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O MANAGER'S PLANNER version 1.00 NANZETTA SOFTWARE 5612 Granby Road Rockville, MD 20855 (c)1985 Philip Nanzetta *** Manual revision date: 2/12/85 O TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ....................................... 4 Equipment Required ................................. 6 Ownership and Distribution ......................... 6 II. TUTORIAL: MANAGER'S PLANNER ........................ 8 Making a Working Disk .............................. 8 Tutorial Adventure Number One: Basic Operations .... 11 Step 1: Start the Program Step 2: Appointments Step 3: Brief Items Step 4: Priority Tasks Step 5: Printout Tutorial Adventure Number Two: Entry Checking, Shortcuts, Defaults, and Phone Numbers ......... 19 Step 1: Date Defaults Step 2: Time Defaults Step 3: Automatic Phone Numbers Step 4: Defaults for Print, Suppress; Top, Bottom, Suppress Tutorial Adventure Number Three: Special Editing ... 24 Step 1: Cursor moves Step 2: Deleting Blocks Step 3: Inserting Blocks Step 4: Escape Step 5: Drag Through and the End Buffer Tutorial Adventure Number Four: Calendar and Navigate ....................................... 28 Step 1: Calendar Step 2: Navigate Step 3: Appointments before Current Day Step 4: Change Form III. INSTALLATION: SETUP ................................ 33 Getting Started .................................... 33 The Main Menu ...................................... 34 -2- Selection of Computer/Display Monitor .............. 35 Selection of Printer ............................... 36 Selection of Data File Names, Paths, Drives ........ 38 Selection of Format of Printout .................... 38 Selection of Options for Each Run of Program ....... 39 Selection of Miscellaneous Features ................ 39 IV. TECHNICAL NOTES .................................... 41 History ............................................ 41 Direct Screen Writing .............................. 41 Special Printer Requirements ....................... 41 File Formats ....................................... 42 V. FUTURE FEATURES .................................... 44 VI. INVOICE ............................................ 45 -3- O CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION MANAGER'S PLANNER is designed to help you plan your workday for maximum effectiveness. It maintains your schedule, organizes your daily tasks, and gives you the tools to keep your mind on the high priority activities which really deserve your attention. With MANAGER'S PLANNER (or MP), you can put your promises and future obligations out of your thoughts until you are ready for them, and still never forget. Run MANAGER'S PLANNER once a day, either at the end of your workday or first thing in the morning. At the end of your session, MP will print out a plan for your workday. Throughout the day, mark up the plan, note new appointments and tasks, and scratch off things accomplished. Use the marked up plan along with other notes when you run MP the next day. Save the marked up plans; they serve over time as a valuable diary of your activities. MANAGER'S PLANNER concentrates on three elements of your workday. These are layed out as shown in the sketch on the next page. SCHEDULED ACTIVITIES. These include appointments as well as other scheduled items such as out of town travel, meetings, concerts, and reserved time. BRIEF ITEMS. These include phone calls you need to make, memos to do, arrangements and conversations that need your attention, and related items which do not occur at a scheduled time, and which do not constitute projects or major pieces of work. -4- PRIORITY TASKS. These are the major, high priority tasks that you need to accomplish. They represent FORWARD MOTION for you. These are the projects which you know to be of real importance, but which frequently get put off for "just one more day". --------------------------------------------- : : : : APPOINTMENTS : PRIORITY : : : TASKS : : : : --------------------------------------------- : : : : : BRIEF ITEMS OF WORK : : : : : : : : : : : : : --------------------------------------------- : : : : FUTURE : FUTURE : : APPOINTMENTS : PRIORITY : : : TASKS : --------------------------------------------- Workplan Layout The scheduled activities and brief items are familiar to you; you probably already keep lists of them in one form or another. MANAGER'S PLANNER makes it easy to organize and work with this information so you don't have to occupy your mind with it. At the same time, MANAGER'S PLANNER helps keep before you the list of the truely important priority tasks. It encourages -5- you to explicitly make time to attack the priority tasks, so you do not find your entire day eaten up by more immediate but less important "fire drills". EQUIPMENT REQUIRED MANAGER'S PLANNER requires an IBM/PC or compatible computer with 128k of memory, one disk drive, either a color or monochrome monitor, and a printer. MANAGER'S PLANNER is not copy protected; it can be copied to and run from a hard disk. OWNERSHIP AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGER'S PLANNER, version 1.00 MANAGER'S PLANNER is the property of Philip Nanzetta. Use and distribution of the executable MANAGER'S PLANNER and SETUP programs, manual, and tutorial files are controlled by the following license terms: 1. A registered copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER can be obtained from NANZETTA SOFTWARE for payment of a $35 fee. 2. A free copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER can be obtained from NANZETTA SOFTWARE by sending a formatted double-sided 5 1/4" disk with return label, mailer, and postage. 3. The holder of a free or registered copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER is authorized to make and distribute FREE copies of MANAGER'S PLANNER provided the files on the distribution disk are copied unchanged, the disk is copied in its entirety, and no compensation is received. -6- 4. The holder of a free copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER who finds it to be of value is encouraged to contribute $35 as compensation for the product and to support continuing development. Such a copy will then be registered and supported. 