Browser Version 3.1 A Windows File Browsing Application Browser is a MS Windows application designed to allow users to browse files in a MS Windows environment. In addition to the browse capability, it supports printing, clipboarding, and a hex dump display. Browser also features the new and unusual Hide & Seek information extraction technique. Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment of any kind from Wilson WindowWare. The software described in this document is distributed free or at minimal charge for evaluation only. Users of this software are to license this software according to the instructions given in this document. Copies of this software may be made only in accordance with instructions given in this document. Copyright Morrie Wilson, 1987-1989 Browser is a trademark of Wilson WindowWare. Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Browser 3.1 2 Table of Contents Licensing and Duplication Information Duplication Restrictions / Other Information... 5 General Licensing Information.................. 6 Payment with Order Licensing Information......................... 7 Purchase Orders Requiring Billing Licensing Information......................... 8 International Orders........................... 9 Introduction Overview...................................... 10 Installing Browser............................ 10 Browser 3.1 3 Using Browser Getting Started with Browser.................. 11 Browser Commands.............................. 12 FILE....................................... 12 HIDE & SEEK................................ 14 PRINT...................................... 16 CLIPCOPY................................... 18 CLIPAPPEND................................. 19 OPTIONS.................................... 20 GET HELP WINDOW............................ 21 System Menu Extensions........................ 22 Moving Around in Browser...................... 23 With the Keyboard.......................... 23 With a Mouse............................... 24 Marking Text with Browser..................... 26 With the Keyboard.......................... 26 With the Mouse............................. 27 Appendices Appendix A - Hide & Seek Tutorial............. 28 Appendix B - Browser Version Information...... 30 Appendix C - Other Window Applications........ 32 Browser 3.1 4 Licensing and Duplication Information Duplication Restrictions / Other Information Browser is a shareware product. It may be freely copied and distributed for evaluation as long as four basic rules are followed. These rules are: 1) The program and this documentation may not be modified in any way. 2) A copy of this documentation is provided with the program. 3) No charge, other than a media and handling charge, (not to exceed $8.00) is made. 4) Users of the program purchase a license for its use. One license per usable copy of Browser is required. Archive and backup copies do not count. Please note that if you purchased a disk containing this software from a public domain/shareware software distributor you have paid the media and handling charges as permitted above. You have not purchased a license. Purchasing a license is required for continued use. The accuracy of the information supplied here and the fitness of the Browser program for any purpose may change without notice, and should not be construed as any kind of a commitment. No responsibility is assumed for any errors or problems that may be encountered with use of this product. There are no warranties whatsoever associated with this product. Browser 3.1 5 General Licensing Information Browser must be licensed to be used other than for an initial evaluation. Two licensing rates are available, as given below: Rates for payment with order: $20 Single user license $ 5 Browser software on diskette Please specify 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" diskette. $10 Printed documentation Rates for Purchase Order requiring billing, or for purchase via third party vendors: $50 Includes single user license, diskettes (5 1/4" and 3 1/2"), and printed documentation. Browser 3.1 6 Payment with Order Licensing Information Under the "Payment with Order" plan we accept personal and business checks, along with Visa and MasterCard charges. Checks must be mailed, while we can accept Visa and MasterCard purchases over the phone. Mail Orders For mail order purchases, enclose the following items in an envelope and mail to the address given below: Enclose: 1) List of items desired --license(s), disk(s), number of copies of documentation 2) Payment (either check or charge card info) For charge card orders, include card number, expiration date and card billing address. 