When you load PCBFiler, you will be presented with the Main Menu. From the Main Menu, you can edit directory files, configure the PCBFiler options, and perform other tasks related to maintaining file directories. The following describes each menu option.

This menu option enables you to edit the file directories on your system. When you are editing your file directories, you can move, copy, or delete the files that are listed. When you select this menu option, you are presented with the following choices:

This menu option will allow you to edit the file directories for the Main Board Conference (conference #0). To edit the file directories of another conference, select Conference Directories instead of Main Board Directories.

From this point on, the screens are exactly the same as if you selected Conference Directories instead. Therefore, see the following section for more information.

If you have conferences in which files are available for download, this option will enable you to access these conferences. You are shown a list of available conferences. After you select a conference, you will be presented with a new screen.

This new screen informs what the available directory numbers are for the current conference. This information is determined by examining the DIR.LST file for each conference. At any time, you can access the private directory which is directory 0 within PCBFiler.

Before you select a directory number to edit, you may press F2 to edit the DIR.LST file for the current conference. When you do, the DIR.LST editor will be displayed on the screen. You may change and save the information on this screen as you would in PCBSetup | Conferences.

You may notice that PCBFiler lists one more directory than you have defined in your DIR.LST file. If you have answered N to the Make All Uploads Private, PCBoard will add your public upload directory as the last directory in the conference. If you have defined 14 directories in DIR.LST, your public upload directory will be listed as directory 15.

Once you select a directory to edit, you are shown some information about that directory. The following is a sample:

Displays the location of your description file.
This is the file you entered in the DIR Text File Name & Path field in DIR.LST.

This field should contain the disk directory where the majority of files are physically located for this file directory. If you have not specified any subdirectory in your DIR.LST file, you are informed there is no attached subdirectory.

In DIR.LST you are given over 30 characters to describe the file directory. For example, you may have entered something like Miscellaneous Screen Utilities. Whatever you entered in that field will be displayed here.

Next, you will be asked two questions. The following describes each question:

Include files found on DISK that are not listed in the DIR file: There are two valid responses to this question. The valid responses are:

Verify file existence directory: There are three valid responses to this question – Y, N, and A.

Once you have answered the two questions, the directory file will be loaded and you will be placed in the directory editor. For instructions on how to use the directory editor, see the section titled The Directory Editor.

If you select this option, you will be immediately taken into the directory editor and all of the files that are stored in your off-line directory will be displayed inside the editor. Since there is no description file associated with the off-line file directory, you will not see any descriptions. See The Directory Editor and Maintaining Files for additional information.

Whenever you perform operations in the directory editor (e.g., moving or copying these files), PCBoard will record the changes made in case you wish to undo them. Only one level of undo is maintained. If you wish to undo the most recent changes, select this menu option.

If you moved files, PCBoard will move the descriptions and files back to the original directories. If you copied files, the copies of the file and description that were made will be deleted. However, if you deleted files, PCBoard does not undelete the file but it will restore the file description.

Allows you to sort file directories in all conferences using the sort method specified in DIR.LST and in the conference configuration (for the upload directories). Once you select this option, you are asked if you wish to only sort the upload directories in each conference. If you choose to select only the upload directories, both the private and public upload directories for each conference will be sorted (if they exist).

If you want to compile a list of all files available in a particular conference, use this menu option. PCBFiler will create a file called PCBFILES.LST. This file will contain a compilation of all of the directories in the conferences you defined in the PCBFiler Defaults menu option.

PCBFiler will put a header before each file directory so your directories can be easily distinguished. The header has the following format:

[Conf_Name]: [Directory_Number]) [Directory_Description]
========================================================

where [ConfName] is the name of the conference, [DirectoryNumber] is the number of the file directory and [Directory_Description] is the description of the file directory.

