PDCat v1.41

This is a program to ease the reading of of list with discriptions of
PD-disks. You simply read one discription at the time. The program is very
simple, (So i say, but I also made it.) but if you have problems then read
this text, which you obviously already have found, by pressing the
Help-button. I hope you understand the meaning of it, cause I do not write
good manuals.

REMEMBER: When I write 'text', I mean the discription of a disk, which is
currently on the screen.
I suppose that you know how to use the mouse to click with, because almost
everything in PDCat is done this way. The only thing (in this version),
which can be accessed by the keyboard, is to change the text.
Also keep in mind, that if you press a button, which displays a box on the
screen, like 'About' & 'Print', then the mousepointer wil turn red. This
means that you will have to press a button in the box, to return to the
reading of texts.

If you do not already have a text in memory, then press 'Load'. This will
bring up a filerequester, from where you can load a PDCat file. This
requester is very easy to use, but anyway, here's an explanetion anyway.
First of all, the file you are going to load, HAS to end on '.PDAbk'. To
load a file, you click on it, and then click 'Ok', or you dobbleclick the
selected file.
To see which .PDAbk-files there are on other disks, you click 'Assigns' or
'Devices'. Devices will show the names of the drives (ie. DF0:, RAM:), and
Assigns will, (as it says), show the names, which are assigned to your
disks. Click once on the disk/drive you want to look at, and load files
from, as I told you before.
If you don't want to load any files anyway, then click 'Cancel'.
REMEMBER: Even if the filerequester needs you to either select a file or
press 'Cancel', then the mousepointer will not turn red, but you can't use
PDCat, before you have exited the requester.

To 'turn the pages', in the catalog, you use the arrow-buttons, in the
upper-right corner of the screen. They have the following functions: (The
text in paranthesis are keyboard equevalents).

Arrow right...............: Next text     	(Arrow right)
Arrow down................: Previus text        (Arrow left)
Arrow up..................: One line up      *  (Arrow up)
Arrow down................: One line down    *  (Arrow down)
Dobble arrow up...........: One page up         (Shift+arrow up)
Dobble arrow down.........: One page down    	(Shift+arrow down)

If you use the mouse to click with, the function assigned to the button,
will not be carried out, before you release the mouse-button, exept those
marked with *. If you use the keyboard, then PDCat will NOT wait for you
to release the key, and because of this, its very usefull when you are
going to look through all the texts fast.

If you see a disk that you perhaps want to order, then click 'Mark'. This
will (Ta-da) mark the text, which is on the screen. It will write 'MARKED'
under the Mark-button. This way, you can always tell if the text on screen
is already marked. If you click Mark with a text which is already marked,
it will be unmarked again.
REMEMBER: Rigth mouse-button has the same function as the Mark-button.
Even if you load a new .PDAbk-file, then PDCat will remember the titles
you have marked, so the next time you load the file, then they will still
be marked, unless you erase some of them from the Marked?-box. (see
below.)

To see, which titles you have marked, in the entire catalog, (all
.PDAbk-files), then click Marked?. This will bring up a box which looks a
bit like a filerequester, but with the titles you have marked. You can
erase all the titles by clicking 'Clear', or you can delete one by
selecting it, and then click 'Delete'. If you have deleted one or more
titles by mistake, then click 'Cancel', and none of the titles will be
deleted from the list. When you are finished, and you are sure that the
titles you have removed from the list really IS to be removed, then click
'Ok', and after a little time, depending on how many titles you have
marked, you will be back to the reading of texts.
REMEMBER: The close-gadget in the upper left corner of the window, has the
same function as 'Cancel'.

To end PDCat, you press the close-gadget in the upper left-hand corner of
the PDCat main screen. This will bring up a box, which ask you to type in
your name/adress/telephone number. Write it, if it's needed. If you then
click 'Save & quit', then PDCat will save your list of marked disks, on a
volume called PDCat:. This is probably disk 1 of the PD-catalog which you
have read, if it's not one of the other disks of it, (if it's on more than
one). Remember, that this PDCat: can be an assign. (Like C: is always
assigned to the drawer c/ of your Workbench disk). This means, that if you
did not boot from your catalog, but started from workbench, then it's not
sure that this PDCat: will exist. Well, anyway, if PDCat ask you to insert
this disk, then try to insert disk 1 of you catalog, in a drive. If this
does not work, then try with the other disks from the catalog. If this
does not help either, then you cannot save your list. (Sorry, I'll try to
fix this in a new version.)
If you just want to end PDCat, without saving your list, then click
'Quit', and PDCat, will end.
If you have chosen this function by mistake, then click 'Cancel', and you
will be returned to PDCat.
REMEMBER: If you save your list, it will be loaded automatically, the next
time you start PDCat. Also, if you saved a list, which is loaded at
startup, then your name/adress will automatically show in the box when you
quit, and when you select 'Print'. (If you have typed it in, before
saving, that is.)

To print your list with selected disks, you click (That's rigth) 'Print'.
This will bring up a box, which looks like the one from which you end
PDCat. Simply write your name, and select 'Print'. This will print your
name/adress, and the titles you have marked. This list can be used as an
orderform, if you like.
IMPORTANT: Do not click 'Print', if you do not have a printer connected,
because it will take a bit of time before PDCat is telling you, that it
cannot access the printer, and if you click 'Cancel' in this
'Printer-trouble', it will come back again anyway. (Sometimes you have to
click 'Cancel' 8-9 times, before you return to PDCat. I can't help it,
unfortunately.)
If you don't want to print, then click 'Cancel'.

If you want to search after something special, then click 'Search'. Type
in the string you want to serach for, and click 'Search'. This will ALWAYS
find the first occurence of the string in the catalog in memory, and
automatically show you the title in which the text was found. It will,
however, not show you the exactly place in the text.
If you want to search for another occurence of the string, then click
'Search', and then 'Search next'. This will find the next occurence of the
string, from where it was last found. You can only use 'Search next', if
you have first used 'Search' on the string. Even if you type in a new
string, and then select 'Search next', then PDCat will search for the
string which was last 'Search'ed or 'Search next'ed, and show you the
title in which it was found.
You can use 'Search' a lot of times aftre each other, just remember that
the string has to be 'Search'ed the first time.
REMEMBER: Upper- and lower case letters are DIFFERENT, the search-routine
is case-sensitive, so if you write 'MUSIC', it will not find the word
'Music' or 'music', so you have to write the text exactly as the one you
want to find, or else PDCat will not find it!
Click 'Cancel', to exit search without searching.
(I hope that you understood my explanetion of the search-routine. It's not
as good as it is in other programs, but it's FAST.)

I hope, that you have got the meaning of this help-file. PDCat should be
easy to use, exept the search-option.
If you have wishes of changes or new functions for further versions of the
program, then write me a letter. My adress can be found in the 'About'-box
in PDCat.