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PopPhone v2.05
May 24, 1993
Copyright 1993
Russell Hildreth
_______
____|__ | (R)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
PopPhone 2.0 Page 2
Introduction & Features:
PopPhone 2.0 is a simple RAM resident (TSR) phone book
program which you can quickly access from within most
applications. It uses very little memory and takes up very
little disk space. You can learn how to use PopPhone in
only a few minutes. It is easy to install. Now you can
finally have all of your frequently needed telephone numbers
at the tips of your fingers, only a keystroke away.
NEW! PopPhone 2.0 allows you to store as many numbers as
you wish. The only limit is the size of your hard drive.
NEW! PopPhone 2.0 allows you to store address information
as well as comments, in addition to the names and phone
numbers of your contacts.
NEW! PopPhone 2.0 uses less memory than earlier versions.
If you have extended or expanded RAM on your system,
PopPhone will load itself high and use as little as 5k of
conventional memory.
PopPhone alphabetizes entries by name, as you input them.
You can search for an entry by simply pressing the first
letter of the name.
PopPhone features an automatic modem dialing function so
that you can place calls without dialing yourself.
PopPhone includes a print feature so that you can generate a
list of all of your phone numbers.
PopPhone allows you to easily edit names and numbers as they
change.
PopPhone pops up over WordPerfect, Lotus123, and just about
every other application program there is.
Unlike other TSR programs, PopPhone can be quickly removed
from memory if you need to free up some extra space.
PopPhone is designed to be efficient and easy to use. It is
aimed at users who want a product that works simply and
intuitively, and does what it is intended to do, without the
high price of most commercial applications. PopPhone is a
product dedicated to one job the organized storage and fast
retrieval of your telephone numbers. You don't have to pay
extra for features you will never use.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 3
PopPhone's ideal place is on a computer system that is
constantly turned on during your working day, so that your
phone numbers are always ready for you.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 4
Definition of Shareware:
Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software
before buying. If you try a Shareware program and continue
using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs
differ on details some request registration while others
require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With
registration, you get anything from the simple right to
continue using the software to an updated program with
printed manual.
Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial
software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with
a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware
authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial
authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In
both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main
difference is in the method of distribution. The author
specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the
software, either to all or to a specific group. For
example, some authors require written permission before a
commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware.
Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software.
You should find software that suits your needs and
pocketbook, whether it is commercial or Shareware. The
Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because
you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is
low, prices are also low. Shareware has the ultimate money-
back guarantee if you don't use the product, you don't pay
for it.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 5
Disclaimer - Agreement:
Users of PopPhone 2.0 must accept this disclaimer of
warrant: PopPhone is supplied as is. The author disclaims
all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without
limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness
for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for
damages, director or consequential, which may result from
the use of PopPhone.
PopPhone is a "shareware program" and is provided at no
charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it
with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or
as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported"
software is to provide personal computer users with quality
software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive
for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you
find this program useful and find that you are using
PopPhone and continue to use PopPhone after a reasonable
trial period, you must make a registration payment of $25.00
to Russell Hildreth. The $25.00 registration fee will
license one copy for use on any one computer at any one
time. You must treat this software just like a book. An
example is that this software may be used by any number of
people and may be freely moved from one computer location to
another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used
at one location while it is being used at another, just as a
book cannot be read by two different persons at the same
time.
Commercial users of PopPhone must register and pay for their
copies of PopPhone within 30 days of first use or their
license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made
by contacting Russell Hildreth at the address below.
Anyone distributing PopPhone for any kind of remuneration
must first contact Russell Hildreth at the address below for
authorization. This authorization will be automatically
granted to distributors recognized by the ASP as adhering to
its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such
distributors may begin offering PopPhone immediately
(however Russell Hildreth must still be advised so that the
distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version
of PopPhone).
You are encouraged to pass a copy of PopPhone along to your
friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register
their copy if they find that they can use it.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 6
PopPhone is not crippled in any way. All features are fully
functioning in the shareware release. There are no nag
screens or commercials asking you to send registration
money. I believe that these things serve only to annoy, so
I leave them out of my programs. I trust that if you like
the program, you will register.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 7
ASP Ombudsman:
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 shareware-related problem with an ASP member by
contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help.
