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1992-09-28
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+--------------------------+
|@ @|
| |
| NOTICE |
| BOARD |
| |
| |
| from |
| Cornerstone Software |
| |
|@ @|
+--------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------+
|@ @|
| |
| If you need help with any aspect of Notice Board |
| call Cornerstone Software on: |
| |
| UK 061-904-8143 |
| |
| Elsewhere (44) 61 904 8143 |
| |
|@ @|
+--------------------------------------------------------+
Cornerstone Software Ltd
45 Shay Lane
Hale Barns
Altrincham
Cheshire WA15 8PA
United Kingdom
This software may be freely copied and distributed as long as the full
set of files are included. For this reason, the archived file NOTICE.EXE
should be distributed, NOT the individual files.
CONTENTS
--------
INTRODUCTION ................................................. 2
EVALUATION KIT .............................................. 2
INSTALLING THE PACKAGE ....................................... 3
REMOVING THE SYSTEM .......................................... 3
RUNNING THE PACKAGE .......................................... 4
USING THE SYSTEM ............................................. 4
NOTICES ...................................................... 5
MENUS ........................................................ 6
COMMANDS ..................................................... 7
EDIT MODE .................................................... 7
CREATING & EDITING NOTICES ................................... 9
CREATING & EDITING MENUS ..................................... 10
CREATING & EDITING COMMANDS .................................. 10
HINTS AND IDEAS FOR USING NOTICE BOARD ....................... 10
NETWORKING ................................................... 11
SYSTEM MAINTENANCE ........................................... 12
ORDERING AND NETWORK LICENSING ............................... 13
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 1 Evaluation Kit
INTRODUCTION
NOTICE BOARD gives you all the facilities of an office notice board on
the PCs in your company's network. It is designed to run as part of the
network login procedure so that its notices are seen every time users log
in.
As well as messages which appear whenever the package is run, there is
a simple-to-use menu structure allowing users to browse through (and
possibly add to) any number of further notices.
The structure of the menus is decided by you, to fit in exactly with your
company's requirements, though there is a section in this manual full of
hints and ideas for ways to use NOTICE BOARD.
Size, shape and colour of notices are decided by you, as well of course
as the content. Notices are created and edited by a System Administrator
who needs only limited training and requires no computing background.
The editing facilities have been designed to be as simple to use as the
rest of the package.
In addition to acting as a notice board, the package enables you to start
other software packages by simply taking an option from a menu, so NOTICE
BOARD could be used as a complete menu environment for your network.
This documentation provides (hopefully) enough information to enable you
to try out all of the facilities of NOTICE BOARD. Of course, a full set
of documentation is provided if you purchase the package. This manual
is designed to be read from cover to cover whilst you try out the
facilities on the Evaluation Kit itself.
EVALUATION KIT
This version of Notice Board is provided for evaluation purposes and
users are expected to purchase a fully licensed copy if they wish to
carry on using it beyond the 60 day evaluation period. This copy is,
however a full working version of Notice Board and may be used either
stand-alone or in a network environment and it is recommended that it be
installed on your network to let your users take a look at it and provide
feedback.
About 60 days after installation, it will introduce a notice of its own,
indicating that you should purchase a full licensed copy. This is the
only way in which this software differs from the real thing except that
the current version of Notice Board may be greater and so purchasing the
full license may provide a later release with enhanced features.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 2 Evaluation Kit
The evaluation kit has been pre-set with a host of notices, intended to
provide an idea of how it would be used in practice. To get you started
and to demonstrate its flexibility, a set of `New User' guidelines has
been set up on <F8> (Function key 8), including a full copy of this mini-
manual. The package can be simply re-initialised, removing all of these
notices to allow you to configure it for your company. The System
Maintenance section has more details on this.
INSTALLING THE PACKAGE
It is not necessary to run this package from a hard disk drive to
evaluate it, though it will only run slowly from a floppy diskette. To
evaluate it in its normal environment it should be installed onto a hard
disk drive. It may be installed onto a local disk drive or a shared
network drive, in both cases the procedure is the same. See the
Networking section for more details.
