Index
  iSBiSTER International, Inc.

1314 Cardigan Street, Garland, Texas 75040

Time and Chaos Professional Help File

Welcome to Time & Chaos Professional v4.03

Licensing and Registration

Installation/Hardware and Software Requirements

Understanding The Time & Chaos Main Screen

Using The Appointment List Section

Add  Appointments

Appointment Category Filter Button

Search Appointments

Add Day Title

Notes For Today

Editing Existing Appointments

Using The ToDo List Section

Add ToDo Item

Done

Delete ToDo's

ToDo Category Filter Button

Search ToDo's

Using The Phone Book List Section

Add Listing

Phone Book Category Filter Button

Search Phone Book Entries

Move Phone Book Entries

Select Phone Book

Dialing Phone Book Entries

File Menu Commands

Open/Create Calendar Sets

Network Connect (Multiple Instance)

Import ASCII To Telephone Book

Preferences Setup

Backup/Restore Data

Save/Reset Screen Size And Location

Print Menu

Month-View!

Report!

TimeBar!

Notes Processor

Programming Notes/Custom Controls

Network Installation Tips


Welcome to iSBiSTER's Time & Chaos Professional!

We all have the same amount of time in which to get things done.   Frankly, there is no such thing as "time management;" just try telling Tuesday when to arrive, or make an hour pass any slower or faster!  How much we can get done in a given amount of time depends on how well we manage chaos:  the tendency of any neatly ordered system to become ever more disorderly.  Time & Chaos will help you overcome creeping chaos, so that you can get more done in a given amount of time.

Time & Chaos brings order to the three most common types of time-dependent information:  things you need to do (todo's); appointments you need to keep; and contacts you want to make on a regular basis.  On a single screen, you can see at a glance what you need to do today, who you will be seeing, and who you might want to call or write.

You can instantly switch to any other day, to see what you did or what you will be doing.  Schedule recurring activities at various intervals, prioritize the things you need to do, group and categorize your contacts.  Print activity reports for any period, or export the data to a file for use by billing, expense report, or other types of software.

Time & Chaos will help you write letters and print envelopes, dial the phone, even schedule a meeting of several other busy people.  Its alarm clock will give you plenty of time to prepare for an appointment, and instantly remind you who it's with.

This user guide explains step by step how to use Time & Chaos' intuitive and powerful features to help you tame chaos and make the most of your time.

iSBiSTER International, Inc.

1314 Cardigan Street

Garland, Texas 75040

Voice:	214-495-6724

BBS:	214-530-2762

FAX:	214-530-6566

CompuServe ID: 74017,3424

COPYRIGHT 1993

All rights reserved, Printed in 1993


Licensing and Registration

Prospective customers are licensed to evaluate the fully-functional unregistered version of Time & Chaos for up to 21 days, for the purpose of deciding whether the program suits their needs.  At the end of this 21-day trial period, users must either cease using Time & Chaos or pay a  registration fee of $29.95 to iSBiSTER International Inc., for the right to continue using the program.  Use of an unregistered copy of Time & Chaos for more than 21 days, or use of a registered copy by any person or business other than the registrant, is prohibited and a violation of international copyright law.

Each "user" of Time & Chaos requires a license.  However, each user is entitled to use Time & Chaos on as many machines as he/she likes as long as it is for their use only.

Time & Chaos is Network Ready.  Each Time & Chaos "user" on the network requires their own license.

Registration brings other benefits besides the legal right to continue using Time & Chaos.  First, you will receive a Security ID code that you may enter into the program which will eliminate the "registration reminder" screens that begin to appear after an unregistered copy has been used for more than 21 days.  Second, you will be entitled to free upgrades of the major version of Time Chaos you register as minor revisions are released.  Third, technical support is available for registered customers.

How to Register Your Copy of Time & Chaos

The registration fee for each copy of Time & Chaos is $29.95.

Residents of Texas must add $2.47 sales tax (total $32.42).

Payment can be made by mail, by voice phone, FAX, or online.

By mail:  send cash, checks, or international money orders payable in U. S. funds and drawn upon a U. S. bank

Sorry we do not accept foreign checks drawn on foreign banks.

iSBiSTER International, Inc.

1314 Cardigan Street

Garland, Texas 75040 USA

By phone:  Visa MasterCard and American Express are accepted; call 214-495-6724

Online:  there are two ways to register Time & Chaos online.

CompuServe subscribers can charge their Time & Chaos registration fees to their CompuServe statements.  Log on to CompuServe and GO SWREG.  When prompted for the SWREG ID, enter 49.  You will then be able to download the latest version of Time & Chaos.  Your Security ID code will be sent to you via CompuServe mail when we receive notice of your order from CompuServe.

The iSBiSTER BBS (214-530-2762) will accept registrations by Visa, MasterCard, or American Express cards.

FAX:  You can fax to us at 214-530-6566 your orderfrm.wri along with your credit card information and we will ship the same day.  We cannot reply back by fax.

Disclaimer of Warranties

iSBiSTER INTERNATIONAL, Inc. does not warrant that Time & Chaos 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 & Chaos 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.

WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THE SOFTWARE and we trust that you will find it productive!


Installation/Hardware and Software Requirements

Time & Chaos requires at least 800 kilobytes of disk space when it is first installed.  Additional space will be needed for the data files created to hold all of your contacts, appointments, letters, notes, etc.

Time & Chaos requires Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or later and VBRUN300.DLL (Visual Basic Runtime module).  The runtime module is free.  If you do not have it, it can be downloaded from iSBiSTER International's BBS and many other online sources.

Installation

To install Time & Chaos automatically,

1.  Start Windows

2.  Place the program diskette in your floppy drive

3.  Run the INSTALL.EXE program found on the diskette

You can run the INSTALL.EXE program from Program Manager or from File Manager.  To use Program Manager, select File, then select Run from the pulldown menu.  In the dialog box prompting for the name of the file to run, enter d:<path>\INSTALL.EXE, where d: is the letter of the drive containing the program diskette, and <path> is the DOS directory/subdirectory path in which INSTALL.EXE resides.  For example, A:\INSTALL.EXE, or C:\TEMP\INSTALL.EXE.

To use File Manager, open a window displaying the program diskette's contents, then just double-click on INSTALL.EXE to run the installation program.

The installation program will ask you to confirm or change the name of the subdirectory in which Time & Chaos will be installed.  The rest is automatic!

To install Time & Chaos manually, create a unique subdirectory anywhere on your hard disk and copy all of the Time & Chaos files to that diretory.  Then use Windows' Program Manager to create a Program Item icon to start Time & Chaos:

1.  Select File from Program Manager's menu bar

2.  Select New from the pulldown menu

3.  Select Item to create an icon

4.  Enter a Description for the item, i. e., Time & Chaos

5.  Enter the DOS Command Line to find and run T&C40.EXE, i. e.,

C:\TCHAOS\T&C40.EXE.

6.  Enter the name of the Working Directory in which Time & Chaos resides.  This 	Working Directory is used to 'steer' Time & Chaos to a default set of data files.

7.  Select OK to create the Program Item

Starting Time & Chaos

Double-click on the Time & Chaos icon to start the program.

The first time you start Time & Chaos, it will let you know that it has created your data files; it will prompt you for a name to identify your data. This name that you specify will appear on the title bar at the top of Time & Chaos.  These files will hold your appointment, todo, and contact data, and will be in the subdirectory that holds your Time & Chaos program files.

If you are upgrading to a newer version of Time & Chaos, your existing data files may need to be converted to a new format and reindexed.  The new program will ask if you wish to proceed with this conversion, which cannot be reversed.  You should make backup copies of your data files if for any reason you think you might want to revert to an earlier version of Time & Chaos.


Understanding The Time & Chaos Main Screen

The Main Screen is divided into four parts.  Clockwise from the upper left corner, they are the Calendar, Appointments, Phone Book, and ToDo Items.  The Calendar allows you to navigate in time.  Appointments and ToDo Items change each day, while the contacts in your Phone Book are always at your fingertips.

The Calendar displays a full month at a glance.  Click on any day, and the list of Appointments and ToDo Items is automatically updated.  To change months, click on the single-bracket (< or >) buttons at the bottom of the Calendar.  To change years, click on the double-bracket (<< or >>) buttons.  Click on Today to leap back to the present day, as determined by your computer's system clock.

The Appointments list is used to summarize all of your scheduled activities for a given day.  You can add a Day Title to any date, to remind you of special days such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc. You can add, delete, or search for appointments and review today's notes by clicking on the appropriate buttons at the bottom of the Appointments list. Double-clicking on any appointment item opens a window to additional functions.

You can assign color-coded icons to categorize or prioritize appointments, append notes to an appointment, repeat an appointment at regular intervals, link an appointment to a contact record, and set an alarm to alert you of an upcoming appointment.

