DIRECTORY OPUS PROFESSIONAL V 1.0

			    By Bruce McCready



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    I have used quite a few different directory utilities during the last
  4 years or so that I have owned an Amiga 500.  I started off with
  CliMate which I thought was a brilliant idea and used for just about
  everything you can think of.  Then I started to find there were a few
  limitations to it, so reluctantly I tried to find a suitable successor.
  Not having a lot of money to throw away on useless and expensive
  software, I decided to try out the various Public Domain versions that
  were starting to be released at an incredible rate.  I tried a few
  versions of DirUtils, Dirwork (which was my favourite for a while), SID
  and even a little thing called Xlent that came with my X-Copy
  Professional. They all had their good points and bad points, but none
  of them seemed to hold my interest for very long at all.

    Then one day I received my April issue of Commodore And Amiga Review
  in the mail (late as usual), and noticed with a lot of excitement, the
  headline on the cover that said SID vs OPUS vs DISKMASTER.  I carefully
  ripped open the pages till I found the article, and in it the author
  stated that he thought Directory Opus was the best value for money and
  had the best features. He listed the address of Jonathan Potter, the
  author of Opus but failed to mention the price. On ringing the number
  in S.A. I was told it cost $50 so with much trepidation, I sat down to
  write the cheque, emptying my cheque account in the process.  After a
  month or so it still hadn't arrived and I was really regretting sending
  the money. I was about to call to find out what went wrong when the
  package arrived.  On opening I was pleasantly surprised to find that the
  delay was because he was preparing a new updated version which was
  called Directory Opus Professional Version 1.0.  The first thing I
  noticed was the HUGE 140 page manual, professionally printed and bound,
  unlike some programmes that have a few photocopied sheets stapled
  together.  This book would be the easiest to read instruction manual I
  have seen to date.  It is set out well and has large and well written
  text.  Just the manual alone is well worth the price.

    Look and Feel

    Now to the programme itself.  The screen is a nice grey colour which
  most things seem to be nowadays, obviously an attempt by the writers to
  match in with the new WorkBench 2 whenever that arrives.  It has a
  nice, uncomplicated screen, with 2 separate windows for various devices.
  There are 48 large gadgets visible at the bottom of the screen, which
  are the main buttons used to access the different functions, and nine
  tiny gadgets as they are called which do various other operations such
  as iconifying, quitting, getting help and several more.  There are many
  more gadgets that do not all fit on the screen at once.  There are
  several different banks of gadgets which can be accessed by pressing the
  right mouse button in certain places on the screen.  Every one of these
  gadgets and menus can be made to perform any function the user cares to
  set them up for, and even the text and background colours of each one
  can be changed to make one or all of them stand out.  Most of the
  gadgets can perform 2 separate functions by using the left or right
  mouse buttons.  According to the manual there is a staggering total of
  168 user definable gadgets and another 100 user definable pull down
  menus at the top of the screen.

    Making it run

    Running external programmes through Opus using the multitasking
  ability of the AMIGA couldn't be easier.  I have a collection of 5 or 6
  disks that I need to use constantly, which means a lot of swapping and
  rebooting to run each individual programme.  Not anymore however thanks
  to Opus.  After copying the Opus disk and stripping off all the
  unnecessary files and directories, I then started to copy over all my
  favourite programmes after compacting them.  Things like PowerPacker,
  XCopy, CygnusEd, NoVirus and FixDisk plus a couple of others I can't
  remember. Then defining the gagdets is simply a matter of loading the
  configure programme, clicking on the gadgets button and selecting which
  one you wish to change. Then just type in the text you want displayed
  and the correct pathname for the computer to find the programme.  Decide
  if you want the output screen to come to the front of the opus screen or
  vice versa, save the configuration and that's all there is to it.  Less
  than a minute for each gadget.  INCREDIBLE.  Now, all I need do is load
  Opus, and if I need to run something else, click the gadget for that
  programme and away we go.  When it's time to quit whatever the other
  programme is I'm running, control automatically returns to Opus on
  exiting.

