howdoes.txt October/96 How does FLOPYCAT work ? 1. MENUS All FLOPYCAT functions are invoked by Menus or Hot Keys. The current menu commands and corresponding Hot Keys are: A) CATALOG (Alt-C): - Catdisk (Ctrl-C): Causes the program to read a floppy disk in a designated disk drive, and to make entries in the FLOPYCAT catalog for files located in all directories displayed. (If any directory on the floppy disk is not displayed at some point, no entries for files in that directory will be made to the catalog.) - FindEntry (Ctrl-F): Locates an entry in the catalog, based on full or partial filename, directory, disk volume label, or any combination of these - DeleteEntry (Ctrl-D): Locates an entry in the catalog, based on full or partial filename, directory, disk volume label, or any combination of these, to prepare for deletion - Exit (Ctrl-X): Terminates the program B) DIRECTORIES (Alt-D): - ShowDirs (Ctrl-S): Shows all the directories found on the floppy disk in a pop-up window - NextDir (Ctrl-N) Displays the files found in the 'next' directory on the current floppy disk. It also writes any changes to the currently displayed information back to the catalog - PrevDir (Ctrl-P) Displays the files found in the 'previous' directory on the current floppy disk. It also writes any changes to the currently displayed information back to the catalog. C) PRINT (Alt-R): - PrintOne (Ctrl-O) Prints all catalogue entries for files on a SINGLE floppy disk. Use repetitively to print catalogue entries for several (but not all) cataogued disks. Output goes to the current Windows default printer. - PrintAll (Ctrl-A) Prints all entries in the FLOPYCAT catalogue to the current Windows default printer. D) ABOUT (Alt-A): - General Info (Ctrl-G) Displays this Help File 2. METHOD OF OPERATION A) Start a 'Catalog' Operation: Insert a floppy disk in any drive then select the Menu Item 'CATALOG' and then the Menu Entry 'Catdisk'. In the pop-up window which appears, use the pull-down list to indicate the drive you want read, or click on the 'OKAY' button if the correct drive is already displayed. B) Files are loaded: The program reads the specified floppy disk and finds all the files in all the directories on the disk. It then displays the information about each file (excluding directries) found in the top-level directory of the disk. C) Existing Descriptions Extracted from Catalog: For each file found in each directory, the program checks the FLOPYCAT catalog to see if an entry already exists for the file. If no catalog entry is found, the phrase 'No Entry Found in Catalog' is displayed in place of the description. If a catalog entry is found but it does not have a file description, the phrase 'No Description Found in Catalog' is printed in place of the description. Otherwise the file description from the catalog is displayed for that entry along with the other information about the file. D) Other Information About the Files: In all cases, the file size and creation date/time shown on the display are those taken from the Floppy disk and not from the catalog. This is done since the information from the floppy disk will be either the same as or newer (more recent) than the information in the catalog. (See 'Saving Information to the Catalog' below.) E) Updating the Description in the catalog: For any displayed file entry, you can type in a new (or modified) file description. Just click on the entry to be changed, and then enter the description in the high- lighted box at the bottom of the screen. Press the key to move the new description up into the display area. NOTE: You cannot change any of the other displayed information, since it all comes from the floppy disk which is current and considered correct. F) Saving Information to the Catalog: Once the contents of a directory have been displayed, (and perhaps descriptions modified), you will want to save that information permanently in the FLOPYCAT catalog. There are several ways to do this: 1) Move to another directory: When you change directories, either with the NEXTDIR or PREVDIR commands, or directly by selecting a directory from the SHOWDIRS window, the current contents of the display screen are saved in the FLOPYCAT catalog. 2) Click the 'Save to Catalog' button: This will write the currently displayed information to the catalog and clear the screen. The program will still be pointing at the same floppy disk directory. 3) Terminate the program: When you select EXIT to terminate the program, the contents of the displayed screen are first written to the catalog. G) More about the SHOWDIRS Menu Item: If a floppy disk has many sub-directories, you may find it awkward to navigate around using the NEXTDIR and PREVDIR commands. An alternative is the SHOWDIRS command, which provides a scrollable pop-up window which displays ALL the sub-directories on the floppy disk. Simply double- click on any directory in the pop-up window, and the contents of that directory will be displayed. (All information displayed on the screen at that time will automatically be saved to the Flopycat catalog. H) Deleting old Catalog Entries: At some point it is likely that you will delete old files from your floppy disks. The entries for those files can be deleted from the FLOPYCAT catalog by use of the DeleteEntry menu item in the CATALOG menu. No floppy disk needs to be accessed in order to use this command. I) Finding Files on Floppy Disks: One of the major benefits of cataloging your floppy disks using Flopycat is the ability to quickly find out which floppy disk contains the file you are looking for. To do this, select the FindEntry menu item in the CATALOG menu. A pop-up window will appear, in which you can enter any of the following: 1) Full or partial disk volume label, or leave blank 2) Full or partial directory name, or leave blank 3) Full or partial file name, or leave blank In all cases, 'full or partial' means you can enter the search criteria in one of several ways, for example: 1) file01.txt - will find only files with that name and extension. 2) file01.* - will find all files with the name 'file01' with any extension 3) *.bak - will find files with any filename and with an extension of '.bak' 4) *ile*.txt - will find files with the characters 'ile' somewhere in the filename and with an extension of '.txt' These examples also apply to the specification of the disk volume and/or the disk directory, or any combination you want to search on. Note also that you do NOT need any floppy disks installed to use this feature. J) Requirement for disks to be LABELLED: FLOPYCAT uses three pieces of information to find a specific file entry in the catalog: Disk Volume Label; Directory Name; and Filename. Therefore, FLOPYCAT will not process any disk that does not have a Volume Label. You can use the Windows File Manager to put a label on any floppy disk, even if it has files on it (this is NOT the FORMAT DISK function).