DLS v1.10 Copyright (c) 1990 All Rights Reserved by James A. Clark 822 Nancy Road Waterloo, IA 50701 (319) 236-7749 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL CONTENTS Warranty and Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii License and Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii Program Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Using DLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Moving Through the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Editor Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Program Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Registration Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-16 i DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER The author of DLS makes no warranty of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation, any warranties or merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The author of DLS shall not be liable for any damages, whether direct, indirect, special, or consequential arising from a failure of this program to operate in the manner desired by the user. The author of DLS shall not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused directly or indirectly by the use of this program. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR OF DLS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. YOUR USE OF THIS PROGRAM CONSTITUTES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THIS DISCLAIMER AND YOUR RELEASE OF THE AUTHOR FROM ANY FORM OF LIABILITY OR LITIGATION. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. IBM, IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 and PC-DOS are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. EPSON is a trademark of Epson Corporation. CompuServe is a trademark of CompuServe Incorporated. GENIE is a trademark of General Electric Company. ii DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL LICENSE AND REGISTRATION DLS is not in the Public Domain; DLS is not free. As such, it is made available to the general computing public for evaluation. Non-registered users are granted a limited 30-day license to determine whether or not the program meets their needs. Continued use of DLS beyond this 30-day period requires registration of the program. Business and government users of DLS must register in order to legally use this software. The 30- day evaluation privilege is extended only to non-business users. Registered users are those users that elect to pay for DLS and register that payment with the author of DLS (James A. Clark). By virtue of registration and payment for the program, registered users are granted a license to continue to utilize the program on their personal computer for as long as they choose. This license authorizes the user to use the program on any personal computer system he or she may own so long as the program is operated on only one computer system at a time. If you desire to use the software on more than one computer you must purchase a site license. By using DLS you acknowledge that you have read this agreement, understand it and agree to be bound by its terms and conditions. The author of DLS retains sole rights to the program. No one may modify DLS or its attendant files, in any way, for any reason. The complete set of files are as follows: DLS.EXE DLS.HLP DLS.MAN EPSON_FX.PRD IBM.PRD REGISTER.FRM READ.ME The complete set of --UNREGISTERED-- program files, as listed above, may be freely copied and transferred to individual parties for evaluation purposes. It may be posted on Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) for electronic access as long as NO FEE is charged for its distribution except for a regular user subscription fee. Computer information services such as CompuServe (CIS), Genie, etc., are authorized to post this product for subscriber access. DLS may NOT be distributed on diskette by any disk distributor/vendor that charges more than $6.00 for the diskette upon which the program and attendant files are recorded without the prior written consent of the author of DLS. DLS may NOT be distributed with or as a part of any other product or software package without the prior written consent of the author of DLS. DLS is a fully functional Shareware product. Shareware is a computer program distribution/marketing method that permits iii DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL potential buyers to thoroughly try the program prior to purchase. It is NOT free and it is not in the Public Domain. If, after evaluating the program, you find it to be useful enough to use it on a regular basis, you are expected to pay for it by registering with the author of DLS. The registration fee is $15.00 for single users or a site license is available. Additional registration information and a registration form is included at the end of this document. iv DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL PROGRAM DESCRIPTION DLS is a product designed to read the main directory files and any subdirectory files from all types of 3-1/2" and 5-1/4" diskettes in the A or B drive. You may then print a label or disk insert (for 5-1/4" diskettes) on your printer. A volume label is required for diskettes read. You may also add notes to the label, if desired. A 3-1/2" x 1" label might look like: +----------------------------------------------------------+ |-- SAMPLE TITLE -- | |-Volume Label-----------------------------------360k disk-| |\ File1 .ext File2 .ext | |\SubDir1 SubFile1.ext SubFile2.ext SubFile3.ext| | Subfile4.ext SubFile5.ext | |-- Notes -- | |This is a sample 3-1/2" x 1" diskette label. | |-----------------------------------------------5 Feb 1990-| | 7 Files Bytes: 360448 Used 2048 Free| +----------------------------------------------------------+ The default print driver set supplied as part of the program should work with Epson FX and compatible printers, if set in the Epson mode. An IBM driver set is also included with the program files. If you send me the appropriate codes for other printers, I will add the configuration files to future releases. The setup allows ASCII codes up to #127. Please let me know if higher ASCII codes are needed for other printers. Please report any problems or suggestions to me at the address above. Please be specific about errors and include your system information: hardware, DOS version, and a listing of your autoexec.bat and config.sys files. 1 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS The minimum system requirements for DLS are as follows: Computer Type: IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or 100% compatible Operating System: PC-DOS or MS-DOS 2.0 or higher Memory: 256K Ram Other Hardware: Drives: 2 diskette drives or 1 hard disk and 1 floppy disk Printer Port: LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1, or COM2 Printer: Default: Epson FX or compatible Other: Configurable Video: MDA, CGA, EGA, MCGA or VGA DLS has been tested on XT's, AT's, PS/2's and compatibles with various video displays, all types of diskettes, and various Epson and Epson compatible printers. DLS should work on multitasking systems such as DESQView, however, this has not been verified; feedback would be appreciated. Mouse support is automatically provided if a mouse driver is present in the system. 2 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL INSTALLATION The only file that is required for DLS to work is DLS.EXE. Copy this file to a diskette or to an appropriate (i.e. \Utility) subdirectory on your hard disk. The file, DLS.HLP should be copied to the same diskette as DLS.EXE, the same hard disk directory as DLS.EXE, or somewhere on the DOS path, if the on- line help system is desired. All program parameters are configurable within the program. The default settings the first time you use the program are as follows: - Monochrome color settings - Epson FX printer - LPT1 printer port - 3-1/2" x 1" diskette labels - The program will read diskettes on the A: drive There are several other installation parameters (probably too many cosmetic parameters!) that can be configured; see the section below. CONFIGURATION DLS comes configured so that the user can see it on any screen (monochrome colors) and so that most users could use it without any modification. The parameters that can be configured are as follows. -- Cosmetics - Borders These options allow you to change the - Top menu - 1st level menu - Lower level menu - Information, Data and Error window borders. The 3 border options are single line, double line, and mixed (double horizontal lines and single vertical lines). - Colors The color of every aspect of the program can be changed to suit your personal preference. You can choose from the default monochrome colors or a default color grouping, or you can change individual color options. These options range from changing the background color to Error window colors. 3 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL The color options pertain to the following window and other program colors. Background - Change the main background color. Status - Change the bottom status line color. Bar - Change the top menu colors. Pull - Change remaining menu window colors. Info - Change the Information window colors. Data - Change the Program Data window colors. Help - Change the Help window colors. Error - Change the Error window colors. When choosing a color, 2 windows appear on the screen. The right window is a capsule of what the program colors are currently. The left window is a grid of possible color choices. Pressing the arrow keys moves the cursor, $, to an adjacent color, or pressing the left mouse button moves the cursor to the indicated color. The right window is then updated to show the color change. Pressing or the pressing the left mouse button when the mouse cursor is over the currently selected color changes the default color while pressing or the right button exits without changing anything. - Mouse The configuration option for the mouse allow you choose a default "reverse" color block mouse cursor, a default color diamond cursor, or the actual cursor color and cursor shape can be selected separately. Choosing a color or cursor shape is accomplished in the same manner as for the program colors. -- Printer There are 2 printer options. The first option changes the port that the label data will be sent when printing. Only those ports that are connected to your computer will be available for choosing from this option. The ports, if installed, that data can be routed to are LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1, and COM2. The second option allows you to edit or choose print driver sets. The default print driver set included with the program should work on standard Epson FX printers and compatibles. An IBM driver set is also included. The "Edit" option allows you to edit the current print driver set, if the default codes do