The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem
with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support
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.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 8
Registration and Support:
Registration entitles you to receive a copy of the current
version of PopPhone on disk, as well as a printed copy of
the documentation. Once you have registered, you are
perpetually licensed to use all future versions of PopPhone,
from wherever you may obtain them. You are entitled to
order any updates for a handling charge of $10. The author
will provide unlimited lifetime support to registrants.
If you have any questions before registering, please write
to Russell Hildreth at the address below, send CompuServe e-
mail to 71041,2132, or call (916) 753-2359
[evenings/weekends].
Please use the PHONE.REG form and specify your desired disk
size. Send check or money order for $25.00 payable to:
Russell Hildreth
PO Box 72431
Davis, CA 95617-6431
PopPhone 2.0 Page 9
Installation:
First, decide which directory on your hard drive you wish to
use for PopPhone. This can be an existing directory, such
as C:\UTILS or you can create a new directory, such as
C:\PHONE. If the directory does not exist, use the DOS
MKDIR command to create it.
Second, copy the PHONE.EXE file into that directory.
PopPhone will use that directory exclusively for all of its
functions and related files.
Third, edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to load PopPhone when you
reboot your computer, so that PopPhone is always available
(you can remove PopPhone from memory at any time by invoking
it [ALT-LeftShift-P] and pressing F8 or by entering PHONE -R
at the command line). Using a text editor such as EDIT, add
one line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to run PHONE.EXE. For
example, if you placed PHONE.EXE in a new C:\PHONE
directory, you would add the line "C:\PHONE\PHONE" to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You should add this line prior to any
SET or PATH statements you might have in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file [this is a good practice for any TSR program, since
each TSR loaded gets a complete copy of all active
environment variables (PATH is an example of an environment
variable), which ultimately means that more memory is
needlessly used by your TSRs, and less is available for
other programs].
After modifying your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, reboot your
computer. PopPhone will automatically be loaded each time
your computer is turned on or rebooted, so that it will
always be available for you.
To access PopPhone, press ALT-LeftShift-P at the same time.
The first time you run PopPhone in this manner there will
not be any numbers on file, and you will have to begin
adding entries (use the F2-Add function to do so). NOTE
that you MUST use the LEFT shift key on your keyboard. The
right shift key will not work in the above combination.
Finally, if you wish to use the modem dialing feature of
PopPhone, be sure to select option F7-Conf and answer the
questions about your communications port and dialing prefix
(if you have one). If you do not use the Configure option,
PopPhone defaults to COM 1 and no dialing prefix. The
communications port can be 1-4 (but PopPhone has not been
tested with COM 3 or COM 4). The dialing prefix can be
anything you need to dial out on your line (e.g., some
office lines require dialing "9" to get an outside line).
PopPhone 2.0 Page 10
You can enter up to 60 characters. If you do not require a
dialing prefix, just press <enter> on the blank line. The
information you provide will be saved to a file called
PHONE.INI and will be automatically loaded each time you re-
run PopPhone.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 11
Upgrading to PopPhone 2.0:
If you have already installed and been using an earlier
version of PopPhone, you will need to run the UPGRADE.EXE
program to convert your old PHONE.DAT file to the new
format.
Copy the UPGRADE.EXE file to the same directory as PHONE.EXE
and PHONE.DAT. UPGRADE.EXE looks for PHONE.DAT in the same
directory. If you were using PHONE500, rename the
PHONE500.DAT file to PHONE.DAT.
Type UPGRADE<enter>. Wait a minute.
Copy the new PHONE.EXE file over the old one.
Edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: PopPhone 2.0 does not require
any command line parameters, as did some earlier versions.
The line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file which loads PopPhone
needs to be changed to remove any command line parameters
required by the older versions. To run PopPhone 2.0 all you
need is the complete path and "PHONE", with nothing
following, e.g., "C:\PHONE\PHONE" is sufficient.
Reboot your computer. Invoke PopPhone with ALT-LeftShift-P,
as in the past.
If you will be using the modem dialing feature of PopPhone,
be sure to use the F7-Conf option to Configure your
communications port and dialing prefix. See the discussion
under Installation, above.
