AFTER READING THIS FILE, CLICK THE "FILE" MENU (IN THE WINDOWS PROGRAM) AND CLICK "PSL-NEWS". IN THE DOS PROGRAM, PRESS ENTER. Contents: - DOS Games & Sounds Delayed a Month - 10 Essential Things to Know About Using Windows - Program Descriptions in Text Files - Using the PsL CD =====DOS Games Delayed a Month When we took all the GAMES & SOUNDS files from the January 1995 CD-ROM and added to them all the new files from the subsequent CDs, the files totalled over 550 megabytes in size. The new and updated programs for September totalled over 225 megabytes. The screen shots and PsL database files total over 30 megabytes. This totals over 800 megabytes of files. Since a CD-ROM holds less than 700 megabytes, we were once again faced with the difficult problem of dividing up a bonus section of the month to fit on the current CD. The SOUNDS & MUSIC files totalled less than 100MB, which was not enough to solve the problem, so we decided to split the section of the month between DOS and Windows. This month's CD has GAMES & SOUNDS for Windows only. Next month's CD will have GAMES & SOUNDS for DOS. As we have mentioned before, the scheduled sections of the month are always subject to change. If we have more than 650MB, there is nothing we can do to make the files fit on a CD other than postponing some of the programs. If you are hot for the DOS GAMES & SOUNDS files and cannot wait for next month's CD, you can get the last GAMES & SOUNDS CD for DOS & Windows (the January 1995 CD) for just $6 plus shipping. Since we did not know until the last minute that all the files would not fit on the CD, the database on this month's CD still shows all the DOS GAMES & SOUNDS files as being on this month's CD. To get the correct CD issues for the DOS GAMES & SOUNDS files, use the database on last month's CD-ROM. =====10 Essential Things to Know About Using Windows 1. Run the Windows Tutorial. We get many tech support calls from people having trouble using Windows who have not even run the tutorial which comes with Windows. 2. How to add a program (icon) to Program Manager: When you "install" a program from the PsL CD to your hard disk, all you are doing is un-ZIP-ing its files. (All files for a program on the CD are combined and compressed into a single file which has a ZIP extension. When you INSTALL using the PsL CD access programs, the files are un-ZIP-ed.) If the program does not have its own INSTALL.EXE which adds it to Program Manager for you, you have to do it yourself as follows: 1. Open the window for the Program Group you want to add the program to (example: Games). 2. Click on "File" on Program Manager's menu bar. 3. Click on "New". 4. Click on "Program Item" and "Ok". 5. In the next window, click on the "Browse" button. 6. Use the drive and directory boxes to locate the directory into which you installed the program. 7. In the file box, look for the file name with an extension of EXE. If you see more than one EXE file, you may have to experiment in order to determine which is the main program file. Double-click on the EXE file name. This will take you back to the prior window. Click "Ok". This will take you back to the program group and you should see the program's icon. 3. How to run a program for which you do not have an icon in Program Manager: The easiest way is to run File Manager, locate the directory in which the program resides, then double-click on the EXE file name. 4. How to delete a file: Use File Manager to locate the drive and directory in which the file resides. Click only once on the file name so that it is highlighted. Press the "Del" key on the keyboard and follow the prompts to delete the file. To delete multiple, consecutive files in the file list, click on the first file name to be deleted, hold down the Shift key, then click on the last name to be deleted. This will highlight a block of names. Press delete to delete them all. 5. How to delete a directory: Follow the same steps as for deleting a file. 6. How to find a file anywhere on your hard disk. Using File Manager, click on its "File" menu then on "Search". Enter the file name to search for, then press the Tab key to get to the "Start From" box, then specify the root directory (example: "C:\") in order to search the whole drive. 7. How to move or delete a program's icon. To move an icon from one program group to another, open the first program group and make sure you can see all or part of the destination program group at the same time. Click on the desired icon and without letting go of the button, move the mouse cursor to the destination group (you should see an outline of the program's icon move), then release the mouse button. To delete an icon, click once on the icon to highlight it, then press the "Del" key on the keyboard and follow the prompts. Remember that deleting/moving an icon does not affect its disk files. To get rid of a program, you must delete the actual as described in #4 above. 8. How to remove a program group from Program Manager: Close the program group (click on its down arrow). If the program group icon is not highlighted, click once on it to highlight it. Press the "Del" key and follow the prompts. 9. How to change from one program to another: Hold down the Alt key while you tap the Tab key. Each time you tap Tab, a different program name will be displayed in a box. When you see the name of the program you want to change to, release the Alt key. 10. How to assign shortcut keys: If there are several programs which you frequently run, assign shortcut keys to call them up in Program Manager without having to open their program group. To assign a shortcut key, open the program's program group, click once on the program's icon to highlight it, then click on Program Manager's "File" menu and then on "Properties". Click in the "Shortcut Key" box and hit the key combo you want to use, such as Ctrl-Alt-N for Notepad, Ctrl-Alt-D for a DOS window, Ctrl-Alt-C for the calculator, etc. =====Program Descriptions in Text Files If you prefer to view descriptions of all the programs of one type in a scrollable file rather than viewing one program description at a time as this program does, you can do so by using the FILES.BBS file which appears in each directory. The file DIRECTRY.TXT in the root directory of the CD gives descriptions of all the directories on the CD. Change into a directory (example: CD \DOS\GRAPHICS) and type \VIEW FILES.BBS to read about all the files in that directory, using the cursor keys to scroll through the file. You can easily manually install a file to your hard disk by typing "\PKUNZIP . For example, to unzip SOMEFILE.ZIP to a directory on your hard disk, first create a directory for it (example: MD C:\SOME-DIR) then unzip the file to that directory: \PKUNZIP SOMEFILE C:\SOME-DIR =====Using the PsL CD If this is your first time to use a PsL Monthly CD-ROM, after reading the information in this window (use the scroll bars), follow the instructions above to get to the main program screen, then click on "Tutor" on the menu bar and also read the "Help" files. You are also welcome to call PsL at 713-524-6394 during our office hours for any assistance you might need. =====New Features in Windows CD-ROM Access Program Print Author Labels: ------------------- A new feature in the CD-ROM Access Program for Windows is the ability to copy an author's name and address to the Windows Clipboard. From there, you can paste it into Notepad, Write, etc., to print a mailing label, write a letter, or whatever. To do this, you first must turn on the author display by clicking on "Author" on the menu bar, then click on "Show Author". Then either search for the author by name or bring up the author's program, which will cause his name and address to be displayed. Then click on the "File" menu and "Author Address to Clipboard". To paste the address into most Windows apps, you run the app, click its "Edit" menu, click the cursor where you want the address inserted, then click on "Paste" or press Ctrl-V. Search Descriptions: ------------------- In May, we added the ability to search program write-ups for specified text. This is a slow search technique, but is the most thorough way to search for text. For details, search the Help file. Help File Improved: ------------------ We have cleaned up and expanded the Help file and at the same time, added some features such as scroll buttons in the Help file and context-sensitive help. To use the context-sensitive help for a menu item, click on the menu bar and use the cursor keys to move down to the desired option, then press the F1 key.