What Vehicle History? _____________________ CONTENTS I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. COPYRIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 III. LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 IV. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) . . . . . . . . . . 2 Official Distribution Bulletin Boards . . . . . . . . . 2 V. ORDERING METHODS AND REGISTRATION FEES . . . . . . . . 2 A. How To Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 B. Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 VI. WHAT DOES THIS SOFTWARE DO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 VII. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 A. Storage Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 B. Using on a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 VIII. FILES WHICH MAKE UP THE PACKAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 IX. RUNNING What Vehicle History? FOR THE FIRST TIME . . . 9 A. Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 B. Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 C. Using the Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 X. MANAGING FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 A. Making Back-up Copies of Your Files . . . . . . . 11 B. Restoring Files from a Back-up Copy . . . . . . . 11 C. Formatting Floppy Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 D. Re-Indexing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 E. Packing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 XI. DATA ENTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A. Service Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 B. Departments, Mechanics, Service Types, and Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 XII. REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 XIII. PREFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 A. Operating Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1. Back-up & Restore Method (16) -i- What Vehicle History? _____________________ 2. Country setting (16) 3. Directory Display Format (16) 4. Error Tone (16) B. Defining your Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1. Laser Printer Soft Fonts (17) ________________________ 2. Scalable Fonts (17) ______________ 3. Lines per Page (17) ______________ 4. Left Margin (18) ___________ C. Sales Tax Rate and Labour Rate Entry . . . . . . . 18 XIV. HELP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 XV. ERROR MESSAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 -ii- What Vehicle History? _____________________ I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY By using this software and documentation ("WVH") you must accept this disclaimer of warranty: WVH is provided "as is" without any warranties or conditions, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, those concerning merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. By using WVH, you are expressly releasing the author, Angel Babudro, from any liability resulting from the use of this software and documentation. You must assume the entire risk of using WVH. Please test and supervise WVH thoroughly before relying on it. II. COPYRIGHT WVH is owned and copyright (c) 1989-1993 by Angel Babudro, all rights reserved. You may only use and/or distribute WVH under the License terms below. III. LICENSE 1. WVH is being distributed as Shareware; it is not free. WVH is licensed for individual personal use and evaluation for an unlimited time. Use and evaluation by businesses, corporations or individuals in a commercial venture is limited to 60 days, after which time the REGISTERED Edition of WVH must be purchased or the use of Unregistered Edition of WVH must be discontinued. 2. You may keep as many backup copies of WVH as you wish. The Registered Edition is limited to simultaneous use on the number of computers indicated by your registration level. The Unregistered Edition may be used on any number of computers. You may share WVH with others in complete and unmodified form. REGISTERED USERS may NOT distribute the separate file CONFIG.WVH. 3. You MUST NOT charge any fee or receive any consideration for WVH and you MUST NOT include WVH with another business transaction (e.g., a hardware sale) unless you have express written consent from the copyright holder, Angel Babudro. Only the author can sell the software. You MAY charge a fee of not more than US$6 (six dollars) for the disk and/or service of distribution. -1- What Vehicle History? _____________________ IV. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) If you have questions or need help, just send a note to me through the mail or a BBS listed below. Registered users (or those in the process of registering), vendors, and sysops may contact me via telephone as well. Sysops and shareware vendors please see VENDOR.DOC for distribution information. Mail Angel Babudro, "Organic Computer Wizardry", 28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY 13323-1506, (315) 853-6942 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Eastern Time I will be moving during the summer of 1993 so please allow extra time for me to respond. You can still contact me via the above address & phone number - my wife's parents will continue to live here and they will give you my new address (I don't know what it will be yet) and forward mail & orders to me. Official Distribution Bulletin Boards On bulletin boards I use the first name "Angelo" - it avoids gender confusion and I am used to either name. Scan for the file name WVH*.