Menu Selector v2.11 - This consists of Program Selector, Launcher, Menu Editor, and Automatic Reminder. Copyright (c) 1990-5 by Tom Beversdorf This program is $15.00 shareware. You are free to evaluate this program within 90 days. After 90 days, please either pay $15.00 shareware fee, or distribute to other users or destroy it. If you pay the shareware fee, the shareware notice will be disabled. If you don't like this software, run UNINSTALL from your distribution disk. It will remove all of your Menu Selector from hard disk. This runs on IBM-PC compatibles; 512K; DOS 5.0; QBasic (included with DOS 5). Please distribute this program to everyone you know. This set of files consist of: README.TXT (This file) REGISTER.FRM (Shareware Register Form) MENUSEL.BAS (Menu program) INSTALL.BAT (Installer for Menu Selector) INSTALL.BAS (Program Installer from QBasic for Menu Selector) UNINSTAL.BAT (Uninstaller from Menu Selector) UNINSTAL.BAS (Program Uninstaller from QBasic Menu Selector) MENUAUX1.BAS (Menu Editor program - internal run only) APPOINT.BAS (Appoint/Reminder Editor program) Note about Shareware: --------------------- I haven't received any single amount of shareware since I've been working hard to make time to work on this program. That's because I first distributed this for Apple computers but many people were not interested. Please support the shareware fee so I can continue working on this program. If any of the programs have been modified, it may not be operational. Installation for IBM-PC computers: ---------------------------------- Go into the floppy drive or hard disk directory and type INSTALL at the DOS prompt. This will install the Menu Selector onto your PC. It will make some necessary changes for CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Saving the old version as CONFIG.OLD and AUTOEXEC.OLD if any. ------------------------------------------ Operation of This Program for IBM-PC: Program Selector: ----------------- You may use an arrow key to move cursor and press ENTER to select. You may press ESC key to change your mind. You may also press the first letter (or number) to select it. When running the program from Program Selector, it will leave only 160 bytes of memory before returning the menu. More Keys you can press: ------------------------ F2 -- shells to DOS leaving Menu Selector in memory. When you get out of the shell, type EXIT and press ENTER. F3 -- run any DOS command, this will leave only 160 bytes of memory. F4 -- if you have windows installed, run windows. F5 -- launch application, this will leave only 160 bytes of memory. F6 -- go to current date reminder. F7 -- previous reminder date; Shift for week, Ctrl for month, and Alt for year. F8 -- next reminder date; Shift for week, Ctrl for month, and Alt for year. F10 -- exit to DOS. PgUp, PgDn -- if you see arrows on the reminder notes, pages through the notes. * -- edit the appointment. Ctrl-6 -- edit the menu. Ctrl-V -- Displays the version box if the reminder notes is being displayed. To return to the reminder notes, press PgDn key. Ctrl-Alt-Del -- reboot computer. Program Launcher: ----------------- You may use the arrow keys to move cursor and press ENTER to select drive or set directory name. You may also press the number to select it. Then the file directory will be displayed. You may use an arrow key to move cursor and press ENTER to open subdirectory or run file. You may press BACK SPACE key to close subdirectory, and press ESC to go back to Launcher menu. The file directory on the Program Launcher lists only the DIR, EXE, COM, and BAT. It will also display DOS to select any DOS command. Type: Description: ----- ------------ DIR Subdirectory file you can go into. COM Command executable file. EXE DOS Executable file. BAT Batch executable file (ASCII Batch) DOS DOS Command Line. When you see a C:\> prompt, type 'M' to return to the main menu. DOS Command inside Menu Selector -------------------------------- Type any DOS command or press Ctrl-E to select executable file or press Ctrl-F to select any files. Menu Editor and Configuration ----------------------------- It displays the menu to set up the screen colors, edit menu, Windows option (F4 key enabled/disabled), and exit with save option. Screen Color Editor (Only if you have color monitor) ---------------------------------------------------- There are foreground and background colors for text, highlighted text, and title. There is also a screen border. Use left and right arrows to select the type of color. Use up and down arrows to adjust colors. ENTER to accept new color, and ESC to cancel the color change. Menu Editor ----------- There are two columns on the menu editor. The first column is category, and the second column is program. The menu will be saved as MENUFILE.DAT, an ASCII text file on the MENUSEL subdirectory. Each column can be accumulated up to approximately 15 entries, and total entries can be accumulated up to approximately 150 entries. If you tried to add beyond the limit, it would not let you to do it. If you want to add the first column item, use Alt-I and type the name and press [ENTER] key, then