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; Lexa File help file; last altered: 24 October 1998
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; Do not edit this file!
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1Introduction
;

Lexa File is a flexible file manager with which you
can perform all file housekeeping and disk management
tasks on your computer. There are a whole range of
options available, all of which can be accessed most
easily via the menu system. To activate the menus you
either click the text Shift-Tab=Menus on the bottom
left or right of the screen or press the Shift-Tab
hot key.

When you load Lexa File you are automatically
presented with two windows, a tree structure and a
directory listing window. One of these is always
active. When the programme first starts it is the
directory tree window. This can be recognised by the
colour display of the top screen line on the left and
by the bright bordering of the window. To move over
to the directory listing window, use the Tab key. The
listing which is displayed to begin with is that of
the current directory. There will be a highlight bar
on the first file in the directory window which can
then be moved by pressing either the arrow keys or
[Ctrl-]PageDown/PageUp.

Remember to mark files you can use Shift- or
Shift-. When a file is marked, it appears in bright
lettering with an asterisk after it. The marking keys
are toggles: if a file is already marked then the
marking is removed.

Alt-L/R  Left/right window options:

In each window there there is a small picklist with
options which allows you to decide on displaying a
directory tree or a listing of files. If you choose
the latter then you can also specify the manner in
which files are sorted. Note that with Alt-S you can
specify ascending or descending order for sorting.

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1 ├──Left window
;

The left window can display:

    1)  The tree of a logical drive
    2)  A second directory listing

    [L]════════════════════════════════════╕
    ┌────────────────┐:\      8 of 24     │
    ▓│ Tree Structure │                    │
    ▓│ Dir. Listing   │                    │
    ▓│────────────────│                    │
    ▓│ Sort Dir. by:  │                    │
    ▓│√File Name      │                    │
    ▓│ File Extension │                    │
    ▓│ File Size      │                    │
    ▓│ File Date      │                    │
    ▓│────────────────│                    │
    ▓│ [ Ascending  ] │                    │
    ▓└────────────────┘                    │
    ▓                                      │
    ▓  │   ├──DOT                          │
    ▓  │   ├──KEYB                         │
    ▓  │   ├──LASER                        │
    ▓  │   ├──SCREEN                       │
                                         │
    │ E:\AD_ENG                            │
    ╘══════════[ Shift-Tab Menus ]═════════╛
;

1 └──Right window
;

The right window can display:

    1)  The current directory listing
    2)  A second tree structure
        which is used for:

    a)  Copying files via a tree
        (Press Alt-T to copy; Ctrl-T to move)

    b)  Examining a second tree

    ╒════════════════════════════════════[R]
    │ FileName Ext.   Si┌────────────────┐ 
    │ E:\AD_ENG\*.*     │ Tree Structure │ ▓
    │ DIR     .LST      │ Dir. Listing   │ ▓
    │ ORDER   .FRM     1│────────────────│ ▓
    │ ACHAIN  .EXE    20│ Sort Dir. by:  │ ▓
    │ AD      .EXE   181│√File Name      │ ▓
    │ AD      .LOG      │ File Extension │ ▓
    │ ADB     .BAT      │ File Size      │ ▓
    │ ADBTXT  .EXE   219│ File Date      │ ▓
    │ ADRAFT  .ALT     3│────────────────│ ▓
    │ ADRAFT  .FTR      │ [ Ascending  ] │ ▓
    │ ADRAFT  .HDR      └────────────────┘ ▓
    │ ADRAFT  .INI     90                  ▓
    │ ADRAFT  .MAC     1883 01/16/90 11:18 ▓
    │ ADS     .EXE    92474 05/16/90 12:05 ▓
    │ ADSB    .BAT       86 05/10/90 20:45 ▓
    │                                      ▓
    │ File:    1 of  25  [   691130 Bytes] 
    │ Marked Files:   0  [        0 Bytes] │
    ╘══════════[ Shift-Tab Menus ]═════════╛

;

1Drives & dirs.
;

A tree is a graphical representation of the
directories present on a logical drive. The branches
indicate levels in the drive structure. Subdirec-
tories lie below nodes in a tree; those located under
a single node are subdirectories to the directory
which occupies the node in question.

On each level in a tree, the directories are sorted
in alphabetical order. You can type the first few
letters to find a directory (letter search) but only
on the first level. Otherwise press the Space Bar to
enter the name of a directory to find.

