        NOANS MENU SYSTEM  VERSION 2.2  HELP FILE
                      DO NOT ALTER THIS FILE.


ABOUT NAILLONWORKS PROGRAMMING
  
  NAILLONWORKS PROGRAMMING specializes in data encryption
 systems for MS-DOS base machines.  We believe that data 
 security is a fundamental right of every PC user. 
 
  CONTACT NAILLONWORKS PROGRAMMING at RT.1 Box F19 Oroville, 
 Washington, 98844. 509-476-2872 AOL user identification 
 NAILPROG, Compuserve addsress 75240,1746.

  MSDOS, DOS, DOS SHELL, Paintbrush, and Windows refer to
 products of the MICROSOFT CORPORATION.

REGISTERING THE NOANS SYSTEM
  
  I haven't crippled this menu system in any way before
 releasing it as a shareware package. It does contain a 
 registration form that will no longer appear in the 
 registered version. I strive to provide a good product at 
 a fair price. I hope that is incentive enough.
  
  If you do wish to help support my programming efforts, 
 send a description of your system, along with your  NAME, 
 ADDRESS, ZIP CODE, and a check for $19.95 to:
 
 NAILLONWORKS PROGRAMMING 
 RT 1 Box F19,  Oroville 
 Washington, 98844.

 It will help me with my encryption work  and your integrity
 won't go unnoticed. Feel free to give copies of the 
 evaluation copy of NOANS to your friends. Don't forget to 
 include NSETUP.EXE, NOANSHLP.TXT, NVENDOR.TXT  
 NOANSOBJ.EXE, and  READFRST.TXT in any distribution. 

INSTALLING THE NOANS MENU SYSTEM 
  
  The installation of NOANS is accomplished by running the 
 installation program NSETUP.EXE that is included in the 
 distribution. The menu system will not function properly
 if it is not initialized with this setup program. 

  Before running NSETUP.EXE, make sure that all of the
 distribution files, NSETUP.EXE, NOANSOBJ.EXE, NVENDOR.TXT, 
 NOANSHLP.TXT, and READFRST.TXT are all present in the 
 same directory of any drive, hard or floppy, that you are 
 installing FROM. Also make sure that you run the 
 installation from the directory that contains the setup 
 files. For example, if the distribution files are contained 
 in the directory of a:\download, at the dos prompt type 
 cd a:\download, hit enter, and then type NSETUP.

  NSETUP.EXE will prompt you for the destination drive,
 and will create the directory of NOANS on that drive. It 
 will create the necessary data and configuration files and 
 copy the program files to that path. It will also create 
 the NOANS.BAT file and place it in the root directory of 
 your selected destination drive. You must use this NOANS.BAT
 file to start the NOANS menu system. If the NOANS.BAT file
 is accidentally deleted from your system, change to the 
 noans subdirectory, and type noansobj. The familiar NOANS
 interface will appear. Without taking additional acton, use 
 the exit button to terminate the program, and the NOANS.BAT
 file will be recreated in your root directory. 

  No alteration to your system's path statement is required.
 Do not attempt to alter any of the program files, as this
 will degrade the performance of NOANS, and may require that
 you reset the menu system. See the help topic (RESETTING THE
 CONFIGURATION).

  When upgrading from previous versions, you should delete
 the old version completely from your system, due to changes
 in the configuration file structure. You will have to re-program 
 the command buttons once reinstallation is complete.

  The first time that you run NOANS 2.2 you will be required to 
 provide an administrator password. This is to guard the system 
 from forgotten command passwords. Choose the administrator 
 with care,  record it exactly as you enter it and keep a record
 of it in a safe place. It cannot be changed without reinstalling
 NOANS.

  After you successfully configure NOANS, it is a good idea to
 keep a backup copy of the file MENUSTOR.DAT. You may 
 wish to update this backup file as you add new commands 
 to the system. This file stores all of the command information
 as well as the password information in encrypted condition.
 If something bad happens to this database,  you can delete
 the faulty one and copy the backup copy to the NOANS 
 directory.

 NOANS is an excellent choice for a start-up menu loaded in
 the autoexec.bat file. Just put this command at the end of 
 your autoexec.bat file.
 
 NOANS

  This assumes that the noans.bat file is on your boot up 
 drive. If it is on another drive, place the drive descriptor 
 ahead of it.

