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PUNCHLISTtm VERSION 2.10 USER'S MANUAL SHAREWARE VERSION PREPARED BY VECTOR SERVICES CORPORATION ENGINEERS * CONSULTANTS TAMPA, FLORIDATABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS III. INSTALLATION IV. THE MAIN MENU SCREEN V. THE SELECT/CREATE SCREEN VI. THE PUNCHLIST DATA SCREEN A. Browse B. Editing 1. Ins 2. Revise 3. Erase C. Exiting D. Field Definitions VII. THE PRINT PUNCHLIST SCREEN VIII. UTILITIES A. Copy/Rename Data Files B. Edit Priority Code C. Edit Milestone D. Set Printer Output E. Configure Printer F. Convert Active Data File IX. HELP DISCLAIMER This software and manual are sold "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. Vector Services Corporation does not guarantee the correctness of the software or manual. Should the program or documentation prove defective, the user assumes all responsibility for any problems arising from the use of the software. Vector Services Corporation reserves the right to make changes and/or improvements to the manual and/or software at any time. Vector Services Corporation reserves the right to make changes to the program without notice to purchaser. ■Vector Services Corporation 1994. This material is proprietary and protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Reproduction or other use without the express permission of Vector Services Corporation is prohibited. PUNCHLISTtm is a registered trade mark of Vector Services CorporationI. INTRODUCTION PUNCHLIST provides tracking of open items (shareware version limited to 50 items) on up to ten different projects. After installation and initial printer configuration, you will be able to obtain printouts (in a variety of formats) as fast as the data can be entered. Various sort fields can be specified for the printouts. For example, you can obtain a printout complete with due date, location, and description in addition to other fields that select all open items of a specified contractor. Another example is sorting by due date or another specified field, either in chronological order or by one specified date. With this variety of report options, managing the completion of your projects is simplified and organized. This manual further describes what PUNCHLIST can do and explains how to use the program as an effective management tool. It is recommended that you first read this manual completely before attempting to use the program. This will allow you to speed up your learning process and efficiently use PUNCHLIST. II. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS To use PUNCHLIST, your system must include the following: A. IBM PC, XT, AT or compatible with at least 512K of user memory (640K of RAM recommended). B. One hard disk and one floppy disk drive. C. Monochrome or color monitor. D. MS-DOS operating system, Version 3.0 or higher. E. Parallel or serial printer(s) (PUNCHLIST supports IBM and Epson compatible printers). III. INSTALLATION A registration card (REGISTER.TXT), an information file (README.TXT) and this manual (PUNCH210.DOC) are included with the necessary program and sample data files. Please fill out the registration card and return it to: VECTOR SERVICES CORPORATION P.O. Box 25152 Tampa, Florida 33622 Follow the instructions below to install PUNCHLIST on your system. A. From your root directory make a new subdirectory called PUNCH on your hard disk. DOS Command: MD PUNCH B. Change to the newly created subdirectory: DOS Command: CD PUNCH C. Copy all files from PUNCHLIST disk #1 to the newly created subdirectory. DOS Command: COPY A:*.* D. Repeat this command for the second disk and leave disk #2 in the floppy disk drive. Then type "PUNCH". E. To bring up PUNCHLIST at any time, make sure you are in the PUNCH subdirectory and type "PUNCH". Upon initial entrance into PUNCHLIST, you will be prompted to specify your company's name (20 characters or less). Enter the name and press ENTER. The program will record this information on the floppy disk and in the working copy on the hard disk. An introductory screen is then encountered. Hit any key to continue. IV. THE MAIN MENU SCREEN The Main Menu screen allows you to access all parts of the PUNCHLIST program. To select an item, use the cursor control keys (or mouse) and press ENTER. A. Select/Create Punchlist Data File This choice should be selected to create a new PUNCHLIST data file or to activate an existing PUNCHLIST data file to be maintained or printed. Upon entrance into PUNCHLIST you have to first select this choice to activate a desired data file. B. Maintain Active Data File This selection should be chosen when you want to add items to a punchlist, edit items of a punchlist, delete items from a punchlist or just browse through a punchlist. An active data file must be specified before selecting this choice. C. Print Active Data File Select this choice to print the active punchlist data file. Several options are offered and are discussed in Part VI of this manual. An active data file must be specified before selecting this choice. D. Utilities This selection allows you to coordinate your printer with the PUNCHLIST program and define Priority Codes and Milestones for your punchlists. These terms are defined in Section VII. This selection also allows copy/rename capabilities of existing punchlist data files. An active data file must