HARD DISC MENU SYSTEM 4.0
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This is a program that allows you to simply create a menu with up to 16
customised choices split over two menu screens.
On the disk you should find:

        MENU.EXE - the menu program
        DETAILS.MNU - a file containing details of the menu options
        HEADER.MNU - a file containing details of the menu screen heading
        README.MNU - this text file
        INSTALL.BAT - a batch file that will automatically set up the
                      directory on the hard disk and transfer the files.

The program menu.exe and the files details.mnu and header.mnu should be
located in a sub-directory of the root directory called MENU. The batch
file INSTALL.BAT will carry out the installation automatically. Simply
place the disk in drive A and type the following commands:

                             CD A:\MENU  RETURN
                             INSTALL     RETURN


Once installed the program will automatically start though in normal use
you can arrange for the program to autostart every time you switch on the
machine by including 'MENU' in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file along with
appropriate PATH and/or directory commands.

The program can be executed directly from a floppy disk by typing the
following commands:

                   CD A:\MENU   RETURN
                   MENU         RETURN

However please note that if the menu is ran from a floppy disk and is used
to execute programs located on hard disk it will function correctly when
a menu selection is made for the first time but will crash when asked to
execute another program. However, this is not regarded as a limitation
since the program is designed to execute from hard disk.


When the program starts you will be presented with menu screen one.
Pressing Ctrl-Home will take you to the SET MENU screen. From here pressing
any of the function keys F1-F8 will take you to the DEFINE FUNCTION KEY
screen where any one of these function keys may be defined to execute a
program from the menu. You may also define the text or screen prompt for
the menu including the colours that the screen prompt will appear in. You
will be presented with the current settings, to leave any of these
unaltered simply press RETURN. To change any of them type in the new
definition followed by RETURN. When you specify the execute option you must
give the full path and program name, you cannot however include parameters
in the execution option. If no option is to be specified simply type 'non'.

When you have completed the changes you will be asked to confirm them
before them before being returned to the SET MENU screen. F9 and F10 are
pre-defined and cannot be altered.

Pressing F10 form the SET MENU allows you to define the menu heading (both
text and colours) and/or the main screen colours. Do not put leading spaces
into the menu heading the program will automatically centre the heading for
you. When all the editing is complete you can return to the menu screen by
pressing Ctrl-Home once again.

Pressing F9 takes you to the second menu screen, from here you may again
use Ctrl-Home to set the options exactly as detailed above for menu screen
one.

The menu program will change the directory before it executes a program,
thus any program which needs to be executed from within the directory in
which it is located should function without problems. Following program
execution the menu program will automatically return to the root directory.
Therefore if you use F10 to enter DOS you will be in the root directory.

If you decide to use one colour for the main screen and a different one for
the background of the screen prompt text, it is more attractive if you
enter a space before and after your screen prompt text.

The program should run without any problems on all colour monitors,
however, if you are using a monochrome monitor and experience any problems
try using an 'M' as a program parameter. ie execute the program with
MENU/M.

If anybody has any comments or suggestions I would be happy to hear from
them please write or phone.

                           Kevin Willis
                           12, The Willows,
                           Longhope
                           Gloucestershire
                           GL17 OQS
                           0452 830023