Software USA 4 #11/Software USA Volume 4.11.iso/mac/LifeStyles/Coffee Break/Docs(text)/Coffee Break Help

Text File | 1998-09-24 | 24.7 KB | 570 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

Coffee Break

Copyright 1994-98, by Thomas Reed

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Table of Contents

   * Legalese
   * Conventions in this manual
   * What is Coffee Break?
   * How Coffee Break does its job
   * The Menus
        o Options...
        o Save Window Pos.
        o Sleep Now
        o Show Key Stats
        o Help...
        o Quit
   * The Options Dialog
        o General Options
        o Timer Options
        o Notification Options
        o Pause Corner Options
        o Helper Options
        o Hot Key Options
        o Timer Click Options
        o Event Tracking Options
   * The Timer Window
   * Pausing the timer
   * Recommended methods of use
   * Limitations
   * Registering
   * Author's Comments

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Legalese

Coffee Break is shareware. If you keep it, you should send $5 to the address
listed in the Read Me file or the end of this documentation.

For more information about registering this program, see the Read Me or the
Registering section end of this help.

Conventions in this manual

This manual is organized by component. The components describe Coffee
Break's menus, dialogs and windows, and suggestions for use.

If you're reading this help file using a World Wide Web browser, but are new
to hypertext, you may skip to any section by clicking it in the Table of
Contents above. You may also click on any links embedded in the help text
itself to skip directly to the referenced section. (Links are text that is
styled in a special way -- usually underlined and colored in some way,
unless you've changed your browser's settings.)

What is Coffee Break?

Coffee Break is an application that is designed to help you reduce your
chances of getting a Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI), such as carpal tunnel
syndrome. It does this by forcing you to take a break every so often.

The sole purpose of Coffee Break is to replace your weak willpower. Those of
you who sit for hours on end in front of your computer every day, like I do,
you are in danger of doing serious harm to your body. One of the best ways
to avoid this is to take frequent breaks from the computer. When you're
wrapped up in a project or a game, however, this can be hard to do without a
little help!

Even if you have never had trouble with your hands, arms, shoulders, or
back, I strongly recommend that you still use this program. My hands didn't
ever hurt up until about a year before I first released Coffee Break. Now
they hurt every time I type for too long.

How Coffee Break does it's job

Coffee Break stays in the background most of the time. The only evidence of
it's existence is the window containing a timer, which constantly counts
down.

When the timer hits zero, Coffee Break will move into the foreground, taking
total control of your Mac. It will lock your computer for a user-specified
period of time, forcing you to take a break from typing. You will hear me
refer to this from time to time as "sleep time". Before Coffee Break locks
the machine, it will let you know that it's time to save. This is just a
simple safety feature to ensure that the break does not catch you by
surprise. (Not that Coffee Break should cause you to lose any of your hard
work, but we want to be careful, don't we? After all, you never know when
you might lose power!)

For those users who may need a way to exit sleep mode in an emergency, I
have provided such an option. See the "Restrict user" option in the Options
Dialog section of this manual for more information.

The Menus

The basic interface is fairly simple. There are only six useful menu items,
all of which are in the File menu. (This doesn't include the About Coffee
Break item in the Apple menu.)

Options...

Presents you with a multi-part dialog in which you may set the various
options. For details on the Options dialog, see the Options Dialog section
of this manual.

Save Window Pos.

Saves the current position of the Timer window. This is so that you don't
have to move the window every time you start up. For information on the
features of the Timer window, see the Timer Window section of this manual.

Sleep Now

This menu item will allow you to start your break before the timer runs out.
This allows you to take a break before one is scheduled. If you have to
leave your computer for some reason anyway, you might as well use that time
as one of your breaks. This will allow you to make the most efficient use of
your time.

Show Key Stats

Displays a window containing a summary of your key and mouse useage
statistics. For more information on these statistics, see the Event Tracking
Options section.

Help...

This menu item is only one of the many ways you may invoke the on-line help.
You may also use the Coffee Break Help menu item under the Balloon Help
menu, or you may press the Help key on your Extended keyboard, or you may
press Command-?.

