1. INTRODUCTION FEATURES Down Load Tracker (TM) has been designed to help you keep track of all those downloaded files whether they are stored on floppy disks, removable drive or on a hard drive. Special features include: Locate any download in just seconds, irrespective of location or whether you can remember the filename using the following search criteria. Search for a particular file name. Know exactly where any file is located whether it be on the hard drive, removable drive or floppy disk. Search for a particular a string of characters whether it be a couple of words, a single word or part of a word in description, archive, or filediz fields e.g. MS Flight Simulator or Doom files. No longer is it necessary to make sense of an obscure file name. This powerful search option helps you locate any file whether it is an archive or even a file within an archive in just a couple of seconds. Search for a group of similar files by category even if they are located on different floppies, removable drives or hard disk. List description for source. Very handy for those obscure Internet addresses Source can be up to 78 characters long. Ideal for those long Internet addresses. Search for Internet address by category or description. No need to figure out cryptic addresses. Auto entry option takes all the hassle out of entering details. All you have to do is select the drive whether it be floppy, removable drive or hard drive with the downloads on and DownLoad Tracker does the rest. All you have to do is to add the category and short description. Automatically extracts long description from FILE_ID.DIZ if available and archive details. Shows which floppies have the most disk space free ensuring that floppies are fully used. View archive file contents for .ZIP, .LHZ or ARJ file or text file contents while entering details or any other time. Ability to delete a record and the file at the same time. Ability to check for duplicate downloads stored on a different disk. Ability to check for different versions of the same file (BBS or file lists!) View and print text files and search for words within the text file. NEW with Version 3. Extract archive details, FILE_ID.DIZ details from self-extracting EXE files and unpack self-extracting EXE files. Also this has been rewritten showing extra hints on how to make the best use of DownLoad Tracker. Plus lots more. DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT Users of DownLoad Tracker must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "DownLoad Tracker is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of DownLoad Tracker." 2. INSTALLATION Hardware requirements Minimum requirements is a 286 computer, EGA monitor, 2 megs of extended memory. Recommended requirements: 386+ computer, VGA monitor, 4 megs extended memory, 1 meg expanded memory. NOTE DownLoad Tracker will run on a 286 with just 640K of memory but some operations may be very sluggish. Installing shareware version. It is assumed that you have unpacked the file DLTD30.ZIP to the C:\TEMP directory and that you have unzipped the DLTD30.ZIP file and you have this README.1ST file. Now do the following instructions. 1. Create a directory called \DLT in the drive where you want DownLoad Tracker to reside. Move to that directory. At the \DLT prompt, type COPY C:\TEMP\*.* and press . All the files will now be copied to the \DLT directory. Print out the manual. This is important because you will need to set up DownLoad Tracker before you can use it. Especially read Chapters 4, 5, and 6. There is a number of things you need to do before running Down Load Tracker. The manual has been supplied in two formats 1. In Windows Write format (manual.wri) It is recommended that you print this manual as it has been properly typeset and paginated. It is very easy to find any information in this manual. 2. If you do not have Windows then there is an ASCII manual (manual.txt). The ASCII file has not been formatted and is much more difficult to read and locate information. To run DownLoad Tracker, at the \DLT prompt type DLT and press . DownLoad Tracker will create a number of database files and indexes the first time you run it. Installing Registered Version Place the DownLoad Tracker disk in drive A:. Change to A: prompt. At the A: prompt, type INSTALL and press . Follow the instructions on the screen. 3. SETTING UP DownLoad Tracker The following should be done BEFORE you start Download Tracker. If you start DownLoad Tracker before you do all of the following steps, you will have to back out again to complete these steps. Get a list of all your BBS sites. Let's assume that you are using Telix which is the most popular of the BBS communication programs. These instructions can easily be adapted to other programs. Start up Telix. Press to bring up the list of BBS's. You can print out a complete list of BBS sites by selecting Other for the optional menu selections, and then select Print. This will print out a hard copy of the list of BBS's you have in Telix. If you are using the Internet, you will also need to get a list of your Internet sites as well. When you have all your BBS and Internet listings then have a look at them and decide what categories these sources should be under. You can always change or add to the categories later but at least you should have a basic list. As most BBS cover a wide range of topics, you should include the category GENERAL BBS in the source category list. Also include "Unknown Source" in the source list. This will be handy when you enter previous downloads and you don't know where the download came from. If your downloads are stored on a hard drive then go to section 5. If your downloads are stored on floppy disks or removable drives then you will need to number each floppy/removeable drive. This is important because if you don't number the disks now then you will not know which disk to place in the drive when DownLoad Tracker asks for a particular disk. When you have labelled all the disks make sure that they in correct order with number one disk on the top. Now you can start DownLoad Tracker. The first time you run DownLoad Tracker, a number of database files and indexes are created. A number of boxes will flash on the screen telling you what is happening. Also the first time you run DownLoad Tracker, you will be asked to set the date format to either British (dd/mm/yy) or USA (mm/dd/yy), the drive the floppy will use, the drive/directory where the large files are stored on the hard drive and also if available the drive letter for the removable drive. IMPORTANT If you do not have a removable drive then leave this blank at present. If a removable drive letter is specified, DownLoad Tracker will assume that you have transferred all your downloads from the floppies to the removable drive and will search the removable drive and ignore the floppy drive. If you are using the shareware version then the shareware message will appear. After reading it press any key to remove it. The main introduction screen will now appear. In a couple of seconds, the main database screen will appear. See THE MAIN DATA SCREEN in this manual for full description of this screen (including hidden fields). Now click the mouse on Download Category. An empty box will appear with a number