* to locate the latest version. All six of my software packages are free downloads on both systems. East Coast Excalibur, Central NY (315) 736-3792 USR Dual My software can be FREQed from this board via RBBS Net address A:954/401, FIDO Net address 1:26501, or ICN Net 91:315/101. West Coast Researcher's BBS, So Cal (805) 949-8151 USR Dual Conference #136 is OrganicSftwr - enter "J;136" before downloading, browsing for topics of interest, and/or leaving messages to me. My software can also be found on national bulletin boards such as Exec-PC (Wisconsin) and Channel 1 (Mass.). V. ORDERING METHODS AND REGISTRATION FEES If you use WVH past the 60-day trial period you must pay a registration fee. Here are some incentives to register: - The shareware license & pause at start-up will go away. - You get the latest version direct from the author. -2- What Vehicle History? _____________________ - You may order a printed and 3-ring-bound manual which contains more details than the manual on disk. - You will receive the next two major updates without charge (see below). Send me your suggestions - you have an experienced programmer at your disposal for little to no charge, why not take advantage? - You can sign up to receive automatic updates so you will always have the latest features and enhancements. - You can talk to a real person who is fully knowledgeable about WVH and can help you right away. I have been known to fix problems the same day and download updates to my customers via modem. I am committed to making my software work well for you. - It's the right thing to do. A. How To Order U.S. customers please send cash, check, or money order. Canadian customers please send cash or Canadian International Money Order (CIMO). Customers in other countries please send U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. If you send cash use a "security" no-see-through envelope and you may want to send it via Registered mail, too. B. Pricing When you register, please fill in the Invoice (below) completely, including the name you see at the top of your screen so I can reward the person who distributed your copy of WVH with a free update. Registration with Disk -- A single copy costs $69. You will receive the latest Registered Edition of What Vehicle ____________ History? with automated installation, the latest version of ________ this documentation on disk, two free updates, and notification of further updates. See below for detailed manuals on paper or disk. Multiple Copies -- If you would like to resell What Vehicle ____________ History? or have multiple locations at which you want to ________ use it, you may receive a discount on the price of WVH as follows: - 2-4 copies on the same order 40% - 5 or more copies on the same order 50% Resellers may receive a 40% discount on quantity one: just include your resale certificate number with your order. -3- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Site License -- use WVH on as many computers or network stations as necessary at a single location of a single business. Pay for your registration & disk (see above) and add the appropriate site license fee below to accommodate as many computers as you need: Up to 4 computers/network stations $30.00 per site Up to 10 computers/network stations $70.00 per site Up to 20 computers/network stations $125.00 per site Any number of computers $400.00 per site Manuals -- printed on my laser printer and bound in a flexible 3- ring binder, these manuals contain pictures & detailed descriptions of each screen, some basic computer & data base lingo, and an index. I want people to have and use these manuals, but I am very concerned about deforestation. Experienced users will probably have no need for a manual. - One manual $8.00 - 2 or more on same order $6.00 each Updates Through The Mail -- Following the two free releases you will receive notices of major updates in the mail. Minor updates are published every month; you can send for an update any time, actually. When you request an update, please share your ideas with me on making WVH better. The cost of an update is $7 plus foreign shipping cost, if any. If you send me a disk & return postage, you may deduct $2 from the update cost. Update Subscription -- I like to be flexible and fast with suggestions from users, but it can be time-consuming to keep up with a product's evolution via BBSs. So I came up with this idea: After the two free updates you can subscribe to automatically receive updates. I will send new updates as they are released (skipping the really minor ______ ones, but any "fixes" or significant enhancements will be sent to you). In return you will be expected to send $7 plus foreign shipping, if any, to me within seven days or return the disk to cancel this service. Complimentary Registered Editions - I will trade a complimentary registration for some marketing help as outlined below: 1. Write a review of one of my packages and post it on five bulletin boards, then send me a copy showing the full message (with the BBS's header). Your review will be most helpful if it mentions your best & worst-liked -4- What Vehicle History? _____________________ features and any ideas you have for improvement. If you have experience with any competing software please include your opinion of how they compare to each other. 