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MyIdea 2.0 Problem Solving c 1994 by Peter Neuendorffer 1
Contents page
To register this shareware Introduction 1
product, send $20.00 to Hot Keys 1
Peter Neuendorffer How you Organize an Idea 2
1399 Commonwealth Ave #11 Menus 3
Allston MA 02134 Tel.617-254-2213 Using MyIdea
No further media will be sent. Features 4
Changing Topics 5
Are you the kind of a person who likes to jot notes on restaurant
napkins? You carry a little notepad everywhere? You are always
trying to figure out how to do things, make things, or fix things?
Well even if you are not that kind of person, you may like MyIdea.
Before I forget, you avoid MyIdea startup animation with "spacebar."
To see a working demo, run MYIDEA DEMO from DOS. MyIdea takes you from
the idea or problem, such as "build a car" or "improve my looks" or
"great American novel," to describing what is involved, how to do it,
and where to go for help. You go through some hoops, but when you are
done writing, you may be surprised at how much you already knew about
your problem. "The problem is half the solution" is surely a hackneyed
statement. Rather "Knowing what the problem is, is half of the solution."
To install, copy the files to a subdirectory on your hard disk. A hard
disk is required. 700K free disk space required after instatallation.
When working on an idea, save it with a file name of your choosing. When
working on it again, run <MyIdea>. Then give the idea name (actually any
name) and the orignial filename. You can run <MYIDEA FILENAME> from DOS.
The software keeps track across sessions. Press Alt-X anywhere to quit
the program. When editing paragraphs in MyIdea, use Alt-N to insert a
blank line, Alt-Y to delete a line, and Alt-C to clear text to the end of
the line. When in edit mode for paragraphs, F7 to sort text. Text
paragraphs now have word wrapping.
This problem solving tool has six AREAS: TASKS, RESOURCES, DATA/MATERIALS,
RESEARCH, PEOPLE and IMPLEMENTATION. You divide each area into Topics
of your choice. For each Topic you write a paragraph, ask questions,
answer the questions, and make notes. You create progress notes and
overviews. When at least one AREA is complete (checked off) you can
create a report [MAKE REPORT] to send to the screen or the printer.
The software has three menus:
MAIN MENU: The main command. see "features" below
AREA MENU: Work with an area ====> topics,notes,progress
TOPIC MENU: Work with a topic =====> questions, answers, notes,progress
HOTKEYS: (do not apply when an error or a "Yes No" box is displayed.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Hot Key Where it works What it's for |
| Alt-X anywhere -Quit the program |
| Alt-W anywhere -Go to the main menu |
| F1 when prompted -See questions |
| F2 when answers shown -Edit answers |
| F2 when paragraphs shown -Edit paragraphs |
| F7 when editing paragrphs -Sort text |
* | F10 from Area Menu -Topics changes |
| F10 from Main Menu -Rename area |
| F8 from Main Menu -Rename idea |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* see "changing topics" section below
How you Organize your Idea pg 2
Starting: To start a new idea file, run MyIdea from DOS with no parameters
(no other words after the name MyIdea.) Later, when you continue work
on your idea, run <MyIdea filename> from DOS, or just run <MYIDEA>
and fill in the old idea name (any name will do). Use the correct file
name for your idea. Use the filename you entered when you first started
the new idea. There is only one file for each idea.
Enter the name of your idea or problem, such as "How get into college".
Then enter a file name to save on disk (example COLLEGE.DAT).
Paragraph: First, enter a paragraph about your problem-idea. You can edit
this again later. Once this paragraph is "closed" (F5), you get a menu
of AREAS for your idea-problem. The areas are TASKS, RESOURCES,
DATA/MATERIALS, RESEARCH, PEOPLE, and IMPLEMENTATION.
Get
Topics Start by completing the TASKS AREA, Then move to the other
areas. Remember, press Alt-X to end your session. A section is
marked completed (checked off) by pressing F5 from the section
(there will be a message).
Each AREA is set up identically. Start with TASKS. First, enter
a paragraph about TASKS. When the paragraph is completed (F5),
name the topics for the area. relating to TASKS, such as "write
letters", "interview","get references","take college boards."
