INTRODUCTION
------------
Congratulations! As a new or renewing PC Magazine subscriber,
we've sent you the all new, state-of-the-art PC Magazine
Utilities, complete with their own handy, self-documenting,
user-friendly shell program.

Now, instead of having to rely on the somewhat cryptic
filenames, or pages of a printed manual, simply call up
Michael J. Mefford's incredible shell by typing PCMAGx (where
x=the Utilities volume number)! The program names and their
descriptions and documentation are all right there on the screen.
Once you've chosen a utility and read about how it works, press
enter, type in any appropriate parameters, and hit enter again.
The utility will execute, and any key will return you to the
PCMAG shell.

We think this innovative presentation will allow you to get even
more use out of "the utilities that DOS forgot." Print out this
file and read it once to know all you need to know. Most of you
will find PCMAG.COM a great program just the way it is. The more
enterprising among you will want to create your own custom
versions of the shell using PCMAGNDX.COM (see below). And press
F2 at any time while within the shell to see how you can log onto
PC MagNet, PC Magazine's interactive reader service.

BACKUP
------
Before you do anything else, make a backup copy of this disk.
The PCMAGNDX.COM program on this disk is capable of altering the
PCMAG shell program. Having a backup copy will insure that you
can always retrieve the original program files. To make a
backup, place an empty formatted disk in drive B:, put this
disk in drive A: and enter:

COPY A:\*.* B:

This will create an exact duplicate of this disk, that will now
be in your B: drive.
*****************************************************************

PRINT THIS FILE
---------------
To print a copy of this README file, turn on your printer and
enter:

COPY A:\README PRN
*****************************************************************

INSTALL
-------
To install the programs from this disk onto a hard disk, create
a directory and then copy all the files to the new directory. We
suggest that you use a directory named PCMAG, but you can use
any name that suits you. If you are going to install the disk on
drive C:, for example, and this floppy disk is in drive A, you
would first enter

MD C:\PCMAG

And copy the files to the newly created directory by entering:

COPY A:\*.* C:\PCMAG
*****************************************************************

ADD PATH
--------
It's not necessary for you to add the PCMAG directory to the PATH
statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT, but we recommend that you do.
The reason for this is so that DOS can find and execute the PCMAG
shell and utilities no matter where on your hard drive you happen
to be working.

The quickest way to add or modify a PATH statement is with the
DOS line editor called EDLIN, but you can use any word processor
capable of saving a file in ASCII format. To edit with EDLIN
start with the command:

EDLIN \AUTOEXEC.BAT

(If EDLIN is not found you will get a "Bad file or command". If
that is the case the most likely place you can find EDLIN is in a
\DOS directory. First change to the DOS directory by entering

CD \DOS

and then try to load EDLIN again.)

Once you successful have EDLIN loaded you will either see the
statement

End of Input file

if you already have an AUTOEXEC.BAT or

New file

if an AUTOEXEC.BAT does not already exist.

If you find that you already have an AUTOEXEC.BAT, do the
following: At the EDLIN prompt (an asterisk: "*"), enter the
List Lines command:

L

If you see a line starting with the word PATH, enter the number
that prefaces that line and press F3. The desired PATH statement
should appear on two lines with the cursor at the end of the
second line. To add the new path enter at the cursor

;C:\PCMAG

Don't forget the delimiting starting semicolon. To save the
edited changes, enter

E

for End Edit and that is all there is to it. The edited
AUTOEXEC.BAT will be saved to disk.

If you don't see the PATH command or you got the "New file"
message you can add a PATH statement with the EDLIN insert
command by entering the following:

I1

That's the letter I followed by the number 1 (meaning Insert at
line 1). At the "1:*" prompt enter

PATH=C:\PCMAG
(Of course, if you use a drive other than C or directory other
than PCMAG, substitute those values in the above instructions.)

After pressing Enter, the prompt, "2:*", for the next line
will appear. Press Ctrl-C to exit EDLIN's insert mode by holding
down the Ctrl key and pressing C. Save the new AUTOEXEC.BAT file
to disk with the End Edit command:

E

If at anytime you want to abort the editing process, enter at
the "*" prompt:

Q

for Quit Edit.

Otherwise, the next time you boot, the edited AUTOEXEC.BAT will
set the PATH=C:\PCMAG so DOS can find the PCMAG shell and utility
files.
*****************************************************************

SETTING UP A BATCH FILE
-----------------------
Instead of adding C:\PCMAG to the PATH, you can set up a batch
file to change to the PCMAG shell directory. Create a batch file
with the name PCMAG.BAT, for example, with the following
instructions.

C:
CD \PCMAG
PCMAGx (where x is the volume number)
CD \
*****************************************************************

PCMAG SHELL
-----------
The PCMAG shell program on this disk has the name PCMAGx (where x
is the volume number of the utilities found on this disk). For
example, the first volume of the shell program is named
PCMAG1.COM. There is also a matching overlay program with the
name PCMAGx.OVL. This will be PCMAG1.OVL for the PCMAG1.COM
program.

To run the shell program, enter the command PCMAGx at the DOS
prompt (again, replacing x with the version of the shell that
you have).