3) Name and address Mail to: Wilson WindowWare 3377 59th SW Seattle WA 98116 Phone Orders For phone order purchases we will need your name, card number, expiration date, shipping address, and desired purchases. Our phone lines are open from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM Pacific Time. East Coast residents will need to wait until after Noon Eastern Time before placing their calls. Our phone number is (206) 937-9335. Licensing materials will generally be sent to you within 24 hours. Browser 3.1 7 Purchase Orders Requiring Billing Licensing Information Purchase orders are subject to acceptance. We generally reject purchase order requests that obligate us to your company's terms and conditions. As stated above there are no warranties whatsoever associated with the Browser software product, and we are not responsible for its performance. You are the sole judge of the product's effectiveness and suitability for your application. To order Browser, enclose the following items in an envelope and mail to the address given below: Enclose: 1) Purchase order stating Number of copies of desired Shipping address Billing address 2) Name, address and phone number of a knowledgeable individual whom we may contact should any question about this order arise. Mail to: Wilson WindowWare 3377 59th SW Seattle WA 98116 (206) 937-9335 Browser 3.1 8 International Orders Wilson WindowWare recognizes the difficulties our international customers face in presenting payment for our products. These difficulties include excessive fees charged for international money orders, various postal delays, and currency conversion problems of various sorts. For this reason we recommend payment via MasterCard (EuroCard) or Visa. The credit companies will perform any necessary currency conversions, and eliminate possibility of the loss of the funds by the postal services. Although we do accept both mail-order and phone-order purchases, our phone operators generally only speak English, and are therefore limited in the amount of non- English assistance they can provide. In addition, because of the increased postal costs, we must charge additional postal fees for international orders. We mail all goods via airmail, thus avoiding unnecessarily long waits. The additional fees are as follows: Item Surcharge ___________________ License None Disk $2.00 Manual $8.00 Browser 3.1 9 Introduction Overview Browser is a Microsoft Windows application designed to allow users to browse files in a Windows environment. In addition to the browse capability, Browser supports printing, clipboarding, and a hex dump display. Browser also has the ability to display files in either Windows standard ANSI format, or in the more common ASCII format. Browser is not an editor. There is no possibility of a file being modified while it is being examined with Browser. (Although you can delete a file entirely with the Browser delete command, the delete command requests confirmation before actually deleting the file.) Browser also features the new and unusual Hide & Seek information extraction technique. Installing Browser Browser is easily installed. Simply copy the file BROWSER.EXE to your Windows directory. You may also wish to copy the file BROWSER.DAT to your hard disk. BROWSER.DAT is a sample file used in the Browser Hide & Seek tutorial given in Appendix A. Browser 3.1 10 Using Browser Getting Started with Browser Browser can be invoked in a number of ways, detailed as follows: 1) Via the MS-DOS menu in Windows. 2) Entering WIN BROWSER at the MS-DOS prompt outside of Windows. 3) Via the Point and DoubleClick capability. Selected file extensions may be defined within the WIN.INI [extensions] section file to start various Window Applications. Browser may be defined in this section. For example, to initiate Browser whenever a .TXT file is doubleclicked in the MS-DOS menu, the following would be entered: TXT=BROWSER.EXE ^.TXT Other extensions may also be entered to allow Browser initiation by simple doubleclicking. See the Windows documentation for a more detailed explanation of this topic. 4) Browser may also be initiated by various Windows Menu products that are available (e.g. Command Post). See the applicable product documentation for further information. Once started, Browser will display its copyright notice and indicate that additional information may be obtained by selecting "About...". See the section on the FILE command for more information. Browser 3.1 11 Browser Commands FILE The FILE pull down menu contains seven options. These are: OPEN - Used to select file to browse. When selected, a listbox will appear. The files in the current directory will appear at the top of the list, followed by allowable disk drive entries (e.g. [A]), the parent directory entry ([..]), and the list of subdirectories of the current directory (e.g. [SUBDIR]). Any item in the list may be selected. If a file is selected, Browser will open that file for display. If a disk drive or a directory-type entry is selected, the listbox will be updated with information from that drive/directory. In addition, search specifications may be entered in the editbox found just above the list of filenames to limit the display to particular groupings of files. (E.G. the default entry in the editbox is *.