The Business Master (3rd Edition)/The Business Master (3rd Edition).iso/files/business/an201/an.doc

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                          Ample Notice
                Appointments calendar/alarm clock

                         by Mark Harris

               Granny's Old-Fashioned Software(tm)
                        Route 4, Box 216
                      Boone, NC 28607-9423
                         [phone]
                       Fax [phone]

                         September, 1992
                           Version 3.0

                (c) Copyright 1992 by Mark Harris
                      All Rights Reserved.

The unmodified Ample Notice distribution diskette, containing a
copy of this manual, may be freely copied and shared subject to
the conditions described in Section 11.  This document may not be
copied in printed form.











                Table of Contents


             1. Introduction                  1

             2. A quick tour                  3

             3. Installation                  8

             4. The ALARM program            10

             5. The NOTES file               12

             6. The Appointments screen      19

             7. The File screen              29

             8. CONFIG.CAL                   33

             9. Command line options         39

            10. Tips for effective use       40

            11. About Shareware              42
1.  Introduction


Ample Notice is a calendar and alarm clock package that can help
organize your life.  You enter appointments and notes into a
standard text file in any of a variety of natural formats, and
each day you view a calendar of commitments taken from this file.
Appointments which include a time can automatically set a 'pop-up
alarm clock' which notifies you at a selectable advance interval
(regardless of what you are doing on your computer).  Printouts
can be obtained in various print styles so that you can keep
track of your appointments away from your computer; you can print
compressed listings for your wallet or purse.  Different
categories of appointments can be tracked for preparation of
group meetings or for summaries of specific activities. Outdated
appointments are archived for use in preparation of taxes,
reports, etc.

The appointments file can be edited from within Ample Notice, or
by using any other standard text editor.  By using a 'background'
editor such as SideKick(tm), you can update this file in the
middle of other computing tasks.  If you have a multitasking
environment such as Windows(tm) or DESQview(tm) you can switch to
Ample Notice at any time.  Even without such additional software,
the resident alarm clock will let you view today's appointments
while executing other programs.

Ample Notice is very easy to use but its flexibility ensures that
you won't outgrow it as your use becomes more extensive.  For
example, you can add straightforward entries such as

  3/5/93 9:00 Meet with Bill
or
  Nov 3, 1993 Report due.

(A simple configuration option will enable the European
day/month/year format if this is your preference.)  You can also
enter cyclical appointments such as

  July 18  Elizabeth's birthday
     (once a year date)
  !Monday 3:00 Piano lesson
     (weekly appointment)
  \s6/26/93 !2d 1:00 ADR committee
     (every other day starting 6/26/93)
  \s6/26/93 !3w 1:00 ADR committee
     (every third week starting 6/26/93)
  \s1/10/93 !3m Quarterly report due.
     (every third month starting 1/10/93)
  \s6/26/93 \e7/20/93 !2d 1:00 ADR committee
     (every other day starting 6/26/93 and ending 7/20/93)
  !Jun3Sun Fathers Day
     (third Sunday in June each year)



                                                INTRODUCTION    1
  !?3Mon Rotary Club
     (third Monday of every month)

Another type of entry is 'notes'; starting a line with '*' will
place that entry in an initial display of reminders that are not
attached to a specific date (obligations that don't go away until
you do them).  Notes can be grouped into separate categories, but
for the moment we'll just consider general reminders.

To illustrate, suppose that the file (called NOTES by default)
contains the lines

  * Buy wedding present for Fred
  * Mow lawn
  !Wednesday 11:00 David's piano lesson
  7/17 Granny's birthday
  July 10 State tax due
  7/12/93 10:00 Dentist
  July 20, 1993 Fred Smith 2:00
  12 Jul 1993 4:00 ADI meeting
  * Take car in for recall work
  !Mon,Wed,Fri 12:00 workout at gym

and if your computer's system date is 7/5/93 then typing 'AN'
will produce the following display:

  File   Edit   Search   View   Categories   Alarm   Help

Notes                              +----------------------------+
  Buy wedding present for Fred     |         July, 1993         |
  Mow lawn                         |                            |
  Take car in for recall work      | SU  MO  TU  WE  TH  FR  SA |
                                   |----------------------------|
Monday  July 5, 1993               |                  1   2   3 |
  12:00 workout at gym             |  4   5   6   7   8   9  10 |
                                   | 11  12  13  14  15  16  17 |
Wednesday  July 7, 1993            | 18  19  20  21  22  23  24 |
  11:00 David's piano lesson       | 25  26  27  28  29  30  31 |
  12:00 workout at gym             |                            |
                                   +----------------------------+
Friday  July 9, 1993               +----------------------------+
  12:00 workout at gym             |Buy wedding present for Fred|
                                   |                            |
Saturday  July 10, 1993            |                            |
  State tax due                    |                            |
                                   |                            |
Monday  July 12, 1993              |                            |
  10:00 Dentist                    |                            |
  12:00 workout at gym             |                            |
  4:00 ADI meeting                 |                            |
                                   +----------------------------+
                                       Mon  7/5/93  2:02 p.m.




                                                INTRODUCTION    2
This example just scratches the surface of the options available
for specifying ranges and categories of appointments.  However,
the natural syntax demonstrated in this example can be quite
effective for describing a variety of applications.

Ample Notice has many additional features for maintaining the
appointments file and for using the alarm clock.  We recommend
that you take the 'Quick Tour' of the program described in
Section 2 before reading the hard-core reference sections which
follow.

Before you proceed here are a couple of important announcements:
The Ample Notice package will be updated from time to time and a
description of the changes will be maintained in a file called
READ.ME.  You should view this file as soon as possible, either
by typing GO (to see the contents a page at a time on the screen)
or by typing
  COPY READ.ME PRN
(to copy the file to the printer).

Ample Notice is Shareware and you are vigorously encouraged to
register; the registration cost is only $35 and carries
appreciable benefits.  Site licensing is also available.  Please
read Section 11 for details.


2.  A quick tour


Ample Notice is easier to use than to describe; in this section
we'll take an on-line tour through the program's features.  To
get started, get your computer up and running, then place a copy
of the Ample Notice disk (you have backed up the original,
haven't you?) in drive A.  (Section 3 has instructions for
installing the package on a hard drive or 'bootable' floppy, but
for now just use the Ample Notice disk.)  If your system date and
time have not been set, set them now by using DOS's DATE and TIME
commands.  We'll begin with a brief look at the alarm clock.

The first step is to load ALARM.COM as a resident program.  If
the
<Left Shift> <Right Shift> key combination is not used by another
resident program in your system, just type ALARM.  If this
combination is already used, type ALARM -? to see a list of codes
for the various pairs of shift keys; for example,
  ALARM -K 10
will make <Alt> <Left Shift> do the job.  Bring up the control
window by pressing the key combination; you should see something
like this:







                                                INTRODUCTION    3

          + Space,UDRL,<Esc> +
          |                  |
          |  Now:  7:53 a.m. |
          |                  |    (U,D,R,L represent the
          |  Alarm:  OFF     |     up, down, right and
          |                  |     left arrow keys)
          |  12:00 p.m.      |
          |                  |
          +------------------+

Six keys are recognized by ALARM:

  Space        - toggles alarm off/on
  Up arrow     - advances alarm time by one hour
  Down  arrow  - rolls back alarm time one hour
  Right arrow  - advances alarm time by one minute
  Left arrow   - rolls back alarm time by one minute
  <Esc>        - closes window

Change the alarm time to two minutes past the current (system)
time indicated by 'Now' in the window, then press the space bar
to turn on the alarm and press <Esc> to close the window.  The
alarm will go off at the appointed time regardless of other
computer activities, but rest assured that no interference will
occur.  For example, you can be formatting a disk when the alarm
sounds with no ill effects.  While we're waiting for the alarm to
sound let's continue our tour.

Load the Ample Notice program AN.EXE by entering AN at the DOS
prompt; the appointments file NOTES will be loaded by default.
The initial screen (the 'Appointments screen') will be divided
into five areas; most of the left half of the screen is devoted
to the notes/appointments listing, with a cursor bar highlighting
one of the entries.  A window at the lower right shows an
expanded version of the entry under the cursor bar; this window
can be used for editing the appointment and scrolls to let the
entry grow to arbitrary size.  The upper right shows a monthly
calendar and tracks the date of the highlighted appointment at
the left.  Just below the edit window is a single line showing
the current date and time.  Finally, the top line on the screen
shows the available menu options (which in turn offer other
options when selected).  If you have a mouse  and appropriate
software on your system, you'll also see a mouse cursor which can
be used as a shortcut for many keyboard entries.

You can choose an option from the menu in several ways.  For
example, any of the following actions will select the File
option:

 Press the 'quick key' <Alt F>.  (The letter 'F' in the word
  'File' is highlighted.)




                                                A QUICK TOUR    4
 Tap the <Alt> key to activate the menu, then press 'F'.  (You
  can set up Ample Notice to use a <Shift> or <Ctrl> key instead
  of <Alt>.)

 Click the mouse on the word 'File'.

The most important menu option is Help -- with a little practice,
you'll find that you can get by without the manual and rely on
Help for the odds and ends you're apt to forget.  You can obtain
context-sensitive help at any time by pressing <F1>.  At the
bottom of each help document you'll see a list of related topics,
shown in a highlighted font.  (You will need to use the <PgDn>
key if  there is more than one help screen on the current topic.)
If you have had your fill of help, press <Esc> to exit the help
screen.  If you wish to view help on a related topic, use the
cursor keys to move to the title you want, then press <Enter>.
Take this opportunity to explore a few help screens.

The other menu options in the Appointments screen are:  File,
Edit, Search, View, Categories, Alarm.  You might want to browse
through these menus, pressing <F1> occasionally for a description
of a command.  We'll provide a full description of each command
in Section 6; for now, we'll just dabble in a couple of options.

You can use the cursor keys or mouse (if you have one) to move
through your appointments.  If you hold down a shift key while
using the cursor keys, you'll move by a day, week, month or year
at a time.  With a mouse you can just click on a date in the
monthly calendar to move to that day's appointments.  To change
to a different month, click on one of the calendar's borders.
Take this opportunity to browse for a while with your choice of
keyboard or mouse.

