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S O F T W A R E S U S I E II =============================== Version 1.10 Copyright (c) 1991 Lansford Software Owasso, OK. 74055 2 - - - - - - N O T I C E - - - - - - This program is distributed under the "Shareware" concept. DEFINITION OF SHAREWARE Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. 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 and sundry 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's 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 low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT Users of SOFTWARE SUSIE II must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "SOFTWARE SUSIE II 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, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of SOFTWARE SUSIE II." SOFTWARE SUSIE II 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 SOFTWARE SUSIE II and continue to use SOFTWARE SUSIE II after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment of $25.00 to LANSFORD SOFTWARE. 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's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be 3 read by two different persons at the same time. Commercial users of SOFTWARE SUSIE II must register and pay for their copies of SOFTWARE SUSIE II within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made by contacting LANSFORD SOFTWARE. Anyone distributing SOFTWARE SUSIE II for any kind of remuneration must first contact LANSFORD SOFTWARE at the address below for authorization. This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhereing to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering SOFTWARE SUSIE II immediately (However LANSFORD SOFTWARE must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of SOFTWARE SUSIE II.). You are encouraged to pass a copy of SOFTWARE SUSIE II along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of the SOFTWARE SUSIE II software library system. No printed manual is available. Documentation only on disk. Type "SSII" at the DOS prompt and press <ENTER> to invoke the program. 4 ----------------------- OVERVIEW ------------------------------- SOFTWARE SUSIE II is not a disk catalog program. Software Susie II is designed to keep track of all the expensive computer software one acquires, either through shareware or commercial means. It will keep track of the following information: 1. Software name or title 2. Publisher or manufacturer and contact person's name for technical support 3. Publisher's address and phone, including BBS, FAX phone 4. Vendor purchased from 5. Whether it is Shareware, commercial, freeware, public domain 6. Copy protected or not 7. Date purchased (if commercial) & date received (if shareware) 8. Cost (including cost of upgrades) 9. Category, (spreadsheet, database, etc.) 10. Version 11. Comments about the program 12. Description of the program 13. Date registered (mainly for shareware programs) 14. Disk ID or other identifier of your choice. There are various reports which can be printed on your printer. 1. Complete listing by title 2. Listing of publishers 3. Listing of categories 4. Complete listing by category 5. Comments about the programs 6. Summary costs by category You can also print the records to a disk file. 5 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS: A color monitor is advised. An installation program is provided for automatic installation instead of using the instructions below. Hard Drive Installation: Create a subdirectory called SSII. Type MD C:\SSII Copy all files to this subdirectory. Place original disk in drive a. Type copy a:*.* c:\ssii Place original disk in a safe place for future use. At the C: prompt type cd \ssii At the C: prompt type SSII to execute the program. Floppy Drive Installation: Create a working copy of the original floppy disk. Place original disk in drive a. Type diskcopy a: a: Place original disk in a safe place for future use. At the A: prompt type SSII to execute the program. On a floppy drive, space for data files may be limited, depending on the size of the floppy. The only files needed to run the program are listed below. CATEGORY.DBF *CATEGORY.IND CATEGORY.RPT *CATSORT.IND CATSORT.RPT CATSUMRY.RPT COMMENTS.RPT EDITOR.HLP PUBLISH.DBF *PUBLISH.IND PUBLISHR.RPT SSII.EXE SSUSIE.DBF SSUSIE.DBT PUBLISH.DBT *VENDOR.IND *SSUSIE.IND SSUSIE.RPT * These files will be created if they do not exist. All other files can be deleted from the working floppy. The comments file SSUSIE.DBT may grow rather rapidly and consume a lot of space on a floppy, but it can be packed to regain wasted space. NOTE: If you are upgrading from a version earlier than 1.10, you must run the DBCONV.EXE program to convert your publisher data file (PUBLISH.DBF) to the format required by version 1.10. The conversion program (DBCONV.EXE) is supplied only with registered copies of Software Susie II. 6 MAIN MENU OPTIONS TITLES To select this item, press the letter T, or move the highlite bar to it and press <ENTER>. If program titles exist in the database, you will be presented with a screen showing the first program in the data file according to the sort key. On this screen you can edit, add or delete software titles, or select the report menu. For more information see TITLES MAINTENANCE SCREEN below. CATEGORIES To select this item, press the letter C, or move the highlite bar to it and press <ENTER>. If program categories exist in the database, you will be presented with a screen showing the first category in the data base according to the sort