Progman-Groups 1.8 - Groups in groups with program manager Copyright 1992-94 by Andreas Furrer ========================================================== This is version 1.8 of Progman-Groups. Progman-Groups gives you the possibility to have groups in groups in the progam manager of Windows. Because PRGGRP uses normal progman groups, you don't have any limitations. PRGGRP will work with Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1. Installation ============ 1) Copy PRGGRP.EXE and PRGGRPH.DLL into your windows directory 2) Create an item for PRGGRP.EXE in your startup group and restart Windows. Creating Subgroups ================== The use of PRGGRP is very simple. For each subgroup you want, create a program item in the parent group with program managers new command and the following settings: Name : Command: PRGGRP.EXE For example if you want to have a subgroup 'Graphic Tools' in the group 'Tools', you have to create a program item in the group 'Tools' with: Name : Graphic Tools Command: PRGGRP.EXE Graphic Tools If you want to have a different icon for a subgroup you can change it in the properties dialog of the item. PRGRP itself contains 8 icons but you can also use any icon you have. Now if you open the new created item, you will be asked if the new subgroup should be created. If you click on Yes, the new group will be created and you can use it as a normal program manager group. If you minimize the subgroup, it will disappear and if you doubleclick on its icon in the parent group, it will be visible again. You can have as many subgroups you want (up to the limit of program manager which lets you only have 40 groups), but they must all have an unique name. Also you can have a group in a group in a group.... in group. Because PRGGRP has to distinguish between top level groups and subgroups, the name of a subgroup must begin with a space or must end with a period. Now, if a subgroup will be created, and you don't add a period at the end of the commandline, the name of the subgroup will begin with a space. If you add a period at the end of the commandline, the name ot the group will not begin with a space but will end with the period. Example: The command PRGGRP.EXE Graphic Tools will create a group with the name ' Graphic Tools' and PRGGRP.EXE Graphic Tools. will create a group with the name 'Graphic Tools.'. For Windows 3.0 only: The program manager of Windows 3.0 doesn't support the DDE interface to create groups so the automatic creation of groups will not work with Windows 3.0. You have to create a subgroup with the normal 'New..' command of your program manager. For the name of the group you have to add a space at the beginning or a period at the end of the name (see above). Advanced features ================= If you open a subgroup with pressed, the parent group will be closed. This is very useful if you want to open a program in a subgroup and you don't want to have the parent group open. If you want, that the parent group is closed every time the subgroup is opened, you can check the button 'Run minimized' of the icon of the subgroup. If you close any group with pressed, all subgroups will be closed. This will also work when closing a group with + (just use ++) More Options of PRGGRP ====================== IF you start PRGGRP twice you can see an icon with a system menu and if you start it again the icon will be hidden and so on. (If you like the icon, you can place TWO PRGGRP-icons in the startup group and you will always see the icon.) In the system menu of the icon you will see the following items: - Enabled: This menuitem is checked if PRGGRP is enabled. With this menuitem you can disable PRGGRP. IF you disable PRGGRP, all hidden groups are shown. The next time you enable PRGGRP, the groups are hidden again. Disabeling PRGGRP is usefull, if you want to arrange icons or want to change the properties of hidden groups. - Hide desktop icon This will hide the desktop icon of Progman-Groups. - About Shows the about dialog Changes to the 'More Windows' dialog of the program manager =========================================================== PRGGRP adds a 'Show all groups' checkbox to the 'More windows' dialog of the program manager. If this checkbox is checked, the listbox will contain ALL groups (not only the currently visible). This is useful if you want to switch quickly to a subgroup which you can normally only get if you open many other groups. Also the names of the groups in the listbox are now sorted. Normally they are not sorted. Known bugs ========== PRGGRP works very fine, but there are two little restriction - The submenu 'windows' of the program manager shows up to 9 groups out of ALL groups and not only the visibles. - You can't have more than 40 groups in the program manager. This limitation is given by the program manager, not by PRGGRP. How does PRGGRP work? ===================== The main function of PRGGRP is very simple. If you start PRGGRP with a parameter, then PRGGRP only shows the group which is named by the parameter. If you minimze a group window, then PRGGRP checks if the group is a subgroup (Here is the reason why a subgroup must have a blank as the first or a period as the last character of its name. With this naming convention PRGGRP can say that the group is a subgroup or not). If the group is a subgroup then PRGGRP hides the group. Freeware-Note ============= You can use and distribute PRGGRP free, as long as the following files are not changed and you distribute all files together - prggrp.exe - prggrph.dll - prggrp.txt I am programming PRGGRP because I have fun and not to make any profit. That's why PRGGRP is free and you don't have to pay more or less high registration charges. I think it is a bad habit, that more and more program authors want to have money even for the smallest programs. Long live Freeware! If you have problems, comments, suggestions or you detect one error, please E-Mail to s_furrer@ira.uka.de (c) 1992-94 by Andreas Furrer Version history =============== 1.8: - Fixed a bug that the first group was opened after the 'About' dialog was closed 1.7: - PRGGRP will now also work correct if it is started BEFORE the program manager (when you don't have the program manager as your shell). - Now the features of PRRGP 1.4 - 1.6 do also work with Windows 3.0 (except the automatic creation of a subgroup if it doesn't exist). - PRGGRP now contains 8 different icons for the subgroups to make it more easier to change the icon for a subgroup. 1.6: - PRGGRP adds a 'Show all groups' checkbox to the 'More windows' dialog of the program manager. If this checkbox is checked, the listbox will contain ALL groups (not only the currently visible). This is useful if you want to switch quickly to a subgroup which you can normally only get if you open many other groups. - The names of the groups in the listbox of the 'More windos' dialog of the program manager are now sorted. The currently active program manager group is selected. - Fixed a bug that would sometimes prevent PRGGRP from minimizing all subgroups when closing one group with pressed. 1.5: - Added the function of closing the parent group everytime a subgroup is opened and the button 'Run minimized' of the icon of the subgroup is checked. - Added the automatic creation of a subgroup if it doesn't exist. This will make the creating of subgroups more easier. - Changed the system menu. Now it is more clear and easier to use. ( Thanks to Ronald Beekelaar for the ideas for the new features) - Fixed a bug: If you opened a group with pressed, all subgroups were hidden. 1.4: - The 'More windows' dialog of program manager will now switch to the right group window. - You can now use the 'Minimize on run' option of the program manager - Now if you want to open a subgroup which is already open, the subgroup will be brought to the top. - Added the function to close the parent group when opening a subgroup with pressed. - Added the function to close all subgroups when closing one group and holding down . - After a complete redesign, the program has now a more compact code (only 1/3 of version 1.3 !!). 1.3: Fixed a bug that will prevent PRGGRP to start on some ATs 1.2: Now you can have blanks in the name of groups 1.1: The first good version of PRGGRP: - Now, subgroup icons will disappear. - You can now arrange your icons and have progmans 'arrange automatically' enabled. 1.0: First version of PRGGRP. This was a only a simple version of PRGGRP.