Superior Micro-Techniques was formed as a dBASE consulting services firm in 1985 by Steve Taylor. It is still operated solely by Steve. While performing work for the world's largest shareware distributor, PC-SIG, Inc., he began creating products to place with them. Within a few months of its release, his first product, Time Tracker, began to sell and soon became the most popular program in its category. SMT continues to service the needs of all kinds of businesses and at the same time produces more and more software. A basic philosophy behind his success is the concern for his customers. Providing personal service and keeping the products current with the latest technology and users suggestions are of prime importance. Feel free to write and submit your ideas, suggestion and critiques on any of the products. began to sell and soon became the most popular program in its category. SMT continues to service the needs of all kinds of businesses and at the same time Time Tracker was first developed in the fall of 1987. It was developed by SMT with the main purpose of fulfilling a need for quick and easy billing of clients. The idea was to provide a simple entry screen which would make it easy to add hours worked along with an acceptable length descriptive field. Then be flexible enough to allow the creation of invoices at any given time, quickly. Then make it easy to see what the outstanding receivables exist and to get information about income for any period. All of the above requirements have been fulfilled and many additions have been made (mainly at customer's requests) to extend the power of this product. This program is designed for the home office or single person operation. It is tried and true with a large supporting user base. d. Then be flexible enough to allow the creation of invoices at any given time, quickly. Then make it easy to see what the outstanding receivables exist and to get information about income for anThe Survey System software was initially developed for use by a business consultant. Its prime purpose was to be able to create attitude surveys which could be distributed to a target company staff. Once completed and the results input, it would give a view of the attitude of the staff which would result in suggestions about company policy and staffing. After development for the client, this soon became a candidate for the shareware market. It quickly became a best selling program through PC-SIG. It's application base is almost limitless. It is being used by Washington State Forestry Service and many marketing groups. ing consultants. ould be distributed to the target company staff. Once completed and the results input, it would give a view of the attitude of the staff which would result in suggestions about company policy and staffing. After development for the client, this soon became a candidate for the shareware market. It quickly became a best selling program throThe need for an electronic mail system which was full-featured and available at shareware costs became evident as the number of installed networks grew. EasyMail puts the potential of the paperless office into the hands of every LAN user without the high cost that commercial E-mail charge per node. This program does just about everything that the commercial ones do except it puts the power into every user's hands immediately, without the need for long training periods or hand-holding by the network administrator. One thing that SMT products do is make life with computers easy. This program excels at user-friendly by implementing to the fullest, one-touch menuing and complete help windowing. At just about every point, simply press 'F1' to find out how something works or what underlying effect it may have. Complete security gives users a good feeling about the work that they are performing. Creating mail documents, sending them to target system users, reading mail, etc. is simple and intuitive. Extra features include uploading mail from text files, printing mail to printer or electronic file, user controlled passwords, complete administrative functions menu and more. u and more. about every point, simply press 'F1' to find out how somethin works or what long term effect it may have. Complete security give the users a good feeling about what they are putting into their documents. Creating mail documents, sending them to target system users, readingPersonal Secretary is the kind of software tool that anyone can take advantage of. It combines an electronic address book (limited in size only by your disk space) with simple document processing to create the complete personalized memo/letter writing system. Creating personalized letters using standard processors is a hassle. Since both the database and the document are a part of this system, combining them together is a simple step, not hours of struggle. This program does more than just make personalized letters a reality, it allows you to keep track of the information you need. You can define up to 5 fields which will automatically appear on the data input screen. Do you want to keep track of your contacts favorite drink? No problem. Simply define a new field and there you have it. It allows for easy searching by letting you organize the contacts by last name, zip code or company name. Even prints labels. Simple to use? Well, over 500 people ordered the first edition of this program which came with no documentation at all, other than a one page 'quick tour' of the features, and there were no complaints about being at a loss. In fact, those who did call or write said that this was the easiest program they had ever used. blem. Simply define a new field and there you have it. It allows for easy searching by letting you organize the contacts by last name, zip code or company name. Simple to use? Well, over 500 