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File Manager 2.0 for Spitfire BBS Versions 3.0+ (C) 1993 by One World Software. All rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE Table of Contents.......................................... i Shareware Notice........................................... ii Disclaimer................................................. ii SECTION ONE: Getting Started 1.1 Introduction............................................ 1 1.2 Requirements and Limitations............................ 1 1.3 Installation............................................ 1 1.4 Getting Help............................................ 3 1.5 General Operation....................................... 3 SECTION TWO: File Operations 2.1 Overview................................................ 7 2.2 Add Files............................................... 7 2.3 Delete Files............................................ 8 2.4 Edit Description........................................ 8 2.5 Move Files.............................................. 9 2.6 New Area............................................... 10 2.7 Print List............................................. 10 2.8 Rename File............................................ 10 2.9 Archive Information.................................... 11 2.10 Exit Program.......................................... 11 SECTION THREE: Sorts 3.1 Overview............................................... 12 3.2 The Sort Options Dialogue Box.......................... 12 3.3 Force Resort........................................... 13 3.4 This Area Options...................................... 13 3.5 Any Area Options....................................... 13 3.6 Define Global Sort..................................... 13 3.7 A Word About Configurations............................ 13 SECTION FOUR: Options 4.1 Overview............................................... 15 4.2 Colors................................................. 15 4.3 Screen Lines........................................... 15 4.4 Mouse Options.......................................... 15 4.5 Startup Directory...................................... 16 4.6 SF Version............................................. 16 SECTION FIVE: Other Information 5.1 The HELP Menu.......................................... 18 5.2 A Word From the Author................................. 18 5.3 Words of Thanks........................................ 18 i SHAREWARE NOTICE This program is marketed by the shareware method of marketing. This software is provided on a trial basis only. You are granted a limited license to try this product on your system for thirty days. Use after this initial trial period requires a registration fee be paid to One World Software. More information on registering can be found in the file REGISTER.DOC included as a part of this package. You are free to distribute this package in unmodified form. All files must be included with this program. You may charge a modest distribution fee when distributing the program, but you must not charge any monies for the program itself. DISCLAIMER This software is provided as-is with no warranties or guarrantees either written or implied. One World Software and its agents can in no manner be held responsible for any damage (either real or imagined) resulting from the use, misuse, or abuse of this software. You as customer must assume all liabilities resulting from use of this package. Furthermore, One World Software makes no claims as to the market- ability or suitability of this software to any given purpose. ii SECTION ONE:Getting Started 1.1 Introduction File Manager is a complete management tool for handling file listings for your Spitfire BBS. This package will allow you to add, delete, rename, and move files to different file areas. Additional features include multiple sort options, file list printing, description editing, and the ability to look inside ZIP/ARJ files. File Manager can handle all the needs of the day to day file operations of your BBS. File Manager is completely Windows and DesQView aware. File sharing and locking are supported for multitasking or networked systems if SHARE is loaded on your system. Spitfire CD-ROM file areas are detected and handled accordingly. Using a management tool such as File Manager makes good sense. With a package such as this you can send all your user uploads to a single directory until you can look at them. At your leisure you may dress up and move the file and listing to its final destination. File Manager can reduce the time required for these operations to an absolute minimum. Please take the time to study this manual carefully to get the most from the program. File Manager is provided as two files: FM.EXE is the program itself, and FM.HLP contains the help screens. The program will create other files as needed. 1.2 Requirements and Limitations File Manager has the following hardware/software requirements: - MS or PC DOS version 3.0 or higher - Spitfire BBS version 3.0 or higher - 256K free RAM - Hard drive The program will use a mouse if present. Also, a printer can be used to create a hard copy of your file area lists. File Manager uses the Spitfire data file SFFAREA.DAT to access information about your BBS setup and will support up to 200 defined file areas. The SFFILES.BBS files located in your file directories (or the SFFILES.xxx in your display directory for CD-ROM areas) are used as data for the program. The program can handle lists up to 16,384 lines long, and each file list may have a header up to 100 lines long. File Manager operation is completely disk-based. As such, program speed will depend directly upon the speed of your disk system. You may wish to consider using a disk cache to improve the program's overall performance. 