
        
                        Runner -- A Desktop Alternative

                              FILE SELECTOR USAGE

                       Running and Viewing Other Programs


                       Copyright (C) 1991 by Dave Thorson
                       Version 1.50         March 10, 1991


        Runner is not limited to programs you add to its menus.  Runner 
        lets the standard Atari file selector act almost like a window 
        from the desktop: you can run programs and view files from the 
        file selector.  This only works when you call the file selector 
        directly from Runner, not when another program calls it, even if 
        the other program is run from within Runner (I'm not a magician 
        or a CodeHead, you know!).  Runner has been tested with the 
        Atari item selector, Universal Item Selector (UIS II and UIS 
        III) from Application & Design Software, and Little Green 
        Selector from Charles F. Johnson (a prior version of this 
        appeared in STart magazine and was called the STart Selector -- 
        it should work, too).

        Access to the file selector can be also handy if you want to see 
        what's on a disk, since a file selector displays the filenames 
        and folders.  This can be even handier if you're using Universal 
        Item Selector, since now you have access to Copy, Move, Delete, 
        Rename, Format and Print capabilities, among others.
        
        
$$      There are several ways to access a file selector:
        
        * Click on the title line (the one that says "Mr. Dave's Runner" 
          unless you already changed it)

        * Press the Space Bar to access a file selector box.  

        * Press a number key (from the top keyboard row, not the 
          keypad).  While the above methods start the file selector in 
          the last used drive and directory (folder), the number keys 
          start it in the last used directory of the corresponding drive 
          as follows:

          1  A:\*.*          7  G:\*.*            '/~  M:\*.*
          2  B:\*.*          8  H:\*.*      Shift -/_  N:\*.*
          3  C:\*.*          9  I:\*.*      Shift =/+  O:\*.*
          4  D:\*.*          0  J:\*.*      Shift `/~  P:\*.*
          5  E:\*.*        -/_  K:\*.*
          6  F:\*.*        =/+  L:\*.*   (look at the top row of keys
                                            to understand all this)

        
$$      Exiting a File Selector
        
        If you click on Cancel or OK without selecting a file, the file 
        selector goes away and you're back in Runner.

        
$$      Running a Program from a File Selector
        
        If, from the file selector, you select a program file (ending in 
        .PRG, .TTP, .TOS or .APP), Runner will attempt to run that 
        program.  Runner asks you for a command line for .TTP programs.  
        When you exit the application program, the item selector will 
        appear again.
        
        If you want to run a program with Mini-Run from the file 
        selector you have two choices.  Press the Esc key before going 
        to the file selector.  "MINI-RUN" will replace the time or date 
        displayed in the upper right screen corner (press Esc again to 
        turn this off and disable Mini-Run).  Then, the next program 
        selected will be run by Mini-Run.  The other method is to hold 
        down Alternate or Control when selecting the program.  Hold one 
        of these keys until the program begins to load from the disk.

        If you click on a data file for an installed application 
        (described in DIALOG.HLP), that application will load and use 
        the selected file.  For example, clicking on "HI_MOM.DOC" in the 
        file selector would load the Word Writer program on my computer, 
        and my letter to Mom would be loaded into Word Writer for me.



$$      File View
        
        If you select any other file, Runner will attempt to display it 
        on the screen as text (a nice enhancement would be to display 
        graphics files as pictures, but that's a lot of extra overhead 
        in the program, especially considering all the different picture 
        types and compression methods in use).
        
        If the file is too big to fit at one time (the current file 
        buffer size is 128K, awfully large for most text files), then 
        only the first part of the file will be loaded.  Then, when you 
        exit File View, a dialog box asks if you want to load the next 
        part or if you really want to exit.  The choice is yours!
        
        The file view screen displays the name of the file, the percent 
        of the file viewed so far (if the screen says 29%, then the text 
        line at the bottom of the screen appears 29% of the way through 
        the file).  If a large file had to broken up into sections, then 
        the top screen line also tells you which section you are viewing 
        and an estimate of how many sections there are altogether.  The 
        bottom line shows the primary commands available at that point 
        in the file: (B) for back one page, (SPACE) to move forward one 
        page, or (Q) to Quit File View.  If you are at the top, then "B" 
        is not available, and at the bottom the Space Bar is not 
        available.

