Copyright: (c) iSBiSTER International, Inc. 1998


Table of Contents

Preface

     License Agreement

     Disclaimer of Warranties

     Obtaining Updates

     Contacting Technical Support or Sales

Using the Telephone Book

     The Telephone Book Window

     Adding or Editing Records

     Working with Multiple Contacts

     Dialing the Phone

     Using MAPI for email and faxes

     Internet Connectivity for web addresses and email

     Printing in the Phone Book

     Letters and Mail Merging

Using the Appointment Area

     The Appointment Window

     Adding or Editing Records

     Linked Name

     Alarm Notifications

     Repeat Options

     Rescheduling Appointments

     Special Occasions

     Printing with Appointments

Using the To Do Area

     The To Do Window

     Adding or Editing Records

     Linked Name

     Repeat Options

     Completing To Do Items

     Rescheduling To Do Items

     Printing with To Do items

Using the Calendar

     Understanding the Display

     Navigating the Calendar

     Display Options

     Month View and Week View

     Year View and 12 Month Planner Layout

Printing

     Print Preview Screen

     Report Options

Search and Report

     Selecting Fields for Results

     Specifying Search Criteria

     Performing the Search

     Saving Your Reports

     Create Options

     Editing Data

Preferences

     Display Preferences

     Program Preferences

Special Features

     Overlays

     Transportable Records (including Archiving Data)

     Backup and Restore

     Importing Data (ASCII and vCard information)

Workgroups

     Types of Workgroups

     Setting up your first workgroup

Special Workgroup Features

     User List

     TimeBar

     Item Transfers

     In-Basket

Troubleshooting Tips

Year 2000 Compliance


Preface

Congratulations on selecting Time & Chaos as your Personal Information Manager!

When Time & Chaos first appeared as try before you buy software in 1992, it struck a chord among harried business professionals. It has been called one of the best-kept secrets of the software industry by over a half-million people who have purchased it.  From the introduction of this product forward, we have continued to update and improve the software to respond to the needs of today's users.

Time & Chaos can be your individual competitive edge because it is built from the ground up on accepted standard practices of time management. It was designed for the real world by real busy business professionals.

Many of our customers have found that Time & Chaos is much more than a software product; rather, it is a process that can potentially take our lives from chaos into order. Initially, you may only use the most obvious features of Time & Chaos. Over time, as your organizational requirements expand, you will discover a wealth of additional features and capabilities that are waiting for you when you are ready for them. This manual is a helpful guide to taking full advantage of the software you now own.

After applying Time & Chaos to your own life, you will be more productive, less prone to the effects of stress, and you will have a better balance between your business and personal life.

We have managed to keep ahead of our competition only by listening carefully to our customers and responding quickly to their needs. Our developers are constantly on the lookout for new ideas and improvements for our next update. We always welcome your comments, your feedback, and your suggestions!

Please accept my personal best wishes for making your time usage more productive and more rewarding. We appreciate your support and thank you for your patronage.

Michael R. Whittingham
President and CEO
iSBiSTER International, Inc.


License Agreement

Prospective customers are encouraged to evaluate an unlicensed version of Time & Chaos32 for up to 21 days for the purpose of deciding whether the program suits their needs. At the end of this 21-day evaluation period, a user must either cease using Time & Chaos32 or purchase a license for continued use. Use of an unlicensed copy of Time & Chaos32 for more than 21 days, or use of a licensed copy by any person or business other than the licensee, is prohibited and a violation of international copyright laws.

Each licensed user of Time & Chaos32 is entitled to use Time & Chaos32 on more than one (1) personal computer provided that it is for their use only.

If Time & Chaos32 is installed on a computer network, each Time & Chaos32 user on that network requires their own license.

Licensing brings the legal right to continue using Time & Chaos32. You will receive a Security ID code that will eliminate the "registration reminder" screen that begins to appear after an unlicensed copy has been used for more than 21 days.

Security ID Codes are non-transferable without express permission of iSBiSTER International, Inc. Any attempt to share or transfer Security ID codes without consent of iSBiSTER International, Inc. shall be a violation of this agreement and will void your license to use Time & Chaos32.


Disclaimer of Warranties

iSBiSTER International, Inc. does not warrant that Time & Chaos32 software will meet your requirements or that the operation of the software will be uninterrupted or error free. Nor do we offer any Warranties or Guarantees of any kind. You are free to use Time & Chaos32 in any way you see fit, but AT YOUR OWN RISK.

iSBiSTER International, Inc. is not responsible for any problems or damage caused by the software or that may result from using the software; whether licensed or not. This includes, but is not limited to, computer hardware, computer software, operating systems, and any computer or computing accessories. End user agrees to hold iSBiSTER International, Inc. and/or any persons associated with the creation of this software harmless for any problems arising from the use of the software.

We regret having to place such a disclaimer in a piece of software. We have made every effort to make this software product as efficient and accurate as possible; however, in a world full of frivolous and ridiculous law suits, we have no alternative.


Updates
Obtaining Updates

From time to time, updates are made available for users of Time & Chaos32. If you have purchased a copy of Time & Chaos version 5.x, then any updates to the 5.x version are available free of charge if you can download them.

To install an update, you simply run the installation normally and install the program in the same location as the previous 5.x version. It should find your data and your registration code automatically.

On the Internet, updates can be found and downloaded from our web site at www.isbister.com


Contacting iSBiSTER

Most users can obtain the Technical Support or Sales information they need by using the iSBiSTER Web site at www.isbister.com  .

If the answer you need cannot be found there, you can contact iSBiSTER's Technical Support department for more information. Their office hours are 8:30 to 5:00 Central Time, Monday through Friday. If a priority response is necessary, it is always best to call rather than email. The telephone number is (972) 495-6724.

If you decide to email Technical Support, be sure to indicate which version of Time & Chaos you are using and what version of Windows you are using, in addition to supplying information about your problem and/or question. The email address is support@isbister.com  .

For Sales Information, you visit our web site at www.isbister.com  , email sales@isbister.com  or call (972) 495-6724.

If you have not yet purchased Time & Chaos and would like to, the iSBiSTER web site does have an online store that is available 24 hours a day that can complete your registration in just two minutes!

If you are looking for iSBiSTER's mailing address, it is:

iSBiSTER International, Inc.

1111 Belt Line Road, Suite 204

Garland, TX  75040


Overview

When someone looks at the main screen of Time & Chaos32, their first impression is of one of the hallmarks of Time & Chaos: Everything is visible on one screen! Your contacts, appointments and to do's for today, along with a calendar for the month, are each visible. You do not have to open additional windows and perform the screen gymnastics most Personal Information Manager programs require.

Creating appointments and to do items are as easy as dragging a name from your phone book and dropping it into the appropriate area. You are also given many visual cues regarding your data, such as whether it has a note attached or whether it is linked to a phone book record.

Gain A New Perspective

Do you need a new perspective on your data? Click on a column heading like Company, and your data automatically rearranges itself. Do you need to concentrate on a particular area, such as Appointments? Go to the Window menu and choose select the Daily Appointment Layout and the Appointments are instantly presented in a new "view" to fill the Time & Chaos screen.

The Daily Appointment Layout, for example, allows you to concentrate on today's meetings, listed in chronological order. You are even provided with a mini-TimeBar to show your time for today presented in a graphical manner.

You can maximize the various windows for additional ways to view your data. Maximizing the Calendar, for example, provides a "Month View" to allow you to view your appointments or your to do items in a calendar format.

The Telephone Book

Even though Time & Chaos32 has a "Telephone Book", keep in mind that it is much more than just a simple address book and telephone dialer. In addition to placing voice calls through your TAPI dialer, Time & Chaos32 will also allow you to launch faxes and emails with a MAPI mail program like Windows Messaging. You can store Web site addresses and have your default Web browser take you right to that site. You can also use your browser-supported email program instead of MAPI.

Integration with other 32bit applications

Time & Chaos will work with many other applications to help you get your job done.

•	Word and WordPerfect - for mail merges (letters, mailing labels, and envelopes)

•	MAPI-compliant Mail programs - for email and fax communications.

•	TAPI Dialers (including Microsoft Phone Dialer) - for voice communications

•	Web Browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator) - for Web Browsing and email

•	WinFax 8.0 - for sending fax communications

•	Microsoft Excel - for additional report formatting and functions

Networking in a Workgroup

Although Time & Chaos32 is a Personal Information Manager, you may need to work with others as part of a workgroup. Whether you are set up with Peer-To-Peer Networking or Client-Server, or even just a stand-alone user wishing to work with multiple data folders, Time & Chaos32 has many features built in for your needs, including the TimeBar and User List for easy scheduling with others.

Final Thoughts

The rest of this user's guide will go into much more detail about these features and more. With everything that it is capable of, Time & Chaos32 is one of the most powerful personal productivity tools you can find. We hope it helps you manage your chaos!


Telephone Book
Using the Telephone Book

The Telephone Book in Time & Chaos32 is just one of the four areas of the screen, but you will find that it will become the central focus of all your activities. After all, you are listing the people that you make appointments to meet with, that you have things to do for, that you email, fax, call, and write. When it comes down to it, learning to use the Telephone Book is the most important lesson in using the Time & Chaos32 program.

The Telephone Book Window

The Telephone Book Window provides an extensive view into your list of contacts. The Window is divided into two parts: the Contact Identification area and the Communication Access area.

The Contact Identification Area

The Contact Identification area displays Last Name, First and Company for each entry. An indicator for Attached Notes is also provided (the "N" column). You can sort your telephone book by Last Name/First Name or by Company. You do this by clicking on the appropriate header. Click on the Company heading and your Telephone List will sort alphabetically by Company. Click Last Name, First and your Telephone List will sort alphabetically by Last Name. Once you have the columns sorted the way you wish you may retain these as your defaults by selecting File, then Save Startup Settings. The next time you start Time & Chaos your column sorts will be retained.

When you are viewing the main screen of Time & Chaos32 you can "Quick Search" for a name at any time. Just start typing the first few letters of a name located in your telephone book. The program will look for the Last Name or Company (depending on what you are sorted by) for a match. If you want to call a person in your telephone book named John Smith, simply start typing Sm and Time & Chaos32 will jump you to the first Sm in the list. Try it! It will save you a lot of time.

The Communication Access Area

The Communication Access area displays the Phone Numbers and/or Electronic Communication Addresses defined for the currently selected Telephone Book Entry. Each Telephone Book entry can have as many as twenty phone numbers. The buttons (or labels) to the left of each access number can automatically dial the telephone for a voice call, connect you to a Internet web site, create a fax, or send out email. This is covered in more detail later in this chapter.

Finally, there are many options available to you in the Telephone Book area (such as printing and searching). You can access these many different ways, depending on your personal preferences. You can use the handy toolbars at the top of each window. You can use your right mouse button anywhere in the telephone book window to bring up a special menu of choices. You can also use the Telephone Book menu at the top of the screen.

You can change your current Overlay filter by using the first button on the toolbar of the Telephone Book window. Overlays are a way to organize all the names in your telephone book in to smaller groups. Some users will make an Overlay for a White Pages or Yellow Pages to distinguish between personal and work names, but you could also create Overlays for Contacts or Prospects or Friends. In fact, you can call Overlays whatever you want. For more information on Overlays, you can read the chapter on Special Features in this user's guide.

Adding or Editing Records

Before you can work with your contacts, you must know how to enter them into the Telephone Book area. There are a few different ways to bring up a new entry screen. If there are any blank rows in the Telephone Book area, you can double-click on it. If not, you can right-click to bring up the pop-up menu to choose Add Telephone Book Item. You can also use the first button on the toolbar in the Telephone Book Area. If you want to edit a record that is already listed, you can simply find it and double-click on it.

On the Entry/Edit screen, there are a series of tabs at the top. There are over a 100 fields available for each Telephone Book record, and while you are not likely to use all of them, Time & Chaos divides up the fields into logical groups so that they will all fit on screen.

The Main tab is where you can enter the First Name, Last Name and Company Name. This information is what will end up appearing on the main screen.  You can also enter information such as the Prefix (i.e. Mr. or Mr. & Mrs.), the Suffix (i.e. Jr. or Sr.), the Title/Position (i.e. President or Chief Financial Officer) and Overlay.

The Overlay field is used to divide your Telephone Book into groups of names, such as Personal or Business. The result of using Overlay means that instead of viewing the entire Telephone Book, you can choose to "filter" and see just the records that are in a specific Overlay. An additional feature is that you can use the name of a color in your Overlay field (such as Yellow Pages). When you filter on that Overlay, the background of the Telephone Book will change to the color in your Overlay name.

