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1992-09-22
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THE TALKING CHECKBOOK - VERSION 5.04
By Charles Crawford and Donald Barrett
Special thanks to Eric Bohlman for his kindness in helping
Charlie Crawford understand a really difficult Clipper routine
for input error trapping, and to Donna Veno and Scott Marshall
for their work on testing the programs.
Most of all, special THANKS to you for using the program! We
like it and hope you will find it as helpful as we have.
While no formal documentation has been developed for the
Talking Checkbook, here's some information that should help. The
program has been written to be user friendly and should not be a
problem to run without extensive documentation.
1: What you need.
If you have an I.B.M. or clone that works with DOS, and a
printer and hopefully some money after you've bought all that
stuff, then you are all set. A speech synthesizer is necessary
for folks who do not see the screen, as the "Talking" Checkbook
was written to work with speech synthesis. If you can see the
screen, then your in good shape with our color selection menu
option.
2: Getting started.
Just make a subdirectory on your hard disk or unzip the
Talking Checkbook to a floppy or existing talking checkbook
subdirectory and go there. Type "Checks" (without the quotes) and
you are on your way.
The Talking Checkbook has been designed to look for the
files that it needs and will create them if they are not present.
Also users of older version will not have their databases blown
away by installing this version of the Talking Checkbook since we
have created failsafe databases that can be used when first
running the program or will serve as replacement new databases in
case of alien attack of your computer.
3: Menu options.
The "Talking Checkbook" is completely menu driven. After a
couple of questions and set up automatic functions, you'll be at
the main menu. The set up questions are there to help you decide
if you want to just see your balance and leave or to have your
balance reported each time you bring up the main menu. It's nice
to have the balance every time you get to the main menu, but it
can drive you up a wall fast. Once you are in the main menu, we
think you'll agree that the thing is pretty easy to understand
and move around, but here's some hints.
Option 1 is the heart of the program. What good is a
checkbook that talks, but has nothing in it? Well, here's the
menu option that lets you enter checks, withdrawals, credit card
charges, deposits savings account info or fixed bills, etc. The
most important thing here is to get your checkbook started with a
deposit that will be your initial balance. That starting figure
will become the figure against which all calculations are
basically made. Figure out what you will start the checkbook with
and go ahead and enter number one at the main menu and then pick
the deposit option and put it in there. As you enter checks,
deposits, credit card charges, Savings account transfers (if you
like) and the other options under the main menu option one,
you'll see how some of the nifty questions asked save time and
make your life easy. We also recommend that you enter your
savings account balance as a deposit within the savings account
menu option. This will ensure that you start with a proper
checkbook and savings account balance for future entries to be
seen against.
Use the Personal Comments field for each record wisely. You have
75 characters to write down exactly the type of transaction you
are entering. This can be invaluable for tax or other purposes
at the end of the year. Whether or not you enter the information
in this field in upper or lower case, it will be stored in upper
case. This is so that records can easily be found using this
field even if you forget the case of your original entry. You may
want to take a bit of time before running the Talking Checkbook
and think about what comment lines you might be using. For
example, if you were to use the personal comment line of
"Food:Joe's Market" each time you wrote a check to the Market,
then you'd be able to tell in an instant how much you spent at
Joe's through our utilities that are in the checkbook program.
We can't stop bankruptcy; but short of that, we try!
Option 2 at the main menu lets you edit records that you may
have made mistakes in entering. No problem for the Talking
Checkbook to keep your records up to snuff. Version 5.04 now has
a browse function where you can either edit or just browse
through the checks and other entries. the Browser is written in
the more database interface fashion where using your arrow keys
or page-up and page-down buttons make the program work. If you
would rather use the straight line oriented display mode, the
Talking Checkbook still offers that as well.
Option 3 gives you your balance and also lets you reconcile
against bank statements. Once you've used the other menu option
of verifying checks, then the balance should agree with your bank
or maybe your bank has gotten into the S&L thing and the Talking
Checkbook is trying to tell you something.
Option 4 is great! It allows you to print out lists of your
checks and so forth. Now if you are told that your check was
never received, then you can print out a statement including that
check you wrote. You can choose not to print out the listings in
hard copy, but rather to create an ascii file of them. No problem
for the Talking Checkbook. Say, don't we think of everything;
probably not, but we work at it. Version 5.03 offers two new
features that 1) let you choose a printer port in the event you
have a braille printer and a regular one and 2) lets you list
your ascii text file option in sequential lines of information
that makes it much easier to understand. Say, we are getting to
the point of thinking of everything, but we will confess that you
folks have given us some great ideas to act upon.
Option 5 gives you the opportunity to check out your fixed
bills. This option helps folks who have a number of bills that
have to be paid in the same amount on a fixed basis.