people ordered the first edition of thThis software is copyrighted by Superior Micro-Techniques. You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using the software. Use of the software indicates your acceptance of the software and all terms and conditions. Under the copyright laws there are penalties for making unauthorized copies. You may make copies of this software under the general rules governing shareware. That is, any copy must be unaltered and must be complete. No distribution rights are granted and you may not collect funds for the sale of this program, except as to be reimbursed for any material and shipping costs to you. Superior Micro-Techniques makes no express or implied warranty for the software which is provied solely on an "as is" basis. Superior Micro-Techniques disclaims all conditions and warranties, whether express or implied with regard to the software, including all implied conditions or warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Superior Micro-Techniques shall not have any liability special, indirect or consequential damages, arising out of or resulting from such software or the use or modification thereof. This software and any documentation are the sole porperty of Superior Micro-Techniques. All rights reserved. isclaims all conditions and warranties, whether express or implied with regard to the software, including all implied conditions or warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Superior You may order review copies of any of the SMT programs by sending check, cash or money order in the amount of $2.00 (U.S.) per disk and $3.00 for shipping and handling to: SUPERIOR MICRO-TECHNIQUES 5510-B1 Orchard St., W. Suite 473 Tacoma, WA 98467 To become a fully-supported, registered user of any of the programs please send the amount as indicated below. Registration entitles you to complete support and any printed documentation plus upgrades at minimal charges. Program Registration Amount (in U.S. $) ------------------ -------------------------------------- Time Tracker $45.00 Time Tracker Plus $75.00 (multi-user, multi-timekeeper) Survey System $35.00 Personal Secretary $25.00 EasyMail $65.00 (1-5 users) EasyMail Plus $95.00 (unlimited number of users) s/From here you can decide where you want the hilighted document or labels to be output: to your local printer or to an ASCII text file. ASCII text output can be handy when you simply want to retain a copy of the formatted, ready-to-print document on disk. ASCII text is simply the text of your mail as it would appear on paper, only it's kept in an electronic file. This file can be on your local floppy disk drive or a special sub-directory on your hard disk or, by default, right in the Personal Secretary sub-directory. Simply use the arrow keys or first letter to make you choice. Upon doing so, you will be prompted with further instructions. when you simply want to retain a copy of the formatted, ready-to-print document on disk. ASCII text is simply the text of your mail as it would appear on paper, only it's kept in an electronic file. This file can be on your local floppy disk drive or a special sub-directory on your hard disk or, by default, right in the EasyMail sub-direYou are now being asked exactly where you want the text to be placed. You must at least give a valid DOS filename (with or without extension). If you leave this prompt blank, the program assumes that you changed your mind and you are returned to the contact processing screen from which you came. You may precede the file name with a valid drive designator or path, or both. For example, if you wanted to put the document on your floppy disk in the A: drive in a file called SAMPLE.TXT, you would type "A:SAMPLE.TXT" in this window (without the quotes, of course). If you wanted it in an existing sub-directory on the A: drive called STUFF, you would type "A:\STUFF\SAMPLE.TXT". What can you do with a document that resides in an ASCII text file? For one thing, you can call it into your favorite word processor and add some nice formatting features and then print it out. Or, you could put a copy on a floppy disk and walk it over to an office mate's laser printer, place it into their drive and type the DOS command to print the file to the printer (TYPE A:SAMPLE.TXT > LPT1 for example). There are many possibilities! You can experiment with this by trying it out and viewing the results. sides in an ASCII text file? For one thing, you can call it into your favorite word processor and add some nice formatting features and then print it out. Or, you could put a copy on a floppy disk and walk it over to an office mate's laser printer, place it into their drive and type the You have encountered the final point from which you may cancel the printing of the document. If you enter "N", the print job is aborted and you are returned to the people processing window. It appears that you have pressed the 'F5' key in order to add a new person (friend, sales contact, etc.) to the database. Now simply fill in the form. The title would be for "Mr.", "Ms." or "Dr." Be very uniform during the entry of information on this screen as it will be reflected when you use the mail-merge. If, for instance, you intend to write a letter with the salutation, "Dear (Mr/Ms) Smith," you will not want to include "Jr.", "Sr.", "III", etc. at the end of the last name field. If you intend to use the formal title, make sure to use them consistently. For those tracking sales contacts, the position field is for a company title. Otherwise, use it as you please, but be consistent. If you have created any user defined fields, they will appear on this screen and you will add or edit the information just like any other field. To move around on the screen you may press the up or down arrow keys or the ENTER key. Pressing