5. Bulletin Board SYSOPS are authorized to make MANAGER'S PLANNER available on their boards provided that all of the files from the distribution disk are included unchanged. Please notify NANZETTA SOFTWARE, simply as a matter of information, if you put a copy on your board. We're curious. 6. Non-profit users groups may be authorized (on a case by case basis) to distribute copies of MANAGER'S PLANNER for a nominal fee to cover the costs of materials. Please write for permission. NANZETTA SOFTWARE 5612 Granby Road Rockville, MD 20855 -7- O CHAPTER II: TUTORIAL MANAGER'S PLANNER, or MP, is easy to use and easy to start up. If you use a working disk as described below you may experiment freely without risk. In fact you will find it both useful and fun to try out your own answers to your questions. MAKE A WORKING DISK Begin by making a working disk; never work directly from the distribution disk, since later on you will want to return to a fresh starting condition. a) Format a new disk with a copy of the system(*) on it. For example, if you have two drives, put your DOS system disk in drive a: and put a blank disk in drive b:. Then type a:FORMAT b: /S This new disk will be called the working disk. b) Copy the following files from the distribution disk to the working disk: MP.EXE (MANAGER'S PLANNER program) SETUP.EXE (SETUP program) APPT.DAT (Sample appointment data) ITEM.DAT (Sample brief item data) PRIOR.DAT (Sample priority item data) MPPHNDIR.DAT (Sample telephone directory) If you have received MP on a double sided disk, a duplicate copy of each file is also present with a filename ending in $. These files are provided in case one of the files listed above is damaged. -------------------- (*) See your DOS manual for DOS functions -8- If you want to begin on your own instead of following the tutorial, put the working disk in your default drive and type MP <return> Special keys on the IBM keyboard are shown enclosed in < >. The basic operating principles of MP are described in the following paragraphs. These principles are illustrated in detail in the tutorial which follows. 1. When MP is running, your working area is the lower box on the screen. All your text entry or editing will be done in the lower box. To carry out an action from among those listed, use the FIRST LETTER of the command word. For example, to ADD an entry, press A or a. To conclude entry or editing in a particular section, press <return>. 2. Existing entries are displayed in the upper box on the screen. To edit, copy, or delete an entry, move it to the highlighted bar using the <up arrow>, <down arrow>, <home>, <end>, <PgUp>, or <PgDn> keys. 3. To change the calendar month, use the <right arrow> or <left arrow> keys. If you are already editing an entry in the lower box, you will have to use <Ctrl> plus the arrow key to distinguish from moving the editing cursor. 4. To edit, you may type over or use <backspace> and <Del>. To insert instead of typing over, press <Ins>; to return to type-over, press <Ins> again. An indicator in the lower right corner of the lower box will tell you whether the "insert mode" is on or off. Many of the -9- Wordstar(tm) combinations work in MP; if you know Wordstar, try them. 5. If you want to undo an action, try the <Esc> key. Where it is clear what "back one step" means, <Esc> takes you back one step. Otherwise, <Esc> does nothing. 6. An extremely flexible feature called Navigate allows you to move freely to other sections of MP. Navigate is described in Tutorial Adventure Number Four. -10- TUTORIAL ADVENTURE NUMBER ONE: BASIC OPERATIONS STEP 1: START THE PROGRAM If you have an IBM or one of the more popular compatible computers and printer, you can run MANAGER'S PLANNER using the EASY STARTUP feature, without first having to install it with SETUP. If your computer or printer is not listed among the EASY STARTUP choices, try one that is listed or Quit MP, skip on to Chapter III, use SETUP, then return here. If you do use SETUP, items c) - e) below are skipped. a) Put your working disk in the default drive. b) Type MP <return>. c) The opening EASY STARTUP screen will appear and MP will then ask you to identify your computer. Type the number corresponding to your computer. If your computer is not listed, try the selection for Compaq. Or select QUIT and go to Chapter III: SETUP. d) MP will then ask you to identify your printer. Type the number corresponding to your printer. If your printer is not listed, try the selection for IBM Graphics Printer. Or select QUIT and go to Chapter III: SETUP. e) MP will present two screens of introductory information. As indicated on the screen, press any key when you are ready to move on. f) The opening MANAGER'S PLANNER screen will appear, followed by an information screen, and then MP will propose a date for which to prepare a work plan. This -11- date is the current day given by your computer's system clock. g) For this tutorial example, type over the date proposed by MP so it reads 10/15/85 Then press <return>. MP will load data from the working disk and display current appointments on the screen. STEP 2: APPOINTMENTS You can tell which date is the working day because it is highlighted on the calendar. For now, it should be the 15th. First, let's delete appointments which were completed yesterday (10/14/85). The 8:30 staff meeting at Mr Halton's was held, so press D to delete it. You can use either "d" or "D". When you press D, the entry which is highlighted will be deleted. Delete the 11:15 appointment with Harry. Delete the 3:00 meeting on quarterly reports. The 7:00 dinner with Bill Mitchell had to be rescheduled, so leave it alone for now. We'll return to it in a minute. Skip to the next entry by pressing the <up arrow> key once. Now the evening entry to work on Mitchell contract is highlighted. Delete it. On second thought, if we have to reschedule the Mitchell dinner, we'd better reschedule the evening's work on the contract. Press R to restore that entry. When you press R, the most recently deleted entry will be restored. If no entry has been deleted in the current section, -12- no entry will be restored. Now, let's reschedule the two Mitchell entries. Move the dinner entry to the highlighted bar by pressing <down arrow> once. Press E to edit. The entire entry is moved down into your working area. If you should change your mind now or during the editing, press <Esc> and everything will be restored to the way it was before you started editing the entry. Revise