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Asc2Com (MorganSoft) | 1994-09-09 | 46.7 KB | 1,105 lines

Magic Desk (tm) Version 3.2 User's Guide Copyright 1991-1994 Virtual Magic Software All Rights Reserved Virtual Magic Software P.O. Box 12264 Huntsville, Alabama 35815-0264 Phone: (205) 880-9035 Fax: (205) 880-7885 CompuServe: 70304,2045 Internet: 70304.2045@compuserve.com WARRANTY AND LICENSE...........................................2 INTRODUCTION...................................................2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS............................................3 INSTALLING MAGIC DESK..........................................3 STARTING MAGIC DESK............................................3 MOVING AROUND IN MAGIC DESK....................................4 ADDING A PROGRAM OR PAGE.......................................6 REMOVING A PROGRAM OR PAGE.....................................9 VIEWING/MODIFYING A PROGRAM OR PAGE............................9 SETTING CONFIGURATION OPTIONS.................................10 SETTING COLOR OPTIONS.........................................12 SETTING SCREEN BLANKER OPTIONS................................12 RUNNING PROGRAMS FROM MAGIC DESK..............................13 ARRANGING BUTTONS.............................................14 PAINTER.......................................................15 TIPS AND TECHNIQUES...........................................17 COMPATIBILITY WITH EARLIER VERSIONS...........................20 ==================== WARRANTY AND LICENSE ==================== THIS PROGRAM IS SUPPLIED AS IS. THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, DIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WHICH MAY RESULT FROM THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM. This is an unregistered evaluation version of Magic Desk. You are licensed to use this version for a reasonable evaluation period, up to 30 days. If after the evaluation period you wish to continue using Magic Desk, you must submit the required registration fee. There are several advantages to becoming a registered user. Please see the REGISTER.TXT file for complete registration details. ============ INTRODUCTION ============ Magic Desk is a graphical DOS menuing system that lets you easily run all of your programs without having to remember cryptic DOS commands. Magic Desk is unique because it has all the advanced features found in menuing systems designed for adults, yet it is so safe and simple that even young children can use it. It's incredibly easy to set up your programs to run from Magic Desk. Simply enter the program title, where the program is on disk, and the name of the icon you want to use to represent the program. File pick-lists make your job even easier. Magic Desk will create a large 3-D button with the icon you've chosen. From then on, you can start the program simply by selecting the button with the mouse or keyboard. When your program is finished, Magic Desk automatically reappears so you can select another program. It couldn't be any easier! You can use readily available Microsoft Windows icons, or you can design your own with the easy-to-use icon editor built into Magic Desk. Magic Desk allows you to set up multiple levels of menu pages which can hold a virtually unlimited number of programs. You can password protect individual programs or entire menu pages. You can assign hotkeys to run particular programs or open menu pages. You also have the option of providing variable program parameters at the time you run a program. Magic Desk has a built- in screen blanker and usage log. It also allows you to use PCX files as background images. Magic Desk does not remain in memory while it is running your programs. IMPORTANT: Please take a look at the README.TXT file also on this disk. This file contains information that updates, clarifies, or emphasizes information found in this User's Guide. It also lists the new features in version 3.2 2 =================== SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS =================== - MS-DOS 3.3 or later - EGA/VGA - 512K RAM - Hard Disk - Microsoft-compatible Mouse (optional) ===================== INSTALLING MAGIC DESK ===================== Magic Desk is distributed in a compressed format and cannot be run directly as is. You must first install it on your hard drive. To install it: 1. When you see the C> prompt (or a similar prompt that identifies your hard drive), insert the program disk in disk drive A (or B). 