For example, you may see the following in your PCBFILES.LST file:

Main Board: 1) Sample Files
====================================

SAMPLE1.FIL    168046  12-28-90  Filename and description holder
SAMPLE2.FIL      2662  12-10-92  No description available
TEST3.TXT        2839  04-01-92  No description available (yet)

Because your description files support @X color codes and included files (%filename), PCBFiler must take these into consideration. When you create a file list using this menu option, PCBFiler will strip all @X color codes in the description file, and will automatically include any files pointed to by %filename.

Periodically you may want to scan your file system for duplicate or missing files. This menu option will print a comprehensive report to a file called ANALYSIS.RPT in the default directory. You can use this report to help fix problems in your setup or to eliminate redundancy.
The duplicate/missing report contains the following information:

Conferences Included in Scan: As a reminder, this will list all conferences you have told PCBFiler to include in the missing/duplicate scan. This can be changed in PCBFiler | Defaults Page 2.

Disk directories scanned: Lists the disk directories that were scanned for duplicates or missing files. This information is obtained from DLPATH.LST in each conference scanned.

DIR files scanned: Lists the directory description files (sometimes called DIR files) that were scanned for duplicates or missing files.
This information is obtained from the DIR.LST file in each conference.

Files listed in DIR files but missing from Disk: The files listed in this section were listed in a directory description file, but when the entries in DLPATH.LST were scanned, the corresponding file could not be found on disk. This means the file is not available for download.

Duplicate Files found in Disk subdirectories: The files listed in this section were found in more than one subdirectory. To determine this information, PCBFiler scans the DLPATH.LST file for all conferences. If the file is available in more than one subdirectory, it is considered to be a duplicate.

Duplicate Files found in DIR files: If a file has descriptions in more than one directory, it will be listed in this section of the report.
You will be shown what directory numbers each description number is in so you may fix the problem if necessary.

This menu selection is almost identical to the L user command that can be used to search for filenames which match a particular filename or wildcard. PCBoard will not search the file directories. Instead, it will search the download paths in all conferences to look for matching files. This menu option is useful if you are looking for a file you think might be available for download but are not sure where it can be found on your system.

The following lists the fundamental differences between this menu option, and the L user command.

• PCBFiler searches the disk instead of the description files.
• All conferences are searched
• PCBFiler searches through all subdirectories listed in the DLPATH.LST for each conference to find a match.

When you select this menu option, you are asked for the filename or filespec you would like to search for. You may enter any valid filename (including wildcards). Once you have entered the filename to search for, PCBFiler will begin scanning all conferences for matches. If a match is found, you will be shown the drive, path, and filename to help you locate the file on disk faster.

Notice how the scan begins with the Main Board conference. Any matches will show the complete path and filename where the file can be found.
Files will be listed even if they do not have descriptions written for them. If you want to see only files with descriptions, use the Locate File Spec in DIR Files menu option instead.

If you select this menu option, you will be asked what filename you would like to search the directory description files for. To help find multiple files, you may specify wildcards. PCBFiler will scan all directory description files in all conferences for a match. If a match is found, the description will be displayed on the screen as shown in the following example:

The scan begins in the first file directory of conference 0 (the Main Board) and proceeds to scan all file directories in all conferences.
Any matching files will show the complete file description including the date, file size, and filename.

If you wish to search the descriptions of all files in all conferences, select this menu option. You will be asked for the text to search for.
Once you type in the text to search for, PCBFiler will begin searching all files in all conferences for the text you entered.

As with just about any other text searching function associated with PCBoard, you can specify Boolean operators to help narrow your search.

Notice that the description for CALGUIDE.ZIP contains the word HELP on the fourth line of the description. Since all file directories were being scanned for the word HELP and this particular description has the word help, the entire file description is displayed.

There are numerous options you can configure to help you control how PCBFiler operates. There are two menu options (Defaults Page 1 and Default Page 2). This section describes each of the options available in Page 1 of the defaults.

