For more information about registering this program, see the Read Me or the Registering section end of this help.
If you're reading this help file using a World Wide Web browser, but are new to hypertext, you may skip to any section by clicking it in the Table of Contents above. You may also click on any links embedded in the help text itself to skip directly to the referenced section. (Links are text that is styled in a special way -- usually underlined and colored in some way, unless you've changed your browser's settings.)
The sole purpose of Coffee Break is to replace your weak willpower. Those of you who sit for hours on end in front of your computer every day, like I do, you are in danger of doing serious harm to your body. One of the best ways to avoid this is to take frequent breaks from the computer. When you're wrapped up in a project or a game, however, this can be hard to do without a little help!
Even if you have never had trouble with your hands, arms, shoulders, or back, I strongly recommend that you still use this program. My hands didn't ever hurt up until about a year before I first released Coffee Break. Now they hurt every time I type for too long.
When the timer hits zero, Coffee Break will move into the foreground, taking total control of your Mac. It will lock your computer for a user-specified period of time, forcing you to take a break from typing. You will hear me refer to this from time to time as "sleep time". Before Coffee Break locks the machine, it will let you know that it's time to save. This is just a simple safety feature to ensure that the break does not catch you by surprise. (Not that Coffee Break should cause you to lose any of your hard work, but we want to be careful, don't we? After all, you never know when you might lose power!)
For those users who may need a way to exit sleep mode in an emergency, I have provided such an option. See the "Restrict user" option in the Options Dialog section of this manual for more information.
The on-line help is handled through a Help helper application. (A helper application is a program that performs a specific service at the request of another program.) Any World Wide Web browser, such as Netscape, can be used as the Help helper. In addition, HTML Viewer should soon support this feature as well. Unfortunately, America Online's WWW browser can not be used for this purpose. (For information about how to specify your preferred Help helper, see the Helper Options section of this manual.)
Coffee Break handles on-line help in a context-sensitive manner. If you are using a Help helper to view the help, the appropriate section of the manual will be displayed. For instance, if you have the Options dialog open to the Timer Options section when you ask for help, the Timer Options portion of the help file will be displayed.
If you do not have a Help helper, Coffee Break will use SimpleText to display a plain text version of the help file. Unfortunately, it cannot display the help in a context-sensitive manner using SimpleText.
(For more information on the Restrict User option, see the information in the General Options section of this manual.)
Let me offer a quick explanation for this behavior. People like me are sneaky. If I were coming up on the end of my work time, and couldn't tear myself away from that game of Civilization I was playing, I'd quit the app and restart it, thus starting my work time from the beginning again. That's cheating, a very nasty type, since it allows you to reduce the usefulness of this program to ZERO! Since I didn't want that to happen, I added this "feature". (I am WELL aware that many of you won't like this feature, but most likely you won't like it because it's working!)
To change to a different topic, simply choose it from the Topic pop-up menu. The controls will change to allow you to edit the options pertaining to that topic.
When you are done editing your options, click the OK button. Note that it is not necessary to click the OK button when you complete each section -- when you click OK, all the changes you have made in all topics are saved.
Your options are saved in a file called Coffee Break Preferences inside Preferences in the System Folder. You can delete this file to reset the options to their defaults. (Of course, Coffee Break won't change to reflect the change until you restart the program or edit the options again.)
First, it prevents you from quitting the program to avoid a break. Choosing Quit will put the program into "Quit pending" mode, and the program will not actually quit until after your next break. If this option is off, choosing Quit will quit the program immediately (with a warning).
Second, it disables the feature allowing emergency exit from sleep mode. With this feature off, pressing Command-X allows to exit sleep mode. If you exit from sleep mode, the amount of time left on the sleep timer will be added to the amount of time you must take for your next break. When you turn on "Restrict user", Cmd-X does nothing.
To prevent casual use of this feature to quit the program, turning this option off is made slightly difficult. When you uncheck the check box, it won't actually turn off "Restrict user" mode until after the next break. This may seem like a pain for users who want to turn off "Restrict user", but it's very useful for those who want to leave it on and don't want the temptation of being able to turn it off just so they can quit.
For more information about pausing the timer, see the Pausing the timer section of the manual.
For more information about the Timer window, see the Timer Window section of this manual.
Note that these time settings won't take effect until the next time the program changes modes from work time to sleep time, or vice versa. So you can't extend the time of your next break when you get close to it!
For information about the save warn time, see the Timer Options section of this manual.
To actually use this feature, all you have to do is move the mouse into the selected corner. If you are the lucky owner of multiple monitors, the corner you've chosen is a corner of the the main monitor (i.e., the one with the menu bar).
The on-line help helper is the application used to display the on-line help. This application MUST be a World Wide Web browser (such as Netscape) or other program that is capable of displaying HTML files. The current version of HTML Viewer (version 1.0.9) does not yet support this, but future versions should. (Note, however, that if you don't have a program that supports this option, you will still have the opportunity to save the help to a plain text file.)
The pause helper is the application that causes Coffee Break's timer to pause when that application is in the front. This option would be most effective when used with an application screensaver (not a screensaver in the form of a control panel or extension). Note that, while you may set Darkside of the Mac as the pause helper, it is unnecessary to do so, as Darkside is one of the few screensavers that supports the Pause when saver on option.
