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Text File | 1994-09-15 | 46KB | 1,213 lines

®®®®®®® ®®®®®® ®®®®®® ®®®®®® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ®®®® ®®®®®® ® ® ® ®®®®®® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ®®®®®®® ® ®®®®®® ®®®®®® ® ® ®®®®®®® ®®®®®®® ®®®®®®® ®®®®®®® ®®®®®®® ®®®®®®® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ®®®®®®® ®®®®®®® ® ®®®® ®®®®®® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ®®®®®®® ® ®®®®®®® ® ® Version 3.0 Shareware Version.. © J. Pritchard 1994. All Rights Are Reserved Worldwide. Introduction: Epoch Master has been designed as a powerful Time Management system. The whole thing is divided into sections. The first and foremost is the main calendar. From here you have access to any date within Epochs' range. This range starts with 01.01.1583 and ends with 31.01.2999. Now, you may be thinking to yourself 'why do I need a calendar that goes back to the sixteenth century?'. Well, you probably don't, but as this date is more or less the start of the calendar system that we use today it seemed only natural to use it as a starting point. From the main calendar screen you also have access to the diary part of Epoch. From here you can enter as much or as little information about a particular date as you like. You have powerful editing, search and repeat facilities at your disposal and can even view the entire calendar in one go with the indexing system. You may also view any given year in one go with the help of the 'Year Planner' and from there view any entries for that year. As well as the calendar/diary, there is also a very powerful address/phone book and an equally useable sub database system. These two sections are fully integrated with each other, so there is no reason why, for example, you couldn't hold address's of people or business's in the address book and related info in the database and be able to cross check between them. In addition to the address book and sub database systems there is also an 'Accounts' section where you can keep details of Bank balances, Savings accounts and Credit card details etc and a list creator where you can store information such as shopping lists, things to do, parties, in fact any kind of list at all. In the registered version The List Creator also allows selective printing allowing you to discount items of the list that are not of interest. ------------------------------------ When Epoch is run for the first time, it will search your Fonts: directory for its own font. This is called 'WombleFont.font'. If it can't find it, it will alert you to the fact and then abort. To install the WombleFont on your system simply boot from your normal system disk or hard drive, insert the Epoch disk and double click on the 'Install Epoch's Font' icon. This will copy the font over to your Fonts: Directory. You will now be presented with the main calendar screen containing the all of the function of the calendar. You are now ready to use Epoch.. ------------------------------------ Disclaimer: Epoch Master V3.0 is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind either expressed or implied. The entire risk as to the use of Epoch Master V3.0 is assumed by the user. In no event will J. Pritchard be liable for any damages, direct, indirect, incidental or consequential, resulting from any defect in the afore mentioned programme and/or disk. ------------------------------------ Shareware notice: Epoch Master V3.0 is a Shareware title. It may be freely copied as long as the following files all remain together.. Epoch Master V3.0 Epoch Master V3.0.doc EpochCliV1.0 EpochCliV1.0.doc WombleFont [Dir] WombleFont.font If you do like Epoch and make use of it please, please consider upgrading to the registered version. The registered version is far, far more powerful than this one and boasts a host of additional routines and facilities not included with this release. Just to tempt you into upgrading, here is a sample of what you will receive with the registered version. .. A printed manual. [£1 extra] .. Full support for your printer. .. Save all of your preferences to disk. .. Fully functioning Alarm/Reminder system. .. The ability to hold up to 9999 Calendar entries, Address's and Sub Database entries rather than the measly 30 that this version can hold. .. Also hold up to 999 'Account' transactions and List items. .. Full Encryption system to stop unwanted eyes poking around your valuable files with a text editor. .. Password system. Stops unwanted access to your files via Epoch itself. .. The total absence of 'The Annoying Requester'. Phew!! .. Downward compatibility with Epoch Master V1.1, 2.0, 2.2 and of course this version. .. Full GFA source code. .. Font style selector. Allows you to change Epoch's font from plain to BOLD. Useful if you don't have a monitor or have poor eye sight. .. Mail Merge from the Address book and Sub Database. .. Inclusion of your own ideas and suggestions into future versions of Epoch. [If possible] .. Regular updates and news of any new products. .. Full support for Epoch. .. And more... If the above has tempted you