the Mitchell dinner appointment to read 10/17/85 at 7:00p. Press <return> when you've finished your revision. The entry will leave your working area and be inserted at the proper place in the list of appointments. As you enter or edit text, you may want to move the cursor to a new place without changing anything else. You can do this by using the <right arrow> and <left arrow> keys. You can type- over. You can delete using <Del> or <backspace>. If you want to insert, press <Ins> once and then type what you want to add. Press <Ins> again to return to type-over. Now edit the evening's contract work so it reads 10/17/85 instead of 10/14/85. Move the entry to the highlighted bar by using the <down arrow> key. Press E to edit. Make the changes, and press <return> to finish. We have a few new appointments to add. Next Monday at 1:30 pm you need to meet Bob in his office. Refer to the calendar to see what date next Monday is. Press A to add an entry. Fill in each blank as requested and press <return>. Here are your entries: -13- 10/21/85 <return> 1:30 <return> p Bob in his office <return> The completed entry leaves your working area and is inserted in the correct place in the list of appointments. Add a dinner with Mr. Halton on 10/24/85 at 7:30 pm. Note that you now have two things scheduled at the same time. At the staff meeting yesterday, Mr. Halton asked that you and he have a weekly progress meeting during the next month, in preparation for his quarterly report to the Board. The meeting is scheduled for 3:30 pm on each of the next four Wednesdays. Let's enter those appointments. According to the calendar, the dates are 10/16, 10/23, 10/30, and 11/6. We used the <right arrow> key to advance the calendar to November. Press A to add an entry. Add the 10/16 appointment at 3:30 pm: progress report, Mr Halton's. Now press C for Copy. The 10/16/85 meeting will remain in the upper box, but it will be copied into your working area. Revise your working copy to the date 10/23/85 and press <return>. That's an easy way to enter recurring appointments. Press C again, revise the date to 10/30/85 and <return>. Press C again, revise the date to 11/6/85 and <return>. In revising the last date to 11/6/85, did you lose the "P" from Progress report? Note that <Del> drags the whole right side of the line to the left. In this way, a character may be drawn -14- into the gap between highlighted regions. Unless you restore it using <Ins> or typing over, this character will not be brought to the upper box. You now know all of the basic entry and revision commands. Press <return> to complete your work on appointments and move along to the next section. STEP 3: BRIEF ITEMS The second section of MP is called Brief Items. It holds a list of tasks that you are to accomplish today, such as make or return telephone calls or write brief memos. The basic commands Add, Delete, Edit, Copy, and Restore work the same way in Brief Items as they did in the Appointments section. For Brief Items, there is no natural sorting order to take the place of date and time. Therefore, completed entries are moved from your working area to the position in the list just below the entry at the pointers. Let's continue with the example. Yesterday, you made all the renewal calls which were planned for in your workplan, so delete each one of them. Use the <up arrow> key to move the top renewal entry to the highlighted bar, and press D. You did not finish anything else on the list. You have to add an additional topic to your conversation with Bob. Edit his entry by adding to the end "and forgings for brake supports". Add an entry as follows: NAME: Harvey <return> -15- Note that MP already knows Harvey's phone number. We'll talk more about that later on. For now, just press <return> to use the phone number proposed by MP. ENTRY: Get numbers for Mr Halton's report <return> Every entry appears on your screen when you run MP, but for Brief Items you have a choice of which tasks will be printed on the final workplan. You might want to enter a task now because you are thinking of it now, even though you don't want to do it today. In that case, you Supress the entry. Or you might want it printed on your workplan; in that case you chose to Print it. This time, let's have it printed on the workplan. PRINT or SUPRESS: P The new entry appears in the list just below the one which was last highlighted. You can move the entries in the upper box while you are editing. This is helpful if you want the entry to be inserted at a particular place in the list or if you need to refer to another entry. Just use the <up arrow> and <down arrow> keys. Now, add a new entry, at the top of the list: NAME: Paul Boldd PHONE: 342-6591 ENTRY: Order flexible lines for MP-5 PRINT or SUPRESS: P To add an entry at the top of the list, use the <home>, <down arrow>, or <PgDn> keys to move all entries below the bar. Practice with some other entries. Try using <Esc> in the middle of an entry to see how it returns you to a fresh start. -16- Try moving an entry to another place in the list by using D to delete it, move the entries up or down, and then use R to restore it to the new location. Press <return> to complete Brief Items and move on to the next section, Priority Tasks. STEP 4: PRIORITY TASKS This section works exactly the same as Brief Items, except that now there are three choices for each entry: T for print at the Top (for today's tasks), B for print at the Bottom (for tasks to be done in the future), and S for Suppress (keep in the data file and show on the screen but do not print). Practice with each command. Try funny things that come to mind, like trying to scroll the entries off the top of the screen. Note that <Home> places the first entry at the highlighted bar and <End> places the last entry there. <PgUp> and <PgDn> move the entries up or down by eight lines. When you've finished, press <return> to move on to the next section. STEP 5: PRINTOUT It's now time to see a printout of what you've done. Be sure your printer is turned on and has paper in it. MP is asking in the lower box whether you want a Workplan, Appointments, or Both. Chose Both by pressing B. -17- MP asks if you want One page of appointments or All. Choose All by pressing A. You've successfully completed your first tutorial adventure. Start MP over again and play with it some more