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Text File | 1991-04-10 | 29KB | 536 lines

TICKLER & TICKUTL DOCUMENTATION VERSION 7.0 (C) copyright 1991 Lynn Canning 9107 Grandview Dr. Overland Park, KS 66212 (913) 649-7334 TICKLER Page 2 TICKLER TICKLER is an enhanced appointment calendar Features which includes the following functions: - Provides an on-screen list of your schedule. - Provides a printed listing of your schedule for a specified number of days. - Allows messages to be tagged as recurring annually, quarterly, monthly occurance, monthly, weekly, 30, 60, 90 day or temporary. - Temporary messages are automatically purged when past the effective date and are saved for future reference. - Provides a printed listing of purged messages. - Provides on screen viewing of purged messages. - Provides full on-screen edit capabilities. - Provides the ability to check your schedule for a specified date. TICKUTL TICKUTL is a memory resident program that provides Features the following functions: - Add editor for TICKLER. - Perpetual calendar. - Printer setup for Epson and AT&T printers. - Printer setup for HP Laserjet printers. - Screen counter utility. - Area Code Finder. - ASCII Chart. Hardware These programs have been tested on an IBM/PC using Restrictions PC-DOS 3.1 and on an AT&T 6386/SX using MS-DOS 3.3. Routines have been included in the programs which should automatically handle monochrome monitors, but they have not been tested. Monochrome monitors are therefore not supported although they may in fact work properly. TICKLER Page 3 Manual TICKLER should be inserted into your AUTOEXEC.BAT Installation file, so that your schedule will automatically for Hard Disk be displayed on power up. Tickler can also be run at anytime from the DOS prompt. STEPS for installation on hard disk: - Make a directory called TICKLIB DOS entry is md\ticklib - Go to the ticklib directory DOS entry is cd\ticklib - Copy the TICKLER files to the ticklib directory. DOS entrys are: copy a:tickler.com copy a:tickler.dat copy a:tickutl.com copy a:tickutl.000 - Go to the main directory DOS entry is cd\ - Edit the autoexec.bat file. Include c:\ticklib in the path statement. Insert the following lines: set ticklib=c:\ticklib tickler a tickutl The set command will cause TICKLER and TICKUTL to look for their files in the ticklib directory. NOTE: See Removing TICKUTL from memory in the section on TICKUTL. - If are currently using tickler, you will probably want to copy the existing tickler.dat and tickler.old files to the ticklib directory. Mechanized The TICKLER install program will automatically Installation do everything described in the manual installation for Hard Disk section including copying existing tickler.dat and tickler.old files. If an existing tickler.dat file is found, it is concatenated to the tickler.dat file on the program floppy and placed in the ticklib directory. TICKLER Page 4 Command Line There are four command line parameters that can be Parameters specified in any order, but must be separated by a space. "C" - TICKLER will automatically assume you are using a color monitor. If you are using a monochrome monitor or a composite monochrome monitor such as is found on many portables, the screen colors can be changed to shades of black and white by setting a command line parameter of "C" when calling the program. Example: TICKLER C <cr>. "A" - Automatic no-show. In normal mode, TICKLER pauses after displaying the initial window until a key is pressed. In no-show mode, if no messages are available to show on the screen, TICKLER writes a "No Messages Available" line and exits. This option should be included in your autoexec.bat as it will not cause a pause in your boot up if there are no messages to be displayed. Example: TICKLER A <cr> "mm/dd/yy" - TICKLER displays messages based on the current date. If a date is specified on the command line, Tickler will show the messages available for that date. No editing is allowed when this special date is specified. Example: TICKLER 10/20/90 <cr> "S" - Print Schedule. Tickler will print a schedule of messages available. This option also works with a special date in the command line. TICKLER will ask for the schedule time span. Up to 99 days can be entered. Example: TICKLER C S <cr> or TICKLER S <cr> A command line of TICKLER C S 10/20/90 would set the black and white monitor settings, call up the schedule for 10/20/90, and print a selected schedule for that date. TICKLER Page 5 TICKLER Typing an "E" at TICKLER's opening screen will Editor cause the TICKLER edit menu to be displayed. Features The following functions are available: - Add a message - Modify an existing message - Print the purged file - Delete the purged file - View the purged file The data files are maintained in text format so that they can be listed or printed with standard utilities. Caution should be used if attempting to make modifications with a word processers, since some of them set end of line and end of file marks that make the file unreadable. TICKLER determines message status by comparing the system julian day to the message julian day. This is not a true julian day because Tickler always assumes 366 days in a year. Editor The editor utilizes the following keys: Keys left arrow right arrow home end backspace Esc Editor The editor is always in insert mode. It requests Usage you to supply input to a particular field and then press return. If you want to use the default value for a field, just press return. If you make a mistake, you cannot back up to a previous field. Pressing the Esc key will allow you to escape from the entry mode and start over or exit the editor. After all fields are input, you are asked if