THE MEMO PAD AND CLOCK FEATURES Even if you do not have the SUPERMON clock feature, you may still wish to use the memo pad. I'll give a brief explanation of all the ways that Supermon allows various backup clocks to be used. If you have a Mega computer with built in clock, a keyboard type backup clock, or the Supermon cartridge clock, you do not have to worry about setting the system time, Supermon will accept any of these. If you use any other type of back up clock (EZ time or such), just make sure that the little program (provided with the clock) that gets the time/date from the clock and passes it to the system is in the AUTO folder, which executes BEFORE Supermons accessory. If you have no clock at all, but you DO have a file MEMOFILE.DAT on the bootup disk, Supermon will ask you to input date and time. This allows people without any clock at all to still use the memo-pad. If you have the Supermon clock cartridge, use the program SETCLOCK.PRG if you wish to change the time of the actual clock chip. This utility will set the clock chip, AND the system time/date as well. IT WILL ONLY WORK WITH SUPERMONS CLOCK CARTRIDGE! For all clocks, when using the Supermon SET TIME/DATE function, ONLY the system time and date AND the keyboard time and date are set. If you have some other backup clock, use the program provided with it to actually change the time/date in that clock. On reset with a reset proof Ramdisk, or after a system crash Supermon does NOT fetch the time/date. In most cases the system will still have valid parameters. THE MEMO-PAD/CALENDAR FEATURE. THE FILE MEMOFILE.DAT MUST BE ON THE ROOT DIRECTORY OF THE BOOT DISK. You can have 3 types of messages: DAILY CALENDAR APPOINTMENTS DAILY MESSAGES: These divide into 2 groups, displayed on power up, or not displayed. Daily messages have a time, but NO DATE. CALENDAR messages: These have a DAY and MONTH only, and no year or time setting. APPOINTMENTS: These messages have a full date and time. For both types of daily messages and the appointments, the alarm will AUTOMATICALLY be set for the first occurence after the time of powering up. When the alarm goes off, Supermon will AUTOMATICALLY reset the alarm for the NEXT time if any. You can have as many alarms as you wish, and enter them in any order, Supermon will sort it out! You can still use the SET DATE/TIME option in Supermon/the accessory to manually set the alarm as well. AFTER that alarm has gone off, the alarm will again be set for the FOLLOWING time. Daily messages are for things you wish to be reminded about EVERY DAY. I have one that sets the alarm for 3.00 pm, to go and pick my son up from school. It has come in handy quite a few times, as I got involved in programming, and the alarm suddenly went off. As you may not wish to actually view these on powering up, you may select these daily messages to be NOT DISPLAYED on power up. See the section on the MEMOFILE Editor below. CALENDAR msgs are for display to the screen on powerup, as a visual reminder and are for such things as birthdays, club meetings etc. BOTH CALENDAR AND APPOINTMENT MESSAGES ARE DISPLAYED UP TO ONE WEEK ahead, as a kind of "early warning" system. (Or if you have to write and mail a letter or card for example). You may also have a message which has a date, valid for this year only, without a time. This will be displayed when the time comes, but AFTER that date, if you edit the DAT file, it will AUTOMATICALLY be deleted, same as an appointment. In APPOINTMENTS the time is used to set the alarm, and they are for such things as dentist appointments, see the boss about a raise etc. Remember, Supermon will display, on powerup, all daily (if so set), and calendar messages as well as appointments, and halt the power up till you press a key to acknowledge them. Any "past" messages are ignored, as are any for more than a week away. In low resolution you will lose the last few characters of full length messages. If you routinely power up in low res, keep your messages short. THE ALARM. The alarm now is a bell tone and flashing of the screen every second, for one full minute. After this Supermon will reset the alarm for the next occurrence. You may cancel the current alarm going off by pressing (and holding down for 1-2 seconds) the ALTERNATE key. The visual AND audible alarm was chosen for maximum effect. The alarm cannot be set for midnight (24.00), and cannot be preset for the next day, such as 1.30 in the morning. (Sorry about that) THE ALARM FEATURE WORKS WITH OR WITHOUT TIME BEING DISPLAYED!!!! THE MEMOFILE Editor. THE FILES MEMOFILE.PRG, MEMOFILE.RSC must both be in the same directory. MEMOFILE.DAT has to be in the root directory of your boot disk. When you want to add or delete or change messages, run the program on the disk called MEMOFILE.PRG. This brings up (in medium and high res ONLY) a dialog box with the current messages, BUT WITH APPOINTMENTS BEFORE TODAY ALREADY EDITED OUT!!). Daily and Calendar messages will never be automatically deleted. If the visible list is completely filled, the cursor will be on the first Date entry, otherwise it will appear on the first VACANT date entry. When using the Tab key, the cursor will skip from Date box to Time box to message box and on to the NEXT Date box etc. etc. TO DELETE EXISTING MESSAGES: Any message may be deleted by deleting its date AND time. Using the mouse or arrow keys, position the cursor in the relevant DATE box and press escape. Press the Tab key to proceed to the TIME box and press escape again. This is all that is needed, the message will disappear on the next movement of the list. Don't fotget to save the new MEMOFILE.DAT file to disk! TO ADD OR CHANGE MESSAGES: All types of messages may be up to 36 characters long. By giving 2 or more lines the same time/date values, the message can be any number of lines. For daily messages: Make sure date box is empty, proceed to time box and enter time (seconds are fixed at 00). On the right hand side are small boxes Y/N which indicate whether you wish this message displayed on power up or not. These choices are only effective with daily messages. For Calendar messages: Enter just the DAY and MONTH, make sure no time is set and enter your message. The display boxes at the side have no effect. For appointments: Enter both the FULL date and the time, as well as your message, Y/N boxes will have no effect. TO SCROLL UP AND DOWN. The up arrow will move all messages down one line. If you are already at the top of the list a bell tone will sound. The down arrow will similarly move all messages up one line and display the next message or the next blank line. If you double click on the up arrow, you will instantly be at the very top of the file. Double clicking on the down arrow will display the last 8 messages and 8 blank entries. Once your file grows longer this is a very handy feature. WRITE FILE TO DISK: This will ask for confirmation and write the newly modified file to the CURRENTLY ACTIVE drive and exit the Editor. This new file will not be acted upon till the next power up, reset or change preference. FORGET THE WHOLE THING: Well, you've made a mess of things and this will leave the original file unchanged on the disk, but quit the editor. Well, I hope this meets all your expectations, and I would like to remind you again that if, in the first few months, you come across a virus that Supermon does not recognise specifically as a virus (it will still warn you of course), please send me a copy of the disk BEFORE you destroy the virus. I will of course return your disk with thanks. Have a happy computer life, Will Visser.