Opening Archives
When CiderPress II starts, you will see a plain window with menu items, a toolbar near the top, and a few buttons in the middle. The buttons allow you to open an existing file or create a new file. If you have opened archives in the past, there will also be buttons that reopen recently-opened files.
The same features can be accessed with the File > Open, File > New Disk Image, File > New File Archive, and File > Recent Files menu items.
You can also open an archive by dragging it from Windows Explorer and dropping it on this window.
It's possible to bypass the opening screen entirely. You can do this by dragging and dropping a file onto the CiderPress II application icon, or by double-clicking on a file when CiderPress II is configured as the default application for that file extension. To configure the default application in Windows:
- Right click on a file of the appropriate type, and select Open with and the Choose another app option.
- In the window that pops up, select CiderPress2 as the application, and check the "always use this app to open files" box.
In all cases, the contents of the file are analyzed to see if they can be recognized as a supported archive type. If the filename has a known extension, such as ".zip", the file will be rejected if the contents don't match.
Archives can be scanned automatically to see if they contain other archives. The setting of the "Auto-Open Depth" option will determine if and how deeply this process is performed. At its maximum setting, all archive contents will be scanned recursively, which can take a few seconds on large collections.
Getting Around
When an archive is open, the main area of the window is divided into four regions:
- Top left: archive contents.
- Bottom left: directory hierarchy.
- Center: file list or archive info.
- Right: add/extract/import/export settings.
Archive Contents
The top-left window shows a hierarchical view of the contents of the disk image or file archive. For a simple file archive this will only have one entry, while a disk image will usually have two: one for the disk image file, and one for the filesystem.
Left-clicking on an entry switches the focus to that entity. This will cause the contents of the other windows to be updated appropriately.
There are five kinds of entries:
- File archive. ZIP, ShrinkIt, etc. These are simple linear lists of files, and so do not have a directory structure.
- Disk image. DiskCopy, 2IMG, WOZ, etc. This represents the image file itself, which may have editable metadata or comment fields.
- Multi-partition layout. APM, UniDOS, etc. This is for disk images that hold multiple partitions.
- Partition. One partition in a multi-partition layout.
- Filesystem. DOS, ProDOS, HFS, etc. This is the contents of a disk image or partition, where the files are found. If the filesytem is hierarchical, the Directory Hierarchy window will be populated with a directory tree.
Right-clicking on an entry will bring up a menu of actions. Inappropriate actions will be dimmed, e.g. you can't sector-edit a file archive.
Some disks have custom filesystems that can't be recognized. So long as the disk image format appears to be correct, the archive will be opened, but it won't have a filesystem entry in the archive tree.
If you open a disk image or file archive inside the current archive, it will be added to the tree.
Directory Hierarchy
For most archives, the directory hierarchy tree will have a single place-holder entry. For ProDOS and HFS filesystems, it will have a directory tree instead. The top entry represents the volume directory, and will show the volume name.
Left-clicking on an entry will select that directory. The file list will be updated appropriately.
Right-clicking on an entry will bring up a menu of actions. Inappropriate actions will be dimmed.
File List / Info
The contents of the center window change depending on what is selected in the Archive Contents tree.
- Disk images and partitions: geometry statistics, disk editing buttons, and optional metadata.
- Multi-partition layout: partition list.
- File archives and filesystems: a list of files.
For disk images and partitions, a few basic statistics about disk size and archive file layout are displayed, as well as some buttons that provide quick access to sector editing and other whole-disk actions. If the format has metadata fields (e.g. WOZ, 2IMG, DiskCopy 4.2), the names and values will be shown in a table. If the field's name isn't grayed out, you can double-click on the entry to change its value. Any restrictions on the contents of the field will be shown in the edit window.
For multi-partition layouts, you will see a list of the partitions and their attributes. Double-clicking on an entry will jump to that partition. If it has a filesystem, the filesystem will be selected.
