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SuperMenu Version 2.0 - 2.1 by Frank S. Gioffre A hard-disk menu program for all types of users. EASY to set up and use for beginners. VERSATILE and POWERFUL for intermediate and advanced users. SuperMenu Version 2.0 TABLE OF CONTENTS SHAREWARE LICENSE & COPYRIGHT..........................Page 1 INTRODUCTION ..........................................Page 2 INSTALLING SUPERMENU ..................................Page 3 THE MAIN MENU .........................................Page 4 MENU MODIFICATION .....................................Page 5 HELP !! ...............................................Page 6 TUTORIAL ..............................................Page 9 REGISTRATION ..........................................Page 11 REGISTRATION FORM .....................................Page 13 REGISTRATION SURVEY ...................................Page 14 SuperMenu Page 1 Version 2.0 SHAREWARE LICENSE & COPYRIGHT SuperMenu IS NOT public domain software. SuperMenu IS NOT FREE. SuperMenu is shareware, and as such may be distributed freely, in its original, unmodified form. You are allowed to copy, install, and evaluate SuperMenu freely. If you like SuperMenu, you are expected to pay for it. The modest fee is much less than the cost of similar commercially available programs. You are compensating the author for the many hours of labor spent writing, testing, and debugging the final software version that you are using. You can think of shareware as software that you may test before buying. You can use it to its fullest capability. If you decide you don't like it, then get rid of it or give it to a friend; with no further obligation. If you do like it and decide to keep and use it, simply fill in the registration form and send in the required payment. See registration section for further details. SuperMenu is copyrighted with all rights belonging to COMRES and Frank S. Gioffre. SuperMenu may not be disassembled, recompiled, or modified in any way without the prior express written consent of the author. Any breach of these statements is a violation of the law. WARRANTY: If the disk is purchased from COMRES then the disk itself is warranted to be free from defects for a period of ten years from original purchase. This warranty applies only to the original purchaser and is void upon transfer. During this period COMRES will replace the disk for free within the first 90 days after purchase. After 90 days COMRES will replace the disk with program for 50% of the current retail price of SuperMenu. COMRES provides no other warranty of any kind for this product, either express or implied. Neither COMRES nor the author shall be held liable for any damages, whether consequential or inconsequential. Such damages include but are not limited to loss of use, business, profits, data or other intangible items. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of consequential or inconsequential damages, therefore the above limitations may not apply to you. SuperMenu Page 2 Version 2.0 INTRODUCTION SuperMenu is a hard-disk menu program designed to isolate the user from the cryptic and quite unfriendly DOS (Disk Operating System) commands. SuperMenu does this by allowing you to run any program on your hard drive with as little as one keypress. Many DOS commands can also be executed directly from SuperMenu. Beginners will like SuperMenu because it is easy to install and configure. It also allows beginners to do almost any DOS task without having to remember those complex command structures. Of course, even a program as simple as SuperMenu may at times be confusing to beginners; so SuperMenu allows you to access and view this manual at any time while using SuperMenu. Advanced users who have no problems dealing with DOS will also like SuperMenu because it will speed up their operation. Once set up, SuperMenu allows any task to be accomplished with just a few keypresses from the menu screens. No more having to remember what subdirectory a program is in, or exactly what its name is. Overall, SuperMenu should allow any user to accomplish their task in a more efficient and pleasant manner. SuperMenu Page 3 Version 2.0 INSTALLING SUPERMENU Installation is made simple by a program on the distribution diskette. BEGINNERS: Please consult your computer users' guide on details of starting up the computer and using the floppy disk drives. Put the SuperMenu diskette in your A: drive and type in A:INSTALL . This runs a small program which will create a subdirectory on your C: drive, and copy the SuperMenu