1.3 Installation File Manager operates best when installed in your main Spitfire directory, but may be installed anywhere on your system. To install the program, copy the files FM.EXE and FM.HLP to your Spitfire 1 directory or to a directory of your choice. Since the program requires a good deal of RAM, sysops of single node systems should consider installing the program as a door accessible only to them. Spitfire is not in memory while running a door, so the program will have access to all the machine resources. To run the program in this case, you will need to perform a local log on and execute the door. NOTE THAT FILE MANAGER DOES NOT SUPPORT REMOTE OPERATION. You must be at the local console. See your Spitfire manual for more information on how to install and use doors on your BBS system. Another alternative would be to start Spitfire using the SHROOM shareware utility, available from many bulletin boards. This utility will transfer the contents of memory to disk when shelling from Spitfire, making more RAM available. Windows or DesQview can be used to create a separate DOS session especially for File Manager. File Manager can run simultaneously with Spitfire if SHARE is loaded on your system. The program is aware of these environments and will act accordingly. Please be sure to give the program at least 256K of RAM or it will refuse to run. No other special conditions should have to be accounted for. For more information on setting up applications in Windows or DesQview, please consult your appropriate manual. You may run File Manager on a network if desired. However, the program expects the drive letters in your SFFAREA.DAT to be valid for it as well. Therefore, you should run File Manager on a node where the drive letters listed in SFFAREA.DAT are valid. When running on a network, File Manager must have file creation/deletion rights, and read/write access. Network operation will slow the program somewhat. Once you have the files copied to your drive, simply run the program to complete the installation process. Start the program by entering FM at the DOS prompt. File Manager will prompt you to provide the location of your Spitfire configuration files. Enter a path to SFFAREA.DAT in this window and press <Enter>. The program will read your configuration and store the location for future reference. File Manager has a number of command line options you may specify when starting the program at the DOS prompt. Any command line option given will override any saved settings. The valid command line options are: /? Displays a summary of all command line options. /25 Start the program in 25 line mode (File Manager's default). /43 Start the program in 43 line mode (EGA or better required). /50 Start the program in 50 line mode (VGA or better required). /G Do not use graphic mouse cursor. On EGA and better display adapters, File Manager by default uses a simulated graphics style mouse cursor. Use this switch to force a standard mouse cursor. If conflicting switches are given (i.e. /43 and /50) then the highest setting allowed by your video hardware will be used. All options are accessible within the program. See the OPTIONS menu 2 covered later in this text. If you are using CD-ROM file areas, the program will prompt you for the path to your display files. This path defaults to a directory called DISPLAY under the directory you specified for SFFAREA.DAT. Supply the path to the display files and press <Enter>. This information is stored for future reference. This step is skipped if you do not use CD-ROM areas. Should you add CD-ROM areas in the future, File Manager will notice and ask you for the appropriate information at that time. The program expects SFFILES.xxx to be in standard Spitfire format and may not function properly if non-standard formats are in use. For more information on CD-ROM file areas consult your Spitfire manual. At any time during the above process you may press <Esc> to abort the configuration and return to DOS. Doing so will not save any configuration information. You will have to redo these steps should you start the program again. 1.4 Getting Help Context sensitive help is available at any time by pressing the <F1> key. Doing so will bring up a help screen on whatever you may be doing at the time. File manager uses a hyperlink help system. On each help screen you will notice some text surrounded by arrow characters " ". This enclosed text is a hyperlink to a related help screen. Move the cursor to this text with the TAB, shift-TAB or arrow keys and press <Enter> to jump to the related screen. Mouse users may click anywhere on the hyperlink to jump to that screen. At any point in help you may press <Esc> or click the mouse on the upper left hand corner of a help window to return to the program. For questions or problems not covered in the manual you may call my support BBS at 606-561-5766 24 hours daily. Your reply will usually be answered on the BBS in 24 hours or less. 1.5 General Operation To run the program, type FM at the DOS prompt and press <Enter>. The title screen will appear. Press any key to get past the title screen or wait ten seconds for the screen to move on of its own accord. The main screen will appear. The main screen is divided into five main sections. Each section is described below, including general operating instructions. Across the top is the banner line with the program name and registration status. If the program is unregistered, the text UNREGISTERED will appear - otherwise your name will appear here. On the left hand edge of the bar a mouse button will appear if a mouse is attached to your system. Clicking the mouse on this button will exit the program. The next line is the menu bar. This bar contains a series of pull down menus providing access to every function in the program. These menus can be activated in several ways: 1. You may press and release the ALT key. This will cause the FILES menu name to become highlighted. Use the left and right arrow 3 keys to highlight the menu name of your choice and press <Enter> or the down arrow key to drop the menu. 2. Press and hold the ALT key and press the first letter in the name of the menu of your choice (ex: ALT-S to pull down the SORTS menu). 