Notes on Zmenu

Current version: v1.3 as of 5/17/93

Zmenu was written in the dbase dialect/compiler FORCE. It allows for
selecting menu items via keyboard or mouse. Unlimited sub-menuing
is possible. Drives, directories and runfiles are available from popup
picklists when entering or changing menu selections. A built-in batch file
editor is included. Zmenu is small (60k), fast, and, when a program is
launched, Zmenu occupies ZERO memory.

Zmenu has been used on Novell networks (dedicated and nondedicated),
Invisible networks and stand alone computers. It was written to answer the
need for a simple, no-frills menu system for all occasions.

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How Zmenu works:

Zmenu MUST be initiated with the ZMENU.BAT file. Typing MENUZ (which
is the name of the .EXE file) will run Zmenu, however, the menu will
not launch programs. Instead, you will be delivered to the DOS prompt.

Zmenu creates a temporary batch file with the information supplied in
the Menu Edit fields. When a selection is run, Zmenu creates the batch
file in the directory from which it was called, exits the Zmenu program
completely, executes the batch file, deletes the batch file, and re-runs
the Zmenu.bat program. The variables in the Zmenu.bat file tell Zmenu
which Menu and which Menu Selection was last activated and, therefore,

where to return.

*............................................

Using Zmenu:

Note the yellow instructions at the bottom of the screen.
Pressing the TAB key will produce a popup menu. Pressing ESC
will produce an Exit Window asking you to confirm your desire to exit
Zmenu. Clicking the RIGHT mouse button or clicking on the word TAB
at the bottom of the screen will produce a popup menu. Zmenu auto-
matically checks for the presence of a mouse and, if found, behaves
accordingly. A mouse click on the yellow instructions on row 22 will
activate the corresponding action.

Editing a Menu Selection:
-------------------------
Press the TAB key, click the RIGHT mouse button, or click on the word
TAB at the bottom of the screen.

To edit the currently selected menu item, select the first popup selection.
The Edit Window appears.

The First fill-in is the MENU SELECTION which is what will appear on the
menu screen as the current menu selection. Fill in whatever you want
the menu screen to say.

The Second fill-in is the DRIVE on which the about-to-be-entered program
resides. Notice that there is a before the word DRIVE. This indicates
that hitting ENTER while the fill-in is blank will produce a popup list
of available drives. Us the arrow keys and PgUp and PgDn keys to traverse
the popup list. Press ENTER to select or ESC to abort.

The Third fill-in is the DIRECTORY in which the about-to-be-entered program
resides. Notice that there is a before the word DIRECTORY. This
indicates that hitting ENTER while the fill-in is blank will produce a
popup list of available directories on the previously selected drive. If
there are sub directories within the selected directory, another popup
will appear listing those. Us the arrow keys and PgUp and PgDn keys to
traverse the popup list. Press ENTER to select or ESC to abort.

The Fourth fill-in is the PROGRAM which you want the Selection to run.
Notice that there is a before the word PROGRAM. This indicates that
hitting ENTER while the fill-in is blank will produce a popup list of
available programs in the previously selected directory on the previously
selected drive. Only .EXE .COM and .BAT file will be listed for your
selection. Us the arrow keys and PgUp and PgDn keys to traverse the popup
list. Press ENTER to select or ESC to abort.

The Fifth fill-in is any SWITCHES which you may need in order to execute
the previously selected program correctly.


The Sixth fill-in is the PASSWORD. Each Selection may have password
protection. Once a password is assigned to a Menu Selection, that
password is required to activate the Popup selection menu for that
particular Menu Selection. This ensures Selection security.

The Popup selection, SET MASTER PASSWORD, allows setting a password
which will filter ALL selections.

A special utility, ZCLEAR.EXE is included on the installation disk
When run from the same directory in which the MENUZ.DBF database
resides, ZCLEAR will remove ALL passwords. This is included in
case you forget your passwords.


* F1 = Batch File Editor -

A built-in editor is provided as well as the option of specifying
a user selected text editor.

The ZEDIT.BAT file is provided to allow the user the option of
specifying their favorite text editor to be used as the Batch File
Editor.

To install YOUR editor as the default batch file editor:
Edit the ZEDIT.BAT file.
Replace, in the last line, 'E %1' with %1

If the PROGRAM has a .BAT extension, pressing
the F1 key will open an editing window displaying the contents of the
named PROGRAM batch file. If the file did not previously exist, it is
created. The file is displayed in edit mode so that you may make changes
to the contents of the batch file. To save any changes you have made to
the file, press and hold the CONTROL KEY and then press and release
the W KEY (CTRL+W). To exit the batch file editor without saving any
changes, hit the ESC key. A prompt will appear on the bottom of the
edit window asking you to confirm your decission to abandon changes.
The mouse is not effective in the Batch File Edit Window.


