Contents
Group Filer

FreeWare Widget by Joe Meadows

Introducing Group Filer

Installing Group Filer

Using Group Filer

Group Filer Usage Tips and Shortcuts

Getting Help

Limitations and Enhancements

Legal Mumbo Jumbo


Introduction
Introduction to Group Filer

Group Filer is a program that helps you to organize your Windows desktop by allowing you to organize program groups into categories that you define.  In essence it allows you to simulate the effect of having nested groups, i.e. a group within a group, similar to the way that DOS allows you to have a directory within another directory.   The motivation for writing Group Filer was the fact that I had over fifty program groups on my desktop and many of those could be grouped into categories such as comm programs, utilities, etc.  Other groups were seldom used yet they cluttered up my workspace anyway.


Installing Group Filer

To install Group Filer on your system:

Copy the files GRPFILER.EXE and GRPFILER.HLP to a directory on your system.  Either create a new directory or copy it to an existing one.


Using Group Filer

Group Filer is an executable file with an icon that looks like a stack of file folders.  The program takes a command line argument that tells it the name of the group file it represents.  When you double-click the Group Filer icon it reads the command line input and sends a message to the Program Manager telling it to open the group.  You may place as many Group Filer icons inside of a group as you like, and of course you can create multi-level groups by putting group filer icons into nested groups.

As an example let's organize our comm programs.  We have three of them and we wish to put them into one master group called Comm Programs.

1) Create the master group using the Program Manager menu option File |New.  A dialog box will appear and ask you if you want to create a new program group or a new program item, select program group.  When the next dialog appears it will ask you the name of the group and the name of the group file.  Enter Comm Programs as the name of the group and click OK, Windows will give the group file a default name.

2) Now you should see a new window with the caption 'Comm Programs' and it should be empty.  Next let's assume that you have three comm programs and each one currently has its own program group.  Let's call them Comm1, Comm2 and Comm3.

Select New from the Program Manager's file menu and this time create a program item.  Where it says Description type in Comm1, or some other meaningful name.  Where it says command line type 'grpfiler.exe Comm1'.  If grpfiler.exe is not in your DOS path then type in the full path name of grpfiler.exe.  Now click OK.  When you double click on this new icon it will open up the Comm1 group for you.  Essentially you just created an icon that will run the program GRPFILER.EXE and pass the name 'Comm1' to it.

Continue with the same procedure to enter the rest of the icons, creating new groups or adding to existing ones as necessary.  Once you have created the first Group Filer icon see the Shortcuts topic for some tips to save you time.


 Tips and Shortcuts

Here are some tips and shortcuts to help you use Group Filer more effectively.

1) To add a new Group Filer icon press the CTRL key and drag an existing Group Filer icon, this will make a copy which you can then modify to make your next icon.  This way you avoid having to create a new program item and enter in the same data again.

2) You must type the exact text that describes a group, this text is the text that is shown underneath the icon when it is iconized or in the caption when the group is opened.  To simplify this procedure try the following.

a) Single click the icon that you are going to add to Group Filer.

b) Press the Alt-Enter key sequence to bring up a Properties dialog box, the title will be already highlighted for you.

c) Press CTRL-c, this will copy the text to the clipboard.

d) Press ESC to close the Properties box.

to add the clipped text to the new icon...

e) if you haven't already done so, create a new Group Filer icon by CTRL dragging an existing one (see SHORTCUT 1).

f) Single click the new Group Filer icon and press Alt-Enter to bring up its Properties dialog.

g) Again, the name will be selected automatically for you so simple press CTRL-v to paste the new name in its place.

h) Press TAB to jump to command line field.

i) Press END or right arrow to go to the end of the string and backspace over the name of the previous group file, leaving the grpfile.exe pathname in place.

j) Press CTRL-v to paste in the text and press ENTER or click OK to save the icon.

Other Tips:

In order to reduce screen clutter I piled all of my icons in the lower left corner of my screen, leaving only the top level icons that are now being managed by group filer.  If you want to restore them use the Program Manager Arrange Icons option under the Window Menu.

You can drag and drop Group Filer icons from one group into another.  This simulates the effect of being able to move entire groups in the same way that you may move files.

Remember that Group Filer icons are programs and not really groups, even though they act like groups.

When you set up a Group Filer icon you may give it any title that you wish in the description field of the Properties dialog.  The command line however must use the exact name of the Program Manager group that it represents.  This is another advantage of using the cut and paste method(above) to create new Group Filer icons.

There is no limitation to how many Group Filer icons can refer to a particular group.  For instance, if you've got a group called Utilities, you can create a Group Filer icon for it and put one in Main, one in Accessories and one in Miscellaneous.  This may be convenient if a particular group is used often and/or you wish to access from many places.

Unlike directories, two groups may refer to each other without creating a problem.  For instance, the Comm Programs group might have a Group Filer icon that opens up the Utilities group and the Utilities group might have a Group Filer icon to open up the Comm Programs group.


Limitations and Enhancements

Limitations:

Group Filer uses the DDE interface to talk to Program Manager.  This probably means that it won't work with an alternate desktop program.

To my surprise, Program Manager allowed me to create two groups with the exact same name.  Since I have to refer to the group by name when speaking to Program Manager I don't think that Group Filer will work predictably in this situation, though I haven't actually tried it.

Enhancements:

I would like to make it easier to set up the icons for Group Filer.  It's not that tough now and it only needs to be done once, but let's face it, us Windows users are a lazy bunch.  Some sort of drag and drop interface would be nifty, or maybe I'll compromise and just use a list box approach.

Rather than dumping all of the useless icons in the corner it would be nice if Group Filer had an option that would make them invisible.


Legal Mumbo Jumbo

You are free to use and distribute Group Filer as often and in as many ways as you can think of provided that it remains free of charge other than a nominal disk copying fee.

I'm not responsible for any nasty stuff that may happen to anyone as a result, direct or indirect, of using Group Filer.  I can say that I do use it myself, though I'm also the kind of guy who walks under ladders and sits too close to the TV.

I would appreciate any feedback, good or bad, on Group Filer, including any suggestions or programming tips on how to make it better.  I can be contacted at:

CompuServe: Joe Meadows   73512,373

Mail:	Joe Meadows

860 Oak Street

Ashland, OR  97520

Voice	(503) 482-0657

Fax/Data	(503) 482-8954

Thanks,  JAM


Getting Help
Getting Help With Group Filer

You may view the Group Filer help file (the file you're reading now) at any time by running Group Filer with no command line parameters.  To create a Program Manager icon that will invoke Group Filer help:

Create a Group Filer icon in the same way that is described it the usage section with the Description being Group Filer and the command line being grpfiler.exe (full path if necessary) with no group name following.