program over to it. It also creates some files which SuperMenu needs to function properly. SuperMenu WILL NOT WORK if you do not use the INSTALL program! Optionally the INSTALL program will modify and/or create your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to allow SuperMenu to come up whenever you reboot your computer. __________________________________________________________________ BEGINNERS: You should answer both of INSTALL's questions with a Y. This will allow you to be totally isolated from DOS. __________________________________________________________________ ADVANCED: The two questions that the INSTALL program ask determine whether or not it should modify your autoexec.bat file. The first question asks whether to modify your PATH statement. If answered with a Y then SuperMenu will either create or modify your PATH statement to include the C: drive root directory. This is necessary in order to be able to run SuperMenu from any directory on your hard drive. The second question asks if you would like SuperMenu to run each time you reboot your computer. If answered with a Y then SuperMenu will append the command SM to the last line of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. SM calls the batch file which runs SuperMenu. __________________________________________________________________ If you are currently using some other menu program, you must first make sure that it does not get run by your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Consult the documentation of the other program for details. Upon successful installation, simply reboot your computer to make the aforementioned changes effective. Those who chose to have SuperMenu come up every time will now see the Main Menu. Others will simply be at the DOS prompt. For those at the DOS prompt, you may run SuperMenu by typing SM . SuperMenu Page 4 Version 2.0 THE MAIN MENU When you first start up SuperMenu, you will see the Main Menu Screen. Being that you have not yet entered any data, you will see "NO CHOICES AVAILABLE". Before we enter any data let's get familiar with the Main Menu Screen. The top left hand corner tells you which version of SuperMenu you have. The box at the top center of the screen outlines the name of the screen you are currently on. In the very center of the screen is the menu from which you will be making all your selections. On the bottom line of the screen are the other keys which have some meaning. The function keys listed at the bottom of the Main Menu Screen are: <ESC> Exit SuperMenu and return to DOS. <F1> Help brings this manual up on the screen. You can scroll through the manual to find whatever you may need. <F4> Modify Menu : This is the choice you will be using to change the menu selections. <F5> DOS Shell: SuperMenu exits to DOS but remains resident in memory. Useful when you need to get out to DOS to do one or two quick things. The benefit of DOS Shell is that SuperMenu will pop right back up when you type EXIT at the DOS prompt. The disadvantage is that a chunk of memory is taken up by SuperMenu, so you should not be running other applications from the DOS Shell. The Main Menu allows you to pick any selection you want to run in two ways. First, you may type the letter of the choice you desire. Secondly, you may highlight the choice you desire by using the up and down arrow keys and then hitting the <ENTER> key. Either method gives the same results. MOUSE USERS: To pick a selection on the Main Menu or any other menu, simply move the mouse cursor to the desired selection and click once with the left button. You may also click on the bottom line of the screen to activate the listed choices (Quit, Modify Menu, Help or DOS Shell). Simply move the mouse cursor to the desired choice and click once with the left button. SuperMenu Page 5 Version 2.0 Menu Modification You modify the menu structure and choices in the Menu Modification screen. You get to this screen by hitting <F4> while on a normal menu screen. The menu modification screen has a similar layout to the other screens in that most of the available options are listed on the last line of the display. The choices immediately visible are: <ESC> Return to the Main Menu. <F2> Delete Choice : Allows you to delete a selection from the list. <F1> Help: Brings up the help screen. You may also use the <INSERT> key to toggle between INSERT and OVERTYPE mode. In INSERT mode any text you type will be inserted at the current location (nothing disappears). In OVERTYPE mode any text you type will write over the text that was previously in that