User's Manual

User's Manual

Document Press

Version 1.00 Beta 1

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Contents

Introduction

Document Press is a freeware program for compressing compound files. It can compress Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint documents and big number of other files. Document Press reduces file size by removing dead space. THERE IS NO ANY DATA LOSS. After compression you can use these files without any decompression.

Document Press is a console 32-bit executable for Windows 95, 98 and NT.

What is Compound file?

Compound file is a number of individual files bound together in one physical file. The most Microsoft programs write data to compound files. The examples of programs that write data to compound files:

Word
Excel
Access
PowerPoint

How does it work?

Compound files provide incremental saves inherently, so the physical size of a compound file on disk will typically be larger than necessary. This is because the size of the file is determined by the amount of space between the first and last sectors used by that file. Document Press reorganizes file content and removes all the dead space.

Command line syntax:

Contents | Switches

docpress [<switch>...] [<arguments>...]

<arguments> ::= <switch> | <wildcard> | <filename> | <list_file>

<switch>::= {'/'|'-'}<switch_characters>[<option>]

<list_file> ::= '@'<filename>

Expressions in square brackets (between '[' and ']') are optional.

Expressions in curly braces (between '{' and '}') are required.

Expression

expression1 | expression2 | ... | expressionN

means that any (but only one) from these expressions must be specified.

Switches can be entered in upper or lower case.

The switches and other filenames can be in any order.

Wildcards or filenames with spaces must be quoted:

"Program files\*"

"Program files"\*

Switch options can be combined to save command line length. However, some switch options take optional string arguments and therefore, must be the last option in a combined argument token string because Document Press accepts the rest of the argument token as the optional argument.

Document Press uses wild name matching similar to Windows 95:

'*' means a sequence of arbitrary characters.

'?' means any character.

Examples:

"*.txt"	means all files with an extension of ".txt"
"?a*"	means all files with a second character of "a"
"1"	means all names that contains character "1"
"..*"	means all names that contain two "." characters

The default wildcard "*" will be used if there is no filename/wildcard in command line.

Restrictions for wildcards and filenames:

Wildcards and filenames can't contain disk name or network name. Every wildcard/filename path is treated as path from current directory on disk and as path from root directory in archive. In other words, the first part of path (letters before first slash ('\') symbol) always must be name or wildcard.

Wildcards and filenames can't be ended by slash ('\') symbol

Wildcards can contain wildcard characters ('*' and '?') only in last part of path.

Examples:

Dir1\*.doc	OK
c:\Dir1\*.doc	ILLEGAL: path contains disk name
Dir1\Dir2\g?.txt	OK
Dir1\D?r2\file1.txt	ILLEGAL: there is a wildcard char in non last part

These restrictions do not act to filenames and directory names used not as archiving files.

List file

You can supply one or more filenames or wildcards for special list files (files containing lists of files). The filenames in such list file must be separated by space, tab or new line symbol(s). Wildcards or filenames with spaces must be quoted.

Multiple list files are supported.

For example, if contents of file "listfile.txt" is the following:

"My programs\*.doc"

Doc\*.doc

then command

docpress @listfile.txt

compresses files from directories "My programs" and "Doc"

Switches:

Contents | Command line syntax

ID	Description
-i	Include filenames
-r	Recurse subdirectories
-t	esTimate compression ratio
-w	Assign Work directory
-x	Exclude filenames

-i: Include filenames

Contents | Command line syntax | Switches

Format:

-i [r [- | 0] ] {@ listfile | ! wildcard}

This switch specifies additional include filenames and wildcards.

r [- \| 0]	Specifies how wildcards and file names specified in this switch must be used. If this option is not assigned then global value, assigned by -r switch will be used. For more details see specification of -r switch
@listfile	Specifies name of list file. See List file description
!wildcard	Specifies wildcard or filename

Multiple include switches are supported.

Example:

docpress *.doc -ir!DIR1\*.xls

compresses all "*.doc" files from current directory and all "*.xls" files from directory "DIR1" and from all it's subdirectories.

See also: -r, -x

-r: Recurse subdirectories

Contents | Command line syntax | Switches

Format:

-r [- | 0]

This switch specifies method of treating wildcards and filenames assigned in command line.

-r	Enable recurse subdirectories.
-r-	Disable recurse subdirectories. This option is default.
-r0	Enable recurse subdirectories only for wildcard names.

Examples:

docpress -r src\*.doc src\*.xls

compresses all "*.doc" and "*.xls" files from directory "src" and all it's subdirectories.

See also: -i, -x

-t: esTimate compression ratio

Contents | Command line syntax | Switches

Format:

-t

This switch specifies estimate mode for compression. In this mode DocPress attempts to estimate possible compression ratio.

Example:

docpress -t *.doc

estimates compression ratio for "*.doc" files.

-w: assign Work directory

Contents | Command line syntax | Switches

Format:

-w [<path>]

This switch specifies working directory for temporary files. By default, DocPress builds a temporary file in the same directory as the document file. By specifying the "-w" switch, you can assign the working directory where the temporary file will be built. After the temporary file is built, it is copied over the original document and deleted. If <path> is not assigned, then DocPress will use Windows temporary directory.

Example:

DocPress *.doc -wc:\temp

-x: Exclude filenames

Contents | Command line syntax | Switches

Format:

-x [r [- | 0] ] {@ listfile | ! wildcard}

This switch specifies what filenames or (and) wildcards must be excluded from operation.

For full option description of this switch see -i Include switch description.

-i[r[-|0]]@listfile|!wildcard

Multiple exclude switches are supported.

Example:

docpress * -x!*.doc