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================ Make*A*Date V1.5 July 1, 1991 ================ Make*A*Date is a tool that I hope you will find useful. As of version 1.50 it allows you to organize and store appointments, reminders, a TODO list, a phone numbers and general notes. In essence, Make*A*Date provides four ready-made databases titled "Scheduler", "Phone Book", "TODO List", and "Notes". Some History & An Introduction ------------------------------ You may have already seen this program before. In 1989, I wrote and uploaded to GEnie, a program called Agenda ST. Initially, the project was started so that I'd have an organizational system that duplicated what I can do on the wonderful Atari PortFolio. Agenda served that purpose well but as my luck would have it, two days after uploading the program to GEnie, I had a hard disk crash and lost all the source code. Two years later, here is Agenda again under the new name of Make*A*Date. It is very similar in appearance to the old Agenda but the inner workings are much improved. This is the first version and the modules that allow you to import/export data from/to the Atari PortFolio are not in place. As well, Make*A*Date now does not support "time" fields when making entries in the scheduler for a given day. I'll discuss this later in this manual. Features ======== So here Make*A*Date is -- in desktop format. It looks a little like the GEM desktop and things work in similar fashion. Icons are in place to choose items like the Scheduler (Appointments), Phone Book (Numbers) and tools like the Find function. Additionally you can install external applications (Word Processor, Disk Utility etc etc) as Icons on the Make*A*Date desktop much like you would do in NeoDesk or Atari's new Desktop. Packing List ============ The ARC file contains a number of things other than this file... -MDATE.PRG The Make*A*Date program. Can be run from any drive and folder. -MDATE.RSC The resource file necessary for Make*A*Date to run. -MDATE.INF Data file for Make*A*Date setup. -MDATE.RND The data file for the Scheduler. -MDATE.PHN The data file for the Phone Book. -MDATE.NOT The data file for the Notes Database. -MDATE.TOD The data file for the TODO List. *ALL* Of these files MUST be in the SAME directory. Besides this restriction, Make*A*Date can be installed wherever you like. The Make*A*Date Tour ==================== So we are ready to look at Make*A*Date... THE DESKTOP =========== Make*A*Date's Desktop is composed of a blank area in the middle of the screen, a TOOL bar on the right hand side, VCR icons along the bottom, the Find Bar next to these, and the EXTERNAL APPLICATIONS bar on the left. We'll go over each of these and their uses. Because the VCR icons' functions are specific to the Make*A*Date tool you are using, we'll discuss the use of these icons as we examine each of Make*A*Date's tools rather than in a separate section. [TOOL BAR] The TOOL BAR is a set of four icons, each of which activate a particular Make*A Date Tool. The icons are arranged vertically, so we'll work our way from top to bottom. THE SCHEDULER ------------- The Make*A*Date Scheduler will popup in the form of a dialog box displaying a calendar of the current month (as determined by the ST internal clock) with each date represented by a button. Any days that have been previously set up with appointments, will be highlighted. (How these days are highlighted will depend on your personal preference-- We'll get to this soon in the SETUP section) Clicking the mouse on any one of these days will bring up a dialog box for the day in question. The dialog box contains 20 lines, each of which you can fill with items you want entered for that day. Along the bottom, are two buttons marked SAVE and CANCEL. Both of these will exit the dialog box. CANCEL will exit without saving any of the new information that you've just entered. Additionally, to the right of the first five lines, are arrow buttons. Clicking on one of these will link that line with the TODO list. (More on the TODO list later) Once this link is established, you'll see a check mark in the little box. If you click again, the item is removed from the TODO list. Note that once you have used one of the arrow buttons to add or delete a TODO entry, the CANCEL button becomes disabled. (You're only option then, is to exit with a SAVE) While the MONTH dialog box is on the