If you want to create a new Overlay, simply type something new in the Overlay field. Please note that the Overlay field can only contain up to 15 characters, including spaces, punctuation, and color names (if any). A more complete discussion of Overlays can be found later in this User's Guide in the chapter on Special Features.

Next to the Main tab are the Primary Address and Secondary Address tabs. These areas are where you enter the mailing addresses you have for this contact. The address information you provide can then be used for printing letters, envelopes, and mailing labels. There are also two handy buttons to allow you to copy or paste whole addresses into the correct fields.

The Telephone Numbers tab contains two columns. You may enter up to 20 Telephone Numbers for each record, and for each number, you can have a label or "Connection Type" to identify what type of information it is. We use the term number loosely, because you can also enter email addresses, fax numbers, and web site addresses here as well by choosing the appropriate label. You can also save your own default Connection Type labels by pressing F7 when you have the labels setup the way you want them

Connection Type and Purpose

SMTP: is used to send Internet email with MAPI message program.

Mailto: is used to send Internet email with Web Browser mail program.

FAX: is used to send Fax with MAPI message program.

WinFax: is used to send Fax with WinFax Pro 8.0 program.

URL: is used to store addresses for Internet Web sites.

CompuServe: is used to send CompuServe mail with MAPI message program.

MSN: is used to send Microsoft Network mail with MAPI message program.

MS: is used to send Microsoft Mail for networks with MAPI program.

MapQuest: will launch your web browser to take you to a map for the record's address. Just leave the Phone Number field blank.

SkyTel: will send a pager request through the SkyTel web site.

More important than just using the right labels for things is that you can make these items work for you. Instead of being just a database, Time & Chaos can be used to dial the telephone or launch emails, faxes or your web browser to take you to the web sites you have entered.

The Custom Fields tab contains 12 user-definable fields. These fields allow you to personalize Time & Chaos32 to your specific needs. Perhaps you want to track customer numbers or their birthdays or the names of their spouses. If so, you can define one of these custom fields to store this type of information. If you put your cursor in the label area to the left of the actual custom field, you can type a new label for that field. This will set it globally, so any labels on this record will also appear on all of your other entries in the Telephone Book.

The Categories tab is a place where you can organize your contacts, primarily for special report needs or for mail merges. You can click to the left of any box and type a label for any of the Category fields you wish to use. Once the fields are ready for use, you can simply check the box for any Category that applies to this record.

Although Categories and Overlays are both used to organize your records, Categories are different from Overlays. There is a limited number of Categories available, but you can make as many Overlays as you want. The trade-off is that you can place an item in more than one Category at a time, but each item can be in only one Overlay.

Linked Files allow you to attach documents, spreadsheets, pictures, or anything else on your PC to a particular Telephone Book record. Right click on the screen in this window and you can attach a new file. Once attached, an icon for it will appear. You can also drag a file itself and drop it in this window (if you can see both at the same time on your screen). Once items are listed here, you can double-click on any file and Time & Chaos will launch the necessary program to open the file you attached!

Attached Notes are a way to enter general information about a contact. They are entered in a special Note Editor screen that allows you to use "rich text". This includes the use of colors and fonts. There are also options to time-stamp your notes as you enter them so you can keep a chronological diary of entries in the notes.

Linked Appointments and Linked To Do's are tabs where you can take a look at any of the Appointments or To Do's that you linked to this phone record. They are presented in chronological order and you can double-click on any item you see to go into that item's details. If you do not see any items listed, then perhaps you did not link any Appointments or To Do items to this person. Details on how to link items can be found in the chapters on working with the Appointment area or the To Do area.

Working with Multiple Contacts

There are times when you may want to list more than one person from a particular company in your Time & Chaos32 database. Instead of entering the same information each time you add another contact at a company, you can use a "cloning" option in Time & Chaos32. Create a new Telephone Book record, but use the drop-down list in the Company Name field to find the appropriate Company Name rather than typing it in again.  When you select it, you will be asked if you want to have the address and telephone information copied into this new record.

If you need to see the contacts that you have at any company, just sort the main screen of Time & Chaos32 by the Company field. (Click on the Company column heading.) Now you should see all the contacts at XYZ Corporation listed together and then in alphabetical order within that company.

Dialing the Phone

In the modern age of computing, a new specification called TAPI is now prevalent. This standard allows your computer and your telephone to work together. Time & Chaos32 is fully TAPI-compliant and will work with any TAPI dialer you might be using. Windows 95 and NT 4 come with a basic TAPI dialer from Microsoft called Phone Dialer that Time & Chaos32 integrates with tightly.

When you enter telephone numbers into Time & Chaos, you should include the area code with each number, even the numbers in your local area code for which you normally do not dial the area code. You do not need to enter a "1" for long distance numbers, as Microsoft's Phone Dialer will add it automatically.

The suggested format for telephone numbers is to place the area code in parentheses, then type a space, then type the actual phone number. If the number is for a country other than your own, you can also enter the country code at the beginning. An example, including country code would be +44 (171) 123-1234.

Microsoft's Phone Dialer is a good program for the basics of placing a telephone call. If you wish to upgrade your dialing software, though, be certain that your new dialer is TAPI-compliant and that it will install in Windows as the new default dialer.  If so, Time & Chaos32 will automatically begin to work with it when voice calls are placed.

Using MAPI for email and faxes

With today's ever-changing world, our means of communicating with friends and clients are no longer limited to just placing telephone calls to them. It's nice to speak with them, but in reality, we now communicate through email or via fax machines. Because of the importance of this type of communication, there is a specification for messaging called MAPI. Using MAPI for messaging is as important as using the TAPI standard for telephony.

Time & Chaos32 has powerful capabilities to help you -- it's MAPI compliant! To you, the user, this means Time & Chaos32 is able to become a launching pad -- a place to start email or faxes to people in your phone book.

What do you need to start? Obviously, you need a MAPI capable email program. For the purposes of this user's guide, we will assume you are using Windows Messaging (or Microsoft Exchange) that is included free with Windows 95 and NT. Faxing will also require fax software and a fax-capable modem. Again, Windows 95 and NT come with a basic package called Microsoft Fax. You can use other programs, too, as long as they are able to meet the same MAPI standards as these programs can.

Once you have everything you need, launching a fax or an email is as simple as clicking on a button. Find the person in the phone book that you wish to communicate with. When you click on their name, the right side of the phone book window will display their contact points: telephone numbers, email addresses and fax numbers.

The first thing to notice is that the buttons for some of these items have a colon ":" after the text. This colon is what you use to let Time & Chaos32 know that this is not a normal telephone number, but is a MAPI Address instead. A button of FAX: would launch a fax and the SMTP: button is for Internet Mail. Any other MAPI mail type can also be supported such as CompuServe Mail or Microsoft Mail.

Once you click on a button such as SMTP:, you will receive a message to confirm that the address is correct before clicking on OK. At this point, Time & Chaos will now ask Windows to open a MAPI message. Windows will look for what you have installed to perform this (usually Windows Messaging) and open a new message in the proper application. All that now needs to be done is for you to type in the subject and create the message. When you are done, click on send, and Windows Messaging will take care of the rest.

Regarding faxes, the process is the same, but you should make a note of two things. First, as mentioned earlier, you must have Fax software installed and configured in Windows Messaging so that it knows what to use when a fax needs to be delivered. Second, when sending faxes as a MAPI Message, your computer is very particular about the format used for the fax number. You should enter all your fax numbers in this format to ensure proper delivery: +1 (972) 530-6566.

You may also use WinFax Pro 8.0 to send faxes, but the phone label must be set to WinFax: instead of the normal FAX:, and WinFax will only send faxes, not Internet email.

Internet Connectivity

The Time & Chaos32 Telephone Book can be used to store Internet web site addresses and to launch email through your web browser's mail program if you prefer that to the MAPI support.

Time & Chaos32 will automatically use your default web browser, whichever one that happens to be. There is nothing that you have to set up in Time & Chaos32 to make this happen if you have a web browser and Internet connectivity already set up in Windows.

To enter web addresses, just enter a new "telephone number" with a Connection Type of URL: with the complete address in the actual telephone number field. A complete address would be www.isbister.com  , for example. When you are on the main screen of Time & Chaos32, you can then click on a URL: button to open that web site. If your web browser is not running, this process should start it automatically for you.

You may wish to use your browser's mail program for Internet email instead of MAPI. If you want to do this, you can enter a new "telephone number" with a Connection Type of mailto: with the complete email address in the actual telephone number field. A complete address would be support@isbister.com  for example. When you are on the main screen, you could then click on the mailto: button, and Time & Chaos will attempt to open a new message for you, with this person's email address already filled in for you.

Time & Chaos32 also supports MapQuest ©, a site on the Internet that will produce maps for you when you supply an address. MapQuest can be found at www.mapquest.com  . To use MapQuest in Time & Chaos, just change one of the telephone labels on a record to "MapQuest:". When you click on the MapQuest: button on the main screen, Time & Chaos will send this person's address to the MapQuest web site. The result is that your web browser will be launched to display a map to this person's location.

Printing in the Phone Book

Time & Chaos32 can print out Telephone Books, Address Books, Contact Profiles, and Envelopes, and Mailing Labels based on the contacts in your Telephone Book.

The Telephone Book printout will contain the names in your database, along with all of their telephone numbers. The Address Book will print the same information, with the addition of the primary and secondary address information.

A Contact Profile is a way to get all the information about a particular record in your Telephone Book.

Envelopes can be printed for any record or group of records in your Telephone Book. You can include a return address, a postal barcode, and choose to mail to their primary or secondary address.

Support for Mailing Labels is also built into Time & Chaos32. Supported are the most popular Avery © Label sizes for standard printers. When you select the Mailing Labels option, labels for each of the contacts in your current telephone book will automatically be generated.

If you own a CoStar LabelWriter Printer, Time & Chaos provides an additional print option for CoStar LabelWriter Label(s), which will send the contact you have selected on the main screen to the CoStar printer to produce a label for you.

Once you select the report you wish to print, you will be taken to the Print Preview screen where you can adapt the layout and report options to your needs. Please see the chapter on Printing for details on this area if you need more information.

In addition to these standard print jobs, remember that you can always use the Search and Report screen to generate your own custom Telephone Book report or use the mail merge capabilities to generate your own special mailing labels or envelopes in your word processor. With the added capabilities of these other options, you can print out just about anything you wish, the way you want to.

Summary

The Telephone Book can become the central hub for all that you accomplish in a day. When you want to call someone, you can find the name and have your PC dial the phone for you.  When you want to email them, you can launch it from Time & Chaos. You can write notes, attach files, link Appointments and To Do items, mail merge letters, and more.

Now that you have an understanding of how these things work, now you can begin to learn about the Time Management side of Time & Chaos32 – your Appointments and To Do's.


Letters and Mail Merging

If you only need a contact's name and address at the top of a new blank document, you can simply select the person in your telephone book, then go to the Word Processor button in the telephone book toolbar and select New Letter.

If you need more than the basics, Time & Chaos32 supports Microsoft Word 95, Word 97, and Corel WordPerfect for mail merges. With any of these three word processors, you can use Time & Chaos as a data source to create anything you want in your word processor.

There are a few steps to every mail merge when you use Time & Chaos as a data source. First, you need to select the people in Time & Chaos you want to mail, then you need to make a template for your merge, and then finally, do the merge itself to combine the names with the document.

You can select the records you want to merge on either the main screen or the search screen. If you want to do it from the main screen, you just have to find the person you want, right click on that person, and find your word processor on the pop-up menu. If you want to mail merge to a group of people, you can also start this process from the search and report screen. Find all the records you want to mail merge to, then go to the Edit menu and Select All to highlight them. Go to the File menu, choose Create, and find your word processor on that menu.

Note: The word processor listed on that menu is the one selected in the Time & Chaos Preferences, so if you see the wrong word processor on the menu, you will need to update the Preferences. Go to the File menu on the main screen, choose Preferences, and on the General tab, select your particular word processor from the list.

Once you find your word processor, you will then have the options of New Letter, Create a New Template, or Merge to Template. New Letter will just place the date and person's address at the top of a blank page. The Template options are where you get to actually create your own layout of a document.

Please note that the Letter and Envelope Templates in Time & Chaos are not the same as the templates which may have come with your word processor, or templates you may have made on your own. The Time & Chaos Template options specifically refer to documents you have made for use with Time & Chaos.

