Index

Introduction

Menu Items

The Scheduled Event Dialog Box

The Edit Details Dialog Box

Recognized Text Formats

Update History

Auto Startup (Windows 3.1)

Auto Startup (Windows 95)

Tutorial (Windows 3.1)

Tutorial (Windows 95)


Introduction

SkedEzy has to be the easiest to use diary/scheduler currently available. Messages can be scheduled to popup on any future date, at any particular time of the day, to the minute. A message can be once only, such as for a lunch appointment, or it can recur, such as a meeting that is held every fortnight. An additional feature is the scheduling of program runs, which is very similar to scheduling a message. Both messages and program runs are 'events' and appear in date order in the Event List. Events in this list can be altered or deleted.

SkedEzy is programmed to understand dates and times in any way that you are likely to type them. Hence there are no commands to remember or multi-level menus to wade through. Just tell it what to do in English, by typing in text just like you would jot down a note to yourself on a scrap of paper.

SkedEzy looks good no matter what colour scheme you choose for your desktop because it uses matching colours for any colored areas. The custom push buttons were modeled on real objects - even the tick (check) and cross, which were based on marks made by a wide tipped felt marker.

Although SkedEzy is a reliable program, you should make a copy of the file skedezy.que on a floppy disk at least once a week if you intend storing important information on it. Then your info is safe no matter what happens.

This Help system assumes that you have basic Windows keyboard skills, such as tabbing around the fields of dialog boxes, editing the text in those fields, selecting radio buttons etc. If you are an absolute beginner, or perhaps just unfamiliar with Windows, have a look at the tutorials. These contain some detailed examples.

In case of any problems, or if you have any suggestions for this product, feel free to contact the author at any of the following addresses:

TOPline Software, PO Box 66, Rundle Mall SA 5000, AUSTRALIA

CompuServe: [100351,2443]

InterNet: 100351.2443@compuserve.com

WWW: http://www.coredcs.com/~TOPline


Menu Items

Clicking on the SkedEzy icon (using the right mouse button under Windows 95), brings up a menu.

The first 3 menu items are the same as for any standard Windows application. The others are:

Schedule Message Event...

Schedule Program Event...

List Events...

Print Events...

Options...

About SkedEzy...

Help...


Schedule Message Event

Schedule Message Event...

This menu item brings up a dialog box containing 6 text input boxes:

Message

Day to first appear

Time to first appear

Recurrence

Early warning

Reserved time

Near the bottom of the dialog are 2 check boxes, titled Beeps and Visible, for extra flexibility in using SkedEzy.

SkedEzy includes support for calendar months. For example, 'Second Fri. in Nov' would be a valid date, and 'every 2 months' would be a valid recurrence period.

Normally, a monthly recurring event would occur  on the same day of the month, as in the following example:

Day to first appear:  in 4 days time

Time to first appear:  2pm

Recurrence (blank if once only): every couple of months

The message would pop up in 4 days time, at 2pm. Suppose this was the 24th day of the month, then 2 months later it would pop up again on the 24th, and so on.

Sometimes, as in a monthly meeting, you might require something to be scheduled on the same day of the week each time. If you specify a number and a day of the week e.g. 'second Monday', SkedEzy will assume that you want the same day of the week each time. For example:

Day to first appear: second Monday

Time to first appear: 10:00am

Recurrence (blank if once only): monthly

The next time the current day is the second Monday of the month, the message will pop up at 10:00am. And the next month, the message will pop up again on the second Monday at 10:00am, and so on.

Pressing the Confirm button will bring up the Edit Details dialog box. Then you can check all the details and make any necessary changes before pressing . If you want to schedule more than one message at a time, press the Confirm, do another button. This will let you schedule and confirm several messages, one after the other.


Schedule Program Event

Schedule Program Event...

This menu item brings up a dialog box containing 6 text input boxes:

Full filename, followed by any parameters

Day to first appear

Time to first appear

Recurrence

Early warning

Reserved time

Near the bottom of the dialog are 3 check boxes, titled Beeps, Visible and Confirm, for extra flexibility in using SkedEzy for running programs.


List Events

List Events...

