Info-Mac 1992 August/info-mac-1992.iso/Desk Accessories (da)/Rolodesk/RoloDA Manual TEXT

Text File | 1991-03-07 | 20KB | 434 lines

Introduction

Rolodesk DA    By Tim Endres    Date 3/7/91

Features

Rolodesk DA        Page 1

Getting Started

Rolodesk DA        Page 1

Rolodesk Files

Rolodesk DA        Page 1

Card Operations

Rolodesk DA        Page 1

Searching

Rolodesk DA        Page 1

Resizing Window

Rolodesk DA        Page 1

Miscellaneous

Rolodesk DA        Page 1

Additional Topics

Rolodesk DA        Page 1

Other Software

Rolodesk DA        Page 1


Rolodesk DA
By Tim Endres
ICE Engineering, Inc.
8840 Main Street
Whitmore Lake, MI  48189
[e-mail]
uupsi!tbomb!time
CompuServe: 71410, 1120
Desk Accessory and Manual are Public Domain.
These are to be distributed freely.
The Rolodesk DA source code is Copyrighted.
Copyright © 1986-1991  By Tim Endres


Rolodesk DA is a very simple desk accessory designed to give you the
features found in the famous Rolodex® product. A simple, fast access
to brief cards of textual information. In the Rolodesk DA, these cards
are presented to you in the DA's window, one card at a time.
Rolodesk DA provides functions for adding and deleting cards, as well
as searching cards for text. It is also fully integrated with the
Macintosh environment, allowing you to move information to and
from the cards and other Macintosh applications.

The history of Rolodesk DA is interesting. I started the project after
seeing the QuickCard application written by Bill Atkinson back in
1985. This apparently was some of his first hacking on HyperCard.
Having seen the usefulness of the application, I decided that this
usefulness was pre-empted by virtue of the inconvenience of
entering and leaving the application under Finder (remember, this is
1985). Thus, I decided that I would write the Rolodesk DA. This was
mostly for my tremendous need for exactly this functionality. After
four days, I had Rolodesk DA 1.0! After enjoying using it for a while,
I decided to upload the DA to CompuServe to see if others found it
useful. It was downloaded over 600 times within four days! A hit.
Since that time, I have received calls and letters from users all over
the world thanking me for this simple utility. I have even received
letters from Japan!

The DA was originally distributed as shareware. To my surprise,
many people sent me the requested $5 check. Thanks to all of those
who mailed me. It was very inspiring. But, after I realized that
cashing lots of $5 checks was tedious, and I am too lazy to do it, I
decided to simply make the DA public domain, and distribute it
freely. I still enjoy letters though!

I am a hack. Spending hours in front of computers most would
consider obsessive, and some pathological. I started programming the
Lisa back in 1983, while trying to deal with going to work at a PL/I
mainframe shop. That affair was very short. Since then, I have been
happily hacking Mac's and Unix in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I have
created many more little pieces of Macintosh wizardry. They are
listed in the back of the manual.

You basically have the following functionality on each card in the
Rolodesk.
•    Full Macintosh Cut/Copy/Paste functionality on the text in both
the card and find fields.
•    Search facility for any text string. Case sensitive and non-case
sensitive searches provided.
•    Printing of card.
•    Copy of card text to and from the clipboard and other
applications.
•    Setting of text font and size in the card on a file by file basis.
•    Setting of card size on a file by file basis.
The last two features allow you to customize each Rolodesk file
according to the data contained within.


To get started with Rolodesk DA, you must first install it. Most people
will receive Rolodesk DA, along with the manual, in a BinHex-ed
StuffIt file. This file must in turn be un-BinHex-ed, then unstuffed. If
you are reading this document, it is highly probable that you have
successfully performed these operations.

To install the Rolodesk DA, you use the Font/DA Mover application
provided by Apple with your system disks. This is the one with the
little truck icon -->     . Either launch the Font/DA Mover
application, and open the Rolodesk DA file, or double click the
Rolodesk DA file to launch the Font/DA Mover, then open the System
file on your startup disk. Then copy the Rolodesk DA into the System
file using the Copy button.

Quit the Font/DA Mover application, and if you are running
MultiFinder, reboot the Macintosh. You will now find the Rolodesk DA
in the Apple menu.

