DIRCOPY 1
copyright 1989-1990 by
MARK ELLIS and MAREL SOFTWARE



PURPOSE:

DIRCOPY is a program used to transfer dialing directories between
different communication programs. DIRCOPY is primarily for the
user which is ready to try out new communication software, but
wants to avoid re-keying his entire dialing directory. It may
also be used to pass dialing directories between friends who chose
to use different communication software from one another.

Additionally, DIRCOPY exports and imports to and from a simple
ASCII file format. This feature provides two benefits. First, by
exporting a dialing directory to an ASCII file you may use your
favorite editor or word processor to edit/sort your dialing
directory or sort your dialing directory using any DOS sort
utility. Then import your newly edited and/or sorted ASCII file
back into a dialing directory. Secondly, it offers an easy method
of importing many of the BBS lists found throughout the country
into any of the supported communication software dialing
directories (after doing some editing of these lists). The ASCII
file format is described below.

DIRCOPY is NOT free software, but is distributed under the
Shareware concept whereby the user can try the software before
purchasing it. If this software meets your needs you are
requested (i.e. required) to send your payment of $5.00 (or $8.00
if you would like the latest copy of DIRCOPY mailed to you on
disk) to:

Mark Ellis
465 Mitchell Avenue
Elmhurst, IL 60126

A registration form may be found after the end of this document.
The latest copy of DIRCOPY may be downloaded from the RBBS of
Chicago, home of over 1 Gigabyte of software. Their public access
number is (312)352-1035. Messages regarding DIRCOPY may be left
at RBBS of Chicago to the attention of Mark Ellis. The latest
version may also be downloaded from Compuserve. Messages also may
be addressed to Compuserve ID: 72320,1655.



CURRENT COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE SUPPORTED:

Bitcom Version 3.55
Telix Version 3.11
Qmodem Version 4.0
Procomm Plus Version 1.1
Procomm Version 2.4.2

Please note that DIRCOPY may be compatible with other versions of
these programs as well, provided the format of the dialing
directory has not changed between versions of the communication
software.



DIRCOPY 2
copyright 1989-1990 by
MARK ELLIS and MAREL SOFTWARE




INSTALLATION:

DIRCOPY may be installed in any directory and run from hard or
floppy disk. It is recommended that you place DIRCOPY in a
directory which is found in your DOS PATH so that you may start
DIRCOPY from any directory. Included with DIRCOPY is a help file
(DIRCOPY.HLP) which must be in the current directory or in a
directory found in the DOS PATH in order to be found by DIRCOPY.
On line help is available while running DIRCOPY by pressing the F1
key.


OPERATION:

Begin DIRCOPY by typing DIRCOPY on the DOS command line. If you
are using a monochrome screen, such as on a laptop computer, you
may add the following command line parameter to make the display
more readable. To turn on this monochrome feature, begin the
program by typing any of the following:

DIRCOPY -b
DIRCOPY -m
DIRCOPY /b
DIRCOPY /m

DIRCOPY may also be started with the -c option if you are running
on a CGA display to help reduce snow. To begin DIRCOPY with this
option type the following line at the DOS prompt and hit return:

DIRCOPY -c

The command line flag of 'b' is for black and white. The command
line flag 'm' is for monochrome. They both perform the exactly
the same, but both are supported and may be used as you prefer.
If you are using a color monitor, simply type:

DIRCOPY

on the DOS command line and return.

The operation of the software is fairly simple, as it is menu
driven. Select your menu choice with the highlighted bar in the
opening menu. All of the software communication packages
supported provide bi-directional transfers to and from the ASCII
file format. In order to transfer a dialing directory from one
communication software package to another, you must first export
to an ASCII file, then import from the ASCII file just created to
the other dialing directory. For example, to convert a Procomm
dialing directory to a Telix dialing directory, select the menu
item:
PROCOMM.DIR --> ASCII DIR



DIRCOPY 3
copyright 1989-1990 by
MARK ELLIS and MAREL SOFTWARE


by moving the highlight bar using the up or down arrow keys and
depressing the Enter key. A window opens and prompts for input
and output file names. Default file names are provided at the
prompts. The default file names may be edited as desired. The
insert key toggles overtype mode (small cursor) and insert mode
(large cursor). To delete from the cursor to the end of the line,
type Ctrl+T. Complete path names are supported. After creating
the ASCII file, next select the menu item:

TELIX.FON <-- ASCII DIR

to create the Telix dialing directory. You are again prompted for
input and output file names. The input file is the name of the
file you just created in the step above. Additionally, you are
prompted for the default baud rate you wish you use. Select the
baud rate using the highlight bar. Note that some of the
communications programs do not support 38400 baud. In these
cases, if 38400 baud is selected, 19200 baud is used as the
default by DIRCOPY.

The menu item, "Add prefix to ASCII DIR", is used to add a dialing
prefix to all phone numbers in the ASCII file. This is useful for
converting a dialing directory from home use to work use where
calling from the work place may require dialing a digit (usually a
9) in order to place an external call. This prefix may contain a
pause character (determined by your communication software) to
pause for dial tone after dialing the digit to get an outside
line. An example of a prefix may be "9," for Telix to dial the
digit '9', then pause, then dial the rest of the phone number.