The Print option lets you print appointments for a range of dates
in either list or monthly calendar form.  We won't do any
printing now, but let's experiment with the options.  Press <Alt
F> to bring up the File menu, then press 'P' to select 'Print
list'.  You'll see the following submenu:


     Start date: 11/1/92
     End date: PAGE
     Mode:  Normal
     Include notes: YES
     Output device: PRN
     Print


(The start date will be the current date.)  The first two options
let you specify the range of dates for the printout. If you leave
the end date as is, Ample Notice will fill a single page with
appointments rather than stopping at a specific date; by
selecting the 'End date' option, you can enter a date through
which appointments should be printed.  Move the cursor to 'Mode'


                                                A QUICK TOUR    5
and press <Enter> a few times; you'll see the mode cycle through
the four styles Normal, Compressed, Tiny and Custom.  While all
four styles can be set up to obtain special effects of your
choice (see Section 8), by default Normal, Compressed, and Tiny
print a full-page listing with 2, 3, and 4 columns, respectively,
while Custom prints a 2-column list which folds in half to the
size of a dollar bill.  The Custom option is great for carrying
your schedule in your wallet.

Other choices available in the current print menu let you include
or suppress notes in your printout and give you the option of
redirecting the printout to a file for additional processing by
other programs. Similar options are available for the 'Month'-
style listings.  For now, just press <Esc> three times to back
out of the print menu.

While on the subject of the <Esc> key, here is a rule of thumb
for accepting or rejecting entries in Ample Notice:  <Esc>
generally lets you back out of a selection gracefully without
making any changes. The <F10> key, or <Shift Enter>, is used for
proceeding with an entry.  Wherever possible, <Enter> can also be
used for selecting an option.  For example, when entering single-
line information, such as the name of a file to be loaded, either
<F10> or <Enter> will work. When editing a multi-line
appointment, <Enter> may be required as a character in the entry
(to separate lines), so <F10> or <Shift Enter> is required in
this instance.

Now try adding an appointment of your own.  The most commonly
used menu options have 'quick key' shortcuts.  You can insert an
appointment in two equivalent ways:

 1. Go to the main menu, select Edit, then select Insert, or
 2. just press the 'I' key.

(Quick keys are listed to the right of pull-down menu options
where available.)  Use either method to open an edit box, then
enter your birthday.  For example,
 7/17 My birthday
Terminate the entry with <F10>.  Now browse through the
appointment listing until you locate this new entry.

To further exercise the resident alarm clock, let's enter one
more appointment.  Press 'I' and describe an appointment which
starts (say) 15 minutes from now.  For example, assuming that it
is now 3:00 p.m. on November 1, 1992, you could type

 11/1/92  3:15 pm  This is a test.

(As a shortcut, you can press <Alt D> to insert today's date.
Even easier, press <Ctrl I> instead of 'I' <Alt D>.)  Again,
press <F10> to accept the entry.




                                                A QUICK TOUR    6
To see how the alarm works with your appointments, press <Alt A>.
Assuming that you loaded ALARM before running Ample Notice,
you'll see:


     Show current alarms
     Set New alarms
     Set alarms on eXit:  YES


Normally just exiting Ample Notice will automatically set today's
alarms, but we'll force the issue before quitting.  Select 'Set
New alarms'.  You'll  see a list of all alarms sets; in this case
there is only the one which you just entered.  The screen will
show:


   Alarm         Appointment
    3:10 p.m.    3:15 pm  This is a test.
   Press any key to continue...


Note that the alarm is set 5 minutes prior to the time entered.
The warning time can be changed from this value to any other.

There are two ways to confirm later that alarms have been set as
desired.  You can select 'Show current alarms' from the Ample
Notice 'Alarm' menu, or you can press <Left Shift> <Right Shift>.
The latter alternative is available even after you exit Ample
Notice -- the ALARM program sits in the background and can be
activated at any time.  The ALARM screen will show the alarm
window you viewed earlier, and a second window containing the
single line

  3:15 pm  This is a test.

Pressing <Esc> will remove the alarm listing in either case.
By now you have set two alarms -- one 'manual' which is not
attached to an appointment, and a second alarm for the test just
described.  In the default configuration each alarm will sound
for only five seconds, but you can change the duration of the
alarm and also allow for an extended (occasional) chirp in case
you are not at your computer when the alarm sounds.

Most of the time the Appointments screen with which you've been
experimenting is all you'll need for effective use of Ample
Notice. Occasionally, though, you will want to see the underlying
notes file from which appointments are selected.  In particular,
you'll need this view of your data for archiving outdated
appointments, merging two or more notes files, sorting a notes
file, or adding categories for selection of appointments by owner
or subject.  You can switch to the File view by choosing 'View',
'File View' from the main menu, or by using the quick key 'V'.



                                                A QUICK TOUR    7
The quick key is worth remembering -- the same key will take you
from File view back to Appointment view.

Proceed to open the File view.  Each appointment is represented
by a single line, and a cursor highlights the current entry.
Press 'E' to edit one of these entries; you'll open an edit
window that lets you use typical word processing commands to
modify the appointment.  Try altering an entry with some
experimentation, but use <Esc> rather than <F10> when you're done
so the changes won't take effect.  Press <Esc> again to exit
Ample Notice.  (You'll be prompted to confirm that you want to
exit.)



3.  Installation


The simplest way to install Ample Notice is to put the
distribution disk in a floppy drive, make that drive the default,
then type ANSETUP.  You will be prompted to enter some
information; the rest is automatic.

Installation will probably proceed with no difficulties.
However, you should be aware of the mechanics of the setup
program in case you need to modify its effects.  The following
text describes the installation process; additional comments
about installation or updating a previous version can be found in
the READ.ME file on the Ample Notice disk.

Installing Ample Notice is simply a matter of putting a few files
where the program and DOS can find them.  If you're installing
onto a floppy, you will probably be content to put all files in
the root directory; if you have a hard disk, we recommend putting
all Ample Notice files in a subdirectory.  The installation
procedure uses \AN3 as a default for a hard drive; you can
override this by providing an argument to ANSETUP.  For example
typing
   ANSETUP C:\APPTS
will put files in the subdirectory APPTS on drive C.

The installation program does the following:

1. The files AN.EXE (the program itself), the NOTES file,
 ALARM.COM (the pop-up alarm clock), AN.HLP (a help file) and
 ANINST.EXE (a program for changing AN's default colors, etc.)
 are copied to the appropriate disk/subdirectory.

2. The file CONFIG.CAL is created with information describing
 your    printer.  (See Section 8 for the function of
 CONFIG.CAL.)

3. The program will (if you give it the go-ahead) automatically
 add AN's subdirectory to the PATH command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT


                                                A QUICK TOUR    8
 file, and will put ALARM in this batch file so that the alarm
 clock is loaded when you boot your computer.  If you feel
 comfortable editing batch files it would be advantageous to do
 this yourself instead; you can control the exact search order
 of your PATH and the point at which ALARM is to be loaded.  If
 you want to take control of putting ALARM in AUTOEXEC.BAT be
 sure to read the following section about options available when
 loading ALARM.

It is important that your system's date and time be set correctly
before Ample Notice is run.  If your computer has a battery clock
this is probably done for you, but if you lack this hardware you
will need to include the lines
   DATE
   TIME
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file before the line containing ALARM. When
DATE and TIME are executed you will be prompted to enter the date
and time.

After installation, the next time you boot your computer you can
view your appointments simply by typing AN at the DOS prompt.
You may want to display your calendar automatically when you turn
on your computer; if so, just add the line AN to AUTOEXEC.BAT.

Ample Notice's default screen colors should be reasonably
attractive and functional, but they can be changed.  Run ANINST
and enter the name and location of your CONFIG.CAL file when
prompted. (For hard disk users this will most likely be
C:\AN3\CONFIG.CAL.) You can change all of the colors which Ample
Notice uses and the changes will be saved in CONFIG.CAL when
you're done.

























                                                INSTALLATION    9
4.  The ALARM program


   ALARM.COM is a small resident pop-up alarm clock.  It can be
used independently of the appointments calendar AN.EXE, and AN
can function without ALARM.  If AN is run when ALARM is resident,
today's appointments will set the alarm clock.  You can set one
additional alarm by popping up ALARM's window and pressing the
space bar (as described in Section 2).  The ON/OFF status of the
window refers to this last alarm; any appointments displayed when
the window is brought up will always trigger appropriate alarms.

Note that ALARM should be run only once after you boot your
computer.  If ALARM is in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (recommended) it
will be loaded without your intervention; otherwise you will have
to type ALARM at the DOS prompt.

ALARM can be run with no arguments, but several options can be
selected on the command line.  The syntax is

  ALARM  [-?] [-K keycode] [-B n] [-D] [-E] [-H]
        [-L] [-R] [-S] [-V n1 n2 n3 n4] [-Z]

where options are indicated in brackets but the brackets
themselves are not included.  Some of these options are pretty
exotic; most people will use at most the K and L options, and
these are set automatically during installation if you let ANINST
modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Descriptions of each option are
given below, with typical examples following the definitions.

-? shows a help screen but does not install ALARM.

-B sets the beep duration in seconds.  For example, ALARM -B 10
 sets a 10-second alarm.  The default is 5 seconds.

-D disables the popup window, but continue to sound alarms as
 usual.  In certain circumstances, popping up the window can
 disrupt a time-critical operation, such as receiving a file via
 a serial port.  Normally you won't need to worry about such
 problems.

-E reenables the popup window if it has been disabled.

-H  If ALARM has been loaded in high memory (for example by using
 Quarterdeck's LOADHI program), ALARM -H will enable ALARM to
 change previous settings in the resident program.  Suppose you
 had loaded ALARM with the default activation keys <Left Shift>
 <Right Shift> and you subsequently want to change the keys to
 <Alt> <Right shift>.  Normally you could enter ALARM -K 9 to
 make this change, but if ALARM is loaded in high memory, the
 resident copy won't be found to allow the changes to be
 recorded.  Typing
 ALARM -H -K 3 will search high memory and the change will take
 effect.