The Phone Book, in the lower right corner of the Main Screen, provides easy access to all of your contacts. Two data files (Yellow and White Pages) are maintained by Time & Chaos,  allowing you to keep separate files of personal and business contacts, frequent or irregular contacts, or any other division you wish.  Contact records can be moved back and forth between the Yellow and White Pages files.  Within each phone book, you can assign one or more Categories to any given contact.  Then, using the Search or subdivide function, you can view one particular group of contacts at a time.


Using The Appointment List Section

The Appointment List found on the Main Screen includes five function buttons along its bottom edge:  Add Appointment, Delete, Search, Add Day Title, and Notes for Today.  Other functions pertaining to a specific appointment -- its Description, Start and End Times, Repeat Options, Notes, Linking & Alarms -- can be accessed by clicking on any given appointment shown in the list.


Add Appointments

Select the Calendar date on which you wish to schedule an appointment.  Click on the Add Appointment button to open a new Appointment detail window, like the example shown below:

Time & Chaos assumes you want to add an appointment to the date selected on the Main Screen Calendar.  You can change this default Appointment Date by clicking on the down-arrow to the right of the date box; this action displays a miniature Calendar from which you can select a new date for your appointment.

The Start Time and End Time for the appointment can be set with the mouse or the cursor keys.  Clicking on the Up or Down arrows to the left of either time adds or subtracts 30 minutes.  The arrows to the right of either time change the time in one-minute increments.  The left/right cursor keys change the time in 1-minute increments, while the Up/Down cursor keys change the time in 30-minute increments.  The Tab and Shift-Tab keys can be used to switch back and forth between Start Time and End Time.

Important:  you cannot schedule multiple appointments with exactly the same Date and Start Time; an error message will display if you attempt to do so.  However, appointments can overlap; for example, 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. and 9:05 - 12:00 can be scheduled on the same date.

The Description box holds any text you enter to describe this appointment.  This text will be displayed next to the appointment time on the Main Screen's Appointment List.

Color Icons can be assigned to appointments to help you see at a glance what kinds of appointments you have on a given day:  blue for business, green for personal, etc.  The default color is white; click on one of the color icons to change it.

Drag-And-Drop Addition of Appointments

From the Main Screen, you can click on a contact in your Phone Book list, hold down the left mouse button, and drag the contact to the Appointment List section.  Releasing the mouse button will then start the Add Appointment process.  The phrase, "Meeting with <contact> @," where <contact> is the name displayed in your Telephone List, will be added to the Description box.

Creating an appointment with this drag-and-drop method also sets a Link between the appointment record and the contact record in your Phone Book.  Links allow you to quickly summarize and manage all of your appointments with a given contact.  See the Phone Book section of this manual for details of Link functions.

Appointment Screen Action Buttons

Four action buttons appear at the bottom of the Appointment screen:

OK:  saves the current Appointment data and returns to the Main Screen.

Delete:  deletes the appointment from your Appointment List.  If you have set any Repeat Options, Delete will also erase identical appointments set for other dates.  (See Repeat Options

later in this section.)

Notes:  activates the built-in Note Processor for editing or printing notes attached to this appointment.  The word "Notes" is highlighted in red if notes are already attached to this appointment, and a lower-case "n" appears next to the appointment on the Main Screen's Appointment List.

Cancel:  returns to the Main Screen  without saving any changes you have made to the current appointment.

Appointment Index Tabs

The Appointment screen includes four index-tab buttons labeled Description (the default screen when an Appointment is created or edited); Repeat Options, for duplicating an appointment on several dates and setting the range of dates for a Group Delete (See "Deleting a Group of Appointments later in this section.); Notes pertaining to a specific appointment; and the Linking & Alarm functions.

Clicking on one of these index-tab buttons opens a new screen full of Appointment-related functions.  The Description screen is described immediately above; let's proceed to the other three index-tab options.

Repeat Options Index Tab

Many of us have standing appointments, which occur at the same time but on multiple dates. Time & Chaos makes it easy to add or delete a standing appointment in your Appointment List.  From the Appointment screen, first complete the Description portion of the appointment (description, times, links, etc.).  Then select the Repeat Options index tab to display the screen shown on the following page.

Click on the arrow key in the Repeat Frequency box to display a picklist of common intervals at which you can repeat this appointment:  daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, same day every month, same day every other week, or every "n" days.  The "n days" option will prompt you for the number of days to skip between repetitions of the appointment.  The other options automatically insert repetitions at the right intervals.

Next, click on the arrow key in the Repeat Through box to determine how far into the future you wish to repeat this appointment.  A miniature Calendar will appear.  Click on a date to end repetition of the appointment on or before that date, depending on the Repeat Frequency.  The single-bracket arrows jump forward or backward one month at a time; the double-bracket arrows jump forward or backward one year at a time.

Notes

Clicking on the Notes index tab opens a window in which you can add, edit, and view notes associated with this appointment.  To print your notes, or to use the other features of Time & Chaos' Notes Processor, click on the Notes button at the bottom of the Appointment screen.

Linking & Alarm

Clicking on the Linking & Alarm index tab opens a window through which you can set a Link between an appointment and a Phone Book contact record, and set an Alarm to remind you of an upcoming appointment.

Linking Appointments to Contacts

If you set a Link between an appointment and a contact record in your Phone Book, you will be able to use the Phone Book to summarize all of your appointments with that contact person. This Linking function is handy for viewing or printing reports of client activity, sales contacts, and so on.

To set a Link for this appointment, first select the appropriate Phone Book (click to toggle between White and Yellow Pages).  Then click on the down-arrow next to the long, narrow window in the illustration above to display a scrolling window of the contacts in the selected Phone Book.  Scroll through this list and select the appropriate contact.  Time & Chaos links this appointment to the selected contact.

You can also create a Linked appointment from the Main Screen.  Select a contact from the Phone Book and drag the cursor to the Appointment List section while holding down the left mouse button.  When you release the mouse button, a new Appointment window opens with a link established between the contact and the appointment record.  You can then fill in the Appointment data as you wish.

Setting An Alarm for an Appointment

You can set an audible alarm to remind you of an upcoming appointment.  Whenever you enter the Linking & Alarm window, Time & Chaos automatically supplies a default alarm lead time. The default alarm lead time is set in the Preferences Setup area (Select File, Preferences from the Main Screen).  You can change the alarm lead time for a specific appointment by clicking on the down-arrow to the right of the alarm lead time window.

Time & Chaos must be running in order to notify you of an upcoming appointment.  Alarms rely on your computer's system clock, so be sure that the clock is set to the correct time. Appointments whose start times have passed will not trigger alarms.

Deleting Single Appointments

You can delete any given appointment by clicking once on its entry in the Appointments List, the clicking on the Delete button at the bottom of the Appointments List screen.  You will also find a Delete button on each of the four Appointment Detail screens:  Description, Repeat Options, Notes, and Linking & Alarm.

Deleting Repeated Appointments

If you used the Repeat Options to repeat the same appointment several times across your calendar, you can delete all or some of the repeated appointments in a single operation.  Select Repeat Options from the Appointment screen.  Select the repreat frequency that specifies the interval between repeated appointments.  Set the starting and ending dates for the period in which appointments are to be deleted.  Then click the Delete button on the Appointments Screen.  You will be warned that you are attempting a group delete, and you will be asked to confirm this action before it is performed.  Perhaps an even easier way would be to do this from the SEARCH Screen.  You can easily delete a group.


Appointment Category Filter Button

You can have your Appointment List display only appointments that fit into any or all of 18 predefined categories, such as business or personal appointments, telephone calls or personal meetings, in-office or out-of-office appointments, and so on. You create these Appointment Categories in the Preferences Setup area (Select File, Presferences from the Main Screen).

Normally, Time & Chaos displays all appointments for a given day.  Limiting your list to appointments in specific categories is called filtering the list.  You can easily filter your Appointment List to display one or several different categories of appointments.

Click on the blank button under the Appointment List to open a window that displays all of the available categories.  Click on the box to the left of a category description to select that category; an X appears in the box next to each selected category.  After selecting all of the categories you want displayed, click on the Close button.

The background color of your Appointment List will change from white to cyan to indicate that filtering is in effect.  Now only appointments whose assigned categories match all of the categories selected for filtering will be displayed.  It will also filter your printouts.  You can print a calendar now that will print only those items that have passed through your subdivide filter.

Clicking on the blank button while filtering is in effect deactivates filtering; all of your appointments for the day will again be listed and the background color will again change to white.


Search Appointments

The Search Appointments button is located at the bottom of the Appointments List.  Clicking this button opens a window like the one shown below.  From this window, you can locate all appointments whose descriptions, notes, and/or assigned categories contain a search string that you specify.  A search string is simply a string of text characters -- a word, part of a word, or a phrase like "lunch with."

To search for appointments, first select one of the Field options:  All Fields (categories, descriptions, and notes), Descriptions only, or Notes only.  The default option, All Fields, makes the most thorough search but also takes longer.

Next, enter your search string in the box to the right of the Field option.  If you do not enter a search string, Time & Chaos will display all appointments.

Finally, click on the Find button at the bottom of the screen.

Note:  when searching appointment Descriptions, Time & Chaos also searchs the descriptions of any Day Titles you have added to your calendar.  Likewise, any Notes for Today are included in searches of appointment Notes.

