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P R I V A T E S E C R E T A R Y
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Celebrate! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Congratulations! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Private Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
YOU CANNOT BUY THIS SOFTWARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Limitation of Liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Term and Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Severability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Applicable Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
* Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Main Menu - Using a Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Configuration Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Configuration Menu - Using a Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Configuration Menu - Using the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
(1) Com Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
(2) Answering Machine Answers on # Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
(3) Log Answering Machine Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
(4) Log All Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
(5) Name of Log File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
(6) Log File : Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
(7) FG Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
(8) BG Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
(9) Forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
(A) Forwarding Schedule/Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
(B) Notify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
(C) Notify Schedule/Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
(D) Answer, Beep, Hangup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
(E) Answer, Beep, Hangup Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
(F) Ring Cadence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
(G) LL Ring Config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
(H) SS Ring Config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
(I) SL Ring Config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
(J) Find Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
(K) Extra Modem Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
(M) Wake Up Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
(N) Wake Up Call Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
(O) Abort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
(P) Abort Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
(Q) Delay Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
(R) Private Forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
(S) Fallback To (Cadence) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
(T) Max[imum] Notify Attempts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
(V) Min[imum] Notify Attempts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
(0) Save & Exit Configure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
(Z) Exit Configure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
[ ] General Configuration Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Schedule Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Ring Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
* Monitor Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Status Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Wake Up Status Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Forwarding Status Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Private Forwarding Status Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Notify Status Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Answer, Beep, Hangup Status Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Configuration Abort Status Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Abort Status Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Manually Switching OFF Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Forwarding vs. Private Forwarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Wake Up, "Come on User, Wake My Day" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Notify, "Notify Me" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Answer, Beep, Hangup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Abort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
* Command Line Only Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Go To Monitor Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Ring Switch Abort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Automatic Abort on Ring ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Your Answering Machine, A Foundation Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Private Secretary and Fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
PC Host Software Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Personalized Ring Services [Optional] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Personalized Ring Services, You, and Electronic Equipment . . . . . . . . . 30
Faxing US with problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Copyrights, Trademarks, Service Marks, Etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
WAIT4COM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
BATch File Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Private Secretary Boot Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Running in the Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Association of Shareware Professionals - Ombudsman Statement . . . . . . . 40
P R I V A T E S E C R E T A R Y
Copyright 1992-1993 by Unique Software
Manual Version 1.02
Manual Copyright 1993 by Unique Software
Your modem will never be the same...again.
Celebrate!
A celebration is in order for us, Unique Software, for just beginning our
fourteenth year in creating unique software for you the public. Almost as
remarkably it is also our fourteenth year in shareware; though, when we began,
the term shareware was unknown to us.
But the biggest celebration and congratulations are in order for you.
Your support of shareware by registering great products as this, maintains
this alternate method of distribution and marketing. After all shareware is
not really a type of software, instead it is a marketing method many software
developers use.
Congratulations!
You have chosen NOT to pay for mediocre software-in-a-
box, fancy boxes, fancy ads and shiny-shoed salespeople, etc. You have chosen
quality software at a reasonable price with the ultimate guarantee. If it
doesn't work for you; if it doesn't fulfill your needs; or if you just don't
like it, you just erase it (or pass it along to a friend who might like to try
it). That's why shareware is called "Try it before you buy it software" and
software-in-a-box is "Buy it before you try it software."
Private Secretary
Years ago we began with an idea of using a modem as a simple switch with
an initial release of "FAX CONTROL." Soon suggestions and ideas evolved "FAX
CONTROL" into the much more powerful program "TOTAL CONTROL." We soon
realized that your modem can be a productivity tool with the right software
and that "TOTAL CONTROL" just scratched the surface of usefulness. Private
Secretary is the next generation in modem productivity software. Your modem
will never be the same . . . again.
Page 1
YOU CANNOT BUY THIS SOFTWARE
Consider that when you "buy" a movie, you never really buy the movie; you
just purchase a license to watch it whenever you want. The movie studio still
owns the movie. Software is just like a movie in that respect. You never
really buy a piece of software, you purchase the right to use it whenever you
want. Consider too that when you walk into that mall store and "buy" a piece
of software for $39.95; you didn't buy just the license to use the software.
You bought a duplication company to make thousands of disks to stuff into the
boxes; you bought a publication company to write the manual; you bought a
printing company to print the manual; you bought a design company to design
the fancy graphics that go on the box; you bought a packaging company to
package everything together for sale; you bought a distribution company to
distribute the boxed software to retail outlets; you bought an advertising
company to create ads for magazines; you bought part of that very expensive
full-page ad in that computer magazine; you paid for part of the rent for that
mall store; you even paid for part of the wages for that nice salesperson who
took your money for the software-in-a-box.
Is it any wonder why that average piece of software-in-a-box costs forty
bucks? There was a study done years ago on a famous piece of database
software sold by the software-in-a-box method. It was surprising (to them) to
find out that their product that retailed for $499.95 had about $75 worth of
development costs. So the people who bought the database-in-a-box spent $425
for marketing, distribution, advertising, etc.
Consider too the unfortunate people who spent $500 and found out the
software-in-a-box wouldn't fulfill their needs. Most of that software-in-a-
box is sold with a money-back guarantee, IF you don't open the little sealed
package containing the disks. In other words, if you try it - YOU BOUGHT IT.
Fortunately some software-in-a-box stores allow returns anyway, but still they
will not refund your money. They'll just give you a credit against buying
stuff in their store. Neither one is really a guarantee. Well, a guarantee
you lost your money, if the software-in-a-box doesn't work for you.
That is the long explanation why you are to be congratulated. You have
chosen NOT to pay for mediocre software-in-a-box, fancy boxes, shiny-shoed
salespeople, etc. You have chosen (often) better quality software at a
reasonable price with the ultimate guarantee. If it doesn't work for you; if
it doesn't fulfill your needs; or if you just don't like it, you just erase it
(or pass it along to a friend who might like to try it). That's why shareware
is called "Try it before you buy it software" and software-in-a-box is "Buy it
before you try it software."
License Agreement
Use of this product indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions
of this agreement. if you do not accept them then do not use the product.
Page 2
License
Unique Software grants you, pursuant to the following terms and
conditions, a fixed-term nonexclusive non-transferable license to use this
software. You may not modify, translate, nor disassemble the software. You
may not sublicense the software.
Each licensed copy of this program may be used by only one person at one
location at one time. In other words, Unique Software grants you a single-user
license much like a book, it can only be used (read) at one place at one time.
Warranty
Unique Software warrants that it is vested with full power and authority
as copyright holder to grant the license granted by this agreement.
This software and documentation are provided ``AS IS'' without any
additional warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but
not limited to, warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular
purpose.
Limitation of Liability
Unique Software is not liable for any damages, direct, indirect, including
lost profits, savings, or projected profits, arising from any failure of this
software to operate in the manner that you or others desire. Unique Software
shall not be liable for any damage to your hardware or software or to any
other property that may be caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by use of this software by the user or another party.
Copyright
All programs and documentation are copyrighted in 1992-1993 by Unique
Software; All Rights Reserved; ``Use, duplication, or disclosure by the United
States government or any employee is subject to restrictions as set forth in
subdivision (b) (3) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software
Clause at 252.227-7013.'' Copying (other than for backup purposes); display to
the public; distribution where ANY value is exchanged for either the program
or disk on which this program resides or for the service of obtaining such
disk; or inclusion of this/these programs in ANY compilation is strictly
prohibited without the permission of Unique Software. Violations of these
rules are enforcible under the Copyright Laws by the Justice Department, the
FBI through criminal fines and other sanctions, and though international
treaties and laws.
Term and Rights
This license, the right to use this program, is granted to you for a
period of 99 years. Violation of any terms of this agreement, immediately
revoke this license and your right to use this product.
Page 3
Severability
Should any term of this agreement be declared to be invalid or illegal by
any competent jurisdiction, such provisions shall be severed from this
agreement and all other provisions shall remain in full force and effect.
Applicable Law
The License Agreement and Warranty shall be governed by the laws of the
State of Texas except as to copyright and trademark matters which are governed
by United States laws and international treaties and laws.
Main Menu
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Private Secretary #.## │ ┌────┐ │
│ │ Copr. 1992 by Unique Software, All Rights Reserved │ │*MD*│ │
│ │ M A I N M E N U │ └────┘ │
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
│ ╔═══════════╗ │
│ ║ Configure ║ │
│ ╚═══════════╝ │
│ │
│ ╔════════════╗ │
│ ║ Begin ║ │
│ ║ Monitoring ║ │
│ ╚════════════╝ │
│ │
│ ╔════════╗ │
│ ║ Return ║ │
│ ║ To DOS ║ │
│ ╚════════╝ │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Press High-Lighted Key on Button │ │
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Main Menu is fairly simple and contains only three items.
[1] Configuration
Pressing "C" or clicking on the Configuration Button will take you to the
configuration screen. Please see the separate section on configuration for
detailed information on configuring Private Secretary.
[2] Begin Monitoring
Pressing "M" or clicking on the Monitor Button will take you to the
monitor screen. Please see the separate section on the monitor screen for
detailed information.
Page 4
[0] Return to DOS
Pressing "D" or clicking on the DOS Button will return you to DOS.
Main Menu - Using a Mouse
If you have a Mouse Driver that is compatible with Private Secretary and
it is loaded before you run Private Secretary, the symbol "*MD*" will appear
in a small panel near the top right of the Main Panel. Actually using the
mouse is logical, just point to the button you wish to choose and click.
Always "click" with the left mouse button unless you are given different
instructions for a specific item.
(1) Configuration Menu
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Configuration Menu ■ Tuesday a 8:57 │ │
│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│(1) Com Port : 1 (J) Find Modem │
│(2) Answ Mach Answers on 0 rings (K) Extra Modem Init : "" │
│(3) Log Answering Machine Calls : N (L) Dial Modem : Tone │
│(4) Log All Calls : N (M) Wake Up Call : N │
│(5) Name of Log File : PRIVATE.LOG (N) Wake up Call Schedule │
│(6) Log File : Reset (O) Abort : N │
│(7) FG Color : 1 (P) Abort Schedule │
│(8) BG Color : 7 (Q) Delay Adjustment 0.0 │
│(9) Forwarding : N (R) Private Forwarding : N │
│(A) Forwarding Schedule/Numbers (S) Fallback to : LL │
│(B) Notify : N (T) Max. Notify Attempts : 0 │
│(C) Notify Schedule/Numbers (U) Min. Notify Attempts : 0 │
│(D) Answer, Beep, Hangup : N │
│(E) A-B-H Schedule │
│(F) Ring Cadence : LL │
│(G) LL Ring Config : N │
│(H) SS Ring Config : N │
│(I) SL Ring Config : N │
│ (0) Save & Exit Configure │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The configuration screen may look complex, but actually it is fairly
straightforward. Several items are standards in most programs. Don't be
overwhelmed...dive right in...
Configuration Menu - Using a Mouse
Using the mouse at the Configuration Menu is logical, just point to the
item you wish to choose and click. You don't have to point to the specific
encased number or letter, but the point does have to be specific enough for
the program to know your intentions. When you click an item properly, Private
Secretary will respond by flashing the item you clicked and issuing a pleasant
quick tone. Always "click" with the left mouse button unless you are given
different instructions for a specific item.
Page 5
Configuration Menu - Using the Keyboard
Using your keybaord to Configure Private Secretary is a logical process.
Just press the enclosed number or letter ( ) you choose. When you press a
valid key, Private Secretary will respond by issuing a pleasant quick tone.
(1) Com Port
Pressing "1" will rotate the Com Port number from one to four and back to
one as many times as you press "1." This is simply the Com Port that your
modem uses and COM1-COM4 are supported. If you do not know which Com Port
your modem uses, simply press (J). See (J) below or to the right of (1) on
the configuration screen.
(2) Answering Machine Answers on # Rings
Pressing "2" will rotate the ring number from one to nine and back to one
as many times as you press "2." If you have an answering machine, this has to
be set to the ring number on which it answers. It must answer on at least two
(normal) rings for you to be able to use SOME features of Private Secretary.
If your answering machine provides a "TOLL SAVER" feature, then the "TOLL
SAVER" must be turned off if it answers on less that two (normal) rings. Most
answering machines today allow you to select the number of rings to answer on,
simply configure it to answer on more the greatest number of rings to take
advantage of the greatest number of features of Private Secretary. Please
refer to the section of "Personalized Ring Service" for more information.
(3) Log Answering Machine Calls
Pressing "3" will switch this option back and forth between [Y]es and
[N]o, IF option (4) is set to [N]o. When set to [Y]es, this is like upgrading
your Answering Machine to one of the new "hi-tech" models. If you set (2)
correctly Private Secretary will write you out a log of when every call comes
in that your answering machine answers. Each entry of the log file will
contain the date, time, number of rings (set by (2)), and (IF your answering
machine properly detects them so it answers properly) the Personalized Ring
Service ring detected. Please refer to the section of "Personalized Ring
Service" for more information.
(4) Log All Calls
Pressing "4" will switch this option back and forth between [Y]es and
[N]o. Like option (3), option (4) provides a log. Instead when set to [Y]es,
Private Secretary will log ALL calls made to the telephone line attached to
the modem. For this reason option (4) supersedes option (3). That is, if
option (4) is set to [Y]es then you obviously don't need option (3), and if
fact option (3) is "locked out" when option (4) is [Y]es. And like (3) again,
each entry consists of the date, time, number of rings (answered or
terminated), and the type of Personalized Ring Service ring detected. Please
refer to the section of "Personalized Ring Service" for more information.
Page 6
(5) Name of Log File
You may change the name of the log file written with option (3) or (4) by
selecting this item and entering in a new one. Pressing "5" will "open a
window" allow you to edit the current filename or clear, ESC, and enter a new
one. Its a good idea to check which other files exist in the directory before
possibly assigning a name already in use with this option.
(6) Log File : Option
Pressing "6" will rotate the trailing option between RESET, SAVE, and
ADD. RESET means that each time you run Private Secretary the previous log
file (if one of the same name set with option (5) if found) is cleared before
any current one is written. ADD means that each time you run Private
Secretary any new entries to the log file will be simply ADDed to the end of
the log file. SAVE means that each time you run Private Secretary the
previous log file (if one of the same name set with option (5) if found) is
renamed and any new entries are written to the name specified in option (5).
The rename file is constructed with the first 3 letters of the current log
file name, the last two digits of the year, one digit or character for the
month (1-9, "O"ctober, "N"ovember, or "D"ecember), and two digits for the day
of the month, followed by the extension ".LOG". For example, the logfile name
is "PRIVATE.LOG", the date is November 12, 1996, and you have this option set
to SAVE; the SAVEd name would be "PRI96N12.LOG". If this name already exists
then the information in the current file is added to it before it is cleared
for new (current) entries.
(7) FG Color
Pressing "7" simply rotates the F(ore)G(round) color from 1 to 15 and
back to 1, automatically recoloring the screen. You can instantly see how the
screen will look. Just set this option to your preference.
(8) BG Color
Pressing "8" simply rotates the B(ack)G(round) color from 0 to 7 and back
to 0, automatically recoloring the screen. You can instantly see how the
screen will look. Just set this option to your preference. Note that Private
Secretary prevents the background color from being the same as the foreground
color.
Page 7
(9) Forwarding
Pressing "9" will switch this option back and forth between [Y]es and
[N]o. This option will only work if you have the "Custom Calling" feature
from your local Bell network named "Call Forwarding". Most newer telephone
directories have a page which explains the service in detail. This service is
optional and comes with an additional fee each month on your telephone bill
along with a one-time "hook up" fee. The monthly charge is nominal (usually
around $3 per month) but check with your local Bell office to be sure of the
exact charges involved. Briefly, Call Forwarding allows you to "transfer"
your calls to another telephone number whenever you wish. For instance, you
might want to visit a friend next door, but are expecting a call. Call
Forwarding would allow you to transfer your calls to your friends home then
un-transfer them back to your telephone when you return.
This option makes Call Forwarding even easier. When set to [Y]es with
the Forwarding Number/Schedule, option (A), set properly; your telephone calls
will be automatically transferred at the time you select each day to the
number you select each day -AND- un-transferred each day at the time you
select. This would allow you to automatically transfer your telephone calls
to the place you work, Monday through Friday, 9:00am through 5:00pm, to the
Charity's phone on Saturday, 10:00am through 12:30pm, where you volunteer; and
to the In-Law's house on Sunday, 11:30am through 3:30pm, while you watch that
game on their big screen television. There are many possibilities. Use your
imagination. Also, please read option (A) Forwarding Schedule/Numbers.
It is important to note that Forwarding (A) and Private Forwarding (R)
are mutually exclusive. In other words they cannot both be set to [Y]es at
the same time.
(A) Forwarding Schedule/Numbers
(for a sample Schedule see `C' Notify Schedule/Numbers)
Pressing "A" will take you to the Forwarding scheduling/number screen.
There are several of these that look similar, but each is clearly labeled on
the third line. You should now see "Forwarding Schedule/Numbers." You will
note the number "0" and the letters "A" through "G" down a column to the left
of the screen. Pushing "A" through "G" will move the cursor to that day so
you may set the schedule or number. On the "EXIT" line you will note the
numbers "1" through "7". Pressing one of these will change the item in the
column directly beneath it. As you can see "1" changes the hours of the
OnTime and "4" changes the hours of the OffTime. "2" changes the tens of
minutes of the OnTime and "5" changes the tens of minutes of the OffTime. "3"
changes the single minutes of the OnTime and "6" changes the single minutes of
the OffTime. Pushing "7" opens a window at the right of the screen for you to
edit or enter the telephone number for each day. Your down-arrow key is an
express key at two levels. Instead of setting the same forwarding time for
Monday through Friday, just set Monday's. Then press (B) for Tuesday and then
the down-arrow key. Monday's schedule will be copied into Tuesday. The same
effect will work for each day. And since Sunday follows Saturday the down
arrow will copy Saturday's schedule to Sunday. Likewise instead of typing the
telephone number seven times the down-arrow key will copy the telephone number
of the previous day to the current set, A-G, day. A final key is functional
after pressing the proper day, A-G, key. ESCape will reset both OnTime and
OffTime to p12:00.
The use of the schedule should be obvious. At the OnTime for the
particular day Private Secretary will automatically issue modem commands to
initiate call forwarding to the number provided for that particular day. If
you start the program after the OnTime, Private Secretary will realize then
and initiate forwarding immediately.
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(B) Notify
Pressing "B" will switch this option back and forth between [Y]es and
[N]o. Notify may be one of the most simple and powerful features of Private
Secretary. Simply stated when set to [Y]es, Notify notifies you whenever a
call is answered by your answering machine. Notify works in this way: when a
call comes in during the period set by option (C) (Notification
Schedule/Numbers) which is answered on the number of rings set by Option (2)
(Answering Machine Answers on ? Rings), Private Secretary begins to attempt to
dial the number you set for that day (See (C) Notification Schedule/Numbers)
and also sends the "Notification Message" which you set by Option (C). During
the period Private Secretary is attempting to notify you, the message "Notify
is PENDING" will appear on the Monitor screen.
(C) Notify Schedule/Numbers
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Notify Schedule/Numbers ##:##:## │ │
│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
│ [0] ──── EXIT 1 23 4 56 7 │
│ [A] ── Sunday ■■ OnTime ■ a12:00 ■■ OffTime ■ a12:00 ■■ #-###-###-#### │
│ [B] ── Monday ■■ OnTime ■ a12:00 ■■ OffTime ■ a12:00 ■■ #-###-###-#### │
│ [C] ─ Tuesday ■■ OnTime ■ a12:00 ■■ OffTime ■ a12:00 ■■ #-###-###-#### │
│ [D] Wednesday ■■ OnTime ■ a12:00 ■■ OffTime ■ a12:00 ■■ #-###-###-#### │
│ [E] Thursday ■■ OnTime ■ a12:00 ■■ OffTime ■ a12:00 ■■ #-###-###-#### │
│ [F] ── Friday ■■ OnTime ■ a12:00 ■■ OffTime ■ a12:00 ■■ #-###-###-#### │
│ [G] Saturday ■■ OnTime ■ a12:00 ■■ OffTime ■ a12:00 ■■ #-###-###-#### │
│ │
│ Press A-G for day, 1-6 to set time, 7 to set tel no, ESC to reset time │
│ press to copy above time/telephone number to this slot │
│ │
│ [8] Notify `Dial String Message' : (none) │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Pressing "C" will take you to the Notify scheduling/number screen. There
are several of these that look similar, but each is clearly labeled on the
third line. You should now see "Notify Schedule/Numbers." You will note the
number "0" and the letters "A" through "G" down a column to the left of the
screen. Pushing "A" through "G" will move the cursor to that day so you may
set the schedule or number. On the "EXIT" line you will note the numbers "1"
through "7". Pressing one of these will change the item in the column
directly beneath it. As you can see "1" changes the hours of the OnTime and
"4" changes the hours of the OffTime. "2" changes the tens of minutes of the
OnTime and "5" changes the tens of minutes of the OffTime. "3" changes the
single minutes of the OnTime and "6" changes the single minutes of the
OffTime. Pushing "7" opens a window at the right of the screen for you to
edit or enter the notification telephone number for each day. "8" will allow
you to edit/enter the Notify dial "message" you wish. Your down-arrow key is
an express key at two levels. Instead of setting the same Notify time for
Monday through Friday, just set Monday's. Then press (B) for Tuesday and then
the down-arrow key. Monday's schedule will be copied into Tuesday. The same
Page 9
effect will work for each day. And since Sunday follows Saturday the down
arrow will copy Saturday's schedule to Sunday. Likewise instead of typing the
telephone number seven times the down-arrow key will copy the telephone number
of the previous day to the current set, A-G, day. A final key is functional
after pressing the proper day, A-G, key. ESCape will reset both OnTime and
OffTime to p12:00.
The use of the schedule should be obvious. At the OnTime for the
particular day Private Secretary will automatically begin to monitor your
telephone line for calls answered by your answering machine and notify you
when they arrive. If you start the program after the OnTime, Private
Secretary realizes this and turns on Notify immediately.
The Notify "message" needs further explanation. Obviously your modem is
incapable of dialing the number and saying, "Hey, you have a message."
Therefore you need to enter an appropriate dialing message. If you set the
Notify Number "7" to your beeper number, the notify message needs to handle
the initial wait and enter a code you will know or your home phone number.
The dial string depends on how sophisticated your modems commands are. For
example, a lot of newer modems have the dial command "@" which causes the
modem to wait for silence on the line before continuing to dial. If your
modem understands this your Notify "message" for your beeper might be simply
"@5551212". If you have an older modem you might have to use a series of
pause's to handle the initial wait, ",,,5551212". Some beeper services require
dialing a final "#", the best advice is to check with your beeper service.