not work for your printer. In order to edit these codes, you will 4 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL need to refer to your printer manual for the correct printer codes. To edit a driver set, change the printer identification description and then position the highlight over the particular code character that requires modification. At this point use the bar or "+" key to increment, or the "-" key to decrement the ASCII code until you have the correct code shown. Repeat until you have the correct codes for your printer. Those characters that are shown as "NIL" are discarded and not sent to the printer. The driver set includes the following printer code commands: Condensed Mode: Set or release condensed or compressed character printing. Double Width Mode: Set or release double width character printing. SuperScript Mode: Set or release superscript character printing. Double Print Mode: Set or release the 2 pass printing mode. Emphasized Mode: Set or release the emphasized printing mode. 6/72 Line Spacing: Set 6/72 line spacing. 12/72 Line Spacing: Set 12/72 (1/6) line spacing. Line Feed: Line feed code. Initialize Printer: Printer initialization code. If emphasized or double printer modes are not desired, change all the printer code fields for these commands to "NIL". For some printers such as IBM printers, the line feed code will also require the carriage return code, i.e. #013 and #010. For some printers, an initialization code is not applicable. If this is so, just set the all the fields to "NIL" as the only reason I use it is to remove any printer codes that might have been set prior to executing DLS. Finally, when setting the 6/72 and 12/72 codes, make sure that the appropriate "6" and "12" line space fields are #006 and #012, respectively, NOT the characters 6 and 12. Once you have edited a print driver set and exited with the key, you are prompted for a file name, the edited code is saved in a print driver file, and the program uses the new codes immediately for printing. If you have print driver files already created, you can "choose" a printer file from disk for use by the program. 5 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL Please note one qualification to the printer driver editor. At this time, only ASCII characters up to #127 are available. If this is a problem for your printer, please report this so that I can change the program to allow greater flexibility than I had anticipated needing. -- Label The label options allow you to change the label size and to decide if you want to print one label of data or all pages of data. The size options allow you to choose one of several default configurations, or you can edit the current label configuration to create custom labels which are saved to disk and retrieved as needed. The method used to edit a label driver set is the same as for editing a print driver set. While editing a label driver, the information at the right will display several parameters on what a label is capable of accepting for data, such as lines of data that can be printed per label. The default label configurations are as follows. 2-3/4" wide x 1" high (nominal), single header. 3-1/2" wide x 1" high (nominal), single header. 4" wide x 1-1/2" high (nominal), single header. 2-3/4" wide x 2-3/4" high, double header. 5-1/4" diskette insert The option for single or double headers is to allow you to either print a label with one header (Title and Volume Label Information) once or twice, respectively. The double header allows you to fold over part of the label to the back side of the diskette, such as when using 2-3/4" x 2-3/4" labels on 3-1/2" diskettes. The double header option is not available for 1" or 1-1/2" high labels. -- Disk Drive DLS can read either the A: drive or the B: drive. -- Save If you have made any configuration changes, this option will save them. The program is self modifying; there is no configuration file required to be read by the program. If you have made any changes and have not saved them with this option, the program will prompt you and ask if you want to save them when exiting the program. 6 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL USING DLS Once the program is configured to your tastes and requirements, the program is very simple to use. Just insert the labels or paper that corresponds with the label type selected into your printer and a disk into the drive to be read from. Select the "Get" option under the top-level "Directory" option, or , and the program will retrieve ALL files from the disk. This includes hidden files, and subdirectories and their associated files. If the disk does not have a volume label, you will be prompted to add one now. If you choose not to, you can press and the program will prepare for a different disk. My reasoning for this is if a disk is important enough to be labeled, it is important enough to have a volume label. At this time, you are prompted to add a diskette title. If the disk has more files than will fit in the file window, you can press to browse through the file listing and then continue editing. If desired, you may then add some notes to the label. Up to 23 lines of data can be entered. Under the "Print" options, you can then print out a diskette label, with or without a file listing. Please note that in most instances, pressing will take you one step back or out of an editor. Press the key or both mouse buttons at any time to obtain context-sensitive