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README.TXT: List of files and installation instructions 02-Mar-94 WINSINCE.EXE Version 5.0 "File Management Automation" Copyright 1994 Rob Hueniken 68 Fox Mill Crescent, London, Ontario, Canada, N6J 2B4, 1-519-471-0333 10am-7pm EST Compuserve 70162,1521 Internet rob.hueniken@onlinesys.com Registration: $25 WinSince: A file management automation tool Overview ======== WinSince is a unique and powerful file manager that can help you find and work with your files. Unlike most file managers, WinSince is list oriented: you search for files you are interested in and build a list of those files. Once you have a file list, you can perform any action you need on the list, including DOS commands, DOS programs and Windows programs. For example, you might want to find all *.BAK files on your hard drive and delete them. Other file managers require you to set up such a file search each time. Not WinSince! With WinSince you set up an icon just once that will automatically perform that file task any time you need it. You can run your action in a Window or minimized and out of the way. By showing the files you have selected as a list, WinSince makes file management a lot like using a grocery list. You can sort the list of files in lots of ways, such as by file name, extension, date and size. You can add files to the list by searching for a different type of file, or searching in a different directory. You can also remove files from the list, and select only certain files to work on. One of the strengths of WinSince is its ability to search for files created since a particular date. In fact, that is how it got its name. As with many file managers, you can tell WinSince the date of the files you want to find. But WinSince also allows relative date searching, such as finding files created some amount of time before now. For example, you might want to find all report files created in the last 8 hours and copy them to another directory for safe keeping. With WinSince this is easy. You can also tell it to only look for files that have not yet been backed up, which is a good safety net for those times between backups when you aren't exactly sure which files have been worked on. If you want, WinSince will also create a text file that logs all the files it finds and the actions it takes. This makes WinSince really handy for keeping track of which files have changed. You can have it add new information to an existing log file or even create a new one each time you run WinSince. This feature is especially useful for people using networks or working together on files, since it provides a kind of audit trail. WinSince also has a built in timer which you can use to perform repetitive or time dependent activities. Using the timer you could set up your own timed backups for programs that don't have that feature. For example, you could have a copy of WinSince whose job it is every hour to search for your type of spreadsheet file, check if any have changed, and copy them to another directory. You can have as many copies of WinSince running as you have tasks for it to do. WinSince can also search files for selected text. WinSince has been described as being more than a utility, but rather being a utility construction set. Its customizable DOS and Windows Actions and definable File Type buttons make it very flexible, while its list approach makes it easy to use. Give it a try. I think you'll find, like me, that you have lots of file-related tasks that can be easily automated, to save you time and effort. The feature history found below has more details on WinSince capabilities. Full help is available within the program. A text version of the help is available as WinSince.wri, which you can print using the Windows WRITE.EXE. WinSince runs unders Windows 3.1, and under OS/2 2.1 in WIN-OS/2 Full Screen in addition to Seamlessly on the OS/2 Desktop. Some Review Comments ==================== David Busch of Windows User magazine calls it "More than a utility, it's a utility construction set." Preston Gralla of PC Computing magazine calls it an "Ultra powerful file automation tool." Installation ============ *** To install, run the SETUP.EXE program. This will prompt you for the directory to put WINSINCE into, and copy the files to the appropriate directories. WinSince requires VBRUN300.DLL. This file is available on all bulletin boards and on one of the companion disks for book sales. It is most commonly placed in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. WinSince supports VGA and higher resolutions. The version of Since.dll used by version 5.0 is dated 08-11-93 04:39 pm and is 31771 bytes in size. If you get an error when starting WinSince that says "The file c:\directory\SS3D2.VBX is out of date" or a similar error message for another .VBX file, then you need to delete that file: WinSince installs the latest versions in your \Windows\System. You may need to exit and re-enter Windows to be able to delete the file, since Windows may say that it is using it. If you get a General Protection Fault that shows an error in KRNL386.EXE then you probably have an old SS3D2.VBX file in your \Windows directory that should be deleted. If the SETUP program does not install WinSince, you can run WinSince out of a directory containing all of the distribution files. Alternatively, the "Files needed" section below can show you where each WinSince file is normally copied to. Norton Desktop Installation Notice ================================== A small problem in the MicroSoft Setup Kit with NDW 2.x can result in a DDE message following a successful installation: "An application using DDE did not respond to the system's exit command". If you see this message, click on the CLOSE button. This problem does not affect the installation or the running of WinSince. My apologies for this inconvenience, which has disappeared with the arrival of Norton Desktop 3.0. Documentation ============= In