type an unique letter or number corresponding the name. Then it will let you to insert the second column. You must add the first item on the second column in order to keep the first column entry or it will be deleted. If you want to change the first column item, use Alt-R and type the new name or [ENTER] for default and then letter or number, or [ENTER] for default. If you want to delete the first column entry, press Del to delete an entry and all the lower-level menu. To add an entry on the second column, use Alt-I to insert the name, key, directory, and command name. The program may be used as EXE, COM, and BAT. Otherwise, use any DOS command. To edit an entry or change the file on the second column, use Alt-E to edit the name, key, directory, and command name. Use [ENTER] for default value for name and key. It will also prompt you the directory and command name. To remove the entry on second column, press Del to delete an entry. To change the file: It will give you a menu of what drive or directory if new directory or non-existent directory, otherwise it will prompt you to change the drive. Then, it will list the filenames. Use arrow keys to move cursor, press ENTER to accept file or open subdirectory, BACK SPACE to close subdirectory, ESC to change drive or directory. If you select DOS command, type any DOS command or Ctrl-E for executable file or Ctrl-F for any files. If you press Ctrl-E or Ctrl-F, it will give you a list of filename in the current directory. Use arrow keys to move cursor, press ENTER to select file or open subdirectory, BACK SPACE to close subdirectory, and ESC to change device. Reminder in Menu ---------------- The automatic reminder will display up to four messages at a time on the main menu. If it exceeds, it will let you know to see more reminders by pressing PgDn key. PgUp key lets you review previous page of reminders. The reminder can be added up to approximately 150 messages. The reminder is automatically displayed about the shareware on the top of the menu depending on the system date after 90 days of usage. Editing the Reminder -------------------- Press * key to go to the reminder editor. You will see the at least an INSERT message with new appointment. You may also see an ACTIVE one and sometimes an obsolete one that is displayed "Delete" under the STATUS column. You may use up and down arrow keys to scroll through the messages. You may also press [TAB] key to toggle the date show on/off in front of the messages. When the date is on, it will show the beginning date and the ending date as format: "MM/DD/YY Day" as you have seen on the "Insert" status. An asterisk (*) denotes as generic item. For example: "09/25/ *" that occurs September 25th of each year. You may also see "NN days to MM/DD/YY" that is the number of days to the end date; or "MM/DD/YY for NN days" from starting date effective for the number of days. Alt-I to insert the message, Alt-E to edit date and/or message, and Del to delete the message. When you edit the reminder, first it displays the menu for the date format. Option 1 is from starting date to the ending date, option 2 is from starting date for the number of days, and option 3 is the number of days to the ending date. Then enter the necessary dates, and depending on the option, enter the number of days. The default date entry is today's date when inserting or the current date of appointment when editing. You may enter a date in any format you want to with optional day of the week (i.e. MM-DD-YY, DD-MMM-YY, DDMMMYY, MM/DD/YYYY Day, or "every Saturday"). The default day entry is 07 days when inserting or current number days when editing. After all the date is completed, it will give you another menu. GENERAL option, that is effective as option #1 from the first menu only, is numeric Month, Date, and Year. ANNUAL option will replace the year with asterisk (*). MONTHLY option will replace the month and year with asterisks. DAILY option, that is effective as option #1 only, is asterisked in Month, Date, and Year; the day of the week is always supplied. Finally, enter the appointment text. The default is the current message or "Appointment Message" when inserting. NOTE: If you want to make a reminder for one week until the first Wednesday of each month, use "07 days to */07/ * Wed". The first "07" is the number of days, that is seven, or one week. The first asterisk is every month, the second 07 is the latest date - that is the end of the first week, the last asterisk is every year, and Wed is the day of the week of Wednesday. If it is Wednesday the fourth, it will be the last day of each month unless it becomes active around the end of each month. If it is Tuesday the seventh, it is not active because Wednesday the first is the last day of active. If you want to make a note from second Tuesday of May for two weeks, use "05/08/ * Tue for 14 days". The "05" stands for May, "08" is the earliest date for the second week, asterisk is for every year, "Tue" is for Tuesday, and "14" is the number of days. Leaving from Remind Editor -------------------------- Press [ESC] and press 'Y' to confirm. Then, it