The on-line help is handled through a Help helper application. (A helper
application is a program that performs a specific service at the request of
another program.) Any World Wide Web browser, such as Netscape, can be used
as the Help helper. In addition, HTML Viewer should support this feature as
well. Unfortunately, America Online's WWW browser cannot be used for this
purpose at the time of this writing. (For information about how to specify
your preferred Help helper, see the Helper Options section of this manual.)

Coffee Break handles on-line help in a context-sensitive manner. If you are
using a Help helper to view the help, the appropriate section of the manual
will be displayed. For instance, if you have the Options dialog open to the
Timer Options section when you ask for help, the Timer Options portion of
the help file will be displayed.

If you do not have a Help helper, Coffee Break will ask what you want to do.
You can specify a helper application at this point, or you can choose to use
SimpleText (or TeachText) to open the plain text version of the help file.
Unfortunately, it cannot display the help in a context-sensitive manner
using SimpleText.

Quit

This doesn't work quite the way you would expect. When you select Quit,
unless you have turned the Restrict User option off in the Options dialog,
you will be put into "Quit pending" mode. This means that Coffee Break will
not quit until after the next break.

(For more information on the Restrict User option, see the information in
the General Options section of this manual.)

Let me offer a quick explanation for this behavior. People like me are
sneaky. If I were coming up on the end of my work time, and couldn't tear
myself away from that game of Civilization I was playing, I'd quit the app
and restart it, thus starting my work time from the beginning again. That's
cheating, a very nasty type, since it allows you to reduce the usefulness of
this program to ZERO! Since I didn't want that to happen, I added this
"feature". (I am WELL aware that many of you won't like this feature, but
most likely you won't like it because it's working!)

The Options dialog

The Options dialog is a multi-part dialog from which almost all of Coffee
Break's options are set. The only controls that are the same in all "panes"
of the dialog are the Topic pop-up menu, and the OK and Cancel buttons. All
other controls change according to the topic.

To change to a different topic, simply choose it from the Topic pop-up menu.
The controls will change to allow you to edit the options pertaining to that
topic.

When you are done editing your options, click the OK button. Note that it is
not necessary to click the OK button when you complete each section -- when
you click OK, all the changes you have made in all topics are saved.

Your options are saved in a file called Coffee Break Preferences inside
Preferences in the System Folder. You can delete this file to reset the
options to their defaults. (Of course, Coffee Break won't change to reflect
the change until you restart the program or edit the options again.)

General Options

The General Options topic allows you to change the miscellaneous options in
Coffee Break.

Wake up sound

"Wake up sound" simply specifies whether Coffee Break will beep to alert you
when your break is over. If this option is on, Coffee Break will beep three
times to indicate the end of your break.

Finder to front

The "Finder to front" option allows you to tell Coffee Break whether or not
it should bring the Finder to the front after launching. With this option
on, immediately after Coffee Break launches, the Finder will be brought back
to the front (to make Coffee Break more friendly to put in the Startup Items
folder).

Restrict user

The "Restrict user" option exists to allow the user to specify the level of
control desired. With this option on, certain things are not allowed.

First, it prevents you from quitting the program to avoid a break. Choosing
Quit will put the program into "Quit pending" mode, and the program will not
actually quit until after your next break. If this option is off, choosing
Quit will quit the program immediately (with a warning).

Second, it disables the feature allowing emergency exit from sleep mode.
With this feature off, pressing Command-X allows to exit sleep mode. If you
exit from sleep mode, the amount of time left on the sleep timer will be
added to the amount of time you must take for your next break. When you turn
on "Restrict user", Cmd-X does nothing.

To prevent casual use of this feature to quit the program, turning this
option off is made slightly difficult. When you uncheck the check box, it
won't actually turn off "Restrict user" mode until after the next break.
This may seem like a pain for users who want to turn off "Restrict user",
but it's very useful for those who want to leave it on and don't want the
temptation of being able to turn it off just so they can quit.

