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1991-10-10
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Note: If you typed BEGIN.BAT, you can quit reading this
instruction file and experiment with the main program by
pressing the [Esc] key at any time.
*************************************************************
ULTIMATE LABEL MANAGER
Shareware version 1.0
Copyright 1991, Jeff Napier & Another Company
Made in USA
IS THIS PROGRAM FOR YOU?
Here's what it does:
* The main purpose of this program is to keep track of
information to be printed on labels. The most common
application is addresses for mailing, but many other purposes
are possible, such as printing labels for computer disks. The
program offers great flexibility for many uses. In fact,
there are many applications of Ultimate Label Manager
which may not result in printed labels at all. For instance,
you can use it to keep track of friends' phone numbers.
* You can enter up to 5 lines of text per label.
Additionally, you can enter a 'secret' note for each label,
which is displayed on the computer screen, but not
necessarily printed. Again, these notes can be for any
purpose, but typical uses would be to track customers'
account status, inventory levels, names of clients' family
members, list of recent meetings, or research notes.
* You can enter label and note information directly from the
keyboard or use the included program called IMPORT to bring
in information from an ASCII file.
* You can keep multiple files of labels and search any one
for any information. You can locate for a single occurrence
of this search request or locate all occurrences. You can
print the matching labels (or labels with matching notes) or
you can create a new file, containing only the labels and
notes that match the search request.
* Files can be quickly sorted by zip code for bulk mailing,
using Ultimate Label Manager's ZIPSORT feature.
* Complete label files, or files containing matches to a
search request can be exported to ASCII file for use with a
word processor or other programs.
* You can print one copy or as many copies (up to 60,000
copies) of each label that matches your search.
* You can print the 'secret' notes to paper.
* There is no limit to the number of labels that can be kept
in a file, up to the size of your disk. If you want 80
megabytes of labels, no problem!
* Ultimate Label Manager will run on any IBM-compatible
computer with any monitor as long as you have at least one
disk drive. A hard disk speeds things up considerably, but is
not required.
* This program should work with any IBM-compatible printer,
but is designed only for "one-across," 3.5" X 15/16" labels
(sometimes called 3.5" X 1"). These are the standard mailing
label size, available at almost all stationery stores.
* Ultimate Label Manager is easy to use. You probably don't
need to read this file to experiment with it and understand
it. With 10 minutes of practice, a beginner becomes an
expert!
* Help screens are available at a touch of the [F1] key.
* You can configure the on-screen colors to suit your tastes.
Several other options are also configurable. For instance,
you can choose sound effects or silent operation.
* Mouse, MS-Windows, color monitor, and Wordstar command
set are supported but not required.
SHAREWARE
Ultimate Label Manager is shareware. Feel free to copy and
distribute the shareware version of this product as long as
all files remain intact and unchanged.
If you have paid a shareware distributor a few dollars for
a copy of this program, you have paid for professional
duplication, but the author has yet to be paid. If, after
you test Ultimate Label Manager, you decide to use it, you
must register by sending $29.95 to the author. That's me,
Jeff Napier of Another Company, P.O Box 298, Applegate, OR
97530. (Thank you!)
TECH ASSISTANCE
Registered users get technical assistance by writing or
calling 503-846-7884. Unregistered users can also call this
number for tech assistance, but we may not always have time
to answer your questions properly. We are generally here 9-5
weekdays, west coast time.
THE FILES ON THIS DISK
BEGIN.BAT - The easiest way to start the program
ULTIMATE.EXE - The main program
ULTIMATE.CFG - Customizing file for main program
ULTIMATE.DOC - Instructions for Ultimate Label Manager
ULTIMATE.ICO - Icon for use with Microsoft Windows
EXAMPLE - Label file for first time users to experiment
IMPORT.EXE - To make ASCII file into ULTIMATE file.
SEE.EXE - Viewing utility to display ULTIMATE.DOC
ORDER.DOC - To purchase other Another Company Products
Please contact Another Company if any of the above files are
missing from your distribution disk.
