		MICROWORKS ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF 
			TOOLBOX VERSION 1.0,
		    OPEN DESKTOP FOR WINDOWS 3.1.

Bronte Beach, Australia. -- November 15 1992-- Microworks Australia  (me) is 
proud to announce that it will release the first edition of its Open Desktop 
for Windows, Toolbox v1.0, on November 30 1992 (Hooray...about time!). Toolbox 
is an open desktop that replaces program manager and combines file manager 
into one seamless desktop for Windows 3.1 (unbelievable). It provides both file 
management and program launching facilities on the desktop at all times. Just 
a mouse click away! (Doesn't Someone's Desktop already do that?). Toolbox 
features breakthrough design concepts that makes Microsoft Windows fun 
and easy to use.

DESCRIPTION: Toolbox is an Open Desktop for Windows. It features a 
'transmutable 3-D interface', a drag and drop desktop, a drag and drop popup 
program launcher with subgroups and up to 6 desktop drive icons giving you 
drive window access to the windows file manager. Toolbox comes bundled with 
several utilities including Attache, Autoload, Drivepak, Guidebook, Resource 
Alarm, Shredder, Trashcan and Workbench. Toolbox displays custom bitmapped 
dialog boxes and is compatible with 640*480, 800*600 and 1024*768 screen 
resolutions.

THE OPEN DESKTOP is formed by the combination of Drivepak, Toolbox and 
Workbench. If you don't use Norton Desktop you'll need the complete package 
but if you do, you'll only want Toolbox as Drivepak and Workbench provide 
functions already found in Norton Desktop. 

THE TOOLBOX forms the central part of the open desktop. It's a drag and drop 
popup program launcher with subgroups that replaces the windows task manager. 
When you double click the left mouse button on the Windows desktop Toolbox 
appears. Toolbox is totally configurable. Its main interface has 4 different 
views, Toolbox lite, Toolbox Midi, Toolbox Maxi and Toolbox Pro. You can flip 
between views with the press of a button. The four views can use either the 
same or separate ini files letting you store the same or different programs in 
each view. The subgroups have two views...either button or Iconblox. In the 
iconblox view each icon in the group is displayed on a bitmapped block along 
with its program title. Each group, group window and the associated bitmapped 
dialog boxes all display a user configurable group name on the title bar. The 
main interface displays real time system information -- the date, time, free 
memory and free system resources.

ATTACHE: Attache is an executive files manager that lets you create a system 
of folders to manage all your documents and files. You choose a directory, 
file extension and an application (optional) to run those files and store the 
information in a folder. Your folder names can be up to 30 characters long. 
Your can either run attache and then select the folder you want or you can 
launch straight into any folder by adding the folder name as a parameter after 
executable file -- Attache.exe. You can delete files and folders at any time 
using attache's delete function.

AUTOLOAD: Is an internal utility (not a separate file) that lets you store up 
to 12 programs for loading on windows startup.  

DRIVEPAK:  Drivepak is a utility that places up to 6 drive icons on your 
windows desktop. If you've been using winbatch files to keep multiple copies 
of winfile.ini (and hence different setups for file manager) you must have 
found it very slow waiting for the batch file to copy 
over...say...winfile1.ini to winfile.ini and then launching winfile.exe. 
Drivepak does this automatically and since it's an 'exe' file, it's fast. 
Drivepak adds no perceptible time to the launching of winfile.exe. Try it! It 
takes 4 seconds to launch file manager using both winfile.exe and drivpak.exe. The 
winbatch file take 11 seconds (on my computer).

Each of drivepak's drive window icons, numbered 1 to 6, correspond to the 
files winfile1.ini to winfile6.ini. All you do is run file manager, set it up 
as you want...say as Drive C:, maximise the file window and exit File Manager 
saving your settings on exit. Next load winfile.ini into any text editor and 
save it back as winfile1.ini. Now when you double click on the Drive window 1 
icon winfile1.ini is copied to winfile.ini and then winfile.exe is launched 
displaying your custom setup. You can give each of your drive window icons a 
different customised file manager setup (eg drive A, drive B, drive C or a 
dual drive). Just repeat the ini file setup for each drive icon you on your 
desktop. Drivepak comes with four drive icon bitmaps (FloppyA, Floppy B, hard 
disk and dual drive). You can use the predefined drive icon positions or set 
your own. I sure you'll find that Drivepak turns File Manager into an extremely 
versatile and easy to use program.

 
GUIDEBOOK is the On-line documentation and help system that will make learning
about Toolbox easy. This program can be deleted when you no longer need it.

RESOURCE ALARM is an internal utiltiy that runs as a hidden window, in the 
background, waiting to warn you when system resources fall to a preset low 
level.

SHREDDER is an animated file deletion utiltiy that is fun to use. It has no 
message boxes. You just drag the files you want to delete from file manager to 
the Shredder icon and the animated shredder shreds them on the desktop, and 
there gone.

TRASHCAN is an animated file deletion utility that gives you a second chance 
at recovering files before there deleted. You just drag the files you want to 
delete from file manager to the Trashcan icon. As you drop the files the 
trashcan lid opens and the can bulge's with trash. A dialog box appears centre 
screen displaying a list box listing all the files you dragged. You can either 
delete or recover all or part of the listed files, or cancel the entire 
operation.

WORKBENCH is a drag and drop desktop. With Drivepak and Toolbox it forms part 
the Open Desktop. Workbench appears differently in each of the three screen 
resolutions. In each resolution workbench has three views. It can appear as a 
row of iconblox (What the hell is an iconblox?) across the top of the screen, 
either with or without a title bar and control menu, or it can be viewed as a 
row of iconblox down the right side. Drivepak can be launched with workbench 
by checking the appropriate checkbox in the workbench options dialog box. You 
can flip between different views of Drivepak and workbench with the press of a 
button.

AVAILABILITY: Toolbox is being released as shareware with a registration fee 
of $15.00. That sounds to good to be true! But it is. And as if that wasn't 
enough there are no nag screens (I hate those things). The program is fully 
functional. The only difference between the  unregistered version and the 
registered version is that the unregistered version is unregistered. After 
much deliberation I decided to stick with the original plan a keep Toolbox nag 
screen free. Registration relies totally on your honesty and comes with a 
simple warning! If I'm not satisfied with the registration response I wont 
release any more programs. 

Somehow I abound with the faith that if you produce an excellent program and 
sell it at a reasonable price, honest intelligent PC users using it will pay 
for it. Since I don't expect you to pay for crap, I wont give it to you. 
Toolbox is an excellent program that speaks for itself. It has been 9 months 
in development. At 6-8 hours a day after work and 12-14 hours a day on 
weekends that's a lot of development. It will outshine most other programs in 
its class with its rugged elegance, simplicity and versatility. I know you 
will enjoy using Toolbox! 

Toolbox will be available after November 30 1992 on the compuserve 'Go Winadv' 
forum. It will also be available through several BBS's in Sydney Australia 
including Sydney PC User Group IBM BBS (02-7246711) and Starship Heart of Gold 
BBS (02-7445544).


THE FUTURE: Now that toolbox is finished I'll start my next project. I want to 
expand Attache into a fully functional Document and Files Manager that 
displays long file names and a programs own icon. Hopefully it will manage 
normal and compressed files, and be compact and fast. If that doesn't keep 
me busy for the next 6 - 9 months then there's always Toolbox v2.0. But don't 
expect anything before the middle of 1993.

Jeff Franks.
Copyright 1992 (c) Jeff Franks, Microworks. 
33 Bayview st Bronte Beach,
Sydney, Australia.
Compuserve 100026,1134
