Help file for ThePier(tm) CD-ROM Access Program
Do not alter this file!
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.1
 Subjects Help 
This is a list of the subjects on the CD-ROM.  
Selecting one of the subjects will display the 
files in that subject.  

The menu at the top of the screen will allow you 
to exit the program, search for files, keywords, 
or archive contents, or configure ThePier(tm) CD-ROM
Access Program.  You can select the items from the 
top menu with your mouse or by pressing the 
highlighted letter of the desired choice in 
combination with the Alt key.  (For instance, to 
select System, hold down the Alt key and press the 
'S' key.)

.2
 System Menu Help 
The System menu is used for overall program 
control.  From it, you can exit the program, drop 
to DOS temporarily, or execute your custom shell 
program. 

.3
 DOS Shell Help 
The DOS Shell option will allow you to go to DOS 
and return to ThePier(tm) by typing EXIT.

.4
 Custom Shell Help 
The Custom Shell option will allow you to jump to 
your favorite file management program.  (See 
Configure for more information on this.)

.5
 Exit Help 
Exit ends ThePier(tm) and returns you to DOS.

.6
 Search Menu Help 
The Search menu allows you to search the database 
for filenames, keywords, and archive content 
filenames.  Searches at this level will include 
all subjects.

.7
 Filename Search Help 
This option will allow you to search the database 
for a particular filename.

.8
 Keyword Search Help 
This option will allow you to search the database 
for a particular keyword.  All significant words 
in the file descriptions have been indexed, so 
any file with the word you specify in its 
description will appear in the file list.

.9
 Archive Content Search Help 
This option will allow you to search the database 
for a particular archive content filename.  Most 
of the files on the CD are archive files that 
actually contain other files.  The resulting file 
list will contain all the archive files that 
contain a file matching the search criteria.

.10
 Configure Menu Help 
The Configure menu allows you to set up ThePier(tm)
for your system.  It lets you control the display 
mode, the active database, the directories used by 
ThePier(tm), and the viewer programs.

.11
 Configure Display Help 
The Display option allows you to force ThePier(tm) to
use text mode displays.  

.12
 Configure Active Database Help 
The Active Database option is used to select an 
alternate database.  If you have more than one The 
Pier Shareware CD-ROM, you can use this option to 
switch among the CDs.

.13
 Configure Directories Help 
The Directories option is used to identify the 
directory paths used by ThePier(tm).

.14
 Configure Viewers Help 
The Viewers option allows you to associate 
external programs with specific file extensions.  
When you click on a content file with the 
specified extension, the associated external 
program will be executed.

.15
 Search Criteria Help 
This screen allows you to specify the criteria 
used for a database search.  The Key field is used 
to specify the filename or keyword for which to 
search.  Wildcard characters are not allowed, but 
you can enter a partial key.  If Exact Match Only 
is checked, complete words must be entered in the 
Key field.  If not checked, the beginning of a 
word or filename may be entered.

.16
 Configure Display Help 
This screen allows you to force ThePier(tm) to use
text mode displays.  ThePier(tm) will normally use
graphics mode if your display systems supports 
it.  Text mode displays are slightly faster than 
graphics mode and may be necessary if your 
display system is non-standard.  Changes to the 
Display setting will take effect the next time 
you run ThePier(tm).  You can also force text mode by
using the /T option on the command line when you 
start ThePier(tm).

.17
 Configure Database Help
This screen is used to select an alternate ThePier(tm)
database.  If you have more than one The Pier 
Shareware CD-ROM you can use this screen to select 
the database associated with one of the other 
CD-ROMs.  If you only have one The Pier Shareware 
CD-ROM, do not change the settings on this screen.

You can select any of the directories shown in the 
lower right section by clicking on them with your 
mouse.  If you don't have a mouse, use the TAB key 
to switch to the directory section, then use the 
arrow keys to highlight the desired directory.  
Press the ENTER key to select the directory. 

If the desired directory is on another drive, 
position to the Dir field and type the desired 
drive letter.

When you've selected the proper directory, 
position to the left window and select the desired 
database file.  To finalize the database 
selection, position to and select the OK button.

To exit the Active Database screen without making 
a selection, press ESCAPE or select Cancel.

.18 
 Configure Directories Help
Directories Configuration allows you to specify 
the directories used by ThePier(tm).  The Work
Directory is used by ThePier(tm) for temporary files.
A default value is set up by the installation 
program, but you can change it if desired.  

The Default Copy/Extract Directory specifies the 
default directory used when copying or extracting 
archive files.  This is just a default and can be 
changed on the fly when copying or extracting 
files.  

The Comment Database Directory specifies the 
location of the comment database.  By default, 
this is the directory where ThePier(tm) program
resides.  It is recommended that you stay with the 
default.

CD-ROM Drive specifies the drive letter of your 
CD-ROM drive.  The installation program initially 
sets this value to the drive from which ThePier(tm)
was installed.  If you have more than one CD-ROM 
drive, you will need to change this value if you 
move The Pier Shareware CD-ROM to a different 
CD-ROM drive.