2. Type A:INSTALL (or B:INSTALL) and press the ENTER key. 3. Follow the instructions on the screen. =================== STARTING MAGIC DESK =================== To start Magic Desk at the DOS prompt, type MAGIC then press ENTER. Magic Desk automatically detects whether your system has an EGA or VGA compatible graphics card and switches to the highest graphics mode available. It will also detect the presence of a mouse if you have a Microsoft-compatible mouse driver installed. If you have display problems, such as part of the main Magic Desk page not being visible, or the mouse pointer not displaying, Magic Desk may not be correctly detecting the video mode. You can try to force Magic Desk into the correct graphics mode by typing "MAGIC E" for EGA or "MAGIC V" for VGA. If the mouse pointer still doesn't display, check to ensure you have a mouse driver properly installed. If you would like Magic Desk to run automatically when you turn on your computer, you can include the appropriate commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. See the "Tips and Techniques" section of this User's Guide for complete details. 3 =========================== MOVING AROUND IN MAGIC DESK =========================== When you open a window, such as the Helper window described later, it pops up on top of the current page and any windows that may already be displayed. The top window is always the active window. You can only access objects (normally buttons and text boxes) that are in the active window. SELECTING OBJECTS - MOUSE Move the mouse pointer to the desired object in the active window and click any of the mouse buttons once. In Magic Desk all mouse buttons have the same effect, and no double clicks are required. SELECTING OBJECTS - KEYBOARD 1) ALT Key: Objects can be selected by pressing the ALT key plus a letter key. Most objects have one or more words under them or to the right of them describing the function of the button or box. One of the letters in the words will have an underscore beneath it. To select the object, hold down the ALT key and press the letter that is underscored. For example, at the Helper window, to select the Remove Program or Page button, hold down the ALT key and press "R". Some buttons don't have text descriptions. The keys to select these buttons are: - STOP Button: ALT+S (only at title page) - Painter Button: ALT+P (only at title page) - Information Button: ALT+I (only at title page ) - Close Window Button: ESC - Helper Button: ALT+H - OK Button: ALT+O - Arrange Icons: ALT+A - Up-Arrow Button: Page Up - Down-Arrow Button: Page Down 2) Outline Cursor: In some windows you must use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move from one object to the next. An outline cursor will indicate the current object. To select the current object, press the ENTER key. (If you have a mouse, this outline cursor can be turned off if you intend to use only the mouse to select objects. See "Setting Configuration Options" below for instructions.) 4 EDITING TEXT In using Magic Desk, you will sometimes need to enter information in text boxes. This section describes the general procedures for entering and editing text in text boxes. 1) Positioning the Text Cursor (Mouse): Move the mouse pointer directly to the desired location within any of the text boxes in the active window and click one of the mouse buttons. The text cursor (a thin black vertical line) will move to the mouse pointer position. 2) Positioning the Text Cursor (Keyboard): Select the desired text box using the ALT key combinations, TAB/SHIFT-TAB, or up and down arrow keys as described above. Move around within the text box by using the left and right arrow keys. Pressing the TAB key or ENTER key will move the text cursor to the next text box. Pressing the TAB key while holding down SHIFT key will move the text cursor to the previous text box. 3) Entering Text: After positioning the text cursor, begin typing. The text will be inserted at the text cursor location. Magic Desk will not allow you to enter more text than will fit inside the text box. 4) Deleting Text: To delete a character to the right of the text cursor, press the DELETE key. To delete a character to the left of the text cursor, press the BACKSPACE key. CLOSING THE ACTIVE WINDOW OR PAGE The button in the upper left corner of the window or page is always used to close the window and return to the previous window or page. Select this button with the mouse or press the ESCAPE key. If you have made changes to information in a window, be sure to save the changes before closing the window. SAVING CHANGES After you have made changes, such as adding a new program or changing the configuration, you must save these changes to disk. Do this by selecting the OK button with the mouse or typing ALT+O. If you decide you don't want the changes to be made, simply close the window without saving them. 5 MOVING BETWEEN PAGES Icon buttons can represent either programs or pages, depending on how you have them set up (see "Adding a Program or Page" below). Program buttons start a program when selected; page buttons open a new page when selected. Pages can be be nested five deep. To close the current page and return to the previous page, select the button in the upper left corner of the page or press the ESCAPE key. USING FILE PICKLISTS Magic Desk makes it easy for you to enter file information for programs, icons, etc., by displaying file picklists. Instead of having to remember and type in the exact drive, directory and filename for various files, you just have to locate the file in the picklist and select it with the mouse or keyboard. 