to be sure you're comfortable with the basic principles. The second adventure will show you some exciting new shortcuts and features. * You now know enough to use MP to develop your daily * * * * workplan. Format a new disk with a copy of the system * * * * and copy only MP.EXE and SETUP.EXE to it. Then start * * * * using it for your own workplan while you continue to use * * * * this working disk for tutorials. * -18- TUTORIAL ADVENTURE NUMBER TWO: ENTRY CHECKING, SHORTCUTS, DEFAULTS, AND PHONE NUMBERS MP is designed to help you plan your workday. It is rich in shortcuts to speed up your planning. It has built-in checking to assure accuracy, but also built-in intelligence to avoid hassling you. MP will generally accept only input which "makes sense". If you press an improper key, MP will simply click (to show it is paying attention) and wait for a reasonable keystroke. If you use a format which doesn't make sense (such as 2:30 for the date), MP will politely ask you to use the correct format. On the other hand, MP tries not to force you to adhere to a strict format when it can tell what you mean. For example, it does NOT require that dates be entered in rigid formats like 01/06/86. In addition, MP makes extensive use of "default values". A DEFAULT value is the entry which MP will use on its own if you do not enter a different value. Let's look at some examples. Put your working disc in the default drive (you see, default is already a familiar concept; the default drive is the one the computer will use if you do not specify an alternative) and start up by typing MP <return>. Work through the opening screens and once again edit the proposed date to 10/15/85. We call this date the CURRENT DATE or TODAY. STEP 1: DATE DEFAULTS You have several new appointments to add. MP uses the -19- current date as a default date, so instead of typing 10/15/85 <return>, just press <return>; MP will enter 10/15/85. Add an appointment for today at 10:45 am with Howard Rose in his office. If you enter a day only, MP uses the current month and year as default. If you enter day and month, MP uses the current year. Add an appointment with Bill Allen at 1:15 tomorrow in your office. Type 16 <return> and MP will use 10/16/85 for the date; enter the rest of the appointment. Add an appointment for November 7. Type 11/7 <return> and observe that MP enters 11/7/85. Finish the entry: 2:20 pm John Garth on brakes. STEP 2: TIME DEFAULTS MP lets you enter an on-the-hour time without the :00. It will accept 2 for 2:00. Add an entry for today at 4 pm: See George Strecker. There are two time-like entries which MP uses, day and eve. You can type day (or d), or eve (or e) when the time is called for as you are adding an entry. These are sorted into your appointments with "day" listed as the first entry of the day and with "eve" listed as equivalent to 7:30 pm. If you make no time entry, MP uses "day" for its default. Add an entry in your appointment list which reminds you to contact Karen Wessel next Thursday. From the calendar, next Thursday is 10/17/85. For date, type 17 <return> and MP enters 10/17/85. For time, type <return> and MP enters day. Type -20- contact Karen Wessel <return>. It is also useful to use the day designation if you know you will have an appointment on a certain day, but don't yet know the time. The time can be edited in later. MP uses either the 12 hour clock, with am and pm, or the 24 hour clock, with times running from 0:00 through 23:59. You can mix these if you wish. Since it is hard to remember whether noon is 12:00 am or 12:00 pm, MP lets you use n for noon and m for midnight. Add an appointment for tomorrow at noon. Type 16 <return> for the date. Type n <return> for the time. Enter your appointment text. Add an appointment for this evening: Prepare Mitchell presentation. Press <return> to conclude the appointments section and move on to Brief Items. STEP 3: AUTOMATIC PHONE NUMBERS You will recall that in the first tutorial, MP appeared to know the telephone number of Harvey. In fact, MP can learn phone numbers. Once it has learned a phone number, MP uses it as a default for that person until you change or delete the number. Let's add an entry and at the same time ask MP to learn the phone number. Type A for Add. Type George Stevenson <return>. George's phone number is 301/223-5461. Type the phone number, but instead of entering it using <return>, press and hold down the <Alt> key and while holding it down, type L (for learn); this is written Alt-L. MP has now learned George Stevenson's phone -21- number, as confirmed by its note "Learned". Complete the entry by typing Sell new brake support design <return> and select the Print alternative. To review, MP learns a phone number if you enter it using Alt-L (for learn) instead of <return>. You can change a phone number by having MP learn the new number with Alt-L. You can make it forget a phone number by having it learn a blank phone number. MP will correctly give you a phone number for a name even if you change upper and lower case letters, but you must spell the name correctly or MP will think it's a new name. Add an entry for GEORGE STEVENSON: manufacturing new brake supports. STEP 4: DEFAULTS FOR PRINT, SUPPRESS; TOP, BOTTOM, SUPPRESS The default value for the Print or Suppress alternative in the Brief Items section is Print. The default value for the Top, Bottom, or Suppress alternative in the Priority Tasks section is Top. Try the default value for the Print alternative on an entry Harold Smith: contract for forgings. Since you don't know Harold's phone number, just leave it blank. Instead of pressing P for Print, press <return>. MP uses the default value of P. Press <return> to leave the Brief Items section and move along to Priority Tasks. -22- Add an entry: Statement of Work: brake supports <return>, and press <return> to use the default selection of the Top alternative. Conclude the section and print out a workplan. -23- TUTORIAL ADVENTURE NUMBER THREE: SPECIAL EDITING MP incorporates a number of editing features to speed things up. Don't feel that you have to memorize them all now. Run through the tutorial to see what's available, and return to it from time to time to pick up a few new tricks. STEP 1: CURSOR MOVES The cursor can be moved without changing the text. It can be moved right or left. It can be moved a