FmEdit98 1.0

The Ultimate File Management Utility Tool

for Win95 / 98 and NT

FmEdit98 was last updated on Sunday, 27th September 1998

Features | Editor | Images | Html | Zip Manager | The Birth

File Management | Tools | User Options | Credits | License | Download

Known Problems | Q&A | Bug Fixes | Changes

This software may be freely used for personal use only

If you intend to download FmEdit98, you can skip reading this document as it is in the zip file

Say goodbye to Windows Explorer, when you start using FmEdit98 you will never have the need to use explorer again.

Known Problems

If you have PICAVIEW version 1.x installed on your PC, FmEdit98's pop up file menu's will not function correctly if the file is an image, an Access Violatoin Error message appears, this will not crash FmEdit98.

Main Features

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Editor

View large ASCII files, limited only by the amount of RAM on your PC.

This is a fully fledged text editor with functions such as, search and replace, bookmark, goto line number, cut, copy, paste, undo, change font, print entire file or the currently selected section only..

Files can be saved in 3 different formats, MsDos / Win (default), Mac and Unix, to change the format to save under, from the main menu select Editor and change the format you wish to save the file under.

Use the right hand mouse button when in the editor for more editing options.

Key control's when using the editor

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Images

Current formats supported are: BMP, GIF, ANIMATED GIF's, JPG, JPEG and PNG, I have found these type of images to be the most popular, previous versions of FmEdit95 supported more formats but had some problems with some type's of image compression, in future release's I hope to add more formats.

I have no intention of adding editing capabilities to the image viewer, it is and always will be a WYSIWYG image viewer although I have added an option to allow the printing of images, the images can be printed in full colour if your printer supports it.

I have found when viewing some GIF files it is better to reduce your colour settings to 256 colours, I do not know the cause of this, but when in 32bit colour mode, some view OK while others look as if the image has only 16 colours, changing to 256 colours solves the problem.

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Html

View large html files, html tables, html forms, background colours and images, also includes formatted printing of the html document, text search and copy to clipboard .

Provides both a viewer and an editor, the viewer is capable of showing animated images as well as frames, the editor is pretty basic but does the job, this html file was written using it, the editor show's the html tags in colour (a pretty basic blue), switching between the editor and viewer is pretty simple, from the viewer you can use the pop up menu or press Alt+F2 to gain access to the editor, switching from the editor back to the viewer can be done by pressing Alt+F2 or from the main menu View option (Html).

When viewing an html file and you then switch to the editor and make any changes, if you the try to switch back to the viewer without saving them, FmEdit98 will prompt you if you wish to save the changes you made. If you clear the html file while in the editor and try and switch back to the viewer you will be prompted that no file is available for viewing, you can either create a new file or click another html file for viewing.

While html documents are normally associated with the internet, they are also very useful for displaying all kinds of textual material such as documentation, helpfiles, etc. graphics are easily incorporated in these documents.

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Zip Manager

Open a Zip File, select this option to open an existing zip or self extracting zip file.

Create a New Zip File, select this option to create a new zip file, any zip file that is currently open will be closed, you will then be prompted for the name of the new zip file you want to create, after you have named your zip file, you can then add files to the zip.

Extract From, extract individual files, selected files or all files from within the zip to a destination of your choice.The default settings for extract is Selected files, this can be changed toAll files if required, you can extract them to the current directory, a directory of your choice, or you can create a new directory.

Adding Files to a Zip, scan any directory for any files you wish to add to the new or current zip file, if you want to remove a file from the files you have selected, just double click the filename, click Add to Zip when you have finished the file selection, the files will then be added to the zip file.

Delete, highlight the file or files you wish to delete, then select this option to delete them from the archive.

Convert Zip archive to self-extracting .EXE, the resulting .EXE is a Win32 program. Uses the same base name and path already used by the Zip File - only the file extension is changed to "EXE", this can also be reversed, by changing an "EXE" back to a "ZIP".

Note: A zip spanning function will be added to the Zip manager within the next month or two after all the beta testing has been done.

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User Options

Helpful hints are displayed on the status bar when you highlight an option from this menu.

Some options are saved when you exit FmEdit98 providing you have checked the Save Settings on Exit option, they are:

There is currently no option to save the column size's when in file detail mode or the zip viewer, I am currently beta testing a zip spanning function which will add more columns, soI decided not to include this option until the zip spanning is built into FmEdit98.

There is also a Save Settings Now option which will save the current settings to the Windows registry.

The options are saved in the Windows registry file under:

If you remove FmEdit98 from your system, you can safely delete the FmEdit98 key from the registry.