into registering this version of Epoch then please send £10 [or equivalent] to me at the address below.. J. Pritchard [Mr.] 5 Parklands Close Gosport Hampshire PO12 4XJ ENGLAND Please make cheques payable to J. Pritchard. ---------------------------------------- A big THANKS to.. Mike Paterson.. For his continued support of Epoch from its very first incarnation as Epoch 3C [Remember that one?] Thanks Mike. Chris Brady.. Author of EpochCliV1.0 [On this disk] for all of the work he put in with DICE to produce a top notch reminder utility for Epoch Master. Read EpochCliV1.0.doc and send him a PostCard. Peter Wessen.. Author of RuneMaster, available from NBS. For spotting some rather silly mistakes and diplomatically pointing them out to me. All the people who registered their copies of Epoch Master V1.1. Thank you.... Anyone I've forgotten.. The Late Commodore.. For producing the best home computer on the face of the earth. ------------------------------------- Right, now on with the show.... ® = Registered version only.. The Calendar/Diary: Overview: The calendar screen is divided into four main sections. The first of these is the calendar itself. This consists of a grid of squares with days of the week along the top and the corresponding dates below. To the right of this is the date selection window. From here you can select any date within Epochs range. Below these two sections is the main diary. Here you can enter the information about this date. The extreme left of the screen, running from top to bottom, contains the main controls for Epoch. Here you can edit the diary, access the two main index systems, the main notepad, the preset date lists and go into the address book and sub database. Along the top of the screen, just under the title bar, are eight buttons. These are the diary's main search and delete options and also give you access to the planner, accounts section, list creator and Epoch system information. The menus can be obtained by clicking once with the right mouse button. This will bring up a small menu window in which you can select further sub menus. Also, any short cuts are displayed here. Using the diary: When Epoch first loads it will attempt to load a diary file in your S: directory call 'EpochCal'. It will then search the next seven days from today to see if there are any entries which need your attention. If there are you will be shown the main elements of the first entry and given the choice of a) Jumping straight to that date. b) Continuing the search for more entries. or c) Aborting the whole thing. The default file (S:EpochCal) and the number of days to search (7) can be changed by using the preferences section.® To select a date simply use the date selection window on the right. The first two columns of buttons are for selecting the day, (It is, however, far simpler to actually click in the calendar window on the day you want to select), the next column of buttons are for selecting a month and the last two columns are for selecting a year. Use these buttons as you would use a slider gadget. By clicking on one of them, and keeping the mouse button depressed, you can move up and down each column until you are happy with the result. The current setting of each of these buttons can be read at the bottom of the calendar display. Further information of how to select dates and roam through the days, months, years etc can be obtained by clicking on the 'Help' button from the main calendar screen. Although Epoch has a range of some 1400 years, the date selection window only has a range of 44 years. This is because, try as I might, I couldn't fit one thousand four hundred year buttons in. To overcome this I have built in two different ways of selecting dates. 1) Above the year buttons is a gadget marked 'Year [1980+]', this is telling you that the first year button will reset the calendar to the year 1980, the second to 1981 and so on.. By clicking on this gadget you can enter any year you wish as a starting point. You could for example enter the year 1900. The date selection window would then have a range of 44 years starting with 01.01.1900 and ending with 31.12.1943. 2) Along the top of the calendar you will see four buttons. The first says 'System Date'. When you click on this the whole calendar will be reset to today. The second contains the actual system date, such as '04.02.1994'. If you click on this button you will be asked to enter a date in the correct format. Doing so will reset the calendar to that date. It could be anything for 01.01.1583 to 31.12.2999. If you enter a date that, although of the correct format, isn't a valid date, such as '31.02.1843', the calendar will reset itself to the nearest date possible, in this case '28.02.1843'. Once you have selected a date you are ready to enter information into the dairy. This is very easy, just start to type. You have up to six lines of variable length in the main diary window. You also have 5 further fields where you can specify a start and a finish time, an occasion, a category and a location. If this still isn't enough you can enter more information in the form of entry