*, which causes all files to be listed.) You may enter *.BAK to list only files ending in .BAK for selection. RE-READ LAST FILE - The last file browsed is re-read. Useful if the file was modified or Browser was cleared and minimized. CLEAR AND MINIMIZE - Clears previous file, if any, from memory, and displays Browser as an Icon. Browser 3.1 12 FILE (Continued) FILE STATS - Various bits of information about the file are displayed in a pop-up window. DELETE FILE - Allow immediate deletion of the file currently being viewed. If this item is selected, a popup window will appear asking the user to confirm the deletion request. ABOUT... - Selecting the ABOUT... command will display some information about Browser. EXIT - Exits Browser and closes the window. Browser 3.1 13 HIDE & SEEK The HIDE & SEEK feature allows a user to control the shown (displayable) and hidden (non-displayable) lines of text, based upon whether or not a given line contains specified text strings or is part of a marked range. Appendix A contains a short tutorial on the HIDE & SEEK function. The HIDE & SEEK pull-down menu reveals a number of options. These are: FIND - Allows specification of up to a 32 character string to search for. A forward search for the string is performed, and, if found, the file pointer will be positioned to that point, and the line will be displayed in inverse video. (If the line was previously hidden, it will be shown.) FIND NEXT - Finds the next occurrence of the string last specified in the Find command. (If the line was hidden, it will be shown.) HIDE ALL - Marks every line of the file as hidden (non-displayable). Generally used immediately prior to a FIND or SHOW IF command. HIDE MARKED - Any line included in any part of a marked range will become hidden. HIDE IF - Allows specification of up to a 32 character string to search for. The entire file is searched. Any line on which the string is (or is NOT - depending on selection) found will be marked as hidden (non-displayable). Browser 3.1 14 HIDE & SEEK COMMANDS (Continued) SHOW ALL - Marks every line of the file as unhidden (displayable). Undoes effects of HIDE commands. SHOW MARKED - All lines in a marked range will become unhidden (displayable). SHOW IF - Allows specification of up to a 32 character string to search for. The entire file is searched. Any line on which the string is (or is NOT - depending on selection) found will be marked as unhidden (displayable). INVERT - Swaps the hidden status. All lines previously hidden will become unhidden and all lines previously unhidden will become hidden. Browser 3.1 15 PRINT Text may be printed, either as text or a hex dump. Browser will attempt to approximate the currently selected font for printing. A choice of the entire file, or just unhidden (displayable) lines may be made. PRINT MARKED ALL - An entire range of marked text is spooled to the default printer. PRINT MARKED UN-HIDDEN - The displayable lines of marked text is spooled to the default printer. PRINT ALL - The entire file is spooled to the default printer. PRINT UN-HIDDEN - All displayable lines are spooled to the default printer. PRINT PAGE ADVANCE - Default printer is advanced one page. Browser 3.1 16 PRINT (Continued) Note 1: Browser will print on the system default printer. You may change the system default printer by: 1) Get Windows Control Panel, via Browser System Menu (that's the little box in the upper left hand corner) 2) In the control panel, get the SETUP menu and select the PRINTER... option. 3) Select the printer you want. Note 2: If you want Landscape (sideways) print, you can: 1) Get Windows Control Panel, via Browser System Menu (that's the little box in the upper left hand corner) 2) In the control panel, get the SETUP menu and select the PRINTER... option. 3) Select the printer you want. 4) If the printer driver is smart enough, a panel will appear on which you can select Landscape print. Browser 3.1 17 CLIPCOPY Text is moved to the Windows Clipboard via the ClipCopy or the ClipAppend commands. The ClipCopy commands will replace the current clipboard contents with the selected text, whileas the ClipAppend commands will append text to the current contents of the clipboard. If the Hex Dump option is currently selected, then the selected portions of the Hex Dump will be appended to the clipboard. The ClipCopy popup menu commands are as follows: COPY MARKED ALL - The entire marked range will be copied to the clipboard, replacing the prior contents. COPY MARKED UN-HIDDEN - The displayable lines of the marked range will be copied to the clipboard, replacing the prior contents. COPY ALL - All of the current file will be copied to the clipboard, replacing the prior contents. COPY UN-HIDDEN - All the displayable lines of the current file will be copied to the clipboard, replacing the prior contents. Browser 3.1 18 CLIPAPPEND Text is