This menu item brings up a dialog box containing a list box and a number of push buttons along the bottom. The current date and time (updated every minute) is displayed at the bottom right corner of the dialog box. The list box contains all the currently scheduled events, one of which can be selected by clicking on it with the mouse. If not all events are visible, the list box may be scrolled up or down using the scroll bar on the right.

Pressing OK will return you to the SkedEzy icon, making permanent any changes that you have made.

Pressing Cancel will return you to the SkedEzy icon, undoing any changes that you have made using the Delete or Edit buttons.


Print Events

Print Events..

This menu item brings up a dialog box allowing you to specify the time period which the printout will cover. The default values are set so that it is only necessary to push the OK button to get a listing of next week's events. Otherwise, you can specify a starting day for the printout period, and how much time it will cover. Like scheduling an event, this date and time period can be specified in virtually any way that makes sense to you. The listings produced are identical to the listings that appear in the Event List. Pressing the Cancel button will get you out without printing anything.


Options

Options...

This menu item brings up a dialog box which allows various options to be set.

Always on top

Save events after every change

US date

24 hour time

Short form event details

Expiry days


always on top

If ticked (checked), SkedEzy will always float above all other Windows on the desktop. This is useful if you like to have SkedEzy handy no matter what other programs you are working with.


save events after every change

You might find this option useful if you frequently enter, delete or edit events. It makes sure that nothing is lost if some other program causes a crash, you kick the power plug etc etc.


us date

If you live in the United States, check this check box to ensure that all dates, wherever they appear in SkedEzy, will be in the form mm/dd/ccyy. This also ensures that dates you enter will be recognized correctly.


24 hour time

If you live in Europe, or simply prefer the 24 hour format, you can use this option to ensure all dates appear in 24 hour format. Also, any date you enter will be assumed to be in 24 hour format.


short form event details

There are 2 formats for the event list which appears in the Event List dialog and on printouts - short form and full form.

The short form displays only the most important details of events, and can save time if there is a large number of events. Graphic symbols are used for the optional information.

The full form displays all details of events, and may be preferred if there are not too many events.


short form symbols

 The event has a recurrence period.

 The event has an early warning period.

 The event has a reserved period.

 The event has the Beeps option set.

 The event has the Visible option set.


expiry days

A number may be typed in the edit box to specify how many days any 'once only' events are to be kept in the event list, after they have popped up. If a 0 is typed in, events disappear after popping up. If left blank, there is no expiry and the events will remain on the Event List until you delete them or change the expiry option again.


About Skedezy

About SkedEzy..

This brings up a small dialog box with the version number, a copyright notice and the name of the author. Also listed are the electronic addresses of the author - CompuServe and InterNet.


Help

Help...

This menu item runs the Help system you are using now.


Scheduled Event Dialog Box

The Scheduled Event Dialog Box

This dialog box will pop up under two circumstances:

1. A scheduled message is due (or overdue) to appear.

2. A scheduled program run, with 'Confirm' specified, is due (or overdue) to run.

Besides the OK button, there is a Cancel button, a Put off to same time tomorrow button,  and an Edit button.


cancel

Pressing this button (which only works for program runs) lets you change your mind - the program will not run this time.


ok (scheduled ev dlg)

Pressing this button signifies that you have taken, or will take some action on the event. In the case of a recurring event, this also causes it to be re-scheduled for its next occurence. If you look in the Event List, you will see its re-scheduled date and time.


put off (scheduled ev dlg)

The Put off to same time tomorrow button causes a copy of the event to be scheduled for the next day, at the originally scheduled time. This has no effect on the scheduling of recurrent events. For example, a message scheduled for every second Monday will still fall due and appear every second Monday regardless of how many times you put it off!


Once Only Messages

When a once only message pops up, the date and time that the message was scheduled to appear is shown. Note that if the computer was not running when the event came due, it will pop up shortly after the computer is next started. Hence, no messages will be missed, even if you use your machine infrequently.


Recurring Messages

When a recurring message pops up, two date/times are displayed. The first date/time is when the message was scheduled to appear. The second is when the message is due to appear again, as specified by the recurrence period when the message was scheduled. When this time arrives (perhaps weeks later) and the dialog box pops up again, the same thing happens again - the scheduled date/time is first, followed by the re-scheduled one.