key. On this screen you can edit, add or delete categories, or select the report menu. PUBLISHERS To select this item, press the letter P, or move the VENDORS highlite bar to it and press <ENTER>. If records exist in the database, you will be presented with a screen showing the first record in the data base according to the sort key. On this screen you can edit, add or delete records, or select the report menu. This is also where you input names of vendors. DATA FILES To select this item, press the letter D, or move the highlite bar to it and press <ENTER>. This selection will display another menu. From this menu you may choose to delete all software records in the database, or all categories in the category database, or all publishers in the publisher database. Be careful with this command. You will be asked if your are sure, but once you say Yes, you will not be able to recover any information which is deleted. You will end up with an empty database. This may be useful in evaluating the program in that you can add a lot of records quickly as examples to become acquainted with the program, and later delete them to enter actual data. You may also choose to reindex any or all databases, if they should become corrupted in any way. In very large databases, you should reindex them periodically to help maintain integrity and efficiency. REPORTS To select this item, press the letter R, or move the highlite bar to it and press <ENTER>. This selection will display another menu. From this menu you may choose from a variety of reports which are described later. These reports can be sent to your printer, screen or a disk file. MAINTENANCE SCREENS MENU OPTIONS ( The following commands are the same whether you are maintaining Titles, Categories or Publishers, except as noted.) On this screen you can add new records, edit or delete existing ones, browse the database one record at a time, or several at a time using the view command. A menu will be displayed at the bottom of the screen and a short explanation of each command is shown on the line below the menu. Each menu command can be selected by either pushing the highlited letter of the word, or moving the cursor to highlite the word and pressing <ENTER>. The available menu commands are: Next: Move forward to and display the next record in the database according to the selected key. Push the letter N, or move 7 the cursor to the word Next and press <ENTER> to select this item. You can also move to the next record by pressing the <DOWN ARROW> key. The Title database has two available sorting keys: Title and Category Code. The Category database has only one sorting key: Code. The Publisher database has only one sorting key: Name. When working with the Titles database, you can switch from one key to another by pressing F10. The Title key is sorted first by title then by version. The category code key is sorted first by category code, then by title, then by version. Previous: Move backward to and display the previous record in the database according to the selected key. Push the letter P, or move the cursor to the word Previous and press <ENTER> to select this item. You can also move to the next record by pressing the <UP ARROW> key. The Title database has two available sorting keys: Title and Category Code. The Category database has only one sorting key: Code. The Publisher database has only one sorting key: Name. When working with the Titles database, you can switch from one key to another by pressing F10. The Title key is sorted first by title then by version. The category code key is sorted first by category code, then by title, then by version. Top: Move to and display the very first record in the database according to the selected key. Push the letter T, or move the cursor to the word Top and press <ENTER> to select this item. You can also move to the very first record by pressing the <HOME> key. The Title database has two available sorting keys: Title and Category Code. The Category database has only one sorting key: Code. The Publisher database has only one sorting key: Name. When working with the Titles database, you can switch from one key to another by pressing F10. The Title key is sorted first by title then by version. The category code key is sorted first by category code, then by title, then by version. Bottom: Move to and display the very last record in the database according to the selected key. Push the letter B, or move the cursor to the word Bottom and press <ENTER> to select this item. You can also move to the very last record by pressing the <END> key. The Title database has two available sorting keys: Title and Category Code. The Category database has only one sorting key: Code. The Publisher database has only one sorting key: Name. When working with the Titles database, you can switch from one key to another by pressing F10. The Title key is sorted first by title then by version. The category code key is sorted first by category code, then by title, then by version. Search: Search for a specified string of characters in any field of the database. Push the letter S, or move the cursor to the word Search and press <ENTER> to select this item. You will be asked to type the string you want to find on the bottom line of the screen and press <ENTER>. When the string is found, the record containing the string will be displayed on the screen. You will be asked if you wish to continue searching the database for the next occurrence of the string, or stop. You may edit or delete the found record if you wish. Find: Search for a