                                          THE ALARM PROGRAM    10

-K sets keys to bring up window; 'keycode' is one of
 3 - Right Shift + Left Shift  (default)
 5 - Right Shift + Ctrl
 6 - Left Shift + Ctrl
 9 - Right Shift + Alt
 10 - Left Shift + Alt
 12 - Ctrl + Alt
 For example, ALARM -K 12 specifies the <Ctrl> and <Alt> keys.

-L - Long alarm.  The alarm stays on until you press the same
 shift combination which brings up the alarm.  After the first
 five seconds the alarm beeps once every 30 seconds until it is
 turned off.

-R removes ALARM from memory.  You should not use this option if
 other resident programs have been loaded after ALARM.  Also
 note that the 'H' option must be used if ALARM was loaded in
 high memory: ALARM -H -R.  (The order in which the options are
 typed doesn't matter.)

-S shows alarms.  If the popup window has been disabled and you
 want    to view alarms without reenabling ALARM, the 'S' option
 will have the same effect that pressing <Left Shift> <Right
 Shift> normally would.

-V changes screen colors.  The numbers n1 - n4 (separated by
 spaces) correspond to the colors used for the window, the alarm
 time, the labels and the actual time.  Each number is a value 0
 - 255 which describes the foreground and background colors.
 The number is computed by the formula
     foreground + 16*background
 where foreground and background are values corresponding to the
 colors below:

 0  black       8  gray
 1  blue        9  light blue
 2  green      10  light green
 3  cyan       11  light cyan
 4  red        12  light red
 5  magenta    13  light magenta
 6  brown      14  yellow
 7  white      15  bright white

 The background color is restricted in value to 0 - 7.
 Example:
     ALARM -V 4 7 14 1
 sets foreground colors red, white, yellow and blue, all against
 a black background.  To set a brown background (ugh!), add 16*6
 to each of these colors:
     ALARM -V 20 23 30 17

-Z suppresses video 'snow' on older CGA (circa 1985) systems.



                                          THE ALARM PROGRAM    11
You can combine options in any order; for example
     ALARM -Z -K 12
will load ALARM, suppress snow and set the key combination to the
<Ctrl> and <Alt> keys.
     ALARM -L -V 4 7 14 1
chooses the long alarm and changes screen colors.
     ALARM -?    shows help screen,
     ALARM -K 6  changes activation to <Left Shift> <Ctrl>,
     ALARM -B 20 -K6 changes beep duration to 20 seconds and
          activation to <Left shift> <Ctrl>,
     ALARM -R    removes ALARM from memory.




5.  The NOTES file


The file in which you keep a list of reminders and appointments
is called NOTES by default but the name can be changed
permanently (see Section 8) or temporarily (on the AN command
line or by using the File command in AN's editor).  You can edit
NOTES with any editor which can read and write standard ASCII
files.  As an example, WordStartm in the nondocument mode is
appropriate, as are SideKicktm and PC-Writetm.  Using Ample
Notice's built-in editor is the preferred way to modify NOTES;
the main incentive for using a different editor is if you happen
to be using another program when you want to add a reminder.

We recommend that you edit a copy of the NOTES file from the
Ample Notice disk when you begin using the package rather than
starting with an empty file of your own.  (The installation
program ANSETUP copies this file automatically.)  While you will
want to delete many of the lines from this file, you will find
the standard dates (such as Thanksgiving and Fathers Day) and the
comment section (lines starting with ';') worth keeping.  The
latter section includes examples of AN syntax and will keep
manual references to a minimum.

Lines in the NOTES file should begin with a date or one of the
characters '*', '!', '&' or '\'; other lines are ignored when the
appointments screen is displayed.  Lines beginning with '*'
represent notes - reminders which are not associated with a fixed
date.  For example if you need to trim your hedges, the date is
not critical but the obligation won't go away until you get
around to it.  The text following '*' will be displayed in a
special notes section which can be optionally printed with your
appointments.

There are two kinds of notes:

1. If the '*' is followed by one or more spaces, the following
 text    represents the note.



                                          THE ALARM PROGRAM    12
2. If the '*' is followed immediately by from one to four
 letters, then    these letters are used as a category code for
 the following text.  For example, the note
       *car Bring in for 30000-mile checkup.
 will put the note 'Bring in for 30000-mile checkup.' in the
 category 'car'.  Categories should be declared with special
 entries which associate codes of up to four characters with
 longer descriptions; for example
       \C car=Automotive records
 By grouping notes or appointments into such categories, you can
 use Ample Notice as an elementary data base program: you can
 pull out notes and/or appointments meeting one or more
 conditions.  Categories can indicate owners instead of
 activities, so you can list all appointments owned by (say)
 Bill, Judy and Sam; this allows scheduling of meetings for
 groups of people.  Categories are described in more detail
 later in this section.

One-time appointments begin with a date.  If a time immediately
follows the date then the time will be used in sorting the file
and for setting the alarm clock.  Several date and time formats
are recognized; e.g.

   10/2/93 2 p.m. Call Bob
   October 2, 1993 2:00 Call Bob
   2 October 93 1400 Call Bob

European date (day/month/year) formats are also allowed; see
Section 8 for the appropriate modification to CONFIG.CAL.

If the a.m./p.m. indicator is omitted then the time is assumed to
be a.m. if it is from 8:00 to 11:59, otherwise it is interpreted
as p.m. (The periods in a.m./p.m. are not required, and case
doesn't matter.)  If the year is omitted then the 'appointment'
becomes an anniversary and is displayed or printed whenever the
month and day are in the range specified.  For example,
   May 25 David's birthday
will show up every year.

In any context in which a month is expected, the wild card '?'
can be used to match any month.  For example,
   ?/10 Mortgage payment due
will show an appointment on the tenth day of each month.

The last day of a month can be indicated by using a value greater
than 31.  For example,
   ?/32 xyz
puts the appointment 'xyz' at the end of each month.

Ranges of dates can be entered with a minimum of fuss.
   7/3/93+3 Atlanta conference
will put the commitment 'Atlanta conference' with the date 7/3/93
and the three days which follow (for a total of four days).
   6/10/93-7 anniversary


                                             THE NOTES FILE    13
will put the reminder 'anniversary' under the date 6/10/93; in
addition, the reminder will be placed in the notes category if
the current date is one of the seven days preceding 6/10/93.
This is a 'forward nag' appointment; backward nagging is
described below as one of the '\' options.

One other variation on standard date entries uses the '>'
character to indicate a number of days to add to a date.  For
example,
   11/17/93 > 14 xyz
adds the appointment 'xyz' 14 days after 11/17/93  (i.e.
12/1/93). This saves having to count days on a calendar.

Each appointment entry can be as long as you like.  When entering
an appointment in Ample Notice, word wrapping will be performed
to keep the entry visible in the current window, but wrapping
will take effect at different positions in printouts of different
widths.  You can enter a 'hard carriage return' in an appointment
by pressing <Enter>; on the screen the return will be represented
with a left arrow symbol, and in the notes file a new line
starting with '&' will be added.  For example, if you enter
   This is a test.<Enter>
   This is only a test.
the entry will be recorded as two lines in the file:
   This is a test.
   &This is only a test.
The end of the entry will show on the screen as a solid triangle
symbol.

The '!' character is used to start lines describing appointments
with cycles more complex than simple anniversaries.  There are
three ways in which '!' can be used.  The first is for weekly
reminders:

   !Wed 3:00 Piano lesson
     (Piano lesson every Wednesday at 3:00)
   !Mon,Wed,Fri 4:00 meet Jim at Gym
    (4:00 appointment three times every week)

The second syntax is useful for dates such as Fathers day and
Thanksgiving which fall on a specific day of the week:

   !Jun3Sun Fathers Day
    (third Sunday in June each year)
   !?3Mon Rotary Club
    (third Monday of every month)
   !May5Mon Memorial Day
    (last Monday in May)

The number '5' has a special significance in this context - it
indicates the last such day in a month.  If there are only four
Mondays in May, then the fourth will be triggered.  You can add
or subtract a number of days to a date in this format using '>'
and '<'; for example


                                             THE NOTES FILE    14
   !Nov1Mon>1 Election Day
indicates one day past the first Monday in November (which is US
Election Day).  !Nov1Mon<1 would be the day preceding the first
Monday in November.

Another '!' category is every nth day, week or year.  Since it
doesn't make any sense to talk about every-other-day appointments
without giving a starting day, the starting date is given after
'\s'.  In addition, an ending date may be specified following
'\e'; if no ending date is given, then the cycle continues
indefinitely.  Here are some examples:

   \s6/26/93 !2d 1:00 ADR committee
    (every other day starting 6/26/93)
   \s6/26/93 !3w 1:00 ADR committee
    (every third week starting 6/26/93)
   \s1/10/93 !3m Quarterly report due.
    (every third month starting 1/10/93)
   \s6/26/93\e7/20/93 !2d 1:00 ADR committee
    (every other day starting 6/26/93 and ending 7/20/93)

While the syntax looks intimidating, it's really fairly simple.
The appointment is preceded by !, a number, then one of the
letters d,w,m.  The number is the cycle length - for example, 3
means every third whatever - and the letter indicates day, week
or month.  Before the '!' comes the starting date and an optional
ending date.  One pattern requires no starting date:
   !1d 10:00 take medication
shows every day at 10:00.

Note that you can use either the '!Wed' or '!1w' syntax to
indicate weekly appointments.

You can precede notes or appointments with a variety of options
starting with the '\' character.  You might want to skip this
listing on first reading of the Ample Notice manual, since you
will probably use the program for a while before desiring these
more advanced features.

\B - Print age with birthdays.  Here's an example:
     \B5/25/82 David's birthday (  ).
 A typical listing will now show:
     Saturday  May 25, 1993
     David's Birthday (11).
 The date following '\B' is the birth (or anniversary) date, and
 the parentheses reserve room for the age to be printed.  Be
 sure to leave space for all digits; for example,
     \B7/4/1776 US Independence (xxx).
 leaves three spaces for the number of years since the US
 Declaration of Independence.  The x's will be replaced with a
 number when the entry is saved in your notes file, but the
 proper numerical value will show on the appointments screen for




                                             THE NOTES FILE    15
 all future years.  The parentheses can occur anywhere in your
 entry; e.g.
     \b3/11/84 Emily's (  ) birthday.

