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The Night Owl Publisher's CD-ROM File Retrieval System Copyright 1993,94 All Rights Reserved Night Owl's Publisher, Inc. 1611 Falconer Stillwater Jamestown, NY 14701 Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 The Night Owl INSTALL Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 The Night Owl Directory Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4 Operating the NIGHT Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5 The Main NIGHT Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5.1 Main NIGHT Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5.2 The NIGHT Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5.3 NIGHT List Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6 Main NIGHT Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6.1 Drop to DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6.2 Viewing File Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6.2.1 Tagging Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6.2.2 Unpacking Compressed Files . . . . . . . . . . 6 6.2.3 Copying Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6.2.4 Adding Files to the User List . . . . . . . . . 6 6.3 Formatting a Floppy Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6.4 Browsing the User List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6.5 The NIGHT Work Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6.5.1 The Work Area Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6.5.2 Printing Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6.5.3 Executing an EXE or COM File . . . . . . . . . 7 6.5.4 Copy Work Area Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6.5.5 Viewing Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6.5.6 Unpacking Compressed Files . . . . . . . . . . 8 6.5.7 Exiting the Work Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6.6 The NIGHT Search Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6.7 Deleting the User List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 6.8 Tag All/None Toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7 NIGHT Printing Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 The NIGHT Text File Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 9 Re-installing NIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 10 Changing the CD-ROM Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 11 Viewing GIF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 12 The NIGHT Screen Saver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 i 1 Introduction Welcome to the Night Owl CD-ROM File Retrieval System. You have just purchased the most up-to-date single source of Shareware, Freeware and Public Domain software available on one CD-ROM. Many hours of work have gone into making the Night Owl CD-ROM as enjoyable and user friendly as possible. Your CD contains many thousands of compressed files. Nearly 660 Mb to be more precise. They are all Shareware, Freeware or Public Domain. Night Owl's Publisher takes great pains to insure that no commercial software appears on the ROM. Please tell us if you find any commercial software on this CD! The NIGHT program and accompanying files allow you to easily search for, find, examine, and copy the desired file(s) from this cornucopia of software. On-line context sensitive help, mouse support and many other features are included to help you in this process. We believe (and have been told by others) that it is this is the best CD-ROM file retrieval system in the world today! We are interested in your suggestions to help keep it that way. Contact us at: Night Owl's Publisher Inc. Office 716/484-3066 1161 Falconer Stillwater Rd. FAX 716/483-3920 Jamestown, NY 14701 BBS 716/483-3925 2 The Night Owl INSTALL Program Before you attempt to operate the NIGHT program, you must run the Night Owl Publisher's INSTALL program first. And before you run INSTALL, we strongly advise you to read the INSTALL user's manual, which resides in the text file named INSTALL.DOC. If you have read INSTALL.DOC and have completed the installation of NIGHT, then please continue reading this manual prior to operating NIGHT. 3 The Night Owl Directory Structure The Night Owl Install program creates the following directory structure on your hard disk (X denotes the drive you chose): - 2 - X:\NIGHT X:\NIGHT\TEXTnn X:\NIGHT\WORK X:\NIGHT\EXEC Note the "nn" appended to the X:\NIGHT\TEXT directory. The "nn" denotes a number that will correspond to the release number of your Night Owl CD. For example, the text directory will be named X:\NIGHT\TEXT12 if the CD you are installing is NOPV12. Note that this example assumes that you chose NIGHT as the name of the main directory during the installation. You have the option during installation to give the main NIGHT directory the name of your choice. The main directory, X:\NIGHT, contains the main night system files. The two most important to you are NIGHT.EXE, the main program, and NIGHT.INI, the initialization file. You normally won't need to access NIGHT.INI unless you wish to change the start up CD-ROM drive or disk. The night TEXT directory will contain a number of text index files if you elected to copy these files from your Night Owl CD-ROM in order to speed up NIGHT operations, otherwise it will be empty. The WORK directory will only contain files if you elect to unpack or copy files to the Night work area when operating NIGHT and the UNZIP only contains files temporarily when unpacking a compressed file for viewing. 