 D:\NOANS

 Remember to disable this line by placing REM in front of it 
 before you run the MS-DOS memmaker utility or other memory
 management utilities:

 REM NOANS
 
CHANGES AND UPDATES
 
 This version of NOANS has been especially compiled for 286
 and above machines. Every attempt has been made to accomplish 
 compatability with a wide variety of  x86 machines.

 No version currently exists that will provide compatability 
 for the 8088, 8086, and 80186 families of CPU's. 

 Other changes to the menu include a longer allowable 
 executable field in the command button edit. This allows
 for a total runfile/parameter combination of 128 characters,
 up from 50 in the versions prior to 2.0.
 
 Eliminated the bug that would sometimes place gibberish on 
 unprogrammed command buttons on page 3 and up.

 Fixed bug in parameter prompt system.

 Addition of 75 command buttons, 3 per page.

 Addition of page index feature which allows immediate access
 to any of the 25 pages.

 Addition of password security option for each individual button.

 Addition of option to pause after running a command, before 
 returning to NOANS. This is useful when you need time to 
 view text displayed on the screen by a command or program, 
 after it terminates. An example would be the dos MEM 
 command.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

 286 +, hard drive, 1mb ram, color monitor, mouse 
 recommended,  MS-DOS 3.3 and higher, and 440K free
 disk space.

 
USES AND CAPABILITIES
  
  NOANS is a very simple yet powerful menu system. It can
 easily be configured to run any program on your system, as
 well as any DOS command line function such as formatting
 disks, copying, etc. It will handle any combination of
 parameters automatically, or can be programmed to prompt
 you for parameters when you run a program from NOANS.
  
  Password security is easily configured for individual 
 buttons with administrator override safeguard.
  
  NOANS also includes a command shell that allows you to
 run dos commands in the same manner as you would at the
 dos prompt, without exiting NOANS. 
  
  The most impressive feature of NOANS is that it doesn't
 penalize you with any memory requirements when you run an
 application from its' push button interface. In fact, it
 requires 0 bytes of memory while it waits for you to close
 an application, then it will reappear, ready to assist you
 with your next selection.
  
  NOANS will handle up to 375 programs and commands. This
 should be more than adequate for most users.
 
                         <NOTE>
  NOANS is not intended to be started from within WINDOWS. 
 Because WINDOWS is itself a sophisticated menu, the chance 
 of layering more than one copy of NOANS exists. The batch 
 file will be unable to properly manage multiple incidences 
 of the menu and may generate a bad command or filename 
 error when you exit WINDOWS. 
  
  Satisfactory results have been obtained running NOANS 
 from within WINDOWS, as long as you didn't use NOANS to
 to start the WINDOWS session.
 
THE NOANS MENU INTERFACES
  
  The Main Menu Interface consists of two sections. The
 upper frame contains the EDIT COMMAND BUTTON, to be used
 when programming menu buttons, the EXIT BUTTON, the PAGE
 NAVIGATION BUTTONS that access different pages of 
 programmed menu buttons, and the Date/Time display.

  The lower frame contains the 15 command buttons that will
 start your programs once they have been configured,  the page
 index list to access individual pages, twin color bars that 
 will change the fore ground and  background colors of the 
 menu for you, the HELP BUTTON, the COMMAND SHELL BUTTON, THE 
 EDIT TITLE BUTTON the SCREEN SAVER TOGGLE BUTTON.

  The Edit Command Interface consists of three edit fields,
 marked TITLE, DIRECTORY, and EXECUTABLE. It also contains
 command buttons captioned O.K., CANCEL, CLEAR, PROTECT,
 and VIEW DIRECTORIES. To the right of these buttons is an 
 option box entitled PARAMETER PROMPT. For the function of 
 these controls see the help topic (PROGRAMMING COMMAND 
 BUTTONS).

  The Directory View Interface consists of a Drive List,
 Directory List, a File List, an EXIT command button, as
 well as file pattern option buttons. For the use of these
 controls, see the help topic (USING THE DIRECTORY VIEW
 INTERFACE). 

  The Edit Title interface consists of two input boxes, 
 one to contain the page number you wish to alter, and one
 to contain the title you wish to assign to the page. When
 the edit title interface appears, these controls will 
 contain the page number and the title, if any, of the 
 currently displayed page. For more information regarding 
 the editing of page titles, see the help topic (ASSIGNING
 PAGE TITLES).