you want to save the message. If a mistake has been made, just say no and re-enter the data. It is not necessary to type leading zeros when in the editor. Since the editor is always in insert mode, be sure to check any changed values before pressing the return key. TICKLER Page 6 TICKLER Month - valid values are 1-12. Add Day - valid values are 1-31. Editor Year - four position year, default is current Option "A" year. Time - format is hh:mm, default is spaces. AM/PM - enter AM or PM, default is spaces. This field is required if a time was entered. Msg Line1 - 50 characters, default is spaces. Msg Line2 - 50 characters, default is spaces. Timespan - the number of days in advance you wish the message to appear. An entry of 00 causes the message to appear only on the message day. 99 days is the maximum entry. Default is 00. Status - A = Annual. Message will show once a year on the day specified. Good for birthdays. Q = Quarterly. Message will show on the day specified on the first month of each quarter. Message month must contain the first month of one of the quarters. O = Monthly Occurance. Message will show on the day of the week and occurance specified. ie. Second Tuesday, third Friday. M = Monthly. Message will show every month on the day specified. Message month is ignored but must contain a valid value. W = Weekly. Message will show on the day of the week specified. Message day and month are ignored, but must contain a valid value. T = Temporary. Message will show on the day specified. Good for meetings. 3 = Message shows every 30 days. 6 = Message shows every 60 days. 9 = Message shows every 90 days. DOW - Enter day of week to show message. 1 = Sunday, 2 = Monday, etc. OCC - Enter occurance in month to show the message. Valid values are 1 - 4. Note: Message date on Quarterly, Monthly, Monthly Occurance, and Weekly messages are recalculated each time Tickler is run. Only the first occurance of these message types will be shown on the printed schedule. TICKLER Page 7 TICKLER When this option is selected, all messages are Modify displayed on the screen. The currently selected Editor message is high-lighted. Use the up and down Option "M" arrow keys to select the message to be changed or deleted. When the message is selected, press C to change or D to delete. CHANGE - This is just like the Add Editor except the current values are shown. If a particular field requires no change, press return and the current value is kept. DELETE - This causes the selected message to be deleted. The message is not actually deleted until end of job. If you accidently delete a message, you can undelete it by typing "D" again and the delete status will be toggled off. Deleted messages are not written to the purged messages file. Print Selection of this option causes the printing of Purged the TICKLER.OLD file which contains all purged Messages temporary messages. Since the printing is not Option "P" started until just before end of job, this option can be toggled on and off. Delete Selection of this option causes the deletion of Purged the TICKLER.OLD file. Since the file is not Messages deleted until just before end of job, this option Option "O" can be toggled on and off. View Selection of this option allows on-screen viewing Purged of the TICKLER.OLD file which contains all purged Messages temporary messages. Option "V" TICKLER Page 8 Calling The Tickler Utility Menu is popped up by typing TICKUTL (Alt)= after it has been loaded into memory. Any of the options shown may then be selected by typing the corresponding number or letter key. The options are various utilities which upon completion will exit Tickler Utilities and return to the previous task. TICKUTL This utility is a memory resident add editor for Add TICKLER. It operates identically to the add Editor editor in TICKLER. The utility allows you to add messages to your schedule without exiting from a running application program. Refer to the TICKLER documentation for detailed instructions on the use of the TICKLER Editor. TICKUTL This program will show three months of calendars Calendar with the target month in the middle. Upon selection, the calendars associated with the system month are initially displayed. The program will then ask for a different target month and year. If the target month desired is in the current year, it is not necessary to enter the year. This is a perpetual calendar and will display any year greater than 0100. Entries less than year 0100 or that do not contain a century will have 1900 added to the year. Keep in mind that several centuries ago several days were added to the Gregorian calendar thus invalidating the calendars shown for very old dates. TICKLER Page 9 Epson/AT&T This utility is mostly self explanatory. Various Printer print options are turned on an off through the use Set-up of a menu. It will work with most Epson and Epson compatible printers. Several parameter exceptions have been flagged as unavailable for use with the noted AT&T printers. It is advisable to consult your printer manual to determine if all of the options shown are compatible with the printer you are using. When this utility is called, the printer is reset to its power up state thus cancelling all previously set parameters. Various options can be set by typing the corresponding number or letter. Options previouly set can be turned off by typing the number or letter key again. Multiple options may be selected yielding a large range of print styles. Some options are incompatible with other options. For example emphasized mode cannot be used with elite type and obviously you cannot set multiple line spacing parameters. See your printer manual for any combinations that do not seem