Directories can be created, renamed or removed. The
latter is obviously only possible if the directory is
actually empty. Information on tree structure is
stored by Lexa File in a file ADIRS.FIL and placed in
the root directory of the drive in question (only
applies to hard disks, i.e. C: and upwards).

Copy/move/delete operations can be performed globally
on directories; these commands are activated by
pressing Shift-F9. Here you can also determine the
size of a branch in a tree.

Note that you may determine how many directory levels
are displayed as follows: Ctrl-0 = All levels; Ctrl-1
through Ctrl-4 = Levels 1 to 4.

;

1 ├──Drives
;

A drive can be a diskette drive or a logical drive as
part of the hard disk inside the computer. Sometimes
the hard disk is treated as one drive but it may be
partitioned into more than one (to organise data
better) and one then speaks of one or more logical
drive which start at the letter C: and can continue
to Z:.

Ctrl-A, B These keystrokes allow you to directly log
in the diskette drives A: and B: respectively.

F4 Log in drive. Here you can specify the letter of
the drive to be shown as a tree. You can also active
the window for this command by pressing Ctrl + <-, ->.

;

1 ├──Directories
;

The following are the three main commands for
directory manipulation:

   F8        Create directory
   Shift-F8  Remove directory
   Ctrl-F8   Rename directory

It is frequently convenient to compare the contents
of two directories with one another. For example,
that of a hard disk and a diskette. To do this you
must first of all activate a directory listing for
the left window (use Alt-L to choose this option).
Then while still in the left window, press F5 and
those files which are not present in the left window
are marked in the right window. Note that it suffices
for two files to differ not just in name but in size,
date or time for them to be highlighted.

When you have a directory listing in both windows and
press F10 in either to start copying, then the path
of the opposite window automatically fills the input
line for the target.

;

1 ├──Scanning
;

If you press Alt-B when in the tree window (on left)
then the file display on the right is refreshed every
time you move directory. This feature can be used to
scan a disk by entering a file name as template (via
Shift-F4). The directory display will then only show
something if it matches the file template you have
entered.

Via Ctrl-F5 you can glean general statistics on the
current disk; with Alt-D information on the logical
drives in your system is offered.

The utility Lexa Find should be used if you are not
sure where what files are located on disk. It
provides the most comfortable means of gaining
information on file location and disk structure.
Activate by pressing Alt-Tab and choosing the
relevant option.

Lexa Scan is a utility with which you comb a hard
disk for files which match the template which you
must enter before starting the programme. Note that
Lexa Scan searches through the current directory and
all subdirectories below this. Thus to comb an entire
disk, move to the root directory in Lexa File before
pressing Shift-F1 (to enter a DOS command, here:
`kscan'). You may write the output to file by passing
a file name to Lexa Scan (type it after the template).

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1 └──Maintenance
;

The information Lexa File needs for tree display is
stored in the small ASCII file ADIRS.FIL which is
deposited in the root directory (if not found, Lexa
File re-reads the disk and stores the information it
gains on tree structure). There are four further
files called ADIRS_01.FIL, ADIRS_02.FIL,
ADIRS_03.FIL, and ADIRS_04.FIL which contain
information on the first four levels of each logical
drive.

With Alt-F8 you can force Lexa File to re-read the
structure of the current disk and store the results
in files just mentioned. This is advisable if you
suspect that the structure files no longer correspond
to the actual directory structure of the current
logical drive (e.g. you created, deleted or renamed
directories with another programme, other than Lexa
File).

If you start Lexa File from a directory which is not
in the structure file then the programme senses this
and re-reads the structure of the logical drive
automatically.

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1File handling
;

The file display (usually on the right of the screen)
is a sorted listing of the current directory. It may
be sorted according to 1) file name, 2) extension, 3)
size or 4) date and display it in either ascending or
descending order.

You may enter a date filter with Ctrl-F3 and remove
it again via Alt-F3.

To find an entry, type the first few letters and the
highlight bar jumps to the next entry which matches
your entry.

Mark files with Shift-, or by clicking the left
mouse button (these are toggles!).

To re-read a directory, press Shift-F5 or simply
Escape. The display is then refreshed.

You may write the current listing to a file via
Alt-F5. You are then prompted to enter a name for the
disk file.

Alt-S The sorting order, ascending or descending, can
be specified here.

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1 ├──Viewing
;

By pressing the SpaceBar the file the highlight bar
is resting on is selected for display and/or
processing. You choose which programme you might want
to use to view the file. The internal viewer in Lexa
File is the first option. You can navigate normally
here; the viewer works best with ASCII text files but
recognises common word processor formats.

