home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Shareware Overload
/
ShartewareOverload.cdr
/
busi
/
pbtpac16.zip
/
DDS.INP
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-05-28
|
12KB
|
361 lines
5
PBT Orientation Notes
(c) 1989 by Rickenbacker Software
.T
The PBT Orientation Disk Menu
1. About This Disk
2. Installing the PBT
3. Printing the PBT Manuals
4. Advertisements
.P
.T
About This Disk
How much must I put aside to meet my short-term
obligations?
Do I now have enough in short-term savings to cover those
bills or am I short?
Which annual, semi-annual, and quarterly bills will I be
getting hit with next month?
How much more would my monthly payments be were I to take a
25-year mortgage instead of a 30-year mortgage? What will
my total payments come to? How much will I end up paying in
interest?
.*
About this disk (cont.)
If I manage to scrape up an additional $1,000 for a down
payment, what will be the effect on my monthly payments?
How much will I save in interest charges over the life of
the loan if I bite the bullet and take a loan of shorter
duration?
These are among the questions that the Personal Budget
Tools (i.e., the PBT) will answer for you. And, as a bonus,
it makes getting the answers easy. Context-sensitive and
cross-referenced online help make the PBT easy not only to
learn but also to use.
.*
About this disk (cont.)
If you react to the PBT as have its testers, the first thing
which will catch your eye will be its calculators. The
heart of the PBT, however, is its deceptively simple
analysis.
Give yourself an evening to gather and enter the expense
information that it requests. Then, and only then, will
you begin to appreciate just how valuable the PBT's analysis
is. It will introduce the concept of the PHD, show you how
to apply that concept, and show you the way off the
financial roller coaster. With the PBT, as with most
solutions, simplicity and elegance are one.
.*
About this disk (cont.)
.T
THE FIRST, AND MOST IMPORTANT, STEP IN SOLVING A PROBLEM IS
.T
TO DEFINE THE PROBLEM.
"How long will it take you to prepare a five-minute speech?
"Give me two weeks."
"Good grief! And how much time would it take you to prepare
a two-hour speech?"
"I'm ready now."
The PBT is the five-minute speech. (Unfortunately, however,
it took a LOT more than two weeks!)
.*
About this disk (cont.)
.S
THE PBT'S FILES
PBT.EXE - The Personal Budget Tools program
PBT.OVR - Overlay file for the PBT. (May not be
present in all versions.)
PBTHELP.HLP - The text of the PBT help messages.
PBTDEMO.PBT - Sample file to look at from within PBT.
PBTMAN.DOC - The full PBT manual.
PBT1PG.DOC - The 1 page version of the program.
PRINTMAN.BAT - A batch file to print the manual.
ELITE.EXE - Sets EPSON or compatibles to Elite font.
GO.EXE - The program you are now running.
DDS.INP - The text file which "drives" this program.
.P
.T
INSTALLING THE PBT
Installation consists of using the DOS COPY command to copy
PBT.EXE and PBTHELP.HLP to the floppy disk or to the hard
disk directory from which you wish to execute the PBT.
Example 1 (Installing to floppy):
Assumption: This disk is in your A-drive. The disk to
that you will copy is in your B-drive.
1. FORMAT B: or FORMAT B:/s (if you wish to create a
"system" disk -- see your DOS manual.)
2. COPY A:PBT*.* b:
That's it. To execute, type
PBT
from the drive containing the PBT.
.*
Installing the PBT (cont.)
Example 2 (Installing to a hard disk):
1. MD C:\PBT
2. COPY A:PBT*.* C:\PBT\*.*
To execute from a copy thus installed:
1. CD \PBT
2. PBT
(This example assumes that you wish to execute from a
directory called "PBT". You may, of course, provide any
name to the directory.)
.P
.T
Printing the Manuals
The PBT comes with two manuals:
PBTMAN.DOC - Twenty-something pages of stuff, some of
which is probably useful.
PBT1PG.DOC - An attempt at a one-page manual for you
computer jockeys. (You may still find it useful to look
through the larger manual on the screen.)
.*
Printing manuals (cont.)
To print the 1-page manual, enter:
TYPE PBT1PG.DOC > LPT1
To print the twenty-something page manual, enter either:
PRINTMAN E (If you have a dot matrix printer which is
EPSON compatible).
or
PRINTMAN
.*
Printing manuals (cont.)
On most printers, the instructions on the prior screen are
all that you need. BUT. If the files are printing
incorrectly on your printer, here are the new instructions.
1. Check the instructions which came with whatever word
processor you use to see if it will import ASCII text.
It should. If, however, it doesn't (!!!), drop by your
local user group and pick up PC-WRITE. Then, trash the
word processor you've been using. (Is it too late to
rename my "company" OPINIONATED SOFTWARE? I like that
name.)
.*
Printing manuals (cont.)
2. Bring PBTMAN.DOC into your word processor and print it
from there.
3. Bring PBT1PG.DOC into your word processor and print it
from there.
.T
(HEROIC ASSUMPTION DEPT. -- I do assume that your word
.T
processor works with your printer.)