of buttons beside it. Click on Add Category to add your first download category. A box will appear, enter the category and then press . Repeat this step until all the download categories have been entered. Now press to back out or click on the Leave button. You must have at least one download category before you can enter any download details. You can add extra categories during Auto Entry. If you have previous downloads to enter then you should have the category "UNKNOWN". This is necessary because you will possibly come across a number of previous downloads for which you may not be able to immediately identify so you can use this category as a temporary measure until you get some time in the future to investigate these downloads in more detail (See also Chapter 6 FIRST TIME DATA ENTRY). Now at the main screen click on Source Category. An empty box will appear with a number of buttons beside it. Click on Add Category to add your first (BBS/Internet) category.A box will appear, enter the category and then press . Repeat this step until all the source categories have been entered. Now click on the Leave button or press to back out. Now at the main screen click on Source. A box will appear with a number of buttons under it. Click on Add to add your source records. For full instructions see Chapter 8. SOURCE CATEGORY in this manual. Repeat this step until all the source records have been entered. You are now ready to enter your download details. See Chapter 5. SETTING UP THE DOWNLOADS FOR AUTO ENTRY for full information on how to do this. NOTE: If you try and skip any of the above steps, then when you try to enter data, you will receive a error message like "No categories available, Enter at least one category". 4. THE MAIN DATA SCREEN The main data screen shows a list of different mouse buttons for different purposes and the main download database. There are four fields visible and six fields that are not visible at start up. To view the other fields, press the , , , keys to move through the different fields. The Source and Name fields have been truncated in order to fit the four fields on the screen. You can also move through the fields by clicking on the side of the box. The left button of the mouse moves the highlight bar one field at a time while the right button of the mouse moves the highlight bar one windowful at a time. To move to a particular record just click on that record. To move through the database, use the , , , and keys. To move through the database with the mouse, to move up, clicking the left button on the top of the window will move the highlight bar up one record while clicking with the right button on the top of the box will move up one windowful, to move down, clicking the left button on the bottom of the window will move the highlight bar down one record while clicking with the right button on the bottom of the box will move down one windowful. To view all the details of a record move the highlight bar to the record you want to view and press . A box will appear with the selected record's detail. Beneath this box a second box will appear, if the long description has been extracted from the FILE_ID.DIZ then this description will appear here. Press any key to remove the boxes. For more information on each field see ENTERING DOWNLOAD DATA. 5. SETTING UP THE DOWNLOADS FOR AUTO ENTRY Here are a couple of rules you should follow when down loading from a source, and preparing the files to be included in the download database. The easiest way to set up downloads for auto entry is to run DownLoad Tracker as a DOS program within Windows. The instructions listed below may seem a little complex but they are a easier to do than explain so please all the instructions. They can save you a considerable amout of time and a lot of hasssle. Before down loading a file, get a short description of the file, this saves the hassle of trying to remember what each download is for. The best way to do this is when you tag the file to download. It only takes a few seconds and can save you a lot of time and hassle later. A short description is really necessary to make DownLoad Tracker effective. Remember not all downloads have a FILE_ID.DIZ. Keep a separate list of all files downloaded from different sources otherwise you won't know where each file came from. If you are storing your downloads on a hard drive or removable drive then move the downloads to the selected directory/removeable drive. If you are only using a small removable drive e.g. 100 megabytes, then you may need to read the instructions below for hints on how to completely fill a removable drive otherwise go straight to Chapter 6. FIRST TIME DATA ENTRY. COPYING DOWNLOADS TO FLOPPIES After down loading all the files, take your time and make sure that the files downloaded are what you really need. Descriptions can be misleading. Unzip the file to another temporary directory and have a good look at the unzipped files. If it is not what you wanted then delete the file. Now start up DownLoad Tracker, then at the main screen click on Search. A box will appear. Select "Last Floppy Number". A box will appear showing the last floppy number entered in the download database. If the database is up to date, then use the next number for the next floppy to store downloads on. Press any key to clear the box. Now click on Search again. This time select "Show Floppy Space". A box will appear with a list of floppies and the approximate amount of disk space used for each floppy. The floppies will appear in order of least space used. Note the floppy numbers with the least space used and see if there is sufficient space to store any of the new downloads. NOTE: The space used is only an approximation as the size of the file is rounded down to the nearest kilobyte, so the actual space used will be slightly diffently than that shown. This is still a lot easier than have to physically check each disk. If you have any floppies that are not completely filled then note the number of these floppies or alternately you can print out a complete list of floppy spaces by clicking on the "Print Floppies". Now leave DownLoad Tracker. Once you have sorted out the files, now is the time to download them to the floppies or removable drive. It is assumed that you have downloaded the files to the temporary directory C:\TEMP and that the files will be downloaded to floppies or the removable drive. The first thing is to get a list of files and their size. The easiest and fastest way to do this is with Windows File Manager. After starting File Manager, move to the directory that the downloads are stored on, in this case C:\TEMP. Now click on the File menu. Now click on All File Details. The size of each file will be shown. If there are any floppies that are not completely filled, then check the downloads to see if there is any files that will fit in the available space following the instructions listed below. Place a floppy in drive A:. If it is a new floppy then remember to label the floppy before placing it in the drive. Click on the A: drive symbol. Now click on the A: drive directory. At the bottom left hand corner of the screen will be shown the available disk space for the floppy loaded in the drive. Note this space. Now click on the C: drive. Now select a file that will fit in the available disk space. Remember that the aim is to fill each floppy so that the mimum amount of free space is left. Now press . The Move File window will appear. Type in A: in the lower entry area and click on the OK button. The download will now be moved to the floppy. Click on A: drive symbol. Click on A: drive directory to see how much space is left on the floppy. Repeat the above steps in this paragraph until all the downloads have been moved to the floppies. When you have moved all the downloaded files to the floppies or removable drive, now restart DownLoad Tracker and at the main screen click on Auto Entry for auto entry of data. For more information on Auto Entry see Chapter 6. 