moved to the Windows Clipboard via the ClipCopy or the ClipAppend commands. The ClipAppend commands will append text to the current clipboard contents, whileas the ClipCopy commands will replace the current contents of the clipboard with the selected text. If the Hex Dump option is currently selected, then the selected portions of the Hex Dump will be appended to the clipboard. The ClipAppend popup menu commands are as follows: APPEND MARKED ALL - The entire marked range will be appended to the current contents of the clipboard. APPEND MARKED UN-HIDDEN - The displayable lines of the marked range will be appended to the current contents of the clipboard. APPEND ALL - All of the current file will be appended to the current contents of the clipboard. APPEND UN-HIDDEN - All the displayable lines of the current file will be appended to the current contents of the clipboard. Browser 3.1 19 OPTIONS The OPTION pull-down menu allows control for the display format. The following options are available. ASCII TEXT - MS-DOS default text style. Used to view most files. ANSI TEXT - Windows default text style RULER - If selected, a display of line and column numbers will appear at the top of the file display. EXPANDTABS - If selected (default) the tab characters encountered in the file will be expanded. Tab stops occur every 8 characters. WORDWRAP - If selected (default) lines that would otherwise extend beyond the edge of the window will be wrapped onto the next line, breaking the text at a word boundary if possible. ADD LF AFTER CR - If selected, a Linefeed will be appended to each carriage return encountered. Useful for viewing certain files in nonstandard formats. 7 BIT TEXT - High bit of each character is ignored. Used to display files made by some word processors. If the file you are viewing contains some garbage, try this option. HEX DUMP - A Hex dump of the file is provided. The ASCII/ANSI selection and the 7-Bit Text selection are used to display the "non-hex" data at the right of the hex dump. Browser 3.1 20 GET HELP WINDOW The Get-Help-Window menu item displays a special Browser Quick Reference Window. Any menuitem selected in this special window will provide a short description of its actions in the window text area. The normal Browser window is still active, and can be used to actually execute the command. This is a good way to become familiar with Browser. Once the Get-Help-Window command has been selected, the command changes to Close-Help-Window. The Close-Help- Window command, if selected, will close the Quick Reference Window. The two system commands available in the System Menu, Move and Close, do not provide help, but instead allow you to move the Quick Reference Window, or to close it (as an alternative to the Close-Help-Window menuitem). Browser 3.1 21 System Menu Extensions A number of additional menu items have been added to the basic Windows system menu. These are: RUN ANOTHER BROWSER It is often found that it is useful to browse two files at once, especially to compare two similar files to examine the differences. The Run-Another-Browser function will start another browser on the screen. RUN CONTROL PANEL The Run-Control-Panel function will bring up the Windows Control Panel. The Control Panel may be used to setup the default printers for the Browser print function, and also to select Landscape (sideways) print if desired. RUN CLIPBOARD VIEWER The Run-Clipboard-Viewer function will bring up the Windows Clipboard Viewer. This is handy to verify the contents of the Clipboard after Browser clipboard operations. RUN NOTEPAD EDITOR The Run-Notepad-Editor function will bring up the Notepad Editor. This is a convenience item. Browser 3.1 22 Moving Around in Browser With the Keyboard Once a file is selected for browsing, the following keys become active, thus allowing the user to navigate throughout the document. (There are no surprises here, things work pretty much as one might expect.) Pg Dn Moves down one screen Pg Up Moves up one screen End Moves to end of file Home This one is tricky. If the window on the file has been shifted to the right (i.e. column 1 is no longer visible) then Home will shift the window to the left back so that column 1 becomes visible. If column 1 is visible, then Home causes a move to the beginning of the file. Up Arrow Moves the caret (the little blinking vertical bar) up one line. If it is on the top line, a scroll down occurs. Down Arrow Moves the caret down one line. If it is on the bottom line, a scroll up occurs. Left Arrow Moves the caret left one column. If it is in the leftmost column, a scroll to the right occurs. Right Arrow Moves the caret right one column. If it is in the rightmost column, a scroll to the right occurs. Browser 3.1 23 With a Mouse The usual Windows scroll bars appear at the right and bottom (except for HEX DUMP mode) of the Browser Window. These are called the Vertical and Horizontal scroll bars. Each scroll bar consists of the following parts: Arrows One arrow at either end pointing in opposite directions. The arrows are at either end of the "Elevator Shaft". Elevator Shaft The area between the arrows that the "Elevator" moves in. Elevator A small box which moves around in the Elevator shaft. The position of the elevator in the shaft gives a visual cue to the approximate portion of the file currently being displayed. Browser recognizes three types of mouse activity when the mouse is pointing to one the special areas as defined above. These activities are: 1) Mouse clicking. When the primary mouse button (usually the left) is quickly pressed and released, Browser considers this a mouse click. 