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Schedule*Master Version 1.1 User's Guide Table Of Contents Disclaimer ............................................ 1 Overview .............................................. 2 System Requirements .............................. 2 Installation Instructions ............................. 3 Initial Setup ......................................... 4 Setup Categories ................................. 4 Setup People ..................................... 6 Working With Dates .................................... 7 Adding Records ................................... 8 Add Schedule Records ........................ 8 Add Todo Records ............................ 9 Editing Records .................................. 9 Moving A Record .................................. 10 Deleting A Record ................................ 10 Repeating Records ................................ 11 Repeating Records Using The Buffer ............... 12 Closing A Todo Record ............................ 12 Attaching / Viewing A Note ....................... 13 Printing A Day's Events .......................... 13 'Go To' Function ................................. 13 Working With The Options Menu ......................... 14 Extended Search .................................. 14 Reports .......................................... 17 Daily Summary ............................... 17 Weekly Schedule ............................. 17 Monthly Schedule ............................ 17 System Statistics ........................... 18 Utilities ........................................ 19 Edit Categories/People ...................... 4,6 Change Todo Count ........................... 19 Show Closed Todo's .......................... 19 Change Todo Sort ............................ 19 Export Database ............................. 20 Mass Delete ................................. 21 Help ............................................. 22 Quit ............................................. 22 DOS Shell ........................................ 22 Exit ............................................. 22 Schedule*Master Version 1.1 User's Guide Table Of Contents - Continued Miscellaneous Information ............................ 23 Command-Line Parameters ......................... 23 Popup Calendar .................................. 23 Appendix 1 Miscellaneous Editing Keys ................ 24 Appendix 2 Printer Driver ............................ 25 Appendix 3 Using A Mouse ............................. 26 Appendix 4 The Compress Program ...................... 27 Disclaimer The author makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents hereof and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, the author reserves the right to revise this publication and make changes to the content hereof without obligation of the author to notify any person or organization of such revision or changes. Overview Schedule*Master is an easy-to-use yet powerful system to manage your daily schedule and to do list. Unlike other systems that can take weeks to master you'll find that using all that Schedule*Master has to offer takes no time at all. Schedule*Master was designed to track the two types of events that most people need to remember: Schedule and ToDo items. Schedule records are items that occur on a specific date and have a definite start and end time. ToDo records are items that must be completed on a specific date but not at a certain time, and will continue to show up every day after their due date until you mark them as being completed - you won't forget them simply because the date has slipped. Major features of Schedule*Master are : . Each appointment and ToDo record can have a 'note' attached to it with further information about the item. The note record can be up to 5 lines of 50 characters each. . Up to 4000 records (and 4000 notes) can be stored in the database. . There are extensive searching capabilities available to allow you to find information once you have entered it. . If you have a mouse, and your mouse software is loaded, it will be detected automatically. Details of how to use the mouse are listed in the 'Using A Mouse' section of this document (Appendix 3). Please take a few minutes to read this document before you begin using Schedule*Master. The time you spend now will help you use the program more efficiently and will be time well-spent. System Requirements Schedule*Master requires an IBM PC/XT,AT,PS/2 or any other 100% IBM compatible computer with at least 380K free memory and a CGA monitor (color recommended). A hard disk is not really necessary, however it is highly recommended. Microsoft compatible mice are supported but not required. Installation Instructions Floppy-Based Systems Although it is highly recommended that you run Schedule*Master from a hard drive it is possible to run it on a floppy disk based system. Simply copy the files on the distribution diskette to a blank, formatted diskette. The copied diskette is what you will use to run Schedule*Master from - never use the original! In addition it is recommended that you make a backup copy of the distribution diskette and store it in a safe place, just in case something should happen to the original. Hard-Disk Based Systems Make a sub-directory on your hard drive called SMASTER and copy the files from the distribution diskette to this new sub directory. As with floppy-based systems it is recommended that you make a copy of the distribution diskette and store it in a safe place, just in case something should happen to the original. If you are unsure of how to copy diskettes or create sub directories please refer to your DOS manual for help. Main Screen / Initial Setup To execute Schedule*Master on a hard disk based