BUSINESS STARTMANAGER 4.0
FOREWARD
Business StartManager is a Personal Information Manager (PIM). It contains
a phonebook, calendar, infobase, todo list, reminder, journal, daily planner
and more. This manual is geared to help you get the most from the program.
The following will give you valuable hints and tips to make using the
program even easier. The program was designed to be easy to setup and use.
Each feature uses a common set of commands and using most functions is very
straightforward. The design is clean and simple. This allows you to get
more work done, instead of wasting time setting things up.
Business StartManager is similar to the regular StartManager. The main
differences are that Business StartManager is designed more for the
small business person or salesperson. Business StartManager has a Daily
Planner and a PhoneBook geared more for business use. The original
StartManager was designed more for Personal use. Business StartManager
is the result of a number of suggestions that I have received from various
sources.
On this version I added another feature, InfoBase, which is like the
journal. Infobase is a text database. Another feature is an EXPORT
feature which allows you to convert some of the datafiles to an ASCII
format. This allows you to use data from Business StartManager on other
programs. One big change is that I moved the Setup menu to another program
called UTIL.EXE. Util.exe also contains the Export feature. I have also
enhanced and improved almost everything in the program. I hope you enjoy
this newest program.
About Registering Business StartManager. The price to register Business
StartManager 4.0 is now only $24.95. I can no longer afford to develop
shareware. It takes a lot of time and money to develop a product of this
quality. So if you send a registration fee of $24.95, I will send you the
Registration Code which turns OFF the DELAY and LOGO screens. The regist-
ration Code also TURNS ON some very important Features.If you use Business
StartManager, please register it.
PLEASE NOTE - OLDER VERSIONS OF UTIL.EXE IS NOT COMPATABLE WITH THIS
VERSION AND YOU NEED THE REGISTRATION CODE TO ACCESS IT...
UPGRADING TO BUSINESS STARTMANAGER 4.0 from VERSION 1.0 TO VERSION 3.0.
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Create a new subdirectory for this version. Copy the files to that new
subdirectory. Copy the *.DAT and *.CFG files from the subdirectory of the
old version. Such as:
COPY *.DAT C:\NEWDIR
COPY *.CFG C:\NEWDIR
This will allow you to use the data in your old phonebook, calendar, etc.
in your new version of Business StartManager. The structure of the data
files is identical, only the way they are used has changed.
TO START
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How to install and setup StartManger.
To Start:
To install on a Harddrive:
1. Make a subdirectory on your hardrive
2. Copy the contents of the floppy to that sub-directory or
UNZIP your downloaded copy.
3. Run the program BPIM.EXE.
That's it. Your ready to go.
Using with a floppy:
You can use StartManager on a floppy, though it will be slow,
Copy the original to another floppy and run BPIM.EXE from that
floppy.
The next step is to Setup a few things, if you have a mouse and a modem.
With the program in the Main Screen, press S to select the SETUP. Move
the highlight box down to the modem setup. Press Enter to goto the
modem setup. Select the proper com port for your modem (if you have
one). If you do not have a modem, ignore this part. This setup is to
prevent a conflict if you have a mouse and a modem. Usually a serial
mouse will use com 1 and a modem will use com 2. So be sure to use
setup to prevent problems.
That's it for the mandatory setup. You can change the colors or change
how the reminder or calendar is displayed from the Setup Menu.
Using the program. You will notice that at the top of the screen are
some buttons. Such as Note, Calendar, Todo, Phone, Etc. Press the
first letter to use one of these functions. Press C and the calendar
pops up. Press Esc and your back at the Main Screen. If you have a
mouse, move the mouse arrow to that button and click a button. Easy
right ? Remember those two things and the rest is easy. Press H and
a help screen pops up. Press Esc and your back to the main screen. To
get out of the program, you guessed it, press Esc.
