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O
MANAGER'S PLANNER
version 1.00
NANZETTA SOFTWARE
5612 Granby Road
Rockville, MD 20855
(c)1985 Philip Nanzetta *** Manual revision date: 2/12/85
O
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION ....................................... 4
Equipment Required ................................. 6
Ownership and Distribution ......................... 6
II. TUTORIAL: MANAGER'S PLANNER ........................ 8
Making a Working Disk .............................. 8
Tutorial Adventure Number One: Basic Operations .... 11
Step 1: Start the Program
Step 2: Appointments
Step 3: Brief Items
Step 4: Priority Tasks
Step 5: Printout
Tutorial Adventure Number Two: Entry Checking,
Shortcuts, Defaults, and Phone Numbers ......... 19
Step 1: Date Defaults
Step 2: Time Defaults
Step 3: Automatic Phone Numbers
Step 4: Defaults for Print, Suppress; Top,
Bottom, Suppress
Tutorial Adventure Number Three: Special Editing ... 24
Step 1: Cursor moves
Step 2: Deleting Blocks
Step 3: Inserting Blocks
Step 4: Escape
Step 5: Drag Through and the End Buffer
Tutorial Adventure Number Four: Calendar and
Navigate ....................................... 28
Step 1: Calendar
Step 2: Navigate
Step 3: Appointments before Current Day
Step 4: Change Form
III. INSTALLATION: SETUP ................................ 33
Getting Started .................................... 33
The Main Menu ...................................... 34
-2-
Selection of Computer/Display Monitor .............. 35
Selection of Printer ............................... 36
Selection of Data File Names, Paths, Drives ........ 38
Selection of Format of Printout .................... 38
Selection of Options for Each Run of Program ....... 39
Selection of Miscellaneous Features ................ 39
IV. TECHNICAL NOTES .................................... 41
History ............................................ 41
Direct Screen Writing .............................. 41
Special Printer Requirements ....................... 41
File Formats ....................................... 42
V. FUTURE FEATURES .................................... 44
VI. INVOICE ............................................ 45
-3-
O
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
MANAGER'S PLANNER is designed to help you plan your workday
for maximum effectiveness. It maintains your schedule, organizes
your daily tasks, and gives you the tools to keep your mind on
the high priority activities which really deserve your attention.
With MANAGER'S PLANNER (or MP), you can put your promises and
future obligations out of your thoughts until you are ready for
them, and still never forget.
Run MANAGER'S PLANNER once a day, either at the end of your
workday or first thing in the morning. At the end of your
session, MP will print out a plan for your workday. Throughout
the day, mark up the plan, note new appointments and tasks, and
scratch off things accomplished. Use the marked up plan along
with other notes when you run MP the next day. Save the marked up
plans; they serve over time as a valuable diary of your
activities.
MANAGER'S PLANNER concentrates on three elements of your
workday. These are layed out as shown in the sketch on the next
page.
SCHEDULED ACTIVITIES. These include appointments as well as
other scheduled items such as out of town travel, meetings,
concerts, and reserved time.
BRIEF ITEMS. These include phone calls you need to make,
memos to do, arrangements and conversations that need your
attention, and related items which do not occur at a
scheduled time, and which do not constitute projects or
major pieces of work.
-4-
PRIORITY TASKS. These are the major, high priority tasks
that you need to accomplish. They represent FORWARD MOTION
for you. These are the projects which you know to be of
real importance, but which frequently get put off for "just
one more day".
---------------------------------------------
: : :
: APPOINTMENTS : PRIORITY :
: : TASKS :
: : :
---------------------------------------------
: :
: :
: BRIEF ITEMS OF WORK :
: :
: :
: :
: :
: :
: :
---------------------------------------------
: : :
: FUTURE : FUTURE :
: APPOINTMENTS : PRIORITY :
: : TASKS :
---------------------------------------------
Workplan Layout
The scheduled activities and brief items are familiar to
you; you probably already keep lists of them in one form or
another. MANAGER'S PLANNER makes it easy to organize and work
with this information so you don't have to occupy your mind with
it.
At the same time, MANAGER'S PLANNER helps keep before you
the list of the truely important priority tasks. It encourages
-5-
you to explicitly make time to attack the priority tasks, so you
do not find your entire day eaten up by more immediate but less
important "fire drills".
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED
MANAGER'S PLANNER requires an IBM/PC or compatible computer
with 128k of memory, one disk drive, either a color or monochrome
monitor, and a printer. MANAGER'S PLANNER is not copy protected;
it can be copied to and run from a hard disk.
OWNERSHIP AND DISTRIBUTION
MANAGER'S PLANNER, version 1.00
MANAGER'S PLANNER is the property of Philip Nanzetta. Use
and distribution of the executable MANAGER'S PLANNER and SETUP
programs, manual, and tutorial files are controlled by the
following license terms:
1. A registered copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER can be obtained from
NANZETTA SOFTWARE for payment of a $35 fee.
2. A free copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER can be obtained from
NANZETTA SOFTWARE by sending a formatted double-sided 5 1/4"
disk with return label, mailer, and postage.
3. The holder of a free or registered copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER
is authorized to make and distribute FREE copies of MANAGER'S
PLANNER provided the files on the distribution disk are
copied unchanged, the disk is copied in its entirety, and
no compensation is received.
-6-
4. The holder of a free copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER who finds it
to be of value is encouraged to contribute $35 as
compensation for the product and to support continuing
development. Such a copy will then be registered and
supported.
5. Bulletin Board SYSOPS are authorized to make MANAGER'S
PLANNER available on their boards provided that all of the
files from the distribution disk are included unchanged.
