------------------------------------------------- NOTE: To run ACTION PLANNER you must have the file - VBRUN100.DLL (Microsoft Visual Basic's run-time module) in your Windows directory along with the other files contained here. ACTION PLANNER requires hard disk, VGA color preferable, EGA tolerable (first screen is distorted) and mouse. -------------------------------------------------- A C T I O N P L A N N E R 1.1 B a s i c E d i t i o n From Human Development Systems ------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS I. Welcome to ACTION PLANNER II. Installing and running the program III. Registration information -------------------------------------------------- I. W E L C O M E -------------------------------------------------- Dear Computerist, The increasingly hectic world most of us inhabit makes it essential that we stay focused on key tasks and activities from day to day. ACTION PLANNER will help you to accomplish that and more. By helping you to zero in on priority items and schedule your day accordingly it will increase your productivity and ultimately your level of success. But ACTION PLANNER is more than a "to do" list, it is a higher achievement tool which provides you a way to integrate your long term goals into your every workday. By enabling you to scope out projects and define action steps and deadlines it helps you to allocate your most precious personal resources - your time, energy and concentration - to accomplishing the things that are really meaningful to you. In a way, ACTION PLANNER is a challenge to those of us who have dreams, aspirations and higher gaols to get serious about making them happen. The program comes in two editions, Basic and Advanced. The Basic Edition contains the Action and Master Plan modules for getting a sharper focus on TODAY. It is simple and compact so it can be taken along on your laptop. The Advanced edition adds the Success Plan Module which provides a way to scope out near and long term TOMORROWS. More elaborate and feature leaden it invites you to spend time on a weekly or monthly basis considering the larger picture of your life. The Basic edition, which is provided here, includes these features: -> Define, review, update a project Master Plan containing action steps, due-dates and notes -> Print the Master Plan file in a variety of formats -> Move tasks from your Master Plan to your Day Plan with drag and drop ease -> Organize, define your task/goal list for a given day -> Assign priorities and sort this list accordingly -> Drag and drop items from your task/goal list into your daily schedule to help you allot time and structure your day -> Add appointments and events to a color-coded daily schedule and view it in a number of ways -> Keep an on-going DIARY record of your schedule and a JOURNAL for a given day -> Launch your most used applications right from the planner screen -> Post quick notes into a "reminders" board -> An on-line tutorial -> A collection of motivational thoughts that can be randomly placed in the reminders stack In addition to these, once you register, you get these two powerful capabilities: -> A prioritizing function for clearly establishing relative importance and urgency of tasks in relation to each other and to your long term goals -> An expanded tutorial that contains the principles of MetaDynamics(TM) as it applies to time/self0 management. This is, in effect, a mini-seminar on disk that will help you use Action Planner more profitably. By registering you also become eligible for discounts on upgrades and additional modules and you receive technical support for 90 days. You will also receive information about Advanced Edition and other HDS products. We hope you'll find this program to be as useful as we do and that, if you do, you'll be values-driven enough to send in your payment. Enjoy! Lucas Perez President, HDS ------------------------------------------------------------ II. I N S T A L L & R U N ------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Installing After extracting the files you should have: README.TXT - This document ACTPLAN.EXE - The program "executable" MASTER.DAT - A dummy file for your Master Plan TODO.DAT - A dummy file you your Day Plan DPLAN.CRD - A dummy Cardfile file You should copy all of these files - except for README to your Windows directory or into a directory in your Windows path. This insures that you will be able to access the Windows' programs that ACTION PLANNER uses. NOTE: Be sure that you have the run-time module - VBRUN100.DLL in your Windows directory. If you don't already have this module you can get it from most electronic bulletin boards or shareware distributors. We will also supply this file on disk with this program to registered users. 