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The Better Diet Analyzer A computer tool for analyzing and monitoring your diet For PCs and compatibles User Manual Copyright 1990, 1991 by Syntonic Software CONTENTS 1. System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Entering meals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. Keeping daily lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5. Making weekly summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6. Saving and retrieving files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7. Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8. Adding to and editing the main database . . . . . . . . . . 9 9. Hints on searching for foods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 10. Using the pop-up calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 11. Special features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 12. Using MAKETAB.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 13. Hot keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 14. Order/registration form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 1 The Better Diet Analyzer is a shareware program. That means it is distributed free, or for a nominal fee -- but it does NOT mean the program is free. You may copy the program for your own and others' evaluation. If you find The Better Diet Analyzer useful, please register the program with Syntonic Software. The fee for registration is $24.95. Registration entitles you to user support, the latest version of The Better Diet Analyzer, and one free upgrade, when avaiable, including an expanded database of foods. Registered users will also be offered future upgrades, beyond the one free one, at a reduced price. While you are free to copy The Better Diet Analyzer for your own and others' evaluation, you are explicitly prohibited from altering the program or its documentation in any way and from charging any fee for it without written authorization from Syntonic Software. To register The Better Diet Analyzer, use the registration form included at the end of this documentation. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions concerning The Better Diet Analyzer, you may contact John Byrd on CompuServe, 72060,1556. Or write Syntonic Software, P.O. Box 13471, Charlotte, N.C. 28270-6993. Whether you're trying to lower your cholesterol, lose weight or learn more about your diet habits, The Better Diet Analyzer can help you. The Better Diet Analyzer is a fast, easy-to-use database of common food items. The database contains information on more than 1,000 food items, including fast-food restaurants and brand-name products you will find in your supermarket. Moreover, you can easily add nutritional information on any food you choose. With more food processors disclosing nutritional information on their packages, this feature can help you maintain a current database of all the foods you eat. The Better Diet Analyzer is a tool to aid you in analyzing and monitoring your diet. In no way should it be considered a substitute for medical or nutritional advice on your diet or health risks. Much effort has been made to assure the accuracy of data in The Better Diet Analyzer's database and to include the most current information available. However, because of the large volume of data in the program and because processed food formulas and composition are subject to change, Syntonic Software can not guarantee the absolute accuracy of all items in the database. Data was obtained from several sources, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture Handbook No. 456, "Nutritive Value of American Foods in Common Units;" the USDA's Agriculture Handbook Number 8 series, "Composition of Foods ... Raw, Processed, Prepared;" directly from restaurant chains, food venders and manufacturers and from food packaging labels. All the data in The Better Diet Analyzer's database is based on estimates derived from samples. Actual contents may vary as manufacturers adjust formulas or as ingredients come from different sources. And the portions you use are also estimates. One of the most common errors among people who "count calories" 2 is underestimating the amount you actually eat. Take the time to learn how a cup of mashed potatoes looks on the plate. And be honest. If you're going to err, err on the side of overestimating. It's much less painful to try to trim 500 calories out of 2,500 calories a day than out of 1,200. REQUIREMENTS The Better Diet Analyzer requires an IBM PC or compatible, DOS 2.0 or later and 384K of RAM. A hard disk is helpful but not essential. The Better Diet Analyzer has been tested on a variety of displays and will run on most monochrome and color systems. INSTALLING THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER It's best to install The Better Diet Analyzer in its own subdirectory on your hard disk. The utility program, INSTALL.EXE, included on the distribution diskette, will make the installation for you. If you have a previous version of The Better Diet Analyzer's database, INSTALL will search that database for custom food records you have entered, and preserve them for you. If you are running The Better Diet Analyzer on a two-drive floppy disk machine, be sure and have the disk with your custom records in Drive B. INSTALL will ask you if you are installing on a hard drive. If you answer no, the program will install itself on Drive B. If you answer yes, INSTALL will ask