Please notify NANZETTA SOFTWARE, simply as a matter of
information, if you put a copy on your board. We're curious.
6. Non-profit users groups may be authorized (on a case by case
basis) to distribute copies of MANAGER'S PLANNER for a
nominal fee to cover the costs of materials. Please write
for permission.
NANZETTA SOFTWARE
5612 Granby Road
Rockville, MD 20855
-7-
O
CHAPTER II: TUTORIAL
MANAGER'S PLANNER, or MP, is easy to use and easy to start
up. If you use a working disk as described below you may
experiment freely without risk. In fact you will find it both
useful and fun to try out your own answers to your questions.
MAKE A WORKING DISK
Begin by making a working disk; never work directly from the
distribution disk, since later on you will want to return to a
fresh starting condition.
a) Format a new disk with a copy of the system(*) on it.
For example, if you have two drives, put your DOS system
disk in drive a: and put a blank disk in drive b:. Then
type
a:FORMAT b: /S
This new disk will be called the working disk.
b) Copy the following files from the distribution disk to
the working disk:
MP.EXE (MANAGER'S PLANNER program)
SETUP.EXE (SETUP program)
APPT.DAT (Sample appointment data)
ITEM.DAT (Sample brief item data)
PRIOR.DAT (Sample priority item data)
MPPHNDIR.DAT (Sample telephone directory)
If you have received MP on a double sided disk, a
duplicate copy of each file is also present with a
filename ending in $. These files are provided in case
one of the files listed above is damaged.
--------------------
(*) See your DOS manual for DOS functions
-8-
If you want to begin on your own instead of following the
tutorial, put the working disk in your default drive and type
MP <return>
Special keys on the IBM keyboard are shown enclosed in < >.
The basic operating principles of MP are described in the
following paragraphs. These principles are illustrated in detail
in the tutorial which follows.
1. When MP is running, your working area is the lower box
on the screen. All your text entry or editing will be
done in the lower box. To carry out an action from
among those listed, use the FIRST LETTER of the command
word. For example, to ADD an entry, press A or a. To
conclude entry or editing in a particular section, press
<return>.
2. Existing entries are displayed in the upper box on the
screen. To edit, copy, or delete an entry, move it to
the highlighted bar using the <up arrow>, <down arrow>,
<home>, <end>, <PgUp>, or <PgDn> keys.
3. To change the calendar month, use the <right arrow> or
<left arrow> keys. If you are already editing an entry
in the lower box, you will have to use <Ctrl> plus the
arrow key to distinguish from moving the editing cursor.
4. To edit, you may type over or use <backspace> and <Del>.
To insert instead of typing over, press <Ins>; to return
to type-over, press <Ins> again. An indicator in the
lower right corner of the lower box will tell you
whether the "insert mode" is on or off. Many of the
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Wordstar(tm) combinations work in MP; if you know
Wordstar, try them.
5. If you want to undo an action, try the <Esc> key. Where
it is clear what "back one step" means, <Esc> takes you
back one step. Otherwise, <Esc> does nothing.
6. An extremely flexible feature called Navigate allows you
to move freely to other sections of MP. Navigate is
described in Tutorial Adventure Number Four.
-10-
TUTORIAL ADVENTURE NUMBER ONE: BASIC OPERATIONS
STEP 1: START THE PROGRAM
If you have an IBM or one of the more popular compatible
computers and printer, you can run MANAGER'S PLANNER using the
EASY STARTUP feature, without first having to install it with
SETUP. If your computer or printer is not listed among the EASY
STARTUP choices, try one that is listed or Quit MP, skip on to
Chapter III, use SETUP, then return here. If you do use SETUP,
items c) - e) below are skipped.
a) Put your working disk in the default drive.
b) Type MP <return>.
c) The opening EASY STARTUP screen will appear and MP will
then ask you to identify your computer. Type the number
corresponding to your computer. If your computer is not
listed, try the selection for Compaq. Or select QUIT
and go to Chapter III: SETUP.
d) MP will then ask you to identify your printer. Type the
number corresponding to your printer. If your printer
is not listed, try the selection for IBM Graphics
Printer. Or select QUIT and go to Chapter III: SETUP.
e) MP will present two screens of introductory information.
As indicated on the screen, press any key when you are
ready to move on.
f) The opening MANAGER'S PLANNER screen will appear,
followed by an information screen, and then MP will
propose a date for which to prepare a work plan. This
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date is the current day given by your computer's system
clock.
g) For this tutorial example, type over the date proposed
by MP so it reads 10/15/85 Then press <return>.
MP will load data from the working disk and display
current appointments on the screen.
STEP 2: APPOINTMENTS
You can tell which date is the working day because it is
highlighted on the calendar. For now, it should be the 15th.
First, let's delete appointments which were completed
yesterday (10/14/85). The 8:30 staff meeting at Mr Halton's was
held, so press D to delete it. You can use either "d" or "D".
When you press D, the entry which is highlighted will be
deleted.
Delete the 11:15 appointment with Harry.
Delete the 3:00 meeting on quarterly reports.
The 7:00 dinner with Bill Mitchell had to be rescheduled, so
leave it alone for now. We'll return to it in a minute. Skip to
the next entry by pressing the <up arrow> key once. Now the
evening entry to work on Mitchell contract is highlighted.
Delete it.
On second thought, if we have to reschedule the Mitchell
dinner, we'd better reschedule the evening's work on the
contract. Press R to restore that entry.
When you press R, the most recently deleted entry will be
restored. If no entry has been deleted in the current section,
-12-
no entry will be restored.