specified record according to the primary key field of the database. Push the letter F, or move the cursor to the word Find and press <ENTER> to select this item. If you are working with the titles database, and the current key 8 is Title, you will be asked for the title you would like to find. If you are working with the Title database and the current key is category code, you will be asked for the code you would like to find. If you are working with the Category Code database, you will be asked for the code you would like to find. If you are working with the publisher database, you will be asked for the publisher's name you would like to find. Type the answer at the place provided on the bottom line of the screen and press <ENTER>. When the first record is found, it will be displayed on the screen. You may edit or delete the found record if you wish. Limit: Filter out all but a selected record or group of records. This command will ask you for the desired filter string, and any record not matching the string will not be displayed. Push the letter L, or move the cursor to the word Limit and press <ENTER> to select this item. If you are working with the titles database, and the current key is Title, you will be asked for the title you would like to display. Only records with the title you specify will be displayed, both on the maintenance screen and on the view screen. See the VIEW command below. If you are working with the Title database and the current key is category code, you will be asked for the code you would like to display. If you are working with the Category Code database, you will be asked for the code you would like to display. If you are working with the publisher database, you will be asked for the publisher's name you would like to display. Type the answer at the place provided on the bottom line of the screen and press <ENTER>. When the first record is found, it will be displayed on the screen. You may edit or delete the found record if you wish. This command can be very useful to limit printed reports to a specified selection criteria as well. When this is what you want to do, you will have to access the report menu from this screen, not the main menu. Edit: Change or alter the record currently displayed on the screen. Push the letter E, or move the cursor to the word Edit and press <ENTER> to select this item. You may make any changes you like and the database will be updated accordingly. You may press <Control End> keys at any time to end the editing session. When maintaining titles, information for some fields may be chosen from a pick list by pressing F9 while in that field. These fields are: category code, disk size, and publisher's name. The category codes and publisher names must be input into their respective databases before they will be included in the pick list. If you wish to use a code or publisher's name which does not exist in the pick list, press ESC and you will be asked if you would like to enter a new category or publisher now. Press Y and a window will open for you to input the new category or publisher. This eliminates the need for you to go to the appropriate maintenance screen to input the information and come back to the title maintenance screen and edit the record to input the data. Of course, these two fields can be left blank. When editing comments to a record, press F1 for help. Press <Ctrl-End> to quit and save the comment. The word memo will be in capital letters to indicate that a comment exists for this record, otherwise the word memo will be in small letters. The comments editing screen can be moved and resized. There is a limit of 1,024 lines per comment. The line length of the memos should be kept to 70 or less to insure proper formatting on the printed reports. Add: Add or append a new record to the currently selected database. Push the letter A, or move the cursor to the word Add and press <ENTER> to select this item. When adding 9 titles, information for some fields may be chosen from a pick list by pressing F9 while in that field. These fields are: category code, disk size, vendor's name and publisher's name. The category codes and publisher names must be input into their respective databases before they will be included in the pick list. If you wish to use a code, vendor or publisher's name which does not exist in the pick list, press ESC and you will be asked if you would like to enter a new category or publisher now. Press Y and a window will open for you to input the new category or publisher. This eliminates the need for you to go to the appropriate maintenance screen to input the information and come back to the title maintenance screen and edit the record to input the data. Of course, these two fields can be left blank. When adding comments to a record, press F1 for help. Press <Ctrl-End> to quit and save the comment. The word memo will be in capital letters to indicate that a comment exists for this record. The comments editing screen can be moved and resized. There is a limit of 1,024 lines per comment. Del: Mark a record to be deleted or undeleted. Push the letter D, or move the cursor to the word Del and press <ENTER> to select this item. When you mark a record for deletion, it is not actually deleted at that time. It will continue to be shown in the database, but will show to be deleted. You will see the word DELETED flashing at the top of the screen. To actually remove the record from the database, you choose the clean command from the menu. You can mark several records for deletion and have a chance to