To start, you need to use Create a New Template. You can make a Letter Template, an Envelope Template, or a Catalogue Template (Word 97 only). When you select the type of Template you wish to build, you will be asked for a name for the Template you are building. Remember that Windows 95, 98, and NT support long file names, so you can name this Template exactly what you use it for.

If you use Word, you will be asked if you wish to base this new document on an existing Word template. Sometimes you might want to use a Word template for things such as letterhead or fax cover sheets and personalize them for use with Time & Chaos. If so, choose whichever one is appropriate. Most of the time, however, you can just choose Cancel, and Word will just start you with a blank document.

Once inside of your word processor, you will be placed in a mail merge mode with a special toolbar at the top. Time & Chaos provides all the usable Phone Book fields to Word and WordPerfect so that you can insert them in your document. Just remember that you are responsible for all punctuation and spaces when you are creating this Template. For example, don't forget to type a space between the first name and last name fields, or you will get something like JohnSmith on your merged output.

After you have designed your new Template, be sure to save it (not save as, but save) so that all your hard work in creating the Template is retained. Now that you have a template designed, you can exit your word processor and return to Time & Chaos.

Once a Template exists, you can then select the Merge to Template option. You will first be given an opportunity to find the Template you built through Time & Chaos. You can select from a list of recently used Templates, or you can browser for a different one. After selected, your word processor will immediately merge all the records you selected in Time & Chaos with the Template to make your final, printable document.


Appointments
Using the Appointment Area

The Appointments Window provides a place to schedule the events and meetings you have each day. As you move from day to day, your current schedule is always made available to you. You can also track important days such as Birthdays, Holidays, and Anniversaries.

The Appointment Window

The Appointment Window provides an extensive view into your collection of time commitments. It displays all commitments scheduled for the selected day, including the times and descriptions. Indicators for Alarm Sound (A), Linked Name (L) and Attached Notes (N) conditions are also shown.

You can access the various options available to you in the appointment area (such as printing and searching) by using the Appointment Toolbar. You can also use your right mouse button and right-click anywhere in the appointment window to bring up a pop-up menu.

You can also change your current filter based on Overlays by using the first button on the toolbar of the Appointment Window.

If you wish to concentrate on the Appointment area and ignore (temporarily) the other areas of Time & Chaos, you can select Daily Appointment Layout from the Window menu. This will provide an alternate layout for the entire Time & Chaos screen to display a focused view of your Appointment data. It will continue to display a calendar for you, but below the calendar, it will display a mini-TimeBar to graphically display your schedule. When you are ready to return to normal, you can go back to the Window menu and choose another layout, including the normal default layout.

Adding or Editing Records

There are a few different ways to bring up a new entry screen in the Appointment area. If you are scheduling a meeting with someone in your Telephone Book, the easiest way to add an item is to find the correct name and drag it down to the Appointment window. When you drop it, an entry screen will pop-up for you and you can finish filling in the blanks.

If you are entering an appointment that does not need to be linked to a Telephone Book record and if there are any blank rows in the Appointment area, you can just double-click on it. If not, you can right-click to bring up the pop-up menu to choose Add Appointment. You can also use the first button on the toolbar in the Appointment area.

If you want to edit an existing Appointment item, you can simply find it and double-click on it to open the same screen.

On the Main tab are the fields for Appointment Date, Start Time, End Time, Description, Item Color, Overlay, Linked Name and Alarm options. There is also a button to access the Attached Notes.

Appointment Date is a specific day on which the Appointment is scheduled. By default, the date is the same as the one selected on the main screen. If you want to change to another date, you can click on the drop down arrow at the end of this field to choose it off the calendar, or you can type it in yourself, with a standard date format.

The Start Time and End Time fields allow you to specify the specific duration of your Appointment. You may wish to enter (any standard time specification) the desired time just by typing or, if you prefer you may use the drop down lists to select a time. Using these fields will allow this time to be "blocked off" your schedule. Both of these fields are optional if you do not have or want to list this information.

The Description is used to define the purpose of the Appointment. If the description has an @ followed by a telephone number, you could also dial from this appointment, if the need arose.

Item Color allows you to pick a color to make the appointment stand out from the others in your Appointment Window on the main screen.

You can organize your Appointments by using Overlay. You can define Overlay values and use them to classify specific Appointments. Examples of Appointment Overlay values could be "Vacations", "Personal" or "Business". Time & Chaos32 maintains a reusable list of Overlay values that you have used. You may select from these by clicking on the "down arrow" at the end of this data field.

If you wish to place an Appointment in a specific Overlay, select it from your current list of Appointment Overlays. Click on the "down arrow" at the right end of the Overlay data field and make your selection. If you wish to place an Appointment in a new Overlay, enter the description of the new Overlay into the Overlay data field. New Overlay values entered are added to your current list of Overlays. (Overlays are discussed in more detail in the chapter on Special Features.)

The Categories tab is a place where you can also organize your Appointments, primarily for special report needs. You can click to the left of any box and type a label for any of the Category fields you wish to use. Once the fields are ready for use, you can simply check the box for any Category that applies to this record. One example of how to use the Categories might be to list your business goals. As you enter Appointments, you can go to Categories and select the goals that this Appointment helps you achieve. In the future, you can create a custom report that shows all the Appointments in the one particular goal so that you know what you did to achieve it or perhaps the reasons you did not.

Although Categories and Overlays are both used to organize your records, Categories are different from Overlays. There is a limited number of Categories available, but you can make as many Overlays as you want. The trade-off is that you can place an item in more than one Category at a time, but each item can be in only one Overlay.

Overlays can also be very useful in printing, because Overlays allow you to filter out other data from your calendars and reports. For example, you can make an Overlay for employee vacations or your son's Little League schedule. If you choose to view just the Overlay you want instead of All on the Main screen, then choose to Print, you can produce a calendar with just the information you want: a vacation schedule to post on the bulletin board at work or your son's schedule to put on your refrigerator at home.

Attached Notes are a way to enter general information about an Appointment. They are entered in a special Note Editor screen that allows you to use "rich text". This includes the use of colors and fonts. There are also options to time-stamp your notes as you enter them so you can keep a chronological diary of entries in the notes.

Linked Name

Appointment records may be directly associated with individual entries in your Telephone Book. You can select the desired Telephone Book Entry by clicking on the "down arrow" at the right end of the Linked Name field. Time & Chaos32 will display a list of entries in your current Telephone Book and allow you to make your selection. When a Telephone Book record is dragged into the Appointments Window to create an Appointment, this linkage is built automatically by Time & Chaos32.

There are two benefits to linking Appointment items to Telephone Book records. When you select this linked Appointment on the main screen, Time & Chaos will find and select the Telephone item for you as well. You will also be able to look at any record in your database and see a complete chronological history of all the meetings you have had with them. Each Appointment that is linked will be signified with a + in the "L" column.

Alarm Notifications

Time & Chaos32 has the ability to notify you in advance of an Appointment. By setting up the information in the Alarm related fields, you can control how and when you will be notified about an upcoming appointment.

Checking the Sound Alarm checkbox will allow Time & Chaos32 to sound an alarm prior to its scheduled start time.

The Alarm Lead Time is where you specify the length of time prior to an Appointment's scheduled start time at which Time & Chaos32 should sound the alarm. You can choose from three available time measurements (i.e., minutes, hours or days) and you can specify your desired time as a whole number.

When Time & Chaos32 determines that an Appointment alarm needs to be sounded, the Alarm Sound .WAV File of your choice will be used to issue the audible alarm. At the right end of the Alarm Sound .WAV File data field is an icon that looks like a file cabinet. You can click on this icon and browse for the .WAV file of your choice.

By default, Time & Chaos32 has alarms enabled. You can use the Time & Chaos32 Preferences, however, to change the defaults for these fields. On the main screen, go to File, then Preferences. On the General tab, there is a field you can use to define your Default Alarm .WAV File. You can also use the Miscellaneous tab to control other Appointment preferences, including the Default Alarm Lead Time and the Alarm mode.

Repeat Options

Often, you may have appointments that need to be repeated at a definable time interval. For example, you may have a staff meeting on the first Monday of each month, you may have a social event every Tuesday or you may have a project review each month on the 15th.

Time & Chaos32 allows the user to select a repeat period and specify a frequency at which this period is to be repeated. The Appointment is then automatically repeated by Time & Chaos32 according to your specifications so that you do not have to enter each item individually.

Periods that may be chosen include days, weeks, months and years. The desired frequency is entered by the user as a whole number.

Let's look at one typical situation. You have a staff meeting on the first Monday of each month that is scheduled to start at 10:00 am and end at 11:00 am. You wish to have Time & Chaos32 store this repeating Appointment for the next six months. Using the calendar area of the main screen, you would position yourself on the first Monday of the current month and create a new Appointment.

As you setup the Appointment you would go to the Repeat Options tab and select a repeat period of "month(s)" and a frequency of "1". You would also specify a value for the Until the following date field such that the Appointment would be repeated for the next six months. Time & Chaos32 notes that you are repeating monthly and will allow you to check a box that specifies "The first Monday of each month" so that your Appointment will be repeated properly. If you did not check this box, the Appointment would be repeated monthly on that specific date.

Time & Chaos32 will remember that this appointment is part of a repeating series. This means that if you need to edit the times on the appointment, you can edit just the current one. When you save the newly edited record, you will be asked if you want the same change to be made to all the future instances of that appointment as well. Similarly, when you delete an item which has been repeated, you will be asked if you want to remove the future instances of that appointment as well.

Rescheduling Appointments

As situations develop, it is likely that you will need to reschedule Appointments to a more appropriate date in order to meet your schedule demands. If so, there are a few easy ways to move items from one day to another.

If you drag an Appointment from the Appointment area and drop it on another day in the Calendar area, you will be provided a choice to move or copy the Appointment to the new date.

If you want to move the item to another month, you can use the 12-month Planner Layout from the Window menu at the top of the screen. This will provide a new window called Year View that will display the current and next 11 months. Once the month is displayed that you want to move items to, you can drag and drop them to the appropriate date.

If you prefer not to drag and drop items, you can always double-click on the specific Appointment you wish to reschedule and simply edit the Date field to your new date.

Special Occasions

Special occasions such as a Holidays or Birthdays can be entered easily. Create a new Appointment, but leave the start time and end time fields blank. Go directly to the Description field and enter the purpose of the item, then save it. It will appear at the top of your Appointment list, above all the other items you have scheduled.

You can also use the repeat option feature when you enter Birthdays or Anniversaries so that you do not have to enter this item each year.

On the iSBiSTER Web site, there are "Transportable Records" with the holidays for many different countries available. Visit www.isbister.com  and look for the Free Stuff area in the Time & Chaos32 site. This will save you the effort at entering holidays on your own.

Printing with Appointments

To print out calendars with your Appointments for your current Overlay, use the Print button on the Appointment toolbar or right click in the Appointment window and select Print on the pop-up menu.

When printing from the Appointment Area, you will be given the option to print out Monthly Calendars, Weekly Calendars, Daily Calendars, and Day Plans. The Day Plan is a combination of your To Do list and Appointment Schedule for the given date. Once you select the report you wish to print, you will be taken to the Print Preview screen where you can adapt the layout and report options to your needs. Please see the chapter on Printing for details on this area if you need more information.

In addition to these standard print jobs, remember that you can always use the Search and Report screen to generate your own custom Appointment report. You can choose the fields you wish to include and choose a range of dates you wish to report on. Full details can be found in the chapter on using the Search and Report.


ToDo Items
Using the To Do Area

The To Do area provides a way for you to list the tasks that must be completed, to prioritize them, and then mark them as done when you have completed them. Most users list their telephone calls in the To Do area as well.

A special feature of Time & Chaos is that if you do not finish a task today, it will automatically display tomorrow as well. In fact, it will continue to display until you either complete it or delete it! So even if you shouldn't put off until tomorrow what you can do today, Time & Chaos will still help to remind you of all your To Do items.

The To Do Window

The To Do Window provides an extensive view into your collection of planned activities. This window displays all open activities as of the currently selected date. The Priority Level (P) and Description are displayed for each current entry. Indicators for Attached Notes (N) and Linked Name (L) are also provided.

You can access the various options available to you in the To Do area (such as printing and searching) by clicking on the menu button in the upper right corner of the To Do window. You can also use your right mouse button and right-click anywhere in the To Do window.

You can also change your current filter based on Overlays by clicking on the first button of the toolbar in the To Do window.