The results of an Appointment Search are displayed in list format as shown in the illustration below. Simply double-click on one of the items to open the Appointments Screen.  You can then review and edit the appointment's details.

You can also delete single or multiple appointments located in a search.  To delete a single appointment, click on its entry in the search list to select it, then click on the Delete key.

To select multiple appointments at random for deletion, you can hold down the CTRL key as you click on each appointment one at a time.  If the appointments to be deleted all appearr one after the other in the list, you can hold down the SHIFT key, click on the first entry in the group, then click on the last entry in the group.  All of the entries in between will also be selected.


Add Day Title

A Day Title is a brief description that applies to an entire day.  Day Titles may be used to identify special dates such as anniversaries, birthdays, and so on, or to remind you as you review your Calendar that you will be engaged in some activity for several days in a row.  To add a Day Title to a specific date, click on the date in your Calendar and then click on the Day Title button under the Appointments List.

You can change the date to which a Day Title is applied if you wish.  You can also change the color in which this date will be displayed on your Calendar.  Note that Repeat Options, Categories, and Notes can be used in conjunction with Day Titles, just as they are used with Appointments.


Notes For Today

You can attach notes to a date in your Calendar just as you can attach notes to Appointments.  Click on the Notes for Today button at the bottom of the Appointments List to activate the Notes Processor.  Notes for Today is intended to be a diary function.  You can record various comments, conversations and information bits that occur during a day.  All of the words that you type here are fully searchable later on.


Editing Existing Appointments

Editing existing appointments is easy.  Just double-click on any appointment shown in the Appointment List to open the Appointment Screen.  You can then change any of the information associated with the appointment.  The Repeat Options can be used to repeat the appointment on other future dates, or delete repeated occurrences of this appointment for any range of dates.


Using The ToDo List Section

The ToDo List is in the lower left corner of the Main Screen. ToDo Items can be assigned to dates in the future as well as today.  Any unfinished ToDo Items will appear on the next day's ToDo List, so you will not forget them.  You can rank each day's ToDo Items using predefined priorities, so the most important or urgent ToDos are always at the top of your list.

Categories can be created for ToDo Items just as they can be created for Appointments and Phone Book contacts, allowing you to filter your list of ToDo Items.  ToDo Items can also be linked to Phone Book records, making it easy to summarize all of the ToDo Items connected with a given contact, or to autodial the contact's phone number.  You can search ToDo Items to locate those items containing a search string.


Add ToDo Item

Click on the Add ToDo Item button to open the "ToDo Detail" screen shown on the next page.  Every ToDo Item must be assigned a Start date, which can be today's date or to any date in the future.  ToDo Items are automatically carried forward to the next day's ToDo List unless they are deleted or marked Done. Only ToDo Items whose Start dates are equal to or less than the current date will be displayed.

Each ToDo Item must also be assigned a priority, a one-character code which groups items accorcding to their nature or relative importance when your ToDo List is displayed.  Time & Chaos provides six priority selections:  Critical, Important, Work It In, Pending, Telephone, and Done.  Critical items are displayed first, Done items last.

Hint:  to further rank items within a priority category, remember that Time & Chaos displays item descriptions in alphabetical order, after sorting items by priority.  Thus, within your group of "A" priorities, you can begin the description of each item with a number or letter which will determine the order in which the item is displayed within the "A" group of ToDo items.

Drag and Drop ToDo Items

You can create a ToDo item and link it to a contact in your Phone Book in one operation.  Just click on a contact in the Phone Book window, hold down the mouse button, drag the cursor to any point in the ToDo List window, and release the mouse button.  Time & Chaos automatically creates a ToDo item and assigns a Telephone priority status to it.  The ToDo item's description will consist of "Call <contact name> @ <number>."  The items in <>'s are taken from the contact record in your Phone Book, using the contact name that appears in the scrolling window and the phone number that appears in the Business Phone field.  If no business phone number is listed in the contact record, no phone number will appear in the ToDo item.

You can edit any ToDo item created with the drag-and-drop method just as you can edit any other item.  Simply double-click on the ToDo item to open its ToDo Detail window, and change whatever details you wish.

The ToDo Detail screen appears whenever you add a new ToDo item or double-click on an existing TdoDo item in your ToDo List. The Detail screen lets you view or edit a ToDo item's Description, Notes, Linking & Autodialer settings, and Repeat Options.  These five sets of ToDo features are fully described under the topic ToDo Detail Index Tabs.

The ToDo Detail screen has four buttons along its bottom edge:

Update - saves any changes you have made and returns you to the Main Screen.

Delete - deletes an existing ToDo Item and any assoicated notes, then returns you to the Main Screen.

Notes - activates the Notes Processor so that you can edit and print notes.

Cancel - returns you to the Main Screen without saving any changes made to the ToDo item.

ToDo Detail Index Tabs

The ToDo Detail window provides access to five sets of features through the index tabs found along the top edge of the Detail window.  The Description features are shown by default when you create or edit a ToDo item.  Clicking on one of the other index tabs provides access to these additional features:

Notes - a mini-window in which you can view, edit, and add notes to a ToDo item.  You must use the Notes Processor to print notes.

Linking & Autodialer - lets you set a link between a ToDo item and a contact in your Phone Book.  Links allow you to summarize and print reports of past and future ToDo items associated with any given contact.  If you have a modem, you can also autodial a contact's phone number while viewing a ToDo item.  Links are automatically created when you use the drag-and-drop method of creating a ToDo Item.

Repeat Options - lets you duplicate a ToDo item on multiple dates in your Calendar.  The Repeat Options are handy for tasks you must perform over and over again, such as balancing your checkbook.  Repeated ToDo items are not the same as a single, unfinished ToDo item "carried forward" on your ToDo list.  When you delete or mark any ToDo item as Done, it will not be carried forward to the next day's ToDo list.  But if the ToDo item has been Repeated, it will appear again on the next date it is scheduled in your Calendar.

Click on the arrow key in the Repeat Frequency box to display a picklist of common intervals at which you can repeat this ToDo item:  daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, same day every month, same day every other week, or every "n" days.  The "n days" option will prompt you for the number of days to skip between repetitions of the ToDo item.  The other options automatically insert repetitions at the right intervals.

Next, click on the arrow key in the Repeat Through box to determine how far into the future you wish to repeat this ToDo item.  A miniature Calendar will appear.  Click on a date to end repetition of the ToDo item on or before that date, depending on the Repeat Frequency.  The single-bracket arrows jump forward or backward one month at a time; the double-bracket arrows jump forward or backward one year at a time.


Done

You can quickly mark a ToDo item as completed without opening the ToDo Detail window.  Just click on any item in the ToDo List to highlight it, then click on the Done button at the bottom of the ToDo List window.  The item's priority will change to "Done," and it will move to the bottom of your list.  Items marked "Done" will not be carried forward to the next day's ToDo List.


Delete ToDo's

Deleting a ToDo item permanently erases its details and any notes associated with the ToDo item. By contrast, items marked Done remain in the Time & Chaos data files, so you can review past activity.  To delete a ToDo item, click once on the item to highlight it, then click on the Delete button.  You will be asked to confirm your choice.

You can also delete a ToDo item from any of the screens available in the ToDo Detail window.  This provision allows you to review the details of a ToDo item before deciding to delete it.

If you are trying to delete a group of repeated todo items, you would do this from the SEARCH screen.


ToDo Category Filter Button

Normally, Time & Chaos displays all of the ToDo items for a given date, including any unfinished items from previous dates. However, you can limit your view of your ToDo List by assigning categories to ToDo items and then filtering your ToDo List to display only specific categories.

Click on the blank button under the Todo List to open a filter list window that displays all of the available categories. Click on the box to the left of a category description to select that category; an X appears in the box next to each selected category.  After selecting all of the categories you want displayed, click on the Close button.

Your ToDo List will now display only items whose assigned categories match all of the categories selected in the filter list.  The white background color turns to cyan to remind you that filtering is in effect and that you are viewing only part of your ToDo List.  Click on the blank box to deactivate filtering and view all of your ToDo items again.  The background will again turn to white.


Search ToDo's

You can search for ToDo items which contain a search string of your choice.  Click on the Search button at the bottom of the ToDo List screen to open the ToDo Search window.  Under the label Field and Keyword to Search for is a narrow box showing which fields will be searched.  The default is All Fields (categories, description, notes, and priority).  If you wish to limit the scope of your search to just one of the four fields, click on the down-arrow to the right of this box, and select the field from the pulldown list.

After setting the field(s) to be search, enter the desired search string in the next narrow box.  A search string may be any string of text characters:  words, fragments of words, or phrases.  If no search string is entered, the search will retrieve all ToDo items.

If you choose Categories as the field to search, a list of the ToDo categories will appear.  Click on the box next to each category that you wish to use as a search string.  An X in a box indicates that a category has been selected.  Only ToDo items whose assigned categories match all of those selected on this Search screen will be retrieved during the search.

The results of the search will be displayed in the list box on the ToDo Search screen.  You can view or change an item's details from the Search screen; just double-click on any item to open its Detail window.

You can also delete ToDo items from the Search screen.  To delete one item at a time, click on the item to highlight it and then click on the Delete button at the bottom of the screen.

To leave the Search screen and return to the Main Screen, click on the Close icon (the stoplight) in the upper right corner of the Search screen.


Using The Phone Book List Section

The Phone Book List is in the lower right corner of the Main Screen.  Phone Books are used to maintain information about your contacts such as their names, companies, addresses, phone numbers, and personal information.  Many people spend the majority of their time working with Phone Book Lists.  From the Phone Book List, you can write letters and print envelopes, autodial phone numbers, and keep notes on your activities with clients and acquaintances.

Contact records can also be the keys to organizing and reporting your Appointments and ToDo items.  Multiple Appointments and/or ToDo items can be linked to any given contact record, allowing you to review and edit Appointments or ToDo items associated with a given contact while you are using the Phone Book List, and to print activity reports sorted by contact name.

Phone Book List Features

As seen from the Main Screen, the Phone Book List provides the following information about contacts:

Scrolling Contact List:  on the left side of the Phone Book List screen is a scrollbox in which all of your contacts are listed in alphabetical order.  The names shown in the list are taken from the Name As Listed field of each contact record.  You can scroll up and down through this list using the mouse and the scrollbar to the right of the list, or use the following cursor keys to navigate the list:

up/down arrows:  move the highlight bar up or down one contact at a time

PgUp/PgDn arrows:  move the highlight bar up or down ten contacts at a time

Ctrl-Home/Ctrl-End:  jump to the first or last contact, respectively

Contact Phone Numbers

The righthand portion of the Phone Book screen displays additional information about the contact highlighted in the contact list.  Up to four phone numbers per contact can appear, along with the name of the contact person or that person's company.  If the highlighted Name As Listed is a person's name, the company name shown in the contact record will be displayed. If the Name As Listed is a company name, the person's name shown in the contact record will be displayed.


Add Listing

Click on this button (or press Alt-L) to begin creating a new Phone Book record.  A blank Telephone Entry Detail window will appear, showing the six Index Tab Cards.  The Overview index tab card is displayed first.  This card and all the others are described below, but first let us look at the Edit option on the menu bar of the Detail window.

Edit Menu

Whenever you are in the Telephone Entry Detail window, you may select the Edit option on the menu bar to perform one of the following functions:

Copy Business Address to Clipboard

Copy Residence Address to Clipboard

Clone This Entry

When Time & Chaos clones a Phone Book entry, it creates a new entry containing all of the information in the original entry except the Name As Listed, which must be unique.  You must provide a new Name As Listed for the newly cloned record.  It must be different from any other Name As Listed in the current Phone Book.

Overview Index Tab Card

The first item to be defined is the Name As Listed.  This name is the key by which Time & Chaos indexes, locates, and sorts Phone Book records.  A record's Name As Listed must be unique; it cannot duplicate another key in the same Phone Book.

Time & Chaos automatically fills in certain fields in a contact record depending on how you enter a Name As Listed.

If no comma is found in the Name As Listed, Time & Chaos inserts the entire Name As Listed text in the Company field.  If you enter a comma in the Name As Listed, Time & Chaos assumes you have entered a person's name in Last-name, First-name order.   The text before the comma will be inserted in the Last Name field and the text after the comma will be inserted in the First Name field.

After creating the Name As Listed, you can complete the business address information on the Overview screen.  (Home address information should be entered on the Contact information screen; click on the Contact index tab to access that screen.)

To the right of the business address fields are six user-definable fields which can be used to store items of information about a specific contact.  The fields' labels can be customized by the user; just click on a label and type a new label over it.  However, changes made to these labels in one Phone Book record will take effect on ALL Phone Book records.  You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to make this global change before it is made.

Furthest to the right on the Telephone Entry screen are four fields for telephone numbers.  They are labeled Business, Home, Car, and Fax.  The Car and Fax field labels are shown in red, indicating that you may change these labels if you wish.  Such changes are NOT global changes; they are made only to the labels on a given Phone Book record.

Note:  it is recommended that you include the area code of every phone number when entering it, regardless of whether the phone number is a local or long-distance call.  Use either of these formats to enter a phone number:  ###-###-#### or (###) ###-####.  But use only ONE of these two formats throughout your Phone Books.

By consistently including the area code of every phone number, you can take advantage of Time & Chaos flexible Autodialer and Preferences Setup features when traveling, when you change long-distance companies, or when your telephone company changes the rules for placing local and long-distance calls.

After completing the Overview index tab card, you may wish to complete the Contact index tab card.  Click on the Contact index tab to switch to the Contact index card screen.  Its fields and how to fill them in are described next.

Contact Index Tab Card

This screen is used to record and view information about a specific person.  Fill in the first and last names, title, salutation (Mr. Ms., etc.), and other information you may have about the person.  The address fields on this screen are used to store an alternate address for this contact person, usually but not necessarily the person's home address.  Time & Chaos refers to this alternate address as the Residence Address throughout its other functions (reports, letters, searches, etc.).

Notes Index Tab Card

This screen provides a mini-window in which you can quickly add, edit, and view notes about a contact.  To print notes or use the other advanced features of the Notes Processor, click on the Notes button at the bottom of the Telephone Entry screen.

Categories Index Tab Card

Each Phone Book record can be assigned up to 18 categories.  These categories can be used in searches to locate records that belong to a given category or group of categories (i. e., "Sales Reps" and "Southeast Region"); in filters to limit your view of the Phone Book List to a specific group of contacts; or in Reports to print a report about a specific group of contacts.

ToDo and Appointments Index Tab Cards

These two screens will display ToDo items and Appointments which have been Linked to a contact record. Links are described in the ToDo and Appointments sections of this user guide.  You cannot create a Link from the ToDo or Appointment Index Tab Cards, but you can view and edit any existing linked ToDo items or Appointments displayed on these screens.  Just click on any item displayed to open its Detail screen.

Telephone Entry Detail Buttons

While a Telephone Entry Detail screen is open, a row of buttons appears along its bottom edge no matter which Index Tab Card is displayed.  These buttons provide access to the following features:

Update - saves any changes you have made to a contact record and returns you to the Main Screen.

Delete - erases the current contact record and any associated notes from the Time & Chaos data files, then returns you to the Main Screen.

Cancel - returns you to the Main Screen without saving any changes made to the current contact record.

Notes - opens the Notes Processor, providing access to many features not available through the Notes Index Tab Card.  The word "Notes" will appear in red if any notes about this contact record already exist.

The next four buttons are rapid navigation tools.  The < and > buttons respectively move backward and forward one record at a time in your Phone Book List.  The |< and >| buttons respectively jump to the first and last contact in your Phone Book List.

Print Profile - prints a complete profile of the current contact record to the default printer.  The profile includes all of the information found on the Index Tab Cards, including all appointments and ToDo items.  All notes associated with the current contact record will also be printed.  However, notes associated with ToDo items and appointments will not be printed.

Letter - provides access to Time & Chaos' letter-processing features.  Time & Chaos maintains a library of form letters and custom-written letters in its main subdirectory.  You can automatically date and address a new letter or a letter already on file with either the business (primary) or residence (alternate) address stored in the current contact record.

Upon opening the Letter window, you will see a screen labeled "Link to Word Processor."  By default, Time & Chaos assumes you want to create a New Letter using the current contact record's Business Address.  The radio buttons next to these options will be darkened to indicate these settings are active.  If these settings are acceptable, click on the Launch WP System button to open a new letter.

Before you click on the Launch WP System button, you can change the settings as follow:

To use the contact record's residence address, click on the Residence Address radio button.

To use an existing letter instead of creating a New Letter, double-click on the name of an existing letter in the directory window in the middle of the screen.

To use a letter stored in a different directory, navigate the directory tree structure displayed in the lefthand window until the proper directory and its contents are displayed.  Then double-click on the name of the desired letter.

When the WP system is launched, Time & Chaos automatically types a standard business letter header which includes the date, the contact person's name, company, and address.  You may then begin typing your letter.

By default, Time & Chaos uses Windows' Write for letter-processing.  You can substitute your favorite word processor instead.  From the Main Screen, select File, Preferences, Editor.  Enter the full path and file name pointing to your word processor, i. e. C:\AMIPRO\AMIPRO.EXE.

Envelope - provides access to Time & Chaos' Envelope printer.  The Envelope printer can print standard #10 business envelopes one at a time.  From the Envelope window, you can control the following aspects of envelope printing:

Print - click on this icon to print an envelope after you have set it up.

Close - click on this icon to exit the Envelope printer and return to the Telephone Entry screen.

Business/Residence Address - click on the Business or Home icon in the upper right corner of the screen to select the current contact record's Business or Residence address for printing. The contact person's name will always appear at the top of the address.