PgUp or PgDn keys will terminate the add or edit immediately. e the formal title, make sure all entries have one. For those tracking sales contacts, the position field is for a company title. Otherwise, use it as you please, but be consistent. If you have created any user defined fields, they will appear on this form and you will add or edit the information just like any other field. To move around on the screen you may press the up or down arrow keys or the ENTER key. Pressing PgUp or PgDn keys will terminate the add or edit imAnswering "YES" to this prompt will result in the program prompting you for the target drive and directory to copy the files to. This option is a nice way to make backups of the data in your system. It is also useful to create multiple copies of the data for access by the program (provided you set the path properly). Answering "Y" to this prompt will permanently eliminate the currently hilighted record on the multi-view screen or the displayed person on the single-view screen. If you merely want to change something about this person it would be better to use the 'F6' edit option. Any documents you have created appear on this screen. This screen works much the same as the multi-view people screen. Press the arrow keys to move the hilight from one document to the next. The current document is the one hilighted. This is the one which will be edited, deleted or printed. Each document can be up to 10K (10,000 characters) in size or about 3 to 4 pages. As you can see, several options are available on this screen. You can press 'F3' to print the current document. Each document can be printed for a number of variations of your contact list. Pressing 'F5' lets you add a new document, 'F6' lets you edit the text of the current document, 'F7' will delete the current document (after confirmation) and 'F8' will copy the contents of the currently hilighted document into a new document. Press the ESC key to quit the document processing section and return to the last contact screen. able on this screen. You can press 'F3' to print the current document. EaAfter giving your new document a name, a blank editing window will appear for the text of your document. If you don't complete the document name, it is assumed that you didn't want to add a new one and you are returned to the document selection window. Similar to adding a new person, you can access any of the fields on the form by pressing ENTER or any of the arrow keys. If you don't want information in a field, press Ctrl-Y or use the spacebar to blank it out. Use the 'Ins' key to insert characters at the current cursor position. Press PgUp or PgDn to quickly exit the edit mode. Here you can define up to 5 fields for your own special purposes. Directly to the right of each of the user-defined field names, is the assigned field type. This field type is 'fixed' and cannot be changed. If you want to add a field to keep track of a special date for your people, you would want to define one of the two date fields. The first two fields are of character type and will hold 40 characters of information. The final field is for numeric amounts only. After deciding what type of field you want to create, move the hilight to it by pressing the up and down arrow keys. Once at the desired field, press ENTER to activate the data entry mode. Then type in the new field prompt that you want to have appear on screen. te a previously defined field from the input screen, simply hilight it, press Ctrl-Y or press the space bar and press ENTER. As long as there are no characters in the prompt name, it will not appear on your screens. CAUTION: Once you have defined a field and actually entered data into it on the input screen, avoid redefining it as the original data will continue to exist! Once you are finished defining a field, press the 'ESC' key and go to the single-view data entry screen to see the resulting field prompt. ield from the input screen, simply hilight it, press Ctrl-Y or press the space bar and press ENTER. As long as there are no characters in the prompt name, it will not appear on your screens. CAUTION: Once you have defined a fYou are now viewing the 'Functions Menu.' This menu gives you access to perform complex operations on your lists, as well as lets you move into the document processing area. Press the arrow keys to move from one option to another and press 'ENTER' to select the desired option (or simply press the first letter of the option). Quick note about each option: Personal Note: Allows you to make some free-form notes about the currently selected person (hilighted one in multi-view or displayed one in single-view). The editor is the same as the document processing editor and you can add 10K of notes. Make Labels: Lets you make labels for your list of contacts in one of several different variations and sizes. Search File: If you need to find someone fast, give this option a try. If finds a person quickly be either last name, company name or zip code. Also used to change the current sort order. Letters/Memos: Accesses the document processing section of the program giving you the editor and mail-merge functions. Create Fields: With this option you can define up to 5 fields of your own choosing. Utilities: Leads to another menu which gives you the ability of reindexing the data files, copying the data to the A: drive and modifing system defaults. option a try. Look for some by last name, company or zip code. Letters/Memos: Accesses the document processing section of the program giving you the editor and mail-merge functions. Create Fields: With this optHere you are on the label printing sub-menu. You can print a label for the currently selected person, for everyone in the database, for all of those who you have flagged as selected or for all who are not flagged. Use the