How about those of you who don't have a beeper. Your Notify "message"
might be as simple as ",,,,9191,9191". A short sequence of tones sent to the
Notify Number for that day. A clever user might even program a piece of
music. Again check your modem manual for those special modem commands. The
"@" command can be a valuable aid here waiting for quiet on the line before
continuing to dial.
Finally, what if the target number is busy? Most modems will issue a
"BUSY" message if a busy signal is detected. If this is the case, Notify will
simply wait another minute and try again. If you modem doesn't detect a busy
signal then Notify is also limited to one try.
(D) Answer, Beep, Hangup
Pressing "D" will switch this option back and forth between [Y]es and
[N]o. Answer, Beep, Hangup may sound unusual at first, however it may come to
be one of your favorite features after a hard day's work. Answer, Beep,
Hangup does exactly as it says; it answers your phone, beeps, and hangs up.
Why would you want this feature? How about that hour you have dinner and
watch the news. No interruptions should sound appealing. How about setting
Answer, Beep, Hangup for the entire night just before that new job interview?
Use your imagination, you will probably find a few minutes each day you want
no interruptions guaranteed.
(E) Answer, Beep, Hangup Schedule
Pressing "E" will take you to the Answer, Beep, Hangup scheduling screen.
There are several of these that look similar, but each is clearly labeled on
the third line. You should now see "Answer, Beep, Hangup Schedule." You will
note the number "0" and the letters "A" through "G" down a column to the left
of the screen. Pushing "A" through "G" will move the cursor to that day so
you may set the schedule or number. On the "EXIT" line you will note the
numbers "1" through "6". Pressing one of these will change the item in the
column directly beneath it. As you can see "1" changes the hours of the
OnTime and "4" changes the hours of the OffTime. "2" changes the tens of
Page 10
minutes of the OnTime and "5" changes the tens of minutes of the OffTime.
Finally, "3" changes the single minutes of the OnTime and "6" changes the
single minutes of the OffTime. Your down-arrow key is an express key.
Instead of setting the same schedule for Monday through Friday, just set
Monday's. Then press (B) for Tuesday and then the down-arrow key. Monday's
schedule will be copied into Tuesday. The same effect will work for each day.
And since Sunday follows Saturday the down arrow will copy Saturday's schedule
to Sunday. A final key is functional after pressing the proper day, A-G, key.
ESCape will reset both OnTime and OffTime to p12:00.
The use of the schedule should be obvious. At the OnTime for the
particular day Private Secretary will automatically begin to answer your
telephone line , issue a beep, then hangup. Likewise Private Secretary will
discontinue this option at the OffTime set. Remember too that if you set
option (3), Log All Calls, to [Y]es then each call that Answer, Beep, Hangup
answers will be written to the log file, including the best guess at which
Personalized Ring the call was intended for. Understand that since the
incoming call is terminated on the first ring, only part of the parameters for
comparison to the Personalized Ring Service rings are available.
(F) Ring Cadence
Pressing "F" will rotate the Ring Cadence from "LL" to "SS" to "SL" back
to "LL" as many times as you press "F". Ring cadence is simply the pattern of
rings your phone makes when someone calls. Normally in the United States the
cadence is "ring pause ring pause...". Private Secretary defines this as "LL"
for long-ring, pause, long-ring. In the United Kingdom a cadence of "ring
ring pause ring ring pause ..." is normal. Private Secretary defines this as
"SS" for short-ring, short-pause, short-ring, pause. This second cadence of
"SS is also typical for the new Personalized Ring Service offered by the Bell
companies across the United States. (For more information read the section on
Personalized Ring Service and Bell Services.) The third and last cadence,
"SL" is typical of the "third-number" ring of Bell's Personalized ring
service. This pattern is ring-ring-ring-pause which Private Secretary
identifies as "SL". This identification is for short-ring, short-pause,
long-ring, short-pause, short-ring, pause (SLSP...)....
(G) LL Ring Config, (H) SS Ring Config, (I) SL Ring Config
Pressing any of these three options will clear the screen and label it
with the appropriate ring configuration about to be set. Each option will
also remind you to begin ringing the modem line. Private Secretary will then
automatically measure and store the ring cadence timings for future reference
and hang up the line when it is through. Keep in mind that if you do not have
Personalize Ring Service then all you really need to do is set (G). If you do
have Personalized Ring Service we suggest that you set all ring cadences that
you have installed. If you are an overseas user, you should set your normal
ring cadence as (G), "LL". Private Secretary doesn't make any judgments
about how long or short the rings or pauses might be, it simply stores them in
a particular place and since the fallback default is "LL" we suggest setting
your normal cadence under the (G) option.
A lot of Private Secretary's workings depend on the ring cadences. If
something isn't working the way it is explained in the manual, try resetting
the ring cadences that you have installed. This can clear up a lot of
Murphy's Laws!
(J) Find Modem
Page 11
If you really don't know anything about COM ports; if you're a "plug and
play" user, then this option should solve any problems you might have with
option (1). By simply pressing "J" this option will search COM1 through COM4
until it gets an appropriate "OK" response after sending each COM port the
"AT" command. Once found, this option will set your Com Port setting, under
Option (1), to the Com Port found.
(K) Extra Modem Initialization
Pressing "K" will open a window at the right for you to enter extra modem
initialization commands you might wish. For instance some users might want
their modem to be silent and might want to add "M0". Others might want their
modem to be quieter and add "L1" to lower its volume. Naturally your modem
may not offer such options. Check your modem manual. We do remind you that
you should NOT include any "X?" advanced level commands. Each time Private
Secretary opens your Com Port, it includes an "X4" command in the string.
HOWEVER, if your modem does not offer the advanced level of "X4" (older modems
might offer X1 and X2 only -or- X1 through X3), you might need to include "X2"
or any level that offers the most features. Again, check your modem manual.
"Play" with your modems commands with your terminal program. If your modem
will attempt to dial when there is no dialtone, Private Secretary might barge
in on an important conversation and start dialing.
(M) Wake Up Call
Pressing "M" will switch this option back and forth between [Y]es and
[N]o. Wake Up Call is exactly what it sounds like, each day depending on the
time you set in Option (N), Wake Up Call Schedule, Private Secretary will give
you a wake up call, including a series of tones so you know its not some crank
call. So are you the type that rolls over and goes back to sleep? Never
fear, you can set Private Secretary so that Wake Up will be persistent.
(N) Wake Up Call Schedule
Pressing "N" will take you to the Wake Up scheduling/number screen.
There are several of these that look similar, but each is clearly labeled on
the third line. You should now see "Wake Up Schedule/Numbers." You will note
the number "0" and the letters "A" through "G" down a column to the left of
the screen. Pushing "A" through "G" will move the cursor to that day so you
may set the schedule or number. On the "EXIT" line you will note the numbers
"1" through "7". Pressing one of these will change the item in the column
directly beneath it. As you can see "1" changes the hours of the OnTime and
"4" changes the hours of the OffTime. "2" changes the tens of minutes of the
OnTime and "5" changes the tens of minutes of the OffTime. "3" changes the
single minutes of the OnTime and "6" changes the single minutes of the
OffTime. Finally, pushing "7" opens a window at the right of the screen for
you to edit or enter the wake up telephone number for each day. Your down-
arrow key is an express key at two levels. Instead of setting the same Wake
Up time for Monday through Friday, just set Monday's. Then press (B) for
Tuesday and then the down-arrow key. Monday's schedule will be copied into
Tuesday. The same effect will work for each day. And since Sunday follows
Saturday the down arrow will copy Saturday's schedule to Sunday. Likewise
instead of typing your telephone number seven times the down-arrow key will
copy the telephone number of the previous day to the current set, A-G, day. A
final key is functional after pressing the proper day, A-G, key. ESCape will
reset both OnTime and OffTime to p12:00.
Page 12
The use of the schedule should be obvious. At the OnTime for the
particular day Private Secretary will automatically start making its wake up
call to the telephone number specified for that day. Likewise at the OffTime,
Private Secretary will discontinue attempting to wake you up. Unlike other
options which have schedules, if you run Private Secretary after the wake-up
time set, Private Secretary assume that you are already up and will not
initiate any wake up for that particular day.
If you're a morning person and jump up turning off the alarm after the
first ring, then set the wake up OnTime and OffTime to the same time. Private
Secretary then make the wake up call only once (admittedly the possibility for
a second call exists, if the program makes the wake up call check at exactly
the right interval). If you are the type of person who rolls over and goes
back to sleep, set the wake up call schedule for a period of fifteen or thirty
minutes. Private Secretary will continue to call every minute for that
duration or until you manually go to the keyboard and turn off wake-up (Alt-W,
but see the monitor section for details). Naturally the truly morning grumpy
could take the phone off the hook, but then again you'll get that awful
"warning blare" in just minutes.
(O) Abort
Pressing "O" will switch this option back and forth between [Y]es and
[N]o. As with all configuration options, Abort only works if you are using
the Monitor mode, main menu option (2). If Abort is set to [Y]es and at the
OffTime set for that day (see (P) Abort Schedule) Private Secretary will abort
itself and return to the DOS prompt. It is also important to note that when
Private Secretary aborts in this way it also sets DOS' errorlevel to 255.
Therefore, if you initiate Private Secretary from a batch file you can also
test, using the batch file ERRORLEVEL function, whether the program aborted
itself or not. See the section on BATch file usage for more information.
(P) Abort Schedule
Pressing "P" will take you to the Abort schedule screen. There are
several of these that look similar, but each is clearly labeled on the third
line. You should now see "Abort Schedule." You will note the number "0" and
the letters "A" through "G" down a column to the left of the screen. Pushing
"A" through "G" will move the cursor to that day so you may set the schedule
or number. On the "EXIT" line you will note the numbers "4" through "6".
Pressing one of these will change the item in the column directly beneath it.
As you can "4" changes the hours of the OffTime. "5" changes the tens of
minutes of the OffTime. "6" changes the single minutes of the OffTime. Your
down-arrow key is an express key. Instead of setting the same Abort time for
each day, just set Sunday's. Then press (A) for Monday and then the down-
arrow key. Sunday's OffTime will be copied into Monday. The same effect will
work for each day. And since Sunday follows Saturday the down arrow will copy
Saturday's schedule to Sunday. A final key is functional after pressing the
proper day, A-G, key. ESCape will reset the OffTime to p12:00.
The use of the schedule should be obvious. At the OffTime for the
particular day Private Secretary will automatically abort itself to the DOS
level. And as explained before DOS' ERRORLEVEL is also set to 255 for BATch
file testing purposes. Please read the section on BATch file usage for more
information.
(Q) Delay Adjustment
Page 13
Pressing "Q" will open a window at the right allowing you to edit/enter a
delay adjustment for Private Secretary. During testing with several modems,
we found that some required a slightly longer delay at some areas. If you
find some anomalies with Private Secretary, we first suggest "tweaking" it
with this option. Usually a delay adjustment of 0.5 (one-half a second) is
sufficient, but Private Secretary has allowed a delay as long as 9.9 seconds.
(R) Private Forwarding
Pressing "R" will switch this option back and forth between [Y]es and
[N]o. You should understand Option (9), Forwarding, before you can understand
Private Forwarding. Forwarding and Private Forwarding both require that you
have Bell's Custom Calling Service feature "Call Forwarding." Forwarding and
Private Forwarding both use the same Forwarding Schedule/Numbers in the same
way. Forwarding and Private Forwarding both automatically issue the same
commands in the same way. However that is where the similarities end.
First and foremost, Forwarding and Private Forwarding are mutually
exclusive. That is, you can not have both set to [Y]es at the same time. If
Forwarding is set to [Y]es and you turn on Private Forwarding, Private
Secretary will set Forwarding automatically to [N]o and visa versa. This does
NOT mean that setting one of these to [N]o, sets the other to [Y]es.