system : Use the change directory (CD) command to move to the SMASTER directory and type SM and press ENTER. On a floppy-based system insert the Schedule*Master diskette into the currently logged diskette drive, type SM and press ENTER. The first screen you will see upon executing Schedule*Master is the copyright notice screen. Press the 'Enter' key to continue. The next screen to be displayed is the main screen or main menu and is your primary means of navigating the program. It consists of a calendar display in the center left-hand side of the screen showing the current month's calendar with the current date hi-lighted (the current date will also have an asterisk * next to it). On the right-hand side of the screen is a window displaying some of the options available. At the bottom of the screen, on the 25th line, is a list of the PF keys that are available as well as the current time and the status of the copy buffer (more on this later). At the top of the screen, on the first line, is a list of the menu items available when you activate the top options menu. The first time you use Schedule*Master you must establish categories to use when entering Schedule and ToDo records. These categories make performing searches a lot easier, as they are used as an index into the file. You also need to establish a list of people to help further define your records and also make searching easier. Schedule*Master allows you to define 40 categories and 40 people to schedule appointments for. To accomplish this perform the following steps. Setup Categories 1 - Press the F10 key to activate the top menu. You will notice that the 'Extended Search' option is now hi-lited. Use your right-arrow key to hi-lite the 'Utilities' option and press your ENTER key. 2 - This activates a sub-menu of various options that we will explore later - right now we're interested in 'Edit Categories' and 'Edit People'. Since 'Edit Categories' is currently hi-lited press 'Enter'. Two windows will appear. One window (on the left) is where you will edit the categories and is called the edit window, the other window lists what the current definitions are (right now they will all say 'Open....'). Setup Categories - Continued 3 - The first category is hi-lited white on red (or white on black for monochrome or LCD screens). Pressing ENTER will bring the hi-lited category into the edit window so that you can change it. You can also use your arrow keys to move the hi-lite bar up or down to choose other items in the list. Move the hi-lite bar back to the top and press 'ENTER' to bring that category into the edit window. Use your 'BACKSPACE' key to erase the 'Open....' and replace it with your own category definition. When you press ENTER the categories list will be redisplayed and you will see your definition is now in place. 4 - You can repeat step 3 for each of the categories (you may define up to 40) and press 'ESC' when finished. Setup People After you have pressed the 'ESC' use your down arrow key to hi-lite the 'Edit People' option and press ENTER. 1 - As when editing the categories, two windows will appear, one that allows you to edit the people list and one that displays what the current people are (right now they will all say 'Open....'). 2 - The first item is hi-lited white on red (or white on black for monochrome or LCD screens). Pressing ENTER will bring the hi-lited item into the edit window so that you can change it . You can also use your arrow keys to move the hi- lite bar up or down to chose other items in the list. Move the hi-lite bar back to the top and press ENTER to bring that person into the edit window. Use your BACK SPACE key to erase the 'Open....' and replace it with your own person definition. When you press ENTER the list will be redisplayed and you will see your definition is now in place. 3 - You can repeat step 2 for each of the people (you may define up to 40) and press ESC when finished. After you press 'ESC' the pull-down menu is still displayed. Press 'ESC' twice now to return to the main menu. Please take a few minutes to think about the categories and people you wish to setup. This is very important because once they are established they should not be changed, as when a category or person definition is changed all records pertaining to that item will also reflect the new definition. If you are going to change an item's definition you should use the 'Mass Delete' option (described later in this guide) to delete all references to the item being changed prior to making the change. A little forethought now will save some confusion later. Now that you have setup your categories and people list you can begin using the program. There are other set-up options that are available, however to describe all of them now might just confuse the issue - we'll discuss them as they become pertinent. Working With Dates Most of the time you spend using Schedule*Master will be working with specific dates - adding, changing, repeating, moving records etc. You can select a date to work with from the main menu by using your cursor keys to move the hi-lited box around on the calendar display (notice how the current date is hi-lited automatically when you first begin using Schedule*Master). You can use the 'Page Up' key to move to the previous month, while the 'Page Down' key will move the next month. If you wish to add a record for a prior or upcoming year, or if you just want to see another year's calendar, use your plus and minus keys. The plus key moves you ahead one year, the minus key moves you back one year. If you wish to go directly to a specific month and year press 'G'. A window will appear asking you for the month and year you wish to display. Enter the date in the MM/YYYY format and press 'Enter'. That