Dawn

E-Mail address manager for Windows 95

Version 3.1, December 27 1997 - January 3 1998
0. Table of contents  

• 0. Table of contents
• 1. What this program does
• 2. Origins of this program
• 3. How to use this program
  • 3.1. Requirements
  • 3.2. Installation
  • 3.3. Starting the program
  • 3.4. What to do after starting the program
    • 3.4.1. Converting addresses
      • 3.4.1.1. Regular Convert
      • 3.4.1.2. Netscape to PIM
    • 3.4.2. The edit mode
    • 3.4.3. Menus
      • 3.4.3.1. File Menu
      • 3.4.3.2. Edit Menu
      • 3.4.3.3. View Menu
      • 3.4.3.4. Help Menu
    • 3.4.4. Quitting the program
  • 3.5. How to get the converted file into Netscape
    • 3.5.1 - 3.5.9. Steps to the above
  • 3.6. How to get Netscape and MSIE addressbook addresses into Dawn
  • 3.7. Preferences - Sorry, no preferences at present
  • 3.8. Sorting addresses
• 4. What's New
• 5. Known problems, bugs, and limitations
  • 5.1. Error Messages
• 6. Upcoming features
• 7. Other services by me
  • 7.1. QLML
  • 7.2. Programs by me
• 8. Terms of this software

1. What This Program Does:

This program converts an ASCII list of E-Mail addresses with Nicknames or without, to the Netscape format address book and back. It can also sort adresses by E-Mail address or by Nickname. In short, it's an E-Mail address manager

This version of Dawn, 3.1, that is, is designed to work with Netscape Communicator version 4.0x, Netscape Navigator 3.x in Windows 95 and possibly NT, Microsft Internet Explorer 4.x (and possibly lower), and most hendheld PIM's that have access to a PC.

2. Origins of this program:

The idea for this program was conceived in winter of 1996. The first beta of Nacwonaf, as it was then called, came out in March. 1.0 never found its way to the final version. The idea of calling it Dawn came with growth of this program. Now that this program will not just be for Netscape and not just convert addresses, it needed a new name. I have this E-Mail address manager named Dawn E. Underwood. Perfect, I thought! With his permission, Dawn 3.0 was born.

3. How to Use This Program

I tried to make usage of this program as easy as possible. Nevertheless, I recommend you read these notes.

3.1. System Requirements

• Windows 95 (may work in NT as well)
• Whatever the requirements are for Netscape 4.0 and/or 3.0
• Netscape Communicator 4.x (nonbeta) or Navigator 3.x or MS Internet Explorer 4.x (may work with other versions as well)
• Around 5.8 MB additional disk space to download (the actual file is only 2.82 MB)
• Around 200 K to upgrade
• Around 10 MB disk space to install
• No additional space to install the upgrade (actually frees you 20 K)

3.2. Installation

This section describes how to install Dawn. An upgrade from Dawn 3.0 is also available. To upgrade older versions, uninstall and install fresh.

3.2.1. Downloading
3.2.1.1. Downloading for fresh installations
Simple, just download the 2880K dawn31.zip from my web site or from a mirror location of your choice. (Mirror locations will be listed here as they appear)

3.2.1.2 Upgrading
Download the ~45K file  dawn31u.zip.

3.2.2. Uncompressing
Uncompress the zip file into a temporary folder (not windows\temp, create one).

3.2.3. Installing
Run setup.exe. Follow the onscreen instructions.

3.3. Starting the program
To start the program, run the dawn.exe file either from its folder or the start menu's programs menu.

3.4. What to do after starting the program
This section describes sorting, saving files, etc.

3.4.1. Converting addresses
3.4.1.1. Regular Convert
You can open a file in either text format or Netscape (3.x or 4.x) or Internet Explorer format. It will look the same on your screen. Then you can save the file in any of these formats once again. In the meantime, you can sort, edit, and perform other actions. Alternatively, you may copy and paste. If you wish to learn more about converting, read the menu descriptions below.

3.4.1.2. Hanbdheld PIMs
You can now also do a one-way convert from a Netscape 4.x format addressbook to a text file format read by most handheld PIMs conserving all the data (including addresses, phone numbers, etc). Follow the steps below for getting Netscape addressbooks into dawn. Then, in Dawn, select "Netscape to PIM" from the file menu and type in or choose the appropriate names there. Clikck Convert.

For Internewt Explorer, such a utility is not necessary since if you follow the steps of getting IE4 files into Dawn below, you already have a valid PIM file.

