******************************************************************** * CDIR * * The Commented Directory Program * * Copyright, 1988, by C. Kenneth Curtis * * Box 539 RD 2 Woodland Drive, Califon, NJ 07830 * ******************************************************************** CDIR is a valuable information program for IBM PC or compatible computers. Users can read and write comments about files and sub-directories eliminating the uncertainty of cryptic names reported by the DOS DIR command. CDIR contains added features to view, print, copy, change attributes, rename or delete files. CDIR has a maximum capacity of 256 files per directory. The program will work with directories containing more than 256; however, the additional files can not be commented or manipulated using CDIR. ******************************************************************* * PUBLIC NOTIFICATION * ******************************************************************* CDIR.EXE and HOW2CDIR.TXT files MUST be distributed as a set in their original unmodified form. Compacting for up/down-loading to/from bulletin board services is permissible if the uncompacting process produces the files in their original unmodified form. Feel free to share CDIR with others and to use it where you work. I have made CDIR available as a public service without any charge for its use. In return I would appreciate your sending a postcard to me at the above address with the following information: Write "CDIR" at the top of the card. Where you obtained CDIR - bulletin board, friend, work, software-distribution company, etc. Be specific about bulletin board and company names. City, State or Province, and Country where you live. Your name, address and comments are optional. Selling or modification of the CDIR.EXE or HOW2CDIR.TXT files is strictly prohibited without my expressed written permission. C. Kenneth Curtis ******************************************************************** * Before using CDIR you should know * ******************************************************************** CDIR can open several files at the same time; therefore, it may be necessary to have a FILES = 7 ( more are ok ) statement in a CONFIG.SYS file. See your DOS manual for information on creating or changing this file. CDIR will be called frequently. If you have a hard disk, it is recommended to keep CDIR.EXE in a directory referenced by your PATH chain. For example, if you have a directory of utilities and a path similar to C:\;C:\UTILITY;C:\WORDPROC, put the CDIR.EXE file in the C:\UTILITY subdirectory. CDIR will maintain a file's comment when the file is renamed by CDIR to be within the same directory, but be warned that comments will be lost by renaming files with the DOS REN command or other programs. Moving a file to another directory with any program including CDIR will lose the comment; however, CDIR does have a means to transfer comments from one directory to another. ******************************************************************** * How to use CDIR * ******************************************************************** Start the program by typing "CDIR" followed by [Return]. The default directory will be displayed first. You can tell the program to start and display any directory by typing "CDIR", space, the name of a directory and then [Return]. In this case the drive letter, colon, a backslash and path portions of the directory must be specified. The following are examples of starting commands: CDIR[Return] CDIR A:\[Return] CDIR c:\123files\checks[Return] A moment after starting, CDIR will display the files and sub-directories, their size, creation dates and times and comments. Sub-directories are denoted by the letter S in the left-hand column. Quit the program with [^Q] or [^X]. (See control keys below.) To write or edit a comment, just use the cursor movement keys to position the highlighted bar over the desired file and begin typing. Press [Return] to enter the comment. If you start to type, and then realize that the characters are going into the wrong row, press [Esc], and the original comment will be restored. The control keys are used for various functions. They are activated by holding down the [Ctrl] key and depressing one of the other keys; this is denoted in the text by a caret followed by a letter or word. Examples: [^N] or [^Home] . The cursor movement keys move the highlighted bar or scroll the screen as follows: [Cur Up] and [Cur Dn] keys: Moves the highlighted bar up or down 1 row. [Page Up] or [Page Dn] keys: Scrolls 8 files. [^Page Up] or [^Page Dn] keys: Scrolls 32 files. [Home] or [End] keys: Moves to top or bottom of screen. [^Home] or [^End] keys: Moves to begining or end of file. The control key functions are: [^A] ( Attribute ) key: Displays the file attribute on the third screen