month's calendar will be displayed and you can continue from there. If you are moving around the months and years and want to quickly return to the current date just press the 'F2' key. To select a date simply press the 'Enter' key when the date you wish to work with is hi-lited. New to version 1.1 is the 'Weekly Graph' display. While viewing the main menu press the 'W' key. A window will appear asking who you wish to report on. Select a person by positioning the hi- lite bar over a name and pressing 'Enter' (the last item in the list is 'All' and will show all records). After selecting a person a graph will appear for the week in which a date is hi- lited showing the times that are taken by appointments and the times that are free. When you have selected a day to work with Schedule*Master will perform a search for all records pertaining to that date and display them for you. You can have up to 100 records for each day in any combination of Schedule or ToDo records and they will be displayed 20 at a time. Schedule records will be displayed white on blue, while ToDo records will be white on green. The first record will be hi-lited black on white, or if no records exist for this date then only a white 'bar' will be displayed. You can use your arrow keys to move the hi-lite bar up and down the screen, while the 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' keys will move to the next screen of records (assuming there are more than 20 records for that date). While you are viewing a day's events you can use your left arrow key or your '-' key to move to the prior day, the right arrow key or your '+' key to move to the next day. If you have used the arrow keys to move around to different dates, and want to quickly return to the current date, simply press 'F2'. The following sections explain the options available while working with a selected date. Adding Records As explained above there are 2 basic types of records you can keep track of: schedule records and ToDo records. To add either type of record you must first select a day for which to add the record. For a schedule record you need to select the day the appointment is for a ToDo record you need to select the date the item is due to be completed. Add Schedule Records To add a Schedule record press the 'A' key after you have select ed a date to work with. A window will display in which you can enter the information pertaining to an appointment. Enter the requested information in the following manner : Start Time / End Time - These fields are mandatory. Enter any valid starting time, Schedule*Master will display an error message if you enter either the hours or minutes incorrectly (you must not use military time or try something like 12:87). AM/PM Designator - This field immediately follows both the Start Time and the End Time fields. After you have entered the hours and minutes you will be placed in this field. You must enter either 'A' for am or 'P' for pm - no other characters will be accepted. Category - After you have entered the Start Time and End Time the category field must be entered. A selection window will appear showing all of your defined categories. You can select one by using your cursor keys to position the hi-lite bar over the desired category and pressing 'Enter'. You can also type the first letter of a category name and the first item to match that character will be hi-lited. Who - As with the Category field a selection window will display and allow you to select a person to make this appointment for. Again, use your cursor keys to select an appropriate person or type the first letter of the desired item to move the hi-lite bar to that item. Text - This is where you describe what this appointment is for - this field is not mandatory, you don't have to put any thing in here. You can type anything you wish up to 45 characters. After you have entered all of the information for this record and press your 'Enter' key the window will disappear, and the daily records display shown again with your appointment added. See the appendix 'Miscellaneous Editing Keys' for additional information. Add ToDo Records To add a ToDo record press 'T' after you have selected date to work with. A window will display in which you can enter the information pertaining to a ToDo record. You will notice that the record is given a 'Due Date' that is equal to the currently displayed date and that the closed date is 0/0/0 (obviously since this record hasn't been completed yet!). Enter the requested information in the following manner : Category - After you have entered the Start Time and End Time the category field must be entered. A selection window will appear showing all of your defined categories. You can select one by using your cursor keys to position the hi-lite bar over the desired category and pressing 'Enter'. You can also type the first letter of a category name and the first item to match that character will be hi-lited. Who - As with the Category field a selection window will display and allow you to select a person to make this appointment for. Again, use your cursor keys to select an appropriate person or type the first letter of the desired item to move the hi-lite bar to that item. Priority - This field allows you to prioritize ToDo records by their level of importance. You must enter a number between 0 and 9 with 0 being the highest priority (and the default if you simply press 'Enter' without entering anything into this field) and 9 being the lowest priority. Text - This is where you describe what this appointment is for - this field is not mandatory, you don't have to put any thing in here. You can type anything you wish up to 45 characters. After you have entered all of the information for this record and pressed