distance of one character, one word, or to the end of the text. We will write Ctrl-T to mean press the Ctrl key, hold it down, and while holding it down, press the T key. The following chart lists the cursor move commands of MP, giving the direction and distance that the cursor is moved. Distance Moved || To Left To Right ==================||=============================== One Character || <left arrow> <right arrow> || One Word || Ctrl-A Ctrl-F || To End of Text || <End> Let's try these out. Put your working disk in the default drive, start it up, and set the current date to 10/15/85. The appointment with Karen Wessel on 10/17 will instead be held with her assistant, Jim Hill. Press E to edit the entry. Use the new command Ctrl-F to move the cursor past the date, time, and first few words. Type over Karen's name. -24- While the entry is still in your work area, try Ctrl-A and <End>. <return>. STEP 2: DELETING BLOCKS It's messy to edit by having to type over. MP permits you to delete blocks of text and insert new text. <Del> deletes the character at the cursor. <backspace> deletes the character to the left of the cursor. Ctrl-T deletes the WORD which starts at the cursor. Ctrl-Y deletes the entire text of the entry. Note that it does not delete the entry; it makes the entire entry blank. Change the location of the 10/18 meeting with Hal to his office. Press E. Move the cursor to the last word using Ctrl-F. Use Ctrl-T to delete the word "club". Type in "office" and press <return>. Try out <Del> and <backspace>. STEP 3: INSERTING BLOCKS The key <Ins> switches between the insert mode and the type- over mode. The mode is indicated for you in the lower right corner of the lower box as INS ON or INS OFF. Change the location of the 10/16 meeting with Bill Allen from your office to his office. Press E to edit. Use Ctrl-F to move the cursor to the word "my". Press Ctrl-T to delete the word "my". Press <Ins> to switch to insert mode. Now anything you type will be inserted at the present cursor location, and the -25- text at and to the right of the cursor will be pushed over to make room. Type "his" and a space. Press <return>. It turns out that Allen in the 10/16 appointment should be spelled Allan. Edit that entry. Use Ctrl-F to move the cursor to the beginning of Allen. Use <right arrow> to move the cursor to the letter "e". Press <Del> to delete "e". Press <Ins> to switch into insert mode. Type the letter "a". You're done. Press <return>. STEP 4: ESCAPE <Esc> helps you escape from a mess while adding or editing. If you press <Esc> during editing, the entry will be restored to its original text and moved out of your working area. If you press <Esc> during an Add sequence, nothing will be added and you will be returned to the main menu, ready to choose another operation. Edit the 10/17 entry concerning dinner with Bill Mitchell. Change anything you like. Then press <Esc>. Press <return> to leave the appointment section and move on to Brief Items. STEP 5: DRAG THROUGH AND THE END BUFFER In many cases, you will want to edit by both inserting and deleting material. If the insertion occurs before the deletion, text will often be pushed off the end of the line. If the deletion occurs first, text might be dragged through the gaps into a different section. Don't worry; you and MP can handle it. -26- Text pushed off the end is not lost; it is saved in an "end buffer". Just follow through with your editing and it will be pulled back out. Text dragged through a gap can be pushed back through during later stages of editing. The only thing of concern to you is whether the correct text is in the correct boxes when you press <return>. At that point MP checks formats and asks you to fix any that are a problem. If the formats are correct, the entry will be used exactly as you see it in your working area. Anything hidden in the gaps or off the end will be lost. Let's list our phone call about manufacturing brake supports for Stevenson's colleague, Harold Cummins, instead of for George. Edit the entry. Use Ctrl-F to move the cursor to the beginning of George's name. Press <Ins>. Type in Harold Cummins. Note that the entry is pushed off the right end of the line. Now use Ctrl-T to delete George Stevenson's name. Note that the right end of the text is pulled back out of the end buffer. Put the ":" and space back in after Cummins. Press <return>. If MP resists taking your entry when you press <return>, look for a format error. The most likely problem is text dragged into or out of its proper box. The Appointment section is most sensitive to format problems, since date and time must meet format requirements. Press <return>, <return> and print out your workplan. -27- TUTORIAL ADVENTURE NUMBER FOUR: CALENDAR AND NAVIGATE STEP 1: CALENDAR You can make the calendar vanish by pressing Alt-C. You can make it appear by pressing Alt-C. You can change the calendar one month by pressing <right arrow> or <left arrow> (or, if you are editing an entry, by pressing <Ctrl> and the arrow key). Start up MP and move through the opening screens. Set the current day to the first Monday in October, 1985. Press Alt-C to make the calendar appear. Note that the arrow keys do not change the calendar month; instead they move the cursor in the text area. Use <Ctrl> with the arrow keys to set the month to October, 1985. The first Monday is 10/7/85. Make the entry read 10/7/85 and press <return>. Press <return> again to skip over Appointments and move to Brief Items. The calendar is not normally displayed in this section, but you want to talk to Sid Wyman about an RIA committee meeting on the second Tuesday of December, 1985. Press Alt-C to make the calendar appear. Use the arrow keys to set the month to December, 1985. The second Tuesday is 12/10/85. Press A for add. Enter Sid Wyman; his phone number is 425-3141. Complete the entry: set up 12/10 RIA committee meeting. <return>. P (for Print). You can either leave the calendar up or remove it by pressing Alt-C. STEP 2: NAVIGATE You now realize that you'd better put the 12/10 RIA -28- committee meeting on your list of appointments or you'll forget it. How do you get back to the Appointments section? MP offers a very flexible feature called NAVIGATE for just such purposes. Press Alt-N to enter the navigate menu. You are first given choices about how you wish to LEAVE THE PRESENT