External means of file viewing imply that an
additional programme is called with the name of the
file the highlight bar is resting on passed to it as
a parameter. The four default programmes in question
and their associated keys are:

F2 This loads the file viewer TxtLook. Here you can
scroll up and down, search for and count strings in
the file if required.

F2 Assuming that the current file in the directory
listing has the extension .DBF then the database
viewer DbLook is loaded (to view dBASE compatible
databases). You can browse in files, search for field
contents, etc.

Shift-F2 The text editor Lexa Text is called when you
press this key combination. With this you can edit
any ASCII, RTF or HTML file.

Ctrl-F2 The hex editor Lexa Byte can can be loaded
with this keystroke. It allows file viewing in hex
and ASCII form and you can edit stretches of a file
if necessary.


1 ├──Marking
;

Globally marking and unmarking

Apart from marking files individually with Shift-,
you can globally mark/unmark in the following ways:

F3         Mark all files in current listing
Shift-F3   Unmark all files in current listing

Use Shift-F4 to enter a file template if you wish to
have only those files displayed which match a certain
pattern , e.g. *.DOC, CORR???.TXT.

Alt-M allows you to mark all files in the current
listing which either match a file template or do not
match such a template. Note that, as opposed to
Shift-F4, this does not filter out non-matching files
from the current listing display.

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1 ├──Copying
;

1)  Copying via user input line (Alt-U; F10, possibly
    with Shift or Ctrl):

F10 Carries out a plain copy to the target you enter
(if you terminate the entry with Alt-2 and the first
letter of the entry is `A', then Lexa File copies the
marked files to both drive A: and drive B:.

Shift-F10 If you start the copy operation via this
combination then Lexa File requires confirmation of
overwriting a file with the same name on the target.

Ctrl-F10 Removes marking from each file which is
successfully copied to target. By these means you can
copy files to diskettes even if their total size is
greater than the capacity of the diskette. When the
latter is full, Lexa File stops and gives you the
opportunity to change diskettes; resume copying the
remaining files by pressing Ctrl-F10 again.

Alt-U Like F10 but only updates files on target (i.e.
copies more recent files).

2)  Copying via tree (Alt-T = `Copy files' or Ctrl-T
    = `Move files'):

Here you choose a drive and then a directory on that
drive as target for the copy/move operation;
advantages: 1) no typing involved, 2) you see the
target in a drive tree.

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1 ├──Deleting
;

Means of deleting files

Deleting files can be done by pressing either F6 or
Shift-F6. In either case you must confirm beginning
the operation. However, with Shift-F6 you must
furthermore confirm deleting each individual file as
you must do if you use the Delete key for removing
files.

You may of course delete an entire directory via
Shift-F9. This is potentially dangerous as all files
are deleted (albeit after the user twice confirms
his/her intention to do so).

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1 ├──Date filter
;

A date filter is a mechanism for displaying only
those files which have been created or altered. The
three options available here are:

   1)  Before a specified date
   2)  After a specified date
   3)  On the system date, i.e. today

Ctrl-F3 With this key combination you first of all
choose the type of filter you require (one of the
above three types). Be careful to enter the date in
the required format to ensure that the filter works
correctly.

Alt-F3 This simply removes a date filter if one is
set. All files are now displayed in the current
directory (file template permitting).

Remember that you can reverse the chronological order
of appearence of files in a directory by choosing a
different sorting order (ascending or descending) via
Alt-S.

To check on 1) file template, 2) sorting order and
type, 3) a possible date filter, press Alt-F (for
file information).

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1 ├──Attributes
;

Setting and removing file attributes

When the right window is active with a directory
listing and you press Ctrl-F4, the attributes of the
files in the current directory are displayed (instead
of the time stamp for each file). You may mark files
in the usual manner. After having done so, press
Ctrl-F4 again and a picklist appears with which you
may set or remove attributes.

If you just wish to view the attribute settings of
files, then press Ctrl-F4 and Escape when you are
finished.

For the current option the programme SET_ATTR.EXE
(part of the Lexa suite) must be accessible to Lexa
File. You may not set/remove file attributes from a
directory listing in the left window.

;

1 └──Renaming...
;

Renaming and duplicating files

Ctrl-F6 The file the highlight bar is resting on can
be renamed by pressing the current key combination.
The input line is automatically filled with the
current name of the file.

Alt-F10 The file the highlight bar is resting on can
be duplicated by pressing this key combination. The
only pre-condition is that there is no file with the
same name in the current directory.