4 Operating the NIGHT Program NIGHT.EXE can be found in the main NIGHT directory. To run NIGHT, simply change to that directory and execute NIGHT. If your NIGHT installation proceeded properly, then NIGHT should load and present you with the main display. If NIGHT fails to load, it will issue an error message describing the problem. 5 The Main NIGHT Displays NIGHT has been designed to be intuitively easy to operate. Full mouse and keyboard support are integrated into all the displays and context sensitive help is always available via the <F1> key. All of the NIGHT functions are accessed from the one of the main displays. The top line of each NIGHT primary display contains a menu that can be accessed (pulled down) via a mouse click or by pressing <Alt+M>. This menu - 3 - has items that duplicate the array of control buttons on the right side of the display as well as some additional utility items. The bottom line contains a helpful hint that is releated to which display item has the focus. The <Tab> is used to cycle from one control to another and <Shift+Tab> reverses the direction. As the focus moves from control to contol, the botttom line hint will change accordingly. 5.1 Main NIGHT Controls All night functions can be activated through the keyboard or the mouse. Each main display will have at least two labeled control buttons. One of which is labeled "Exit", and always returns to the main NIGHT display. Use the <Exit> button, or <Alt+X> to exit NIGHT to DOS. To exit any display back to the previous display, press the <Esc> key. To use a button control without a mouse, press the <Tab> key until the desired control labeled is highlighted and then press the <Space Bar>. To activate a button with the keyboard, press the <Alt> key simultaneously with key that corresponds to the highlighted button label letter. For example, to view a file list from the main NIGHT display, press <Alt+V>. The <Enter> key and mouse double-click actions are used in conjunction with NIGHT list boxes to signal action on the currently selected list item. For example, to view files in a specific category in the main NIGHT display list box, move the cursor bar to the desired category and press <Enter>. Or double-click on the category name with the left mouse button. For some functions a message bar containing information pertinent to the current function appears at the top of the display. Users with a color VGA video system will notice that the help button and the exit button of each display appear in colors that are different from the other buttons. 5.2 The NIGHT Help System Context sensitive help is available via the <F1> key or the current display <Help> button. A sizable, movable help window will appear that contains text that corresponds to the display control that has the focus when help is called. Help on using help can be accessed by pressing the <F1> when viewing the help window. You may re-size and move the help window and it will remain in the last location throughout your NIGHT session. 5.3 NIGHT List Boxes Most NIGHT main displays have a box that contains a scrollable list of items. For example, the list box in the main NIGHT display contains a list - 4 - of file categories and the box in the "View Files" display contains a list of file names. Each list box contains a cursor bar which can be moved through the list with the keyboard keypad keys (Dn/Up/PgDn/PgUp/End/Home) or the mouse and which indicates the currently selected item. Note that each list box contains a scroll bar that indicates the current position of the cursor bar in the list and can by used with the mouse to move through the list. The <Enter> key acts upon the currently selected item. 6 Main NIGHT Functions All NIGHT functions are accessed through the main NIGHT display. Functions like the "View Files" and "Search" functions use the selected category while functions like "List" and "Work Area" are independent of the selected category. Access a main function by using the <Tab> key to highligh the desired funcion button and pressing the <Space Bar>. Or you may click on the button with the mouse or press the Alt plus the key that corresponds to the highlighted character in the function button label. 6.1 Drop to DOS You may temporarily drop to the DOS command level from the main NIGHT display via the pull-down menu. 6.2 Viewing File Lists NIGHT CD-ROM files are divided into descriptive categories and you can view the list of files in any category by moving the cursor bar to the desired category and pressing <Enter> or clicking on the "View Files" button. The file list display that appears contains two main boxes. The left box contains a list of the file names in that category and the right box contains a textual file description that corresponds to the currently selected file. Moving the cursor bar through the file list allows you to browse the files and their descriptions. Most of the files on your Night Owl CD-ROM are compressed files; usually ZIP files. You may view a list of files contained in any compressed files by pressing the <Enter> key with the cursor bar over the desire file. This will activate the NIGHT compressed file viewer. 6.2.1 Tagging Files Files may be tagged (marked) for "Copy", "UnPk", or "List" operations. To tag/untag a file, move the cursor bar to the file name and press <Space Bar>. Or you may tag/untag a file with the mouse by pointing at the file name and pressing the right mouse button. Tagging is a toggle operation which means if the file is tagged when <Space Bar> is pressed then the file - 5 - is untagged and vice versa. All files on the list may be tagged/untagged in one operation by pressing the the "Tag +/-" button. 