notes. This is a bit like a 'very' simple text editor and can hold a further 300 lines of text. All of these elements are known as an 'Entry'. You can have as many entries as you want for any given date. The default number of entries that Epoch can hold at any one time is 30. ®You can change this at any time by using the preferences section. The controls: Edit Options: Set Time 1 and Set Time 2 -- Will bring up a little requester in which you can set a time for this entry. Clicking on the 'sys' button will set the requester to the current system time. Once you are happy with the setting click on 'OK' to accept, or click on 'Q' to quit. ®You can also set the alarm(s) from this requester, simply click on the 'Alarm Off' button so that it reads 'Alarm On'. Epoch can hold up to 10 alarms at any given time. Occasion -- This will display a file requester style window in which you can select an occasion for this entry. Epoch holds a few occasions by default, but you can of course enter your own. This will then be added to Epochs list so there is no need to keep on typing the same occasion in. Category -- Enables you to enter a category for this entry. Categories are a way of setting a level of importance to an entry and use used by Epoch in its search routines and calendar display. A category should be from 0 to 99. 0 being very dull and unimportant and 99 being a matter of life or death. You can also specify a label to go along with a category, such as, Cat: 14 Not worth the effort, or Cat: 95 Very Important. The category labels are saved along with the prefs file. Location -- Exactly the same as Occasion. Entry Notes -- This will display the entry notes for this entry for viewing or editing. Click on 'OK' once you are happy with them, or 'Q' to cancel. The Diary buttons: (Along the bottom of the screen above the diary) << -- This will take you back to the first entry for this date. < -- Will take you back one entry. Entry Count -- Calculates the number of entries there are for this date and also the current entries position within them. Delete Fields -- Will bring up a small window in which you can delete the time, occasion, category, location and entry notes fields. Delete All -- Deletes all entries for this date. You will first be asked to confirm. Delete -- Deletes the current entry. Again you will be asked to confirm. > -- This will take you to the next entry for this date. If there are no more entries then a new one will be created for you. Use this facility to create multiple entries for one date. NB. The best way to create additional entries is to press >>> which takes you to the last entry and then to press >> to move on to the next vacant slot. >> -- Takes you to the last entry for this date. Entries are not always stored in the order in which you enter them. This is because Epoch stores all of its entries as a list and so, if you delete some entries that are high up in the list Epoch will then mark these as available for new entries. It is therefore quite possible to have 8 entries for one date, create a ninth and then find that it becomes the first. This isn't a bug or a problem, it's simply the way Epoch works. When you save a diary file Epoch will sort the entries in order depending on the Time 1 field, so the earliest time becomes entry 1 and the latest time becomes the last entry. Main Options: Main Index -- This will bring up a large window in which you can view your diary as a whole. You can even edit your entries from here and jump straight to any entry that is being displayed. First you must select an entry, this is achieved by clicking on its line to show the red checkmark (tick) on the right. You can then edit the various fields by selecting the corresponding buttons at the top. The other buttons are: Menu Options -- Goto Line will send you to a specified line number. Search will search all diary entries for the string you enter and then place that entry at the top. Help will display the shortcuts for moving around the index system. Diary -- Shows you the main diary entry for the selected entry. Enter -- Exits the index and reset the calendar and diary to that entry. -------------------------------- Search Index -- The same as Main Index but allows you to show only the entries in which you are interested. You will first be presented with a window in which you should type in information along side the fields you wish to match with. i.e. If you typed Meeting next to the Occasion field, 80 next to the Category field and London next to the Location field, Epoch would then display all meetings in London with a category of 70 to 90 in the main index. The reason that it shows categories 10 either side of the specified level is because of the category range setting. More on this in a minute. Address Book -- Sends you into Epochs address book. Sub Database -- Likewise for the database. Main Notepad -- Allows you to edit/view the main notepad for this file. Epoch can have a different notepad for each file you create. This could, for example, contain general information about the type of diary information held in this file. Sift Other -- From here