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Software of the Month Club 1995 December
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SOFM_Dec1995.bin
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persched.doc
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1995-10-31
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15KB
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257 lines
_______
____|__ | (R)
This program is produced by a --| | |-------------------
member of the Association of | ____|__ | Association of
Shareware Professionals (ASP). | | |_| Shareware
Please read their important message |__| o | Professionals
at the end of this text. -----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
Personal Schedule is a powerful, flexible, schedule manager, which
will keep track of your personal, group, and project schedules,
reminding you when tasks are due, and automatically calculating due
dates for recurring tasks. It can be run in interactive and batch
modes. In batch mode Personal Schedule will scan your schedule and
pop up a dialog window if it finds an uncompleted task which is
currently due. This feature is ideal for use in your Autoexec.bat
file. Personal Schedule easily handles recurring tasks, automatically
calculating intervals of days, weeks, or months, as required. You can
create any number of task files, either for separate environments
(i.e. Work vs. Home), members of a group, or specific projects.
Despite its name, Personal Schedule is also ideal for tasks shared by
all members of a group, such as a family, or a department at work. At
work, it is ideal as a project management program.
You can use a mouse with this program provided it is Microsoft
compatible, and the correct driver has been loaded. If the name of
your mouse driver ends with '.sys', i.e. 'Mouse.sys', you need to
enter 'Device = xxxxx.sys', where 'xxxxx.sys' is the name of your
driver, in your 'Config.sys' file, and reboot, in order to use it. If
the name ends with '.com', i.e. 'Mouse.com', you need to run it at the
DOS prompt prior to running *this* program, to use it. This program
responds to the left mouse button. The mouse can be used to pick menu
options from the main menu, push buttons in dialog boxes, and pick
specific files or tasks in the 'Open File' and 'Change Tasks' dialog
list boxes. By clicking your mouse on the crosshatched bar at the top
of dialog windows, you can drag them around on the screen. When
picking items from a list in the 'Open File' or 'Change Tasks' dialog
boxes, you can click your mouse anywhere on the cross-hatched 'scroll
bar' located in the right side of the window, and quickly move to any
item in the list. You can also click your mouse on the arrows at the
top and bottom of the 'scroll bar' to move the cursor through the list
one at a time.
If you are using your keyboard rather than a mouse, you can navigate
through the main menu by using the arrow, enter, and escape keys, and
the quick access keys. Quick access keys are highlighted on the menu
bar and on the menus. When exiting the program, rather than using the
above keys, you can optionally press the shortcut key, 'Ctrl-X' at the
main menu. You can use your arrow and tab keys to move your cursor
around, and your enter key and spacebar to pick items and toggle
buttons, in dialog boxes.
To open a file, pick the 'Open' option from the 'Files' menu. The
program will list your current schedule files, if any. You may input
a name (8 characters or less) or use the mouse or keyboard to pick an
existing file. You do not need to include a file extension. The
program will create all data files with the extension '.dat'. You may
want to create a file for yourself, each member of your group (i.e.
family or department), a file for tasks shared by all members, and
files for specific projects. The example file 'Persched.dat', which
is included with this program, has several tasks already entered.
After opening the file, Personal Schedule will quickly scan the file,
calculating new due dates for completed tasks, and scanning for any
uncompleted tasks currently due. If it finds any, it will beep, and
immediately display them in the 'Change' window (see below).
Otherwise it will display the main menu.
To add tasks, pick the 'Add' option from the 'Tasks' menu. Enter at
least the date the task is due and its description. The 'Recur code'
and 'Initial' fields are optional. The 'Recur code' field lets you
specify if the task needs to be repeated at specific intervals: daily,
weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Valid Recur codes are listed
in the dialog box. The 'Initial' field is described in the next
paragraph.
Pick the 'Change' option from the 'Tasks' menu to change or delete
tasks. In the next list displayed, current uncompleted tasks will be
flagged with a '*'. Pick the record you want. Make your changes,
then press 'Enter', or, to rapidly change multiple records, you can
press 'PageUp' or 'PageDown' instead. You can also delete the task.
When a task is completed, type your initials (or any character) in the
'Initial' field. When this field is entered for recurring tasks,
Personal Schedule will use an algorithm (see below) to determine what
interval to add to the due date so that the task will pop up again in
the future.
Pick the 'List' option from the 'Tasks' menu to list the currently
opened file. The output can be sent to printer or disk. You can
optionally specify a date range. Current uncompleted tasks will be
flagged with a '*'.
The syntax for running Personal Schedule is 'Persched [/L XX] [/NS]
[/W] [[/B] /F filespec]'. The characters in brackets are optional.
'/L XX' allows you to change the # of lines the program will use on
the screen (provided your monitor and adapter support it). 'XX' is
the # of lines you want the program to use. EGA adapters can use 43
lines, VGA adapters 43 or 50 lines. The default is 25 lines.
Experiment to find the # of lines you like. '/NS' tells Personal
Schedule to use no sounds. Sound state and the # of screen lines can
also be set from the 'Miscellaneous' menu.
'/W' tells Personal Schedule to wait (3 days for daily and weekly
tasks, 7 for all others) before deleting completed one time tasks, and
calculating new due dates for completed recurring tasks. '/F
filespec' tells Personal Schedule to immediately open the specified
data file. '/B /F filespec' tells Personal Schedule to open the file,
and run in batch (unattended) mode. In batch mode, Personal Schedule
will quickly scan the file, calculating new due dates for completed
tasks, and scanning for any uncompleted tasks currently due. If it
finds any, it will pop up a dialog window, otherwise it will end by
itself. This feature is ideal for use in your Autoexec.bat file.