\C - Define category.  Both notes and appointments can be grouped
 into categories, and any subset of categories can be viewed in
 the appointments screen.  The basic syntax is
     \C code=heading
 where code can be from 1 to 4 characters, and heading is a
 longer, more descriptive name.  For example:
     \C BJ=Bob Jones
 might be used to indicate that a note or appointment starting
 marked with BJ belongs to Bob Jones.  The category can be a
 subject rather than a person; e.g.
     \C FT=Federal income tax
 The titles (Bob Jones, Federal income tax) will appear on a
 pop-up window on the appointments screen when categories are to
 be selected.  When you select a category, an '!' is inserted in
 the definition:
     \C!FT=Federal income tax
 You can record the definition this way in advance if you want
 to 'preselect' a category for the Appointments screen.  Section
 6 describes category selection in detail.

 Unique colors can be assigned to categories.  The definition
     \C BJ,2=Bob Jones
 will make all BJ notes and appointments green (color 2) against
 the default background; the definition
     \C BJ,2,7=Bob Jones
 specifies green against a white background (color 7).  The
 possible color values are described in Section 4.

 Once a category has been defined, subsequent appointments can
 be attached to the category using the \* option.  For example,
     \*BJ 11/10/93 Vacation
 shows that Bob Jones is on vacation on 11/10/93.  For notes a
 shorthand is available:
     *BJ pay mortgage
 is equivalent to
     \*BJ * pay mortgage
 There should be no space in the string '*BJ'.

\D - Date on which appointment is marked as 'done'.  For example,
 the appointment
     ?/10 Pay mortgage.
 indicates that you should pay your mortgage on (or by) the 10th
 of each month.  The modification
     \D 10/10/93 ?/10 Pay mortgage.
 has the same meaning but will show the instance 10/10/93 with a
 check mark next to it.  When you press 'M' (for mark) in the
 Appointments window, the '\D date' is automatically added to
 the appointment currently highlighted.  Repetitions are
 allowed; e.g.
     \D 10/10/93 \D 11/10/93 ?/10 Pay mortgage.


                                             THE NOTES FILE    16
 shows two payments having been made.  For a 'one-shot'
 appointment or note, the '>' character can be used instead:
     >11/10/90 bring car in.
 marks the entry as completed.

\E - Ending date for cyclical appointments.  Follow '\E' with a
 date in month/day/year format (or day/month/year if the
 European option has been set in CONFIG.CAL).

\I - If you precede a note or appointment with \I (the 'I' stands
 for important), the line will be highlighted when listed.  You
 can prioritize highlighting using \1 (same meaning as \I), \2,
 \3 and \4.  For example,
     \I *This is an important note
     \2 *This is also important, but looks different
 The associated video attributes can be changed by modifying
 CONFIG.CAL or by running the ANINST program - see Section 3.

\L - Used to include a cyclical appointment in Short listings
 (selected through the Appointment View menu).  For example,
 given the two entries
     \L !Wed abc
     ! Thu xyz
 only first will show in the Short listing.  Both entries will
 show in the Long listing, which is the default.

\N - Marks a one-shot appointment as a 'nag' entry; the
 appointment becomes a note (always visible) after the date has
 passed.  For example
     \N 2/1/93 Change oil
 will show as a regular appointment until after 2/1/93 - the \N
 prefix will have no effect.  After this date, the effect is
 exactly the same as if the line was entered as
     * Change oil
 For cyclical appointments, the action of  \N is qualified by
 the 'nag interval' which defaults to one week but can be
 changed in CONFIG.CAL.  For example,
     \N 2/1 Change oil
 will nag you for the seven days 2/2 to 2/8 each year.

\P - Don't print.  The note or appointment will be suppressed in
 printouts, but will continue to show on the screen.  For
 example,
     !Mon Put out trash
 is reasonable for viewing on the screen, but doesn't produce
 very     dignified printouts.
     \P !Mon Put out trash
 is more appropriate.

\S - Starting date for cyclical appointments.  Follow '\S' with a
 date in month/day/year format.

\W - Don't show if appointment falls on a weekend.



                                             THE NOTES FILE    17
\U - Notes beginning with \U (for 'unimportant') will be
 displayed only once a week.  The default display day is Monday,
 but this can be changed (see Section 8).  For example
     \u* This is an unimportant note.
 will cause the text following the '*' to be shown as a note
 once a week.  This option helps you avoid cluttering the screen
 with notes which serve more to distract than to remind.  If
 daily notes are compact - a third of the screen or so - they
 will be more effective.  You can also use the categories
 described above to keep from viewing too many reminders at
 once.

\X - Date on which appointment is marked as excluded.  (This
 option is similar to '\D'.)  For example,
     \X 10/8/93 !Fri 5:00 meeting.
 sets an appointment for every Friday except 10/8/93.  Pressing
 'D' (for delete) in the appointments window inserts '\X date'
 automatically.  For one-shot appointments, the '~' character
 provides a shorthand:
     ~10/8/93 abc
 indicates a one-time appointment which is being deleted.  The
 next time the file is updated, this line will be removed
 altogether.  However, cyclical appointments with some dates
 excluded are not deleted.

\(warning_time) - You can specify the advance warning to be used
 by ALARM for an appointment if you wish to override the default
 of 5 minutes (or a different default which you specify in
 CONFIG.CAL - see Section 8).  For example,
     \(15) 1/1/93 9:00 am xxx
 will set the alarm clock for 8:45 a.m.

\~ - Move appointment to the nearest weekday if it falls on a
 weekend.  For example 12/31/94 is a Saturday, but \~12/31 xxxx
 will show the appointment (holiday?) on Friday.  As always,
 switches can be combined and entered in any order; e.g.
 \s1/1/93\~!3d xxxx will display every third day starting
 1/1/93, except that Saturday appointments will be moved to
 Friday and Sunday appointments to Monday.

You can combine more than one '\' option on a line, in any order.
Just remember that all such options must precede the rest of the
note or appointment.

Lines which do not fit into the categories described above are
ignored by Ample Notice when generating the appointments display
(but are put in alphabetical order when the Sort option is used).
You can record information to be viewed in the editor but not in
the appointments display by preceding lines with a symbol such as
';' - see Section 10 for details.
By default there is a 2000-line limitation on the number of lines
that can be included in the NOTES file.  This can be changed in
CONFIG.CAL, but you are likely to run out of memory at around
7000 lines.


                                             THE NOTES FILE    18

6.  The Appointments screen

The Appointments screen is the default environment when you
execute AN.EXE.  The available options concern moving around the
appointments list, editing appointments, setting alarms,
specifying categories for the listing, printing a range of
appointments, and marking appointments as complete.

You can navigate through appointments, dates and menu options
using either the keyboard or a mouse.  The cursor keys scroll
through the appointments list.  Pressing <Shift> along with the
cursor keys moves through the list by date rather than
appointment sequence; for example, if the date September 27, 1993
is highlighted on the monthly calendar and you press <Shift>
<Down Arrow>, the cursor date jumps to October 4 (one week
later).  If you have appointments on this date, the appointment
cursor will highlight the first one and an expanded view of the
appointment in the edit window.  If there is no such appointment,
you'll see the message 'No appointments for this date' in the
edit window.  Shifted cursor keys let you move by day (right and
left arrow), week (up and down arrow), month (PgUp and PgDn) or
year (Home and End).

If an appointment contains 'carriage return' codes, they will
show in the listing on the left as a diamond symbol (unless
suppressed in CONFIG.CAL).  The edit box at the lower right wraps
text as necessary.

The main menu for the Appointments screen will show:
  File   Edit   Search   View   Categories   Alarm   Help
To select menu options from the keyboard, press the <Alt> key
along with the highlighted letter (usually the first letter) from
the option you want.  For example, you can activate the File menu
by pressing <Alt F>.  A two-step alternative is to tap the <Alt>
key (taking you to the menu bar), then separately press the
letter of the option you want, or move to the option with the
cursor keys and press <Enter>.  You can use the same approach to
select suboptions from the menu you bring up in this fashion.

A mouse can make navigation and selection more natural:

 Click on the menu bar arrows (which won't appear if you don't
 have a mouse) to page through the appointment list.  Elsewhere
 on the menu bar, click to select menu options.

 Click in the calendar window to move to appointments occurring
 on the date selected.  Click twice on a date to insert an
 appointment on that date.

 Click on the calendar window borders to move by months or
 years.




                                             THE NOTES FILE    19
 Click on an appointment to move the highlight bar to it.  Click
 a second time to edit the appointment.

 Click on the appointment detail window (lower right) to edit
 its contents.

 When editing, you can move the text cursor by moving the mouse
 and clicking at the appropriate position.

 In most data entry windows, clicking on the border closes the
 window.

 When the category menu is open, clicking the mouse selects/
 deselects categories.

Now let's take a quick look at the main menu in the Appointments
screen:

The File menu lets you save and load appointment files, print in
a variety of styles, and exit Ample Notice temporarily (DOS
Shell) or permanently (Exit).  There's also an 'About' screen
with an advertisement for registering the program.

You use the Edit menu to add, modify, or delete appointments.
You can mark an instance of a cyclical appointment (such as every
other week) as completed (displayed with a check mark) or you can
have it removed from the screen.

The Search menu allows you to search for an individual word or
phrase, or all such occurrences.  You can use the second feature
to pull up a calendar of, for example, all deadlines containing
the word 'tax' for printing or viewing on the screen.

The View option lets you change the appointments you're viewing
or the way in which you view them.  'File View' takes you to a
listing of all text as entered -- this view is useful for
archiving and other file manipulation activities.  Another View
alternative is 'Start date', which specifies the start date for
the year's worth of appointments you're viewing.  If you need to
browse through a past year or an interval in the distant future,
you will need to change the start date.

The List toggle under View lets you switch between Long (default)
and Short listings.  The Short option suppresses the display of
cyclical appointments unless they are specially flagged.  You can
use this feature to keep printouts manageable.

For example, Ample Notice let's you show that you teach a class
every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a year in a single entry:
    !Mon,Wed,Fri 9:00 teach 1440 class
The Long mode will show this commitment 156 times in a year,
while the Short mode won't show it at all.




                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    20
The last View options are 'Priority level' and 'Show
Unprioritized entries'.  These options let you control the level
of detail displayed on the Appointments screen.