To the left of the PCMAG menu is a listing of all of the names of
the PC Magazine utilities found on this disk. To the right of
the listing is a description of the utility currently highlighted
by the selection bar. Use the cursor navigation keys (the up and
down arrow keys and PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys) to scroll
through the utilities in the listing window. As you move the
selection bar the full description of each utility will appear in
the window to the right.

To activate the description window, press the right arrow key or
the tab key. The description window will become illuminated.
You can then use the cursor navigation keys to browse through the
description.

Return to the listing window to select another utility by
pressing the left arrow key or the tab key. Press Esc at anytime
to quit the PCMAG shell program and return to DOS. Press F1 at
anytime for a summary of the PCMAG instructions in this README
file.

Run the currently selected utility while either the listing
window or description window is active by pressing Enter. A
parameters window at the top of the menu will become active.
Enter any necessary parameters indicated in the utility
description window and press Enter again.

The PCMAG shell program supports any number of display lines,
including the popular 43 line EGA mode and the 50 line VGA mode.
The PCMAGNDX described below enables you to created a customized
PCMAG shell with filenames and descriptions of your own.

If at any time you don't understand what to do, F1 will bring up a
concise, informative help screen.
*****************************************************************

PCMAGNDX
--------
PCMAGNDX.COM allows you to create a custom PCMAG shell of your
own. This can include any combination of PC Magazine Utilities
(selected from this volume, another volume, or downloaded from
PC MagNet). It can also include utilities from other
collections, such as commercial disk-management tools or
programs you have written yourself.

You need never run PCMAGNDX in order to use the utilities
provided on this disk. If you do not want to make a customized
shell, you can simply copy the files named PCMAGx.COM and
PCMAGx.OVL from your backup disk to your working diskette or hard
drive and you're ready to go.

Step 1 -- Creating the manual:
The first step in creating a custom shell is to use your word
processor to create or edit a specialized manual containing the
names of the programs and their descriptions. This will be
compiled by PCMAGNDX to appear in the description window next to
each utility, so it must exactly conform to the specifications
below.

Each utility name in the manual must appear on a line by itself
preceded by two @@ signs. The file descriptions should be on the
following lines. For example, if you have two utilities named
MYFILE.COM and YOURFILE.COM that you want included in your custom
shell program, your manual would look something like this

@@MYFILE.COM
This is the description of MYFILE.

@@YOURFILE.COM
This is the description of YOURFILE.

Of course, your descriptions will be more informative than this
example. The two @@ signs are the key that the PCMAGNDX program
uses to find the utility names to place in the utility name
listing window of the PCMAG shell program. Your utility
descriptions, therefore, cannot contain two or more @
characters in a row or PCMAGNDX will get confused.

The manual's utility descriptions should be in ASCII and have a
page width of no more than 65 characters per line, the width of
the PCMAG description window. Lines longer than 65 characters
will be wrapped and spoil the appearance. Use the manual on this
disk as a template for your own custom manual.

Again, this manual is the key to how PCMAGNDX creates your
custom shell. Not only does it contain the documentation that
appears in the text window, the @@ line also indicates the
filename that will appear in the scrollable program listing on
the left of the screen.

Step 2 -- Compiling the manual:
Once you have created your customized manual, run the PCMAGNDX
program to create the customized PCMAG shell. The first thing
PCMAGNDX will ask you is the name and path of the customized
manual that you just created. Enter the manual's path and
filename (example: "\pcmag\mymanual.doc), PCMAGNDX will then
read the manual, sort the @@filenames alphabetically and index
the descriptions accordingly.

You can abort the PCMAGNDX program at anytime and return to DOS
by pressing Esc. Press F1 at anytime for a summary of the
PCMAGNDX instructions of this README file.

Step 3 -- Customizing the header:
At this point PCMAGNDX will give you the opportunity to enter up
to a 15 character title to personalize your PCMAG shell program.
The title you choose will appear in the top of the first line of
the PCMAG shell menu to the right of "PC Magazine". If you press
Enter without typing in a name, the default title of "Utilities"
will be used and look like this:

PC Magazine Utilities

Step 4 -- Naming the shell:
After entering the title, PCMAGNDX will ask you for up to three
characters as a suffix to PCMAG for the name of your shell. This
will be the name you type in to run your custom shell. For
example, you would enter MY if you want the name of your shell
to be PCMAGMY.COM. (Note that the first part of the shell name
must be PCMAG.) If you press enter without entering anything,
the name of your shell will be PCMAG.COM.

After entering the suffix, PCMAGNDX will ask you where it should
save the new custom shell. Enter the path to the directory of
your choosing. For example, if you want the shell saved to the
PCMAG directory of drive C, you would enter

C:\PCMAG

If you press Enter without entering a path, the shell will be
saved in the current directory. Once the path is selected,
PCMAGNDX will create a .COM file and a .OVL file with your chosen
shell name. The .COM file is used to load the .OVL which will
have an indexed copy of your customized manual.

If you wish to distribute your custom shell, be sure to copy to
disk both the .COM and .OVL plus all utilities you included in
the manual. Your manual does not need to be on the disk. The
utility descriptions are included in the .OVL file.