WINNAV.EXE Douglas Boling December 31, 1991 (Utilities) WINNAV.EXE is an easy to use Windows' file management utility. It lets you open files and launch applications; move, copy, rename and delete files and directories; provides full file information and lets you set file attributes. Compatible with Real, Standard, and 386 Enhanced Windows 3.0 modes. Format: WINNAV USING WINNAV The easiest way to learn WINNAV is to run it. You can load the program with the File Run command from the Program Manager, or you can create an icon in the Program Manager window. To do the latter, simply select File New, Program Item, and then enter a description and path for WINNAV.EXE. Or, to avoid typing, select Browse and search your directories until you find WINNAV. Click on it and it will automatically be entered on the command line. Once started, WINNAV brings up a window containing a number of list boxes. Just how many boxes are displayed simultaneously depends on the number of pixels on your screen and on the size of your Windows system font. A typical VGA setup will show a total of four boxes, but to accommodate ultra-high resolution monitors, WINNAV can produce as many as ten. The thin box on the left always lists the available drives, with the current drive highlighted. The remaining, wider list boxes hold the names of the directories and files on the selected drive. If you highlight a directory, the box to its right will immediately display the subdirectories and filenames in that directory. Highlight one of these subdirectories, and the process repeats itself in the next box to the right until you reach the subdirectory level you want. If the default path contains more directory levels than there are list boxes available to show their contents, the highest-level directory/filename list box will automatically scroll off-screen when you open up a new listing by highlighting a subdirectory. At any time, however, you can restore the display of off-screen columns by using the horizontal scroll bar beneath the list boxes. The Tab key will take you from one list box to another if you're not using a mouse. WINNAV can be maximized to fill the entire screen or minimized down to its File Drawer icon. When you resize the WINNAV window to an intermediate size, the display automatically reconfigures itself, again to display the maximum number of list boxes possible. Menu bar functions that operate on files or directories are listed in the Files menu. The Help menu contains only one menu item, which displays the obligatory About WINNAV box. The View menu option brings up the Configure menu. Selecting this item allows you to set the WINNAV defaults and customize both the number and the functions of the buttons seen in the column to the right side of the list boxes. The buttons provide one-click execution of the functions available through the menu bar. As detailed below, up to ten function buttons can be displayed. In addition to the six default buttons, you can add buttons to display file information, set attributes, exit, and bring up the configuration menu itself. On the other hand, if want to free up more screen space for another list box, simply select View Configure and enter 0 for the Num of Buttons item. Any button can be assigned to any WINNAV function, and however the buttons are configured, all functions remain accessible through the menu bar. You can open a selected data file with the Open button, from the File Menu selection, or by double-clicking. WINNAV immediately looks at the WIN.INI association table to see whether you have associated the file extension with a particular application. If so, that program will be launched and will open the highlighted file. If there is no association, WINNAV tries to open the data file with NOTEPAD.EXE, its default editor. Through the configuration dialog box you can change the default editor to any DOS or Windows program that will accept a filename on its command line. A highlighted program file can be launched on its own from the File Menu, by double-clicking it, or by hitting the Run button. WINNAV determines that the file is a program by comparing the extension with the Programs entry in WIN.INI. When the current selection is a directory instead of a file, the Open menu option and its corresponding button are disabled. The Copy function operates on either files or directories. Select Copy and a dialog box opens. Here you can enter the destination information by typing on the command line or by selecting a directory or file from the list boxes. In this and in all appropriate WINNAV dialog boxes, the Tab key will move you among the items with which you can interact, should you prefer this to using a mouse. If you're copying a file, you can change the name applied to the copy. If a directory is selected, WINNAV copies all the files in the directory under their same names, but it gives you the option of including or excluding any subdirectories. And then you hit Enter or click on OK. The Delete function also works on either individual files or on directories. If a directory is selected, all files and subdirectories in the directory are deleted and the directory is removed. To prevent accidental deletions, a dialog box asks you to confirm the delete. The confirmation dialog box can be disabled from the configuration dialog box. Move combines the Copy and Delete functions. As with the Copy function, WINNAV can move either individual files or complete directories. In addition, you can type the destination information or select a file or directory from the list boxes. The Rename function can also be applied to the currently selected file or to a directory. If you Rename a directory, only its name, not its contents, is affected. You should be careful not to Rename directories with executable files in them unless you intend to fix any paths used by the Program Manager to launch files. To change the paths, select the program in the Program Manager, then select the Files Properties menu item. From there, you can enter the new name of the directory containing the program. The Attrib function lets you modify the Archive, System, Hidden, and Read-Only attribute flags of your current selection. When this function is activated, a dialog box comes up that displays the current settings and provides check boxes for modifying them. The MkDir option lets you create a directory on another drive or add a directory to the current path. For the former, simply select MkDir and enter the full path specification. For example, if you're in D:\WIN and you want to create C:\PCMAG\UTILS, simply type the latter on the command line. To add a directory to your current path, however, simply enter the name of the directory. For instance, if you're in D:\WIN and you want to create a subdirectory WINUT, enter WINUT on the command line. The Info button (or Properties item from the File Menu) opens a dialog box that displays the name, file type, file size, attribute status, and the date and time the file was last modified. The Config function, accessed from the View Menu, lets you customize WINNAV's operations. Here you can individually disable the default file delete and directory delete confirmation, select whether you want hidden and/or system files shown, and choose whether you want directories listed before or after files in the list boxes. Here also you can configure the buttons and provide an alternative filename for the default editor or application. As before, the Tab key will take you among the selectable items and the Enter key will register your selections if you find this easier than using a mouse. All configuration data is saved in a file called WINNAV.INI. WINNAV reads this file each time it is launched. When you select the Exit function, the current size of the window is also saved to WINNAV.INI. This way, the next time WINNAV is launched, the program will create a window of the same size and in the same position as well as with the previous configuration settings.