To install the system onto a hard disk drive, first create a sub-
directory using a command similar to the following:
> mkdir c:\notice
The name of the sub-directory is not critical. Now copy the files from
the Evaluation Kit diskette to the newly created sub-directory using a
command similar to:
> copy a:*.* c:\notice\*.*
Finally, check the DOS configuration file (C:\CONFIG.SYS) on all PCs
which will use the system to ensure that enough file and buffer space has
been allocated within the DOS environment. The file should contain two
lines similar to:
files=21
buffers=8
If not then add the lines and re-boot the PC. If the values are less
than 20 and 8, increase the values then re-boot the PC.
NB: The above lines must be entered as in the example, i.e. no spaces
between the characters.
REMOVING THE SYSTEM
If the package has been installed on a hard disk drive and you now wish
to remove it, first delete the files using a command similar to the
following:
> del c:\notice\*.*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 3 Evaluation Kit
then remove the sub-directory itself using a command similar to:
> rmdir c:\notice
RUNNING THE PACKAGE
To start the package, change directory to the sub-directory containing
the package, and type:
> notice <enter>
The NOTICE BOARD package will work out whether you are using a monochrome
or colour monitor for itself. However certain portable PCs with
greyscale facilities will be mis-interpreted, so it is possible to force
the package to use one or the other by including one of the following
commands in your `autoexec.bat' file:
set nbscr=mono set nbscr=colour
NB: The NOTICE BOARD package sets a DOS environment variable (FCLIPPER)
as it loads. If the message 'out of environment space' is seen at
the time of loading then it is necessary to increase your PC's
environment size. See your DOS manual for more details.
USING THE SYSTEM
The NOTICE BOARD system is designed to be run by each user as part of the
network login procedure. It can then be used to welcome them to the
network and to display any urgent messages. The user has a choice of
either browsing through the other notices available, or simply exiting
and continuing as normal.
If there is a menu system on the PCs, then the NOTICE BOARD package
should also be one of the menu options, so that users can return to it
when they wish. NOTICE BOARD itself can be used as a menu system, if you
wish, (see the Commands section). Used this way, the network could be
set up so that the user never leaves the NOTICE BOARD environment.
Once started, the NOTICE BOARD system is completely driven by function
keys and pop-up menus. The first eight function keys <F1> to <F8>
provide access to eight topics of your company's choice. At their
simplest, each function key will just pop-up a notice on the screen.
Alternatively, the function keys can be set to provide a menu of notices,
commands and further sub-menus.
At any point in the system the function key <F9> will exit the system and
return the user to DOS.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 4 Evaluation Kit
NOTICE BOARD arranges notices in a tree-like menu structure, similar to
the DOS directory structure. To take the analogy further, notices are
akin to DOS files and they can be grouped into menus which are similar
to DOS directories. The essential difference, is that NOTICE BOARD has
eight roots, rather than a DOS disk's one, each root attached to one of
the first eight function keys. A structure will look something like
this:
F1 F2 F3 F4 ... F8
| | |
+---+---+ notice +------+--+----+-------+
| | | | | |
notice menu menu notice menu notice
| | |
+---+---+ +---+---+ +---+----+-------+
| | | | | | |
notice notice notice notice notice notice notice
One other key difference between NOTICE BOARD's menu structure and the
DOS directory structure is that the NOTICE BOARD menu structure has been
designed to be simple to use.
NOTICES
Notices are what NOTICE BOARD is all about. A notice is a pop-up window
on the screen which can contain a large amount of text (up to 64,000
characters per notice). If the notice contains more text than will fit
into the window, users can browse using all of the normal keys, <PageUp>,
<PageDn> etc
Notices can be any size, filling the screen or just occupying one corner.
Many colours are possible.
There are two sorts of notices, those that appear automatically on the
main screen, and those that are attached to function keys or menus. The
former kind are provided to enable urgent messages to be put on the
screen at network login time so that they may be read without the user
having to take any action. Examples could be messages concerning network
shutdowns or pleas for user's to backup their PCs. One useful notice in
this category, is a `Stop Press' notice giving short details of any new
notices to draw peoples attention to them. See the evaluation kit for
an example of this in operation.
The second type of notice is not visible when the package is started but
is `popped-up' by either pressing a function key, or selecting a notice
from a menu.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 5 Evaluation Kit
All the keys have their expected meaning so that <PageDn> will move down
to the next page of a notice (if a notice is longer than the screen
window). <Esc> will `escape' from a notice back to the menu. In
addition, there are some extra keys defined for moving about in large
notices:
Key | Function
---------------+--------------------------
<Ctrl><PageUp> | Beginning of Notice
<Ctrl><PageDn> | End of Notice
<Ctrl><Home> | Top of Window
<Ctrl><End> | Bottom of Window
There are a number of other key definitions which are only relevant to
editing and these are described in the section on editing notices.