The next main menu item is 'Categories'.  As your notes file
grows, you will find it helpful to separate entries into
different categories.  For example, you can set up a category for
all tax deadlines, or for all of your wife's entries.  When you
select the 'Categories' option you can check the categories you
want to activate on the screen.

The 'Alarm' menu item lets you set alarms from today's
appointments.  Normally alarms are set automatically when you
exit Ample Notice, but you can use this option to set them right
away.

Finally, the 'Help' option provides an index for all the context-
sensitive help screens you can obtain by pressing <F1> at any
time in Ample Notice.

Now we will investigate each menu option in more detail:


File menu.


      Save    <S>
      Load
      Print list
      Print Months
      DOS Shell
      eXit    <Esc>
      About


'Save' (quick key = 'S') let's you save the notes file.  You are
prompted for a file name, with the current name displayed as the
default.  Just press <Enter> to use the default name.  The
previous version of the file is renamed with the extension 'BAK',
so even if you have saved by mistake you can recover your
original file.

'Load' can be used to switch to a different notes file.  Most
users keep all their appointments in a single file, so you
probably won't make much use of this option.

Any time you are prompted to enter a file name, you can enter a
directory or 'wild card specification' instead.  A window of all
matching files will be shown -- scroll through this window to
peruse the file names, then press <Esc> to continue entering the
requested name.





                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    21
'Print list' is used to print the calendar in list form, similar
to the format shown on the screen.  Selecting this option pulls
up the following submenu:


      Start date: 11/7/92
      End date: PAGE
      Mode: Normal
      Include notes: YES
      Output device: PRN
      Print


The start date specifies the beginning of the printout; press
<Enter> on this field or press 'S' to enter a different date.
(Today's date is the default.)  Only appointments within the year
following the view date (initially today, but changed in the View
menu) can be printed at any given time.  These are precisely the
appointments which you can page through in the Appointments
screen.  By repeatedly changing the view date and printing again
you can list as many years as you like.

If you omit the year when entering a date, the logical value will
be added.  For example, if you're viewing appointments from
10/15/93 through 10/14/94 and you enter 2/5 as the start date,
then 2/5/94 will be recorded.

The end date sets the end of the listing.  If you use the key
word 'PAGE' (which is the default) in place of a date, printing
stops at the end of the first full page.

The 'Mode' is changed by moving to this option and pressing
<Enter>.  The mode cycles through the four styles Normal,
Compressed, Tiny and Custom.  While all four styles can be set up
to obtain special effects of your choice (see Section 8), by
default Normal, Compressed, and Tiny print a full-page listing
with 2, 3, and 4 columns, respectively, while Custom prints a 2-
column list which folds in half to the size of a dollar bill.

You can toggle 'Include notes' between YES and NO.  Notes are the
dateless commitments at the start of the screen listing.

'Output device' is PRN by default.  You can change this to direct
output to another device or to a file.  For example, if you have
a second parallel port with a printer attached you might enter
LPT2.  To capture output in a file for subsequent processing by
another program you could enter TEMP.OUT (or any other legitimate
DOS file name).  If you intend to print to a file frequently, you
should modify CONFIG.CAL or create a special configuration file
in which all print control codes are omitted so that the output
file won't contain codes for bold face and other printer options.
See Section 8 for details.

Finally, 'Print' initiates the printout.


                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    22

If your preferred choices for print style, notes inclusion and
output device are different from the defaults, you can set new
defaults as described in Section 8.

The next 'File' option, 'Print Months', is used to print the
calendar in a monthly form, similar to a wall calendar.  Each
month is listed in seven columns, with each day's box sized to
hold the appointments you have entered.  You can also add extra
white space for penciling more appointments on the run.  The
'Print Months' menu shows:


      Start month: August, 1993
      End date: PAGE
      Mode:  Compressed
      Output device: PRN
      Print


The options are similar to those for 'Print list'.  You enter a
month and year rather than month/day/year; if the year is left
out, an intelligent guess is made.  For example, if you choose
'S' to enter the starting month and if the current date is
5/14/93, then the entry


      Start month: Jul


will have the same result as the entry


      Start month: July, 1993


A comment is in order regarding the range of appointments printed
in month style.  If the view date (normally the current date, but
changed under 'View') is, say, 5/14/93, and you print starting
with the month May, 1993, then the appointments prior to May 14
won't show up.  This means that you'll see empty boxes for the
first half of May even if your schedule was full during this
time.  This conserves space, since you don't normally need a
listing of transpired appointments.  If you want a full monthly
printing for May then simply change the view date to 5/1/93.

Not all print styles will be available in monthly printouts.  To
fit seven columns on a page, the page (as indicated by the
parameters for Normal, Compressed, Tiny or Custom) must have a
width of at least 92 characters.  For the default styles this
usually eliminates Normal and Custom, but you can redefine these
styles in CONFIG.CAL to accommodate monthly listings.  The menu
will only show acceptable styles, so you don't need to worry
about dimensions when you make your selection.


                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    23

Again, you can change the default print style and output device
in CONFIG.CAL.

The next two File options are 'DOS Shell' and 'eXit'.  Selecting
DOS Shell keeps Ample Notice in its current state while taking
you to a DOS prompt.  You can perform any DOS activity you
normally would (subject to the restriction of having less
available memory):  you can view directories, format disks, run
programs, etc.  Typing 'EXIT' will return you to Ample Notice
exactly as you left it.

The 'eXit' File option lets you leave Ample Notice for good.  You
can also use the quick key <Esc>.  Either way, you're given the
chance to save the notes file if any changes have been made, and
you are prompted to confirm the exit.

'About' displays a screen encouraging you to register.  If you're
already a registered user, please ignore this and accept our
gratitude for your support for shareware.


Edit menu.


      Insert appointment    <I>
      Edit appointment      <E>
      Insert appt wi daTe   <Ctl I>
      Mark appt as done     <M>
      Delete appointment    <D>


You'll probably use the 'Insert appointment' option more than any
other in Ample Notice.  As with any frequently-used feature, it's
worth remembering the quick key, in this case 'I'.  'Insert'
brings up a blank edit window in which you can enter a note,
appointment, or category definition.  Your entry can be as long
as you like -- the edit window will scroll as you enter more text
than you can view at once.  The most important editing keys to
remember are <F1> (help), <F10> or <Shift Enter> (accept edited
entry), and <Esc> (abort entry).  The associated help screen
details the editing keys, and links to a help screen on
appointment syntax.

A couple of special symbols are displayed in the edit window.
You'll see end-of-line symbols (left arrows) if you press <Enter>
(for a 'hard carriage return'), and a single end-of-entry symbol
(triangle).  When editing the following functions are available:

 Cursor keys:  What you'd expect.
 <Alt D>   Insert marked or current date.
 <Alt T>   Insert current time.
 <Alt B>   Insert both date and time.
 <Ctrl A> or <Ctrl Left Arrow>:  Word left.


                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    24
 <Ctrl C>   Insert date - point to a date in the calendar, then
      press <Enter>.
 <Ctrl F> or <Ctrl Right Arrow>:  Word right.
 <Ctrl T>   Delete word.
 <Ctrl V> or <Ins>  Toggle insert/overwrite mode.
 <Ctrl Y>   Delete line.
 <F10> or <Shift Enter>  Accept edited entry.
 <Esc>     Restore previous entry and quit edit.

'Edit' (quick key 'E') lets you edit the entry under the cursor
bar.  If you have a long appointment which can't be viewed on the
screen in entirety, you can choose 'Edit' to scroll through the
appointment.  <Esc> leaves the appointment unchanged, and <F10>
accepts changes.

'Insert appt wi daTe' (quick key <Ctrl I>) is the same as 'Insert
appointment' except that a date is placed at the start of the
entry.  The date used is the highlighted value from the monthly
calendar.  Recall that you can use shifted cursor keys (or the
mouse) to change this date.

'Mark appt as done' (quick key 'M') is used to put a check mark
to the left of a given appointment.  The primary use for this
feature is to distinguish instances of cyclical appointments.
For example,
    ?/10 Pay mortgage
indicates a monthly obligation.  You don't want to delete the
entire entry when you make a single mortgage payment.  If  you
press 'M' for the 2/10/93 instance, the original entry is changed
to
    \D2/10/93 ?/10 Pay mortgage
(The 'D' stands for 'Done'.)  Such prefixes are cumulative;
marking the following month as well would change the entry to
    \D3/10/93 \D2/10/93 ?/10 Pay mortgage
Every so often, you should edit out old \D dates, since
interpreting them slows down Ample Notice.

If you 'Mark' an appointment by mistake, mark it a second time to
turn the mark off.

'Delete appointment' (quick key 'D') is similar to 'Mark appt as
done', except that deleted appointments are temporarily marked
with a '~'.  You can 'undelete' the appointment by pressing 'D'
again as long as the '~' is still displayed.  When you change
views or exit Ample Notice, the deletion really takes effect --
you will no longer see the '~' entry.  If the entry is cyclical,
it's not removed from the file; instead, an '\X' date is
inserted.  For example, if you choose to Delete past mortgage
payments rather than marking them as done in the previous
example, the entry might read
    \X3/10/93 \X2/10/93 ?/10 Pay mortgage
One-time appointments such as
    9/14/93 meet with Tom
really are deleted.


                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    25


Search.


     Find               <F>
     Find Next          <N>
     Select All matches


'Find' (quick key 'F') - You're prompted to enter a string.  The
highlighted bar is moved forward from its current location to the
next match.  The search is not case-sensitive.

'Find Next' (quick key 'N') - Move forward to the next match of
the string entered in the Find option.

'Select All matches' - You're prompted to enter a string.  All
appointments and notes not containing this string are removed
from the calendar (temporarily).  When this filter is in effect,
a fourth option, 'Restore', will appear in the Search menu.
Selecting this option removes the filter and returns the display
to its former state.


View.


     File View                   <V>
     Start Date  8/8/92
     Listing:  LONG
     Priority level (1-4)  4
     Show Unprioritized entries: YES


'File View' (quick key 'V') takes you to a view of all
appointments exactly as entered, codes and all.  This view, used
for archiving and file manipulation, is discussed in the next
section.

'Start Date' lets you change the year-long window into your
appointments.  By default, the year you view starts with today's
date.  This option lets you view or print appointments in the
distant future or past.

