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Night Owl 6
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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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rolofono.zip
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MANUAL.DOC
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1990-12-31
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ABOUT ROLOPHONE
RoloPhone is a pop-up electronic directory which provides you
with a simple, fast lookup of names, companies, phone and fax
numbers. Over five hundred entries can be stored for instant
recall, even if you are using your computer for another task.
You can even "export" items from the directory to be inserted
into a document you may be working on.
RoloPhone is designed to operate on IBM personal computers, or
full compatibles, equipped with a fixed disk and using MS or PC
DOS level 3.0 or higher. After installation the program resides
in the background, ready for use instantly. Included are
utilities which allow you to add new entries, edit existing
entries and to quickly find an elusive name, phone or fax number.
INSTALLATION
To install RoloPhone on your personal computer, insert the
diskette into Drive A and at the DOS prompt (C>) type A:INSTALL
followed by the Enter key. This instruction will install the
software on fixed disk drive C. During the installation process
you will be asked if you wish to keep or change the subdirectory
name and if you wish to have the program automatically install
itself when the computer is powered up.
If you wish to install RoloPhone on a fixed drive other than C,
follow the word INSTALL with a space then the drive designator.
For example, to install on drive D, type A:INSTALL D.
After RoloPhone has been installed, you may summon the directory
at any time by striking the Ctrl, Shift and R keys
simultaneously.
USING ROLOPHONE
When you command RoloPhone to spring into service by striking the
Ctrl, Shift and R keys, you will see the directory window appear
on your screen. You may scroll though the entries by using the
PgUp and PgDn keys; the Home and End keys take you to the
beginning or end of the directory. To display addresses strike
the Alt and D keys simultaneously. To add or edit entries, find
or sort, strike the F10 key. Help is available by striking the
F1 key. To exit and return to your application, strike the Esc
key.
Page 2
Striking the F10 key produces a pull down menu which appears on
the right side of the window as shown above. You may select one
of the utilities by moving the cursor to the desired position and
striking the Enter key. An alternate to using the F10 key and
the pull down menu is the use of Alt-key sequences (striking the
Alt and another key simultaneously from the directory window) as
listed below:
Alt-A Lets you add entries to your directory.
Alt-E Lets you edit existing entries.
Alt-F Finds an entry in your directory.
Alt-S Chooses how your directory is sorted.
Alt-I Displays general information about RoloPhone.
Choosing Add allows you to add new names and numbers to your
directory. Standard editing features are available such as
insert and overwrite modes. The cursor keys move from field to
field; the Enter key moves to the next field. When you have
finished, strike the Esc key to review your work and exit,
saving the additions you have made. Striking the F2 key saves
your work immediately. Quick-select the Add function by striking
the Alt and A keys simultaneously.
Choosing Edit allows you to make changes to names and numbers
already in your directory. Standard editing features are
available such as insert and overwrite modes. You may use the
cursor keys to move from field to field; the Enter key moves to
the next field. When you have finished with all of the fields
you intend to change, strike the Esc key to review your work and
exit, saving the changes you have made. Striking the F2 key at
any time saves your work immediately and returns to the directory
window. You may quick-select the Edit function from the
directory window by striking the Alt and E keys simultaneously.
The Find utility allows you to find a specific entry in your
directory. You may specify the entire field or you may enter
only a fragment, such as the first few letters. The first match
found will be displayed. If an exact match isn't found, the
closest match will be displayed. Find is sensitive to both upper
and lower case, so be sure to enter exactly what you are looking
for. Quick-select the Find function by striking the Alt and F
keys simultaneously.
Choosing the Sort utility allows you to sort the directory in
alphabetical or numerical order. The directory is usually sorted
by Name or by Firm, but you may sort by Phone or Fax number if
you wish. You may resort at any time to make it more convenient
to scroll through the directory. Be aware that the Find utility
searches the field which on which the directory has been most
recently sorted, so if you usually search for a Firm name, sort
by Firm, and so forth. You may quick-select the Sort function
from the directory window by striking the Alt and S keys
simultaneously instead of selecting from the pull down menu.
Page 3
A comprehensive repertory of help screens is available at the
stroke of the F1 key. Help will appear within the directory
window. It is context sensitive, that is the help displayed
relates to the function being performed. Some help sessions
occupy only one screen, some more than one in which case the word
MORE will appear at the bottom. You may escape from help at any
time by striking the Esc key.
Inserting text from RoloPhone. Striking the Alt and C keys
simultaneously allows you to copy any one of the lines displayed
on the screen into your document. You will be asked to select
Name, Firm, Phone or FaX. As soon as you make the selection, the
window will disappear and the selected line of text will appear
in your document at the cursor position. If you are using the
address book accessory, you may copy the entire name and address
into your document by striking C after bringing the addresses
into view with Alt - D.