your 'Enter' key the window will disappear, and the daily records display shown again with your ToDo record added. See the appendix 'Miscellaneous Editing Keys' for additional information. Editing Records You can edit a ToDo or an Schedule record at any time by first selecting a day to work with, hi-liting the desired record by using the up/down arrow keys to position the hi-lite bar, and pressing 'Enter'. The appropriate window will appear with the fields already filled in. You can use the 'Tab' keys or up/down arrow keys in the same manner as when you entered the information initially. When you having finished editing the record press either the 'CTRL+ENTER' keys simultaneously or press 'ENTER' after editing the TEXT filed and the record will be replaced and redisplayed on the screen. You can press the 'ESC' to abort the edit - the record will remain unchanged. Moving A Record In case you need to postpone a Schedule or ToDo record you can use the move option. To move a record to another date use the cursor keys to hi-lite the desired record and press 'M'. An input window will appear requesting the date you wish to move the record to. Enter the date in MM/DD/YYYY format. You will receive an error message if you try to enter a date incorrectly. After entering the desired date press 'Enter' and the record will be moved to that date. The records for the currently selected day will be redisplayed - the record you moved will no longer appear. Deleting A Record Sometimes you'll add a record for the wrong date, an appointment will be canceled, or a task will no longer need to be performed. You can remove these records completely by hi-liting the desired record and pressing the 'Delete' key. You will then be asked to confirm that you wish to delete this record. If you enter 'Y' the record will be deleted. If you enter 'N' or just press 'Esc' the record will not be deleted. Be careful about which records you delete - you can't 'un-delete' them afterwards! You can delete from either the daily display or the extended search display. The only difference is that the daily display will be updated after a delete operation is performed and you will be able to see that the record has been deleted. When you delete from the extended search display the word 'Deleted' will appear in the Category field. The next time you perform a search the record will not appear. Remember that deleted records are not really deleted, they are simply flagged as deleted and ignored by Schedule*Master. To reclaim the space that the deleted records are using the files you must run the compress program. See Appendix 4 for instructions on running the delete. Repeating Records If you want to repeat a record every day, week, month, etc. simply hi-lite the desired record and press 'R'. A menu will appear with the repeat options displayed. Use the cursor keys to select the desired interval and press 'Enter'. A window will appear asking to select the desired date to stop the repeating. Enter the date in MM/DD/YYYY format. As always you must enter a valid date or Schedule*Master will display an error message and allow you to reenter the offending data. When you have entered the date correctly the hi-lited record will be repeated at your desired interval up to and including the stop date. As always, pressing 'Esc' will abort the operation. The interval options are : Daily Repeat this event every day until the stop date. Weekly Repeat this event every week, on the same day, until the stop date. Bi-weekly Repeat this event every 2 weeks, on the same day until the stop date. Monthly Repeat this event every month, on the same day of the month, until the stop date. Annually Repeat this event every year, on the same date, until the stop date. Every X Days Repeat this event every x number of days until the stop date. You'll be prompted to enter x. Repeating Records Using The Buffer Sometimes you may want to repeat a Schedule or ToDo record in a way that is not provided using the 'R' option described above. For example, maybe you have a meeting scheduled on the first Monday of every month. Schedule*Master provides a way to handle these occasions by using a buffer. To repeat a record for the first Monday of every month, for example, perform the following steps : 1 - Enter the record on the first Monday you wish the appointment to appear. 2 - Hi-lite the appointment and press 'B'. 3 - Press 'Esc' to return to the main menu or calendar display. Notice that in the lower right-hand corner a message is displayed 'Buffer is active'. The record has been copied into the buffer and you can now begin the process of 'dropping' it into the dates you want it to appear. 4 - Use the cursor keys to move the hi-lite box around to next date you wish the record to appear. 5 - Press 'B' and the record will be added to that date. 6 - Continue steps 4 and 5 as many times as needed. The record will remain in the buffer until you either place another record in the buffer, or press 'C' from the main menu (the buffer clear command). If you press 'C' from the main menu then the message in the lower right-hand portion of the screen will read 'Buffer is inactive'. Closing A ToDo Record ToDo records will continue to display past their due date until you close them. This feature makes it impossible to forget about a ToDo item simply because the due date has slipped. To close the record use the cursor keys to hi-lite the desired record and press 'C'. If you do not have a ToDo record hi-lited when you press 'C' you will hear a short 'beep' indicating that you have made an incorrect choice. As long as you have a ToDo record hi-lited the record will be updated showing today's date for the closed date. Attaching A Note To A Record Viewing A Note Each type of record can have