change your mind later, before the clean command is issued. If a record is marked for deletion, selecting this del command will unmark it and it will not be removed when the clean command is issued. Records marked for deletion but not removed with the clean command will still be included in all reports and maintenance screens. An asterisk will indicate deleted records on reports. View: Browse the database in table format showing a screen full of records, each record on a separate line. Push the letter V, or move the cursor to the word View and press <ENTER> to select this item. No editing, adding or deleting records is allowed while browsing the database. If you find a record you want to edit or delete, move the highlite bar to it and press <ENTER>. You will be returned to the maintenance screen with the selected record displayed. Records will be displayed according to the selected key as described in commands earlier in this document. The cursor keys move up and down between records, and left and right between fields. <Ctrl-Left-Arrow>, <Ctrl-Right-Arrow> moves left and right by full screens. <Home> will take you to the first record. <End> will take you to the last record. Press F6 to find a record. You will be asked for the record you want to find and your answer must be typed in all capital letters. The first column on the screen will be searched. Press F5 to go to a particular record if you know the record number. <Esc> or <Enter> will end the browse session and return to the maintenance screen with the highlited record displayed. You may edit or delete the record if you wish. Report: Display a menu of available reports. Push the letter R, or move the cursor to the word Report and press <ENTER> to select this item. You can limit the reports to specific data records by choosing the limit command before accessing the report menu. In this way you can limit the reports to a specific category code, program title, or publisher. After choosing the desired report, you will be asked if you would like to print the report on the printer, screen or a disk file. If you choose a disk file, you will be asked for a name for the file. Reports sent to the screen can be paused at any time by pressing any key, except the ESCAPE 10 key. The report can be stopped by pressing the <ESCAPE> key. Reports sent to the screen will pause automatically at the end of each screen. Press any key to continue, or <ESCAPE> to stop and return to the menu. The 'publisher' and 'titles sorted by title' reports are each over 100 characters wide. You must set your printer for compressed mode before choosing these reports, unless you have a wide carriage printer loaded with wide paper. When these reports are sent to the display, they may seem a little cluttered at first, because each record will be displayed on two or more lines of the screen. Clean: Remove from the database all records which are marked as deleted. Push the letter C, or move the cursor to the word Clean and press <ENTER> to select this item. These records will not be recoverable after this command is completed. You will be asked to confirm your decision. The database will be packed, to a smaller size, depending on how many records are deleted, the indexes will be rebuilt, and the memo files will be packed. Records which are marked as deleted can be undeleted any time before the clean command is issued. Quit: Leave the maintenance screen and return to the main menu. Pressing <Esc> will also return to the main menu. Push the letter Q, or move the cursor to the word Quit and press <ENTER> to select this item. F10: Switch to a different sorting index key. The three available sorting options are: title, category code, and vendor. When the VIEW command is selected, the records in the data file will be displayed according to the current index order. The default order is by title. By pressing F10, you can cycle through the 3 sorting indexes until arriving at the one desired. Switching can only be done while the edit screen is displayed. You cannot switch indexes while in view or browse mode. 11 SOFTWARE SUSIE II PAGE 11 SOFTWARE SUSIE II REGISTRATION FORM #0000 Version 1.10 To become a registered user of Software Susie II, complete and return this form along with the indicated license fee. The license fee should be paid by check or money order in U.S.A. funds, payable on a U.S.A. bank. Site licenses and quantity discounts are available. Write for details. Send to: Lansford Software P.O. Box 164 Owasso, OK 74055-0164 U.S.A. Name: ___________________________________________________ Company: ___________________________________________________ Address: ___________________________________________________ City: _____________________________ State: ___ Zip: _____ Please accept this registration for Software Susie II version 1.10. I agree to your disclaimer of all warranties and the restrictions on copying. ________________________________________ _______________ SIGNED DATE LICENSE FEE QTY LICENSE TYPE EACH TOTAL AMT ___ Registration Fee $ 25.00 $ _______ You will be mailed a disk with the most current version of Software Susie II. You will be eligible for 4 free upgrades, paying only the shipping & handling costs. Documentation is provided only on disk. No printed manual is available. I Prefer 3 1/2" ____ or 5 1/4"____ diskette Add $1.00 for 3 1/2" diskette $ _______ Oklahoma residents add 7 1/2% sales tax. TAX $ _______ Shipping Outside U.S.A. add $5.00 $ _______ TOTAL $ _______ Comments: ________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________