THE BASICS
Copy all the files from your distribution disk onto a floppy
with some blank space on it, or into a sub-directory of your
hard disk. Store the original distribution disk, in case
something happens to your copy. If you use Microsoft Windows
version 3.0, see the section dealing with installing into
MS-Windows near the end of this document.
To start Ultimate Label Manager, type ULTIMATE and press
[Enter]. When Ultimate starts, it looks for a file on it's
disk or in it's directory called ULTIMATE.CFG. This file
tells it information about what colors to display, whether
you want sound effects and what file to look for to find
labels. Another Company has provided a ULTIMATE.CFG file
that dictates standard colors which should be acceptable for
almost any monitor and also says to look at the file called
EXAMPLE for labels. Later, you can create your own
ULTIMATE.CFG file. (It's easy, I'll tell you all about it.)
If the program cannot find a ULTIMATE.CFG file, it will start
anyway, but it will look for or create a blank file called
LABELS.
THE MAIN SCREEN
The main screen of the program contains three boxes. The
upper left box is the MAIN MENU, in which you can select an
operation to perform. The upper right box is the LABEL BOX,
showing text as it would be printed on a label. The large
bottom box is the NOTE BOX, in which optional notes about the
label can appear. At the very bottom of the main screen is
the STATUS BAR, which shows the name of the file currently
selected, the number of the label within that file currently
displayed, the total number of labels in the file, and some
other information.
When you first start Ultimate, the first label in the file is
displayed in the label box, and if there is a note associated
with it, the note will appear in the note box.
VIEWING LABELS
You can view the next label in the file by pressing the [Pg
Dn] key. Just hold the [Pg Dn] key down if you want to
scroll through the labels. You can go back to the previous
label by pressing the [Pg Up] key. Wherever you are in the
file, you can go to the last label by pressing the [End] key,
and to the very first label by pressing [Home].
AUTO SCROLL
Ultimate has a really nice feature built-in called
AUTOSCROLL. If you press a number between 1 and 9, the labels
will be displayed one after another on the screen. If you
select a low number, the labels will scroll slowly, but a
high number will make them fly by very fast. Press any other
key to stop autoscroll.
HELP
You can always get help from the main screen by pressing the
[F1] key. It will review the list of viewing/scrolling keys.
THE MAIN MENU
The main menu, (the box on the left) contains 10 options. You
can move the selection bar from one option to another by
pressing the up or down arrow keys. If you have a mouse, move
it up or down. To select an option, press [Enter] or click
the left mouse button.
SEARCH
The first option on the main menu is SEARCH. When selected,
the program asks you to type some information that you want
to match. For instance, if you want to find Alexander
Johnson, you could type ALEXANDER, then press [Enter] and the
program will find his label if it exists in the file.
SEARCH is not case-sensitive. It does not matter whether you
type ALEXANDER, Alexander, or even ALexanDeR.
SEARCH will find matches in both the labels and the notes.
Unless there are more people with the name of Alexander. In
that case, SEARCH will find the first Alexander in the file,
then stop, and present another menu.
THE SEARCH MENU
The SEARCH MENU provides several options which I'll list:
CANCEL
Selecting this option returns you to the main menu.
PAUSE AT NEXT MATCH
If you are looking for people named Alexander, and you have
found one, but think there are more. select PAUSE AT NEXT
MATCH and the program will search for another Alexander and
stop if one is found.
CONTINUOUS
This option will find all Alexanders, but will not stop
until the end of the file is reached. This would seem
useless, but as the program is searching, it puts all labels
and notes with the name Alexander in them into a new file
called RESULTS. When the search is done, there will be a new
file on your disk called RESULTS containing all labels (with
their corresponding notes) which have the name Alexander, but
not any labels which don't have that name. You can then
switch to the RESULTS file to view all the labels containing
"Alexander." If a file called RESULTS already exists when
SEARCH is invoked, the previous RESULTS file will be replaced
with a new one.
PRINT THIS LABEL
If your printer is ready, you can print the label which
was found. Do not select this option if the printer is not
ready and on-line.
PRINT WHOLE RECORD
If you have regular 8.5" x 11" or larger paper in your
printer you can print the whole record which consists of the
label and its corresponding note.