Date calculation algorithm for recurring tasks: If the task is not
completed ('Initial' field is empty), Personal Schedule will leave the
record alone. Otherwise, if you specified '/W' as a command line
switch, Personal Schedule will first apply the specific wait interval
to the task due date. Then it compares this date to the current date.
If the date hasn't been reached yet, Personal Schedule will leave the
record alone. If the date is equal to or before the current date,
*and* is a one time task (Recur Code = space), Personal Schedule will
delete it. Otherwise, if the date is equal to or before the current
date, *and* has a Recur Code (D, W, M, Q, or Y), Personal Schedule
will fill the 'Initial' field with spaces, calculate the appropriate
new future due date, and rewrite the record. As a convenience, for
monthly and quarterly recurring tasks, if the old due date was the
last day of the month, Personal Schedule will adjust the *due day* as
necessary so that the *new* due date will be the last day of the *new*
month, as well.
If you need more room on disk or in memory, or if the program seems to
behave strangely when one of the data files is loaded, you can pick
the option to rebuild data file. This will pack the file by purging
deleted records, and reset certain pointers within the file. This can
rescue a file if, for instance, your computer lost power during a
write or delete operation in a previous session. This can be run as
often as you wish.
Provided you are using a color monitor, you can pick the option on the
menu to customize your screen colors. After picking this option, the
bottom portion of the screen shows all available background and
foreground colors, along with their corresponding numeric codes. The
top portion of the screen shows each attribute, and its current value.
To change an attribute, pick the number to its left, then input the
new color value. Type 'S' when finished, to (S)ave the current
configuration to disk, so that the program will start up in the future
with these colors. When finished changing your screen colors, press
<esc> to return to the main menu.
You can press 'Carriage Return', or 'Enter' whenever an input prompt
asks for '<cr>'. To pause a listing, press 'Hold', or 'Break', or
'Scroll Lock', depending on your make of computer. You may print a
hard copy of the screen anytime the program is waiting for input, by
pressing a shift key, and the 'PrtSc' key. If this is a
non-registered (evaluation) copy, you can rest assured that it is not
crippled in any way; it has the same functionality as a registered
version. The maximum # of files opened by the program at any given
time is 5, so you probably don't need to adjust your 'Files='
parameter in 'Config.sys'.
This product is not free, it is shareware. You may use it free for a
period of 30 days; to continue using it, you must register. The
registration fee is USD $10.00. For your convenience, I have included
an order form on the last page of this text (if you use Compuserve,
you can avoid mail delays, and register and pay online. Go SWREG for
details. The registration ID is 5471). On receipt of the fee, I will
send you a copy of the latest version, and your registration number,
which you will need to enter the next time you run the program. Upon
successfully entering the number, the program will ask for your name,
and will replace the registration reminder line on the bottom of the
main menu with it. You will be entitled to receive one year of
support, access to upgrades, and, as a bonus, through an agreement
between The Association of Shareware Professionals and Compuserve, a
free Compuserve Intropak which waives the normal sign-up charges, and
includes a $15.00 usage credit. There are no express or implied
warranties. I would be happy to discuss the possibility of additional
custom programming with you. Non-registered users, please feel free
to contact me by mail if you need help running the program, or to tell
me your comments, and suggestions, and, in any event, thanks for
trying the program! Before contacting me about problems, please first
reread the instructions. The most common error new users make is
inputting dates as MMDDYY, instead of MMDDYYYY. The program requires
that years be input as 4 digits, not 2. February 18, 1995, for
instance, must be entered as '02181995', *not* '021895'.
I encourage you to upload this product (demonstration version *only*)
to bulletin boards that accept such products, and to make copies
available to other potential users, provided that you not charge more
than a nominal copying fee, and that you include the files
'PerSched.exe', 'PerSched.dat', 'PerSched.doc', 'Readme.doc',
'Register.doc', 'Sharewar.doc', 'Vend&Sys.doc', and 'File_id.diz' in
their original, unaltered form. I especially encourage you to upload
this version, with a short explanatory note to the sysop, if you see
an older version on a bulletin board that you frequent. You are
expressly forbidden to make copies of your registered copy, however,
except for backup purposes.
Important message from the Association of Shareware Professionals:
"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."
!This line is necessary for proper program operation; don't alter!
This work is Copyright (c) 1995 by William H. Baldwin.
--------------------------REGISTRATION FORM--------------------------
_______
____|__ | (R)
William H. Baldwin --| | |-------------------
8704 Broadmoor, #806 | ____|__ | Association of
Shawnee Mission, Ks. 66212 | | |_| Shareware
Compuserve UID: 76200,275 |__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
Hi, Will! I support the shareware concept! I am enclosing USD $10.00
as registration for 'Personal Schedule'. My name and address is:
________________________________.
________________________________.
________________________________.
________________________________.
Please supply whatever of the following information you can:
The version I have is: ________. I plan to use this program for:
a) Personal, or b) Business use (circle one).
I obtained this program from:
Name: ________________________________. Phone #: __________________.
Address: ______________________________________.
City: ______________________________________.
State: ____ Zip: __________________.
Is the above a computer bulletin board (Y/N): ____
Are the instructions clear?
Please tell me your ideas for future enhancements:
Additional comments: