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HOW TO USE CALENDAR CREATOR ------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Page ------- ---- A. USING ON-LINE INSTRUCTIONS . . . . . . . . . 1 B. CALENDAR CREATOR IN ACTION . . . . . . . . . 2 Getting Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 C. WORKING WITH CALENDAR CREATOR . . . . . . . . 5 Printing a Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Creating and Removing Overlays . . . . . . 10 Editing Overlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Saving and Getting Overlay Groups . . . . . 21 Printing Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 D. EXITING CALENDAR CREATOR . . . . . . . . . . 26 To see any section or page of these instructions, type the section letter or page number whenever the instructions are displayed, and then press Enter. Instructions - page 1 A. USING ON-LINE INSTRUCTIONS First, read the material in the Read Me First card packaged with the diskette. Follow the printed directions under Getting Started before you proceed further in these instructions. Getting Started guides you in running Install, a separate program that lets you copy DOS onto your Calendar Creator diskette and install Calendar Creator on a hard disk. The box sleeve and diskette label give the minimum system requirements needed to run Calendar Creator. Press F2 to load these instructions while working with Calendar Creator. To go directly to a specific section or page in the instructions, type the appropriate section letter or page number, press Enter, and the material will appear. To see the Table of Contents, press Home. To page through the instructions, use the PgDn and PgUp keys. PgDn advances you one page; PgUp returns you to the previous page. Press F10 to return to Calendar Creator. To print these instructions, press F3 when they are displayed on your screen. Your printer must be connected to LPT1 (or redirected to LPT1 using the DOS MODE command). Use continuous-feed paper, as the program does not pause between pages during printing. The printed instructions are 13 pages long. Instructions - page 2 B. CALENDAR CREATOR IN ACTION Calendar Creator lets your personal computer handle all your calendar needs, ensuring that your calendar is always neat, accurate, and up-to-date. The typical printed calendar is rigid and inflexible by comparison--it's quickly disfigured by scrawls, scratches, smudges, and erasures. Calendar Creator ends this mess and makes it easy to maintain an up-to-the-minute, annotated calendar. Calendar Creator handles information by specific date and "floating" date (the second Monday of every month, for example). A wild-card feature lets you enter repeating events such as regular meetings and birthdays. When dates change, convenient editing features make it quick and easy to update your data. With Calendar Creator, you can create all the specialized business and personal calendars you need, then combine them at will. "Overlays" are the key to Calendar Creator's flexibility. To understand how they work, imagine a calendar with transparent sheets laid over it. Such a calendar allows you to note events on the transparent sheets without writing on the underlying calendar. At minimum, business and personal schedules can go on separate overlays. To take full advantage of the system, however, you'd Instructions - page 3 create separate overlays for project and vacation schedules, or anything else you want to track over time. To make up a calendar, you simply select one or more transparent sheets and lay them on the blank calendar. In this example, the number of custom calendars you can create is limited only by the number of transparent overlay sheets available. When a sheet becomes outdated, it can be edited--even discarded--without affecting the underlying calendar itself, or the other sheets. Updating any calendar is easy: you deal only with the sheet that needs editing. Calendar Creator's overlays work just like the transparent sheets in the imaginary calendar above. Using the Create Overlay and Edit Overlay functions, you create overlays and add information to them. Overlays are saved automatically as they are created and edited. The Remove Overlay function lets you discard the ones you no longer need. The Save Overlay Group and Get Overlay Group functions let you handle selected overlays as single DOS files for easy transfer of information among several computers--or among several users of a single computer. The Print Calendar function lets you add overlays to weekly, monthly, or yearly calendars, then print the result as custom, annotated calendars that show any period from a week to a decade or more. In fact, you can create almost any calendar you can think of. Instructions - page 4 GETTING AROUND Calendar Creator is easy to use. The screen always displays the currently available function-key options, giving you a clear idea of what to do at each point in the program. Here are the basic keys you'll use: F10 Accepts the current screen entries and moves ahead to the next screen in the program. Esc Moves to the previous screen in the program without accepting the current screen entries. Enter Accepts the current entry and moves the cursor to the next item. Tab Same as Enter. Shift-Tab Moves the cursor to the previous item. Instructions - page 5 Ins Alternates between insert (block cursor) and overwrite (underscore cursor) modes. Del Deletes the character at the cursor