will prompt you to save it. If it is not saved, it will effect for only the temporarily until you launch other program. If there are any obsolete messages, it will prompt you to destroy the obsolete messages while saving. The appointment will be saved as APPOINT.TXT, an ASCII text file on the MENUSEL directory. ------------------------------------------ Bugs and Deficiency: Some of the unusual color combination from the default screen color may cause to be missing text or wrong color. The directory list may not handle over 500 files in a directory. The percent sign (%) may not work right under working directory and command name. Instead, use double percent sign (%%) to alleviate the problem. If you encounter any bugs, please contact me by E-Mail or U.S. Mail and jot down what the bugs are so I can fix it on the next release. Troubleshooting: If you see the message "Can't run the menu - use installer", you were copying the files by hand. Please use an installer to install from the distribution disk into your hard drive. If you see the reminder note about the shareware fee and can't find it on the editor, this is a shareware version - it displays the reminder note after 90 days of trial period. To get rid of the message, pay the shareware fee. ------------------------------------------ Chronological Update: Version 1.0 (9/4/1989) Menu completed with top four selection with exit to Basic and two column menu. (Boot from floppies, Go to Windows environment, and Exit to Basic. Main menu and sub menu) - First on Apple II computers. Version 1.0.1 Added to the menu of Quit to DOS. Version 1.0.2 Move auxiliary files to SYSTEM directory. Version 1.0.3 Renamed the file to fix the problem on the new operating system. Version 1.0.4 Added the holidays on the main menu. Version 1.0.5 Added the screen saver feature, that will blank out the screen with a dim message. Version 1.0.6 Added an ESC key to go back to first column instead of exiting to Basic. Version 1.1 (12/15/1989) Added the quit code to return to menu (Apple II version) Version 1.1.1 Added an automatic menu to Reboot hard disk selection. Version 1.1.2 Fixed the bug so it will be able to display a graphics without any distortion after running an application. Version 1.1.3 Bug fixed from version 1.1.1 Version 1.1.4 Added little more holidays, removed the right arrow key so you won't accidentally launch it. The menu program updates the date after screen-saver. Version 1.1.5 Fixes the bug from using with 80 column text. This also adds an option to select the directory from MENUSEL. Version 1.1.6 - First released as Shareware for Apple II computer. Bug fixed after blanked out screen that caused to mess up the last category's program menu. Version 2.0 - Major Changes (1/1/91) This adds a lot of features such as Program Launcher, displaying the date and time, displaying three columns of main menu instead of two with 80 column display, more holidays, removed user menu from hard coded DATA statements to the data file, and also supporting a screen color option. Version 2.0.1 Fixed bug on the empty menufile with color, fixed Martin Luther's King traditional day, fixed error handler, fixed bug upon entering date, fixed for new operating system, and added more events. Version 2.0.2 Bug fixed upon error on directory entry. Cleared error detector when exit to Basic. Version 2.0.3 Keyboard buffer cleared when selecting the drive/directory menu, fixed the quit code from false signature. Version 2.0.4 Fixed the bug for Easter Holiday and Election Day, system date setup, and reminder date. Version 2.10 (Version for IBM-PC compatibles) Changed to multiple colors for IBM-PC, modified an automatic menu for IBM-PC so you can run Windows. Version 2.10a Minor bug fixed to fix the recursive problem of MenuSel. Version 2.10b Minor bug fixed of displaying the shareware notice. Version 2.10c Bug fixed that caused to get an Invalid Directory and other error message instead of executing the program when trying to change to one- or two-character subdirectory. Version 2.11 Added the F-keys to navigate with the reminder dates and reduces the step when inserting the file after the directory. Bug fixed on the reminder note on January and February of the leap year and 21st century. Major bug fixed that prevents from running the MenuSel without Windows installed due to the false positive of being tampered. Version 2.11a Fixed the appoint date leap year bug on the remind editor. ----------------------------- Coming Attractions: ------------------- The future release will have a lot more color selections and more options such as disabling the warning beep, screen saver option, etc. This will also be released by Visual Basic for DOS instead of QBasic. This will also add an additional prompt when launching applications or programs on the PC. It will handle multiple of menu-files you can link to. It will have a help feature on each item on the menu, and an user-defined help feature. Have fun! U.S. MAIL: Tom Beversdorf 5758 Brockton Ct. Apt #6 Indianapolis, IN 46220 InterNET E-Mail: beversdo@moose.cs.indiana.edu Phone: (317) 726-0109 ---end of readme---