Copyright: XDesk95 - Version 1.1.0.7
Citation: Copyright © 1999 Applied Micros Pty Limited


Introduction
XDesk95

XDesk95 is a very easy and friendly, but complete time and data management tool. It remains active in the system tray and provide the following:

Combined Calendar, Diary and Alarm Clock. A Schedule can be displayed from your diary. Anniversaries, cancelled events and completed events are also supported. Alarms pop up as a post-it style note on the desktop, optionally with sound.

Hierarchial Notes Tree similar to a directory structure. Each "page" can either be normal text or a sortable data table. This typically includes your address books, to-do lists, project information, handy data or whatever you like in any format you like. Automated Phone Dialling and e-mailing is provided.

Scientific / Engineering Calculator (in reverse polish notation) providing trignometric and logarithmics functions, factorial, hexadecimal, engineering multiplier keys and display with an 8 level stack.

Closing the Main Window does not deactivate XDesk95. The system tray icon will still be visible. To restore the Main Window, click on the system tray icon. To get access to the pop up menu, right-click on the system tray icon.

Copyright © 1999 Applied Micros Pty. Limited


Installation

Run the self extracting executable XDesk95S.exe.

To setup the schedule colours, modem port and alarm sound, open the properties window which is available throught the Pop up Menu Commands.


Calendar / Diary

Using the Calendar

This page shows a multi-month calendar and the Diary for the selected day. The number of months displayed depends on the size of the window and the position of the horizontal splitter bar. To scroll the months use the solid arrow buttons.

Using the Diary

The Diary spans 12 months, starting with the beginning of the previous calendar month. Every new calendar month, the contents of the previous-previous month are purged from the Diary. Only Locked items (see below) will be preserved, being moved forward a year. Purged Diary items are added to the file DiaryOld.txt. (To examine this file in your system's text editor, select Show Purged Events from the Pop up Menu Commands.)

To view the Diary contents for a particular day, click on the that day in the Calendar. Days containing Diary entries are shown in bold. Days outside the 12 month scope of the Diary are shown in italics. Each day can contains a set of Events. Each Event consists of a Lock, a State, a Time and a Description:

When the Lock is present, the Event will not be purged but will repeat every year.

When the State is the alarm clock, the event will trigger an alarm at the specified Time. The State can also show a tick for completed events or a cross for cancelled events.

To change the Lock, State or Time, double click on them or select them and type SPACE. The Time can also be set by typing in a new value directly OR typing + or - to adjust the time by 30 minute increments.

Alarms

An alarm occurs when the time and date matches an event in the Diary AND that Event's State is the alarm clock. When an alarm occurs, a post-it style Notification Window is placed on the desktop and an alarm is sounded every minute until the alarm is acknowledged. To acknowledge an alarm either click OK in the notification window OR select Acknowledge from the Pop up Menu Commands. The later will not remove the notification window.

Schedule

To see a colour coded list of all Alarm Events, past and present, click Schedule (or select Schedule from the Pop up Menu Commands). To examine all Events regardless of the Event's State, tick the Show All Events field. To modify an Event you must do so in the Diary. To jump straight to the selected Event, double click the Event OR click on the Go There button. To refresh the Schedule while it is open, after modifying the Diary, click on the Refresh button. The Schedule colours are user selectable in the Properties window which is available throught the Pop up Menu Commands.

Searching

To search for an Event, click on the Find button. This brings up the search window. Enter part of the Event's Description and click on Find Next (or type Enter). Searching starts with the day after the selected day.


Notes Tree

This page shows an editable tree of notes pages shown in 2 panes. The left pane shows a hierarchial tree of Categories and the right pane shows the Notes page for the selected Category. The relative sizes of the each pane can be adjusted by moving the vertical splitter bar. Any Notes page can be displayed and manipulated as either a text page or as a data table. Each Category can have children Categories and Categories can be moved around with the mouse. To rename a category, select it and type F2. The Toolbar buttons on this page are as follows:

Create New Category

This creates a new notes page as a child of the current category. The new category starts off as an empty page in text mode.

Delete Category

This deletes the current category provided it has no children categories.

Show Data as Text

This turns a data table into a text page. Columns turn into Tabs. The top 'title' row of the table is the first text line.

Show Data in a Table

This turns a text page into a data table. A Tab defines a new column. The first line of text becomes the top 'title' row of the table. Table rows and columns can be moved around with the mouse. Column widths can be adjusted with the mouse. This is great for address books and prioritized task lists etc.

Example: To make an address book style table: 1) Start in Text mode. 2) Enter the column headings separated by Tabs (Name Tab Address Tab Phone) on the top line. 3) Switch to Table mode. 4) Adjust the column widths. Done, now enter your data.

Search Data  (^F)

This brings up the search window. Enter a target to search for and click on Find Next (or type Enter). NOTE: The search starts at the current location of the current page and proceeds through all the following pages and Category titles.

Dial the phone number at the cursor / cell  (^D)

This provides automated dialling of the phone number located near the cursor (text mode) or the selected cell (table mode).

Send email to the address at the cursor / cell  (^S)

This opens a new email document automatically addressed with the valid email address near the cursor (text mode) or the selected cell (table mode).