If you wish to concentrate on the To Do area and ignore (temporarily) the other areas of Time & Chaos, you can select To Do List Layout from the Window menu. This will provide an alternate layout for the entire Time & Chaos screen to display a focused view of your To Do data. It also continue to display a calendar for you in addition to the To Do List. When you are ready to return to normal, you can go back to the Window menu and choose another layout, including the normal default layout.

Adding or Editing Records

There are a few different ways to create a new entry screen in the To Do area. If you are doing something for or calling someone in your Telephone Book, the easiest way to add an item is to find the correct name and drag it down to the To Do window. When you drop it, Time & Chaos32, by default, will make a new To Do item to call this person. If the default does not properly describe the task, you can double click on it to edit it. (You can also edit the default text in the Preferences if you would rather have a different default.)

If you are entering an appointment that does not need to be linked to a Telephone Book record and if there are any blank rows in the To Do area, you can just double-click on it. If not, you can right-click to bring up the pop-up menu to choose Add To Do. You can also use the first button on the toolbar in the To Do area.

If you want to edit an existing To Do item, you can simply find it and double-click on it to open the same screen.

On the Main tab are the fields for Date To Begin Displaying, Priority Level, Description, Overlay and Linked Name. There is also a button for Attached Notes.

Date To Begin Displaying is a specific date (i.e., day, month and year) on which the To Do Item will start being showing up on your To Do list. By default, the date is the same as the one selected on the main screen. If you want to change this date, you may type the desired date or you may click on the "down arrow" at the right end of this field and choose the new date on the drop-down calendar.

Priority is a place to rank the importance of a specific To Do Item. You may directly enter your desired value or you may click on the "down arrow" at the right end of the Priority data field to make your selection.

Using the Priority field is very important because the ranking of its importance (such as A, B, or C) will determine the order in which the items are displayed on the main screen. The items of highest priority will be displayed first, followed in order by the items of lesser and lesser priority.

Checking the Done box indicates to Time & Chaos32 that this task has been completed. This will also assign a specific priority ("X") to the To Do item. Until an item is completed, is will continue to show up on your To Do list unless you reschedule it or delete it.

The Description is used to define the purpose of the To Do item. If the description has an @ then a telephone number, you could also dial from this To Do item, if the need arose.

You can organize your To Do items by using Overlay. You can define Overlay values and use them to classify specific To Do items. Examples of To Do Overlay values could be "Project X", "Personal" or "Business". Time & Chaos32 maintains a reusable list of Overlay values that you have used. You may select from these by clicking on the "down arrow" at the end of this data field.

If you wish to place a To Do in a specific Overlay, select it from your current list of To Do Overlays. Click on the "down arrow" at the right end of the Overlay data field and make your selection. If you wish to place a To Do in a new Overlay, enter the description of the new Overlay directly into the Overlay data field. New Overlay values entered are added to your current list of Overlays.

The Categories tab is a place where you can also organize your To Do items, primarily for special report needs. You can click to the left of any box and type a label for any of the Category fields you wish to use. Once the fields are ready for use, you can simply check the box for any Category that applies to this record.

Although Categories and Overlays are both used to organize your records, Categories are different from Overlays. There is a limited number of Categories available, but you can make as many Overlays as you want. The trade-off is that you can place an item in more than one Category at a time, but each item can be in only one Overlay. One example of how to use the Categories might be to list your business goals. As you enter To Do items, you can go to Categories and select the goals that this To Do helps you achieve. In the future, you can create a custom report that shows all the To Do items in the one particular goal so that you know what you did to achieve it or perhaps the reasons you did not.

Overlays can also be very useful in printing, because Overlays allow you to filter out other data from your calendars and reports. For example, you can make an Overlay for the tasks related to a particular project. If you choose to view just the Overlay you want instead of All on the Main screen, then choose to Print, you can produce a To Do list with just the information you want: a list of just tasks for your Project.

Attached Notes are a way to enter general information about a To Do item. They are entered in a special Note Editor screen that allows you to use "rich text". This includes the use of colors and fonts. There are also options to time-stamp your notes as you enter them so you can keep a chronological diary of entries in the notes.

Linked Name

To Do items may be directly associated with individual entries in your Telephone Book. You can select the desired Telephone Book Entry by clicking on the "down arrow" at the right end of the Linked Name field. Time & Chaos32 will display a list of entries in your current Telephone Book and allow you to make your selection. When a Telephone Book record is dragged into the To Do Window to create a new To Do item, this linkage is built automatically by Time & Chaos32.

There are two benefits to linking To Do items to Telephone Book records. When you select this linked To Do on the main screen, Time & Chaos will find and select the Telephone item for you as well. You will also be able to look at any record in your database and see a complete chronological history of all the tasks you have completed for them. Each To Do item that is linked will be signified with a + in the "L" column.

Repeat Options

To Do List Items are planned activities. Often our planned activities are repeated at definable time intervals. For example, you may have a "Progress Report" due on the first Monday of each month.

Keep in mind, though, that you would only use the Repeat Options in the To Do area when you plan to complete an item and mark it as done, but want to re-do the To Do item in the future. If you have an item which you have listed today that you do not plan to finish and want to be reminded to do it tomorrow, Time & Chaos32 will automatically roll each item you did not mark done to the next day and the next and the next until you finally complete it!

Time & Chaos32 allows the user to select a repeat period and specify a frequency at which this period is to be repeated. The To Do list item is then automatically repeated by Time & Chaos32 according to your specifications so that you do not have to enter each item individually.

Periods that may be chosen include days, weeks, months and years. The desired frequency is entered by the user as a whole number.

Let's look at one typical situation. You have a "Progress Report" due on the first Monday of each month. You wish to have Time & Chaos32 store this repeating To Do item for the next six months. Using the calendar area of the main screen, you would position yourself on the first Monday of the current month and create a new To Do item.

During the data entry for the To Do item you can go to the Repeat Options tab and select a repeat period of "month(s)" with a frequency of "1". You would also specify a value for "Until the following date" such that the To Do item would be repeated for the next six months. Time & Chaos32 notes that you are repeating monthly and will allow you to check a box that specifies "The first Monday of each month" so that the To Do item will be repeated properly. If you did not check this box, the To Do item would be repeated monthly on that specific date.

Time & Chaos32 will remember that this To Do is part of a repeating series. If you need to edit anything about the To Do details, you can edit just the current one. When you save the newly edited record, you will be asked if you want the same change to be made to all the future instances of that To Do as well. Similarly, when you delete an item which has been repeated, you will be asked if you want to remove the future instances of that To Do.

Completing To Do Items

As you complete tasks on your To Do list, you can mark them as Done. To indicate completion, select the To Do item you finished and click on the Done button on the toolbar. You can also right click on the item and select Done from the pop-up menu or you can double-click on the item and check the Done checkbox.

When you mark the item as Done, it will be "crossed out" on your main screen display. The item will also be permanently saved on this date, so it will be available for any reports or searches you perform in the future.

Rescheduling To Do Items

As things are always changing, it is likely that you will need to reschedule To Do items to a more appropriate date in order to meet your schedule demands. If so, there are a few easy ways to move items from one day to another.

If you drag a To Do item from the To Do area and drop it on another day in the Calendar area, you will be given an option to move or copy that task to the new date.

If you want to move the item to another month, you can use the 12-month Planner Layout from the Window menu at the top of the screen. This will provide a new window called Year View that will display the current and next 11 months. Once the month is displayed that you want to move items to, you can drag and drop them to the appropriate date.

If you prefer not to drag and drop items, you can always double-click on the specific To Do item you wish to reschedule and simply edit the Date To Begin Displaying field to your new date.

Printing with To Do items

To print out a copy of the To Do items in your current Overlay, you can use the Print button on the To Do Toolbar, or right click in the To Do window and select Print on the pop-up menu. You will be given the option to print out a To Do List or a Day Plan. The Day Plan is a combination of your To Do list and Appointment Schedule for the given date.

The To Do List printouts are comprehensive, which means that if you print out a list for a day on next week, the items listed will be all of your current items along with all the items between now and the future date. If you are leaving on a trip and need to take a printout of your To Do items with you, you will only need to print out one To Do list.

Once you select the report you wish to print, you will be taken to the Print Preview screen where you can adapt the layout and report options to your needs. Please see the chapter on Printing for details on this area if you need more information.

In addition to these standard print jobs, remember that you can always use the Search and Report screen to generate your own custom To Do report. You can choose the fields you wish to include and choose a range of dates you wish to report on. This would also be the way to print a To Do report that contained To Do items on specific dates only, rather than being a comprehensive list of all items not yet completed. A chapter on using Search and Report can be found later in this User's Guide.


Calendar
Using the Calendar

The Calendar gives you a view of the entire month's date-related data. It is not used for data entry, since it is entered in the Appointment and in the To Do areas. The Calendar, however, gives you some important and valuable features that can help you view and work with your schedule.

Understanding the Display

The main screen of Time & Chaos has the Calendar in the upper left corner. All that is visible are the day numbers. Generally speaking, a day number in black text is a day for which nothing is scheduled. If a day is in a color, then there is at least one appointment scheduled on that day.

You do have a degree of control over the color that is displayed in the calendar. By default, if you have an appointment, the day color on the calendar will be red. However, in the Appointment area, you can set a specific Item Color for each Appointment. If the very first Appointment on any given day has a color other than red, the Calendar will show the same color as this first Appointment.

Using colors can be useful to help determine when certain types of events occur. For example, you may set the colors for all vacation days to blue so that you can see them easily on the calendar.

Navigating the Calendar

Selecting a day on the Calendar will affect the information displayed for the Appointments and To Do list. To change from day to day within the month you are on, you can simply click on the day you want to change to.

If you want to change the month you are viewing, there are quite a few options available to you, depending on what you find easiest. At the top of the Calendar is a toolbar with Last Year, Last Month, Today, Next Month, and Next Year buttons. After the Next Year button is a Go To button, which will allow you to directly specify a date to be transported to. If you want to change directly to another month, you can click on the Month Name to get a list of all twelve months for you to select from. You can also click on the year to select another year, if desired.

Display Options

There are a few options you can control to affect the Calendar display.

If you right click in the Calendar area to bring up the pop-up menu, there is an option to show Leading/Trailing Dates. Normally, the calendar will display only the day numbers for the current month. If you are viewing November, only 30 days will have numbers in them and the others will be blank.

If you select Leading/Trailing Dates, then the blank boxes will be filled in with the days from the previous month and next month. You can also click on these days to view the appropriate Appointment and To Do data for them.

The top of the Calendar area shows the Day Number by default. This number counts from Day 1 (January 1) to Day 365 (December 31). Using the pop-up menu, you have an option to view the Week Number instead of the Day Number.

Different regions, countries, and organizations define Week Numbers differently, but Time & Chaos32 supports all of the standard ways of defining a Week Number. There are three known ways to measure this: First Week begins on January 1, First Week Contains at least four days, and First Week begins with first full week. If you want to use Week Numbers, just choose which ever method is appropriate, and it will replace the Day Number. If you unselect the Week Number choice later, the display will return to displaying the Day Number again.

Month View and Week View

If you use the Maximize Window button in the calendar area, the calendar will fill the entire Time & Chaos32 window in a Month View mode.

Month View allows you to see the Appointments or To Do items you have scheduled for the entire month, rather than just a day at a time like the main screen shows. The very top of the Month View screen is where you can select Appointments or To Do items to be displayed.

If you double-click on a day in a particular week, the Month View will turn into a Week View to allow you to focus on the smaller time period. By the way, if you are looking for a Day View, you would do this not in the Calendar section, but rather using the appropriate Layout option from the Window Menu.

Year View and 12 Month Planner Layout

If your focus is on a long-term basis, there is also a way to display twelve months of calendars in a special alternate layout. To see this, go to the Window menu at the top of the main screen, and choose to view the 12 Month Planner Layout.

As a result, the left side of the screen will display a column of twelve calendars, starting with the month you are currently in. On the right side, your appointments and to do items will be displayed as well.


Printing

Even as laptop computers get smaller and smaller, there is still nothing as portable as paper. You can mail it, fax it, write on it, or stuff it in your pocket. It is safe to say that at some point, you will want to take the data you have labored to enter in Time & Chaos32 and print it out to paper. If so, you can take advantage of the powerful print options available to you.

Earlier chapters in this User's Guide on using the Telephone Book, Appointments and To Do areas discussed the types of reports you can print. It is also possible to print out the results of a custom report from the Search and Report area. No matter what you are printing, you will be taken to the Print Preview

The Print Preview screen will allow you to see what you are about to print in order to ensure that it will appear just as you intend. This will also allow you to modify the output through the various options before actually printing to paper.

