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Instant Recall Manual tm Instant Recall Owner's Handbook 1 Instant Recall Manual Copyright 1985, 1986 by Precept 3790 El Camino Real, suite 173 Palo Alto, CA 94306 (415) 327-6886 Copyright Notice This software package and handbook are copyright 1985,86 by PRECEPT. All rights reserved worldwide. Precept hereby licenses users to non-commercially duplicate and distribute this software, provided it is done on a strictly charge-free basis, and that the software and manual are not modified in any way, and provided that this copy right notice is given. Commercial resale is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of PRECEPT, 3790 El Camino Real, suite 173, Palo Alto, CA 94306. Disclaimer Instant Recall is a memory-resident software product. Precept makes no warranty that the Instant Recall software will operate with all software, or with other memory resident software products. Precept makes no warranties as to the contents of this manual or the Instant Recall program and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. In no event shall Precept be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. Precept further reserves the right to make changes to the specifications of the program and contents of the manual without notice. Acknowledgements Instant Recall conceived and implemented by Michael Fremont. Manual by Laura Fremont and Michael Fremont. Expert Advice and Support Work by Robert Lash. 2 Instant Recall Manual Contents 0. Welcome...5 Since You Will Like This Program... How To Use Instant Recall I. Getting Started: Installation and Framework...6 Installing Instant Recall Loading Instant Recall Running Instant Recall Leaving Instant Recall Sample Uses The Form of a Record II. Making A Record...13 Moving The Cursor Modifying the Record III. Saving A Record...14 IV. Deleting A Record...15 V. Retrieving Records...16 The FIND Command VI. Looking at a Group of Retrieved Records...19 Moving Among Retrieved Records Narrowing A Search VII. Getting Help...21 VIII. Modifying A Record...22 Cut, Ditto and Paste Windows Transferring Information Between Programs IX. Printing Records...24 X. Automatic Reminders...25 XI. Search Strategy...26 XII. File Input and Output...28 XIII. Hints...30 XIV. Command and Key Reference...31 XV. Program Limits and Error Messages...35 XVI. Glossary...37 XVII. Index...only in printed manual 3 Instant Recall Manual (APOLOGIA... The on-line version of the manual suffers from minor problems due to the way it was generated. It also doesn't have nice fonts, pictures, etc. You'll need to get the registered version of the program for a nicer manual) 4 Instant Recall Manual WELCOME TO INSTANT RECALL Welcome to Instant Recall for the IBM PC and 100% compatibles. You're about to learn how to use a tool you'll probably use every day, in many different ways. It's a tool that should make all your work -- business and personal -- easier. Instant Recall was designed for the busy person who has many ideas and doesn't know where to store them. The business executive. The writer. The personnel administrator. It was designed to replace awkward filing cabinets and restrictive database systems with an instant cross-referencing system that lets you store bits and pieces and retrieve them together so you can turn them into a coherent whole . And it lets you cut and paste information from Instant Recall's records right into another document without exiting from either program. Instant Recall is a memory-resident, free-form database program with its own word-processor. Data can be entered in whatever form you like, without worrying about field sizes, and can be recalled without worrying about keywords. Since it runs at the same time as your other programs, the process is highly interactive - you can quickly get the data you need, or enter new data, and go on working Here are some of the things you can do with Instant Recall + You can use it as an index to where you've put notes, articles, etc., in your file cabinets, desk drawers, computer files. You'll never forget where that important data is again. + You can use it to save bits and pieces of information that you'll need later but didn't have a convenient place to put it. Things like airline flight information you often use, people's birthdays, long-off meeting dates, ideas you've had that need time to percolate, to-do lists, notes on how to use other programs, notes on documents and spreadsheets you're working on, etc. There are literally an infinite number of types of information and lists which Instant Recall will keep track of for you... and remind you of, too. + You can use Instant Recall to match needs against capabilities, and see trends. For instance, if you've stored key information about potential job candidates, and you now need a top widget salesperson, you can quickly identify the appropriate candidates. + You can use it to gather together information that was ostensibly unrelated, or maybe very loosely related, when you typed it in (typed at different times). When you need to go back and find all of the information you have about a particular project or subject, it's easy... and you didn't have to worry about where to put the data when you typed it in, or how you would get it back. You can use it for all of these things, and more. Best of all, you can do all of these at the same time, without clutter. 