you can access the address book and sub database without leaving the main calendar. This can be achieved in two ways. The first is by using the Sift buttons, this will allow you to view that section of the address/database that matches with a search string. The second way is to use the view buttons, this will allow you to view the entire contents of either the address book or database and also gives you the ®ability to print selected pages. You also have a choice in how you wish to print. If you select 'All' then that page will be dumped straight to the printer. If, however, you select 'Step', you will be asked to confirm each line before it is printed. This is useful for printing labels etc, where you don't want the tel no and comments printed. Category -- When Epoch searches for a category it works on a range. The default is 10 either side. So a category of 80 will match up with a category of 70 to 90. Selecting this button lets you alter the range to a maximum of 20 either side. Mark Preset -- This gives you the ability to be able to 'mark' the current date with a label. You can then 'Call' this date at any time by selecting 'Call Preset'. This is a very convenient way of jumping to different periods of time in a single operation. Reiterate -- Allows you to repeat the current entry at time intervals of your choosing. First select the number of days, weeks, lunar months (28 days), cal months (depends on the following months) and/or years for the time interval and then select the cycles (how many times this entry is to be repeated). When you are happy with your setting select 'Reiterate' and this entry will be repeated. i.e. If you select 2 for weeks and 26 for cycles, then the current entry will be repeated every fortnight for a year. ------------------------------------ Global Search -- Brings up a string requester for you to type in a string that you think will match up with anything in the diary. Any matches found will be shown to you and you will be given the option of jumping to that date, continuing the search or aborting. Indexed Search -- Will bring up a window for you to type in information next to the various fields that you wish to match with. It will then work in the same way as global search. Planner -- Takes you into the Year Planner. From here you will be able to view the current year in one go. It will also show all entries that exist in that year and let you view them. Click on the 'Help' button from the planner for more information. Accounts -- This is similar in concept to a 'bank statement' where you can keep basic records of your financial details. You have six fields where you can enter the date, a code, details, credit and debit information. The balance field will be automatically amended once these details have been entered. To enter a transaction press F1 to bring up the date requester. You must enter a date in the correct format, such as '23.04.1994' or Epoch will throw it out. The following function buttons are as follows.. F2 .. Enter a transaction code.. F3 .. Enter some details.. Such as 'Mortgage Paid' F4 .. Enter any debit details.. e.g. '23.45' F5 .. Enter any credit details.. F6 .. Recalculate. As you are entering your details you will notice that they appear in the boxes at the bottom of the window. If at any time you make a mistake you can correct it by either clicking on the box or by pressing the same Function button again. Once you are happy with your entry you should then press F6 to register this information. At any time, you can alter information held in the account by simply clicking on the text. This will then bring up a requester prompting you for your changes. Clicking on a line whilst holding down the Left-Shift button will give you the chance to delete that line from your account. Clicking whilst holding down the Right-Shift button will bring up the Edit menu. From here you can cut, copy or paste. To bring up the accounts menu simply click the Right Mouse Button once. From the Project Menu. New .. Erase all information for this account. Load .. Load an accounts file. Save .. Save the current accounts file. Save As .. Save the current accounts file under a new name. From the Search Menu. Find .. Search the account file for a specific string. Replace .. As above but replace it with another. Goto .. Goto a specified date. Global Delete .. Delete all transactions that match with a search string. ®Print .. Simply sends this account file to the printer. ------------------------------ List Creator -- Allows you to create custom lists. See the beginning of this doc file for more info. Indexed Delete -- Works in the same way as Indexed Search except that this time it will delete all entries that match. Also you will be given the chance to abort. Handle with Care!! Global Delete -- Same as global search but delete all matches that it finds. Handle with Care!! The Menu System: The Project Menu: New -- Clears the entire diary. If there have been any changes since the last time it was saved, you will first be asked to confirm. Load -- Loads an Epoch calendar file from disk. Save -- Saves the current calendar/diary