This field controls how many lines you can load into the Directory Editor. You should enter a value high enough so you can load any of your file directories into the Directory Editor. If you specify a value which is too low for your system, you may see a message stating Error: reached maximum number of records. If you see this error, increase the value of this field.

While you can enter any value up to 32000 in this field, you should keep the value relatively close to the size of your largest directory because you may be wasting un-necessary memory by specifying a very large number.

NOTE: If PCBFiler runs out of conventional memory while loading a file directory into memory, it will attempt to use virtual memory on your hard disk which may slow down your load time slightly.

This option enables you to control what the default will be for the Include files found on DISK question. The following are valid defaults:

When loading files into the directory editor, you can have PCBFiler verify that a file really exists on one of the drives in your system.
The following are the valid options for this field:

If you use either the Y or A option when loading a directory into the editor, you will see the status of the file existence to the left of each filename when in the editor. The following are keywords that you may see:

NOTE: If you choose to verify file existence, the file date and file size will be updated when the file is loaded into the editor. The file date will be updated only when the Update FILE DATE with date found on disk file option is enabled.

If you have made changes while in the Directory Editor, you will be asked if you want to perform the file operations (Move/Rename/Delete).
The valid options are as follows:

After all of the changes have been made as specified in the directory editor, you can have PCBFiler check all of the processed directories to see if there are any duplicates in any one file directory. The following are the valid options for this field:

When PCBFiler is processing the changes you made, it outputs what it is currently doing to the screen. You can control whether or not PCBFiler should pause after each screen of data is displayed on your screen. The following are the valid options for this field:

If you have selected any files to be deleted from a file directory, during processing you may be asked if you actually wish to delete the files from disk. The following are the valid defaults for this field:

If you have chosen to verify file existence when loading a file into the directory editor, you may also choose to have the file date updated to the date found on disk or leave the date unchanged. The following are the valid defaults for this option:

This option allows you to choose if you want to set the file date in the description to the current date when moving or copying files. The following are valid defaults for this field:

This option allows you to control if a zero-byte file is left behind when a file is removed from the file directory (using F7 in the Directory Editor) or moved to the OFF-LINE directory. The following are the valid defaults for this field:

There are two modes of operation in the Directory Editor–novice and expert. You can choose which method you prefer to default to when using the Directory Editor. The following are the valid defaults:

NOTE: You can toggle between expert and novice modes while in the Directory Editor by pressing ALT-X.

When you are inserting secondary lines in the Directory Editor, you can control what position the secondary line character ( | ) will be placed.
You may enter any value between 2 and 79. You may not enter a 1 because PCBoard requires that there be a space preceding the secondary line character. To match the 45 character lines PCBoard uses, enter a default indentation of 32. Speaking of PCBoard, this option will not change the 45 character limit per description line that the user enters.

Like Defaults Page 1, this screen allows you to change options that will affect the operation of PCBFiler. The following describes each of the fields available via this menu option.

This field holds the conferences you want to include whenever you create a file list from either the main menu in PCBFiler or with the /LIST command line parameter. You may specify a single conference, a range of conferences, or a combination of the two in this field. For example, if you want to include conference 0 (Main Board), conferences 10-15, and conference 22 in your file lists, enter the following in this field:

0,10-15,22

In this field, specify the conferences you want to include in the missing/dupe scan that you can select from the Main Menu. Like the previous field, you can specify a single conference, a range of conferences, or a combination of the two.

The number you choose here should be high enough to handle the total number of files listed in all directory files plus the total of all of the files on disk. (maximum number is 65,000)

The scan for duplicate/missing files feature stores the names and locations of all files in DIRs and hard disks in virtual memory to speed the sorting and comparison process. Therefore, if you select a number which is too high for your system, you may end up using the virtual memory much faster than you need to which will slow down the duplicate/missing report.

In this field, specify the drive and subdirectory where you want to store files you have marked as being moved off-line. PCBFiler will copy the files to the location specified in this field and mark the file as being off-line in the file description.