6. FIRST TIME DATA ENTRY The first time that you enter download data into the database you may be faced with a certain numbers of problems particularly if you already have a number of previous downloads to enter. Each of the following problems can possibly be fixed at a later date so just follow the defaults at this stage. The first problem is that you probably will not know where the file came from, so when the source list comes up just select "Source Unknown". This one may be a little bit hard to fix but the other two problems should be easy to fix. If the archive has a FILE_ID.DIZ then there be no problem in selecting the category and entering the short description. However many archives do not have a FILE_ID.DIZ and therefore unless you are familiar with the archive, then you won't know which category to select or what short description to write. If this is the case select 'UNKNOWN' for the category, and write 'Unknown' in the short description. The most important thing at this stage is to get all the files entered in the database, and worry about the difficult ones later. HINT: When you do get around to sorting out the unknowns, set the database so that it is in disk number order. To do this, Click on Search, the select Floppy Search No., accept the default by pressing . Now move the highlight bar to the disk number field by either using the right arrow key or clicking the mouse on the right border. Now use the key to move the Floppy No. field until you get the required fields in view ( works in reverse.) This way you will have a minimum number of disk swaps. Now get a sheet of paper and rule three columns on it, one for the file name, one for the disk number and a wide one for the short description. Now go through the database noting all the unknowns. You may get some idea of what the file is about if the file is an archive (.ZIP, ARJ, LHZ or self-extracting DOS .EXE file) by looking at the archive details. If this doesn't help then the only other way is to unpack the file! 7. AUTO ENTRY OF DATA This is the most powerful of all the DownLoad Tracker options and allows you to automatically extract information including the long description from the FILE_ID.DIZ file (if available) from downloaded files contained on a floppy, removable drive or hard disk and will automatically enter the data traight into the database. All you have to do is to select the category and add the short description. This allows you to quickly update the database without any hassles. NOTE: 2 megabytes of extended memory are required for this process. While it may run with just 640k of lower memory, the process would be very slow. If this is the first time you have used the Auto Entry option, then first collect all the floppies or removable drives that have downloads on them and number them in sequential order. Make sure that the numbers are large and legible. It would probably pay to download a label program that can print out labels with sequential numbers. To use the Auto Entry option, at the main database screen click on Auto Entry. A box will appear asking you if you want to automatically add details of downloads to the database. If you answer Y, another box will now appear asking you whether you want to auto enter from Floppies, Removable Drive or Hard Disk. AUTO ENTRY FROM FLOPPIES OR REMOVABLE DRIVE After making your selection, the screen will clear and a box will appear at the top of the screen with either the words "DownLoad Tracker, Auto entry of data from floppies.", "Download Tracker, Auto entry of data from removable drive". NOTE: The action of whether you use floppies or removable drive is almost the same except that different drives are used. Processing floppies can be rather slow irrespective of the type of processor because of the slow rate at which data is read from the floppy into the processor. If you are using a removable drive then where the word "Floppy" appears below, then treat that word as "removable drive". A message will then appear asking you to put the disk in the selected drive. DownLoad Tracker will then check if the floppy has been inserted correctly. If not a message will appear. If everything is ok, then DownLoad Tracker will attempt to read the floppy label. If DownLoad Tracker can not read the label, then a box will appear asking you to enter the disk number that the downloads are stored on. You must enter a disk number otherwise an error message will appear. This only happens once with each new disk. It is important that you enter the correct disk number as this is used automatically by DownLoad Tracker. DownLoad Tracker will then attempt to read the floppy directory. If the directory is empty, the message " Unable to extract directory information. Could be empty disk" will appear. MESSAGE "THIS IS NOT A DOWNLOAD TRACKER DISK" When you insert a floppy disk or a removable drive in a drive, DownLoad Tracker attempts to read the disk label. When it reads the label, it checks the first 3 characters to see if they are "DLT", if these are not found then the above message will appear. If this is an old disk that has been previously used then the chances are that another program has labelled the disk. If this is the case then back out of DownLoad Tracker. First check that the disk does contain downloads by running the DOS command 'dir A:'. If everything is okay, then run the DOS command 'LABEL A:'. The disk label will be shown. Press . Now answer Y to confirm that you want to remove the old label. Now start up DownLoad Tracker. Select auto entry. The message will then appear 'Can not find disk number. Enter disk disk number'. Enter the disk number and press . The disk number will then be written to the disk in the form "DLT". For example if the disk number is 35, then the label on the disk will be 'DLT35'. By writing the disk number to the disk, DownLoad Tracker knows which disk has been placed in the drive and also removes the need to enter the disk number each time you insert the disk, which also removes the possibility of human error. Once the directory has been read, a box will appear with the message " Processing files ", also the number of files on the floppy and the file number and file name currently been processed. Each file is processed as follows, first the file name is read, then a check is made to see if a matching file name is found on the database. If the name is found on the database, then file dates are compared. MATCHING NAMES WITH DIFFERENT FILE DATE If the file dates match, it is assumed that the file has already been entered on the