Overview

DirPrint lets you print the contents of a directory, a feature that is missing in Microsoft Windows for a long time.

The purpose of this program is to print a directory-listing from any folder on your local hard drive or a shared directory on the network. You can sort the listing by anything you want, apply filters, ... Anything you could with the old DOS-command “dir >prn”, and even more. It will integrate with the Windows Explorer, so all you have to do is right-click on a directory, select Print Directory and you’re on your way !

Registration

You can evaluate DirPrint free for 30 days. If you want to use it beyond the 30 day trail period, you must register. You can do this by secure online credit card server or by fax, phone or mail.

System requirements

DirPrint has been tested to work on a wide variety of hardware and software configurations. If you can run Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0, you can run DirPrint.

DirPrint requires the Visual Basic 5.0 Runtime Library to run. This is a set of DLL-files which can be downloaded freely. If you don’t have them installed yet, you can download them at http://www.digibel.org/~wimh/vb5run/.

Uninstall

DirPrint has complete install and uninstall features.

If you want to uninstall DirPrint, open the Control Panel, go to Add/Remove programs select DirPrint 3.0 from the list and press the Add/Remove button.

Copyright ©1999 Wim Heirman. All rights reserved.


Starting DirPrint
Printing a directory

Starting DirPrint

When installing DirPrint, it will integrate itself into the Windows Explorer. Therefore, if you want to print a directory, open that directory in Explorer and right-click on it. A popup-menu will appear with different choices, one of them labeled “Print Directory”. Click on it and DirPrint will open on it’s main screen


The main screen
Printing a directory

The main screen

Filter

You can apply a filter using the wildcards * and ? (like in Windows’ find): *.txt, win*, dir*print, document0??.doc, ...

Print subdirectories

If you want to print the contents of subdirectories too, check this one.

Print tree

If you want a tree-style report with the size of each directory, check “Print tree”

To file

Send the output to a file instead of to the printer

To screen

For a print preview, check “To screen”

OK, Cancel

Click OK to start printing, or Cancel to exit the program.

Options

For more options, click the Options button.


More options

After pressing the Options button, you’ll see a window with three tabs on it :

•	Filter options

•	Printer options

•	Header/Footer options


Filter options
More options

Filter

Show

Allows you to select what properties of the files will be printed.

Order by

Sets the sort order, A -> Z is ascending, Z -> A descending.

Attributes

Selects what types of files will be printed. For each attribute, you can tell DirPrint to print only files with this attribute (Y), without it (N) or to ignore that attribute (?).

For example, if you want to print only directories, select the Y in front of Directory, if you only want normal files select N and if you want both directories and files select ?.

If more than one attribute is marked Y, then the filter will print only those files which meet all these attributes simultaneously. Thus if both Hidden and System are marked Y, then only those files which have both H and S attributes set will be printed.


Printer options
More options

Printer

These settings are not used when printing to a file / the screen

Printer

Select a different printer or change the printer settings. Click here for more info.

Left/Right/Top/Bottom

The print margins that will be used.

Orientation

The page orientation: portrait or landscape

Date format

Print the dates in Anglo-Saxon or European notation


Header/Footer options
More options

Header/Footer

These settings are not used when printing to a file / the screen

Choose font

Select the font to print the listing.

Header/Footer

You can construct a header and a footer with these symbols:

%d	The directory that will be printed

%f	The selected filter

%d	The current date

%t	The current time

%n	The page number


Selecting a printer
More options

Selecting a printer

Not all printer drivers will support these settings.

Printer

Select a printer from the ones available on your system

Copies

The number of copies that will be made.

Quality

The print quality: draft, low, medium or high.

Paper bin

The paper bin to use: upper, lower, middle or wait for each page to be inserted manually

Duplex

Whether to print on both sides of the paper or not.


Software license agreement
General Information

Software license agreement

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software. Your use of this software indicates your acceptance of this license agreement.

DirPrint is distributed as shareware.