;

1Services
;

There are a number of means of executing an external
programme from within Lexa File. The first is to
shell down to DOS with Ctrl-F1; the second is to
execute a single command for DOS via Shift-F1 or
Insert.

Alt-Tab This command opens a file which consists of a
list of programme calls, each of which causes some
external command or programme to be executed. By
default this file is KDATA.BFG. Take a look at the
supplied file to see what it does.

The third method is to press Ctrl-Return when the
highlight bar is resting on a file with the extension
.EXE, .COM or .BAT; the programme is loaded and
control is passed to it. On exiting the latter an
automatic return to Lexa File is made.

If you press Ctrl-F9 when on a file you are given the
opportunity of entering the name of a programme to
which you wish to have the current file passed as a
parameter on loading it. After unloading the latter,
you return to Lexa File.

Alt-F7 This keystroke presents you with a window of
options which users are likely to want for everyday
work with the operating system. All these options
involve a DOS command being activated. Any of these
commands can be interrupted by pressing Ctrl-C either
before they have started or during their execution.

;

1Interfaces
;

Apart from loading an external programme with one of
the options outlined in the previous section, one can
interface with two types of programmes directly, a
text editor and an online diary, described in the
following two sections.


;

1 ├──Text editor
;

The internal editor of Lexa File (activated via
Alt-F12 in a directory listing) is a reduced version
of Lexa Text and all its commands are derived from
those of the latter programme (consult the online
help for this editor for more information).

Up to eight texts can be edited at once. All the
usual options of block marking, find and replace,
various types of file loading and saving are
available.

With Alt-Backspace or Numeric 5 you are offered a
picklist for the texts which the editor can handle.
The picklist will contain the names of any files
already loaded. If a text area does not contain a
file, then an empty line is displayed. Moving the
highlight bar to this and pressing Return leads to a
new, empty text being opened. You can then enter
text, copy selected text or load another file into
this area.


;

1 ├──Online diary
;

Alt-F2 This key combination activates the
appointments diary within Lexa File. The screen
changes and you are presented with a screen which you
can fill with text; this page is that for today (the
current system date, as you can see from the top line
of the screen). With [Ctrl-]PageUp, PageDown you can
move within the current month. To edit the page for a
given day, press Return; press the same key to
terminate editing, Escape if you wish to abandon the
text entered. Via F3 you may change the month and
with F4 the year (up to 2010). For each month in each
year an ASCII text file is created. The year is
reflected in the extension of a diary file, e.g.
KF_DIARY.99 for 1999.
   There is also a text which accompanies the diary
and which can be used for taking notes. This text
would be stored in the file KF_DIARY.99X for 1999.
The diary notes file can be accessed from the diary
by pressing Alt-F12.
   The directory in which diary files are to be kept
is specified in an initialisation file; the default
is the home directory of Lexa File.
   The legal editing commands for a diary text are
those of the User Input Editor,

Alt-C, F11 With these keys an online calendar is
displayed.

The diary can be activated from Lexa Text and
DatabaseText by pressing Ctrl-Tilde in either of
these programmes.

Pressing Ctrl-Shift-Tilde leads to a switch to the
diary notes file directly.

;

1 └──Databases
;

There are two means of accessing a database in Lexa
File. To begin with users should note that in Lexa
File, as in Lexa Text and DatabaseText, there is an
option which allows you to view, search for and copy
contents of an address database, the name of which is
specified in an initialisation file. This option is
activated by pressing Shift-Back of choosing the
relevant item in a menu. The database is displayed
directly. Copying data is only allowed if you are on
the text editing level.

If you wish to process the address database, i.e.
enter new data or alter existing data, then you can
do so via Alt-F1. Here you can specify the name of
the database (the default is that specified in the
current initialisation file). The input window also
shows what programme will be used (the default is the
database editor DatabaseText).

;

1Miscellaneous
;

F7 Exit Lexa File to DOS.

Shift-F7 Exit Lexa File and change to the current
drive and directory (which may well be different from
the outset drive/directory). F12 has the same effect
but without requiring confirmation of exit from user.

F8 Print file from directory listing (only to be used
with ASCII text files!)

F9 Displays relevant information on the environment
one is working in, free disk space and memory, date
and time, current and original directory, etc.

Alt-H Show details of the hardware your computer
consists of.