database and the file is ignored. However if the file dates do not match, then the following message will appear on the screen "This file is already listed on database but the file dates do not match. This could be a different file." This could be a completely different file covering a completely different subject in which case it should be carefully checked out. If they are two different files, then change the name slightly of the file that you are presently trying to record details of and try again. The other occurrence of the file names that may be the same but the file date is different is where you have downloaded a list of files from a BBS. This list changes daily and it is easy to finish up with a number of lists all with the same name but with different dates. By checking file dates, DownLoad Tracker makes it easy to eliminate out of date BBS lists. You will then be asked whether you want to delete the file on the floppy or whether you want to continue. The case where you would want to delete the file on the floppy is where the file listed on the database is later then that on the floppy. Where the file on the disk is later than the file shown in the database, then select Continue. This will add the details of the file on the floppy to the database. Make a note of the older file and after you have finished adding all the downloads, then delete the older file. (See deleting records). DUPLICATE DOWNLOAD CHECK A second check is made to see if the file name and the file date match and if the other file resides on a different disk. If this is the case then the second file is possibly a duplicate download. When this happens a box will appear giving you three options. VIEW You can view the contents of the second file. This option may give you some idea if the second file is the same as the first if you are familiar with the first file without the need to leave DownLoad Tracker. DELETE If you are sure that this is a duplicate download, then you can use this option to delete the second file. You will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the file. QUIT This option will abort the auto entry and return you to the main screen. You may need to make this option if you want to check the file out in more depth then just viewing the file archive. EXTRACTING FILE_ID.DIZ AND ARCHIVE DETAILS If the file checks out, then the file extension is checked. If the file extension ends with ZIP, LZH, or ARJ, or the file is a self extracting EXE created with either ZIP, LHA or ARJ then an attempt is made to extract the long description from the FILE_ID.DIZ file contained in the archive. All other files are ignored. The FILE_ID.DIZ file is a file with a long description of the program and is used by sysops of BBS's when adding to the BBS list. In order to extract the FILE_ID.DIZ file, you must have the following three programs either in the \DLT directory or on the DOS path. The three programs are PKUNZIP.EXE, LHA.EXE and ARJ.EXE plus PKZIP.EXE for viewing ZIP files.. The files PKUNZIP.EXE and PKZIP.EXE can be found in the self extracting archive PK204G.EXE. The file ARJ.EXE and be found in the self-extracting file ARJ230.EXE. The file LHA.EXE can be found in the self extracting file LHA213.EXE. These self extracting archive files can be easily found on most BBS's. Version numbers may be different from those listed above. Remember to register these files separately. If the required EXE file can not be found then a error message will appear, check the DOS path or move the required exe file to the \DLT directory. If there is no FILE_ID.DIZ then a message will appear informing you of same. ADDING CATEGORY AND SHORT DESCRIPTION The screen will then clear and a box will appear with the contents of the FILE_ID.DIZ if available. Beneath that a box will appear with details to enter the source, category and short description. Immediately afterwards a box will appear with a list of sources, select the source where the file was downloaded from and press . The easiest way to do this is to press the first letter of the source required. If there is more than one source with the same first letter then just keep pressing the letter until you come to the source required. If you can't remember where the download came from then select "SOURCE UNKNOWN". The box containing the list of sources will disappear and the source will appear in the source field. A list of categories will now appear.The easiest way to select the required category is to press the first letter of the category required. If there is more than one category with the same first letter then just keep pressing the letter until you come to the category required. If you want to add a new category press . After selecting the category press . Now add the short description. If the long description is visible (extracted form FILE_ID.DIZ) then this should be easy. However if there is no long description, and you can't remember what the file is about, then enter "Unknown" and after you have listed all the other files, go back and check on the file in order to decide which category and short description should be entered. Each file will be processed in one at a time. The description field is an indexed field where you can do a search for a certain description. It is important therefore that you make you make the first word a " key-word ". For example if the file is a Microsoft Flight Simulator add-on for version 4, then use a description similar to the following. "FS4 - Sydney Airport add-on". This way when you do a search in descriptions for Flight Simulator files then all you need to do is to enter as your search string " fs4 " and all your flight simulator add-on files would be shown. HINT: If you are down loading from a BBS, when you tag a file to download, then press the button. This will give you a print out of the filename, size, date of file, and description, all ready to be added to DownLoad Tracker! If you are down loading from the Internet or Compuserve then you should be able to do something similar. 8. managing records EDIT RECORD To edit a download record, at the main screen click on Records and then select EDIT RECORD. Most of what applies when adding a record, also applies when editing a record, except that no check is made on the file name. See Add Record for full details of fields. If you only want to change one field then click on that field. When you have changed the field, press to save the changes. This saves you having to go through all the fields. DELETING A RECORD. To delete a download record, at the main screen click on Records then select DELETE RECORD. A box will now appear with the name of the file, where it was sourced from, and the description of the file. You will asked to confirm that you want to delete the file and record or just the record only. The only time you should select record only is when you are sure that the file has already been deleted from the disk. Selecting file and record makes it a lot easier and also more foolproof as you don't have to remember to delete the file after you have left DownLoad Tracker. When you select File and Record, you will be asked to place the required disk in the drive if it is stored on a removable drive or floppy. A number of checks will be made to make sure that the