screen, navigation (through months and years) can be performed with the use of either the VCR icons or the keyboard : ICON KEY DESCRIPTION PREV YEAR CTRL- [LFT ARROW] Moves one year back NEXT YEAR CTRL- [RGT ARROW] Moves forward a year PREV MONTH [LEFT ARROW] Moves to previous month NEXT MONTH [RIGHT ARROW] Moves forward a month CURRENT Moves to current month QUIT CTRL-Q Quits Make*A*Date THE PHONE BOOK ============== Accessing the phone book will display a dialog box that has space for Last Name, First Name, Home Phone #, Work Phone # and three lines of comments. (Maybe an address). If you are editing an existing entry or creating a new one, (see below to find out how to do either of these two things) there will also be two buttons in the PHONE BOOK dialog box -- SAVE and CANCEL. CANCEL will exit without saving the entry you're working on. ICON KEY DESCRIPTION FIRST NAME CTRL- [LFT ARROW] Moves to first entry LAST NAME CTRL- [RGT ARROW] Moves to last entry PREV NAME [LEFT ARROW] Moves to previous entry NEXT MONTH [RIGHT ARROW] Moves to next entry EDIT Edit current entry NEW CTRL-A Create new entry As you can see, a new PHONE BOOK entry can be made by selecting VCR icon titled "NEW" or you can select "New Phone Number" from the menu. NOTES ----- If you are a certified computer junkie, your desk may look like mine. In other words, your desk is probably littered with scraps of paper and printouts reminding yourself of that new version of the WhizBANG file utility, or that super mod you want to make to a program your writing or... You get the picture. The Make*A*Date NOTES tool, will bring a dialog box up on the screen with room for a Title, Keywords and five lines of comments. As well, you'll notice an icon (yes another icon...) labelled "Attach". While viewing NOTES, use this icon to view files you've previously set up as being "attached" to a particular NOTE and if you're editing an existing NOTE or creating a new one, use this icon to establish the link. (Establishing the link means that the GEM file selector is presented on the screen and you can go select the file you want attached) To view a file, you must have set up the first External Application icon (we'll get to this) to run your favorite editor and the file has to be either in ASCII format, or some other format that your editor accepts. In view mode, when you select the Attach icon, an Alert Box will appear displaying the name of the Attached File (if its already been set up) and ask you if you want to view it. You can choose to view it or cancel the operation. To actually specify the name of the Attached file, you must be in editing or creating a note. Keywords are special words you enter that serve as general topic or category descriptors. You'll make use of the keywords when you perform searches. (We'll get to searches later) While the NOTES dialog box is on the screen, navigation (through different NOTES) can be performed with the use of either the VCR icons or the keyboard : ICON KEY DESCRIPTION FIRST NOTE CTRL- [LFT ARROW] Moves to first entry LAST NOTE CTRL- [RGT ARROW] Moves to last entry PREV NOTE [LEFT ARROW] Moves to previous entry NEXT NOTE [RIGHT ARROW] Moves to next entry EDIT Edits current entry NEW CTRL-V Creates a new entry As you can see, a new NOTE entry can be made by selecting VCR icon titled "NEW" or you can select "New Note" from the menu. TODO LIST --------- The TODO List is meant to act as a set of top-priority reminders. Make*A*Date's TODO List is capable of holding 15 reminders. Items are never entered directly into the TODO list but are linked from Scheduler entries. (We discussed this above) When you click on the TODO icon (or choose TODO List from the MODES menu, or type the keyboard hotkey) the TODO List dialog shows up on the screen. 