Little Color File Manager Version 6.0, 12 March 1994

DISCLAIMER: I guess I need to start out with the usual disclaimer: if this product 
does anything; good, bad, or otherwise, or if it fails to do anything; good, bad, or 
otherwise, neither Kulai Software, nor the author are responsible. Now, having said 
that, I have tried to make this product as good and solid as possible and there should 
be no problems.

CONCEPT: The concept of this program is simple: I hate menus, I hate switching from 
mouse to keyboard to mouse to keyboard and I hate cute little icons next to files that 
I can never figure out. There are hundreds of file managers that try to maximize the 
keyboard for input - but I can not learn a new set of key strokes every time I try a 
new program.  Therefore, I have tried, as much as is possible, to create a file manager 
that only uses the mouse. To be effective, this means that both mouse buttons will be 
used extensively.  To get rid of those silly icons I allow you to color code your files 
based on their extension.  I found it easier on the eyes and also much quicker.  Also, 
this program is meant primarily for people who download lots of files.  A STARTUP 
DIRECTORY is part of the configuration so you choose your up/down load directory.  It 
is not a full featured file manager - for that you should use Winfile, PC Tools, Norton 
Desktop, or other more powerful programs.

INSTALL: Just run the Install.EXE. 

COST: To run this program for more than 30 days you must send me a post card - I am 
particularly interested in mountain scenes. (Or at least send me E-Mail with some 
comments, other than that, you are free to use this program as long as it is not 
modified.) 

CONFIGURE: The first time you run LCFM it will go thru a configuration routine. There 
are two parts to this: hardware and LCFM-INI. 
HARDWARE: The hardware screen should come up first. The drives are listed across the 
top and the the types are listed along the left side. Just click on the correct radio 
buttons. LCFM should be able to see all your drives. Click on "OK" and the LCFM-INI 
screen will come up. 
LCFM-INI has three parts: the file color box, the support programs box, and the file 
info box. In the file color box, type in a three (or two or one) letter extension in 
the extension box and then click on the box to the right of it. A color chart will pop 
up. Click on the color that you want and it will appear next to the box you typed in 
the three letter extension. You can have up to 10 color-extension combinations. To the 
right of the file color box is the support files box. In it, the Start Up Directory is 
the directory you want LCFM to start at: this is for people who download alot of files. 
The Archeive, Editor, Viewer, and Undelete programs are explanitory - just click on the 
"Browse" button to bring up a dialog box showing directories, and files. At the bottom 
of the LCFM-INI screen is a box for deciding which file information you want displayed. 
I did not want a cluttered screen so you only get one choice. This can be changed when 
running the LCFM by clicking with the right mouse button anywhere on the files box. 
When you have everything configured the way you want it, click on "File Manager" button.

The program: 1.        All operations that select things work with a single left click 
mouse, this includes both seleting and unselecting files. Use the right mouse button to 
bring up a menu.  Example: to move from d:\ in the directory box to d:\vb, you single 
click the left mouse button on the d:\vb item. If you want to rename that subdirectory, 
single click the directory listing with the right mouse and all options - including 
renaming a directory, appear on the screen next to your mouse. Note: you can not change 
to the subdirectory with the right mouse button.  The same is true with the files list 
and the selected box. In the Selection box, a right button click will bring up the menu; 
and again, you can unselect the file by by clicking on them with the left mouse button. 
The only exception to this rule is the the File Find box: to select files that have been 
found you use the usual Windows shift/or/control + mouse click - hey, we all get lazy 
once in a while! After you have selected the files in the File Find box, click on "Use 
Selected" and those files will be displayed in the Selected Files box. The menus should 
be self explanitory except for two: Filter by Extension and File Filter. Filter by 
Extension will display all the extension from all the the files in that subdirectory, 
and File Filter will give you the usual dialog box.

2.     There are three boxes on the right side of the program: a Zip box, a View box, 
and an Edit box. To use these boxes you must configure them with the LCFM_INI options. 
Once configured,you can then use the LEFT mouse button to drag files from the file-size 
area of File Box and drop them on one of the three boxes. If you are running straight 
Microsoft programs you should configure these buttons as follows:
Zip: get the Winzip program
Edit: Notepade.exe
View: Write.exe (it will read any word processor file, you might end up with garbage on 
the screen, but atleast you can read the text)
Undelete: Mwundel.exe
I say again, use the drap & drop off of the file-size area and not the file-name area. 
VB will not allow me to use the file name area to do this (well, actually it does, but 
I do other things with that area).

3.     You can also use the same drag and drop to copy files: if you drag off of the 
file-size area you can drop the file on the disk buttons at the top. If you want to copy 
more than one file, use the select procedure - left click on the file name.

4.      You can double click on any place in the file boxes and it will run that file 
if it has been associated with an EXE program.

5.     When you run the LCFM for the first time, if the configure screen does not show 
up, click on the CONFIGURE button. Fill in the extensions and then click on the color 
box, the rest of the requested data should be self explanitory. If, after you configure 
LCFM, the screen looks peculiar or your configurations did not take, exit LCFM and then 
restart it. (I think this problem is completely fixed by now)

5.     There are NOT alot of safety catches in this program. I expect the users to be 
proficient enough with the computer that they do not need to be constantly asked if 
they really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, 
want to copy/delete/move this or that file etc. 

Known bugs/problems:
1. Drap and drop to other programs does not work yet.  (But you can configure the drop 
boxes (Zip, View, and Edit) to anything you want.
2. Although a single click usually works to change directory, sometimes it screws up and 
goes to the directory below the one you wanted, or will go to the one you wanted but looks 
like it went to the one below. I have spent countless nights trying to figure this one 
out, I know how to fix it as the book says, but it seems to keep doing what it wants to 
- O well.....   If you click slowly, this problem seems to be worse.
3. Other than the points listed above, I think this thing is good to go: if you have 
any suggestions or find any bugs and you are ambitious enough to want to tell me about 
them you can reach me at: 
James Pollman 
368 E Reno Rd Honolulu, Hi  96819
or The Black HOle BBS (Honolulu, Hi)
or on Compuserve: 71623,3464

OK OK OK OK, I lied abit, some key strokes do work. If you hit these letters LCFM will 
do the following
Letter will change to that drive
X      Exit
F1     Display About screen
F5     will refresh the files display
A note of thanks to several people who made this project workable: Dan Appleman, 
for his book: "Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the Windows API" and for all his advice 
throughout this project. Michael Stewart for use of his dll as well as changing it for me, 
Mark Dacon, and Jiang Jeng Long for the free use of their DLLs and VBXes, and 3D-Widgits 
and Microsoft for use of their DLLs and VBXes. And special thanks to Bob Dolan for his install
program.
Many thanks for your help.
JC
Also, WinZip by Nico Mak works extremely well with this program. If you have not tried it 
yet, you ought to.