a note associated with it. To add a note to a record use the arrow keys to position the hi-lite bar over the record you wish to attach the note to and press 'N'. A note window will appear giving you 5 lines of 50 characters each in which to enter your note. You can type anything you wish within the confines of this window. To save the note you can either press 'Enter' while on the last line of the note or press 'CTRL+Enter' anywhere. To abort this note record and abandon any changes you can press the 'Esc' key. Once a note is attached to a record you will notice an asterisk '*' directly preceding the record's text field when displaying a day's events. To view and/or change the attached note simply hi-lite the record and press 'N'. The note will appear and you can edit any line you wish. To save the changes press 'Enter' on the last line of the note or 'CTRL+Enter' anywhere. Printing A Day's Events You can print a day's records by pressing 'P' while the records are being displayed. If you want to print the records and any associated notes you can do so by pressing 'ALT+P'. Either report is printed immediately, if the printer is online and ready. If there is an error while printing, or the printer is not ready when you request a print-out an error message will be displayed. 'Go To' Function While viewing a day's records you can move directly to a specific date by pressing the 'G' key. A window will appear asking you for the date you wish to move to. Enter the date in the MM/DD/YYYY format and press 'ENTER'. You will be taken directly to that date. Working With The Options Menu The Options Menu is activated from the main menu (or calendar display) by pressing either 'F10' or the 'slash' key '/'. You'll notice that after pressing one of these keys that the word 'Extended Search' is now hi-lited. You can use your left and right arrow keys to hi-lite any of the other options and press 'Enter' to activate their associated sub-menu's. The Options Menu choices are going to be described from left to right starting the 'Extended Search' option. Extended Search Pressing 'Enter' while 'Extended Search' is hi-lited causes a sub-menu to appear showing the different types of searches you can perform. The 3 types are Schedule, ToDo and Both. Use your cursor keys to hi-lite the type of search you wish to perform and press 'Enter'. If you wish to search for only Schedule or only ToDo records then choose those items, otherwise select Both to search for all types of records. A window will appear requesting additional information so that you may further define your search criteria. You can enter the fields in the following manner : Start Date / End Date - These fields allow you to limit your search to records that fall within a specific time frame. You are not required to enter these fields, however using them will significantly speed up the searching process, as these are key fields. If you use them you must enter the dates in MM/DD/YYYY format. If you choose not to use these fields then just press 'Enter' repeatedly until the cursor is in the Category field or press the down arrow key to avoid pressing 'Enter' a few times. Category - This allows you to search for records that pertain only to a specific category. Use the up/down arrow keys to position the hi-lite bar over the category you wish to search for. If you wish to include all categories in this search then position the hi-lite bar on the last item in the list (All). Who - This allows you to search for records that pertain only to a specific person. Use the up/down arrow keys to position the hi-lite bar over the person you wish to search for. If you wish to include all people in this search then position the hi-lite bar on the last item in the list (All). Extended Search - Continued Text - You can also search for records based on what was entered in the text field. The searches are not case-sensitive and the entire field will be examined. For example, if you had a schedule record with a text field that read 'Meet Bob for lunch', you could find that record by simply entering 'Bob' in the text field of the search window. Schedule*Master would examine each record's text field to see if the word 'Bob' existed anywhere in the field, and if it did it would be displayed. As you might have guessed this is not the fastest search you can perform - text fields are not indexed so these types of searches are slower than others, however it's a nice feature to have when you need it. If you have chosen to search for ToDo records only an additional field will be available called : Open/Closed/All (O,C,A) - If you wish to search only for open ToDo record then enter 'O'. To search for only closed records enter 'C'. To search for all records enter either 'A' or simply leave the field blank. After you have entered the desired search criteria you can perform the search by either pressing 'Enter' while in the TEXT field or by pressing 'CTRL+Enter'. The database will be searched and any records matching your criteria will be displayed. Schedule*Master will display the results of the search in much the same manner as when you display a single day's activities - 20 per page with ToDo items hi-lited in green. Only the first 100 records matching your search criteria will be displayed at a time, you can use 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' to scroll through them. When you press 'Esc' to return to the search submenu you will be asked if you wish to continue searching (note you will only be asked this if the end of the database has not yet been reached). Pressing 'Y' will then display the next 100 (or less) records that match your search criteria. While the search results are being displayed you can perform the following functions : Edit - Hi-lite