1) Available drives are indicated in the picklist with a letter followed by a colon (":"). Selecting a drive from the picklist will cause the files in the current directory on that drive to be displayed. b. Subdirectories of the current directory are indicated in the picklist by a backslash ("\") at the end of the name. Selecting a subdirectory will cause the files for that directory to be displayed. Selecting the "..\" entry will display the files of the parent directory of whatever directory you are currently in. c. Selecting a file from the picklist will close the picklist window and automatically fill in the appropriate text box or boxes with the file information. If the file list contains more than 16 drives, directories and files, select the blue arrow buttons (or press the Page Up and Page Down keys) to display the next or previous 16 files. Magic Desk will only display the first 1024 file names in any directory. ======================== ADDING A PROGRAM OR PAGE ======================== Open the Helper window by selecting the Helper button (the red cross) or by typing ALT+H. Select the Add Program or Page button. This will open a window containing the following objects: 1) Program Files Button: Select this button to open a file picklist of all program (COM, EXE, and BAT) files. Selecting a file from this picklist will automatically fill in the Path and Program text boxes (see 8 and 9 below). 6 2) Icon Files Button: Select this button to open a file picklist of all Magic Desk icon (ICN) files. Selecting a file from this picklist will automatically fill in the Icon text box (see 10 below) and display the icon in the box at the bottom of the window. 3) Copy Button: Select this button to copy all information currently in the Add Program or Page window to a temporary storage area in memory or "clipboard". This information can later be pasted into another program or page button being added or modified. (NOTE: Copying the information for a page button also causes the information about all the program buttons on that page to be copied. Magic Desk will not let you copy the information for a page button if the page represented by the button contains page buttons itself (i.e. if the page contains subpages)). The copied information remains in the clipboard until you: (1) overwrite it by using the Copy button again; (2) run an application; or (3) exit Magic Desk. 4) Paste Button: Select this button to paste program or page information, previously copied to the clipboard with the Copy button, to the current window. This is useful if you want to duplicate the same program button on more than one page or copy the contents of a page to a new page. 5) Button Title Text Box: Enter a title for the program or page button. This will be the title that will appear under the button. If you are entering information for a page button, this will also be the title at the top of the page when it is opened. 6) Password Text Box: You can enter an optional password that a user must enter to start the program or open the page. Passwords are always displayed on the screen as a series of asterisks. This prevents someone looking over your shoulder from viewing the password on the screen. If you forget the password there is no way to look it up. You will have to enter a new password. 7) Key Text Box: You can enter an optional hotkey to be used to select the program or page. You can use any printable character as a hotkey. Upper and lower case letters are treated as the same letter. Ensure that no two program/page buttons on the same page have the same hotkey, or Magic Desk will always select the first one it finds. These are not ALT key combinations. If you enter "M" as the hot key to run a "Mickey Mouse" program, you will just press the "M" key to run the program, not ALT+M. 8) Path Text Box: Enter the drive/directory of the program. The easiest way to do this is to use the Program Files button, which will automatically fill in the correct information for both 7 Path and Program text boxes. Drive information is optional if the file is on the same drive as Magic Desk. Directory information is optional if the file is in the same directory as Magic Desk or one of the directories listed in the DOS PATH statement. The directory must begin with a backslash ("\"). Example: C:\NATHAN\GAMES\ 9) Program Text Box: Enter the command to execute the program, plus any optional parameters. Example: MICKABC /E 10) Icon Text Box: Enter the complete path and filename of the icon to be displayed on the button. The easiest way to do this is to use the Icon Files button described above, which will automatically fill in the correct information. Drive information is optional if the icon file is on the same drive as Magic Desk. Directory information is optional if the icon is in the same directory as Magic Desk. The directory must begin with "\". Example: C:\ICONS\ABC.ICN Magic Desk can only use icons in Magic Desk format, normally represented by a ".ICN" extension. These icons can be designed using the Painter icon editor built into Magic Desk. A number of sample icons are included on the Magic Desk disk. For instructions on designing your own icons or importing Microsoft Windows icons, see the "Painter" section below. 