You open the Rolodesk DA the same as any other desk accessory.
Select the Rolodesk DA's name from the list of desk accessories in the
Apple menu. This will open the Rolodesk DA window, shown in the
next section.

In this Rolodesk window, you will be presented with an empty
Rolodesk file, containing a single card. You may now start entering
data into the Rolodesk DA file.


Rolodesk DA works on files of cards. If you like, this is similar to
HyperCard's 'stacks'. In each Rolodesk file is a number of Rolodesk
cards. Each card contains textual information, such as addresses and
phone numbers. Rolodesk DA allows you to display one file of
Rolodesk cards in the Rolodesk DA window, one card at a time.

The Rolodesk DA presents a single file of cards, one card at a time, in
the Rolodesk DA window. The window looks like this:


There are basically two distinct areas in the Rolodesk DA window.
The Find Field is the area to the right of the "Find:" text. This is an
area in which you can enter a text string to search for in the
Rolodesk file. The other area is the Card. This is the area in which
you will type the textual data of each card in the Rolodesk file.
You can move the text cursor between the find field and the card one
of two ways. If you press the Tab key, the text cursor will move from
one area to the other. Otherwise, you can press the mouse button
while the mouse cursor is in either area, and the text cursor will be
placed in that area.

The First Card, Last Card, Next Card, and Prev Card commands in the
Rolodesk DA menu operate identically to the way they do in
HyperCard. That is, you got the first card, last card, next card, or
previous card of the current Rolodesk file, respectively.
The Delete Card command deletes the currently displayed card from
the Rolodesk file. This command can not be undone. The only way
to recover from a delete card command that you didn't wish for, is to
close the Rolodesk file and trash, or not save, the file contents when
you are asked what to do with the changes. Unfortunately, this would
also entail losing all of your other changes since the last save.
The Insert Card command inserts a new Rolodesk card immediately
after the card that is currently displayed. This unfortunately means
there is no convenient mechanism for inserting a card in front of the
very first card in the Rolodesk. The way I get around this is to
simply copy the first card's text to another card, then paste the
desired text into the first card.
When you are presented with a new card, via the insert command,
or any other time that you change the data of a Rolodesk card, you
must be sure to save your changes. You do this by pressing the Enter
key. This is not the same key as the Return key. When you press the
Enter key to save changes to a new card created by the insert
command, you will be presented with a new empty card. This is the
fast entry mode of Rolodesk DA. Each new card will be inserted
immediately after the previous one. This is very convenient for
entering the initial data. When you make changes to a card that
already existed, you will not get a new card when you press Enter.

To search for text within a Rolodesk DA file, simply enter the text
into the find field, then press the Return key. This will cause the
Rolodesk DA to begin scanning cards for this text.
If the text is found on any card, that card will be selected and shown
in the card area. If you repeatedly hit the Return key, you will be
presented with each card that contains the desired text.
The searching will wrap around from the end to the beginning. Thus,
if you repeatedly hit Return enough times, you will begin to see the
same cards over and over.
If you wish for the search to be case sensitive, you need to place a
diamond mark next to the Case Sensitive item in the Rolodesk DA
menu. Case sensitive searching means that the letters searched for
must have the same upper and lower case letters.
If you wish to use non-case sensitive searching, then remove the
diamond mark next to the Case Sensitive menu item. Adding and
removing the diamond mark is accomplished by simply selecting the
item in the menu according to the standard Macintosh interface
guidelines.
When your text cursor is in the find area, you can still index through
the Rolodesk file using the next,. prev, first, and last card commands.
You can also step forward one card at a time by pressing the Enter
key. Holding down the Shift Key, while pressing the Enter key will
cause the stepping to go backwards. Remember, if you press the
Enter key while the text cursor is in the card area, and the card has
been changed, then the card will be saved.