Change Case of Selection / Cell

This cycles the selected text (text mode) or the selected cell (table mode) throught 3 letter case styles: Lower case, Upper case & Title case. In text mode, if there is no selected text, the word located at the cursor is used.

Toggle Word Wrap (text mode only)

This toggles word wrap on and off. When word wrap is on, long lines will be displayed over as many lines as required. Breaks will occur at word boundaries.

Sort by Current Column (table mode only)

This sorts the current table according to the currently selected column. Blank cells come last. If the selected cell is purely numeric, a numeric sort is performed, otherwise an alphabetical sort is performed.


Restore
Calculator

This page provides a scientific / engineering calculator. The style is RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) logic, as featured in HP calculators, and is more efficient than a conventional algebraic calculator.

RPN Calculators

The numbers are stored on a stack. Single number operations operate immediately on X only and do not change the stack. Two number operations, such as + and -, operate immediately on X and Y, combining these 2 numbers into a single answer in X and rolling down the higher items of the stack. New numbers entered will automatically push the stack up. The Enter button is only needed between new entries. An example is the best explanation: To calculate sqrt((3*4)+(9/3)) press 3 Enter 4 * 9 Enter 3 / + √.

XDesk95 Calculator Specifics

To move a value higher on the stack into X, select it and type SPACE (OR double click it OR right-click and pick Recall). The stack can also be rolled down to remove an unwanted number.

Engineering Notation:

Engineering multipliers, such as kilo, Mega, pico, etc are provided as single button clicks. To display results with this notation, click the Eng button.

Log Functions:

Log and antilog are provided for both base 10 (log, 10^x) and base e (ln, e^x).

Trig Functions:

To work in Radians rather that Degrees, click the Rad button. To calculate the inverse trig functions for Sin, Cos & Tan; click on Inv first. To convert rectangular co-ordinates to polar co-ordinates; have the x & y values in the X & Y positions on the stack and click on (r,ø). The results are placed in the X & Y positions on the stack: X is the radius (r) and Y is the angle (ø).  To convert polar co-ordinates to rectangular co-ordinates; have the r & ø values in the X & Y positions on the stack and click on (x,y). The results are placed in the X & Y positions on the stack.

Hexadecimal:

To work in Hexadecimal, click on the Hex button. This also provides access to the logical (binary) operations: AND (&), OR (|), EXCLUSIVE OR (^),  NOT (~), SHIFT LEFT (<<), SHIFT RIGHT (>>).

Copy & Paste:

Commands to copy the X value to the clipboard or paste a new value from the clipboard are provided by right-clicking in the claculator.


Pop up Menu Commands

A set of commands is available by right-clicking on the System Tray icon.

These commands include:

Restore

This restores the Main window to the screen. This also occurs on a single left-button mouse click on the system tray icon.

Acknowledge

This silences the current Alarm but does NOT remove the Notification Window.

Show Schedule

This is the same as the Schedule button in the Calendar / Diary page.

Show Purged Events

This opens the text file which containing a log of all the events that have been purged from the Diary.

About

Brings up the About box. This includes a Register button for user registration of the software. (see Registration)

Help

Brings up the help screen.

Properties

Brings up the Properties box. This allows the Modem COM port, the Alarm Sound and the Schedule Colours to be selected. Also, Hints to be toggled on or off.

Exit

This closes XDesk95 completely. Alarms will no longer occur until XDesk95 is run again.


Trouble Shooting

No Alarm at all

Is XDesk95 running? The Alarm clock icon must be present in the System Tray.

Is the Event in question armed? The event must be in the alarm clock State.

No Sound for an Alarm

Have you picked an Alarm Sound in the Properties window? An audible sound must be selected.

No Dialling

Have you selected the Modem port in the Properties window?

Is the selected port available? Any active programme using the modem (such as WinFax) must have Auto Answer switched OFF.

No pictures on the buttons

This is yet another bug in Windows. Please copy the latest comctl32.dll file into your \Windows\System directory. This is freely available from the Microsoft web site.

If there are any other problems please drop me an email.


Registration

To legally (and morally) continue using XDesk95 beyond the 30 day evaluation period, you must purchase a software licence. This helps to pay for my efforts in writting XDesk95 and enables further development and support.

To obtain a licence on-line :-

1)	Open the About box (using the Pop up Menu Commands).

2)	Click on the Buy Me button. This will open your web browser on the XDesk95 page which includes link(s) to on-line vendors which will sell you a Registration Key (or code).

To register the programme :-

1)	Open the About box (using the Pop up Menu Commands).

2)	Click the Register button. (This opens the Registration box)

3)	Enter the User Name and the Registration Key. Please be careful when entering these as any error will prevent registration.

4)	Click the OK button. (This will close the Registration box) If registration was successful, the user Name will now appear in the About box and the Main Window title bar.

Thank you for your support.


Main Window

Closing the Main does NOT deactivate XDesk95.

The Main Window consists of 3 tabbed pages containing; the Calendar / Diary, the Notes Tree and the Calculator.

The Status Bar displays the Date, Time and the number of Overdue Events.

All XDesk95 data is saved to disk every time the main window is closed or the system shut down.