The Print Preview Screen

The print preview screen is divided into three areas. There are setup options on the left, a toolbar with printer control and preview sizing controls at the top, and your print preview itself.

Printer Information

The Printer Information area allows you to customize the settings for the particular printer you wish to use.

If you want to select a different printer for a report, you can select from your installed printers next to the Device option. If you prefer to print sideways on your paper, you can select an Orientation of Landscape instead of Portrait. If you wish to use a different paper size than Letter, the PaperSize option will provide the list of paper sizes your printer supports. You can also select a different PaperBin if you want to control where the printer finds the paper you desire. Finally, if your printer supports Duplex or two-sided printing and you wish to use it, you may select Yes for the Duplex option.

Special Output Settings

The Format option allows you to choose a Special Paper Format for your printout. Time & Chaos32 will print on special supported papers including DayTimer © and Avery © products. For most normal reports, you can choose between two types of DayTimer paper, a Junior size and a Pocket size. For mailing labels, there is a list of many Avery mailing label types to choose from.

The Format option is great even when using regular paper, because you can print out twice as much information on a page. For example, you can choose the Junior Size (5.5 x 8.5) option, and when you print out a Telephone Book, the resulting output will be a sheet of paper, printed landscape, with two columns of names and numbers.

You can also control the use of color, if your printer supports it, and select which color to use.

When printing Monthly, Weekly, and Daily Calendars, you may also set the number of periods to print. If you are printing Monthly Calendars and enter 6 in the periods field, you would then receive 6 months of Monthly Calendars.

Paper Margins

The Paper Margins section lets you setup the page layout of your report through control of the margins. Margins are the term used to describe the amount of distance between the edge of the paper and your printed information. You may also indicate the units (i.e. inches) that you wish to use for measurement.

Font Preferences

Font Preferences allows the user to select the desired printer font and font sizes to be used for the report header and the body of the report. Using TrueType fonts is always suggested because of their scalability.

When printing Envelopes, by the way, the Header font is used for the Return Address information and the Body font is used for the Send To address.

Report Options

The Report Options will vary, depending on what type of report you are using. Most reports will allow you to use custom headings or set a border style. Later in this chapter is a full list of all the Report Options available, what each option does, and which reports they apply to.

Apply, Reset, Save

The Apply, Reset, and Save Settings buttons at the top left have very important functions. Apply will instruct Time & Chaos32 to implement the changes you have made in your setup option. After clicking on Apply, your changes should be reflected in the print preview area, and then on your actual printed output. Reset will restore the "factory defaults" for the report you are working on. Save instructs Time & Chaos32 to store all of the output format choices that have been specified for the current report.

When you save your Print Options, this includes the choice of a specific printer and its properties as well as the various report layout choices. When the user again selects the same type of report, these settings will be retained and used for this report.

Print Toolbar

The Print Toolbar is where you can resize the preview image you are viewing and finally print out the report to paper.

The Print All button tells Time & Chaos32 to send all pages of the formatted report (being previewed) to the currently selected printer.

The Print This Page button tells Time & Chaos32 to send the present page of the formatted report (being previewed) to the currently selected printer.

The Preview Zoom Percentage allows you to control the magnification of the preview image. The user selects the desired magnification factor from a list of available display percentages (i.e., 35, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175 and 200).

Previous Page and Next Page allow you to navigate through your previewed report if you have multiple pages.

Copy Image will place currently displayed preview on the clipboard so that you can paste it as a graphic into another application such as Microsoft Word.

Close instructs Time & Chaos32 to exit the print preview display.

Print Preview Image

The image shown is exactly what will be sent to your printer. If this does not currently look like the output you desire, then you know to use the Printer options to setup your report and correct the output.

As mentioned before, you must remember to apply the changes you make in the Print Options area. When you apply them, the Print Preview Image will be updated to reflect your changes.

Report Options

The Report Options allow you to customize your output to meet your special needs. The options available to you will depend on which report you are printing.

Heading allows you to customize the information that will appear at the top of your report.  This applies to Telephone Books, Address Books, Contact Profiles, Monthly Calendars, Weekly Calendars, Daily Calendars, ToDo lists, and DayPlans.

Border gives a selection of options which control the way the lines and/or boxes appear on your report. This applies to Telephone Books, Address Books, Contact Profiles, Daily Calendars, ToDo lists, and DayPlans.

Alpha Page Breaks can be set to "Yes" to force names starting with each letter of the alphabet to be printed on separate pages. This is especially useful if you are printing names for use in a day-planner book with tabs for each letter. This applies to Telephone Books and Address Books.

Categories controls whether Telephone category information appears on Contact Profiles.

Custom Fields controls whether Telephone Custom Fields appear on Contact Profiles.

Notes controls whether all information in the Notes area appears on the report. This applies to Contact Profiles and To Do Lists.

Appointments controls whether a complete list of Linked Appointments appears on Contact Profiles.

ToDos controls whether a complete list of Linked To Do items appear on Contact Profiles.

Send To allows you to temporarily edit the address you will be sending to. For permanent changes to the address, you would need to edit the record directly. This applies to Envelopes and Mailing Labels.

Mail To selects Primary or Secondary Address to be included on printout. This applies to Envelopes and Mailing Labels.

ReturnAddr allows you to choose to include a return address and choose which return address to include. Return Address setup is found on the Main Screen by going to File, then Preferences. This applies to Envelopes.

JobTitle controls whether the Job Title information will appear as part of the Send To address. This applies to Envelopes and Mailing Labels.

Barcode controls whether US Postal Service bar codes appear on Envelopes.

Block Letters controls whether the Send To address appears entirely in Capital Letters, as requested by the US Postal Service. This applies to Envelopes and Mailing Labels.

Grid Lines controls whether lines appear on your printout which separate the addresses for Mailing Labels.

Company controls whether the Company Name is included with the address on Mailing Labels.

Calendars controls whether the mini-calendars for the current month and next month appear at the top of the report. This  applies to Weekly Calendars, Daily Calendars, To Do Lists.

Time Line will print Appointments in a time line format rather than just as a chronological list on DayPlans.

1st Day controls whether the week begins with Sunday or Monday on Weekly Calendars.


Search and Report

Using the Search and Report screen in Time & Chaos32 is easy, and it will allow you to search for particular records, to create custom reports, to mail merge, to edit groups of records, or "filter" your phone book on anything you can search for. In fact, the Search and Report screen is full of features and getting to know its key features will help you utilize it to the fullest.

In the top right of the Search and Report screen, there are buttons for the Telephone Book, To Do list and Appointment databases. Make sure that you have the right database selected before you continue. The current database will also be seen on the title bar of the window (i.e. Telephone Book Search).

The Search and Report Screen can be broken down into two main areas. The bottom of the screen shows the fields to be included on your results as columns. The top of the screen allows you to indicate your search criteria.

Selecting Fields for Results

Sometimes, whether you are creating a custom report or attempting to perform a mass-update of your records, you need to control the fields that will appear on your search results.

When the search screen first opens, there are basic fields selected for you, shown as column headers. For a Telephone Book Search, the default fields are Last Name, First Name, and Company Name. If you want to add more fields of information to your search results, you can just edit the column headings.

Start by clicking on the Advanced button. The screen will widen for you and you will be placed in the first column that has no heading. When you click on a column heading, you will be provided with a list of all available fields in that data area. Just select the field you want and it will be added to your results. There are plenty of columns so you can add as many fields of information as you would like by simply setting up the column headings.

The columns you select will then be filled with the appropriate data when you execute your search. Instead of getting results with just Last Name, First Name and Company Name, you can include Overlays, Phone Numbers, Addresses, Notes, and any other information you have stored inside the Time & Chaos32 Telephone Book.

Setting up the right fields will allow you to print a customized report showing the fields that you asked for and found on the Search and Report screen. Setting up fields are also important for editing, as the editing options will only change data in the results of your search. For example, if you want to edit the Overlay for a group of records, you have to setup a column for the Overlay field before doing your search.

Specifying Search Criteria

Once you have chosen the fields you want to appear on your results, you can specify your search criteria.

The top part of the screen gives you fields where you can indicate your search criteria.

The Search Field is where you can specify a particular field to look in. There is a drop down list of the available fields in the database you are searching. If you leave this set to All Fields, then Time & Chaos will look in each field, including the Notes area, to find a match for your Search Value.

The Search Value field is where you can tell Time & Chaos32 what you are searching for. If you are searching in a date field, you will be provided with a drop-down calendar to select your search value from. If you are searching Overlays or Categories, you will be provided with a list to choose among. If you are searching any other field, you can simply type it into the Search Value field.

Next to the Search Value field is the Logic field. The default is a "Contains" search, but there are other Logic options available to you as well. The full list of choices includes contains, equals (=), greater than (<), less than (>), not equal to (<>), or between. If you choose between, then you will see a second value field so that you can define your full search range.

If you leave all these fields the way they are without specifying anything, your search will find ALL records in this database.

Performing the Search

Once you have specified the fields you want (if necessary) and you have defined your search criteria, you can then click on the Find Now button. This will execute your report, find the records that meet your criteria, and display the columns of information you requested.

Sometimes, you may want to further narrow down your search results into a smaller group. If so, you should notice that after you have completed a search, the Find Now button now says Find Subset. If you specify some new criteria and click the Find Subset button, the Search and Report engine will search just your previous results to find those that also match the new criteria.

If you want to start over with a new search, either due to a user error or to move on to another search, you can just click on the New Search button. The Search and Report screen will then be reset. This way, you won't have to close and reopen this screen.

When you are finished with the Search and Report screen and are ready to return to the main screen, you can click on the Close button to exit Search and Report.

Saving Your Reports

If you have gone through the trouble of setting up a customized report with your selected fields, you may want to save your report so that it can be run at any time without doing all the report setup again.

If so, then once you have executed a search, you can go to the File menu at the top of the Search and Report Screen. You will find an option to Save Report Format, where you can supply a name for your report.

In the future, if you wish to run this report again, you can go directly to the File menu and choose to Open Report Format. Once you select a saved report, it will immediately execute and give you the current search results.

Create Options

Once you have found data, you may intend to create something with it. Your create options include vCards, ASCII delimited files, mail merges to your word processor, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets or Lotus WKS files, Transportable Records, and support for the Sharp Wizard 5500 and Timex DataLink.

However, it is vital that you remember to select the items you wish to base your creation on. The most common mistake made in this area is users forgetting to select any items. When you create an ASCII file or do a mail merge, only the highlighted records will come out on the other end.

If you wish to select all the items you found in your search results, you can use the Select All option under the Edit menu.

vCard File(s)

vCards are an immerging standard for transferring data between many different Information Manager programs. If you wish to create vCards for records in your database, you can search for the records, select them, and use the Create, vCard File(s) option to produce the desired .vcf files. You will be prompted for the directory where you wish to create the .vcf files, as well.

ASCII Comma Delimited File

ASCII comma delimited files are a standard format for transferring data from one database to another. When you choose to create an ASCII delimited file, you will be provided an additional option to either include All Exportable Fields or Only Fields In Search Results. If you select the latter, then only the columns of information you set up will be exported. If you select all exportable fields, then Time & Chaos32 will export all the data it can, regardless of whether or not you setup a column for each field.

MS Word 97 Mail Merge (or MS Word 95 or WordPerfect)

You can use the results of a Telephone Book search to become a data source for a Mail Merge using your chosen word processor. For complete details on Mail Merges, please consult the chapter on Using the Telephone Book.

Microsoft Excel © Spreadsheet

If you have Microsoft Excel (95 or 97), Time & Chaos32 can launch Excel, take the results of your search and automatically transfer all the columns and data to a new Excel spreadsheet.

Once inside Excel, you can perform advanced manipulation of your results, or even save the data in any format that Excel supports, such as dBase or .dbf .

Lotus © WKS File

This option does not launch Lotus, but will simply build a Lotus .WKS file which is a simple spreadsheet format. This is a standard format supported by most spreadsheet programs, so if you are using something other than Excel, this might be the best option for you to transfer your search results.

This option is also good for users of Quattro Pro.

Transportable Records

Built into Time & Chaos32 is the ability to package a group of data for transfer to another database, either on your machine or someone else's. Building a Transportable Record will create a file with an extension of .ixp (iSBiSTER Exchange Package) that you can attach to an email or post on a web site, if need be.

Full instructions on using Transportable Records can be found in the Special Features chapter.

Timex DataLink © File

Time & Chaos32 supports the Timex DataLink system for transfer of your data to devices like the Timex DataLink watches and the Royal FL95 Organizer.