Pause when saver on

The "Pause when saver on" check box tells the program to pause the timer
whenever it detects that a screen saver is on. See the Read Me file for a
list of screen savers that support this option.

For more information about pausing the timer, see the Pausing the timer
section of the manual.

Invisible sleep

"Invisible sleep" allows you to change the way Coffee Break handles your
breaks. With this option on, Coffee Break will display a timer in the menu
bar during sleep time instead of displaying the built-in screen saver. In
all other respects, a break with this option on works the same as a break
with this option off. The advantage of this option is that it allows you to
continue to read on-line documents (though you can't scroll) during sleep.
However, I discourage the use of this option, as prolonged viewing of your
monitor can produce eye strain.

Show Timer

The "Show Timer" item allows you to hide and show the Timer window. When
this box is checked, the Timer window is visible. In my opinion, there is
really very little reason to hide the Timer window, but this option is there
nonetheless.

For more information about the Timer window, see the Timer Window section of
this manual.

Floating Timer

This check box allows you to specify that you would like the timer window to
"float" above all other windows in all running applications. This will allow
you to see the timer at any time, while turning this option off will allow
other windows to obscure the timer window.

Timer Options

There are three times which can be set in the Timer Options section of the
Options dialog: work time, sleep time, and save warn time.

Work time

The Work time is the time in minutes that you have between breaks. This is
the time that is always displayed in the Timer window. Work time is
specified by entering an integer value (no fractional values), which
represents a number of minutes.

Sleep time

The Sleep time is the minimum amount of time the computer remains locked
during a break. Work time will not begin again until you acknowledge the end
of sleep time. (This is so that if you specified a five minute break and
were away for ten minutes, you don't lose five minutes of work time.) Like
work time, sleep time is also specified by an integer value representing a
number of minutes.

Save warn time

Save warning time is the time at which you are prompted to get ready for
sleep time. Like the work and sleep times, this value is also an integer
value, but is in units of seconds rather than minutes.

Note that these time settings won't take effect until the next time the
program changes modes from work time to sleep time, or vice versa. So you
can't extend the time of your next break when you get close to it!

Notification Options

This set of options specifies how you will be notified at the specified save
warn time. You may check any combination of these items.

For information about the save warn time, see the Timer Options section of
this manual.

Sound

The Sound check box specifies that the computer will make a special warning
sound at the specified save warn time. When this sound is played, you will
have to wait for it to finish before you can do anything else -- so if you
decide to do some hacking with ResEdit and change the sound, make sure not
to use one that's too long.

Alert

The Alert check box specifies that the computer will remind you with an
alert. Until you press the OK button, Coffee Break's timer will pause. Note
that the alert window only stays on the screen for 30 seconds to avoid
grinding your computer to an indefinite halt.

Flashing menu

The Flashing menu bar check box will make the menu bar flash twice at the
specified save warn time.

Flashing icon

The Flashing icon check box will make the Application menu (you know, the
one on the far right) alternate between the current application's icon and
Coffee Break's icon. The flashing will stop either at sleep time, or if you
bring Coffee Break to the front.

Pause Corner Options

Coffee Break allows you to move the mouse into one corner of the screen to
pause the timer. (This is very similar to the "sleep now" and "sleep never"
corners in many screen savers.) The Pause Corner Options section of the
dialog allows you to specify which corner. Simply click the radio button
corresponding to the appropriate corner, and you're done.

To actually use this feature, all you have to do is move the mouse into the
selected corner. If you are the lucky owner of multiple monitors, the corner
you've chosen is a corner of the the main monitor (i.e., the one with the
menu bar).

Helper Options

The Helper Options allow you to specify "helper" applications for various
tasks. (A helper application is a program that can be used to perform
specific tasks at the request of another application.) There are only two
helper options at the present time: the on-line help helper and the pause
helper.

The on-line help helper is the application used to display the on-line help.
This application MUST be a World Wide Web browser (such as Netscape) or
other program that is capable of displaying HTML files. HTML Viewer should
now support this option as well, and may be a better bet for someone who
doesn't currently have a web browser. (Note, however, that if you don't have
a program that supports this option, you will still have the opportunity to
view the help in a plain text file.)