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For example, to install WINDOWS 3.1 into the menu:

1. Move the selection highlight bar to a vacant letter (A. thru R.)
2. Press the TAB key to evoke the popup functions list.
3. Select "Edit the Current Menu Selection" from the popup list.
4. Type in Windows 3.1 for the Menu Selection.
5. Hit ENTER at the Drive fill-in and select the drive on which Windows
resides.
6. Hit ENTER at the Directory fill-in and select the directory in which
Windows resides. When the sub directories popup appears, hit ESC.
7. Hit ENTER at the Program fill-in and select WIN.COM
8. Type /3 in the Switches fill-in to tell Windows to run in
extended mode and hit ENTER.
9. The Edit Window will close automatically.
10. Select Windows 3.1 from the Menu selection screen.
11. Viola! ( French, I think, for Shazamm or, alternately, KowaBunga.)

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*............................................

Create a Sub Menu
-----------------
Press the TAB key, click the RIGHT mouse button, or click on the word
TAB at the bottom of the screen.

Select the second popup selection, "Create a Sub Menu Selection".
The Edit SubMenu Selction Window appears.

Enter the title of the sub menu which you want to appear on the menu
screen (eg. 'NETWORK UTILITIES MENU' or 'GAMES MENU')

Any menu selection with the word 'MENU' at the end (ie. MODEM MENU) will
be DISPLAYED as a Sub Menu selection and will appear on the menu screen
as a light blue bar with yellow letters. This provides a visual clue as
to the Selection positions of Sub Menu selections.

When you have been returned to the menu screen, you may select the
sub menu selection. You will be presented with a fresh menu screen
with the sub menu title at the top.


The rest of the menu system is self explanatory.

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Network Notes: (Bb, G#, and FMajor)

The latest (as of this document) version of Novell's MENU.EXE program
retains approx. 30k residency in memory when running programs. This can
be unacceptable to limited memory machines running accounting and spread-
sheet applications. Zmenu releases ALL memory to the running application.

The ZMenu directory should hold only the MENUZ.EXE file. This program file
may more conveniently be placed in the PUBLIC directory since users are
frequently granted rights (at least Read rights) to the PUBLIC directory.
MENUZ.EXE can actually be placed in any accessible location which has
been included in the user's path.

Each user should have, in their respective 'home' directories, the files
MENUZ.DBF , MENUZ.DBT and Zmenu.bat.

MENUZ.DBF is the user's private menu database and will not be accessed except
by that user. MENUZ.DBT is the associated memo file (used only in batch
file editing).

Zmenu.bat should be edited to call the MENUZ.EXE program (full pathname).

The third line, which reads:

c:\zmenu\menuz %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6

should be changed to:

F:\PUBLIC\menuz %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6

or where ever you have placed MENUZ.EXE.

Be SURE not to disturb the %1 %2 etc variables when you edit this file.

All users share the MENUZ.EXE program file while maintaining their own
menu selections database(MENUS.DBF). This gives each user their own
unique menu sets.

In smaller network installs (2 to 10 users) my personal preference is to
install and run Zmenu on the workstation hard drive, if available.
This eliminates the condition of the user being left at the F:\LOGIN
prompt when they logout of the network.

Zmenu may also be placed on the boot floppy of a workstation. It is
small enough that the load time on 286 and 386SX machines is tolerable.

Logging out can be accomplished through the use of a menu selection
batch file (ex:logoff.bat) which returns the user to Zmenu.

NO side effects to using Zmenu as a shared program on networks have
been reported.

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Additional Notes:

Upon being run for the first time, Zmenu will create the database
files MENUZ.DBF , MENUZ.DBT and the index file NDX1.NDX in the
directory from which it was called.

Setting the DOS environment variable Z_ID to a user's name will
present that user's name in the title slot of the ZMENU screens.
In the Autoexec.bat you could place the line SET Z_ID = SMITTY .
SMITTY would then appear on the titles of the menu.

On a Novell network you may also use SET Z_ID = "%LOGIN_NAME" in
the user's logscript and acheive the same results. The last line in
the script would be something like: EXIT "SMITTY.BAT"

SMITTY.BAT would be in the login directory and contain:

@echo off
cls
cd\home\smitty
zmenu
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Version 1.3 Update Notes:

2/01/93

Zmenu v1.3 includes the ability to set a 'QUIT' password. If you are using
v1.2 or earlier, copy the file Zconvert.exe into the directory where
the MENUZ.DBF file resides and type zconvert .

Zclear now works ONLY with Zmenu v1.3. Please run Zconvert on older
versions of Zmenu (v1.0 through v1.2) before attempting to use the
Zclear password eraser.
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* The name of the Author is being witheld pending notification of next of kin. *