'Listing' toggles between LONG and SHORT.  Switching to a short
listing will screen out all cyclical appointments which are not
specially flagged (with the \L option - see Section 5).

'Priority Level' is a value from 1 to 4 which is used to screen
out appointments of lower priority.  As described in Section 5,
entries may be given a priority by starting with '\1', '\2', '\3'
or '\4', where 1 is the highest priority.  Setting the priority
level to 2 will show entries with priority 1 and 2, but screen


                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    26
out priorities 3 and 4.  Unprioritized appointments (those
without \1, \2, \3 or \4) will be shown or suppressed according
to the last View option.


Categories.

Categories give you a way to make your notes file more
manageable.  Organizing your appointments by category lets you
sift through a large number of entries quickly to find what you
need.  You can think of categories as subjects (e.g. taxes) or
owners (Bob vs. Judy).  The latter application lets you quickly
bring up calendars for specific groups of people to facilitate
meeting schedules.

Selecting 'Categories' brings up a menu of categories (defined
with '\C' in the notes file -- see Section 5).  For example,
suppose that you have made the following entries your the notes
file:

    \C car=Car Maintenance
    \C hous=House Maintenance
    \C xmas=Xmas List

Then the Category window will display:


       Display category codes
       All (overrides other selections)
     x Default (no explicit category)
       Car Maintenance
       House Maintenance
       Xmas List


You can move the cursor from one line to the next with the arrow
keys; pressing the space bar will put a check mark to the left of
an item.  With a mouse, just click on the line you want.
(Repeating this action removes the check.)  Checking 'Display
category codes' will result in codes being shown along with
appointments; e.g. the appointment
    \*AW 9/27/93 purchase airline tickets
will include 'AW'.  Selecting the next item, 'All', is equivalent
to checking each category individually along with uncategorized
entries.  The third item, 'Default', determines whether
uncategorized entries are displayed.  This item is automatically
selected when you start Ample Notice.  The remaining items
correspond to your category definitions and can be selected to
display associated notes and appointments.  (See Section 5.)

When you're done selecting all the categories you want, press
<Enter> or <F10>.  Pressing <Esc> cancels the new selections.  If
you save the notes file after selecting categories, the category
selections will be in effect next time you run Ample Notice.


                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    27

There are a couple of handy shortcuts available for manipulating
category displays.  From the Appointments screen pressing '+'
shows all categories, and pressing '-' undoes this action
(restoring whatever categories were previously displayed).
Pressing the space bar toggles the display of selected
categories.


Alarm.

The 'Alarm' option lets you view or set today's alarms if
ALARM.COM is resident.  (See Section 4 for a discussion of the
ALARM program.)  You'll see the submenu


      Show current alarms
      Set New alarms
      Set alarms on eXit:  YES


The third option shows the way in which Ample Notice normally
sets alarms.  If 'YES' is displayed (the default), alarms are set
automatically when you exit the program.  'No' means that you'll
have to set alarms manually using the second option.  If you want
'NO' to be the default you can set up CONFIG.CAL accordingly; see
Section 8.

The first option lets you view the appointments and alarm times
currently in effect.  If you haven't previously run AN or set the
alarms manually, no alarms will be displayed.  Note that you can
get essentially the same information by popping up the resident
alarm with the appropriate shift keys (<Left Shift> <Right Shift>
by default).

The second option sets today's alarms immediately and shows the
new settings. This option is normally used only if 'Set alarms on
exit' is set to 'NO', since otherwise alarms will be reset later.

Note that alarms are set by adjusting the times included with
today's appointments by advance warnings specified with \() or by
using the default advance.  For example
    \(10) 10/15/90 9:00 xxx
will set the alarm for 8:50, while
    10/15/90 9:00 xxx will take the default advance of 5 minutes
(or other value specified in CONFIG.CAL).


Help.

The last menu option, 'Help', gives you access to the help
system.  The <F1> key is generally more useful since it gives you
help on the feature you're currently using.  In either case, you



                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    28
can select related topics or an index of all topics from the
bottom of the help screen(s).

One help topic you should keep in mind is 'Appt syntax'.  By
selecting this subject you can view examples of various forms of
appointment entries.  Since the form some cyclical entries can be
fairly hard to remember, this saves a trip to the manual.

7.  The File Screen


Pressing 'F' from the appointments screen takes you to the file
screen, where you can get down to serious file maintenance when
you have to.  You'll see the first line of each appointment entry
including all the codes that AN uses to determine date patterns
and categories.

The cursor keys change the highlighted appointment entry (the
'cursor' entry).  Menu options can be selected with the <Alt> key
as described in the previous section.  You can use a mouse as a
shortcut for several actions:

 Click on the menu bar arrows to page through the appointment
 list.  Elsewhere on the menu bar, click to select menu options.

 Click in the calendar window (when open) to select a date.
 Click on the calendar window borders to move by months or
 years.

 Click on an appointment to move the highlight bar to it.  Click
 a second time to edit the appointment.

The command menu at the top of the screen shows:
  File     Edit     Search     View     Mark     SorT     Help
Each file command option is described below.


File.


      Save        <S>
      Load
      Archive
      DOS Shell
      append Marked..
      append From...
      eXit      <Esc>
      aBout


'Save' (quick key 'S') saves the notes file you are viewing.  You
get a chance to accept the current file name or change it to a
new name.  The old file is renamed with the extension 'BAK'.



                                    THE APPOINTMENTS SCREEN    29
'Load' lets you switch notes files.  You can also load any
standard text file, such as CONFIG.CAL or AUTOEXEC.BAT -- this
provides a convenient way to change Ample Notice installation
options.

As in the Appointments screen, you can enter a directory name or
wild card specification for either 'Save' or 'Load'.

'Archive' is used to move outdated appointments and other
selected entries to an archive file, called ARCHIVE.CAL by
default.  First use the 'Mark' menu to select appointments, then
use 'Archive' to copy this entries to the archive file.  You'll
then be asked if it is acceptable to delete the copied entries
from the notes file -- normally this is what you want.  This is
an important option for keeping the notes file manageable - a
shorter notes file makes Ample Notice snappier.

The archive file can be viewed with and manipulated by Ample
Notice.  Use the 'Load' option to recall ARCHIVE.CAL, then change
the View Date to the start of the year you wish to review.

'DOS Shell' - Temporarily exit Ample Notice.  (Described in
Section 6.)

'Append marked' is just like 'Archive', but is used for appending
marked notes to any other file.  For example, you might want to
copy appointments from your personal notes file to the notes file
that your secretary uses.  You have the option of subsequently
deleting the appointments you marked.

'Append from' lets you glue a copy of another file to the end of
your notes file.  For example, you might run across the Tour de
France schedule in file form and wish to include it in your notes
file.

'Exit' - Quit Ample Notice.  If you've made changes to your NOTES
file, you'll be given an opportunity to save them.


Edit.


      Insert appointment  <I>
      Edit appointment    <E>
      Copy appointment    <C>
      Kopy with new date  <K>
      Delete appointment  <D>
      Undelete appt       <U>


'Insert' (quick key 'I') opens an edit window for entering a new
appointment.  Use <F10> to accept the new entry, <Esc> to abort
the entry, and <F1> for help.



                                            THE FILE SCREEN    30
'Edit' (quick key 'E') lets you edit the cursor entry just as in
the appointments view.

'Copy' (quick key 'C') makes a copy of the cursor entry.

'Kopy' (quick key 'K' -- sorry for the spelling) lets you copy
the cursor entry with a change of date.  While Ample Notice
supports many date patterns there will be cases in which it is
impossible to summarize a collection of appointments in a single
entry.  Suppose that you are on a committee which plans meetings
on 10/8/93, 11/12/93 and 1/21/94; you will have to make three
separate entries to record these appointments.  'K' provides a
shortcut: start by typing the first appointment, e.g.
    10/8/93 ABC committee meets in Charlotte
(and press <F10> to accept the entry).  With the cursor on the
new entry, press 'K' to popup a calendar from which you can
select a date to replace 10/8/93.  Use the cursor keys or mouse
to highlight the date of your choice (e.g. 11/12/93), then press
<Enter>; you'll see a copy of the first appointment with the new
date substituted.  You can continue for as many copies as you
like.

'Delete' (quick key 'D') deletes the cursor entry.  Deleted
entries are saved in a buffer (memory permitting) from which you
can 'undelete' later.  The buffer is purged when you go to the
Appointments view or exit Ample Notice.

'Undelete' (quick key 'U') restores deleted entries at the cursor
position in reverse (last in - first out) order.


Search.

      Find       <F>
      Find Next  <N>


'Find' (quick key 'F') searches forward from the cursor position
for a string you are prompted to enter.

'Find Next' (quick key 'N') finds subsequent instances of the
string entered with 'Find'.


View.

      Appointment View   <V>
      Calendar       <Ctl C>


'Appointment View' (quick key 'V') switches to the Appointments
screen.  Note that 'V' in this screen takes you back to the File
screen.



                                            THE FILE SCREEN    31
'Calendar' (quick key <Ctrl C>) pops up a calendar in which you
can scroll with the cursor keys or mouse.  <Ctrl C> can be used
when editing an appointment -- point to a date on the calendar,
press <Enter>, and the date is inserted in your entry.


Mark.


      Mark Outdated appointments
      Mark matched String
      Mark current appointment     <+>
      Unmark current appointment   <->
      Clear all marks


'Mark' is used to designate entries to be copied or moved to
another file (using the 'File' option).  Marks are cumulative --
you can use several marking options sequentially to highlight the
appointments you want to manipulate as a group.

'Mark Outdated' highlights all expired appointments.

'Mark matched String' lets you mark all appointments containing a
string that you enter.

'Mark current appointment' (quick key '+') highlights the
appointment at the cursor and advances the cursor position.

'Unmark current appointment' (quick key '-') deselects a
previously selected appointment.

'Clear all marks' deselects all entries, giving you a fresh
start.


Sort.

