ASP Advantage 1996 June

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┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ BROWSE for DOS Online Reference (C) 1995-96 FormGen Inc. │ │──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│ │ ┌───────┐ │ │ ┌───────┐ │ (R) │ │ ──│ │ O │─────────────────── │ │ │ ┌───────┐ │ Association of │ │ │ │ │─┘ Shareware │ │ └───│ O │ Professionals │ │ ──────│ │ │───────────────────── │ │ └───────┘ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Fast Key Reference: ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── C - Pop up a Category select box to quickly view categories or subcategories. R - Reset display to show All categories. D - Filter display to view MS-DOS programs only. Press [D] again to view All, or press [A]. N - Filter display to view New programs only. Press [N] again to view all programs. M - Filter display to view Macintosh programs only. Press [M] again to view All, or press [A]. O - Filter display to view OS/2 programs only. Press [O] again to view All, or press [A]. W - Filter display to view Windows programs only. Press [W] again to view All, or press [A]. 9 - Filter display to view Windows 95 programs only. Press [9] again to view All, or press [A]. A - Filter display to view All programs. U - Untag all currently tagged records. A prompt box appears asking you to confirm the untag operation. Command Key Reference: ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── F1 - Display this Online Reference. F2 - Configure BROWSE to your required file paths and other preferences etc. F3 - Search for specific files on the CD-ROM. The search criteria can include Boolean AND or OR conditions. You can also select from a fast search option that only searches information in memory, or a more thorough (and slower) search that reads the complete information from disk. Please see the Search section below for more details. F4 - Sort the displayed information based on the Program Title, File Name, File Date, Program Author, or Program Category (the default). F5 - Pop up a Category select box to quickly view categories or subcategories. F6 - Copy the highlighted or tagged program(s) to your hard disk or a floppy drive. F7 - Install the highlighted program on your hard disk, ready for use. This function has some restrictions, depending on the release date of the currently loaded CD. See notes below. F8 - Copy all the newest files (Deltas) to the specified directory. You can choose to copy only the new files in the currently displayed category, or all of the new files. F9 - Load another release of the ASP CD-ROM. This function is only enabled when BROWSE is run from your hard drive. F10 - Run an installed application by highlighting it from a popup list and pressing [Enter]; not currently implemented. Enter - Display detailed information about the highlighted program. Esc - Exit the current dialog box or exit back to DOS from the list display. If in the Info View, [Esc] returns you to to the List View. Movement Key Reference: ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── PgUp - Display the previous page in List View only. PgDn - Display the next page in List View only. Up - Move to the highlight to the previous file line in List View, or move to the previous file display in Info View. Down - Move to the highlight to the next file line in List View, or move to the next file display in Info View. Left/Right - Move between the List and Search windows. Only active when a search has been executed. Home - Move to the first file in the current category. End - Move to the last file in the current category. Edit Key Reference: ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── These commands only apply when editing data in a dialog box: Alt C - Clear the current field. This function is useful when editing the memo field for example, in that you can instantly clear out a long string of text without having to use the [Del] or [Backspace] keys. Alt R - Restore the contents of the current editing to what it was prior to the first change made. Special Key Reference: ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Alt A - Quick Sort Key - Sort data by Author. Alt C - Quick Sort Key - Sort data by Program Category. Alt D - Quick Sort Key - Sort data by File Date. Alt F - Quick Sort Key - Sort data by File Name. Alt P - Quick Sort Key - Sort data by Program Title. Space - Tag or Untag records for copying. When tagged, the current line will change color if in List View, or a 'Tagged' label will appear in the upper right corner of an Info screen. - In any case where a Yes or No is required (such as Config), the [Spacebar] toggles the current response. Alt F2 - Install BROWSE to a directory on your hard drive, in order to speed up searches and other operations in general. Program Reference: ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ ■ Introduction ■ Moving around in BROWSE ■ Changing the Display Order ■ Viewing categories ■ Filtering specific program types ■ Searching for specific programs or information ■ File copy functions ■ Program installation functions ■ Other BROWSE functions ■ Configuring BROWSE to your preferences ■ Startup Options ■ Running BROWSE from your hard drive ■ Running BROWSE in 'Browse Mode' ■ What is