Private Forwarding provides you with specialized Forwarding to only those
people whom you wish to contact. All important calls will be forwarded to
you. Telemarketers, Carpet Cleaning Sales, Portrait Studios, Vinyl Siding
Salespeople, even Bill Collectors will have to continue to deal with your
answering machine. How does this work? Read the separate section on Private
Forwarding to find out.
(S) Fallback To (Cadence)
Pressing "S" will switch this option between "LL" and "SS". This
represents which cadence is the fallback (default) in the event an incoming
ringing signal varies from what it should be. (You should understand that
this can happen with some regularity.) If you live in the U.S., this should be
set to "LL." If you live in a foreign country where the "ring-ring-pause"
cadence is normal, this should be set to "SS."
(T) Max[imum] Notify Attempts
Pressing "T" will rotate the option from 1 to 9 and back again to 1. This
option represents the maximum number of attempts that (B) Notify will try if
it receives a "BUSY" indication before it "gives up." If the forwarding
number you set for the certain day was to remain busy for a long time, Notify
would take up about 25% of your telephone line time attempting to connect to
that number. This option prevents notify from trying too much. See "Notify
Me" (pg. ##) for detailed information.
(U) Min[imum] Notify Attempts
Pressing "U" will rotate the option from 1 to 9 and back again to 1. This
option represents the minimum number of attempts that (B) Notify will try to
notify you. This option is useful if your modem does not indicate "BUSY" when
a busy signal is detected which would normally terminate the notification
process. If this option is set to 3, for example, Private Secretary will
attempt to notify you three times (that's once a minute for three minutes),
Page 14
and then will stop. This helps insure you will get notification when it's
important.
(0) Save & Exit Configure
This is obviously the last option you will need to use. Each time you
press "0" to exit configure Private Secretary will also write out a new
configuration file. That way you can't forget to save your work. It is also
suggested that during your first configuration you use "0" several times so
you continually save your "work" just in case something happens.
(Z) Exit Configure (No Save)
This option does not appear on your Configuration Menu by design. You
shouldn't need to use it, but may need to occasionally. If you're using
multiple configuration files and forget to save one, you might need to back up
the current one before overwriting it. Be careful though, this option DOES
NOT save the configuration file. If you happen to accidentally hit "Z" and
exit back to the main menu but intended on saving the file, just return to the
configuration menu "1" and then press "0."
If you are using your mouse to configure Private Secretary, you can invoke
this option by pointing to the top panel labeled "Configuration Menu" and
clicking.
[ ] General Configuration Considerations
Schedule Screens
Each of the five schedule screens is labeled in the top panel. Therefore,
you should never get "lost" when configuring Private Secretary. All schedules
are inclusive of the times you set. That is, if you set the OnTime at a11:59
and the OffTime at p01:01, then the event (notify, forwarding, etc.) will
begin at a11:59 and end at p01:02. If you want forwarding to run from p12:00
to p01:00 then set the schedule to those times. This may be most noticeable
for the wake up feature when you should set the wake up OnTime and OffTime to
the same for only one wake up call.
Using a mouse with the schedule screens isn't quite as obvious as with the
other menus. To set the schedule for Wednesday, for example, you first need
to choose the day by clicking somewhere on the line of the day you choose.
You can tell you successfully clicked by the entire line being flashed
followed by a short pleasant tone. You will also note a cursor (not the mouse
cursor) positioned and flashing at the letter to the left of that day's line.
Understand too that if you click on a selectable item on a line and that line
is already selected, you will increment that item forward. Once a line is
selected simply move the mouse cursor to the item you wish to change and click
until the proper hour, tens of minutes, or minutes appear. If the schedule
has the area at the right to enter telephone numbers, simply click in that
area to enter a telephone number. Naturally, you will have to use the
keyboard to enter the telephone number. For the Notify Schedule, to enter the
Notify Message, just click on that line to open the entry/edit window.
Ring Configurations
Page 15
Actually, you can set each ring cadence configuration (G), (H), and (I)
to any cadence. However each cadence by definition, has a particular pattern
and number of rings in each pattern. If you do not have or want personalized
ring service you must set your normal cadence to (G) LL. Foreign users who
have the "ring ring pause" cadence as standard should set the (H) SS cadence
to their normal pattern.
Page 16
Monitor Screen
The Monitor screen is fairly simple as it only contains six buttons
containing the status of all the options you can set on the configuration
menu or on the command line. As with the other screens this one is clearly labeled
in the top panel, "M O N I T O R I N G." This screen also gives you
a clock at the right of the third line. You will note the delay between the
time the header appears and any status buttons appear. During this time
there are many tests going on and initialization of the COM port. Once any
status buttons appear, Private Secretary begins monitoring. If you have
forwarding set to [Y]es and the schedule shows it's time to start, there will
be another short delay as Private Secretary turns on Forwarding. You will
know exactly the status as Private Secretary goes through the steps because
Private Secretary will display each step on the Monitor Screen in the
Forwarding Status Button.
Status Buttons
There can be as many as six status buttons on the Monitoring Screen at one
time. Your should understand that each status button will APPEAR only if the
associated option is set to [Y]es/ON. If an option is set to [Y]es, but the
starting time has not occurred, the associated status button will appear, but
will show "O F F". Once the starting time occurs an appropriate message will
appear in the button.
Wake Up Status Buttons
The first possible button on your Monitor Screen is the Wake Up Status
Button. This button might display three messages, "O N", "O F F", and "in
PROGRESS." Don't be alarmed if you start Private Secretary with Wake Up set
to [Y]es in the configuration, the Wake Up Schedule/Numbers (N) set properly,
and the Wake Up Status button shows "O F F." Once you think about it, this is
a logical. Obviously if you are awake enough to be running Private Secretary,
Wake Up doesn't need to occur. The Wake Up Status Button would be show "O N"
if Private Secretary is run prior to the OnTime for each day or you simply
leave Private Secretary running overnight. Also don't confuse "O N" with "in
PROGRESS." When the Wake Up Status Button shows "O N" it simply means that
Wake Up is set to [Y]es/ON on the Configuration Menu.
Forwarding Status Buttons
The second possible buttons on your Monitor Screen is the Forwarding
Status Button. This button displays two monitoring messages and several in
progress messages. The two monitoring messages are "O N" and "O F F." The in
progress messages include the two steps to setting forwarding and cancelling
forwarding. Understand that this status button is separate from the Private
Forwarding Status Button (described later.) Each time forwarding is initiated
the first step Private Secretary takes is to cancel any possible existing
forwarding already in place. So you shouldn't think there is a problem when
time comes for forwarding to begin and the Forwarding Status Button first
indicates it is cancelling any existing forwarding. For more details see (9)
Forwarding under Configuration.
Private Forwarding Status Button
Page 17
The second possible button on your Monitor Screen could also be the
Private Forwarding status Button. Since Forwarding and Private Forwarding are
mutually exclusive, only one button needs to be displayed. This button
displays three messages, "O N", "O F F", and "ACTIVE." The last message, "
ACTIVE", simply means that the caller has "set" Private Forwarding (see
Forwarding vs. Private Forwarding and (R) Private Forwarding on the
configuration menu) and Private Secretary is waiting for their call back.
Once the caller calls back, or five minutes elapse, Private Forwarding will be
automatically cancelled. After all that's what makes the forwarding, private.
Notify Status Button
The third possible button on your Monitor Screen is the Notify Status
Button. This button displays three messages, "O N", "O F F", and "PENDING."
The "PENDING" message will remain on after "switched on" by your telephone
line being answered on the number of rings you set on the configuration menu
option (2), until such time as it completes a call to the Notify number set
for that day. Of course the exact way that Private Secretary reacts will also
be determined by the features that your modem offers. For more information
see the sections on Notify, (B) Notify on the configuration menu, and (C)
Notify Schedule/Numbers on the configuration menu.
Answer, Beep, Hangup Status Button
The fourth possible button on your Monitor Screen is the Answer, Beep,
Hangup Status Button. This button displays just two messages, "O N" and "O F
F." For detailed information on Answer, Beep, Hangup see the separate
sections on Answer, Beep, Hangup, (D) Answer, Beep, Hangup in the
configuration section, and (E) Answer, Beep, Hangup Schedule in the
configuration section.
Configuration Abort Status Button
The fifth possible button on your Monitor Screen is the Configuration
Abort Status Button. If Abort (O) is set to [Y]es on the configuration menu
this button will display the time set on the (P) Abort Schedule for today.
Abort Status Button
The sixth and last possible button on your Monitor Screen is the Abort
Status Button. This button monitors and displays two Abort statuses, "Auto"
and "Ring." "Auto" signifies auto-abort on selected cadence, /AA:cc. (For
more information read the section on Automatic Abort on Ring ID). Ring
signifies Ring Switch Abort, /S:#. (For more information read the section on
Ring Switch Abort.) While both statuses display just two messages "ON" or
"OFF", the "Auto" status displays which cadences that it will abort on, "LL",
"SS", "SL", instead of "ON."
Please don't confuse the Abort Status Button with the Configuration Abort
Status Button. Each button is clearly labeled at to which status it shows.
Manually Switching OFF Functions
What if you arrive home early from work and want to cancel Forwarding?
What if you wake up early and want to cancel Wake Up? Now we're going to tell
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why those high-lighted letters appear in the status buttons. The way to turn
off any of the functions which show ON or ACTIVE is to press ALT and the
letter that is high-lighted in the status button. In detail:
Alt-W[ake Up] OFF
Alt-F[orwarding] OFF
Alt-N[otify] OFF
Alt-P[rivate Forwarding] OFF
Alt-H [Answer, Beep, Hangup] OFF
Alt-A[bort Program on Ring] OFF
But what if you want to exit the Monitor Screen. Simply use Alt-
M[onitor] OFF or Alt-Q[uit to Main Menu]
Note that you cannot use a mouse to click off these buttons. However, you
can exit the Monitor Panel with a mouse simple place the cursor on the third
"MONITORING" labeled panel and click.
Manually switching a function off does not affect its permanent setting on
the configuration menu. Neither does it turn the function off for the
duration of this run of Private Secretary, with the exception of "Abort, Ring"
status. Instead, it only turns it off until the next day. Then the function
is controlled by your setting in the configuration menu. In other words, if
you leave Private Secretary running past midnight those functions switched off
will be turned back "ON" at the next scheduled time for that day.
Some functions require actions to turn OFF. For example, if forwarding
is ON Private Secretary needs to turn it off manually, requiring dialing.
Also note that when quitting back to the main menu (Alt-Q or Alt-M), Private
Secretary will always pause while it performs some clean up chores and will
send the forwarding off command. These are safeguards against leaving
anything on by accident.
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Forwarding vs. Private Forwarding
The official Bell wording is "Call forwarding lets you transfer incoming
calls to another telephone number." We don't think you need to know how to do
this in conjunction with Private Secretary because Private Secretary does it
all automatically for you. If you transfer your calls to a long-distance
number, your "home" number is billed for the long distance charge to the
number you transferred your calls. One final point, when forwarding is in
effect your "home" phone number will ring once to signal an incoming call,
however the call can only be answered at the location you transferred the call
to. Your "home" phone will work normally in every other way though, when call
forwarding is in effect. In the event of a power outtage and your computer
isn't working, you should know how to cancel call forwarding. Simply dial
"73" (rotary/pulse users dial "1173) and after a short pause you will hear two
short tones to signal that it has been cancelled.