Now, let's reschedule the two Mitchell entries. Move the
dinner entry to the highlighted bar by pressing <down arrow>
once.
Press E to edit. The entire entry is moved down into your
working area. If you should change your mind now or during the
editing, press <Esc> and everything will be restored to the way
it was before you started editing the entry.
Revise the Mitchell dinner appointment to read 10/17/85 at
7:00p. Press <return> when you've finished your revision. The
entry will leave your working area and be inserted at the proper
place in the list of appointments.
As you enter or edit text, you may want to move the cursor
to a new place without changing anything else. You can do this
by using the <right arrow> and <left arrow> keys. You can type-
over. You can delete using <Del> or <backspace>. If you want to
insert, press <Ins> once and then type what you want to add.
Press <Ins> again to return to type-over.
Now edit the evening's contract work so it reads 10/17/85
instead of 10/14/85. Move the entry to the highlighted bar by
using the <down arrow> key. Press E to edit. Make the changes,
and press <return> to finish.
We have a few new appointments to add. Next Monday at 1:30
pm you need to meet Bob in his office. Refer to the calendar to
see what date next Monday is.
Press A to add an entry. Fill in each blank as requested
and press <return>. Here are your entries:
-13-
10/21/85 <return>
1:30 <return>
p
Bob in his office <return>
The completed entry leaves your working area and is inserted in
the correct place in the list of appointments.
Add a dinner with Mr. Halton on 10/24/85 at 7:30 pm. Note
that you now have two things scheduled at the same time.
At the staff meeting yesterday, Mr. Halton asked that you
and he have a weekly progress meeting during the next month, in
preparation for his quarterly report to the Board. The meeting
is scheduled for 3:30 pm on each of the next four Wednesdays.
Let's enter those appointments.
According to the calendar, the dates are 10/16, 10/23,
10/30, and 11/6. We used the <right arrow> key to advance the
calendar to November. Press A to add an entry. Add the 10/16
appointment at 3:30 pm: progress report, Mr Halton's.
Now press C for Copy. The 10/16/85 meeting will remain in
the upper box, but it will be copied into your working area.
Revise your working copy to the date 10/23/85 and press <return>.
That's an easy way to enter recurring appointments.
Press C again, revise the date to 10/30/85 and <return>.
Press C again, revise the date to 11/6/85 and <return>.
In revising the last date to 11/6/85, did you lose the "P"
from Progress report? Note that <Del> drags the whole right side
of the line to the left. In this way, a character may be drawn
-14-
into the gap between highlighted regions. Unless you restore it
using <Ins> or typing over, this character will not be brought to
the upper box.
You now know all of the basic entry and revision commands.
Press <return> to complete your work on appointments and
move along to the next section.
STEP 3: BRIEF ITEMS
The second section of MP is called Brief Items. It holds a
list of tasks that you are to accomplish today, such as make or
return telephone calls or write brief memos.
The basic commands Add, Delete, Edit, Copy, and Restore work
the same way in Brief Items as they did in the Appointments
section. For Brief Items, there is no natural sorting order to
take the place of date and time. Therefore, completed entries
are moved from your working area to the position in the list just
below the entry at the pointers.
Let's continue with the example.
Yesterday, you made all the renewal calls which were planned
for in your workplan, so delete each one of them. Use the <up
arrow> key to move the top renewal entry to the highlighted bar,
and press D.
You did not finish anything else on the list. You have to
add an additional topic to your conversation with Bob. Edit his
entry by adding to the end "and forgings for brake supports".
Add an entry as follows:
NAME: Harvey <return>
-15-
Note that MP already knows Harvey's phone number. We'll talk
more about that later on. For now, just press <return> to use
the phone number proposed by MP.
ENTRY: Get numbers for Mr Halton's report <return>
Every entry appears on your screen when you run MP, but for
Brief Items you have a choice of which tasks will be printed on
the final workplan. You might want to enter a task now because
you are thinking of it now, even though you don't want to do it
today. In that case, you Supress the entry. Or you might want it
printed on your workplan; in that case you chose to Print it.
This time, let's have it printed on the workplan.
PRINT or SUPRESS: P
The new entry appears in the list just below the one which
was last highlighted.
You can move the entries in the upper box while you are
editing. This is helpful if you want the entry to be inserted at
a particular place in the list or if you need to refer to another
entry. Just use the <up arrow> and <down arrow> keys.
Now, add a new entry, at the top of the list:
NAME: Paul Boldd
PHONE: 342-6591
ENTRY: Order flexible lines for MP-5
PRINT or SUPRESS: P
To add an entry at the top of the list, use the <home>, <down
arrow>, or <PgDn> keys to move all entries below the bar.
Practice with some other entries. Try using <Esc> in the
middle of an entry to see how it returns you to a fresh start.
-16-
Try moving an entry to another place in the list by using D
to delete it, move the entries up or down, and then use R to
restore it to the new location.
Press <return> to complete Brief Items and move on to
the next section, Priority Tasks.
STEP 4: PRIORITY TASKS
This section works exactly the same as Brief Items, except
that now there are three choices for each entry: T for print at
the Top (for today's tasks), B for print at the Bottom (for tasks
to be done in the future), and S for Suppress (keep in the data
file and show on the screen but do not print).
Practice with each command. Try funny things that come to
mind, like trying to scroll the entries off the top of the
screen.
Note that <Home> places the first entry at the highlighted
bar and <End> places the last entry there. <PgUp> and <PgDn>
move the entries up or down by eight lines.
When you've finished, press <return> to move on to the next
section.