Gather up all of the address information you wish to include
with your entries. Use the F4-Edit key to make any desired
changes.
You can now add as many new entries as will fit on your hard
drive. If you run out of room on your hard drive, you can
install a bigger hard drive and continue adding more
entries. PopPhone 2.0 does not place any arbitrary limit on
the number of allowable entries, as did earlier versions.
You should back up your PHONE.DAT file whenever you make
changes or additions, to avoid having to re-enter all
information in the event of a hard drive accident.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 12
Using PopPhone:
After you have installed PopPhone 2.0 you can always access
it by pressing ALT-LeftShift-P. Pressing the three keys
together will cause PopPhone to pop up for use, no matter
what other program(s) you might have currently running.
PopPhone will also pop up over the DOS command line.
The following keys are available for your use when PopPhone
has been invoked:
F1-Quit: Returns you to wherever you were when you
activated PopPhone. PopPhone remains in memory
and can be repeatedly called up with ALT-
LeftShift-P.
F2-Add: ADD a name, phone number, etc. to the database.
This option will clear the display window (the
background color will change from light blue to
purpose on color video systems) and allow you to
enter the information for the new entry. The
fields available are for the name of the
individual or company, the phone number, a three
line address block, and a two line comment block.
See Appendix A for a complete list of the keys
available in the Add and Edit modes.
When you have entered all of the desired
information, press CTRL-ENTER to save (or press
ENTER on the last field). The new entry will be
sorted in alphabetically, based on the first field
(name). Press ESC to abort without saving.
Note that the fields are not specifically labelled
name, number, address, and comment. You can put
any information you wish into any of them, such as
inventory data. Remember, however, that the
database is sorted according to the information in
the first field, and the dial feature uses the
number in the second field.
F3-Del: DELETE the current entry. Use this option to
remove an entry you no longer want to keep on
file. Bring up the offending party and press F3.
You will be prompted to verify the deletion.
F4-Edit: EDIT the current entry. This works much like the
Add operation, but allows you to modify an
existing entry or add more information to an
existing entry. See Appendix A for a complete
PopPhone 2.0 Page 13
list of the keys available in the Add and Edit
modes. If you decide you do not wish to make any
changes, press ESC to abort.
F5-Dial: DIAL the number of the current entry. If you have
a modem connected to your computer, you can use
this feature to quickly dial the phone number,
without having to do so manually. Without picking
up the handset on your telephone, press F5. If
your modem is equipped with a speaker, you will
hear the dial tone and the number being dialed.
You can wait for someone to answer before picking
up the handset, if you wish. Press any key when
you have connected or you are otherwise finished.
If your modem is installed on COM 1 and/or you
need a dialing prefix, see the installation
instructions for information on creating a
PHONE.INI file. PopPhone defaults to COM 2 and no
dialing prefix if there is no PHONE.INI file.
F6-Print: PRINT a list of names and numbers. The list will
be sent to the printer on LPT1/PRN. Currently,
the list contains only the name and number fields.
The next release of PopPhone will allow you to
generate either a short or long list. The latter
will be useful for printing mailing labels based
on the phone database. If your printer is not
connected directly to LPT1, use the DOS MODE
command to reroute your ports. For more
information, see your DOS manual.
F8-Remove: Unloads PopPhone from memory. Use this
option if you need to free up some extra RAM
memory. F8 will permanently release PopPhone
2.0, so you will no longer be able to access
it with the ALT-LeftShift-P hotkey
combination. If you wish to use PopPhone
after removing it from memory, you need to
either run the program manually or reboot
your computer.
Letterkey: Pressing any letter key (A..Z or a..z) will
cause the program to search the entire
database for the first entry starting with
that letter. For example, if you press "g",
the first entry starting with the letter G
will be displayed. You can then use PgDn to
look at entries following that one. If there
is not entry beginning with the letter G, the
PopPhone 2.0 Page 14
program will beep at you in an annoying
fashion.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 15
Memory:
PopPhone 2.0 only stores one database entry in memory at a
time, to keep memory usage to a minimum. Also, if you have
more than 640k of RAM installed on your system, PopPhone
will load itself into high memory (provided that there is
enough room). In such a case, PopPhone will use only 5k to
12k of conventional DOS RAM. You need extended or expanded
memory for this feature to function properly, and you must
be running an appropriate high memory manager. For extended
memory, you should be using HIMEM.SYS and DOS=HIGH in your
CONFIG.SYS file. For expanded memory, you should be using
EMM386 in your CONFIG.SYS file. For best performance, you
should be using DOS 5.0 or higher.
