Category : Windows 3.X Files
Archive   : WINDIR46.ZIP
Filename : WINDIR46.DOC

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# WinDir 4.60 for Microsoft Windows 3.0 and above #
# Copyright (C) 1991-1992 Shortdog Inc. #
# Shareware Version 4.60 #
# Released: 08/12/92 #
# Written By:Sean Bishop #
###################################################
# ANOTHER QUALITY PROGRAM FROM SHORTDOG INC. #
###################################################
# SPECIAL THANKS TO PETE TRENHOLM FOR THOSE #
# GREAT SUGGESTIONS AND REPORTS OF BUGS #
###################################################

Thank you for your interest in WinDir 4.60 for Windows!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE TO REGISTERED USERS OF 4.20 AND EARLIER:
YOU WILL HAVE TO ENTER THE REGISTRATION NUMBER AGAIN IN THIS PROGRAM DUE
TO THE FACT THAT IT NO LONGER USES A .CFG FILE, BUT INSTEAD USES AN .INI
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SEE END OF THIS DOCUMENT FOR THE EXACT CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS

________________________________________________________________________
LEGAL:
This program is under no warranty, if any damages result from the use of
this program, Shortdog Inc. cannot be held liable for any loss. This
program is shareware, which means that if you would like to use this
product beyond a 10 day evaluation period you should send $5.00 to the
address listed at the end of this document to help support shareware.
If you would like a disk with the latest version of WinDir and also the
latest versions of other Shortdog Inc. programs then please send $3.00
extra to cover the cost of the disk and shipping.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEE REGISTER.TXT OR REGISTER.WRI FOR AN ORDER FORM

INTRODUCTION:
The basic premise of WinDir is that you can pop-up a file-list from any
of you directories by simply clicking a button located on your screen.
From this list of files you can change around your directories, run .EXE,
.PIF and .BAT files by double-clicking on the filename and even copying,
moving, deleting and renaming files. You can also view your .ICO, .BMP,
.RLE and .WMF files you double-click on in the WinDir file-list. You can
copy the graphics file into the Windows clipboard for quick pasting into
another application. You can copy or move multiple files at once. You can
delete multiple files at once. You can rename your files also. You can even
play your .WAV sound files if you are running Windows 3.1. There is much
more that can be done with Windir, so read on.

PROGRAM INFO:
To see some additional information about the program just click the button
labeled About and a new window will show up, just click OK to get out of it.
While you are viewing this about box you can double-click on the Shortdog
Inc. logo and you will be able to view it just like other .WMF files and you
can resize it to see the effects.

CHANGING THE LOOK OF THE WINDIR COMMAND BUTTON:
You can change the WinDir command button so that it takes up less desktop
space if you need some room. While the WinDir command button is the main
window you just hit either the key C or c and the clock will be removed and
the new button will be in its place. You can change back to the old button
by clicking on the new command button labeled B for back to original. You
cannot move this button when the clock is turned off. Whichever way you have
the command button when you exit WinDir will be the way it starts out next
time you run WinDir.

REGISTERING:
While you are in the About box you will notice the button labeled Register,
if you click on this button you will be presented with a dialog box asking
you to enter your full name and your registration number that you have from
Shortdog Inc., you get this number when you send in the $5.00 registration
fee for shareware, and if you enter the information correctly then you will
be told that WinDir is registered and you will see the new About box that
shows your name as the registered user. If you enter a number that does not
correspond with your name then you will not see this box. If you entered
the correct registration number that you obtained from Shortdog Inc. then
it will write the settings in the WinDir.INI file.

CONFIGURATION:
In order for WinDir to work better for you, I have added the ability to
customize some commands to do what you want them to and then save them in
an .INI file for use the next time you load in WinDir. To get to the config
menu just click the command button labeled Configure. Once you are in this
dialog box you can change quite a few things, first thing is whether you
want WinDir to view .BMP files or to load them into another program that is
specified by you in the text box next to this option. The next option is
whether to view .ICO files or load them into the program you specify like
you did the .BMP option. The next option has the ability to specify which
program you want .INI, .DOC and .TXT files loaded into, the default is the
Windows Notepad. This next config option has the ability to specify what
to do when you click on a .PIF file, you can either load it into Windows
PIF Editor or run the file just like you do .EXE files. The next option will
tell WinDir whether to reduce it to the small command button that you start
WinDir with or to leave it full size when you run file associations and
files from WinDir. The next option specifies which program is loaded when
you click on a .PCX graphics file, WINGIF is a good one, the default program
is Windows PaintBrush, listed as PBRUSH.EXE. The next option tells WinDir
whether to play .WAV files or to load them into your favorite .WAV player.
Enter the name of the .WAV player if you want the files loaded into one,
those who don't use Windows 3.1 will not see these options because they will
be grayed out. The next option allows you to specify whether the WinDir
command button will stay on top of all other programs so that you can easily
click on it, see Command Button On Top later in this file. Yet another
option is the ability to load .MAK files into the program you want them in
like Visual Basic or a compiler. To save these options you should click on
the button labeled Save and the options will be placed in an .INI file
located in your Windows directory for later user. If you want the options
eturned to their default values then click on the button Defaults. To exit
this menu click on the command button labeled Exit.