.P
.T
ADVERTISEMENTS
.S
CHECK KING
There are three components to managing home finances:
1. Budgeting (i.e., control of expenses)
2. Check Book / Bank Card Accounting
and
3. Investment Management
Rickenbacker Software has two of the best designed, and
therefore two of the simplest, programs available to help
with home finances -- the PBT for budgeting and CHECK KING
for Check Book/Bank Card Accounting. Marketed as shareware,
each is a cost/value leader.
.*
As for the third component, Investment Management, you'll
have to find a program elsewhere. I am not interested in
it, know nothing about it, and can't provide any meaningful
recommendations.
Let's get back to CHECK KING since you already have the PBT
in your hands.
Before I list out its features, let me tell you about its
aim: to make checkbook accounting easier to do with the
computer than without it. Unlike those programs that
invite you to make a hobby of your checkbook, Check King
works to make checking easier -- not more complex.
.*
.T
With CHECK KING, you can:
- Record your checks with a minimum of effort.
- Predefine 21 payees for 2-stroke data entry.
- Track up to 97 categories of checks (with 12 displayed
on the data entry screen).
- Reconcile your checkbook to the bank's statement without
driving yourself to distraction.
- Receive help in finding discrepancies from the
Reconciliation Problem Finder.
- Easily review your transactions with a variety of
flexible reports.
.*
.T
With CHECK KING, you can:
- List all checks written between any two dates.
- List all checks written between any two amounts.
- List the checks written to any one, two, or three
payees.
- List any combination of the above.
- List checks by category for the period you desire.
In short, Check King will help you to record, track, and
balance your checks. It does the types of things you hoped
your computer would do -- before you found out otherwise.
.*
.T
It is not the features list that defines Check King,
however, so much as its ease-of-use. Its goal was to give
provide virtually effort-free control of checking accounts.
Before Check King, a friend quipped, "Gee, I found a program
which makes it almost as easy to use the computer for my
checking account as not to use it." Is it a joke to put
your check book on a computer? It once was. Now, it isn't.
Check King not only transforms your check book into
a data base of your spending, it also amply repays your
efforts.
.*
.T
Ed Mini tells the delightful story of going to the zoo with
his daughter. The story has his daughter approaching a
stranger to ask a question about the giraffes.
Trying to conceal his hurt, Ed asks his daughter why she
hadn't addressed the question to him.
"Daddy, I didn't want to know that much about them."
Check King is the stranger that knows when to stop. It was
never designed for everyone, just for those who want as much
power as they can get for as little effort as possible.
.*
Check King is $20. It has a 50-something page manual on the
disk, but you may never need to read it.
Converts from Quicken, Money Manager, and Managing Your
Money cite the same reason for making the switch. They like
the simplicity and ease of use that Check King provides.
As one letter put it, "Why should I make a hobby of my
check book? I'll take Check King over ___ any day."
.*
.T
THE DDS AND TUTOR
The DDS (Diskette Documentor System) is the program with
which you are viewing this documentation. It's not for
everyone.
If, however, you create disks for others to share or wish to
create your own diskette magazine, it's a find.
The DDS requires that you know how to create ASCII files
with margins set to 1 and 60 with your word processor. If
you can do that, you are just 40 minutes away from creating
your first "menu-driven documentation". Go through the DDS
tutorial (not to be confused with TUTOR), type in your text
along with a few dot commands, and then run it through
the DDS' MAKEMENU program. That's it.
.*
The DDS and TUTOR (cont)
What is menu-driven documentation? You're looking at it.
You picked an option from a menu. You're looking at the
results. You can Page Forward and Page Back. True, this is
not the fanciest presentation you've witnessed. Yet again,
it is one which you easily create with NO PROGRAMMING
knowledge whatsoever.
To stimulate sales of the DDS (a product that has little
direct appeal to most of my customers), I am throwing in
TUTOR. It's full-name is The DIRECTORY MANAGMENT TUTORIAL.
The DIRECTORY MANAGEMENT TUTORIAL alone is worth the price
of the entire disk if you are planning to purchase or have
just purchased a hard disk.
.*
The DDS and TUTOR (cont)
TUTOR, a slick, entertaining, effective, and interactive
tutorial will show you how to manage your hard disk. It
features the CHALK TALK and the ELECTRIC BLACKBOARD to
illustrate its points. By responding to the tutorial's
questions and by taking a few notes, you can learn -- in
one moderately entertaining hour -- the following:
- the importance of directories.
- how to create, change, and delete directories.
- what a path is and why it is important.
- how to get help from DOS with the PROMPT command.
- the basic principles of organizing your hard disk.
.*
The DDS and TUTOR, both of them together, are $15.
So, to close the advertising:
CHECK KING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20
DDS & TUTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15
CHECK KING plus DDS & TUTOR . . . . . . . $30
Note: The $30 offer applies only if the two offerings are
ordered at the same time.
U.S. funds only please. Connecticut residents,
please add 8% for the sales tax.
.T
RICKENBACKER SOFTWARE
.T
P.O. BOX 11662
.T
NEWINGTON, CONN. 06111
.E