2) Mouse holding. When the primary mouse button is held down, Browser considers this a series of mouse clicks (at a rate of several per second). 3) Mouse Dragging. When pointing to one of the elevators, and the primary mouse button is held down and moved in the elevator shaft, the elevator will follow the mouse pointer (as long as it stays in the shaft). Browser 3.1 24 More on Mouse Moving The following mouse actions are recognized: Clicking the Up Arrow Moves up one line Clicking the Down Arrow Moves down one line Clicking the Left Arrow Move left one line Clicking the Right Arrow Moves right one line Clicking shaft above the Vertical Elevator Moves up one screen Clicking shaft below the Vertical Elevator Moves down one screen Clicking shaft left of the Horizontal Elevator Moves left a few columns Clicking shaft right of the Horizontal Elevator Moves right a few columns Dragging Vertical Elevator to any position Instant reposition to any line in the document Dragging Horizontal Elevator to any position Instant reposition to any column in the document Browser 3.1 25 Marking Text with Browser Once a file is selected for browsing, text may be marked for use with the commands that support ranges of marked text (HideMarked, Show Marked, Print Marked, ClipCopy Marked, and ClipAppend Marked). Marked ranges have a start point and a stop point. When you view the Browser screen with a file selected, you will see a small blinking vertical bar. This bar is known as the caret. It shows you where a marked range will start. You may move the caret with the arrow keys or by clicking the primary (usually left) mouse button. With the Keyboard In order to mark a range of text with the keyboard, first display one end (usually the start) of the desired range on your screen. Move the caret to this point using the arrow keys. Once the caret is positioned at the beginning of the desired range, hold down a SHIFT key and press the arrow keys to move towards the end of the range. The screen will scroll if necessary. The selected range will appear in inverted text. When the desired range has been marked, simply release the SHIFT key. Any Browser command requiring a range may now be used. Browser 3.1 26 With the Mouse In order to mark a range of text with a mouse, first display one end (usually the start) of the desired range, position the mouse cursor at the start of the range, and click the primary (usually the left) mouse button. This will position the caret at that point. Once the beginning of the range has been established, there are three ways to mark the desired range. They are: 1) While holding the primary mouse button down, drag the mouse cursor to the other end of the desired range. The marked range will appear in inverted text. When the desired range has been marked, release the mouse button. 2) Move the mouse to other end of the desired range and click the secondary (usually right) mouse button. The range will be displayed in inverted text. If the range displayed is not exactly as desired, this operation may be repeated. 3) Move the mouse to other end of the desired range hold down a SHIFT key and click the primary mouse button. The range will be displayed in inverted text. If the range displayed is not exactly as desired, this operation may be repeated. Any Browser command requiring a range may now be used. Browser 3.1 27 Appendices Appendix A - Hide & Seek Tutorial The Hide&Seek capabilities may seem a bit strange for users unfamiliar with the Hide&Seek concept. A few simple examples should shed some enlightenment on this subject. First of all, a few simple examples: 1) Source code for a program resides in a text file. It is desired to view all all lines in the file where the variable "SnorkleGrassCounter" occurs. Simply perform a HIDE IF command. A popup window will appear, The window will request a text string, and whether to hide the lines containing the string, or the lines that do NOT contain the string. Specify "SnorkleGrassCounter" in the HIDE IF Dialog Box, and also select the "do NOT" option. Either push the return key, or select the HIDE pushbutton. Voila. 