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Utilities Professional 1-1500
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Utilities Professional 1-1500 (1994)(WPD)[!].iso
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1993-01-05
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My address is:
Mark M Forrester,
9 Tayview Road,
Liff,
By Dundee,
Scotland,
DD2 5PE
Software Lister v2.0
(c) 1993 Mark M Forrester.
User Guide.
Contents.
Item.
1. Shareware Notice.
2. Introduction.
3. Using The Gadgets.
4. Menu Items.
5. Conclusion.
6. Appendix A - Using The Convert Program.
7. Appendix B - Improvements Made.
1. Shareware Notice.
This program is a SHAREWARE product.
If you like and use the program please send £5 to the
address found in this file.
If this is done you will be added to my registration list
regarding future versions or projects.
Please send critical evaluations, bugs, improvements
e.t.c. to the same address. All mail will be answered.
Thank you very much.
2. Introduction.
The purpose of this program is not to be the best
database program in the world but to be a ready made
database for a specific purpose. Since everyone who will
use this program will have some kind of software
collection it should be of use.
As the program is a purpose built database it is ready to
use for the intended purpose immediately. No setting
up is needed. Simply load and use the program.
Thank you.
3. Using The Gadgets.
There are two types of gadgets used within the program.
These are:
- Boolean Gadgets
- String Gadgets
A boolean gadget is simply one which is either off or on.
These are used simply by clicking inside the box in which
they sit. Examples of boolean gadgets within the program
are:
- The 'Done' gadget in the amend section.
- The 'Ok' gadget in the requesters.
The string gadgets are a little more complex, although
still very easy to use. These are empty boxes with some
text on the left hand side of them. This text describes
what is required in them. To enter a string simply click
inside the box of the gadget and a cursor will appear
Now you may type in what you like. The amount of
characters you are allowed depends on the size of the
gadget. The name field is quite large while the disks
field is very small.
Other facilities are available when in control of a
string gadget. These are listed below:
- Left and right cursor keys move the cursor
within the gadget.
- Shift with either of the cursor keys moves the
cursor to the far right or left depending which
one was chosen
- Backspace deletes a character to the left of
the cursor.
- Del deletes the character under the cursor.
- CTRL X clears the gadget.
- RETURN exits from the gadget.
4. Menu Items.
Next follows a descriptions of all the options available
through the menu bar. Each item will be described in
detail showing what it does and how to to it.
First of all a brief summary of how to use the menus.
Once the program has loaded and run the four menus
may be highlighted by pressing and holding the
RIGHT mouse button.
Now, when you place the cursor over the name of the menu
all the options available from that menu will
be displayed.
To select one of the options simply move the cursor down
the menu until the desired function is highlighted. The
option will be selected when you release the right mouse
button.
4.1 Project Menu.
All the following items are in the project section of the
menus.
4.1.1 New.
This command is used to clear the computers memory of any
lists which exist.
Beware, any existing data entered into memory will be
erased when using this option. However a requester will
be displayed if the current data has not been saved.
4.1.2 File.
This option is used to perform all the disk based
operations of the software.
When the requester appears it will display the current
directory. This can be changed by either clicking on one
of the disk gadgets (df0:, df1: or dh0:) or by entering
text into the DRAWER gadget.
Once the directory is displayed then you may browse
though the files with the bar on the right.
You may change directory by simply clicking on it within
the directory list or by using the small '<' symbol to
move to the parent of the current directory.
A file may be selected by clicking on it's name in the
directory list or by typing it's name directly into the
FILE gadget.
Once the file has been selected then the operation may be
selected. Four operations are valid.
- LOAD
- SAVE
- DELETE
- CANCEL
LOAD simply attempts to load the requested file in (this
file must have been previously created with 'Software
Lister v2.0' / adapted with the 'Convert' program or it
will not load).
SAVE saves the current list to the file which was
selected.
DELETE removes the selected file from the disk. If this
is selected then a requester will ask to make sure you
meant what you have just done. If you choose Ok then the
file will be deleted.
CANCEL leaves the file requester with no operations
performed (this may also be done by closing the
requester's window).
4.1.3 About.
Displays the name and version of the program and also the
name of the programmer and any contributors.
4.1.4 Quit.
Used to exit from the program.
If the user has not saved the current list then a
requester will be displayed asking if it should be done.
If 'Ok' then the list will be saved as the last filename
used or if none has been used then it will be called
'default.dat'.
If 'No' is selected any unsaved file currently in
memory will be lost and the user will be returned to the
workbench.
4.2 Data.
All the options in this menu concern changing the data
currently held in memory. Data may be added, deleted or
amended.
4.2.1 Add A Record.
Allows the user to add a single record to the current
memory contents.
When selected the user will be prompted for all the
details about the piece of software.
After the name is typed in, the program checks to see
if the record already exists. If not the program
will continue otherwise an error will occur.
Once all the data has been entered the record will be
inserted into it's correct position in the list. The
list is alphabetically sorted on the NAME field.