arrow keys to move to the desired selection and press ENTER or press the first character of the choice. You may create single column (3.5 inch) labels which have from 6 to 99 lines each. This allows you to create odd size labels. Caution: the actual contents of the labels appears on the first 5 lines, so position the labels to print in the right spot. After pressing 'F4' the availabel merge fields are presented. Use the arrow keys to move the hilight to the field you want placed into the document. Then press ENTER. The true field name surrounded by brackets is put onto the document where the cursor is located. Note: Pressing the 'Ins' (insert) key will cause all other text to the right of the cursor to be moved over to make room for the merge field. Otherwise, some text to the right may be overwritten. You will need to place the proper punctuation around your merge fields for proper formatting. Where no actual value exists in the field for a contact, the gap is closed. If there is no value and the merge field is the only one on a line, the line is deleted versus left blank. Notice at the end of the list are the user-defined fields. You may even merge these into your document. Any fields which have not been defined by you are already hilighted and cannot be accessed for merge. You will need to place the proThis is the multi-view window displaying up to 19 contacts at a time. Only the contact first name, last name, company name and date last contacted appear on this window. Notice the 'Current sort order' at the top left of the screen. This indicates in what order the database is currently being viewed. You may have your contacts ordered by last name, company name or zip code. To change the sort order, select the 'Search' option on the Functions Menu. (See that area for further details.) The hilighted or inverse-video record on screen is the current or selected person. Any operations occuring on the current person are referring to this record. You may move the hilight from one person to another by pressing the up or down arrow keys. If you are on the first person and press the up arrow key, a beep will occur. Same occurs if you are on the last person and you press the down arrow. You may move through a large list quickly by pressing the PgUp and PgDn keys. You can flag single or groups of people by pressing the 'F4' key. This enables you to print labels and documents for more than just the current person easily. If a person is flagged, a triangular symbol will appear to the left of their name. To unflag a person, simply press 'F4' again. It acts as a toggle If the '*' appears to the left of a name, it means that there are free-form notes for this person. These are accessed through the Functions Menu (Contact Notes). Options at the bottom of the screen allow you to perform many tasks on your list of people with one keystroke. The keypress indicated is for the function keys (not for the combination of the 'F' key and the number). A short description of each option follows: F1 - HELP: where available gets you a help window like this one. F2 - ZOOM: moves you to the full screen information window with the current person on it. F3 - FUNCTIONS: A pop-up menu appears with further options. F4 - FLAG: lets you toggle the selected flag on/off for the current person. F5 - ADD: allows you to add a new contact to your list. F6 - EDIT: enable you to edit all information for the current person on the full information screen (single-view). F7 - DELETE: To quickly eliminate someone from your list. F10 - QUIT: Quits the Personal Secretary program. Secretary program. he Personal Secretary program. ormation window with the current person on it. F3 - FUNCTIONS: A pop-up menu appears with further options. F4 - FLAG: lets you toggleWithin the document editing window you have access to a simple word processor. All of the basic word processing functions are present and a summary of the cursor movement and editing keys follows: Key Result --------------------- ------------------------------------- Up-Arrow or Ctrl-E Move up a line Down-Arrow or Ctrl-X Move down a line Left-Arrow or Ctrl-S One character left Right-Arrow or Ctrl-D One character right Ctrl-Left or Ctrl-A One word left Ctrl-Right or Ctrl-F One word right Home Left end of current line End Right end of line Ctrl-Home Top of current window Ctrl-End Bottowm of window PgUp Up one 'windowful' of text PgDn Down one 'windowful' Ctrl-PgUp Top of current document Ctrl-PgDn Bottom of document Ctrl-Y Delete a line Ctrl-T Delete a word Ctrl-B Reform a paragraph INS Toggle Insert on/off F2 Save and exit editing ESC Exit without saving F4 (Document only) Bring up the mail-merge Up one 'windowful' of text PgDn Down one 'windowful' Ctrl-PgUp Top of current document Ctrl-PgDn Bottom of document Ctrl-Y Delete a line Ctrl-T In some cases you may find it necessary to place the data files for Personal Secretary onto another disk or into a different sub-directory. In this case, you will need to set a path to let the program know where to find these files. All file extensions which contains '.DBF', '.DBT' and '.NTX' can be placed into the alternate area. First set the path then move these files. SYS SEARCH EXE SELECT COM SETUP COM You have some control over the print font by use of this field. If you want to have all documents print in double-strike mode at 12CPI (Characters per inch) simply enter the printer specific control code into this field. Then each time labels or documents are printed, this code is first sent to the printer to prepare it. These codes should be entered as follows: The decimal value of the code surrounded by 'CHR()' and each distinct value combined with the '+' symbol. You may also use the character representation of the code if one exists by surrounding it with quotes (ex: "M"). The sequence to