The beneficial point to call forwarding is that no one but you will know
it is in effect. If your boss allows it, you can transfer your home number to
your work number during business hours so you don't miss any important calls.
If you're a travelling salesperson you could transfer your home number to your
hotel/motel during the evening hours when your on the road. A parent might
set Private Secretary to forward calls to the car phone for those times and
days when it was their turn to car-pool the kids. Use your imagination.
Private Secretary makes call forwarding automatic and easy and you never have
to worry about Forwarding and Private Forwarding conflicting because (1) they
are mutually exclusive and (2) the configuration menu will prevent you from
setting both of them to [Y]es at the same time.
Private Forwarding is simply call forwarding with privacy. Forwarding
your "home" calls to another number might be a valuable feature ... if you
could "weed-out" the portrait studios, telemarketers, fake charity
solicitations, etc. Private Forwarding gives you this option. Simply tell
those important people that during certain hours, the ones you set on the (A)
Forwarding Schedule/Numbers configuration option, to simply (1) ring your
usual number once* , (2) hang-up, (3) wait one minute, (4) then call back.
Private Secretary will detect this "secret switch" and set call forwarding for
the NEXT call only and ONLY your "important" people can reach you directly.
Those telemarketers will still have to deal with your answering machine or no
answer. If the caller gets busy and forgets to call back, Private Secretary
will automatically cancel the forwarding after five minutes. You probably
know these "important" people well. If you think they will often forget to
call back in time, let them know they will have to restart the procedure after
five minutes.
The one-ring-switch* applies to what the caller hears. If you are using
a personalized ring service (see "Personalized Ring Service (Optional)" for
more information) offered by your local telephone company, you can set the
one-ring-switch to any of the three distinctive ring patters you receive
through the configuration menu, (F) Ring Cadence. Private Secretary will
automatically discern which pattern is incoming and if it receives only one
ring pattern, will enact call forwarding for the next incoming call. What this
means is your phone may ring once, twice, or three times depending on the
telephone number you have given to the caller, but the caller always hears a
normal long-ring, long-pause ring pattern.
The Forwarding Schedule/Numbers, configuration menu option (A), is used
by both Forwarding and Private Forwarding. At the configuration menu pressing
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"A" will take you to the Forwarding Scheduling/Number screen. You should now
see "Forwarding Schedule/Numbers" on the third line. You will note the number
"0" and the letters "A" through "G" down a column to the left of the screen.
Pushing "A" through "G" will move the cursor to that day so you may set the
schedule or number. On the "EXIT" line you will note the numbers "1" through
"7". Pressing one of these will change the item in the column directly
beneath it. As you can see "1" changes the hours of the OnTime and "4"
changes the hours of the OffTime. "2" changes the tens of minutes of the
OnTime and "5" changes the tens of minutes of the OffTime. "3" changes the
single minutes of the OnTime and "6" changes the single minutes of the
OffTime. Pushing "7" opens a window at the right of the screen for you to
edit or enter the telephone number for each day. Your down-arrow key is an
express key at two levels. Instead of setting the same forwarding time for
Monday through Friday, just set Monday's. Then press (C) for Tuesday and then
the down-arrow key. Monday's schedule will be copied into Tuesday. The same
effect will work for each day. And since Sunday follows Saturday the down
arrow will copy Saturday's schedule to Sunday. Likewise instead of typing the
telephone number seven times the down-arrow key will copy the telephone number
of the previous day to the current set, A-G, day. A final key is functional
after pressing the proper day, A-G, key. ESCape will reset both OnTime and
OffTime to p12:00.
If your boss allows it and if you work Monday through Friday from 9:00 am
to 5:00 pm, for example, simply set (B) Monday to that OnTime and Offtime by
pressing "1" and "4" the correct number of times. Then press "7" and enter
the number at work to transfer your calls. Now you can set (C) Tuesday easily
by pressing "C", then the down-arrow key, then "7" then the down arrow key
again. Now Tuesday should contain Monday's schedule and telephone Number. If
you work a graveyard shift, set your schedule just like your work hours.
Although it may look strange set (A) Sunday's OnTime, for example, to p09:00.
Then set (B) Monday's OnTime to p09:00 and Offtime to a06:00. Then press "C"
for Tuesday; then press the down-arrow key; then press "7"; then press the
down-arrow key again. Now you have Tuesday's schedule from Monday's. Just
remember on Friday you would need to reset the OnTime to a12:00. Actually any
time prior to the example OffTime of p06:00 would be sufficient.
If you happen to get home early, or are home sick you can cancel
Forwarding from the Monitor Screen by pressing Alt-F. Note that this does not
change the configuration menu setting. Likewise, you can cancel Private
Forwarding at the Monitor Screen by pressing Alt-P. Also, when you quit the
Monitor Screen, Alt-Q, Private Secretary will cancel any forwarding in effect.
For more information see (9) Forwarding, (A) Forwarding Schedule/Numbers, and
(R) Private Forwarding in the Configuration Menu Section.
Wake Up, "Come on User, Wake My Day"
Most people tend to get used to ignoring their alarm clock, but always
jump to answer their phone. If you set configuration option (M) to [Y]es,
Private Secretary will give you a wake up call each morning you want and at
the time you want every day of the week. Private Secretary will even "nag"
you awake if you are a "reluctant riser" in the morning. Simply set the wake
up call OnTime and OffTime as many minutes apart as you want calls and Private
Secretary will re-call every minute you have set. If you are a "ready riser",
set the wake up call OnTime and OffTime to the same time and you will receive
just one wake up call. Note that you will NOT receive a wake up call at
midnight if the OffTime is set to a12:00. If you need to get up at midnight,
set the OffTime to a12:01 or later.
Page 21
If you have Wake Up set to [Y]es and then load and run Private Secretary
at or after the OnTime but before or on the Offtime, Private Secretary will
discern this and NOT set wake up when you enter the Monitor Screen. After
all, if you're awake enough to use your computer Private Secretary figures you
don't need a call. Also, please don't forget to set the phone number
correctly in the configuration menu option (N), Wake Up Schedule/Numbers. For
more information on Wake Up and setting the Wake Up Schedule/Numbers see the
configuration menu options (M) and (N).
Notify, "Notify Me"
Have you ever expected an important message at home and spent half the
day calling home to your answering machine to see if it arrived? How about
that new job interview? Did you get the car loan? There are many reasons you
could waste a lot of time trying to find out. Here too, Private Secretary is
a valuable assistant. Simply set the configuration menu option (B) to [Y]es
and press in your work schedule and phone number. Now each time your
answering machine at home answers a call, Private Secretary will notify you
with the "message" you can set on the configuration menu option (C) Notify
Schedule/Numbers, by pressing "8". If you have a beeper, even better you can
set the telephone number to your beeper number, then set the message to
include your home phone number. Instantly you have notification every time a
"message hits home."
If the expected message is important enough, you could even set notify to
,say, your doctors office number during your appointment. Simply tell the
receptionist that if she gets a call with the "tones" you set, it's just your
computer calling and to let you know. Most people would be impressed with
your computer!
Notify does have one misfeature that you will have to adjust for if you
use this feature. If you call in to check the messages on your answering
machine, Private Secretary has no idea that it is you calling. Therefore, as
soon as you're finished Private Secretary will notify you again. Now that you
know this, you will know to ignore any notification following you calling in
to check your answering machine.
If you're notifying a beeper, choosing a message is fairly easy. All you
really have to do for most beeper systems is to allow for a pause at the start
which goes past the initial short tones the beeper system issues, usually
three pauses, ",,,", at the start of your message will take care of that.
After that just enter your home phone number or a code you will immediately
recognize like your home telephone number or something clever like "07734"
which looks like "hELLO" if you look at your beeper upside down. Some beeper
services require or optionally require a final "#" tone. Check with your
beeper service for more information.
Otherwise, the notify "message" needs a bit of thought. The default
message is ",,,9191,9191" which gives a pleasant high-how tone pattern pauses
repeats the same pattern, then hangs up. Something of this nature is usually
identifiable over a crank or call.
For more information about Notify, Setting the Notify Schedule/Numbers,
and the Notify Message, read the Configuration sections on (B) Notify and (C)
Notify Schedule/Numbers.
Answer, Beep, Hangup
If your privacy during certain times of the day is important and you
don't want to listen to the "shrill" telephone off-the-hook signal, Private
Secretary will come to your assistance again. Answer, Beep, Hangup does
exactly as its name implies. For the schedule you set each day, during those
Page 22
times prescribed, it will answer ANY ring, issue a beep, then hang-up. You
might let your friends and family know what this means or they'll be reporting
it to the local phone company. Otherwise those intrusive telemarketers who
seem to know exactly where your dinner time falls, or your mom who likes to
call just when you and your spouse are about to become intimate, or any other
time of the day or day of the week that you want privacy will be relatively
uninterrupted.
Remember too that if you have Private Secretary logging all incoming
calls, each Answer, Beep, Hangup call will be logged along with the
personalized ring type so you don't have to remember which number was called.
For more information about Answer, Beep, Hangup and setting the Answer,
Beep, Hangup Schedule/Numbers, read the configuration sections on (D) Answer,
Beep Hangup and (E) Answer, Beep, Hangup Schedule/Numbers.
Abort
More advanced computer users may find this feature more useful than the
more novice users. If you set Abort, (O) on the configuration menu, to [Y]es
then Private Secretary will abort itself and return to DOS at the time you
specify in the (P) Abort Schedule on the configuration menu. Private
Secretary also sets the DOS errorlevel to 255 when this occurs. So if you are
running Private Secretary from a BATch file, you can test if Private Secretary
aborted itself. If you manually exit Private Secretary from the main menu,
DOS' errorlevel is set to 0, actually not set or reset.
For more information about using Private Secretary from a BATch file set
the section on "BATch Files".
For more information about Abort and setting the Abort Schedule, read the
configuration sections on (O) Abort and (P) Abort Schedule.
Page 23
Command Line Only Features
Configuration File
When you run Private Secretary the program normally reads the default
configuration filename, "PRIVATE.CFG". Let's say you were going on vacation
for two weeks and won't be on your usual schedule. Instead of changing
several items on the configuration menu now, then changing them back in two
weeks, with the command line option "/C:filename" you can use an alternate
configuration file. This could be accomplished in two ways. First, you could
use DOS to copy the old file into a new file name, "COPY PRIVATE.CFG
MYCONFIG.CFG", then type "PRISEC /C:MYCONFIG.CFG"; or you can eliminate the
first COPYing step and just type "PRISEC /C:MYCONFIG.CFG". Using the first
method might be easier if you just need to edit a few items from your old
configuration file. The second method runs Private Secretary without a
configuration file (because none exists when starting the program). Once you
set all the options, schedules, numbers you wish and press "0", the
configuration file you specified (in this example "MYCONFIG.CFG") will be
written.
You can have as many different configuration files as you wish (or as
many as your disk will hold). In the BATch File section, you will find out
more reasons to have multiple configuration files.
Example : PRISEC /C:MYCONFIG.CFG
Go To Monitor Screen/Mode
This command line option, /G:M, will bypass the main menu and take
Private Secretary directly to the Monitor Screen/Mode. This makes it possible
to run Private Secretary unattended from a BATch file. With Abort set to
[Y]es and the Abort Schedule set properly, a BATch file could use Private
Secretary to its fullest. See the BATch File section for more detailed
information.