help. This can be especially valuable when editing an item. That's all there is to it! MOVING THROUGH THE MENUS There are several methods to tell the program your next command. The first methods is by means of using the arrow keys to maneuver through the pull-down menus. Using the key or pressing the highlighted alphanumeric key selects the currently highlighted option and either executes the indicated action or selects one of several pull-down menus. Options that have a "down" arrow or "left" arrow to the right of the option have a lower level menu associated with it while options which have a "@" symbol to the right of the option or no symbol directly execute a program function. To return from a lower level menu to the previous level, press the key. The second method is by means of using the mouse cursor to "pick" the menu option with the left button. The right button behaves the same way as the key. You may also back out a lower level menu by "picking" an option from the previous menu. 7 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL The third method is by means of directly executing some commands by using the key in combination with a letter. For example, pressing the and "D" key together gets a directory listing of the currently selected drive in preparation for printing a diskette label. The menu options that can be executed using this method have the "@" symbol followed by the matching alpha key at the right of the option. Only those options that can be executed will be active and shown on the various menus. Inactive menu options are not displayed until they are usable. MENU OPTIONS -- Directory Under the "Directory" top-level option are the following options. - Get This option reads the currently selected disk drive and places you in to "Title" edit. - Browse If the disk has more files than will fit in the file window, you can browse the files with the "browse" () option. -- Edit Under the "Edit" top-level option are the following options. - Notes This option places you in the note window which allows you to add personal notes to the diskette label. Notes can be removed at any time by using the "Remove" option. - Title This option allows editing of the diskette title. - Label This option allows editing and change of the diskette Volume Label. 8 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL -- Print Under the "Print" top-level option are the following options. - Align This options allow you to check the alignment of the labels in the printer. Adjust as necessary and execute this option again. The need for this is simply that DLS makes use of as much of the label as possible and if not aligned correctly, you may print information on the backing instead of the label itself. - Blank This option simply prints a blank label with only a title and the dividing lines on it so that you can simply write information as you desire. - Disk w/Files This prints all the information on the diskette: files, notes, etc. - Disk w/o Files This prints all information on the diskette as above except the listing of files. This is useful when backing up software and an actual file listing is not necessary. -- Configure See the section above on Configuration. -- Exit Exit the program to DOS. If you have made any configuration changes and have not saved them, you will be prompted at this time to save them if you wish. 9 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL EDITOR COMMANDS Listed below is the command syntax associated with various editors used in this program. -- String Editor Syntax The string editor is used for editing single line variables such as the disk title. Syntax is as follows. Move cursor left one character. Move cursor right one character. Move cursor to beginning of variable. Move cursor to end of variable. Delete character at cursor. Delete character to left of cursor. Toggle insert mode on (fat cursor) and off (thin cursor). , Left Mouse Button Accept new variable. , Right Mouse Button Abort. Restore the original variable. , Both Mouse Buttons Help. Invoke the help facility. Pressing or both mouse buttons a second time will bring up a general help index. -- Notes Editor Syntax The notes editor is used for editing notes. Syntax is as follows. Move cursor left one character. Move cursor right one character. Move cursor up one line. Move cursor down one line. Left Mouse Button Move the cursor to the position indicated by the mouse. Move cursor left one word. Move cursor right one word. 10 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL Cursor to beginning of current line. Cursor to end of current line. Scroll display up one line. Scroll display down one line. Scroll display up one page. Scroll display down one page. Move cursor to top of edit window. Move cursor to bottom of edit window. Move cursor to beginning of notes. Move cursor to end of notes. Move the cursor to the next tab stop. If insert mode is on, any text to the right of the cursor is moved to the right of the tab stop. Delete character at cursor. Delete character to left of cursor. Delete current line. Delete from cursor to end of line. Delete word to right of cursor. Restore original contents of the current line. Toggle insert mode on (fat cursor) and off (thin cursor). Start a new line. , Right Mouse Button End note edit. Toggle auto-indent mode on or off. In auto- indent mode, pressing while in insert mode will cause the new line inserted to have the same indentation