If you are really moving the files off-line, you may want to specify the location of a DOS device which supports removable media (e.g., floppy disk drive, magneto-optical drive, etc.). If you move files to a location which has removable media, you can fill up one disk or cartridge, store it, then put in a new one and move some more files off-line.

When PCBFiler processes files, it makes backups of all directory files it modifies in case you choose to undo the changes made. This field enables you to specify where the backup files will be created. In this field, specify the drive and subdirectory where you want your backup files to be created. If you leave this field blank, the backup files will be created in the default or current subdirectory.

Some SysOps may copy their directory files to RAM disks when they boot their system while the masters are stored on a hard-drive or other fixed media device. If you use this type of setup, PCBFiler can help you make all of your changes to the physical copies of your DIR files stored on the hard-drive.
In this field, enter the name of the directory you would like to translate to a new location. For example, you may physically store your directory files in C:\PCB\GEN\ but you may copy them out to F:\, a ram drive, for quicker access. If this resembles your setup, enter F:\ in this field. The F:\ will be replaced with whatever you enter in the New Directory field.

NOTE: If you do not intend to use this feature, you must leave this field blank.

If a file directory is found which includes the path specified in the Original Directory field, the original directory will be replaced with your entry in this field. If your system resembled the previous example, enter C:\PCB\GEN in this field.

When you are in the Directory Editor, you have the ability to view the currently highlighted file by pressing ALT-V. In this section you may specify up to six viewable extensions. Each viewable extension can execute a program or batch file which may then allow you to view the file while in the Directory Editor.

In the File Extension field, enter the viewable extension. In the DOS Command field, enter the DOS command whenever you press ALT-V in the Directory Editor while a filename with this particular extension is highlighted. PCBFiler will run the command you specify after it appends the filename you are currently viewing onto the command. For example, if you enter EDIT in this field and you press ALT-V while viewing a file called TESTRUN.TXT that is stored in C:\PCB\DL01\, PCBFiler will execute the following command:

EDIT C:\PCB\DL01\TESTRUN.TXT.

PCBFiler will begin scanning the file extensions in the File VIEWERS block from the top down to the bottom acting upon the first match found.
There is a special extension you may specify which will match on every extension. If you want to take advantage of this, make this new entry your last file extension. The extension you want to enter is ???. The question marks are wildcard characters which will match any filename extension. What type of viewing utility should you use for this entry? Most SysOps will use a all-purpose viewing utility which will simply show the raw content of the file.

The following is a sample setup.

If a filename is viewed which has an extension of ZIP or ARJ, PCBFiler will execute PCBFV C:\PCBFV\PCBFV.CNF /L [filename]. If a filename is viewed which has an extension of ARC, PCBFiler will use its internal viewer for ARC compressed files. Any other files will get viewed (because of the ??? extension) and will be viewed using a utility called LIST.

NOTE: PCBFiler has two internal viewers. One internal viewer is for ARC compressed files and the other is for ZIP compressed files. These internal viewers simply list the files stored in the compressed file and their sizes. To use these internal viewers, specify INTERNAL in the DOS Command field.

PCBoard will colorize your file directories on the fly. You can colorize the following elements of your directory files:

• Header or banner at the top of a directory file
• Filename
• File size
• File date
• First line of a description
• Any additional lines of a description
• Text lines in the middles of a directory file
• OFF-LINE notices (in the date field)
• DELETED notices (in the date field)

To choose your colors, simply move the cursor on the sample screen to the color or section you want to change and press ENTER. When you press ENTER, you are presented with a box which shows all possible color selections you may choose. Move the cursor around in the box until you have found the color you wish to use. Once you press ENTER on the color you wish to use, you will see the sample screen update to show you what your directories will look like.

When you are done making all of your selections, press ESC to exit. If you have made any changes, you will be prompted if you wish to save the changes. To save the changes, answer Y to this question.