put my printer into 12CPI mode looks like this: CHR(27) + "M" It could also be entered like: CHR(27) + CHR(77). (See your printer manual for specifications.) The printer reset code simply puts the printer back into its default startup mode. as follows: The decimal value of the code surrounded by 'CHR()' and each distinct value combined with the '+' symbol. You may also use tAnswering 'Y' to this prompt lets you reindex all of your databases. This is not normally necessary unless you have experienced a power failure or shut-down during program usage. If you are seeing very strange results from your program you may want to reindex it. It also eliminates any deleted records from the databases, so use it occassionally just to keep your system operating efficiently. When looking for someone specific in your database of people, you may find it more convienent to find them one way over another. This menu offers you three ways to look for someone. Hilight the desired method by pressing the up and down arrow keys and then press ENTER. e becomes the current record. If no match is found for the given value, a tone will sound and a message displayed indicating so. The new sort order will be displayed on the top left of the screen. This is the single-view screen. It displays all the data fields for the current person in your database. To move from one record to the next or previous press the PgDn and PgUp keys. The records will be displayed in the current sort order as on the multi-view screen. You will find that the information of this screen is basic and self-explanatory. Any user-defined fields you have created will appear on the lower third of the screen. The available function keys at the bottom of the screen are identical to those on the multi-view window except that the 'F2 - ZOOM' key will move you back to the multi-view window with the currently displayed record at the top of the window. If '*NOTES*' appears at the left middle of the screen, this means that the current record has some free-form notes which can be accessed through the Functions Menu (F3) and the first option. have created will appear on the lower third of the screen. The available function keys at the bottom of the screeThis is the Utilities Menu. The purpose of these options is to keep your system running efficiently and to maintain system-wide options. Reindex Files: This option should not be normally needed on a daily basis. When things seem out of order or you want to make the system more efficient after many deletions use it. Copy Data Files: When you want to make a copy of the databases for backup, to transport to another computer or to have available in another directory, use this option. Search Path: Gives you a way to have several sets of data files with different contacts in various location on your hard disk or on separate floppy disks. Printer Setup: Lets you access your printer's hidden features for purposes of getting compressed print or double-strike, etc. Unflag All: Gives you the convenience of having all people records unflagged quickly and instantly. for backup or to transport to another computer use this option. Search Path: Is a quick way to locate someonePressing 'Y' here allows you to delete the currently selected (hilighted) document from your databases forever. ncing. Printer Setup: Lets you access your printer's hidden features for purposes of getting compressed print or dou @e-stH you want to make the system more efficient after many deletions use it. Copy Data to A: When u want to make a copy of the databases for backup or to transport to another computer use this option. oPho\ *?*?' BKrcH Here, enter the first few characters of the person you are searching for. If you leave this field blank, the requested sort order is selected and you are placed at the top of the list. For instance, if you are looking for someone with the last name 'Smith', you may enter 'Sm' into the field (upper or lower case). The program then searches for the first record with 'sm' as the first two letters of the last name. If no match is found, a tone sounds and the current record remains the same, but the sort order is changed. The more letters you know of that really exist, the closer you will come to getting the specific person you are searching for. d at the top of the list. For instance, if you are looking for someone with the last name 'Smith', you may enter 'Sm' into the field (upper or lower case). The program then searches for the first record with 'sm' as the first two letters of the last name. If no match is found, a tone sounds and the current record and sort order remaiYou have 35 characters to describe the information to be entered into the field. This in fact is the prompt which will appear on screen, so make it as explanatory as possible. For example, if you want to keep track of birthsigns, you might type "Zodiac Signs:" in this field. That is the prompt which will appear on the data input screens. CAUTION: Do not change the underlying value of a field once you have entered data into it. Changing the field prompt does not eliminate the existing data. If you have zodiac signs in one field and then you change the prompt to "Family Members:" it will not make much sense. Simply press ENTER to end the input of the new field and then ESC to return to the normal entry screens. The usual editing keys, such as insert, delete, etc. work within these fields. You may edit an existing field at any time. Completely removing the field prompt causes the program to hide data on the single view screen even when valid data exists. Through this input screen you can maintain some of the basic aspects of each document. Give your documents a meaningful title so that in the future you will know what each contains. The title can be up to 50 characters long and in mixed case