Copyright: Copyright ©Night Owl Publisher


Contents
Night Owl Publisher
CD-ROM File Manager
On-line Help

How it Works

Point to control or area of interest on the screen graphic below to get help on that item.


Zip Viewer
Zip File Viewer

The built in Zip file viewer permits you to view the directory listing of any Zip file on the Night Owl disk.  Files may be viewed or extracted while in the viewer.

Point to area of interest with your mouse and click for help on that area.


User File List

The user file list is a list of categories and file names that you select for special interest.  Items are placed on the list by selecting a group of files and clicking on the add (+) button or by using the text/file search feature.

Use the mouse to point to a control or area of interest and click to get help on that item:


UnZip Button

The Night Owl retriever has a built in file unzipping capability.  Files may be unzipped (extracted) to any drive:\directory on your system.  The retriever supports unzipping any ZIP file on the CD-ROM and any ZIP file in the user work area.

To unzip a file, select the target ZIP file and click on the UnZip button.  You will be prompted to select a destination directory and you may even choose to create a new directory should you so desire.

Once you select a destination directory, Night Owl will commence to extract all the files in the target ZIP file to the destination directory.  Prior to commencing file extraction, a check is made to ensure the extracted files will fit on the target drive.  A progress window displays extraction progress.

Note that the user work area is the default destination directory and that you may extract individual files from a ZIP file from within the ZIP file viewer.


Copy File
Copying Files

The Night Owl retriever supports file copying from the Night Owl CD-ROM or the user work area to any drive on your disk.  When the Copy Button is clicked, you will be prompted to select a destination directory and you may choose to create a new directory if so desired.  After the destination directory has been selected, Night Owl will copy the selected file.

Note that multiple files may be copied from the user work area to any directory in your system.


User Work Area

The user work area is a Night Owl directory set aside for your use in unzipping shareware files for evaluation.

Use the mouse to point to a control or area of interest and click to get help on that item:


Text/File Search

This is a fast means of searching the textual file descriptions for a specific text string or searching the data base for file names.  The text search is limited to 40 characters and is not case-sensitive and the file search supports wild card use but excludes use of *.* and *.ZIP.

The search can be limited to selected (marked) categories.

Use the mouse to point to a control or area of interest and then click to get help on that item:


Graphics File Viewer

Night Owl provides a sophisticated graphics file viewer that supports viewing of BMP, WMF, PCX, PNG, JPG, and ICO files.  You can print the file being viewed and even save it to a different supported format.

Point to control or area of interest in the graphic below with the mouse and click to get help for that item:


MMI Player

Night Owl provides an MMI player that can play MID and WAV sound files and AVI video (movie) files.  It can even play a selected group of files in automatic sequence.

Use the mouse to point to a control or area of interest and then click in that area for help on that item:


Add to User File List

The User File List is maintained by the Night Owl retriever as a personal list of files selected by you.  There are two places where you may add to your list.  One is from the main window by selecting files in the file list box and then clicking the Add button.  The second place is in the Text/File search dialog.  After a search is completed, all files that match the search criteria are automatically added to your list.

You list is automatically saved to a disk file when you leave the user list viewing window and restored when you start the Night Owl retriever.  You may clear the list and start over.


Help Button
Click on the help button or press F1 to call this help file.


Category List
The Category list controls which file

names are displayed in the file list box.


File List Box
The file list box contains the names

of all files in the selected file category.


File Description Box
A textual description of the selected

file appears in this box.


Dynamic Hint Box
A helpful hint related to the area or control

under the mouse is displayed here.  It changes

dynamically as the mouse is moved.


Extract and View File

You may extract and view the contents of any text file from within the Zip file viewer.  Night Owl extracts the file into the work directory for viewing and then deletes the extracted file when viewing is completed.

The text viewer features include use of the Windows clipboard, file printing, font selection and more.  Use the viewer window main menu to access these features.


Text Viewer Menu
Use the main menu to access the

various text file viewer features.


Text File Information
These boxes display line number and

other file status data.


Zipped File List
Double-click on any text file to temporarily

extract and view the contents of that file.


Clear User File List
You may clear your user list and

start over by clicking this button.

The list will be cleared and the list

file will be deleted.


Exit Button
Click on the Exit Button to close the current window.

The red Exit Button in the main window terminates the

Night Owl file retriever program.


Execute COM/EXE File
You may execute a COM or EXE file by selecting

the file to run and clicking on the execute button.


Delete User Area Files
Files may be deleted from the user work area by

selecting the target files and clicking on the delete button.


View Text File
To view a text file, select the target file and click on

the file viewer button.  Night Owl will use the file

extension to determine which file viewer to call.

Supported types are graphics (AVI, BMP, WMF,

JPG, ICO, & PCX), MMI (AVI, MID, & MID), help (HLP),

executable (COM & EXE), and ZIP.  Any file not in one

of these categories is treated as a text file.


Print Graphics File
Sends the current image to your printer.


Save Graphics File
You may save the current graphics image

to a disk file.  You will be prompted for the

file type, which means you may save the

image as any of the supported graphics file

types (BMP, WMF, JPG, PCX, ICO, & PNG).


Zoom Graphics Image
Zooms the current image to full screen.

Click with mouse to return to the normal

viewer.  Note that this feature may not

work properly with some graphics cards.


Image Viewing Area
The image from the selected graphics file

is displayed in this area.  Whether is fills

the area or is centered in the area depends

upon the state of the Stretch and Center buttons.