3.4.2. Edit Mode
Unfortunately, in Dawn's present interface, you cannot delete, edit, or cut text (yet). Therefore, you might need the Edit Mode. The Edit Mode is basically the old text mode for handling text. When you enter it (click Edit | Edit Mode), the fancy interface disappears, and you are left with a textbox containing E-Mail addresses and NickNames one per line. Here you can edit them in any way you want, addresses or nicknames. When you're done, you can exit Edit Mode by clicking the same menu item (now bearing a checkmark) again. If after any action performed in Edit Mode you see weird text, exit Edit Mode and reenter it. That should solve the problem. Note: Edit mode cannot work with an address list larger than 32000 characters in size. The rest of dawn is thought not to have any size restriction, so for extremely large lists, do any editing in a word processor and then paste or open it not using edit mode. Dawn will warn you when entering Edit Mode if the text is too large, but if you are already in edit mode while increasing the contents to above the limit, unpredictable things may happen (out of memory error/quit being the most widespread).

3.4.3. Menus
3.4.3.1. File menu

• Open - Displays a textfile, Netscape file, or Internet Explorer file onscreen. Format will be autodetected by the extention of the file. If the extention is other than htm(l) or ldif, it'll let you choose.
• Save - Saves. Select the right type in the Save-As box and either type in the right extension, or leave the extention off. It will save in the format you select. Note: It will ask you even if ther file remains unchanged. Also, it will always bring up a save-as box. It doesn't remember the name of the file.
• Netscape to PIM - loads the Dawn module that lets you convert full addressbooks from Netscape to handheld PIMs. See below.
• Uninstall - This menu item is temporarily (or maybe even permanently) removed.
• Exit - exits, asking you if to save.

3.4.3.2. Edit Menu

• Copy everything as text - copies everything in the window to ClipBoard as plain text
• Copy Selection Unchanged - does what a copy command in other programs does. Copies what you have selected in the window. Only works in Edit Mode.
• Copy everything as Netscape 4.xx - Copies everything as Netscape 4.0+ format
• Copy everything as Netscape 3.x - Similar to the above, only using Netscape 3.0+ (html) format.
• Paste clipboard content - does what a paste command in other programs does. Pastes clipboard text into the window. Only works in Edit Mode.
• Clear and Paste ASCII - Removes all the text in the window and pastes from the clipboard assuming ASCII format.
• Clear and Paste Netscape 4.xx format - Removes all text in the window, pastes a Netscape addressbook file, and displays it on the screen.
• Clear and Paste Netscape 3.x format - Similar to the above, only using Netscape 3.0+ (html) format.
• Edit Mode - Enter or exit the Edit Mode - see Edit Mode above.
• Delete selection - Deletes what you selected. Only works in Edit Mode.
• Clear - clears all text in the window. Only works in Edit Mode.
• Preferences - This menu item is temporarily (or maybe even permanently) removed.

3.4.3.3 View - Sorting Options

• Sort by NickNames - Puts addresses in alphabetical order by Nicknames
• Sort by E-Mail Addresses - Alphabetizes by E-Mail address

3.4.3.4. Help Menu
All the menu items here work as expected except the "Help" and "Other Products" items.
Note: There is an easter egg in all help menues.

3.4.4. Quitting the program
You can exit Dawn like any other Windows program. However, an exit menu item in the file menu is provided.

3.5. How to get the converted file into Netscape or Internet Explorer
You have two options. Netscape 3.x format and 4.xx format which is also the IE4 format. If you have Netscape communicator 4.xx, you may use either format, although the one especially for Netscape 4 is more reliable. (It's also older and more tested)
3.5.1. That done and over with, you have several ways to accomplish this task. You may chose File|Save or Edit|Copy as Netscape (insert your version here)
3.5.2. If you did "Copy as Netscape 3" or "4" in the Edit menu, you only need to paste it into an editor and save it. Otherwise, skip this step.
3.5.3. Open Netscape Communicator 4.x or Navigator 3.x or MS Internet Explorer's Outlook Express.
3.5.4. Select "Address Book" from the Communicator menu in 4.x or from the Window menu in 3.x. or from the Tools menu in Outlook Express
3.5.5. Select "Import" from the File menu
3.5.6. If using Outlook Express, select "Address Book" from the submenu. Otherwise, skip this step.
3.5.7. If using Outlook Express, select "LDIF" from the list and click "ok". Otherwise, skip this step.
3.5.8. Choose the ldif (Netscape 4.x and Explorer 4.x) or html (Netscape 3.x or 4.x) file name you saved the coverted address book under and click "ok"
3.5.9. Enjoy!