To change these hot keys, click the Change button next to the appropriate key. You will be presented with a message telling you to press a key combination. If you press a key combination, those keys will replace the current hot key combination. If you click the Cancel button, Coffee Break will forget you ever asked to change the hot key. Legal hot keys can contain one character key and any combination of modifier keys. (The modifier keys are Command, Option, Control, Shift, and Caps Lock.)
Note that Coffee Break uses a special patch (for you tech-types, it uses a jGNEFilter) to examine keypresses in any application. When you press a hot key, no other applications will see that keypress -- unless they managed to get a jGNEFilter installed before Coffee Break.
There are three tasks for which you can set modifier keys. To set modifiers for a particular task, click the button corresponding to that task while holding down your preferred modifier keys. (Note that if you click a button without holding down any modifier keys, you will not be able to activate that task until you actually assign it a modifier.)
The Snooze task activates Coffee Break's snooze feature. This feature allows you to postpone your break, though not without sacrifice. When you activate the snooze feature, Coffee Break will display a dialog asking for an amount of time for which to snooze. You may enter an integer (no fractional values) no larger than your current work time setting in the Options dialog. This amount of time will be added to the current timer, and after the next break, it will be subtracted from the timer. You may only activate this feature once between breaks.
The Bring to Front task does just what it says: it brings Coffee Break to the front. This is useful if you have the Timer window set to be a floating window and you want to quickly access an item in one of Coffee Break's menus.
The Sleep task causes Coffee Break to enter sleep mode immediately, forcing you to take a break. This works the same as the Sleep Now menu item.
To move the Timer window, click anywhere in the window and drag it to it's new location. You should be able to drag it to any position on any monitor.
There are several modifier-key sequences that you may hold down while clicking in the Timer window to do certain tasks. For more information about these sequences, see the Timer Click Options section of the manual.
Whenever the timer pauses, it will reset if it remains paused longer than your current sleep time setting. This allows you to treat a pause in the same way as a break.
Note, however, that if you do this, you will have a problem if you use Darkside of the Mac. Coffee Break will start up before Darkside, and therefore will not detect that a screen saver is running. So, Coffee Break will turn off all the screen saver options ("Built-in saver" and "Pause when saver on"). To avoid this problem, simply change either Coffee Break's or Darkside's name to ensure that Darkside loads first.
You could also keep it in a convenient place and launch it only when you want, but I've found that that doesn't work too well. If I don't keep it in the Startup Items folder, I'll only rarely turn it on, which defeats it's purpose. Coffee Break is not any use if you only use it when you feel like it.
Coffee Break also has several features which will work only if you have one of a select group of screen savers installed. Namely, the "Built-in saver" and "Pause when saver on" options. If you do not have a compatible screen saver, you will not be able to turn these options on. For a list of compatible screen savers, see information about these two options in the General Options section of the manual.
The "Floating timer" option will work only under System 7.1 or later. So, this option will be unavailable to those of you who are still using System 7.0.x.
Thomas ReedIn case you'd like to get in touch with me through e-mail, you can send me mail at ThomasReed@aol.com.
1912 McCausland
St. Louis, MO 63117
Also, PLEASE INCLUDE A NOTE TELLING ME YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS, if you have one. I would prefer to notify people of updates via e-mail, so if you have an e-mail address, I'd love to know what it is. If you don't, I'll send you update information through "snail" mail (postal mail).
First, there is a good e-mail mailing list called Sorehand. To subscribe, send mail to listserv@ucsfvm.bitnet with the line
subscribe sorehand your namein the body of the message (subject doesn't matter). You can also get on the RSI Newsletter list by sending mail to majordomo@world.std.com with the line
subscribe rsiin the body of the message.
There is also an anonymous ftp server from which you can get information. It's address is ftp.csua.berkeley.edu, and you'll find the relevant information (the Typing Injury FAQ, among other things) in the /pub/typing-injury directory.
There are also a couple good Web sites, for World Wide Web fans:
http://disability.comThere are many other good sources of information about RSIs, but there are too many to list here. One of the sources listed here should get anyone with an Internet connection started.
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/grad/dwallach/tifaq/
I would also like to say that if you for some reason or another can't register Coffee Break, but you need it, use it anyway. The primary purpose of the program is not to make money, but to help people. I'm trusting you to register it if you can and if you think the program's worth it.
I also invite you to give me your thoughts and ideas about this program. I welcome input, and though I may not use all the ideas I get, I do use a lot of them. (In fact, many of the features that have found their way into Coffee Break were originally suggestions from people like you.) If you send me e-mail, I guarantee that I will get you a timely reply. If you send snail mail, however, I can't guarantee that my reply will be timely! (I don't even write my parents as often as I should!)
In addition, if you have any questions whatsoever about this program that you feel have not been adequately answered, please feel free to ask me. I am of the school of thought that the only stupid question is one that is not asked. So don't feel like you're bothering me. I'm happy to help!
Anyway, enough rambling. I hope you like my program, and good luck with your future prevention (or treatment) of RSIs!
Thomas Reed \ ThomasReed@aol.com