Please note that for the transfer to work properly, you must also have version 2 (or newer) of the Timex DataLink Software.  If you do not, you can download the upgrade from the Timex Web site at www.timex.com  .

Once you choose to create a Timex DataLink File, you will need to specify the DAT directory of your Timex DataLink software, and make the appropriate data file there.

After this is complete for each of the databases you want to transfer from (Appointments, To Do items and/or Telephone Books), you can then start up your DataLink software. There, you will see all of the information you exported from Time & Chaos32, and you can use the Timex DataLink Software from this point to transfer the data to your device.

Sharp Wizard © 5500 CSV File

This option will allow you to export Appointments, To Do items or Telephone entries into your Sharp Wizard Organizer, model 5500.

Sharp offers a product called LiNKiT (model OZ-690) for the transfer of data between a PC and the Organizer.  This Link product (sells for around $80) includes hardware and software to allow data transfers between a PC and the Wizard organizer.

The documentation on this LiNKiT product says it is "for use with IBM-compatible PC's and Sharp WIZARD OZ-5500, OZ-5600, OZ-6500, and OZ-9000 series Electronic Organizers". We have tested the transfers from Time & Chaos32 to the Wizard) using the OZ-5500 only, but the transfers should also work with the other models listed above.

The Sharp Wizard provides three applications (compatible with Chaos32) for its users.  These are the Schedule application, the ToDo application and the Telephone application.

The Schedule application can import data into a single file known to it as SCHEDULE.  Time & Chaos32 will export data to a file of the user's choice with a default name of SCHD.CSV.

The ToDo application can import data into a single file known to it as TODO.  Time & Chaos32 will export data to a file of the user's choice with a default name of TODO.CSV.

The Telephone application can import data into one of three files known to it as TEL1, TEL2 and TEL3. TEL1 is actually known to the Wizard user as Telephone. TEL2 is actually known to the Wizard user as Contact. TEL3 is actually known to the Wizard user as Personal.

Time & Chaos32 will export data to files of the user's choice with default names of TEL1.CSV, TEL2.CSV and TEL3.CSV.

Custom Phone List on Main Screen

Sometimes you may wish to work with a select group of names in the Telephone Book area on the main screen, but you don't want to make a new Overlay for this "temporary" group. If so, you can simply do your search for the names in the Search and Report Screen, then use this option to create a temporary custom phone list. You will receive a message stating that the items were transferred. You can then return back to the main screen, where you should find the Telephone Book is now displaying just the Custom Phone List that is based on your search results.

When you are ready to go back to your normal Telephone list, you can change the Overlay option to All or to any other Overlay.

Editing Data

Time & Chaos32 has some special options in the Search and Report area that allow you to easily edit groups of data. The two ways to do this is by performing a Global Replace to make the same change to a group of records or to do a Find & Replace to edit on a more selective basis. Please keep in mind that you may wish to backup your database before applying drastic changes, just in case you change your mind or do something incorrectly.

Global Replace

Global Replace allows you to make the same change to an entire group of records with a few short steps. One common use of this feature is to edit the Overlay field of a group of names in your Telephone Book to organize that database better.

To perform a Global Replace, you must remember to include the field you wish to edit as one of the selected columns on your search results. Once your search is complete, you can go to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and select the Global Replace option.

The area at the top that contained your search criteria will now change to show your Global Replace options. In the Field Column area, select the column you wish to edit from the drop down list. Once selected, you can type your new value in the provided field and Apply your change.

Please note that this will replace anything that is in the selected column with your new value, so be certain that you really wish to perform this action before you confirm it.

Once the update is complete, you can click the Finished button to return to the normal Search and Report screen options.

Find & Replace

Find & Replace is similar to ones found in most word processors and it allows you to be more selective about what is replaced than the Global Replace option.

You can start this process by going to the Edit menu and choosing Find & Replace. This will change the top half of the screen to show you the Find & Replace options.

Type the text you are looking for in the Find What field. If you intend to replace this with something else, then enter this in the Replace With field. Please note that you can also choose whether this procedure is Case Sensitive by selecting the Match Case option.

Once these fields are complete, click on the Find First button. Time and Chaos will then search the data shown at the bottom of the screen for the first place your Find What value appears.

Please note that this will only search the columns of information that you included in your search results. If you forgot to include the fields you want to find and replace in, you will need to perform your search again.

Once the first instance of your search word has been found, you can choose Find Next to skip to the next occurrence.

Quick Replace instructs Time & Chaos32 to substitute the text entered in the "Replace With" data field for the text specified in the "Find What" data field.  Then it will search for the next occurrence of the text specified in the "Find What" data field. Holding down Alt + R keys will force the Quick Replace to cycle through and quickly adjust all records meeting Find & Replace values.

Confirm Replace instructs Time & Chaos32 to substitute the text entered in the "Replace With" data field for the text specified in the "Find What" data field and then wait for the user to confirm that the substitution is accepted. After confirmation, Time & Chaos32 will move on to locate the next occurrence of the text specified in the "Find What" data field.

Once you have completed your edits, you can click on the Done button to return to the normal Search and Report screen.


Preferences

Just as every person is different, the way people prefer to run Time & Chaos32 is different, too. In order to allow Time & Chaos32 to adapt to your needs and wants, there are options you can set to store your personal preferences.

Display Preferences

Normally, Time & Chaos32 will start with all four areas visible and all the current data displayed. However, you might want to start with the screen a little larger, or have the Telephone Book sorted by Company Name, or have the Telephone Book show just names in your Business Overlay instead of the entire database.

Besides using your mouse to resize areas of the main screen, there is also a Window menu that will allow you to completely change the layout of the main screen, by either removing or adding areas or choosing a default layout.

If you put everything just the way you like it and want Time & Chaos to remember to look this way the next time you start it, go to the File Menu and choose the option to Save Startup Settings. The display options you set up will now be in effect each time you restart Time & Chaos32.

Later, if you change your mind, you can always go to the File menu and choose to Reset Settings to Default. This will undo all the specific display settings you made and return the display to the "factory settings".

There are many settings, by the way, which are saved when you choose the Save Startup Settings option. The items saved are the Screen Location, the Time & Chaos32 Window Size, the sizes of each of the four areas within Time & Chaos32, the column widths, the sorting options, the gridlines, window selections, locations and sizes, Overlay filters, leading/trailing dates in the Calendar, week numbers or day numbers choice, toolbar options, and use of common or private telephone books.

Program Preferences

If you go to the File Menu on the main screen, you will find the option for Preferences. The Preferences screen has a series of tabs at the top to organize the various preferences you can control.

General

Current Data Folder Name is a way to identify this database. The name supplied here will appear at the top of the main screen. It will also be seen in the User List if this database is part of a workgroup.

Default Start-up Folder Location specifies where Time & Chaos32 will find the data when it begins, no matter how you manage to start it. You cannot type in the location because you are already in the right location if you are in your database. To set Time & Chaos32 to start with the database you are currently using, just click on the Use Current Folder button. It will fill in the field with your current location, whatever that may be. You can click on the Reset button to empty this field. If it is left blank, Time & Chaos32 will look for data in the "Start In" location defined in your shortcut in Windows.

Date Format and Time Format allow you to specify how you would prefer dates and times to be displayed inside of Time & Chaos32. Please note that this is not necessarily the same as your Windows settings that can be found under Regional Settings in your Windows Control Panel. Notice that Time & Chaos32 always requires a four-digit year. This Time & Chaos hallmark ensures Year 2000 compliance.

Use Quick Fill Fields will allow Time & Chaos32 to help you as you enter new data. Information such as City and State will be "remembered" as you enter new records. As you enter records and begin to type in fields, Time & Chaos32 may suggest the full text to save you from typing it. For example, if I have already made some Telephone Book entries for people in New York, NY, when I go to the City field and type "N", Time & Chaos32 will suggest the first city that begins with N and may fill in New York for me automatically. You can keep typing to ignore the suggestion, or just move to the next field to retain the suggestion.

If you want to remove an item from the QuickFill list that has been suggested, you can just press your delete key in the field you are typing in. The field will become blank and that particular item will be removed from the QuickFill database.

Word Processor allows you to select which program you are using on your system that can be integrated with Time & Chaos32. Currently supported are MS Word 97, Word 95 and Corel WordPerfect.

Default Alarm .WAV File allows you to point Time & Chaos32 to the sound file that you would prefer to play when Time & Chaos32 notifies you regarding a scheduled Appointment. You will still have the opportunity to edit this choice on individual Appointments, if necessary.

Mail Notification .WAV File allows you to choose a sound which Time & Chaos32 will play whenever a new item is placed in your In Basket. This will allow you to receive an audible notice in addition to the "on-screen" alerts. This feature primarily applies to users in a Workgroup environment.

Passwords

If you share your PC with another user, or if your data is accessible to others through a network, you may want to protect your data from being viewed by others. If so, the Passwords area will allow you to put password protection on your data files.

The Passwords area has two password fields, one for read and write access and the other for read only access. You must specify both passwords if you want to use this feature, even if you do not intend to use the read only password. They must also be different passwords!

Once you have entered passwords and saved your settings by clicking OK or Apply, anyone, including yourself, must now supply a password to enter this database. The read only password will allow the person using it to view all the data in the database, but not make any additions, edits, or deletions. Using the read and write password will allow the full access you normally have.

Network

These allow you to specify your Workgroup options if you are in a situation where you have more than one database that you would like to work together. After setting up a workgroup, you will be able to switch easily between databases and transfer items to the other databases.

Full details on using these options, however, can be found in the chapter on Workgroups.

Address Format

This section allows you to enter two return addresses to be included on any Envelopes printed by Time & Chaos32. You can also control the way Send To addresses appear by selecting the Send To Mailing Address format which applies to your part of the world.

Appt / To Do Settings

This tab provides you some special options for working with Appointments and To Do items.

On the Appointment side, you can specify a Default Day Start Time for new Appointments.

Default to Sound Alarms on new Appointments will select whether alarms are automatically selected on new appointments. Default Alarm Lead Time (in minutes) will be the default choice on new Appointments as well. Your selections here will just be the default choices on new Appointments. You can still edit individual items to choose to turn off or on the Alarms and select a different Lead Time.

Appointment Alarm Mode controls how Time & Chaos32 will respond to Appointment Alarms. Disable Alarm Checking will tell Time & Chaos32 to ignore all alarms, regardless of any individual settings. Current Alarms Only is the default choice, which will tell Time & Chaos32 to give you alarms only as they occur. If your computer is turned off or if Time & Chaos is not running when an appointment occurs, you will not receive notification. If you want Time & Chaos32 to remind you of current Appointments and any Appointment Alarms you missed, you can also set this option to Both Current & Past Alarms.

When you drag a name from your Telephone Book to your Appointment area, the description of the Appointment will normally specify "Meeting with XYZ Corporation". Default Prefix when dragging from Telephone List allows you to change the default of "Meeting with" to something else, if you prefer.

On the To Do side of this screen, you can specify the Default Priority level for new To Do items. This can always be modified on an individual basis, but this choice will be the default when you create a new item.

However, if you create a new item by dragging a name from your Telephone Book to the To Do area, the To Do item will use the next two fields on this screen to determine the default values for Priority and Prefix. Normally users drag names for people they intend to call, so Time & Chaos32 creates an item with a T(elephone) priority and a Call prefix.

Finally, you can also turn on or off the Strikeout Font on Completed Items to control whether Time & Chaos32 will "cross off" the To Do items as you mark them as done.


Overlay
Overlays

As you start to get more and more information in your databases, using Overlays can definitely help you to work smarter. An Overlay is a way to organize your records into logical groups, like Business and Personal for Appointments or Clients and Prospects for Phone Book items. Let's look at how to create Overlays and how to put them into use for you.

Creating Overlays

Overlays are available to you in all of the data areas: Appointments, To Do items, and the Telephone book. The current overlay for an item is controlled by the Overlay field. You can select an existing overlay from the drop-down list, or create a new Overlay just by typing something else into the Overlay field. When you save the record, a new Overlay will automatically be added to your drop-down list.

By the way, if you want to remove an Overlay, you just need to edit any of the exiting records that use the Overlay you want to get rid of and change the Overlay field to something else.  As soon as the Overlay you wish to remove is no longer used, it will automatically disappear.

Using Overlays

Once your records have overlays, you can use them to "filter" your data. You can select among your Overlays by using the first button on the toolbar in any of the data areas of Time & Chaos32.