INFOBASE
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Infobase is a freeform text database. It can be used to keep notes and
information on clients, business associates, etc. The FIND function allows
you to get at information in infobase fast. To organize information about
people, put their names in the Infobase and info about them. To find this
information, use FIND, type the name or some fact that would be in that
record. Infobase can be called up directly from the phonebook, this allows
you get client info while talking to that client.
NOTE
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This feature allows you to leave a note to yourself. Imagine that it is
like a note taped to your computer screen. When Business StartManager
detects the presence of a note it displays it when you start the program.
To add to or update the note, Press U or point to it with the mouse and
click the button. To Delete the program Press D.
CALENDAR
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The Calendar is one of the two central areas of the program. You use the
calendar to create and access both the Notes and Daily Planners that are
created for associated dates. Regular Notes are created by first moving
the RED HIGHLIGHT BOX to a date that you what to create a Note or Daily
Planner for. To create a Note, Press A, this allows you to add a Note.
To create a Daily Planner, Press ALT A, this allows you to create a Daily
Planner.
Once you create a Daily Planner, you use the up/down arrows to access one
of the hours, Press Enter to Add/Update information for your planner.
To delete a Note, Press D. To delete a Daily Planner press, ALT D.
The calendar displays an N or P in a calendar date to indicate if it has
a Note or Daily Planner.
To View a Note, move the RED HIGHLIGHT BOX to a day that has a NOTE and
Press ENTER. To View a Daily Planner, move the RED HIGHLIGHT BOX to a day
that has a Daily Planner and Press the SPACE BAR.
It is a good idea to DELETE already used Notes and Daily Planners. The
program does not erase NOTES and DAILY PLANNERS, it reuses deleted
spaces (if available) to create new NOTES or DAILY PLANNERS. Even though
you can create thousands of notes and planners, it can slow things
down on slower systems (AKA 286 or less). So be aware.
PHONEBOOK
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The Phone book is the second central area of the program. From the Phone-
Book you can call up all of the other features of Business StartManager.
This can be very handy when talking to a customer. If you have a Hayes
compatible Modem you can dial a phone number directly from the Phonebook.
If you have a modem, it first must be setup, this is done from the Setup
function. See above.
PhoneBook entries are created by Pressing A for ADD. Enter the appropriate
information and press Esc to finish. To find a Name quick, Press L to List.
A list of Companies and Names will be displayed. Use the up/down arrow to
select the entry you want, then Press Enter to goto that entry.
To dial a phonenumber, move the Hightlight box to the PhoneNumber and press
Enter. If you have a modem it will dial the number for you. From the
PhoneBook you can access the Daily Planner from the Calendar or by Pressing
F2 (if a Daily Planner exists).
You can also select another display format for the phonebook from the
Setup Menu. Move the bar to the bottom entry and press Enter, this toggles
the phonebook screen to the other display format.
TODO
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TODO is a handy little function to plan things which need to be done.
Things can be moved up and down on the list in order of importance.
REMINDER
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Events can be programmed in advance to display a note on a given date.
Useful for reoccurring events.
JOURNAL
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The Journal is a freeform text database. It can be used to keep notes on
daily events or used to keep notes and information on customers. The FIND
function allows you to get the information you need, fast. Very handy if
used from the PhoneBook. Used daily it can be invaluable for recalling
past events and/or important customer data.
DAILY
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The Daily Planner is displayed from MAIN SCREEN if one exists for the
current date. If you press D from the MAIN SCREEN and no planner is
displayed, then the current date doesn't have a Daily Planner. Go to
the Calendar and Create one for that day.
SETUP
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Setup allows you to customize how you use Business StartManager.
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The functions are as follows:
Modem allows to select the com port that your modem (if any) is attached
to. You can also select Tone or Pulse.
Color allows you to select a color scheme more to your liking. You must
type in the color you want every time you change the colors. You can
also change the background by using F5 and F6 from the MAIN SCREEN.
NOTE: Some color schemes (such as ALL black will mess up your screen,
in this case you will probably need to ERASE HPIM.CFG and start over.