PRINT ALL MATCHING LABELS
This selection will print all the labels in which a match was
found in the label or in their corresponding notes. Do not
select this option unless the printer is ready and on-line.
PRINT ALL MATCHING RECORDS
This will print all the labels and their corresponding notes
which match the search criterion.
ADVANCED SEARCH TECHNIQUES
You can search for a phrase containing several words or
numbers, or a single word or number, or even a part of a word
or number. For example: In a typical file of address labels,
if you search for JO, you will find many JOHNs, JOSEPHs and
JOHNSONs. If you search for JOS, you will probably find only
JOSHUAs and JOSEHPs. If you search for JOSHUA T ALEXANDER,
you will find only him.
But be aware: If your label is JOSHUA T. ALEXANDER, and you
omit the period after the T when you search, you won't find
him.
Search is not case-sensitive.
You cannot search for information spread across two or more
lines. The following example will not work:
WILLIAM B SMITH
1324 THIRD AVE
NEW YORK NY 10032
If you search for THIRD AVE NEW YORK, you won't get it.
Search is sensitive to the number of spaces between words. If
you search for ULTIMATE LABEL, but you have it as:
ULTIMATE LABEL, you won't find it because there are three
spaces between the words in the label, but only one space in
your search request.
If you are looking for a double search criterion, perhaps you
want COOKIES, but only recipes containing RICE, you can
search for COOKIES first, which will create a RESULTS file
containing all the recipes containing the word COOKIES. Then
drop out to DOS, rename the RESULTS file to COOKIES (or
whatever name you choose) then search COOKIES for RICE. The
new results file will contain only labels containing COOKIES
and RICE.
NOTE: Do not search a RESULTS file without renaming it first,
because the program will also try to rewrite RESULTS as it
searches. I don't know what will happen, but the program will
probably crash.
ADD
The second item on the main menu is add. When selected it
goes to the end of the file and shows you a blank label box
and a blank note box. You can then type in a new label and
note. To move around within the boxes, use the arrow keys or
Wordstar-like commands (^E,^X,^S,^D). Just like most word
processors, you cannot go into the blank space beyond the
end of a line with these keys until you have typed something
there. You can go up or down to any line within the label
box. If you go beyond the last line in the label box, you
will be taken to the first line in the note box. Also, if
you press the up arrow when you are at the top of the note
box, your cursor will be placed back into the label box.
You can delete text with the backspace key. You can kill a
whole line of text by pressing the [Y] key while holding down
the [Ctrl] key.
Normally INSERT is on, meaning that if you move the cursor
into the middle of a line of text and then type something, it
will be inserted into the line. You can change this to INSERT
OFF by pressing the [Insert] key or by pressing ^V. When
INSERT is OFF, anything you type in the middle of a line will
replace what was there before.
If you press the [Enter] key it acts like the down arrow key,
moving the cursor down one line.
WHEN DONE, press the [F10] key to save the new label (and
optional note) to the disk. If you press [Esc] instead, a
new label will be saved but it will be blank, cancelling what
you have written.
EDIT
You can change any label or note at any time by finding the
one you want to change and then selecting EDIT from the main
menu. All the controls work the same as ADD, except when
you are done, if you press the [Esc] key your changes are
abandoned, and the label reappears the way it was before you
made changes.
PRINT
The next item on the main menu is PRINT. This allows you to
print one label, one record (label plus note) or many labels
or records. Normally, one copy of each label is made. If you
select NUMBER OF COPIES from the PRINT menu, you can change
that. For instance if you change the number of copies to 4,
anytime you select to print a label, 4 copies of it will be
printed. And, if you select to print a whole bunch of
labels, you'll get 4 copies of each until you change NUMBER
OF COPIES to another number. To return to the main menu
select MAIN MENU.
FILE
You can change to another label file with this option on the
main menu. If you type the name of a file which doesn't yet
exist, it will be created. The label box and note box will
be blank because the new file will not yet have any labels in
it. To start using the new file, select ADD from the main
menu and type in some labels. FILE is often used to look at
a RESULTS file after a SEARCH. NOTE: You should not try to
SEARCH a RESULTS file, since it will try to rewrite the
RESULTS file at the same time the program is reading it,
probably resulting in a minor crash. Should such a crash
occur, you will not need to reboot, but merely restart
ULTIMATE. Nothing but the RESULTS file will be lost.