to disk using the name shown in the title bar. If that name says 'Untitled' you will have to use 'Save As' instead. Save As -- You will be presented with a file selector to save the current calendar/diary to disk. Merge -- Merges an Epoch calendar from disk without overwriting the current one. Change Name -- Allows you to change the name of the current calendar file. Delete File -- Brings up a file selector for you to delete 'any' file form disk. ®Password Save -- Not only can you encrypt your data you can also add a password to it. An encrypted file with password protection would be a near impossibility for anyone with an IQ of less that 148 and even then it would take many hours to crack.. To use the password system simply select 'Password Save' from the project menu of any of the sections rather than the normal 'Save' or 'Save As'. You will then be asked to enter your password. This can be any string of characters you like. As a security measure the word you type will not be displayed in the string requester. Once you have entered your password you will then be asked to confirm. If all goes OK you will then be given the option of encrypting the data also. After all this the file requester will appear as normal for you to save your file. If you forget a password to a normal file it's a simple matter of loading the file into a decent text editor such as EdWord and taking a look. If the file happens to be encrypted however, you're in trouble. The only thing I can suggest is that you send the file back to me [with some proof of who you are] and I will decrypt it for you. ®Save Prefs -- Saves all of the changes made in Epoch, such as the 12/24 hour setting for the clock, start year from the date selection window, and all the changes made in the default section (see below) to disk as S:EpochDefaults. About -- Prints my name on the screen... If you select 'More' you can also see various aspects of Epoch. Like filenames, Number of entries in each section and a memory report. The Calendar Menu: Past Scan -- Searches the last seven days for entries. Future Scan -- Searches the next seven days for entries. Distance -- Calculates the number of weeks and days between the current system date and the current calendar date. Useful for telling how long ago something happened or how long you have to wait until a future event will take place. Show Range -- On or Off -- If On, it will enable the calendar display to show you the general importance of the events for any given day by changing the colour of the entry no. Black is 0 to 24 Blue is 25 to 49 Yellow is 50 to 74 Red is 75 to 99 The Edit Menu: Cut -- Cuts the current entry and saves it to an internal buffer. Copy -- Copy the current entry and saves it to an internal buffer. Paste -- Pastes the contents of the buffer to the currently selected calendar date. The Preset Menu: Mark -- Allows you to mark the currently selected date with a label. Call -- Resets the calendar to a date previously marked with 'Mark'. Save Out -- Lets you save the entire preset list to disk. Import -- Allows you to either load in a preset list that has previously been saved with 'Save Out' or grab a preset list from another Epoch calendar file. Kill Preset -- Gives you the chance to delete individual presets from the list. Delete List -- Deletes the whole preset list after you have confirmed. The Print Menu: Options -- Allows you to select various aspects of printing, such as left and top margin, page size, NLQ, italics, bold, elite & underlined. ®This Entry -- Prints the current entry. ®This Date -- Prints all entries for this date. ®Global Match -- As global search but prints out each match instead. ®Index Match -- As indexed search but prints out each match. ®Whole Diary -- Dumps the entire file to the printer. The Defaults Menu: Brings up a window from which you can select to change various aspects of Epoch. (See the configuration section at the end of this doc file for more info.) ------------------------------------ The Address/Phone Book (& Sub DataBase): To enter this section, select 'Address Book' from 'Main Option' by clicking on it with the mouse. You should now be looking at the address book window. This consists of the title bar which will be displaying the current file, the page number and the total number of pages used. Underneath this is the main window. The column of grey buttons down the left hand side are the field selectors, next to these is a column of blue buttons containing the field names (Name, Street etc.) and next to these are the actual fields where you enter your details. On the extreme right is a window entitled 'General Information'. This is for you to enter, well, general information about this person or company. Below the main window is a bar containing a row of buttons which mainly consists of search facilities. To access the menu system simply press the right mouse button. This will bring up the first menu window. To select an item from the menu, click on it with the mouse. To exit the menu without making a selection, either click on the top left button marked 'Q', press the right mouse button again. Explanation