If a notice is larger than the window, a bar appears on the right-hand
edge of the notice window indicating the position of the window relative
to the overall notice. This can be seen in operation in the `online'
version of the manual (<F8> unless you have redefined it), where the
notices are larger than the windows.
MENUS
A menu is a collection of notices, commands and sub-menus. If a menu has
been attached to one of the function keys, then its name appears on the
key diagram (bottom left-hand side of the screen) and pressing the key
produces a menu pop-up on the right of the screen. Items are chosen from
the menu by selecting them with the light bar and pressing <Enter>.
Movement in a menu is by use of the arrow keys and <PageUp>, <PageDn>
etc. Additionally, you can jump to an entry by typing its first letter.
If a sub-menu is chosen, then the new menu appears, slightly offset so
that the title of the calling menu is always visible. In this way it is
possible to see where you are at all times. Sub-menus may only be nested
up to 10 deep though in practice, this is far more than should be
necessary.
A sub-menu is indicated on the menu by an arrow on the right-hand side.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 6 Evaluation Kit
COMMANDS
Commands allow NOTICE BOARD to act like a menu package, starting up
another software package at the press of a button. Commands can be
linked either directly to one of the first eight function keys, or they
can appear in menus. It is possible to produce a complete menu driven
environment for the user so that it appears they never leave the NOTICE
BOARD environment. (For the memory conscious, NOTICE BOARD exits before
the new package is started, to reduce RAM overheads.
A command has two parts, the name of the command which appears in the
menu, and the DOS command that is executed when the option is taken. The
normal practice is to make the DOS command into a call of a batch file
which restarts NOTICE BOARD as its last action. The following example
batch file would run a wordprocessor and then return:
@echo off
cd \wpdir
wp.exe
cd \notice
notice
There are some implications here for network usage. Firstly, a menu
system set up via NOTICE BOARD will be common to all users. Though this
may appear a restriction, it is often advantageous from a support point
of view. Secondly, it is possible to specify batch files either on the
network drive, in which case all users will operate in the same way, or
on a user's local disk, in which case the batch files can be tailored for
the different users.
EDIT MODE
So much for using the package, now lets look at how to change notices,
menus and commands. The editing functions have been designed to be very
simple to use and the System Administrator needs no special training nor
a computing background.
Edit mode is entered via a function key, <F10>. The ability to edit
should be limited to certain users such as the System Administrator. If
editing is possible, then it will be shown by the <F10> key appearing in
the key diagram on the main screen.
To enable editing for a PC, the following line should be added to the PC
initialisation file (C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT):
set nbedit=1334-217
Alternatively, the line may be added to the System Administrator's
network login file, so that editing is possible on any PC but only for
the System Administrator.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 7 Evaluation Kit
NB: The Notice Board startup file, NOTICE.BAT currently contains this
line, enabling all users to edit notices. This is to simplify the
initial use of the system and the line should be removed before
allowing users to access the system.
On entering edit mode, the function of keys <F1> to <F8> changes. In
edit mode, these keys provide the edit functions, and their settings are
displayed, as usual, in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Since
it is possible to obscure then by creating a notice over the top of them,
the functions are repeated here.
Key | Function
-------+---------------------------
<F1> | Create Notice
<F2> | Create Menu
<F3> | Create Command
<F4> | Edit
<F5> | Cut
<F6> | Paste
<F7> | Push Down (creating a new menu)
<F8> | Delete
As soon as you move into edit mode, a menu will appear on the right-hand
side of the screen. This looks like (and is) an ordinary menu but it is
one that normal users don't see. It is the top level menu which contains
the settings of the function keys <F1> to <F8> and the notices which
appear automatically. The first eight entries are the
notices/commands/menus which are attached to the function keys and the
rest are the automatically displayed notices.
To edit any item, simply place the cursor over it and press <F4>. Of
course, to edit an item in a sub-menu, you first have to move to the sub-
menu and then select the item.
To create an item, simply press the key for the wanted item. The item
will appear above the current item on the current menu.
