Amiga Emulator FAQ

Workbench 2.0 Menus

• Workbench
  • Backdrop (B)
    • This option specifies whether Workbench is displayed within a Window or a
      backdrop screen. If ticked then the screen is a backdrop. To save this, clear
      any windows and Use Icons, Snapshot, Window.
  • Execute Command (E)
    • This option allows you to execute any AmigaDOS command without having to start
      up a Shell or CLI window. Enter the command you wish, with parameters and a window
      will appear with the results. Click on Close Window gadget to remove the window.
  • Redraw all
    • This option redraws all the icons on screen that may have not been refreshed
      due to badly programmed software. Hardly used these days.
  • Update all
    • This re-reads all mounted disks and opened drawers and redraws the entire display.
      Useful if something has been changed via the Shell and not updated on the Workbench
      screen.
  • Last Message
    • Repeats the last message displayed in the title bar on Workbench.
  • About
    • Displays the version of Workbench and Kickstart you are using.
  • Quit (Q)
    • Shuts down Workbench only if all programs (esp. Commodities) have been closed
      down. Will display a message like 'Cannot quit yet, there are x WB launched
      program(s)' if there are some still running. Use Exchange to close down commodities.
      Must start a Shell if you want to continue work after Quitting.
• Window
  • New Drawer (N)
    • Creates a new drawer (or directory) in the current selected window. Defaults
      to 'Unnamed1'. You will be prompted to enter a new name.
  • Open Parent
    • Opens a window of the parent directory or drawer of the current window or
      brings the existing parent window to the front.
  • Close (K)
    • Closes the current selected window.
  • Update
    • Re-reads the contents of the current active windows and re-draws all the icons.
  • Select Contents (A)
    • Selects all the icons in the current window. Useful after a clean up and before a snapshot.
  • Clean up (.)
    • Rearranges all the icons by size into a neat order. May be better to do this manually.
  • Snapshot
    • Includes two sub-menus: Window or All. Saves the position of a
      window or a window and all its icons so that next time the window is opened the
      icons appear in their new position.
  • Show
    • Includes two sub-menus: Only icons or All files. Displays all files which have
      icons and hides the remaining files or displays all files and hidden files are
      given default icon pictures.
  • View By
    • This has four sub menus: Icon, Name, Date, Size. Allows you to display
      files in a window by four methods. Icon displays in normal icon mode. Name, Date
      and Size displays files in a list and sorted by the method chosen. A tick appears
      by method selected.
      
• Icon
  • Open (O)
    • This is used on a selected icon. Instead of double clicking on
      an icon to show contents of a disk or drawer or run a program you
      can select an icon with the pointer and Select Open to display or
      run it.
  • Copy (C)
    • This open allows you to duplicate files and disks. To copy a file
      select the icon and then select Copy. Another icon will appear
      saying Copy_of_file or whatever, you can then move that file elsewhere
      or Rename it.
  • Rename (R)
    • This option allows you to change the name of a disk, a drawer or
      a file. Select the disk, drawer or file icon to rename, select rename,
      and then type in the new name in the given requester.
  • Information (I)
    • This option displays details of a given disk, drawer or file.
      Workbench has 5 types of workbench icons: Disk, Drawer, Trashcan,
      Project and Tool. A Trashcan is a special drawer for use with the
      'Empty Trash' feature to delete files. A Project is a data file and
      a Tool is a Program. Info will display the type, size, stack size,
      default file, comment and protection flags of a file.
  • Snapshot (S)
    • This saves the position of one or more icons to its new position.
  • Unsnapshot (U)
    • This removes the position information of an icon and allows Workbench to position the icon itself.
  • Leave out (L)
    • Allows an icon to be placed on the desktop and may be snapshot into place.
      Allows faster access to a program or drawer than via other disks and drawers.
  • Put Away (P)
    • Returns left out icons back into their original location on disk.
  • Delete
    • This is a delete function, to delete a file you would normally
      drag and drop the file into the Trashcan drawer to empty later.
      This option allows you to delete a file straight away. A requester
      may appear to confirm deletion.
  • Format Disk
    • This option formats a disk for use by the Amiga. It splits
      the disk into the right number of tracks/sectors and creates an
      empty root directory. It can also automatically create a Trashcan
      drawer. To use, select the disk to format and select Initialise.
  • Empty Trash
    • This option deletes all the files in a selected Trashcan drawer
      of a disk. This feature is useful because you may want to delete a
      file but you could change your mind and decide to keep it, all you
      have to do is to drag the file out of the Trashcan back to its
      original drawer or disk.
• Tools
  • Reset WB
    • Resets Workbench, redraws the screen and re-reads mounted disks.
  • User items
    • It is possible for some programs to add it own menu items on this menu.
      You can also add your own favourite items to this menu via third party
      programs such as ToolManager and ToolsDaemon.