6.2.2 Unpacking Compressed Files Any compressed file in the file last may be unpacked (decompressed) to the directory of your choice. Select a file to unpack with the cursor bar and press the <UnPk> button or <Alt+U> to commence the unpacking. A window will appear that prompts you to enter a valid DOS directory as the destination for the unpacked files. The default is the NIGHT work area, the \NIGHT\UNZIP directory. If you wish to examine and/or operate on the unpacked files through NIGHT, then you should accept the default and unpack to the work area. A progress window will dynamically update as the unpacking process procedes. Since NIGHT employs its own unpacking facility for ZIP files, you may abort the process at any time by pressing the "Abort" button or the "Esc" key. Upon completion of the unpacking process, NIGHT will automatically activate the work area so that you may operate on the unpacked files. See "The NIGHT Work Area" section below for more details. 6.2.3 Copying Files You may copy file from the CD-ROM to any valid drive:\directory in your system. Tag the files you wish to copy and press the <Copy> button or <Alt+C>. You will be prompted to enter a valid destination directory. 6.2.4 Adding Files to the User List NIGHT provides the powerful capability for you to build your own category-independent list of files. You can add files from any category to this list while viewing a category file list by tagging the desired file names and pressing the <List> button or <Alt+L>. You will be informed as to how many of your tagged files were added to your list and the total number of files on the list. Since NIGHT will not add any duplicate file names to the list, the "List" function may not add all the files you tagged. You can access and browse your user list by exiting to the main display and pressing the <User List> button or <Alt+U>. 6.3 Formatting a Floppy Disk You may wish to format a fresh floppy disk on which to copy some of the CD-ROM files. Pressing the <Fmt Disk> button or <Alt+F> will cause a dialog box to appear in which you select the drive letter (A or B only) and the drive size (360K, 1.2M, 720K, 1.44M). NIGHT will then call the DOS utility FORMAT.COM to format your disk. Please note that NIGHT will inform you if - 6 - it is unable to locate FORMAT.COM in your DOS directory or in the DOS path and abort the format request. 6.4 Browsing the User List The NIGHT user-defined list of files is built in one of two ways. You may add tagged files to the user list while viewing a category file list or you may add files to the user list by searching for text. This function will be explained later. To view your user list, press the "User List" button or <Alt+U>. NIGHT will inform you if no files are on the list. The display and controls for this function are exactly the same as when viewing a category file list. 6.5 The NIGHT Work Area The NIGHT work area is actually the subdirectory named \NIGHT\WORK. It is the default area for unpacking or copying files when in the file list viewing function. You may access the work area by pressing the <Work Area> button or <Alt+W>. This is a very useful feature in that it permits you to unpack a file from your Night Owl CD-ROM into the work area and then read text files and/or execute programs. 6.5.1 The Work Area Display The work area display has a list box which contains a list of all the files currently in the work area. There are five functions in addition to the <Help> and <Exit> functions. The file list box operates exactly like other NIGHT list boxes except that tagging of file names is not available. The main night display menu has an item that will permit you to clear the work area of files so that you may start fresh when unpacking the next ZIP file. 6.5.2 Printing Text Files You may send any ASCII file to your printer by moving the cursor bar to the target file name and pressing the <Print> button or <Alt+P>. NIGHT will ask you to confirm that your printer is ready and then print the file, informing you of the status as line-by-line printing progresses. Note that NIGHT adds no formatting codes of any kind, including form feeds, as the file is printed. 6.5.3 Executing an EXE or COM File You may execute a COM or an EXE file in the NIGHT work area by selecting the target file with the cursor bar and pressing the <Execute> button or <Alt+E>. A box will appear which permits you to enter any special - 7 - command line parameters the program may require. If none are required, leave the input line empty and press <Enter> or the <Ok> button to run the program. NIGHT will not execute a batch file because of the inadvertent consequences that might result. 6.5.4 Copy Work Area Files All of the files in the work area may be copied to a drive:\directory of your choice by pressing the <Copy> button or <Alt+C>. Note that ALL of the files are copied. There is no provision for copying individual files from the work area. 6.5.5 Viewing Text Files You may view text files in the work area by pressing the <View> button or <Alt+V>. Text files are loaded into the internal NIGHT file browser for viewing. See the section titled "The NIGHT Test File Viewer". Note that you may also view the contents of a compressed file in the work area. This function works exactly like viewing compressed file from a category or user file list. 6.5.6 Unpacking Compressed Files Sometimes authors will place a compress file inside a compressed file. You can unpack this file into your work area by selecting the target file with the cursor bar and pressing the <Unpack> button or <Alt+U>. 6.5.7 Exiting the Work Area Each time you exit the work area you will be asked if you wish to delete the files in the area. We recommend that you do this unless you plan to return to manipulate the current set of files in the work area during the current session. 