15 entries are displayed and along the right side, those same arrow buttons we say back in the scheduler. Clicking on one of these buttons opens up the appropriate day in the Scheduler. Click on [OK] to exit the TODO List. [FIND BAR] The FIND Bar is located to the right of the VCR icons at the bottom of the screen. There are two icons : FIND and CONTinue. Use FIND to initiate a new search. A Dialog appears asking you to enter in a search string or phrase. This could be a word, part of a word or whatever sequence of characters you wish. FIND is not case sensitive and thus capitalization will not affect the results of the search. The data FIND will search on depends on the mode you are currently in. In other words if you're currently viewing the Scheduler, FIND will locate Scheduler entries; while in the Phone Book, FIND will look through Phone entries and while viewing Notes, FIND will search through Notes. Clicking on CONT(inue) is an easy way of continuing a previous search. No dialog box appears and search begins right away where the last FIND left off. While using either FIND or CONTinue, if nothing is found, an Alert box will appear to tell you this. Table Of Data That Is Searched In Each Mode ------------------------------------------- SCHEDULER All entries for each day PHONE BOOK Last name NOTES Note Title and Keywords [VCR ICONS] As has been said previously, the function of these icons depends on what Make*A*Date tool you are using and so we have discussed these in conjunction with each Make*A*Date tool. [EXTERNAL APPLICATION ICONS] The final set of icons are aligned vertically on the left side of the screen. Each one represents one of four external applications you may have installed. (You'll see how to install them when we discuss menu items) Though you may set up any four applications, it is suggested that you reserve the first icon for a text editor because Make*A*Date will access the path in this icon to open up a file when you work with "Attached Documents". (See the section on NOTES) The second icon is a picture of a diskette in the hope that you'll use this one for some kind of Disk Utilities program (copy, delete etc). In this case Make*A*Date makes no special use of this path but the icon's picture is set so... The next two icons are generic application icons... set them up as you like. Note : If an external application fails to execute properly, Make*A*Date will display an Alert box to tell you why. Remember that some programs (like Michtron's WERCS) often generate an error number on exiting the application. Take no notice of these... You would never see that kind of message unless you were running something like Neodesk that checks for errors like Make*A*Date does. [STATUS BARS] On the left hand side of the screen just below the External Applications Bar, there are three Status Bars. Make*A*Date will continually display the number of Scheduler, Phone Book and Note records you have entered. The are marked "S" (Scheduler), "P" (Phone Book) and "N" (Notes) respectively. THE MENUS & THEIR HOT-KEY EQUIVALENTS ===================================== Most of Make*A*Date's menu items are also available by either choosing the appropriate icon from the Desktop or by a hot-key sequence. The hot-key equivalents are displayed (if applicable) to the right of every menu item. We'll go through each of Make*A*Date's menus now. [DESK MENU] ABOUT... [Hot Key : CTRL-Z] Choosing the "About..." menu item will show you how much internal memory Make*A*Date has and how much memory GEM has available to execute external programs. In general, Make*A*Date keeps only about 100K for itself, leaving everything else to GEM and external applications. If choosing an Accessory leaves parts of the Make*A*Date desktop covered, then "About..." can serve another function as well : to force a redraw of Make*A*Date's Desktop. [FILE MENU] QUIT... [Hot Key : CTRL-Q] The file menu contains a single command : Quit. This saves any changes and exits. Because Make*A*Date updates quite a number of things and saves them, it is important to always properly quit Make*A*Date. [TOOLS MENU] The TOOLS Menu largely contains menu equivalents for the icons on the Make*A*Date Desktop. For items unique to the menu, we'll provide details here. For the rest, see the appropriate sections above. SCHEDULER... [Hot Key : CTRL-S] This item calls up the Scheduler. This command performs as if you clicked the Scheduler icon on the Desktop. PHONE BOOK... [Hot Key : CTRL-P] This item calls up the Scheduler. This command performs as if you clicked the Phone Book icon on the Desktop. NEW PHONE NUMBER... [Hot Key : CTRL-A] Choosing this item brings up a dialog box allowing you to make a new Phone Book entry. This command performs as if you clicked on the VCR icon titled "New" while viewing the Phone Book. NOTES... [Hot Key : CTRL-N] This item calls up the Notes Viewer. This command performs as if you clicked the Notes icon on the Desktop. NEW NOTE... [Hot Key : CTRL-V] Choosing this item brings up a dialog box allowing you to