Main
 iSBiSTER International, Inc.

1314 Cardigan Street, Garland, Texas 75040

Time and Chaos Professional Help File

Welcome to iSBiSTER's Time and Chaos Professional v3.1a

Licensing and Registration

On-Line Registration

New Features in version 3.1a

Setup and Installation

Using the Appointment Book

Using the Todo List

Using the Telephone Book

How to Import Ascii Files into the Phone Book

Network Support

Common Questions and Answers

Special Notice


Welcome to Time & Chaos
Welcome to iSBiSTER's Time and Chaos Professional v3.1a

Time and Chaos is intended to be an alternative to the abundant supply of overly complex Personal Information Manager's (PIM's).  Having adopted the use of Microsoft Windows several years ago; I left the world of VANILLA DOS behind.  I never want to see a black and white screen with a C:> ever again!....AND I hate leaving my Windows world to fall back a decade to use inconsistent DOS Applications.

I have purchased 3 major highly rated, very high priced PIM's; I am still frustrated with their over engineered complexity for my requirements.  I need a Calendar, a TODO list and a Telephone Book AND I need them shown to me in an obvious intuitive manner.

Further...I don't sit in front of my PC all day - so, I need the ability to print my calendars to take them with me.

I don't think that my requirements are that unique.  Many of you obviously agree from all of the correspondence that we have received.  I thank you for the insight..the idea's..even the complaints!  It has helped tremendously.  Please keep these cards and letters coming.

iSBiSTER International can be reached either by mail or CompuServe Mail or our local BBS:

CompuServe ID: 74017,3424

iSBiSTER International's BBS (214)530-2762

Voice  214-495-6724

iSBiSTER International, Inc.

1314 Cardigan Street

Garland, Texas 75040

Please Drop us your comments.  I will gladly take your suggestions into consideration for future enhancements.  Please register your software $29.95 U.S.


Registering On-Line
On-Line Registration

Registering On-Line

Effective July 15, 1992 you can now register Time & Chaos electronically.  This should significantly relieve the frustrations of mail registration for our customers.

Electronic orders may be placed with CompuServe Information Services and billed directly to your credit card for your convenience.  Just type GO SWREG and request Time & Chaos, our SWREG ID is 49

We receive confirmation of your order within a couple of hours  and will forward your letter of authorization, your official diskette AND your security ID by Mail immediately.  I will also CIS mail to you your ID so that you can gain immediate relief from the NAG screens should you be over your 21 day evaluation period.

I hope you find this service easy to use and of benefit to you.  I applaud CompuServe for it's innovation in this area.

Now you can order direct via credit cards!  Our BBS is set up to handle on-line orders for VISA and MASTERCARD - Call with your modem  (214-530-2762) 24hrs/day.

You can also order by voice phone (214)495-6724.


Licensing and Registration

Time and Chaos Professional is not public domain software, nor is it free software. The use of TIME and CHAOS is subject to the following terms and conditions:  Non-Licensed users are granted a limited license to use Time and Chaos on a 21 day trial basis for the purposes of determining whether Time and Chaos is suitable for their needs. The use of Time and Chaos, except for an initial 21-day trial, requires registration.  The use of unlicensed copies of Time and Chaos by any person or business is strictly prohibited.  Registration entitles you to use Time and Chaos. We will provide you will the security code to remove the "Nag Screens" and mail you a Registration Confirmation to PROVE to your corporate auditors that you are a good citizen, as well as our official diskette containing the latest version! If you intend to use Time & Chaos on a network each user on that network must purchase a user license

In order to register you must send $29.95 U.S Currency to:

iSBiSTER International, Inc.