OPTIONS
The OPTIONS selection from the main menu takes you to another
menu that pops up on the screen allowing you to configure
Ultimate Label Manager to your own specifications. Here are
the things you can do within OPTIONS:
LABEL FILE
You can change the file in which Ultimate looks for labels
from the OPTIONS MENU as well as from the main menu. See the
discussion of this subject two paragraphs above.
NUMBER OF COPIES
From the OPTIONS menu you can also change the number of
copies of each label printed from 1 to 60,000 copies. See
NUMBER OF COPIES under the PRINT menu for more information.
VISIBLE SEARCH
You can turn VISIBLE SEARCH on or off from the OPTIONS menu.
When VISIBLE SEARCH is on, as the program looks through a
file for a SEARCH or ZIPSORT it will rapidly display all
the labels and notes on the screen. This is fun to watch, but
makes searches and zipsorting take more time. When turned
off, the screen is blank while the program is looking.
COLORS
With this selection from the OPTIONS menu you can change the
colors of the program. The default colors are designed to
look good with a wide variety of monitors, but you may
want to choose colors that are more appealing to you, with
your monitor. There are several screen components listed.
Select one you would like to change with the up or down arrow
key, then use the left or right arrow keys to change the
color. If you want to start over with the default colors,
select DEFAULT COLORS and press the [Enter] key.
If you are using a mouse, move the selection bar up and down
to select a screen component to change, the move the mouse
sideways to try different colors. To select RESTORE DEFAULTS
or RETURN TO MAIN MENU, move the selection bar, then click
the left mouse button.
Once the colors are selected, they will remain the same while
the program is in use. Unless you then select SAVE SETTINGS
from the OPTIONS menu, the old colors will return the next
time the program is run.
It is possible to select colors that conflict, making the
menus difficult or impossible to read. If this happens, you
can select RESTORE DEFAULTS, or you quit and then restart
ULTIMATE, or you can reboot the computer. If you have managed
to save an unusable color configuration to disk, the program
would start with unreadable colors every time you restart it.
To overcome this problem, delete the file, ULTIMATE.CFG, from
disk. This little file holds the information about your
choice of OPTIONS, and is not required for the operation
of the program.
SOUND
There are built-in sound effects in Ultimate Label Manager.
Not everyone likes sound effects so the default mode is No
sound. You can change this with the SOUND selection in the
OPTIONS menu.
RESTORE DEFAULTS
This selection in the OPTIONS menu will restore everything to
the way the program was originally setup. The colors will
return to their default state, VISIBLE SEARCH will turn on,
SOUND will turn off, etc. The default label file is called
"LABELS". RESTORE DEFAULTS works immediately after it is
selected and lasts until the next time the program is used.
If you want RESTOREd DEFAULTS every time the program is run,
select SAVE SETTINGS TO DISK.
SAVE SETTINGS
This option will remember the settings of all the options you
have selected when you QUIT the program. When the program is
next used, everything will return as you left it. This is
done by making a file on disk called ULTIMATE.CFG. When the
program first starts, it checks to see if there is an
ULTIMATE.DOC file on the disk and if it is, it looks into
that file to see how you have set up your options. If the
ULTIMATE.CFG file is not found, default options are selected.
REMEMBER, after changing COLORS, SOUND, FILENAME, etc, this
information will not be saved unless you also select SAVE
SETTINGS. If you have chosen OPTIONS settings badly, and want
to start over, you can delete the ULTIMATE.CFG file from disk
before using Ultimate Label Manager.
DELETE
This is dangerous. When selected, it will ask for
verification, then delete the label and note currently being
displayed. Once deleted, there is no way to get the
information back. This is a good reason to back up your
label file(s) frequently and store on a floppy disk in a safe
place.
ZIPSORT
This is a nifty option for businesses that are doing bulk
mailing and need to sort their mail by zip code. It will
sort all the labels in a file by their 5-digit zip codes. It
is automatic. It knows where the zip code is within a label.