location. In modifying any menu you may add choices which are either programs that you wish to run, or you may add SUB-MENUS which contain programs of a certain type or group. SUB-MENUS allow you to structure your SuperMenu in an efficient and orderly manner. There is a limit of 100 total sub-menus in SuperMenu. At 15 choices per menu that means that you can have SuperMenu keep track of over 1400 individual programs on your hard drive(s). Take note that SUB-MENUS may be created within other SUB-MENUS, which allows you to create a complex tree structure. This is quite different than many other Menu products which only allow one level of SUB- MENUS. The 4 columns on the menu-modification screen are where you enter the data for any program or SUB-MENU. You may move from one column to the next with the <TAB> key. The <SHIFT><TAB> key moves you in the reverse direction. You may move sideways inside a column by using the right and left arrow keys. You may move up and down in a column by using the up and down arrow keys. Note that SuperMenu will not let you move to a location where there is no text. MOUSE USERS: Simply move the mouse cursor to the column and row position you desire and click on the left button. The first column is where you type in the application or SUB-MENU name. Pick any name which accurately describes that selection. SuperMenu Page 6 Version 2.0 The second column contains the drive letter on which that application resides. Most of the time that will be C. If you are creating a SUB-MENU, put an asterisk (*) in this column. SuperMenu will create the SUB-MENU with the name you chose. Note that the third and fourth columns are not applicable for a SUB-MENU. The third column contains the directory in which the program resides. You may either type in the full directory name or use the SuperMenu DirecTree feature. The DirecTree is activated by pressing the <F4> key while in the third column. It will bring up a screen with all the directories on the drive specified. You may scroll through the list if it is bigger than the screen. To pick a directory, simply move the highlight bar to that choice and press the <ENTER> key. This will switch you to that directory and show you any subdirectories. When you are in the directory you desire, simply press <ENTER> on the first line of the listing. If you need to go back one directory simply press <ENTER> on the ".." listing, which when present is on the second line. When you pick a choice, it will be pasted back onto the Menu Modification screen. HINT: To pick a directory without going to the its subdirectories, simply hit the <ENTER> key twice. MOUSE USERS: Simply point to the directory you desire and click on the left button. Scroll through list by clicking on the up and down arrows on the bottom line of the screen. The fourth column contains the file name. This must be a file which can be run from DOS (either .EXE, .COM, or .BAT). You may type in the name (without extension) yourself or you may use the SuperMenu File Search feature. You may use File Search by pressing the <F5> key while in the fourth column. This will bring up a list of all the valid file names from the drive and directory specified. You can scroll through the list with the up and down arrow keys. You pick any selection by moving the highlight bar to that selection and pressing the <ENTER> key. The selection name is immediately pasted to the Menu Modification screen. When you are done editing the menu, press the <ESC> key. If any changes were made, SuperMenu will ask you if you want to keep the changes. Press the Y key if you are satisfied with your changes. Pressing the N key will result in a loss to any and all changes that were just made. The procedure in modifying a SUB-MENU is exactly the same. You first create the SUB-MENU by naming it and putting an asterisk in the second column as outlined above. You then exit the menu modification screen and pick that SUB-MENU. You will see the SUB- MENU screen with "NO CHOICES AVAILABLE". You now press the <F4> key to modify that SUB-MENU. SuperMenu Page 7 Version 2.0 _________________________________________________________________ ADVANCED USERS: While in the fourth column you may also choose to create or modify a listed batch file. This feature allows you to edit small batch files without having to use DOS. Simply hit the <F3> key. The file will be displayed if it exists, or it will be created if it does not exist. You may then edit it to your satisfaction. Be cautioned that: 1. This feature is only for small batch files. Editing very large batch files will cause them to be truncated. 