DCMENU Release 1.0 --------------------------- DC SOFTWARE a DURAND COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY 5276 HOLLISTER AVE. SUITE 405 SANTA BARBARA, CA 93111 Tel: 805-964-0473 Fax: 805-683-7690 BBS: 805-964-2833 ----------------------------- THANK-YOU Thank you for downloading DCMENU, the first in a series of quality products scheduled for release this year. We hope you enjoy this shareware version, and that you will register your copy of DCMENU which will entitle you to our complete package including a published User's Manual, our award-winning backdrops, the automatic installation program and more. Please remember that DCMENU is not public domain software, and that this downloaded copy of DCMENU is an unregistered product with a limited-use license. REGISTRATION To register DCMENU, send $34 (Over 50% Discount off Retail Price) to DC SOFTWARE at the above address. California residents please add sales tax. You can also order using MasterCard or Visa by calling our order line at 805-964-4899. Dealer and OEM inquiries are welcome. Users who register DCMENU will receive, by return mail, the registered version of the program, DCSETUP (the installation program), and the HELP facility. The published User Manual is also included. DISCLAIMER By using DCMENU you accept this disclaimer of warranty: DCMENU IS SUPPLIED AS IS. DC SOFTWARE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. DC SOFTWARE ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, DIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WHICH MAY ARISE FROM THE USE OF DCMENU. LICENSE DCMENU is (C)opyright 1992 by DC Software, and is protected under United States Copyright and Trademark Laws. It must be treated just like a book with certain exceptions as follows: 1. DC Software authorizes the making of archival copies of the software for the sole purpose of protecting your investment from loss. 2. The medium on which the software is recorded is transferred to the customer, but not the title to the software. 3. The customer may resell or distribute unmodified copies of the registered software provided the customer has purchased from DC Software one copy of the registered software for each one sold or distributed. The provisions of this software license shall also be applicable to third parties receiving copies of the registered software from the customer. By saying, "just like a book", DC Software means that the software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another so long as there is ABSOLUTELY NO POSSIBILITY of it being used at one computer while being used at another, just like a book that cannot be read by two different people in two different locations at the same time. Users of unregistered copies of the program are granted a limited two-week license for use of DCMENU to evaluate the program's suitability to their requirements. Usage of DCMENU beyond the evaluation period requires registration of each copy of the program used. DCMENU may not be modified in any respect, for any reason, including but not limited to, de-compiling, disassembling, or reverse engineering of the program. All displays and output are proprietary. The opening title and help screens, and all other proprietary program output must never be altered, removed, bypassed or modified in any manner and/or by any means. You are free to distribute the PUBLICLY AVAILABLE shareware version of DCMENU to others subject to the above restrictions and the following: 1. No fee may be charged for its acquisition and/or use. 2. No remuneration may be accepted for DCMENU. This does not apply to computer access charges the system operators (SYSOPs) of organizations owning bulletin board systems, on-line services, etc. may charge subscribers. 3. DCMENU must be copied in unaltered form, complete with files containing license information, the FULL documentation and all accompanying files. The extracting/archiving software distributed by DC Software must not be altered in ANY respect. 4. All shareware houses/distribution firms must make explicitly clear that the diskette purchase containing this shareware program does NOT constitute registration of the software with DC Software. Bulletin Board / On-line Service System Operators may make DCMENU available for download only if the above conditions are met. The archived file (DCMENU.ZIP) distributed by DC Software may be made available only in complete form. Refer to section FILE LISTING to verify contents. If the contents appear altered or not complete, you may obtain the latest release of DCMENU directly from DC Software by sending a formatted, hi-density (1.2Mb or 1.44Mb) diskette labeled with the word "DCMENU". Please include $10 for handling. COMMERCIAL LICENSE Commercial distributors of "Public Domain", "Shareware", and/or User Supported Software may distribute DCMENU subject to the above conditions only after obtaining WRITTEN permission from DC Software. Please refer to the section entitled registration/ordering for additional information on registration, corporate site-licensing and related topics. ORDERING INFORMATION Please send checks drawn on U. S. financial institutions, or on institutions with service sites (branches) in the United States. We will accept foreign currency at the current exchange rate, but you must include an additional $5 (US) to cover exchange handling. We regret that C.O.D. orders cannot be accepted. ORDERING Please Remit To: DC Software 5276 Hollister Ave. Suite 405 Santa Barbara, CA. 93111 