STEP 5: PRINTOUT
It's now time to see a printout of what you've done. Be
sure your printer is turned on and has paper in it.
MP is asking in the lower box whether you want a Workplan,
Appointments, or Both. Chose Both by pressing B.
-17-
MP asks if you want One page of appointments or All. Choose
All by pressing A.
You've successfully completed your first tutorial adventure.
Start MP over again and play with it some more to be sure you're
comfortable with the basic principles. The second adventure will
show you some exciting new shortcuts and features.
* You now know enough to use MP to develop your daily *
* *
* workplan. Format a new disk with a copy of the system *
* *
* and copy only MP.EXE and SETUP.EXE to it. Then start *
* *
* using it for your own workplan while you continue to use *
* *
* this working disk for tutorials. *
-18-
TUTORIAL ADVENTURE NUMBER TWO:
ENTRY CHECKING, SHORTCUTS, DEFAULTS, AND PHONE NUMBERS
MP is designed to help you plan your workday. It is rich in
shortcuts to speed up your planning. It has built-in checking to
assure accuracy, but also built-in intelligence to avoid hassling
you.
MP will generally accept only input which "makes sense". If
you press an improper key, MP will simply click (to show it is
paying attention) and wait for a reasonable keystroke. If you
use a format which doesn't make sense (such as 2:30 for the
date), MP will politely ask you to use the correct format.
On the other hand, MP tries not to force you to adhere to a
strict format when it can tell what you mean. For example, it
does NOT require that dates be entered in rigid formats like
01/06/86. In addition, MP makes extensive use of "default values".
A DEFAULT value is the entry which MP will use on its own if
you do not enter a different value.
Let's look at some examples. Put your working disc in the
default drive (you see, default is already a familiar concept;
the default drive is the one the computer will use if you do not
specify an alternative) and start up by typing MP <return>.
Work through the opening screens and once again edit the proposed
date to 10/15/85. We call this date the CURRENT DATE or TODAY.
STEP 1: DATE DEFAULTS
You have several new appointments to add. MP uses the
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current date as a default date, so instead of typing 10/15/85
<return>, just press <return>; MP will enter 10/15/85. Add an
appointment for today at 10:45 am with Howard Rose in his office.
If you enter a day only, MP uses the current month and year
as default. If you enter day and month, MP uses the current
year.
Add an appointment with Bill Allen at 1:15 tomorrow in your
office. Type 16 <return> and MP will use 10/16/85 for the date;
enter the rest of the appointment.
Add an appointment for November 7. Type 11/7 <return> and
observe that MP enters 11/7/85. Finish the entry: 2:20 pm John
Garth on brakes.
STEP 2: TIME DEFAULTS
MP lets you enter an on-the-hour time without the :00. It
will accept 2 for 2:00. Add an entry for today at 4 pm: See
George Strecker.
There are two time-like entries which MP uses, day and eve.
You can type day (or d), or eve (or e) when the time is called
for as you are adding an entry. These are sorted into your
appointments with "day" listed as the first entry of the day and
with "eve" listed as equivalent to 7:30 pm. If you make no time
entry, MP uses "day" for its default.
Add an entry in your appointment list which reminds you to
contact Karen Wessel next Thursday. From the calendar, next
Thursday is 10/17/85. For date, type 17 <return> and MP enters
10/17/85. For time, type <return> and MP enters day. Type
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contact Karen Wessel <return>.
It is also useful to use the day designation if you know you
will have an appointment on a certain day, but don't yet know the
time. The time can be edited in later.
MP uses either the 12 hour clock, with am and pm, or the 24
hour clock, with times running from 0:00 through 23:59. You can
mix these if you wish. Since it is hard to remember whether noon
is 12:00 am or 12:00 pm, MP lets you use n for noon and m for
midnight. Add an appointment for tomorrow at noon. Type
16 <return> for the date. Type n <return> for the time. Enter
your appointment text.
Add an appointment for this evening: Prepare Mitchell
presentation.
Press <return> to conclude the appointments section and move
on to Brief Items.
STEP 3: AUTOMATIC PHONE NUMBERS
You will recall that in the first tutorial, MP appeared to
know the telephone number of Harvey. In fact, MP can learn phone
numbers. Once it has learned a phone number, MP uses it as a
default for that person until you change or delete the number.
Let's add an entry and at the same time ask MP to learn the
phone number. Type A for Add. Type George Stevenson <return>.
George's phone number is 301/223-5461. Type the phone number,
but instead of entering it using <return>, press and hold down
the <Alt> key and while holding it down, type L (for learn); this
is written Alt-L. MP has now learned George Stevenson's phone
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number, as confirmed by its note "Learned". Complete the entry
by typing
Sell new brake support design <return>
and select the Print alternative.
To review, MP learns a phone number if you enter it using
Alt-L (for learn) instead of <return>.
You can change a phone number by having MP learn the new
number with Alt-L. You can make it forget a phone number by
having it learn a blank phone number. MP will correctly give you
a phone number for a name even if you change upper and lower case
letters, but you must spell the name correctly or MP will think
it's a new name.
Add an entry for GEORGE STEVENSON: manufacturing new brake
supports.
STEP 4: DEFAULTS FOR PRINT, SUPPRESS; TOP, BOTTOM, SUPPRESS
The default value for the Print or Suppress alternative in
the Brief Items section is Print. The default value for the Top,
Bottom, or Suppress alternative in the Priority Tasks section is
Top.
Try the default value for the Print alternative on an entry
Harold Smith: contract for forgings. Since you don't know
Harold's phone number, just leave it blank. Instead of pressing
P for Print, press <return>. MP uses the default value of P.
