ISO 9660 is the basic data structure for many types of CDs. Therefore, the ISO 9660 editor is used not only for pure Joliet and ISO 9660 data CDs, but also Mixed Mode CDs, CD-Extra, Hybrid CDs and Video CDs. These other CD types usually have one track or partition with an ISO 9660 file system.

The ISO 9660 editor always allows for the option to create a Joliet file system. At the start of WinOnCD you will see the Project selection dialog. Double clicking on the ISO 9660/Joliet icon (which is always in the ”Favorites” and in the ”Data” group) creates a new data CD project. In the ”Data” group you can also select ”Append Session”, which will automatically import data from a previously written CD.

After selecting a project WinOnCD will open with its main window which is divided into the upper source window and the lower destination window.

On the left side of the destination window of the ISO 9660/Joliet project, four buttons are shown:

In the editor view of the ISO 9660/Joliet project, the destination window has two sections. The left section shows a tree of the directories and files to be included on the new CD project. You can simply drag items to here from the source window to layout the CD.

The right-hand section shows individual files from one folder. These are listed with detailed information, such as size, modification date and the ISO and Joliet names.

You can modify the content of the ISO 9660 CD by dragging items into the destination window, or moving around the items in the window. To modify the properties of files or directories to be written, a context menu can be used by opening with a right mouse click.

The tree view will show how the finished CD looks, and you can edit the tree irrespective of the source. Thus, for example, deleting a file in the tree view will not delete the original file.

Selecting an item in the destination window and pressing the right mouse button opens the corresponding context menu. It contains the following commands:

The context menu for files (right-hand section) does not contain the New directory and Filter commands, but contains an additional Autorun submenu.

Creates a new directory in the ISO 9660 tree. The new directory can be used like any other directory in the destination window. The newly created directory will be burned to the CD, but will not be created on the harddisk.

Choose this item to change the ISO 9660 or Joliet name of the item.

With the Edit Properties dialog, you can edit the file or directory properties applying to either the ISO 9660 or the Joliet file system or completely exclude a file from either file system.

On the "common" page, a file or directory can be excluded from either the ISO 9660 or the Joliet image. If the selected item is a directory, filters (as explained in the chapter "Filters") can also be set here.

Filenames and modification dates can be set independently for the ISO and the Joliet partition of the CD.

How the "Hidden" attribute is handled depends strictly on the read-back software. Using the Windows Explorer or the DIR command, hidden files on an ISO 9660/Joliet CD are shown if selected as such in the options.

The last property page contains options for file placement. A dedicated sections explains ISO 9660 file placement, and how to use it with WinOnCD.

This command applies filters to, or removes filters from, a tree branch.

Local filters are valid only for the directory they are applied to and do not apply to the subdirectories of that directory.

Global filters are valid for the directory selected and all its subdirectories.

Filters are used to include and/or exclude files with certain attributes, date settings and wildcard patterns. Filters are saved with the project and therefore their settings are taken into account whenever the project is processed.

Using Filter... opens up a dialog box for specification of the filter conditions:

The following types of filters can be set:

Deletes the currently selected item(s) in the tree window. The original source item(s) will not be deleted.

Provides the standard functionality for items in the ISO/Joliet destination window.

This submenu contains two commands: Set as Autoplay… and Set as Icon… . These commands select an executable (*.exe) to be automatically run , or an icon contained in an executable (*.exe), dynamic library (*.dll) or icon (*.ico) file to be displayed as the CDs icon by a Windows 9X/NT system when the CD is inserted. They automatically open the Autorun settings in the Properties… dialog:

This page allows to generate or edit an Autorun file, which is used by Windows 9X/NT systems to automatically run a file when the CD is mounted, and to display a custom icon for the CD.

The easiest way to specify autorun settings is to use the context menu in the destination window, which are a shortcut to the ”Review Autorun Settings…” dialog:

Here the file to be started when the CD is mounted can be specified, relative to its position on the CD. If the context menu command Set AutoPlay… is used, the file name is automatically entered here. Additional parameters can be specified in the appropriate box.

The icon specified on this page will be used as the custom icon for the CD. Any ”*.exe”, ”*.dll” or ”*.ico” file can be used. By default, the icon at index 0 will be used. If the Set as Icon… command from the destination window context menu is used, the file is automatically entered here.

For expert users, the Autorun.inf file can be reviewed and edited here.

