DirNow! - Ultra-fast directory movement --------------------------------------- *requires VB40032.dll and tabctl32.ocx to be in your Windows System directory) *These can be downloaded from: *ftp://www.comm.utas.edu.au/pub/win95/dirnow/vb4runtime.zip - 370kb *ftp://www.comm.utas.edu.au/pub/win95/dirnow/tabctl.zip - 57kb *********************USE WORD WRAP FOR THIS DOCUMENT********************* Author: Paul Smith Email: Paul.Smith@comm.utas.edu.au Date: January 13th, 1997 Version: 2.00.01 Copyright January 1997 FREEWARE! - I take absolutely NO responsibility for what this program may or may not do to your computer system. This program is provided as is. All effort has been made for this to be bug free (Hey I use it, why would I want it buggy). This is provided free of charge to the Windows 95 community. The author DOES NOT authorise any person to derive moneys from the sales of this program, unless it is for the cost of the distribution media. The author is providing NO support for this product, but will gladly listen to any constructive comments or bug reports. Introduction ------------ Ever get lost trying to remember where you put that directory? Are you spending precious seconds mindlessly wandering through an Explorer window trying to find a specific directory? Are you a user who gets a little tired of having to use the mouse all the time to get around? Hey! I am all of those! That's why I came up with DirNow! DirNow! provides speedy access to your directories. Just type in a few characters for the search, and DirNow! will pop up with all the directories that match it. Choose the one you want, and Explorer opens at the directory you want! DirNow! is tiny compared to some other utilities that people are producing. At the last build, DirNow! sits at 62kb (it used to be 15kb, but the Property sheets blew it out a little). Since it requires almost no installation, DirNow! doesn't require those huge InstallShield-like programs. Installing ---------- Even this is easy! Put it anywhere! DirNow! will automatically start itself up with default options. All you need to do is tell it which drives to log. Now create a shortcut to DirNow!.exe, this too can go anywhere. Right click on the shortcut, and choose Properties. Assign a HotKey (I use CTRL+ALT+/), and WHOOSKA you have some power at your finger tips. Now you can use the hotkey to get to DirNow whenever you want. Using ----- DirNow! has several special keys. Alt-X - Unloads DirNow! from memory Esc - Clears the search string box, or puts the Directory List window away F1 - Key Help Dialog (proper help file will be in the next version) F5 - Update the Directory Data File F10 - Bring up Property sheet to change options F12 - Hide DirNow! Use the HotKey you assigned to bring it back DirNow! doesn't take any room on the taskbar. It sits quitely by the bottom right of your screen (or anywhere else you want - see Properties). By assigning a hot key to it, Windows automatically either loads it, or switches to it as required. By hiding it, you leave it in memory and speed up the next access to it with the HotKey. DirNow! works by keeping a datafile on all the directories on the drives you choose to track. When you give it a search string, it brings back in a floating listbox all the directories that have that string inside it. The arrow keys navigate through this list of directories, and just pressing Return or Enter will open the directory. You can choose multiple directories with the usual CTRL, SHIFT, left mouse button combo. Or you can press Escape to go back to the Search box. Options/Properties ------------------ There are three ways of getting to the Property Sheet. Hitting F10 while in the search string box brings it up. Right clicking on the space to the right of the search string box also brings it up. Also, since it's the default pop up menu option, you could just double click on the small space to the right of the search box. Pressing "Ok" writes all the options, "Cancel" restores the previous options. Data File - This is the location of the data file. Put it where you want. (this version doesn't automatically move it for you, so if you choose a different dir, you might want to delete the original) Drives to Log - Here you can choose which drives to log in the Data file. The left listbox contains all the available drives not selected. The right listbox shows the drives selected. Double click on a drive to select it and move it to the selected list. Strict Match - When checked, only returns the directories whose final node in the directory tree matches the search string. e.g. If you search for "windows" and strict matching is on you will get "c:\windows" and NOT "c:\windows\system" etc. Otherwise you get a bunch of directories to choose from in the list. Hide On Explorer Open - Once you have chosen a directory, DirNow! will launch Explorer to that directory. If you don't want DirNow! sitting around on your screen all the time this option will hide DirNow! once you have chosen a dir. Explorer File Manager - This option allows you to have DirNow! open an Explorer window. If this is unchecked, then DirNow! will just open the folder for you. Clear Search After Launch - Clears the Search string box after the user has selected a dir to launch Explorer with. I got sick of typing a string only to find it got appended to the last one. This option automatically clears the string for you after explorer launches. Other PopUp Options ------------------- By right clicking on the small space to the left of the search string box you bring up the Popup Menu. It contains the following options: * Properties (default) - brings up the properties tab * Remember Window Pos - You can move the window where you want, and DirNow! will remember it next time you load it * Hide - Hides the DirNow! windows so it isn't in the way. Double clicking on it's icon, or using a hotkey you have assigned to it automatically brings it to the foreground. This speeds up DirNow! a lot. By having it in memory and switching to it as required, you get a very fast response, as opposed to quiting after each use. * Help - Shows a small dialog box with the keys for DirNow. Also shows the version number. * Exit - unloads DirNow! from memory, and quits. Improvements to be made ----------------------- * Registry entries. Currently uses an INI file. I want to use the Registries, but I had modules for INI files that worked, and it was quicker at the time. * Specifying a new directory for the data file should automatically move the current one there, so the user doesn't necessarily need to rebuild. * By Drive directory update: So you have just added a bunch of dirs to a drive that you want included in DirNow!'s data file, but don't want the pain of having to relog EVERY drive. I'd like an option to select a drive to update by itself. At the moment it has to do the whole lot. * Allow user to choose own background colour for the Search box Other options are mentioned in the Wishlist.doc file Bugs ---- * If you get a run time error regarding "licencing", I suggest you download the new tabctl32.ocx from ftp://www.comm.utas.edu.au/pub/win95/dirnow/tabctl.zip According to Microsoft this should fix the problem. * Some people have reported that they get a "WriteData Error". Email me with the exact path to the Directory data file you are attempting to write, and I'll look into it. This happened in older versions and it appears was due to the code trying to set the focus to a control that wasn't visible, but it may be other problems. Remember, the first time you run DirNow or anytime it can't find the directory data file, it defaults to NO drives selected, and of course makes a zero length data file. Go to properties and select some drives and re-log. Contacting the Author --------------------- If you do find a bug, find something unusual, have an idea for a feature, or just want to say "Thanks Paul, DirNow! is really handy", I'd love to hear from you. Send me email to the above address.