2. If you create a batch file with the same name as a program file, it may cause SuperMenu difficulty. This is a peculiarity of DOS that does not allow running of batch files with the same name as a program file. Another advanced feature is that of passable parameters. Again while in the 4th column, you may put a percent sign (%) anywhere after the program name. SuperMenu will interpret this as a request for run-time passable parameter. When you then choose that application from the menu SuperMenu will stop and allow you to enter a parameter. That parameter will then be inserted in the command line and passed to the application. As an example, if you were to use Microsoft Word as your word processor, the fourth column might look like: WORD % This would then allow you to enter the name of the document you want to edit whenever you call up Word. _________________________________________________________________ BEGINNERS: It is strongly advised that you go through the short tutorial session in this manual before modifying menus on your own. The tutorial takes you through a menu modification from start to finish. Not only will it acquaint you with this process, but it will give you a working SUB-MENU of DOS utilities which you will use most frequently. _________________________________________________________________ SuperMenu Page 8 Version 2.0 HELP !! No matter how simple a program is to use, someone may always need help in a certain area. That is why SuperMenu provides you with on-line context-sensitive help. This means that you can request help by pressing the <F1> key at any point in SuperMenu. By doing this, you will pop up a window in which you can view this entire manual. The manual will initially be on the page corresponding to the area of the program which you are currently at. This usually means not having to scroll though a lot of text to get to what you need. In the case that you need help in another area, the Table of Contents is one keypress away (just press the T key). Similarly, the first 9 pages of this manual can be accessed directly by pressing the associated number key (1-9). You may also move around by using the <PAGE UP>, <PAGE DOWN>, up arrow, and down arrow keys. With all these controls, any help you need shouldn't be more than a few keystrokes away. But what if after reading everything in the manual, you are still confused? Simple: All REGISTERED users are encouraged to contact the author directly for any help they may need. Your questions will be answered promptly and courteously. Here is how to contact the author, in order of preference. 1) Electronic communication: The author may be left mail on the Prodigy service. Leave all mail to ID XSVK12A (Frank Gioffre). Please specify your exact problem and allow 24 hours for a response. COMING SOON: The COMRES BBS; all registered users will be notified. 2) U.S. Mail: Send all inquiries to: COMRES P.O. Box 1225 Lakehurst, NJ 08733 Please allow 10 days for forward and return mail times. 3) Facsimile: You may FAX your question to COMRES. Simply use any GROUP III compatible FAX machine and dial (609) 567-7898. This is an automatic machine. Please include your fax number for response. Response given within 24 hours. 4) Telephone: Call the author direct at (609) 567-7927. Leave a message describing your problem and you will get a response within 24 hours. SUPER QUICK 1-HOUR RESPONSE SERVICE AVAILABLE FOR SLIGHT FEE. CALL FOR DETAILS SuperMenu Page 9 Version 2.0 TUTORIAL In this section you will be taken through the process of creating and implementing a SUB-MENU, step by step. 1) Start SuperMenu either by rebooting your computer or typing in SM and pressing the <RETURN> key at the DOS prompt. You will now be looking at the MAIN MENU screen. There should be NO CHOICES AVAILABLE for you to choose from. 2) We want to add some choices to the menu so we press the <F4> key. This takes us to the MENU MODIFICATION screen. It also should be without any entries. The red highlighted block should be located in the first row, first column, directly below the words "Application Name:". This is where we will enter the name for the first SUB-MENU that we will create. 3) Type in the words DOS UTILITIES and then press the <TAB> key. You will now be in the second column, directly under the word "Drive:". This is where we tell SuperMenu that "DOS UTILITIES" is to be a SUB-MENU. That is done by pressing the asterisk (*) key. You will immediately see text appear in the third and fourth columns, indicating that you have chosen to create a SUB-MENU. 4) We now want to exit the MENU MODIFICATION screen. Press the <ESC> key once, and press the Y key to answer the "Keep Changes?" question. 