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Text File | 1994-02-04 | 16.5 KB | 674 lines

The Cyber Punk's Address Book v1.01 Copyright 1993,94 Robert D. Bouman **************** February 4, 1994 Warranty: While every effort has been made to ensure that this program, The Cyber Punk's Address Book, is in perfect working order and that it poses no threat to the computer system it operates in, the author takes no responsibility for damage to property or data that may result from the use or misuse of this software package. Legal use of product: This program has been released to the general public as a shareware software package. As such, this program is NOT public domain or freeware. The author retains full legal copyright of said computer software. It is illegal to alter the contents of the files included in the official release of The Cyber Punk's Address Book (for files considered part of the official release see README.1ST). Also, this computer software package may NOT be included as part of another program unless permission has been obtained in writing from the author. The author also retains full commercial rights to said software package. It is strictly forbidden to charge a fee for the use of this software except in the following circumstances; 1) a distribution and cost of media fee may be charged for the distribution of this program, this fee may not exceed $5.00 in total 2) operators of electronic bulletin boards may charge a small fee to users to download this program from their service, this fee may not exceed $5.00 either. Registration: The Cyber Punk'sAddressBook isNOTfree. If you find this software useful andcontinuetouseitformore than thirty days, you are expected toregisteryourcopy. The cost of registration is $15.00 (US funds). See REGISTER.DOC for more information. Table of Contents Topic Page --------------------------------------------------------- Introduction ..................................... 2 Main Menu ........................................ 3 Adding a record .................................. 4 Editing a record ................................. 6 Deleting a record ................................ 8 Printing a record ................................ 9 Command-line switches ............................ 10 Introduction : A new concept in information managers, The Cyber Punk's Address Book is to network mail what an address book is to a normal mailing address. If you have ever found yourself buried with cryptic network addresses stuffed here and there on little bits of scrap paper, then you realize what a pain it can be to keep in touch with people through e-mail message networks. If you have ever lost the FIDOnet mail address to someone you needed to contact then you definitly have a need for this program. The Cyber Punk's Address Book (CPAB) is a database program designed specifically to store, retrieve, and print information necessary to keep track of network addresses so you never loose touch with an important "Cyber Punk". CPAB includes many features that make it unique even among other non- related information managers. Functions such as autosave, undelete, and the ability to print to a printer or to a disk file comprise the most powerful features of CPAB. The autosave feature of CPAB is an extremely handy feature in an information manager. You'll never have to worry about whether or not you saved the entries you just added or changed because your changes to the CPAB's database are always saved for you! Deleting an entry is never a potentially fatal operation with CPAB's undelete feature. With one simple keystroke any record can be undeleted! Also, in an effort to conserve disk space, when you exit CPAB all deletions are made permanent. You don't have to worry about unwanted data hanging around on your system taking up space. All printing is done with one easy step. No matter if you're printing one record or your entire database of records, printing is always a snap with CPAB. In an effort for CPAB to work on the widest variety of systems, CPAB can print to printer ports 1-4 or to an ASCII coded file for later printing or editing. It's easy to use! It's small! It's powerful! It's cheap! Register your copy today! Page 2 Main Menu: When you first execute ADDRBOOK.EXE from DOS, you will be greeted by the main menu screen. From this menu six functions are available; View Record, Add Record, Edit Record, Delete Record, Print Record, Exit Program. The following key strokes are pertinent to the main menu; <UP ARROW>, <LEFT ARROW>, and <SHIFT+TAB> will all cause the black function highlighting bar to move one item upward. <DOWN ARROW>, <RIGHT ARROW>, and <TAB> will all cause the black function highlighting bar to move one item downward. <ENTER> will launch the highlighted function. For example, pressing <ENTER> while the "Add Record" item is highlighted will display the field entry screen of the add function and the user can start entering information for a new record. <ESC> will exit the program all together and return the user to DOS. **** This all sounds much more complicated than it really is. If you are new to computing, the best way to understand how this works is to run the program and experiment. Remember, I have designed this program so as not to let you do anything that's dangerous to you or your computer so feel free to experiment. :) Page 3 Adding a record: Unless you're only concern is how to contact me through network mail, the first thing you're going to want to do is add a record of your own. Adding is extremely easy. Just follow the few simple steps below. 1) First you must select "Add Record" from the main menu. If the main menu is not displayed on the screen, press the <ESC> until it is. 2} At this point, the "Add Record" screen should be displayed on your computer screen. There are five fields in which you can enter information. They are; User Handle (Some propriety networks allow the use of handles in public posting areas), User Name, Network Address, Network Type, and a general purpose Notes field. All fields are blank and ready for input. The first field is highlighted in black and contains a cursor. 