position. GETTING HELP If you need help while using Calendar Creator, press F1. A help screen will appear, with a brief explanation of the screen currently displayed. For a more detailed explanation, press F2, and these on-line instructions will appear on your screen. To return to Calendar Creator from a help screen, press F1. To return to Calendar Creator from the instructions, press F10. C. WORKING WITH CALENDAR CREATOR When you first start the Calendar Creator program, the Main Menu appears on your screen. This menu gives you access to the program functions, each of which is discussed in the sections that follow. To choose an item from the Main Menu, type the number of your selection at the Make a Selection prompt, and then press Enter. Instructions - page 6 As you read, remember that an overlay is a record of events you add to Calendar Creator's weekly, monthly, and annual calendars. You create the overlays; Calendar Creator performs the assembly work and provides the underlying calendars. Each calendar uses a full sheet of paper. Annual calendars list events in a column in the middle of the page; months are arranged in columns at either side. Monthly calendars list events inside boxes representing the days of the month. The next and previous month appear as small calendars at the bottom of the page. Weekly calendars allow a broad horizontal band for each day; events appear within the bands. The current and next month's calendars appear at the bottom. All formats use an added "spill-over" page for events that do not fit on the primary calendar page. Spill-over pages are printed last. You can print calendars with or without overlays. Two sample overlays are included with the program. To begin, try printing a weekly, monthly, or yearly calendar with one or both of these sample overlays. Instructions - page 7 PRINTING A CALENDAR To print a calendar, select option 1, Print Calendar, from the Main Menu, and the first Print Calendar screen will appear. This screen displays a list of available overlays. Until you create your own overlays, only the two sample overlays will be listed. SELECTING OVERLAYS. To select an overlay, use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the one you want. Press the space bar to select it; if you change your mind, press the space bar again to "deselect" it. Selected overlays are indicated by an arrow. Choose as many overlays as you want, and then press F10 to accept your entries. To print a calendar without overlays, press F10 without selecting from the list. When you press F10, the second Print Calendar screen appears. SELECTING A CALENDAR TYPE. Use the second Print Calendar screen to choose the type of calendar to print and the range of dates to cover. There are three calendar types: annual, monthly, and weekly. Instructions - page 8 When you first go to this screen, a box appears around the prompts for the monthly calendar. Press F3 to specify a calendar type: the box moves from one type to another each time you press the key. With the calendar type specified, respond to the prompts within the box. For an annual calendar, type the first year to print and the number of years to include. For a monthly calendar, type the first month and year to print, and the number of months to include. For a weekly calendar, type a starting date and the number of weeks to include. Use numeric format for all date entries. Use the tab key to move between prompts. The default entries for the prompts are the current system date (the date you enter when you start your computer) and one page of output--one year, one month, or one week. When you change a date or output quantity, Calendar Creator remembers the change until you exit the program. COMPLETING THE PRINT SPECIFICATIONS. When you have selected the style of calendar, continue to the remaining prompts. Your responses to these prompts tell Calendar Creator how to print the design you've chosen. Here's how to respond to each prompt: Instructions - page 9 PROMPT RESPONSE Printer selection From the displayed list, choose and enter the number that corresponds to your printer. Print to Type the name of the port your printer is connected to. Valid entries include LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1, COM2, and PRN. Try LPT1 first if you are uncertain. Pause between pages Type Y for yes, N for no. Answer yes for single sheets, no for continuous-form paper. Number of copies Type a number, 1-99. Standard or wide Type S for standard (8.5 inch wide) paper, W for paper wide (14 inch wide) paper. Respond to each prompt in turn, pressing Tab or Shift-Tab to move between items. To accept default entries, just leave them as they are. Finally, Instructions - page 10 check that your printer is on-line, with paper aligned to the top of the form, and then press F10 to begin printing. That's all there is to it. PRINTING OVERLAYS ONLY. Occasionally, you may want to print your overlays in list form, without a calendar attached. To print one or more overlays without an underlying calendar, type 0 as your response to the Number of Weeks, Months, or Years prompt. Respond to the other Print Calendar prompts as instructed above. CREATING AND REMOVING OVERLAYS At minimum, you'll probably want at least one "personal" and one "business" overlay. Your personal overlay might include birthdays, anniversaries, and similar personal dates. Your business overlay lists meetings, deadlines, travel plans, and the like. Both personal