When the topic names for TASKS are complete (F5), the main menu
will be updated with your topic names. When working on a topic, it
is a good idea to access it from the AREA NAME in the main menu -the
top (orange) item in each block of the main menu. That way an
intermediatee menu appears, showing the status of each topic.
Complete (check off) all four sections for every topic in order
to continue on to RESOURCES. The sections are Paragraph, Questions,
Answers, and Notes.
Completing:When the topic names are complete, you can move between them.
Topics Choose a topic. First, write a paragraph, this time
about the topic. Next, enter Questions for the topic.
"What should the letter style be?" for example. After each
question, press Enter. Then, enter a short Phrase describing the
question. (example "letter style.") You use these phrases
later, so make them to the point. (F5 to close off questions.)
Now, Answer the questions for a topic--you only see the short
phrases here. Next, enter Notes about the topic. You can
re-edit Answers and Notes later. You can move back and forth
between topics. [To close out topic Notes (F5), you must choose a
topic name, then press (F5) -even if you have accessed NOTES from
another menu. You can complete the various topics in any order,
moving between sections and topics within the Area menu.
====> After completing all four sections for EVERY topic [Paragarphs,
Questions, Answers, and Notes] , continue on to the next area,
"RESOURCES" and so on. If a topic is complete (checked off),
choose that topic from the MAIN or Area menu. You will see a new menu
of questions,answers,notes, and progress. You can change answers by
choosing answers and pressing F2. Edit Notes and Progress as well.
Menus pg 3
Main Menu=====> Area Menu=====> Topic Menu
(1) Main Menu: =after you complete opening paragraph. See "features."
TASKS RESOURCES DATA/MATERIALS | AREAS
topic topic .... |
topic topic .... |
|
|
RESEARCH PEOPLE IMPLEMENTATION |
|
---
OVERVIEWS MAIN PARAGRAPH MAKE REPORT <-----general
Topics and areas are checked off when completed. The working
area will be shown with a blinking Red arrow.
From the main menu, choose an AREA NAME (top selection of each
AREA block, in orange capitals) to get to the Area menu.
Choose a topic to bypass the Area menu.
(2) Area Menu:
topic (Choose a topic to work on.)
topic
Notes (all notes for the area)
Progress (all progress for the area)
The status (checked off) of each topic will be shown. (see
"Completing Topics" section of this manual)
(3) Topic menu:
Questions (for this topic)
Answers (for this topic)
Notes (for this topic)
Progress (for this topic)
Using Myidea
Enter: Don't panic. This is a writing project, not the Space Shuttle!
When entering in data, you must press ENTER to make the data stick.
If you just typed a phrase, or word, you have to press Enter before
escaping or before stopping with Alt-X. All Paragraphs act
differently- you get what you type, by pressing an Escape.
Exit: Escape takes you out of any section. F5 is reserved for closing out
an entire section and moving on. Do not use it for just exiting.
F5 is reserved for saying "I'm all done with this section."
Re-edit: To re-edit a paragraph, find it. The screen should say "F2 to Edit
Paragraph" or "F2 to Edit Notes". Press F2 to edit the paragraph,
then Escape to get out. When editing paragraphs, use the Alt-N
combination to insert a blank line, the Alt-Y combination to delete
a line, and the Alt-C combination to clear text to the end of line.
Features pg 4.
Writing: New writing sections: From the Main Idea menu, you may write
Overviews of the main IDEA and of each AREA (Tasks, Resources,
Data/Materials, Research, People, and Implementation). You may re-
edit the notes, or write progress notes for each topic.
Main Menu: From the main menu, you may jet to any area or topic. Use up,
down,right, and left arrows to select an area or topic (if there are
topics). Then press Enter to go to that area or topic. It is best
when working your way through writing areas and topics to select
from the first item of each AREA at the main menu, so you can see
your progress (checkmarks.) Selecting a topic from the main menu
instantly takes you to a topic, whatever it's status. But selecting
an AREA name first will bring a menu showing the topics' status.
Make Report: From the main menu you may create a report of the entire idea.