3.6. Getting Netscape and Internet Explorer addressbooks to open in Dawn
3.6.1. Netscape
You need to open the addressbook in Netscape and click File | Save As and save it as any .ldif (for Netscape 4.x) or .html (for Netscape 3.x) file you want. Then you can open the file in Dawn. Or you can open it in a word processor, copy it, and paste "Netscape 4.x" or "3.x" format (in the Edit Menu) as appropriate.
3.6.2 Internet Explorer
Run Outlook Express and open the addressbook (from the tools menu or the button bar). Choose File|Export|AddressBook and choose "Text File" from the dialog box that appears. Click the Export button and type in the name of the file or click Browse and select it from a list. Important: The file needs to have a .csv extension! Then you can open the file in Dawn. Pasting as Internet Explorer is not implemented yet.

3.7. Preferences
The only preferences there are Netscape to PIM and even those don't do anything at present.

3.8. Sorting addresses
You may sort addresses either by Nickname or by address. Just click on the appropriate button or select the appropriate item in the View menu.

4. What's New
4.1. What's new since Dawn 3.0

• Temporarily removed all preferences
• Added IE4 support
• Added PIM support
• Minor bug fixes

4.2. What's new since Nacwonaf 2.0

• Nickname Support!
• Netscape 3.x Support!
• Sorting addresses
• Ability to convert from Netscape addressbook to text as well as back
• Sorting by Nickname as well as address
• Removed limit on amount of text on non Edit Mode operations
• Auto-detect for opening files
• Better error handling (program won't quit or hang on some errors any more)
• Fixed the bug that caused Dawn to read first name as nickname from Netscape 4.0 format

5. Known issues, problems, bugs, limitations, and workarounds
You are welcome to report bugs by E-Mail at zakharin@voicenet.com

Bugs in 3.1:

• Sometimes text in or out of Edit mode may not be correct
  • Enter and exit Edit Mode and everything will be fixed
• There is still a limit of 32000 characters on Edit Mode operations
  • Edit files in word processors, don't use Edit Mode for large files
• Some Edit Mode limit exceeding errors are not handled correctly
  • Make sure you don't exceed the limit while in Edit Mode
• The help messages are brief and unhelpful.
  • Read this file carefully. You'll find just about everything here.
• You must have an extra separator at the end of your list of addresses.

5.1. Error messages
There are seven trapped error messages that can pop up in Dawn. These will not cause Dawn to quit. If the reason for a message is not found below, refer to the bug report address above.

• Error type #USR&001 - text nonexistent. This message now should never appear because empty strings are handled much better in this version. However, you may still get this message when you are performing operations when you have no data.
• Error type #USR&002 - The file does not appear to be of the known format.  You are trying to open a file where the content does not match your extention, or, for non standard extentions, the content does not match the format you have selected.
• Error type #USR&003 - Too much text. You are attempting to enter edit mode with a list of addresses exceeding 32000 characters, or, while in edit mode, perform an operation in edit mode increasing the amount of text above the limit. See above.
• Error type #52, #53, #68, or #76 - Bad filename. You are attempting to use the name of a nonexistent file (as an input file) or folder or drive, or there's something wrong with the name you typed in (for example you didn't type anything in at all. For any of these errors, you will have a chgance to select another file in a dialog box. If you click Cancel there, Error #52 will occur and the cycle will be repeated. No data loss will occur.

There may be cases of  untrapped errors which cause the program to quit, or worse yet, to hang. If that happens, refer to the bug-report address above. The best way to get rid of Dawn when it's hanged is to press ctrl-alt-delete and crash close it. Perform this several times until "This program is not responding" appears. Press OK and it will close.

6. Upcoming features
Now that 3.1 is out, I can cocentrate on Dawn 4.0 in which you can expect better online help and direct interaction with Netscape and Internet Explorer as well as address extraction support.

7. Other services by me
For more information, E-Mail zakharin@voicenet.com or visit my homepage at http://www.voicenet.com/~zakharin

7.1. QLML
The Quantum Leap Mailing List is a mailing list dedicated to bringing you information about Quantum Leap the TV show. To subscribe, E-Mail Dawn E Underwood <unforgettable@datastar.net> with QL SUBSCRIBE as the subject.

7.2. Programs by me
8. Terms of this software
This program is still free, but I would appreciate it if you would send something to me, like a comment, at zakharin@voicenet.com. Copyright 1996 - 1998 Boris Zakharin all rights reserved.

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