Select Drive/Directory
The drive and directory controls are used to

select the current directory from which the

files list will be built.


Select Graphics File
Select a file from the list for viewing.


Graphics Info Boxes
Information pertaining to the file being

viewed are displayed in these boxes.


Stretch Graphic
Toggles the stretch mode.  When toggled to on,

the image is stretched to fit the entire viewing area.


Center Graphic
Centers the graphic image in the viewing area.


MMI Auto-Play
Use the Auto-Play feature to play multiple

MMI files.  Select a group of files from the file

list box and then click the Auto-Play button

to commence playing the group.


MMI Player Control Buttons

  The MMI control buttons control the playing of AVI, MID, and WAV files.

Play	Plays the media player

Pause	Pauses playing or recording. If already paused when

 clicked,resumes playing or recording.

Stop	Stops playing or recording

Next	Skips to the next track, or to the end if the medium doesn't

use tracks

Prev	Skips to the previous track, or to the beginning if the

medium doesn't use tracks

Step	Moves forward a number of frames

Back	Moves backward a number of frames


Select MMI File
Select an AVI, MID, or WAV file for playing/viewing.


AVI Viewing Area
AVI video frames occupy this area.


MMI Volume Control
The volume control controls the

audio level to your speakers.


MMI Progress Bar
A progress bar is show in this area

during the playing of AVI, MID, or WAV files.


MMI Time to Go
Displays time remaining for the file being played.


Start Search
Click on this button when you have selected

the file categories you wish to search and have

entered the target information in the search target editor.


Select Search Categories
This button is a toggle.  It will either unselect

all selected categories or select all unselected

category, depending upon it's most recent state.


Text Search CheckBox
You mush check this box if you

desire to search for file names.


Search Categories
Select the categories you wish to

search for file names or descriptive text.


Search Target Editor
Enter the target text for the search in the search

text editor.  For file name searches you may use

wild card characters "*" or "?" but you may not use

"*.*" or "*.ZIP".  The descriptive text search is non-case

sensitive and the target is limited to 40 characters.


Format Floppy Disk

Select "Format Floppy" from the main menu "Disc" item to format a floppy disk.  Night Owl supports formatting 720K & 1.44M 3 1/2" diskettes and 360K &1.2M 5 1/4" diskettes.  No other disk types/sizes are supported.

The following dialog controls floppy disk formatting:


New_Ware
New-Ware

Night Owl CD-Rom file management system designed and developed by:

New-Ware Quality Software
8050 Camino Kiosco
San Diego, CA 92122
619-455-6225


How it Works

The Night Owl File Retriever is a sophisticated file manager designed to make your exploration of the thousands of compressed shareware files on the disk fast and enjoyable.

The files are listed under 60 major categories and these categories appear in the category list box of the main window.  Selecting a category automatically loads and displays a list of file names from that category in the file list box.  Each file has a textual description which appears in the description box when the file is selected.

The retriever has a number of file management functions which are available throught the main menu and the tool bar.  The following is a list of tool bar buttons and their functions:

Unzip button	Unzip a file to any drive\directory

View button	View contents of the selected ZIP file

Copy button	Copy the selected file

User list button	View the personal user list

User work area button	View files in the user work area

Search button	Search for text or file names

Graphics viewer button	Use the Night Owl graphics file viewer

MMI player button	Use the Night Owl MMI file player

Viewing text files	View compressed or regular text files

The retriever can also access and install other versions of the Night Owl CD.

Another feature of the retriever is the ability to format a floppy disk.


Install other versions

The Night Owl shareware CD-ROM disks are issued sequentially and each has a volume label of NOPV plus the release number.  For example, as of April 1996 the current version is #19 and therefore its label is NOPV19.

This file retriever permits installing and accessing other disks in the series without going through the full installation process.  To access another Night Owl CD, select the "Change Disc" item from the "Disc" menu on the main menu.  You will be prompted to place the new CD into your CD-ROM drive.  The retriever will then check to see if a data base exists in your Night Owl directory system.  Each disc has its own subdirectory which is named for the release number.  For example, the data base for #19 is in the \TEXT19 subdirectory.

If the data base for the new disk is present, the retriever will shift to that data base and use the disk you placed in the drive.  If not, it will create the appropriate subdirectory, copy the data base to it, and make the shift.


Text File Viewer

The text file viewer is used to examine the contents of a text file.  It offers the following features:

Print and printer set-up

Cut & Paste selected text to/from the clipboard

Search, find-next, and go-to line number functions

Fixed-font option

Tab size and tab expansion options

Note that when the viewer is used to view compressed text files, the file is extracted for loading into the viewer and then deleted when the viewer is closed.


About_Me
Night Owl CD-ROM

Night Owl Publisher, Inc
1611 Falconer Stillwater Road
JamesTown, NY 14701
716-484-3066 [voice]
716-483-3920 [fax]
716-483-3925 [bbs]

Copyright 1996
All rights reserved


Start Format
Click on this button to start the

floppy drive format.


Format Drive Box
Select a floppy disk drive to format

from the drop-down drive box.


Format Disk Size Selection
Select the proper disk type/size by

checking the appropriate item


Format Volume Label
The volume label of the currently selected

drive appears in this edit box.  Type in the

new label just before starting the format.


Select Directory

You may move to any drive by selecting the drive from the drive combo box and then you may select any directory from the tree.  If you desire, you may select a directory by typing the directory name into the directory path line editor.  If the directory that you specify in this manner does not exist, a prompt will appear that offers the choice of creating the new directory.