SECTION. You can Resume. Return to the section you left with no changes. Leave. This is the normal way to leave. It saves all changes and records all new entries for the session before leaving the section. Quit. This ends the entire MP session without printing anything or saving any new entries or changes from the current section. Changes from previous sections will have been saved earlier. This is a drastic way to leave. Press L for Leave. MP next asks where you want to GO TO. The choices are Appointments, Brief Items, Priority Tasks. You are taken to the section you request. change Day. (Press D) You are given an opportunity to change the current day. If you change the day, MP automatically takes you next to the appointments section. change Form. (Press F) You are presented with a screen which allows you to change the sizes of (that is, the number of lines in) each of the three printout sections on your workplan. End and print plan. You are taken to the menu which asks for the type of printout you want. In this case, you want to go to Appointments, so press A. Add the 12/10 RIA committee meeting to your list of appointments. Instead of pressing <return> to leave the Appointments section, press Alt-N again, press L for Leave, and press P to -29- move to Priority tasks. Just to see what it's like, press Alt-N to get to the navigation menu; press Q to quit. Since you made no new entries in the Priority tasks section, nothing is lost; all of your information is stored on the disk even though you did not get a printout. If you had added, deleted, or edited any entries in the Priority Tasks section, those changes would have been lost. If you want a current printout but don't want to modify anything, start MP, enter the current day <return>, and then navigate to End and print plan. You will note that MP automatically reads the data files to assemble your printout. STEP 3: APPOINTMENTS BEFORE CURRENT DAY Start MP again, move through the opening screens, and choose 10/16/85 for the current day (note: the 16th, not the 15th). We are now working on appointments for Wednesday, October 16. You completed the first three appointments yesterday; delete the 9:15 meeting, the 10:45 meeting, and the 12:30 lunch. Ms. Smithson had to change the 4:00 appointment yesterday to 4:00 on 10/16; make that change in your schedule. Leave the evening work on Mitchell presentation alone for now. Add appointments for 10/16 as follows: 8:30 Harriet, data for Mitchell 9:30 Jamie, legal on Mitchell 10:30 Leon, engineering on Mitchell Press <return> to complete the section. A screen message "Appointments are listed earlier than the -30- current date" is displayed, and then you are given the opportunity to reset the current day. Clearly, no self-respecting planning program would let you have an appointment on the books for a day that has already passed. Situations arise, of course, in which an appointment scheduled for yesterday was not met. Such an appointment should either be rescheduled, deleted and forgotten about, or deleted and noted (in Brief Items) for rescheduling. It looks like the current day is correct, 10/16/85. So press <return>. Back in the appointment section, we see that we neglected to delete the 10/15/85 appointments to see George Strecker and to work on Mitchell presentation. Delete them now, and press <return> to move on to the next section. Until you use SETUP to modify it, MP uses 8 lines for appointments. In case there are more than 8 appointments, MP borrows lines from the Brief Items section so all your appointments will be listed. That will be the case now; there are 9 appointments for today. STEP 4: CHANGE FORM One of the choices on the navigation menu is change Form. Press Alt-N to get to the menu. Press L for Leave. Press F for change Form. A menu is presented which displays the current number of lines in each of the three sections of your printout. You can enter any two numbers as sizes for the top and middle boxes. MP -31- calculates the size of the bottom box to keep the same overall form length. (If you want to change the overall form length, use SETUP.) Note that MP has already allocated 9 lines for the top section. Press <return> to leave the top section unchanged, but change the size of the middle section to 25 and press <return>. Note that MP calculates the remaining lines and uses that figure for the bottom section. Type Y (or <return>) for yes. MP resets the form sizes and returns you to the section you left. Let's try something drastic on the form just to see what it looks like. Press Alt-N, L to leave the Brief Items section, and F to change Form again. Note that the numbers given by MP are our new numbers, with 9 lines for appointments. Keep 9 but enter 50 for the middle section. Note that MP will accept only 47 of those lines, because that fills up the form. No lines are left for the bottom section. Press Y for OK. Now let's see the printout. Press Alt-N, L to leave the Brief Items section, E to end and print out, W to print a workplan. It prints fine, with 9 lines for appointments, 47 lines for Brief Items, and no bottom section. This change in form sizes is temporary. Next time you use MP, it will be back to normal. If you want a permanent change, use SETUP. -32- O CHAPTER III: INSTALLATION USING SETUP SETUP is a program which customizes MANAGER'S PLANNER for your own combination of computer, display, and printer. It allows you to modify the default format of your printout; that is, the sizes of the top and left margins and the number of lines in each of the blocks on your printout. It lets you select the names for the data files, or use paths to your data files. With SETUP, you can have MP inquire each time it runs which printer you are using, or what computer; this is especially handy if you use MP with the same disk (and thus the same data files) on different equipment. SETUP SHOULD NEVER BE USED TO INSTALL THE DISTRIBUTION COPY OF MANAGER'S PLANNER. Work only from your working copy. Once SETUP has been run on a copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER, the EASY STARTUP section will not appear at startup. If you want MP to ask about printer or computer at startup, use the SETUP menu choice "Options for each run of program". If you install a copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER using SETUP without selecting