3. Click the mouse on a menu name. Once the menu has been activated you have several options. You may move to a different menu by pressing the left or right arrow keys to flip through the menus or by clicking the mouse on a different menu name. You may select and execute a menu option in one of two ways: 1. Use the up/down arrow keys to move the highlight bar to a function of your choice and press <Enter>. 2. Double click the mouse on an option. You may exit the pull down menus without selecting an option by either pressing <Esc> or by clicking the mouse away from the menu. Below the menu bar is information on the current file area. On the left hand side is a list of file names, their descriptions, and a highlight bar. This area is used to browse your file list and to select one or more files upon which to perform a function. On the right side are three small windows containing information about the current file area and your system. As stated, the left hand side is used to browse your file lists and to select one or more files upon which to perform a function. There are several keys you may use to browse a file list. They are: Up/Down Arrows: Moves the highlight bar up and down the file list. If there are more files in the area than will fit on the screen (as is most likely), continually pressing these keys will scroll the display through your list. PgUp/PgDn: This will scroll the display up and down through your list a screenful at a time. Home: Moves the highlight bar to the top of your list. End: Moves the highlight bar to the last item in your list. You may also move the highlight bar with the mouse. Click anywhere on a file name or description to move the highlight bar to your desired file. Browsing the list can also be accomplished using the mouse. To the right of the file names and descriptions you will notice a scroll bar. Scroll bars perform two major functions: they graphically show you the position of the highlight bar relative to the entire file; and they may be used to browse the file list entirely with the mouse. Scroll bars are composed of the following parts: 4 Arrows: at the top and bottom of a scroll bar, an arrow character indicates the orientation of the scroll bar (top and bottom). Body: the part of the scroll bar between the arrow characters represents the length of the list you are browsing. Thumb: the position indicator. This position indicator shows the relative position of the highlight bar within a list, assuming the body represents the entire length of the list. Using a scroll bar as a browse controller with the mouse is simple. Click on the up arrow to move the highlight bar up one selection. Clicking on the down arrow will move the highlight bar down one selection. Clicking on the scroll bar body between the thumb and up arrow will simulate a PgUp press. A PgDn may be entered by clicking on the scroll bar body between the thumb and the down arrow. Finally, if you click on the thumb and hold the mouse button down, you may drag it to a new position on the body. Release the button when the thumb is in the general location of the file you desire. The menu will change location to reflect the new position of the thumb. Normally, File Manager operations are performed on the file name highlighted with the highlight bar. Many operations may be performed on more than one file at once. To accomplish this, you must tag the file names upon which you desire to perform the operations. There are two ways to tag a file name for multiple operations: 1. Move the highlight bar to the file name you wish to tag and press the space bar. An arrow character "" will appear to the left of the file name, meaning it has been tagged. To remove a tag from a file name, highlight a tagged name and press the space bar again. 2. Click the mouse to the left of a file name. The arrow character will appear. Click the mouse on a file tag to turn the tag off again. Now, when certain operations are executed, they will be performed on the tagged file names instead of the file name highlighted with the highlight bar. More information on which File Manager operations can use multiple files as a source will be covered later in this text. There are certain operations that will clear all file name tags once they complete. The effect of operations on tagged files will be covered under the operations themselves, later in this text. Just be aware that, under some circumstances, the file tags can be cleared by the program itself. To the right of the file description list are three information windows. These windows present the current system date and time, the number of files listed in the current area, which file is currently highlighted, and the highlighted file's name, date and size. Below the file description list is a line displaying the title of the current file area and the DOS path to this area. File Manager always refers to the file areas of your BBS by their titles, never by the DOS path. So, when moving files or selecting a new area to browse you are presented a menu of the file area names. The DOS path is 5 provided for your information only. The bottom line of the screen serves as an information and status line. At any time input is required this line shows what options are available to you. This line will show informational messages during the progress of operations and a text error message should errors occur. While browsing the file list, this line displays the available shortcut function keys. Clicking the mouse on a function key description will execute the command as though you had pressed the key itself. The next several sections of this manual will detail each operation and option available in the program. 