Shareware ■ Introduction ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── BROWSE is a front end utility for the ASP CD-ROM. With it, you can very quickly and easily locate a specific file, or groups of related files, from the huge number of offerings on this CD-ROM. You can copy or install files from the CD-ROM to any directory on your hard drive. BROWSE provides you with complete technical information and product descriptions for all of the programs on this CD-ROM. You can therefore determine beforehand if a program will address your needs before copying it over to your hard drive. Programs on the ASP CD-ROM are broken up into seventeen main categories, or function groups if you will. Each category has its own directory on the CD-ROM. Within any one category, you may easily find hundreds of programs. BROWSE ties all of the categories and programs together to save you the trouble of moving around the directory structure of the CD-ROM trying to find those one or two applications that you need. To further group related applications, each program within one of these main categories is assigned to a specific subcategory. BROWSE provides two basic views of the files on the CD-ROM. The first (and default when BROWSE starts) is the List View. List View provides a list of program titles, along with their associated file name, file date, file size, and author or company name. List View provides a quick way of obtaining basic information about what programs can be found on the CD-ROM. Although List View displays basic information about the categories and programs, you need a way of getting more specific technical information or descriptions about any program or programs that sparks your interest. BROWSE therefore provides an Info View. Info View displays all of the available information about the highlighted program, including technical details and hardware requirements, and both long and short program descriptions. These two Views are completely linked, in that you that move back and forth between the two and always remain on the same file, regardless of where you move to within one particular view. ■ Moving around in BROWSE ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── When BROWSE first starts up, it places you in List View and highlights the first (top) file in the list. The total number of programs displayed in List View and the current Sort Order are displayed in the top right corner of your screen. By default, programs are displayed in order of their assigned categories. A brief description of the type of program currently highlighted appears on the bottom line above the function key reference. You can move the highlight to another program line by using the [Up] or [Down] cursor keys. To jump to the first program on the list, press the [Home] key, to move to the last press [End]. Should you wish to get more information about the highlighted program, just press the [Enter] key. The Info View window will open to display specific information about the program, along with a short description. Depending on your video mode, a long description may also appear on the bottom half of the Info View window. This will only be the case if you are running in 50 line mode. If you are not, just press the [Enter] key to view the long description. To return to the normal Info View display, just press [Esc]. From within this Info View, you can move to different files in the same manner as the List View. The [Up], [Down], [Home] and [End] cursor keys function identically. If you wish to return to the List View, just press [Esc]. The current file you were displaying in Info View will be highlighted in the List View. To exit from BROWSE back to DOS, just press [Esc] from the List View. ■ Changing the Display Order ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── By default, BROWSE displays files ordered by category and subcategory. This is usually the most convenient way to group programs and get an idea of the wealth of applications on the ASP CD-ROM. You may however, prefer to display the data in a different sort order. For example, you may want to keep all programs produced by the same author together, or you may want to quickly see which are the newer programs within the current category. BROWSE allows you to sort the programs quickly and easily. To change the display order, just press [F4]. A Sort dialog box will appear, displaying the options available to you, and the current sort order. Just press the highlighted letter key of the sort you want. The Sort dialog box will disappear and the program list will appear in the selected order. If you change the sort order from within the Info View, the programs will still be sorted appropriately, and the current program displayed will be the first (top) one in the new order. For convenience, BROWSE also supports Quick Key combination that will sort the current display without the need to go into the Sort dialog box. These keys consist of the [Alt] key combined with the letter of the desired order. For example, pressing [Alt][F] will sort the display by file name. The key combinations are : Alt A - Sort data by Author. Alt C - Sort data by Program Category. Alt D - Sort data by File Date. Alt F - Sort data by File Name. Alt P - Sort data by Program