The ISO 9660 Destination window contains a Button Bar, whose commands are also available from the "ISO 9660" menu in the main menu bar. If it is not visible, select Viewð CD-Rom Editor Toolbar. It contains the following commands:

In the dialog brought up by this button, properties which affect the whole CD rather than single files can be edited.

The pages for the ISO 9660 (Primary Volume Descriptor, PVD) and Joliet Volume Descriptors (Secondary Volume Descriptor, SVD) look identical and serve identical purposes. The Joliet volume descriptor can be edited independently, and can use long filenames.

The data in the Volume Descriptors is purely informational, and can be left out.

The volume descriptors are special sections on ISO 9660- and Joliet file system CDs which contain pointers to the root directory of the CD. More importantly for the author of the CD, however, they contain content, copyright, and publishing information that the author can specify. The ISO 9660 fields are contained in the Primary Volume Descriptor, while the Joliet fields are contained in the Secondary Volume Descriptor.

The Volume Descriptor information, with the exception of the volume ID, which most computer systems display as the name of the CD, cannot easily be made visible.

However, the Volume Descriptor information can be seen by reading certain blocks of the CD, i.e. block 16 for the PVD. It should be filled out in accordance with ISO 9660 and Joliet standard for subsequent identification of the CD.

The ISO 9660 fields have to be filled out using the characters "A" through "Z", "0" through "9", and "_" only (for more information see description of the ISO 9660 standard). The Joliet fields can contain long (Unicode) filenames.

Here is a description of the fields:

The volume identifier should state the name of the volume, a volume being a single CD or a set of related CDs. On most computer systems this field is displayed as the name of the CD.

This field is 32 (Joliet: 16) characters long.

The system identifier should specify an identification of the system able to deal with the first 16 blocks of the CD. These first 16 blocks can contain special system-specific information.

This field is 32 (Joliet: 16) characters long.

The volume set identifier field is used on sets consisting of multiple CDs. If you are making a CD set you may wish to define the order of the CDs by giving each CD in the set one volume set ID according to its position in the set.

This field is 128 (Joliet: 64) characters long.

The application identifier field contains information about the application used to work on the data on the CD. For a Bridge Disc, for example, this field has to represent the complete pathname of the CD-i Application program.

CeQuadrat’s WinOnCD will automatically override this field with correct information if necessary for the CD type to be written.

This field is 128 (Joliet: 64) characters long.

The copyright field contains the copyright statement for this CD. Although this information is not visible on most computer systems it can be made visible by specifically reading block 16 of the CD. You should fill out this field to identify the CD.

This field is 37 (Joliet: 18) characters long.

The information in this field can be stored in two different ways:

1. The field contains the information itself. The length of the field must not exceed the maximum length as described above.

2. The field contains the name of a file in the root directory of the CD and the information is stored in this file.

The publisher identifier field contains information about the publisher, i.e. your company.

This field is 128 (Joliet: 64) characters long.

The information in this field can be stored in two different ways, exactly as in the Copyright field.

The abstract description field contains information on the current volume of this volume set.

This field is 37 (Joliet: 18) characters long.

The information in this field can be stored in two different ways, exactly as in the Copyright field.

The bibliographic file identifier field contains information about the bibliography of the CD. This information is stored in a format that the publisher and the recipient of this CD have agreed on.

This field is 37 (Joliet: 18) characters long.

The information in this field can be stored in two different ways, exactly as in the Copyright field.

Activating this button will make an exact copy all entries of the ISO 9660 VD to the Joliet VD.

This page allows the override of certain rules of the ISO 9660 standard.

The character set for ISO names can be strictly ISO, MS-DOS legal, or unrestricted. Unless ”Allow long names for NT” is chosen, filenames are limited to a length of "8+3" characters.

Usually, only eight nested directories on an ISO 9660 CD are allowed. This restriction can be disabled to allow any depth of nested directories.

Although it is usually safe to use MS-DOS legal characters in ISO names, any deviation from the ISO 9660 standard might cause problems when reading the CD. These options must be used with caution.

These options can only be set or changed while the ISO file system is empty.

The options on this page control how WinOnCD handles multisession writing.

Multisession recording is described in detail later in this manual.

When creating a multisession CD, choosing this menu item will read the CD currently in the CD Recorder and import its contents into the destination tree. You can edit, re-arrange and delete the imported items just like any other items from the source window.

These files will re-appear on the CD after writing, but are only written once.