5 Instant Recall Manual SINCE YOU WILL LIKE THIS PROGRAM... We think you'll like Instant Recall so useful you'll want to register it. Registration gives you the following benefits: * A professional version of Instant Recall which supports a 2Mbyte maximum database, vs. 80Kbytes in the free version * The latest version of Instant Recall, quite possibly newer than the free version * A comprehensive sample database showing many uses for Instant Recall * A typeset copy of this manual * Telephone support * Reduced-price upgrades * A one-year subscription to our newsletter with many ideas and hints on program uses, techniques people like you have found useful, etc. To register, send a check, money order, or VISA/Mastercard information (name on card, card#, expiration date), for $69 (incl. shipping/handling) (add appropriate sales tax in CA) to: PRECEPT 3790 El Camino Real, suite 173 Palo Alto, CA 94306 We suggest you send us your name and address even if you don't want to upgrade; we'll then send you a sample of our newsletter with valuable information on how people are using Instant Recall to solve their information management problems. If you have any comments about Instant Recall, please write or call us at 415/327-6886. You can also reach us using CompuServe, account# 76337,32. Thanks. 6 Instant Recall Manual HOW TO USE INSTANT RECALL Instant Recall was designed to be easy to use. For that reason, almost every function it performs is listed on your screen at all times -- no need to hunt through the user's manual for a command you don't often use and have therefore forgotten. In addition, the on-line "Help" function contains information on every Instant Recall command and capability. HINTS: * When you come across instructions like CTRL-H, it means hold down the CTRL and H keys at the same time. * To execute an Instant Recall command, press the CTRL key and the first letter of the command simultaneously (i.e., SAVE is CTRL-S). Commands in the manual are always in BOLDFACE. * If you need help while using the program, your best bet is to look for the subject in the index, or use the Help function by pressing the HELP key. * Don't worry about making mistakes; you can almost always get back something you've deleted by accident (using the UNDO command) or cancel a command you've started by pressing the ESC button at the upper left of the keyboard. ESC (which stands for "escape" allows you to "escape" from a command when you change your mind in mid-command. 7 Instant Recall Manual I.GETTING STARTED INSTALLING INSTANT RECALL Make sure you have the right hardware and software to run Instant Recall. You need an IBM PC, XT, AT or true compatible, and PC-DOS 2.0 or higher. If you don't have these, Instant Recall will not work on your system. First you should copy the files on the Instant Recall disk to another disk as a backup copy. The disk has the following files on it: instant.exe (the Instant Recall program) read.me (read this ASCII file to get current information, may not be there) instant.xxt (one of the Instant Recall database files) instant.key (the other Instant Recall database file) If you copied Instant Recall from a bulletin-board system, the files may have slightly different names. There will probably be a "readme" file; look at that for help. You can run Instant Recall from a hard or floppy disk. If you run from a floppy, it is best that you don't put other files on the Instant Recall disk, so Instant Recall has the most space possible for its database files. Before using Instant Recall you should copy the files on the distribution disk onto your working disk. Don't use the distribution disk for everyday use. INSTALLATION ONTO A FLOPPY Assuming that the distribution disk is in drive B: and your work disk is in A:, you should type: CHDIR A:\ switches to the root directory MKDIR A:\INSTANT makes the required INSTANT subdirectory CHDIR A:\INSTANT switches to the INSTANT subdirectory Now type: COPY B:INSTANT.XXT A: copies one of the database files to \INSTANT dir COPY B:INSTANT.KEY A: copies the other databse file to \INSTANT CHDIR A:\ switches back to the root directory COPY B:INSTANT.EXE A: copies the Instant Recall program You now have the database files in the required \INSTANT subdirectory, and the Instant Recall program in your root directory. INSTALLATION ONTO A HARD DISK 8 Instant Recall Manual Assuming that the distribution disk is in drive A: and your work disk is C:, you should type: CHDIR \ switches to the root directory MKDIR C:\INSTANT makes the required INSTANT subdirectory COPY A:INSTANT.EXE C: copies the Instant Recall program to the r directory CHDIR \INSTANT switches to the \INSTANT subdirectory COPY A:INSTANT.XXT C: copies one of the database files to \INSTA COPY A:INSTANT.KEY C: copies the other database file to \INSTANT CHDIR \ switches back to the root directory LOADING INSTANT RECALL To load Instant Recall, put the Instant Recall disk in your default drive and type: INSTANT R and then press the ENTER key. You will see the message: "Instant Recall Installed". It is now loaded into memory, and it will stay there as long as you don't turn off the computer or reset it. Instant Recall is a memory-resident program. You may have other memory-resident programs installed in your computer, such as keyboard enhancers and desktop utility programs. Sometimes the order in which you install these programs makes a difference. Instant Recall doesn't care what order it is loaded into memory. However, sometimes other memory-resident programs do. We recommend that, in general, you load Instant Recall before your other memory-resident programs. If other memory-resident programs