1314 Cardigan Street

Garland, Texas 75040

Telephone (214) 495-6724 Voice

BBS (214) 530-2762 Modem (up to 9600 bps)

Check or Money Orders Only Please. Residents of Texas add 8.25% Sales Tax ($32.42) in total. We also accept Visa and MasterCard credit card orders.  If you are a CompuServe Subscriber, you can register on-line (go swreg) - see registering on-line in this help file.  Orders from outside the United States must be accompanied by an International Money Order, or a check in $U.S. Funds drawn on an American Banking Institution.  We are unable to process checks drawn on foreign banks.  As a last resort, many of our international customers have successfully sent cash well hidden inside a piece of paper and we certainly welcome pounds sterling.  We will continue to strive to improve the ease in registering.

iSBiSTER INTERNATIONAL, Inc. does not warrant that Time and Chaos software will meet your requirements or that the operation of the software will be uninterrupted or error free.  Nor do we offer any Warranties or Guarantees of any kind.  You are free to use Time and Chaos in any way you see fit,  but AT YOUR OWN RISK!

iSBiSTER INTERNATIONAL, Inc. is not responsible for any problems or damage caused by the software or that may result from using the licensed software; whether licensed or not. This includes, but is not limited to, computer hardware, computer software, operating systems, and any computer or computing accessories. End user agrees to hold iSBiSTER INTERNATIONAL, Inc. and/or any persons associated with the creation of this software harmless for any problems arising from the use of the software.

I regret having to place such a disclaimer in a piece of software.  I have made every effort to make this software product as efficient and accurate as possible; however, in a world full of frivolous and ridiculous law suits, I have no alternative.

I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE SOFTWARE and find it productive!


New Features in v3.1
What's New in v3.1a

Network Support

For those of you using a network, you can now open multiple instances of Time & Chaos across the network. Each user MAY offer others either READ_WRITE or READ_ONLY access to their calendar.

Support for Multiple Calendar Sets

You can now use a single copy of Time & Chaos to manage multiple calendar sets on a single machine.  Each set of Datafiles MUST be in a unique subdirectory.

5th Sunday Repeats

Apparently there was a bug in Time & Chaos that would not correctly schedule a repeating appointment or Day Title on the 5th Sunday of Each month.  This has been corrected.

Multi-Select List Boxes

All of the list boxes within Time & Chaos are now Multi-Select.  This means that we now have the same ability that File Manager does - 'Hold down the Cntl key to select multiple entries in a list box' - very handy if you wish to delete or move multiple items quickly.

Envelope Orientation

We have included a new option on the Envelope Control Menu that will allow Time & Chaos to save the orientation settings for your envelopes - rather than having to do a printer setup each time you need to print an envelope.

The Telephone "Todo's" have been significantly improved in flexibiltiy to allow editing

When you drag a Telephone Contact to the Todo list, it will now automatically drag along the business phone number.  Additionally you can now edit the telephone todo description field.

Date on ICON now updates if T&C left active past midnight

Delete Button Added to the Search Screen

A very handy tool to allow you to quickly delete old items from the database.  Also supports multi-select list box Cntl - Mouse Click commands.

Color in the Preview Screen

Don't know why we didn't think of it sooner!

Time Control Enhancements

By popular demand - the controls to set the start and end time for an appointment are MUCH more flexible.

You can now type directly the times (Time & Chaos will check for validity) and/or you can also use your cursor keys (Arrow Up Increments +30 minutes)(Arrow Down Increments -30 minutes)(Arrow Right Increments +1 minute)(Arrow Left Increments -1 minute).

You can now specify WHITE or YELLOW pages at startup

Ability to Specify a default Start-Time for your Day

Any reported "bugs" have been eliminated


Special Notice

Special Thanks!

I would like to extend my appreciation to Sam, Don and Tony, the folks at "SOFTWARE SOURCE" who created VB/ISAM. VBISAM is the database that Time & Chaos is built upon. It IS an outstanding product, very small, very easy to use and very fast.  The support we have received from Software Source is first rate, and they are just great folks.

The VBISAMMU.DLL file that we distribute with Time & Chaos is licensed for use only with Time & Chaos, and for no other purpose (including further copying). Should you wish to create your own software that uses  VBISAMMU.DLL you must license it directly from Software Source.

Software Source may be contacted in the U.S. at (510) 623-7854

I highly recommend it!


Setup and Installation

MS Windows 3.0 or later is required, as is the VBRUN200.DLL module. (If you do not have this module, it is available from many sources. There is no additional charge. It is available on our BBS and on most on-line services)

For you convenience, we have included an installation utility with our software.  Double Click on INSTALL.EXE from the file manager - the rest is automatic.  We do however recommend that you back up your datafiles prior to upgrading (just in case).