For filesystems and file archives, a list of the files found is shown. The list is divided into several columns, which will be shown or hidden depending on what is being displayed:
- Status icon - this will be blank for most entries. If the entry has a comment, a "speech bubble" icon will be shown. If the file scanner found some problems with the file, it will be marked "dubious" with a yellow triangle, indicating that it cannot be modified. If the file is too damaged to be read, it will be marked with a red symbol.
- Pathname or Filename - file archives always show Pathname, non-hierarchical filesystems always show Filename. Hierarchical filesytems will show one or the other depending on the display mode (see below).
- Type - ProDOS or HFS file type. The most appropriate type is shown, based on the archive type and the file characteristics.
- Auxtype - ProDOS auxiliary type or HFS creator.
- Mod Date - date when file was last modified. Shown in local time.
- Data Len - length of the data fork.
- Raw Len - "raw" length of the data fork. Only shown for DOS 3.2/3.3 filesystems.
- Data Format - format of data fork storage, i.e. how it is compressed. Only shown for file archives.
- Rsrc Len - length of the resource fork. Only shown for archives that support forked files.
- Rsrc Format - format of resource fork storage, i.e. how it is compressed. Only shown for file archives that support forked files.
- Total Size - combined length of the data and resource forks. For entries in a filesystem, this is the amount of storage used, including any OS overhead. For entries in a a file archive, this is the sum of the compressed lengths, but does not include archive headers. The units used vary, e.g. DOS 3.3 is reported in 256-byte sectors, while ProDOS is reported in 512-byte blocks.
- Access - ProDOS-style access-enabled flags: Delete, reName, Write, Read, Backup, Invisible.
For file archives and filesystems, the file list display mode can be changed with buttons in the toolbar or items in the View menu. There are three possible modes:
- Full-file: show all files in the archive, with full pathnames.
- Single-directory: show only the filenames of the files in a single directory.
- Archive info: replaces the file list with a set of information about the filesystem. If you see a warning or error icon next to the filesystem entry in the archive tree, this screen will provide details about what was found.
Switching between full-file and single-directory allows you to see the entire contents of a hierarchical filesystem all at once, or focus in on a single directory. File archives are always full-file, and non-hierarchical filesystems are always single-directory.
Columns may be resized by clicking and dragging on the separators in the column headers. The column widths are saved in the application settings file.
The entries in the file list can be sorted by clicking on the column header. Click again to reverse the direction of the sort. To return to the original order, i.e. the order in which the files are stored in the archive, use the Reset Sort button in the toolbar.
Double-clicking on a directory entry in the file list will update the Directory tree to have that entry selected.
Double-clicking on a non-directory entry in the file list will usually open the entry in the file viewer. If the entry looks like a file archive or disk image, an attempt will first be made to open it as such. If the attempt succeeds, it will be added to the Archive Contents tree and opened for viewing. If you accidentally open a disk image or file archive without intending to do so, you can close it by right-clicking on the entry in the Archive Contents tree and selecting Close File Source.
Right-clicking on an entry brings up a menu of actions.
Add/Extract/Import/Export Settings
The rightmost window contains a set of options used when adding, extracting, importing, or exporting files. These are explained in detail in a later section of the manual.
The window can be hidden with the Show/Hide Settings button.
Additional Navigation
The Navigate menu items allow you to navigate upward in the tree. Selecting the Go To Parent Directory item will change the Directory tree selection to be one entry higher, stopping when it reaches the volume directory. The Go To Parent item performs the same action, but will continue the upward movement in the Archive Contents tree if the Directory tree is at the top.
The toolbar button with the up-arrow icon performs the Go To Parent action.
Windows Notes
It's possible to explore some ".iso" files with Windows Explorer. Such files may be opened (read-only) by the system process (pid 4) and presented as a drive letter, which means they can be opened as read-only by other processes but can't be opened read-write. This can be verified with Process Explorer (notes): run as administrator, then Find > Find Handle or DLL, and enter a unique part of the filename.
Ejecting the virtual CD/DVD will remove the restrictions on the file.