2. Upload a package to at least five public ("open") BBSs. It's nice if you upload to time-share systems, private ("closed") BBSs, or part-time BBS, but please do not use these to apply for a complimentary registered edition. 3. If you are a consultant or other type of computer professional and your recommendation leads to one or more of your clients purchasing WVH, just send me a note with your client's registration or have them mention your name when they register. I will send a complimentary registered edition or an update for every registration you get for me. This is in lieu of a multiple copy discount; I intend it for consultants who choose not to deal with sales tax. Please send $2 for shipping expenses. One complimentary registration per person or company. Offer valid until Dec. 31, 1993. With a comp. registration you may order a site license or printed manual. I normally do not send notices or free updates to comp. reg. holders, but I will provide updates as outlined above. -5- What Vehicle History? _____________________ COMPLIMENTARY REGISTRATION APPLICATION Date____________________ Please also fill in the Invoice on the following page (put $0 for the disk). Include $2.00 for shipping within the U.S. or the amount indicated on the invoice for addresses outside the U.S. Remember to order printed manual(s) if you so desire. (__) Review posted on (BBS name & number)_______________________ Include a copy of the review, please. (__) I posted a review of _______________ (name and version, like "WVH 2.3") on the five 24-hour public BBSs below. (__) I uploaded (archive name, like WVH23.ARJ)__________________ to the five 24-hour public ("open") BBSs below. BBS Name Phone Number/Modem Type Sysop Name ________ _______________________ __________ 1_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 2_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 3_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 4_______________________ ________________________ _______________ 5_______________________ ________________________ _______________ Please indicate the modem speed (e.g., 2400, 9600, 14400) and put a "U" if it's a US Robotics modem. So, "U96" or "U14" or just "14,400" are fine entries. I use 14,400 modems. Offers are subject to withdrawal or change at any time without notice. Prices are subject to change without notice. Vendors and sysops please see VENDOR.DOC; BBS sysops look at SYSOP.DOC too. Angel Babudro "Organic Computer Wizardry" 28 Mulberry Street Clinton, NY USA 13323-1506 (315) 853-6942 Mon-Fri 9-5 Eastern Time (home phone - east coast is 3 hours later than west) Please register the Shareware you keep. -6- What Vehicle History? _____________________ INVOICE & REGISTRATION FORM REMIT TO: FROM: Name___________________________ Angel Babudro "Organic Computer Wizardry" Company________________________ 28 Mulberry Street Clinton, NY 13323-1506 Address________________________ USA _______________________________ Registration License & disk: Qty ____ x $69 $_______ Multiple/ 2-4 disks -- deduct 40% Wholesale 5 or more -- deduct 50% (_______) Site License Up to 4 CPUs add $30; Up to 10 add $70 (add to above) Up to 20 add $125; Unlimited add $400 _______ Printed One copy is $8, 2 or more are $6 ea. Manuals Qty ____ @ $______ = _______ Shipping Canada, AK, HI, VI, PR add $3 Expense Other countries add $9 per copy _______ ** T O T A L ** _______ _____(Yes/No) After my two free updates, please continue to send new updates about every other month and bill me $7 plus foreign shipping, if any. I will send payment within seven days or return the disk and cancel this service. Disk size & quantity [__] 5¬" [__] 3«" Drive density [__] Low (DD) required [__] High (HD) okay FDFORMAT/FDREAD [__] FDFORMAT extended densities okay Printer make(s) & model(s)______________________________________ Which version are you using now?________________________________ Where did you get it (BBS name)?________________________________ WVH has been delivered to and accepted by customer. Upon receipt of this paid invoice the latest Registered Edition disk with bonus shareware, license, and any options chosen above will be sent. Remit cash, check, money order in U.S. funds; Canadians send Cdn$ or CIMO. NYS residents add sales tax. Mail to Angel Babudro, 28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY USA 13323-1506. Allow 1-3 weeks for the latest version to land on your doorstep. Thank you for your order! -7- What Vehicle History? _____________________ VI. WHAT DOES THIS SOFTWARE DO? What Vehicle History? (WVH) was originally designed in ______________________ October 1991 to track construction equipment service, and has been expanded to track the service history of any mechanical devices - cars, trucks, tractors, motorcycles, big rigs, power generators, or anything else that is tracked by miles or hours. Each vehicle has an owner, division, or department identified with it, which makes WVH perfect for companies who own many vehicles or for contractors who maintain other people's vehicles. WVH employs the standard 2-dimensional pull-down menu system which is familiar to most PC and Macintosh users. All you need to do is highlight your choice and press ENTER or just press the highlighted letter of your choice. What could be simpler? Please feel free to contact me with comments, questions, etc. I am available as a consultant and programmer if you would like custom modifications to my software or if you don't have a local "computer person." I may be a good answer man to call before you pull your hair out. :) VII. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS In a nutshell, a 286 or better is recommended, a hard disk is highly recommended, MS/PC-DOS 3.3 or later, and at least 350k free RAM. WVH has been tested on MS-DOS 3.3 and 5.0. It should work properly under PC-DOS or MS-DOS version 3.1 or later. You will need about 400k of disk space for WVH and its necessary files plus disk space for the files you will create. Just about any dot matrix or PCL laser printer should work fine. A. Storage Requirements Although the system is capable of handling 5.5 millions entries per file, you would need a supercomputer or a lot of time to manage it. Here are some practical guidelines: PC/XT (8088 or 8086) - perhaps 20 vehicles 80386 - 20-50 vehicles 80486 - Over 50 vehicles These are just recommendations, though. You can track a thousand vehicles on a 4MHz XT if you want to; it'll just make molasses look fast... -8- What Vehicle History? _____________________ B. Using on a Network With version 2.2 of WVH I have installed network file locks for networks that use the DOS SHARE.EXE file sharing method. I only have one computer so I am unable to test how WVH will work on a network, so I would sure appreciate any feedback you could provide. I will gladly send a free update for any help I can get in making WVH work well on a network. VIII. FILES WHICH MAKE UP THE PACKAGE What Vehicle History? consists of the following files: _____________________ WVH.EXE The executable file WVH.HLP The help file WVH.TXT The ASCII text file of this document [*] WVH.WP The WordPerfect file of this document (so you can format it for your printer) [*] READ.ME A file containing late-breaking news [*] ORDER.FRM Order form for all of my software PRINTER.DAT Printer definitions These are the files which make up WVH. If you distribute evaluation copies to friends and bulletin boards please be sure to include all of these files. Additional files will be created in the same directory as you use the software. The files marked with [*] can be deleted if disk space is a premium, but I ask that you please keep ORDER.FRM on disk until you decide whether or not to register. Registered users -- please keep the file CONFIG.WVH only for yourself as it contains your registration stamp. Share only those files listed above. Thank you for your help! IX. RUNNING What Vehicle History? FOR THE FIRST TIME A. Quick Start Type "WVH" from the DOS prompt and set each of the Preferences screens. -9- What Vehicle History? _____________________ B. Installation Before you can use WVH you will have to install it on your hard disk or create a working floppy disk. Since almost no business uses dual floppy disk systems anymore I won't bother to explain the procedure here. Contact me if would like my input on this. If you received your copy of WVH on floppy disk it should have come with an INSTALL programme. If INSTALL.EXE or any other of the files which make up the software are not on your disk please contact me so I can make sure the distributor you got it from is aware that their copies are missing files. Go to the DOS prompt (usually "C:\>" or some such variant), and type "d:INSTALL" where "d:" is the letter of the floppy disk drive with the WVH disk (e.g., "A:INSTALL" to install from floppy A:). You will be asked to supply the destination drive and directory. If you have an existing version of the software on disk you will be informed that it will be updated with the new disk. After INSTALL is finished you will see some helpful information for setting up your computer well, and directions on how to run WVH. A batch file called WVH.BAT is created in your root directory if you so permit, and your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files are not touched at all, not one little bit -- I wouldn't invade your system that way. While in the root directory you just type "WVH" to start the programme. WVH is a batch file which merely changes to the proper drive & directory then runs WVH. You can delete this file if you are using a menu or would rather type the commands yourself. C. Using the Menus WVH uses the common pull-down menus which are common to QuickBASIC, Windows, and Macintosh applications. Basically, there is a horizontal menu of choices -- File, Data Entry, etc. Under each of the horizontal choices is a menu of functions pertaining to that item -- it is a two-dimensional menu, in other words. -10- What Vehicle History? _____________________ There are two ways to select an item from the main menu: 1. Press the letter which is highlighted in the option description 2. Use the Up/Down/Right/Left arrows to highlight the option you want then press ENTER (a.k.a. RETURN or CR). Some menus do not have highlighted options. On these menus you must use the arrow keys to