Manual Installation

Create a unique subdirectory anywhere on your hard disk. (I use C:/TCHAOS).  Copy all Time and Chaos files into that subdirectory

TCHAOS.EXE

PRNSET.DLL

SS3D.VBX

SS3D2.VBX

VBISAMMU.DLL

VBRUN200.DLL (Should be placed in your WINDOWS subdirectory

TCHAOS.HLP

Double Click from File manager on TCHAOS.EXE

Upgrading From a Previous Version of Time and Chaos

If you are upgrading from a version 3.02 or earlier of Time and Chaos then you must also do the following:

*** Please be advised that in order to take advantage of the new TODO LINKING in this version that you must delete your TODO datafiles.

Please Delete 	TODOLIST.ISM

TODOLIST.ISF

TODOLIST.ISD

Yes this means losing some data, but it's only the TODO list.  I would suggest the following actions in order to avoid missing any action items.

Go to any date 5 years into the future, as this will insure that we are missing nothing.  Print out a list of your outstanding TODO items.  Delete the files as per above, or copy them to Floppy Disk.  Restart Time & Chaos.

Re-Enter the TODO items on your list.

Sorry about the inconvenience, but this was a greatly requested enhancement.  To be able to click on any contact in the telephone book and quickly gain a status report of all action items for that contact.  Particularly useful for Sales people and for tradesman who need to print out client status information.

** Should you not wish to delete your TODOLIST FILES, Time & Chaos will operate as usual, except that you will not be able to take advantage of the new Linking feature.**

More good news!  Time and Chaos no longer requires SHARE.EXE to be loaded in the config.sys file, or the autoexec.bat - now I know THAT'S GOOD NEWS!

I also would like to express our appreciation for all the orders and interest we have received for our product!  We are very appreciative of your support.    -- THANK YOU! --

Inside the Help file you will also find information regarding registration through COMPUSERVE INFORMATION SERVICE.  (go swreg) This allows us to accept credit cards and ease the delays in mail registrations.


Using the Appointment Book

How to set an appointment

Setting up new appointments is easy!  Select the date on the monthly calendar that you wish to schedule an appointment. You can now see in the Appointment List Box all of your appointments already scheduled for that day.  With your mouse, click on the ADD APPOINTMENT button below.  Doing this will call a dialog box for you to enter the particulars regarding your appointment.

With the APPOINTMENT ENTRY SCREEN now displayed, you may complete the details regarding your upcoming appointment.   The Slider Control (Top Left) will be displaying the date that you are scheduling, you are required to do nothing here (although you could change this date by clicking on the left or right arrows to move the appointment to another date).  The Description field is for you to enter a brief reminder representing your appointment.  With this version of Time & Chaos, I have allowed unlimited field lengths, so you will be able to virtually type forever.  HOWEVER, PLEASE KEEP YOUR APPOINTMENT DESCRIPTIONS BRIEF AS YOU MAY WISH TO PRINT A MONTHLY CALENDAR WHERE PRINT SPACE IS VERY LIMITED .

Enter both a START TIME and an END TIME for your appointment.  These slider controls are operated with your mouse.  CLICKING ON THE  RIGHT ARROWS WILL MOVE THE TIME IN MINUTES - CLICKING ON THE LEFT ARROWS WILL MOVE THE TIME IN 30 MINUTE INCREMENTS!  This approach to selecting a time allows fast scheduling for routine events while maintaining the flexibility that so many packages lack today - facilitating the scheduling at non-standard times such as 9:04am.  This can be particularly frustrating should you wish to record an airplane departure or arrival time within your calendars.

** You may not schedule 2 appointments with  exactly the same start time **

You may also choose to REPEAT your appointment on other dates. From the REPEAT combo box select either NONE - for a non-repeating event.  DAILY - to schedule each and every day from today.  WEEKLY - to schedule every 7 days or on same day each week.  MONTHLY - Same DATE each month. and YEARLY - Same DATE each Year. SAME DAY EACH MONTH for "the third Tuesday of Every Month" type repeats.  REPEAT UNTIL allows you to set the length of the repeat period.

To the bottom, is a NOTES BUTTON this will invoke an editor of approximately 5K of space for you to jot notes regarding your appointment.  You can also use the CUT and PASTE options on this Appointment Entry Screen to move data between screens and other applications.  REMEMBER ANY INFORMATION THAT IS ENTERED IN THE NOTES FIELD CAN BE KEYWORD SEARCHED LATER.  For example, I often make notes in this field regarding such things as products that a person is interested in (ie. data communications).  Later, I can search on (data com) to list all the matching contacts.