The pause helper is the application that causes Coffee Break's timer to
pause when that application is in the front. This option would be most
effective when used with an application screensaver (not a screensaver in
the form of a control panel or extension). Note that, while you may set
Darkside of the Mac as the pause helper, it is unnecessary to do so, as
Darkside is one of the few screensavers that supports the Pause when saver
on option.

To set a helper, click the Change button. You will be prompted to locate a
program to act as a helper. Just select the program you want and choose
Open.

To clear a helper, hold down the Option key. The Change button will become a
Clear button. Click the Clear button and the helper will be cleared.

Hot Key Options

The Hot Key Options allow you to set various global hot keys that do certain
things. Currently, there are two hot keys: one that brings Coffee Break to
the front, and another that hides the timer window (pressing this key a
second time will show the timer window again).

To change these hot keys, click the Change button next to the appropriate
key. You will be presented with a message telling you to press a key
combination. If you press a key combination, those keys will replace the
current hot key combination. If you click the Cancel button, Coffee Break
will forget you ever asked to change the hot key. Legal hot keys can contain
one character key and any combination of modifier keys. (The modifier keys
are Command, Option, Control, Shift, and Caps Lock.)

Note that Coffee Break uses a special patch (for you tech-types, it uses a
jGNEFilter) to examine keypresses in any application. When you press a hot
key, no other applications will see that keypress -- unless they managed to
get a jGNEFilter installed before Coffee Break.

Timer Click Options

Coffee Break allows you to do several things by simply clicking on the Timer
window while holding down sets of modifier keys (see above for a list of
modifier keys). This section of the Options dialog allows you to set the
modifiers used for each task.

There are three tasks for which you can set modifier keys. To set modifiers
for a particular task, click the button corresponding to that task while
holding down your preferred modifier keys. (Note that if you click a button
without holding down any modifier keys, you will not be able to activate
that task until you actually assign it a modifier.)

The Snooze task activates Coffee Break's snooze feature. This feature allows
you to postpone your break, though not without sacrifice. When you activate
the snooze feature, Coffee Break will display a dialog asking for an amount
of time for which to snooze. You may enter an integer (no fractional values)
no larger than your current work time setting in the Options dialog. This
amount of time will be added to the current timer, and after the next break,
it will be subtracted from the timer. You may only activate this feature
once between breaks.

The Bring to Front task does just what it says: it brings Coffee Break to
the front. This is useful if you have the Timer window set to be a floating
window and you want to quickly access an item in one of Coffee Break's
menus.

The Sleep task causes Coffee Break to enter sleep mode immediately, forcing
you to take a break. This works the same as the Sleep Now menu item.

Event Tracking Options

At this time, all the event tracking will do is allow you to display certain
statistics. Eventually, I plan to make event tracking determine when you are
forced to take breaks, if you so desire.

There are three values tracked -- key presses, mouse clicks, and mouse
movements. Key presses and mouse clicks are straightforward, and you can see
the total actions or the actions per minute. Mouse movements are a little
more nebulous, and are based on a system of checking mouse position once per
second. Thus, the most you can have are 60 mouse movements per second.

These values are displayed in the Key Stats window when requested.
Additional statistics are controlled via the Event Tracking Options. This
pane shows six numeric entry fields. These fields can contain any reasonable
integer (i.e., whole numbers). They represent thresholds for six different
values -- high and low thresholds for each of the action types (key presses,
mouse clicks, and mouse movements). The Key Stats window displays the
percentage of total time that you have spent above these thresholds for ANY
action.

For example, suppose that you are not moving the mouse or clicking at all.
If you spend 45 seconds typing at 100 characters per minute and 15 seconds
not typing at all, and your high threshold for keystrokes is 70, 75 (meaning
75%) will be displayed for the time spent above the high threshold for
keystrokes (and for the low threshold, since you will also be above it).