you to provide a subdirectory name. Be sure and use a qualified DOS directory name, such as "c:\diet". INSTALL will install the program in that directory. If it doesn not exist, it will create it, if possible. If the file, FOOD.GTC, is already in that subdirectory, INSTALL will search it for custom food records you may have entered and add them to the new database. Alternatively, you may install the program by copying the files BETTER.EXE, FOOD.GTC, FOOD.KEY and FOOD.DEX into a subdirectory or on a floppy. All four files must be in the same subdirectory, and that subdirectory must be the current subdirectory when you run the program. The utility program, MAKETAB.EXE, should also be in this subdirectory. MAKETAB is discussed on page 12. UP AND RUNNING WITH THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER The Better Diet Analyzer is so easy to use it almost runs itself. If you've used any other computer programs, you already know enough to instinctively use The Better Diet Analyzer's basic functions. To load the program, just type "better" at the DOS prompt. About the only special key you need to remember is the <F10> key. It activates the pull-down menus at the top of the screen. The <ESC> key will back you out of almost any operation. To end the program, use the "File" pull-down menu and select "Quit," or ype <Alt-X>. 3 To begin totaling the nutritional analysis of any list of foods, just type the food's name. The Better Diet Analyzer will automatically begin recording the food name in a dialog box. If you'd like to see the dialog box before you begin typing, press the <Insert> key, but that isn't necessary. Once you've entered a food name, press <Enter>. The Better Diet Analyzer will display a list of all matching entries in its database. If more than one item is listed, you can scroll through the list using the cursor keys and Page Up and Page Down keys. Select the highlighted food by pressing <Enter>. Then type the number of portions, and your entry is added to the list. A running total of calories, fat grams, percentage of calories from fat, sodium milligrams and cholesterol milligrams appears at the bottom of the screen. Here's an example: For lunch you ate a bologna and cheese sandwich and an apple. With lunch you drank a cup of skim milk. Type "bologna." You'll see the following list: beef bologna 89 1 slice -- 1 ounce turkey bologna 70 1 slice -- Butterball turkey bologna 57 1 slice -- USDA average The left entry is the food name. The middle is the number of calories in each portion. At the right is a comment field, which will always contain the measurement of the portion and usually will include a short description. While The Better Diet Analyzer maintains data on calories, fat, sodium and cholesterol for all its database, only the calorie listing is displayed when you are offered a list of foods to choose from. (To learn how to view the complete listing for any food without entering it into a food list, see "Editing or Adding To the Database" on page 9.) The highlight will already be on beef bologna. Let's assume that's what you had, so press <Enter>. Now, type "1" because you had 1 slice. Again press <Enter> and beef bologna is entered into your list of foods. The bologna was on whole wheat, so type "whole wheat bread." The Better Diet Analyzer displays this list: whole wheat bread 60 1 slice -- Pepperidge Farm whole wheat bread 67 1 slice -- USDA average Move the highlight to select USDA average and press <Enter>. You had two slices, so type "2" and again press <Enter>. Now, type "cheese." The Better Diet Analyzer's screen fills with cheese listings, and at the bottom you'll notice that it informs you there are "65 entries" total. If you like, you can scroll through all the listings to find the cheese you ate. But there's an easier way. Press <ESC> to clear the screen. Now type "swiss cheese." 4 You'll see this list: swiss cheese 107 1 ounce swiss cheese slices 130 1 1/4 oz. 7 1/2 by 4 inch slice You had a slice that was about half the size of that listed. So select the second entry and press <Enter>. Now you can type either "1/2" or ".5" and The Better Diet Analyzer will accept your entry. On your sandwich was a tablespoon of mayonnaise. Type "mayonnaise." You'll see mayonnaise 1577 1 cup mayonnaise 99 1 tablespoon Weight Watchers mayonnaise 50 1 tablespoon Wendy's mayonnaise 90 1 tablespoon Select the second entry and type "1". Now, add your apple and the skim milk. When you've finished, you'll see nutritional estimates for all the foods you've eaten, plus a total at the bottom of the screen. Lunch was approximately 553 calories, of which 41.5 percent came from fat. There were approximately 25 grams of fat in your lunch, 910 milligrams of sodium and at least 43 milligrams of cholesterol. Note that the cholesterol figure includes an asterisk. That's because it was computed using incomplete data. In The Better Diet Analyzer's cholesterol column opposite the whole wheat bread entry you'll see an "NA." That means that data on the cholesterol content of whole wheat bread was "not availble." Unfortunately, cholesterol information is not as readily available as caloric, fat and sodium information for many food items. Some food processors and manufacturers simply do not provide it. Hopefully, this will improve as consumers become more cholesterol-conscious and begin demanding better information. In this example, you can be reasonably confident in the cholesterol total because bread is made mostly