5) You will now be at the MAIN MENU screen again. Only this time you see the choice "DOS UTILITIES". Select "DOS UTILITIES" by pressing the <RETURN> key. 6) You are now at the "DOS UTILITIES" SUB-MENU. Again there are NO CHOICES AVAILABLE because we have yet to put them in. We do so by first pressing the <F4> key. 7) You are now back at the MENU MODIFICATION screen. Start by typing in the words COPY DISK and press the <TAB> key. 8) Assuming that all your DOS programs are on your C: drive type the letter C. Now press the <TAB> key to get to column three. 9) At this point you want to see the subdirectories on your hard drive, so press the <F4> key. A window will pop up with a listing of all the subdirectories on drive C:. 10) You must now move the highlight block to the correct choice and hit <RETURN> twice. The correct choice depends upon how your hard disk was set up. You need to know which directory contains all your DOS programs. Usually this is a directory called DOS, or perhaps BIN, or sometimes SYSLIB. After picking the correct choice SuperMenu Page 10 Version 2.0 by pressing <RETURN> twice you will see your choice pasted into the MENU MODIFICATION screen. 11) At this point press the <TAB> key once to get to column four. 12) You now want to see all the files in the directory you chose. Do this by pressing <F5>. 13) A window will pop up with the names of all the valid program names. Scroll through the list with the up and down arrow keys till you highlight a choice called DISKCOPY.COM. Select that choice by pressing the <ENTER> key once. IF YOU CAN NOT FIND THE PROGRAMS SPECIFIED IN YOUR LIST, THEN STOP AND HAVE SOMEONE SET UP A DOS SUBDIRECTORY ON YOUR HARD DRIVE. RESTART THE TUTORIAL WHEN THIS HAS BEEN DONE. 14) You will now be back at the MENU MODIFICATION screen. Move the cursor to the last position on the line by pressing the left arrow key once. We need to type in the proper parameters for this command. Press the <SPACE BAR> once. If you have two floppy disk drives then type A: B: and hit the <TAB> key. If you have only one floppy disk drive then type A: A: and hit the <TAB> key. 15) You have now successfully entered your first selection. You may proceed in entering the selections listed below by repeating steps 7 through 15 for each. Substitute the proper phrases as applicable. Do not type anything for the blank spaces. STEP 7 STEP 13 STEP 14 FORMAT DISK FORMAT.COM A: SET TIME SET DATE 16) Press the <ESC> key and press Y to answer the "Keep changes?" question. YOU ARE DONE MODIFYING THE MENU. 17) You now simply pick the desired choices from the menus. Follow the above steps for any other application programs you need to run. SuperMenu Page 11 Version 2.0 REGISTRATION Each copy of SuperMenu which is used on a regular-basis must be registered. One copy of SuperMenu must be registered for each computer at a specific site. Multiple copy discounts and site licenses are available. The current registration cost for SuperMenu is $25.00 (through December 31, 1990). Please fill in the registration form , make out a check or money order payable to COMRES and send it to: COMRES P.O. Box 1225 Lakehurst, NJ 08733 Why register? Other than being a violation of the law to not pay for this program, official registration provides you with: 1) Your own serialized copy of SuperMenu and full documentation. 2) FREE technical assistance from the author. 3) Notice to updates. 4) Updates and future revisions at a greatly discounted cost. ** Future versions of SuperMenu may or may not be released as shareware, depending on the initial success of this process. Protect your interests and register now! ** 5) Participation in the SuperMenu Profit Sharing Plan. Here is how the Profit Sharing Plan works. When you send in your registration form, you will receive your own serialized copy of SuperMenu. Make copies of your program and distribute it to friends, clubs, coworkers, electronic bulletin boards, and whoever else you can think of. For every person that registers that copy and the next 4 generations of that copy, you receive one dollar. This may not seem like much at first, but it adds up quite quickly. Take an example of your copy generating ONLY five registrations and each of those generating five, and so on. YOUR COPY #00 | COPY 1-----COPY 2------COPY 3------COPY 4-------COPY 5 | | | | | COPY 6-10 COPY 11-15 COPY 16-20 COPY 21-25 COPY 26-30 ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| C