PC - APPOINT The computer appointment book ------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION Welcome to PC - APPOINT, the computerized appointment book. This manual will show you how to use the program and hopefully, answer any questions you may have. PC - APPOINT is loosely based on BUTTONWARE's PC-TICKLE. I had downloaded the program and had been impressed by the idea of the system, but felt that I could enhance it somewhat. The major shortcoming of the system, I felt, was the lack of a front-end editing screen for adding and modifying appointments. I first began by adding a front end to PC-TICKLE and then subsequently decided to rewrite the entire package, adding in some features, removing others. The result is PC - APPOINT. I hope you find it useful. (C) Perceptive Solutions, INC. 1988 1 General Overview HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS --------------------- PC, PC/AT, PS/2 with at least 256K RAM. Any video card, although the colors look better on an EGA/CGA. LIMITS ------ PC - APPOINT can hold up to 200 appointments. It can display 150 in its scrollable window at a time. NOTES ABOUT CONVENTIONS USED IN THE MANUAL ------------------------------------------ Special keypresses such as , denote pressing the ENTER key, not typing ''. INSTALLATION ------------ PC - APPOINT consists of the following files: 1) PC-APP.com (Application) 2) PCAPP1.scr 3) PCAPP2.scr 4) PCAPP3.scr Simply copy all four files to a directory on your hard disk, or for floppy disk users, to your system diskette. (C) Perceptive Solutions, INC. 1988 2 MODES ----- PC - APPOINT has two modes of operation; batch and menu- driven. BATCH MODE ---------- The batch mode of PC - APPOINT is designed to be used in your autoexec.bat file. There are two possible methods. 1) PC-APP This command would start PC - APPOINT using the appointments stored in and display those appointments for . EXAMPLE: PC-APP CALENDAR 2/9/88 This displays all the appointments stored in CALENDAR for February 9, 1988. 2) PC-APP When invoked without a date, PC - APPOINT uses the system date. In either event, PC - APPOINT will clear the middle portion of the screen and display a scrollable window of the selected day's appointments. You have the option of: 1) Press to continue execution of your autoexec.bat file. 2) Press to modify the highlit appointment. 3) Use the directional keys to highlight/view additional appointments. (C) Perceptive Solutions, INC. 1988 3 MENU - DRIVEN ------------- PC - APPOINT is invoked in its menu-driven mode by entering PC-APP at the DOS command line. The screen will clear and you will be prompted to enter the name of the file that contains your appointments. The default "CALENDAR" will be displayed and you are free to use that name or type over it. If a non-existent file is specified PC - APPOINT will ask you if you want to create it. If you do not, answer "N" in the dialog box. Once PC - APPOINT knows which appointment file you are using, the main menu will appear with the following choices: 1) Work with appointments 2) Add appointments 3) Print appointments 4) Return to system. We will look at each of the four choices below. 1) Work with appointments ------------------------- When chosen, a dialog box appears at the bottom of the screen requesting the range of dates that you wish to work with. These dates default to the system date. The ending date must be equal to or greater than the beginning date. If an earlier ending date is entered, PC - APPOINT will flag you and request a new date range. Once an acceptable date range has been entered, PC - APPOINT clears the middle portion of the screen. A window will appear that contains the following information appears: 1) Title - This shows you the selected date range. 2) Appointments - This is the most important area of PC - APPOINT. Here are all your appointmentments listed in a scrollable window. Information tracked by PC - APPOINT ----------------------------------- PC - APPOINT tracks the following pieces of information: 1) Date of appointment 2) Appointment Description 3) Recurring day of appointment If this appointment recurs on the same day every week, that day should be entered in this field. When building its display list, PC - APPOINT will include all appointments that have a recurring day entry that (C) Perceptive Solutions, INC. 1988 4 matches the system date. The window display fifteen appointments in each page. The directional keys may be used to move the highlight bar up and down in the window. and are operational if there are more than fifteen appointments in the date range selected. A gray (or reverse video) bar highlights the first row below the title. Once you are finished working with the current date range you may do one of the following: 1) Press to return to the main menu. 2) Press to display a perpetual calendar. Use the up and down arrow keys to select a different year; the left arrow keys to select a different month. Press when the calendar reaches the desired month and year. ADDING AN APPOINTMENT --------------------- This can be done in one of two ways. 1) From the main menu, press 2. An Enter Appointment screen will appear. Enter the date of the appointment, the time, description, and the recurring day, if any. IMPORTANT NOTE: There are a number of different things that you can accomplish by using asterisks (*) in place of the number in the date field. EXAMPLE: Suppose you had a meeting that took place on the 15th of every month. This is not a candidate for the Recurring day field, since there is no way to know which day the 15th will fall out on. But by entering **/15/88, this appointment will be displayed on the 15th of every month. Similarly, if there is something that needs to be done every day in March, the entry would be 03/**/88. One more example should clarify this feature: An appointment with a date of **/**/** would be displayed EVERY DAY. 2) The second way to add an appointment is to press when the List of Appointments is on the screen. This will bring you to the same screen described above. MODIFYING AN EXISTING APPOINTMENT --------------------------------- Once the bar is on an appointment that needs to be modified, press and a Modify Appointment screen will appear. Modify any required fields here. Again, as in Add an Appointment, you have total flexibility (C) Perceptive Solutions, INC. 1988 5 in the entry of the date field. One note: The recurring day can only be one of the following: MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, SAT, SUN. An attempt to enter anything else will result in an error message, prompting you to change your entry. A second note: The date field may contain either the digits 1-9 OR asterisks. Any other entry will result in an error message. Once you have pressed in the recurring day field, PC - APPOINT returns to the List of Appointments. DELETING AN EXISTING APPOINTMENT -------------------------------- Once the bar is on an appointment that needs to be deleted, press the key and the appointment will be deleted. PRINT APPOINTMENTS ------------------ Pressing '3' at the main menu displays the date selection dialog box. Complete the two dates and any appointments falling in the selected range will be printed. EXIT TO SYSTEM -------------- Press '4' when you are finished with PC - APPOINT. (C) Perceptive Solutions, INC. 1988 6 INEVITABLE PITCH ---------------- The authors have spent a lot of time developing and testing PC - APPOINT. We have a number of enhancements planned, such as a ram-resident mode and expanded number of appointments. We ask that if you use PC - APPOINT and like it, please become a registered user by sending $20.00 (check or money order) to: Mitchell D. Mittman Perceptive Solutions Inc. 861 E 27th Street Brooklyn NY 11210 (718) 258-3384 Corporate site licenses are available, at a quantity discount. Please contact us. If you would like the source code for PC - APPOINT, please contact us. 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