Title. When you change the sort order, the change is in effect throughout BROWSE. All views will display data in the selected order. Also be aware that all of the sorts with the exception of the Date are in ascending alphabetic order. When sorting by Date, the newest programs are placed at the top of a list, and the oldest at the bottom. ■ Viewing categories ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── A very large number of programs exist on this CD-ROM. As mentioned previously, the programs are grouped into 17 main categories. One way to help you find the program you are looking for, is to restrict the display to only those programs found within one specific category or subcategory. To display programs within a specific category, press either [F5] or the [C] key. The Category select dialog box will pop up. This dialog box contains two windows, the left displays main categories, and the right, subcategories. To select a main category, use the [Up] and [Down] arrow keys to highlight your choice and press [Enter]. The dialog box will disappear, and the current view will display only those programs assigned to the selected category. If you are in List View, the top line will display the name of the selected category, and above that, the total number of programs within the category. In Info View, the category name appears on the top line. To view another category, just call up the Category dialog and select a new choice. To clear the current category and display all files, call up the dialog box, select the first item 'All Categories' in the left window, and press [Enter]. To further reduce the number of displayed files, you can also select a subcategory. Press either [F5] or the [C] key to display the Category select dialog box. Highlight a main category in the left window using the [Up] or [Down] arrow keys, and then press the [Left] arrow key to display all associated subcategories in the right window. The highlight bar will jump over to the right window, and you can select the subcategory you want and press [Enter]. If there are no programs assigned to the selected subcategory, then a message will appear in the bottom of the dialog box, and you can make another selection. If programs exist in the selected subcategory, then the dialog box will clear and the View will display only those files. If you are in List View, the name of the subcategory will appear in the upper right corner of your screen, in Info View it appears on the top line. To clear the current subcategory display, just call up the dialog box. If you want to see all programs in the current main category just press [Enter], or select a new main category and press [Enter]. If you want to view all of the programs on the CD-ROM, select the first item 'All Categories' in the left window, and press [Enter]. As a shortcut, you can redisplay all programs by pressing the [R] key from within the List or Info views, and then pressing [Y] in response to the prompt. The Category select box supports the [Home], [End], [PgUp] and [PgDn] keys to quickly move through the lists. If the dialog box is called up when a category is being displayed, then the current choice(s) is automatically highlighted for you at the top of the list. The subcategory window on the right also marks the current subcategory choice with an arrow symbol to the left of the category name. ■ Filtering specific program types ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Another display option available in BROWSE is the ability to filter out unwanted programs and display only those that fit within certain groups. Six filters can be applied to the large number of programs on this CD-ROM. Please note that all of these filters, except 'New', operate exclusively, activating any one will turn off the others if one of them happens to be active at the time. In the upper left corner of the List View display, you will see status indicators for each of these available filters. New (Delta) Programs : The first is a New Programs filter that allows you to view only those programs that have been added to this release of the ASP CD-ROM. If you are looking for an update to a favorite program, or want to know what the newest release of an application is, then this function will be useful. To view only the newest programs, just press the [N] key. The screen will update to exclude any older programs found on the CD-ROM. Notice also that a status indicator in the upper right corner of the top line of your display will change from ' ' to 'N'. The New filter will be in effect until you turn it off, and can be combined with the other filters described below to narrow down displayed programs, To redisplay all of the files press [N] again. MS-DOS Programs : The second is an MS-DOS filter that allows you to view only those programs that run under the MS-DOS operating system. To view only the MS-DOS programs, just press the [D] key. The screen will update to exclude any non MS-DOS programs found on the CD-ROM. Notice also that a status indicator in the upper right corner of the top line of your display will change from 'All' to 'Dos'. To redisplay all programs, either press [D] again, or the [A] key. Windows Programs : The third is a Windows filter that allows you to view only those programs