tell you to load theirs first, follow their directions; then load Instant Recall; then load any programs that must be loaded "last". Experimentation is in order. If you try one order and it doesn't work, try another. BATCH FILE INSTALLATION You'll probably be using Instant Recall every day. Using a batch file you can have Instant Recall loaded into memory automatically each time you turn on your computer. If you don't know how to do this, read about the "autoexec.bat" file in your DOS manual. RUNNING INSTANT RECALL Whenever you press ALT-Z (hold down the ALT key and press z), Instant Recall will put whatever other program you were running on "hold" and put itself on the screen. (Sometimes your computer will also need you to press the ENTER key after ALT-Z. If nothing happens within two seconds when you press ALT-Z, press ENTER). Some programs require use of all of your disk drives, for instance, one to hold the program disk and the other to store data. You can still 9 Instant Recall Manual use Instant Recall with these programs, it just means you'll have to change floppies every once in a while (unless, of course, you have a hard disk system, in which case you can ignore this section). The Instant Recall program loads itself into memory, but the database, where your records are stored, does not. When you use Instant Recall in conjunction with another program that uses both disk drives, you'll have to exchange floppies when it's time to get information out of Instant Recall's database. For example, let's say you're using a word processor that uses both disk drives. In drive "A" is your word processing program disk; in drive "B" is a disk on which you store documents. You have a document on your screen and you need some data you know is in Instant Recall's database. You access Instant Recall and since the program itself is in memory the framework appears on your screen right over your working document. But since your database disk is not in the computer, you won't be able to find the information you need. A message will flash on your screen to remind you to insert Instant Recall's database disk. It will read," Can't find data, insert database disk, then press ENTER; OR press ESC to cancel." To get the information you need from Instant Recall's database, you'll remove the word processor's data storage disk from drive "B" and put the Instant Recall database disk in drive "B", and press ENTER. Instant Recall will find the database (no matter which drive you put it in) and start running. LEAVING INSTANT RECALL Press EXIT to stop Instant Recall and return to your other program or DOS. If you had typed in a new record without saving it you will be asked if you want to save it. Type 'Y' or press ENTER to save the record. Type 'N' or press ESC if you don't. If you are running on a floppy-based system, Instant Recall will remind you to replace the "held" program's floppy. Do so now, if appropriate. Press ENTER to restart the other program. You can later re-enter Instant Recall by pressing ALT-Z (possibly followed by ENTER). When you re-enter you will be in the same place as before, as if you had never left Instant Recall. 10 Instant Recall Manual SAMPLE USES The Instant Recall database has some examples of how you might use Instant Recall. We'll look at them now. After installing and loading Instant Recall, type: Ctrl-F sample database note: Ctrl-F measns: hold down the co key and press F and then press ENTER. Then follow the directions on the screen. THE FORM OF A RECORD When you first call up Instant Recall, your screen will show you the Instant Recall "framework": INSERT PICTURE HERE (sorry, only in printed manual) As indicated, the arrows to the left of the words "Instant Recall" remind you that below the double line, within this framework, you will be using Instant Recall to save and retrieve information. When you work on another document at the same time as Instant Recall, both programs will still be accessible, as indicated by the arrows to the right and the word "Application". "Application" means your other program - a word processor, spreadsheet, etc. Below the double lines is the "command line," which lists most of the Instant Recall commands. The arrow pointing to ESC reminds you that to see the rest of the commands (which don't all fit on the line), you should press ESC. The command line is only there to remind you of the names of the commands; you can execute any command even if it is not shown. Each of the "commands" on the "command line" allows you to use Instant Recall in a specific way. "SAVE," for example, allows you to save information for later use. Each command is easy to use. You use each command by holding down the CTRL (CONTROL) key (at the left of your keyboard) at the same time as the key that represents the first letter of the command you want to use. So SAVE is CTRL-S. To the right just under the "command line" is the phrase "Record -- of ---". This indicator kicks in when you're retrieving stored records. When you use FIND, Instant Recall shows you only one record at a time, but the indicator tells you how many records were retrieved that mention the retrieval word or phrase you used. If no records have been retrieved this indicator will read, "Working Record." The working record is where you type in new data, akin to a blank slate. Below the "command line" is empty space -- the screen's "field." You use this area to type in information or retrieve material you previously stored. The bottom line of the Instant Recall framework is the "status line." It gives you information about the material you're currently working on. If you've retrieved a stored document (a "record"), for example, 11 Instant Recall Manual the "created" indicator, bottom left, will tell you the date the material was originally created and stored. The "modified" indicator tells you when the record was last changed. The date indicated next to "reminder" is the day on which the record will appear on your screen automatically. When "More" appears at the bottom of your screen, it means more of the document is below the bottom edge of the screen. "Ins" means you're using "insert mode." Characters you type will be inserted at the location of the cursor. Alternatively, you may be in "overwrite mode", and the "Ovr" indicator will be lit; characters you type will replace those at the cursor. 