be specified before selecting this choice. E. Quit This selection returns you to DOS. V. THE SELECT/CREATE PUNCHLIST MENU After selecting "Select/Create Punchlist Data File" from the Main Menu, this screen enables the user to: A. Create a New Punchlist Data File This is accomplished by pressing the keys ALT-A or clicking the mouse on the "Add" menu, entering the data file name, and pressing ENTER. The file name's first six characters must be unique. A new data file is created and is initially empty. The new data file is the active file. B. Select an Existing Punchlist Data File From the List To activate a data file, use the cursor control keys or clicking the mouse and press ENTER to select a name from the EXISTING PUNCHLIST FILENAMES list located on the right hand side of your monitor. The name you selected will appear in the ACTIVE FILE box located in the center of the screen. This is the file you wish to maintain or print. C. Delete Data Files Once a Project is Completed After a project is finished, you may want to delete the data file to make room for additional punchlists. This is accomplished by selecting a data file name using the cursor control keys and the pressing ALT-K simultaneously, or clicking the mouse on "Kill File" menu. You will be asked if you really want to delete the file and must respond with "Y" for yes and "N" for no. The file is deleted if you answer with a "Y" keystroke. NOTE: ALT-E or clicking the mouse on eXit will return you to the Main Menu only if you have selected an active file. VI. THE PUNCHLIST DATA SCREEN After selecting "Maintain Active Data File" from the Main Menu, this screen appears and you have the following options: - Browse through the punchlist (NEXT, PREVIOUS, SEARCH) - Add items to the punchlist (ADD) - Change data for existing punchlist items (REVISE) - Delete existing punchlist items (DELETE) These options are presented in the form of a menu at the top of your screen. Selecting the desired action is performed by clicking the mouse or pressing ALT-KEYS of the capital letter of the desired menu action. A. BROWSE One item (or record) is displayed at a time. Browsing is accomplished by selecting NEXT or PREVIOUS to display the next or previous items in the punchlist data file. The items are stored and scrolled in sequential order according to the punchlist number (PL#). To perform a free-field search of any field select SEARCH. A new window will appear. From here you can select a search field and specify a search string. The temporary search file that is created can be directed to the printer or the display. If the selected search field is NUMBER then the display is automatically chosen as the destination. This can useful when scrolling large files so the user can "jump" around in the file. When the selected search field is not "NUMBER" and the display is chosen as the destination a partial search file is shown on the display, This partial file cannot be edited. The user should make note of the PL#'s involved in order to edit when the complete file is required. Pressing F6 returns to the main file. When the printer is chosen as the destination print format #4 is always used because this format will be compatible with all printers and it contains all fields. B. EDITING 1. Ins After selecting Ins, the highlight bar moves to the Priority Code field. The PL#, time and date are automatically entered for you. Pressing ENTER will complete or surpass any field. Desired information is then entered into the fields by the user. All the fields are sequentially accessed by the highlight bar and when the final field is entered, the record can be saved by pressing the ENTER key. 2. REVISE REVISE works in the same way as Ins. Any revisions that need to be made are accomplished by simply changing the display using the keyboard and hitting the ENTER key. The fields are accessed and the revised record is saved as mentioned in Ins above. 3. ERASE The current item being displayed is the record to be deleted. Pressing ALT-E completes the deletion. A deletion consists of the displayed punchlist item's "Description" field changing to "ITEM DELETED" followed by the current date. Records that have been deleted will not be printed in reports. C. CHANGING USER DEFINED FIELDS Pressing ALT-F or clicking the mouse on "Field" menu, allows you to change the field names of "Field A", "Field B", "Field C" and "Field D" to a more appropriate name. These are text fields that are 20 characters long. D. EXITING ALT-X or clicking the mouse on eXit will return you to the Main Menu. (This is the case for most of the PUNCHLIST screens.) E. FIELD DEFINITIONS 1. PL# - A unique integer between 1 and 9999 to distinguish each item on a project. 2. Date Entered - Date the item was entered into the punchlist. 3. Time - Time of day that the item was entered. 4. Priority Code - A user-defined symbol between A and Z that designates the priority of the item as far as when it should be completed. Examples: A: ASAP B: 24 Hours C: 30 Days D: 90 Days 5. Description - A brief description of the incomplete item. Example: Install ceiling tile and return grille. 6. Location - Location of unfinished item. Example: RM 235 7. Equipment - Piece of equipment in question. Examples: Chiller 2 Compressor 1A 8. Milestone - A user-defined symbol, represented by digits 0 through 9, indicating a significant point in development. Example: 0: Pouring of Main Slab 1: Energize Transformers 2: Final Inspection 9. Contact - Responsible individual or correspondent. 