Option 6 lets you verify your records against the bank
statements. You simply take your bank statement and run the menu
option and you'll be shown which checks, deposits and withdrawals
have been entered in the database but not verified. If you find a
match between the records that come up on the screen and your
bank statement, then you can tell the program that the record can
be verified and it will do that for you. When you later search
for checks and so forth, it will be handy to know that the record
was verified and you can easily say that the bank notified you
that the check was cashed, the deposit made or withdrawal
happened. It helps you know where everyone agrees and hopefully
there will not be times when they don't.
Option 7 brings up a notice that the documentation is too
large for the program and so you will need to do what you are
doing now: reading this. Type "Mono.doc" and press enter to read
this in mono or "Color.doc" to read this in color with one of the
self display .com files that run right from DOS.
Option 8 gets you more information on the records in the
database. It's fun and check it out. Version 5.02 of the Talking
Checkbook now allows you to sum and display your credit card
charges either as a whole or by credit card. Nifty, huh. You can
also see the activity of your savings account transfers relative
to your checkbook. Later versions of the Talking Checkbook will
give you more data relative to your savings account itself.
Option 9 makes writing checks fun again. Just go ahead and
print out the checks and life is eezee! Well, you'll need to use
option 11 first, since computers are really stupid and have no
idea where to send the info to the check itself.
Option 10 contains a number of utilities we have written to
get displays of information and other pieces to a checkbook
management program together. Check out the many utilities here.
My favorite is the calculator and the ability to archival your
checks into smaller database of chunks of time. If you take your
checkbook over a period of three years, then it's a lot of stuff
for the program to review each time it has to do that, so just
archival your database into smaller yearly ones and your
checkbook will run faster. You can always use the same program to
bring back all the records into a massive database if you like.
We also wrote the code to do the same thing for your savings
account.
Option 11 tells the computer where to write information on
your checks. Not all checks were created equal and so the Talking
Checkbook must get your help in setting up the printer settings.
Fortunately you will only have to do this once if you use the
same checks and printer.
Option 12 lets folks with low vision or any vision to set
screen colors that are most comfortable.
Option 13 used to be for updated older databases, but it's
time that all conversions should have been done from Version 3.
Now you get to play Checkbook Mania with this menu option. It's
not easy, but fun! If you like it and we hear more from you about
it, then we can add more questions to make it more fun!
Option 14 is brand new. It's a security packing program that
either saves current information in memory to your database each
time you enter the option or saves the information every time you
enter the main menu. I recommend that folks use the auto pack
function here. If you keep archival data of your checkbook
through the archival option within the utilities at main menu
option 10, then this auto packing will be quick and afford you
max protection. Say, does that sound like an advertisement or
what!
4: What programs should be in with the Talking Checkbook.
Well, the older versions needed all kinds of stuff, but now
here's what should be in your sub-directory and the rest you can
forget:
1. Checks.exe - the main program that operates the checkbook.
2. Checkboo.dbf, savings.dbf and bills.dbf which are
databases that you should have with older versions or will be
installed by this one. Just keep any files with the extension
".dbf" for your new version unless you already have them from
older versions. The Talking Checkbook will look for the proper
databases and if found, then you move right along, but if not,
then the Talking Checkbook will convert the failsafe database
files that came with it. A new database called fs-save.dbf is
included with version 5.02 which is copied out by the program to
initialize the new savings account feature. These failsafe files
will remain but they will also have produced what you need when
you first run the Talking Checkbook. Don't worry about them.
3. CB-notes.txt is this file and should remain in the sub-
directory with the Talking Checkbook. It is accessed by menu
option 7. You can also run it by typing "send cb-notes.txt" or
"cb-notes" from the DOS command line. The file "CB-NOTES.COM" is
the same file as this, but runs stand-alone in DOS.
4. Send.exe is also necessary. It sends the notes to the user
to the screen. If your type of DOS does not support the sending
of the file from within the program, then the use of "cb-
notes.com" will be necessary to see this file.
5. You might want to keep the other files in the sub-
directory as well since they can help. The one about Clipper is
real necessary if the checkbook does not run. It deals with a
memory environment statement that might be necessary, but I've
only seen 2 cases of all users where that has been true.
5: Other important stuff.
Don Barrett and I wrote this program to be useful to us as
users of speech synthesis. We release it to the public domain
since it is a great program in our humble and prejudiced
opinions. That does not mean that anyone or anything is
responsible for the results of it's use except for you if you use
it. We have had no problems with it, but can't be responsible if
you or anyone else does.
If you'd like to call me, Charlie Crawford about the program
then please do so at area 617-727-5550 ext: 4503, or call the
Massachusetts Commission for the Blind Bulletin Board at area
617-451-5327. The BBS uses 8,n,1 and support up to 9600 BPS using
a .32 standard or Hayes modem. slower modems work fine down to
1200 BPS.
Well, if you think that was long, then play around with the
many options in the checkbook and see if we could have written a
book about them. Feel free to upload the programs (as long as you
don't change anything) to Bulletin Boards or send them to your
friends. If you want to add your own information to the zip file
to share with others, then fine. You might even write better docs
than these. If you do write user information, then please send us
the ascii file as well. You can write to:
Charles Crawford
The Massachusetts Commission for the Blind
88 Kingston Street
Boston, MA 02111.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
1. Can I crash the Talking Checkbook
A: Yeah, if you like. Does not seem like the most productive use
of time, but if you input a character rather than a number or
character or don't use slashes when the program is looking for a
date, then the program will not know what to do and exit to DOS.