letters. Next, indicate what the left margin is. This causes all output of the document to be automatically indented. This is indent is measured in characters. So, if you want a 1 inch left margin and you expect to print the document at 12 characters per inch (12 CPI), then you should enter '12' into this field. The next field, allows you to specify how long each line of the document should be. If you want the body of the document to be 6 inches across, and your output is set for 12 CPI, you would indicate 72 for the line length. This is also reflected during the entry and editing of the document on screen. A maximum of 255 characters may be indicated as the line length. In this case, as you enter the text, the entire window is scrolled left for the text beyond 70 characters. Try it! The final prompt, 'Fixed size fields', refers to any merged database fields that you include on the document. In order to allow for simple column formatted reports it is necessary to indicate that all merge fields on the document should be fixed in length. That is, include all blanks in the field beyond valid field text. Of course, when you want the merged field information included on a personalized letter, this is not needed. indow is sYou may easily add ASCII text to any document, or create a complete, new document with ASCII text from some outside source. ASCII text is simply text which has no embedded special characters (attributes), such as underline, italics, bold, etc. that most word processors are capable of generating. Most word processors have an ASCII text mode or can export ASCII files. These files can easily added to your Personal Secretary documents. Note: you may only add text to the end of an existing document or into a new document. You are now being prompted for the name of the ASCII text file that you want loaded into the present document. The name can include a drive designator and/or full path (Ex: A:TEXT.TXT or D:\STUFF\TEST.TXT). Upon entering a valid file name, that file will be placed into your document either starting from the beginning of a new document or a line after an existing document. into your document beginning at the location of your cursor. the name of the ASCII texAfter pressing 'F4' the available merge fields are presented. Use the arrow keys to move the hilight to the field you want placed into the document. Then press ENTER. The true field name surrounded by brackets is put onto the document where the cursor is located. Note: Pressing the 'Ins' (insert) key will cause all other text to the right of the cursor to be moved over to make room for the merge field. Otherwise, some text to the right may be overwritten. Pay special attention to the first merge fields on this list. The "End of Page" field lets you determine when the program generates a page eject. Be sure to place this field on a line by itself. The second, 'Blank Line' lets you add blank lines into a report type of document. For example, if you want a list of all companies and their phone numbers, you may want to separate each entry with a blank line to make it more readable. The following shows how to accomplish this: PHONE BLANK LINE You will need to place the proper punctuation around your merge fields for proper formatting. Where no actual value exists in the field for a contact, the gap is closed. If there is no value and the merge field is the only one on a line, the line is deleted versus left blank. Notice at the end of the list are the user-defined fields. You may even merge these into your document. Any fields which have not been defined by you are already hilighted and cannot be accessed for merge. You will neAny documents you have created appear on this screen. This screen works much the same as the multi-view people screen. It shows you the original document creation date and the last date of edit as well as the full document title. Use the arrow keys to move the hilight from one document to the next. The current document is the one hilighted. This is the one which will be edited, deleted, printed, etc. Each document can be up to 32K (32,000 characters) in size or about 10 pages. As a feature of version 2.0, you may now create very simple reports of the information in your database of people. Generally, a report is the same as any other document, except it will have only merge fields on it. Place one set of fields where you want them to appear on the report. Put a 'Blank Line' or two at the end to space out the entries. As you can see, several options are available on this screen. You can press 'F3' to print the current document. Each document can be printed for a number of variations of your contact list. Pressing 'F5' lets you add a new document, 'F6' lets you edit the text of the current document, 'F7' will delete the current document (after confirmation) and 'F8' will copy the contents of the currently hilighted document to a new document. And, 'F4' allows you to import ASCII text from a file outside of PS into a new or existing document. Press the ESC key to quit the document processing section and return to the people screen from which you came. Superior Micro-Techniques was formed as a dBASE consulting services firm in 1985 by Steve Taylor. This continues to be a major focus of the company, but software development is quickly becoming as important. Software development for the shareware market was encouraged by PC-SIG, Inc., a client of SMT. The first product was released in the fall of 1987. That program, Time Tracker, soon became the most popular program, within it's category, in the PC-SIG library. A basic premise of the SMT product line is simplicity. Each product is designed to be useable with a minimum of time devoted to learning. A combination of easy user interface, plenty of on-line help windows and a simple underlying database