P E R S O N A L C H A L L E N G E G E T T I N G S T A R T E D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUICK START: To run the program from a DOS prompt, enter: CHALL To read the on-disk manual, enter: CHALLDOC ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP COPY of the original disk before you do anything. (See the DISKCOPY command in your DOS manual.) Put the original in a safe place, and use the copy as the master disk when you install the program. Note that in all of the following examples, if your drive letters or directory names are different, you can simply use the same command, but with your actual drive letter and directory name. For example, we refer to the floppy drives as drive A and drive B. If yours are really called drive D and drive E, then use D and E instead of A and B. In our hard disk example, the subdirectory is called CHALL. But you can name it something else. For example, if you name it WEST, just use WEST in the command instead of CHALL. The following instructions assume the files on your disk are NOT archived. If you have received the files in archived format, refer to the installation instructions that came with your disk. INSTALLING TO A HARD DISK: The first thing you need to do is create a subdirectory on the hard disk. (If the subdirectory has already been created, you don't have to create it now.) For example, if you decide to name the subdirectory CHALL, you would start at your C> prompt, and use the following sequence of commands: CD\ MD CHALL CD \CHALL Now put the master disk in the A drive and enter this command: COPY A:*.* You should see all the files being copied. When the copying is finished, you are ready to run the program. INSTALLING TO A FLOPPY DISK WHEN YOU HAVE TWO FLOPPY DRIVES: Put the master disk in drive A. Put a new, formatted disk in drive B. Enter this command: COPY A:*.* B: You should see the files being copied to the disk in the B drive. When all the files have been copied, the B disk is your working disk. You can move the B disk to the A drive and use it there if you prefer. For greatest efficiency and maximum storage capacity, we urge you to install the software to your hard disk. INSTALLING TO A FLOPPY DISK WHEN YOU HAVE ONE FLOPPY DRIVE: Put the master disk in drive A. Have a new disk ready. Enter this command: DISKCOPY A: B: The computer will display messages telling you when to put the "source disk" or the "target disk" into the drive. The "source disk" is your master disk. The "target disk" is your new disk. When all the files have been copied, the "target" disk is your working disk. For greatest efficiency and maximum storage capacity, we urge you to install the software to your hard disk. NEED MORE SPACE? If you are running programs on floppy disks you may not have enough disk space for the data files created by the program. You can remove the documentation files, which the program does not need, from your working disk. However, these files contain important information which you will need for reference, so do not delete them from your master disk. To delete the documentation files, put the working disk in the A drive and enter these commands: DEL A:*.TXT DEL A:*.DOC The documentation files must be included with copies of the program that are distributed to others. PROGRAM FILES: Program files can be identified by the extension EXE or COM after the file name. To run the program, simply type its name. For example, if you have a program named CHALL.EXE, type CHALL and press . DOCUMENTATION AND INSTRUCTIONS: The on-disk manual appears in an executable file named CHALLDOC.EXE. To view the manual from the DOS prompt, type CHALLDOC and press . You can page through the document on screen, or print it by pressing

. For a list of helpful commands, press . All features of PERSONAL CHALLENGE are documented in the on-disk manual. To save disk space, this manual may not contain all the extra explanatory material and examples which are included in the printed manual provided to registered (Paid) users. The printed manual also includes a table of contents and index. Files which have the DOC or TXT extension are ASCII format files (also called DOS Text files) which can be viewed or printed using DOS commands. For example, if you have a typical setup, you can print a document called CHALINFO.TXT using this command: TYPE CHALINFO.TXT > PRN To view this file on screen, you would enter: TYPE CHALINFO.TXT | MORE (Successful use of MORE assumes that the correct DOS files are in your path. If this is not the case, you can simply use TYPE CHALINFO.TXT, but the file may scroll up out of view.) You can also view and print this kind of file with text viewing utilities, and with most word processors, using "ASCII", "DOS Text" or "Non-document" format. CHANGES AND UPDATES: Sometimes changes are made in a program after the manual is completed. Information about such changes will appear on disk in a text file called UPDATE.TXT. If this file appears on your disk, you should read it to get the latest important information about the software. NEW VERSIONS: Sometimes a new version of a program will ask permission to update your data files. Do not answer "yes" unless you have already made a backup copy of your data. Don't copy the backed-up data back into the directory after the files have been updated. This backup is simply insurance against data damage or loss. You should make backups regularly. BE SMART! Before installing new versions of any software, make backups of all the old files. This protects you in case of an error during the installation/update process. Remember that power surges, hardware failure, and user errors can all lead to data loss or damage. Make backups of your data on a regular basis. If you wonder how often you need to back up your word processing documents, mailing lists, spreadsheets, etc., ask yourself, "How many days worth of work can I afford to lose?" We recommend that you use a system of three or more sets of backup disks which you rotate on a daily basis. That way, if something unfortunate happens to one set of backups, you will have another set available. A few minutes spent making daily backups can save you hours of heartbreaking work trying to recreate lost data. BAD DISK? It seems that in hot weather we sometimes get complaints about "bad" or unreadable disks. Floppy disks are susceptible to heat, moisture and magnetism. A disk that sits all day in a hot mailbox or truck where temperatures exceed 100 degrees is likely to be damaged. Disks which have been exposed to magnetism may become unreadable. Before assuming a disk is bad, try it on another computer. It may be that your computer's drive heads are dirty or slightly misaligned. Suspect this if you often get disk error messages with different disks. An inexpensive head cleaning kit may help solve the problem. With 5.25" disks, sometimes the round disk gets trapped inside its square casing and generates an error because it can't rotate freely. Remove the disk from the drive and tap each of the four edges sharply on the surface of your desk. This may loosen the disk. Try reading the disk again. With 3.5" disks, the sliding plate may not be sliding open when the disk is placed inside the drive. Gently slide the plate back and forth until it feels looser, being careful not to touch the disk media inside. Try reading the disk again. If the plate will not slide, or it it appears to be bent, do not place it inside the drive. Instead, you can simply remove the plate, which protects the disk but is not required for us. Several popular utility packages have features that can sometimes revive unreadable disks. In any case, if we sent you an unreadable disk, we will be happy to replace it with a fresh copy of the same program. If you received a bad disk from a vendor, the vendor should replace it. SUPPORT: Visit our WWW home page at http://www.rosemarywest.com/ Please understand that, while your input is welcome, we cannot provide significant technical support for this freeware program. If you like the program or find it useful, you are welcome to continue using it. If you dislike the program, please feel free to delete it from your computer.