4.2.2 Add Number Of Records.
Similar to the add a record option except it allows the
user to specify how many records will be added at once.
Before any data about the software is entered the user
will be prompted for the number of records they wish to
add. Once this is entered the user will then be
requested for the data about each software item until the
specified number of records are added.
As before, after each record is added it will be
inserted into the correct position in the list.
4.2.3 Delete A Record.
This option allows you delete a record from the list.
When selected you will be prompted for the name of the
software item to remove from the list. Once entered the
record will be deleted from the list.
4.2.4 Amend A Record.
Allows you to change data in a record which already
exists.
The user will be prompted for the name of the software
item which needs amended. Once the name has been entered
the record will be displayed on the screen.
Now you simply need to click inside the field box of the
item you wish to amend and then make any changes. Then
press return when finished. This may be done as many
times as you like on any of the fields.
To exit from this simply click on the 'Done' gadget in
the bottom right hand corner of the window.
If the name field is changed it will be
correctly repositioned in the list.
4.3 Display.
All commands in this section are used to display the data
in the memory in different ways.
4.3.1 Display A Record.
Allows the user to display a record on the screen.
Simply type the name of the item to be displayed when
prompted. The record will then be displayed on the
screen.
4.3.2 Display All Records.
Lets you display all the records currently in memory onto
the screen.
When selected the first record will be displayed. If
you wish to continue click on the 'Cont' gadget. This
will display the next record.
However if you wish to exit at any point then simply
click on the 'Quit' gadget.
4.3.4 Display On Producer.
Allows the user to display all the items in the list
which were made by a specified producer.
Select the option and you will be prompted for a
producer. Provided there are records which have this
producer then a list of all the software items
made by that producer will be displayed onto the screen.
NOTE: Since not all the data will be able to be
displayed on the screen at once the list is split
and a number of records will be displayed on one
screen.
Therefore when one section is displayed you have
the option of either continuing with the list
(select the 'Cont' gadget) or exiting back to the
menu (the 'Quit' gadget).
4.3.5 Display On Type.
Displays a list of a specified software type onto the
screen.
A type is prompted for and once entered a list of all
software of that type is listed.
For example, a list of games:
Shoot Em Up,
Platform,
e.t.c.
Utilities:
Text Editor,
Copier,
e.t.c.
The same quit and continue options exist for this as with
the 'display on producer' function.
4.3.6 Display List.
Displays a complete list of all software currently in
memory onto the screen.
By selecting the option from the menu a list will be
automatically displayed.
The same quit and continue options exist for this as with
the 'display on producer' function.
4.4 Print.
All items in this menu are exactly the same as their
'display' counterparts except that the output is directed
to the printer as opposed to the screen.
All output will be paginated according to normal A4
paper.
If the printer is not ready when any of these functions
are called then a delay is given (to correct the error).
After the delay a requester will appear allowing the
print job to be cancelled.
NOTE: Should you require to use a different printer
driver than the one on this disk simply copy it
into 'devs/printers' directory of this disk and
set the printer using the preferences tool
(details of how to do this are in the
introduction manual supplied with the Amiga).
5. Conclusion.
Thanks for spending the time to read the instructions.
However, the best instruction is to actually use the
software. The user interface is quite friendly so you
shouldn't have too many problems.
As I have said before, if you do have any problems
don't hesitate to contact me at the address I am about
to give as all mail will be answered.
If you copy this program onto another disk please ensure
that this document file is copied along with it.
Thanks again for taking the time to read this file.
My address is:
Mark M Forrester,
9 Tayview Road,
Liff,
By Dundee,
Scotland,
DD2 5PE
Please support shareware programmers!
Thanks again, I look forward to hearing from you.
6. Appendix A - Using The Convert Program.
Since version 2 of the program now uses a different file
format from that of the previous versions they will not
now be compatible with the new program.
The Convert program (as the name suggests) rectifies this
by changing the original software lister files to the
correct format for version 2.
This is very simply done. Once the program has loaded
two string gadgets exist. One for the input file (the
old file) and one for the file which is to be created.
Simply enter the full path name of the two files (unless
they are in the current directory) into the gadgets.
e.g.
INPUT: df0:files/games.dat
OUTPUT: amiga-games.dat
Now click on 'Ok' and the program will convert the file.
If any problems occur a requester will be displayed with
information on the problem.
Note that the file names MUST be different. You cannot
for example have:
INPUT: games.dat
OUTPUT: games.dat
But you may have:
INPUT: df0:files/games.dat
OUTPUT: games.dat
Provided the current directory is not 'df0:files/' as
AmigaDos takes these as two different file names.
When finished just click on the 'Done' gadget.
7. Appendix B - Improvements Made.
There follows a list of improvements made over version
1.6 of the program:
- File requester now used for easier file
handling.
- Dynamic memory allocation now used so amount of
records storable only limited by memory size.
- Much faster operation of the program.
- Better look and feel to the program (more
standard to the amiga).
- Easier to transport to another disk as it has
no support files which must be copied with it.
Just move the icon to the desired location.
