Software of the Month Club 1996 October

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Text File | 1995-10-31 | 14.9 KB | 257 lines

_______ ____|__ | (R) This program is produced by a --| | |------------------- member of the Association of | ____|__ | Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). | | |_| Shareware Please read their important message |__| o | Professionals at the end of this text. -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Personal Schedule is a powerful, flexible, schedule manager, which will keep track of your personal, group, and project schedules, reminding you when tasks are due, and automatically calculating due dates for recurring tasks. It can be run in interactive and batch modes. In batch mode Personal Schedule will scan your schedule and pop up a dialog window if it finds an uncompleted task which is currently due. This feature is ideal for use in your Autoexec.bat file. Personal Schedule easily handles recurring tasks, automatically calculating intervals of days, weeks, or months, as required. You can create any number of task files, either for separate environments (i.e. Work vs. Home), members of a group, or specific projects. Despite its name, Personal Schedule is also ideal for tasks shared by all members of a group, such as a family, or a department at work. At work, it is ideal as a project management program. You can use a mouse with this program provided it is Microsoft compatible, and the correct driver has been loaded. If the name of your mouse driver ends with '.sys', i.e. 'Mouse.sys', you need to enter 'Device = xxxxx.sys', where 'xxxxx.sys' is the name of your driver, in your 'Config.sys' file, and reboot, in order to use it. If the name ends with '.com', i.e. 'Mouse.com', you need to run it at the DOS prompt prior to running *this* program, to use it. This program responds to the left mouse button. The mouse can be used to pick menu options from the main menu, push buttons in dialog boxes, and pick specific files or tasks in the 'Open File' and 'Change Tasks' dialog list boxes. By clicking your mouse on the crosshatched bar at the top of dialog windows, you can drag them around on the screen. When picking items from a list in the 'Open File' or 'Change Tasks' dialog boxes, you can click your mouse anywhere on the cross-hatched 'scroll bar' located in the right side of the window, and quickly move to any item in the list. You can also click your mouse on the arrows at the top and bottom of the 'scroll bar' to move the cursor through the list one at a time. If you are using your keyboard rather than a mouse, you can navigate through the main menu by using the arrow, enter, and escape keys, and the quick access keys. Quick access keys are highlighted on the menu bar and on the menus. When exiting the program, rather than using the above keys, you can optionally press the shortcut key, 'Ctrl-X' at the main menu. You can use your arrow and tab keys to move your cursor around, and your enter key and spacebar to pick items and toggle buttons, in dialog boxes. To open a file, pick the 'Open' option from the 'Files' menu. The program will list your current schedule files, if any. You may input a name (8 characters or less) or use the mouse or keyboard to pick an existing file. You do not need to include a file extension. The program will create all data files with the extension '.dat'. You may want to create a file for yourself, each member of your group (i.e. family or department), a file for tasks shared by all members, and files for specific projects. The example file 'Persched.dat', which is included with this program, has several tasks already entered. After opening the file, Personal Schedule will quickly scan the file, calculating new due dates for completed tasks, and scanning for any uncompleted tasks currently due. If it finds any, it will beep, and immediately display them in the 'Change' window (see below). Otherwise it will display the main menu. To add tasks, pick the 'Add' option from the 'Tasks' menu. Enter at least the date the task is due and its description. The 'Recur code' and 'Initial' fields are optional. The 'Recur code' field lets you specify if the task needs to be repeated at specific intervals: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Valid Recur codes are listed in the dialog box. The 'Initial' field is described in the next paragraph. Pick the 'Change' option from the 'Tasks' menu to change or delete tasks. In the next list displayed, current uncompleted tasks will be flagged with a '*'. Pick the record you want. Make your changes, then press 'Enter', or, to rapidly change multiple records, you can press 'PageUp' or 'PageDown' instead. You can also delete the task. When a task is completed, type your initials (or any character) in the 'Initial' field. When this field is entered for recurring tasks, Personal Schedule will use an algorithm (see below) to determine what interval to add to the due date so that the task will pop up again in the future. Pick the 'List' option from the 'Tasks' menu to list the currently opened file. The output can be sent to printer or disk. You can optionally specify a date range. Current uncompleted tasks will be flagged with a '*'. The syntax for running Personal Schedule is 'Persched [/L XX] [/NS] [/W] [[/B] /F filespec]'. The characters in brackets are optional. '/L XX' allows you to change the # of lines the program will use on the screen (provided your monitor and adapter support it). 