6 SECTION TWO: File Operations 2.1 Overview The FILES menu provides options that deal directly with the files contained in a file area and the file list itself. Many of these operations have one or more hot keys associated with them to provide speedy access. Hot keys for each function are listed within curly brackets {}. Most operations have more than one hotkey. The term "current file area" refers to the file area currently loaded in File Manager. 2.2 Add Files {F2} {Alt-A} The Add Files command will allow the adding of files to the current file area from any drive and directory on your system. When invoked, a pop up window containing two menus will appear on the screen. The left hand menu is a list of all available drives on your system. The current drive is highlighted. On the right hand side of the window is a directory and file menu. The contents of the current directory are displayed. The active menu is designated by a double box around the menu. When started, the directory/file menu is active. Use the TAB key to change the active menu or click the mouse on an inactive menu to activate it. When the directory/file menu is active you may use the up, down, left, and right arrow keys to move the highlight bar to either a file name or a directory of your choice. Directories are shown in upper case letters and are enclosed by square brackets []. File names are shown in lower case letters. If there are more entries in the menu than what will fit on the screen at one time, the menu will scroll horizontally when using the arrow keys. For mouse users there are two arrow characters printed on the bottom of the menu box. Clicking on either of these arrows will move the highlight bar in the direction of the arrow. To change the selected drive, make the drive menu active by pressing <Tab> or clicking on the drive menu. Use the up or down arrow keys to move the highlight bar to the drive letter of your choice and press <Enter>. Alternately, you may highlight a drive letter with the mouse and click the OK button, or you may double click on a drive letter. In either case, the drive selected will become the current drive, the contents of the current directory on that drive will be shown in the directory/file menu, and the directory/file menu will become the active menu. To change directories, highlight a directory name and press <Enter>, highlight a directory name with the mouse and click on the OK button, or double click on a directory name. The directory menu will then change to reflect the contents of the new directory. In each sub directory there will be a special entry consisting of two periods (..). This is used to denote the parent directory of the directory shown in the menu. Selecting this entry will back up one directory to the parent. This entry will not be present if you are in the root directory of a drive. Use these menus to browse your system until you find the drive 7 and directory containing the file(s) you wish to add to the current file area. To select a file to add, highlight the file name to add with either the arrow keys or mouse and press <Enter>. Alternately you may double click on a file name. Select more than one file name by pressing the spacebar on each file name you wish to add. A tag character () will be displayed next to the name. Now pressing <Enter> will add the tagged files. Pressing <Esc> any time during this process will abort the Add Files command. The next step in adding files is to provide a description for each file added to the current area. File Manager will copy a file, then prompt you for a description using the Edit Description command (see Edit Description later in this text). The description you provide will be added to the current file area. Pressing <Esc> while entering a description will cause File Manager not to add the file to the current area. If you are adding multiple files, a special dialogue box will appear. This box will ask you if you want to skip adding the current file or if you wish to skip all remaining files in the batch. Use the up and down arrow keys to select a response and press <Enter>, or click the mouse on the option of your choice and click on the OK button. After adding one or more files to the current area File Manager will resort the current file area using your defined sort parameters for this area. File Manager will clear all file tags after successful completion of this command. Note you may not add files to a CD-ROM file area. 2.3 Delete Files {Alt-D} This command will delete one or more files and their descriptions from the current file area. Normally this command operates on the file currently highlighted on the screen. If you have one or more files tagged, those files will be deleted. When invoked, this command will present a dialogue box that asks you to confirm the deletion. Press <Enter> or click on the OK button to delete the files, or press <Esc> or click on the Cancel button to abort the deletion. The file(s) will be deleted from disk and the description will be removed from the file list. Files in CD-ROM areas are not physically deleted - the description is just removed from the display