      Sort by Date
      Sort by Category


When you view your appointments in Appointment View, order isn't
normally a problem -- chronological order is what you expect and
what you get.  However, File View may show a rather jumbled
sequence of entries depending on how you entered them.  If you
make much use of File View (and you should use this view at least
for archiving), you will find it helpful to put entries in some
kind of order.  The Sort option lets you sort by date or by
category.  If you sort by date, all entries on one date
(regardless of category) will precede all entries on a later
date.  Sorting by
category lets you order first by category, then by date, then by
time.  In either case, cyclical appointments are listed following


                                            THE FILE SCREEN    32
all one-time appointments.  Be sure to save the file if you want
the sorted order to be retained next time you run Ample Notice.

It's often convenient to include entries in your notes file that
you don't want on your calendar.  Preceding the entries with ';'
(or any other symbol which prevents Ample Notice from interpret-
ing the entries as appointments or notes) works nicely.  You can
preserve the order of such entries by starting them with charac-
ters that sort properly.  For example, you can start the first
entry with ';01', the second with ';02', etc.


8.  CONFIG.CAL


    When Ample Notice begins execution it looks first for a file
called CONFIG.CAL (or other file explicitly given on the command
line) which contains data describing your preference for screen
colors, printer formats, file names, etc.  The configuration file
may be identified on the command line (see the following section)
to handle multiple users or different sets of preferences.  If
the command line does not specify a configuration file, Ample
Notice looks first in the directory containing AN.EXE (probably
\AN3); if it doesn't find CONFIG.CAL there then the DOS PATH is
searched.  If no configuration file is found then default values
are used; for many users these defaults will be appropriate.  If
you wish to create or modify a configuration file you may use any
ASCII editor, including that in Ample Notice.  To use the AN edi-
tor you can start with something like AN -E -F \AN3\CONFIG.CAL,
which will load AN and immediately start editing the file
\AN3\CONFIG.CAL.  The file will consist of one or more lines,
which each line either a comment or an Ample Notice option.
Comment lines start with the semicolon character.  Option lines
fall into four categories: True/false, values, strings, and
lists.  Here is an example of each:

; The following true/false option suppresses the 'Welcome'
; screen that otherwise comes up on the 1st and 15th of each
; month:
NoWelcome
; The following value option specifies style 4 (Custom) for
; printing lists:
ListMode 4
; The following string option specifies that Ample Notice should
; use c:\an3\notes for the notes file:
Notes c:\an3\notes
; The following list option specifies that print style 4
; (Custom)corresponds to a width of 120 characters, a length of
; 96 characters, a left margin of 6 characters, and lists
; printed in 3 columns.
Dimensions 4,120,96,6,3

The case of the options doesn't matter -- the case shown is used
just for readability.  Options may be abbreviated, but you'll


                                            THE FILE SCREEN    33
probably be glad you spelled out the entire word when you edit
CONFIG.CAL a month later.

The available options are listed below in the four categories
just illustrated.

True/false options

AllCategories - All categories are displayed in the appointments
 screen by default.   Otherwise, only appointments not in any
 explicit category are first shown.  Regardless of the setting
 of this option, categories can be selected using the Categories
 menu.

BW - Forces Ample Notice to treat the screen as black and white
 rather than color.  This is useful for LCD projection devices.

Century20- Changes the century base to 2000.  Normally, 9/15/93
 refers to the year 1993; if 'Century20' is placed in
 CONFIG.CAL, the year will be interpreted as 2093.  After 2099,
 contact Granny's for an update of Ample Notice.

CheckEscEdit - Gives you a second chance if you press <Esc> when
 editing an appointment.  Normally any editing you have done (on
 a single   appointment) will be abandoned when you press <Esc>.

European - Interpret dates in European format (day/month/year).

FullPrintout - Normally, appointments for different dates are
 separated by a blank line on printouts.  Adding 'FullPrintout'
 to CONFIG.CAL packs appointments more closely by removing this
 space.

FullScreen - Normally, appointments for different dates are
 separated by a blank line on the screen.  Adding 'FullScreen'
 to CONFIG.CAL removes this space.

MouseOff - If you have a mouse but don't want Ample Notice to use
 it, include this option.

NoAlarm - Don't set the alarm automatically on exit.  If this
 choice is specified alarms must be set manually with the 'A'
 option in the appointments screen or by using the
 SetAlarmsOnEntry option below.

NoCategoryCodes - Normally, category codes are displayed in
 appointments.  For example, assuming that the category XX had
 been previously defined,
     \*XX 2/15/93 This is a test
 would show as
     XX This is a test
 If NoCategoryCodes is in effect, the 'XX' is suppressed.

NoClear - Don't clear the screen when exiting AN.


                                                 CONFIG.CAL    34

NoExitPrompt - Don't prompt when exiting AN unless the notes file
 has been modified and not saved.  With this option, pressing
 <Esc> will land you back at the DOS prompt quickly.  If you
 pressed <Esc> by mistake, you can always run AN again.

NoListNotes - Normally, when you choose the 'Print list' option,
 the 'Include notes' setting defaults to YES.  This changes the
 default to NO.

NoMilitaryTime - Don't try to interpret time in military format.
 For example, the entry
      10/20/93 1500 Rosewood Avenue, party.
 is read by default as an appointment at 1500 hours (3:00 p.m.).
 NoMilitaryTime prevents this interpretation.

NoWelcome - By default AN shows an advertisement on the 1st and
 15th   of each month encouraging the user to register the
 program.  'NoWelcome' guarantees that you won't be bothered by
 such   commercial interruptions in the future.  We just want to
 make sure   that you know that the program is Shareware, not
 public domain - see Section 11 for details.

Overwrite - Make all text editing start in overwrite rather than
 insert mode.  The cursor size indicates mode: fat = insert,
 skinny = overwrite.

RestoreAttributes - restores previous screen colors when you exit
 Ample Notice.

SetAlarmsOnEntry - Normally alarms are set when you exit AN or
 when you explicitly set them in the program.  If you want
 alarms to be set when you enter AN as well, add this option.

SIDateFormat - Enables recognition of the date format YYYY.MM.DD
 for one-time appointments.

SkipCategoryDefs - Category definitions should precede category
 references in the notes file (they are put at the start of the
 file when you sort), but when you enter the file screen it is
 convenient to place the   cursor below such definitions so that
 you're ready to enter an   appointment.  If this option is
 used, AN will scroll the file to skip the display of category
 definitions when the file screen is first entered.  You can
 still scroll backwards through the file to view or change the
 category entries.  This option is recommended if you make much
 use of categories.

SortAlpha - Sort notes alphabetically regardless of category
 rather than the default of category first, alphabetical order
 second.

SplitDayPrintout - Allows appointments for one day to be
 continued on the next page of a printout.  Normally it's all or


                                                 CONFIG.CAL    35
 nothing -- if all appointments for a day don't fit at the end
 of one page, the whole day is moved to the next page.  This
 option is useful if you typically have several appointments
 each day.

SuppressCategoryHeadings - Suppress the display of category
 header lines in the appointments screen (notes section).

Tomorrow - Make tomorrow the default starting date for printouts.

Truncate - truncate entries in the appointments window after the
 first carriage return.  The full entry will still be visible in
 the edit window, but you'll see just the first line on the left
 half of the screen.

WaitOnFF - Wait at the end of each page for paper change.


Value options (followed by a single number)

AlarmDelay - Specifies the default advance time for alarms.  If
 no AlarmDelay line is included, alarms will be set 5 minutes in
 advance of appointment times unless an explicit advance is
 given with \(advance).
     AlarmDelay 10
 would change the default to 10 minutes.

BorderStyle - Ample Notice uses IBM graphics symbols to make
 pretty borders on printouts.  If your printer doesn't support
 IBM graphics characters, or if you don't want borders, use one
 of the following options:
     0 - ASCII characters only ,
     1 - IBM graphics,
     2 - no borders.
 Another consideration is speed - ASCII characters will print
 much faster than IBM graphics on dot matrix printers.

ExitVideoMode - If you want to get exotic with switching video
 modes, this lets you specify the mode to initiate when AN
 exits.

ListMode - Lets you change the default print mode for 'Print
 list' from Normal to Compressed, Tiny, or Custom.  Use the
 value 2 for Compressed, 3 for Tiny, and 4 for Custom.

MaxLength -  Maximum number of lines allowed in the notes file.
 The default is 2000, but this can be increased to approximately
 4000 - 7000   depending on the average length of your
 appointments and the available memory.  Reducing this value
 will improve AN's speed somewhat and will lower memory
 requirements.

MonthMode - Used to change the default print mode for 'Print
 Months', with the same options as ListMode.


                                                 CONFIG.CAL    36

NagInterval - Cyclical appointments with the 'nag' option have to
 quit nagging sometime; the default value is one week.  For
 example, the entry
     \n 10/17 abc
 will show 'abc' in the Notes section for the 7 days following
 10/17 each year.  NagInterval can be used to change 7 to
 another value.

NumDays - Number of days for viewing appointments.  The default
 is a year's worth, and this can be revised downward.  For
 example,
     NumDays 100
 will span only 100 days of appointments.  Reducing the default
 value will speed up AN a little, and will let you get by with
 less memory.

Rows - If your eyesight is good and you want a lot of information
 on the screen, specify 43 (for 43 lines on an EGA display) or
 50 (for 50 lines on a VGA display).

TapShift - By default, Ample Notice lets you tap the <Alt> key to
 move to the main menu.  Since Windows and DESQview may make
 competing use of the <Alt> key, you can substitute one of the
 following:
     1 - right shift,
     2 - left shift,
     3 - ctrl.

UnimportantDay - Specifies the day of the week on which
 'unimportant' appointments (indicated by '\U') are viewed.  The
 values should be in the range 0 (Sunday) to 6 (Saturday).  The
 default is 1 (Monday).


String options (followed by a word)

Archive -  Archive file name.  The default is ARCHIVE.CAL in the
 directory from which AN.EXE is loaded.
     Archive c:\mydir\olddates
 changes the default to the file specified.

HiMemAlarm - High memory start location for alarm search.
 Normally   ALARM.COM is loaded in low memory and this option
 should not be used.  If you are using a memory management
 program such as Quarterdeck's QEMM to put resident programs in
 high memory, you will have to let AN know where to start
 looking for ALARM in order to set the day's alarm times.  The
 operand should be the hexadecimal segment address (0 - FFFF) at
 which to start looking; the search then proceeds upward in
 memory.  You don't have to know the exact location, but make
 sure you underestimate the address.  Example:
     HiMemAlarm C000.