  
 You can shift the focus to any of the controls on these 
 four interfaces by using the tab key, and then activate a 
 command button with the enter key. Keys that have a 
 highlighted letter can be activated by pressing ALT in 
 combination with the highlighted letter. Any command
 button can also be activated with a simple mouse click.

PROGRAMMING COMMAND BUTTONS
  
  To program or edit a command button, the procedure is as
 follows. First press or activate the EDIT COMMAND BUTTON
 with a mouseclick, by pressing alt-E, or by tabbing to it and 
 pressing enter.

  A blue help bar will appear, with a brief instruction on 
 selecting the button you wish to edit.

  To select a button to edit, just click on it. Or tab to it 
 and press enter. You may access different menu pages with 
 the PAGE NAVIGATION BUTTONS at this time also. Just go to
 the desired page, then select a button.

  When you select a command button to edit, a new form will
 appear to accept the input. This is the Edit Command
 Interface. See the help topic (THE NOANS MENU INTERFACES).

  In the text box marked TITLE, type the title that you wish 
 to have displayed on the command button. If you choose, you 
 can add a highlighted letter to this title. For example, if
 the desired title is DOS SHELL, and you want the D to be 
 highlighted, Type &DOS SHELL in the title field. If you 
 wanted the S to be highlighted, type DOS &SHELL in the 
 field. If you use this procedure, you can then activate the 
 program that the command button handles by pressing ALT in 
 combination with the highlighted letter. Try not to highlight 
 any letter that is already highlighted on another command 
 button on the same page.

   In the field marked Directory, type the name of the
 directory that holds the program you wish to run. For
 example, if the program is in the DOS directory of the drive
 of C, you would type C:\DOS in this edit field.

   In the edit field marked Executable, type the name of the
 run file or command, followed by any parameter that you wish
 to include every time that the program is executed. For help
 with parameters see the help topic (USING COMMAND 
 PARAMETERS).

   You can program NOANS to start Windows applications by
 typing the path that holds your copy of Windows in the 
 DIRECTORY field, and in the EXECUTABLE field type WIN.COM
 followed by the path\filename of the application that you 
 wish to run. For example, if you have windows installed in
 the drive of C, and you wish to configure NOANS to start
 the Paintbrush program, type c:\windows in the DIRECTORY 
 field then type win.com c:\windows\pbrush.exe in the
 EXECUTABLE field. When you hit the command button you just
 configured, Windows will immediately load Paintbrush.
 Control will return to NOANS when you exit Windows.
                    
                   Password Protection
  You can provide password protection to this button at this 
 time by pressing the PROTECT button. It will prompt you for 
 a password of 20 characters or less,  and when one is provided 
 the button will be protected. You will not be able to edit or 
 activate a protected button without this password or the 
 administrator password that you were required to provide the 
 first time you ran NOANS.

  When editing a protected button,  the PROTECT button will
 be labeled UNPROTECT. To disable protection, just press it.
 No further action is necessary as you already had to provide
 the current password to bring up the edit interface.

  You can use the VIEW DIRECTORIES button to automatically 
 fill the DIRECTORY and the EXECUTABLE edit fields if you 
 wish. See the help topic (USING THE DIRECTORY VIEW INTERFACE).

  

ASSIGNING PAGE TITLES

  Page titles may be assigned to any of the 25 pages provided
 in NOANS 2.2. These titles will help you in the organization
 of your pages. Any title is allowed as long as it is not over
 19 characters in length. 

  To assign or alter a title, press the EDIT TITLE button at
 the bottom of the NOANS SCREEN. The Edit Title Interface will 
 appear, allowing you to select any page by scrolling the bar 
 to the right of the page number edit box or by typing any 
 number 1-25 into it. Then type the desired title into the 
 title box and press O.K.

  You may then program other page titles, or click exit to
 return to the main NOANS interface.

USING THE DIRECTORY VIEW INTERFACE
  
  This interface was included to help you indicate the paths
 and filenames of the programs that you wish to run with
 NOANS. The operation of this form is quite basic.

   First choose the drive that the program is on from the
 displayed drive list. Open this list with a mouse click,
 and then click on the desired drive. You may also tab the
 focus to the drive list, and then type the drive letter to
 select the drive. The directory list will be automatically
 updated to reflect any change in the drive selection.

   Use the directory list to select the directory that
 contains the program. You can double click with the mouse
 to choose the a directory, or use the arrow keys to shift
 the focus and then select the highlighted directory with
 the enter key. Repeat this step to navigate down through
 sub directories as necessary. The file list will be updated
 with each directory change.