a computer or printer, MP will run as if it had been set up for IBM/PC with monochrome display and Epson MX-series printer. GETTING STARTED To use SETUP to install MANAGER'S PLANNER, put the working disk with MP and SETUP in the default drive and type SETUP <return>. -33- The opening screen will ask you to verify that you are running SETUP on a working copy. If so, enter Y for yes. You can also run SETUP on a copy of MANAGER'S PLANNER which was previously installed with SETUP. If you do, the starting point for all changes will be the previously installed version. THE MAIN MENU The Main Menu gives you access to six sections of installation decisions. At the completion of each section, you will be returned to the Main Menu, where you can either choose another section, record your choices, or quit without recording your choices. Here is what the main menu looks like: Select SETUP topic 1. Computer/display monitor 2. Printer 3. Data file names, paths, drives 4. Format of printout 5. Options for each run of program 6. Miscellaneous features 7 End. Record changes from this session 8. Quit. Don't record changes from this session. During a session with SETUP, your choices are accumulated and stored. You can change your mind by making a different choice later in the session. You can end without changing your working copy of MP by selecting the menu choice "Quit. Don't record changes from this session." On the other hand, by selecting -34- "End. Record changes from this session.", you will modify the working copy of MP according to the choices you made during the session. Each of the other menu selections is described in its own section below. SELECTION OF COMPUTER/DISPLAY MONITOR Having made this choice from the main menu, you are presented another menu which lists computer/display combinations. If your computer is listed, choose it. Your choice will be recorded and you will be returned to the main menu. If your computer/display is not listed, try the setup for one of the other computers; you'll probably find one that works perfectly. "Perfectly" means (1) the computer doesn't hang up, (2) screen scrolls are clean and without flashes of light, and (3) the emphasized portions of the screen are the same color combination as the normal text, but in reverse video. The IBM/PC portable is set up as IBM/PC with graphics board. The Data General portable is set up as IBM/PC with monochrome display, using the mono mode on the Data General. If you can't find a listed computer that works like yours, choose "Special installation". You will then be asked a series of questions which can generally be answered only by reference to a technical manual for your computer and display. If you have a color monitor and want to use a different color combination, choose "Special installation" and answer the questions about normal and emphasized screen attributes -35- accordingly. The question about 14 lines per row is used to set the size and shape of the cursor. If you don't know, try "yes"; then if the cursor looks funny, go back and try "no". The question about flashes of white during scrolls can be investigated by choosing "no" and then running MP to see if flashes of white snow appear on the screen during scrolls; they do, for example, on the IBM/PC with color graphics display. If no snow shows, leave the answer "no". Otherwise, change it to "yes". SELECTION OF PRINTER Having made this choice from the main menu, you are presented another menu which lists printers. If your printer is listed, choose it. Your choice will be recorded and you will be returned to the main menu. If you have a fixed print size printer (daisy wheel, spool, ball, type bar), select "Other, with limited typefaces". MP will give you a printout which has been slightly modified to accomodate the fixed type size. Instead of future appointments and future priority tasks in the lower section, only future appointments will be printed. If your printer is not listed, try the setup for IBM Graphics printer or Epson MX-series. MP is installed correctly for your printer if (1) the workplan has a neat border, (2) the date header appears centered, and (3) the lowest portion of the -36- form is aligned with the upper sections. If you can't find a listed printer that works like yours, choose "Special printer installation". You will then be asked a series of questions which can generally be answered only by reference to a technical manual for your printer. Printer startup codes are codes which will be sent to your printer each time you call for printing from MP. Printer ending codes will be sent to the printer at the end of each printing cycle. Here are two examples of starting codes: If your printer normally skips over the perforation on the paper, you can generally send it a code which causes it not to skip; the sequence of values which prevents the skip over perforation would be included in your startup codes. If your printer needs to have the dot matrix characters defined for the special border characters, that definition string would be included in your startup codes. The codes for special typefaces define the compressed and double width type styles used on the MP printout. If your printer is not capable of making compressed characters, use the menu choice "Other, with limited typefaces" from the "Printer" menu. "Set codes for border" defines the characters used in the border design of the MP printout. What is called for is the value which must be sent to your printer in order for it to print the indicated shape. -37- "Set printer number" refers to the possible printer output ports LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3. LPT1: is printer number 1, etc. SELECTION OF DATA FILE NAMES, PATHS, DRIVES This selection allows you to use different names for your data files, to specify a particular drive on which the data files appear, or to specify a path to a subdirectory in which the data files are listed. The following names are assumed by MP unless you change them: APPT Appointments ITEM Brief items PRIOR Priority items MPPHNDIR Phone directory Each file has a file extension of ".dat". Do Not use a file extension; MP provides the ".dat" for you automatically. SELECTION OF FORMAT OF PRINTOUT With this selection from the main menu, you are given another menu of choices. You can "set left margin size" or "set top margin size". You