You can change the size of the Rolodesk DA window, and therefore,
the size of the Rolodesk DA card. The size of the window is stored in
each individual Rolodesk file. I keep my addresses on a card that is
small and easy to read, while I keep my recipes on a large, tall card.
The window sizing function is very sloppy, and that is my fault. The
reason for this sloppiness is simple. One day I received a call from a
person named Bruce. Bruce was complimenting Rolodesk and wished
to express one desired addition, namely, the ability to resize the card.
His enthusiasm simply overwhelmed me with the feelings I had the
first time I fired up a Lisa, and watched it restore itself to the virtual
state I had powered down with.
Well, I finished talking to him, after asking for his phone number,
and proceeded to whip together the interface you see today. A little
rough around the edges, but I was able to get him a version that day.
Modems are truly wonderful.
So, someday I will probably just make the card scrollable, and give
the window a resize box to allow the most flexibility. For now…
To resize the Rolodesk DA window, you have to go into resize mode.
This accomplished with the Resize Window command in the Misc
submenu of the Rolodesk DA menu. When you select the resize
window command, the Rolodesk card and field areas will disappear,
and you will be presented with the resize window.

The resize window looks something like this:

The window's size is displayed where the find field used to be. Here,
you are presented with the window's width and height in pixels. The
three buttons in the card provide the resize control. The small gray
region in the lower right corner of the window is the resize grab
area.
To resize the window, you click and drag the mouse in the gray area
in the lower right corner, the same way you would click and drag in
the resize box of a normal Macintosh document window. As you drag
the mouse, the window's outline will be resized, while the size
information is updated to reflect the resizing.
Once you have sized the Rolodesk window to the desired size, you
can save that size in the current Rolodesk file by selecting the
Remember button. This will simply save the size in the file.
The Default button causes the window to be resized to the default.
The default is stored in the Rolodesk DA as a WIND resource. Thus,
for those familiar with the ResEdit application, the WIND resource
can be resized to any desired default size. The default function is
debatable in terms of value, but at some time I thought it might be
nice to be able to resize to some constant size for consistency. You be
the judge…


When you are finished with the resize mode, select the Done button.
This will take you back to the standard Rolodesk DA window.
Note that if you try to resize a new Rolodesk file that you have not
saved to a named file yet, you will get a complaint that the window
size can not be saved. Believe this complaint. You must first save the
Rolodesk to a specific file before you can save the resize of the
Rolodesk window. As I said above, the code is somewhat sloppy, I
apologize.
Also note that if you resize a Rolodesk DA window, and select the
Done button, without selecting the Remember button, you effectively
achieve a temporary resize. This convenient for what some users call
quick views. For example, some people keep the address and phone
number of people in the first four lines of the card, and more
detailed information below. In the rare cases where the detailed info
is needed, for example to print the entire card, the window is
temporarily resized to show the entire card.
Changing Font and Font Size
To change the font or font size of the Rolodesk card, use the Font and
Size submenus of the Rolodesk DA menu. When you change the font
or size of the Rolodesk card, this change is saved immediately in the
Rolodesk file. Thus, there is no temporary font changes as in the
window resize.
Note, as with the window size, you can only save the font and font
size if you have specified the file the the Rolodesk is saved to. Thus,
when you change the font or font size in a new Rolodesk, you will get
a warning message to this affect.

Statistics
The Statistics menu command in the Misc submenu provides a quick
overview of the Rolodesk file. It shows the name of the Rolodesk file,
the number of cards in the Rolodesk file, and the total number of
bytes contained in the Rolodesk file.
Default Rolodesk File
When you launch the Rolodesk DA, you are normally presented with
an empty Rolodesk file, and then have to open the desired file using
the open command. However, if you place a Rolodesk file into the
System Folder (or startup folder containing System and Finder files),
and name the file "Rolodesk", then Rolodesk DA will open that file
automatically when it is opened.
For instance, on my machine, I have a folder of named Rolodesk files,
but one Rolodesk file in the System Folder that I use for my
addresses. Anytime I wish to change the default Rolodesk file, I save
the Rolodesk file from the System Folder into the Rolodesk folder,
then copy the desired file in the System Folder and rename it to be
"Rolodesk".

Rolodesk File Format
Rolodesk files are really stored as simple text files. In the text file,
cards are separated from each other by single lines containing one ^
character. Thus, the following text is what a Rolodesk file containing
two cards might look like:

This is card one.
This is line two on card one.
^
This is card two.
This is line two on card two.
This means that you can open a Rolodesk file in any of your favorite
text editing applications, and directly manipulate the Rolodesk cards.
This can be useful for integrating Rolodesk data into your database
applications, or creating mailing list input files for your word
processing applications. It also allows you to run other tools against
the Rolodesk cards, and then used again with the Rolodesk DA. For
example, you may wish to use an editor to sort the cards, since
Rolodesk does not provide a sorting operation. Furthermore, you
could have other programs automatically generate files to be read by
Rolodesk for quick access. Like providing a quick reference of a
subset of data for a much larger database.