correct disk has been inserted and if everything thing is ok than the file and record is deleted. If there is any problem then the appropriate message will appear. If the file can not be found then a message to that will appear. If this happens just delete the record only. TOTAL DOWNLOAD This option allows you check on how many files and the number of kilobytes that have been downloaded from a particular source. To check the total downloads, at the main database menu, click on Records and when the menu box appears select Total Download. A box will appear with a list of sources. Move to the one you want to check and press . A box will appear telling you that source files are been counted and to please wait. This box will probably only be visible if there is a large number of downloads from a particular source. When the counting is completed a box will appear with the name of the source, total number of files downloaded and total kilobytes downloaded. PACK DATABASE This option should only be required if you have deleted a large number of records and you want to recover hard disk space. You can lose data during a packing operation if there is a power loss during the operation. For safety, back-up your data first. To pack the database, at the main database screen, click on Records and when the menu box appears select Pack Database. A box will now appear with the message asking to confirm that you want to pack the download database. If you answer Yes then a box will appear saying "Packing Download database. Please wait." If the database is large then this may take some time. When the packing is complete, the box will disappear. NOTE: This option is not available with the shareware version of DownLoad Tracker. 9. SEARCHING FOR DATA AND CHANGING INDEX ORDER Searching for a previous download should only take a couple of seconds even if you can't remember the file name. The easiest way to do this is to select the category you think the download is in, then look at the file name and short description. Below is a list of the ways you can do different searches and also change the order in which the data appears. CATEGORY SEARCH This option allows you to search for a category. At the main database click on Search. When the pop-up menu appears select Category Search. A box will appear, select the category and press . The first record in the category will be highlighted and the database will now be in category index order by category and filename. FILE SEARCH This option allows you to search for a file name. At the main database click on Search. When the pop-up menu appears select File Search. A box will appear, enter the file name and press . You can enter a partial file name if you want to. If there is no exact match then the next nearest match will be highlighted and the database will be in filename order. If you want to change to the filename index without searching, then do not enter anything for the filename. SOURCE SEARCH This option allows you to search for a source. At the main database click on Search. When the pop-up menu appears select Source Search. A box will appear, select the source and press . The first record in the source will be highlighted and the database will now be in source index order. In order to bring the source field into view either press the key or click on the right border until the field is in view. FLOPPY No. SEARCH This option allows you to search for a floppy disk. At the main database click on Search. When the pop-up menu appears select Floppy Search. A box will appear, enter the floppy number and press . If there is no exact match then the next nearest match will be highlighted and the database will be in floppy disk order. As the floppy disk field is normally not visible on the screen, you may need to use the button or click on the right border to move to the floppy disk field into view. SHOW FLOPPY SPACE This option will allow you to view the approximate number of kilobytes in a floppies without handling the floppies. This is handy if you are looking for some free disk space and you want to make sure that all floppies are full. At the main database click on Search. When the pop-up menu appears select Count Floppy. A box will appear confirming that you want to check floppies, answer Y then another box with the message "Checking floppies, Please wait" will appear. DownLoad Tracker will then go through the download database. When complete, if there are no floppies listed then the message "No floppies used" will appear otherwise a box will appear with details for each disk for Disk No., Number of kilobytes used, and Number of files on disk. The list will be sorted into kilobytes used with the least used shown first. This will give you some indication which disks have free space available and without the need to check each disk separately. The disk space used is only an approximation as the file size has been rounded off to the nearest kilobyte, so the actual disk space used will be slightly higher. print floppy space This option works much the same as Show Floppy Space above but instead of showing the listing on the screen, prints out a hard copy to the printer. This is handy when you are trying to fit a number of downloads on a number of different floppies. LAST FLOPPY NUMBER This option may be used if you haven't prenumbered the disk labels and you want to quickly find the number of the last disk used. At the main screen click on Search/View. When the menu box appears click on Last Floppy Number. A box will appear showing the number of the last disk used. VIEW ARCHIVE CONTENTS When the download details were been extracted, the archive contents were also noted and stored in the database. This means that you can easily view the archive details of any .ZIP, ARJ or LZH archive. Move the highlight bar to the archive you want to check, click on the Search/View button. When the submenu appears, click on View Archive Contents. If the file is a .ZIP, ARJ, or LZH archive then the details of the archive will appear. If you selected any other type of file then the message "No archive details available". Use the keys to move through the archive details. Press to leave. unpack file Move to the file that you want to unpack. Click on Search/View button. When the menu pops up, click on Unpack File. You will be then be asked to confirm that you want to unpack the selected file. You will then be asked to select a directory that the files are to be unpacked to. The default is the directory you entered in setup. IMPORTANT You can only select a directory in the same drive in which DownLoad Tracker resides. You will then be asked to place the required disk in the drive. The screen will clear and the screen will show how the unpacking is going, same as if you unpacked a file from the DOS prompt. When all the unpacking is completed, a message "Operation completed, Press any key" will appear at the bottom of the screen. SWAP TO DOS To swap to DOS from within DownLoad Tracker, click on the Search/View button, when the sub-menu appears, click on Swap to DOS. The screen will clear and the DOS prompt will be visible. To return to DownLoad Tracker, at the DOS prompt, type EXIT and press . You will then be returned to DownLoad Tracker. The is a couple of simple rules to follow. Don't