PrintDir - by David Foster If you are reading this in Notepad, turn on Word Wrap in the Edit Menu PrintDir is a File Manager extension designed to print directory listings from the Windows File Manager. This requires at least Windows 3.1. I don't believe it will run at all under Windows 3.0. Many of us grew accustomed to a dos command such as this: DIR *.* > prn which redirected the directory listing to the printer, thus giving us a hardcopy of a directory listing. Many people used PrintScreen to do the same thing. This functionality is not present in Windows, forcing us to open a dos window to do the same thing. Also, this cannot be done at all with PostScript printers. PrintDir solves these problems by adding a Print Directory menu to the Windows File Manager. You can sort the listing by name of file, by date, or by size, or print the listing of only the selected files (this is useful in a Search Window that doesn't have a single current directory, or to limit the printout to certain files (for instance, all *.doc files). Installation. Installing PrintDir is simple. First, decide where you are going to store PRINTDIR.DLL. You can put it in the windows directory, or any other place on your disk that you like. The following discussion assumes that PRINTDIR.DLL is in the C:\WINDOWS directory. You need to edit the WINFILE.INI file. You may want to backup the original under another name before proceeding. If you know about INI files and such, you can skip the following discussion and simply add the line PrintDir= where is the full pathname of the PRINTDIR.DLL file (for instance, C:\WINDOWS\PRINTDIR.DLL) to the [AddOns] section of WINFILE.INI. Open the Winfile.ini file in a text editor. The Notepad applet that comes with Windows is perfect for this, you can also use the Dos Edit program or any other text editor. If you use a full-fledged word processor, be sure to save the file as Text Only! Assuming you are using Notepad, open the WINFILE.INI file. You'll find it in whatever directory WINDOWS is in, probably C:\WINDOWS. Look for a line that reads: [AddOns] If the line is not there, go to the end of the file and on a blank line type [AddOns] (with the brackets). If you've already installed other Extensions (DOS 6 automatically adds one) then after this line there will be a number of listings such as this: Something=C:\WINDOWS\PROGRAM.DLL SomeThingElse=C:\SOMTHING.DLL On the first blank line after the [AddOns] line, but BEFORE the next line that starts with the '[' character (you can hit ENTER to add a new line if you need to), Enter the line PrintDir=C:\WINDOWS\PRINTDIR.DLL Here you would put whatever the full pathname to PrintDir.DLL is. For instance, if you would like to keep PRINTDIR.DLL in the E:\UTILS directory, then you would enter: PrintDir=E:\UTILS\PRINTDIR.DLL Save your changes to the Winfile.ini and exit Notepad. Again, if you are using a full word processor, be sure to save the file as text only!!! That's it. The next time you run the File Manager, there should be a menu named PrintDir. Menu Items Using PrintDir is fairly straightforward. Whenever you would like a printout of a directory listing of the current File Manager window, Choose the Print by Name item in the PrintDir Menu. Print by Size sorts the listing by file size, and Print by Date sorts the listing by the date of the file. The listing is formatted and sent to whatever printer is set as the default printer in the control panel. Print Selection will print a listing of only the currently selected files. This is what you should use to print the results of a search. Select the files you want listed (remember, ctrl-/ selects all files in the current window) and choose Print Selection. Print Selection differs from the other commands in that it will print full pathnames for the files. You can automatically select certain files inside File Manager by using the Select Files command in the File Menu, or the By File Type command in the view menu. You may want to play with Print Selection a bit to see how it works. Remember, Print by Name, Date or Size will always print the entire current directory. If you want to limit the printout by file type, use Print Selection. PrintDir is being released as shareware, if you find it useful, please send $10 (American) to: David Foster 184 Eckford Street #3 Brooklyn, NY 11222 You may use PrintDir for up to 20 days to evaluate the program and its usefulness. After 20 days, however, you must either register or remove the program from your disk. Deinstalling is simple, delete the PrintDir.DLL file, and remove the PrintDIR=\PRINTDIR.DLL line from winfile.ini. Don't worry, if the line is accidentally left in after deleting the file, it will cause no problems. The best place to reach me with questions or comments is my CompuServe address, 76436,3627. You'll also find this ID in the About box of PrintDir. Over the Internet, this is 76436.3627@compuserve.com Legal stuff PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems File Manager, Windows, Winfile, Notepad, and God knows what else are all registered trademarks of MicroSoft Corporation.