of the address book: New: Right Amiga-N or New from the project menu. This will completely clear your existing address book. If you have any changes that need saving you will first be asked to confirm. Load: Right Amiga-L, Load from the project menu or select the Load button from the bar. This will bring up a file requester for you to load in an Epoch address file. If you have made any changes to the address book you will first be asked to confirm. Save: Right Amiga-S, Save from the project menu or select the Save button from the bar. This will saved your address book to disk under an existing name. If the address book has no name (Untitled) you must use Save As. Save As: Right Amiga-A, Save As from the project menu or select the Save As button from the bar. Brings up a file requester for you to save this address book. Merge: Right Amiga-M or Merge from the project menu. Merges an Epoch address book file to the end of this address book. Back a Page: F1, Back a Page from the search menu or select << from the bar. Just goes back one page. On a Page: F2, On a Page from the search menu or select >> from the bar. Next page. First Page: F3, First Page from the search menu or select <<< from the bar. Sends you to page one. Last Page: F4, Last Page from the search menu or select >>> from the bar. Sends you to the last page in the book. In this Shareware version that is 32. The registered, however version will go as far as you like. Last Used: F5, Last Used from the search menu or select >> | from the bar. This will take you to the last used page in your address book. All pages after this will be empty. Goto Page: F6, Goto Page from the search menu or select >* from the bar. Brings up a requester for you to type in a page number. Global Search: F7, Global Search from the search menu or select >? from the bar. Allows you to type in a string to match with anything in the address book. If a match is found a window will open up giving you the details of the address. From here you can jump to that page, continue the search or cancel the whole thing. Field Search: F8, Field Search from the search menu or select >F from the bar. Allows you to search for address data that matches with the selected fields of the current page. E.G. Supposing that you selected Jones from field 'Name', Privett from field 'District' and Gosport from field 'Town'. Selecting Field Search would then look for all the other Jones from Privett, Gosport that you have in your address book and show you them in turn. To select a field simply click on the small grey button to the left of the field name. It will then press in and turn blue. To deselect it, click it again. Sift Other: F9, Sift Other from the search menu or select Sift Other from the bar. This function attempts to match up the first selected field from the address book with anything it can find in the Sub DataBase. One way that it might be used is if, say, your address book has the names and address's of various people and you database contains their personal details. With Sift Other you could immediately cross reference between the two. Alpha Search: F10, Alpha Search from the search menu or select AS from the bar. Alpha Search bring up a row of small buttons at the bottom of the display containing the letters A to Z. When one of these buttons is clicked or a letter pressed a search is made for a field beginning with that letter. Think of it as a thumb index system where you can jump straight to each section. The field that Alpha Search looks at will depend on the field that has been selected using 'Index AutoSort' from the 'Various' menu. (More on this later.) There is also a ? button. Clicking on this will bring up a requester where you can enter any character to be searched for such as 6 or ß. Organise: Ctrl-O, Organise from the Edit MK I menu or select Organise from the bar. This will strip all empty pages from your book. It will also sort the book alphabetically. Insert Page: Ctrl-I or Insert Page from the Edit MK I menu. Inserts a page at the current page position. All pages above will be moved up. Delete Page: Ctrl-D or Delete Page from the Edit MK I menu. Deletes a page at the current page position. All pages above will be moved back one. Cut Page: Ctrl-X or Cut Page from the Edit MK I menu. Cuts the current page from your book and saves it to Ram: Copy Page: Ctrl-C or Copy Page from the Edit MK I menu. Copies the current page to Ram: Paste Page: Ctrl-P or Paste Page from the Edit MK I menu. Inserts a page previously Cut or Copied to Ram: at the current page position. All pages above will be moved up. Field Delete: Ctrl-F or Field Delete from the Edit MK I menu. Works in the same way as Field Search, only this time it will delete all the matches it finds. Also, you will not be shown each page as it progresses. Handle with care! Global Delete: Ctrl-G or Global Delete from the Edit MK I menu. As with Global search, but deletes all entries that match. Replace: Ctrl-R or Replace from the Edit MK II menu. You will first be prompted for a search string and then for a replace string. It will then replace all occurrences of