file. If for any reason a file cannot be deleted from disk (i.e. it is a read-only file) the description is still removed from the current file area. Successful completion of this command will clear all file tags. 2.4 Edit Description {F10} {Alt-E} The Edit Description command will let you edit the description listed in SFFILES.BBS for any given file. You may enter up to a five line description (Spitfire's maximum) for each file on the list. This command will operate only on the currently highlighted file name. When invoked, an editing box will appear with the description 8 from SFFILES already loaded. Multi-line descriptions are already parsed into separate lines for your editing. This box supports most standard editing keys and features an insert or overtype mode. At present word wrap is not supported, but will be in future versions. Press <Tab>, use the arrow keys or click the mouse at the desired location to change lines. When started, insert mode is on and is designated by a large block cursor. Edit the description for the file to your liking. When finished press the <Enter> (or click on the OK button) to save the new description to disk. SFFILES will be updated with the new description and the screen will be updated to reflect your changes. Press <Esc> to abort the operation at any time. Entering a blank description will have the same effect as pressing <Esc>. Blank descriptions are not permitted by File Manager. Edit Description will create multi-line descriptions for SFFILES regardless of the Spitfire version you have selected with Select SF Version (see Select SF Version later in this text). The purpose of the Select SF Version command is to set the number of description lines displayed on the screen at program startup and has no real impact on the operation of the rest of the program. If you desire to create one line descriptions, then just enter one line of text in the dialogue box. Edit Description will add an ASCII 2 character only when required. You may edit file descriptions in CD-ROM area lists. 2.5 Move Files {F6} {Alt-M} The Move Files command will relocate a file and its description to another file area defined in SFFAREA.DAT. Normally this command will move only the file name highlighted on the screen. You can move more than one file at once by tagging the files to move before invoking this command. Once invoked, a menu containing your defined file areas will appear. This menu will list only non-CD areas and will not have the current area on the list. Select a destination for the move by using the up/down, PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys to highlight the target file area and press <Enter>. Alternately you may click on the target file area with the mouse and click on the OK button, or double click on the target file area. Press <Esc> or click on the Cancel button to abort this operation. The Move Files command will take these actions when moving a file and its descriptions: 1. File Manager will either move or copy the file to the target directory as required. If a file of the same name exists in the target directory, you are asked if you wish to overwrite the existing file. 2. If the copy was successful, the program will next add the description line for the file you are moving to the end of the destination SFFILES.BBS, unless the file you moved overwrote a previous file of the same name. In this case the previous description line is maintained. 9 3. If a description line was added to the destination SFFILES.BBS, the destination area is sorted using its sort settings. 4. If all the above steps complete OK, the next step is to delete the listing from the current file area list. 5. Once all the above steps are completed without problems, File Manager will delete the original file from disk unless the move was from a CD-ROM file area. On batch moves (moving more than one file at a time) steps one and two above are completed for all files to be moved before executing the following steps. In this manner the destination area is only sorted one time. 2.6 New Area {F5} {Alt-N} The New Area command will load a new file area into File Manager. When invoked, a menu of all the available file areas defined on your BBS is presented to you. Use the up/down arrow, PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys to highlight a file area to load and press <Enter>. Alternately you may click on an area name and click on the OK button, or double click on the area name. You may press <Esc> or click on the Cancel button if you decide not to change file areas at this time. The file area you select will be loaded into the program. 2.7 Print List {Alt-P} The print List command will print the contents of the current SFFILES.BBS to a printer of your choice. When invoked, a dialogue box will ask you to select a printer port. Use the up/down arrows keys to select a printer port and press <Enter>. You may also click the mouse on a port button and click on the OK button. The file list (including the header) will be printed to the printer of your choice. Press <Esc> or click on the Cancel button if you decide not to print the list at this time. The output sent to your printer will be printed such that the list will appear like it does to a caller on your BBS. While printing you may press any key or mouse button to interrupt printing. A dialogue box will appear stating the output is paused. To resume printing press <Enter> or click on the Resume button. You may abort the print job by pressing <Esc> or clicking on the Abort button. 