There is one limitation: ZIPSORT will not work on files with
over 3000 labels. If you have a big file, first divide it up
with with CONTINUOUS SEARCHes into smaller files then ZIPSORT
each smaller file.
X-PORT
You may want to get the information out of a Ultimate Label
Manager format file and into normal ASCII text format so you
can process the information with a word processor or import
it into another program such as a database. X-PORT will
allow you to make an ASCII file from an Ultimate file.
QUIT
When you QUIT Ultimate Label Manager, the label file is
automatically saved to disk.
USING IMPORT
If you already have a label file which you have been using
for another program, or if you want to use a word processor
to enter labels, you might want to convert it into a format
that Ultimate can use. There is a separate program on
this disk, IMPORT.EXE which will do just that!
To use IMPORT, you must first be sure the file you are going
to import fits these criteria:
1. It must be an ASCII file (standard text).
2. There must be a blank line between the information for
each label, and there must be no blank lines within each
label. For instance, this is ok:
JOHN WILLIAMS
P O BOX 1987
JERSEY CITY, OK 67887
ROBIN SMITH
445 OAK ST
ASHLAND KY 45914
116-987-8989
DR ROBERT POWELL
13TH FLOOR ROOM 138
150 TOWER CENTER
NEW YORK NY 10007-4882
This is not ok:
JOHN WILLIAMS
P O BOX 1987
JERSEY CITY, OK 67887
ROBIN SMITH
445 OAK ST
ASHLAND KY 45914
116-987-8989
3. If there is any text that is to appear in the note box,
each line of such text must start with two periods. Here is
an example:
DR ROBERT POWELL
13TH FLOOR ROOM 138
150 TOWER CENTER
NEW YORK NY 10007-4882
..8-17-91 Purchased 3, $99.00 paid
..phone 665-504-8875
4. If any label lines are longer than 33 characters, the
extra characters will be ignored.
5. If any note lines are longer than 70 characters, these
extra characters will also be dropped.
6. If there are more than 5 address lines, the extra lines
will be dropped.
7. If there are more than 10 note lines, the extras will be
dropped.
When your file is ready to import, simply type IMPORT at the
DOS prompt. You will be asked for the name of the file to
import. Type it's name. You will then be asked for a name
to call the new Ultimate compatible file. Type that. The
program will then run. You will see the labels flow across
your screen in a continuous stream until the program is done,
and then you will have a new file on your disk.
FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS VER 3.0
You can run Ultimate Label Manager under Microsoft Windows
version 3.0. To install for Windows:
1. Copy the files from this disk to a sub-directory of your
choice on your hard disk.
2. Start Windows and click the top of the main window
(program group) in which you want to include Ultimate, to
activate the group.
3. Select NEW from the FILE menu. For Program Description
type: ULTIMATE (in capital letters). For Command Line type:
C:\YOURDIRECTORY\ULTIMATE.EXE, where C: is your hard disk,
and YOURDIRECTORY is the subdirectory in which you have
copied the Ultimate Label Manager files. Then click on CHANGE
ICON. In the ICON file box type
C:\YOURDIRECTORY\ULTIMATE.ICO. And that's it. If you are
not experienced with Windows, you may have to try it a couple
of times to get everything right. After installation you can
simply double click on the Ultimate icon to start the
program. NOTE: When WINDOWS is juggling several programs,
the sound effects may be distorted. If so, turn SOUND off in
Ultimate.
ABOUT VERSION 1.0
This the very first version of an all-new program, and we
think it's great, but there may be a bug or two. Chances
are, if you do find a bug, we'll have ironed it out by the
time you send for your registered copy. However, feel free to
submit bug reports, so I'll be sure to straighten everything
out for you.
TECH ASSISTANCE
If you have questions, call 503-846-7884 if you are a
registered user, or if you are seriously considering becoming
a registered user. I'll try to answer when I am able,
between 9-5 weekdays, west coast time.
I Hope you enjoy and prosper from Ultimate Label Manager,
Thanks,
Jeff Napier
d.b.a Another Company,
October 9, 1991
ANOTHER COMPANY
P.O. Box 298
Applegate, OR 97530
USA
