Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/023a/cp30demo.zip/READ.ME

Text File | 1991-02-08 | 14KB | 298 lines

Contact Plus 3.0 Features and Highlights

    This evaluation copy of Contact Plus 3.0 has been limited to 25 contacts.
    Otherwise, it is fully functional minus the extra programs that are
    available such as:

        SETALARM.BAT - A program that will ring the bell and remind you when
                       its time to handle your pending tickler.  The alarm
                       will ring as long as the computer is turned on.

        CDBASE.EXE   - A program that will do mass deletions, check for
                       duplicates, copy contacts from one database to
                       another database, repair broken databases, etc.

        CONCAL.EXE   - A monthly calendar program that will print out your
                       tickler schedule in a month by month format.

        MICROSTAR    - A powerful word processor supplied with Contact Plus.

        IMPORT.EXE   - An import program that will move information from
                       an ASCII comma-delimited format file directly into
                       Contact Plus.

        CHECK.EXE    - Will print out your list of ticklers due for today
                       along with the phone numbers when starting the
                       computer in the morning.

        DBDUMP/DBLOAD - An optional interface to DBASE III.  This set of
                       tools allows you to dump out ALL information such
                       as ticklers, notes, phone calls, letters, meetings
                       into a .DBF format.  If you have a programmer available
                       you can then create your own customized reports, do
                       your own custom queries and perhaps do a mass update
                       of the contact information.

        CP2CAL       - An optional interface to the Calendar Creator Plus
                       program from Power Up Software.  This option will
                       give you the ability to get Daytimer format output
                       directly from the ticklers in the database.  Create
                       professional looking calendars with crisp, 300-dpi
                       proportional fonts on laser printers; or attractive
                       calendars with proportionally-spaced text and
                       sharply-defined characters on dot matrix printers.

                       Print your calendars upright or sideways on regular
                       8 1/2" x 11" paper; and on 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" and
                       3 3/4" x 6 3/4" sizes to fit your Day-Timers, Lefax,
                       or other portable organizer.


INSTALLATION

    Copy the following files onto your hard disk into a directory called
    \CPLUS30:

        demo.exe      - actual Contact Plus 3.0 demo program
        c.hlp         - help file for Contact Plus
        contact.hdr   - system parameter file
        contact.dt    - sample contact database
        contact.nx0   - sample contact files
        contact.nx1
        contact.nx2
        contact.nx3
        contact.nx4
        contact.nx5
        contact.not
        contact.nt0
        contact.log
        contact.lo0
        contact.rem
        contact.re0
        msdemo.exe    - Demo of the MicroStar wordprocessor

        Enter DEMO followed by the ENTER key to start Contact Plus.

CUSTOMIZATION

    You can customize the system to your needs.  There are 16 user definable
    fields and 3 user definable date fields.  Go to the UTILITY MENU then
    to the USER SETUP MENU.  There you will see the field names for up to
    16 different user defineable fields.  The first 2 user defineable fields
    are index fields.  That is the database is automatically sorted by these
    fields everytime you add a new contact to the database.  It is important
    to select these particular fields properly.  The first 8 fields will appear
    on the header screen of the contact.  The last 8 fields will appear on
    the secondary screen along with the extra address lines.

    Use the EDIT CATEGORY menu to enter up to 24 categories into the system.
    Each contact can be in up to 15 of the totay 24 categories available.
    When printing reports or mail/merge you can select particular contacts
    through the use of powerful boolean search operators.  For example,
    you can search for those contacts in category B and C but not D.
    Or all contacts not in category F.


WRITING INDIVIDUAL LETTERS

    WordPerfect Interface
        If you have a copy of WordPerfect you can try out the automatic
        interface from the program.  Simply enter "\WP51\WP" in the
        Word PROCESSOR prompt if you have WordPerfect 5.1 installed on
        your hard disk.  From the contact menu, with a contact displayed
        on the screen, press the F6 key.  You will be prompted with a
        list of form letters (files ending with .FRM).  Select one and
        you will be placed in the word processor with the file that
        has been created.

        Everytime that you write a letter to one of your contacts using
        the F6 key, a new file is created based on your contacts last
        name and first name.  Up to 1000 letters per name can be
        stored.

    Recording letters
        From the contact menu, press the F8 key.  You will be able to record
        outgoing and incoming correspondence as well as meetings.

    Letter history
        From the LETTER page you can view the previous 15 letters sent to
        the contact.  You can also see the history of ALL letters
        using the ALT-F10 key described later.

MAKING PHONE CALLS

    Dialer
        Contact Plus comes with an autodialer if you have a Hayes equipped
        modem.  Simply press F3 or F4 from the Contact Menu to dial a
        person.  The person that you will dial needs to be displayed on
        the screen.   Contact Plus can dial either phone 1 or phone 2.
        If you don't have a modem attached to your computer you can simply
        dial the phone manually yourself and have Contact Plus log the
        time and message for you.

    Outgoing calls
        The outgoing call can have a status of SUCCESSFUL, LEFT MESSAGE,
        BUSY, NO ANSWER.  The start time, elapsed time, status and a short
        message will be recorded.  If you don't have enough room on the
        phone message simply press the F7 key to add a 250 character note.
        Press the CTRL-N key in the phone message, to get the musical note
        symbol denoting that a note is attached to the phone call.

    Incoming calls
        Press the ALT-F9 key to log an incoming call.  Before pressing the
        ALT-F9 key you will want to make sure that the person who is calling
        is being displayed on the screen.  The elapsed time on the phone call
        will be recorded automatically.

RECORDING MEETINGS
        From the contact menu with a contact displayed on the screen, press
        the F8 key.  You can then record a meeting with the contact.