2. Running ACTION PLANNER is to be used daily so you'll at least want to add it as an icon to Program Manager or other shell you might be using and run it from there. The program name is ACTPLAN. There are no switches or other command line entries in version 1.1. Better yet, since it's best used right at the start of your workday you can have Windows run ACTPLAN on start up. See your Windows' documentation for information on modifying your WIN.INI file. If you spend 80% of your time in just two or three applications as many of us do then running your spreadsheet or word processor right from the DAY PLAN screen will help you to "stay with your action plan" quite literally. Running the program is easy. USING it effectively requires some thought. ACTION PLANNER grew out of the MetaDynamics (TM) Time Management seminars that we have conducted with thousands of business people around the world and it embodies a particular philosophy about work, self-management and goal achievement. This are too elaborate to explain here but registered users will receive an expanded tutorial that presents the basic principles of our Time Management system as they are expressed in ACTION PLANNER. With the conceptual framework that this provides you'll probably get much more benefit from ACTION PLANNER and may find that you actually increase your capacity to get things done and your ability to reach your goals. 3.Trouble shooting ACTION PLANNER has been extensively tested and should present no major problems. If you have difficulty loading your program data and you're sure that the files are in the same directory as ACTPLAN then you may need to re-install copies of the original dummy files to get the program started. The files MASTER.DAT and TODO.DAT are ASCII and can be viewed and printed from a text editor. However, if they are altered in any way ACTION PLANNER may not be able to read them. So if you decide to work on these files in a text editor for some reason be sure that you don't alter the data structure. If you run into any undiscovered bugs we would certainly appreciate your dropping us a line. If you are among the first to report the bug we'll give you both Basic and the Advanced Editions free of charge. 4. Diary/Journal In version 1.1 of ACTION PLANNER Basic Edition we have not provided for archiving of your Diary/Journal after it becomes very large. The frequency of your use of this feature and your file management preferences will determine how often this becomes necessary. We recommend that on your first use of the month you save your current Diary/Journal from the NOTEPAD use a descriptive file name such as "DPDiary.xxx" where "xxx" is a three letter identifier for the month. The next time you save your diary from the ACTION PLANNER it will again be saved as DPDiary.txt. We welcome suggestions on how to handle this in future versions of ACTION PLANNER. ---------------------------------------------------- III. R E G I S T R A T I O N ----------------------------------------------------- There are two "levels of registration for ACTION PLANNER Basic Edition: If you just wish to use the program as it is provided here you must register with HDS. The fee for this level is $15.00 . You will not receive a disk or any further information but your name will be on file and you may write in for technical service for a period of 90 days after the receipt of your registration. You will also be notified of upgrades and additional modules. For $25.00 you will receive a disk with the latest version which incorporates additional features, documentation as well as the basic benefits of registration. Please note that these are INTRODUCTORY prices. After June 1, 1992 the price will be $20.00 and $30.00 respectively for each level of registration. The Advance Edition which should be available by 3rd qtr. 1992 will carry similar pricing. To register please make out your check for the amount to Human Development Systems. NJ residents please add $1.75 for tax when ordering the disk. Please specify preferred disk format and whether you want EGA or VGA versions. Mail to: Human Development Systems 134 Graybar Drive North Plainfield, NJ 07062 Thank you for your support. --------------------------------------------------- Legalities --------------------------------------------------- Human Development Systems hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness. ACTION PLANNER is Copyright (C)1992 Human Development Systems, All rights reserved. Microsoft Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. VBRUN100.DLL is the property of Microsoft corporation and may be used without charge or royalty but may not be sold or used commercially by other than registered users of Microsoft Visual Basic. ----------------end-of-author's-documentation--------------- Software Library Information: This disk copy provided as a service of Public (software) Library We are not the authors of this program, nor are we associated with the author in any way other than as a distributor of the program in accordance with the author's terms of distribution. Please direct shareware payments and specific questions about this program to the author of the program, whose name appears elsewhere in this documentation. If you have trouble getting in touch with the author, we will do whatever we can to help you with your questions. All programs have been tested and do run. 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