the record you wish to edit and press 'Enter'. An edit window will be opened, just as when you first entered the record. You can change any of the fields and press 'CTRL+Enter' (or press 'Enter' on the TEXT line) to save the changes. If you press 'Esc' the record will remain unchanged. Print - Just as when working with a specific date you can press 'P' to print the results of this search, or 'ALT+P' to print the records and any associated notes that may be attached to the records. Extended Search - Continued Create/Edit Notes - You can either create a note or edit an existing note by hi-liting the desired record and pressing 'N'. If a note already exists for this record it will be displayed and you can make changes to it as needed. If no note exists already then the note lines will be blank and you can create a new note at this time. Pressing 'Enter' on the last line of the note or pressing 'CTRL+Enter' at any time will store any of your changes to the note. If you press 'Esc' any changes to the note will be abandoned. Delete - Hi-lite the record to be deleted and press the 'Delete' key. A window will appear asking you to confirm the delete. Enter 'Y' to delete the record or 'N' (or ESC) to cancel the delete. Unlike the daily display the screen will not be updated to show you that the record has been deleted. It will simply say 'Deleted' in the category field, however it will not appear the next time you perform a search. To exit the search function press the 'Esc' key. As mentioned above, if you haven't reached the end of the database yet you will be asked if you wish to continue the search. At this time the Extended Search sub-menu is still available. You can either perform another search, press 'Esc' to select another function from the Options Menu or press 'Esc' twice to return to the main menu. Reports Selecting the Reports option from the Options Menu causes a sub menu of report types to be displayed. The reports available are: Daily Summary - Pressing 'Enter' while this option is hi-lited will cause a window to appear requesting a date for the report. You can enter any date in MM/DD/YYYY format, or you may simply press 'CTRL+Enter' to accept the date that is currently hi-lited on the calendar display. Next you will be asked to select a report type : Schedule, ToDo or Both. Selecting Schedule will produce a report showing only appointments, selecting ToDo will cause only ToDo records and their associated notes (if any) to be printed, and obviously choosing Both will produce both reports. After selecting a report type you must then select a person whose records you wish to print. As usual you may use your cursor keys to select a desired person from the list by pressing 'Enter' while that person's name is hi-lited. If you wish to produce a report for everyone then select the final option on the list - 'All'. Weekly Schedule - Selecting this option creates a report containing all records for a specified week. The week reported on will be the week in which a date is currently hi-lited. For example, if you have Wednesday, October 24,1990 hi-lited and print a weekly report, the report will consist of October 21 - October 27. When you first select this option you will be asked who you wish to report for. As in the Daily Summary report just use the cursor keys to hi-lite the desired person and press 'Enter' to make your selection. If you wish to produce a report for every one then select the final option on the list - 'All'. After selecting a person you will be asked if you wish to include outstanding ToDo records in the report. Normally only ToDo records due during the week being reported on will be printed. If you enter 'Y' here the report will also include any ToDo records that were outstanding as of the beginning of the week. Monthly Schedule - Selecting this option will cause a report to be printed for the month in which a date is currently hi-lited. As in the Weekly Schedule you will be asked for a person to print the report for. You can select an individual or print all re cords by selecting the last item in the list - 'All'. After selecting a person you will be asked if you wish to include outstanding ToDo records in the report. Normally only ToDo records due during the month being reported on will be printed. If you enter 'Y' here the report will also include any ToDo records that were outstanding as of the beginning of the month. Reports - Continued System Statistics - Select this option and a window will appear containing various information about the records contained in the database. The window is really divided into two sections - the top half contains information about Schedule and ToDo records and the bottom half contains information about notes attached to records. You can interpret the information in the following manner : Number of records in file - This tells you the total number of records in the database. This includes Schedule records and ToDo records. This also includes any deleted records. Number of deleted records in file - This tells you that of the the number of records in the database, the number of records listed are flagged as being deleted. Remember that Schedule*Master will reuse any space created by deleting records, however if you delete 10 records and only add 5 after the delete then you will still have 5 listed as being deleted. Number of records that can be added. The statistics for the note records are the same as listed above and therefore are not repeated here. Note that this report is only available for viewing. If you wish to print this information you can use the 'Print Scrn' key to dump the entire screen to the printer. Utilities Selecting the Utilities option from the options menu will cause another sub-menu of options to appear. You