from vegetable products, which contain no cholesterol. Cholesterol is present only in animal products such as meat, eggs, cheese, milk, lard, etc. It is entirely possible that the bread contained milk, eggs or lard, though in small amounts. After reviewing your lunch, you'll see that more than 40 percent of your calories came from fat, even though you included two very low fat items -- the apple and the skim milk. Forty percent is typical of an American diet, but the American Heart Association recommends that no more than 30 percent of your calories come from fat. Some medical researchers recommend that the total should be even lower. If you are concerned about 5 cholesterol, heart disease and dietary fat, you should discuss the issue with your doctor. The above example focuses on a hypothetical meal. You can use the same process to evaluate recipes. Just type in the ingredients as listed, and The Better Diet Analyzer will return totals for the whole recipe. If you'd like, you can divide those totals by the number of portions, give the recipe a name and enter it permanently in The Better Diet Analyzer's database. (See "Editing and Adding To the Database.") That takes care of lunch, but what about breakfast, supper and snacks? You can enter listings for as many meals as you like, and The Better Diet Analyzer will maintain a running total of the day's food intake. KEEPING DAILY LISTS Keeping track of your calorie and fat consumption on item- by-item basis is helpful. But to really get control of your diet, you need to track your consumption over several days, or even weeks. The Better Diet Analyzer can help you do that. You can keep all your records in a file by saving your information to disk. Use the pull-down menu and select "File/Save," or press <F2>. The Better Diet Analyzer will prompt you for a file name. Use any name within the DOS restrictions. If you don't specify an extension, The Better Diet Analyzer will append an extension of "DAT". If a file exists with the name you select, it will be saved as a back up file with the extension ".BAK". (See more on using files, including working with subdirectories and floppy disks in SAVING AND RETRIEVING FILES, page 8.) You can now reload your file in future sessions of The Better Diet Analyzer by using the pull-down menu and selecting "File/Load." Or you may press <Alt-L>. Whenever you load a file, if you don't specify an extension, The Better Diet Analyzer will assume the default extension of "DAT". You can save your information periodically during any session of The Better Diet Analyzer. Doing so automatically creates or updates a "DAY" record, which maintains a summary of the day's food. To see your DAY records, use the pull-down menu and select "Screen/Days." Or you may press <Alt-D>. The Better Diet Analyzer lists each day for which you've kept records and then averages all your previous daily records into a summary at the bottom of the screen. The current day's food totals are excluded from the summary average because the chances are you're still adding items to the day's record. While you're looking at the DAY screen you can add your weight. If you type numbers, The Better Diet Analyzer will automatically post another dialog box and record your weight, just as it did with food entries while you were looking at the 6 MEAL screen. Or, you can press the <Insert> key to post the box before you begin typing. The current day's weight will be calculated in the average at the bottom of the screen. To return to the MEAL screen use the pull-down menu and select "Screen/Meals," or press <Alt-M>. WEEKLY SUMMARIES If you're interested in long-term dieting, The Better Diet Analyzer can even keep weekly summaries for you (or 10-day summaries or monthly summaries or whatever period you choose). Suppose you have a list of seven daily summaries that you'd like to convert into a weekly summary. All you need to do is highlight those daily summaries and press the <Insert> key. To highlight a list of daily summaries, use the pull-down menu and select "Screen/Highlight." Or you may press the <F3> key. Using the cursor keys will now move the highlight bar over individual daily summaries. To highlight a group of DAY records, hold down one of the shift keys while you move the highlight bar with the cursor keys. Once you've selected a group, press <Insert> and The Better Diet Analyzer will create a weekly summary. If you'd like to delete the daily summaries from your DAY list, press <Delete> and all the highlighted summaries will disappear from your screen and from your file. If you want to back out of this operation, just press <ESC> and The Better Diet Analyzer will return you to your previous operation. To view your weekly summaries, use the pull-down menu and select "Screen/Weeks," or press <Alt-W>. You can return to the MEAL or DAY screens by using the pull-down menu or pressing <Alt- M> for MEALS or <Alt-D> for DAYS. CHANGING THE DATE You've learned to keep an ongoing list of food consumption and store lists in daily summaries. What do you do if you want to add items to yesterday's list or change an item? Suppose today is Thursday and you never finished making Wednesday's list? Change the date. Select "Tools/Change Date," or press <F9>. The Better Diet Analyzer will prompt you for the date. You may enter only the month and day if it is the current year, for instance "10-15" for October 15. Press Enter and The Better Diet Analyzer will change its internal clock and display