My Calendar has a new and very powerful help system. The help system consists of three major parts:
1. This new note pad/filing system/styled text editor that has information on the operation of the program and allows you to completely customize the topics, sizes, styles, fonts and colors and use these features like a mini word processor.
2. Standard Balloon Help - If you have balloon help installed in System 7 or later you can turn on balloon help and use the mouse cursor to get information on most of the features in the My Calendar windows.
3. Custom My Calendar Help - If you do not have balloon help or want the benefits of a faster help system that does not obscure window parts or require window updating then you can use the custom help system.
Special Font Styles!
We have added four new font styles usually found only in high price word processors. If your system has the ability to display and print these styles (most installations of System 7 have the custom text styles) then you will see these styles:
1. Superscript
2. Subscript
3. Strike Thru
4. Invert
At this time, these styles are not available for the calendar and note font selections. These styles will copy and paste between topics and print correctly to a printer from this document editor but the standard apple clipboard does not support these styles so pasting into another application will ignore these specific styles.
Topical Help:
The topical help system has been completely changed to allow more word processor and simple filing system features to be used. This display field (for each note) reflects the Page Setup page sizes you have chosen and the margins you have selected using the tab button above. If you change the page setup then the width of text will change just like a word processor.
Click on any topic in the scrolling list at the left side of the window to display that topic.
Typing in this field also works like a word processor. If you reach the right side of the window before you reach the width of text allowed, the window will scroll horizontally. Keep typing until you reach the right margin and the window will scroll back to the left margin.
You can also change the size of the display for the topics. Hold down the Option key. You will see a small black square handle appear at the bottom right side of the topic list scroll button. Click the mouse on the handle and drag the selection rectangle to the desired size. Release the mouse and the topic list will be redrawn using the new size.
Font, Size, Style and Color menus:
These menus work in the normal Macintosh fashion. Text that is selected when you use these menus will change to reflect your selections. If no text is selected then the changes will be applied to the point of the flashing cursor and new text will reflect your choices.
Edit Menu:
The first six items under the Edit menu work in the standard Macintosh fashion. Most (but not all) functions can be undone using the Undo command.
The File and Date menus to not have any effect on this window except for the Close command and the Page Setup.. command.
Tools:
There are fourteen tools that control the operation of this window/feature. Left to right, top to bottom they are:
1. New - This tool creates a new empty topic and prompts you for a name. Names should be limited to 32 or less characters and not include the "-" (dash) character. My Calendar uses this for formatting the list and using it will create display problems.
2. Find - This is a very powerful find function! It searches ALL existing notes for a string of text and will display the note (if text is found) and select the found text. This routine can search hundreds of notes with megabytes of data in seconds!
3. Import Text - This tool allows you to import text into the selected topic. The imported text will replace any text in the topic. Each topic field is limited to approximately 32,000 characters of styled text that can be viewed and printed.
4. Tab - This tool opens the Tabs/Margins window. The tab key can be programmed to be any number of spaces. You can also enter the size of margins to use when printing the documents.
5. Sort - Click on this tool to sort the scrolling list of topics at the left side of the window. The topics are sorted 0-9 and a-z. This cannot be undone!
6. Speak Text - If you have Apple's Speech Manager installed you can use this tool to speak either selected text or if no text is selected the entire text in the document. Future versions will allow voice selection, pitch, speed etc.
7. Date/Time Stamp - Click on this tool to insert the current date and time in the document at the current cursor location. Great for recording notes!
8. Save Topic - Click on this tool to save the changes you have made in the current document/topic.
9. Export Topic - Click on this tool to export a formatted text file of the current topic.
10. Print Topic - Click on this tool to print the current topic/document using the page setup and margins you have chosen.
11. Rename Topic - Click on this tool to rename the currently selected topic.
12. Auto-Name Topic - Click on this tool to rename the currently selected topic using the first characters of the topic itself.
13. Delete Topic - Click on this tool to delete the currently selected topic. This cannot be undone!
14. Copy Topic - Click on this tool to copy the entire styled text topic to the clipboard.
You can use up to 6,000 topics/documents. The text and style data is stored in the My Calendar Help file. You cannot delete the first topic.
Balloon/MC Help:
You can get additional help on the operation of My Calendar. Most of the buttons, fields, tools and other objects have balloon help. If you have System 7 and Apple Balloon help installed use the Balloon Help menu to turn on the balloons. Move the cursor over the element you want more information about and the balloon will explain it.
Even if you do not have System 7 or balloon help you can still get help. Simply type the Shift - Option - Question Mark keys or the Help key on extended keyboards and a help window will be displayed in the lower left corner of the screen. This internal help system is many times faster than balloon help and doesn't obscure any windows if your monitor is large enough.
We suggest that you print and read these instructions carefully including the warranty in the next topic. My Calendar has many options that make it a powerful calendar viewing and printing utility with new list and label features.
Always make backups of the My Calendar Help file to insure your data is safe.
Future versions may include the ability to open individual document files if enough users show interest.