You may evaluate DirPrint for a period of 30 days. If you wish to use the software beyond the 30 day trial period, you must register. A single user license is USD 15. Registration benefits includes future upgrades and free email support.

You can register by online credit card registration, fax or mail.

The shareware-version is not different from the registered version, except that it will show a friendly registration reminder when you start the program and that it will stop working when your 30 day trial period has ended. You are permitted and encouraged to distribute copies of the original, unmodified zip-compressed DirPrint archive. However, you are not permitted to charge anything for doing so.

A valid license grants you the following rights:

You may install and use as many copies of DirPrint as you have purchased licenses for. You may also install and use an additional copy on a personal portable computer.

When registering DirPrint, you will receive an email with a vendor generated key, which will enable it to work beyond the 30 day trial period and disable the shareware reminder screen when starting the program.

Your registration key is personal. You may not disclose this information to anyone, for any purpose whatsoever.

You may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble this software product.

You may not rent, lease or lend the software product.

DISCLAIMER

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS". NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND IS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. YOU USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE AUTHOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR DATA LOSS, DAMAGES, LOSS OF PROFITS OR ANY OTHER KIND OF LOSS WHILE USING OR MISUSING THIS SOFTWARE.

Copyright ©1999 Wim Heirman. All rights reserved.


Registration
General Information

Registration

Be sure to include the following information with your order:

•	Name

•	Address

•	Telephone number

•	Credit card number and expiry date

•	Email address

•	Product ID: 1909-1 (DirPrint)

ONLINE REGISTRATION

The easiest way to register DirPrint is by using our secure online credit card server:

https://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=1909-1 (Internet connection required).

BY MAIL

Make checks payable to Wim Heirman, including the DirPrint ID (1909-1) on the "memo" of the check. All order information except credit card information should be included in the order you mail to:

Wim Heirman

Hoogkamerstraat 267

B-9140 Temse

Belgium

OTHER

If you don’t have a credit card or prefer another payment method, mail me at wimh@dma.be or fax to +1-630-214-9928 and we’ll work something out.

PRICE

A single user license is USD 15, contact me for further price information.


What is shareware?
General Information

What is shareware?

All text within this topic is provided as general information only. For specific information on this particular software product, you should read the Software license agreement.

What is shareware?

Shareware is a marketing method, not a type of software or even strictly just a distribution method. When software is marketed through normal retail channels, you are forced to pay for the product before you've even seen it. The shareware marketing method lets you try a program before you buy it. Since you've tried the program, you know whether it will meet your needs before you pay for it. A shareware program is just like a program you find in major stores, catalogs, and other places where software is purchased; except you get to use it, on your own computer, before paying for it.

Why pay for software I already have?

Basically, for the same reason you should pay for any program: Because it is the honest thing to do. Shareware is commercial software, fully protected by copyright laws. Like other business owners, shareware authors expect to earn money for making their software available. In addition, by paying you may then be entitled to additional functions, removal of time limiting or limits on use, removal of so-called "nag" screens, and other things as defined in the documentation provided by the program's author.

But, didn't I already pay for the program when I bought the disk?

No. Shareware vendors distribute shareware evaluation versions of programs. They charge a small fee for the costs of disk duplication and advertising, plus a small profit. The money paid to a shareware vendor does not go to the author. This includes shareware CD-ROMs which typically contain hundreds of evaluation versions. These may be sold directly by vendors, distributed with magazines, sold as an addition to a book, or otherwise distributed to you.

What if I don't like the evaluation version?

That's simple: just stop using it and remove it from your computer system. Many shareware authors even provide a simple "uninstall" feature that makes this  easy. You've lost nothing but the small cost of obtaining the evaluation version and the time involved in the evaluation.

What about computer viruses?