Cut and Paste allows you to temporarily save an item (notice, command or
menu), removing it from its current place in the structure, and paste it
somewhere else. Move the light bar to the item to cut, press <F5>, then
move the light bar to the new place and press <F6>. The pasted item will
appear in the menu above the light bar.
Hint: Since there is no way to create a new item after the current item
in a menu, it is not possible to place a new item at the bottom
of a menu. To achieve this, place the new item next to the bottom
and then use `cut' and `paste' to change the two items over.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 8 Evaluation Kit
The Push Down option, <F7> replaces an item with a menu, then places the
item in the newly created menu. This is quite useful where you want to
expand a notice into a menu of related notices.
Delete, <F8> does what it says. The only restriction is that a menu must
be empty before it can be deleted. This is similar to DOS directories
and although restrictive, it does prevent the accidental erasure of
complete branches of the menu tree.
Finally, before getting down to the individual create and edit options,
two hints. As already described, the first eight entries in the top
level menu are the function key settings, and all the rest are top level
notices which will be displayed automatically. One of these notices may
be used as a banner or header, welcoming users to the network. This
notice should have no title.
The second hint also concerns the top level menu entries. It is possible
to have command and menu entries after the eighth entry, but they will
not be accessible by users. Not much use that, you may think, and in the
case of commands you'd be right. However it is well worth having a menu
in this area called 'System' where currently unused notices can be
stored. For instance, the Network Unavailable notice will only be
displayed when the network is going to be shut down, but to save
recreating it each time, it should be kept in the `System' menu and
brought out when necessary.
CREATING & EDITING NOTICES
Selecting the Create Notice option, <F1> will create a default sized
notice, called "New Notice" in the top left-hand corner of the screen and
then enter edit notice mode.
Pressing <F4> when the light bar is over a notice will display the notice
and go into 'edit notice' mode.
Once in 'edit notice' mode, a new set of function key definitions will
appear. Once again, since they can be obscured whilst editing notices,
the following table describes them:
Key | Function
-------+------------------------------
<F1> | Move Notice
<F2> | Change Size
<F3> | Change Colour
<F4> | Alter Title
<F5> | Save
<F6> | Import an Ascii file
<F7> | Toggle user writeabilty
<F8> | Quit without saving changes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 9 Evaluation Kit
Move and Change Size operate in similar ways. Once the function key has
been pressed, the arrow keys are used to do the rest. Press <Enter> to
save the new position/size, or <Esc> to restore to the original position.
Change Colour, <F3> displays a colour palette. Foreground colours are
displayed across the top of the pop-up palette and changed using the left
and right arrows. Background colours are displayed down the left-hand
side, and are changed using the up and down arrows.
The Import option allows a text file to be imported from DOS into the
notice. The file will be reformatted to the width of the window and
appended to any existing text.
Notices may be set so that users can modify them. This mirrors the
actual situation where users would add their names to a list on a notice
board. <F7> controls whether this will be allowed, the default is that
it is not.
CREATING & EDITING MENUS
Choosing either the create menu option <F2>, or the edit option <F4>
whilst the light bar is over a menu, will pop-up a window to allow the
title of the menu to be entered/changed. Enter the new title and then
press <Enter> to save the change or <Esc> to abort without saving the
change.
CREATING & EDITING COMMANDS
Creating and editing commands is very similar to the equivalent operation
on menus. In addition to entering a new title, a DOS command is
required. Normally this will be the name of a batch file, and the full
pathname should be specified to avoid confusion.
HINTS AND IDEAS FOR USING NOTICE BOARD
The strength of NOTICE BOARD is that it can readily adapt to your
company's environment and most of its use will be in areas specific to
your company which makes it difficult to generalise on possible uses.
The following is a list of possible uses which will hopefully stimulate
your own ideas for ways to use it.
The first and most obvious use is in passing information to users about
the state of the network and other computer systems. The fact that it
is run at login time means that the messages are targeted to just the
people who need to know.
- Network shutdowns
- New network facilities
- New software packages
- Reminders about virus checking, regular backups etc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 10 Evaluation Kit
Another useful group of notices covers the type of internal company
information that can never be found when you need it.
- Telephone lists
- Foreign currency exchange rates
- Company holiday/shutdown dates
- Standard codes (time sheets, general ledger etc)
- Standard rates such as `travel and subsistence'
Personnel information will need to go on the real notice boards as well
but presentation here as well may get it read!
