A jump menu is a special menu that appears on the Terminal window when these conditions are true:
· Your current Emulation is BORIS Maestro, BORIS Master, Moore Compass, or WPML
· A jump file exists in your PC Access executable directory, with the file name corresponding to your current emulation (e.g., MAESTRO.JMP, MASTER.JMP, COMPASS.JMP, or WPML.JMP, respectively).
The jump file tells PC Access what menu items to display on the Terminal window jump menu for the corresponding Emulation. Normally these will be commands for your MLS, or commands to open a Windows help file to specific topics.
Jump File Syntax: Editing a jump file is a job for advanced users only. No support is available for end-users who want to edit their own jump files. If you work for an MLS provider, you may wish to create a custom jump file to distribute to your MLS members. Begin by backing up your standard PC Access jump file. Then you may open the jump file in any text editor such as Windows Notepad. The jump file contains a text description of menu items, the text that should appear on each menu item, and what PC Access should do (if anything) when the user selects a menu item. The structure of items on the jump menu corresponds directly to the order in which the corresponding menu item lines appear in the jump file.
Each line in the jump file is one of the following kinds:
· Main Menu key sequence: if the character in the first column is a +, everything to the right of the + character to the end of the line specifies the Main Menu key sequence. The text to the right of the + follows the same rules as a send text line, except that it must not contain a ^m. Normally the Main Menu key sequence is whatever text you must send to your MLS to break out of the current command and return to your MLS Main Menu screen. You can refer to this Main Menu key sequence in following send text lines via the ^m code. Normally the main menu key sequence line, if it exists, is before all other non-comment lines in the jump file. The next line will usually be the menu bar name line.
· Menu item line: a menu item line consists of plain text or one of the special characters (&, >, -, -*) followed by plain text. The plain text appears on the jump menu as the visible menu item. Menu item lines are of two basic types: those that require a following send text line, and those that do not.
¨ & Menu bar name: if the first character on a line is the ampersand (&), the line defines the item that will appear on the menu bar of the Terminal window for the jump item. Normally the menu bar name will be the first menu item line in the jump file. In all the standard PC Access jump files, the menu bar name corresponds to your Emulation, e.g., the menu bar name will be &Maestro, &Master, &Compass, or &WPML. The first character to the right of the ampersand will become the menu bar hot key character. If the user holds down the Alt key while the Terminal window is open and presses the hot key, the jump menu will drop down. Note: to avoid conflict with existing Terminal window menu bar item hot keys, the letter immediately to the right of the leading ampersand in the menu bar name should not be any of these letters: F, E, T, P, S, V, A, U, or H. After the menu bar name, normally the next line should either be a drop-down menu item, a cascade menu item, or a separator line.
¨ Drop-down menu item: if the first character on a line is not any special character (i.e., any character other than ampersand (&), greater-than (>), asterisk (*), hyphen (-), semi-colon (;), or caret(^)), and the previous line is not a drop-down menu item nor a sub-menu item, then all the text on that line appears as an item on the drop down menu. Each drop-down menu item should have a send text line after it.
¨ > Cascade menu: if the first character on a line is a greater-than sign (>), the line specifies a cascade menu item. The text to the right of the greater-then sign will appear as an item on the drop-down jump menu. Selecting this item will open a sub-menu. The following lines in the jump file should contain at least one sub-menu item/send text line pair to define the cascade menu. The next drop-down menu item line, cascade menu item line, or separator line indicates the end of this cascade menu. You can specify only one level of menu cascading.
¨ * Sub-menu item: if the first character on a line is an asterisk, the text to the right of the line appears as an item on a sub-menu below the current cascade menu item. Each sub-menu item should have a send text line after it.
¨ - Separator line: if the first character on a line is a hyphen, the line becomes a separator line on the drop-down menu. PC Access ignores anything you type to the right of the leading hyphen, so you may type any number of hyphens on a separator line. This is useful for making your jump file more readable, but it does not affect the appearance of your jump menu. After a separator line, the next line should be a either a drop-down menu item or a cascade menu item.
¨ *- Sub-menu separator line: if a line begins with an asterisk followed immediately by a hyphen, the line becomes a separator line on the current sub-menu. PC Access ignores the rest of the line as with a separator line. After a sub-menu separator line, the next line should be either a sub-menu item, a drop-down menu item, or a separator item.
· Send text line: some menu item lines specify menu items that may trigger an tell PC Access to send text to the MLS. That is, when the user selects the jump menu item corresponding to the previous line in the jump file, PC Access will send the contents of the send text line to the MLS exactly as if the user had typed it on the keyboard during the current online session. (Send text lines follow the same syntax rules as the Send Text on Speed Buttons.) A send text line should appear only after a drop-down menu item or a sub-menu item. If a send text line follows a drop-down menu item line, the next line can be either another drop-down menu item, a separator, or a cascade menu item line. If a send text line follows a sub-menu item line, the next line can be either another sub-menu item line, a sub-menu separator, a drop-down menu item, a cascade menu item, or a separator line. Send text lines may contain the following special codes in any position or combination:
¨ ^f1, ^f2, ..., ^f10 Function keys: you may specify a function key by the sequence ^f followed by the number of the function key.
¨ ^m Send main menu key sequence: use this to tell PC Access to send the sequence of keys to the host that you specified on the main menu key sequence line. If you did not specify a main menu key sequence line, the ^m command has no effect.
¨ ^s=file.scr Play script file: this works exactly the same way as the corresponding command for a Speed Button.
¨ ^h(file) Open a Windows help file to its contents page. You do not need to specify the .HLP help file name extension.
¨ ^h(file,id) Open a Windows help file to the help topic with a particular topic id number. You do not need to specify the .HLP help file name extension.