═══ 1. Online Help ═══ Custom Design Software - Online Help Double click on one of the following topics to get help for that procedure: ■ Overview ■ Topics List Box ■ Add New Topic ■ Add Msg Text ■ Delete a Topic ■ View a Topic ■ Print a Topic ■ How Topics are Saved ■ Support ═══ 2. Overview ═══ More and more of us are using electronic mail networks as a valuable source of information. The various networks and online services offer a wealth of information. The problem we are confronted with is how do we store and save information gleaned from these networks for later retrieval and referral? Topics - The E-Mail Librarian addresses this problem by letting you save and catalogue information while using your favorite e-mail editor/reader. Topics is run on your OS/2 desktop along side your e-mail editor. Whenever you find something that you wish to save you highlight the text and copy it to the OS/2 Clipboard. You then move to the Topics window and paste that information under a user-defined topic. In this way you can start to build up a collection of organized and catalogued information for later referral. Additional information in this online help will give you the specifics on how to use Topics and how Topics goes about saving the information. Return to Main Help Menu ═══ 3. Topics List Box ═══ The Topics list box on the left of the TOPICS window contains a listing of all the topics you've entered. You can scroll up or down the list using the vertical scroll bar or the UP and DOWN cursor keys, HOME, END, PgeUP and PgeDOWN keys. Click on the topic name you wish to select and the topic will be highlighted. The topic name will also appear in the Selected Topic entry field. Warning: Do not click in this entry field unless you wish to add a new topic. See Add New Topic Return to Main Help Menu ═══ 4. Add New Topic ═══ The 'Add New Topic' button is only available if you have placed the cursor in the 'Selected Topic' entry field. Usually this entry field will contain the name of the topic you have selected from the scroll list. To add a new topic, drag your mouse across the text in the selected topic field. The text will be highlighted. Type in a new topic name. You'll see that the "Add New Topic" button is now accessible. Click on the button and a new topic will be added. If you have previously deleted a topic, you can add a new topic where the old one was in the selection list. Select the "************" topic so it appears in the Selected Topic entry field. Highlight all the astericks in the entry field and type in a new topic name. Click on the "Add New Topic" button to replace the "***********" with a new topic. See Delete a Topic for more information. Return to Main Help Menu ═══ 5. Add Msg Text ═══ There are two basic steps to adding message text from your e-mail reader to a topic in TOPICS. o Highlight the text you want to add in your e-mail message editor and copy the selected text to the Clipboard. o Click the "Add Msg Text" button in TOPICS. Note: The selected text will be entered under the topic you have previously selected. So if you need to change topics or add a new topic for the text you want to save, do so before clicking the "Add Msg Text" button. Return to Main Help Menu ═══ 6. Delete a Topic ═══ Should you decide you wish to delete a topic that you have already set up, you can do so by selecting that topic and clicking the "Delete Topic" button. When you do this, the following happens: 1) The text file that stored the information for that topic is renamed to *.BAK Note: Any previously named Mnnn.BAK file, created during a previous delete will be deleted before this most recent delete takes place. In short, should you want to save old *.BAK file topics, rename them to something else before you delete topics in this program. 2) The Topics Selection List will display "************" where the topic had been. This means that you can add a new topic where a deleted topic now exists in the selection list. See Add New Topic Return to Main Help Menu ═══ 7. View a Topic ═══ Clicking on the "View Topic" button will bring up the OS/2 system editor displaying the information you saved under the topic name presently selected. You can edit the information and save it. You will probably use this means to get rid of information you want to delete from a particualar topic. Each time you add more information to a topic, this information will be headlined with the date you entered the information and the topic name. This way you can keep track of how old the information is that you saved. Return to Main Help Menu ═══ 8. Print a Topic ═══ Once you have selected a topic and it is displayed in the Selected Topic field you can print that topic. Click on File/Print Topic. Return to Main Help Menu ═══ 9. How Topics are Saved ═══ Here is how TOPICS actually saves information. By knowing how this works, you'll be more prepared to save the old information you may want to save. The filenames created for each topic are created with the names Mnnn.TXT. Where 'nnn' stands for the number on the list in the scroll list window. So if you have a topic called "OS/2 Utilities" and it is the third item in the list, the file that will be used will be called "M003.TXT". Should you decide to delete that topic, M003.TXT will become M003.BAK and a new M003.TXT file will be created when you write information to that topic. The new topic will continue to use M003.TXT until such time as you delete that topic. Should you delete it, this is what happens to the files: o M003.BAK is deleted o M003.TXT becomes M003.BAK o A new M003.TXT is created when you actually send clipboard information to the respective topic. Knowing how this works will enable you to protect older data that you may still want to save although you want to get the actual topic out of TOPICS. Return to Main Help Menu ═══ 10. Support ═══ Should you have any questions regarding Topics you can call Custom Design Software at (604) 334-2263. Return to Main Help Menu