2.8 Rename File {F4} {Alt-R} Rename File will rename a file in a file area and update SFFILES.BBS to reflect the new name. A dialogue box will ask you to enter a new name. Enter a new name and press <Enter> or click on the OK button to rename the file. Press <Esc> or click on the Abort button if you decide not to rename the file at this time. Once a file has been renamed, a dialogue box will ask if you desire to resort the list. Press <Enter> or click on the Yes button to resort the area or press <Esc> or click on the No button to skip the sort. 10 Files in CD-ROM areas cannot be renamed. 2.9 Archive Information {F8} {Alt-Z} This command will "peek" inside a ZIP or ARJ file and present a list of the files inside the archive. Information shown about the archive are the archive name, the total number of files inside the archive, the uncompressed size of the archive, and each included file name, size, and date. Use the up/down, PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End keys to browse the list. Press <Esc> or click on the exit button when you are finished viewing the archive contents. File Manager does not use archive software to read the contents of archive files, but instead reads the archive header directly. At this point the program does nothing more than peek at the header. You cannot extract files from the archive or manipulate the files inside an archive. This ability is planned for a future release. 2.10 Exit Program {F3} {Alt-X} This command will exit the program to the DOS prompt. A dialogue box will ask you to confirm the exit. Press <Enter> or click on the Yes button to exit the program, or press <Esc> or click on the No button to remain in the program. 11 SECTION THREE: Sorts 3.1 Overview One of File Manager's most powerful features is its sort capabilities. Each file area defined on your BBS (including CD-ROM file areas) can have its own unique sort configuration. You may define a global or default sort configuration for your system and still have individual areas with different sorting options. Sorting is done by defining one or more sort keys and a direction for each file area. A sort key is what you wish to sort your file areas by and the direction can be either ascending or descending. File Manager supports two simultaneous sort keys for each area. Each sort key may be one to three different items. You can sort file areas by file name, by file date, or by file size. Each key can have its own direction. For example, defining a sort key such as file date ascending will sort your file lists by putting the older files at the top of the list and the newer files at the bottom. File name ascending will sort the file names from A-Z, file name descending will sort from Z-A, and so forth. The definable sort keys for each area are: file name, file date, and file size. A sort key can have two directions: ascending (or up) and descending (or down). Sorting either alphabetically or chronologically are the most common sorts used by sysops. While popular, sorting by dates alone can lead to mixed results when several files have the same file date. Oftentimes software packages that span several archives (such as MYFILE-1.ZIP, MYFILE-2.ZIP, etc.) can be placed out of order in relation to each other although they are all together. This is where the secondary sort key provided by File Manager comes in real handy. If sorting by dates, using a secondary key based on file names will keep all these files together and in the right order. This will present a neater and more logical file list to your callers. 3.2 The Sort Options Dialogue Box The last three options of the Sort menu all use a common dialogue box. This box presents all the sort options available to you. At the top of the box is the name of the file area you are selecting a sort order for or "All Areas" if defining the global sort. Below the area name are four groups of radio buttons and their options. These groups are primary sort key, primary key direction, secondary sort key, and secondary direction. When the box is first opened, the cursor is on the primary sort key group. The cursor is always on the active group. Pressing the up or down arrow keys will move the active buttons through the current group, changing the active option. Pressing <Tab> or <Shift-Tab> will move the cursor through all four groups. When finished you may press <Enter> to save the current configuration or <Esc> to discard any changes you may have made. The box can be navigated with the mouse. Click on a radio button of your choice to select an option. If the button is not in the currently active group then the group you clicked on will become the active group and the item clicked on will become the active option. Once you have set the options you may click on the OK button to save 12 your changes, or the Abort button to discard any changes you may have made. The next four topics will cover each Sort menu option. 3.3 Force Resort {F9} This option will force an immediate sort of the current file area. Use this option any time a sort is required. Situations where forcing a resort may be required include fixing any manual changes made to SFFILES.BBS from DOS or when one or more files in the list have been renamed. All file tags are cleared after any resort of an area. 3.4 This Area Options This command uses the Sort Options dialogue box to let you set the sort options for the currently loaded file area. Make whatever changes you desire. If you change the sort configuration for the current area you are presented the opportunity to resort the area. Press <Enter> or click on the Yes button to go ahead and resort the current area, or press <Esc> or click on the No button to skip it for now. The area will be sorted using the new options the next time a sort of this area is performed. 