can use your cursor keys to move the hi-lite bar to the desired option and press 'Enter' to select it. The options available are described below: Edit Categories/Edit People - These options are explained in the main screen / initial setup section of this manual. For the sake of saving space please refer to that section for information on these two options. Change ToDo Count - By default, only ToDo records that have not yet been completed and are due within the next 15 days are shown whenever you select a date to work with. Selecting this option will cause a window to appear in which you can enter the number of days ahead of time you wish a ToDo record to appear. Any number between 0 and 999 can be entered. If you don't wish to change the number displayed here then just press 'Esc' and no changes will be made. Keep in mind that the number here not only affects the way records are displayed when you choose a date to work with - it will also affect any reports that are printed as well, since the search that Schedule*Master performs will include ToDo records only due within the number of days you've specified here. Show Closed ToDo's:xxx - When you choose a date to work with you will see, by default, all ToDo records, whether they are closed or open. If you press 'Enter' while this option is hi-lited the xxx will change from 'No' to 'Yes', and will allow you to determine whether or not you wish to have closed ToDo records displayed. If you choose 'No' then the only way you will be able to see closed ToDo records is by using the 'Extended Search' option described elsewhere. Selecting 'Yes' will show all ToDo records. Change ToDo Sort - By default, when you pick a date to work with you will see all Schedule records first, followed by all out standing ToDo records sorted by due date. If you press 'Enter' here a sub-menu will appear which will allow you alter the sort by date or priority. You select a sort parameter by using the cursor keys to hi-lite the desired option and pressing 'Enter'. If you choose 'Priority' then all ToDo records will always be sorted by priority, not by date. Schedule records will continue to be sorted by date. Utilities - Continued Export Database - Selecting this option will cause the entire database to be 'dumped' to a file called SMEXPORT.PRN. The file will be created as an ASCII comma-delimited file that you could then import into any program that has an ASCII import feature (most popular spreadsheet and database products do). If SMEXPORT.PRN already exists you will be asked if you wish to replace it. If you enter 'N' or press 'Esc' the export will be canceled, pressing 'Y' causes the file to be overwritten. If the file does not exist yet it will be created. While the export is being performed a message window will be displayed stating that the export is in progress. When the process is complete you will be asked to press any key to continue. The file is formatted with the following fields, in the order they are listed : Record Type - This will be either "Schedule","Open ToDo", or "Closed ToDo". Due Date - For ToDo records - the date the item is to completed by. For Schedule records this is the date of the appointment. Start Time - For ToDo records this will be 11:59 and has no meaning. For Schedule records this is the start time of the appointment. End Date - For ToDo records - the date the item was actually completed. For Schedule records this has no meaning. End Time - For Schedule records - the ending time of the appointment. For ToDo records this field is meaningless. Category - The category of the record. Who - The person the record is for. Text - The text field of the record. Mass Delete Using this option will allow you delete a large group of records at one time. This could be used at the end of a calendar year to clean up the database eliminating all of the prior year's records. It can also be used eliminate all the records pertaining to a specific category or person so that you could then change that category or person to something else. When you select this option you will be prompted to enter a date range for this delete operation. All records between these two dates will be affected. Enter the dates in MM/DD/YYYY format - if you enter any of the fields incorrectly you will be prompted to correct them. After entering the dates you will be asked to choose a person whose records you wish to delete. Use the cursor keys to move the hi-lite bar to the desired person and press 'Enter'. As in searching, if you wish to include all records then select the last option in the list 'All'. After you have selected a person another window will appear asking you for a category. Choose this field in the same manner as the person field (the last item in the list will be 'All'). After you have selected a category a final window will appear asking you to confirm your delete request. Press 'Y' to continue the delete after verifying the fields you've entered. If you press 'N' or 'Esc' the delete will be aborted. If you enter 'Y' then all of the records meeting your criteria will be deleted. Help Choosing this option opens a sub-menu with only one selection available 'About Schedule*Master'. Selecting this option simply opens a window which displays the release of Schedule*Master that you are currently running and a copyright notice. Press any key from here to return to the options menu. Quit Selecting this option opens a sub-menu which allows you to exit Schedule*Master in 2 different ways : DOS Shell Selecting this option will allow you to temporarily exit Schedule*Master and return to a DOS prompt. You can now execute any DOS commands you want, keeping in mind that Schedule*Master is still in memory. When you wish to return to Schedule*Master type 'EXIT' at the