that run under MS Windows. To view only Windows programs, just press the [W] key. The screen will update to exclude any non Windows programs found on the CD-ROM. Notice also that a status indicator in the upper right corner of the top line of your display will change from 'All' to 'Win'. To redisplay all programs, either press [W] again, or the [A] key. Windows 95 Programs : The fourth is a Windows 95 filter that allows you to view only those programs that run under MS Windows 95. To view only Windows programs, just press the [9] key. The screen will update to exclude any non Windows 95 programs found on the CD-ROM. Notice also that a status indicator in the upper right corner of the top line of your display will change from 'All' to 'W95'. To redisplay all programs, either press [9] again, or the [A] key. OS/2 Programs : The fifth is an OS/2 filter that allows you to view only those programs that run under OS/2. To view only OS/2 programs, just press the [O] key. The screen will update to exclude any non OS/2 programs found on the CD-ROM. Notice also that a status indicator in the upper right corner of the top line of your display will change from 'All' to 'OS2'. To redisplay all programs, either press [O] again, or the [A] key. Macintosh Programs : The sixth is a Macintosh filter that allows you to view only those programs that run on an Apple Macintosh. To view only Macintosh programs, just press the [M] key. The screen will update to exclude any non Mac programs found on the CD-ROM. Notice also that a status indicator in the upper right corner of the top line of your display will change from 'All' to 'Mac'. To redisplay all programs, either press [M] again, or the [A] key. Be aware that these Filters, when active, affect and potentially limit the number of displayed programs in every viewing function in BROWSE. If all programs in a particular main category or Search display are filtered out, then a blank screen with no listed programs will appear. Please be aware of active filters when viewing the results of various functions. ■ Searching for specific programs or information ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Although the Sort and Filter functions described above help you more clearly view the contents of this CD-ROM, you may need to limit the displayed data to a small subset that meet a specific criteria. To this end, BROWSE provides a search function, that allows you to define information about programs you may be interested in. To search for specific programs or other information, press the [F3] key to bring up the Text Search dialog box. This dialog box contains an entry line where you can type in the search criteria, and a toggle switch to control the depth of the search. It also contains two labels outlining Boolean operators that you can include in the search text. The easiest way to use Text Search, is to type in a fragment of text you wish to find within the program listings, and press [Enter]. The search function will go off and scan all of the listings for the entered text, and will display its progress in a message line near the bottom of the dialog box. If the entered text is found, then BROWSE will create a Search Results window similar to the List View, in which to display all the matching programs. The Search Results window functions the same way as the List or Info Views in that you can use the cursor keys to select listed programs, or move to other categories. If you move to other categories, you can always return to the Search Results window by pressing the [Alt][S] key combination. Although entering a single bit of text may help find a program you are looking for, the Text Search function contains options that can more clearly define what you want. The Boolean operators allow you to combine fragments of text in meaningful ways, and allow you to more carefully screen out unwanted programs. The first operator is AND, represented in BROWSE by the '&' character. This operator allows you to say for example, find all programs that contain both the text 'CARD' AND the text 'POKER' in their descriptions. To use AND in this example, you would type in CARD&POKER in the entry field and press [Enter] to start the search. Text Search would then go off and find any matches. The second operator is OR, represented in BROWSE by the '|' character. This operator allows you to say for example, find all programs that contain either the text 'ASP' OR the text 'ASSOCIATION' in their descriptions. To use OR in this example, you would type in ASP|ASSOCIATION in the entry field and press [Enter] to start the search. These two operators can be combined or duplicated in a text entry under the following conditions. - Only two operator characters can appear in a single text entry. - Two operator characters cannot appear consecutively, ie. a string containing '&&' or '|&' would be invalid. These two operators provide you with considerable flexibility and power. In addition to these operators, you can control the behavior of the Text Search function by setting the depth of the search. By default, Text Search only scans the information contained in its own specific data table, the Browse table. This results in a very fast search, but restricts the scanner to a search of the Program Name, File