There is one consideration when using the GoTo Monitor command. If you
have Private Secretary's Abort Option (O) set to [Y]es and the Abort Schedule
set to a time BEFORE Private Secretary is invoked, this command will only
invoke the message "Past Abort Time [KEY]", pause three seconds, set the
errorlevel to 255, and exit back to DOS. The errorlevel is the same as if
abort had occurred when Private Secretary was running. Therefore there is no
difference with BATch file programming.
Example : PRISEC /G:M
Ring Switch Abort
If your budget is real tight and you don't want to invest the few dollars
a month or your area doesn't have the personalized ring services yet, this
option opens the power of Private Secretary in a different way. In these
cases the auto abort feature, "/AA:", would be impractical with just one
type of ring. This is where the Ring Switch option shines.
This option can set Private Secretary to abort and set a unique errorlevel
for three cases. Any one, two, or all three cases can be monitored at once,
/S:1, /S:2, /S:3, /S:12, /S:13, /S:23, and /S:123. Each case monitors for a
standard (long ring-long pause). Foreign Users who have a standard ring-ring-
pause cadence should substitute 4, 5, and 6 for 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
That is /S:4, /S:5, /S:6, /S:45, /S:46, /S:56, and /S:456 are valid. Before
Page 24
you can actually use either mode you MUST set the appropriate ring cadence
on the Configuration Menu. If you live in an area where the USA long-ring
long-pause cadence is standard you need to let Private Secretary configure the
(G) LL Ring Config option first. If you live in an area where the foreign
cadence is standard you need to let Private Secretary configure the (H) SS
Ring Config option first.
Although not automatic, all you need to inform your callers to do is to
call your number, let the line ring once, twice, or three times depending on
your settings. (In foreign countries where you hear the same cadence as the
phone that would be twice, four times, or six times.) Hang up. Pause a few
seconds. Then call back.
In each case when Private Secretary aborts to DOS it sets the unique
errorlevel to 11 for 1 or 4, 12 for 2 or 5, and 13 for 3 or 6. This enables
a BATch program to detect which function to enact. Consider this example:
:top
PRISEC /S:12
IF ERRORLEVEL=255 GOTO QUIT
IF ERRORLEVEL=12 GOTO HOST
IF ERRORLEVEL=11 GOTO FAX
GOTO TOP
:host
WAIT4COM 1 2
PCPLUS /FHOST-PCP.ASP
GOTO TOP
:fax
WAIT4COM 5 4
ZXFAX /A=1
GOTO TOP
:quit
This is a real world example of using your modem and fax/board on one
telephone line. For an explanation of WAIT4COM see the separate section on
WAIT4COM. The first errorlevel check allows for use of the (O) Abort function
(see the configuration section for details). The second errorlevel test (=12)
is for the two-ring (or four-ring for foreign users) switch. The BATch file
properly tests and directs the flow to the host label/section where the batch
file runs the communication program (automatically entering the host mode with
the script provided). The last errorlevel test (=11) tests for the one-ring
(or two-ring foreign) switch. The BATch file directed the flow to the fax
section where the fax software is loaded and directed to answer on the first
ring. This is just one example of the power of Private Secretary and BATch
file program. See the BATch file programming section for more details.
Automatic Abort on Ring ID
This option is one of the most powerful that Private Secretary has to
offer. It can only be invoked on the command line with "/AA:cc[cc[cc]]" for
example:
PRISEC /G:M /AA:SSSL
In this example we have instructed Private Secretary to abort to DOS
whenever it detects the "SS" ring cadence or the "SL" ring cadence. As you
might expect by now, Private Secretary also sets a unique errorlevel when it
aborts, 251 for "LL", 252 for "SS", and 253 for "SL." You can set all three
at once for auto-abort functions, however this might prove impractical. Let's
look how this could be applied to BATch programming...
Page 25
:top
PRISEC /AA:SSSL
IF ERRORLEVEL=255 GOTO QUIT
IF ERRORLEVEL=253 GOTO HOST
IF ERRORLEVEL=252 GOTO FAX
GOTO TOP
:host
WAIT4COM 1 2
PCPLUS /FHOST-PCP.ASP
GOTO TOP
:fax
WAIT4COM 5 4
ZXFAX /A=1
GOTO TOP
:quit
This is a example of the power of Private Secretary combined with the
pesonalized ring services. With one telephone line fee (plus the few
dollars a month for personalized ring services) you can received fax's by your
fax modem/board, login to your communication host program, or run a BBS, and
have a normal voice. Use your imagination! Use voice, electronic voice-mail,
and fax! You are limited only to your imagination.
Page 26
Your Answering Machine, A Major Key
If you have and use an answering machine, it is one of the major keys when
using Private Secretary. Since it picks up the telephone line, rendering all
other devices unfunctional, your answering machine must be place in an "end of
chain" position. To use Private Secretary to the fullest, you must set your
answering machine to answer on the highest number of rings possible (usually 6
or 7). For example, if your answering machine was set to answer on the second
ring and you set Private Secretary with the command line option /S:3 (abort if
phone generates a SL ring pattern), Private Secretary would never abort. The
reason is that the answering machine might answer on the second ring and
interrupts the incoming call. We're not suggesting to set your answering
machine to answer on ten rings. The best setting is the one that allows you
to use Private Secretary the way you want and still answer calls in a timely
manner.
Another consideration is what is known as the "Toll Saver" feature you
find on some answering machines. This features lets the user know there are
messages left on the answering machine by answering on the first ring despite
any settings. Consider the havoc this would have on Private Secretary, about
the only options that would work would be file logging, and wake up. In every
other case, the first ring answer would effectively terminate Private
Secretary's ability to perform. For this reason, you must TURN OFF "Toll
Saver" if you have it on your answering machine. "What if I go on vacation and
need `Toll Saver'?" Usually you wouldn't need (or want) Private Secretary
while you are on vacation. Turn "Toll Saver" back on during vacation and back
off when returning.
Private Secretary and Fax
Private Secretary can enable PC host program to work on the same line with
your fax machine/board. If you are using a fax board, you should also be able
to use your answering machine on the same line too. Briefly, a fax board is a
expansion board that fits into your PC (and accompanying software) and
enables you to receive and send faxes just like you had stand-alone fax
machine. The advantage of a fax/board is that it is controlled by its
accompanying software, giving Private Secretary the ability to control fax's.
Obviously, Private Secretary has no control over a stand-alone fax machine.
Therefore, we must treat each one separately. However, both types should be
hooked to the same telephone line as your modem.
Stand Alone Fax Machines
A stand-alone fax machine must be treated much like an answering machine,
it should be set to answer on the highest number of rings as possible to get
the most out of Private Secretary. Even if you can't find such a setting in
your fax's manual, call the manufacturer or distributor. Often they can
instruct you how to do so over the telephone at no charge. A very few Private
Secretary users may have to take their fax machines to the local service
center to have the change made. Fortunately such a change usually has only a
nominal charge. Even the newest, most inexpensive fax machines usually have a
configuration switch to set this function. CHECK YOUR OWNERS MANUAL. We
suggest setting (or having set) your fax machine to answer on 6 to 8 rings.
However, a setting of 4 rings is preferable to 2, etc.
Another adjustment for stand-alone fax machines is a Private Secretary
adjustment. The configuration option (2) should be considered, "Fax Machine
Answers on ? Rings" and set properly. Now, if you wish to use your host
program on the same line as your fax machine, read the section "Private
Page 27
Secretary and Your PC Host."
Fax(/Modem) Boards
A fax board has the advantage of software which Private Secretary can
control. This should enable you to use your fax board, modem/host program,
and answering machine all on one telephone line. If you DO NOT want Private
Secretary to control your fax board then read the section just previous on
Stand-Alone Fax Machines and setup your fax board that way. One problem
might exist though, some of the fax software is very mis-behaved and GRABS the
COM port from the system. If this is the case, Private Secretary will be
rendered useless because it will not be able to monitor your telephone line.
If you DO want Private Secretary to control your fax board, then the first
thing you need to do is check your fax board's settings. You need to set it
to answer on the first ring. The reason for this is that once Private
Secretary instructs the loading of your fax software, you want your fax board
answering the phone as quickly as possible. This is especially true if you
plan to use Private Secretary's "/AA:" feature to make a personalize ring
number your "fax" number, automatically.
Consider that it can take Private Secretary two rings to determine which
type of ring is incoming, a second to drop to DOS, and a couple of more
seconds before your fax software will start loading. That can mean several
seconds before your fax software sees the first ring. If you have a slow hard
drive (something you'll never realize until you have a fast one) your caller
might be looking at three (3) rings before your fax software answers.
Consider too that your fax software MUST answer prior to the time that your
answering machine or stand-alone fax machine does.
We highly recommend that you load your fax software and/or your PC host
software from a ram-disk if your hard disk is too slow. How do you find out?
Take a test run, watch your computer monitor, listen to the phone, answering
machine. It doesn't take an engineering degree to determine if things are
going to work by observing and listening.
PC Host Software Configuration
You must properly configure your PC host software to (a) answer on the
first ring and (b) force it to boot when carrier is lost. Read the section
following which applies to you and follow the directions.
For TELIX: A host script named "HOST.SLC" (compiled) is distributed with
Telix. Make changes to the source code, "HOST.SLT", if necessary and
recompile. You can use most any standard communication program to call into
the remote host. You will need to use WAIT4COM to guarantee it will boot on
exit.
For ProComm: press [ALT-S], Press [5] "Host Setup", edit the auto answer
string to "~~~+++~~~ATS0=1^M", and press "S" to save the changes. You also
need to copy the file "HOST_PC.CMD" to the Procomm sub directory (default is
C:\PC\). You can use most any standard communication program to call into the
remote host. You will need to use WAIT4COM to guarantee it will boot on exit.
For ProComm+: press [ALT-S], press [M] then [G] then [E], edit the auto
answer string to "~~~+++~~~ATS0=1^M". Now press [ESC]ape twice then "S" to
save. You also need to copy the file "HOST_PCP.ASP" to the Procomm sub
directory (default is C:\PCPLUS\). You can use most any standard
communication program to call into the remote host. You will need to use
WAIT4COM to guarantee it will boot on exit.
Page 28
For Crosstalk or Mirror: A command file named "HOST_XT.XTK" is provided.
You must copy this to the same directory as Crosstalk or Mirror (usually
C:\XTALK\ or C:\MIRROR\). The same script will work for either program. You
can use most any standard communication program to call into the remote host.
You will need to use WAIT4COM to guarantee it will boot on exit.
Qmodem SST 4.1: a host program is providedd with QM SST. Follow the
directions provided in the file "QMHOST.DOC" to set up the QM SST host
program. You can use most any standard communication program to call into the
remote host. You will need to use WAIT4COM to guarantee it will boot on exit.
For PC Anywhere: press F7 from the main menu, make the changes, press F9
to save the changes. Note: you MUST use the ATERM program provided with PC
Anywhere to call into the remote host. When logging off, access ATERM's
"special function" menu (press [CTRL]-[Right Shift]") to reboot the host
computer. THIS WILL AUTOMATICALLY RESET the host computer and put Private
Secretary back in control. You must use this method, rather than ACANCEL or
ALOGOFF; because neither of them will give control back to Private Secretary.
For Carbon Copy: type CCINSTAL from a command line, set to answer on one
ring, and set "REBOOT ON EXIT" to "YES". Use the program CCHELP provided with
Carbon Copy to call into the remote host. Carbon Copy has a very overbearing
attitude about the com port. When it takes control, not even WAIT4COM will
function correctly. You MUST use Carbon Copy's CCINSTAL program to set the
"REBOOT ON EXIT" option to "YES".