DOS prompt and press 'Enter'. You will be returned exactly where you left - with the 'Quit' sub-menu displayed. Exit Selecting this option will allow you to exit Schedule*Master completely and return to a DOS prompt, or to a menuing system if that's what you're using. This is the only way you should exit Schedule*Master - do not press 'CTRL+Break' or 'CTRL+C' while in Schedule*Master or you may suffer from data loss! You may also exit Schedule*Master at any time by pressing 'ALT+X'. This exits Schedule*Master permanently, this is the same as selecting 'Exit' from the 'Quit' menu. Miscellaneous Information This section describes the command-line parameters that can control Schedule*Master's environment. Command-Line Parameters There are 2 options you can pass to Schedule*Master when you first execute it. These options control snow-checking for CGA color screens and the pointer used when viewing a day's records. They may be used as follows : Snow Checking - Some CGA color display adapters will produce 'snow' when executing Schedule*Master. This is due to the way the program interacts with the screen. To eliminate this problem execute Schedule*Master by typing 'SM S'. The 'S' parameter can be in upper-case or lower-case. Hi-Lite Bar Option - When you run Schedule*Master on PC/XT clones or even on slower AT type machines you'll notice that the hi-lite bar moves rather slowly when displaying a day's records. If this is annoying to you then execute Schedule*Master by typing 'SM X'. The 'X' parameter will change the hi-lite bar to a pointer on the left-hand side of the screen when displaying a day's records or when viewing the results of a search. Even if you have a faster machine you may prefer this pointer to the hi-lite bar so the choice is yours. Either of the options, 'S' and 'X', can be entered in upper or lower-case letters and do not need to be entered in any particular order. If you are going to use both options, however, make sure you leave a space between them - for example 'SM X S' or 'SM S X', etc. Popup Calendar Note that when you wish to move a record from one date to another and when you repeat an event, you are asked to supply an end date. Sometimes you don't know the end date 'of the top of your head' and could use a calendar to help out. If you press 'F3' at any time a small 'popup' calendar will be displayed. You can use your 'Page Up', 'Page Down', '+' and '-' keys to alter the calendar in the same manner as the main calendar display. Press 'Esc' to return to Schedule*Master. Appendix 1 Miscellaneous Editing Keys When you are entering or changing information in either Schedule or ToDo records keep the following in mind : 1) You can use the 'Esc' key at any time to abort this operation - the record will not be added. 2) You can use the 'Tab' key or the up/down arrow keys to move between fields that are not mandatory. When you adding the AM/PM designator or selecting a category or a person from the list of people you can not use the tab keys to leave the selection list - you must select a category/person or press 'Esc' to abort the function. 3) When editing a text field you can use the following short-cut keys : HOME - moves to beginning of field END - moves to end of field CTRL+Right/Left arrow - moves one word foreword or backwards Appendix 2 Printer Driver The file SMDRIVER.DAT contains the information needed by Schedule*Master to create printed reports. This file has been set up with the codes needed by the IBM ProPrinter and compatibles. These codes should also work with EPSON and EPSON compatible printers, however I have not tested them with those printers simply because I do not have access to them. You can modify the driver file with any text editor or any word processor that will allow you to edit and save ASCII files. The layout of the file follows. Please make sure you make a backup copy of SMDRIVER.DAT before you make any modifications to it! Line 1 : Printer reset Line 2 : Bold On Line 3 : Bold Off Line 4 : Underline On Line 5 : Underline Off Line 6 : Double Wide On Line 7 : Double Wide Off Line 8 : Condensed On Line 9 : Condensed Off All codes are to be entered in decimal notation - not in hex. All lines must contain six numbers separated by one space each. If the code you are entering does not require 6 numbers then use 99 for the remaining numbers. Appendix 3 - Using A Mouse If you have a Microsoft compatible mouse attached to your system, and the appropriate driver software loaded, it will be detected automatically. You will be able to use your mouse much in the same manner as the cursor keys. The left button of the mouse will function the same as your ENTER key. The right button will function the same as your ESC key. When you are viewing the main calendar display, the right button will also cause the top menu to activate. After pressing the button a square "mouse cursor" will appear. Move the mouse cursor to the option you wish to perform and press the left button. If the item selected has a pull-down menu it will appear,and you can select one of the pull down options in the same manner. Pressing the right button twice from a pull-down menu will reactivate the calendar display. If no pull-down menu is active then you'll only need to press the right button once. Appendix 4 - The Compress Program To run the compress program perform the following steps : 1 - Change to the Schedule*Master directory (usually \SMASTER). 2 - Type 'Compress' and press ENTER (do not include the quotes). 3 - If you have deleted records in the files then the compress program will run and will reclaim any space being used by deleted records. If you have no deleted records in the files then you will receive a message informing you of this and the compress program will not run.