10. Date Due - Date that the incomplete item is or was due. 11. Date Completed - Date that the item is completed. It is recommended that this field be left blank for open items and used when the items are completed. This will allow the open item printouts (explained later) to be accurate. 12. Supplier - Supplier who may be responsible. 13. Contractor/Resp. Ind. - Contractor or individual who may be responsible. 14. Cost - Any cost that may be associated with the item. 15. Comments - Additional comments. 16. Field A, B, C, D - Anonymous fields to be used at user's discretion. VII. THE PRINT PUNCHLIST MENU After selecting "Print Active Data File" from the Main Menu, this screen appears on your monitor and allows you to: - Print an entire punchlist file. - Print selected punchlist records based on user-specified field or fields. - Sort then print the selected records. - Print all open or all open and complete items. - Specify a printout title. - Specify desired printout format. Initially, the highlight bar is positioned in the top left hand corner menu. From here the user can: - Press F8 to display print format information. - Press F9 to edit the current print format. The highlight bar will jump to FORMAT in the top right hand corner of the screen. Here the desired format (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6) must be typed followed by ENTER. - Press Ctrl-Esc to exit to the Main Menu. - Press F1 for HELP. - Use cursor control keys to select ALL RECORDS if you want the whole file printed. - Use cursor control keys to select SPECIFIC RECORDS to print user- specified records. Upon selecting ALL RECORDS the user can specify printing of all open or all complete and open items. This criteria is based on the date completed field so this field must be accurate in order for open items only to be printed. Upon selecting SPECIFIC RECORDS, the highlight bar jumps down into a data entry section of the screen. This section functions exactly like the punchlist item data entry screen. Here is where the user can type in a specific field that the records of the active file must match if it is to be printed out. After the fields are entered and F10 is pressed, the active data file is processed so as to find any records that have fields identical to the fields just specified. If matching records are found, you must select whether you want them printed the way they occurred in the active data file or in a sorted fashion (chronologically if by date, increasing order if by number, alphabetically if an alphabetical field is chosen). The lower right menu is selected by the highlight bar if a sort is desired. A selection is made by the now familiar cursor control keys and enter key. NOTE: To print ALL records sorted other than by PL#, select SPECIFIC RECORDS, progress through the data entry section using the ENTER key, press F10, select SORT THEN PRINT MATCHING RECORDS, and finally select the desired field to be sorted by. This may be time consuming for large files. In all print conditions, the user is prompted with an opportunity to specify printing of just open items or all open and complete items. The user also has a chance to title any report. The user is finally prompted also prompted with "PRINTER READY? P to print, C to cancel". At this time, the printer should be checked to verify that it is on-line and that the paper is positioned properly. Pressing C will cancel the print only before it has started printing. Pressing P will initiate printing. VIII. UTILITIES After selecting "Utilities" from the Main Menu, a Utilities menu appears and its entries are explained here. A. Copy/Rename Data File This utility can be used if you need to copy a PUNCHLIST data file to a different name. This can be time saving for similar project PUNCHLISTS. After choosing this selection from the Utilities menu, a new screen will appear. It prompts you to enter a source file name, and a destination file name. There is no need to add paths or extensions when typing in file names--they are provided automatically. When specifying a destination file name the first 6 characters must be unique. Ctrl-Esc will bring you back to the Utilities menu. B. Edit Priority Code This is an optional feature that allows the user to define a code to be used with the punchlist items. Priority Code is defined in Part VI.F. of this manual. When this selection is made, a simple data entry screen appears. When finished with one entry, hit ENTER and the next one will be selected. To exit, Ctrl-Esc will save your editing and return you to the Utilities menu. Each punchlist data file has a unique set of priority codes. C. Edit Milestone This feature is similar to the Edit Priority Code described above except that the definition of the two differ. The definition (and an example) of Milestone is given previously in Section VI.E. This screen is also data entry and works exactly like Edit Priority Code. D. Set Printer Output This utility is to be used to specify the following printer characteristics (NOTE: Default values are given below in parentheses): 1. Letter Quality Print (NO) This allows the user to define whether or not letter quality print is desired. 