        There are lots of commands in File View in addition to those 
        shown on the screen:

        B - Move back one page:  Press the "B" key, the UP arrow, or 
          click the Right mouse button.

        Space - Move forward one page:  Press the Space Bar, the Down 
          arrow, or click the Left mouse button.

        Q - Quit File View:  Press the "Q" key, the Undo key, the Return 
          key, or click Both mouse buttons at the same time (Runner is 
          smart enough to let you hold down either mouse button first, 
          then click the other one, and release them both; you don't 
          need real precise timing).

        T - Go to Top of file:  Press the "T" key.  If the file is split 
          into sections, this only takes you to the top of the current 
          section.

        W/N - Wide or Narrow text (Low and Medium Res Color only):  
          Press the "W" key for wide characters in 40 columns, and press 
          the "N" key for narrow characters in 80 columns.  This is 
          handy for some files that are formatted for 40 column display, 
          or if you like bigger letters.  It may not always be 
          pretty but it's there....

        P - Print current screen:  Press the "P" key to print the text 
          from the currently displayed page.  This sends TEXT to your 
          printer, not the lengthy series of pixels sent by Atari's 
          built-in screen dump.  Handy if you need to grab part of a 
          file for printout without printing the whole thing.

        F - Send Form Feed:  Press the "F" key to send a Form Feed 
          character to the printer, which on most printers causes the 
          current page to be ejected.  Use this to space out screen 
          prints across several pages as needed.  Note: a Form Feed is 
          issued automatically for every three screens printed (at 19 
          lines per screen, three prints about fill a page).  The screen 
          print count is reset to zero when you press "F" or when an 
          automatic Form Feed is sent.

        S - Search for text:  Press the "S" key to initiate a text 
          search.  You will be prompted to enter text, up to 12 
          characters.  If you press Return without entering any text, 
          the search will be cancelled.  Searches are normally case-
          insensitive, that us a search for "runner" will find "Runner", 
          "RUNNER", and "runner".  To perform a case-sensitive search, 
          hold down the Alternate or Control key when you press "S".  
          Then upper and lower case characters must match exactly.  Feel 
          free to add a space before or after your search string if 
          needed, so that a search for " day " does not find "Monday" or 
          "daytime".  The search stops at the first page containing the 
          text string.  If the string cannot be found, the last 
          displayed page is re-displayed.  During the search, the 
          "percent viewed" indicator is updated but otherwise the screen 
          is unchanged.

        A - Search Again:  Press the "A" key to search again for the 
          same text string.  The search resumes on the next screen or at 
          the top of the currently displayed screen if you have moved 
          backward, forward, or to the top or bottom of the file.  "A" 
          can be used to continue a search across sections of the same 
          file.  As with "S", hold down Alternate or Control when you 
          press "A" to do a case-sensitive search, otherwise the search 
          will be case-insensitive.  You can mix both types of searches 
          as needed.

        C - Cancel search:  Press the "C" key to cancel a search in 
          progress.  The screen from which you started the search will 
          be redisplayed as if the search had never happened.

        I - Interrupt search:  Press the "I" key to interrupt a search 
          in progress.  The screen being searched when you press the "I" 
          key will be displayed.  This is a quick way to get through a 
          long file: search for a string that is not in the file, and 
          when the "percent viewed" indicator shows a number you like, 
          interrupt the search.  If you let an unsuccessful search get 
          to the end of a file, the search is cancelled and you will see 
          the starting screen again.



$$      Alternate Consequences
        
        To simply view a data file that would otherwise cause its 
        application to load, hold down Alternate or Control when 
        selecting it.  Since this bypasses use of an installed 
        application there is no way to force Mini-Run to run an 
        installed application with Alternate or Control; you'll have to 
        press Esc before entering the file selector as mentioned above, 
        or set up that application (with the Change command - see 
        MENU_BAR.HLP) to always use Mini-Run.



$$      Additional Complexity for Added Benefit
        
        Hold down Alternate or Control when you exit a program run from 
        a file selector, or when you exit File View, to skip the return 
        to the file selector and instead go straight back to Runner's 
        menu screen.  This saves you some keystrokes or mouse presses 
        but it's more brain baggage to carry around.   ;-)


        [end of FILSELCT.HLP]