SCHEDULING TICKLERS

    Followup schedule
        From the tickler page you can enter a followup schedule.  Suppose that
        you want to send a follow up letter 2 weeks after the initial contact.
        After the 2 weeks you then want to send another mailing.  Another two
        weeks and you wish to send yet another mailer.  It is easy to automate
        this process using the followup schedule capabilities of Contact Plus.

    Rescheduling ticklers
        You may reschedule those ticklers that have not been completed.  Contact
        Plus will only reschedule those ticklers with the DONE? field marked
        as NOT DONE.  This way if you are sick or out for a week you can simply
        reschedule those ticklers to today.

    Appointment calendar
        Press the ALT-C key (hold ALT while simultaneously pressing C).  The
        master tickler calendar will appear.  Go ahead and use the arrow keys
        to move from date to date.  You will see a list of ticklers for each
        day appear in the calendar.  Thus it is easy to check your calendar
        when someone calls to see if you are free next Wednesday afternoon.

    Setting the alarms
        Contact Plus comes with a memory-resident alarm that will ring the
        bell when your appointment/tickler comes due.  The alarm feature is
        not present in the evaluation copy.

    Daytimer output
        Contact Plus can interface directly to Calendar Creator Plus 3.0 to
        provide you handsome DayTimer format calendars including pocket and
        planner formats.


HISTORY OF CALLS/LETTERS/MEETINGS

        Each phone call, letter and meeting is stored and accessible using the
        ALT-F10 (press ALT and the F10 key simultaneously) key.  The ALT-F10
        key is available while in the Contact Plus menu.  You can delete and
        edit the history of phone calls/letters/meetings from the HISTORY
        popup window.

BROWSING THE DATABASE

        Press the F9 key from the main header screen while running Contact Plus
        to get a view of up to 17 contacts on the screen at one time.  If you
        have an EGA/VGA monitor, you can change the 43 line mode setting under
        the SYSTEM PARAMETER MENU to view 35 contacts on the screen instead of
        17 contacts.

        From the browse screen, you can search for contacts.  You can also
        change the current index so that the contacts will be resorted
        automatically.  You can dial the phone, write a letter or call up
        the history of anyone in the database while browsing.

MULTIPLE DATABASES

        To keep better organized you can keep multiple databases.  Perhaps
        you will want a list of friends, softball teammates as well as
        sales prospects.

==============================================================================
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CONTACT PLUS 2.1 and CONTACT PLUS PROFESSIONAL 3.0

   o    The 3.0 database uses approximately 50% less disk space.

   o    There are 16 user defined fields.

   o    There are 2 extra 4 line mailing addresses.

   o    Database access is about twice as fast

   o    There is NO limit to the number of phone calls can be stored.  You
        thus have a perpetual history of all calls to all contacts.

   o    There is NO limit to the number of letters that can be stored.

   o    A DEAR field has been added (Dear *de) useful when addressing a
        person in a letter.  I.e. you can write "Dear Bill" instead of
        "Dear William H."

   o    A history popup window has been added displaying all calls
        and letters.  While you are talking on the phone, you can press
        the HISTORY window which will give you immediate access to the
        previous phone calls and letters.

   o    You can select which fields will have an automatic popup menu.
        You may for instance, choose to have the POPUP come up on
        the CITY field only.

   o    The popup menus have more selections on most fields.  You thus
        can have more options when using the F10 popup menus.

   o    A birthdate field (Month and day only) is recorded for each contact
        for handy birthdate mailings.

   o    HP laser labels (two different Avery formats).  Do mass mailings
        using your HP laser printer quickly and professionally.

   o    Support for COM3 and COM4 modems for auto-dial.

   o    2 up and 3 up mailing labels for pinfeed printers.

   o    6 keys to access DOS with ability to pass mail/merge codes
        as parameters.  This enables you to communicate with other programs
        such as FAX transmittal programs.

   o    Index on next tickler date.  This will bunch all of your contacts
        in the order that they have to be contacted.  You can simply press
        the DOWN arrow key or drag the mouse to access the next person that
        needs to be called.

   o    Remembers index, page and contact last accessed between sessions.
        This is handy if you want to always access your contacts by company
        name instead of by contact name.

   o    Tickler rescheduler will reschedule ticklers not DONE for ALL ticklers
        prior to today (not just today's ticklers).  If you are sick for a
        week and need to catch up on your call backs for the previous week,
        you can re-schedule all those ticklers when you come back from sick
        leave.

   o    Browse screen allowing you to view up to 35 contacts on the screen
        at one time.  From the BROWSE screen, you can dial, write letters
        take notes, and view the history.  You may also flag contacts.

   o    Ticklers are based on the DATE and TIME of the appointment.  They are
        also tied into a MASTER calendar so that you can instantly see if you
        are free to make a NEW appointment with your contacts.

   o    An alarm function can be set based on the TIME set for your ticklers.
        Even if you aren't running Contact Plus you will still be notified
        when it is time to make your call or meeting.

   o    Optional interface to Calendar Creator Plus from Power Up Software.
        This will allow you to get your ticklers printed in a multitude of
        formats including DayTimer(r) format.  You can then have a handsome
        calendar listing all your contacts for the week, their phone numbers
        and what you have to call them about.

   o    Optional interface to DBASE III.  This allows you to access to ALL
        data fields in Contact Plus through a DBASE III compatible tool.
        The contact information (including phone calls/letters/notes) are
        dumped out in DBF file format.  You can then generate your own
        customized reports.  You can even do a mass-update such as updating
        all the ZIP codes to ZIP + 4 codes.