On the Overlay list, you may choose All or a particular Overlay to see just that particular group. When you are viewing an overlay, the label for that area will reflect the change. In the Phone Book, the using the name of a color in your Overlay name will also make the background of the Phone Book change to that color when you choose to view that Overlay. The colors that Time & Chaos32 will recognize are blue, green, cyan, red, magenta, yellow, and white.

Not only will your main screen reflect this change, but also when you print a Phone Book or an Address Book, it will print only those records in this overlay rather than your full list.

Special Trick

Now that you have seen Overlays in use, you might want to know about a quick way to add Overlays all the records you already have in your database.

In cases where the Overlay field is currently blank, you will just have to edit each record. But if you already have something in the Overlay field that you want to change to a different value, the Search & Report area has a feature under the Edit Menu called Find & Replace. You can search for a group of records, and if you remember to include the Overlay field for your results, you can search for the old Overlay value and have it replaced with the new one you want to have. This is especially helpful to owners of the previous 4.x version of Time & Chaos who would like to make Overlays for their old categorization of records.

Additional note: You can choose to include Overlays on your search results by clicking on the one of the blank column headers to the right of the pre-selected columns. You will be presented with a list of all available fields on which you can choose Overlay.


Transportable Records

In Time & Chaos32, Transportable Records are a method of packing up data and transferring it to another database or user. Once made, they can be posted on the Internet or your Intranet or attached to an email to another Time & Chaos32 user. Transportable records merge into your existing database, so they can also be used to help you synchronize two data locations.

Search and Save

To begin, you will need to use the search screen to find the records you wish to transport. This can be a search for anything in a database, or just records in a particular overlay, or whatever you need.

If you are using this feature to synchronize data, you may be interested to note that there is a field in the database called Last Modified Date/Time which can be used to find records you updated in a particular time frame.

When you have found the records you need, you must highlight the ones you wish to package up for transport. In most cases, you would want to highlight all of them. The easy way to do this is to go to Edit and choose Select All.

Finally, under the File menu is an option for Create, where you will find Transportable Records. Selecting this will prompt you for a location and name for your Transportable Record file. This file must have an extension of ".IXP".

Open Your Packages

Opening Transportable Records and merging them into your database is quite easy if you can get the .ixp file into the right place. Each database exists in a particular directory on your drive. For most users, this directory is "C:\Program Files\Chaos32", but it could really be anywhere. When you know the location of the database, you can place the .IXP file in that same location.

Back on the main screen of Time & Chaos, you will find a button on the Tool bar called In Basket. This is where you can look for "iSBiSTER messages" which might be located in your directory and merge this data into your existing databases.

When you check the In Basket, Time & Chaos32 will find the Transportable Records and list the data in them for you here. You can select particular ones that you wish to accept or delete, or you can select all of them to accept or delete.

Especially if you are attempting to synchronize a database, you will be interested to know that as the records are merged into your existing database, we are comparing them to the records you already have in your database. If an item is new, we will of course add it. If a record is the same as one you already have, we will keep just one of the two.

Please notice that in the In Basket, there is a Duplicates menu which will allow you to control how Time & Chaos will treat these if we find any.

We feel that Transportable Records are an infinitely useful part of Time & Chaos32 To show it off, the add-on area of the Time & Chaos32 Web site contains some Transportable Records that we produced and are making available to our users. Go have a look at www.isbister.com !

Archiving Data

One practical application of the Transportable Records feature is the ability to archive your older Appointment and To Do items. Archiving will remove the oldest data that is likely unused but is taking up space and slowing down searches. Users with large quantities of Appointments or To Do items may wish to archive these databases from time to time just to keep the file sizes down and performance to the maximum when doing searches. Here are the basic steps for archiving your data:

1. Go to the Search and Report area for Appointments (or To Do items) and search for all the items older than a particular date to find the items that you wish to archive.

2. Once you have found these records, go to Edit, and Select All to highlight all the records you found.

3. With all the records now highlighted, go to File, Create, Transportable Record. Making a Transportable Record will package up all the data for the records you found, including notes, categories, etc.  When you make this file, it should be placed in a different directory than where your actual data files are located, and it should be given an extension of .IXP .

4.  Once you receive a message that the .ixp file was successfully built, you can then go to Edit and Delete to remove all of these archived records from your database.

Should you later wish to get these archived records back into your database, you need only to move the .ixp file into the data directory and go to the In Basket in Time & Chaos32.  All the packaged records should show up there where you could then merge them back into your database by accepting them there.


Backup and Restore

The type of information you enter into Time & Chaos is invaluable for "running your life". If something were to happen to your computer that might cause a data loss, you could have a significant problem. If you value the data you enter into Time & Chaos32, it is in your best interest to make backups on a regular basis to protect yourself from the unknown.

Backup Data

Time & Chaos32 makes it very easy for you to backup. You can simply choose the Backup Data option under the File menu on the main screen of Time & Chaos32 or look for the option when you exit the Time & Chaos32 program.

Time & Chaos32 will compress each of its databases, give them a file extension of "bak" and store them in your current Data Folder with your other Time & Chaos32 information. The backup files will be "phone.bak", "todo.bak" and "appt.bak" for your Telephone Book Entries, To Do List Items and Appointments respectively.

Backup supports both the local and the common telephone book, the to do list and appointments. Backups can also be done even while other users are using your data!

Restore Data

If you want to bring in data from a Backup, you can go to the File menu and choose Restore Data. You can select the information from your backup to "replace" that currently in your Data Folder. Your options include Appointments, To Do List Items, and Common or Private Telephone Book Entries.

NOTE: Restoring data overwrites the existing data. It does not merge.

Using a Diskette

When you go to the File menu and choose Backup or Restore, you are also given an option to backup to or restore from a diskette in your A: drive, which can be helpful in moving data from one machine to another.


Importing data
Importing data to Chaos32

Importing ASCII Data

Time & Chaos32 can import data from either an ASCII Comma Delimited File or ASCII Tab Delimited File. Most address book packages can export data in this format. An ASCII Comma Delimited File is actually a text file with each line of that text file being a record of information. Each field within a record will be separated with commas or tabs.

The Import Screen allows Time & Chaos32 users to add new records to any of their data collections (i.e., Appointments, To Do List Items or Telephone Book Entries). The procedure involves informing Time & Chaos32 of the file that the new records will come from and the Time & Chaos32 data collection to which they will added. The user must also educate Time & Chaos32 on the association between the data fields in the input file and the data fields within the target data collection.

To import, go to the File Menu on the main screen and select Import Data. The process of importing will involve four steps. You will have to find the ASCII text file, select the type of ASCII information, select a destination in Time & Chaos32, and them map the fields to show where the data belongs.

1. Select the ASCII file: The user must select the file from which new records will be read. This is done by initiating the browse feature by clicking on the icon that looks like a file cabinet. The selected file must be an industry standard ASCII import file.

2. Select the File Type: The user must specify the file type by choosing either ASCII Comma Delimited or ASCII Tab Delimited.

3. Select the Import Destination: The user must specify the Time & Chaos32 data collection to which the new records are to be added. The user must choose either Telephone Book, Appointments or To Do List.

4. Data Field Matching: The user must "educate" Time & Chaos32 on the association between the data fields in the input file and the data fields within Time & Chaos32. In the lower section of the Import Screen the user will find two graphical controls. The control on the left will contain the data fields as they were found within the Import file. The control on the right will contain the data fields available within the Time & Chaos32 target data collection. The user must now perform a matching exercise.

The matching (left and right) can be performed in any order and can be corrected if mistakes are made. Let's review how this might happen. The matching exercise involves dragging a field from the control on the left (incoming data) over to the control on the right (Time & Chaos32 field) and dropping the item into the appropriate field. Time & Chaos32 will show the field name chosen from the control on the left to indicate the association. This process is repeated until all desired associations are specified.

If fields in the incoming data do not match with any of the Time & Chaos32 fields, simply leave them out of the association process. If a mistake is made while mapping the fields, you should double click on the Time & Chaos32 field in error, which will clear the association for that field. Repeat the drag and drop operation to correctly define the association.

Special note: if you import data from the same source repeatedly, there is an additional feature in the Import screen that may be useful to you. There are buttons at the bottom of the screen to Save Map File or Open Map File. Once you have mapped out the field matching the first time, you can then save this mapping for future use. If you ever import the an ASCII file with the same format and fields, you can then use Open Map File to find the settings you saved without having to perform all of these steps again.

Importing vCard information

Time & Chaos32 supports the vCard standard to import Telephone Book data into the Time & Chaos32 Contact area. If you have received a .vcf file that you wish to add to Time & Chaos32, just double-click on it in your Windows Explorer to automatically bring open a Time & Chaos32 import screen for the item.

If a Time & Chaos32 import screen does not appear, this could mean that Time & Chaos32 is no longer the default program for files with a .vcf extension. You may wish to update your Windows settings or re-install Time & Chaos32 to correct this.


Workgroups

Workgroup features can be one of the most valuable ways to work smarter, not harder, in your business or at home. Before you build a workgroup, however, you should think about a few things.

Do you plan to have just one database that multiple users will share? If so, you don't need to setup a workgroup for that. You can just setup each user's preferences to start in the same location and work with the one database you have. (This is perfect, by the way, for bosses with secretaries that wish to simply share one database)

Do you plan to have more than one database? Do you want to easily switch between them or send items from one database to another? If so, setting up a workgroup is exactly what you need. Having a workgroup will allow you to view each other's data and to send other databases Appointments, To Do items and Telephone Book listings.

If you decide to setup a workgroup, the next thing to consider is where your data is located, whether it is available to anyone who needs to use it, and what type of workgroup you want to create.

Types of Workgroups

Time & Chaos32 offers three different types of workgroups for you to choose from. The correct choice will depend on what type of network setup you have, or for that matter, whether you even have a network at all.

Single User Workgroup

This allows you to function as a stand-alone user that may have multiple data folders. You can then use the "workgroup" features even though all the files will exist just on one machine. This is the default. Data folders can be located anywhere that you are able to store data from your PC. You may have Time & Chaos32 data on your C drive, and a different set of data on your F drive and yet another set of Time & Chaos32 data on a server. The key here is that the data will only be accessible from YOUR PC.

Peer-To-Peer Workgroup

Peer-To-Peer is highly recommended and is specifically designed for Microsoft Networks. Both the Node Manager files and the User's Data Folder may be located virtually anywhere on the network. Typically, users keep their Data Folders on their local hard drive. All users must connect to the Node Manager by specifying its address using the Universal Naming Convention (UNC). Using this option eliminates your need to use Mapped Network Disk Drives. An example of an UNC would be \\mikes\c\chaos32.

Keep in mind that if you choose Peer-To-Peer workgroups, each user must share the data location to make it available to everyone else, with full read, write and shared access. If a user wants to enjoy workgroup privileges but protect their data, they can use password protection in their Preferences.

Client/Server Workgroup

In a Client/Server workgroup, all Time & Chaos32 Data Folders must be located under a Parent Folder on a common drive, usually on a network server. The Node Manager files must be located in this Parent Folder. Each user's Data Folder would be a child of the Parent Folder. The shortcut to Time & Chaos32 for each user would have its "Start In" property set to point to the proper data folder beneath the Parent. This choice is common for users of Novell or other File Servers.

Remember that all users must be granted full read, write and shared access to the Parent folder as well as all of the user directories under it in order for the Client/Server workgroup to function properly. This is a common problem for Novell users with problems setting up their workgroup, so please use the "flag" command to ensure that shared access is available for all users. If a user wants to enjoy workgroup privileges but protect their data, they can use password protection in their Preferences.

Setting up your first workgroup

Setting up network use of Time & Chaos32 between different data folders requires two steps: the setup of a new workgroup, then the connection of the various calendars to this new workgroup. You can find the network setup by going to File, then Preferences, and looking there for the Network tab.

Time & Chaos32 displays the current settings for the user's network configuration. These include the user's Data Folder Name, Data Folder Location, Workgroup Type and Node Manager Data Folder Location. At the bottom of the screen, you can choose to build a new workgroup or to connect to an existing workgroup.

I want to build a brand new workgroup

The first time you setup Time & Chaos for workgroup use, you need to build a workgroup database. This only needs to be done once, and in the future, you will simply connect databases to this workgroup.

Specifically, this step will build a set of NODEMAN.* files, also referred to as Node Manager files, which will indicate the properties of the workgroup. These Node Manager files will store the user names and user directory locations for all data folders in a workgroup.

