-
   OUT having to reenter selections.

 - Enhanced EZ-Menu's "return to sub-menu" abilities.  Now, when calling an
   application from a submenu, upon termination of the application, when
   EZ-MENU restarts, the menu from which the application was invoked will be
   displayed AND the last selected application will be HILIGHTED.  You can
   also now, completely back-out of nested submenus, even after a program has
   been executed from the menu.

 - EZ-Menu's MAKEMNU utility now by default, sets-up found applications so
   that upon termination, the submenu from which the application has been
   called will be displayed when EZ-Menu restarts.  This is also the new
   default option when adding menu items.

 - EZ-Menu's "Menu Modification Password" in configuration now also restricts
   access to menu printing and entry swapping (F7 and F6 commands).  If this
   password is set, it must be typed in before the menu can be printed or
   menu items can be swapped or copied to other menus.

... and much more!