highlight your choice then press ENTER. If you want to cancel an operation you selected, just press the Esc ("Escape") key. X. MANAGING FILES The choices under the File menu have to do with your system set-up, file management, and ending the programme. A. Making Back-up Copies of Your Files File/Back-up protects your information by allowing you to copy it to another disk. Version 2.1 of WVH will have a Preferences menu, under which you will be able to choose how you want to perform a back-up -- using the DOS COPY command or ARJ, LHARC, or PKZIP compressors. After you select this option you will see a summary of the files to be backed-up. If you have more than one floppy disk drive you will be asked to select one. All WVH data files will then be backed-up to the floppy disk. B. Restoring Files from a Back-up Copy If you ever need to recover data files from a floppy disk you made using the Back-up command (above), just place the floppy disk in its drive and select File/Restore. If you have more than one floppy disk drive you will be asked to select one, then the data files will be copied from the floppy disk onto your hard disk. C. Formatting Floppy Disks This option is for those times when you have decided to make a back-up copy of your data but don't have a formatted disk handy. File/Format Floppies lets you format a floppy disk to your computer's standard density without exiting WVH. If you -11- What Vehicle History? _____________________ have a high density drive you can only format high density disks (in other words, WVH doesn't pass any parameters to DOS FORMAT). If you have What Floppy Format? (WFF.EXE) available somewhere in your search path WVH will automatically access it for formatting floppy disks (so you can do whatever you want). You will receive a complimentary copy of the latest version of WFF with your WVH registration. D. Re-Indexing Files If you ever notice that information is missing or appears in any way wrong, it is probably because something has damaged an index file. WVH will automatically catch and fix most index problems (like if power goes out in the middle of the programme), but there are times when only you will know that the file indices need to be re-built. One common example would be if you restored files from a back-up disk. When you make a back-up (using WVH's File/Back-up option) you are only storing the data files. This saves space on your back-up disk. However, it means that if you restore from a back-up the index files may be mis-matched to the files. So you would use the File/Re-Index option. If you have large files (thousands of records) re-indexing can take a minute or more, depending on your computer's speed. Aside from that, though, it is harmless to re-index as often as you like. E. Packing Files Whenever you delete information from the files WVH marks the "slot" (record) in the files as being "available" so that the next new piece of information will use that slot. If you delete a lot of information (for example, if you delete a vehicle that had a lot of service history & parts information) there may be a lot of disk space being used to store old information. This is where pack comes in handy. Packing makes a new copy of all of your files which does not include deleted records. For every deleted record between 128 and 512 bytes of disk space will be freed. -12- What Vehicle History? _____________________ XI. DATA ENTRY This menu of What Vehicle History? lets you enter vehicles, _____________________ mechanics and other information into the data base. The Data Entry menu is split into three sections: 1. Regular data entry for vehicle service information 2. One-time data entry for vehicles, mechanics, departments, and service codes 3. Rarely needed data entry (schedule next maintenance) -- this function is run automatically after you enter service for a vehicle, so you would normally not need to access the function directly. This option is not yet completed. All data entry screens use the same method of asking you to choose a code (vehicle, service type, etc.). There are two windows on the screen: the left-hand one showing the codes and the right-hand one showing the details. As you move through the codes in the left-hand window, WVH shows you the details for the code which is highlighted. You move with the arrow keys, PgUp and PgDn keys, or by pressing the letter or number of a code. For example, if you press the "G" key WVH will jump to codes beginning with the letter "G". If there are no codes that begin with "G" the next code after "G" will be highlighted. You can back-up one step (cancel an operation) by pressing the Esc key. Otherwise, just press ENTER to select the code which is highlighted and continue with an operation. A. Service Information This is normally the most used function in WVH. After you have set up your vehicles, owners, etc. you can enter the actual service information. Once you select this option you will see the menu of vehicle choices. To quit just press the Esc (Escape) key, otherwise highlight a vehicle and press ENTER. Next you will see the menu of service types. Choose a service type which describes the information you are going to enter and press the ENTER key. -13- What Vehicle History? _____________________ If there is already some service information