FILE SPECIFICATIONS:
Since the file-list originally comes up showing all files, which is *.*,
you can change what files show up in the list by clicking on the drop-down
list at the bottom of the file-list window and a list of file types will be
shown, then you just click on the type of files you want shown and the list
will change. You can also manually enter the specifications you want by
clicking on the test listed in the box and entering your own specifications.

RUNNING EXECUTABLE PROGRAMS:
To run a program from the WinDir file-list just simply double click on the
filename or highlight the filename and click the button labeled Run File.
This function will run the program as it would normally be run from Windows
Program Manager or File Manager. The only files that you can run from this
function are .EXE, .BAT and .PIF (Only if specified in the config menu).

DELETING FILES:
To delete a program using WinDir just click the button labeled Delete
and then you will be presented with a file-list alongside of a list box that
will show the names you have selected to delete. You will also notice that
below the file-list is a file specification box just like in the main file
list of WinDir, for info on using this control see the section thats labeled
Changing The File List Specification in this file. To put a file in the list
box for deleting you double-click the filename in the file-list and it will
be put in the list box. To remove a file from the delete list box you just
double-click on it and it will be removed. Once you have selected all the
files you wish deleted you then click on the button labeled Delete and you
will then be asked to confirm the delete operation for each file selected,
this is good if you select alot of files and want to make sure which ones
you have selected for deleting. There is another button labeled Delete All
that will ask you to confirm the operation and then it will delete every
file you have selected without asking you to confirm each one, it will only
ask you when you first click on it. If you wish no further actions to be
taken from this delete box then click on the button labeled Cancel.

COPYING FILES:
To copy or move a file in WinDir you must go to the directory where the
files are located you want to copy or move and then click on the button that
it labeled Copy Or Move Files. You will then be presented with a dialog box
that shows another file-list for you to select the files for copying or for
Moving. To put a file in the list box for copying or moving you double-click
the filename in the file-list and it will be put in the list box. To remove
a file from the list box you just double-click on it and it will be removed.
Once you have selected all the files you want to move or copy and then you
can use the drive and directory selection box to select the drive and the
directory you want the file(s) copied or moved to and then click the command
you want processed, either copy or move. If you select to copy or move the
file(s) into the same directory it is in then you will be presented with an
error box and then returned to the file copy dialog box. If you wish no
action to be taken from this box then simply click the command button that
is labeled Cancel. You will also notice that below the file-list is a file
specification box just like in the main file list of WinDir, for info on
using this control see the section thats labeled Changing The File List
Specification later in this documentation.


RENAMING FILES:
To rename a file in WinDir you simply select the file you wish to rename
and then click on the button labeled Rename. You will the be asked to enter
the filename you wish to change it to.

CHANGING THE WINDOWS WALLPAPER:
You can change the Windows wallpaper that is currently used by selecting
the new file you want in the file-list and then click the button labeled
Change BMP and then the background will be changed. This feature comes in
very handy for alot of people since it gets tiresome to keep going to the
control panel to change it. This is tested only in Win 3.1 but it should
still work with Windows 3.0.

COMMAND BUTTON ON TOP: (ONLY FOR WINDOWS 3.10)
You can configure WinDir to keep the WinDir command button on top of all
your Windows applications so that its easily available no matter what you
are running. To select this option you must specify it in the configuration
menu. Try selecting this option and then moving Program Manager over top
of the WinDir command button and you will see what I mean. I have only
tried this using Win 3.1 so earlier Win users may not be able to use this.

