PhoneWatcher
version 1.5
©1996 Triplo Software
phonewatcher@triplo.com
http://www.triplo.com

What is PhoneWatcher?

PhoneWatcher is a personal telephone manager for your Macintosh and modem. With PhoneWatcher, you can track when your phone rings any caller ID information, and make the computer alert you with sounds and visuals when your phone rings or when specific phone numbers are recognized.

In order to use PhoneWatcher, you simply need an external modem. If you want to use the features available with caller ID, you need a modem capable of recognizing caller ID. PhoneWatcher has it's own built-in serial port arbitrators, and is compatible with any other software that wants to use the serial port (ZTerm, MacSLIP, FreePPP, etc.); PhoneWatcher only listens to the modem when no other application is using it.

Installing PhoneWatcher

To install PhoneWatcher, put the PhoneWatcher control panel in the Control Panels folder in your System Folder and restart.

Using PhoneWatcher

To configure PhoneWatcher, open the PhoneWatcher control panel in the Control Panels folder in the System Folder. Complete balloon help is available.

Use the radio buttons to turn PhoneWatcher on and off. Normally you should keep PhoneWatcher on - PhoneWatcher will automagically let go of the modem when another application wants to use it. Some applications use an alternate scheme to check if the modem is busy, and will not function properly with PhoneWatcher. You can manually turn off PhoneWatcher with these buttons.

There are many other options within PhoneWatcher that are in individual windows. Click one of the buttons to bring up the window.
• "Modem…" allows you to change the modem port and initialization strings
• "Ringing…" allows you to tell PhoneWatcher what to do when the phone rings
• "Caller ID…" allows you to tell PhoneWatcher what to to when caller ID is recognized
• "Paging…" allows you to change paging options, including pager number, delay time, etc.
• "Log…" displays the log of rings, caller ID info, pages, etc.
• "Docs…" displays the abbreviated online documentation

Modem Options

The Modem Options dialog box allows you to change the modem settings for PhoneWatcher.

• Using the popup menu at the top, choose the port that your modem is connected to.

• When using modems from various manufacturers, you may need to set the modem initialization and caller ID activation strings for your particular modem. The defaults are set to work with the Supra brand of modems and ROMs. Be sure to check your modem's manual before changing these settings.

Ringing Options

The Ringing Options dialog box allows you to set actions for PhoneWatcher when it senses a ring from the modem.

• To make the computer play the currently defined ringing sound when the phone rings, select the checkbox labeled “Play ringing sound”.

• To hear the sound that will be played when the telephone rings, click "Test"
• To record a new ringing sound, click "Record…". Recording is available only if the computer supports sound input.
• To import a new sound file to become the ringing sound, click "Import…" and choose a sound file. Only System 7 sound files are supported.

Extra ring sounds are available on the Triplo Software web site (http://www.triplo.com).

• To make the computer flash an icon in the menu bar, select the checkbox labeled “Flash icon in menu bar”. Use the box below it to set how many seconds the icon should flash before it is removed. The default is 10 seconds.

Caller ID Options

The Caller ID Options dialog box allows you to set options for caller ID recognition.

• When an incoming call's phone number is to be spoken, you can choose whether or not you want PhoneWatcher to speak the given area code if the number starts with those numbers.

• When an alert is displayed by PhoneWatcher, you can set how long PhoneWatcher will wait before removing the alert automatically.

• The box on the left is a list of numbers that PhoneWatcher can individually recognize. There are three default items which are not removable:
"<unidentified>" - when the caller is out of the calling area
"<blocked>" - when the caller's number has been blocked
"<default>" - when the number has not been specifically defined in the list

• To create a number to recognize, click the "New…" button
• To change the settings for the selected number, click the "Modify…" button or double-click
• To delete a number, click the "Delete…" button
• To import a phone book file created by PhoneWatcher, click the "Import…" button
• To export the current phone book to a file only usable by PhoneWatcher, click the "Export…" button.

Double-click on a phone book item to open the phone book item dialog box. This dialog box allows you to change the settings for an individual number.