Press <return> to leave the Brief Items section and move
along to Priority Tasks.
-22-
Add an entry: Statement of Work: brake supports <return>,
and press <return> to use the default selection of the Top
alternative.
Conclude the section and print out a workplan.
-23-
TUTORIAL ADVENTURE NUMBER THREE: SPECIAL EDITING
MP incorporates a number of editing features to speed things
up. Don't feel that you have to memorize them all now. Run
through the tutorial to see what's available, and return to it
from time to time to pick up a few new tricks.
STEP 1: CURSOR MOVES
The cursor can be moved without changing the text. It can
be moved right or left. It can be moved a distance of one
character, one word, or to the end of the text.
We will write Ctrl-T to mean press the Ctrl key, hold it
down, and while holding it down, press the T key.
The following chart lists the cursor move commands of MP,
giving the direction and distance that the cursor is moved.
Distance Moved || To Left To Right
==================||===============================
One Character || <left arrow> <right arrow>
||
One Word || Ctrl-A Ctrl-F
||
To End of Text || <End>
Let's try these out. Put your working disk in the default
drive, start it up, and set the current date to 10/15/85.
The appointment with Karen Wessel on 10/17 will instead be
held with her assistant, Jim Hill. Press E to edit the entry.
Use the new command Ctrl-F to move the cursor past the date,
time, and first few words. Type over Karen's name.
-24-
While the entry is still in your work area, try Ctrl-A and
<End>. <return>.
STEP 2: DELETING BLOCKS
It's messy to edit by having to type over. MP permits you
to delete blocks of text and insert new text.
<Del> deletes the character at the cursor.
<backspace> deletes the character to the left of the cursor.
Ctrl-T deletes the WORD which starts at the cursor.
Ctrl-Y deletes the entire text of the entry. Note that it
does not delete the entry; it makes the entire entry blank.
Change the location of the 10/18 meeting with Hal to his
office. Press E. Move the cursor to the last word using Ctrl-F.
Use Ctrl-T to delete the word "club". Type in "office" and press
<return>.
Try out <Del> and <backspace>.
STEP 3: INSERTING BLOCKS
The key <Ins> switches between the insert mode and the type-
over mode. The mode is indicated for you in the lower right
corner of the lower box as INS ON or INS OFF.
Change the location of the 10/16 meeting with Bill Allen
from your office to his office. Press E to edit. Use Ctrl-F to
move the cursor to the word "my". Press Ctrl-T to delete the
word "my". Press <Ins> to switch to insert mode. Now anything
you type will be inserted at the present cursor location, and the
-25-
text at and to the right of the cursor will be pushed over to
make room. Type "his" and a space. Press <return>.
It turns out that Allen in the 10/16 appointment should be
spelled Allan. Edit that entry. Use Ctrl-F to move the cursor
to the beginning of Allen. Use <right arrow> to move the cursor
to the letter "e". Press <Del> to delete "e". Press <Ins> to
switch into insert mode. Type the letter "a". You're done.
Press <return>.
STEP 4: ESCAPE
<Esc> helps you escape from a mess while adding or editing.
If you press <Esc> during editing, the entry will be restored to
its original text and moved out of your working area. If you
press <Esc> during an Add sequence, nothing will be added and you
will be returned to the main menu, ready to choose another
operation.
Edit the 10/17 entry concerning dinner with Bill Mitchell.
Change anything you like. Then press <Esc>.
Press <return> to leave the appointment section and move on
to Brief Items.
STEP 5: DRAG THROUGH AND THE END BUFFER
In many cases, you will want to edit by both inserting and
deleting material. If the insertion occurs before the deletion,
text will often be pushed off the end of the line. If the
deletion occurs first, text might be dragged through the gaps
into a different section. Don't worry; you and MP can handle it.
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Text pushed off the end is not lost; it is saved in an "end
buffer". Just follow through with your editing and it will be
pulled back out.
Text dragged through a gap can be pushed back through during
later stages of editing.
The only thing of concern to you is whether the correct text
is in the correct boxes when you press <return>. At that point
MP checks formats and asks you to fix any that are a problem. If
the formats are correct, the entry will be used exactly as you
see it in your working area. Anything hidden in the gaps or off
the end will be lost.
Let's list our phone call about manufacturing brake supports
for Stevenson's colleague, Harold Cummins, instead of for
George. Edit the entry. Use Ctrl-F to move the cursor to the
beginning of George's name. Press <Ins>. Type in Harold
Cummins. Note that the entry is pushed off the right end of the
line. Now use Ctrl-T to delete George Stevenson's name. Note
that the right end of the text is pulled back out of the end
buffer. Put the ":" and space back in after Cummins. Press
<return>.
If MP resists taking your entry when you press <return>,
look for a format error. The most likely problem is text dragged
into or out of its proper box. The Appointment section is most
sensitive to format problems, since date and time must meet
format requirements.
Press <return>, <return> and print out your workplan.
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TUTORIAL ADVENTURE NUMBER FOUR: CALENDAR AND NAVIGATE
STEP 1: CALENDAR
You can make the calendar vanish by pressing Alt-C. You can
make it appear by pressing Alt-C. You can change the calendar
one month by pressing <right arrow> or <left arrow> (or, if you
are editing an entry, by pressing <Ctrl> and the arrow key).
Start up MP and move through the opening screens. Set the
current day to the first Monday in October, 1985. Press Alt-C to
make the calendar appear. Note that the arrow keys do not change
the calendar month; instead they move the cursor in the text
area. Use <Ctrl> with the arrow keys to set the month to
October, 1985. The first Monday is 10/7/85. Make the entry read
10/7/85 and press <return>.