MORE ABOUT ROLOPHONE
For those of you with a technical interest, or if you would like
to tinker a bit, the following information is provided for you.
It will allow you to modify the screen presentation and system
capacities to suit individual preferences.
The technical name for RoloPhone is a Terminate and Stay Resident
(TSR) program. When it is installed, either by action of the
autoexec.bat at power up, or by the action of a batch file called
rolo.bat which has been placed in the root directory, RoloPhone
remains resident in memory, running in the background. While in
the background it has but one task, to detect the presence of the
keystroke combination Ctrl Shift and R . When the sequence is
detected, the directory screen is brought to the foreground.
More About Install
RoloPhone is distributed on diskette in a single file named
install.exe. When called into service, install unbundles several
compressed files and places them in a subdirectory called rolo.
During the process you are given an opportunity to rename the
subdirectory if you don't fancy the one chosen by install.
A batch file called rolo.bat is placed in the root directory. It
is used if you do not elect to have RoloPhone load automatically
on power up. Even if loading is automatic, if for some reason
RoloPhone is released, typing rolo at the DOS prompt will reload.
Automatic loading is accomplished by a line added to your
autoexec.bat file, or by the creation of one if it does not
exist. Again, during the process of installation, you are given
a choice as to whether or not you wish the autoexec.bat modified.
If modified, a copy of the existing autoexec.bat is saved as
autoexec.rol.
Page 4
During installation you will also be asked if you are using a
color or monochrome monitor. This choice is necessary to
accommodate certain types of displays, particularly LCD or plasma
discharge, which may be classified as "color" but do not respond
to certain of the highlighting attributes used in RoloPhone. If
your computer uses either of these types of display, you should
elect "no" when asked if yours is a color monitor.
The Screen and SOS
When you are in the directory window, you may move the display up
or down by striking the Ctrl and the PgUp or PgDn keys
simultaneously. Likewise, to move the display horizontally
strike the Ctrl and the horizontal cursor keys. Strike the
Ctrl and the Home or End keys to move the display to the upper
left or lower right corners respectively. The position of the
window will remain where you have placed it until the computer is
turned off or until RoloPhone is unloaded and reloaded.
When help is summoned using the F1 key and the last page of help
is displayed, a well known audible code is issued -- the familiar
international distress signal -- SOS. You may change the
character of the signal by striking the Alt and one of the
following keys while the help screen is displayed:
Alt-U Increases the pitch of tone.
Alt-D Decreases the pitch of tone..
Alt-F Increases the cadence of tone sequence.
Alt-S Decreases the cadence of tone sequence.
Alt-Q Turns the audible signal off altogether.
The selected attributes will remain until the computer is turned
off or until RoloPhone is unloaded and reloaded.
Unloading RoloPhone
If for some reason you wish to remove RoloPhone from it's
resident position in memory you may do so by striking the Ctrl
Alt and U keys simultaneously while the directory window is being
displayed. To reload you may type ROLO while at the DOS prompt,
or execute an autoexec if you have installed for automatic
loading at power up. Care should be taken when unloading if
other TSR programs have been loaded after RoloPhone; heed the
last-in-first-out rule.
Page 5
System Capacities
The names and numbers which you place into the directory are
saved permanently on disk; additionally they are transferred to a
temporary buffer in system memory. At the time of installation
the buffer size is set to 16 kbytes and the number of entries to
250. You may change the buffer size and the number of entries if
you need to store more or if you only have a few and want to
conserve memory for other applications. The prompt line at the
bottom of the directory window will tell you how much of the
buffer memory you have consumed.
To change the buffer size you must first unload the TSR by
striking the Ctrl Alt and U keys simultaneously. Using your
favorite editor, modify the file rolo.bat and, if you have
specified automatic loading on power-up, the autoexec.bat file.
In each of these files you will find a line item \rolo\rolo
(perhaps a different path name if you elected a different
subdirectory name during install).
Modify the line by appending the memory and entry requirements as
follows: \rolo\rolo -m[a] -e[b]. [a] may be any integer from
1000 to 48000, and sets the buffer size. [b] is any integer from
10 to 1000 and sets the maximum number of entries. It is a good
idea to keep the buffer size as small as possible to reduce the
amount of memory taken up by the resident system.
If your computer is equipped with EMS memory (also known as Lotus
Intel Microsoft or LIM memory), install will install the bulk of
RoloPhone in EMS, leaving only a very small portion in system
memory. If you wish to disable this feature, append an X to the
command line. For example, if you wish a buffer of 32k, 500
entries and to disable EMS memory installation, modify the
command line to be:
\rolo\rolo -m32000 -e500 -x
In Case of Difficulty
Although installation and operation of RoloPhone is remarkably
simple, a technical or product question may arise. Should this
be the case, you may reach customer support at JCL Associates by
calling (603) 746-4865 extension 7676.