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Text File | 1996-11-29 | 17KB | 321 lines

Oberon Peronal VoiceMail Assistant - PVMA (Formerly: pLog) Version 1.10 Oberon Software, Inc. 1405 East Main Street Mankato, MN 56001 Voice: 507-388-7001 BBS: 507-388-1154 EMail: oberon@prairie.lakes.com http://prairie.lakes.com/~oberon ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents ======== I. Installing PVMA II. Updating from pLog Version 1.00 III. Using PVMA 1. Configuration 2. Placing a call 3. Receiving calls 4. Adjusting the time and date of a call 5. Defining a macro 6. Report IV. Disclaimer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I. Installing PVMA 1. If you wish to place PVMA into its own directory, you can do one of the following: - At an OS/2 command prompt, type "MD d:\PVMA". Do not use double quotes as in the example, replace "d:" with the appropriate disk letter and "PVMA" with the name of the directory you want to create. - From the desktop "Drives" object, open a view of the drive on which you wish to create the directory. Open the "Templates" folder and drag a "Folder" template onto the drive. Rename the new folder "PVMA" (or the name of your choice). 2. If you have downloaded the PVMA package, unzip the ZIP file into the directory. If you received PVMA on diskette, copy the entire contents of the diskette into that directory. 3. Create a program object on your desktop or in the folder of your choice by dragging a "Program" template from the "Templates" folder onto the desktop or into the desired folder. The settings notebook for the program object will open automatically. Fill in the following fields: - On the "Program" page (the first page) set "Path and program name" to "d:\PVMA\PVMA.EXE" (replacing "d:\PVMA" with the actual path-name of the directory into which you placed the files). - On the "Program" page, set "Working directory" to "d:\PVMA" (again, replace "d:\PVMA" with the actual path-name of the directory into which you placed the files). - On the "General" page (the last page) set "Title" to "Oberon Phone Logging" (or the title of your choice. 4. The first time you run PVMA, it will ask you for a registration number. If you have been given one, enter it now. If you have purchased PVMA but have not yet received a registration number, please contact Oberon Software and you will be assigned one. If you are using an evaluation copy of PVMA, it will execute successfully 50 times without registration. Thereafter the registration dialog will continue to display when you execute PVMA but the program will no longer function. 5. The first time you execute PVMA, you will want to select the "Settings..." button to configure the program. This is discussed below under "Using PVMA/Configuration". II. Updating from pLog Version 1.00 PVMA Version 1.10 is file compatible with its predecessor, pLog. After installing PVMA as per the directions above, you may copy your PLOG.INI from your old pLog directory onto PVMA.INI. If you have entered a registration code for your copy of pLog, it will now be applied to your copy of PVMA. You should also copy all of your log and macro files from the pLog directory into your PVMA directory, retaining their names. III. Using PVMA 1. Configuration Select the "Settings..." button to change your PVMA configuration. The following settings are available: - Inbound Log: The full (or relative) path-name for the file in which PVMA will record its incoming call data. - Outbound Log: The full (or relative) path-name for the file in which PVMA will record its outbound call data. - Macro File: The full (or relative) path-name for the file in which PVMA will keep the macro which you define (see "Placing a call"). - Faxworks: The full path-name to your FaxWorks phone book file. If you do not use FaxWorks or if you don't want PVMA to search your FaxWorks phone book for voice numbers, leave this field blank. - Com Device: The COM port you wish PVMA to use. I.e., "COM1" - Modem Init: The modem initialization string which PVMA will send to the modem each time before it dials. - Modem Dial: The modem command to dial a number (this the a prefix; the actual number will be appended to this string). - Modem Hangup: The modem command to hang up the line. (You may leave this blank and check "Drop DTR at Hangup" if your modem is configured to drop connection after a DTR transition.) 2. Placing a call The place an outbound call, press the "Outbound..." button. This will display the "Dialer" window. Here you may either type a phone number, a macro, or a name that will be found in your FaxWorks phone book (if you have so configured PVMA). The way PVMA decides which is which is as follows: - If the first character of the entry is a digit, it is assumed to to a phone number and will be dialed verbatim (letters will be translated to numbers as per the standard telephone dial conversion). - If the first character of the entry is a letter, PVMA will look first through your macro list. If it finds an exact match (except possibly for upper/lower case differences), it will dial the macro's associated number. - If nothing was located in the macro list, and you have provided the filename of your FaxWorks phone book, PVMA will search that file for matching records. It will compare versus the full name entry in the FaxWorks phone book AND versus just the last name. That is, if "John Smith" is in your FaxWorks phone book, you can type either "Smith" or "John Smith" to locate him. However, if you have more than one "Smith" in your phone book and type only "Smith", PVMA will return only the first one; in this case you will need to use the entire name to ensure that you get the correct result. - If none of the above cases apply, PVMA will then translate the letters to numbers, and attempt to dial the number. Another way to dial a number is to click on the "Macros..." button, select an entry from the list of macros, and press "OK". The associated number from the macro list will filled in automatically. There are also several ways to dial an outbound call from the "Report" display. See the section on "Report" later in this document. When you click on the "Dial..." button, PVMA will display a window which says "Dialing...", shows you the number it is dialing, and "Press ENTER when complete". At this point you must listen to the sound coming from your modem. You should hear first a dial tone, then the dialing tones, and finally the ringing of the phone on the other end. At this point, you must lift the receiver on your phone and then press the "Enter" button. If you press "Enter" BEFORE you lift the receiver, PVMA WILL hang up the phone and your call will not go through. (You can use this feature if you find that you are dialing a wrong number, if