11) Page Button: Icon buttons can represent either a program to be launched or a page (submenu) to be opened. Setting the Page button to "YES" indicates that information being entered is for a button that will be used to open a page. In this case, anything entered in the Program and Path text boxes is ignored. Magic Desk allows up to five nested levels of pages. 12) Batch File Button: Set this to "YES" if the program is a batch file (a file with a ".BAT" extension), otherwise the program will not return to Magic Desk after it runs. Another option for running a batch file is to leave this set to "NO" and precede the program name with the word "CALL" in the "Program" text box. Example: CALL PRODIGY.BAT 13) Wait Button: Setting this to "YES" causes Magic Desk to wait for ENTER to be pressed before returning to Magic Desk after running the program. This is useful if you need time to view the results of the program before Magic Desk reappears. 8 14) Variables Button: Setting this to "YES" allows you to enter additional command line parameters at the time you run the program. This is useful if you sometimes run the same program with different parameters. 15) OK Button: After you have entered all necessary information, select the OK button with the mouse or press ALT+O to save the information to disk and close the window. To close the window without adding the program/page, select the Close Window button in the upper left corner of the window or press the ESCAPE key. ========================== REMOVING A PROGRAM OR PAGE ========================== Open the Helper window by selecting the Helper button (the red cross) or by pressing ALT+H. Select the Remove Program or Page button. This will open a window listing the names of all the program/page buttons on the current page. Select all of the program/page buttons you wish to remove, then select the OK button or press ALT+O. To close the window without removing any programs, select the Close Window button with the mouse or press the ESCAPE key. Removing a program button from Magic Desk does not delete the program from disk. It still exists and can be run normally from DOS or later added back to Magic Desk. After removing a program/page button, you may want to rearrange the remaining buttons (see "Arranging Buttons" below ). If you remove a button representing a page, all the program buttons belonging to that page are also removed. Magic Desk will allow you to remove a button representing a page that contains program buttons, but it will not allow you to remove a page button that itself contains more subpages. If you try to remove a page button that has subpages, you will get a message saying "Pages containing subpages were not removed." To remove the button in a case like this, you must first close the Helper window, open the page containing the subpages, and remove all the subpages individually. =================================== VIEWING/MODIFYING A PROGRAM OR PAGE =================================== Open the Helper window by selecting the Helper button (the red cross) or by pressing ALT+H. Select the View/Modify Program or 9 Page button. This will open a window listing the names of all the program and page buttons on the current page. Select the program/page button you wish to view or modify. A window will open containing the current information for that program/page button. You can make any desired changes using the same techniques used in the Add Program or Page window. ============================= SETTING CONFIGURATION OPTIONS ============================= All pages have a Helper window which is used to add, remove or view/modify buttons on that page. The Helper window for the main title page contains extra buttons for customizing how Magic Desk looks and works. Selecting the Configuration Options button opens a window in which you set the following options. 1) Arrange Icons: Setting this to "NO" prevents a user from rearranging the buttons on any page (see "Arranging Buttons"). 2) STOP Button: Setting this to "NO" prevents a user from exiting Magic Desk by disabling the STOP button on the main title page. To exit the program when the STOP button is disabled, a user must press ALT+S. As an additional level of security, you can password protect the ALT+S function (see "Password" below). 3) Helper Button: Setting this to "NO" prevents a user from changing any page/program or configuration information by disabling the Helper button (the red cross) on all pages. To open the Helper window when the Helper button is disabled, a user must press ALT+H. As an additional level of security, you can password protect the ALT+H function (see "Password" below). 