                                                 CONFIG.CAL    37
Notes - Specifies the default notes (calendar) file.  If not
 given, the file is taken as NOTES in the directory from which
 AN.EXE is loaded.

OutDevice - Specifies where AN output should by default (normally
 PRN).  For example
     OutDevice LPT2
 would send output to a printer on a second parallel port, and
     OutDevice c:\mydir\temp.out
 would send output to the named file.  This specification can
 still be changed from within the Ample Notice print menu.


List options (followed by a list of numbers separated by commas)

ColorList - Specifies the colors AN should use on the screen.
 The default values should be acceptable for most users, and if
 you want to change these the easiest way is to run the ANINST
 program (which sets/modifies the ColorList line for you).
 However, if you want to tinker   with this entry directly,
 here's how to do it:

 ColorList is followed by a list of 27 color numbers for the
 various screen fields and functions used by AN.  Foreground
 colors can be in the range 0 - 15, while background colors are
 restricted to 0 - 7.  The color values are listed in Section 4.
 The 27 colors represent: main background, main normal, main
 highlight, main border, marked background, marked foreground,
 edit background, edit normal, edit highlight, edit border,
 calendar background, calendar normal, calendar highlight,
 calendar border, options background, options normal, options
 highlight, user color 1 background, user 1 foreground, user 2
 background, user 2 foreground, user 3 background, user 3
 foreground, user 4 background, user 4 foreground, menu
 selection bar background, menu selection bar foreground.

The ANSETUP installation routine will initialize the following
printer options to plausible values, but you may want to
experiment with changes if you feel comfortable manipulating
printer control codes. Your printer manual will most likely have
a control code appendix which will help.

Dimensions - Print mode number (1-4) followed by a list of
 formatting   dimensions and print options.  The mode numbers 1
 - 4 correspond to the modes Normal, Compressed, Tiny, and
 Custom.  While these names are suggestive of the default print
 styles, you can define any of the four to any new style.  The
 sequence is: text width, text length, left margin, number of
 print columns, oneline, minimum box size.  The number of
 columns is used for list style only - month style always uses
 seven columns.  If 'oneline' is 1, each appointment is
 truncated past the first line in printouts for the
 corresponding style.  Oneline = 0 means the entire appointment
 will be printed.  Minimum box size is the smallest number of


                                                 CONFIG.CAL    38
 lines for each cell in the month-style printouts.  AN will
 always expand boxes to fit appointment lists, but this value
 lets you set aside possibly empty boxes which you can fill in
 later by hand.  For example:
     Dimensions 1,120,60,6,3,0,0
 This sets up the dimensions for print mode 1 ('Normal').

Prefix - Print mode number (1-4) followed by a list of decimal
 control codes to be sent to the printer at the start of each
 page.  For example,
     Prefix 4,15,27,83,0
 sets up the fourth printer mode ('Custom') to compressed (15)
 superscript (<Esc> 'S' 0).

Reset - Print mode number (1-4) followed by a list of decimal
 control codes to be sent to the printer at the end of each
 page.  This should   normally include the form feed character
 (12).  For example,
     Reset 3,12,27,40
 indicates that in the third printer mode ('Tiny') a form feed
 (12) followed by <Esc> '@' (which resets Epson-compatible
 printers to the power-up state) terminates each page.

HeaderEnd - Print mode number (1-4) followed by a list of decimal
 control codes to be sent to the printer at the end of each
 header line.  For example:
     HeaderEnd 1,27,53
 turns off italics in the Normal style (print mode 1).

HeaderStart - Print mode number (1-4) followed by a list of
 decimal control codes to be sent to the printer at the start of
 each header line (such as the date for a list of appointments).
 For example,
     HeaderStart 1,27,52
 turns on italics in the Normal style.


9.  Command line options


    When you run AN you may specify parameters in the command
line which override those in CONFIG.CAL (or the defaults).  The
syntax is

  AN [-A] [-C configfilename] [-D #days] [-E] [-F notesfilename]
     [-I] [-W]

(where the options can be given in any order or omitted, and the
brackets are not included).  For example,
    AN -D 30 -F C:\MYNOTES
will list appointments from the file MYNOTES for 30 days.
Following is a description of each option.




                                                 CONFIG.CAL    39
A - will set the alarm clock (if loaded) automatically without
 showing   the appointments screen.  This can be used in your
 AUTOEXEC.BAT file to reduce the number of keystrokes you must
 enter to set the alarm clock.

C - Specifies a configuration file other than CONFIG.CAL.  This
 is especially useful if more than one person uses your system.
 For   example:
     AN -C FRED.CAL

D - Gives the number of days to be listed. (no more than 365)
 The value overrides the default of 365 days or the replacement
 default in CONFIG.CAL.

E - Enter editor directly.  AN -E will take you directly into the
 editor   with NOTES loaded, or AN -E -F MYFILE will load MYFILE
 instead.  This is useful for editing ASCII files such as
 CONFIG.CAL, when you don't want to interpret the file as a list
 of appointments.

F - Specifies an appointments file other than \NOTES.  E.g.,
     AN -F C:\BOB.CAL

I - Shows information screen at beginning.  Use this option to
 view the   AN version number or to see registration
 information.  The information screen is otherwise shown
 automatically on the 1st and 15th of each month unless
 'NoWelcome' is placed in CONFIG.CAL.

W - Wait at form feeds.  This has the same effect as 'WaitOnFF'
 in CONFIG.CAL but doesn't make the end-of-page pause permanent.

Again, there will almost certainly be additions to this list
described in the READ.ME file.




10.  Tips for effective use


Ample Notice is a flexible product and you will probably develop
some applications not foreseen by Granny.  Here are a few
suggestions that will help you exploit the program.

Try to keep your notes (reminders starting with *) to less than a
screenful.  Note categories are very helpful for breaking
reminders into smaller chunks.  Likewise the \U option serves to
keep information overkill off the screen.

Categories are also great for scheduling meetings.  Use a
category definition for each person in your organization, then
use the 'Category' menu to select the people you want to
schedule.


                                       COMMAND LINE OPTIONS    40
Ample Notice is significantly snappier with small notes files
than with large ones.  If AN is sluggish, reduce the size of your
notes file.  The most obvious way to do this is by archiving
outdated appointments.  You'll also want to browse through your
notes file for categorized notes you don't need any more.  If
your notes file is still too large, consider using more than one
notes file for multiple applications.

Your archive file can be very helpful for business or tax
purposes; you can recall exactly when you took a trip or filed a
report.  However, its best not to go overboard -- delete
frivolous items before performing the archive operation or you'll
have a file full of dates of haircuts and such.  If you sort your
appointment file before archiving then your archive file will
stay sorted, but if you happen to archive unsorted appointments
remember that you can always load ARCHIVE.CAL and sort it
directly.

Even with restraint in the choice of archived appointments, the
ARCHIVE.CAL file will eventually get large.  One strategy to
manage the size of the file is to break it into separate one-year
files.  For example, at the end of 1992 enter the DOS command
    REN ARCHIVE.CAL ARCHIVE.92
The next time you archive from Ample Notice, a new ARCHIVE.CAL
file will be created.  At the end of 1993, repeat the procedure
using the extension '93'.

Until computers get small enough to carry around all the time,
provision must be made for time away from the keyboard.  Using
the 'Custom' print style, you can obtain an appointments listing
which will fit neatly into a wallet or purse.  This is often
preferable to lugging around a bound appointments book, which is
not apt to make it to the tennis court or the grocery checkout
line.  The default printer parameters installed with ANSETUP may
not suit your taste -- try fiddling with the print options in
CONFIG.CAL, or contact Granny's if you have questions about
obtaining special effects.  Some printer alternatives will be
described in the READ.ME file.

If you need to handwrite appointments on your Ample Notice
printout when you're away from your computer, you'll need some
white space left on the paper.  For month-style printouts, see
the 'Dimensions' option in Section 8 for a description of how to
change the size of the boxes on the calendar.  For list-style
calendars, try adding one or more entries as follows:
    !1d___________________________
This says to add the appointment '___________________________'
every day.  This will print as a blank line to be filled in.

Ample Notice works very well with the multitasking environments
DESQview and Windows.  You'll want to load ALARM in a window
rather than in AUTOEXEC.BAT; see the file TECH.DOC for details.
Also see this file for information regarding the use of Ample
Notice on a network.


                                     TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE USE    41

For Ample Notice to be most effective it must be used on a
regular basis.  Put ALARM and AN in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file -- on
your hard disk if you have one, or on a floppy which you will
always use to boot your computer.




11.  About Shareware


'Shareware' is a means of software distribution with several
advantages to the consumer.  The complete package including this
instruction manual is contained on a single diskette which may be
freely copied and distributed.  Word of mouth provides a more
accurate and less expensive way of making a product known than
magazine advertisements, and the savings keep Ample Notice's cost
down.

You can obtain the current Ample Notice disk from Granny's Old-
Fashioned Software for $5 or a registered package for $35.
(Shipping for US/Canada/Mexico included; other orders please add
$3.)  Registration provides the following benefits:

 1. A current version of the Ample Notice disk.
 2. A printed manual.
 3. A mail-in card for a free update of Ample Notice.
 4. Telephone support for your technical questions.

Shareware does not mean 'public domain'.  Distribution is
permitted only if the package stays intact; all files should be
passed on in unmodified form.  Commercial distributors may sell
copies of the package subject to the conditions described in the
VENDOR.DOC file.  Restrictions to use by an individual are
described in LICENSE.DOC.  One of these restrictions is that
unregistered use of Ample Notice past a trial period of 60 days
is prohibited.

To register, phone (with MC or VISA) [phone],  fax (704)
264-4634, or mail payment to:

 Granny's Old-Fashioned Software
 Route 4, Box 216
 Boone, NC 28607-9423
 USA

North Carolina residents please add 6%.  Please pay by MC/VISA,
check in US funds drawn on US bank, or by cash.  Foreign orders
may send cash in dollars or in local currency (no coins), but
please allow a small margin for exchange rate fluctuations.

An order form is provided on disk under the name REGISTER.DOC.
Site licensing is also available; see READ.ME for current rates.


                                     TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE USE    42