and business overlays can be combined with the holiday overlay (provided) to create a basic personalized calendar. But since you can combine many overlays in a single calendar, it makes sense to create overlays that are specific to single tasks, projects, subordinates, superiors, organizations, schedules, and so on. The more overlays you make, the easier it is to make truly useful custom calendars. Instructions - page 11 If you're scheduling a project, for example, make a separate overlay for each team member, and then print individual calendars. Combine all overlays to create a master calendar. CREATING AN OVERLAY. To create a new overlay, select option 2, Create Overlay, from the Main Menu, and the Create Overlay menu will appear. This menu lists the currently defined overlays. The first time you select this option, the two sample overlays, Holidays and Company Calendar, will be the only items listed. Type the title of your new overlay in the space provided, and then press F10. An empty overlay is added to the list and you are taken to an Edit Overlay screen to add dates to your new overlay. To use this screen, see "Basic Control Keys," below. REMOVING AN OVERLAY. The overlay system makes it easy to remove specific annotations from your calendar without disturbing other entries. Keep the dates for a single project or activity on a separate overlay; that way, when the project or activity comes to an end, you can print a new calendar, leaving out the unwanted overlay. Instructions - page 12 To delete an overlay from the list of overlays, select option 4, Remove Overlay, from the Calendar Creator Main Menu. This takes you to the Remove Overlay screen. At the Select an Overlay prompt, type the number of the overlay you wish to delete. A warning screen gives you the chance to change your mind or correct your mistake if you inadvertently type the wrong number. Press F10 to delete the overlay; press Esc to let it remain. When an overlay is deleted, its title is removed from the overlay list, subsequent overlays are moved up, and you are returned to the Main Menu. EDITING OVERLAYS To add, delete, and change entries in an overlay, select option 3, Edit Overlay, from the Main Menu. (Remember, you must first use option 2 to create an overlay before you can enter dates.) When the Edit Overlay screen appears, it lists the currently defined overlays. Two sample overlays, Holidays and Company Calendar, are provided. At the Select an Overlay prompt, type the number of the overlay you wish to edit, and then press Enter. Instructions - page 13 Note: If you followed the directions under "Creating an Overlay," above, you will bypass the Edit Overlay screen and go directly to the split screen described below. BASIC CONTROL KEYS. The screen that appears next is divided into two windows. The left window lists the events entered on the selected overlay for the current year. Listings include the month, day, and year, plus the descriptive text you've entered. Asterisks mark "wild card" events (these events are explained later). The right window displays a list of keys and their functions. Using the listed keys you can scan events entered for the selected year, then move to past and future years and scan their events as well. The Find Date function lets you go directly to a specific date (this function is explained in detail later). Here are the keys: Up/Down arrow Scrolls up and down in the list of events. PgDn/PgUp Moves to the next/previous screen in the event list. Home Moves to the first event of the current year. End Moves to the last event of the current year. Instructions - page 14 + / - Moves to the next/previous year. Shift-F7 Deletes the indicated event. Shift-F8 Restores the event last deleted. F3 Causes the reference calendar to appear. F4 Starts the Add Event function. F5 Starts the Edit Event function. F6 Starts the Find Date function. Esc Moves back to the Main Menu ADDING A FIXED EVENT. To add a fixed event to the selected overlay, press F4 (Add Event), and the commands in the right-hand window will be replaced by the Fixed Event window. (A fixed event is one that has a specific date--August 15, 1986, for example.) At the appropriate prompts, type the month, day, and year numerically. Note that Calendar Creator inserts Instructions - page 15 the year you enter when you start your computer; type over this entry to change it. The + (plus) and - (minus) keys can help you enter dates. Press these keys to cycle through the valid responses to the Month, Day, and Year prompts: + cycles forward, - cycles in reverse. Give this auto-entry feature a try--it's a great time-saver. Next, type the event information. Be brief: events will fit on the calendar better. Finally, press F10: Calendar Creator adds the event to your overlay, saves the overlay in its new form, exits the Fixed Event window, and returns to the command list. Or press F9: this accepts the entry, saves the amended overlay, and allows you to remain at the window to add another fixed event. Either way, the new event appears on the list. Press Esc to return to the command list without adding the event. USING WILD CARDS WITH FIXED EVENTS. When the date you are adding is a recurring event, such as a birthday or payday, wild cards make your entries fast, convenient, and accurate. By responding to the Month, Day, or Year prompt with * (an asterisk) you specify every month, day, or year. Calendar Creator then automatically enters the event for every date that matches your specifications. In the event list, wild-card entries are indicated by asterisks. Instructions - page 16 Practice using wild cards. They make your work much easier, and are one of Calendar Creator's most valuable features. Here are some examples of wild-card entries and what they mean to Calendar Creator: Month Day Year -------------- Meaning ----------------- 7 4 **** The 4th of July of every year. ** 15 1986 The 15th of every month in 1986. 