Name, and Author/Company Name entries only. If these fields represent the type of information you wish to search for, then you are all set. If however, you wish to find programs based on text that could be in the long or short descriptions that you see in Info View, then you should toggle the 'Enable Fast Search' switch to 'No'. To do this, type in the search text you want, press the [Down] cursor key to move to the 'Fast Search' field, and then press [Spacebar] to toggle its status. You can then start a search be pressing [Enter] as usual. When the 'Fast Search' switch is set to 'No', the Text Search function scans the master table contained on the CD-ROM. Because this file is more than thirty times the size of the Browse Table, and also because its resides on the CD-ROM itself and not in memory, the search will be more exhaustive but a fair bit slower. Also, please be aware that if any program filter is in effect at the time you commence a Search, it will be toggled off (back to 'All') and the 'New' filter will be turned off, in order to display every file that the Search function has found. Also, all Category selections will be cleared. As a general note, please try to define your search criteria as carefully as possible, in order to limit the number of 'hits' you will have to wade through, and to reduce the amount of memory required by BROWSE. ■ File copy functions ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── BROWSE contains a number of other useful functions in addition to letting you examine the CD-ROM and get information about the various programs. Chief among them is the ability to copy files from the CD-ROM to your hard drive. BROWSE contains three copy functions to suit your needs. File Copy : The first is a straight file copy, that copies the currently highlighted file to a directory of your choice. To use this function, highlight the file you want from the CD-ROM, and press [F6]. A File Copy dialog box will open containing the name of the selected file, and a destination path and filename. By default, the destination path will be either the File Copy Path you entered in the BROWSE Configuration box, or the BROWSE default of 'C:\TEMP'. Either accept the current path and filename or edit the line as required, and then press [Enter] to copy the file. If the entered directory does not exist, you will be warned. If the file already exists in the intended directory, then you will be asked to confirm overwriting it. Please be aware, that if you have tagged files for copying, then the [F6] copy function will instead bring up the following. Tagged File Copy : The second is a tagged file copy, that copies all of the currently tagged files to a directory of your choice. To use this function, highlight the file you want from the CD-ROM, and press [F6]. A Tagged File Copy dialog box will open containing the name of the first tagged file and a destination path for the copy. By default, the destination path will be either the File Copy Path you entered in the BROWSE Configuration box, or the BROWSE default of 'C:\TEMP'. Either accept the current path or edit the line as required. At this point, you have a few options available to you. If you press [Ctrl][Enter], then all of the tagged files will be copied to the specified directory. If you perhaps want to copy the current file to a different directory, you can then edit the path entry, and press [Enter] to copy the file to that specific directory. Should you wish to ignore the first few tagged files displayed, you can press the [Tab] key to display the next file in the copy queue. Once all of the tagged files have been copied, or you have copied the last file in the copy queue, the dialog box will close and you will be returned to the underlying screen. The Tagged File Copy function is not affected by any current Filter. For example, if a DOS file has been tagged and you then turn on the Windows filter, thereby turning off the display of the DOS file, the tagged DOS file will still be found and copied. Delta File Copy : The third copy option is a Delta File Copy. A delta file is any new file added to the CD-ROM with this release. For most people, the Delta File Copy function will not be of use, however for BBS operators or Vendors, it is very handy. To use this function, just press [F8]. A Delta File Copy dialog box will open containing the name of the path where you wish the copies to be placed. By default, the destination path will be either the Delta Copy Path you entered in the BROWSE Configuration box, or the BROWSE default of 'C:\DELTA'. Either accept the current path or edit the line as required. The Delta File Copy function gives you two copy options. To copy only the new displayed files in the current List or Info Views, press [Enter]. BROWSE will search for and copy any new files that are currently displayed to the specified directory. If there are no new files in the current display, an appropriate message will appear. To copy all the new files on the CD-ROM, press [Ctrl][Enter]. BROWSE will search all of the categories and copy all new file it finds to the specified directory. In both cases, if the entered directory does not exist, you will be warned. If the file already exists in the intended directory, then you will be