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Text File | 1994-11-23 | 24.3 KB | 556 lines

Sound Off 2.0 Psion Series 3a Pelican Software Inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS About Sound Off/Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1 Registering Sound Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-3 New in Version 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-4 Event New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3 Cancel Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 View Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5 Search Find . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 Find Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Agenda Read Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1 Select Agenda File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2 Change Special Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3 Enable/Disable Auto Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4 Force Auto Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5 Special Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1 Set Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2 Reconfigure Sound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3 About Sound Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4 Exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 Miscellaneous Resizing Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1 Repeats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2 Key Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3 Emergency Shut-Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4 Overlapping Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5 What will Sound Off do to my Agenda file? . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6 ABOUT Sound Off/Getting Started 0-1 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Sound Off is a simple but much needed utility for the Psion Series 3a. It is simple only in that it performs a simple function. The programming is not simple to accomplish this task, but it was well worth the effort, as you will see. Have you ever been in a meeting and had the Series 3a alarm start ringing. It can be embarrassing. Sound OFF will stop that from happening again. Here's how it does it. Sound Off lets you build a database of events. An event represents a future time and date when the sound should be turned off. Sound Off will wake up the machine at the minute you want the sound turned off. The sound will be turned off by Sound Off. After the event duration is completed the machine wakes up and the sound is turned back on so you won't miss any future alarms. The next earliest event will then be queued. If the event that just terminated is repeatable, the time/date of that event will be updated before finding the next earliest event. Getting Started ─────────────── When you first start Sound Off you will be prompted to show the program your standard sound settings. This is so that the program will know what settings to return your sound to when it turns the sound back on. Choose "Re-configure sound" to change these settings at a later date. The program does this since when you start up Sound Off your sound may be off, and SndOFF would not know what your standard ON settings are. Press <Enter> to set a New Event. Type in a name for the event. Next type in the date, time and duration of the event. Finally using some code borrowed from the Pelican Alarm Server, you can make the event repeatable, which quickly becomes a necessity with a program like this. This way you only have to enter the event time & date once. For example if you get up every morning to go out and walk, and you don't want an alarm going off while you're out walking, just set a Sound Off event in the time slot that you normally go out, and make it a Daily repeat. REGISTERING Sound Off 0-2 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ S o u n d O F F │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 1 Sound is ON ║ ╟─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────╢ ║ Event: Out to Walk │ Timer Set ║ ║ Date: 11/20/1994 │ "Out to Walk" ║ ║ Time: 7:00:00 am │ Sound will turn OFF ║ ║ Duration: 01:00 │ 12 Hours 16 min. remaining ║ ║ Repeat: Daily │ ║ ║ │ ║ ╚═════════════════════════════════╧═══════════════════════════════════╝ Sound Off Ver. 2.0 Copyright 1994 by Pelican Software Inc Mailing Address: Pelican Software Inc. P.O.Box 741072 Houston, Tx. 77274-1072 713-242-8928 (voice and fax) Sound Off is Shareware from Pelican Software Inc. If you like it, you can register it in a few ways. The price of the program is $20.00 USD. The program is crippled in a few ways. You can only have 3 events unless you register. When you register, you will receive a registration number that will allow you to have as many events as you like. The Auto Search feature is disabled until registering. The Emergency Shut-Off is also disabled. If you have Compuserve, you can register online by going to the "SWREG" forum. There you can register Sound Off 2.0 and Compuserve will bill your account. This is the easiest way. METHODS . Compuserve "SWREG" ID = 3924 . Send cash through the mail . Send a check through the mail made payable to Pelican Software Inc Crippling: Until Registered, Sound Off will only allow 3 events, and some features are disabled or partly disabled. The Auto Search feature is the most powerful new feature. Read about it in the "NEW IN 2.0" section. INSTALLING Sound Off 0-3 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Copy Sndoff.opa into any \App directory. If you have an earlier version of SndOFF, the Sndoff.pic file is no longer needed. You can delete this from the \App\Sndoff directory. Once you have copied the SndOff.opa file to your S3a, Press Psion<I> from the system screen to install Sound Off. Change the disk selector to the disk you installed Sound Off to. Select SndOff, and press Enter to install it. If you need more help with this, see the section on re-inserting icons in chapter 16 of the user manual for your Psion. NEW IN 2.0 0-4 