We will work on error trapping for these problems, but if you do
it, then you'll have to re-enter the program and do what you were
doing all over again. In the four years that I have used this
program, I have not had that problem and suspect that you only
would if you choose to crash it. In other words, don't worry if
you seriously want to run the program since it will work fine
with proper data entry.
2. Do I have to pay for it.
A: No, it is free of charge and released to the public domain
without any liability to the authors, their families, dogs, cats
and any other living thing or entity within the Universe.
3. How come there are no environment variables to call the
program from anywhere but it's default drive and subdirectory?
A. We have given some thought to passing DOS parameters and
really have not come up with much reason to do so. If you can
suggest some DOS environment variables that you think are needed
and would not be a problem for the average user, then send us
your suggestions.
One thing that the average user may want to consider is
using a batch file to call the program up. Here's what you would
write if your checks program and other files were in a sub-
directory called "Checks" on your C:\ drive.
First you go to the root directory by typing without the
quotes "cd\" and press enter. Do this until you see the "C:\"
prompt if you have your DOS prompt set to "prompt=$p$g".
Next type "copy con:checks.bat" and press enter. This will
set DOS ready to accept your information.
Next type "Echo off" and press enter. This tells DOS not to
babble away as it is getting your files up and running.
Next type "cd\Checks"and press enter. This creates a second
line of the batch file to change the directory to where the
checks.exe and associated programs are.
Next type "Checks" and press enter. This third line of text
now tells DOS to execute the command Checks program.
Next type "cd\" and press enter. this tells DOS to return to
the root directory of the C: drive when it is done.
remember not to use the quotes above when writing the batch
since they were used only as a way of placing exactly what you
will have to write on the appropriate lines. You don't have to
write a batch file to get the program to run, but it might make
some sense if you want to be up and running quickly from your
root directory. I have a few lines in my batch that go to the
sub-directory in which my speech program resides so I can run
speech before running the checkbook.
4. What is check verifying?
A. When you get your banck statements and cancelled checks,
then you can check your checks, deposits and withdrawals against
the statement. You can verify what you've entered into the
checkbook and add any interest you may have received or charges
made against you. Once you've made the entries of any new
deposits or withdrawals in the form of interest or charges from
the bank statement within menu option 1, then use the verify menu
option to mark your records as verified. This helps when you are
browsing around and want to see if something really got cashed or
whatever.
5. I keep getting a different amount when I use the
reconcile program than what is really the case with my bank. This
was a great program a friend gave me, but the reconcile is not
right; why?
A. We had a case where a person received a copy of the
Talking Checkbook from a friend and kept getting a mistaken
reconciliation amount. The problem was that the memory variable
used to check on what the bank amount was from his friends
program never was erased and the current checkbook kept adding in
that amount. The fix is to erase the .mem files from any copy of
the talking checkbook you may get from someone else. We recommend
that you type "del *.mem" if you get the program from someone
else. If you are using a Talking Checkbook for the first time
with a brand new copy that nobody else has used or you are
updating your own copy, then do not erase the .mem files!
6. I run the program and after a bit, it dies. Why?
A. This is not at all likely to happen and we have had no
reports of it. However, some folks may be running expanded memory
managers or other memory resident programs that impact upon
memory allocation. If you experience the Talking Checkbook simply
stopping work, place the line "set clipper=E000" in your
autoexec.bat file to keep Clipper from looking for expanded
memory. Again, we have had no reports of any such problem, but we
also know never to say never.
7. the program is running along and I get a "Proc error at
... run time error" and it stops. You should never see this out
of memory error with our new library routines. If you do, then
get in touch with us.
Good luck and enjoy your use of the Talking Checkbook in good
health.
Talking Checkbook update:
Well, wouldn't you know it! Don Barrett could not resist
developing a print to printer or file utility that would provide
information for tax purposes based upon your personal comments
lines. OK Don, I think you really put something nice in here that
will help folks out if they arrange their personal comments by
categories that will relate to tax preparation time.
The tax print utility is in the utilities menu option #10.
Check it out.
Also in this new version 5.03, Don has added the ability to
place in a starting figure for retirement management to help
those like me who are getting older by the minute.
Enjoy and look forward to version 5.04 when I might even try
to do some automatic budgeting information generation! If you
have suggestions for program improvement, then please try to let
us know and make you and everybody else happy!
-Charlie Crawford: June 25, 1992.