asked to confirm overwriting it. Please be aware that the Delta Copy function honors any Filter currently in effect. This allows you to copy only New Windows programs or New OS/2 programs for example. If a filter is active when you press [F8], a warning message will appear to remind you of the active filter. The status of the 'New' filter is irrelevant, the Delta Copy function can only copy new files. ■ Program installation functions ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── BROWSE supports two additional functions designed to allow you to easily install and run programs from your hard drive. Install Program : To install a program from the ASP CD-ROM, highlight the application to install and press [F7]. The Install dialog box will pop up, containing the name of the highlighted program and a destination directory. By default, the directory name will be the standard 'Copy' directory. Edit the directory field to specify the directory you wish the application to be installed into, and press [Enter]. If your entry refers to a nonexistent drive or contains other errors, an appropriate message will appear, and you will be returned to the directory field to make corrections. If the specified directory does not exist, you will be asked if you wish to create it on the entered drive. Press [Y] to create the directory, or [N] to abort and return to the directory field for changes. If the specified directory already contains files, you will be prompted to continue with the installation or abort back to the directory field. Press [Y] or [N] as appropriate. After these preliminary checks, the screen will clear and BROWSE will unpack the selected program from the CD-ROM into the specified directory using an external utility. Once the unpacking is completed, the BROWSE screen will reappear and display a message confirming the installation. This message will only appear briefly, and then the Install dialog box will close. If the unpack utility had any problems unpacking the program, any generated error messages will appear in the dialog box once the BROWSE screen reappears, and the Install dialog box will remain on screen. NB: The Install function is only supported on releases of the ASP CD-ROM issued from September 1995 forward. The Install function will be disabled if a prior release is loaded. Earlier versions do not contain the support utilities to enable program installation. Run Installed Programs : This function is still under development, and will not be available until a future release. ■ Other BROWSE functions ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If BROWSE is installed on your hard drive, you can load and view almost any release of the ASP CD-ROM. To load a different version, use the Change CD function. To change the CD, press the [F9] key to bring up the Change CD dialog box. Remove the current CD, replace it with another release, and then press [Enter] to load its contents into BROWSE. If you change your mind, you can always press [Esc] before swapping the CD, to close the dialog box. The Change CD function is only supported when you are running BROWSE from an installed copy on your hard drive. If you are running directly off the CD itself, then this function will be disabled, and greyed out on the function key menu at the bottom of your screen. ■ Configuring BROWSE to your preferences ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── A number of BROWSE settings can be easily changed to suit your hardware setup and the way you wish BROWSE to operate. These setup options can be changed from within BROWSE, or by editing the BROWSE.INI file with a text editor. The preferred method is to use the Configuration dialog box. Configuration Options : To reconfigure BROWSE using Config, press the [F2] key to bring up the Configuration dialog box. The first option in the list is highlighted. To move from option to option, press the [Up] or [Down] cursor keys. To toggle any Yes or No option, just move to the option and press [Spacebar]. Once you have set the various options to suit, press [F2] to save the options to the BROWSE.INI file, or press [Esc] to throw away your changes and exit the dialog box. If you are running BROWSE from the CD-ROM, pressing [F2] will internally set your preferences, but will not write an INI file. You will have to change the options to suit every time you run BROWSE. The following descriptions will outline the various options : Use Vendor/BBS Keys : BROWSE contains two sets of function key labels that appear on the two lowest lines of your screen. The Vendor set contains a couple of additional keys that are of no use to the average user, and therefore don't normally appear. To see this second set, set this option to 'Yes'. Disable Warning Sounds : By default, BROWSE makes a low pitch warning sound if you try to do an illegal operation, like moving above the first record on a list for example. If you find this behavior annoying, you can turn these sounds off by setting this option to 'No'. Please be aware that any error messages will always sound this tone, regardless of the setting of this option. Enable Fast Search : By default, BROWSE assumes that you would prefer to speed up the search operation by restricting the scope of the search to the Browse