.19
 Configure Viewers Help
The Viewer Configuration screen is used to define 
external programs that will be activated by 
ThePier(tm) in different situations.

Default Viewer is the file viewer program used by 
ThePier(tm) when another viewer is not associated with
the selected file.  ThePier(tm) contains a built in
default viewer, but it is suitable only for text 
files.  If the Default Viewer field is left 
blank, the built in viewer will be used.  An 
excellent alternative viewer is Vern Buerg's List 
program.  The current version of List should be 
available on The Pier Shareware CD-ROM.  (List is 
a shareware program and should be registered if 
you use it.)

Shell Program is the program executed when you 
select the Custom Shell option from one of the 
drop-down menus.  It can be used to execute a file 
management program such as Norton Commander or 
PCTools.  

The remainder of the screen contains pairs of 
Viewer specifications and their associated File 
Extensions.  When a file with one of the specified 
extensions is selected from an archive content 
list, the viewer associated with that extension is 
executed.  Each viewer can have up to ten 
extensions associated with it.  If you need more 
than ten extensions associated with a particular 
viewer, you can specify the viewer more than once.
The Viewer field should contain the whatever you 
would normally enter at the DOS command line to 
execute the program.

It should be noted that these programs are not 
strictly limited to "viewer" programs.  For 
instance, if you have a sound card, you may find 
it useful to associate a sound file player with 
file extensions like .MOD and .WAV.  This will 
allow you to click on a .WAV file and have it 
automatically extracted and played on your sound 
card.

In all of the above program specification fields, 
ThePier(tm) will substitute the sequence $F with the
full path and filename of the selected file.  The 
sequence $D will be substituted with the name of 
the target directory.  For instance, to use Vern 
Buerg's List program as the Default Viewer, you 
would enter LIST $F in the Default Viewer field.  
This would activate List and pass on the command 
line the name of the file to be viewed.  $D may be 
useful with the Shell Program if your selected 
file management program will accept a directory on 
the command line.

.20
 Files Help 
This is a list of the files in the selected 
subject.  To get complete details on a specific 
file, click on the file with your mouse or 
highlight the desired file and press ENTER.

The menu at the top of the screen can be activated 
by clicking on it with your mouse or by holding 
down the Alt key and pressing one of the 
highlighted letters in the menu.

To return to the previous screen, press ESCAPE or 
select System from the drop-down menu and select 
Return To Previous Screen.

.21
 System Menu Help
The System menu is used for overall program 
control.  From it, you can return to the previous 
screen, exit the program, drop to DOS 
temporarily, or execute your custom shell program. 

.22
 Return to Previous Screen Help
Return to Previous Screen will take you back to 
the previous screen.

.23
 Search Menu Help 
The Search menu allows you to search the database 
for filenames, keywords, and archive content 
filenames.  Searches at this level will include 
only files in the current subject.

.24
 File Detail Help 
This screen contains details about a specific 
file.  The archive file name, directory, date and 
size are at the top left of the screen.  

At the top right is a list of the files contained 
within the archive file.  If the file is not an 
archive, the list at the upper right will be a 
repeat of the file name.  The scroll bar at the 
right of this window can be used to scroll 
through the list of files.  Selecting one of the 
files in this list will cause ThePier(tm) to extract
that file from the archive and pass the extracted 
file to the appropriate "viewer".

In the middle of the screen is the complete 
description of the file.  The scroll bar at the 
right can be used to scroll the description up and 
down.

Under the description window is the comments 
window.  This can be used to enter your own 
comments about this file.  These comments will be 
saved in a special database and will be displayed 
whenever you view the detail information about 
this file.

At the very bottom of the screen is a prompt bar 
showing the active keys and their effects.  
PageDown will move to the next file in this 
subject.  PageUp will move to the previous file in 
this subject.  Ctrl-PageDown will move to the 
first file in the next subject.  Ctrl-PageUp will 
move to the first file in the previous subject.  
Alt-C will move the cursor to the comment window 
from anywhere on the screen.  Clicking on any of 
the prompts with your mouse will take the 
associated action.

.25
 File Menu Help 
The File option allows you to take certain actions 
on the current file.

.26
 File Copy Help 
The Copy option will copy the current archive file 
to the selected directory.

.27
 File Extract Help 
The Extract option will extract the contents of 
the current archive file into the selected 
directory.

.28
 File Extract and Custom Shell Help 
The Extract and Custom Shell option will extract 
the contents of the current archive file into the 
selected directory and then activate the Custom 
Shell program.

.29
 File Extract and Shell to DOS Help 
The Extract and Shell to DOS option will extract 
the contents of the current archive file into the 
selected directory and then shell to DOS in that 
directory.  To return to ThePier(tm), type EXIT at the
DOS command line.

.30
 Search Files Help
This is a list of the files that met your search 
criteria.  To get complete details on a specific 
file, click on the file with your mouse or 
highlight the desired file and press ENTER.

The menu at the top of the screen can be activated 
by clicking on it with your mouse or by holding 
down the Alt key and pressing one of the 
highlighted letters in the menu.

To return to the previous screen, press ESCAPE or 
select System from the drop-down menu and select 
Return To Previous Screen.

.End