Once Only Program Runs

These behave just like once only messages, except that SkedEzy will attempt to run the specified program immediately after you press the OK button. If you decide that you don't want to run the program after all, you can press Cancel. If you try to run it and it fails for some reason, such as a spelling slip in the file name, SkedEzy will display an error message and wait for you to press OK before returning to the SkedEzy icon.

Finally, if the 'Confirm'  option was not set when the program run was scheduled, the program will run with no warning at all. This is handy for when the computer is running unattended, since no user response is required.


Recurring Program Runs

These behave just like recurring messages, with the addition of the 'Confirm' option effect described for once only program runs.


Edit Details Dialog Box

The Edit Details Dialog Box

This dialog box enables you to change any aspect of an event. That is, the event text, scheduled date, scheduled time, recurrence period, early warning period and reserved time period.

In the text box at the top, the event text can be changed by using the normal editing keys, as you would in Write or NotePad. If the event is a program run, and you realize that there is an error in the filename, it can be corrected this way. Otherwise, if the event is a message, you may want to change the wording.

If the day of the month is changed, the day of the week changes automatically - this is handy when you know the day of the week but are not sure of the exact date. Just put in a rough date, then change the day number to one which brings up the correct day of the week. All parts of the date or time may be changed.

Below the date and time, the unit of the recurrence period i.e. day, month etc. may be selected by clicking on the appropriate radio button. The edit box to the left of the buttons allows you to change the number of days, months etc. to use as the recurrence period.

In exactly the same way, the early warning period and reserved time period may be changed.

At the bottom right of the dialog box, the options may be changed if desired, by clicking on the check boxes. If the event is a message, the 'Confirm' check box appears gray and cannot be used, since it only applies to program run events.

When you press the OK button, all the details are checked for validity. If anything is not right, SkedEzy will tell you about it.


Recognised Text Formats

Recognized Text Formats

The following examples, being lifted directly from comments in the source code of SkedEzy, will give you a fairly complete picture of SkedEzy's English recognition ability in the area of dates, times and time periods. Where part of a date or time is missing, SkedEzy makes the logical assumption. For a date, the month and year are assumed to be the current month and year if not specified. Or in some cases, the next month or year. For example, 'next Friday' could happen to be in the current month, or the next month, or even the next year in the case of a day late in December. Similarly, a time might not be specified at all, in which case SkedEzy sets it to 12am.

Date Recognition

Extended Date Recognition

Date Recognition with Calendar Months

Time Recognition - 12 Hour Mode

Time Recognition - 24 Hour Mode

Extended Time Recognition

Time Periods


Date Recognition

Date Recognition Examples

25th, the thirteenth etc.

100897 etc.

13121998 etc.

April 1st. etc.

fifth of October etc.

2/3, 4th of the fifth etc.

the twenty fourth etc.

12/9/1997, fifth of the seventh '98 etc.

Aug. 23rd 1997, april fifth '99 etc.

Aug. twenty third etc.

14th March 2003 etc.

twenty sixth of July etc.

Jan the twenty second '98 etc.

the thirty first of march 1997 etc.

the twenty eighth of the sixth 2012 etc.


Extended Date Recognition

Extended Date Recognition Examples

Friday wk, for Tuesday week etc.

a wk Friday, a week Tuesday etc.

Friday fortnight, for Tuesday fortnite etc.

a fortnight Friday, fortnite Tuesday etc.

today, date is today etc.

in a day's time, tomorrow etc.

on Fri., next mon etc.

a week's time, next wk etc.

a fortnight's time, in a fortnite etc.

tomorrow week etc.

a week tomorrow etc.

a week today etc.

on Friday, next wednesday etc.

Fri. wk, for Tues week etc.

2 day's time, in five days etc.

3 week's time, in one wk etc.

3 fortnight's time, in one fortnight etc.


Date Recognition with Cal Mths

Date Recognition Examples with Calendar Months

2nd. Tuesday in September, first monday of Mar etc.

2nd. Tuesday in the month, first monday of the month etc.

a month's time, next calendar mth etc.

a year's time, in a yr etc.

1 month's time, in three mths etc.

1 year's time, in two yrs etc.

3rd. Wed, first tues etc.

