IntraDOS Help File

The topics in yellow below are covered in this help file. To view a topic, click on the topic with a mouse or Tab to it and press Enter.

  • Using the menu at the top.
  • Keystroke support.
  • "Surfing" the Intranet:
  • Customizing IntraDOS.
  • Remember!
    You can use the "Search" menu to find particular terms in this file.

    The Readme.HTM file that comes with IntraDOS contains further information on the program, and the Setup.HTM file contains more information on launching configuring it and setting it up on a network.


    How to use the IntraDOS menu


    Menu entries at the top of the screen control the operation of IntraDOS. You can make selections on the menu by a mouse or the keyboard.

    Using the mouse, simply click on selections with the left mouse button as in typical MS-Windows programs.

    Using the keyboard, you can press the Alt key to activate the menu. Menu entries will have one letter (the "accelerator key") that stands out in a different color. You can either press that key to activate a particular menu selection or use the left, right, up, and down arrow keys to move to a menu selection, which is then activated by pressing Enter.

    Some of the more important menu selections and the keystroke shortcuts are:

    Get help: ..................................................... F1
    
    Go back to the next earliest page you looked at: .............. Alt+b
    Fo ahead to the next more recent page you looked at: .......... Alt+a
    Go to your start-up "home" page: .............................. Alt+o
    
    Show all contents of the current directory: ................... F5
    Manually choose a file to open from a diolog box: ............. Ctrl+o
    Take a look at the history of pages you've surfed: ............ Ctrl+h
    View a bookmarked file ........................................ Alt+v
    Bookmark the current file ..................................... Ctrl+b
    View the Table of Contents .................................... Alt+c
    Create a Table of Contents .................................... Ctrl+C
    
    Find (search for) particular text somewhere in the document: .. Ctrl+f
    Look for more of the same text without retyping: .............. F3
    
    Get out of (exit) IntraDOS: ................................... Alt+x
    


    Surfing the Intranet


    "Surfing" the intranet involves movement within the document on screen and using links to jump to other documents.

    Movement within the document on screen

    You can scroll through the document on screen with the up, down, left, and right cursor keys and the PageUp and PageDown keys, as well as using the mouse to click on the ends of scrollbars. You can also use other keys as follows:
    Home: .......... Moves to the left-hand side of the page
    End: ........... Moves to the right-hand side of the page
    Ctrl+Home: ..... Moves to the beginning (top) of the page
    Ctrl+End: ...... Moves to the end (bottom) of the page
    
    Additionally, you can search for particular text by pressing Ctrl+F, and to repeat the search without retyping the text you're looking for, you can press F3.

    "Hypertext": Jumping to other documents by links

    As with other browsers, a user can move through the information system by activating links. In IntraDOS, the links generally appear in yellow, but the currently active link appears in red. The user can navigate by the following means:

    Mouse
    A user may follow hypertext links by clicking on them with a mouse.

    TAB Key
    IntraDOS also allows a user to follow a link without a mouse by means of the TAB key. To select a link, press TAB until the desired link is highlighted (or Shift+TAB to cycle through the links in the reverse direction). Then, the user presses ENTER to activate the link. If you scroll so that the active link is out of view, IntraDOS interprets a TAB as calling for the first link on the screen rather than the next link in order.

    Type first letter of link on the screen
    The user may select a link by typing the first character of the link until the desired link is highlighted. Then, the user presses ENTER to activate the link.

    Back, Ahead and Home Menu Items
    These menu items function as they do with Windows browsers. "Back" (alt+b) takes the user to the immediately preceding link (even in the same document), "Ahead" (alt+a) to the one immediately next, and "Home" (alt+o) to the first one.

    Browsing the File System
    When the user presses F5 (or Alt+f, i), IntraDOS creates a page of hyperlinks to every file in the current directory, to subdirectories, and to the parent directory. There is an ultimate limit to the number of files that can be displayed in this way, but I have seen a directory of 1,300 files displayed correctly.

    File Open Dialog Box
    When the user presses Control+O (or Alt+f, o), IntraDOS provides a dialog box for selecting a file to be opened.

    History
    When the user presses Control+H (or Alt+v, h), IntraDOS provides a list of all links from the first to the last. The user can revisit any of those documents by selecting the appropriate link and clicking OK.

    Bookmarks
    The user can save the current document as a "Bookmark" or "Favorite" by pressing Control+B. Doing so will cause IntraDOS to show the file as a menu item at the bottom of the "View" menu, thus allowing the user to return to the same file by using the menu rather than navigating through the system. The bookmark can be used in later IntraDOS sessions. (It can be changed by editing the user's configuration file.)

    Table of Contents
    By pressing Control+C, the user can also automatically store every link in the current page as an entry in the "Table of Contents." The menu item "Contents" will appear, and by activating it (by alt+c) a list of links will appear below. The links can be used until the user exits IntraDOS or supersedes those links by loading others. This feature is most useful when the current document has been written as an index or table of contents of related documents.


    Customizing IntraDOS

    Users can configure IntraDOS in several respects.

    Colors

    By using the File, Setup, Colors menu selection, users can experiment to find the color arrangements that work best for them. This menu will display a form showing all the current color selections. To change the background, normal, bold, italics, or heading colors, use the Change menu and select the item you wish to change. You will then have an array of choices, and as you make changes, the form's display will show you your current selections. You can exit this form without saving your changes, or you can save the changes by pressing the Save button (or typing Alt+s) and then exiting. If you save changes, those changes will appear on the main form immediately.

    Startup File and Help File

    You can change the default start-up file by the menu item under File, Setup, Startup File. You can also specify a different help file (or this one if it is not in the current directory) by File, Setup, Help File. For more advanced setup options, see the Setup.HTM file that comes with the program.

    Speed - Stockpiling Files

    To display a web (HTML) page properly, IntraDOS must interpret (parse) it, and this takes some time depending on the size of the file and the number and length of tables in the file. Parsing the same file over and over again can be avoided, and therefore system speed can be increased, by saving the file in a stockpile of pre-parsed files. If a file has been saved in this stockpile, it can be viewed almost instantaneously, even on slower machines. Stockpililng can be done for each file individually by the File, Stockpile Permanently menu item. Alternatively, you can setup IntraDOS to stockpile each file automatically or to force you to make a decision on each file under File, Setup.

    Bookmarks

    Users can store particularly useful places on the intranet as permanent "Bookmarks" or "Favorites," as explained above.