PVMA has misinterpreted what you input, or if you hear a busy signal on the other end. The "Outbound Call" dialog described below will still appear but you should simply "Cancel" it in this case.) After the call has been dialed, you will see a dialog window titled "Outbound Call". This window controls what information will be placed into PVMAs Outbound call log. The date and start time are filled in automatically; the end time and duration are updated as the call progresses until you select either "Done" or "Stop". The Phone number is also automatically filled in but you may edit this field if you wish. If you dialed using a Macro or a FaxWorks phone book entry, the "To" field will also be filled in; you may edit this field also. In the center of the window is a large area wherein you may make any notes you wish regarding the call. If you select the "Callback" checkbox, this record will be marked in the report as needing a callback (see the section on "Report" later in this document). The "Stop" button will stop the call timer without dismissing the window (use this in case you have further notes to make regarding this call after actual call has ended), the "Cancel" button will dismiss this window WITHOUT saving any of the information, the "Done" button will dismiss this window after saving the log information. 3. Receiving calls When you receive a call, press the "Incoming..." button. You will be shown a window with the title "Incoming Call" which is in almost all respects the equivalent of the "Outbound Call" window (see discussion on "Placing a call" above). The only real difference between this two windows (other than the fact that calls entered via this window will be placed in the Inbound log rather than the Outbound log), it that the name and number are not automatically filled in; you must enter them your self. If the incoming call is from someone for whom you have a defined macro or if they have a voice number in your FaxWorks phone book, you may type the macro or name in the "From" field and press the ENTER key while the cursor is in the "From" entry field. PVMA will search your macro file and FaxWorks phone book using the same techniques as outline in "Placing a call" above. If the name or macro was not found, PVMA will issue a warning beep; you will then have to enter the phone number manually. Note: You can use the "Incoming Call" window to record voice mail messages and mark them for callback! You will probably want to press the "Stop" button as one of your first actions in this case if your Inbound call duration statistics are a concern to you (see the discussion below entitled "Adjusting the time and date of a call"). 4. Adjusting the time and date of a call You may adjust the time, date, and/or duration of a call from both the Inbound and Outbound call dialogs. Once you have clicked on the "Stop" button to stop the call timer, the button text changes to "Edit". When you click on the "Edit" button, you will be given a dialog which allows you to edit the call date, time, and duration. If you change these values, the new values MUST be entered EXACTLY in the format that they are given in when the dialog first appeared. You may also adjust the time, date, and/or duration of a call from the "Report" view by selecting the "Adjust Time and Date" item from the popup menu. The same restrictions apply when editing these values from the "Report" view. 5. Defining a macro A dialing macro is a short name which you can use in place of an actual phone number when you use PVMA. To be effective, a macro should be short and easy to remember. Examples are: "Home", "Car", "Bank", "Mom", and so on. To define a dialing macro, press the "Outbound..." button on the main display. This invokes the "Dialer" window. Press the "Macros..." button and you will see the "Macro List" window. Here you may add, delete, or modify your macros. Adding and deleting procedures are straightforward and invoked via the buttons with those labels. To edit an entry, click on it with the left mouse while holding down the ALT key. You may then edit the selected field. Click anywhere away from the entry field to end the edit and save your changes; press ESCape to cancel the changes. 6. Report PVMA has numerous reporting options. By default, when you press the "Report..." button, you will be shown a list of all of your calls, outbound and incoming. This will quickly become unwieldy as you use PVMA. Use the "Options..." button to limit which calls are displayed and in what sort-order they are displayed. Your options are: - Merge: Outbound only, Inbound only or both - Sort: By Date & Time, Name (then Date & Time), or Number (then Name, Date & Time) - Filter: By Date: All date (no filter), just today's calls, or in a given range. Date entry is flexible; you may enter dates in a variety of formats. If you enter only one end of a range, it is assumed that the other end is open (i.e., a start date of 2/1/96 with no end date means calls on or after 2/1/96; and end date of 2/1/96 with no start date means calls on or before that date). By Type: All calls (no filter), only callbacks, only non-callbacks. By Text: You can specify string which must occur in the Name, Number, and/or Note fields. The search is not case sensitive and the string may occur anywhere in the field. (i.e., the string "ron" in the Name field will match both "Oberon Software" and "Ronald McDonald"). Multiple search criteria are cumulative (i.e., searching name for "IBM" and Number for "1-800" will find all toll-free calls to IBM). Both "Export..." and "Print..." work on the currently displayed list of calls. "Export..." will write the currently displayed list to a standard, comma delimited file (SDF format) suitable for import into a spreadsheet or other program. You will be asked for the file name. "Print..." will print a formatted report of the displayed calls to the printer of your choice. IV. Disclaimer Every care has been taken so that PVMA will perform as outlined in this document and that it is as error free as the author can make it. We should be aware however that no piece of software is ever totally bug free. Use of this software for any purpose whatsoever constitutes your unqualified acceptance of the following statements. The author makes no warranty or representation that the software will be error free. The author disclaims any warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. The user agrees to take full responsibility for the selection of and any use whatsoever made of the software. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION OR THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF, INTERRUPTION IN THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF ANY POSSIBILITY OR LIKELIHOOD OF SUCH DAMAGES.