Qty. Description Each Total ____ DCMENU Version 1.0 $34.00 ________ (Registered Version) ____ DCMENU Registered Upgrade $10.00 ________ (You must supply the original registered diskette) Subtotal ________ (Site License discount - see below) Discount [-________] (All orders outside U.S. add $5 Shipping) Shipping ________ (Add $5 for Currency Exchange) Misc. Charges ________ (CA residents please add sales tax) Tax ________ TOTAL $________ SHIP TO: Name: ____________________________________________________________ Company: ____________________________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ DCMENU UPGRADES Users who have registered DCMENU may upgrade to the latest version of DCMENU by sending in their original DCMENU diskette, along with $10 (service and handling). Please use the enclosed order form when upgrading. If there has been an address change, please so indicate on the order form. The original disk must contain the registered version of DCMENU. The disk will be reformatted and the current Master copied onto it. Any disk in poor condition will be replaced by DC Software. If the serial number label is missing or the diskette does not contain the registered version of DCMENU, we regret that the update will not be performed and the diskette will be returned unchanged. SITE LICENSE - ADDITIONAL INFORMATION If you plan on using DCMENU in a corporate or government office, or in any business environment whatsoever, registration is mandatory and the two week limited-use license does not apply. For such users, however, quantity discounts are available under a Site License agreement. One MASTER copy of DCMENU (with documentation) will be provided on diskette. The site is responsible for printing the documentation and copying the diskettes for distribution. Sorry, but backups of the MASTER disks do not count towards the total copies for licensing purposes. With all site licenses, the site will supply one contact person with which all correspondence will be made. If a problem should occur, the contact person will call and make arrangements for its solution. Updates to DCMENU will be forwarded to the contact person. When filling out the order form, please use the contact person's name to avoid confusion at a later date. Following is the current site license discount schedule: TOTAL INSTALLATIONS DISCOUNT 1 - 4 none 5 - 10 5% 11 - 20 10% 21 - 30 15% 31 - 50 20% 51 - 100 25% 101+ 30% NOTE: All prices and discounts are subject to change without notice. Also note that discounts are NOT cumulative and apply to separate orders only. PURCHASE ORDER TERMS AND REQUIREMENTS Purchase Orders less than $100 must be pre-paid. Terms are net 30 days. Freight is prepaid by DC Software. Lead time: Stock items. Tax exceptions: Include appropriate documentation. Contact us for voice verification if required. WARRANTY DCMENU is provided AS IS without any warranty, expressed or implied. This includes without limitation the üfitfulness to a particular purpose or application and any warranties of merchantability. We have been as thorough as possible while testing DCMENU. DC Software shall not be liable for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use, misuse or inability to use the program, or for any claim by any other party, or for any damages, whether direct, indirect, special, or consequential arising from a failure of this program or accompanying files to operate in a manner desired by the user. DC Software shall, further, not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused directly or indirectly by use of this program. To those people who have registered (and have received a diskette), the physical diskette is warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 60 days from date of shipment by DC Software. Any returned disks found damaged or bad will be replaced at no charge. OPERATIONAL PROBLEMS If you have a problem with DCMENU please write and describe the situation. Registered users, please include the serial number found on your diskette. INSTALLATION Before Installation There are some errors that occur during the installation procedure that can be avoided by taking a few simple precautions, as defined below. 1. Be sure that the hard drive on which you are installing DCMENU has at least 2 Mbytes of free space. 2. Be sure that the version of MSDOS under which you are operating is above level 3.2. DCMENU requires DOS Versions 3.30 or higher to properly execute. 3. If you plan on using DCMENU with an EGA card, be sure that the card is capable of handling 640 x 480 by 16 color graphics mode. When DCMENU.ZIP is un-zipped, you will be left with several files. The DCMENU program file, DCMENU information files and a simple INSTALL.BAT file. In order for DCMENU to run correctly, you must first have all of the files in appropriate directories. The correct directory structure for DCMENU is as follows: C:\xxxxxx (DCMENU.EXE...) C:\xxxxxx\IMAGES (All IMAGE FILES ENDING IN .IMG) C:\xxxxxx\ICONS (ALL ICON FILES ENDING IN .ICO) where 'xxxxxx' is a directory of your choice. INSTALLATION PROGRAM To have DCMENU automatically make the directory and subdirectories for you, move the DCMENU files into the directory that you want to use for it, and simply type "INSTALL". Install will create the necessary directories, and move all of the files to their correct places. STARTING DCMENU Once the files have been placed in the correct directories, go to the directory into which you have installed DCMENU and type "DCMENU" from the DOS