'XX' is the # of lines you want the program to use. EGA adapters can use 43 lines, VGA adapters 43 or 50 lines. The default is 25 lines. Experiment to find the # of lines you like. '/NS' tells Personal Schedule to use no sounds. Sound state and the # of screen lines can also be set from the 'Miscellaneous' menu. '/W' tells Personal Schedule to wait (3 days for daily and weekly tasks, 7 for all others) before deleting completed one time tasks, and calculating new due dates for completed recurring tasks. '/F filespec' tells Personal Schedule to immediately open the specified data file. '/B /F filespec' tells Personal Schedule to open the file, and run in batch (unattended) mode. In batch mode, Personal Schedule will quickly scan the file, calculating new due dates for completed tasks, and scanning for any uncompleted tasks currently due. If it finds any, it will pop up a dialog window, otherwise it will end by itself. This feature is ideal for use in your Autoexec.bat file. Date calculation algorithm for recurring tasks: If the task is not completed ('Initial' field is empty), Personal Schedule will leave the record alone. Otherwise, if you specified '/W' as a command line switch, Personal Schedule will first apply the specific wait interval to the task due date. Then it compares this date to the current date. If the date hasn't been reached yet, Personal Schedule will leave the record alone. If the date is equal to or before the current date, *and* is a one time task (Recur Code = space), Personal Schedule will delete it. Otherwise, if the date is equal to or before the current date, *and* has a Recur Code (D, W, M, Q, or Y), Personal Schedule will fill the 'Initial' field with spaces, calculate the appropriate new future due date, and rewrite the record. As a convenience, for monthly and quarterly recurring tasks, if the old due date was the last day of the month, Personal Schedule will adjust the *due day* as necessary so that the *new* due date will be the last day of the *new* month, as well. If you need more room on disk or in memory, or if the program seems to behave strangely when one of the data files is loaded, you can pick the option to rebuild data file. This will pack the file by purging deleted records, and reset certain pointers within the file. This can rescue a file if, for instance, your computer lost power during a write or delete operation in a previous session. This can be run as often as you wish. Provided you are using a color monitor, you can pick the option on the menu to customize your screen colors. After picking this option, the bottom portion of the screen shows all available background and foreground colors, along with their corresponding numeric codes. The top portion of the screen shows each attribute, and its current value. To change an attribute, pick the number to its left, then input the new color value. Type 'S' when finished, to (S)ave the current configuration to disk, so that the program will start up in the future with these colors. When finished changing your screen colors, press <esc> to return to the main menu. You can press 'Carriage Return', or 'Enter' whenever an input prompt asks for '<cr>'. To pause a listing, press 'Hold', or 'Break', or 'Scroll Lock', depending on your make of computer. You may print a hard copy of the screen anytime the program is waiting for input, by pressing a shift key, and the 'PrtSc' key. If this is a non-registered (evaluation) copy, you can rest assured that it is not crippled in any way; it has the same functionality as a registered version. The maximum # of files opened by the program at any given time is 5, so you probably don't need to adjust your 'Files=' parameter in 'Config.sys'. This product is not free, it is shareware. You may use it free for a period of 30 days; to continue using it, you must register. The registration fee is USD $10.00. For your convenience, I have included an order form on the last page of this text (if you use Compuserve, you can avoid mail delays, and register and pay online. Go SWREG for details. The registration ID is 5471). On receipt of the fee, I will send you a copy of the latest version, and your registration number, which you will need to enter the next time you run the program. Upon successfully entering the number, the program will ask for your name, and will replace the registration reminder line on the bottom of the main menu with it. You will be entitled to receive one year of support, access to upgrades, and, as a bonus, through an agreement between The Association of Shareware Professionals and Compuserve, a free Compuserve Intropak which waives the normal sign-up charges, and includes a $15.00 usage credit. There are no express or implied warranties. I would be happy to discuss the possibility of additional custom programming with you. Non-registered users, please feel free to contact me by mail if you need help running the program, or to tell me your comments, and suggestions, and, in any event, thanks for trying the program! Before contacting me about problems, please first reread the instructions. The most common error new users make is inputting dates as MMDDYY, instead of MMDDYYYY. The program requires that years be input as 4 digits, not 2. February 18, 1995, for instance, must be entered as '02181995', *not* '021895'. I encourage you to upload this product (demonstration version *only*) to bulletin boards that accept such products, and to make copies available to other potential users, provided that you not charge more than a nominal copying fee, and that you include the files 'PerSched.exe', 'PerSched.dat', 'PerSched.doc', 'Readme.doc', 'Register.doc', 'Sharewar.doc', 'Vend&Sys.doc', and 'File_id.diz' in their original, unaltered form. I especially encourage you to upload this version, with a short explanatory note to the sysop, if you see an older version on a bulletin board that you frequent. You are expressly forbidden to make copies of your registered copy, however, except for backup purposes. Important message from the Association of Shareware Professionals: "This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536." !This line is necessary for proper program operation; don't alter! This work is Copyright (c) 1995 by William H. Baldwin. --------------------------REGISTRATION FORM-------------------------- _______ ____|__ | (R) William H. Baldwin --| | |------------------- 8704 Broadmoor, #806 | ____|__ | Association of Shawnee Mission, Ks. 66212 | | |_| Shareware Compuserve UID: 76200,275 |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER Hi, Will! I support the shareware concept! I am enclosing USD $10.00 as registration for 'Personal Schedule'. My name and address is: ________________________________. ________________________________. ________________________________. ________________________________. Please supply whatever of the following information you can: The version I have is: ________. I plan to use this program for: a) Personal, or b) Business use (circle one). I obtained this program from: Name: ________________________________. Phone #: __________________. Address: ______________________________________. City: ______________________________________. State: ____ Zip: __________________. Is the above a computer bulletin board (Y/N): ____ Are the instructions clear? Please tell me your ideas for future enhancements: Additional comments: