Computerworld 1996 March/Computerworld_1996-03_cd.bin/idg_cd3/aplikace/domacnos/anw100/quiktour.txt

Text File | 1996-02-14 | 7KB | 135 lines

           A quick tour of Ample Notice for Windows 1.0

Ample Notice has many features that you'll use every day, and many
more that you'll use infrequently, if at all.  This file guides
you through a quick tour of the most commonly used features.  In
particular, we'll explore simple appointments, different views,
alarms, notes, and categories.  For more complete information,
view the only help by pressing F1 or choosing the Help menu option
while in ANW.  You can also click on the help icon in the ANW
program group.

In order to have some sample appointments to experiment with,
let's use the appointments file SAMPLE.APT created for that
purpose.  Run ANW by clicking on its icon, then close the default
appointments file by choosing File, Close.  Next, select File,
Open and pick the file SAMPLE.APT.  You should see a few Notes
(entries with no dates) and appointments.  Try clicking the mouse
in various places to navigate through the appointments.  For
example, if you click on a date in the little calendar at the
upper right, you'll go to that date.  You can also scroll throught
the appointments on the left.  You can 'autoscroll' by pressing
the left mouse button and dragging the mouse off the top or bottom
of the screen.  Of course, you can also use the scroll bar or
cursor keys.

Pressing 'V' will take you to the calendar view -- here you'll see
the same appointments divided into boxes in a monthly calendar.
It's slightly harder to edit old appointments in this view but
easier to get the 'big picture' of your long-term schedule.  Press
'V' again to go back to the appointment view.

Let's enter a few appointments.  Press 'I' to insert a new entry.
Type a date and some sample text; something like:
  11/15/95 testing
(If you've installed ANW using European date formats
day/month/year, please reverse the day and month order in this and
the following entries.)  Then click on the Ok button or press F10
to complete the entry.  You should see your new appointment on the
calendar.

Double click on the appointment you just entered -- it should be
presented for further editing.  You can edit appointments using
either a short or long dialog.  The short dialog appears by
default (unless you make long the default in your ANW.INI file),
but you can switch to the long form by clicking on the 'More'
button.  Try changing to the long form now.  You'll see lots of
types of appointments you can enter, and lots of options for each
type.  Experiment with the buttons, lists and other fields, then
press <Esc> or <Cancel> to leave the appointment as it was.

Now that you're back in the appointment view, double click on a
date in the monthly calendar window at the upper right.  This time
you'll see an entry ready for editing with date you clicked on as
the appointment date.  Click on the Less button to make this more
clear -- you'll see the date at the start of your entry.  Type
some sample text after the date and press F10.

Now let's enter an appointment with a time in it.  Press I to
insert a new appointment, then (assuming we're in the short
dialog) enter today's date and a time 7 minutes from now.  After
the time, enter a sample appointment.  For example, if it's 4:30
p.m. on 5/19/95, enter
  5/19/95 4:37 dentist
and press F10.  After a few seconds, the status line at the bottom
of the screen should show:
      Friday May 19, 1995  4:30 P.M.  Next alarm 4:32 P.M.
The alarm sounds (by default) five minutes before an appointment,
so in a couple of minutes you'll hear and see the alarm.  Notice
that we didn't enter P.M. on our time (though we could have);
times without explicit AM/PM designations are assumed to be A.M.
for times from 8:00 through 11:59, and P.M. otherwise.

While waiting for the alarm, browse through different views of
your appointments or practice other entries.

In a minute or two, the alarm should sound and a little yellow
window containing the appointment should pop up on your screen
(even if you were in another program at the time).  By default,
the alarm should beep for a few seconds or until you close the
alarm window.  Close the alarm window by pressing <Esc> or by
pressing the button at the upper left of the window.  The alarm
sound can be changed to a different duration (including
indefinite) or to a "WAV" file of your choice if you have a sound
card -- see the online help for details.

Using four separate entries and pressing 'I' each time to start,
enter the following (in the short dialog):

  * mow the lawn
  6/10 my wedding anniversary
  \b5/25/82 David's birthday ()
  !Jun3Sun Father's Day

Here's what you just did:

The first entry is a 'note' -- a reminder that doesn't go away
just because a date passes.  It is displayed in the Notes section
of the calendar.

The next entry is an anniversary.  If no year is specified in a
date, the appointment is shown every year.

You can use the anniversary format for birthdays, but if you'd
like ages shown in the entry it's better to use the '\b' option.
Just precede the entry with '\b' followed by the birthdate, then
include a set of parentheses in the appointment.  The parentheses
are filled in (each year) with the age.

ANW can handle some pretty elaborate date patterns.  The fourth
entry says that the third Sunday in June is Father's Day.

You are allowed to attach categories to your notes and
appointments.  You can then screen out all but selected categories
and view or print the corresponding calendars.  This can be useful
for scheduling if you have a category for each person whose
schedule you want to consider.  You can also use categories for
customized goals such as tax preparation, birthdays/anniversaries,
project deadlines, etc.  You can use the Category menu option to
define a new category option or to restrict the display to any set
of existing categories.  You can choose a category from a list in
the long dialog, or use a special code to include a category in
the short dialog.  See 'Categories' in the online help for
details.  For now, just try experimenting with the Categories,
Select menu option.

This concludes the formal abuse of this sample appointments file.
You can't do any harm through further experimentation, so browse
for a while before exiting.  If you want to see a more interesting
calendar, close SAMPLE.APT and open FAMOUS.APT.  You'll see scores
of  birthdays of famous people (and many others in the 'where are
they now...' category).  If we've omitted your birthday and you
are certifiably famous, please let us know and we'll add you to
the list.