3.5 Any Area Options This command will let you select sort options for any defined file area on your BBS. You are first presented a menu of all the available file areas. Use the up/down arrow keys, PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys to highlight a file area and press <Enter> or click on the READ button (you may also double click on an area name). The Sort Options dialogue box will appear. Set the options desired. Pressing <Enter> or the OK button will mark the changes made and return you to the area menu. Pressing <Esc> or clicking on the Abort button will ignore any changes you have made. Continue setting the options for each file area desired. After everything is set the way you desire, press <Tab> to save the current configuration for all affected file areas. Pressing <Esc> will ignore all changes to all areas you have made and return you to the program. CHANGES WILL NOT BE SAVED UNLESS TAB IS PRESSED! 3.6 Define Global Sort Define Global Sort uses the Sort Options dialogue box to set the options for every area of your BBS at once. When used, this command will change the sort configuration of EVERY file area to those options you select. Pressing <Esc> will not save any changes you have made. The global sort setting is also used whenever you add new file areas to your BBS. When File Manager starts, any new areas found will automatically be set to your defined global default. This saves you from having to set the options for every new area yourself. 3.7 A Word About Configurations As previously stated, each and every file area on your BBS can have a different sort configuration. These configurations are stored by File Manager in a file called FM.SRT. The configurations are 13 matched up such that the first configuration corresponds to the first file area, the second configuration to the second area, and so on. Sort configurations are not tied to file area titles. As such, some configurations may "shift" should you delete an area or two in the middle of your SFFAREA.DAT. For example, let's assume that file area number 17 is set for file name ascending, and file area 18 is set for file date descending. Deleting a file area below 17 (such as area 12) will cause file area 18 to become file area 17. In this case your file area sort configuration for area 17 (which was previously 18) will be different than what it was before. While this will only affect the appearance of the file area it can sneak up on you unexpectedly. Inserting new file areas in the center of your current areas can have the same effect, only in reverse. New areas added to the end of your file area list are not a problem as they are assigned the global default you previously defined. If you make very major changes to your BBS file area layout, it may be best to delete the file FM.SRT from your File Manager directory and let the program create a new one for you. You can then reset your global default and make other changes as required. 14 SECTION FOUR - Options 4.1 Overview The Options menu presents commands to customize how File Manager works and looks. The settings for each of these options are saved to disk and used at program startup. In most cases there are command line options for these options which will override these saved settings. 4.2 Colors You can customize virtually every color used by File Manager to create your own look for the program. This command presents a menu of color changeable items and a sample of the current setting for each. Select an item to change by using the up/down arrow keys. When the item you wish to change is highlighted, either press <Enter>, click on the Edit button, or double click on the item to change. This action will produce a chart of all the colors available on your system. The chart will have an arrow indicator pointing to the current color setting for the item. Move this indicator with the arrow keys or click the mouse on the setting of your choice. A color sample is printed at the top of the chart for your reference. Press <Enter> or click on the Save button when the indicator points to the color of your choice. The Abort button will ignore changes you have made and return you to the item menu. Once all the colors are set as desired, press <Tab> to save the colors to disk. The screen will then be redrawn using the colors you have selected. Pressing <Esc> or clicking on the Abort button will ignore all changes you have made. COLORS WILL NOT BE SAVED UNLESS TAB IS PRESSED! You have one other option at the item menu. You may press <F2> to reset all colors to the default value. 4.3 Screen Lines This option will set the number of screen lines used by the program. Monochrome and CGA adapters can use only 25 screen line mode. EGA systems can use 25 or 43 line mode, and VGA and better systems can use 25, 43, or 50 line mode. File Manager can take advantage of the extra screen lines by extending all menus to show more options on the screen at once. This option presents a dialogue box with the available video options for your system. Use the up/down arrow keys to select the number of screen lines to use and press <Enter>. Alternately you can click the mouse on a line option button and click on the OK button. In either case, the setting you select is saved to disk and the screen is redrawn with the new setting. Press <Esc> or click on the Abort button to cancel this operation without changing the screen line setting. 