- Vacancies in the company
- Resumes of new starters
- Internal training course information
All types of company information can be made available, both of a
`marketing/PR' nature, and key information on performance.
- Company news
- Top Ten salesmen
- Monthly Management Accounts
- Sales targets
- Performance indicators
If you have a social club, then forthcoming activities can be publicised,
recent happenings reported on and general information can be made
available.
Because users can be allowed to `write' on notices, they are a good way
of operating a suggestions box, or getting feedback on ideas or quality
of service, in an environment where people can see each others
suggestions and comment on them (anonymously, if they wish).
The last group covers a difficulty with standard electronic mail systems.
The ability to broadcast email to all users can produce a proliferation
of junk mail, or at least mail which sections of the user community would
consider junk mail. Unfortunately, like other forms of mail, you don't
know that it's junk until you've read it. NOTICE BOARD provides a forum
for this type of message where the onus is on the recipient to look if
he/she wants to yet is simple to use and so doesn't act as a barrier.
- Buying and selling of private items
- The "Anyone interested in going skiing?" type of mail.
- Announcements of retirement get-togethers, leaving do's etc
- Requests for local charities
NETWORKING
This software, once loaded onto a file server, can be used by any number
of users simultaneously. The only restrictions are that certain system
management functions (See System Maintenance) require exclusive access
to maintain the integrity of the database and such functions can only be
carried out when no other users are accessing the system.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 11 Evaluation Kit
With the above restriction, this evaluation kit version may be loaded
onto a network to make it straightforward for several people to evaluate
it and to get an indication of its performance in the real environment.
Loading the software onto a shared drive is no different to installation
on a local disk drive, (see the earlier section for details). Once
loaded, the directory should be set to shareable and writable if your
network controls such things.
In the network situation, each user requires a working directory, where
NOTICE BOARD can guarantee that local work files are private. The normal
case is to use a local disk drive, however diskless workstations can be
catered for by creating a set of sub-directories below the NOTICE BOARD
directory, one per PC. The path to this local work area is indicated by
setting an environment variable on the PC (usually in the autoexec.bat
file):
set nbwork=c:\tmp
This local work area requires minimal disk space (less than 100bytes)
NB: The creation of a local work directory is only necessary if
'Commands' have been set up.
One final plus point concerning networks. NOTICE BOARD is not a TSR
program (Terminate and Stay Resident). It exits completely even when
'Commands' are used to load other software packages. As such, it will
not add to your memory overheads.
SYSTEM MAINTENANCE
The main System Maintenance option carries out the necessary
housekeeping, removing deleted information from the database and
reorganising it for maximum performance. It will not be necessary to use
this option during evaluation, but if you want to see what it can do,
press <Ctrl><F10>. Note this command may only be used from the user's
main menu, and is only available to users who can edit the database.
There is a second option which clears down the database to a blank state.
This can only be run if the user has sole access to the database and the
ability to edit. It is run by pressing <Alt> and <F10> simultaneously.
This option may be used to remove all of the notices which have been set
up in the evaluation version to allow you to prepare a meaningful test
version for your own company. It is advised that a backup is taken prior
to doing this to enable you to get back to the evaluation database if you
wish.
On the subject of backups, it is very strongly recommended that regular
backups are taken of the NOTICE BOARD database. Hard disks can and do
fail. The following files should be saved on a regular basis:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 12 Evaluation Kit
NODE.DBF
NOTICE.DBF
NOTICE.DBT
In particular, a backup should be carried out before taking any of the
System Maintenance options which may modify the database.
ORDERING AND NETWORK LICENSING
This package is provided for a 60 day evaluation period. After this, if
you wish to continue to use the package, you must purchase a full
license. The license costs £65 (including VAT for UK purchasers) or the
equivalent in any other currency at the exchange rate pertaining at the
time of order. Payment must be enclosed with order
Purchasing the full package will provide the latest release of the
software, a full license and a copy of the full documentation. The
license entitles any number of users to use the software simultaneously,
ON A SINGLE SITE. There are no restrictions on the number of copies that
may be made for use on that site.
The software is not copy protected, nor are there `hidden' files, so
normal backup procedures may be used to make copies of the data and
programs for security purposes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornerstone NOTICE BOARD
Software 13 Evaluation Kit