prompt. TO AUTOMATICALLY START DCMENU AT BOOT-UP To have DCMENU automatically start-up every time you turn on your computer, you must add some commands to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Your AUTOEXEC.BAT file is located in the root directory of your boot drive, and it can be edited using any standard text editor. You must change to the disk and directory in which DCMENU has been installed before it can be started. If, for example, you have installed DCMENU on your "D" drive in subdirectory "MENU", you would need to add the following three lines to your autoexcec.bat file: D: CD \MENU DCMENU These commands should be the last lines in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. USER'S MANUAL DESCRIPTION DCMENU is a true Graphical User Interface (GUI) Menu program, which does not sacrifice ease of use with the keyboard for the graphical interface approach of using a mouse. Its primary purpose is to provide a user with an EASY way to create a menu system and use it to run programs. The user interface consists of a workspace on the screen, the mouse and the keyboard. The workspace is divided into two major parts. The lower part is called the DESKTOP. It contains the program icons for the programs you will want to run, and the folder icons for your program groups. The upper part of the workspace holds icons for those folders (program groups) that are open, or in use. When you start DCMENU, the MAIN folder icon shows up in this area, which is called the SCROLL area, to remind you that the MAIN folder is a DCMENU program group. MOUSE USE Although DCMENU is designed to be used with a mouse, you do not need to have a mouse attached to your computer in order to easily use the full range of DCMENU features. If you choose to use a mouse, in order for the mouse to work correctly with DCMENU, you must first have a mouse and the correct mouse driver installed. Please refer to your mouse User's Manual for details on installing a mouse driver. Once you have loaded your mouse driver and the mouse is working with DCMENU, the following instructions apply: As you move about the desktop and scroll areas, the "touched" objects will be highlighted either by a change in color, or by a change in presentation method. If the mouse cursor is not touching anything, clicking the mouse has no effect. If the mouse is touching a program or folder, clicking the mouse has the following effects: LEFT MOUSE BUTTON -Double Click Launches programs, opens folders. LEFT MOUSE BUTTON -Single Click Hooks a program or folder for editing. RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON -Single click while highlighting a program or folder will bring up the edit menu. If the mouse cursor is "touching" a button or a text box, clicking either button will activate the buttons and/or enable the text box for text input. KEYBOARD USE DCMENU is one of the first programs to be considered a true GUI program (Graphical User Interface) which provides for real ease of use with the keyboard. The following is a description of keyboard functions: ESCAPE Cancels the current activity, removes error notices from the workspace, and erases the current text entry. Whenever there is a "CANCEL" button on the screen, pressing ESCAPE will automatically depress that button. Whenever there is a "PROBLEM" notice on the workspace, pressing ESCAPE will remove the problem notice and allow you to continue. ENTER Will activate the button which is currently highlighted (except for arrow buttons), or will automatically press "OK" if any "OK" button is on the desktop. It will also launch any highlighted programs or open any highlighted folders when it is pressed. F1 Will bring up the HELP MENU. F2 Brings up the Edit Menu. F3 Exits DCMENU. UP ARROW Moves you to the folder area (Scroll Area) or scrolls the up-down arrows when present in a window. Also allows you to move from button to button in windows where the buttons are arranged vertically. DOWN ARROW Moves you from the folder area (Scroll Area) down to the desktop area where the programs and folders reside. It also presses the down arrow on any window with an up-down arrow, and allows you to move from button to button in windows where the buttons are arranged vertically. RIGHT ARROW Moves the cursor to any element (Button etc.) that is to the right of it. Using the right cursor key is the only way to use the keyboard to move from the 1st program or folder on the desktop to any folders or programs below or to the right of it. LEFT ARROW Moves the cursor to the element to its left. PAGE DOWN The Page Down Key is only active on the "DIRECTORY" menu page, and allows you to rapidly page through the directory tree or file list. PAGE UP The Page Up Key acts in the same way as the Page Down Key but in the reverse direction. HOME The Home Key is active only on the "DIRECTORY" menu and positions you at the beginning of the directory tree or file list. END The End Key acts like the Home Key, but positions you at the end of the directory tree or file list. ALTERNATING USE Switching back and forth between mouse and keyboard use is also easy. Just move the mouse to go into mouse mode, or depress either the left or right cursor key to go back into keyboard mode. EDIT MENU The edit menu is used to add programs, change program names, change program icons, add folders, move folders etc. To bring up the edit menu, simply press F2 if you are using the keyboard, or move the mouse cursor to the F2Edit button on the desktop and click