the selected date's MEAL list. You may then make any additions or changes you wish. To return to the current date, again select "Change Date" and enter "today" at the date prompt. It is important to set your computer's DOS clock correctly when running The Better Diet Analyzer. If the program detects what it considers an invalid date (any year before 1989) when it begins running, it will prompt you for the correct date before continuing. Because The Better Diet Analyzer keeps complete, detailed lists of all foods eaten for up to seven days in memory, 7 it cannot tolerate large changes in the date. So, the change-date function will not allow you to reset the date to more than six days prior to the current date, or into the future past the current date. Attempting to do so will result in the error message, "Date out of range." You CAN over-ride this limitation by changing your computer's date from the DOS prompt, but this is not recommended. Confusing The Better Diet Analyzer's sense of time will almost certainly result in lost data from any files that are loaded (but not from the main database of 1,000 food records). The reason this happens is because The Better Diet Analyzer automatically discards any MEAL records that are more than a week old in order to conserve memory and disk space. Though the program discards older MEAL records, it continues to keep a nearly unlimited number of DAY and WEEK summaries. We've covered the basics of using The Better Diet Analyzer. You can use the pull-down menus to get anywhere in the program, or use hot key combinations. You don't need to try to memorize the hot keys -- they're all listed beside each menu operation, where you'll soon see them often enough to learn the ones you use. SAVING AND RETRIEVING FILES You can save your files to disk by accessing "File/Save" in the pull-down menu, or by pressing <F2>. If the file has been previously saved, or was loaded from disk, The Better Diet Analyzer will overwrite it. If not, the program will prompt you for a name. To change the name of an existing file that you are editing, select "File/Save as," or press <Alt-F2>. Again, The Better Diet Analyzer will prompt you for a name. You can see a directory of all The Better Diet Analyzer's data files in the current directory by selecting "File/Directory." The program will display all files ending with the extension ".DAT." Pressing <Enter> will load and display the highlighted file. You can also load a file by selecting "File/Load," or pressing <Alt-L>. If any files exist in the current directory with the ".DAT" extension, they will be displayed in the directory list. If you strike any key other than the cursor keys or the carriage return, The Better Diet Analyzer will begin recording your keystrokes in a file-input prompt. This can be useful if the file you want exists in another subdirectory. In that case, be sure to enter the full path name, such as "c:\mydiet\file.dat." (The ".dat" extension is optional.) It's a good idea to set up The Better Diet Analyzer in its own subdirectory and keep your data files there. That way, the files you want will always be in the current directory. You can, however, designate another subdirectory as your primary data directory. Select "File/File options" and type a valid full path. (Note: You must designate an existing directory or subdirectory - - The Better Diet Analyzer will not create a new subdirectory. If you type an invalid name, The Better Diet Analyzer will accept 8 your entry, but will display a warning when you attempt to save the file.) Why would you want to designate another subdirectory for your data files? More than one user may be using The Better Diet Analyzer, each with his or her own subdirectory of files. Or, operators of machines without a hard drive can designate the "B:" drive as the data path while running The Better Diet Analyzer from the "A:" drive. That way they can store their data files on a separate disk from the program file. PRINTING YOUR FILES The Better Diet Analyzer will print your MEAL list, DAY list, WEEK list, or all three. You can print either to an ASCII file or to your printer. All formatting is automatic. From the pull-down menu select "Tools/Print screen." The default option will print the MEAL list to your printer connected to LPT1. To change those defaults, select "Options." If you send your output to an ASCII file, The Better Diet Analyzer will prompt you for a file name. If you don't specify a file extension, the program will add the default extension of ".PRN". You can cycle through the list of screens that The Better Diet Analyzer will print by highlighting the "Screen" option and pressing the space bar. The options are: MEALS, DAYS, WEEKS, or ALL. You may override the default options in future sessions by saving your options to a configuration file. ADDING TO OR EDITING THE DATABASE You may view the complete records for any item in The Better Diet Analyzer's database of more than 1,000 food items. Select "Screen/Edit database," or press <F1>. The Better Diet Analyzer will display the first item in the database, and a menu of hot- key commands -- "A-Add, N-Next, P-Previous, F-Find, E-Edit, ESC- Quit." These keys should be self-explanatory, but we'll briefly describe them here. "Next" and "Previous" allow you to step through food records one at a time. To find an item quickly, press "F" for find, then enter the food name. The Better Diet Analyzer will display a list of matching items. Use the cursor keys