    Customising it

    I have recently bought a cheap Modem and am getting onto Bulletin
  Boards regularly.  This means a lot of archiving and unarchiving has to
  be done.  Opus to the rescue once again.  There are 2 gadgets called
  Archive and ArchiveA.  The first lists all the files contained in an
  archive and extracts them, saving them automatically to whatever
  destination directory you have open in the other window, while the
  second gadget is used to archive whatever files you have selected in the
  source window into a single, archived file ready for transmission to
  your favourite BBS.  Opus is already configured to understand 3 types of
  archive functions, namely LHArc, Arc and Zoo. You are able to include 3
  more of your own types, such as Zip, Warp, DMS or whatever else you need
  to use.  To make use of all these functions you need to add that
  particular command to the C directory of your Opus disk. As they are
  not included on it already you need to download them from a BBS or get
  them from a Public Domain library. I had a lot of trouble using this
  feature with 2 drives and found that it would start to extract the file
  from the source in df0: to the destination in df1: then it would ask for
  the Opus disk to be reinserted to get the needed command from it, and it
  would then try to save the file to the Opus disk itself. When the
  requester popped up saying that the Opus disk was Write Protected and I
  clicked on cancel or tried to change disks the programme would hang on
  me and I could not get out of it short of rebooting. However, as I am
  in the fortunate position of having 3 drives, I found that there were no
  such problems this way.  I simply place Opus in df0:, Source in df1: and
  destination in df2: select which files need to be done and then go away
  and do something else while all the work is done for me.  This was
  disappointing as I tried several times to extract files using only 2
  drives, but had the identical result each time.  I realize that it is
  probably my own fault, as I do tend to get excited when confronted with
  a new toy, and the instruction manual is the last thing I want to look
  at. I just like to dive right in at the deep end and figure it out for
  myself.  Probably if I had taken the time to read it from cover to cover
  I would know how to set it up properly, but since I can perform the
  functions without any trouble using the 3 drives, I haven't even tried
  the 2 drive method again. It's so easy and takes just 2 clicks of the
  right Mouse button I'd me mad to try to do it another way.  I'm sure if
  you are lucky enough to have a Hard Drive (I'd kill for one) you could
  install Opus to this and not have any problems with extracting files
  this way. If you have enough memory you could easily set up a Ram Drive
  and take advantage of this for using archives. I'm not able to use
  either of these methods, but I'm certain it would be easy to get it up
  and running. I had thought about ringing the hot line to get an answer
  to this little problem but the way I do it now works fine, so if it's
  not broke don't try to fix it.

    Other Features

    There are many other features of Opus to talk about, but I will just
  briefly mention a couple more that I haven't seen in any other programme
  and I think are really worth bringing to your attention.  One is the
  HELP feature.  In the top menu bar is a selection called Help.  When you
  highlight it and then move the mouse to any gadget on the screen you
  like and push the button, up pops a screen with information about that
  particular gadget and it's functions.  Why hasn't someone thought of
  that before.  It's so handy when you first try to use the programme to
  be able to put the manual down and just click on everything to see what
  it all does. All of these Help screens are all user definable as well
  so if you like you can alter any of them to suit your self just using an
  editor or word processor and you can save your own Help screens to go
  with any extra gadgets you add to the programme.  The other feature I
  would like to mention is the Error Help function.  When you receive one
  of those Cryptic messages from DOS that only says "Error 103" or
  whatever, instead of having to go through some manual or another to look
  up a table of errors, which usually don't make sense anyway, all you
  need do is click on this and a requester pops up with a space to type in
  the error number that was returned and in a fraction of a second, there
  is an easy to understand explanation of that particular error and a
  brief outline of the possible methods to correct it.  These error
  messages are all able to be rewritten as well so you are able to edit or
  add new ones to this help file anytime you like. You can alter the
  error meanings to your own words so that you may be able to understand
  them more clearly, or add different methods to correct the problems.
  Utterly brilliant idea that one. I've been looking for something like
  that for years.

    There are so many more features of Directory Opus Professional to tell
  you about that I could easily fill up a whole disk on the subject.  No
  wonder the Manual is 140 pages long.  All that remains to say is
  whatever you do go out and buy an ORIGINAL of this programme.  It will
  be the best purchase you will ever make apart from the AMIGA itself, and
  you will never regret it.  Look at the facts. Jonathan Potter has put
  many, many hours and a great deal of money into perfecting this
  programme.  If people don't buy his product he will not think it
  necessary to make any improvements to it, and will probably not write
  any more software for commercial purposes.  Then it will be you and me
  who suffer from this lack of new original products.  The price is very
  reasonable when compared to the usual, ridiculous cost of most games
  software which are normally not worth the cost of the disks they are
  copied on anyway, and you can do a hell of a lot more interesting things
  with Opus than just zapping the 15 headed Bawbleblot monster from the
  planet Zarblug or some other equally stupid thing.  Once you buy the
  original, you can get an update to the next version for some small
  amount, like 5 or 10 dollars or something, so to continue to get the
  latest versions and help from the programmer himself for that sort of
  money is a very good deal don't you think. Even if you do find a PIRATE
  copy of Opus floating around somewhere, just think of it as a demo
  version that you can try out for a couple of weeks before you buy the
  full version.  Without the manual you wont be able to make full use of
  this product so it's worth getting for that reason alone.  IT'S MADE IN
  AUSTRALIA AND IT'S GREAT SO GO BUY AN ORIGINAL NOW.  You even get a few
  other programmes on the disk along with Opus, all written by the same
  author so what more do you want.  Personally, after all this typing I've
  just done, I want some commission from Mr.  Potter if he's reading this.
  PLEASE, I'M BROKE !!!.

    For further details contact Jonathan Potter, P/O Box 289,
				Goodwood, S.A. 5034
				Australia.
			Phone   (08) 2932788



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