row. The attributes displayed are interpreted "R/O" means it is a read-only file. It can not be written or erased until its attribute is changed to remove the read-only restriction. "Arc" means the file has been modified since it was last backed up (via the DOS backup command). "Sub-directory" means the file is a sub-directory. The read-only attribute status, of non-sub-directory files, can be toggled to the opposite state by pressing the [R] key when asked; otherwise [Esc] allows you to continue. [^C] ( Copy ) key: Copies tagged or highlighted file(s). After pressing [^C] you are asked to press [T], [O] or [Esc]. If you press [T] all of the tagged files will be copied, but if [O] is depressed, only the highlighted file will be copied. [Esc] is used to abort the operation. Next, you will be asked to where the file(s) should be copied. In general, use the same format for the destination as you would if you were using the DOS Copy command. You may give a directory only, in which case the files will be copied with the same name and extension to that directory. You may specify filename(s) or extension(s) for the new file(s), or the wild card characters * and ? described by DOS may be used. If files are to be copied to another disk, a typical response might be B:\ . If you tag all the files with an extension of .ABC , and want them copied to the same directory, but with the extension of .XYZ , then your response should be *.XYZ . If the [Esc] key is pressed while tagged files are being copied, the process will be aborted as soon as CDIR is finished with the file it was copying when the key was pushed. [^D] ( Delete ) key: Deletes tagged or highlighted file(s). After pressing [^D] you are asked to press [T], [O] or [Esc]. If you press [T] all of the tagged files will be deleted, but if [O] is depressed, only the highlighted file will be erased. [Esc] is used to abort the operation. Sub-directories ( other than the "single-dot" and "double-dot" directories ) can be removed using the [O] option but only if they contain no files. [^K] ( Color ) key: Provides better contrast for color systems which use a monochrome monitor. This function does not operate in a monochrome system. Press [^K], and you will be asked to press [D], [T] or [Esc]. If you press [D] the colors presently on the screen will be those which will be the default colors the next time the program starts. The current directory must contain the CDIR.EXE program. If [T] is pressed, then the colors are changed temporarily until you quit the program. [Esc] is used to abort the operation. [^L] ( Locate ) key: Moves the highlighted bar to the requested file if it exists in the directory. After pressing [^L] you are asked to enter which file to find. Enter the filename and extension. Do not use a drive or path specifier. Example: MYFILE.DOC . [^N] ( New directory ) key: Changes the current directory. The current directory is always displayed at the top of the screen. Press [^N] to change it. You will be asked to enter the new directory. Enter a drive letter, colon, backslash and path. Examples: are A:\ or C:\MEMOS\SALES . [Esc] is used to abort the operation. There is an alternative which will save typing if the new directory appears with the letter S in the left column of the currently displayed directory. Prior to entering [^N], move the highlighted bar over that sub-directory. When asked to type the sub-directory name, instead just press [Return]. Selecting either the single-dot or double-dot sub-directory with the highlighted bar and pressing [Return] causes CDIR to go to the parent ( moves back towards the root directory ). Selecting any other sub-directory tells CDIR to go to a child ( moves away from the root directory ). Pressing [^N] automatically saves the comments in a file named CMTD-DIR.-%- to be located in the current directory. The size of CMTD-DIR.-%- will depend upon the number of files in that directory. After you have entered the new directory, the program will change to it. First, CDIR will load the file information data ( 256 files maximum ) and then look for a CMTD-DIR.