4.4 Mouse Options By default, File Manager uses a simulated graphics style mouse cursor on EGA and better video adapters. This option will let you determine whether to use the default cursor or use a standard text 15 style (block) mouse cursor. When invoked, you are presented a dialogue box containing the two mouse cursor options. Use the up/down arrow keys to select an option and press <Enter>. Alternately you may click the mouse on an option button and click on the OK button. Either way the setting is saved to disk and the mouse cursor is changed to reflect the new setting. Press <Esc> or click on the Abort button if you decide not to change the setting at this time. This option is present due to the fact the simulation routines are not one hundred percent tested on every video adapter made. There may be some instances where the routine fails. This is evident when you see a large block of IBM extended characters moving where the mouse should be. In these cases, setting the option to text style will present a usable mouse. There are a couple cases when File Manager will not use a simulated cursor regardless of the setting. One case is when the program is run on a display adapter not capable of displaying this type of cursor. The other case is when the program is running in a multitasking environment such as MS-Windows and DesQview. These environments do not like having the video character sets redefined on the fly. This option is not available if a mouse is not installed on your system. 4.5 Start Up Directory This option will allow you to specify which file area File Manager will read when the program starts. Generally this is your upload file area, although it may be any area defined on your system. By default File Manager will read the first area found. This option presents a menu of all available file areas on your system. Use the up/down, PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys to highlight the area you wish to have loaded at start up and press <Enter>. Alternately you may click on the area name then click on the Save button, or you may double click on the area name. The setting will be saved to disk. The next time File Manager starts it will read this area first. Press <Esc> or click on the Abort button if you decide not to change the default start up area at this time. If you define an area then later delete areas such that the default no longer exists, then the first area found will be chosen. 4.6 SF Version {F7} This option will select how the file lists are displayed in File Manager at startup. Normally, only the first line of a file description is shown regardless of the number of lines contained within the description. However, you can set File Manager such that the first four lines are shown by default. This option presents a dialogue box containing two options; Spitfire 3.0 - 3.1 (one line descriptions) and Spitfire 3.2+ (four 16 line descriptions). THESE OPTIONS AFFECT ONLY THE DISPLAY OF THE FILE DESCRIPTIONS ON THE SCREEN. They will not limit the number of lines you may edit or the number of lines transferred in a move. In all cases File Manager will correctly handle a multi-line SFFILES.BBS. This option is presented solely for those sysops who desire to see more files at once on the screen. Use the up/down arrow keys to select a setting and press <Enter>. Alternately you may click on a setting with the mouse and click on the OK button. The setting selected will be saved to disk and the display updated to reflect the new setting. Press <Esc> or click on the Abort button if you decide not to change settings at this time. There exists a hot key for this function, but its operation is slightly different than others in the program. Press <F7> will toggle the setting immediately without changing the default setting. 17 SECTION FIVE: Other Information 5.1 The HELP Menu The Help menu is simply another way of getting into the program help system. For more information on help, see section 1.4 "Getting Help". For other questions you may contact my BBS at the number listed in section 1.4 or you may mail your question to the address listed in REGISTER.DOC included as a part of this package. 5.2 A Word From the Author When Spitfire 3.2 was released and the original File Manager proved unable to handle the changes in file lists, I had no intention of EVER releasing an update to accommodate the new format. The reason was simple: in the year or so the old version had been out, I received only two registrations. Period. I figured the program to be a failure since only two persons thought enough of it to register, and decided it would not be worth the effort and time to produce a new version. I contacted both registrants personally and thanked them, and told them a new version was never coming. I even posted a message on Circuit Net in the SF Sysop echo that support for the program had been permanently dropped. Apparently the program was not a failure. After SF 3.2 became widely available, my BBS was flooded with calls from persons searching for a version of FM that would accommodate multi-line descriptions. I received appeals through the mail and on national echoes. Even so, it has taken more than a year of prodding from everyone before I relented and started the new version. Well, reluctantly, here it is. It will be interesting to see what response I get this time around. 5.3 Words of Thanks I would like to take this opportunity to thank some individuals without whom this program would never had been brought back to life. In no particular order: Chuck Dearbeck, for letting me work on this program around my other obligations to him and convincing me it was worth it. Ronnie Brashears, for complaining about a lack of a good file area manager. Tom Butler, for beta testing and keeping the pressure on. My wife for putting up with those late nights, and All those people from across the country who called my BBS looking for a version of File Manager that would work with multi-line file descriptions. If it weren't for you who took the time to call I never would have resurrected this idea. Well, here you are! 18