PLAYING .WAV FILES (Windows 3.10 only):
If you have Windows 3.10 and a sound card installed then you can play
.WAV files in WinDir or have them loaded into your favorite .WAV editor,
specified in the config menu, by double-clicking on the file you want to
hear and it will be played or loaded in, whichever you have WinDir
configured. This feature is only for Windows 3.1 users only.

LOADING MIDI FILES:
If you are using Windows 3.10 and use .MID files then you can double-click
on a .MID file and it will be loaded into the Windows Media Player.

VIEWING GRAPHICS AND ICONS:
Double clicking a .BMP, .RLE, .WMF or clicking an .ICO file will allow you
to view it. While viewing the picture, you can click the right mouse button
and the picture will be copied into the Windows Clipboard for later use in
another program. To get rid of the graphics window just click on it with the
left mouse button as usual, also when you are viewing a .WMF file you can
size the window to whatever you like and the picture will resize to fit it.
For .BMP, .PCX and .ICO files you can specify that they be loaded into
another program by configuring them in the configuration box.

LOADING TEXT FILES:
Clicking on either a .INI, .DOC or .TXT file will load it into NotePad for
editing or viewing. Clicking on a .WRI file will load it into Windows Write
for viewing or editing.

CHANGING THE FILE LIST SPECIFICATIONS:
When you click on the combo box at the bottom of the file-list it presents
you with a list of file specifications that appears in the above list. For
example, if you click on the text *.exe then only files with the extension
of .EXE will be shown in the file-list, if you click on one like *.bmp;*.ico
then only files with the extensions .bmp and .ico will be listed. You can
change the specs to your own personal ones by clicking on the text portion
of the combo box and entering your own specs as follows, *.exe will show
only .exe files, but *.exe;*.com will show files with both .exe and .com
extensions. You can enter as many file specs at once as you want.

GETTING HELP:
To get help on using WinDir you just click on the button labeled Help and
the help file will load into the Windows Help system for viewing. Make sure
that the help file is in the same directory that you have WinDir.

HIDING THE FILELIST:
To hide the File-List and its associated dialog boxes you simply click the
command button labeled Close Viewer and it will be hidden until you click
the WinDir button again.

REMOVING WINDIR FROM MEMORY:
To remove WinDir from memory just bring up the file-list as usual and then
click on the button labeled Remove WinDir and all traces will disappear.

I hope you enjoy this program as much as I enjoyed programming it, and keep
those suggestions and comments coming, they help make future versions better.

Thank you,
Sean Bishop
Shortdog Inc.
241 Eversole St.
Hazard, KY 41701
(606) 439-0609

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CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF WINDIR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

VERSION 4.60 - Changes from 4.50:

I have added a command button that allows you to change your Windows
wallpaper just like you do normally from the control panel. The next thing
I put in was the ability to configure WinDir to load .MAK files into the
program you want them in, like Visual Basic. See above for more info.
VERSION 4.50 - Changes from 4.40:

I have added the ability to have the WinDir command button stay on top of
all Windows programs running by selecting this option in the config menu.
See above documentation for more information about this.

VERSION 4.40 - Changes from 4.30:

The first thing I have changed is the ability to remove the clock caption
from the WinDir command button to save desktop space. I fixed a small bug
in the delete function that would not let you remove files from the delete
list. I added a true help file (WINDIR.HLP) so that it is just like all
the other Windows applications.

VERSION 4.30 - Changes from 4.20:

I have changed the configuration file from a type that I was familiar with
to the normal .INI files that all Windows users are familiar with. I have
changed the delete function so that you can select multiple files from a
file-list to delete at once. I have also changed the copy and move function
so that you can copy or move multiple files at the same time. I have added
some more file specs to the combo box at the bottom of the filelist. I have
also added the ability to change the file specs to more than one type at a
time, see above documentation for further information. I have also removed
the help option, it just was not needed for now, I may create a normal
Windows Help file(.HLP) like other Windows apps have. I changed the About
box slightly for a better look and it doesn't take much memory like before.
While you are in the About box you can double-click on the Shortdog Inc.
logo and it will allow you to view it just like other Windows .WMF files
and stretch it around the screen, it looks great. Another thing is that
I have fixed it so that you can click the right mouse button to copy the
graphics files you are viewing into the clipboard, this goes for icons too.
You only have one icon display now and it can be moved to any area of the
screen you want for viewing.