-%- file in that directory. If it is found, the comments will be matched to the file names just loaded. It is perfectly acceptable for new files to have been written into the new directory, or old ones to have been changed or deleted since the last time CDIR accessed the directory. These actions do not affect CDIR's operation. [^P] ( Print ) key: Prints either the commented directory or the contents of tagged or highlighted file(s). After pressing [^P] you will be asked to press [T], [O], [D] or [Esc]. If your answer is [D] then a listing of all the files in the current directory, along with their comments, will be printed. If your answer is [O], only the highlighted file will be printed, but if you press [T], then the contents of all the tagged files will be printed. Printing can be aborted before selecting [T], [O] or [D] or while it is in process by pressing the [Esc] key. [^Q] ( Quit ) key: Causes the CDIR program to quit and return to DOS. The comments of the current directory are saved before terminating. See the discussion about CMTD-DIR,-%- under the [^N] key. Also see the [^X] key description. [^R] ( Rename ) key: Allows files to be renamed and/or moved to another directory. After depressing [^R] you will be asked for the new name. The wild card characters * and ? may be used to simplify typing. The file name and extension must be specified. Typing an optional drive and path will move the file to that directory. If it is different than the current directory, the comments will be lost. ( See [^Y] for suggestions. ) [Esc] is used to abort the operation. [^S] ( Sub-directory ) key: Creates a new sub-directory. When this option is selected, you will be asked to enter a sub-directory name. If a name is entered without a Drive:\ Path prefix, the sub-directory will be placed in the current directory as shown at the top of the screen. [^T] ( Tag toggle ) key: Toggles the tag mark on and off. The highlighted file may be tagged in preparation for the other control key functions. A heart-shaped figure appears in the left column on the screen for each tagged file. Press [^T] to turn the heart on or off. [^U] ( Untag ) key: Untags all files. When [^U] is pressed, every tagged file is untagged, and its heart symbol turned off. [^V] ( View ) key: Allows the highlighted file to be viewed. Pressing [^V] causes the contents of the highlighted file to be displayed a page at-a-time on the screen. Carriage-return characters ( ASCII 13 ) are ignored, and Line-feed characters ( ASCII 10 ) cause a jump to the next line on the screen but are also not displayed. Other print control characters such as Page-eject or tab cause no action; their symbol is displayed on the screen. Pressing [Page Dn] displays the next screen. [Esc] removes the display and returns you to normal operation. [^W] ( 2nd directory ) key: Lets the contents of another directory be displayed without leaving the current directory. This useful feature allows you to preview the second directory for determining whether a file already exists or if it has the same date and time as a file in the current directory. After pressing [^W], you will be asked to enter the second directory. Enter a drive letter, colon, backslash and path. Examples: are B:\ or C:\DOCS\STATUS . [Esc] is used to abort the operation. There is an alternative which will save typing if the second directory appears with the letter S in the left column of the currently displayed directory. Prior to entering [^W], move the highlighted bar over that sub-directory. When asked to type the sub-directory name, instead just press [Return]. Selecting either the single-dot or double-dot sub-directory with the highlighted bar and pressing [Return] causes CDIR to go to the parent ( moves back towards the root directory ). Selecting any other sub-directory tells CDIR to go to a child ( moves away from the root directory ). The [Page Up] and [Page Dn] keys cause the display to scroll 8 files at a time. The [Esc] key removes the second directory display. [^X] ( Exit ) key: Causes the CDIR program to quit and immediately return to DOS without saving the comments ( CMTD-DIR.-%- file is not saved ). See [^Q] description. [^Y] ( Copy comments ) key: Copies tagged or highlighted comments(s) to another directory. This is useful, for example, to transfer the comments about files which have just been copied to a floppy disk. A prerequisite is having a CMTD-DIR.-%- file already in the other directory to where the comments will be copied. After pressing [^Y] you are asked to press [T], [O] or [Esc]. If you press [T] all of the tagged comments will be copied, but if [O] is depressed, only the highlighted comment will be copied. [Esc] is used to abort the operation. Next, you will be asked to where the comment(s) should be copied. Enter a drive letter, colon, backslash and path. Examples: are A:\ or C:\BUYERS . [Esc] is used to abort the operation. The following steps are suggested for moving the comments about files which you intend to rename ( move ) to another directory: 1. Make sure there is a CMTD-DIR.-%- file in the other directory. If one is not there already, change to it with the [^N] key and then change back with [^N] key. 2. If the filenames or extensions will be changed when they are moved, use the [^R] key and rename the files in the current directory; do not rename ( move ) them to the other directory yet. 3. Copy the comments to the other directory with the [^Y] key. 4. Use the [^R] to rename ( move ) the file(s) to the other directory.