Ctrl-V Screen size. Apart from the standard 25 row by
80 column display there are three others which are
available in Lexa File. The first is 50 x 80 which
allows you to view more of the drive tree and longer
directory listings. The other two use an intermediary
screen height (30 lines) with a width of 80 or 90: 30
x 80 and 30 x 90.

;

1 ├──User input
;

Whenever the user is prompted to enter something
(file name, target directory, etc.) an internal line
editor is activated with the following command set.

Return Terminate entry positively; continue with
       command
Escape Cancel entry and abort associated command

<-, ->   Move left and right a character at a time
Home/End Jump to beginning or end of line
Ctrl-End Delete from cursor to end of line
Insert   Toggle insert or overwrite entry mode

Ctrl-A ASCII chart (for choosing special characters)
,    Retrieve previous entries in line editor queue
F12    Recall previous input lines (history function)

;

1 ├──Other programmes
;

Lexa Text A compact and fast text editor intended
primarily for editing ASCII text files from within
Lexa File or independently. Contains a large range of
editing commands.

TxtLook Permits viewing of any input file (but not
editing, for this use Lexa Text). You can search for
and count strings.

DbLook An equivalent for viewing the contents of
databases. These must be in the dBASE format (which
nearly all databases are). A fuller form of this
viewer is also available (DatabaseText).

Lexa Byte Displays a specified file in hex format. At
any stage you can edit a piece of text as either hex
or ASCII and save the changes to disk.

Lexa Scan A disk search facility which enables you to
comb through your disk for a file you specify. The
legal DOS wildcards * and ? are permissible.

Lexa Find A visually effective file finder; gives you
a list of all files on disk; shows the home directory
for each in a tree. Many other features besides.

;

1 ├──Initialisation
;

Lexa File can in many cases take user-specified
values for internal parameters. These can be entered
into an initialisation file which is a normal ASCII
file which one can edit with any text editor.

Alternatively you can press Alt-P from within Lexa
File and the current initialisation file is loaded
with the editor Lexa Text. For any alterations to the
initialisation file to take effect, you must exit and
restart Lexa File.

There are more than 70 parameters which can be
specified for Lexa File. Users who intend using the
programme regularly should take the time to examine
the initialisation file LFILE.INI and see what
options are available with this file. In many cases
Lexa File can be customised to suit individual needs,
e.g. by specifying your own programmes to be loaded
on pressing certain keys (F2, Alt-Tab, etc.) by
entering the names at the appropriate points in an
initialisation file.

;

1 ├──Size limits
;

File manager

Files per directory             1024
Directories per logical drive   1024
No. of logical drives           26 (A - Z)

Text editor

The text editor can process up to eight texts
simultaneously. Text files are loaded completely from
disk and the only limitation on the size of files is
the physical of your computer. There are eight block
buffers for storing selected text; deleted text is
held in a parallel array of eight buffers. The
maximum size of these buffers is 64K for selected
text and 16K for deleted text.


;

1 ├──Command line
;

There are a number of command line options with Lexa
File which can be useful when customising the
programme. Note that the options for display and for
the online diary are mutually exclusive, i.e. only
one option can be specified.

   lf /i, /t, a: [/m, /v, /8, /9] [/d, /n]

   /i  Load initialisation file
   /t  Just read tree structure
   a:  Log in a specific drive

   /m  Force monochrome display (for laptops)
   /v  VGA 50 line display
   /8  30 x 80 display
   /9  30 x 90 display

   /d  Consult diary
   /n  Consult diary text

To start Lexa File using an initialisation file other
than LFILE.INI enter the command line as follows:

   lf /i-NAME (NAME = initialisation file name)

For full operation TxtLook, DbLook, Lexa Text,
DatabaseText, Lexa Byte, Lexa Find and Lexa Scan from
the Lexa suite must be accessible via the DOS path.

;

1 └──Mouse support
;
                           │
Mouse support              │
                    ┌──────┘
                  ┌─┴┐
                  │^^│
                  └──┘
You can use your mouse to scroll in either window, to
choose a directory or mark/unmark files, to accept or
reject an input line, etc.

Note that during user input:

  Left Button    Return
  Right Button   Escape

When scrolling in a directory listing:

  Left Button   Shift highlight bar to mouse cursor
  Right Button  Mark file at cursor (drag to repeat)

Otherwise you move the mouse cursor to the text
Shift-Tab=Menus at the bottom of the active window
and click either button to activate the menu system.
When a menu is displayed, clicking the right button
will close it; this is functionally equivalent to
pressing the Escape key.

;
;
; End of file LFILE.HLP
;