2. Characters Per Inch (10) This enables the user to specify the size of the characters to be printed. The choices are 10, 12 and 17 (compressed). 3. Page Width (14-7/8") The page width of the printer that is about to print should be chosen here. NOTE: A possible printout malfunction which may occur is when Page Width is specified at 8 1/2", Characters Per Inch is set at 10 or 12, and format 1 or 2 is selected. This is because formats 1 and 2 are designed for page widths of 14 7/8". Compressed (17 CPI) mode must be used for formats 1 and 2 on a page width of 8 1/2". 4. Printer Port (LPT1) The printer port connected to the printer that is about to print should be selected here. LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1 and COM2 are the available options. Each of these characteristics is selected as if you were selecting a menu item--a sequence with which you should now be familiar. Once all the options have been encountered, a Ctrl-ENTER sequence saves the characteristics to a file and these characteristics are used until they are changed again. E. Configure Printer This utility is provided so that the correct control sequences for your system's printer(s) can be obtained. The user must designate the name of the printer and its equivalent ASCII codes for such printer control sequences as Letter Quality Print, Data Processing Print (Letter Quality Off), 10 Characters Per Inch, 12 Characters Per Inch, 17 Characters Per Inch and Printer Reset. You will need to consult your printer(s) manual to obtain these decimal codes. These codes must be entered before any of the characteristics mentioned in D. above can be executed properly. To configure your printer(s), select CONFIGURE PRINTER from the UTILITIES menu. Upon initial entrance to this utility, a blank list of printers appears along with a data entry block (located directly below the blank list). Here you should enter the printer name and a description (model number). Once these fields have been completed, Ctrl-ENTER will save them and a CODES window will appear on the right hand side of the screen. This window is where you specify the decimal ASCII code sequences for the indicated printer control functions. Notice the highlight bar moves to the selection of your choice using the cursor control keys. It is recommended upon initial control code entry that you specify the control sequences of all the fields in this window. Once you have selected your choice, hit ENTER. The cursor will flash over the first decimal ASCII code (initially it is ). Now you can enter the first of up to five decimal ASCII codes of the corresponding printer control function and press ENTER. The cursor will now jump to the second decimal ASCII code and a decimal number should be entered once again followed by ENTER. To complete the code for a function, hit ENTER twice after entering the last decimal ASCII code (there are up to five decimal ASCII codes per control function). Once all six control functions have been entered, Ctrl- ENTER will save the control codes and add the printer name to the list of printers. Example: From Copal 324NLQ Manual Decimal Function 27 120 48 Letter Quality Off (a.k.a.,Draft Quality) 27 120 49 Letter Quality On 27 80 Select Pica Width 27 77 Select Elite Width 15 Condensed 27* 64** Initialize Printer * First Decimal ASCII Code ** Second Decimal ASCII Code Now you will find yourself in the "choose printer" list. Hit ENTER to activate a selected printer (designated by the highlight box). The name of the selected printer will appear in the "ACTIVE PRINTER:" field. The CODES window pops up again. Pressing Ctrl-T initiates a printer test to see if the right control sequences have been specified. Ctrl- ENTER or Ctrl-Esc gets rid of the CODES window (or you can make changes). Ctrl-Esc will return you to the UTILITIES menu with an activated printer. That printer stays active until another one is chosen from the list. (Some systems may have more than one printer.) F. Convert Data Files This Converter utility will import a dBaseII, dBaseIII, DIF(Data Interchange Format), or BASIC (ASCII text) file, convert it to a Clarion data file, and produce a Clarion FILE structure for the converted file. Similarly, Converter can export a Clarion data file and convert it to a dBaseIII, DIF, or BASIC file. IX. HELP HELP is provided for the screens mentioned in parts IV through VIII. To initiate a HELP screen, press the F1 key. PUNCHLIST QUICK REFERENCE FROM ANY SCREEN F1 for HELP, or click mouse on help menu. FROM SELECT/CREATE PUNCHLIST DATAFILE SCREEN: ALT-A Create a new datafile. ALT-K Delete chosen datafile. ENTER Activate chosen datafile. ALT-E Return to main menu. FROM DATA ENTRY SCREEN: Select from menu by using the cursor control keys or typing the first letter of the desired menu action or by clicking the mouse on desired selection. ENTER Completes a menu action or a field (highlighted bar). ENTER To save a revised or added record. ALT-E Completes a delete. ALT-F Change user defined fields. ALT-S Re-enable search option. ALT-X Return to main menu. FROM PRINT SCREEN: Use cursor control keys to select items. F8 Display print format information. F9 Change print format (1,2,3, 4, 5 or 6). F10 To complete specified fields. ESC Go to previous field. P Print (at the appropriate prompt). C Cancel (at the appropriate prompt). CTRL-ESC Return to main menu.