VERSION 4.20 - Changes from 4.10:

Luckily there was no bugs reported for v4.10 so far, so this version has
mostly added a couple of new features. One new feature is the ability to
view .RLE graphic files just as you do .BMP files. I have also added one
more thing that I think was needed, and that is the ability for Windows 3.1
users to play .WAV files from WinDir, so this version has that built in.
I also added a clock to the top of the WinDir button in case you want to
know what time it is quickly, it is displayed in the 24 hour format. There
is also some small changes in the program for better error control, those
errors can kill a program fast!

VERSION 4.10 - Changes from 4.00:

Well, first I fixed a few small bugs, then added file associations for alot
of new file types, .HLP, .PCX, .WAV and .MID files. One rather large thing
I added is the ability to configure WinDir pretty good through a config
menu that you can change alot of setting to make WinDir work better.

VERSION 4.00 - Changes from 3.40:

This is a completely redone WinDir than any previous, thats why I have the
version number jumped to 4.00 instead of 3.50, I thought that would maybe
make users realize that this is really alot different than previous ones.
First change, and major change, I made was to the interface of WinDir, I
took the command buttons off of the file-list and put them on their own
form so that I could make as many commands as needed without having to
shrink the file and directory lists anymore. I have now stretched out both
the dir and file-lists so you can see more files and directories at once.
I knew that it would be better to see as many files and directories as
possible, but did not have the room to extend them the way they should be.
I have also added the ability to register WinDir from the About box so that
when new versions of WinDir come out you can register them for yourself.
One other pretty big thing I added is the ability to view .WMF files just
like you can the .BMP files now, except you can stretch the .WMF files to
any size you want without any loss of quality. You can copy these files
to the Windows Clipboard just the same as you can .BMP's by hitting the
C key while viewing the graphics files. The full name of these .WMF
files are Windows MetaFiles and are usually used for clip-art and such,
you can export them from CorelDraw for instance. I have removed the ability
to place icons into the Clipboard, it wasn't needed. Another thing that
was screwed up in 3.40 and previous versions is the ability to copy a file
from one drive to another and it is now fixed for sure. All these functions
are documented in the documentation but I knew some of you are already
familiar with WinDir and wanted to see the changes quickly so that is why
I have written this changes column.

VERSION 3.40 - Changes from 3.30:

This is another bug fix mostly, now the copy and move functions properly.
I added the ability to view .WMF files also, when you double-click on a
.WMF file, another windows will pop-up and allow you to view the file you
selected, hitting C or c will copy the graphic to the Windows Clipboard.
One nice thing about .WMF files is that you can resize them without any
loss of quality, try resizing the form and watch Windows at its best.
I have also added another change that saves a WINDIR.CFG file after you
exit WinDir so that when you run it the next time it will load the command
button in the same place you left it when exiting. Note: The WINDIR.CFG
file does not have to be around for WinDir to work, it will create one by
itself after you remove WinDir the first time. You will also notice that
the white boxes usually located on both sides of the file-list are gone,
well not gone for long, they only pop-up when you click on an icon file
and will stay there until you click on one of them to get rid of them once
again. That was another feature requested by one of our best customers.

VERSION 3.30 - Changes from 3.20:

This is mostly a fix for a bug in v3.20 that would not copy or move files
the way it was supposed to, somehow it just would not work. I have also
rearranged a couple of the buttons for easier use. Sorry for the v3.20
bugs that were in it, but these things happen.


VERSION 3.20 - Changes from 3.10:

This version only has a couple of changes, the addition of the drive
selection box in the main file-list so that you can use multiple drives
with WinDir and the Rename button that allows you to rename files. To
rename a file, just select the one you wish renamed and then click on the
rename button and then type in the new name of the file. These are some
features that should have been in earlier versions but was left.

VERSION 3.10 - Changes from 3.00:

Version 3.00 was a major overhaul of previous versions, but this version
only has a few improvements to make it work better and to do a couple of
mor file functions. One thing that was suggested is that when you click
on a .PIF file that it is loaded into the PIF Editor instead of run like
an .EXE or .BAT file, so that is changed now. Next is the ability to copy
and move files in WinDir, so now there is a new command button that is
labeled Copy or Move File which pops up a dialog box with the file that
you want copied in the upper box and a drive and directory list that you
can select where to copy or move the file to, this can come in handy some
times when you need to copy something quickly. And the last thing I added
is the ability to move the WinDir command button usually located in the
bottom right hand corner of your screen, now you can move it around to
anywhere on the screen for your convenience, but it still starts out where
it always did in case you want it to stay there.