Runner -- A Desktop Alternative STARTUP Starting Runner and the Menu Screen Copyright (C) 1993 by Dave Thorson Version 1.61 November 18, 1993 Be sure to read SETUP.HLP before reading this file. SETUP.HLP describes how to install Runner on your system. $$ Starting Runner Double-click on RUNNER.PRG to start the program. Hold down the Control key as Runner starts if you do not want it to load a picture file. Runner will determine where its "home" directory is (see SETUP.HLP), and load a RUNNER.CFG file and background picture as appropriate. If you have a picture or list file named "RUNNERA.PIx" (or .PCx, .PLx, where x=1, 2 or 3), then you can load it on startup by pressing the "a" key as soon as you see the initial Runner copyright message. For "RUNNERB.PIx", press the "b" key, and so on. All letter and number keys can be used this way as Runner starts. $$ The Menu Screen A typical Runner menu screen might look like this: -------------------------------------------------------------- | Desk File Menus Colors 09:44:32| |==============================================================| | | | Mr. Dave's Runner | | | | ^ Exit Runner | | * Communications | | * Games | | * Graphics | | * Music | | * Programming | | * Word Processing | | | -------------------------------------------------------------- When you first start Runner you will see a screen such as this, with the title line, "Mr. Dave's Runner" (don't worry, you can change it!) and an exit line that reads "Exit Runner". The GEM menu bar at the top of the screen (hopefully) acts as you would expect; for more information see MENU_BAR.HLP. The time display in the upper right can be changed (see KEYBOARD.HLP for details). If you don't see a date or time, press the Backspace key to change it from none to time to date to time+date and back to none. The "[" and "]" keys change the time and date formats. Left-clicking the mouse on the title line is one way to call up a file selector to view files or run programs not in your menus or any of the standard things a file selector lets you do (see FILSELCT.HLP for details). Left-click on the exit line to exit Runner; an alert box will pop up asking you if you do indeed wish to exit. If you make any changes to your menus that you want to save, or to picture configuration information (menu location, colors, Regions stuff), remember to SAVE these before exiting -- Runner will warn you that changes may be lost. $$ That leaves the menu list area itself, those lines below the exit line. In the example above, the lines all contain menu names as indicated by the asterisks (*). Runner uses the same symbol found in desktop windows and file selectors to denote folders, but the "*" will have to do in this documentation. Up to fifteen items can appear in the menu area, and they can be menu names, programs, or document/data files. All menu items can be set to appear only in certain screen resolutions (for example, Word Writer cannot be used in Low Res so you can set it to appear in menus only in Medium and Hi Res). Left-clicking the mouse on a menu item selects it. For the menu names show above, a new menu is opened; Runner moves one level deeper into the menu structure. If Graphics were selected, the new menu might look like this: -------------------------------------------------------------- | Desk File Menus Colors 09:46:27| |==============================================================| | | | Graphics | | | | ^ Up One Level | | * Conversions | | * Slide Shows | | Art Director | | Degas | | Plans for Movie | | Spectrum 512 | | | -------------------------------------------------------------- A few things have changed on this menu. The title line now has the name of the menu choice (Graphics) selected to get here. It becomes the name of this menu. You can still Left-click on this new title line to call a file selector. The exit line now says "Up One Level" instead of "Exit Runner". Left-clicking on the exit line now exits to the next higher menu level instead of exiting Runner. At the highest menu level it changes back to "Exit Runner". Clicking the right mouse button takes you back to the top level menu, no matter how many levels deep you have wandered. There are still two menu names in the menu list, and Left- clicking on either of these would take you to a still deeper menu level. There are also several programs listed. Left- clicking on a program will run it. When the program exits, the menu screen reappears and you can select another program. There is also a document called "Plans for Movie". Depending on how this document file has been defined to Runner, a left-click on this line might display the file with Runner's File View feature, or it might load the file into a word processor. You decide what actions should be taken, what menu and program names to use in menu lists, and how to organize your menus. $$ Feel free to "tour" through the sample RUNNER.CFG file provided by loading it into Runner. See how I structure my menus. I try to avoid going more than two levels deep (too much like opening folder after folder after folder to get to the program I want), and I try to group similar programs together. I don't have document/data files in my example menus (but then, I didn't have that feature before) but a lot of people have requested that capability. One person said he wanted to place ".DO" files for Flash (a communications program) in menus so he could select a .DO file to be loaded into Flash when it starts. The .DO files could be set to connect him to GEnie, Compuserve or other bulletin board services, or to one or more computers where he works. One mouse click within Runner and the .DO file will cause Flash to be loaded, configured, and even logged into the system of his choice. Automation is here! You should take the time to read through the other .HLP files provided with Runner learn how to use the GEM menu bar functions (MENU_BAR.HLP), the add/change dialog box which lets you set up Quickkeys, install applications, set resolutions and force Mini- Run to be used for selected programs (DIALOG.HLP), keyboard equivalents and additional Runner commands (KEYBOARD.HLP) and how to use the companion programs Mini-Run, Regions, Rpicname, Rpicsel and Rconvert (OTHERS.HLP). Runner's help files can also be added to a menu as document files so they'll only be a mouse-click or two away. "Create a Help" menu and add each help file just like you would add a program. For flopyy disk users, you could put the help files all on one floppy disk; just be sure to insert it in the disk drive before selecting a help file from the menu! $$ NOTE: Many of the functions in Runner have an alternate way to use them. To access these alternate functions (as described in lots of places below), hold down the Control key when pressing the appropriate key or mouse button. Then release the Control key. [Users of prior versions: the Alternate key used to work this way, but has now been disabled when selecting pull-down menu choices -- Pressing Alt-N now shows a file selector for drive N: instead of selecting "iNitial" screen colors to be active for the current picture]. The Shift keys are NEVER needed or used except when accessing the "shifted" set of QuickKeys or when loading a picture file (as defined within Regions) by using Shift-0 through Shift-9. Don't worry, all this is explained as needed in the other .HLP files. For now, just remember that Control causes many functions to behave differently. [end of STARTUP.HLP]