As I stated above, I have created some more pieces of Macintosh
utility. You can obtain any of them via the means listed below.
• Rolodesk DA    Free •123•
A Macintosh desk accessory that implements the
functionality of the famous Rolodex®. This DA will run on
any Macintosh that has the Hierarchical File System and
implements Hierarchical menus. Most Macintosh Plus
computers and beyond, with recent system software, will
work.
• Snap DA    Free •123•
A Macintosh desk accessory that allows you to make
screen dumps. This DA has the unique feature of setting a
timer for the dump, so that you can get screen dumps of
holding down menus! You can actually get a screen dump
of the Finder's dialog box displayed when copying files!
This DA handles large screens, but is monochrome only
currently.
• Utilities DA    Free •123•
A Macintosh desk accessory that implements many useful
utility functions. This DA was created for the pre-
MultiFinder days, but still has many uses. Most
importantly, it allows you to change the Finder
information for files, provides mouse coordinate
measurements, and provides useful tables. A must for
advanced Macintosh users and programmers.

• UMail    Commercial •34•
A Macintosh application that implements a full suite of
uucp/mail functionality utilizing Apple's new
Communications Toolbox. This application allows you to
have unix mail and UseNet news delivered right to your
Macintosh. It also supports the high speed Telebit
modems. Terminal emulation and communications
support is provided, along with file transfer utilities for
XMODEM, and eventually ZMODEM. The application
includes a real Macintosh interface for reading and
managing you mail. If you dislike reading your unix mail
with HoneyDanber and motf, then this application is for
you!
• Konnect FAST!    Commercial •14•
A Macintosh application that provides a high speed
modem connection directly to Number One Graphics, and
other commercial typesetting shops. Transferring
information via phone has never been easier, and rarely
faster. This service allows for overnight typesetting
service across the country, as well as same day service in
some cases. A simple menu based order sheet allows you
to specify all of the details to ensure the job is set
correctly, and full shipping information is tagged with the
job for easy and fast turn around.
This product is packaged for both end users and type-
setting shops! We welcome calls from service bureaus.
• IGES•PS    Commercial •4•
A Macintosh application that translates IGES files into
PostScript and Encapsulated PostScript files. This allows
you to typeset  all of you CAD drawings. You have never
seen resolution like you will from your CAD drawings,
when they are translated to PostScript. The on screen
preview function, and IGES file editor functions, make
this application a must for anyone who works with IGES
files on a frequent basis.

Obtaining Software
•1•    CompuServe
I attempt to keep up to date versions of my public domain
software on CompuServe. Login in and search for the key
word "ICE". I usually place this keyword in the description.
You can mail me at 71410, 1120, but I do not read my
CompuServe mail very often (in fact, about twice a year).
•2•    Number One Graphics BBS, Lansing MI
Modem access 24 hours a day. 300-2400, Hayes V42, and
Telebit PEP support. Number One Graphics is a Typesetting
service bureau, specializing in electronic services with
modem. Number One has graciously donated these services
to provide a reliable pick up point for those without
CompuServe access.
300-2400 Support  [phone]    8 Data Bits, No Parity, 1 Stop Bit
Telebit PEP Support [phone]    8 Data Bits, No Parity, 1 Stop Bit
Number One Graphics is also the primary sales outlet for
the Konnect FAST! software, and services.
•3•    UseNet
I attempt to post my public domain software on UseNet
news, usually to comp.binaries.mac. You can also try and
email me at the following addresses.
Internet    [e-mail]
    -or-    [e-mail]
UUCP        umich!oxtrap!time
    -or-    uunet!umich!oxtrap!time


•4•    ICE Engineering
ICE Engineering is the commercial entity that sells my
commercial software. You can contact them via US mail or
phone to order software. Sorry, VISA orders not currently
possible. Phone or mail the following:
    [phone]
    ICE Engineering
    8840 Main Street
    Whitmore Lake MI  48189
Also keep an eye on the many Macintosh mail order
catalogs, as we are working on getting the software listed
in thesein these publications.