Some systems that have some, but not enough high memory, may
cause PopPhone to lock up in certain situations. If this
happens to you, either remove some other programs to give
PopPhone more room to work in, OR try the -d command line
parameter, which forces PopPhone to swap itself to disk.
This will slow PopPhone down a little bit when popping up,
but on systems with hard drives, the wait will be
negligible.
The actual resident size of PopPhone 2.0 will depend on the
configuration of your computer, the operating system
version, and other variables.
Large Databases:
When you have established a large database of phone number
entries, you will notice that the add, delete, edit, and
sort functions may take some time to be completed. This is
because the database entries are being rearranged on your
hard drive. Obviously, the greater the number of entries,
the more time this will take. Older, slower hard drives
will slow the program down even more. Nothing is wrong with
the program, just be patient. Speeding up these functions
would require too much memory for a TSR type program.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 16
Troubleshooting:
Most problems with PopPhone relate to memory. If you cannot
get PopPhone to function properly on your machine, try
running it from a bootable floppy disk [ FORMAT a: /s ]. If
PopPhone works in a "clean" DOS environment, your problem
relates to something in either your CONFIG.SYS or
AUTOEXEC.BAT file (or both). Try removing other programs
one at a time until PopPhone functions on your system. In
general, the less you at boot time, the better.
If you continue to have memory troubles and PopPhone is
locking up, you can try using the "-d" command line
parameter. This will force PopPhone to swap itself to disk.
This will slow down PopPhone a little bit when popping up,
but on systems with hard drives, the wait will be
negligible. PopPhone will swap to a file called PHONE.SW1
in the startup directory. Do not delete this file while
PopPhone is active.
PopPhone 2.0 will now automatically pop-up over programs
running in graphics modes of CGA, EGA, VGA, XGA and other
video cards. PopPhone does not support popping up over
Hercules graphics modes or Windows.
DOS 3.0 or later is required for correct operation.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 17
Et cetera . . .
PopPhone has been tested with numerous application programs,
and will pop up over just about anything, including but not
limited to: Word Perfect, Lotus123, Procomm Plus, etc. The
only requirement is that you have 59k of free RAM, whether
conventional or expanded/extended. PopPhone will run from a
floppy disk drive, but it is not recommended that you try
this at home.
Phone numbers are stored in a file called PHONE.DAT, which
is placed in the same directory as the PHONE.EXE file. Back
it up every now and then and you won't have to re-enter
everything if your hard drive crashes.
The author of PopPhone can be contacted on CompuServe at
71041,2132 or by sending U.S. mail to:
Russell Hildreth
PO Box 72431
Davis, CA 95617-6431
Your comments and criticisms are welcomed and appreciated.
Every effort will be made to address your suggestions for
improvements to the program (though actually doing so may
take some time). If you have any problems running the
program, please contact the author so that steps may be
taken to resolve your difficulties.
Please feel free to copy and distribute the original
PHONE2.ZIP file or the shareware distribution disk. Be sure
that ALL of the original files are included with the copies
you distribute.
PopPhone 2.0 Page 18
Appendix A -- Add/Edit Mode Keys:
Key Action
--- ------
LeftArrow cursor left
RightArrow cursor right
UpArrow cursor up
DownArrow cursor down
Ctrl-LeftArrow word left
Ctrl-RightArrow word right
Tab field right
Shift-Tab field left
Enter process field
Ctrl-Enter process all fields (finished
editing)
Decimal (.) move to right side of decimal point
Home beginning of field
End end of field line / end of field
Ctrl-Home beginning of first field
Ctrl-End end of last field
Ins toggle field insert mode
Del delete character at cursor
BackSpace delete character left
Ctrl-BackSpace delete word left
Ctrl-R restore field to original contents
Ctrl-T delete word right
Ctrl-U delete to end of field
Ctrl-Y delete to end of last field
Esc abort data entry