Comment Line - directly above the contact's address on the simulated envelope is a box in which you can enter a comment to be printed on the envelope, i. e., "Urgent!".  Or, if you have a POSTNET type font (This font is not supplied with Time & Chaos).  You can use this field to print the US Postal Bar Codes.

Return Addresses:  the Envelope module can store two return addresses.  Select the Primary Return Address button, then enter the primary return address in the window at the upper left

corner of the simulated envelope.  To save this return address, select Control from the menu bar, then select Save Return Address.  To store a secondary return address, select the Secondary Return Address radio button, then repeat the process used to enter and save the primary return address.  The radio buttons can then be used to select which return address (or none) will be printed on an envelope.

You can also enter a return address to print on a single envelope, then exit the Envelope printer without saving this return address.

Fonts - the contact address, comment line, and return address can be printed in different fonts.  To change the font of any item, first position the cursor anywhere in the item panel.  Then click on the down-arrow to the right of the font name window, to open a list of available fonts.  Select a font, then select a size for the font in the next window.

Using the Envelope Menu Bar

There are two menu bar items in the Envelope printer window, Control and Edit:

Control - from the menu bar, select Control to display a list of the following functions:

Save Return Address:  saves the current contents of the Return Address field, as the primary or secondary return address depending on which radio button is currently selected.

Business Address:  copies the Business Address from the current contact record to the address field on the simulated envelope.

Residence Address:  copies the Residence Address from the current contact record to the address field on the simulated envelope.

Default Printer Orientation:  sets landscape or portrait mode for printing envelopes.

Default Bin for Envelopes:  selects which type of feeding mechanism will be used for envelopes; options include manual feed and tractor feed as well as several laser printer bins.

Print Position Adjustment:  lets you adjust the positioning of text printed on the envelope.  If text is being printed too close to the left edge of the envelope, increase the X-axis offset value.  If text is being printed too close to the top edge of the envelope, increase the Y-axis offset.  Decrease the offset values to position text closer to either edge of the envelope.  These values can be adjusted in inches and tenths of inches.  The X and Y offset values are stored by Time & Chaos for use only with the Enveloper printer; they do not affect other Windows printing applications.

Printer Setup:  lets you select one of the printer drivers available through Windows' Print Manager.

Print Envelope:  prints the current contents of the simulated envelope to the selected printer.  Clicking on the Print icon at the upper right of the Envelope screen will perform the same function.

Edit - from the menu bar, select Edit to display a list of the following functions:

Cut - copies selected text to the Windows Clipboard and deletes the text from its original position.

Copy - copies selected text to the Windows Clipboard and leaves original text intact.

Paste - inserts text from the Clipboard at the current cursor position

Delete - deletes selected text.


Phone Book Category Filter Button

Normally, Time & Chaos displays all of the contacts in your Phone Book.  However, you can limit your view of your Phone Book List by assigning categories to contact records and then filtering your Phone Book List to display only selected categories.

Click on the blank button under the Phone Book List to open a filter list window that displays all of the available categories.  Click on the box to the left of a category description to select that category; an X appears in the box next to each selected category.  After selecting all of the categories you want displayed, click on the Close button.

Your Phone Book List will now display only items whose assigned categories match all of the categories selected in the filter list.  The white background color turns to cyan to remind you that filtering is in effect and that you are viewing only part of your Phone Book List.  Click on the blank box to deactivate filtering and view all of your contact records again.  The background will again turn to white.


Search Phone Book Entries

Search - starting in v4.03 of Time & Chaos, you can quickly search your Phone Book from anywhere on the Main Screen.  Just start typing the first few letters of a Name As Listed that you want to find.  The Phone Book List will scroll to the nearest match it contains to what you type.

You can also search for contact records which contain a search string of your choice.  Click on the Search button at the bottom of the Phone Book List screen to open the Phone Book Search window.

The currently active Phone Book (White or Yellow Pages) will be selected for a search by default.  If you wish to search the inactive Phone Book, click on its icon at the top of the Search screen.

Under the label Field and Keyword to Search for is a narrow box showing which fields will be searched.  The default is All Fields.  If you wish to limit the scope of your search to just one of the many  fields available, click on the down-arrow to the right of this box, and select the field from the pulldown list.

After setting the field(s) to be search, enter the desired search string in the box to the right of the Field box.  A search string may be any string of text characters:  words, fragments of words, or phrases.  If no search string is entered, the search will retrieve all Phone Book entries.

If you choose Categories as the field to search, a list of the Phone Book categories will appear.  Click on the box next to each category that you wish to use as a search string.  An X in a box indicates that a category has been selected.  Only Phone Book entries whose assigned categories match all of those selected on this Search screen will be retrieved during the search.

The results of the search will be displayed in the list box on the Phone Book Search screen.  You can view or change an item's details from the Search screen; just double-click on any item to open its Detail window.

You can also delete Phone Book Entries from the Search screen.  To delete one item at a time, click on the item to highlight it and then click on the Delete button at the bottom of the screen.

To select multiple entries at random for deletion, you can hold down the CTRL key as you click on each entry one at a time.  If the entries to be deleted all appear one after the other in the list, you can hold down the SHIFT key, click on the first entry in the group, then click on the last entry in the group.  All of the entries in between will also be selected.

To leave the Search screen and return to the Main Screen, click on the Close icon (the stoplight) in the upper right corner of the Search screen.


Move Phone Book Entries

Two Phone Books are provided so that you can keep your personal and business contacts separate, or maintain separate sets of frequent and infrequent contacts.  You can easily move a contact record from the current Phone Book to the inactive Phone Book.  Just highlight the desired entry in the current Phone Book List and click on the Move-> button at the bottom of the Phone Book List.


Select Phone Book

Whichever Phone Book you are currently using (White or Yellow Pages), you can quickly switch to the other Phone Book.  Just click on the button at the far right end of the row of buttons at the bottom of the Phone Book List screen.

We have now covered the major elements of the Main Screen:  the Calendar, Appointments, ToDo, and Phone Book Lists.  Let us turn to the menu bar at the very top of the Main Screen.

If you are on a network, Time & Chaos can allow any group of users to share a common set of yellow pages.  Located in each users WINDOWS subdirectory will be a file with the name of TCHAOS.INI - this file may be edited with NOTEPAD.EXE or similar editor.  You could add a line in this file (towards the bottom would be fine):

YPHONE=<PATH>

Where <PATH> is a valid path statement to the shared set of yellow pages.

YPHONE=F:\CHAOS\MYCHAOS


Dialing Phone Book Entries

If you have a modem, you can dial any of the phone numbers displayed for a given contact.   Click on the button to the left of a phone number to open the Autodialer window.  Press the Enter key or click on Dial button to immediately dial the phone number.  Click on the Talk button or press the Enter key again after you lift the receiver of your phone.  The Autodialer window will close, returning you to the Main Screen.  If there is no answer or the line is busy, click the Hangup button to terminate the call before returning to the Main Screen.

Autodialer Features

The checkboxes in the Autodialer window control whether a number is dialed exactly as displayed or modified before dialing; whether Time & Chaos will attempt to redial a busy number; and whether an attempted phone call will be recorded in the Phone Log file.

At the top of the Autodialer window is a box showing the current phone number plus any prefixes or suffix that will be dialed.   Values for the Local Dial and Long-Distance Prefixes, your local Area Code, and Long Distance Suffix are stored in the Modem section of the Preferences Setup area. (Select File, Preferences, Modem from the Main Screen.)

Each time you click on a checkbox, something is added to or deleted from the phone number.  The phone number displayed will change to reflect the status of all the checkboxes, so that you can see exactly what will be dialed.  Following are descriptions of each checkbox and their effects:

Local Dial prefix:  adds a prefix to local phone calls if this box is checked.  Such a prefix might be a code needed to access an outside phone line from your office.

Long-Distance prefix:  adds a different prefix to long-distance calls if this box is checked.  Such a prefix might simply consist of the number "1" or it might be a longer long-distance access number.

Area Code:  if this box is checked, Time & Chaos will compare the area code in the current phone number to the Local Area Code stored in the Preferences Setup area.  If the two are identical, the area code will be stripped out of the current phone number before it is dialed.

Long-Distance Suffix:  adds a string of characters after a long-distance call is dialed, if this box is checked.  The suffix may be an accounting code used by your office phone system to track long-distance calls by department or client.

Redial:  if this box is checked, Time & Chaos will attempt to redial a number if it gets a busy signal.  The interval in seconds between redial attempts can be set by the user.

Log Call:  if this box is checked, each attempted phone call will be recorded in a text file named PHONE.LOG which is stored in the Time & Chaos main subdirectory.  The PHONE.LOG file contains one line per attempted call.  Each line lists the date and time a call was attempted, the phone number dialed, and the Name As Listed shown in the Phone Book record.


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Open/Create Calendar Set

A calendar set consists of all the related information that you can access at one time through Time & Chaos' Main Screen:  Phone Books, Appointments, ToDo items, and their associated notes.  At any given moment, you can work with just one calendar set.