As another example, if you type for 30 seconds above the high threshold for
keystrokes, then stop typing and move the mouse for 30 seconds at more than
the high threshold for mouse movements, the time spent above the thresholds
will be 100%. If you then performed no action for 60 seconds, the time spent
would drop to 50% (60 seconds spent above a threshold and 60 seconds under
both thresholds).

This allows you to track your actions more precisely. In addition,
eventually you will be able to have Coffee Break react in different ways
depending on time spent above or below these thresholds. This is not in
place at this time, however.

The Timer window

The Timer window is the small window containing a constantly decrementing
timer. It is only visible if the "Show time window" menu item is checked.

To move the Timer window, click anywhere in the window and drag it to it's
new location. You should be able to drag it to any position on any monitor.

There are several modifier-key sequences that you may hold down while
clicking in the Timer window to do certain tasks. For more information about
these sequences, see the Timer Click Options section of the manual.

Pausing the timer

There are many ways to pause the timer. To find out more about the methods
of pausing, see the General Options, the Pause Corner Options, and the
Helper Options sections of this manual.

Whenever the timer pauses, it will reset if it remains paused longer than
your current sleep time setting. This allows you to treat a pause in the
same way as a break.

Recommended methods of use

The easiest way to use Coffee Break is to simply drop it (or an alias) in
your Startup Items folder. The next time you restart, it will start up
automatically. To make this as convenient as possible, Coffee Break
automatically places itself in the background on startup.

Note, however, that if you do this, you will have a problem if you use
Darkside of the Mac. Coffee Break will start up before Darkside, and
therefore will not detect that a screen saver is running. So, Coffee Break
will turn off the "Pause when saver on" option. To avoid this problem,
simply change either Coffee Break's or Darkside's name to ensure that
Darkside loads first.

You could also keep it in a convenient place and launch it only when you
want, but I've found that that doesn't work too well. If I don't keep it in
the Startup Items folder, I'll only rarely turn it on, which defeats it's
purpose. Coffee Break is not any use if you only use it when you feel like
it.

Limitations

Coffee Break's biggest limitation is that it is STRICTLY a System 7.x
application. It will not work on machines running System 6, so don't even
make the attempt. It should, however, work on ANY machine running System
7.x, including a Mac Plus. (I can't say much about anything older, but it
should work in theory.)

Coffee Break also has a feature which will work only if you have one of a
select group of screen savers installed. Namely, the "Pause when saver on"
option. If you do not have a compatible screen saver, you will not be able
to turn this option on. For a list of compatible screen savers, the Read Me
file.

The "Floating timer" option will work only under System 7.1 or later. So,
this option will be unavailable to those of you who are still using System
7.0.x.

Registering

Coffee Break costs $6 (US). To register, see the How To Register document
that came with the Coffee Break package.

In case you'd like to get in touch with me through e-mail, you can send me
mail at [e-mail].

Author's Comments

First of all, I'd like to say that I hope you enjoy Coffee Break, and I hope
that it actually does you some good. I know it has for me, and for a number
of my registered users, so I don't doubt that it will help others.

I would also like to say that if you for some reason or another can't
register Coffee Break, but you need it, use it anyway. The primary purpose
of the program is not to make money, but to help people. I'm trusting you to
register it if you can and if you think the program's worth it.

I also invite you to give me your thoughts and ideas about this program. I
welcome input, and though I may not use all the ideas I get, I do use a lot
of them. (In fact, many of the features that have found their way into
Coffee Break were originally suggestions from people like you.) If you send
me e-mail, I guarantee that I will get you a timely reply. If you send snail
mail, however, I can't guarantee that my reply will be timely! (I don't even
write my parents as often as I should!)

In addition, if you have any questions whatsoever about this program that
you feel have not been adequately answered, please feel free to ask me. I am
of the school of thought that the only stupid question is one that is not
asked. So don't feel like you're bothering me. I'm happy to help!

Anyway, enough rambling. I hope you like my program, and good luck with your
future prevention (or treatment) of RSIs!

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Thomas Reed \ [e-mail]