Press <return> again to skip over Appointments and move to
Brief Items. The calendar is not normally displayed in this
section, but you want to talk to Sid Wyman about an RIA committee
meeting on the second Tuesday of December, 1985. Press Alt-C to
make the calendar appear. Use the arrow keys to set the month to
December, 1985. The second Tuesday is 12/10/85. Press A for add.
Enter Sid Wyman; his phone number is 425-3141. Complete the
entry: set up 12/10 RIA committee meeting. <return>. P (for
Print). You can either leave the calendar up or remove it by
pressing Alt-C.
STEP 2: NAVIGATE
You now realize that you'd better put the 12/10 RIA
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committee meeting on your list of appointments or you'll forget
it. How do you get back to the Appointments section?
MP offers a very flexible feature called NAVIGATE for just
such purposes. Press Alt-N to enter the navigate menu. You are
first given choices about how you wish to LEAVE THE PRESENT
SECTION. You can
Resume. Return to the section you left with no changes.
Leave. This is the normal way to leave. It saves all
changes and records all new entries for the session
before leaving the section.
Quit. This ends the entire MP session without printing
anything or saving any new entries or changes
from the current section. Changes from previous
sections will have been saved earlier. This is a
drastic way to leave.
Press L for Leave. MP next asks where you want to GO TO. The
choices are
Appointments, Brief Items, Priority Tasks. You are
taken to the section you request.
change Day. (Press D) You are given an opportunity
to change the current day. If you change the day,
MP automatically takes you next to the appointments
section.
change Form. (Press F) You are presented with a screen
which allows you to change the sizes of (that is,
the number of lines in) each of the three printout
sections on your workplan.
End and print plan. You are taken to the menu
which asks for the type of printout you want.
In this case, you want to go to Appointments, so press A. Add
the 12/10 RIA committee meeting to your list of appointments.
Instead of pressing <return> to leave the Appointments
section, press Alt-N again, press L for Leave, and press P to
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move to Priority tasks.
Just to see what it's like, press Alt-N to get to the
navigation menu; press Q to quit. Since you made no new entries
in the Priority tasks section, nothing is lost; all of your
information is stored on the disk even though you did not get a
printout. If you had added, deleted, or edited any entries in
the Priority Tasks section, those changes would have been lost.
If you want a current printout but don't want to modify
anything, start MP, enter the current day <return>, and then
navigate to End and print plan. You will note that MP
automatically reads the data files to assemble your printout.
STEP 3: APPOINTMENTS BEFORE CURRENT DAY
Start MP again, move through the opening screens, and choose
10/16/85 for the current day (note: the 16th, not the 15th).
We are now working on appointments for Wednesday, October
16. You completed the first three appointments yesterday; delete
the 9:15 meeting, the 10:45 meeting, and the 12:30 lunch.
Ms. Smithson had to change the 4:00 appointment yesterday to
4:00 on 10/16; make that change in your schedule. Leave the
evening work on Mitchell presentation alone for now.
Add appointments for 10/16 as follows:
8:30 Harriet, data for Mitchell
9:30 Jamie, legal on Mitchell
10:30 Leon, engineering on Mitchell
Press <return> to complete the section.
A screen message "Appointments are listed earlier than the
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current date" is displayed, and then you are given the
opportunity to reset the current day.
Clearly, no self-respecting planning program would let you
have an appointment on the books for a day that has already
passed. Situations arise, of course, in which an appointment
scheduled for yesterday was not met. Such an appointment should
either be rescheduled, deleted and forgotten about, or deleted
and noted (in Brief Items) for rescheduling.
It looks like the current day is correct, 10/16/85. So
press <return>.
Back in the appointment section, we see that we neglected to
delete the 10/15/85 appointments to see George Strecker and to
work on Mitchell presentation. Delete them now, and press
<return> to move on to the next section.
Until you use SETUP to modify it, MP uses 8 lines for
appointments. In case there are more than 8 appointments, MP
borrows lines from the Brief Items section so all your
appointments will be listed. That will be the case now; there
are 9 appointments for today.
STEP 4: CHANGE FORM
One of the choices on the navigation menu is change Form.
Press Alt-N to get to the menu. Press L for Leave. Press F for
change Form.
A menu is presented which displays the current number of
lines in each of the three sections of your printout. You can
enter any two numbers as sizes for the top and middle boxes. MP
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calculates the size of the bottom box to keep the same overall
form length. (If you want to change the overall form length, use
SETUP.) Note that MP has already allocated 9 lines for the top
section. Press <return> to leave the top section unchanged, but
change the size of the middle section to 25 and press <return>.
Note that MP calculates the remaining lines and uses that figure
for the bottom section. Type Y (or <return>) for yes. MP resets
the form sizes and returns you to the section you left.
Let's try something drastic on the form just to see what it
looks like. Press Alt-N, L to leave the Brief Items section,
and F to change Form again. Note that the numbers given by MP
are our new numbers, with 9 lines for appointments. Keep 9 but
enter 50 for the middle section. Note that MP will accept only
47 of those lines, because that fills up the form. No lines are
left for the bottom section. Press Y for OK.
Now let's see the printout. Press Alt-N, L to leave the
Brief Items section, E to end and print out, W to print a
workplan. It prints fine, with 9 lines for appointments, 47
lines for Brief Items, and no bottom section.
This change in form sizes is temporary. Next time you use
MP, it will be back to normal. If you want a permanent change,
use SETUP.