Files which are imported from previous session(s) on the CD are marked in the ISO editor with a special icon.

Multisession recording is explained in detail later in this manual.

This command tests the CD for errors relating to naming conventions and directory depth.

This command will check the data written to a CD by comparing it to the source.

The following options can be set:

Specifies the drive letter of the CD-ROM or recorder that the CD-R is in.

Please insert here where the log file holding the information about the verification process is to be saved.

This command will toggle between the standard file system view and a placement list of the files which are to be written to CD.

File placement, and how to use it with WinOnCD, is explained in the dedicated "Placement" section.

These two commands are only available in the placement list and assign placements to files and directories.

A click on this button moves the selected object to the start and the end of the session respectively.

The ability to do multisession writing is an important feature of ISO-9660. While CD-Recordables are write-once media, the multisession technique allows data to be written to the CD several times, in multiple "sessions".

Files can not physically be deleted from a CD-R and space which has been used up can never be recovered, but files can be added and the directory structure can be altered. The later feature is useful to move files to a different subdirectory, or to hide ("delete") them.

In order to use the multisession feature, a multisession capable recorder is needed to write the disk, and a multisession capable CD-ROM drive is needed to access a CD-R so written.

Besides simply adding data to a CD-R, WinOnCD can also keep track of files and file changes, (i.e. if desired, files will only be written to the CD if they have actually changed.)

Creating a multisession CD is simple: The first session of a multisession CD is created in the same way as any other ISO 9660 CD with the ISO Editor. The write option "Multisession" must be set.

When data is to be added at some later time, open a new project again. Choose "Append Session (ISO 9660/Joliet)". A dialogue box opens where the earlier sessions are displayed. Usually the last session will now be checked and imported.

Previously recorded session(s) can also be imported by choosing the "Import Session" command from the ISO Editor menu or the toolbar.

In the dialog box that appears, any previous session can be selected. By doing this, you can "revert" CDs to a prior status or "Undo" a recording session.

All files and folders on the CD will now be listed in the destination window and can be modified like all other files.

When recording multisession CDs, it is important to make sure the correct options are set. To access these options, choose "ISO" from the toolbar of the ISO Editor and click the "Multisession" tab.

With this option set, files will only be written to the CD if they are newer (date of modification) than the file on CD. This saves CD space, as only the reference to the file in the old session will be written to the new session.

This option will append a version number to the old file (e.g. "Test.txt;2"). However, under Windows the old files will be visible, but not accessible, as Windows does not honor version numbers.

On other systems (e.g. MacOS), files will be listed with their version number and all versions of a file can be accessed.

CeQuadrat does not recommend using this option for Windows/MS-DOS CD-Rs

This makes sure that only actually new files (new file name) are written to the CD. Old versions of files will not be replaced, and will still be accessible.

This option opens a dialog box for each new file with the same name as a previously recorded file.

After importing old files, new files can be added to the destination as mentioned before. It is important to have the correct option for replacing old files set before doing so, as replacement will be determined when the files are dragged into the destination window.

If existing folders are dragged into the destination window, files contained therein will be checked individually.

In the following example, the complete original structure has been dragged into the destination tree.

Note that imported files have a different icon than the other files. The origin are listed as "Previous Session". This means, only the reference to this file will be kept. New or changed files will actually be written to CD.

All files in the "Subdir" folder have been checked as well and will be handled in the same manner.

Remember that imported files can be handled like all other files, and can even be renamed.

To erase a CD-RW, please choose ”Disc-Info” from the “Recorder” menu. Then select the ”Erase” page offering different erasing functions depending on the type and model of CD recorder you are working with:

Especially the later two commands are currently supported only by a limited number of CD-RW Recorders.

WinOnCD offers a very simple way to assign physical placement on the CD-R. This allows the most often used files to be placed where they can be accessed most quickly.

On the Placement page of the properties dialog, a placement level can be assigned from a pop-up menu. By default, all files have Normal priority.

To add or delete priority levels, press the "Manage Priority Levels..." button. Files and directories in levels with high values are placed closer to the center.

By placing files that are accessed very often close to the center of the CD where the Path Tables are located, you can speed up access time. Especially when access is mostly limited to these files, the read-head of the CD-ROM only has to travel a very short distance to read them.

Generally, you should only override the default file placement when you are sure about how you (or the users of the CD) will benefit from this non-standard placement. Also, remember that you should only assign placement for a few files. It is not appropriate or necessary to place every single file to a new position.