2) To temporarily view the remainder of the file, without having to re-specify the HIDE IF command, the INVERT command may be used to flipflop the hidden and displayed lines. Browser 3.1 28 Appendix A - Hide & Seek Tutorial (Continued) A sample file, BROWSER.DAT, has been provided for your perusal. It contains a list of fictitious people and some attributes of those people. It is intended to be used when experimenting with the Hide&Seek capabilities. Perform the following operations on BROWSER.DAT for more insight into the Hide&Seek capabilities. A charity basketball game is to be organized. There are a number of tasks to perform. Referring to a list of friends in BROWSER.DAT. 1) To select members of the basketball teams, perform a HIDE IF operation, selecting those lines that do NOT contain the word "tall". 2) Some radio, TV and print ads must be made. First, perform a HIDE ALL operation to hide the entire file. Then do a SHOW IF to find lines containing "ad", do additional SHOW IF operations for "radio", "TV", "model","write". 4) Someone will be required to help with the organization of this project. Do a HIDE ALL followed by a SHOW IF "organize". 5) Funds to rent the gym will be required up front. Show the "rich" people. 6) Tickets will need to be sold to local businesses, and other "fund" raising activities will be required. Good Luck. It is recommended that some time is spent simply playing with the Hide&Seek capability, since this capability, and a text file of information, can sometimes completely replace data base processors costing hundreds and hundreds of dollars more. Browser 3.1 29 Appendix B - Browser Version Information Version Information for Browser 3.1 Immediately below is a list of differences that this version of Browser has when compared to previous major releases of Browser. This is generally only of interest when updating to a new copy of Browser from a previous release. Changes first appearing in Browser 3.1 1) Re-fixed bug dealing with incorrect elevator position when switching char sets in hex dump mode. (See 3.0 below) 2) Fixed printing problems. Can now print full 80 columns. Even on TTY devices. Changes first appearing in Browser 3.0 1) Re-fixed bug dealing with incorrect elevator position when opening anything but the first file. (See 2.7 below) 2) Fixed font selection problem. Browser should look good on all displays now. 3) Fixed printing problems. Browser should now be able to quickly print material on any printer. 4) A number of esthetic improvements were made by WJE. These include better highlighting of marked blocks, and the white left-hand margin. 5) Various minor bug fixes and enhancements. Changes first appearing in Browser 2.7 1) Bug Fixed dealing with incorrect elevator position when opening anything but the first file. (See 2.5 below) Browser 3.1 30 Version Information (Continued) Changes first appearing in Browser 2.5 1) Major bug fix of a particularly elusive bug dealing with vertical scrollbar thumbtracking. 2) Re-read last file capability added. 3) Keyboard usage no longer displays the Hourglass cursor. Changes first appearing in Browser 2.3 1) Browser now remembers your option settings. Changes first appearing in Browser 2.1 1) Fixed keyboard interface for the various dialogs (most noticeably File Stats). Basically a bug fix version of 2.0 Changes first appearing in Browser 2.0 1) The long awaited Word Wrap capability has finally been added. 2) First real Windows 2.0 version of Browser. Added Windows 2.0 keyboard support. 3) The capability for the user to select between various display formats without losing his place in the file has been added. 4) Menu text graying for options that are currently unavailable has been extended. Browser 3.1 31 Appendix C - Other Window Applications Currently (2/1/89) Wilson WindowWare has two shareware applications as listed below. For more information on these applications send a SASE to: Wilson WindowWare 3377 59th SW Seattle WA 98116 Applets 1.0 Applets are a collection of tiny applications for the Microsoft Windows environment. They are primarily designed to operate with Windows menuing environments, such as Command Post 5.1 and newer, which allow you to initiate a series of applications from a single menu selection. These tiny applications include file manipulation tools (COPY, MOVE, RENAME, DELETE), Window manipulation tools (ZOOM, ICONIZE, HIDE, SHOW, CLOSE, PLACE), and miscellaneous tools (SAY, BEEP, SAYBEEP). Browser 3.1 Browser is a MS Windows application designed to allow users to browse files in a MS Windows environment. In addition to the browse capability, it supports printing, clipboarding, and a hex dump display. Browser also features the new and unusual Hide & Seek information extraction technique. Command Post 5.1 Command Post is a MS Windows application designed to allow users to easily personalize the MS-DOS Executive control window. Command Post allows users to easily add Menu and Submenu items to the main MS-DOS Executive menu bar, and to execute desired applications when a menu item is selected. Browser 3.1 32