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O
CHAPTER III: INSTALLATION USING SETUP
SETUP is a program which customizes MANAGER'S PLANNER for
your own combination of computer, display, and printer. It
allows you to modify the default format of your printout; that
is, the sizes of the top and left margins and the number of lines
in each of the blocks on your printout. It lets you select the
names for the data files, or use paths to your data files. With
SETUP, you can have MP inquire each time it runs which printer
you are using, or what computer; this is especially handy if you
use MP with the same disk (and thus the same data files) on
different equipment.
SETUP SHOULD NEVER BE USED TO INSTALL THE DISTRIBUTION COPY
OF MANAGER'S PLANNER. Work only from your working copy.
Once SETUP has been run on a copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER, the
EASY STARTUP section will not appear at startup. If you want MP
to ask about printer or computer at startup, use the SETUP menu
choice "Options for each run of program". If you install a
copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER using SETUP without selecting a
computer or printer, MP will run as if it had been set up for
IBM/PC with monochrome display and Epson MX-series printer.
GETTING STARTED
To use SETUP to install MANAGER'S PLANNER, put the working
disk with MP and SETUP in the default drive and type
SETUP <return>.
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The opening screen will ask you to verify that you are running
SETUP on a working copy. If so, enter Y for yes.
You can also run SETUP on a copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER which
was previously installed with SETUP. If you do, the starting
point for all changes will be the previously installed version.
THE MAIN MENU
The Main Menu gives you access to six sections of
installation decisions. At the completion of each section, you
will be returned to the Main Menu, where you can either choose
another section, record your choices, or quit without recording
your choices.
Here is what the main menu looks like:
Select SETUP topic
1. Computer/display monitor
2. Printer
3. Data file names, paths, drives
4. Format of printout
5. Options for each run of program
6. Miscellaneous features
7 End. Record changes from this session
8. Quit. Don't record changes from this session.
During a session with SETUP, your choices are accumulated
and stored. You can change your mind by making a different choice
later in the session. You can end without changing your working
copy of MP by selecting the menu choice "Quit. Don't record
changes from this session." On the other hand, by selecting
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"End. Record changes from this session.", you will modify the
working copy of MP according to the choices you made during the
session.
Each of the other menu selections is described in its own
section below.
SELECTION OF COMPUTER/DISPLAY MONITOR
Having made this choice from the main menu, you are
presented another menu which lists computer/display combinations.
If your computer is listed, choose it. Your choice will be
recorded and you will be returned to the main menu.
If your computer/display is not listed, try the setup for
one of the other computers; you'll probably find one that works
perfectly. "Perfectly" means (1) the computer doesn't hang up,
(2) screen scrolls are clean and without flashes of light, and
(3) the emphasized portions of the screen are the same color
combination as the normal text, but in reverse video.
The IBM/PC portable is set up as IBM/PC with graphics board.
The Data General portable is set up as IBM/PC with monochrome
display, using the mono mode on the Data General.
If you can't find a listed computer that works like yours,
choose "Special installation". You will then be asked a series
of questions which can generally be answered only by reference to
a technical manual for your computer and display.
If you have a color monitor and want to use a different
color combination, choose "Special installation" and answer the
questions about normal and emphasized screen attributes
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accordingly.
The question about 14 lines per row is used to set the size
and shape of the cursor. If you don't know, try "yes"; then if
the cursor looks funny, go back and try "no".
The question about flashes of white during scrolls can be
investigated by choosing "no" and then running MP to see if
flashes of white snow appear on the screen during scrolls; they
do, for example, on the IBM/PC with color graphics display. If
no snow shows, leave the answer "no". Otherwise, change it to
"yes".
SELECTION OF PRINTER
Having made this choice from the main menu, you are
presented another menu which lists printers. If your printer is
listed, choose it. Your choice will be recorded and you will be
returned to the main menu.
If you have a fixed print size printer (daisy wheel, spool,
ball, type bar), select "Other, with limited typefaces". MP will
give you a printout which has been slightly modified to
accomodate the fixed type size. Instead of future appointments
and future priority tasks in the lower section, only future
appointments will be printed.
If your printer is not listed, try the setup for IBM
Graphics printer or Epson MX-series. MP is installed correctly
for your printer if (1) the workplan has a neat border, (2) the
date header appears centered, and (3) the lowest portion of the
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form is aligned with the upper sections.
If you can't find a listed printer that works like yours,
choose "Special printer installation". You will then be asked a
series of questions which can generally be answered only by
reference to a technical manual for your printer.
Printer startup codes are codes which will be sent to your
printer each time you call for printing from MP. Printer ending
codes will be sent to the printer at the end of each printing
cycle. Here are two examples of starting codes:
If your printer normally skips over the perforation on the
paper, you can generally send it a code which causes it not to
skip; the sequence of values which prevents the skip over
perforation would be included in your startup codes.
If your printer needs to have the dot matrix characters
defined for the special border characters, that definition string
would be included in your startup codes.
The codes for special typefaces define the compressed and
double width type styles used on the MP printout. If your
printer is not capable of making compressed characters, use the
menu choice "Other, with limited typefaces" from the "Printer"
menu.
"Set codes for border" defines the characters used in the
border design of the MP printout. What is called for is the
value which must be sent to your printer in order for it to print
the indicated shape.
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"Set printer number" refers to the possible printer output
ports LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3. LPT1: is printer number 1, etc.
SELECTION OF DATA FILE NAMES, PATHS, DRIVES
This selection allows you to use different names for your
data files, to specify a particular drive on which the data files
appear, or to specify a path to a subdirectory in which the data
files are listed.