• Enter the number to be recognized in the box at the top. Do not enter any formatting, such as parenthesis, commas, periods, spaces, hyphens, etc. Simply enter the numbers (usually including the area code). If you're not sure of the numbers to include, check the Phone Log to see how it displays the numbers.

• You can enter the name of the caller in the Caller Name box. This text will be saved and displayed in the Log, and can include the keywords as described below.

• To display a dialog box when this number is identified, select the "Display" checkbox. The text below will be displayed.
• To speak when this number is identified, select the "Speak" checkbox. The text below will be spoken. To test the speech as it is in the box, select the "Speak Now" button. Some things to take note of:
   You can use phonetic text; start the text to be spoken as phonemes with [[inpt PHON]].
   You can return to text interpretations with [[inpt TEXT]].
   You can speak numbers literally (not as millions, hundreds, etc.) by using [[nmbr LTRL]].
• To immediately hang up on the caller once the number is recognized, select the "Be rude" checkbox.

There are some keywords that are recognized for display and speech:
&formatted - will be replaced with the formatted telephone number
&raw - will be replaced with the raw numbers (just as they come in from the modem)
&name - will be replaced with the caller ID name as it comes in from the modem

Paging Options

The Paging Options dialog box allows you to change paging features of PhoneWatcher.

• You can set paging on or off with the checkbox at the top. Select the number of rings you want before PhoneWatcher begins paging.
• You can set how long to have PhoneWatcher wait after the selected number of rings before calling the pager.
• You can set the pager number to call. Be sure to include prefixes and commas if necessary.
• You can set the number of seconds to wait for messages, etc. before PhoneWatcher enters the data.
• You can optionally set a prefix to be sent to the pager before the caller ID number. This could be used to identify when a page is being sent to you from PhoneWatcher as opposed to another individual or service.
• If your modem supports caller ID, you can send the telephone number that was received during the call to the pager.

The Phone Log

The Telephone Log lists all of the activities that PhoneWatcher sensed from your modem. They are displayed in the log, as above, in a scrolling list.
• To include the RING activites in the list, click on "Show ring messages". To show all activies excluding RINGs, deselect the checkbox.
• To Save the Phone Log as a standard text file, click on the "Save…" button, and choose a name for the file. The text file is delimited with tabs and carriage returns for easy importing into a database or spreadsheet application.
• To erase the phone log, click the "Clear" button.

INCOMPATIBILITY WARNINGS

FaxSTF and other fax software users:

PhoneWatcher is not compatible with other software that wants to consistently watch the modem port for incoming calls and/or faxes. Both PhoneWatcher and the other software will compete against each other for use of the modem, and may eventually crash.
If fax reception is important, PhoneWatcher cannot be used.
We are currently attempting to write fax reception code into PhoneWatcher to alleviate the problem - keep abreast of updates for this new feature.

SupraFAXModem users:

There exists a bug in some older SupraFAXModem ROMs which will inadvertently hang up the phone on callers after caller ID information has been received. Because PhoneWatcher turns on this caller ID capability, you may experience this bug if you have the older versions of the ROMs installed while using PhoneWatcher.
To check your ROM version, use a terminal program (such as ZTerm) and send the command "ATI3" (without quotes) to check the ROM version. If the number returned is "V1.400-C05", it is the buggy ROM version. Contact Supra to have it replaced.

Powerbook users:

PhoneWatcher is known to be incompatible with certain PowerBook configurations. At this time no other details about these bugs are available, though we are researching the problems.

Express Modem users:

PhoneWatcher is known to be incompatible with Apple’s Express Modem software. At this time no fixes are available, though we are researching the problem.

Beyond PhoneWatcher

PhoneWatcher 2.0, soon to be released by Triplo Software, will contain all of the features of PhoneWatcher plus speaking names, running scripts, displaying alerts, playing sounds, extensive phone log cataloguing, and many more! Keep checking the Triplo Software WWW Site (http://www.triplo.com) for up-to-date information!

If you have any questions, comments, bugs or whatever about PhoneWatcher, you can contact us electronically at the addresses above.
PhoneWatcher is $15 shareware (US). Use the registration dialog to register or simply send your payment to:

Triplo Software

1529 Brook Ave SE

Minneapolis, MN 55414

Attn: PhoneWatcher