2nd. Tues in September, first mon of Mar etc.

2nd. Tues of the month, first mon in month etc.

2nd. Tuesday, first monday etc.


Time Recognition - 12 Hour

Time Recognition Examples - 12 Hour Mode

Examples labelled CTS are 'current time sensitive'. This means that the current time is taken into account when deciding how to interpret the entered time. Hence if 2:30 is typed in just before midday, it is taken to mean 2:30pm - not 2:30 am. This concept also applies for times such as '20 past'. For example if the time is currently 3:10pm, this would result in the event being scheduled for 3:20pm. If, however, the time is currently 3:35 pm, then the event would be scheduled for 4:20pm.

1025, 230 etc. (current time sensitive - CTS)

at 5, six o'clock etc. CTS

1130 this morning, 245pm etc.

at 5 a.m., six this evening etc.

half past, qtr to etc. CTS

17 past, twenty to etc. CTS

10:00, three twenty etc. CTS

2 fifty six, five twenty nine etc. CTS

1/4 to, 1/2 past etc. CTS

5:41 p.m., six twelve this afternoon etc.

twenty two past, twenty 5 to etc. CTS

half past 2, qtr to six etc. CTS

17 past 3, twenty to eight etc. CTS

1/4 to six, 1/2 past nine etc. CTS

twenty eight to nine, twenty three after 5 etc. CTS

twenty five minutes to three, twenty two mins past six etc. CTS

17 past 3 in the afternoon, twenty to eight in the morning etc.

1/4 to six a.m, 1/2 past nine in the afternoon etc.

twenty five past four in the afternoon etc.


Time Recognition - 24 Hour

Time Recognition Examples - 24 Hour Mode

2100, 455 etc.

23:45, seventeen hundred etc.

2100pm, 0035 in the morning etc. if pm etc added from force of habit

800 hrs, 2340 hours etc.

23:45 hrs, nine hundred hours etc.

five twenty two, nineteen forty five etc.

twenty two hundred, twenty one forty etc.

twenty one forty five, twenty three fifty nine etc.

twenty two hundred hrs, twenty one forty hours etc.

twenty one forty five hrs, twenty three fifty nine hours etc.


Extended Time Recognition

Extended Time Recognition Examples

now, the current time etc.

at startup, when booted etc.

when I first start the m/c, first boot etc.

at midday, noon etc.

12 midday, at twelve noon etc.

'round midnight etc.

at 12 midnight etc.

40 minute's time, in fifty minutes etc.

3 hour's time, in five hrs etc.


Time Periods

Time Periods Examples

each month, once every mth etc.

each hr, daily, once a week, every yr etc.

two monthly, every 3 calendar mths etc.

30 minute intervals, every 2 wks, two yrs etc.

twenty eight days, forty five minutes etc.


Update History

Version 1.15   Feb 1994

First distributed version.

Version 1.2   Aug 1994

Made all fields editable. 'Once only' messages are not deleted after they have been triggered. They stay on the list but may be deleted manually at any time, or re-activated by changing the date.

Version 1.21  Sep 1994

Added error recovery to reduce risk of data loss.

Version 1.22  Nov 1994

Fixed a bug which affected the updating of recurrence period. This sometimes resulted in an incorrect value being displayed in the event list, after the user had updated the recurrence period. This fix seems to have cured the General Protection Fault at 000A:0026 encountered by some users using version 1.2 or 1.21.

Version 1.5  Aug 1995

Major upgrade. Total visual facelift, extra options, subjected to a 6 week Beta Test program by 7 CompuServe beta testers. Incorporated dozens of user-suggested improvements, both minor and major. Improvements included:

Ability to edit or delete an event just after it pops up.

'Early warning' and 'Reserved time' features added.

Options - 'Always on top', 'Save events after every change' and 'Expiry days'

Printing of events

Short and long formats for the event list.

Colour scheme compatible with selected system colours.

Current date/time displayed in event list and schedule message dialogs.

Version 1.51  Nov 1995

Bug fix - data loss was possible if a large number was entered for 'Expiry Days' under Options. Usage limiting introduced to the unregistered version, in the form of text reversal after a set number of uses.