addition to this README file, there is full documentation both on-line and in printable format. Use the Windows WRITE.EXE to open and print WINSINCE.WRI. It is currently about 40 pages long, and is installed in your WinSince directory, which is usually C:\WINSINCE\ To Register (with free upgrades) ================================ On CompuServe ($25): -------------------- For quick registration on CompuServe, enter GO SWREG . Choose menu item "2 Register shareware", then Search by "1 Registration ID". WinSince's registration number is 1619. Alternatively, you can Search by "2 Title" and search for WinSince. After agreeing to register, your registration code will be sent by e-mail or given over the phone, usually within two days. This registration code can be entered into the Help | Enter Registration Code menu item for any version of WinSince from 4.2 or later. Credit Card Orders ($27, including shipping): --------------------------------------------- You can order with MasterCard, Visa, Amex, or Discover from Public (software) Library (PsL) by calling 800-2424-PsL or 713-524-6394 or by FAX to 713-524-6398 or by CIS Email to 71355,470. You can also mail credit card orders to PsL at P.O.Box 35705, Houston, TX 77235-5705. Ask for PsL product number 11055 (WinSince). ** These PsL numbers are for orders only ** Any questions about the status of the shipment of the order, product details, registration options, refunds, technical support, volume discounts, dealer pricing, site licenses, etc, should be directed to Rob Hueniken at 1-519-471-0333 (10am-7pm EST), or via CompuServe at 70162,1521. To insure that you get the latest version, PsL will notify Rob Hueniken the day of your order. Rob will ship the product directly to you. Orders by Check or Money Order ($27, including shipping): --------------------------------------------------------- For orders by mail, send a cheque or money order for $27, made out to: Rob Hueniken 68 Fox Mill Crescent London, Ontario Canada, N6J 2B4 Questions concerning registration, site licensing, and support for registered owners: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-519-471-0333 10am-7pm EST or Compuserve 70162,1521 or Internet rob.hueniken@onlinesys.com Upgrading to a new version ========================== Registered owners can get FREE upgrades of WinSince by downloading a newer version of WINSNC.ZIP from CompuServe or other bulletin boards. On CompuServe, you can enter GO SWREG to determine which forum WinSince can be found on. The newest version is currently kept on the CIS:WINSHARE and PBSAPPS forums (ie. GO CIS:WINSHARE). You do not have to register WinSince again - just download the newest version of WINSNC.ZIP. Keep your WinSince registration code on hand for possible later use. Usually, the Setup program will transfer your registration for you to the new version. Registered owners can get a disk version of the latest WinSince upgrade by mail by sending a cheque or money order for $2, made out to: Rob Hueniken 68 Fox Mill Crescent London, Ontario Canada, N6J 2B4 New features in version 5.0 =========================== There is now a Button Bar of 10 Actions. These Actions can be used like the 10 definable Actions, and included in the definable Actions using %Action. The Button Bar Actions allow all 10 definable Actions to be customized while providing a standard set of Actions. The 10 definable Actions are the same as the ones from version 4.5. You can now print the Action definitions, as well as printing file descriptions for only selected files. WinSince 5.0 can now handle an entire hard drive: up to 7000 files at once. When more than 650 files are in the File List, WinSince uses a paging mode, which is indicated by a yellow page symbol in the corner of the File List. Clicking on the yellow page symbol shows the current position in the File List. To select files in paging mode, use the Ctrl key rather than the Shift key in conjunction with the mouse. The All and None buttons can also be used. The minimum free disk space has been increased to 900,000 bytes to correspond with the larger list capacity of paging mode. There is a set of 4 VCR controls under the File List, which are used to go to the top of the File List, to page up a screen, to page down a screen, and to go to the bottom of the File List. They are very useful in both paging and non-paging modes. There is now a yellow caution symbol displayed on the main screen above the Actions when the pre-Action warning has been suppressed from the Option menu. This makes it easy to tell when you will not be warned before an Action starts. The main button has been renamed to Find Files from Get Files/Have Files. There are no new command line startup switches in version 5.0. New features in version 4.5 =========================== The date to find files since can now be set using the Calendar button. WinSince can now search files for a text string. The new Search menu allows you to select the text to search for, if the search is to be case sensitive, as well as to ignore the warning when a file is locked and unavailable for searching. The text search feature works in conjunction with the other file search parameters, such as creation date and file type. The Search History shows how many files were found and searched, as well as showing which files were locked. The option to ignore locked file warnings is saved to the Since.ini file. New /find command line switch to initiate a text search. New /text=find this} command line switch to show what text to search for. New /nofindwarn switch to ignore locked file errors during text searching. New /case switch to perform a case sensitive text search. Edit menu extended. Now use Edit | Edit Actions to define the Actions instead of just clicking on the Edit menu header. Edit menu can now copy selected paths or entire entries from the File List to the Windows Clipboard. Directory Anchor feature allows you to select a directory to return to by clicking on the double-arrow