That's it - all done. Click the OK button - your appointment is scheduled.  Should an error occur here - it is probably due to attempting to schedule two appointments with the identical start time.  This is not allowed.

How to Edit an existing appointment

Double Clicking on any appointment listed in the Daily Appointment Listbox (Upper Right of the Main Screen) - will find this particular appointment in the database and recall it to the screen for your changes.

You can move the appointment by changing the date on the slider control (upper left).  Changes of any field information will be reflected immediately upon clicking the UPDATE button on the form.

How to Delete an appointment

Deletion of any appointment is handled via editing.  Double Click on any appointment listed in the Daily Appointment Listbox (Upper Right) - this will find this particular appointment in the database and recall it to the screen for your changes or DELETION.  Click the DELETE button on the form, you will be asked for confirmation - the appointment will be deleted. This version adds Group Deletion as well. Basically, you just reverse what you have done.  Double Click on the First Appointment in the series (as if you were going to edit it).  Enter the same repeat specifications (ie. daily),  Select the date in the future that you want to delete to.  Click on DELETE.  A dialog box will prompt you that you are attempting a GROUP DELETE.

Searching for your appointments

I am most excited about the new and very powerful keyword search consistently implemented throughout Time & Chaos Professional. Only when you really start to use this feature creatively does the real power become unlocked.  We can now think of searching as a free form database running throughout.  Click search appointments from  the main screen.  This will reveal a simple dialog box requesting your keywords to search.  IF YOU LEAVE THE KEYWORDS BLANK IT WILL FIND ALL APPOINTMENTS.  If you use a keyword such as  "TOM"  A list of all appointments entered that refer to TOM will be selected.  Double Clicking on the resultant list will direct you to that appointment detail as entered.  Appointment Search actually checks both the Description Fields AND the Notes field of each appointment you have entered for a keyword match.

How to set Day Titles

From the main screen clicking ADD DAYTITLE will bring about a dialog box for you to specify a Title for the day.  These are events that are not dependant to a particular time of day such as "MY BIRTHDAY" or "TRAVEL DAY" or "DETROIT" (if I plan to be in Detroit all day).  Also very useful for holidays of course.  Similarly, as with your appointments, you may specify a repeating DAY TITLE. You may also choose to REPEAT your DAY TITLE on other dates. From the REPEAT combo box select either NONE - for a non repeating Day Title.  DAILY - to repeat each and every day from today.  WEEKLY - to repeat every 7 days or on same day each week.  MONTHLY - same DATE each month and YEARLY - same DATE each year.  REPEAT UNTIL allows you to set the length of the repeat period.

Clicking OK will add you DAY TITLE to your agenda of that day.

Printing your calendar

Full printouts of your Calendar are possible from the top menu in both 8.5" x 11" (Senior) and  5.5" x  8.75" (Junior) sizes.

*Note: Time & Chaos Professional printers have automatic switching between portrait and landscape modes.

Print Monthly Calendar:  Prints the monthly calendar in landscape mode, both in Junior and Senior sizes, including all of your daily appointments.  That's a lot of data in a very small space.  For best results we recommend that you keep appointment descriptions brief.

How to Set Fonts for Calendar Printing

Printer Fonts are selected from the main menu.  Select FILE,  SETUP PREFERENCES.  A list of available fonts for your selection will appear.  Make your selection and click OK.  Some experimentation may be appropriate with various fonts to achieve the appearance that you desire.  Some Fonts are more scalable than others.  Windows 3.1 adds TRUETYPE scalable fonts, Arial or Times New Roman seem to work very well.

Previewing your calendar

Preview Monthly provides you with a view of your month at a glance.   This feature is most useful for a quick preview prior to printing. MS Windows Version 3.1 only.  Preview has been significantly improved.  Preview now allows you to "Click" on any date to see your day in greater detail, further, allows you to edit appointments directly.