4) Disk Access: Setting this to "NO" disables the Read Icon and Write Icon buttons in Painter. To access the Read Icon button when disk access is disabled, a user must press ALT+R. To access the Write Icon button when disk access is disabled, a user must press ALT+W. As an additional level of security, you can password protect the ALT+R and ALT+W functions (see "Password" below). 5) Usage Log: Setting this to "NO" turns off the usage log. When the Usage Log button is set to "YES", each time you run a program from Magic Desk, information is recorded in a file called USAGE.LOG. The log records the program title, the date and time the program was launched, and the elapsed time. The log is in standard ASCII text format, so you can view and/or print it from any text editor or word processor. 6) Cursor: Setting this to "NO" turns off the outline cursor used to indicate the current object on pages. If you do 10 not have a mouse installed you should leave this set to "YES". If you have a mouse installed, and you use only the mouse to select objects, you can turn the cursor off if you find it distracting. 7) Main Title: Enter a title up to 24 characters long that will appear on the main title page. 8) Password: You can enter an optional password that will be required in three situations: (1) when a user attempts to exit the program with ALT+S; (2) when a user attempts to open the Helper Window with ALT+H; or (3) when a user attempts to read or write a disk file in Painter with ALT+R or ALT+W. The same password applies to all three situations. This password has no effect on individual programs or pages. Passwords for these are set in the Add Program or Page or the View/Modify Program or Page windows. 9) PCX File: Enter the complete path and filename of the PCX file to be displayed as a background on the opening title page. The easiest way to do this is to use the PCX Files button described above, which will automatically fill in the correct information. Drive information is optional if the PCX file is on the same drive as Magic Desk. Directory information is optional if the PCX is in the same directory as Magic Desk. The directory must begin with "\". Example: C:\PCXFILES\CHESS.PCX If the entire image will fit on the screen, Magic Desk will center it vertically and horizontally. If the image is larger than the screen, Magic Desk will display as much of the image as possible, beginning with the upper left corner of the image. Magic Desk can only display 16-color PCX Files. Many PCX files do not use a standard color palette, which will cause unpredictable colors when displayed in Magic Desk. If you have access to a system with Microsoft Windows you can use the Paintbrush accessory that comes with Windows to change the palette to the one used by Magic Desk and Windows. Open Paintbrush and perform the following steps: a. Open the PCX file. b. Save it as a PCX file with a different name. Paintbrush will save the new file in the default palette. After the conversion, the colors in the image may not be exactly the same as the original, but they will be very close. You can then use the new PCX file in Magic Desk. (NOTE: See README.TXT) 10) OK Button: After you have set the options the way you want them, select the OK button with the mouse or press ALT+O. 11 This will save the current settings to disk and close the Configuration Options window. No changes take effect until they are saved to disk. To close the window without saving any changes, select the small red Close Window button with the mouse or press the ESCAPE key. ===================== SETTING COLOR OPTIONS ===================== All pages have a Helper window which is used to add, remove or view/modify buttons on that page. The Helper window for the main Magic Desk title page contains extra buttons for customizing how Magic Desk looks and works. Selecting the Color Options button opens a window in which you can customize the Magic Desk colors. The Color Options window contains six buttons which allow you change the colors of the background, title bar, title, text, text box, and outline cursor. The window also displays a miniature representation of the screen, so you can see the results immediately. To change the colors, select the appropriate button until the desired color appears. Magic Desk will cycle through 16 colors and then start over again. NOTE: The outline cursor color will vary according to the color of the background, so you should select the cursor color AFTER selecting the background color. The cursor color will also be affected if you have a multicolor PCX image displayed in the background on the main page. Again, the cursor color will vary according to what is behind it. After you have set the options the way you want them, select the OK button with the mouse or press ALT+O. This will save the current settings to disk and close the Helper window. No changes take effect until they are saved to disk. To close the Helper window without saving any changes, select the small red Close Window button with the mouse or press the ESCAPE key. ============================== SETTING SCREEN BLANKER OPTIONS ============================== All pages have a Helper window which is used to add, remove or view/modify buttons on that page. The Helper window for the main Magic Desk title page contains extra buttons for customizing how Magic Desk looks and works. Selecting the Screen Bkanker Options button opens a window in which you can customize the the built-in screen blanker. 