A windows save dialogue box
You should consult this manual for information about the use of RISC OS. However there are a couple of problems that users of Windows often face.
To use a menu under Windows the window you want to open the menu from has to be at the front of the window stack. On RISC OS you can open any menu for any window that is visible on screen, even if part of that window is covered by something else. This is a very flexible way of handling menus. It does take a little time to get used to but after a while it will become second nature.
RISC OS is quite different. When you go to save a file (normally by pressing the MENU button on the mouse and going to the save option on the menu) a small dialogue box will open with a file icon and a file name.
As you can see there seems to be no way of saving the file where we want. However RISC OS supports a far better "drag and drop" system than Windows. All you need to do is open the folder window where you want to save the file first, and just drag the file icon into that folder.
Of course you can alter the name of the file before you save it, note that HostFS supports long file names the same as Windows.
Once you have saved a file from an application once the application will remember where the file is. In future you can simply click on the OK button in the save file dialogue box. You will see that once a file has been saved its entire path name (for example HostFS::HardDisc4.$.Work.Textfile will appear in the text icon at the bottom of the save dialogue box.
A quick tip. If you want to know if you have made any changes to a file since it was last saved look for a * (star) symbol in the title bar of the application. If a * is present the file has been changed since it was last saved.
RISC OS does not behave in quite the same way as Windows when it comes to copying and moving files. If you drag a file from one folder to another under Windows then the file is Moved. If you do the same under RISC OS then the file is Copied so you end up with two files the same. To Move a file from one folder to another under RISC OS you need to hold down the SHIFT key while dragging the file. This will shift the file concerned from one place to another.
Note that the VirtualAcorn floppy driver is intended for internal IDE floppy drives only, not for external drives. Installing this driver on a machine with an external floppy drive may prevent the drive from functioning until the driver is removed.
Once you have installed the driver (which will not effect Windows using the floppy drive) all you need to do is load VirtualRPC-SA, put your Acorn format disc in the PCs internal floppy disc drive and click on the RISC OS floppy icon called ADFS::0. The disc will be read in exactly the same way it would on a "real" machine. You can read and write to the disc in the normal RISC OS way by dragging and dropping. The disc will also be readable in a "real" machine.
The only problem you might discover is that some RISC OS software is supplied on 1600K discs, formatted to 800K. VirtualRPC-SA will not be able to read these unless the extra hole on the bottom right of the floppy disc is covered with a piece of tape. The reason for this is that PC floppy drives have a switch which is activated by this hole. If the disc has a 2nd hole bottom right then the PC drive will assume the disc is High Density (1600K) regardless of the actual format on the disc. If you have a disc with two holes and VirtualRPC-SA will not read it then try the above method.
When installing applications into VirtualRPC-SA you should always read the licence conditions supplied with the application concerned. For example the licence may only cover the applications use on one machine. If this is the case then you will need to un-install the application concerned from your "real" Acorn computer before installing it into VirtualRPC-SA.
VRPC manual - draft number 150.001 10th May 2006