Return button. The Save Date and Reset Date buttons now also use the Anchor and Return button styles. The date setting VCR buttons have been relabelled: "<" means back a day, and "<<" means back a week. The File | Command Line Values menu item now shows the directory where WinSince is running from. Three new custom control files from Crescent: Qpro200.dll, Cscmd.vbx and Cscalndr.vbx. Readme.txt and WinSince.wri reformatted for easier viewing in VGA. New features in version 4.4 =========================== Now able to combine multiple Actions into a single button, to allow a single mouse click to perform a series of Actions on the selected files. Edit screen now has a "Preview" button to show how the Action will look when it is run. Can now add files to the File List, rather than clearing it with each file search. New /Add command line qualifier, for adding files to the File List. New %Attrib function to set file attributes such as Archive and Read-only. New /NoAttribWarn command line qualifier for ignoring locked file attribute messages. Registration available through credit card orders (800-242-4775 or 713-524-6394). Changes to Since.ini Action Definitions (check your use of these Action numbers): Action #6 has changed to "Attrib +A" from "Have File". Action #10 has changed to "Action 2+6" from "Copy From". New features in version 4.3 =========================== Flickering of File List removed when selecting all files or deleting files. Registration available through GO SWREG ( Registration ID# 1619 ). New feature in version 4.2 ========================== Free upgrades for registered owners. New feature in version 4.1 ========================== Can now cancel a file copy or delete activity after the current file is done. New features in version 4.0 =========================== Timer function allows WinSince to be activated at regular intervals, to search for files, and to perform an Action on the files found. New /timer command line switch to set the time between timer events. New /timercount command line switch to set number of times the timer will run. New /nosearch command line switch to not search for files when WinSince starts. New Options to only copy files that are Newer or Different in Size or Date, as well as command line switches /IfDifferent and /IfNewer. New Option to ignore non-fatal file copy errors, such as a locked or open file, as well as command line switch /NoCopyWarn. New features in version 3.3 =========================== File List can now be sorted by File Name, Path, Extension, Date, Size or File Attributes. This makes it very easy to locate a particular file in the list, or to determine the largest file in a directory area. Escape key is equivalent to clicking on Cancel in Action Warning. New features in version 3.2 =========================== Copy command in the File menu for single file copies. Defaults to selected file. New option to not warn when clearing or removing File List entries. Logging of directory creation and removal events. New features in version 3.1 =========================== Drag and Drop a file from the directory list directly onto an Action, without needing to add it to the File List first. Very handy for taking quick action on a single file. Drag and Drop a file from the directory list into the File List, for one shot, spot additions or for creating a diverse file list. Drag and Drop the file creation date of a particular file, to find files created since that date. Remove selected files from the File List, or clear the list completely. New features in version 3.0 =========================== New %Copy and %Del commands for copying and deleting files without DOS. New %CurDrv and %CurDir drive and directory tokens for copying files to and from the current directory. Get new copies of selected files from other directories. Create and remove subdirectories. Improved logging of the actions taken on selected files. New /All startup qualifier for auto-selecting all files after a file search. New /NoWarn qualifier to suppress Action warnings. New features in version 2.2 =========================== Search date can now include the time, for even more specific file searches. Relative date search can specify the amount of time prior to NOW, such as -0:08:00:00 meaning 8 hours before now. This is really powerful for searching, automating file management and tracking changes. See the /since description. Single directory file searching is now faster. New %A substitution token represents the entire path and file name, such as C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM. Version 2.1 used %D:\%P\%F (which still works). New features in version 2.1 =========================== Now handles multiple file types during the search, such as *.txt;*.exe (separate with semicolon). Can now have multiple instances of WinSince running at the same time. Shows the total size of selected files in the new List menu. The log file name can be automatically generated from the date to create unique log files. New features in version 2.0 =========================== WinSince is now able to run in batch with command line startup instructions. This will allow you to create specialized WinSince instances that automate your file management. Once you set up your WinSince Actions, you can create Program Manager WinSince icons to define each of your file tasks. There are now 27 start up commands: /dir= Directory to start the program search. /filetype= Type of files to search for. /subdir Search down the subdirectory tree from the current directory. /drives= Search the entire selected drives for the file type. /cleardate Ignore the creation date when finding files. /since= Creation date of files to find since; can be absolute or relative to Now. Can include time as well as date: /since=mm-dd-yyyy:hh:mm:ss /archive Search for files with the Archive file attribute set. /search Search for files when WinSince starts. /nosearch Do not search for files when WinSince starts. /all Select