   Select the desired file using the file list box, using the
 same method as with the directory list. When the desired
 filename has the focus, you can double click it, or hit the
 enter key. The contents of the Directory and Executable edit
 fields will be updated. Activate the EXIT button and the
 Directory View Interface will close. Add any desired 
 parameters to the end of filename displayed in the Executable 
 field. See the help topic (USING COMMAND PARAMETERS).


USING COMMAND PARAMETERS

   If you wish to start a program with parameters every time
 its' command button is activated, type the parameters after
 the filename or command in the EXECUTABLE edit field of the
 Edit Command Interface. 

   As an example using parameters, let's assume that you are
 configuring a key to perform a memory check on your system.
 A reasonable line would be mem /c |more. The parameters /c
 and |more would always be executed with the mem command. 
 The same technique could be applied to a format command 
 such as format a: /u /f:1.2.

   If you would rather be prompted for parameters when you
 press a command button, don't add any parameters after the
 command. If you are programming a button for a text editor
 that accepts a filename command line argument, in the
 EXECUTABLE field type the name of the editor, such as
 EDITOR.EXE. Then check the box labeled  Prompt for
 parameters when run at the center of the Edit Command
 Interface.

USING THE COMMAND SHELL

  NOANS gives you access to DOS command line functions that 
 you do not wish to program a command button for. To access 
 the command shell, activate the COMMAND SHELL BUTTON
 at the bottom of the NOANS screen. An input box will appear, 
 with instructions, an O.K button, and a CANCEL button.
 
  Type any dos command you wish in the edit box, then click
 O.K, or press ENTER when the O.K button has the focus. The
 program will run your command, then leave you at the command
 shell prompt, waiting for additional commands. You can run 
 as many commands as is necessary for your task, then type
 exit to return to NOANS. 

  The command shell appears similar to the dos prompt, but it
 is not. NOANS is still active in memory when you are using
 the command prompt, so don't attempt to run very large
 programs that may need the 230,000 bytes of ram that NOANS
 will be hanging in.

  The NOANS command shell prompt will appear as follows.

 TYPE EXIT TO RETURN TO NOANS
 PATH = C:\
 COMMAND >


RESETTING THE CONFIGURATION

  If you need to totally reset the programming of all the
 command buttons, in the case of data file corruption,
 or NOANS fails to perform properly, delete the contents of
 the NOANS directory, delete the directory, and run setup
 again. The program will be reinstalled, with data files
 initialized and ready to receive new programming.

  You may not have to reinstall if you made a backup copy of
 menustor.dat after initial setup. Try copying this file into
 your NOANS directory. It may restore normal operation if the
 problem is related to a bad command database. If this doesn't
 fix the problem then reinstall, and try the backup 
 menustor.dat file again.


CHANGING THE MENU COLORS

  To change the color of the main menu interface, either
 click on the forground or background color bars on the right
 and left center of the main interface, or tab the focus to the 
 desired color of the bar and hit enter. The interface's color 
 will then change and the new color will become the default.

   If you attempt to assign the same color to the background
 and the foreground, you will hear a beep, and the operation
 will self cancel.


CHANGING THE DISPLAYED TIME

  If the date and time is not correct on the interface, it
 indicates that your system time is not correct. To correct
 this problem at the DOS prompt, execute the time and the
 date commands. See your DOS manual.


THE SCREEN SAVER FUNCTION

   For Your convenience I have included a small screen saver
 in this application. It toggles on and off with the use of
 the command button at the bottom of the Main Menu Interface.
 You can click this button with the mouse, or use ALT-S.

   Any change in the on/off status of this switch will be
 recorded along with the interface color in the configuration
 file as the default. This means that if you turn it off
 during one session, it will be off the next time that you
 turn NOANS on. You must then turn it on if you want this
 function. Once the screen saver activates, any key press
 will stop it and return you to the Main Menu Interface.

VENDOR NOTE

 You have the right to distribute the NOANS MENU SYSTEM,
 evaluation copy, royalty free and in unlimited quantity 
 providing that the distribution files NOANSOBJ.EXE, 
 NOANSHLP.TXT, NVENDOR.TXT, READFRST.TXT and NSETUP.EXE 
 are all included, unaltered and in their entirety, on 
 any distribution diskette, in any compressed distribution 
 archive, or any other distribution method.

  