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The newest features allow you to read your Agenda file, and easily bring all timed appointments into the SndOFF database. This is done while in the Agenda by adding a one character prefix to all appointments that you want the sound to be turned off for. Sound Off will know that only appointments marked with this prefix are events that should be brought into the SndOFF database. There are five new menu options related to the new Agenda features. These options are explained in section 3. (Agenda) <*> Indicates registered only Read Agenda - Reads the Agenda file Select Agenda File - Select your default Agenda file Change Special Character - Sets the special character to search for *Auto Search - Unattended Auto Search of Agenda files Unregistered imports only 1 event. *Force Auto Search - Causes an Auto Search to start now Other New features: ■ Ctrl<Menu>, or Diamond key will resize the window. ■ Pressing the O key will turn the machine off. (used to be space bar) ■ Pressing the space bar will bring up a Description viewer. ■ Descriptions can be slightly longer. ■ Window size saved on Exit. ■ User selectable location for support files. ■ Compuserve SWREG supported. ■ Emergency Shut-off (registered only). ■ 2.0 closes down its windows when in backround to use less memory. This frees up 10k when in backround. NEW EVENT SECTION 1 - Event Menu Heading 1-1 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<E> Use Psion<E>, Enter, or choose "New Event" from the Event pull-down menu to create a new event in the SndOFF database. Do this when you want to enter a new time for the machine to turn off. ■ Fill out the Description. (Give your event a name, like "Lunch meeting".) ■ Enter the date. Must be a future date. ■ Enter the time you want the sound to be turned off. ■ Enter the duration of the event. ■ Enter the repeat type. There are many repeat types. See the section on repeats if you need help with this. UPDATE EVENT 1-2 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<U>, Psion<Enter> Follow the same guidelines as "New Event". This just gives you the opportunity of changing the details of an event. DELETE EVENT 1-3 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<D>,Del Use this option when you want to delete an event from the SndOFF data- base. Note that this won't let you delete the current event. You'll need to use the "Cancel current" option to do this. CANCEL CURRENT EVENT 1-4 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<C> Cancel Current lets you cancel the current queued event. The sound will be turned back on when you cancel an event. VIEW DESCRIPTION 1-5 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion Shift<V>, spacebar This option will bring up a window with the full Description of the event being viewed in the SndOFF database. Sometimes the event description won't fit on the screen, so this lets you view the whole text. FIND SECTION 2 - Search Menu Heading 2-1 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<F> This option searches through the database to find a particular entry. Press Psion<F> to bring up the "Find" dialog. ■ Type in a clue to search for, and press Enter. If SndOFF can find a match, it will be brought to the front. FIND AGAIN 2-2 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<G> Use this option after doing a search, when you want to find another match using the same clue. READ AGENDA SECTION 3 - Agenda Menu Heading 3-1 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<R> This option starts by finding your Agenda file. If the Agenda is running, it will do a safe shutdown. Next it will open the Agenda and start searching for appointments. On finding a marked entry, you are given the option of editing the data for use with SndOFF. Press Enter to save the item to SndOFF, or press Escape to continue searching. When you're done, SndOFF will restart your Agenda. Only future appointments are found unless you set the "Bring in Old Entries" option. SELECT AGENDA FILE 3-2 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<L> You must choose this option before you can read Agenda files. Show SndOFF where you default Agenda file is. It must know this in order to know which Agenda file to open. ---------------------------------------- Show SndOff Your Default Agenda File . Default Agenda Name <-filename-> Disk internal . Character to Search for . Bring in Old Entries <-No-> ---------------------------------------- Note that the "Character to Search" option allows you to enter a character identifier for SndOFF to look for. SndOFF will only allow you to bring in Agenda entries that begin with this character. This is the method you use for telling SndOFF which appointments can be brought into the SndOFF data- base. If it's still not clear, go into you Agenda. Go into the day view, and press Enter to start a new entry. If your "Character" is a period<.>, start by typing a period, and then the rest of your message. ( .This is a test ) SndOFF will find this entry and pass over all others that don't begin with your "Character". The character can be any character you can type in. The entry must be a future entry when using Auto Search. "Bring in Old Entries" forces SndOFF to search even old entries as long as they begin with your special character identifier. Turn this on only when you need to bring in an old entry. Remember that in SndOFF you have repeats. You may have an old entry that you want to bring-in because it repeats. Note: This works when using "Read Agenda File", not Auto Search. CHANGE SPECIAL CHARACTER 3-3 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<+> This just gives you a fast way to change the special character. ENABLE/DISABLE AUTO SEARCH 3-4 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion Shift<S> Registered only This is an automated Agenda search that will import all marked appointments from your Agenda that are set for the current day. This allows you to use Sound Off entirely in the backround. The process becomes completely automated. Here's how it works... When you