Version 1.6  Mar 1996

Minor upgrade, incorporating more suggestions from users. Usage limiting changed to disable entry of new events after the set number of uses.

'The day after tomorrow' is now recognized as a date.

Small number of date/time recognition bugs fixed.

Lines in message text may now be terminated with the <Enter> key.

Windows Help file now available.

Double booking of events now allowed, although a warning is given.

Program runs can now be cancelled from the Confirm dialog box without deleting the event.


message

You can enter a message here, up to 150 characters long. If you press the Enter key, the cursor drops to the beginning of the next line.


full file name

You can type in something like c:\windows\mydir\myprog.exe. Alternatively, you can press the 'select file name' button to select a program to run, from a directory listing.


day to first appear

If left blank, SkedEzy will assume you mean today. Otherwise, type in anything that refers to a day in the future. For example:

3/5

October fourth, '97

6th Apr 1996

Fri week

In a couple of day's time


time to first appear

This is the time the message will appear on the specified day. If left blank, SkedEzy will assume that you want to see your message as soon as you start your computer on the specified day. It will do this by setting the time to 12am. SkedEzy will accept all of the following times:

3:08pm

at qtr past

ten twenty, in the morning

at midday

Half past 4 this afternoon

now

in two hrs time


recurrence

This is a time period after which the message will appear again (and again, and again, until you delete it). If left blank, SkedEzy assumes you only want the message to appear once. Some examples:

20 min

every two days

a fortnight

yearly


early warning

This is a time period which specifies when you want to be warned of the up coming message. If left blank, SkedEzy assumes you don't want any early warning for the message. Otherwise, an early warning dialog box will pop up at the specified time before the message is due to appear. For example:

2 hrs

five days


reserved time

This is a reserved period of time, starting from when the message is scheduled. If, later on,  you attempt to schedule another event during this time, a warning is given. In some cases, such double booking is OK, while in other cases, such as appointments to see 2 different people, one event will have be changed to a different time. Examples:

2 weeks

an hour


beeps

If this box is checked, 3 'pips' will sound from the PC's internal speaker when the event is about to happen. If no sound happens, make sure the Enable System Sounds box is checked in the Sounds dialog box, in the Windows Tool Panel. If this doesn't work, check that the PCs internal speaker is connected and working.


visible

If this box is checked, the message or application window (in the case of a program run) will be visible. That is, whatever message or program run that was scheduled.

For messages, the only reason you might uncheck this box is if you wish to set an alarm - i.e. just the beeps will sound at the specified time.

For program runs, the only reason you would uncheck this box would be to ensure that an unattended program will run, with a screensaver operating. For example, overnight backups.


confirm

If this box is checked, a dialog box appears when the program is about to run, giving you the opportunity to prevent the run if desired.


delete button

The Delete button will delete the event from the event list. Pressing the <Delete> key on the keyboard will have the same effect, on the selected event.


edit button

The Edit button will bring up the Edit Details dialog box, allowing you to make changes to the event.


Auto Startup (Windows 3.1)

1.  Open the Startup program group, and drag it across to the right hand side of the screen.

2.  Double click on the File Manager icon (this will probably be in the Main program group), and drag it's window across to the left hand side of the screen.

3.  Find skedezy.exe in the directory where you installed it, and drag it out of the File Manager and into the Startup program group. The SkedEzy icon should appear in the Startup group.

Now, when you next start your computer, SkedEzy will start automatically and appear as an icon on the Windows desktop. Also, it will close down automatically (saving your scheduled events) when you close down Windows.


Auto Startup (Windows 95)

1. Press the Start button, select Programs, then click on Windows Explorer. (If you cannot do this, your start menu has been customized. Getting help from someone else if necessary, find Windows Explorer and run it.)

2. In Windows Explorer, click on the plus signs next to the Windows folder, the Start Menu folder, and then the Programs folder.

3. Holding down the RIGHT mouse button, drag the SkedEzy icon from the Windows desktop to the StartUp folder, then release the button.

4. After releasing the button, a menu pops up. Select 'Create shortcut here' and click the left mouse button.

Now, when you next start your computer, SkedEzy will start automatically and appear in the Windows 95 task bar. Also, it will close down automatically (saving your scheduled events) when you close down Windows.