However, you may wish to create and manage multiple calendar sets; perhaps to keep your personal and business data separate, separate customers from internal employees, or even manage several different businesses' contacts using Time & Chaos.  Whatever your needs, there is no limit on the number of calendar sets you can manage with Time & Chaos.

Each calendar set consists of identically named data files.  Since two files of the same name cannot exist in the same DOS directory, Time & Chaos requires and helps you to create a separate subdiretory for each calendar set you maintain.  Time and Chaos also keeps track of which calendar sets are in which directories, and lets you assign an easily remembered description to each calendar set.

Creating a New Calendar Set

Open the File pulldown menu and select Open/Create Calendar Sets.  Time & Chaos will display the Open Time & Chaos Files screen.

Click on the Browse button to display a directory tree and files list window.  The title at the top of this window shows the description of the current calendar set.  The highlighted directory in the directory tree window shows your current position in the directory tree.  You may navigate up or down the directory tree by clicking on directory names above or below the highlighted directory.  Switch to the directory below which you want to create a new directory for your new calendar set.

Click on the Create New Files button on the righthand side of the screen.  Time & Chaos will display the New Files dialog box.  The suggested directory name will consist of the path to the current directory plus the name NEWCHAOS.  You may substitute any valid directory name you wish.  Then select OK.

You will be asked to supply a description for the new calendar set; this text can be anything you wish, up to 30 characters in length.  Time & Chaos will then create the new subdirectory, build a new, empty set of data files in the subdirectory, and switch to the newly created calendar set.  The description and location of this new calendar set will be added to the list of calendar sets on the Time & Chaos Files menu.

Opening an Existing Calendar Set

Open the File pulldown menu and select Open/Create Calendar Sets.  Time & Chaos will display the Open Time & Chaos Files screen, showing the descriptions and locations of available calendar sets.

Double-click on the desired description to open that calendar set; or, you may click once on the desired calendar set and then click on the Open Calendar button.  You do not need to close the current calendar set; Time & Chaos does that automatically.

Adding Existing Calendar Sets to the Files List

You may receive a calendar set from someone else, and wish to add it to your Files List.  To manually install an existing calendar set:

Create a subdirectory to hold the calendar set files.  Use Windows' File Manager or the DOS MKDIR command to create the subdirectory.

Copy the calendar set to the new subdirectory.

Start Time & Chaos.  Open the File pulldown menu and select Open/Create Calendar Sets.  Time & Chaos will display the Open Time & Chaos Files screen.

Click on the Browse button to display a directory tree and files list window.  The highlighted directory in the directory tree window shows your current position in the directory tree.  You may navigate up or down the directory tree by clicking on directory names above or below the highlighted directory.  Switch to the directory that contains the calendar set you wish to add to your Files List.

The description of the calendar set will appear on the title bar of the window.  Click on the button labeled Add Location to List.

Deleting Calendar Sets from Your Files List

Open the File pulldown menu and select Open/Create Calendar Sets.  Time & Chaos will display the Open Time & Chaos Files screen.

Highlight the description you wish to delete from your list and click on the Delete button.

Note:  you have only deleted the description of the calendar set from Time & Chaos' Files List.  The calendar set's subdirectory and data files remain intact on your disk.  If you wish to delete the files and subdirectory, you must do so manually using Windows' File Manager or DOS' DEL and RD commands.


Network Connect (Multiple Instance)

Time & Chaos is "LAN ready" the moment you install it.  The same calendar set can be used concurrently by multiple users across a LAN, without loading the DOS SHARE.EXE command.  Options in the Preferences Setup area allow but do not require password protection for read, write, and read-write access to your calendar set by other users on a LAN.

You can also open more than one calendar set at a time using Network Connect.  To load another calendar set across a LAN or on your local workstation, select File from the menu bar, then select Network Connect.

The Network Connect screens look and act like the Open/Create Files screens.  The difference is that when you open a calendar set through Network Connect, you actually launch another copy of Time & Chaos to manage the additional calendar set.  As the additional copy of Time & Chaos loads, the copy from which you opened the additional calendar set shrinks itself to an icon on your Windows desktop.  The new copy of Time & Chaos also shrinks to an icon after loading the new calendar set.  Each icon is labeled with the description of the calendar set it manages, so you can easily switch from one calendar set to another.


ASCII Import to Telephone Book

Data from other programs can be imported into Time & Chaos Telephone Book data files IF you carefully follow the directions in this section.

1.  The data to be imported must be in a file named IMPORT.TXT and this file must be in the same DOS directory with the calendar set that you are currently accessing.

2.  The data must be in Comma Delimited ASCII format, one record per line.  Every record must contain the same number of comma-delimited fields, even if some fields are empty.

3.  The first record (line) in the IMPORT.TXT file must contain comma-delimited field names for all of the fields in following records.  This is called the Field Header Record.

Here's an example of such a file ...

"Company Name","Business Phone","Contact"

"Acme Plumbing","","John Jones"

"Wilson Hardware","814 321-0976","Ralph Smith"

Notice several things about the example shown above:

1.  Every field begins and ends with a double-quote character.

2.  Every field is separated from the next field by a comma.

3.  Even fields which hold no value, like the empty phone number field in Acme Plumbing's record, are represented by a pair of double-quote characters with nothing between them.

4.  There may be blank spaces embedded in fields (between pairs of double-quote characters)

5.  There cannot be any blank spaces between fields and the commas which separate them.

6.  Each record must be a single line in the file; it cannot "wrap around" to the next line.

If you must manually edit the IMPORT.TXT file, use a word processor or text editor that can save the file as ASCII text without wrapping long lines.  MS Windows NotePad and the DOS Editor work well for this purpose.

After you have created your data file, save it using the name IMPORT.TXT in the directory that holds the calendar set to which the data will be imported.

Load Time & Chaos.  Select File from the menu bar, then select Import ASCII To Telephone Book.

Time & Chaos will display the Import ASCII Comma Delimited File screen.  This screen allows you to match up the data fields from your IMPORT.TXT file to corresponding data fields in Time & Chaos' phone book records.

The field names contained in the first record of the IMPORT.TXT file will appear on the left side of the split screen.  The Time & Chaos phone book field names will appear on the right side of the screen.

First click on an IMPORT.TXT field name to select it.  Then click on a Time & Chaos field name to match it up with the first field name.  Remember to first click on a field name in the left half of the screen and then on a field name in the right half of the screen.  Continue matching up fields from the IMPORT.TXT file with corresponding Time & Chaos fields.

If you have fields in your IMPORT.TXT file that do not correspond to any of the fields in Time & Chaos' phone book records, click on the Disregard Field entry on the right of the screen to tell Time & Chaos that this import field is to be ignored.

When you have finished this matching process, click on the OK button to start the import process. When this process ends you will be returned to Time & Chaos' Main Screen.  The newly imported entries will appear in the Phone Book List like any others.


Preferences Setup

The Preferences Setup option on the File menu provides access to global (system-wide) settings and user-definable information used by Time & Chaos.  These settings are logically grouped on seven Index Tab Cards.  Each card and its settings are described below:

Main Index Tab Card

These options include global look-and-feel settings as well as user-definable defaults.

General Orientation - determines whether dates and labels on such fields as ZIP (postal) codes are displayed in U. S. or international format.

Time Display - determines whether times are displayed in 12-hour (9:00 AM) or 24-hour (09:00) format

Iconic Clock - when Time & Chaos is minmized, its icon can display either the time or the date, along with the description of the current calendar set.

Default on Start-up - determines whether the White or Yellow Pages Phone Book will be loaded when Time & Chaos is started.

Default Day Start - determines the time that your day is assumed to start.  This time will be inserted by default in Appointment records and appear as the first time on TimeBar! and printouts.

Default Alarm Lead Time - the default number of minutes before the scheduled starting time of a n Appointment that Time & Chaos will sound an alarm if you select the alarm option.

Modem Information Index Tab Card

These settings control how Time & Chaos communicates with your modem (if you have one) and allow you to set variables used by the Autodialer.

Modem Com Port - must be set to the COM port used by your modem in order for Time & Chaos to communicate with the modem.  COM ports 1 through 4 are supported.

Local Area Code - enter the area code from which you will be using Time & Chaos.  Be sure to enter this area code in the same format used for area codes in your Telephone Book entries:  ###

or (###).

Local Autodial Prefix - if your office phone system requires you to dial 9 to get an outside line, enter the number 9 here.  You can also enter any codes that you normally dial before entering an actual phone number to place a local call, i.e., a calling card number of billing code.

Dial Access - select touch-tone or pulse (rotary) dialing method

Long Distance Prefix - any digits you would normally dial before entering a long-distance phone number.  Usually, only the digit 1 is required.  But if you must dial 9 to get an outside line, you would enter 9~1.  (The tilde character instructs your modem to pause half a second after dialing the 9; this gives the phone system time to seize an outside line before dialing 1 and the phone number.)

Long Distance Suffix - any digits you would normally enter after a phone number is dialed, such as accounting codes or credit card numbers.