The shareware industry has an excellent track record providing products that have been checked thoroughly for viruses. Shareware authors, bulletin board and on-line service operators, as well as disk vendors, carefully scan programs for viruses before offering them to consumers; so, a shareware program will often have more checks made on it than regular commercial software. Also, the compressed formats used to transmit most shareware programs tends to offer additional protection because each compressed file comes with its own safety checksum to detect tampering.

Why do authors use shareware to distribute their programs?

Basically, it's efficient. Costs are generally less than for software sold through traditional channels. Lower operating costs mean shareware authors can concentrate on writing great programs, while often charging users less. Shareware also allows authors to retain complete control. Microsoft and Netscape are just two software companies that have recognized benefits of "try before buy" distribution.

How can I legally distribute someone else's shareware?

You'll need to check each program you wish to distribute for any distribution restrictions that the author may have placed on their software. Check the  program documentation and/or files with names like DISTRIB.TXT, VENDOR.TXT, and VENDINFO.DIZ for restrictions. When in doubt, you should contact the author for permission - failing to do so could leave you liable for copyright infringement. COMMON MISTAKE - Some folks think that if they purchase a CD-ROM collection of software that they may feel free to distribute that software, or if they've downloaded a copy from the Internet that they can sell copies if they wish. Unfortunately these statements are not true. A number of software publishers are using exclusive distribution licenses to allow distribution of their software, and violating one of these licenses could result in a very expensive lesson when you're sued for your actions. Better safe than sorry!

Which programming language is used to produce quality shareware software?

There are a large number of programming languages, and your choice will depend greatly on what kind of prior programming experience you have and what kind of software you're interested in producing. In addition, there's a lot more involved in writing good shareware than just writing software. You need to consider marketing plans, software design, registration incentives, press releases and publicity - and more. Finally, the type of computer and operating system you're writing software for will have a great effect on the available tools and languages.

How many people register shareware?

There are no real statistics on registrations - just guesses. There's really no way of even knowing total download counts and there's absolutely no way of knowing how many people who download a program use it past a preliminary evaluation.

Additionally, registration rates probably vary wildly by category of program. Business applications are probably pretty high percentage-wise because people who rely on software to make money are more likely to feel the need for support of and from the author. Small games and utilities are everywhere and easily replaceable.

Nag screens and other limitations might increase registrations on smaller programs but a look at history shows every program that became a "standard of the industry" have used no registration incentives designed to annoy the user. These include WinZIP, PKZip, AsEasyAs, Procomm, Telix, and the trend goes back to even PC-Talk, PC-File, and PC-Write.  These are the real money-makers (along with major games like Doom of course).

So what's the percentage. It might be as low as 2% for some programs and higher than 50% for others. But that's just a guess.

Can I just keep using software that's outdated?

No. There's a specific procedure that an author must follow to abandon their copyright, and if they haven't done so then the shareware continues to be copyrighted. You should check for a newer version for current contact information. It's also possible that the software has been sold to another shareware business and they may be actively supporting it. Even if the author has actually gone out of business, why do you want to use an unsupported program? What are you going to do if it crashes or if you need changes? Where are you going to find support and upgrades? How will you get newer versions to support new operating systems and features? You'll be doing yourself a favor if you find a newer program that you like instead and is still actively supported.

Where can I find shareware on the Internet?

There are many excellent shareware sources easily available on the World Wide Web. Some of our own favorites are www.hotfiles.com, www.winfiles.com and www.download.com.


Support
General Information

Support

As a registered DirPrint user, you can always contact me for help and support.

Please send all questions to wimh@dma.be.

Be sure to include your name and a valid email address. You will receive a reply as soon as possible. Also, feel free to send me general questions, comments and suggest features you'd like to see in future DirPrint versions.


Bug reports
General Information

Bug reports

DirPrint has been tested to work on a wide variety of hardware and software configurations.

However, no software product can be guaranteed to work perfectly under all conditions. If you experience any problems or bugs, please let us know.

You can reach me by sending email to wimh@dma.be.

Please provide a detailed description of your problem(s). Also, include a brief summary of your hardware and operating system.