9 ** 1987 Every day in September, 1987. ** 5 **** The 5th day of every month in every year. ADDING A FLOATING EVENT. So far we have been describing the process for entering fixed events, events whose dates are easily known in advance. Calendar Creator also lets you add "floating events." Floating events have numerical dates that vary--the third Tuesday of each month, for example, or every Monday in the year. A regular weekly meeting is a good example of a floating event. Instructions - page 17 To add a floating event to the selected overlay, press F8 when the Fixed Event window is displayed, and the Floating Event window will appear in its place. (Whatever is currently displayed on the Fixed Event screen is ignored.) To enter a floating event, type the month, year, and event as before, but respond to the Number and Day prompts as follows: Number: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Last Day: SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT As you type, you'll notice that you must enter only the characters that distinguish one valid entry from another (M for Monday, TU for Tuesday, etc.). Calendar Creator enters all other characters automatically. As with the Fixed Event window, the + (plus) and - (minus) keys speed you through the valid responses to the Number, Day, Month, and Year prompts. Press F10 to accept your entries, exit the Floating Event window, and return to the command list. Press F9 to accept your entries and remain at the window to add another floating event. In each case, the Instructions - page 18 new event will appear on the list in the left-hand window. Press Esc to return to the command list without adding the event to the overlay. Press F8 to switch back and forth between fixed and floating events as needed. USING WILD CARDS WITH FLOATING EVENTS. As with fixed events, you can use wild cards with floating events. Here are some examples: Number Day Month Year -------------- Meaning --------------- 2nd SUN 5 **** The 2nd Sunday of May in every year. 1st MON ** 1986 The 1st Monday of every month in 1986. * SAT 10 1986 Every Saturday in October of 1986. In the event list, your wild-card entries are indicated by asterisks. EDITING AN EVENT. To edit an event on the selected overlay, use the arrow, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, + (plus) and - (minus) keys to highlight the event you want, and then press F5. To find a specific date, use the Find Date function described below. Instructions - page 19 The window at the right will be replaced by either the Fixed Event or Floating Event window, whichever is appropriate, and the current entries will be displayed for editing. Change the entries as needed, and then press F10 to accept the new ones. If you change the date, the event is removed from its original location in the list and reentered at the new location. When you edit a recurring (wild card) event, all occurrences are changed simultaneously. DELETING AND RESTORING AN EVENT. To delete an event on the selected overlay, use the arrow, PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, + (plus) and - (minus) keys to highlight the event you want. To find a specific date, use the Find Date function described below; if there is no entry for the date you specify, a message will appear. When you have highlighted an event to delete, press Shift-F7, and the event will be removed from the list. If the selected event is a recurring (wild-card) event, a warning will appear, giving you a chance to change your mind. Type Y (yes) to delete the event; type N (no) to go back without deleting it. When you delete a wild-card event, all occurrences are removed from the list. Instructions - page 20 Calendar Creator remembers the event last deleted so that if you remove an event by mistake you can restore it. To restore the event last deleted, press Shift-F8, and the event will reappear on the list. This function works for both fixed and floating events. If the event is a wild-card event, all occurrences are restored. FINDING A SPECIFIC DATE. To find a specific date on the selected overlay, press F6. Type a date in numerical form at the Month, Day, and Year prompts that appear at the bottom of your screen, and then press F10. Calendar Creator will go to the specified event and highlight it--or the one closest to it, if you specify a date for which no event is entered. In overlays with many entries, this feature makes it possible to get close to a date you may not remember exactly. Press Esc to exit the search function. USING THE REFERENCE CALENDAR. To help you in your editing, a reference calendar is available whenever the Edit Overlay screen is displayed. Press F3, and the reference calendar will appear in the center of your screen. Use the following commands to control the calendar: Instructions - page 21 PgDn/PgUp Moves to the next/previous month. Home Moves to January of the current year. End Moves to December of the current year. + Moves forward one year. - Moves