You will need to tell it what type of workgroup you wish to create, either Peer-To-Peer, Client/Server, or Single User. Then you need to specify the Node Manager Location, which is the full specification of the Time & Chaos32 Workgroup Data Folder address within the user's network environment. This Data Folder is used by Time & Chaos32 to maintain information on the workgroup participants. Specify a path that each workgroup member will be able to reach.

A final option you can choose to take advantage of is to place an Administrative Password on the Node Manager files. If you do create a password, then the password must be supplied in order to maintain the workgroup and delete users from the User List.

I want to connect to an existing Time & Chaos32 Workgroup or modify the connection settings

Once a workgroup exists, you can then begin to connect your databases to the workgroup.

You will need to know the Node Manager Location where the workgroup database is found. The current location of Time & Chaos32's Node Manager files is displayed if the user is already participating in a workgroup. This location may be changed if the user wishes to connect to a different workgroup.

If the user is not currently connected to a workgroup, this data field is empty and the user should click on the icon that looks like a file cabinet to browse for the Node Manager Files (NODEMAN.ISD).

The User's Data Folder Location should be filled in automatically for you. This information is stored in the Node Manager files to inform Time & Chaos32 of your Data Folder location.

The current location of your Data Folder is displayed if you are already participating in a workgroup. This value may be changed if you have moved your Data Folder.

If the user is in the process of connecting to an existing workgroup, Time & Chaos32 will have already filled in this field with the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) address for the user's Data Folder. This should have been done just after the Node Manager's location was selected.

Each database will also have a Data Folder Icon associated with it. This graphical symbol will show up in the User List to help identify the database and is required for users that wish to participate in a Time & Chaos32 workgroup environment.

Please note the option to Use Common Workgroup Telephone Book. Time & Chaos32 allows its users to maintain a shared Telephone Book within a workgroup. This Common Telephone Book will be stored in the same directory as the NODEMAN files. This Telephone book is treated as a collection of Telephone Book Entries shared by all workgroup members. Workgroup members have full access to these entries. Individual workgroup members may use this check box setting to inform Time & Chaos32 of their Telephone Book access choice (i.e., their private Telephone Book or the Common Workgroup Telephone Book).

When a workgroup member chooses to use a common workgroup telephone book, the next time they start Time & Chaos32 there will be a new button on the tool bar. This new button will allow you to toggle between the Common and Private telephone books.


User List

The Network User List Screen is displayed to provide visibility to other Time & Chaos32 users that are currently collaborating within your workgroup. Workgroup members are represented by their chosen graphical icon. Your icon is shown as well.

A Single Click on an icon selects a workgroup member for further action. To select more than one workgroup member you must combine the use of the [Ctrl Key] or the [Shift Key] with the left mouse click. Holding down the [Ctrl Key] while clicking allows you to manually select specific individual workgroup members. Holding down the [Shift Key] while clicking allows you to manually select a group of workgroup members.

A Double Click on an icon instructs Time & Chaos32 to open the Data Folder that belongs to the selected workgroup member and display its data on the main screen of Time & Chaos32. This information (i.e., Appointments, To Do items or Telephone Book Entries) will be displayed instead of the information that was previously being viewed. If the selected Data Folder is password protected, you must provide the proper password to obtain access.

There are also some menu options in the User List area to help you maintain your workgroup and to control your preferences.

Save Window Location, Reset to Default Location, and Always On Top allow you to set up your display preferences. The Always On Top button should normally be left on so that you can drag items from Time & Chaos to the User List for item transfers.

Icon View, Text View, and All Details View are simply different ways to view the User List. The choice you make is entirely up to your preferences and needs. Icon View is the default and it will show the icons chosen for each database in the workgroup. Text View will provide only the names of the databases without icons. All Details View will let you see not only the names and icons, but also the location of each database.

Delete User from Workgroup can be used if a database is still listed in the User List after you no longer wish to have it be an active part of this workgroup. Highlight the user you wish to remove, then choose this option. If there is an administrative password on this workgroup, you will have to supply the password before the user will be removed.

Validate File Locations will tell Time & Chaos32 to check the paths to each of the databases that are part of the current workgroup. Time & Chaos32 will test each of the listed data locations to ensure that they exist and contain Time & Chaos32 data. If a test fails, the missing database will be removed from the User List automatically.


TimeBar

Trying to get people together for a meeting has never been easier! Using the TimeBar Screen, Time & Chaos32 provides the user with insight into his/her time commitments (Appointments with Start and End times) via a graphical grid of rows and columns. All such Appointments in the current month are displayed.

Each row represents one hour within the 24 hours of the day and each column represents one day in the month being displayed. Buttons are available to navigate backward and forward one month at a time.

TimeBar will allow you to review the "booked" and "available" blocks of time so that have the knowledge you need to schedule appointments for yourself and your group.

For the owner of the current calendar set, when you click and hold down the left mouse button while over your time allocation, you will see the time and description displayed. This is only true for the owner of the current calendar set. You can not see the details for other members of the network. You can only see their time allocation.

The TimeBar Screen was designed to function in a workgroup setting. If you are connected to a Time & Chaos32 workgroup, you will also be presented with the User List along with the TimeBar Screen.

To add a workgroup member's appointments to the TimeBar double click on their icon in the user list or drag their icon from the User List and drop it on the grid. You can multi-select members of the group at one time by holding down on the control key and clicking on all the members you wish to add and then double clicking on one of them.

As the Appointments for workgroup members are added to the TimeBar display, different colors are used so that their time commitments can be distinguished from those of other workgroup members. The Data Folder Name for each such displayed workgroup member is added to a list at the right side of the TimeBar Screen. Thus, you will have a "legend" that corresponds to the colored blocks of time currently displayed.

If you wish to remove a workgroup member's Appointments from the display (for clarity), you simply "double click" on the Data Folder Name (in the list at the right of the screen).

A few buttons on the screen provide valuable actions you should know about.

Previous Month instructs Time & Chaos32 to move to the month just prior to the one currently being displayed and refresh the display with the Appointments found in that month.

Home Month instructs Time & Chaos32 to return to the actual current calendar month and refresh the display with the Appointments found in that month.

Next Month instructs Time & Chaos32 to move to the month just ahead of the one currently being displayed and refresh the display with the Appointments found in that month.

Close instructs Time & Chaos32 to exit the TimeBar Screen.


Item Transfers

If you are part of a workgroup in Time & Chaos32, you can easily send a single Appointment, To Do or Telephone Book item to any other calendar in your workgroup. To do so, highlight the items you wish to send, right click to bring up the pop-up menu, point to Send To and choose the person you wish to send the items to.

If you want to send items to more than one person, or just want another option, there is a second way to send items. Open the User List to see the list of calendars and highlight one or more users or data folders that you wish to send an item to. Once they are highlighted, simply find the appointment, to do, or phone book item you wish to send, and drag it to the User List window. When you drop it, it will automatically be sent to all the highlighted users.

Time & Chaos32 will make a file with an extension of "IXM" (iSBiSTER Exchange Message) in the selected users' data folders. The other users can now accept the item through the In-Basket. If the user that you are sending to is not currently connected to your network even though they are in your workgroup, Time & Chaos will store the message and will forward it to the recipient when they reconnect their machine.

If you want to send items to a user whom you are not in a workgroup with, or if you want to send more than one record at a time, you should use the search screen. Find all the records you wish to send and then highlight them. Once selected, go to File, Create, and Transportable Record to package up all the records you found into a single external file with an extension of "IXP" (iSBiSTER Exchange Package). This IXP file can be placed in another user's data directory to give them the data, emailed it to them, or even posted on your web site.


In-Basket

The In-Basket is used to accept Appointments, To Do Items or Telephone Book listings which have either been sent to you by another Time & Chaos user, or that you have downloaded yourself.

To open the In-Basket, you can use the In-Basket button on the main screen or the menu option under Network. If Time & Chaos32 is aware of items waiting for you in the In-Basket, the button on the main screen will look as if there is mail in the mail-slot. If you have chosen a Mail Notification .WAV file in the Preferences screen, this .WAV file would also play periodically to remind you to visit the In-Basket to deal with the items waiting for you there.

If there is data, such as a Transportable Record, that you know exists but is not found by the In-Basket when it opens, you can go to the File menu and browse for the file by selecting the Open Package option.

The In-Basket allows you to view the incoming items, even the Notes field, to see what exactly has been sent to you. With your approval, you can Accept the items and they will be merged into your existing database. If you do not approve, you can click on the Delete button to remove it without adding it.

If you have a large number of items that you wish to accept or delete as a group, you can use the Select All button to highlight all of the items in your In-Basket.

Sometimes the items you add to your database may be duplicates of items you already have. You can control how Time & Chaos32 will react to any duplicates found by using the Duplicates menu at the top of the In-Basket. You can choose to Add Both if Not Identical, Replace If Newer, and to Ignore Duplicates to keep what you have.


Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting Tips

Quick answers to frequently asked questions

Can I use my data from the 4.x version of Time & Chaos in this new 5.x version?

Yes, you can. When Time & Chaos32 is installed and it creates shortcuts for the program, you will find an icon for the main program and an additional icon for a Convert Utility. This is located under Start, Programs, Time & Chaos32. The convert utility will let you enter the location of your previous data and the new location for the version 5.x, and then let you proceed to convert the data. This is, however, a one time, one way conversion. There is no facility for using version 5.x in the old 4.x version.

I ran the convert utility, but there is no data in the new 5.x version. What's wrong?

The convert utility has two entry fields, one for the location of the source 4.x database and one for the destination of the 5.x data. If you start 5.x and do not see any of your data after running the convert utility, one of these two paths must have been incorrect.

When I try to launch my web browser, I get a message that the browser initialization failed. What's wrong?

This is a problem in the Windows registry controlled by your web browsers, not by Time & Chaos32. The users with this problem seem to be using Netscape and have never used Microsoft's Internet Explorer 2.x or newer. Try installing the 2.x or the new 3.x version of Internet Explorer, then re-installing Netscape 2.x or newer. Once Internet Explorer is used, Netscape and Internet Explorer will both ask to be the default browser if it is not. Whichever one you choose to be the default browser should then be the one launched by Time & Chaos32 and launched successfully.

I'm having trouble getting Netscape Mail to work with Time & Chaos32. Can you give me any instructions to make this work?

Netscape is able to defend its territory against Microsoft when it comes to your default web browser, but it is not able to defend against Microsoft making itself your default mail program. In order to have the mailto: option in Time & Chaos32 use Netscape Mail, it is necessary to make some changes on your own to make this happen.

Open Windows Explorer, go to the View Menu and choose Options. On the Options screen, click on the File Types tab and look for the file type called URL:MailTo Protocol. Highlight this file type and click on the Edit button to the right. Under Actions, highlight "open" and click on the Edit button below.

On this screen, the first step is to edit the Application used to perform action to indicate your netscape.exe file. You can use the Browse button to the right to help you locate this file. For many users, the location of Netscape Communicator might be "C:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\netscape.exe". After finding the Application, you need to click the Use DDE box to select it and provide some more fields below.

•	In DDE Message, type: %1

•	In Application, type: Netscape

•	Leave DDE Application Not Running blank

•	In Topic, type WWW_OpenURL

Your editing is now complete, so click on the OK button on this screen to save your work. You can then close the next two screens to get you back to your normal Windows Explorer.

To test this edit, you can go to your Start button and choose run. Type in mailto:support@isbister.com and run that to see if it launches Netscape Mail. If so, then Time & Chaos32 should also be working for your addresses with mailto: labels.


Year 2000
Year 2000 Compliance

All software products from iSBiSTER International, Inc. are completely Year 2000 compliant. These products include Time & Chaos and Time & Chaos32. From the time of each of these products was created, each has provided built-in support for a four-digit identifier to specify the year. This feature provides smooth transition into the year 2000 and beyond. Dates will be correctly interpreted beyond the turn of the century and this software will also handle leap year calculations correctly including the correct indication of the century.

In the last few years, there has been a great deal of discussion in the software industry regarding the possible ill effects applications may face when the year 2000 comes. For a product to be Year 2000 compliant, it must have the ability to process a 4-digit year field or function correctly when faced with a date beyond 1999.

Applications which fail when handling a Year 2000 date are, in a majority of cases, a result of the development style, not the tool or product used. iSBiSTER has ensured that the products it currently ships are designed to function properly when the date changes from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000.

iSBiSTER's Technical Support team is prepared to address further concerns any customers may have about using any iSBiSTER Products. iSBiSTER also will post any new information on its Web Site at www.isbister.com  if and when it becomes available.