Circle Software Company P.O. Box 7954 Department C Clearwater, FL 34618-7954 JOT_IT, a software scratch pad, is designed to provide maximum utility at minimum cost. Your contribution will help me continue to provide quality products for MS-DOS computers. The following rate schedule lists several options available to you. 1. Registration $10.00 Includes product registration, notice of updates, and list of other quality software products. 2. JOT_IT Program $15.00 Includes the above plus a disk with the JOT_IT program and documentation file. 3. Source Code $35.00 Includes all the above plus well-documented assembly language source code, including theory of operation and suggestions on how to modify or customize the program. Your support will be greatly appreciated. 1 Program Description JOT_IT is a memory resident scratch pad useful for recording notes while running another program. With command line options, you can adjust the space available for jotting down information, change the hot key used to activate the program, and change the name of the file where your notes are stored. You can even load multiple copies of JOT_IT at the same time. But don't try to activate one on top of the other. The latest version includes a screen capture function you can use to extract and save information from application programs. I have also changed the file format to be compatible with word processors and text editors. That is, each line is no longer padded with spaces to the right of the last character. I have also fixed a problem with the cursor when using the program with monochrome displays. A possible alternative use for JOT_IT is as an on-line help facility, activity reminder or schedule, or list of frequently called telephone numbers. JOT_IT will run on any PC-compatible computer equipped with any of the popular video adaptor/monitor combinations when they are operated in a text mode. JOT_IT will not activate when your computer is in the graphics mode. It requires about 6000 bytes of memory, including 4000 bytes to store the previous screen contents, plus buffer space to accommodate the number of note sheets you have chosen to use. Program Operation JOT_IT's command syntax is as follows: JOT_IT s hhhh filename where s is a one digit hex number (1 through F) representing the number of note sheets you wish to use. Each sheet is one screen or 2000 characters. The default is five sheets. hhhh is a four digit hex number representing the hot key code. The default is CTRL-A. You may use a value from the table below if the default interferes with another program. filename is the name of the text file where your notes will be saved when you execute the save command (CTRL- S). The default name is \JOTS which creates a file 2 named JOTS in the root directory. You may enter a path name along with the filename as long as the total number of characters doesn't exceed 32. For example, \WORD\FILES\NOTES.TXT. If you are satisfied with the defaults, you may enter simply JOT_IT without the command-line parameters. However, if you use any command-line parameters, they must be entered in the order shown. If you only wish to change the number of sheets, you need only enter JOT_IT s. If you want to change the filename, it is necessary first to specify both the number of sheets and the hot key code. In any case, the command should be entered in your autoexec.bat file so the program will be ready when you need it. Hot Key Control Code Table Alt-A 1E00 Alt-J 2400 Alt-S 1F00 Alt-B 3000 Alt-K 2500 Alt-T 1400 Alt-C 2E00 Alt-L 2600 Alt-U 1600 Alt-D 2000 Alt-M 3200 Alt-V 2F00 Alt-E 1200 Alt-N 3100 Alt-W 1100 Alt-F 2100 Alt-O 1800 Alt-X 2D00 Alt-G 2200 Alt-P 1900 Alt-Y 1500 Alt-H 2300 Alt-Q 1000 Alt-Z 2C00 Alt-I 1700 Alt-R 1300 CTRL-A 1E01 CTRL-J 240A Ctrl-S 1F13 CTRL-B 3002 CTRL-K 250B Ctrl-T 1414 CTRL-C 2E03 CTRL-L 260C Ctrl-U 1615 CTRL-D 2004 CTRL-M 320D Ctrl-V 2F16 CTRL-E 1205 CTRL-N 310E Ctrl-W 1117 CTRL-F 2106 CTRL-O 180F Ctrl-X 2D18 CTRL-G 2207 CTRL-P 1910 Ctrl-Y 1519 CTRL-H 2308 CTRL-Q 1011 Ctrl-Z 2C1A CTRL-I 1709 CTRL-R 1312 Editing Commands JOT_IT will be activated when you press CTRL-A, or whatever hot key you have chosen. JOT_IT interrupts the program in progress, saves the screen contents, and displays a completely blank screen or the first sheet from the JOTS file, if it exists. When you reactivate JOT_IT, it will display the sheet you were last using. Press Esc to return to the interrupted program 3 The best way to learn the editing commands is to experiment. The arrow keys move the cursor as you might expect. When the cursor is on the top or bottom line of a sheet, pressing the up or down arrow key will display the previous sheet or the next sheet, respectively. You can also use the PgUp and PgDn keys to move to adjacent sheets. The Home key moves the cursor to the upper left corner of the sheet, and the End key moves it to the lower left corner. The Tab key moves the cursor in ten space increments, but does not push the underlying text. When you enter text, you can press Enter at the end of each line or the text will word wrap when you type a space character beyond column 70. Text entered over existing text will push the old to the right, but not down to the next line. Text pushed off the screen is lost. The Delete key will erase the character under the cursor, pulling the remaining text to the left. The Backspace key erases the character to the left of the cursor, pulling the remaining text to the left. When you press the Enter key, any text to the right of the cursor on the same line is erased. This is a convenient way to erase or replace one line. CTRL-D erases the entire sheet. Be careful! JOT_IT does not ask if you really want to do it. Other Functions JOT_IT always looks in the root directory for JOTS (or in the directory and for the filename you specify on the command line) and will load it if found. Otherwise, JOT_IT will create an appropriately named file when you execute the save command. The contents of the sheets will be saved when you press CTRL-S. If you reload JOT_IT and specify a different number of sheets, the data in the original sheets (if saved) will be retained. When you reactivate JOT_IT, the original sheets will appear as before and the new sheets will be blank. Press CTRL-P to print the contents of the sheets. The sheets are printed 54 lines to the page with no break between sheets. If the printer is not on line, the program will hang. If you load multiple copies of JOT_IT, each should use a different hot key and different filename. Don't try to activate one on top of another. The capture function allows you to save the contents of any text-based application screen to the current sheet. If saved, you can load the resulting file into a document for 4 further processing. You can save as many screens as you have sheets. When the screen you wish to capture is displayed, activate JOT_IT, select the sheet you wish to use, then press Ctrl-C. The previous screen will reappear and replace any text that might have been in the current sheet. Note that the attribute (color, underlining, etc.) of the original screen is not captured. I have tried to keep JOT_IT small to minimize RAM usage. Therefore, it has only minimal error handling capability. Be sure to enter the command line correctly. JOT_IT will coexist with most other memory resident programs, but do not activate another memory resident program while JOT_IT is active. That is, while the JOT_IT sheet is displayed on the screen. 5