2) You may leave any number of fields blank. It is entirely up to you as to what information is important to keep. To enter data in the highlighted field just simple start typing. However, there are a few special keys you should be aware of. The keys and a description of what they do are listed below. - <DOWN ARROW>, <TAB> will both cause the field immediately below the active field to become the new active field. Keyboard input will now be added to the new active field. - <UP ARROW>, <SHIFT+TAB> will both cause the field immediately above the active field to become the new active field. - <RIGHT ARROW>, <LEFT ARROW> will move the cursor right or left within the active field. - <HOME> will move the cursor within the active field to the beginning of the field. - <END> will move the cursor within the active field to the end of the field. - <INSERT> will toggle the insert/over-strike mode. When the program is in insert mode, the cursor will be displayed as a blinking underscore and when you type a letter or number on the keyboard everything to the right of the cursor will be pushed over one position. When the program is in over-strike mode, the cursor will be displayed as a solid blinking cursor and when you type a letter or number from the keyboard the character highlighted by the blinking cursor will be replaced by the character you typed from the keyboard. - <BACKSPACE> will erase the character directly to the left of the blinking cursor. Page 4 - <DELETE> will erase the character that is currently highlighted by the blinking cursor. - <ENTER> will add the current record to the database file. If you run CPAB from a hard drive, you probably won't even notice the record was saved to disk but be assured that it did! The fields will be cleared and User Handle field will become the active field. A note of caution, if you hold the <ENTER> key down while you are attempting to add a record, a number of records could be saved to disk. Since even a blank field takes as much room as a field that is completely full, it's a good idea to make sure that you don't hold the <ENTER> key down. If you accidently add a few blank records, they can easily be removed with the delete function. See "Deleting a record" later in this manual. - <ESC> will exit back to the main menu WITHOUT saving the current record to disk. **** It is quite natural to want to press <ENTER> when you're finished entering information into a particular field. But, remember that pressing <ENTER> will add the current record to the database file no matter if you're finished or not. If you press <ENTER> prematurely, you can always edit the record later. See "Editing a record" for more information. Page 5 Editing a record: The functions View Record, Edit Record, Delete Record, and Print Record all make use of a pick list to select the desired record. The following discussion applies to all those listed above. When you select View, Edit, Delete, or Print Record from the main menu, the record pick screen will be displayed. The record fields User Handle and User Name are displayed for each entry to assist in the selection of the proper record. After you have selected a record the proper function will be launched. The following keys are used in the record pick list screen; - <UP ARROW>, <SHIFT+TAB>, <LEFT ARROW> will all move the record selection bar one position upward. If the pointer is at the top of the pick list, the pick list entries will be scrolled one position upward (if you're at the beginning of the database a beep will sound). - <DOWN ARROW>, <TAB>, <RIGHT ARROW> - will all move the record selection bar one position downward. If the pointer is at the bottom of the pick list, the pick list entries will be scrolled one position downward (if you're at the bottom of the database a beep will sound). - <PAGE UP> will cause the pointer to be moved 15 entries up in the database. If you're at the top of the database file, a beep will sound. - <PAGE DOWN> will cause the pointer to be moved 15 entries down in the database. If you're at the bottom of the database file, a beep will sound. - <HOME> will cause the pointer to be moved to the very top of the database. If you're at the top, a beep will sound. - <END> will cause the pointer to be moved to the very end of the database. If you're at the bottom a beep will sound. - <U> will undelete a previously deleted record. Records that are deleted will appear on the selection list as an entry drawn on the screen in a light blue color. - <ENTER> will select the highlighted record. You cannot select deleted records. - <ESC> will exit out of the pick list and back to the main menu. Page 6 After you have selected the record that you wish to edit, a screen very similar to the add function will be displayed. The edit function is very similar to the add function. The only difference is that fields will be pre-loaded with data from the record you selected to edit. For more information see "Adding a record". Page 7 Deleting a record: After you have selected "Delete Record" from the main menu and have selected a record to delete from the pick list (see "Editing a record" for more information on the pick list), the record to be deleted will be displayed on the screen and you will be asked if you wish to delete the record. Choosing 'Y' from this prompt will cause the program to temporarily delete the selected record. Deleted entries will be displayed in a light blue color. You may undelete a deleted record at any time by choosing 'U' from the pick list screen. However, all deletions are made permanent after you exit CPAB. Page 8 Printing a record or the entire database: After you select "Print Record" from the main menu, a dialog box will be displayed asking you if you wish to print the entire database ('A' for all records), one record ('O' for one record), or no records at all ('N' for none). If you choose to print your entire database of records ('A'), the program will then display another dialog box asking you if you're sure. If you answer yes ('Y') to the prompt, the program will begin to print all the entries in your database. If CPAB encounters a printer error at any time during printing, you will be given the option to either quit or to fix printer and continue. If you choose to print just one of the records from your database, the program will display the pick list (see "Editing a record"). After you have selected the record to print, the record will be displayed on the screen and you will be asked if the record on the screen is the correct record. If you respond with a 'Y' (yes) then the program will print the selected record. If there is a printer error while printing, you will be given the option quit or to fix the printer and continue. **** If you have opted to re-direct the printer output to an ASCII file and you run out of disk space, the current printing job will be aborted. Page 9 Command-line switches and printing to an ASCII file: You may have CPAB print to printer ports 1-4 or to an ASCII file. The commnd-line format is given below; ADDRBOOK [/P=XXXXX] /P=LPT1-4 will set CPAB to print to printer ports 1-4. /P=filename will set CPAB to print to an ASCII file given by filename. You must include the full path to the file and the file's name as part of filename parameter. If the file's path does not exist, printing will fall back to its default LPT1. If the file already exists, the old file's contents will be erased in preparation for new data. All command-line parameters are optional. By executing the program by simple typing "ADDRBOOK", LPT1 will become the default printer port. Only the first parameter will have an effect on CPAB's operation. Page 10