THE ASCII FILE FORMAT:

The ASCII files created by DIRCOPY have the following format. The
phone number begins in column 1. The phone number does not
contain any white space (i.e. blanks, tabs, etc.). Eight spaces
separate the phone number and name fields. The name field may be
as long as you like, but may be truncated when imported to the
various dialing directory formats. If you are creating an ASCII
file using an editor, follow the above rules. Note that the white
space between the phone number and name fields that you create
using an editor may contain any number of spaces, tabs, etc. In
other words, you may separate the phone number and name with as
little as one space and/or tab character or use several spaces
and/or tabs between the phone number and name.


KEYS USED FOR EDITING

Here is just a few notes on how to most efficiently use your
keyboard to efficiently within DIRCOPY. From the main menu, use
the up and down arrow keys for moving the highlighted bar. The
home key will move to the top of the menu, the end key will move
to the last menu entry. By depressing the escape key at a file



DIRCOPY 4
copyright 1989-1990 by
MARK ELLIS and MAREL SOFTWARE


name prompt you will return to the main menu. Depress the escape
key at the main menu to return to DOS.

While entering file names at the prompts, you may move between
fields (i.e. jump between input and output file names) by using
the arrow keys. The delete key will delete the character under
the cursor. The insert key toggles between insert mode and
overtype mode. A large block cursor indicates insert mode is ON.
To delete from the cursor to the end of the line use Ctrl+T (i.e.
depress the 'T' key while holding down the control key.)


REVISION HISTORY:
REVISION 3.5:

Added CGA snow elimination by the -c command line option.

Some operations previously resulted in the last record of the file
duplicated. Although this did not cause any major difficulties,
it was not appreciated. I believe I have all of these cleaned up
now.

Creating Telix and Procomm Plus dialing directories from ASCII
files previously required that you ran DIRCOPY from the directory
containing an existing TELIX.FON or PCPLUS.DIR file (in order to
duplicate the header information in those files.) DIRCOPY is now
smart enough to do this on its own and therefore can be run
without requiring existing TELIX.FON or PCPLUS.DIR files.

New on-line help is available for editing commands. It is
available by pressing the F1 key. Place the help file
(DIRCOPY.HLP) in any directory in the DOS PATH when you install
DIRCOPY.

A new feature is added to complement the "Add a Prefix" to all
telephone numbers feature. The new feature does the opposite; it
removes a prefix from all the telephone numbers which have that
prefix. Note that the prefix may be any set of characters, such
as an area code (i.e. if you live in the 312 area code you want to
remove 312 from preceding any telephone number because you do not
need to dial the area code!) Thanks to Nick Anis for this idea!

One user wrote to me and indicated that the PROCOMM PLUS default
dialing directory is called PCPLUS.FON rather than PCPLUS.DIR. If
anyone has confirming information, please drop me a line with the
revision number of PCPLUS which you are running!

REVISION 3.4:

Added support for monochrome monitors. This option is invoked
from the command line by providing either -m, -b, /m, or /b after
typing DIRCOPY on the DOS command line. This will make the
display much more readable especially on laptop displays.



DIRCOPY 5
copyright 1989-1990 by
MARK ELLIS and MAREL SOFTWARE


REVISION 3.3:

Added checking for existence of output file. If the output file
already exists, the user is prompted if it is O.K. to overwrite
the file.

Added time and date display. Changed windows for aesthetics.

REVISION 3.2:

Added support for Bitcom communications software.

Added default file names with memory. This is particularly handy,
for most users will not need to enter the name of their dialing
directory. A default ASCII file name is provided. This default
is ASCII.FIL. The default file names are "memorized" for a
session. So should a user change a default file name, DIRCOPY
will remember the new default name until terminating.

Added "WORKING" prompt at top of display during disk access while
processing, i.e. creating files.

Revision 3.1 did not provide PROCOMM PLUS --> ASCII translation
properly. This was corrected.

REVISION 3.1:

Cleaned up the operation of some menus and prompts when Escape is
depressed to jump back to the main menu.

Added scrolling advertisement/copyright to bottom of screen.

Optimized code to save approximately 6K in the executable file.

REVISION 3.0:

Added Telix and Qmodem support.

Removed support of PC-Talk and a background dialer called
DIALER.COM.

Complete re-write to re-vamp display routines.

REVISION 2.1

Changed white space between phone number and name to 8 space
characters for ASCII files created using DIRCOPY. This was to
provide some compatibility with GT-POWER communications software
which could import such ASCII files at the time.

REVISION 2.0

Initial release of DIRCOPY. Supported Procomm, Procomm Plus, PC-
Talk, and a background dialer program called DIALER.COM. Prior to



DIRCOPY 6
copyright 1989-1990 by
MARK ELLIS and MAREL SOFTWARE


Revision 2.0 DIRCOPY actually was a set of stand alone programs
under different names.

--- END OF DOCUMENT ---










Mail to:

MARK ELLIS

MAREL SOFTWARE

465 MITCHELL AVE.

ELMHURST, IL 60126



Enclose registration fee (no disk): $5.00

Enclose registration fee (1 disk): $8.00
(Be sure to indicate 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" format!)

Make checks payable to Mark Ellis.


Comments or suggestions: ________________________________

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