design have proven to render products accessible to the most basic user and of interest to more advanced clients. Keeping the programs easy to use and eliminating mainstream marketing methods (by using the shareware concept) has made it possible for SMT to provide programs of this caliber for a mere fraction of the cost of competing commercial programs. No fancy extra bells and whistles, just solidly performing, useful applications. Your interest in SMT is appreciated. Please write with your suggestions, ideas or criticisms and you will receive a response. of interest to more advanced clients. Keeping the programs easy to use and eliminating mainstream marketing methods (by using the shareware concept) has made it possible for SMT to provide programs of this caTime Tracker was first developed in the fall of 1987. It is a time billing and receivables tracking program specifically designed for small service oriented business. It's main client base consists of consultants, accountants and lawyers. Its main purpose was to provide a way to easily record hours worked for a client and then to create simple invoices on plain paper or letter head. The current version of the program surpasses anything we ever had in mind. Recording hours is simple and yet extensive descriptive area puts any client at ease. Printing bills is a snap and if you don't like the way we have them formatted, just place them into the optional ASCII text file and use your word-processor to customize them. It handles expense billing as well. As payments are received, apply the amounts directly against the bills to maintain an accurate aging report. Extensive reports keep you apprised of your cash receipts, outstanding work performed, and more. A simple time management report lets you know how much you are working and averages you hourly income. You can even print labels for your client list. This program has been upgraded several times since its introduction with more changes pending all the time. This program has been extensively shaped by the existing customer base with plenty of interesting ideas. A Time Tracker plus version, which includes multi-user and multi time keeper capabilities, is planned and will be released in the summer of 1990. ment You are now requested to enter the drive and/or sub-directory where you want the data files copied. If you are making a copy of the files onto a floppy disk in the A: drive, simply type "A:" and press ENTER. To make a copy of the data files into a sub-directory on the D: drive called PEOPLE, type "D:\PEOPLE\". The final "\" is a necessary part of the path name. Once the files are copied into other sub-directories or onto floppy disks, they can be accessed by setting a path to them. This also assumes that the Personal Secretary has none of the data files in its current directory. (Erase all the files which are copied from where PS resides.) Then quit and restart the program to access the files in the alternate path. ta files into a sub-directory on the D: drive called PEOPLE, type "D:\PEOPLE\". The final "\" is a necessary part of the path name. Once the files are copied into other sub-directories or onto floppy disks, they can be accessed by setting a path to them. ThisYou are now requested to enter a title for this document. The title should be descriptive of its contents. Leaving the title blank will abort the new document add and return you to the document processing window. Once the title is input, you are prompted for the left margin. This value is a measure from the left edge of the page in columns or characters (not inches). If you want a left margin of 1 inch and you will be printing at 12 characters per inch (CPI) then you should enter the number 12 here. Next, enter the length of the longest line (also in characters). For a standard document with an inch margin left and right you would want to enter 60 here. Although, if you are creating special labels or reports it can be anywhere from 30 to 255 characters. Finally, you are asked if you want the merge fields to be of a fixed length. If you want nice columns on a report you will indicate "Y" here. For documents where you want the field data to be nicely merged into a sentence, for example, enter "N". This applied to all merge fields on the document. Once there fields are completed satisfactorily, the document text editing window appears. Although, if you are creating special labels or reports it can be anywhere from 30 to 255 characters. Finally, you are asked if you want the merge fields to be of a fixed length. If you want nice columns on a report you will indicate "Y" here. For documents where you want the field data to be nicely merged into a sentence, forAfter pressing 'F4' the available merge fields are presented. Use the arrow keys to move the hilight to the field you want placed into the document. Then press ENTER. The true field name surrounded by brackets is put onto the document where the cursor is located. Note: Pressing the 'Ins' (insert) key will cause all other text to the right of the cursor to be moved over to make room for the merge field. Otherwise, some text to the right may be overwritten. Pay special attention to the first merge fields on this list. The "End of Page" field lets you determine when the program generates a page eject. Be sure to place this field on a line by itself. The second, 'Blank Line' lets you add blank lines into a report type of document. For example, if you want a list of all companies and their phone numbers, you may want to separate each entry with a blank line to make it more readable. The following is an example for accomplishing this: PHONE BLANK LINE You will need to place the proper punctuation around your merge fields for proper formatting. Where no actual value exists in the field for a contact, any gap is