the search string with the replace string. Merge Other: Ctrl-M, Merge Other from the Edit MK II menu or select Merge Other from the bar. Merge Other will allow you to view all the pages of the Sub DataBase and insert any that you choose into the Address Book. Insert Line: Ctrl-0 from the keypad (sorry A600 users) or Insert Line from the Edit MK II menu. This function will insert a line at the current cursor position. All lines below will be shuffled down one. Delete Line: Ctrl-. from the keypad or Delete Line from the Edit MK II menu. Opposite to above. Clear Names: Ctrl-N or Clear Names from the Edit MK II menu. This will clear all of the field names. Get Size: Left Amiga-G or Get Size from the Various menu. After a lot of editing in your address book you may need to select this to re evaluate the total number of pages used. Clear Fields: Left Amiga-C or Clear Fields from the Various menu. De selects all selected fields in one go. Index AutoSort: Left Amiga-I or Index AutoSort from the Various menu. Sets the field that will be used for the Organise routine and the Alpha Search. E.G. If you used Index AutoSort to select Field 'Town' then the Organise routine would use this field to alphabetically sort your book and the AlphaSearch routine would look at this field when you selected a letter. Mail Merge: Merge from the main menu. After selecting this option you will be presented with a list of various word processors such as 'Wordperfect®'. Selecting any one of these will give you the option to save your address book/sub database in a format that can be recognised by these programmes for use in mail merge. As I have not got any of these titles, I have no way of testing them, so it might be a bit hit and miss. Index: Select the 'Index' button in the top right corner. The index system for the address book/database is similar to the calendars index system. From here you can elect to view the entire contents of your file in report style, i.e. Name Street Town County Tel ---- ------ ---- ------ --- Jones 12 Nowhere Rd Hants 120 215 Smith 1 Somewhere Cl Surrey 541 114 When you first select the index button you are given the choice as to whether you want a master or a field index or wish to Re Set. A master index will just display all pages from the file, a field index works in the same way as field search, only those pages that match with selected fields of the current page will be shown. Because of the number of fields that the address/database can hold [15], it is impossible to display them all in report style. The maximum that can be displayed is 5. Using the 'Re Set' option from the index button you can choose which 5 fields will be displayed. NB. This information is saved with the prefs file, so once you have selected the fields you wish to show there is no need to re set them again. Once you have the index displayed you can select a line by clicking on it and highlighting it in blue. You can then edit the fields by clicking on the buttons above. You can also view the line as a page by selecting 'View' thus being able to examine all of the fields. The menu options button gives you the chance to be able to goto a specific line in the index system, make a global search or ®print the entire report to your printer. If you click on enter, the index system will vanish and the address book/database will be reset to the selected entry. To move around the index you can use the following keys: Up Arrow -- To move up a line. Down Arrow -- To move down a line. Home -- Move to the top of the index. End -- Move to the end of the index. Pg Up -- Move up a page. Pg Dn -- Move down a page. ®Print Page: Page from the print menu or select Ctrl-L. Prints this page. ®Print All Pages: All Pages from the print menu or select Ctrl-A. Prints the entire file. ®Print Selected Fields: Selected Fields from the print menu or select Ctrl-S. Will only print those fields of the current page that have been selected. Useful for printing labels etc. ®Global Print: Global Print from the print menu or select Ctrl-#. As global search but prints all matches. ®Field Print: Field Print from the print menu or select Ctrl-V. As field search but prints all matches. ®Report Pint: Report Print from the print menu or select Ctrl-%. Prints the entire file in report style. First select the fields that you want included by selecting them with the field buttons on the left. The Sub DataBase: Click on Sub DataBase from the calendar screen. The Sub DataBase is basically the same as the Address Book with a few minor differences. Firstly, it looks different, secondly, there is no general information window and thirdly, each page (or record if you prefer) can hold an executable DOS command. As an example, suppose that you had a database of different areas of the world. Your database could hold such information as Continent, Rainfall, Population, average temperature etc. You could then view this country 'say Africa' by setting the Exec command for this page to something like: C:PPShow Dh0:Maps/Africa Now, when you select 'Exec' you will be presented with a map of Africa. (It goes without saying of course, that