Welcome, and thankyou for your interest in FingerKnot. FingerKnot is a simple but effective Windows reminder utility. It allows you to add, edit and delete reminder notification messages. These reminders will popup at the designated date and time ensuring you never forget that important event or task again. FingerKnot sits unobtrusively in the Windows task bar or task tray, a simple click away when you need it.
INSTALLATION
If you are viewing this document, you may have already installed FingerKnot. If you have not yet installed the software, simply run setup.exe and follow the instructions on-screen. After installation is complete, there will be a new program group in your Windows Start Menu, called "FingerKnot" by default. There may optionally be a shortcut icon on your desktop as well. To launch FingerKnot, double click the desktop icon or select "FingerKnot" from the Windows Start Menu program group.
FREEWARE
FingerKnot is 100% freeware. This means there are no nag screens, no limitations and no hidden advertising. We encourage you to use it and pass it along to friends and family if you find it useful. The only thing you are not allowed to do with FingerKnot is to make a financial gain from it (we aren't so why should you?).
USE
Once you have started FingerKnot (see above), its use should be quite intuitive (hence the glaring lack of a help file). First thing you will likely want to do is add a new reminder to see how she works. Click the "Add" button, set the trigger date and time, enter a message and click OK. That newly added reminder will now be visible in the list of alarms back on the main screen. To edit that alarms, highlight the alarm in the list and click the "Edit" button or double-click the alarm directly. To delete an alarm, hightlight the alarm in the list and click "Delete".
ALARMS ENABLED CHECKBOX
At the bottom of the main screen, you will see and "Alarms Enabled" checkbox. Ensure this is checked to be notified when an alarm becomes due. You can disable alarm notification by unchecking this box. That may be useful if you know you have an alarm coming up and you want to play your favourite game or whatever without being interrupted.
TRIGGER MISSED ALARMS CHECKBOX
Also at the bottom of the main screen is a checkbox called "Trigger Missed Alarms". If this is checked when you close FingerKnot, then the next time you run FingerKnot it will remind you of all the alarms that have occurred since you last closed the application. For example, you may have an alarm set for 9:00am but you don't turn your computer on until 10:00am, if the "Trigger Missed Alarms" box is checked, that alarm for 9:00am will be displayed.
SKINS
Well, most utilities nowadays seem to have skins. Skins are simply a way to change the look & feel of a Windows program so it doesn't look like a Windows program. We have included a nice selection of skins with FingerKnot, just select the skin you like best to make FingerKnot a bit more interesting to look at.
DEFAULT OFFSET FOR NEW ALARMS
When you ADD a new alarm, you will see the "Default offset for new alarms" control at the bottom of the screen. This is simply the number of minutes you want to add to the current time to set the default trigger time of that alarm. The trigger time can of course be modified, this value just sets the default time for when you first go into the "New Alarm" screen. After playing, you may realize that most of your alarms are for events about 2 hours into the future. This being the case, next time you add a new alarm, change that default offset time to 120 minutes.
BACKING UP YOUR DATA
Well we are pretty sure you have more important things on your computer than your FingerKnot alarm list. It could still be a pain to lose those alarms though, especially if you have spent a bit of time carefully setting them all up. In your FingerKnot directory are two files you should backup. The first is called "FingerKnot.udb", this is the main database containing all your alarm settings. The second is called "Settings.cfg", this is a simple text file containing your FingerKnot preferences (window position, skin, default alarm offset etc). Copy these two files anywhere you like to make a backup.
HOTKEYS
1. Ctrl + N = New alarm
2. Ctrl + E = Edit alarm
3. Ctrl + D = Delete alarm
4. Ctrl + ENTER = OK in most screens, snooze in alarm notify screen
5. ESC = Cancel in most screens, dismiss in alarm notify screen
OTHER BITS
1. Alarms are polled every minute, so at best they are accurate to the nearest minute only. FingerKnot is not designed to be a high precision timer or reminder system.
2. To start FingerKnot when Windows starts (which is what we recommend), simply create a shortcut to FingerKnot.exe in your Windows "Startup" group.
3. The polling of alarms takes place in a low priority Windows thread. If you don't know what that means (and I am not even sure we do), then all you need to know is that FingerKnot uses such a miniscule amount of cpu and resources that you won't even notice it running. Further to that, it won't (or most definitely shouldn't) affect any of your other running applications either.
4. There is no fourth point
THAT'S IT
Thankyou once again. Any comments or suggestions are more than welcome so please let us know what you think (be gentle if you don't like it, we have quite small shoulders). FingerKnot is a simple utility for modest requirements. If you want a fully featured, commercially robust organizer (complete with advanced alarm notification of course) then please take a look at our flagship product, Pimento.