Alerts & Setting Leadtime

As your appointments come due, Time & Chaos will alert you automatically to them by providing a message box with the details.  As long as Time & Chaos is active, either maximized  or minimized as an icon, it is constantly checking for upcoming appointments.  Should Time & Chaos be minimized and you are working in another application, we will still warn you of your forthcoming appointment by showing through the active application that you are using.  The SETUP PREFERENCES MENU will allow you to specify, in minutes, the advance notice you require prior to notification by Time & Chaos, ie.10 minutes prior to my appointment.

Adding Day Notes

On the main screen a new button has been added to the appointment display. Notes will let you added General Comments and Notes for that Day.  Should notes be attached the Notes Button will display in red.


Using the Todo List

The objective of the Todo list is to prevent commitments that we make from falling through the cracks.  Further, an accurate list of the things that must be done can certainly minimize the stress in our lives by allowing us to focus on just the things that need doing today.  We call this JUST IN TIME WORRYING....

Todo items that are not completed will continue to appear on the todo list .. until they are done.  Further, items that need to be done, but not for a few days or weeks can be scheduled to appear any day into the future - and then continue to appear until they get accomplished.  Todo items marked "X" (Done) will always appear only on the date they were done.  The point of this is a checking system for you should your boss asks on what date a todo item was actually done.

How to add an item to your Todo List

From the main screen, click Add Todo Item.  This invokes a dialog box for your specific todo item.  Type in a brief description of your todo item and assign a priority to it.  A new priority category "P" (Pending) has been added.  Often when I am accountable for a todo item, I assign part of it to another person.  My part may be done - but I would like to see the results with my own eyes, before I consider it actually complete.  As with the appointment entry screen, there is plenty of room for any associated notes that you may wish to include with your todo item. This version of Time & Chaos allows you to LINK a todo item with a contact in the telephone book. Now when you are speaking with JOHN DOE on the telephone, you can click on his name in the telephone list and quickly see the status of all related todo items for JOHN DOE.  You can also print them to take with you to a meeting with Mr. Doe.

How to Edit a todo item

As with the Appointment book and the Phone Book, double clicking on any todo item in the list will invoke a dialog box with the information as you had entered it.  Make any changes you like, and/or DELETE as appropriate.

Searching your Todo List

Search will interrogate all past, present and future todo items for the keyword that you specify.  It will search freeform through both the Description field and the Notes field of each todo item.

How to print your Todo List

Full printouts of your Todo list  are possible from the top menu in both 8.5" x 11" (Senior) and  5.5" x  8.75" (Junior) sizes.  *Note: Time & Chaos has automatic switching between portrait and landscape modes.

Print ToDo List:  Prints your todo list as of the date selected on the monthly calendar monthly. It prints in portrait mode, both in Junior and Senior sizes, including all of your todo items sorted by priority.  The purpose is to allow you to print a todo list for the day.

How to Set Fonts for TODO PRINTING

Printer Fonts are selected from the main menu.  Select FILE,  SETUP PREFERENCES.  A list of available fonts for your selection will appear.  Make your selection and click OK.  Some experimentation may be appropriate with various fonts to achieve the appearance that you desire.  Some Fonts are more scalable than others.  Windows 3.1 adds TRUETYPE scalable fonts, Arial or Times New Roman seem to work very well.


Using the Telephone Book

White pages and yellow pages

By popular demand, we now have two telephone books to use.  One perhaps for business  while another for personal, or one Internal, the other External telephone numbers.

How to Add a listing to your telephone book

Clicking on the ADD LISTING button will invoke a dialog box for you to complete.  The entry will be applied on the Telephone Book that is open at the time.  If you wish to add a listing to the Yellow Pages, switch to the Yellow Pages and then Click on ADD LISTING.

NAME AS LISTED is the field at the top of the ADD Telephone Listing Dialog Box.  This is intended to be FREE FORM.  For example, you may wish to enter JONES, TOM or ACME INCORPORATED.  All listings are alphabetical, and no two NAME AS LISTED fields may be exactly alike.  You may add JONES, TOM and JONES, SALLY but you cannot add another JONES, TOM.

It should be noted that the field sizes have the built-in flexibility to be virtually unlimited in length & content.  This is particularly useful for the inclusion of telephone extensions within the telephone number fields and extremely long international telephone numbers.

** Note: a feature allows you to change FAX and CAR labels to whatever you like. You may now change the FAX and CAR labels by editing them on the Telephone Data Entry Screen.