you need the command PPShow in your C: directory and an IFF image of Africa in your DH0:Maps directory to use this example..) Execute: Ctrl-E, Execute from the Edit MK II menu or select Exec from the bar. This simply brings up a string requester with this pages DOS command. Press return to execute it. You can, of course, change this to anything you like. Record: Ctrl-\ or Record from the Edit MK II menu. Lets you enter a DOS command for this page. NOTE: All information such as the Index Autosort field and DOS commands will be saved along with the file, so there is no need to re set them every time you load. All other functions for the database are the same as the address book The Configuration Section: From here you can configure Epoch to your own requirements. You can even change the abbreviations for the date. i.e. You could change the 'st' of 1st to anything you like. This could be useful if you are using a language other than English. Change The Days Of The Week. This allows you to change the days Sunday to Saturday that appear at the bottom of the calendar. Change The Months Of The Year. Change the Months 'January to December' to something more appropriate. Change The Category Labels. As mentioned before, for every category value you can have an associated label attached. This facility allows you to create labels for any of the category values, 0 - 99. Change The Abbreviations. Lets you edit the abbreviations used in Epoch. These are 'st', 'nd', 'rd', 'th', 'the' & 'of'. Edit The Default Occasion List. Although you can have as many different occasions as you have entries. Epoch hold a default list. By using this function you can add to or delete from this list. Edit The Default Location List. Same as above, but for the locations. ®Edit The Default Filenames. When Epoch first runs, it attempts to load up its default files for the diary, address book, database, Accounts section & List creator. These are: S:EpochCal, S:EpochAddressBook, S:EpochDataBase, S:EpochAccounts & S:EpochList. You can change these by selecting the relevant section of this facility. ®® Maximum Number Of Entries. ®® Sets the maximum number of entries for the diary and pages for the address book and sub database. You can set any value from 30 to 9999. Remember, the more entries that Epoch has to cope with, the more memory it uses and the slower it is. So, if you're never likely to need more that 300 it's a bit of a waste setting it to 1300. Also set the number of entries for the accounts section and the list creator. The maximum that you have here is 999. Initial Scan Range. This sets the number of days Epoch will look through when using the past and future scan from the calendar menu and the Initial Scan when Epoch first loads. Set any value from 3 to 365 days. Various True or False Conditions. Initial Scan -- Whether or not to search the next 7 days (or whatever value you have set with Initial Scan Range) from today for any entries. Make Backups -- With this on, Epoch will first backup any files with a .bak extension prior to saving. AutoSort -- Whether or not to sort the address book/sub database alphabetically prior to saving. The sort is the same as the Organise function detailed in the address book section. Flash At EOL -- This is for people who type at a rapid rate and are likely to continue typing even when they reach the end of the line. With this on, the whole screen will flash. Scan Whole Page -- This function is for the address book/database. If you wish Epoch to check all fields of a page to see whether or not it is empty then switch this option on. If, on the other hand, you only want it to check the first field then switch it off. The reason that this facility has been included is purely for speed. General Info -- Whether or not you want the contents of the general information window included in your print operations from the address book. Entry Notes -- Switith this on if you want the entry notes section of a calendar entry printed along with the rest of the entry. ®Encrypt Data -- You can now encrypt all Calendar, Address & Sub Database files produces with Epoch. The only way that you can read an encrypted Epoch file is by loading it into Epoch. To use the encryption system select 'Various True/False conditions' from the defaults menu and select 'Encrypt Data' so that the tick appears to its left. Select 'Save Config' to make the change permanent. Date Format -- This will determine the way in which the accounts section displays the date. If True [ticked] it will look like this 'May 23, 94' else it will look like this '23.05.1994'. ------------------------- Change Font Style -- This is the last feature of the defaults menu. You can select from normal or BOLD style for Epoch to use. Once you have changed the font style you will then need to save config from the project menu and re-run Epoch to get the full benefit. The End: Well, that's it. I hope that you enjoy using Epoch and get some use out of it. Don't worry if it seems a little complicated at first, it really is quite simple to use once you've got the hang of it. Practice makes perfect. ... Share And Enjoy ...