can have MP begin each printout with or without advancing the paper to a new sheet using formfeed. You can set the number of lines in each of the three sections of the MP workplan printout. -38- SELECTION OF OPTIONS FOR EACH RUN OF PROGRAM As described in the introduction, you can have MP ask each time it starts up which printer or which computer/display to use. This is convenient if you are using a single MP disk on several different pieces of equipment. SELECTION OF MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES This choice presents another menu from which to select special features of MP. Pauses are built in to MP at those places where you need to read some information before it is automatically cleared away. With the "Duration of pauses throughout MP", you can set the length of pauses in amounts of tenths of a second. After you are thoroughly familiar with MP, you might want to set this to zero so the program runs faster. There are two apparently natural ways to think of the up and down cursor keys in connection with scrolling text on the screen: up means "move the text up" -- or -- up means "move the highlighted area up" within the text. You have your choice, depending upon which seems more natural to you. As shipped, up means "move the text up". Depending upon when you run MANAGER'S PLANNER to create a workplan, you will be planning for the same day as your computer system clock or for the next day. You can set the default current day to be either the same as the system clock or the following day. -39- MP wants 128k of memory to run with the maximum number of entries and a long phone directory. As shipped, it checks the size of your computer's memory to make sure enough is present. Under unusual circumstances, you might want to waive that memory check (at some risk to data entered during the session). SETUP gives you a way to do that. -40- O CHAPTER IV: TECHNICAL NOTES HISTORY MANAGER'S PLANNER was developed by a working manager to meet his own daily workplan needs. It was originally a manual system; that is, a daily handwritten sheet of paper. It was first coded as a BASIC program in 1983, and was written in the present form in C with some assembly language functions during 1984. It was tested by others and refined in late 1984 and early 1985. All features of MANAGER'S PLANNER originated from actual use to meet real needs. DIRECT SCREEN WRITING Achievement of fast enough screen behavior required that MANAGER'S PLANNER work around the operating system and perform direct writing to screen buffer memory. Since compatibility with IBM/PC generally assures that the same buffer addresses are used in compatible computers, direct screen writing works for the listed computers and should work for most others. If you can't get your (non-listed) computer to work, write and we'll work with you. SPECIAL PRINTER REQUIREMENTS MANAGER'S PLANNER works with you at the computer, but the basic approach is to generate a piece of paper you can carry around throughout the day. In order to make this piece of paper attractive and useful, your printer needs to be able to print a -41- set of border characters as well as compressed and expanded type faces. SETUP gives you the means to use MANAGER'S PLANNER with any printer, provided you can get the required information about the printer. Most printer manuals will tell you what you need if you look hard enough. Again, if you ultimately can't do it, write to us (preferably with a copy of your printer manual or the technical appendices of it). FILE FORMATS MANAGER'S PLANNER uses four data files, APPT.DAT Appointments ITEM.DAT Brief Items PRIOR.DAT Priority Items MPPHNDIR.DAT Phone Directory. All four files are ASCII files which you can read with the DOS TYPE command; for example, by typing TYPE APPT.DAT. The first three files use a variable field length for the last field and fixed lengths for the other fields. Each record is terminated with <carriage return> <line feed>. This gives reasonably good data compactness while providing for a neat easy listing. The Phone Directory file uses variable length fields; the fields are separated by colon (:) and each record is terminated with <carriage return> <line feed>. The directory name is listed in all lower case. The data files are terminated with ^A. -42- As it runs, MANAGER'S PLANNER reads and writes the data files so as to keep only one of the first three data sets resident in memory at any time. It writes a new data file each time and renames the previous data file with a ".bak" extension. MANAGER'S PLANNER checks for adequate disk space before writing and asks the user to change disks if space is not adequate or the directory is full. The current version has an arbitrary limit of 500 entries in each data set except phone numbers. -43- O CHAPTER V: FUTURE FEATURES With your support, MANAGER'S PLANNER will continue to develop as a workday planning tool. We expect to add the following features or utilities in future major versions: 1. Full Telephone Directory Utility. For building and using the phone directory data file independently of the MANAGER'S PLANNER main program. 2. Archiving/diary function. An added feature which will be integrated into MANAGER'S PLANNER to archive appointments and brief items as they are removed from the current data set. Will allow annotations by user. 3. Archive organization Utility. Will support searches through the archive/diary by keyword and date. Will support sorting and other organization of the archive/diary database. 4. A "stay-resident" appointment manager is being considered. This program would use the same data files as the main MANAGER'S PLANNER. We would appreciate comments on these possible offerings as well as suggestions for additions to the list. -44- O INVOICE NANZETTA SOFTWARE 5612 Granby Road Rockville, MD 20855 ================================================================ TO: _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ DATE: _____________________ ================================================================= Quan Item amount extension _________________________________________________________________ MANAGER'S PLANNER, complete $35.00 _________________________________________________________________ MANAGER'S PLANNER, registration $35.00 _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ TOTAL ________ -45- @