all files after each file search. /action= Action number (1 to 10) to perform on the files found. /nowarn Suppress warning before Action is taken on selected files. /exit Exit WinSince once the initial file search and action are done ("batch mode"). /min Run minimized. This is handy for running WinSince as a batch job. /timer= Set the amount of time between timer events /timercount= Set the number of times the timer is to run; 0 for continuous /ifdifferent Copy file only if different in size or date than in target directory. /ifnewer Copy file only if source file is newer than that in target directory. /nocopywarn Ignore errors encountered when copying, such as locked files. /noattribwarn Ignore errors when setting file attributes on locked or open files /add Add files to the File List, rather than clearing the list /log= Name of log file to write files found and actions performed by WinSince. /append Append to an existing log file, as specified in /log qualifier. My personal preference for interactive file management is to always specify /log on the command line but without the /append. It barely slows things down and is often very handy for checking details about what files were found and what actions were taken. /find The next file search will include a text search /text=2 words} Text to find. Note the ending } /nofindwarn Ignore errors when searching locked or open files /case The text search will be case sensitive To set up WinSince to use the command line switches, use the File | Properties menu item in the Program Manager to modify the WinSince command line. Ie. instead of running C:\WINSINCE\WINSINCE.EXE you might change it to show: C:\WINSINCE\WINSINCE.EXE /DIR=C:\ /FILETYPE=*.BAT /SEARCH The command line switches can be combined to do a variety of tasks that range from customizing the startup file type to automatically copying files between directories. Setting up multiple icons for WinSince on the Windows desktop ============================================================= As you come up with your own list of file tasks that you would like to automate, you can add copies of the WinSince icon within its Windows group. To do this, hold down the Ctrl key while you click and drag the WinSince icon to a free spot within its group. Modify its File Properties with the command line qualifiers, and change its title to show the meaning of the task it does. Example : You want to review or edit TXT files changed in the last hour, and create a log file showing the list of the files found: WINSINCE.EXE /DIR=C:\MYWORK /FILETYPE=*.TXT /ACTION=3 /MIN /EXIT /SEARCH /LOG=C:\MYWORK\CHECK.LOG /SINCE=-0:01:00:00 This tells WinSince to look only in the C:\MYWORK directory for files with the extension TXT that have been created since yesterday. The /SINCE=-0:01:00:00 tells WinSince that you are using a relative date of one hour in the past. On each of these TXT files, WinSince will run Action number 3 ("Edit"), which in the distribution version of WinSince runs the Windows NOTEPAD editor on the selected file. (You may customize all Actions to do whatever you want if you don't like the defaults). Since /MIN is specified, each Notepad session will appear as an icon, ready for you to work on when ready. Since /EXIT is specified, WinSince itself will never appear to you: it will just start up the Notepad sessions and then exit. The list of files found, along with their dates and sizes, will be put into C:\MYWORK\CHECK.LOG, as requested in the /LOG command. This is an Ascii file suitable for later editing or printing. Features introduced in version 1.2 ================================== Quick Start tutorial help section. Point and click file button assignment; it's fun and easy! Double click on file name to run associated program. Options for getting files when starting, and warning before running double clicked files. The action definition can be cleared by double clicking. Two-size edit screen (summary and editing details). Screen layout modified slightly to allow for use under VGA. Saves last position of program for next session. Files needed ============ There are 13 files required for running WinSince.exe: 1) WinSince.exe 2) WinSince.hlp (must be on the path, or in the working directory) 3) Since.dll (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory) 4) Since.ini (usually in the Windows subdirectory, on a network this can be in the same directory as the end user's version of win.ini) 5) Sincerun.bat (must be on the path, or in the working directory, is put into the \Windows subdirectory) 6) Sincecls.pif (must be on the path, or in the working directory, is put into the \Windows subdirectory) 7) SS3D2.vbx (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory; this is the Sheridan 3D Widget Runtime) 8) Vbrun300.dll (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory; part of Visual Basic 3.0 runtime) 9) Msafinx.dll (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory) 10) Spin.vbx (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory) 11) Cscmd.vbx (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory) 12) Cscalndr.vbx (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory) 13) Qpro200.dll (usually in the \Windows\System subdirectory, must be on the path, or in the working directory; this is the Crescent QuickPak dynamic link library) There are two additional files: 14) WinSince.wri (Windows Write version of the WinSince.hlp) 15) Readme.txt (this file) Distribution disk setup versus Bulletin board setup =================================================== The SETUP.EXE program uses SETUP.LST to check which special files are needed for Setup. The supplied SETUP.LST is either a copy of SETUP.BBS (2 files, no VBRUN300.DLL listed) or SETUP.DSK (3 files, including VBRUN300.DLL). The version of SETUP.LST needed for a bulletin board or for computers that already have VBRUN300.DLL is in SETUP.BBS. WinSince is already on Compuserve as WINSNC.ZIP, in the WINSHARE File Utilities area.