level as the previous line. Auto-indent mode also affects the way that text is formatted when word wrap occurs--the new line will have the same indentation level as the previous line. 11 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL Reformat the current paragraph. , Both Mouse Buttons Help. Invoke the help facility. Pressing or both mouse buttons a second time will bring up a general help index. -- Incremental Choice Syntax The incremental choice editor is used for editing label and printer code parameters. Syntax is as follows. Move one field to the left. Move one field to the right. + or Increment field variable. - Decrement field variable. , Left Mouse Button Accept field edit and go to next field. , Right Mouse Button Abort. Restore the original variables and exit. Accept edits and exit. , Both Mouse Buttons Help. Invoke the help facility. Pressing or both mouse buttons a second time will bring up a general help index. -- File Browse and Pick Syntax File browse is for browsing a diskette file listing. Pick is for "picking" a label or printer configuration file name. Syntax is as follows. Display next page of data. Display previous page of data. Display first data entry. Display last data entry. Exit file browse and pick. Exit file browse or choose pick file. Right Mouse Button Exit file browse and pick. Left Mouse Button Exit file browse or choose pick file. 12 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL , Both Mouse Buttons Help. Invoke the help facility. Pressing or both mouse buttons a second time will bring up a general help index. -- Multiple Pick Syntax Previous color background. Next color background. Previous color or mouse character. Next color or mouse character. , Left Mouse Button Accept color or mouse character and exit. Double click mouse if needed. , Right Mouse Button Abort. Retain original color or mouse character and exit. , Both Mouse Buttons Help. Invoke the help facility. Pressing or both mouse buttons a second time will bring up a general help index. 13 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL REVISION HISTORY v1.10 - 20 February 1990 - Corrected a minor bug that invoked an error routine when creating a disk volume label (whether successful of not) thus forcing you to read the disk again. - Revised the double heading label option so that the disk title is printed in condensed print on the label where it folds over the diskette thus allowing you to read the title on the front, back, or top of the disk. Suggested by Rick Fitzpatrick. v1.00 - 5 February 1990. - First shareware release. ENHANCEMENTS My desire is to tailor this program to what is desired by the you, the end user. I designed this program to meet my needs and then enhanced it to make it usable for everyone else. If you see something you do not like or if you have an idea that would make the program more functional for you, let me know and I try to incorporate reasonable (or feasible) suggestions for improvements into the program. The Notes Editor could use some refinements as it not very flexible in detecting fancy text notes when reformatting. If you do not want several lines of text to be combined into 1 paragraph, be sure to separate them with a blank line. I will address this shortcoming in a future release. Eventually, I might add the ability to read data files from various disk catalog programs and/or incorporate the DLS code into my own disk catalog program (when I write one!). I might add the ability to read archived files, although the need to do so in a labeling program seems minimal. This will be possible only with your support and suggestions. 14 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL REGISTRATION FORM The following page is an order form that you can use to register your copy of DLS. Why should you register? I have spent many hours making this program what it is. I would like to make it better and the only way I can do this is generate support for this program. Registration and comments from you are the means through which this can be done. Please note that even if you decide not to register this program, taking the few minutes to write down your comments would be appreciated. For those who do register, I will send you the registration information necessary to remove the opening and closing registration incentives. Please note that distributing a registered copy of DLS is strictly prohibited! The registration fee is $15.00 for single users. For site licenses, please use the following fee schedule. Total copies Price PER copy ------------ -------------- 1 to 10 $15.00 All checks and money 11 to 50 $12.00 orders must be made out 51 to 100 $10.00 in U.S. Funds. over 100 $8.00 The following forms of payment are accepted: Check or Money Order (must be payable through a US bank) Purchase Order - NET 30 (orders of $100.00 or more only.) 15 DLS - Diskette LabelS v1.10 USER'S MANUAL DLS v1.10 REGISTRATION FORM Quantity Amount ________ DLS Registration @ $____________ each Total: $____________ NOTE: Please make check or money order, made out in U.S. Funds, payable to James A. Clark Company: ________________________________________________________ Name: ________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Phone: _______________________ Comments and Suggestions: _______________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Please send completed form, and check or money order to: James A. Clark 822 Nancy Road Waterloo, IA 50701 16