Table that resides in memory. If, by default, you prefer to do the slower and more exhaustive search of the master file, then set this option to 'No'. European Date Format : By default, BROWSE display dates in the North American format of MM-DD-YY. If you prefer the European format of YY-MM-DD, then set this option to 'Yes'. CD-ROM Drive : Enter the letter of your CD-ROM drive. This option will always be set to the CD-ROM drive automatically if you run BROWSE from the CD-ROM. If you are running an installed copy of BROWSE, only change the drive designation if you remap your CD-ROM drive to a different letter. In this case, change and save the configuration, and then restart BROWSE. Path for File Copy : Enter the path where you would like any CD-ROM files to be copied. By default, this option is set to 'C:\TEMP'. Path for Delta Copies : Enter the path where you would like all the CD-ROM delta files to be copied. By default, this option is set to 'C:\DELTA'. This option is only of use to a BBS or Vendor user, and can be ignored by most people. Editing the BROWSE.INI File : If you are running BROWSE from a directory on your hard drive, the Configuration dialog box will create a BROWSE.INI file containing your current setting when you press [F2]. Should you prefer, you can edit this file with any plain text editor. The list below displays the Configuration option and the equivalent INI file title : Use Vendor/BBS Keys - VenderKeys= Disable Warning Sounds - WarnSounds= Enable Fast Search - FastSearch= European Date Format - EuroDates= CD-ROM Drive - CDDrive= Path for File Copy - FileCopyPath= Path for Delta Copies - DeltaCopyPath= Please be careful to make sure that all changes start to the right of the equals sign. ■ Startup Options ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── BROWSE contains a few command line switches that control some of its defaults. In most cases, these options can be set from within BROWSE, or by editing the INI file directly. These command line switches are : /BW Use a Monochrome Color Set /NS Turn Off Warning Sounds /VN Show Vendor/BBS Keys When adding switches to the command line, spaces are not required between switches if you are using more than one. ■ Running BROWSE from your hard drive ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you prefer, you can install BROWSE on your hard drive to speed up its overall operation, particularly if you have a slower speed CD-ROM drive. BROWSE can install itself on your hard drive, and create an updated .INI file that reflects the new location. Another advantage to installing BROWSE on your hard drive, is the ability to load and view differnt releases of the ASP CD, without having to shut down the program. To install BROWSE on your hard drive, press the [Alt][F2] key combination. The Install dialog box will appear. By default, BROWSE will suggest the 'C:\BROWSE' directory to copy itself to. Edit the path and directory to suit yourself or leave it at the default, and press [Enter] to start the installation. If the specified directory does not exist, BROWSE will create it for you if you answer 'Yes' to the displayed prompt. BROWSE will then copy the required files to the specified directory, and create an .INI file that correctly identifies your CD-ROM drive. You can then exit BROWSE by pressing [Esc], and restart it from the new directory. When run from a hard drive, BROWSE will display a warning dialog box if you start the program without a CD-ROM in the drive, or if the loaded CD is an unsupported earlier release. BROWSE and its associated files will require less than 150 k. of disk space when installed on your hard drive. ■ Running BROWSE in 'Browse Mode' ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The BROWSE utility can be run in what we will refer to as 'Browse Mode'. This mode allows one to view the program listings and details from the ASP CD-ROM, without owning a copy of the CD. Browse has been distributed in this manner to allow users to search for applications that meet their needs, which they can then download from a local BBS or CompuServe, or order directly from the ASP author. In 'Browse Mode', the BROWSE utility will disable all of the Program Copy routines, the Installation routine, and the Change CD function. All other functions of the program work as they normally would. ■ What is Shareware ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Shareware is a novel means of distributing quality software on a "try before you buy" basis. The program's author lets us package and make this fully-functional program available for your trial use, but receives no part of the package price, relying instead on payment of a "registration fee" that gets you printed manuals, telephone support, program updates, bonus utilities or other attractive benefits as explained in the program. Since the program is not limited in any way, the author counts on you to register if you find this program useful. The shareware concept is founded entirely on the honor system, and generally works quite well. (Most people are honest and won't violate the trust placed in them by the author of the software). Meanwhile, users get high quality software at affordable prices. ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════