start up a TSR while DownLoad Tracker is in background. When running another program while DownLoad Tracker is in background don't try to return to DOS from within the second program. If you do any of the above, you will most likely corrupt memory and when you try to return to DownLoad Tracker, DownLoad Tracker will either crash or the computer will just hang. This applies particulary if you have to type EXIT to leave DOS. VIEW VENDINFO CONTENTS VENDINFO is a system for conveying software product information and distribution permissions from the author to distributors and users. A standard (public) file format allows a VENDINFO.DIZ file to carry extensive information in a compressed, efficient form. The associated toolset: aids the author in constructing the record allows the distributor to extract portions of the record, or to make distribution decisions based on its content, in a highly automated way allows the user to view user-relevant product information quite easily. VENDINFO provides unprecedented capabilities for Communication of product information and distribution policies from authors to users and distributors. Enforceable distribution policies. Automation of many aspects of package handling by shareware distributors of all types. At present VENDINFO concept is fairly new new and that you may not at present see VENDINFO.DIZ in many of the downloads, but this should change fairly rapidly as more and more authors see the benifits of the vendinfo concept. The vendinfo.diz file is quite large, usually about 15-20 kilobytes and for that reason is not copied to the database. To view the contents of the vendinfo.diz file, first move to the file which has the vendinfo.diz file that you want to view. This is easy to do by just checking the archive details. Click on the Search/View button. When the menu pops up, select View Vendinfo Contents. You will then be asked to confirm that you want to view the vendinfo.diz file. A check will then be made to see if the file you selected has a .ZIP, .ARJ, or .LZH extension. If it does not then the message "Sorry, only archive files with ZIP, LZH or ARJ which may have vendinfo.diz file can be viewed". If everything is okay, you will then be asked to place the selected disk in the drive, then press . A box will now appear with the message "Extracting vendinfo.diz file from [file], Please wait". In a short while the details of the vendinfo.diz will appear. Use the and keys to move through the file. Press to leave. If there is no vendinfo.diz file file then a message will appear warning of the same. VIEW TEXT FILE This option is intended as a quick and easy way to view text files up to any size. First move to the file that you want to view. Click on the Search/View button. When the submenu comes up, click on View Text File. The selected file is then checked to see if it has an extension. Only files with an extension can be viewed. If there is no extension then the message "You can only view files with an extension." If there is an extension then a box will appear with the following message "Please wait while the File is prepared for display". If the file is small then this will take very little time, however if the text file is large and is stored on a floppy disk then this make take some time. The reasons for this is that the whole file is read before been displayed and the very slow transfer rate of floppy disks which is usually around 20 times slower than a hard disk. Once the file has been read, it is then displayed on the screen. You can move through the file in the following manner. PAGING DOWN You can page down through the file by either 1. Clicking on the Page Down button. 2. Pressing the Page Down key on the keyboard. or 3. Moving the mouse cursor to the down arrow on the scroll bar and clicking with the right button. PAGING UP You can page up through the file by either 1. Clicking on the Page Up button. 2. Pressing the Page Up key on the keyboard. or 3. Moving the mouse cursor to the up arrow on the scroll bar and clicking with the right button. SEARCHING FOR A WORD Click on the Search button. A box will appear. Enter the word or part of a word that you want to search for and press . If you want to start searching from the start of the file then just press again. A box will then appear with the words 'Searching Description, Please wait'. The text will then be moved to the section where the selected word appears. NOTE: The selected word is not highlighted. If you want to continue searching for the same word, click on the Search button. Press to accept the same word and then press 'N' to continue searching from the last location that the word was found. PRINTING THE ASCII FILE First make sure that your printer is ready. Click on the Print button. A box will appear asking you if you want to print the selected file. Click on the Yes button or press to accept the default. If the printer is ready then a message will appear with the following "Printing [textfile], Printing line [num] of [totallines],Press to stop printing. You can stop printing the file at any time by just pressing . SEARCH FOR KEY WORD This option gives you a powerful search option which allows to search for a string of characters. This string of characters can be part of a word, a single word or a group of words. You can search within three areas, Description, Vendinfo information, or within the archive details. You can search the full database or just within a certain category. At the main screen, click on the Search/View button. Now click on Search Key Word. A box will appear with the following message 'Which type of search?', 'Full database','Category'. Before proceeding any further it might be an idea as to explain how this search is done. There are two types of searches, Indexed and Sequential. An indexed search is very fast and goes straight to the required record, but is only suitable for searching usually for a single word in the field,for an example a Surname, this is of no use use if you are looking a word in the middle of a sentence. A sequential search will search the complete string of characters in a field and detect whether the required characters are in the string in the field. However there is a price to pay for this type of search and that is speed. The reason is that is the search is started from the first record, the field is read into memory, checked, and if the required string is not found moves to the next record and then seaches that record and continues doing so until until either the required string is found or the end of the file is reached. This search is done sequentially. This means that if you have a large number of records, and that the record that you are searching for happens to be the last one, and you have a slow computer with little or no RAM then this can take some time. However if you have some idea as to which category the required record is in then you should try that category. Lets say that you have 10,000 records, and there is only 100 record in the selected category then by selecting the category, the search will be 100 times faster! After selecting the type of search, another box will appear asking which field to search in. You have three choices. DESCRIPTION This is the description you wrote during the auto entry. VENDINFO This is the description supplied by the software programmer and contained in the FILE_ID.DIZ file contained in the archive. Not all archives have this file. This information appears in the bottom box when you click on the View button at the main database screen. ARCHIVE This is the list of files contained in the archive. The search here would be for a file name within the archive. After selecting which field to search in, box will appear. Enter the word or part of a word that you want to search for and press . If you want to start searching from the start of the file then last location that the word was found. 