Editor Information Index Tab Card

On this screen you can specify the location and start-up command of your favorite word processor, to be used in conjunction with Time & Chaos' letter-processing feature.  Enter the complete DOS path and executable filename for your word procesor, i. e., C:\AMIPRO\AMIPRO.EXE.  The letter-processing feature is accessed through the Telephone Entry Detail Screen.

Passwords Index Tab Card

The screen lets you define passwords for network security.  You may define one password that gives other network users read-only access to your calendar set, and another password for people you want to have read-write access to your calendar set.  The description you insert in the "Name..." box will be the name that appears in the Network Files List of other users.

Phone, ToDo, and Appointments Categories Index Cards

The last three index tab cards look identical, but their settings apply to three different data files.  The Phone Book, ToDo, and Appointments data files can each be assigned up to 18 categories.  One data file's set of categories can be completely different from another's.

Any record in a data file can be assigned up to 18 categories.  Assigning categories to records lets you use categories as Search keys to retrieve records, or as filters to limit your view of a list to records which have been assigned specific categories.

Alert Sounds

The menu bar at the top of the Preferences Setup screen offers one option:  Alert Sounds.  If you have the proper sound card hardware and Windows sound files installed, you can use this option to select a custom sound to be played when an Alarm is sounded by Time & Chaos.  These WAV files must be located in your Windows Subdirectory.


Backup/Restore Data

These two options on the File menu let you safely and easily make backup copies of your Time & Chaos calendar sets, and restore any backup copy to the current working directory.  When you select either option, you will be prompted for a valid pathname in which to place a backup copy or from which to restore a backup copy to the current working directory.

Please DO YOUR BACKUPS!  This backup feature is important to use if your data has any value to your at all.

Note:  when you restore a backup copy, it overwrites any calendar set currently in use.  This can be very handy for keeping 2 machines in synch with each other, such as a work and home computer.


Save/Reset Screen Location and Size

The Time & Chaos window can be resized and repositioned, just like any other Windows applicaiton window.  The Save and Reset options on the File menu allow you to save the current location and size of the Time & Chaos window, and to reset the window to the saved location and size if you should change them for some reason.


Print Menu

The Print option on the menu bar opens a menu of predefined reports you can print:

Current ToDo List

Telephone Book

Address Book

Daily Calendar

Daily Calendar/ToDo List

Weekly Calendar

Monthly Calendar

If any Category filters are in effect when you print a report, only the records which match the Category filters will be included in the report.  This feature, new in Time & Chaos v4.03, gives you greater control over the content of each standard report.

The default page layout for all reports is set in the Preferences Setup screen on the File menu.  However, you have the option to change the layout for any given report prior to printing it.

Select a report from the Print menu, and a submenu will pop up to the right of the report's name.  Choose Print Layout to open the Print Layout window.

You can select one of four standard "day planner" formats just by clicking on one of the buttons at the right edge of the Print Layout screen.

Alternatively, you can manually set margins, page width and height, portrait or landscape mode, font and font size to create a custom layout.  These custom settings will be saved as defaults when you select the OK button.


Month-View!

The Month-View menu option provides a convenient calendar-like overview of your time appointments for an entire week, month, or day.  You can also add, delete, or edit appointments from this window.  Just click on the Week-View menu option or press Alt-W to open the Week-View window.

The current week is displayed by default.  You can navigate forward or backward one week at a time using the scrollbar on the righthand edge of the window, or by pressing the PgUp and PgDn keys.

You can view an entire month at a glance by clicking on the Month-View icon at the top of the screen.  This display also appears whenever you use the Month or Year directional icons at the top lefthand side of the screen to navigate forward or backward in time one month or one year at a time.  The Today icon returns you to today's date as determined by your PC's clock.

Click on the weekly-calendar icon to the right of the Month-View icon to restore the Week-View display.

To the right of the Week-View icon is the Day-View icon.  Click on this icon to view the details of a given day's appointments.  A smaller window showing a list of the day's appointments will open in the middle of the screen.

You can also open the Day-View window by clicking on any appointment shown in a Week-View or Month-View display.

The Day-View window lets you add, delete, or edit appointments. Just double-click on any existing appointment or on the Add Appointment button to open an Appointment Detail screen.  All of the index tab options described in the Add Appointment section of this manual will be available.

You can adjust the size of the font used to display appointments from 3.00 to 8.25 points.  Click  on the down-arrow in the Fontsize box to display a list of available sizes, then double-click on the desired size.

When you are finished working with the Week-View window, select the Close icon to return to the Main Screen.


Report!

The Report menu option lets you create custom reports of appointment, todo, and phone book data.  Reports are created in tabular format; each row consists of the information fields for

a given record (an appointment, todo item, or contact).  You can define custom page layouts for printed reports.  You can export report data to comma-delimited ASCII text files for use by other programs.  If you have Microsoft Excel(tm), you can create a spreadsheet from report data.

From the Main Screen, click on the Report! menu option or press Alt-R to open the Report window.  The toolbar at the top of the screen lets you select the type of data from which the report will be created; the Appointments data file is selected by default.  Click on the ToDo, White Pages, or Yellow Pages icon to use a different set of data.

Four index tabs provide access to Report functions.  You must first Select or Create a report; click on the Select/Create index tab.

Creating a New Report Format

Enter a name for your report format in the Report Name box, i.e., "Appointments for March, 1994."  Any new report format you create will automatically be saved under this name.  Existing reports can be retrieved and used again.  Click on the down-arrow to the right of the Report Name box to display a list of available report formats, then double-click on a report name to select a format.

Selecting Report Fields

Next, you must select which field(s) will be included in this report.  The Available Fields picklist on the left side of the screen displays the names of fields in the current data file.  The field names will be different depending on which data file you have selected (appointments, todos, or phone book).

Double-click on each field in the Available Fields list that you wish to include in the report.  The name of each selected field will move from the Available Fields list to the Report Fields list.  Alternatively, you can click once on a field name to highlight it, then click on the topmost single-arrow key in the middle of the screen (--->) to include that field in the report.  To quickly select all Available Fields, click on the topmost double-arrow key in the middle of the screen (--->>).

You can remove fields from a report by a similar process.  Double-click on a field name in the Report Fields window to remove it from the report format.  Alternatively, you can click once on a field name to highlight it, then click on the lower single-arrow key in the middle of the screen (<---) to remove that field from the report.  To quickly remove all Report Fields, click on the lower double-arrow key in the middle of the screen (<<---).

Sorting Report Data

You can change the order in which the fields appear in each row of the report, after selecting all of the fields to be included.   Click on a field name in the Report Fields window to highlight it.  Then click on the Up or Down buttons to move that field relative to the others.  Field names are listed from top to bottom in the order in which they will appear in each row of the final report.

Use the Sort by Column box to determine how the rows in a report will be sorted.  Click on the down-arrow to display a list of the Report Fields available.  Click on the field name you wish to use to sort the rows.  When your report is generated, the rows will be sorted in ascending order (lowest to highest value) of the field selected.

Selecting Records to Report

You can specify conditions which must be met by a record in order for it to be included in the report.  Click on the Record Selection index tab to open this window.

The first pair of boxes lets you set a range of dates.  When the report is generated, only records whose dates fall on or after the From Date and on or before the ThruDate will be included.

The Field Content section of the screen lets you set conditions which must be met by the content of a field in each record that is included in the report.

The first step is to select the Compare Field; this is the field in each record that will be examined to see if it meets the conditions for inclusion in the report.  Click on the down-arrow key to display a list of available fields, then select one to be the Compare Field.

The Field Value From/Thru boxes let you set a range of values between which the Compare Field's contents must fall in order for a given record to be included in the report.  For example, if you chose the ToDo Priority as the Compare Field, you could limit your report to ToDo items which are still unfinished and relatively important by setting the Field Value From value to A (critical) and the Field Value Thru value to B (Important).

The Field Equals box can be used to select only records whose Compare Field exactly matches a given value.  If you want to report only finished ToDo items, you could set the Field Equals value to X (done).

The Field Contains box can be used to search the Compare Field for a fragment of text, such as a name or reference to a subject.  If you wish to report only appointments with a specific client, you could set the Field Contains value to the name of that client.

Categories can also be used to select records for reports.  Click on the checkbox next to a category to place an X in its box.  You may select as many categories as you wish.  Only records whose assigned categories include those checked on this screen will be included in the report.

Page Layout

The Page Layout index tab opens a window which lets you set the width and length of the page on which a report is printed; the margins within which data will be printed; the orientation of the page (portrait or landscape); font name and font size.  These settings apply only to reports sent to the printer, not to exported ASCII or Excel data.

Execute Report

The Execute Report index tab selects the appropriate records, sorts them, and displays your report on screen.  You can use the scrollbars at the bottom and righthand edges of the screen to navigate reports which do not fit on one screen.

Removing Data from a Report

While viewing the report on screen, you may decide that you want to exclude some data from the printed or exported report.  To remove a given record and all of its fields from a report, click on the box to the left of the row you wish to remove, then press Alt-R.  To remove a given field from every row, click on the field's name at the top of the screen to select an entire column of data.  Then press Alt-C.