Doing the above will load in the default color values, all other setup
values will need to be re-established.
How Reminders and Calendar Notes are displayed on startup are determined
by this setup function.
The mouse can be toggled on or off by using this feature. Becomes active
when you use the program the next time.
The two PhoneBook display types can be toggled on or off from here.
The Starting Hour for the Daily Planner can be setup from here. If
your day begins a 7:00 AM, type in 7, this will cause your Daily Planners
to begin at 7:00 AM in the morning. If your day starts at 11:00 AM, type
in 11, etc. The default is 6:00 AM.
Password - Add a password to prevent others from using Business
StartManager. To get rid of a Password, simply Press ENTER when the
program asks for a New Password, this turns off the Password. Great for
use on Notebook Computers.
NOTE: Password protecting only offers some protection against prying
eyes. I suggest that you use a good third party encryption program if
data security is important to you.
CALCULATOR
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Business StartManager also has a simple calculator. Press F1 from the
MAIN SCREEN or PHONEBOOK to use this handy little calculator. Useful
when talking to a client for doing quick calculations...
HINTS & TIPS
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The ESC key will get you out of most features, when in doubt press
Esc. Sometimes you have to hit Esc a couple of times !!!
Press the H key for HELP. Works in most but not all places in the
program.
Run Business StartManager from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. When you first turn
on your computer, the reminders and such will be displayed, pressing
Esc allows quick exit back to dos. This is why I named it Business Start-
Manager !!! Using Business StartManager in the Autoexec.bat assures that
you'll get the most from this powerful pim.
When Adding records and notes, Press Esc to finish. Business StartManager
automatically saves all information when you press Esc.
To prevent a note from being displayed on startup, be sure to use the
DELETE option in the NOTE feature.
If the calendar or reminder is not displaying the calender or a reminder
on startup, then check your setup.
Hint: A quick way to find a name in the phonebook is to use the LIST
function.
You can press Esc to get out of the FIND function in the Journal.
NOTE: Some conditions may call for this.
The editor for note, journal, phone, etc has been vastly improved upon
from previous versions. But in this version, when typing, words that go
beyond the right boundary will be lost. This version does not have
wordwrap. I may add that to a future version...
HINT: To speed things up in the EDITOR mode, use the down arrow to
move down in your text. It is faster than using ENTER. Turning off
the INS mode also speeds things up.
When the calendar finds a note on startup, it displays the calendar.
The date will have an N to indicate that it has a note attached.
Press Enter to display the note.
Always
backup your files. Business StartManager produces a number of data files.
The following dos commands will backup the data and configuration file
to a floppy:
Copy *.dat a:
Copy Hpim.cfg a:
Removivng or renaming data files. Data files are created by Business
StartManager when it is first started. If a data file already exists, it
uses it. If the Journal file gets to big, you can rename it, say to
HJOURNAL.001. When Business StartManager is started again it will create
a new Journal Database. The same is true with all the data files. You can
use this to archive files. This will sometimes speed things up, also. The
bigger the file, the longer it takes to access it. If you no longer need
any of the Calendar Notes or Daily Planners, erasing HAPPOINT.DAT and/or
HDAILY.DAT will speed up the Calendar. All data files are denoted by the
.DAT extension.
When you first start Business StartManager, the 1st journal record is
blank, use Update to add your first record. After that all records are
"added" by using the ADD function.
Turning off the "Icons".
Use F9 or F10 to turn off the "ICONS" or start the program as follows:
BPIM off
Be sure to take the time to learn the features of Business StartManager. It
has some powerful features. I find the journal, even though its small, is
very useful for jotting down daily events.
The auto dialing (if you have a modem) feature of the phone book is a real
timesaver. The todo list is handy for planning and prioritizing things
which need doing.
Don't be afraid to play around with Business StartManager. It was designed
to be easy to use and it is hard to get in trouble by exploring. So enjoy.
Again, please register if you can afford to...