Welcome to Early Bird™ version 1.0. Early Bird™ supersedes Smart Alarms™ version 3.1 and continues a tradition established in 1985 of being the most complete and easy-to-use reminder system for the Macintosh.
Early Bird™ is a personal reminder system that lets you set up to 1600 reminders, each with its own message. Your reminders will appear any time your Macintosh™ is switched on, whatever application you are using. You do not have to take any special action to receive reminders.
Early Bird™ is like an infallible personal secretary. With Early Bird™, you can be sure you never miss appointments, always remember people's birthdays and pay your bills on time. You will get a new reputation for returning people's calls when you say you will!
This version incorporates thousands of user requests and suggestions, since publication of the first Smart Alarms™ in 1985. There is now a Calendar window, where you can drag and drop your reminders from one day to another. Using the new "button console", you can navigate in the calendar window as easily as you can play and rewind a tape recorder.
Early Bird™ is NOT intended to be a group scheduling program. It is simply (and always was) designed to be the best reminder program ever made.
Early Bird™ requires that you have at least a Macintosh Plus, with System software version 6.0.2 or later (including system 7). If you have System 7, you can use balloon help. Early Bird™ also supports remote paging through Notify!™, by using Apple Events.
To install Early Bird™, just drag the "Early Bird™" icon onto your System Folder icon. Then restart your Macintosh. During the startup process, the Early Bird™ installation icon will appear at the bottom of your screen, indicating that Early Bird™ has been successfully loaded:
(If instead you get some beeps, and this icon:
then Early Bird™ has detected a problem. An alert will tell you what's wrong.)
If you have a previous version of Early Bird™, there is no need to remove the old version before installing Early Bird™. Early Bird™ will remove your old version automatically. In addition, Early Bird™ will make a backup copy of your old Reminders file, and convert your old reminders file to version 8.0 format. (Note: this does not apply if you have an illegal version of Early Bird™, such as the so-called "Smart Alarms 7")
If you are installing Early Bird™ for the very first time, and installation is successful, you will soon get your "welcome" reminder. This reminder was set for you in advance. The features of this dialog will be explained below, under "Getting reminders". When it appears, just click on the "Thanks, I've dealt with it" radio button, and then the "OK" button. That will dispose of this reminder for good.
To remove Early Bird™ permanently, just drag the "Early Bird™" icon back out of your System Folder (or Extensions folder). (If you are using System 7 drag the other "Early Bird™" icon out of your "Apple Menu Items" folder as well.) Then restart your Macintosh. Early Bird™ will not appear in your apple menu, and reminders will not occur. (However, your reminders file will remain intact.)
To remove Early Bird™ temporarily, just hold down the keys "E" and "B" while the Macintosh starts up. The Early Bird™ icon will appear with a cross through it:
to show you that Early Bird™ has not loaded. (You can instead hold down the mouse button, but this may stop some of your other system extensions ("INITs") from loading as well.) (Early Bird™ may still appear in your apple menu, but reminders will not occur until you next restart your Macintosh.
Early Bird™ is activated from the Apple menu. Once you are in Early Bird™, there is complete on-line help (System 7 only). To learn how to use Early Bird™, simply activate Early Bird™ from the Apple menu. Then choose "Show Balloons" from the help menu.
Enjoy!
John R. McMullen
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Early Bird™ is a trademark of John R. McMullen.
Smart Alarms™ is a trademark of JAM Software.
Macintosh™ is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
The programs Smart Alarms™ 3.1 and Early Bird™ are the property of the author, John R. McMullen. Sales of either program after April, 1993 by anyone except the owner are prohibited by law.