10. DOWNLOAD CATEGORIES The download categories are designed to make it easy to locate a similar group of downloaded files irrespective of their actual locations. To view the download category database, at the main download database, click on Download Categories. A box will appear with the list of download categories. Beside the box a number of buttons will appear as follow: ADD DOWNLOAD CATEGORY To add a download category, click on Add. Enter the category required and press . The new category will now be highlighted. Just make sure that you haven't entered the same category twice. EDIT DOWNLOAD CATEGORY To edit an existing download category, move to the required category and click on Edit Category. A check will be made to see if any downloads have the same category as the one you want to change. If there is any downloads with the same category then the following message will appear "One or more records in the download database have the same category as the one you want to change." If this message appears then you will not be able to change the category until you change the matching download records. There is a reason for this. The download category database is used as a selection tool to search for download records with a matching category. If you changed the record in the category database to a different category then you never be able to locate any download records with the old category using the selection tool. If the above happens, say you misspelt a category, create a new category, change all the download records so that they match the new category, and then delete the old category. If there are matching download records then change the category and press < Enter >. SEARCH DOWNLOAD CATEGORY This option would only be required if you had a large number of download categories and you wanted to do a 'wildcat' search. Click on Search Category. A box will appear. Enter sufficient information to identify the category and press . If there is no exact match then the next nearest category will be highlighted. DELETE DOWNLOAD CATEGORY To delete an existing download category, move to the required category and click on Delete Category. A check will be made to see if any downloads have the same category as the one you want to delete. If there is any downloads with the same category then the following message will appear "One or more records in the download database have the same category as the one you want to change." If this message appears then you will not be able to delete the category until you change the matching download records. The reasons are the same as for editing a download category. PRINT DOWNLOAD CATEGORIES To print a list of categories, click on Print Categories. A box will appear confirming that you want to print the categories. Answer Y and a list of categories will be printed out. Click on Leave to leave Download Categories. 11. SOURCE CATEGORIES The source category allows for a group of sources to be easily identified. While this may not be very important for BBS's as most BBS's cover a wide range of topics, it can be important for Internet addresses as these tend to be more specialised and the addresses are to a certain extent rather cryptic. For example, say you had a number of Internet addresses for weather in different parts of the world, then you create a category for WEATHER and list all those addresses in that category. To view the source category database, at the main source database, click on Source Categories. A box will appear with the list of source categories. Beside the box a number of buttons will appear as follows: ADD SOURCE CATEGORY To add a source category, click on Add Category. Enter the category required and press . The new category will now be highlighted. Just make sure that you haven't entered the same category twice. EDIT SOURCE CATEGORY To edit an existing source category, move to the required category and click on Edit Category. A check will be made to see if any sources have the same category as the one you want to change. If there is any sources with the same category then the following message will appear "One or more records in the source database have the same category as the one you want to change." If this message appears then you will not be able to change the category until you change the matching source records. There is a reason for this. The source category database is used as a selection tool to search for source records with a matching category. If you changed the record in the category database to a different category then you never be able to locate any source records with the old category using the selection tool. If the above happens, say you misspelt a category, create a new category, change all the source records so that they match the new category, and then delete the old category. If there are no matching source records then change the category and press . SEARCH SOURCE CATEGORY This option would only be required if you had a large number of source categories and you wanted to do a 'wildcat' search. Click on Search Category. A box will appear. Enter sufficient information to identify the category and press . If there is no exact match then the next nearest category will be highlighted. DELETE SOURCE CATEGORY To delete an existing source category, move to the required category and click on Delete Category. A check will be made to see if any sources have the same category as the one you want to delete. If there is any sources with the same category then the following message will appear "One or more records in the source database have the same category as the one you want to change." If this message appears then you will not be able to delete the category until you change the matching source records. The reasons are the same as for editing a source category. PRINT SOURCE CATEGORIES To print a list of categories, click on Print Categories. A box will appear confirming that you want to print the categories. Answer Y and a list of categories will be printed out. 12. HARD DRIVE, REMOVABLE DRIVE OR FLOPPIES You have an option of 3 ways to store your downloads. Listed below are the three options with their advantages and disadvantages. HARD DRIVE Advantages: Fast access Disadvantages Limited storage available Increased back-up times REMOVABLE DRIVE Advantages Access considerably faster than floppy. Storage of data can be many times that of floppy. Physical storage much less than trying to store a large number of floppies. Cost per megabyte usually cheaper than floppies. Less wasted space than floppies Disadvantages Initial high cost of drive FLOPPY DISKS Advantages Cheap to buy. Especially in quantities of 100+ Drive already in computer Disadvantages Maximum size of file that can be stored is 1.44 megabytes. This rules out many large games files. Large number of disks may cause physical storage problems. Slow read and write The best solution in the long term, especially if you are going to download a large amounts of files is the removable drive, but of course there is the problem of the initial high cost of the drive although this problem is soon overcome when a number of removable drives have been purchased compared to an equal storage capacity of floppies and this will probably improve as prices drop. A single 210 megabyte removable drive can hold the same data as 145 1.44 megabyte floppy disks! Also if you are considering buying a tape backup, then consider buying a removable drive instead. A removable drive can be put to more purposes while a tape backup is limited to one purpose only and is really only useful if you have very large backup tapes and you want to do unattended overnight backups. 