for that vehicle then you will see a menu of dates. The first item in the menu is "New date." Highlight your choice and press ENTER. Finally you are on the service entry screen. There are three windows here: One for parts, one for comments, and one for everything else. You can jump between the windows using the F6 (Jump) key. Within a window use the arrow keys to move around. When you are finished entering information press the F7 key to save it. When you exit the service screen you are back at the vehicle menu (as above) and the cycle starts over. Just press the Esc key to stop entering service information. B. Departments, Mechanics, Service Types, and Vehicles These data entry windows all work similarly. You will see two windows: One on the left which has codes, and one on the right which has the details about the highlighted code. Highlight a code and press ENTER to edit it's information (in the right-hand window). To enter a new code press the Ins (insert) key. To delete (erase) a code press the Del (delete) key. The codes you define can contain up to five letters, numbers, or symbols. Only upper-case letters are used. "AG-5" and "AG05" are both valid codes, though "AG05" has room for 100 variations while "AG-5" has room for 10 variations. It's a good idea to give some thought to your coding system before entering all of your data! WVH sorts codes in typical ASCII fashion. One character at a time is compared, going left to right. For example, here is a list of codes in ASCII order: 1A A001 It is best to pad your numbers A002 with zeroes (like these three examples) A015 so they come out in order. A1 A100 A1000 A2 B001 -14- What Vehicle History? _____________________ Service Types examples: Use whatever works for you. If you have an existing system, just use those same numbers or letters. Perhaps you have abbreviations you use on invoices. You can use "BR" for "Brakes", or you might just have service type "1" for all types of service if you don't care to separate the service history by service types. Avoid getting too detailed because you will have to enter a separate service record for each type of service you want to track. This might mean splitting one service into two entries - perhaps you replaced a radiator and replaced brake pads at the same time. If you want to print a report in the future which shows just the brake work (or whatever), then make a service type for it. XII. REPORTS Highlight the report you want and follow the instructions on the screen. For reports which ask for dates - enter the date in month-day-year order, entering just the numbers and using a 4- digit year. You can choose to print a report on the screen, on your printer, or to a disk file. If your print to a disk file you will be asked for a file name (which may include the drive and path, if necessary) and the file will be created using the codes for your printer. If you want a "raw" ASCII file without printer codes then define your printer to be a "Generic/Daisy-wheel" printer. XIII. PREFERENCES The Preferences menu contains options which help you customize the operation of WVH and set necessary parameters, such as the type of printer you have. Please check each Preferences screen before making full use of WVH, otherwise something might seem wrong with the software whereas it is due to the set of conditions under which WVH is operating. -15- What Vehicle History? _____________________ A. Operating Choices 1. Back-up & Restore Method Under the File menu are options which allow you to back-up and restore your data to/from other disks for safety. These operations will use the DOS COPY command unless you use this option to change it. You will see a menu of four choices of methods to use when backing-up and restoring: DOS COPY (the default), ARJ, LHARC, or PKZIP. In order to use ARJ, LHARC, or PKZIP compression software you must have the compression programme available in your DOS PATH. In addition, you will also need enough free memory (RAM) to run both WML and the compression software. 2. Country setting This setting is not currently used. I plan to use it in the future to determine whether to use english or metric measurements. 3. Directory Display Format This option is not yet used and can be set to anything. For now, it is included to maintain a standard "look and feel" of my packages. 4. Error Tone When some type of error or warning message is displayed on the screen, you reach the end of a field, press a wrong letter in a menu, etc., WVH can alert you with one of three sounds or you may select "No sound" for silent operation. B. Defining your Printers WVH lets you use a laser or dot matrix printer, but you must first define it and the fonts you want to use for printing. Until you define your printer and fonts there will be a flashing message at the bottom of the screen and you will not be able to print anything. The Preferences/Printer window shows the current settings. Use the arrow keys to move around, and press the F3 key to change anything. For example, to set your Title Font move the cursor to -16- What Vehicle History? _____________________ that line then press F3 and a menu of choices will appear. Highlight a font to use and press . When you are finished, highlight the "Ok" button and press . Alternately, you can use a mouse (click