choose to "Enable Auto Search", Sound Off will create a special event called "<Auto Search>". The time and date of this event can be edited, but not the Description. You should set the Auto Search to happen first thing in the morning. When this event comes due, Sound Off will automatically read your Agenda looking for todays appointments, adding them to the Sound Off database. This all happens in the backround. This event will repeat every day. Of course the Agenda entries must have your special character prefix as the first character. (Section 3-3) To Disable Auto Search, you can't delete the Event. Instead use the menu option "Disable Auto Search". This will delete the event for you. Note that when Auto Search adds events from your Agenda, it sets the sound to turn off 1 minute after the event begins. This is to give you a chance to respond to an alarm. You have one minute to respond to an alarm reminding you of the event, and after this the sound is turned off. Note that it doesn't matter that the machine is stuck waiting for you to clear the alarm. Sound Off is still working in the backround. FORCE AUTO SEARCH 3-5 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<M> Registered only Use this feature when you've made a change to your schedule during the day. Sound Off will delete all of todays entries in the Sound Off data- base, and re-open the Agenda to re-import todays appointments. Note that only database entries brought in using the "Auto Search" method are deleted. Database entries typed in from Sound Off are not deleted. When using "Force Auto Search" the Auto Search event is not changed in any way. This is the best way to do an update of daily appointments in the SndOFF database. VERSION SECTION 4 - Special Menu Heading 4-1 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<V> Brings up the version number in the top window. SET SOUND 4-2 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<S> This does exactly the same thing as Pressing Psion<S> from the system screen to set your sound. RE-CONFIGURE SOUND 4-3 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<Q> Use this option when you want to reset your default sound settings for SndOFF. To explain this better, SndOFF needs to know what your standard sound settings are so that when it turns your sound back on, it will set all of your sound settings correctly. When you choose this option, you are just showing the program what your default settings are. ABOUT SOUND OFF 4-4 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<A> Tells you how to Register Sound Off. EXIT 4-5 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<X> To exit the program. RESIZING WINDOWS SECTION 5 - Miscellaneous 5-1 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Control<Menu>, Diamond key Resizes windows widths in the standard Psion way. There are three window width choices. REPEATS 5-2 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Here's a list of repeat types: Yearly (same day next year. Knows about leap years) Monthly by date (same date next month) Monthly by day (same day of week , next month, like third Wed.) Monthly(last day) (last day of the month) Weekly (same day next week) Daily (Every day) Workday (next workday, based on your system settings) Restday (next restday, based on your system settings) Every (x) days (how ever many days you set) Every (x) hours (how ever many hours you set) KEY COMMANDS 5-3 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Psion<A> About SndOFF Psion<C> Cancel Current Psion<D> Delete Event Psion<E> New Event Psion<F> Find Event Psion<G> Find Again Psion<L> Select Agenda File Psion<M> Force Auto Search (registered version only) Psion<Q> Re-Configure sound Psion<R> Read Agenda Psion<S> Set sound Psion Sh<S> Enable/Disable Auto Search Psion<U> Update Event ──────────┐ Psion<V> Version │ Psion Sh<V> View Description ─┐ │ Psion<X> Quit │ │ │ │ Spacebar View Description ─┘ │ Psion<Enter> Update ───────────────┘ <O> Off Psion<+> Change Special Character Psion<Home> Go to First Record Psion<Eng> Go to Last Record Diamond key Resize Windows ─┐ Control<Menu> Resize Windows ─┘ Tab key Emergency Shut-Off (registered version only) EMERGENCY SHUT-OFF 5-4 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Tab key Registered only This feature is enabled when you register. Pressing the tab key brings up a dialog where all you have to decide is how many hours you want the machine sound off for. This is for the emergency situation when you don't have the time to spend filling out the normal "New Event" dialog. OVERLAPPING EVENTS 5-5 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Note that Sound Off at this time doesn't handle overlapping events. In other words you have to watch out not to schedule timed events that overlap each other, and expect Sound Off to correctly turn the sound off for these. It won't. Suppose you have a meeting at 6:00pm that you've set for 1 1/2 hrs. and Dinner at 7:00pm. Sound Off will turn the sound off at 6:01 pm and won't look for new events until 1hr 29min later. By this time when the sound turns on, your Dinner appointment is considered an old event and is dropped. There is a 2 minute minimum duration for an event in order for Sound Off to work correctly. This only applies to events imported using the "Auto Search" feature. Here's how it works: Sound Off starts an event 1 minute after the appointment time in the Agenda file. It does this to give time for you to respond to a alarm if one was set. Since it starts one minute late, it has to take one minute off of the duration. An event with a one minute duration wouldn't work because Sound Off would be starting the event, and the event would already have finished. Sounds confusing, I know. Suffice it to say that back to back events with a duration of one minute will not work. WHAT WILL Sound Off DO TO MY AGENDA FILE? 5-6 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Nothing! It only opens your Agenda file for read only. Sound Off never writes to your Agenda file, and therefore CANNOT corrupt it. You can use Sound Off without fear.