either button once. If you are touching a folder or program icon that you wish to edit, simply click the right mouse button once to enable editing functions for that element. The edit menu window has the following options: 1. ADD 2. DELETE 3. RENAME 4. MOVE 5. ICON We will now discuss the following functions in detail one at a time in their respective order of appearance. EDIT MENU ADD BUTTON The ADD BUTTON on the Edit Menu is used to add new programs or new folders to the desktop. ADD FOLDER There are two types of folder icons, manila folders and briefcases. They are identical in function. There are two different kinds of folders strictly for aesthetic purposes. You may select brief cases for business type applications while placing fun programs like games in manila folders. If you are already in a folder and you elect to add a program or folder, you will be adding a program or folder inside the already open folder (a folder in a folder). You may not add folders or programs with the same name as a program or folder already in use on DCMENU. If you try to add two folders with the same name, you will get an error message alerting you to this fact and you will be asked to enter another name. ADD PROGRAM When electing to add a new program to the menu, you may type in the path and executable file name or you may choose to have DCMENU look at your hard disk to assist you in locating the correct program file to add. To have DCMENU assist you in your search, press the "FIND THE FILE" button when asked to enter in the path and filename. You will now be prompted to select the drive where the program file exists. Select a drive now and wait while the program searches your hard disk for programs. DCMENU will display the directory structure and a list of the executable files in the highlighted entry of the directory. You may scroll or page through the directory and/or file list to select the file that you want to use for this program. DCMENU will select the file to be used as the one with the white lettering highlight. Depress the "OK" button to select the file. DCMENU will now prompt you for default program parameters and an icon selection. EDIT MENU DELETE BUTTON DELETE button on the EDIT Menu is used to remove program or folder icons. For folder icons, the delete function also removes the folder file. Program files (executable) are not affected by this function. In other words, deleting a program from your menu DOES NOT delete it from your hard disk. DELETE To delete a program or folder, you must first highlight the program or folder you wish to delete. If you are using the keyboard press F2, or, if you are using the mouse, click on the right mouse button and the edit menu will appear. From the edit menu, select "DELETE" and then at the confirmation window which says, "DELETE THIS PROGRAM/FOLDER" press OK. EDIT MENU RENAME BUTTON The RENAME button on the edit menu allows you to change the names of the folders or programs that are on the desktop. RENAME Renaming a program or folder is done much the same way as any other edit option is performed. In order to rename a program or folder, you must first select the item you wish to rename. To do this, you highlight the program or folder with the mouse or keyboard and then either click the right mouse button once, or press F2 respectively. Once the edit menu appears, you select "RENAME" and then type in your new name. EDIT MENU MOVE BUTTON The MOVE button on the edit menu allows you to move folders or programs from folder to folder. Only the folder FROM which you are moving an element needs to be visible (OPEN). MOVE To move a folder or program to another folder or back to the main menu, you first select the program or folder you wish to move by highlighting it and then pressing either F2 or the right mouse button. At the edit menu, select "MOVE" and the move window will appear. Use the up-down arrow at the right of the move window to select the folder you wish to move to. You cannot move a folder to itself, nor can you move a program which has the same name as a folder to that folder. EDIT MENU ICON BUTTON The ICON button on the edit menu allow you to change the icon associated with one of the programs that are on the desktop. ICON Programs are represented by icons in DCMENU. An icon is just a little drawing that represents a program. The icons used by DCMENU are standard WINDOWS(r) icons. If you already have some Windows icons, you can use them in DCMENU by simply placing them in the DCMENU ICONS sub-directory. To change the icon of any program, simply highlight the program and then press either F2 or click the right mouse button. At the edit menu, select "ICON". You should now see the first icon in your icons sub-directory. Use the up-down arrows to select the icon you wish to use, then press OK. BACKDROPS DCMENU allows you to change the standard white backdrop to something more colorful. Commonly known as "WALLPAPER" to Windows(r) users, standard Windows 640 x 480 x 16 color bitmap files may be placed behind the workspace in Registered Versions of DCMENU. To do so, you must run DCSETUP from either the DOS prompt or from the Main Menu of DCMENU. DCSETUP is available only to registered users of DCMENU. PASSWORD Password protection for the DCMENU is provided on the Registered Version. HELP The on-line HELP feature is available to registered users of DCMENU. Windows is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation. DCMENU is a registered trademark of Durand Communications.