backward one year. Esc Returns to the Edit Overlay screen. SAVING AND GETTING OVERLAY GROUPS The Save and Get Overlay Group options help you share Calendar Creator overlays among multiple users and/or computers. When you work with project schedules and group or club activities, more than one person may need access to certain calendar overlays. The Overlay Group options let you assemble, transport, and share selected overlays in groups. Personal overlays and overlays not relevant to a given activity can be excluded from these groups. Instructions - page 22 Each overlay group is saved as a single DOS file and is subject to the eight-character DOS filename limit (plus a three-character extension). Overlays included in groups can still be edited, using Calendar Creator. SAVING AN OVERLAY GROUP. To save a group of overlays as a DOS file, choose option 5, Save Overlay Group, from the Main Menu, and the Save Overlay Group screen will appear. From the list of overlays, select the overlays you want. To select an overlay, use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the one you want. Press the space bar to select it; if you change your mind, press the space bar again to "deselect" it. An arrow appears next to each selected overlay. Choose as many as you want. Next, type the drive, path (if needed) and filename for the group at the Directory or Filename prompt. Finally, press F10 or Enter to save the overlay group. If you enter the name of an existing file, Calendar Creator will warn you that the file is about to be overwritten. Press F10 to overwrite the file; press Esc to quit the Save Overlay Group function and return to the Main Menu. To display a list of files in a directory, type just the drive and directory name at the Directory or Filename prompt, and then press Enter. Instructions - page 23 Calendar Creator will display a list of the files in that directory. Type the filename for your group at the Save Overlay Group As prompt, and then press F10 or Enter to save it. GETTING AN OVERLAY GROUP. To retrieve an overlay group that you have previously saved to disk, choose option 6, Get Overlay Group, from the Main Menu, and the Get Overlay Group screen will appear. This screen displays a list of files in your current working directory. Type the name of the file you want at the Name of File to Get prompt, and then press F10 or Enter. Note: When a group file is loaded, the group is broken up and its overlays are added individually to the list of overlays you've already created. When an overlay to be added has the same name as an overlay on your list, a warning message appears. At this point you have two choices: Press F10 to go to the next screen, or press Esc to skip over the overlay without loading it. When you press F10 and go to the next screen, you again have two choices: press F10 to load the new overlay, overwriting the existing one; or type a new name for the overlay to be loaded, and then press F10 to load it under the new name, thus preserving the overlay on your list. Instructions - page 24 PRINTING PROBLEMS If you have a printing problem when working with Calendar Creator, check the items in the list that follows. Always begin with your equipment, then analyze your printout. Here are some possible problems and their solutions: PRINTER REFUSES TO PRINT. If your printer refuses to print, check the following, then turn your printer and computer off for a minute, turn them back on, and then try again: 1 Make sure your printer cable is tightly plugged into both the computer and the printer and that the printer is on-line and is not out of paper or ribbon. 2 Make sure you've specified the right printer selection and that your printer has any required options (see the package back). 3 Make sure that all printer switches are properly configured to print graphics (see your printer manual for details). Instructions - page 25 4 If you are using a serial printer, make sure the COM port has been properly configured with the DOS MODE command before you load Calendar Creator. (See your DOS manual for details.) CALENDAR IS ENLARGED, CONDENSED, OR "BROKEN." Turn the printer off, wait a moment, and then turn it on. Try printing again. CALENDAR IS CUT OFF. If you mistakenly indicate wide paper on the Print Calendar screen, but are using a standard-width printer, Calendar Creator may cut off any part of the design that falls outside the standard-width printing field. If your calendar is cropped in this manner, check that you have specified your paper width correctly. CALENDAR APPEARS "SCRAMBLED." When printing, Calendar Creator fills standard or wide paper according to your specification at the Standard or Wide Paper prompt on the Print Calendar screen. Be sure your entry at this prompt is correct; if it's incorrect, you may get confused results. Instructions - page 26 D. EXITING CALENDAR CREATOR To exit to DOS from Calendar Creator, select E at the Main Menu. This brings up the message: "Exit to DOS (Y/N)?" Type Y (yes) or N (no). When you enter Y, you exit Calendar Creator and the DOS prompt appears; N returns you to Calendar Creator. Remember that your work is automatically saved each time you press F10 while working with the Create and Save Overlay functions, and with the Save and Get Overlay Group functions. Thus when you exit by way of the Main Menu, you can rest secure that Calendar Creator will remember your changes the next time you start the program. --- End of Instructions ---