Copyright: Visual Help ® 1993-1994 Firas Bushnaq


Topic1
Introduction to CE Tracks

Continuing Education (CE) Tracks is an application for CPA's, Attorneys, Physicians, Teachers and other professionals who need a convenient, easy to use tool to keep track of all their CE activities. CE Tracks is dedicated to helping you find and get the type of CE you need, when you need it and helping you organize, report on, and make the most use of your continuing education efforts.

 Advantages of CE Tracks

 How to keep track of providers of CE.

 How to keep track of your CE credits (history).

 How to set up CE categories.

 How to use the Visual Journal.


Advantages
Advantages of CE Tracks

1 	Provides a convenient and easy-to-use tool to keep track of your CE activities forever.

2 	Provides a handy reference of CE providers to help yo find the type of course you need when you ned it. Searchable by name or type of presentation (seminar, video, etc). Time and convenience.

3 	Prints a report of your CE activity for any time period, by category. Lets you define your own categories.

4 	Handy visual journal to log ideas for follow up. Follow up by clicking on a key word or a calendar. Never forget or misplace a good idea again.

5 	Short learning curve.  Just a few minutes to get oriented, then you're off to the races.

6 	Developed with quality Microsoft development tools to be compatible with Windows 3.1 or later including Windows 95 when released.

7 	Inexpensive. This product only cost $19.95 complete.


Providers
How to Keep Track of Providers

You may not need to keep track of multiple CE providers. If you only take courses from one source, just put that one source in and don't worry about this. If you're like me, you take courses from a number of providers. Sometimes you will receive an ad in the mail for a video course or a computer-based course. You look at it and think "Yes, that's nice, but I'm too busy to take a course now. I'll do it later. When the later comes and your deadline is breathing down your neck, your mind drifts back to the ad you received. Now where did you put it?  Why not just log in that name,address,phone,etc and then (later), you'll be able to make a quick call and get the type of course when you need it.

1 	To add a new provider, click on the tab "Providers", then click the ADD button. Fill in the name, address, etc using the TAB key to move from field to field. Also click on the methods of presentation applicable to the provider. To save the entry, click SAVE.

2 	To edit information on a provider, click on the provider's name in the provider list box, then click the EDIT button. You can advance the cursor to the field you want to change by pressing the TAB key or clicking on the field you want to change or clicking on the label beside the field. Type in your changes then click SAVE.

3 	To delete a provider, click on the provider's name in the provider list box, then click the DELETE button. Deleting a provider does not delete any courses you have taken from that provider. It just deletes the provider from further consideration.

4 	To print a list of providers, make sure the provider tab is on top, then click the PRINT button.

5 	There is another list box on this tab titled METHODS. By clicking on one of the methods, the list of providers will be restricted to those who provide that particular method of CE (video, audio, seminar, etc). To see all providers, click the ALL METHODS selection.


Credits
How to Keep Track of Credits

CE Tracks lets you keep track of any kind of activity for which you can receive CE credit. That might be a seminar, a computer-based course, a video course, even a luncheon meeting for which you receive credit.

1 	To add an entry into your CE history file, make sure the "History" tab is on top, then click the ADD button, fill in the information and click SAVE. To edit an entry, click on the entry in the upper right list box, then click EDIT. Don't forget to click SAVE to record your changes or CANCEL to ignore them. To delete an entry, click on the entry in the right list box, then click DELETE.

2 	The program assumes the date of the event to be today's date and puts that in the date field. If this is not correct, simply drag the correct date from the calendar and drop it on the date field. (Find the date in the calendar, click and hold the left mouse button down on the date you want, drag the date over to the date field in the history file, release the left mouse button).

3 	You can advance the cursor to the next field by pressing the TAB key or move the cursor back one field by pressing SHIFT-TAB. You can move the cursor directly to a field by clicking on the field or the label beside the field.

4 	When entering the provider, you can type the first few characters of the provider's name until the entire name appears or click the arrow to find the provider in the list and clicking on the provider name.

5 	When entering the category, you can type the first few characters of the category title until the entire title appears or click the arrow to find the correct category in the list and clicking on the category title.

6 	The list box containing your CE history is sorted by date within category. The is the same way the printed report is sorted but the printed report also provides totals by category.

7 	The list box containing your CE history is comprised of all CE events between and including the two dates FROM and TO. To change the dates, drag and drop from the calendar control. To do this, for instance, find the first date on the calendar, click and hold down the left mouse button and drag the date over to the FROM field and drop that date on it by releasing the left mouse button. To the same for the TO date. Now the list box only shows the events between the two new dates.

8 	To print a report of your CE activities, just make sure the History tab is on top and click the print button. Only the events dated between the FROM and TO dates will be listed. What you see in the history list box is basically what you will see on the report except the report contains more information and totals by category.


Categories
How to Set Up Categories

Categories are maintained on the Categories tab.

1 	To add a new category, click the ADD button and type the category title. Click SAVE to save the entry or CANCEL to cancel.

2 	To edit an existing category, click on the category you want to edit in the list box, then click the EDIT button, type the change (correct spelling, etc), then click the SAVE button to save the change or CANCEL to ignore the change.

3 	To delete a category, click on the category you want to delete in the list box, then click the DELETE button. Deleting a category does not also delete any records in your history file for that category.


Vjournal
Visual Journal

The visual journal is a handy tool that can be used to record and recall important ideas, concepts, etc. The basic idea is this.  Enter your comment, idea, thing to follow up on, etc in the visual journal. Specify up to three key words to the entry. The program will automatically maintain a list of your key words. Then later, when you want to review your entries, just click on one of the key words and all entries relating to that key word are accessible by you.

1 	To add an entry to the visual journal, make sure the "Journal" tab is on top and click the ADD button. The journal assumes the date to be today's date and inserts that for you. If you want a different date, drag an alternate date from the calendar to the date field. Enter your free-form comment. Use the tab key to move to the next field or SHIFT-TAB to move to the previous field.You can enter up to three key words. Do this either by typing the word in the space provided or clicking on one of the key words in the key word list box. To save the entry, click the SAVE button.

2 	To edit or delete an entry in your journal, first click on the event in the upper right list box to display it, then click the EDIT or DELETE button.

3 	To list all entries pertaining to a key word, just click on the key word in the key word list box. Then, click on each event in the "Selected Records" list box to see it, edit it, delete it, etc.

4 	To list entries for a particular date, double-click on the date in the calendar control. To review all entries in date order, click on the ALL ENTRIES selection in the key word list box.

5 	To delete a key word, click on the key word in the key word list box, then click the button "Delete Key Word". Deleting a key word does not delete any entries in your journal for that key word. However, you will not be able to search for entries using that key word.