make a new Phone Note entry. This command performs as if you clicked on the VCR icon titled "New" while viewing the Notes Database. FIND... [Hot Key : CTRL-F] This item calls up the FIND dialog box exactly as if you clicked the FIND icon on the Desktop. CONTINUE SEARCH... [Hot Key : CTRL-C] This item activates the CONTINUE function exactly as if you clicked the CONTINUE icon on the Desktop. EXTERNAL APPLICATIONS [Hot Key : CTRL-1,2,3,4] The last four menu items are in place to call up whatever four applications you've installed on Make*A*Date's Desktop. (We'll look at how to do this shortly) [SETUP MENU] The SETUP menu allows you to customize the way you work with Make*A*Date. Because these options are seldom used, (as opposed to the items in the TOOL menu) they do not have Hot Key equivalents. SETUP PATHS... This item calls up a dialog box allowing you to specify paths to External Applications. (Remember those External Application Icons?) Click on the BROWSE buttons to bring up GEM's file selector and locate the programs. After selecting a program, its complete path will be displayed to the right of the BROWSE button. (There are four - for the four External Applications) SETUP ICON NAMES... This item calls up a dialog box allowing you to assign a name to each of the four External Application icons. (You'll probably give them the same name as the program each icon is calling) SETUP MONTHLY VIEW... We know from the section pertaining to the Scheduler, that Make*A*Date will highlight those days that you've made entries for, when you're viewing a month. This menu item visually presents you with three ways for that highlighting to take place : - Bright vs. Dim Days with entries will be bright - Shadowed Days with entries will be shadowed - Checked Days with entries will be checked SETUP REPORTS... This item is disabled in this version -- (I have to have -something- to work on right?) PREFERENCES... This lets you customize three aspects of Make*A*Date. First, is whether Make*A*Date will automatically show you your TODO list whenever you run the program. Second, is whether you want the icons on the Desktop to highlight (darken) as you pass the mouse over them. (Hey, I like this feature but it drives some people nuts) The third option is not yet implemented. Eventually, you'll be able to call Make*A*Book (if you should be so lucky as to own UltraScript or a Postscript printer) automatically as you generate printed reports. [PORTFOLIO MENU] The PORTFOLIO menu is not activated in this version of Make*A*Date. Eventually, everything you create in the Phone Book and Scheduler will be able to be exported to the Atari Portfolio. (And of course you'll be able to import data from it too) WRAPPING UP THE TOUR ==================== I plan on updating Make*A*Date with any mods that will prove useful. First on the priority list are : Printed Reports, Access to Make*A*Book and Import/Export from/to the Atari Portfolio. Of course I need YOUR input into what YOU'D like to see added/changed/enhanced in Make*A*Date. TECH NOTES ========== Make*A*Date is written and compiled in GFA BASIC. The program uses about 250K for its use and releases the rest to GEM. WHO I AM ======== Basically I'm an Atari Junkie. I'm a computer consultant and work all day with Macs, IBMs and NeXT machines. Every night I go home to my Mega ST2 -- and love it to bits. (Waiting for an SST) I want to hear from you and here's how you can do it : GEnie : J.H.CARROLL Internet : jon@cc.mcgill.ca Mail : Jonathan Carroll 15 Commercial Centre, Apt #102 Roxboro, Quebec Canada. H8Y 2N9 Voice : (514) 421-7900 (Please keep hours reasonable) Plus, you can keep up with program support. I can be found in the the new Make*A*Date topic in the Atari RT on GEnie. (And many other places as well...) What does Make*A*Date cost? =========================== Nothing. Maybe in future versions I'll ask for a ShareWare donation but for now, have fun. I've made TREMENDOUS use of ST PD and ShareWare programs and here's how I return the favour. While it doesn't cost anything, I'd like to hear from you and let me know how well -if at all ;-) Make*A*Date works for you. An email or postcard would be great. (Consider that the shareware fee) LAST WORDS ========== Buy the commercial software you use-- Don't steal it. Pay for the shareware you use, keep the shareware wizards happy and let them know you enjoy their products! Have fun, Jon