to work properly. After the options are set, you can see the results by printing a test pattern. This pattern also denotes the options selected. Try option "K" for if you have good eyes and want to save some paper. HP Laser This utility is similar to the Epson printer set up Printer option. Due to the many options and configurations Set-up available on the laser printer, some options shown may not work properly on a particular machine. TICKLER Page 10 Screen Screen Counter was written to count screen Counter positions. When Screen Counter is activated you will notice four counters on the last line of the screen. The line counter obviously tells you what line you are on and correspondingly the column counter gives you the column or your position on the line. The trip counters are used to determine the horizontal and vertical distance between two points on the screen. Note that the column and line counters correspond to the X and Y screen coordinates respectively. This is particularly helpful when designing a screen layout. To use the trip counters, place the cursor on the leftmost point that you wish to begin counting. Type the F2 key to reset the trip counters to 1. Move the cursor to the rightmost point. The htrip counter now contains the horizontal distance between the two points including the starting and ending positions. The vtrip counter contains the vertical distance between the starting and ending points. The trip counters count from left to right and top to bottom. If you overshoot your target position, you can move the cursor to the right or up and the counters will decrement. The trip counters will reset to the value of the column and line counters if you attempt to drive them to a negative value by moving left or up past the starting position. Cursor movement is controlled by the number pad keys. For details, see the on-screen help menu by pressing the F1 key when in the program. The cursor will screen wrap except when attempting to go left at line 1 column 1 or right at line 24 column 80. Area Code If an area code is entered, a list of major cities Finder for the area code is shown. If a two position postal state code is entered, a list of area codes and major cities for the area codes is shown. If a ? is entered, the postal state code is shown for each state. ASCII Chart A screen is displayed showing the ASCII characters. TICKLER Page 11 Removing Tickler Utilities can be removed from memory by TICKUTL typing Ctrl-F9 when the Tickler Utility Menu is on From the screen. Tickler Utilities must not be removed Memory unless it was popped up at the DOS prompt. Attempting removal when Tickler Utilities is popped over an application program will most likely result in a system crash. If Tickler Utilities is not the last memory resident program loaded, the other programs must be removed first or the memory used be Tickler Utilities will not be released leaving a hole in memory that will remain unaccessable until the system is rebooted. TICKLER TICKLER determines message status based on the Problems system date. The system date is displayed on the opening screen. Make sure the date is correct or some temporary files may incorrectly be purged. TICKUTL As is the case with many memory resident programs, Problems TICKUTL may be incompatible with some programs. If problems occur, try changing the order that you load your memory resident programs. If this does not solve the problem, it would probably be best to only load TICKUTL when it will not be in contention with the other program involved. TICKUTL TICKUTL is not a requirement for running TICKLER. Note The only connection it has with TICKLER is the memory resident add editor. TICKLER contains exactly the same editor internally, it is just not memory resident. TICKLER Page 12 TICKLER The following files should be present on the Files program floppy: TICKLER.COM - Program file for TICKLER TICKLER.DAT - TICKLER's message file TICKUTL.COM - Program file for TICKUTL TICKUTL.000 - Overlay program file for TICKUTL TICKLER.DOC - Documentation for TICKLER & TICKUTL TICKLER TICKLER.DAT - Current messages are added to and Data maintained in this file. TICKLER will look for File this file in the directory specified by the SET Descriptions command. If not found, you will be asked for the drive and directory where TICKLER.DAT resides. This file must be present. TICKLER.OLD - Temporary files older than the system date are automatically purged and saved for future reference in this file. This file is provided to allow you to review which meetings you have attended, etc. Print, delete, and view options for this file are contained in the editor menu. TICKLER assumes that TICKLER.OLD resides on the same drive and directory as TICKLER.DAT. TICKLER will automatically create this file when it is needed. TICKLER.$$$ - This is an work file which is erased at end of job. If for some reason TICKLER abnormally terminates, this file may not be erased, and should be manually deleted. TICKLER Page 13 Registration This program is distributed for personal, private use and with the understanding that if it is used and found to be of value, the user will register with a contribution of $15. Commercial and corporate use without registration and license is prohibited. Multiple copy rates are as follows: Number of users (copies) Price per copy 1 to 9 $ 15.00 10 to 25 12.00 26 to 100 10.00 101 to 250 7.50 251 to 500 5.00 501 to 1000 2.50 1001 up 1.25 Regardless of the quantity, only one set of materials will be sent to you. You may then make as many copies as required. Make checks payable to and address questions and problems to: Lynn Canning 9107 Grandview Drive Overland Park, KS 66212 Phone (913) 649-7334