closed. If there is no value and the merge field is the only one on a line, the line is eliminated versus left blank. Notice at the end of the list are the user-defined fields. You may even merge these into your document. Any fields which have not been defined by you are already hilighted and cannot be used for merge. The user-defined fields are in the same order as on the definition screen (from top to bottom). matting. Where no actual value exists in the field for a contact, any gap is closed. If there is no value and the merge field is the only one on a line, the line is eliminated versus left blank. Notice at the end of the list are the user-defined fields. You may even merge these into your document. Any fields which have not been defined by you are already hilighted and cannot be used for merge. The user-definedIn some cases you may find it necessary to place the data files for Personal Secretary onto another disk or into a different sub-directory. In this case, you will need to set a path to let the program know where to find these files. If you wish to have multiple people files on separate disks or in different sub-directories, you will want to copy a blank set of the following files into that area: *.DBF, *.DBT, *.NTX This method of program use also requires that files with these extensions not reside in the same directory as the PS.EXE program file itself. Only PS.EXE and PS.MEM should be in this directory. The program always looks where it resides before looking at your alternate path. where to find these files. If you wish to have multiple people files on separate disks or in different sub-directories, you will want to copy a blank set of the following files into that area: *.DBF, *.DBT, *.NTX This method of program use also requires that files with these extensionThere are 5 choices of labels presented here. A short description about each follows: 1Up Variable: With this you will get a single column of labels (standard 3.5 inches wide). You have control over how many lines there are on your labels. This allows you to use odd shaped extra long labels. 1Up 6 Lines: This option uses a standard dBASE label format file to create 3.5 inch wide by 15/16ths high (usually 6 lines) labels in a single column. 2Up 6 Lines: Same label dimensions as previous, but in a two column format. 3Up 6 Lines: Same as above except 3 columns. 4Up 6 Lines: Same as above except 4 columns. single column of labels (standard 3.5 inches wide). You have control over how many lines there are on your labels. This allows you to use odd shaped extra long labels. 1Up 6 Lines: This option uses a standard dBASE label format file to create 3.5 inch wide by 15/16ths high (usually 6 lines) labels in a single column. 2Up 6 Lines: Same label dimensions as previous,Any documents you have created appear on this screen. This screen works much the same as the multi-view people screen. It shows you the original document creation date and the last date of edit as well as the full document title. Use the arrow keys to move the hilight from one document to the next. The current document is the one hilighted. This is the one which will be edited, deleted, printed, etc. Each document can be up to 32K (32,000 characters) in size or about 10 pages. As a feature of version 2.0, you may now create very simple reports of the information in your database of people. Generally, a report is the same as any other document, except it will have only merge fields on it. Place one set of fields where you want them to appear on the report. Put a 'Blank Line' or two at the end to space out the entries. As you can see, several options are available on this screen. You can press 'F3' to print the current document. Each document can be printed for a number of variations of your contact list. You may import ASCII text into a new or existing document. Press 'F4' to import a file. The imported text is appended to the end of an existing document. Beware: all hard carriage returns are stripped from the imported file. The can lead to strange format problems. Use the editor to make any corrections to the document. Pressing 'F5' lets you add a new document, 'F6' lets you edit the text of the current document, 'F7' will delete the current document (after confirmation) and 'F8' will copy the contents of the currently hilighted document to a new document. And, 'F4' allows you to import ASCII text from a file outside of PS into a new or existing document. Press the ESC key to quit the document processing section and return to the people screen from which you came. make any corrections to the document. Pressing 'F5' lets you add a new document, 'F6' lets you edit the text of the current document, 'F7' will delete the current document If you are using a single sheet feeder on your printer you may find this to be a handy option. during document printing, after each page eject, the system halts and prompts you to place a new sheet of paper into the printer and press any key. KEYBPO COM KEYBSF COM KEYBSG COM KEYBSP COM KEYBSU COM KEYBSV COM KEYBUK COM LABEL COM Please complete the following information and mail to: SMT, 5510 Orchard Street West, Suite B1473, Tacoma, WA 98467: Your Complete Name, mailing address & phone: ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Products you are ordering: ____________________________ price$:_________ ____________________________ price$:_________ Review copies (list below)($2.00 ea.)$:_________ Shipping (needed for review copies only)$:_____3.00 WA residents add 7% Tax$:_________ (PC-SIG) Total$:_________ Special instructions (3.5 / 5.25 diskettes, etc.): (To print, press Shift-PrtSc keys.) (PS V2.0) is form.) ou are ordering: ____________________________ price$:_________ ____________________________ price$:_________ Review copies (list below)($2.00 ea.)$:_________ Ship