on "Ok") or press F7 to save the screen and exit. 1. Laser Printer Soft Fonts ________________________ You will need portrait (SFP) fonts for reports. Once you define your font choices on this screen WVH will automatically use them for all reports. Example: Highlight the "Titles Font" line and press the key - a window of font choices will appear.1 You may choose any of the built-in fonts or a soft font. If you choose "Select a soft font," a window will pop open in which you may enter a drive and/or path which contains the soft font files (whatever you enter here becomes the default response for next time). Next you will be shown a list of the soft font files (*.SFP) in that directory. Use the arrow keys and PgUp/PgDn keys to move around, highlight the one you want, and press . The soft font file name will now be shown on the screen. 2. Scalable Fonts ______________ A scalable font is a single font (e.g., CG Times, Univers, etc.) which can be printed in practically any size. PCL 5 printers like the H-P LaserJet III and IV have scalable fonts built in. This means you can pick a font and print in practically any size you want. When you select a scalable font WVH will prompt you for the pitch (cpi) or the point size, depending on whether it is a fixed-pitch or proportionally-spaced font. In general numbers between 8 and 14 work best. My favourite font for both my laser and dot matrix is a Helvetica-Univers-Swiss- etc. (sans serif) font at 12cpi or 12 points. 3. Lines per Page ______________ Enter the number of lines which may be printed on a page in your printer. Most of the time you will be working with 66 lines total (11-inches of paper printed at 6 lines ____________________ 1 You must define the printer before you can set any fonts. -17- What Vehicle History? _____________________ per inch). On laser printers the total number of lines of often 60 due to half-inch top & bottom margins. I recommend that you set this to 55 lines, which is a common setting leaving an inch margin at the top & bottom of each page. 4. Left Margin ___________ This setting is the same as it would be for a typewriter - it is the distance from the left margin, in inches, at which printing will begin. If you would like to leave space at the left edge (e.g., to 3-hole punch the pages) then set this as you wish. If you use a 10 cpi font (or 12 points for lasers) there will be no room for a left margin on most reports. However, a 12 cpi (or 10 point) font, such as Prestige Elite, will give you room to set a one-inch margin or so. Experiment to find what works best for you. C. Sales Tax Rate and Labour Rate Entry This window lets you set two important items: The sales tax rate for your area and whether or not you want to enter the labour hourly rate on the Maintenance Data Entry screen. If you do not need to track sales tax, just enter zero for this. Otherwise, enter your sales tax rate as a percentage (i.e., 7.50 for 7.5%). When you are entering service information for a vehicle you are asked to indicate the mechanic or place of service which, in turn, indicates the hourly rate for labour. If you wish you can enter the labour rate on the service data entry screen, which allows you to over-ride the rate set for the mechanic or place of service. This can be handy if you don't want to track mechanics, only the service done. In this case you could set up a single mechanic and enter the hourly rate as it pertains to each incident of service. -18- What Vehicle History? _____________________ XIV. HELP The Help menu has two options: About and Index. Help/About gives some information about the programme, free memory, and file usage. Help/Index presents a menu of help topics. Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight a topic then press ENTER and a window of information about that topic will pop open. It's a handy (albeit brief) on-line manual. XV. ERROR MESSAGES WVH has three types of errors which you may experience: 1. Logical error - this is a minor problem, not really an error at all. An example of this type of error is if you try to enter a duplicate vehicle code. These "errors" will appear in a window and, once you press ENTER or click on "Ok" WVH will continue its operation. 2. File error - these problems cause an error screen to appear which suggests a possible solution to the problem and, if you can't fix it, my address and phone number is shown so you can mail me the error or call me. A common reason for this error is that an index file contains a bad entry (perhaps due to a power outage). The most common solution to these problems is to re-index your files (File/re-Index). 3. Programme error - this is a mistake of mine and will cause the programme to abruptly end with a one-line error message and a message like "Press any key to return to system." Report these errors to me right away, please. WVH is thousands of lines long, so the bigger it gets the more likely it is that a few bugs will creep in there somewhere. These errors get top priority and are usually fixed and a new version released within a day. If anything happens that you don't understand, or if you can't get WVH to do what you want, I would appreciate knowing about this so I can fix the software or update the documentation as necessary. Thank you for your help and support! :) -19-