The following names are assumed by MP unless you change
them:
APPT Appointments
ITEM Brief items
PRIOR Priority items
MPPHNDIR Phone directory
Each file has a file extension of ".dat". Do Not use a file
extension; MP provides the ".dat" for you automatically.
SELECTION OF FORMAT OF PRINTOUT
With this selection from the main menu, you are given
another menu of choices. You can "set left margin size" or "set
top margin size".
You can have MP begin each printout with or without
advancing the paper to a new sheet using formfeed.
You can set the number of lines in each of the three
sections of the MP workplan printout.
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SELECTION OF OPTIONS FOR EACH RUN OF PROGRAM
As described in the introduction, you can have MP ask each
time it starts up which printer or which computer/display to use.
This is convenient if you are using a single MP disk on several
different pieces of equipment.
SELECTION OF MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES
This choice presents another menu from which to select
special features of MP.
Pauses are built in to MP at those places where you need to
read some information before it is automatically cleared away.
With the "Duration of pauses throughout MP", you can set the
length of pauses in amounts of tenths of a second. After you are
thoroughly familiar with MP, you might want to set this to zero
so the program runs faster.
There are two apparently natural ways to think of the up and
down cursor keys in connection with scrolling text on the screen:
up means "move the text up" -- or -- up means "move the
highlighted area up" within the text. You have your choice,
depending upon which seems more natural to you. As shipped, up
means "move the text up".
Depending upon when you run MANAGER'S PLANNER to create a
workplan, you will be planning for the same day as your computer
system clock or for the next day. You can set the default
current day to be either the same as the system clock or the
following day.
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MP wants 128k of memory to run with the maximum number of
entries and a long phone directory. As shipped, it checks the
size of your computer's memory to make sure enough is present.
Under unusual circumstances, you might want to waive that memory
check (at some risk to data entered during the session). SETUP
gives you a way to do that.
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O
CHAPTER IV: TECHNICAL NOTES
HISTORY
MANAGER'S PLANNER was developed by a working manager to meet
his own daily workplan needs. It was originally a manual system;
that is, a daily handwritten sheet of paper. It was first coded
as a BASIC program in 1983, and was written in the present form
in C with some assembly language functions during 1984. It was
tested by others and refined in late 1984 and early 1985. All
features of MANAGER'S PLANNER originated from actual use to meet
real needs.
DIRECT SCREEN WRITING
Achievement of fast enough screen behavior required that
MANAGER'S PLANNER work around the operating system and perform
direct writing to screen buffer memory. Since compatibility with
IBM/PC generally assures that the same buffer addresses are used
in compatible computers, direct screen writing works for the
listed computers and should work for most others. If you can't
get your (non-listed) computer to work, write and we'll work with
you.
SPECIAL PRINTER REQUIREMENTS
MANAGER'S PLANNER works with you at the computer, but the
basic approach is to generate a piece of paper you can carry
around throughout the day. In order to make this piece of paper
attractive and useful, your printer needs to be able to print a
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set of border characters as well as compressed and expanded type
faces.
SETUP gives you the means to use MANAGER'S PLANNER with any
printer, provided you can get the required information about the
printer. Most printer manuals will tell you what you need if you
look hard enough. Again, if you ultimately can't do it, write to
us (preferably with a copy of your printer manual or the
technical appendices of it).
FILE FORMATS
MANAGER'S PLANNER uses four data files,
APPT.DAT Appointments
ITEM.DAT Brief Items
PRIOR.DAT Priority Items
MPPHNDIR.DAT Phone Directory.
All four files are ASCII files which you can read with the
DOS TYPE command; for example, by typing TYPE APPT.DAT.
The first three files use a variable field length for the
last field and fixed lengths for the other fields. Each record
is terminated with <carriage return> <line feed>. This gives
reasonably good data compactness while providing for a neat easy
listing.
The Phone Directory file uses variable length fields; the
fields are separated by colon (:) and each record is terminated
with <carriage return> <line feed>. The directory name is listed
in all lower case.
The data files are terminated with ^A.
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As it runs, MANAGER'S PLANNER reads and writes the data
files so as to keep only one of the first three data sets
resident in memory at any time. It writes a new data file each
time and renames the previous data file with a ".bak" extension.
MANAGER'S PLANNER checks for adequate disk space before writing
and asks the user to change disks if space is not adequate or the
directory is full.
The current version has an arbitrary limit of 500 entries in
each data set except phone numbers.
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O
CHAPTER V: FUTURE FEATURES
With your support, MANAGER'S PLANNER will continue to
develop as a workday planning tool. We expect to add the
following features or utilities in future major versions:
1. Full Telephone Directory Utility. For building and
using the phone directory data file independently of
the MANAGER'S PLANNER main program.
2. Archiving/diary function. An added feature which will
be integrated into MANAGER'S PLANNER to archive
appointments and brief items as they are removed from
the current data set. Will allow annotations by user.
3. Archive organization Utility. Will support searches
through the archive/diary by keyword and date. Will
support sorting and other organization of the
archive/diary database.
4. A "stay-resident" appointment manager is being
considered. This program would use the same data files
as the main MANAGER'S PLANNER.
We would appreciate comments on these possible offerings as well
as suggestions for additions to the list.
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O
INVOICE
NANZETTA SOFTWARE
5612 Granby Road
Rockville, MD 20855
================================================================
TO: _____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
DATE: _____________________
=================================================================
Quan Item amount extension
_________________________________________________________________
MANAGER'S PLANNER, complete $35.00
_________________________________________________________________
MANAGER'S PLANNER, registration $35.00
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
TOTAL
________
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@