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The Birth of FmEdit (FmEdit95 was Born September 1997)

FmEdit98 - Written and Programmed by Raymond Allan, using Borland Delphi – Version 2.0

FmEdit95 or FmEdit98 as it is now called evolved around a project I was doing at work, I needed a flexible editor to manipulate large label files, I eventually found the Delphi components required in the form of LEdit32 , this in turn allowed me to achieve my requirements.

I then got thinking about various Editor's, File Managers, Image Viewer's, Html Viewers/Editors and Zip Utility Programs I have used or am currently using, since I found the components for the Editor, I started searching the various Delphi site's looking for components I could use to build one complete program in which I had total control over, the net result is FmEdit98, so instead of having to use 5 or 6 programs I now only use FmEdit98.

It may not be as classy or as functional as some other program's, but FmEdit98 is a very robust program and does the job required, I do not intend to stop working on FmEdit98, and will be constantly looking to add new functionality.

If you think it can be improved in anyway, or have any comments to make, drop me an e:mail and I will try to incorporate them into FmEdit98.

Anyone finding faults when using FmEdit98, please e:mail me at the address below, stating what you were doing and what happened.

I can be contacted at:

raymond.allan@cableinet.co.uk

Home Pages:

http://wkeb1.cableinet.co.uk/raymond.allan/html/fmedit95.htm

http://wkeb1.cableinet.co.uk/raymond.allan/delphi.htm

http://wkeb1.cableinet.co.uk/raymond.allan/index.htm

Raymond Allan (September 1998)

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Tools

There is also a pop up calculator on the toolbar, click on the button to access it.

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File Management

If you are going to be doing a lot of file manipulation it is a good idea to Uncheck the Run Exe or associated program on dbl clk and Disable Viewers from the Options menu.

(File menu) relates to the pop up menu in the file list or folder windows

To take full advantage of the FmEdit98 File menu, you should install the Send To program from the Win95 or Win98 Power Pack.

I think the Win 95 (PP) is freely available, I got my copy from PC PLUS Magazine's Super CD, if you cannot get a copy, mail me and I will send you a copy of the Send To program only. (If it is legal to do so)

Multiple files and folders can be selected by keeping CTRL pressed down and clicking on the file / folder names, there is also an option to Select All in the File menu

Full drag and drop functions are supported.

To create a folder

To change the name of a file or folder

A file name can contain up to 255 characters, including spaces. It cannot contain the following characters: \ / : * ? " < > |

To copy a file or folder

To send a file or folder to a disk

To delete a file or folder

You can also drag file or folder icons into the Recycle Bin. If you press SHIFT while dragging, the item will be deleted from your computer without being stored in the Recycle Bin.

To find a file or folder

If you want the search to be case-sensitive, click the Options menu and make sure a check mark appears next to Case Sensitive. Click to create the check mark; click again to clear it.

To put a shortcut on the desktop

To change any settings for the shortcut, such as what kind of window it starts in, right-click the shortcut, and then click Properties.

To delete a shortcut, drag it to the Recycle Bin. The original item still exists on the disk.

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Credits

Html viewer components - Dave Baldwin (http://www.pbear.com)

Zip components - Eric W Engler (http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/2114/)

All beta testers of FmEdit98, especially George Klinzy who I think went out with a vengance to find every little fault or spelling mistake that was in FmEdit98, so if there is still any spelling mistakes then you can blame George?

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License

FmEdit98

This software may be freely used for personal use only.

Individual commercial use requires a payment of $10 per computer and that you register the software for commercial use with the author, registration entitles the user to all future versions of FmEdit98.

FmEdit98 may not be sold, distributed or used in any other manner without the prior written consent of the author. Those interested in licensing FmEdit98 for other than personal use should contact the author.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author disclaims all warranties regarding this software, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall the author be liable for consequential, special, incidental or indirect damages arising out of the use or inability to use this software even if the author is aware of the possibility of such damages or a known defect.

By using this software, you are agreeing to the above terms.

raymond.allan@cableinet.co.uk

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Download and Installation

Before running FmEdit98, open Windows Explorer, select View then View Options and ensure that the Hide file extensions for known file types is unchecked, FmEdit98 will not function correctly if it is checked.

FmEdit98 - First time users and upgraders from all versions of FmEdit95 and FmEdit98 beta release 2

FmEdit98exe - Upgraders from beta release 3

Files included in FmEdit95.zip. (705k) (I have kept the zip names as fmedit95 for bookmarking purposes)

Files included in FmEdit95exe.zip. (428k)

Installation

Unzip all files to a temporary directory, copy FmEdit98.exe and FmEdit98.htm to a directory of your choice, copy all the dll's and bin file to the windows system directory, if you are using FmEdit to unzip the files, after you have unzipped the files, close FmEdit and use explorer to copy the files.

Whatever your Windows Explorer settings are, FmEdit98 picks them up on opening.

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©1998 Raymond Allan, Last Revision - 27 September 1998 14:11 GMT Daylight Time