O P I E S 3 1 - 1 5 5 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| C O P I E S 1 5 6 - 7 8 0 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| C O P I E S 7 8 1 - 3 9 0 5 SuperMenu Page 12 Version 2.0 You can see how just 5 copies per copy can bring you $3,905 total. Of course most people can find many more than just 5 friends and associates to register the program. In any case, the initial $25.00 can easily be recouped in no time at all. Participation in the Profit Sharing Program is automatic upon registration. Profit Sharing payments are mailed out once a month unless the amount is less than $10.00 . In that case the amount is held until it reaches at least $10.00 and then mailed. BONUS OPPORTUNITIES: Any registered user who sends in the completed survey WITH the registration form receives one FREE update. Users are encouraged to send in suggestions for improvements to SuperMenu at all times. Suggestions must be in written form (FAX or mail). Any suggestion incorporated into SuperMenu earns the registered user(s) one FREE SuperMenu update. COMRES is committed to providing you with the easiest and most powerful disk menuing system available. In order to achieve that goal we look to your suggestions and comments to guide us. We take each comment very seriously, and any good suggestions will try to be incorporated into future versions of SuperMenu. SuperMenu Page 13 Version 2.1 REGISTRATION FORM Name (Last, First, MI) __________________________________________ Mailing Address: __________________________________________ __________________________________________ City: ___________________, State: ____ Zip: ________ Telephone #: (_____) _______-__________ Serial Number of your current copy: _________________________ The serial number is found on the upper right hand corner of the main menu screen. NO ORDERS WILL BE PROCESSED WITHOUT THE SERIAL NUMBER Best time to reach you at the above phone number: _______________ How did you obtain SuperMenu? ___________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ COPIES OF SUPERMENU NEEDED : __________ X $25.00 PER COPY = __________ NJ RESIDENTS MUST ADD 6% SALES TAX ($1.50 per copy) __________ TOTAL DUE: __________ FORM OF PAYMENT: ___ CHECK ___ MONEY ORDER ___ CREDIT CARD PLEASE MAKE CHECK OR MONEY ORDER PAYABLE TO COMRES MAIL THIS FORM AND PAYMENT TO: COMRES P.O. BOX 1225 LAKEHURST, NJ 08733 PERSONAL CHECKS WILL BE HELD UNTIL CLEARED. ALL CREDIT CARDS SHALL BE VERIFIED PRIOR TO SHIPMENT. PLEASE ALLOW 2 WEEKS TO RECEIVE YOUR SERIALIZED COPY OF SUPERMENU. FOR CREDIT CARD ORDERS: (ALL INFO MUST BE PROVIDED) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Type of card: ___ Visa ___ MasterCard ___ American Express Credit Card Number: _________________________________ Expiration Date: ________________ Total Amount: $______________ I authorize COMRES to charge the above amonut to the credit card account shown. Signature: ______________________________ SuperMenu Page 14 Version 2.1 REGISTRATION SURVEY Please fill out this survey completely and return with your registration form in order to receive one FREE update. What factors encouraged you to register SuperMenu, in order of importance? (e.g.. excellent program, documentation, low cost) _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ How would you rate yourself as a computer user? EXPERT ABOVE AVERAGE AVERAGE BELOW AVERAGE NOVICE Did you previously use another disk menuing package? __________ If so, which one(s): __________________________________________ How do you rate SuperMenu to the above packages? ______________ _______________________________________________________________ What features do you like most about SuperMenu? _______________ _______________________________________________________________ What features do you like least? ______________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Are there any features that could be improved or added in order to make SuperMenu a better product? ______________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1=poor, 2=below average, 3=average 4=good and 5=excellent please rate the following SuperMenu features: EASE OF INSTALLATION ___________ EASE OF USE _________ HELP FEATURE __________ DOCUMENTATION __________ SCREEN LAYOUTS __________ SCREEN COLORS __________ MOUSE CONTROL __________ SETTING UP MENUS __________ USEFULNESS __________ OVERALL SUPERMENU SOFTWARE RATING : _____________ Any comments/suggestions are greatly appreciated. Please feel free to write additional comments on the back of this sheet. Thank You.