Thank you for trying out Script Timer. Script Timer is an easy to use background application that lets you schedule the execution of Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) based scripts, such as those created using AppleScript. It allows you to run your scripts at any time on a daily, weekly, weekdays only, monthly, or one time basis as well as at regular intervals ranging from minutes to weeks. Because Script Timer handles all of the scheduling details, you can write short, easy to follow task oriented scripts to perform such diverse tasks as checking your e-mail at a specific time, reminding you of an upcoming appointment, or downloading one or more large files from the Internet overnight. Unlike with some other scheduling software, installation of Script Timer has no impact on your System Folder, and it has an extremely small memory footprint.
Script Timer is a shareware product. If you find it useful, please consider paying the shareware registration fee. The fee is US$10 for a single user, US$300 for a site license (equal to 30 users), or US$600 for a world-wide license for your organization. Complete registration instructions are given in Section 3 of the User Manual.
Unregistered copies of the program are restricted to day-of-the-week or hourly scheduling and a maximum of three scheduled run times being active at any one time.
Registered users are eligible to receive free technical support for Script Timer via email, and will be notified of any updates and news about the product. They will also receive a script designed to be run by Script Timer that uses the popular Internet engines Anarchie or Interarchy to download files from the Internet.
Hardware and Software Requirements
Script Timer 1.01 will work on any Macintosh running System 7.5 or later.
This version of Script Timer will work under OS X Beta in the Classic Environment, but it is strongly recommended that if you are running Mac OS X Beta you use Script Timer 1.01X, which is a Mac OS X native version of this program. This version will be available soon. Please e-mail us if you are interested. (See Contact Information below.)
Please see the section "Known Problems" below.
Installation Notes
After you have decompressed the distribution file all of the following items will be contained in a folder called "Script Timer 1.01":
1. This file.
2. The Register program.
This program is used when you wish to register by e-mail, fax, or snail mail. It can be run either directly, or by clicking on the 'Run Register' button in the Registrar's dialog.
3. The Registrar plug-in.
This plug-in is loaded by Script Timer when you attempt to register the program and is not meant to run on its own. It is used to verify that you have entered the correct registration code.
4. The Sample Scripts folder.
This folder contains three sample scripts for use with Script Timer to get you started.
5. The program itself.
6. A dummy data file.
Script Timer will not run without a data file. This plain text file contains sample run items. Remove them and replace them with your own items, or leave them in for reference. They are all "commented out" by having a '!' as the first character in the line.
7. The User Manual.
This is an HTML document and can be opened with any browser or other program that can interpret HTML. Double clicking on it will load it with Netscape Navigator.
The Script Timer 1.01 folder may be placed anywhere on your system. Unstuffing the distribution file and moving the folder to your preferred location is all there is to installing the program. However, before you start to use Script Timer, there are a few things to note:
1. You should create a new folder to contain the scripts you want to schedule BEFORE you run the program for the first time. Script Timer will ask you to select the folder that contains your scripts when you first run it. Note that all your scripts need not be in this folder. If Script Timer cannot find a script in your folder, it will ask you to locate it on your system.
2. Please read the manual first. It is not that long. Since the program is intended to run unobtrusively in the background, it has a minimal user interface. Just launching the program and trying to figure out how it works will not be very useful. It is especially recommended that you review Section 2.7 (Helpful Hints).
3. If you choose to register the product, you should save the registration code sent to you in case you need to re-install Script Timer.
4. It is a good idea to save a copy of the stuffed (compressed) distribution file for the program on a back up disk. Feel free to distribute this file to fellow Mac users.
Known Problems
For some system configurations, Script Timer has become unstable when it is running at the same time as Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 under Mac OS 9.0.4. Apparently, Internet Explorer 5.0 is known to be unfriendly to background processes such as the one used by Script Timer, and this is made worse by a problem associated with version 9.0.4 of the Mac OS. Therefore it is recommended that if you plan to use Script Timer adn Internet Explorer 5.0 concurrently under OS 9.0.4, you test it cautiously in a situation where you will not lose data in another application should a crash occur.
For other versions of the operating system, Script Timer should work in all normal conditions.
Contact Information
We welcome your comments, questions, and criticisms. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for improvements to Script Timer, or if you have another application you would like to see developed that would make your life easier. You can contact us at:
WWW: http://www.theboss.net/appsmore
email: appsmore@kagi.com
Go the to Apps & More web site to check for the latest version of Script Timer, and for any news about the product. Just click on the "Shareware and Freeware" button.