How to quick view a telephone entry

A Single Click on any telephone entry in the list box will place the appropriate telephone numbers in the spaces to the right.  If the Company Field was completed on data entry, it will be displayed atop, if not, the Name as Listed field will be repeated.

How to EDIT/delete a telephone entry

A double Click on any telephone entry in the list box will recall the appropriate  dialog box for editing.  You may either Edit as you wish or delete as necessary.Click on UPDATE to save the changes.

Searching your telephone book

There are two ways to search the telephone book.  The Quick Search - Click on any entry in the phone list and type the first letter of a name you want to find. The focus of the list will jump to that letter, if there is any.

The Keyword Search is exactly as the Appointment Search and the Todo Search.  However, it will search MOST FIELDS.  That is, for example, a keyword search on "214" will product a list of all those living in the Area Code 214 provided, of course, that I entered the area code with the telephone number.  Just as it would find 555-2140 or 2214 Oak Street.  It can also quickly provide a list of everyone in a certain city or state.  It will also search for keywords throughout the NOTES Field.

Envelope Printing

You can print envelopes directly from the telephone entry screen, by clicking on Print Envelope button.  From the Envelope Screen you can save the inside address from the CONTROL MENU.

Letter Writing

A button has been added to the telephone entry screen, "Letter".  It automatically envokes MS Write, Dates and Addresses a letter.  Alternately, you can now create a series of standard letters in MS Write Format.  Time & Chaos will add the header information for you.

Autodialer

Prior to using the Autodialer, you must setup the COM PORTS and any DIAL PREFIX as appropriate in the PREFERENCES SETUP MENU CHOICE.

As a telephone listing is selected from the listbox, the telephone numbers appear to the right of the list for that entry.  The buttons, that are labeled "BUSINESS", "HOME" etc. are actually autodial buttons.  Clicking on these labels will autodial the specified telephone number.


iSBiSTER
Who or What is iSBiSTER?


Common Questions
Common Questions and Answers

Q.  What exactly do I get when I register?

Well, we will mail to you, a letter of confirmation for your file (proving that you are registered), an original diskette of the latest version of Time & Chaos, and as appropriate a copy of your credit card receipt.  Your registration is obviously very important to us - it allows us to continue the development of this product.  If you use Time & Chaos - please register it.

Q.  How do I get support?

First Line Support is proved on both CompuServe Information Services (just send us a note to 74017,3424) and and on our BBS via modem (just leave a Comment to iSBiSTER).  If you do not have a modem please feel free to call us voice at 214-495-6724.  We are most prompt at replying to messages on our BBS and CompuServe even when business takes us out of town.

Q.  My Autodialer doesn't seem to work?  The modem lights flicker for a second then dies.  How come?

Time & Chaos is set up to work with Hayes Compatible Modems,  as such, the AT DT commands are issued within the code.  In other words, do not enter AT DT into the Dial Prefix of the Setup Preferences.  The Dial Prefix should be a digit such as a 9 for an outside line.

Q.  How do I delete a group of appointments or day titles that I have scheduled?

Basically, you just reverse what you have done.  Double Click on the First Appointment in the series (as if you were going to edit it).  Enter the same repeat specifications (ie. daily),  Select the date in the future that you want to delete to.  Click on DELETE.  A dialog box will prompt you that you are attempting a GROUP DELETE.

Q.  Can I register Time & Chaos with a credit card?

If you have access to compuserve information services just type GO SWREG from any CompuServe ! Prompt.  Alternatively, you can call our BBS 24 hours a day - (214) 530-2762 - we gladly accept Visa and Mastercard on-line or call us voice at 214-495-6724 we would be happy to assist you in obtaining your security id.

Q.  When Printing I get the error message "Invalid Property Value"

This error can sometimes occur if you have specified a Default Printer Font that Time & Chaos cannot find. Try changing the Default Printer Font (Under Setup Preferences) to ARIAL or TIMES NEW ROMAN and try to print again.

Q.  How do I get updates?

You need to call our BBS or check CompuServe about once every 90 days.  Since we have not yet charged for an upgrade (althought we do reserve the right to do so at anytime) we cannot notify each and every user about every upgrade.  Alternately, you can just call us and for a $5.00 charge to cover postage and handling we would be glad to mail you an update.

Q.  Seems like Time & Chaos is using more system resources than before?

If system resources are a concern, consider disabling the TOP ICON.  This special icon is actually made up of 18 pictures - so it will have some impact.  You can do this in the SETUP PREFERENCES menu option.

Q.  Are you really interested in user feedback and suggestions?

Absolutely!  We listen very carefully to each and every suggestion that we receive.  Each suggestion is written on a giant "white board" here in the office.  As we hear the same suggestion again, we add a vote next to it on the board.  The ones with the most votes get done.  In reality coding is easy - it's the ideas that are hard to come by.

Q. My Todo Linking with the Telephone Book does not seem to be working correctly?

If you have just upgraded from v3.02 or earlier then please be advised that in order to take advantage of the new TODO   LINKING in this version that you must delete your TODO datafiles.

Please Delete 	TODOLIST.ISM

TODOLIST.ISF

TODOLIST.ISD

Yes this means losing some data, but it's only the TODO list.  I would suggest the following actions in order to avoid missing any action items.

1. Go to any date 5 years into the future (this will insure that we are missing nothing)

2. Print out a list of your outstanding TODO items

3. Delete the files as per above, or copy them to Floppy Disk

4. Restart Time & Chaos

5. Re-Enter the TODO items on your list.

Sorry about the inconvenience, but this was a greatly requested enhancement.  To be able to click on any contact in the telephone book and quickly gain a status report of all action items for that contact.  Particularly useful for Sales people and for tradesman who need to print out client status information.  If you don't want to use this feature, just don't delete you TODO Files; every thing will work as usual - but Linking as described above will be unavailable.


How to Import Ascii Files into the Phone Book

Step #1:    Prepare an ASCII COMMA DELIMITED file of your data.

This file should be a separate line for each record.  Any field order is fine.  Each field should be separated by a comma.  No quotation marks are required.  You can use Windows NOTEPAD or your word processor to edit the file if necessary.

Whittingham,Michael,iSBiSTER International,1314 Cardigan Street,Garland,TX,75040   ...etc

Step #2:  Rename your ASCII file to "IMPORT.TXT" and place it in your CHAOS subdirectory

Step #3:   Select FILE,   IMPORT  from the Time & Chaos main menu.

Step #4:  Match each of your fields (left) with our fields (right).

The listbox on the left shows the first record in your file, IMPORT.TXT -  Time & Chaos has decided, by looking at the commas in the file which fields are present.  The listbox on the right shows the field structure that Time & Chaos uses.  You must go through EACH field in your file and match it to a field name that appears in the right listbox.  In essence, you are mapping your fields to ours.

Step #5:  Click on OK


Network Support
Network Support of Time & Chaos

This version of Time & Chaos is able to effectively run as a networked application.  Time & Chaos is built upon a multi-user database and contains all of the code to provide proper record locking in situations of concurrent access to the datafiles.  A user may protect his/her files with both a READ_ONLY and a READ_WRITE access password for others.  You may for example give your READ_WRITE password to your secretary (allowing full access to you calendar) and your READ_ONLY password to your boss or coworkers (allowing them to only view and not change or add items).  Further, you can also "name" your calendar files as you wish them to be identified to others on the network. (each set of Time & Chaos datafiles must be in a unique subdirectory).  Time & Chaos should run effectively on any network that provides the user access to virtual disk.

Using Time & Chaos in a networked environment will allow users to open multiple instances of Time & Chaos and view/edit other calendar sets concurrently.

Under the FILE menu, select the menu option for PREFERENCES SETUP.  Click on the button at the bottom of the SETUP screen labeled "Network Setup".   Enter any password you desire for both access methods.  Give your datafiles a name "John Smith" or "John Smith's Calendar" - this will identify your files to others on the network.  Finally check the option button "OPEN DATA BASES FOR SHARED ACCESS"  - this turns on the concurrent multiuser access methods the next time you start Time & Chaos.

With respect to licensing we require that each user of our software be licensed and registered individually.  Although, this is most likely the least expensive networked application that we have ever heard of - we will not charge any additional fees beyond $29.95 per user.

It is our intention to continue to enhance the network support of Time & Chaos.  We are investigating "automatic group scheduling" at this time.


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