to select one, then press <Enter>. Press "E" to edit an existing food record. Once you've made your edit, press <F2> to save, or <ESC> to exit without saving. You may add a new record by pressing "A." Press <ESC> to leave the Database Editor and return to The Better Diet Analyzer's main screen. You can use the Better Diet Analyzer to analyze recipes and add them to the database. The process is as simple as entering the recipe's ingredients, as if it were a meal. When you've entered all the ingredients, open the Database Editor <F1> and press "A." Now, enter an appropriate name for the recipe (one that you'll remember and one that's distinctive in three words or less) and the approximate size of each portion. Divide each of the totals (calories, fat, sodium and cholesterol) by the number of portions. You can use The Better Diet Analyzer's handy pop-up 9 calculator for this. (See Using The Better Diet Analyzer's Calculator, page 11.) The Database Editor will skip over the Percentage Field, then automatically calculate the percentage of calories from fat when you press <F2> to save the data. You can add as many new foods as you want, and edit them as many times as you want. The foods that are distributed with The Better Diet Analyzer cannot be edited, however. They are labeled "Created by Syntonic." The foods YOU enter are labeled "Created by User." In addition to protecting the integrity of The Better Diet Analyzer's distributed database, this also allows you to preserve the records you enter as long as you want. Future upgrades of The Better Diet Analyzer will be able to recognize your custom records and add them to a modified or expanded database in future releases. A NOTE ON NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION: Package labels can be an excellent source of nutritional information. Unfortunately, not all food processors provide them, or provide complete information. If you don't see the information you need, don't hesitate to write to the processor. Likewise, contact the restaurants that you frequent and request nutritional information if they have it, or ingredients if they don't. Increasingly food processors and restaurant chains are becoming nearly as nutrition-conscious as some of their best customers. But remember, they didn't suddenly discover nutrition on their own. They discovered it because their customers began demanding it, and they understood that disclosing nutritional information was good business. If you write a food processor or restaurateur, say something good about their food. They always appreciate that, and it frequently encourages them to speed you a reply. Some food companies reply promptly, some seem to forget your request only to unearth it six months later. A small number don't respond at all. (Don't buy their product!) Often you will get a four-color brochure, sometimes a typewritten sheet, other times a photocopy of a package label. Many will send you recipes, brochures on nutrition and even discount coupons for their products. It's important to let food companies know we value the nutritive quality of their food. Writing and asking for the information encourages more manufacturers to provide the information without being asked. And over the longer term, it may even prod some companies to provide healthier food. HINTS ON ENTERING DATA The Better Diet Analyzer is designed to be as user-friendly as possible. You don't need to worry about food categories or the order in which you enter names. Simply enter the name you think the food will be recognized by, for instance, "fried chicken breast." But "chicken breast, fried" or even "fried breast" will work just as well. You could even enter "fried" individually, "chicken" or "breast" and receive a list of items from which to choose. Generally, The Better Diet Analyzer will recognize almost any food description, but a few tips may help you construct your 10 queries more effectively. The Better Diet Analyzer recognizes up to three words in your query, and ignores any others beyond that. In other words, "fried chicken breast meat" would mean the same thing to The Better Diet Analyzer as "fried chicken breast." I t doesn't matter what order you enter the words. Also, The Better Diet Analyzer is case-insensitive -- you don't need to worry about whether the words are capitalized or not. You don't need to enter three words. One or two words will usually do. If The Better Diet Analyzer can't find a match for your query it will display the message: "Food not found." In this case, try the query using a different description. It usually helps to be less specific. If you had entered "Campbell's chicken noodle" as your query and The Better Diet Analyzer couldn't find what you wanted, then try "soup." Remember, if your query fails, try a more general approach. While The Better Diet Analyzer doesn't care about capitalization, it does care about spelling, up to a point. At least the first five letters -- if there are that many -- must be spelled correctly in each word. The Better Diet Analyzer's food descriptions and portion descriptions are designed to be as helpful as possible. Whenever possible, we've used volume, rather than weight measures, because it is easier for most people to judge a 1-cup portion as opposed to, say, a 4-ounce portion. Whenever using brand names, we've tried to include the measure for the total package. For instance, most canned goods are listed with the total for the can -- it's much easier for most people