Page 29
Personalized Ring Services [Optional]
The personalized ring services are offered by local telephone companies
in many areas under a variety of names as of 8/92:
* MultiRing (Ameritech)
* RingMaster (Southern Bell and S. Central Bell)
* IdentiRing (Bell Atlantic)
* TouchStar (Southern Bell)
* Personalized Ring Service (Southwestern Bell)
* InteliRing, RingMate (NYNEX)
The personalized ring service allows you to have up to three different
telephone numbers connected to the same telephone line. When anyone calls any
of the three numbers they will hear the same "ring, pause, ring, pause" that
is normal to most telephone systems. However at the location equipped with
the personalized ring service there will be a distinctive ringing pattern for
each number called, allowing you to know which number is being called.
Understand too that this service is not available in all areas. It is even
unavailable in some exchanges and available in others within the same city.
For more information about personalized ring services, refer to the "User's
Guide to Custom Calling Services" in the telephone book or contact your local
telephone company representative. Naturally there is a "hook-up" charge and
an additional monthly fee for each additional telephone number. However, the
fees are only fractional of the cost of an additional "line"
The three ringing patterns (cadences) are:
Long-ring, long-pause, long-ring, long-pause, etc. This pattern is the
way your phone has been ringing all along, it is the main/billing telephone
number. Private Secretary denotes this cadence as "LL"
Short-ring, short-pause, short-ring, long-pause, etc. This pattern is
the second telephone number that you can have installed on your main/billing
number. Private Secretary denotes this cadence as "SS"
Short-ring, short-pause, long-ring, short-pause, short-ring, long-pause,
etc. This pattern is the third telephone number that you can have installed
on your main/billing number. Private Secretary denotes this cadence as "SL"
Personalized Ring Services, You, and Electronic Equipment
While the personalized ring service can be an inexpensive way of
automating your life. The differences in ringing patterns can also complicate
the life of your electronic equipment that attaches to the telephone line.
Consider...
We use a less expensive fax machine and an answering machine at another
location occasionally and also have the personalized ring services there. The
fax machine will not recognize the third, "SL", ring pattern at all. So it
would never answer that pattern. The answering machine refuses to recognize
the second, "SS", ring pattern, but does answer the third. Although it
considers the "SLS" sequence as one ring. The more expensive fax machine we
use here recognizes all three patterns and when set to answer on three rings,
will answer at the end of one third ring pattern, "SLS", if a call comes in on
that number. Understand that none of these electronic devices were designed
to ignore or decipher these specialized rings. The personalized ring services
are fairly new and the electronic devices are "old."
The warning is that if you use the personalized ring service, you can
experience problems that are entirely unrelated to Private Secretary. For
example, if you set configuration option "(2) Answ Mach Answers on ? rings" to
4 rings and an incoming call is on the third, "SL", ring pattern AND your
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answering machine recognizes each pattern as one ring, the call would never
write the log at all or correctly because Private Secretary would properly
discern 12 rings before the call was answered.
If you are going to subscribe to the personalized ring services, we
strongly suggest that you test the reaction of your answering machine, fax
machine/board and any other telephone device to each ring pattern. This will
insure that you achieve the most accurate work out of your Private Secretary.
Faxing US with problems
(1) The fax number provided in this document, (817) 249-4284, is strictly
a fax line only. It is NEVER answered by voice. A week will not pass without
receiving a handful of fax's and letters that say something to the effect, "I
couldn't get anyone to answer the telephone so...."
(2) We receive dozens of fax's and letters each week promising
registrations "if we'll only answer their question immediately by phone or
fax". At one point we did a survey and found that we were developing a large
phone bill and a larger stack of promises. If you are not a registered user
yet by all means fax us your questions, but you must include your mailing
address to receive a reply by mail. Of course you can send questions by
Electronic Mail on CompuServe (70130,330) or Electronic Mail on EXEC-PC
(Charles Robertson) and receive a response usually within a few hours. If you
prefer you can also send question by U.S. Mail. Naturally, REGISTERED users
who have chosen the fast response option will receive a fax response if they
request it. Read about the "Fast Response" option for information on getting
faster help.
If you send a question by mail, you aren't a registered user, and wish a
fax reply simply slip into the envelope with your questions three first class
stamps or securely tape three quarters to an index card (to cover the cost of
the call) and your reply will be made by fax.
Another way of getting a fast response would be to fill out the
cc_reg.doc form and register, including the "Fast Response" option, via credit
card through our authorized agent. Since we have 30 day money back guarantee,
if you aren't satisfied you will receive a refund (less any credit service
charges imposed by the credit card company). Public (software) Library will
inform us within hours of your registration and you will be able to receive a
faxed response probably the next business day.
Registration
Registration is $US24.95 (effective 1/1/95 - $29.95)includes the latest
version on disk (5.25-360, 3.5-720, 5.25-1.2M (include size, density); a
laser-printed bound manual; free support for a year via U.S. Mail, Electronic
Mail on CompuServe (70130,330), Electronic Mail on EXEC-PC (Charles
Robertson), by 24 hour-365 day Fax (817-249-4284) with US Mail return; a $3
discount coupon redeemable against registration of any other of our programs;
and a discounted upgrade to a newer version.
For just an additional US$3.00 (US$3.60 after 12/31/94) the "Fast
Response" option adds the speed of response by fax (if requested) for a full
year usually within 24 hours (of course response time depends on the nature
and number of the question(s)). Check with local office supply stores that
have business services. At most of these you can receive a fax transmission
Page 31
for a very small charge (usually under $0.10 per page).
Through 12/31/94 additional charges are: credit card orders add $US2.00,
Canadian orders add US$4.00 for registration; overseas orders add US$10.00
for registration. Effective 1/1/95, add 20% to all above including
registration.
Copyrights, Trademarks, Service Marks, Etc.
MultiRing, RingMaster, IdentiRing, TouchStar, Personalized Ring Service,
InteliRing, and RingMate are Service Marks (SM) of various Bell companies.
Private Secretary is copyrighted 1992 by Unique Software, All Rights
Reserved.
ProComm is a registered trademark of DataStorm Technologies, Inc.
Remote and Crosstalk are registered trademarks of Microstuf, Inc.
Carbon Copy is a registered trademark of Mathtek and Meridian Technologies
QModem and QModem SST are registered trademarks of John Friel
Telix is a registered trademark of Exis, Inc.
PC Anywhere is a registered trademark of Dynamic Microprocessor Assoc,
Inc.
Mirror is a registered trademark of SoftKlone, Inc.
Page 32
WAIT4COM
Wait4Com is a companion program which facilitates the use of your fax board
and/or your PC host program with Private Secretary. Basically, WAIT4COM does
exactly as its name implies. Consider typing the following:
WAIT4COM 3 1
This command loads WAIT4COM and instructs it to wait for some com activity for
three (3) minutes on comport one (1). Since WAIT4COM is a resident program it
waits quietly in the background.
When WAIT4COM is resident it performs two functions. First, if someone
accidentally rings your telephone and Private Secretary loads your PC host
software, then WAIT4COM will boot your computer after the number of minutes
you specified (in our example three (3) minutes). This resets the "false
triggering" of Private Secretary and prevents your PC host program from
sitting there all day waiting to confuse the next caller expecting you or your
answering machine. Second, if you or someone you authorized does call in to
access your host program, Private Secretary will monitor the com port you
specified (in our example com one(1)) waiting for the call to terminate. When
the caller hangs up, WAIT4COM will reboot your computer.
In conjunction with a custom AUTOEXEC.BAT file for Private Secretary, booting
your computer will reload Private Secretary and your Private Secretary is
ready for work again in just seconds.
Wait4Com and Your Fax/Modem Board
How can Private Secretary help with your fax/modem board? Your fax
software (which is actually what makes your fax/modem board work with your
computer) will determine exactly what is needed to make Private Secretary work
most efficiently with your system. Some fax software has command line options
instructing it to exit (drop to DOS) after receiving a fax. Other fax
software has companion programs which instruct it to start and stop monitoring
the phone line. Other fax software (when loaded) simply monitors the
telephone line for a ring. A lot of fax software (when loaded) GRABS the com
port to watch it and won't let any other program, device have access to the
com port.
The first two types don't require the use of WAIT4COM. BATch file
programming can handle everything and your computer doesn't need to boot! See
the section on "BATch File Programming" for details.
The last two types require the use of WAIT4COM because of their nature.
Since, obviously a fax board can't generate a modem tone, we will use WAIT4COM
as a timing program. Using our previous example would probably be OK, but
just to be sure (something you should always do with a computer), let's change
the com port number to one that doesn't exist on your system -or- to the one
that your mouse or printer uses:
WAIT4COM 3 4
Typing this line will load WAIT4COM and wait for com activity for three
(3) minutes on com port four (4). Since com port four will never have
activity, your computer will simply boot after three minutes. This cancels
your fax software's monitoring the com port and reloads Private Secretary all
within several seconds. You're back to having Private Secretary with a full
work load.
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Wait4Com and Your PC Host Program
Naturally, you would actually never type this line in manually, WAIT4COM
is fairly useless as a command line program. But used within the framework of
BATch file programming, WAIT4COM becomes a powerful link and valuable
assistant with ill-behaved fax software and PC host software that doesn't have
the features you need.
Wait4Com - What's going on
Wait4Com, being a resident program, has to be careful with other things
going on or that might go on within the programming frame of your computer.
To prevent problems, WAIT4COM saves the status of your computer when it loads.
This information is stored using (1) Expanded Memory (EMS), or (2) a disk
file, or (3) in conventional memory in the order that WAIT4COM finds space
available. Depending on your system Wait4Com may need to write as save as
much as a 81K "snapshot" of your computer status. If you're not using Private Secretary and find a file named
"WAIT4" on one of your drives then you can erase it as this is the temporary
file that WAIT4COM uses.
For detailed information about using WAIT4COM see the section on "BATch
File Programming."
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BATch File Programming
Batch file programming is not necessary to use Private Secretary.
However, with it the power of Private Secretary will explode before your eyes.
First, you need to understand the function of the BATch file programming
function "ERRORLEVEL." This function test the ERRORLEVEL code that many, many
programs set and use as indicators that something happened. ERRORLEVEL can
bet set from the value 0 to the value 255. Consider the following generic
BATch program example:
program /option
IF ERRORLEVEL=1 ECHO "program" told us something happened
This very simple example shows the usage of ERRORLEVEL in an IF test. If
"program" sets the errorlevel, the BATch file would echo `"program" told....'
You probably already have some ideas. Let's look closer at ERRORLEVEL with
this example
program /option
IF ERRORLEVEL=1 ECHO file not found
IF ERRORLEVEL=7 ECHO disk full
This is an example of how to test for various conditions (naturally,
program's documentation will have to tell you what errorlevel was set for what
problem). This is also an example of how NOT to test for more than one
condition. The reason is what we call a mis-feature of DOS. When the
errorlevel is set every "IF ERRORLEVEL" test LESS THAN OR EQUAL to the
errorlevel set will be true. In other words, in our example if the errorlevel
was set to 7 by program, tests for "ERRORLEVEL=1", "ERRORLEVEL=2",
"ERRORLEVEL=3", "ERRORLEVEL=4", "ERRORLEVEL=5", "ERRORLEVEL=6", and
"ERRORLEVEL=7" will all be true and the ECHO (or whatever command you wish to
put there) would be executed. So in our example with the errorlevel set to 7
by program, you would get two message "file not found" AND "disk full."