This is generated automatically. Choose "Make Report" and then
select an Area from the menu, or all areas. The next menu is to
choose selected sections to include in your report: paragraphs,
questions/answers, notes, progress, and overviews. Just press enter
(====OK===) to select all, or move the highlight bar to a section
and press SPACEBAR to toggle it on/off. (* means on .) Cancel will
clear all the sections. Press Enter when done.
After a short wait, answer "Y"es to send to printer,
"N" sends to the screen. If sent to the screen: use Alt-S to search
for a word or phrase, and Alt-L to search for the next occurence.
Page Up and Page Down to move through the pages. Control-Page-Down
goes to the last page, and Control-Page-Up returns to the first page.
The report reflects the current information about your idea. If you
change the information, future reports have your new information.
======> A special new option has been added. If you are reading a
Report on your display screen, at any time you may press F2. Move
the shade bar up and down with the up and down arrows. Press Enter,
and you will be returned to the main program, but IN THE SECTION
that that text comes from, whether paragraphs, questions, answers,
notes, progress, or overview. You will now be out of the report.
Remember Alt-W, or repeated escapes returns you to the main menu.
Sorting text: Paragraphs, overviews,notes, progress may be sorted. When
editing, Press F2 if necessary. Then select the beginning line to
sort (up and down arrows.) Press F7. Then mark multiple lines
(down/up arrow keys.) And Press Enter. Now move this block of
lines up or down, and press Enter again.
Renaming Areas: You can rename areas. Select an area (such as TASKS)
from the MAIN MENU (orange on blue). Highlight the area name,
the top (orange) bar for each area. Now press F10. Type in the
new area name and press enter. Please note: in order to make
things compatible with the first version of Myidea (1.0),
version 1.0 will display the original "factory" names. But this
version will always display your new area names.
Renaming the Idea: You can rename the Idea name (not the file name)
by pressing F8 from the Main Menu, and entering in the
new name. You can not do this from the opening screen,
but you can do it from the main (orange on blus) menu.
Changing Topics p 5
Rename, Sort, Add, Delete Move
Renaming Topics: You can rename topics. Select an area (such as TASKS)
from the main menu (orange top bar) PRESS ENTER) Now Highlight
the topic name you wish to rename. Press F10, (or Alt-T) and choose
Rename Topic from the menu. Type in the new name, and press enter,
or Escape to cancel. Very importantly, this will NOT move any data
around. If you want to sort topics, sort them as described below.
It's a good idea to use a new name that means about the same as
the old one -now ALL the titles for this topic will have your new
name.
Sorting topic names: You can sort the order of a topic in an area menu.
Select an area from the Main Menu (orange top bar on main menu).
Highlight a topic to sort in the area menu, and press F10 (or
Alt-T.) Then choose Sort Topic from the menu. Then move the
topic name with up or down arrow keys, and then press Enter.
Adding Topics: You can add a new topic to an area. The only restriction
is that the new area must have at least one topic already.
Press F10 (or Alt-T) from the Area Menu (green), and choose
Add Topic. Now enter in the name of the new topic. If their are
already eight topics in the menu, the software will refuse to
add a new one.
Please note, that adding a topic can change the Current Working
Area, as the new topic is not complete or checked off.
Delete Topics: You can delete a topic from an area. Care must be taken
not to delete large volumes of data, as once the topic name is
deleted, it's data no longer exists. Choose an Area (enter), then
press F10 (or Alt-T.) Then choose Delete Topic from the menu.
Answer "Y", Enter, "Y" to get past the saftey screens. The order
of the Working Area may be different in the Main Menu, as once
an incomplete topic is deleted, it may allow the Area to be checked
off as complete. If the topic to delete is the only one on the
Area's list, the software will not let you delete it.
Move Topics: You can move a topic, with all it's data to a different
area. The topic cannot be the only one on the Area list. Choose
an Area Menu (enter) and press F10 (or Alt-T). Now choose Move
Topic from the menu. Now choose the new area from the next menu,
and press enter.
I hope you enjoy using Myidea and register it soon. For product
support, call Peter Neuendorffer at 617-254-2213 (voice).