Note:  you are only excluding data from the final report, not deleting data from the data files.

Printing a Report

Click on the printer icon at the top of the screen to print the report.

Exporting A Report to a File

Time & Chaos can export your report data to a comma-delimited ASCII text file.  Click on the "mail label" icon to the right of the printer icon to export data.  You will be prompted for a file name in which Time & Chaos will write the exported data.

Many other programs can import data from files created by Time & Chaos, making it much easier to transfer data from your phone books to a mail-list manager or word processor.

In a comma-delimited ASCII file, each record takes up one row.  Each field in the record is represented by a pair of double-quote marks ("").  Fields within a record are separated from each other by a comma.  A typical line in such a file might look like this:

"Jones, Bill","Vice President","XYZ Corp.","12 Main

Street","Smallville","NY","10000"

Even empty fields must be represented by a pair of double-quote marks.  For example, if Bill Jones' title were unknown, the preceding record would look like this:

"Jones, Bill","","XYZ Corp.","12 Main

Street","Smallville","NY","10000"

The first row (record) in an ASCII file created by Report is called the field header record.  It consists of the names of the fields in each of the following records.  The field header record in our example might read

"NAME","TITLE","COMPANY","STREET","CITY","STATE","ZIP"

Some programs can use a field header record to automatically create names for the fields they are importing.  If your application does not make use of a field header record, you can delete this record from the file.

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets

You can export your report data to a Microsoft Excel(tm) spreadsheet and simultaneously launch Excel.  Just prepare your report in Time & Chaos, including removing any data and sorting the records.  Then click on the Excel icon to launch Excel and create a spreadsheet containing the rows and columns in your report.  The first row of the spreadsheet will contain the names of the fields in each record, providing convenient labels for your spreadsheet's columns.  (Note:  Time & Chaos must be able to find EXCEL.EXE in your DOS path statement in order to automatically launch Excel.)

Copying Selected Data from Reports

The Report window menu bar includes the Edit option, which lets you copy all or part of your report data to the Windows Clipboard.  You may then past the Clipboard's contents into another Windows Application.

To copy all of the report, select Edit and then Copy ALL to Clipboard.

To copy part of a report, first select the desired portion of the report with the mouse.  Click in one cell, hold down the left mouse key, and drag the cursor to highlight a rectangle containing all the cells you want to select  Now select Edit, followed by Copy Selected to Clipboard.

When you are finished working in the Report window, click on the Close icon to return to the Main Screen.


TimeBar!

The TimeBar menu option provides a graphical overview of your appointments, and can also overlay this view with views of other people's appointments.  This feature makes it easier to schedule meetings between several people.

When you select TimeBar from the Main Screen menu, Time & Chaos presents a grid with the days of the month shown across the screen (each column equals one day) and the hours of each day shown down the screen (each row equals one 30-minute time slot).  The times of each day during which you have scheduled appointments are shown in red; all other time slots are white. Time & Chaos uses the Start and End times of appointments in your calendar set to determine which portions of the grid should be shown as "unavailable."

On the righthand side of the TimeBar screen is a list of all the calendar sets to which you have access, including calendar sets stored on other workstations on a LAN.  If you double-click on another calendar set, TimeBar will overlay a new grid showing the availability of the person who owns that calendar set.  A different color will represent times when the other person is unavailable.  If the "unavailable" times in the two schedules overlap, the overlapping cells in the grid will turn black.

The remaining white space in the grid represents times when both persons have no scheduled appointments.  You can then determine when it might be convenient for them to meet.

Multiple calendar sets can be compared in this way to schedule group meetings.  When you double click on a graph, you will see your appointments only.  If you would like to add an appointment you will add it to all of those calendars that are currently superimposed.

To print a copy of your TimeBar screen, choose the Print icon.

If the display becomes garbled or omits some data, click on the Refresh icon to re-paint the display.  Refreshing is sometimes necessary if you add several calendar sets to a TimeBar.

When you have finished working with the TimeBar, click on the Close icon to return to the Main Screen.


Notes Processor

Time & Chaos implements extensive capabilities that allow you to create, maintain and output notes.  Remember that notes can be attached to phone book entries, to appointments, to ToDo's and to any given day (Notes For Today).  While these notes can be processed at each of the points of their creation, Time & Chaos provides an even greater ability to process these notes.

Time & Chaos' notes processor is invoked by clicking on the Notes button during normal Time & Chaos activity.  Clicking on the Notes button instructs Time & Chaos to display the notes processing screen.

The title bar of the notes processing screen reflects the identifier of the associated Time & Chaos data item (i.e., phone book entry, appointment, todo, etc.)  Under the title bar of the notes processor screen you will find a menu bar and a tool bar that will allow you to complete your notes processing desires.  Let's review  the menu bar and then look at the tool bar controls.

File

New - Instructs Time & Chaos to clear the text area of the notes processor so that you can start the creation of  new notes.  This will delete the current contents of the notes processor.

Save As Text File - Instructs Time & Chaos to store the current contents of the notes processor into a DOS text file of your choosing.

Print - Instructs Time & Chaos to print the contents of the notes processor to the default printer.  Time & Chaos prompts you for confirmation.

Printer Setup - Instructs Time & Chaos to invoke its printer setup capability.  Refer to the Preferences Setup Topic for details.

Exit - Instructs Time & Chaos to exit the notes processor.

Edit

Cut - Deletes the selected text from the notes processor and places it on the Windows Clipboard.

Copy - Copies the selected text onto the Windows Clipboard.

Paste - Inserts text from the Windows Clipboard into the notes processor at the present cursor position.

Delete - Deletes the selected text from the notes processor.

Select All - Instructs Time & Chaos to select all of the text currently in the notes processor.

Now let's look at the tool bar controls.

Font - Time & Chaos displays the currently selected font being used by the notes processor.  To select a different font click on the down arrow to the right of the displayed font.  This activates a drop down list of available fonts.  Simply click on the font of your choice.

Font Size - Time & Chaos displays the currently selected font size being used by the notes processor.  To select a different font size click on the down arrow to the right of the displayed font size.  This activates a drop down list of available font sizes.  Simply click on the font size of your choice.

Date Separator - Instructs  Time & Chaos to insert a date and time stamp into the current text.  This time stamp is always placed at the bottom of the current notes processor text.  Alt D will also activate this.  Cntl D will place the date stamp at the cursor location

Print Notes - Instructs Time & Chaos to print the current contents of the notes processor. Time & Chaos prompts you for confirmation.

Close - Instructs Time & Chaos to close the notes processor, save the current text and return to Time & Chaos' main screen.


Custom Controls
Custom Controls & Tools Used to Create Time & Chaos

Selling Time and Chaos as shareware means having to carefully monitor the overall file size of our finished program.  We work very hard to make it as small and efficient as possible.  As such, I pick our custom controls very cautiously.  If you are a VB developer, you may find yourself extremely frustrated with the hugh DLL files required for the ACCESS Database, and the OLE2 support DLL requirements are ridiculous!  If this trend continues the whole world will consist of off-the-shelf software only. These controls below are small, efficient and backed with top notch support!

Our Database Engine:

We wish to extend our appreciation to Sam, Don and Tony, at Software Source who created VB/ISAM.  VB/ISAM is an outstanding product, very small, easy to use and very fast.  The support provided by Software Source has been first class.

The VBIS23MU.DLL file that we distribute with Time & Chaos is licensed for use only with Time & Chaos.  Should you wish to create your own software application using VB/ISAM and its DLL you must license it with them directly from Software Source.

Software Source may be contacted in the U.S. at 510 623-7854

Video Soft

Video Soft produces the INDEXTAB controls and the form resizing that we used in Time & Chaos. Their module is IIITAB.DLL These controls are highly recommended for any VB developer.  Very creative staff with top notch support.  You can contact Video Soft in the U.S. at 510-547-7295

Mabry Software.

Mabry Software has provided us all of the listbox tools.  It is these tools that support the use of bitmaped pictures and allows tab stops to be supported.  Mabry Software produce an entire portfolio of cleaver little VBX's.  They provide source code with their controls at no extra charge.

You can contact Mabry Software in the U.S. at 206-634-1443


Network Tips
Network Installation:

Time & Chaos is ready to go on your LAN.  You do not require a special version.  You also have full flexibility where you would like to place both the program files and the datafiles.  For example, you may wish to have T&C's program files located on a users C: drive, with the data files located on the server; or... you could place both the program files and the data on the server.

Tip #1:

On a shared drive, set up a subdirectory called CHAOS.  Under that subdirectory, setup other subdirectories, one for each user.

F:\CHAOS

MIKE

HARRY

BILL

DAVID

STEVE

...

Tip #2:

Time & Chaos uses the WORKING DIRECTORY parameter property of an ICON to steer the program to it's default set of files.

COMMAND LINE:	C:\CHAOS40\T&C40.EXE

WORKING DIR:	F:\CHAOS\MIKE

Tip #3:

Go to OPEN/CREATE CALENDAR SET and set up the paths to the various calendar sets that your user will be working with.