12 The screen blanker built into Magic Desk can be used to blank the monitor screen after a specified period of keyboard and/or mouse inactivity. If you often leave your computer on for extended periods of time, this can lengthen the life of your monitor. To unblank the screen, simply press the space bar or move the mouse. The screen will instantly reappear exactly as you left it. In the Screen Blanker Options window you can set the following options: 1) Blanker: Set this button to YES to enable the screen blanker. 2) Mouse: If you have a mouse installed on your system, set this button to YES. This will cause the screen saver to recognize mouse movements, as well as keystrokes, and not blank the screen as long as it detects either. (NOTE: See README.TXT) 3) Timer: Enter a number between 0 and 59. This number determines the number of minutes after which the screen saver will blank the screen if it has not detected any keyboard or mouse activity. If you enter a number less than zero, Magic Desk will convert it to zero, which effectively disables the screen saver. The screen will never blank as long as Timer is set to zero. If you enter a number greater than 59, Magic Desk will convert it to 59. If you enter characters other than a valid number, Magic Desk will convert it to zero. 4) OK Button: After you have set the options the way you want them, select the OK button with the mouse or press ALT+O. This will save the current settings to disk and close the Screen Blanker Options window. No changes take effect until they are saved to disk. To close the window without saving any changes, select the small red Close Window button with the mouse or press the ESCAPE key. ================================ RUNNING PROGRAMS FROM MAGIC DESK ================================ After you have added a program button to Magic Desk, you can easily run the program by: (1) selecting the program button with the mouse; (2) selecting it with the arrow keys and pressing ENTER (if the cursor is enabled); or (3) pressing the hot key associated with the program. If you have entered the path and program information correctly, the program will start normally as it would from the DOS command line. When you exit the program, Magic Desk will reappear. 13 If the program does not run correctly, use the View/Modify Program or Page window to change the program information. If the program is a batch file and runs correctly, but does not return to Magic Desk after running, ensure you have the Batch button set to "YES". ================= ARRANGING BUTTONS ================= As you add program/page buttons to Magic Desk, they are displayed in rows of five, starting in the upper left position on the page. You can rearrange the buttons in any order. Before arranging the buttons, you must set the Arrange Icons button in the Configuration Options window to YES. After you are finished arranging the buttons, you may want to reset the Arrange Icons button to NO. MOVING BUTTONS - MOUSE To move an icon button to a new location on the screen, position the mouse pointer anywhere on the icon button and press one of the mouse buttons. While still holding down the mouse button, move the mouse pointer to the location where you want the icon button to be. As you move the mouse, an outline of the icon button will move with it. After you have positioned the outline of the icon button where you want it, release the mouse button. The page will redraw with the icon button in the new location. (NOTE: There is small delay after holding the mouse button down before the button outline begins to move.) MOVING BUTTONS - KEYBOARD To move an icon button to a new location on the screen, first position the outline cursor on the button, using the arrow keys or the TAB/SHIFT-TAB keys. To move the button hold down the CTRL key as you press the left arrow, right arrow, Page Up, and Page Down keys. (NOTE: There are technical considerations with the IBM PC keyboard which force us to use CTRL-Page Up and CTRL-Page Down instead of CTRL-Up Arrow and CTRL-Down Arrow.) As you press these keys, the new position of the icon button will be indicated by an outline of the button. After you have positioned the outline of the icon button where you want it, press the ENTER key. The page will redraw with the icon button in the new location. IMPORTANT NOTE: Pressing the ENTER key after moving an icon button with the CTRL key combinations indicates to Magic Desk that you have finished moving the button. No other keys will work 14 until you press the ENTER key. Also, if you have a mouse installed, but choose to move an icon button with the CTRL key combinations, do not click any of the mouse buttons before you press the ENTER