Hard Disk Menu HDM IV version 3.0 BBS name: HDM430.ZIP The only requirements for distribution of the Hard Disk Menu are that no files may be changed, and the distributor must notify the customer that HDM is a Shareware product and that continued use requires that the user register the product with the author. The registation form is in the file called ORDER.DOC, recent changes are listed in the file HISTORY.DOC. New users are granted a 30 day trial license to test drive HDM to find out if it is the menu system for them. After 30 days, the user must register HDM with MicroFox or stop using the product. This policy will assure that Shareware authors that produce good products at good prices will stay in business and continue with their Shareware efforts. Jim Hass is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware - related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon MI 49442 or send a message via CompuServe mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. Hard Disk Menu is a DOS shell that hides the underlying operating system from the uninitiated user, yet does not get in the way of the expert user. The basic system consist of up to one thousand menu files with twenty-six menu pages each, and each page has ten entries for a total of 260,000 entries to choose from. You can start an entry by pointing to it with the cursor or the mouse, then press the key or one of the mouse buttons, or you can simply press the number key associated with that entry. Each entry can start a program, run a batch file, or execute any DOS command. An entry can also have multiple steps which can include any or all of the possibilities above plus special HDM functions and macros. You can change menu pages by pressing the through keys or the through keys to go directly to page "A" through "J" or use the and keys. Each page and each entry on each page has a user definable description. You can go to another Menu File with 260 entries by using the action function {MENU ###}. Menu Files are numbered from zero to 999. The key displays a horizontal menu at the top of the screen. The choices from the menu include: Menu, Page, Security, Local, Global, or Exit. Help can be selected any time and presents you with another menu and screens that explain how to use the Hard Disk Menu System. MENU allows you to add, change, delete, move, or copy the menu entry descriptions and their associated menu action. PAGE lets you change the description of a Page Index entry, import pages, switch pages, or delete pages. SECURITY allows you to set up user logons and password protect menu entries. LOCAL lets you set up variables in the current menu file and GLOBAL lets you set up variables that affect all menu files. EXIT leaves HDM and returns you to the DOS prompt or opens a DOS window where you can run any DOS command, program, or batch file. Other commands in the Top Menu allow you to set up macros, menu titles, change colors and window borders, set mouse sensitivity, set communications parameters, set time for automatic blanking of the menu screen, and set up hands off timed execution of any menu entry any time of the day, week, or month. The user defined menu entries consist of two parts. The first one is a 48 character description that is displayed on the screen and can be anything you want. This is what you choose to start a menu entry from the main menu. The second part of this menu entry is the menu action. This tells HDM what to do when this menu entry is started. The menu action can contain anything that you would normally put in a DOS batch file, plus functions and macros that give you additional flexibility, ease of use, and capabilities beyond DOS and other menu systems. Help is always available. Press from anywhere in the Hard Disk Menu to get the help menu and help screens. Help topics are displayed at the left side of the screen and a description of each topic is displayed on the right side of the screen. You can move up and down through the help topics or press the letter associated with it and the information on that topic will immediately be displayed in the help text window at the right. You can also get help on the keys available when you are in the main menu. Just press from the main menu and a help window will open with information specific to that menu. It is also possible to set up custom help for any menu entries that you want. See the sample files "A1.000" and "HELP.000" on your HDM distribution disk. The Hard Disk Menu is not memory resident. When you run a program, HDM gets out of memory completely so that all system ram is available for your use. HDM is then automatically called back into memory when your program is finished. HDM also has the ability to log user activity by writing information to a file every time a user logs on or off, and every time a menu entry is run. To use the log file you must start HDM with the -L or -L startup switch. The log file is an ASCII text file with the following format: YYYYMMDDHR:MND[xxx]=Msg YYYY = Year; MM = Month; DD = Day; HR = Hour (0-23); MN = Minute; D = Day of week; [xxx] = LOG, OFF, RUN, or END; Msg = User ID or a description of what was run and project information. HDM allows you to put security levels on any entries in the main menu and on the commands in the pull down windows. This can be done either at the group level via the Security pull down window or by putting the cursor on any main menu entry or any pull down menu command and pressing the Alt-F1 key. You must have at least one password set up in the Master Password Table to use security levels. The file SECURITY.DOC explans the multi-level security. You can customize the opening logo screen by using the -H startup switch and putting your own company logo in the file HDM.HDR. You can also create custom help screens for each main menu entry by creating a text file with a name that uses a combination of the menu entry page letter and number and the menu file number. For example custom help for menu entry B5 in menu file HDM.333 would be named B5.333. When F1 is pressed while the cursor is on that entry, your custom help is displayed before the normal HDM help screens. There are many features built into the Hard Disk Menu for use on local area networks. One that must be used is the -W startup switch. This tells HDM where to keep the work file that it uses to keep track of information for each user. You can change the name of the work file, X.BAT, by using the X environment variable (set X=). The -T and -0 through -9 startup switches also can help with network environments as can some of the security features. MicroFox Company Jim Hass P.O. Box 447 CompuServe Mail: 73057,3113 Richfield, Ohio USA 44286-0447