6.6 The NIGHT Search Function The powerful NIGHT search function allows you to search the textual file descriptions for a text string or a DOS file name that you specify. And you can search the files in just one category or in all of the categories. To search just one category, start the search with no files tagged and the cursor bar on the target category. To search multiple categories, tag the desired categories. Start the search by pressing the <Search> button or <Alt+S>. If searching for text, you will be prompted to enter a string of text up to 24 characters in length otherwise you should enter a valid DOS file name specification which can include wildcards. Note that "*.*" is not - 8 - allowed. The search is not case sensitive so you may enter a upper or lower case search string. NIGHT will display a window that informs you of the progress of the search and how many "finds" have been encountered. Each time a match of your text to text in a file description or a file name is found, NIGHT will add that file name and description to your user file list as long as that file name is not already in your user list. That way, no duplicates are added to your list. You can then go into the user list and browse the files that your search produced. 6.7 Deleting the User List It is often useful to delete your user-defined file list and start fresh. To do this, press the <Del List> button or <Alt+D>. NIGHT will confirm the deletion. 6.8 Tag All/None Toggle You may wish to tag all the categories at once or to remove all tags at once. Pressing the <Tag +/-> button or <Alt+T> will tag all categories if none are currently tagged and remove all tags if one or more are currently tagged. 7 NIGHT Printing Functions NIGHT provides extensive support for the printing of lists and text files. The <Alt+P Print> zone of the bottom mouse menu line can be clicked on to print the current list. If you are in the main display, NIGHT will print a list of categories. If you are in the file or user list viewer, NIGHT will ask if you wish only file data lines or data lines with full text descriptions to be printed. 8 The NIGHT Text File Viewer The built-in NIGHT text file browser is not limited by file size but is limited to 32,767 file lines. The following commands are available when browsing a text file: F3 - Autoscroll down F4 - Autoscroll up F5 - Go to a specified line number F7 - Toggle line number display F8 - Search for text F9 - Mark end/begin of text block Ctrl+H - Clear marked block - 9 - Ctrl+L - Continue search Ctrl+P - Print marked block Ctrl+W - Write marked block to file DnArrow - Increase autoscroll rate UpArrow - Decrease autoscroll rate The mouse is used in the following way: Left button - Move bar to line Right button - Mark block begin/end Double-click - Clear marked block The autoscroll function automatically scrolls the text one line at a time at a user-adjustable rate. Use the down arrow to increase the scroll rate and the up arrow to decrease it. Autoscroll can be terminated by pressing F3, F4, Space Bar, or the Esc key. 9 Re-installing NIGHT The Night Owl retrieval system may be re-installed to another drive via the display menu. You will be prompted to enter a new main directory path name and this directory MUST reside on a drive that is different than the one that NIGHT is currently installed on. You will have the option of deleting the original directory structure and files. Be sure to exit NIGHT and restart it from its new location after using this feature. 10 Changing the CD-ROM Disk If you wish to change from one Night Owl CD release to another, access the main menu and select the "Change CD-ROM" item. You will be prompted to change the disk. NIGHT will read the new disk, determine the release number from the volume label, and read the new categories from the appropriate text directory. If the text directory cannot be found, you will have the opportunity to have NIGHT copy the text directory from the current CD-ROM to your hard disk (about 1 Meg of disk space will be required). When starting NIGHT, make sure that the disk in your CD-ROM drive matches the "Text=" setting in NIGHT.INI. For example, to start up with release #11 (NOVP11) in the CD-ROM drive make sure that the "Text=NIGHT11" setting is in your NIGHT.INI file. - 10 - 11 Viewing GIF Files NIGHT contains an internal proprietary GIF file viewer. To view a GIF file, move the cursor in the file browse window or the work area file list to a GIF file and invoke the View command. The viewer will check the current graphics adapter to see if the image can be displayed and if so, the image will be loaded, decompressed, and displayed. Be certain that your video monitor fully supports the maximum resolution the host graphics adapter is capable of. 12 The NIGHT Screen Saver If the "ScreenSave" line in the NIGHT.INI file under the "[Screen]" category is set to 10 or greater, screen saver will be active. When active, the screen saver will activate after the amount of seconds set on the "ScreenSave=" line with no keyboard or mouse activity. Here are some examples: Screensave=0 Disables the screen saver. Screensave=30 Activates after 30 seconds of no activity. Screensave=120 Activates after 120 seconds(2 minutes) of no activity. Legal Info on this product This program is NOT a shareware program and is to used by ONLY users using the Night Owl's CDROMS. This Commercial product may NOT be on ANY BBS or distributed in any form, except on the Night Owl's BBS. This is for users of the Night Owl's Cdroms to updated to the newer version of the retrival ONLY - 11 -