to estimate whether they've eaten 1/3 of a can of something rather than a half cup. Even microwave popcorn is listed for the whole bag (which is usually around 8 cups!) rather than by the cup. Some manufacturers are inconsistent in their listing of portion sizes. For instance, a portion of one product may be described as "1 ounce" or "1/12 cake," while the portion size of another, similar product is described as "1 1/4 ounce" or "1/14 cake." Whenever possible in cases like this, Syntonic has tried to translate the manufacturer's listed portion size and nutritional contents to those that are consistent across product lines. An exception to the volume versus weight policy is meat. Almost all information on meat is provided by the ounce or the gram. We've tried to consistently use 4 ounce portions. It may help to purchase an inexpensive kitchen scale as an aid in estimating meat portions. Another point is worth noting: fluid ounces and weight ounces are not equivalent. To help avoid confusion, we've used the term "fluid ounces" when appropriate in portion descriptions. USING THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER'S CALCULATOR A handy, pop-up calculator is included in The Better Diet Analyzer for your convenience. The calculator is modeled on standard pocket models and operates in a similar fashion. 11 Activate the calculator by choosing "Tools/Calculator" from the pull-down menu, or press <Alt-C>. Use the numeral keys at the top of the keyboard, or press <NumLk> and use the cursor keypad keys. To return to your program, press <ESC> or <F6>. Pressing <ESC> will vanish the calculator from the screen and erase your calculated result. Pressing <F6> "freezes" the calculator. This shrinks the calculator to just its display, and preserves your calculation. You may use any part of The Better Diet Analyzer just as you normally would while the calculator is "frozen," and you may return to the calculator by pressing <F6> again. You can see a summary of the calculator's commands and keys (+, -, *, /, =, Clear) by pressing <F10> while the calculator is active. MORE FEATURES ZOOMING: As your food lists grow, they will begin to scroll off The Better Diet Analyzer's screen. You can enlarge the screen from the pull-down menu by selecting "Screen/Zoom/UnZoom," or you can press <F5>. CORRECTING ENTRIES: Suppose you make a mistake in entering a food item in the MEAL list, or you want to delete an item? From the pull-down menu select "Screen/Highlight," or press <F3>. Use the cursor keys to select an item, then use <Delete> to eliminate it. Press <ESC> to exit from highlight mode. If you want to delete a group of food items, hold down one of the two shift keys while using the cursor keys. The Better Diet Analyzer will highlight all records selected. CHANGING A FILE NAME: To rename an existing file, use the pull-down menu and select "File/Save As," or press <Alt-F2>. The Better Diet Analyzer will prompt you for a new name. DIRECTORY: You can view a directory of all files in the current directory with extensions of ".DAT." From the pull-down menu select "File/Director." Selecting any file name and pressing <Enter> will load that file. Also, whenever you load a file -- either by selecting "File/Load file" or by pressing <Alt-L>, The Better Diet Analyzer will display a list of ".DAT" files, if there are any in the current directory. CHANGING COLORS: If you have a CGA, an EGA or VGA monitor you can change The Better Diet Analyzer's default colors. Select "Tools/Change colors" from the pull-down menu. USING MAKETAB.EXE The Better Diet Analyzer is able to search its database much faster and with much more flexibility than similar programs through the use of a two-dimensional lookup table. This table is constructed on program initialization from data in two files: FOOD.KEY and FOOD.DEX. If at any time either of these two files are erased or become corrupted, The Better Diet Analyzer will be 12 unable to search its database. You should suspect file corruption if The Better Diet Analyzer fails to find food items you know are in the database. If that happens, run the utility program MAKETAB.EXE by typing MAKETAB while in the directory that contains the file FOOD.GTC. MAKETAB will reconstruct the necessary files. THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER FAST-KEY SUMMARY HOT KEYS The following keys are assigned these functions: F1 Activate the database editor F2 Save file (user file or database file) F3 Activate the highlighter F5 Zoom/Unzoom F6 Toggle between a previously activated calculator and the main program F9 Change the date F10 Activate the pull-down menus F10 Display calculator commands (while calculator is active) Alt-C Pop up and active the calculator Alt-D See the DAY screen Alt-L Load a user file Alt-M See the MEALS screen Alt-W See the WEEK screen Delete Delete highlighted records (MEALS, DAYS and WEEKS screens) Delete Delete food record (database editor) Insert Activate Input boxes Insert Create a weekly record 13 ORDER FORM Mail to: Syntonic Software P.O. Box 13471 Charlotte, North Carolina 28270-6993 ______________________________________________________ (Name) ______________________________________________________ (Address) ______________________________________________________ (City/State/Zip) Number of copies (@ $24.95 each) _________ x 24.95 Subtotal _________ N.C. residents add 5% sales tax _________ Shipping and handling $ .95 Total enclosed $_________ (Enclose a check or money order) 14