To adapt to this mis-feature, we need to explain about BATch line labels
and the GOTO statement. Consider this example of our program above:
program /option
IF ERRORLEVEL=1 GOTO one
IF ERRORLEVEL=7 GOTO seven
ECHO no errors
GOTO quit
:one
ECHO file not found
GOTO quit
:seven
ECHO disk full
:quit
You will immediately note the directive "GOTO" instead of "ECHO" as
before. "GOTO" does exactly that, it forces the "BATch Processor" to GOTO the
label named just after it. You have probably already figured out what defines
a label for a BATch file. The colon tells the "BATch Processor" that this is
a label line. The actual label is what follows the colon. Although you can
place the colon before the label name after the "GOTO". Since a label line
is just a label, the line executed after a "GOTO" directive is the line
following the label line. If that's confusing don't worry about it, just make
sure to include your "GOTO"'s and labels where you need them.
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If you remembered what we said earlier, you've probably already caught the
programming mistake here. We did correct our batch file so it only prints one
error description. But if "program" sets the errorlevel to 7, our batch file
is still going to "ECHO" file not found and quit. This is THE important rule
of thumb, especially when power programming with Private Secretary.
Always do ERRORLEVEL checks from the highest number possible down to the
lowest number possible. This includes the check for ERRORLEVEL=0.
So to make our first example work correctly it should look like this:
program /option
IF ERRORLEVEL=7 GOTO seven
IF ERRORLEVEL=1 GOTO one
ECHO no errors
GOTO quit
:seven
ECHO disk full
GOTO quit
:one
ECHO file not found
:quit
Hint: If you program in BASIC, you are liable to get confused at one time
or another and use a THEN on an IF ERRORLEVEL line. It is not acceptable and
will generate an error. Watch for it!
Our previous example has been a generic "do nothing" example useful for
instruction only. Let's consider a real-world example using Private
Secretary:
:day
PRISEC /G:M /S:1 /C:PS_DAY.CFG
IF ERRORLEVEL=255 GOTO nite
IF ERRORLEVEL=11 GOTO switch
IF ERRORLEVEL=1 GOTO day
IF ERRORLEVEL=0 GOTO quit
:switch
SWITCH 1 ON
GOTO day
:nite
PRISEC /G:M /C:PS_NITE.CFG
IF ERRORLEVEL=255 GOTO day
IF ERRORLEVEL=1 GOTO nite
IF ERRORLEVEL=0 GOTO quit
:quit
Now we have an example which just scratches "Private Secretary"'s power.
If you remember (or have read) "Private Secretary"'s documentation when Abort
is set to [Y]es and the set time occurs for that day, Private Secretary sets
the errorlevel to 255 and exits to DOS. We assume that in the first
invocation of Private Secretary, the configuration file ("PS_DAY.CFG") has the
Abort option on and the schedule set properly. When the set time occurs the
errorlevel is set to 255 and Private Secretary exit to DOS. Since the first
test (correctly) tests for the errorlevel of 255 and this is true control
switches to the label ":nite". Now the second invocation of Private Secretary
takes over which we will assume also has Abort set to [Y]es and the schedule
set for some time in the morning. When that time is reached, Private
Secretary will set errorlevel to 255 and exit to DOS. This time control is
Page 36
transferred BACK to the label ":day" and the first invocation of Private
Secretary. In other words we now have a batch file that will use a different
day and night configuration for Private Secretary.
You'll also note that in the "day" section we also check for an errorlevel
of 11. This relates to the option above of "/S:1". (For more information,
read the section on "Abort, Ring Switch") This means that during the "day"
configuration you could call in to your phone line, let it ring once, then
hangup. Private Secretary would set the errorlevel to 11 and exit to DOS.
The errorlevel test of 11 transfers control to the label ":switch" and the
program line "SWITCH A 1 ON" would execute. Then the "GOTO" directive reruns
the "day" cycle. What does the line "SWITCH A 1 ON" do? It could be many
things for you. Private Secretary was tested with a device that hooks to a
serial port and sends "signals" through your electric wiring to other control
buttons. These buttons can be easily coded to receive the particular signal.
To simplify the explanation, "SWITCH A 1 ON" could turn on a lamp, an air
conditioner, a heater, etc. It could have just as easily been "SWITCH A 16
OFF" to turn off some other device around your home. AND since Private
Secretary allows you to have three separate switches, you could have turned on
or off, three different devices besides the other functions Private Secretary
offers. With power BATch programming, dozens of combination would be
possible.
Let's look at a combination of auto abort, "/AA:" and switch "/S:" so you
can use your fax/modem board, modem, and answering machine on one telephone
line:
:top
PRISEC /G:M /AA:SS /S:1
IF ERRORLEVEL=255 GOTO quit
IF ERRORLEVEL=252 GOTO fax
IF ERRORLEVEL=11 goto host
IF ERRORLEVEL=1 goto top
IF ERRORLEVEL=0 goto quit
:fax
WAIT4COM 5 4
FAXHOST /ANSWER=1
goto quit
:host
WAIT4COM 2 1
PCPLUS /host
:quit
This batch file begins to tap the power of Private Secretary. We have set
up Private Secretary to automatically abort when it detects the short-short
ring cadence, "/AA:SS". The BATch programming detects the errorlevel set by
this action as 252 and transfers control, "GOTO", the fax label, ":fax". The
fax "section" first loads the companion TSR program WAIT4COM which is told, "5
4" to wait for five minutes for COM4 activity before booting. In this case
there will be no activity so your computer will be reset in five minutes.
Remember too that with the go to Monitor option, /G:M, and configuration
abort option (O), if the abort time has passed Private Secretary will
immediately set the errorlevel to 255 and drop back to DOS.
Notice we set the fax software to answer on one ring. This is important,
since we are running on automatic, "/AA:". By the time your fax software
loads the second ringing pattern could be underway and your fax software/board
MUST answer before the answering machine picks up the phone line. This BATch
file would require the Private Secretary boot disk in drive "A:" so that your
Page 37
computer would automatically rerun this BATch file after booting. See the
section on Boot Disk for more information.
The other section to this BATch file is the host section, from ":host" to
":quit". The invocation of Private Secretary forces a abort on the one-ring
switch and generates an errorlevel of 11. The BATch processor transfers
control to the host section, where first, WAIT4COM will insure that a false-
triggering or no-call in two minutes will re-boot your computer and put it
back to monitoring by Private Secretary.
"Well, this program isn't any good to me. I've got to be at the main
office from 9:00 till noon; at the south office from 1:00 till 2:30; then i'm
on the road from 3:00 to 4:45."
Oh but Private Secretary is that powerful, you just need three different
configuration files to take care of it.
:top
PRISEC /C:MORNING.CFG
IF ERRORLEVEL=255 GOTO south
IF ERRORLEVEL=0 GOTO quit
:south
PRISEC /C:SOUTH.CFG
IF ERRORLEVEL=255 GOTO road
IF ERRORLEVEL=0 GOTO quit
:road
PRISEC /C:ROAD.CFG
IF ERRORLEVEL=255 GOTO top
The only thing you need to do now is to set the appropriate schedule(s)
with the Configuration Menu, set the Abort Option (O) and Schedule (P) for
each day of the week, and rename the configuration file each time to
MORNING.CFG, SOUTH.CFG and ROAD.CFG appropriately. Now Private Secretary will
keep up with you all day long.
Page 38
Private Secretary Boot Disk
If your batch file requires the use of WAIT4COM, the easiest solution to
using Private Secretary is with your own customized Private Secretary Boot
Disk. Actually this is nothing more than a standard boot disk that
initializes your system to run Private Secretary automatically. This is
especially convenient if you have a hard drive. You can simply leave your
Private Secretary Boot Disk in Drive A and all you have to do to use Private
Secretary is to latch the drive door and reset your computer. Everything is on
automatic. And as simply, to quit using Private Secretary would be to unlatch
the Drive A door and reset your computer.
The program, MAKEBOOT.EXE, provided with this package will assist you in
setting up this boot disk. In fact, it may perform the entire process. Much
will depend on how your system is configured. Essentially here are the steps
to setting up a boot disk for Private Secretary (Which happen to be the steps
that MAKEBOOT.EXE takes.):
1. Put a blank (or disk you wish to recycle) in drive A:
2. Format the disk (by typing the following):
FORMAT A:/S/V
Depending on the version of DOS you use, DOS' FORMAT program may ask
several questions. Usually the questions are two: (1) The disk is about to be
formatted, all data will be lost. Continue with formatting? Since you put a
blank or recycled disk in drive A: answer "Y"es. Remember too that your
version of DOS' FORMAT may not ask you this question. Then after formatting
FORMAT generally asks, (2) Format Another?. Answer "N"o. Again, your version
of DOS' FORMAT may not ask you this question.
3. If it doesn't already exist COPY the file COMMAND.COM to drive A: Some
older versions of DOS did not do this automatically. Most newer versions of
DOS do this automatically when you specify a /S(ystem) format.
COPY COMMAND.COM A:
4. Copy the CONFIG.SYS file to your drive A:
COPY CONFIG.SYS A:
5. Copy the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to your drive A:
COPY AUTOEXEC.BAT A:
6. Add the following one or two lines to the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file
on your drive A:
C: (ONLY if you have a hard drive)
PS
Most any type of text editor that will output a standard text file can
be used to add these two lines to A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT. FYI, PS(.BAT) is the name
of the BATch file that BATCHIT.EXE will create for you.
7. If you don't have a hard drive you will need to copy the following
files to drive A:; WAIT4COM.EXE and PRISEC.EXE
COPY WAIT4COM.EXE A:
COPY PRISEC.EXE A:
If you don't have a hard drive and there is room you can also copy any
other files you wish to the Private Secretary Boot Disk. You should leave at
least 2K of room for each Private Secretary Configuration file needed for your
setup.
Page 39
Unanswered Questions
Since this is the first issuance of this manual, it is hardly complete.
We welcome your questions, all questions. Remember the only bad question is
the one not asked. Fax, write, electronic; no matter how you submit them we
will do our best to answer them quickly and accurately.
If you have an inquiry remember a few points. The more specific your
question is, the better you can describe your problem, or what you wish to
accomplish with Private Seretary; the more detailed a response we can give.
If a customer sends in a complaint like, "It doesn't work," the only response
we can make is a list of questions to focus on possibilities. "I can't get it
to do what I want," is a response encountered frequently on other products.
Obviously, we have to reply back with a list of questions like, "What program?
What were you trying to do? What were your settings? What did you expect
from the program? Being as specific and detailed as possible will speed a
resolution.
For now, read the manual, read the manual, read the manual. Then if you
still have a question, read the manual again. A number of people write, "I
don't understand the manual." When in fact you can tell from the question
that they never read the manual because the answer was there all the time.
Windows
We are assured of being asked about Windows compatibility. As of release
of this manual, Private Secretary has NOT been tested for Windows
compatibility. We hope to do so by fall of 1993.
Running in the Background
Wait4Com runs in the background. Private Secreatary does NOT run in the
background. Naturally we cannot guarantee nor make promises. However, we do
have enhancements under development.
This program is produced by a member
of the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make
sure that the shareware principle works
┌─────────┐ for you. If you are unable to resolve a
┌─────┴───┐ │ (R) shareware-related problem with an ASP
─│ │o │───────────────── member by contacting the member
│ ┌─────┴╨──┐ │ Association of directly, ASP may be able to help. The
│ │ │─┘ Shareware ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a
└───│ o │ Professionals dispute or problem with an ASP member,
─────│ ║ │─────────────────── but does not provide technical support
└────╨────┘ MEMBER for members' products. Please write to
the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road,
Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe
message via CompuServe Mail to ASP
Ombudsman 70007,3536.
Page 40