key. Doing so will cause unpredictable results. CHANGING THE ORDER If you choose, you can move the icon buttons to any position on the page and leave them there. Although they may be in different positions, Magic Desk still considers them to be in the same order they were originally in. Therefore, using the arrow keys and TAB key to move the red cursor between objects may give you some unexpected results. If you use the mouse to select icon buttons, this will not be a problem. To change the actual order of the icon buttons and line them back up in evenly spaced rows of five, move the buttons to the approximate position you want them to be in, then press ALT+A. The page will redraw with the icon buttons lined up evenly spaced in the new order. ======= PAINTER ======= Painter is an icon editor built into Magic Desk. With Painter you can design your own 32x32 pixels, 16 color icons for programs you install in Magic Desk, or you can import Microsoft Windows icons and convert them to Magic Desk format. PAINTING ICONS - MOUSE Choose a color by selecting any of the 16 palette buttons with the mouse. The current color will always show in the box above the palette buttons. After selecting a color, position the mouse pointer in the desired square on the large icon grid box, then press any mouse button. The square will change to the current color. To paint multiple squares with the same color, hold one of the mouse buttons down while dragging the mouse pointer over the squares you want to paint. As you paint the icon on the large grid box, you will also see the effects displayed on the actual- size button to the right of the large grid box. 15 PAINTING ICONS - KEYBOARD Choose a color by moving the red outline cursor to the desired palette button with the arrow keys, then press the ENTER key. The current color will always show in the box above the palette buttons. After selecting a color, press the SPACEBAR. This will cause a small yellow grid cursor to appear in the large icon grid box. Move the grid cursor to the desired square using the arrow keys, then press the ENTER key. The square will change to the current color. When you are ready to select a new color, press the SPACEBAR again. The red outline cursor will appear again in the palette buttons. To paint multiple squares with the same color, hold down the CTRL key as you press the left arrow, right arrow, Page Up, and Page Down keys. The squares will be painted as the grid cursor moves over them. (NOTE: There are technical considerations with the IBM PC keyboard which force us to use CTRL-Page Up and CTRL-Page Down instead of CTRL-Up Arrow and CTRL-Down Arrow. We realize it's more awkward than it should be.) FILL ALL BUTTON Select this button to fill the entire grid with the current color. READ ICON BUTTON Select this button to read in an already-existing icon from disk. Selecting this button will cause a window with a text box to pop up. Enter the path and file name of the icon file in the text box. Example: C:\ICONS\ABC.ICN The easiest way to do this is to select the Icon Files button, which will allow you to choose from a picklist of Magic Desk and Windows icon files (ICN and ICO). Drive information is optional if the icon file is the on same drive as Magic Desk. Directory information is optional if the icon file is in the same directory as Magic Desk. The directory must begin with "\". If you don't put an extension on the file name, Painter will assume a ".ICN" extension. After you have entered the icon file information, press the ENTER key or select the OK button to read the icon file. The icon will be displayed on the large icon grid box and the actual-size button to the right. To close the window without reading an icon, select the red Close Window button. 16 WRITE ICON BUTTON Select this button to save the displayed icon to a disk file. Use the same procedures as described in the previous paragraph. IMPORTING MICROSOFT WINDOWS ICON FILES To import a Microsoft Windows icon file (normally with a ".ICO" extension), read it in like you would a normal Magic Desk icon. Painter will make the conversion as it reads the file in. After you have made any desired changes to the icon, write it to disk. If you use the same file name, do not use the ".ICO" extension or you will write over the Windows version of the icon file. If you don't specify an extension, Painter will attach a ".ICN" extension. Painter can only import MS Windows icons that are in 32x32x16 format (32 pixels by 32 pixels by 16 colors). The vast majority of MS Windows icon files available are in this format. If you are using a Windows program you may not be able to find any icon files. Most MS Windows programs do not have separate icon files. Instead, the icons are stored in one of the program files (".EXE" or ".DLL"). A single MS Windows program file can have several icons stored in it. Painter cannot extract the icons from these files, but there are several utility programs available that can extract the icons and put them into separate icon files that Painter can