13. FINDING LATEST DOWNLOADS This option is handy when you are interrupted when adding down loads and you want to find the latest entries so that you know where you left off. At the main database menu click on Show New. A box will appear with the date of the auto entry as default. Change the date if required and press . The highlight bar will move to the date that the files were downloaded and the database will be in date downloaded order. If there is no matching date then the highlight bar will move to the next available date. As the date downloaded field is not normally shown on the screen, you will have to use the key to move to the field. 14. PRINTING DOWNLOAD LIST To print a list of all the downloads entered, at the main screen click on Records. A box will appear, select Print Downloads. A box will appear asking you if you want to print a list of downloads. Make sure your printer is ready then answer Yes. The list will be printed out in file name order. This allows you to quickly check when using a BBS or the Internet as to whether you have already downloaded the file. For this list to be effective, you should print out a list regularly. 15. UNPACKING ARCHIVE FILES If a file has a .ZIP, .LHZ, or ARJ extension or is a DOS self-extracting file created with ZIP,ARJ, or LHA then you can unpack that archive from within DownLoad Tracker. Move to the file that you want to unpack then click on Search. Select Unpack File. A box will appear asking you to confirm that you want to unpack the designated file. If you select a file that does not have one of the above extensions a message will appear warning you that you can only unpack files with the above extension. When you answer yes a box will appear asking for the directory to unpack the files to. The default is the directory that you designated when you ran Setup. You can change this to any directory. A check will be made to see if this directory exists, and if not you will asked if you want to create it. IMPORTANT You can only unpack an archive to the same drive as DownLoad Tracker exists in. If you try and specify another drive, you will receive an error message. If everything is ok then you will be requested to enter the right disk in the drive, if it an incorrect disk a warning message will appear. If everything is ok then the screen will clear with a message appearing at the top saying that the file is been unpacked to the designated directory. What appears on the screen is as if you used PKUNZIP, LHA or ARJ at the DOS prompt. For example if the message appears asking you whether you want to overwrite an existing file then answer Yes or No as you would at the DOS prompt. When the operation is completed a message will appear at the bottom of screen telling you to press any key. NOTE If you try to unpack a Windows self-extracting EXE file, you will receive the message "This file requires Windows" or something similar depending on which version of Windows you are running and whether the file is a Windows 3.1 file or a Windows 95 file. 16. ON-LINE HELP There is an extensive range of on-line help covering all of the above topics. This is obtainable at any time by just pressing . A list of help topics will appear. Select the one you want and press . The help topic will now appear. Use the , keys to move through the help topic. Press to leave. 17. MOVING DOWNLOADS FROM FLOPPY DISK TO REMOVABLE DRIVE Moving the downloads from floppy disk to removable drive is done in three easy steps. After you have installed the removable drive, start up DownLoad Tracker and click on Setup. Now click on the removable drive field and enter the drive letter for the removable drive. IMPORTANT Once you have entered a drive letter for the removable drive, DownLoad Tracker will assume that all downloads are now stored on the removable drive disks and not the floppies. Now for the hard bit. Copy all the downloads from the floppy disks to the removable drive disks using the DOS COPY command. Now start up FD2RD.EXE. This utility loads a directory of all the files held on each removable drive disk and changes the diskno shown in the download database from the floppy disk number to the removable drive disk number. All this is done in memory so each disk will only take a couple of seconds. As you insert each disk, you will be asked for the disk number same as for the floppies. Ignore the number shown in the box as this is the last floppy disk number. Enter the number you will be entering for the removable drive disk and press . FD2RD (Floppy Disk 2 Removable Drive) will now process the removable drive disk. You will be then asked if you want to insert another removeable drive disk, if so then enter each disk until all the removable disks have been processed. NOTE: FD2RD.EXE is only available with the regisitered version of DownLoad Tracker 18. CHECKING DATABASE FOR OLDER VERSIONS As new versions of shareware are released, the international practice is to designate a new file name for each version giving the version number as part of the file name. For example, say a program called X Word was released. The first version would have the file name XWORD10.ZIP and version 2 would have the file name XWORD20.ZIP and so on. If you have downloaded the newer version, then you will have both versions listed on the database and the older version taking up valuable disk space. You may even finish up with a number of different versions of the same program if you have a large number of downloads and you haven't run a check for a considerable period of time. The way to overcome the above problem is about once every six months, select Search For File Name. Enter "0" as the search string. This will ensure that the files are listed in file name order with the very first file highlighted. Now just browse through the database checking the file names for more than one version and deleting the older versions. When deleting an older version make sure that you have selected DELETE FILE AND RECORD. If you have the registered version, then you should run the PACK DATABASE option especially if have deleted a large number of records. This will save addtional disk space. Trademarks DownLoad Tracker is a trademark of ABIS Software. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.