import. =================== TIPS AND TECHNIQUES =================== RUNNING MULTIPLE COMMANDS Magic Desk allows you to directly run one program or DOS command per program button. If you need to run a series of programs or commands, you can do this by creating a batch file containing all the necessary commands and setting up a program button to run the batch file. To easily create batch files you can set up a program button to open your favorite text editor or word processor. The text editor that is included with MS-DOS 5 and 6 provides a quick, easy way to create, view and edit batch files and other text files. Here is a sample setup for a program button to run the DOS editor from Magic Desk: 17 Button Title: MS-DOS Editor Page: NO Password: (your choice) Batch File: NO Key: E Variables: YES * Path: C:\DOS\ WAIT: NO Program: EDIT Icon: C:\MDESK\EDIT.ICN * Setting Variables to "YES" will allow you to specify the file to edit as a command-line parameter at the time you run the editor. FILE MANAGER Magic Desk does not include built-in file management features, but you can easily set up a program button to access your favorite file management program. The DOS Shell included with MS-DOS 5 and 6 provides a graphical file manager for copying, deleting and moving files and directories. Here is a sample setup for a program button to run the DOS Shell program from Magic Desk: Button Title: MS-DOS Shell Page: NO Password: (your choice) Batch File: NO Key: S Variables: NO Path: C:\DOS\ Wait: NO Program: DOSSHELL Icon: C:\MDESK\SHELL.ICN DOS COMMAND LINE In some cases you may find that you need to execute a program or DOS command from the DOS command line. You have two choices. The first choice is to exit from Magic Desk, execute the command and, when you're finished, start Magic Desk again. A better solution, particularly if you will need to do this on a recurring basis, is to set up a program button to put you at the DOS command line temporarily without exiting Magic Desk. This is done by using the COMMAND function of DOS. The following sample program button, when selected, will display the DOS prompt. You can run any programs/commands as you normally would from the command line. To return to Magic Desk, type EXIT at the command line and the current Magic Desk page will reappear. Button Title: MS-DOS Prompt Page: NO Password: (your choice) Batch File: NO Key: S Variables: NO Path: C:\DOS\ Wait: NO Program: COMMAND Icon: C:\MDESK\DOS.ICN 18 MICROSOFT WINDOWS PROGRAMS If you have a combination of DOS and Windows programs, you may find it convenient to run Windows as a program under Magic Desk. Since Magic Desk loads much faster than Windows, you won't have to wait for Windows to load before you access your DOS programs. You can set up a program button to open Windows as follows: Button Title: Microsoft Windows Page: NO Password: (your choice) Batch File: NO Key: W Variables: NO Path: C:\WINDOWS\ Wait: NO Program: WIN Icon: C:\MDESK\WIN.ICN Another technique is to set up a page called "Windows Programs" and create separate program buttons for each of your Windows applications. To automatically load Windows and run a specific Windows application, enter the Path and Program information as you would for a normal DOS application, then precede the program name with "WIN". Here is a sample program button set up to load Windows and run Quicken for Windows: Button Title: Quicken Page: NO Password: (your choice) Batch File: NO Key: W Variables: NO Path: C:\QUICKENW\ Wait: NO Program: WIN QW.EXE Icon: C:\MDESK\QUICKEN.ICN MODIFYING YOUR AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE You may want to add the necessary commands to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to run Magic Desk automatically when the computer is turned on. If you aren't familiar with the purpose and contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, you may want to have someone assist you. Assuming the Magic Desk program files are on the C drive in the \MDESK directory, you would add the following commands at the end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (if the files are on a different drive or directory, substitute the correct information): C: CD \MDESK MAGIC 19 =================================== COMPATIBILITY WITH EARLIER VERSIONS =================================== The configuration files for this version of Magic Desk are not compatible with earlier versions of ToyBox. The registered version of Magic Desk includes a utility that will convert ToyBox configuration files to Magic Desk format. Icon files from earlier versions of ToyBox are compatible, except the colors will probably not be correct. You can read the icons into Painter one at time and correct the colors. The registered version of Magic Desk includes a utility that will correct the colors of all old icons in a specified directory in a single pass. Magic Desk and ToyBox are trademarks of Virtual Magic Software. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Quicken is a registered trademark of Intuit. 20