12 Instant Recall Manual II. MAKING A RECORD Entering information into Instant Recall is easy. There are several ways to do it. You can type right into a record with the built-in word processor, or you can input information from other programs using the cut and paste facility, or you can input data from ASCII text files. You can enter new information into the working record, or modify or add information to an existing record. MOVING THE CURSOR Use the following keys to move around within a record: [RIGHT-ARROW] moves the cursor one character to the right [LEFT-ARROW] moves the cursor one character to the left [UP-ARROW] moves the cursor one line up in the record [DOWN-ARROW] moves the cursor one line down in the record [PGUP] moves up one screen [PGDN] moves down once screen [HOME] moves to the beginning of the line; press again to move to the top of the record [END] moves to the end of the line; press again to move to the end of the record MODIFYING THE RECORD To enter information into the record, just type it in. To delete information use the following keys: [ENTER] or [RETURN] ends the line and starts a new one. Unlike a typewriter, you don't have to explicitly end a line. Instant Recall will automatically "word-wrap" when your typing reaches the end of a screen line. [TAB] moves the cursor to the next tab stop. Tabs are set to every fourth column [BKSP] deletes the character to the left of the cursor and moves the cursor left one character [DEL] deletes the character under the cursor 13 Instant Recall Manual III. SAVING A RECORD Press SAVE (Ctrl-S) to save a record. You will be asked for a "reminder date". If you want the record to be automatically brought to your attention on a certain date, type in that date, in mm/dd/yy format (the yy is optional; if you don't specify one, the current year will be assumed). If you don't want to be reminded, just press ENTER. Example dates are 3/12/87, 4/15, etc. The reminder function is handy for many things, such as: reminding you of an appointment or deadline or due date reminding you of certain information you need in a future meeting prompting you to think about some percolating ideas from time to ti Your record will be saved into the database and can be retrieved by searching for any of the words or combinations of words in it. You don't need to name the record or specify where it should be saved. Most of the time you'll only need the SAVE command for saving new records, because Instant Recall automatically saves the changes you make to an existing record when you switch to any other record. 14 Instant Recall Manual IV. DELETING A RECORD You may want to save some records for an indefinite period of time because you use them over and over, but you may want to erase others. To delete unwanted records, use the KILL command. If you accidentally erase a record, use UNDO. Press KILL to delete the record on the screen. You may sometime accidentally KILL, or erase, a record that you meant to keep. The UNDO command can, in most cases, bring back that record. This is because when you KILL a record it isn't actually erased. Instead, it is added to a "delete list," which contains the last 10 records you deleted. When your delete list becomes 11 records long, then records actually get erased. For example, let's say you've deleted 10 records. In reality, they are on a "delete list" which you can call up by using the UNDO command. When you UNDO, the last ten KILLed records are retrieved. You can view them; use the SAVE command to resave the ones you still want. The records you don't reSAVE are left in the deleted list. While records are on the deleted list they cannot be retrieved except by the UNDO command; they act as if they really were deleted. So you don't have to worry about them popping up unexpectedly after you KILL them. As mentioned above, records on the delete list do eventually get deleted. The list can hold only 10 records at a time; when you KILL an eleventh record, the oldest record on the delete list will be deleted permanently and your newly deleted record will become number 10 on the list. 15 Instant Recall Manual V. RETRIEVING RECORDS THE FIND COMMAND Unlike most other programs, you do not have to name a record in order to retrieve it, nor do you have to specify keywords or fields. All you need do is remember any of the words or combinations of words in the data to get it back. Press FIND and then type in the word(s) you want to use to find records. All records that match your "query" will be retrieved. For instance, FIND to-do list will retrieve all records with the words "to-do list" in them. The phrase, "to-do list" can be anywhere in the record. The first record found will be displayed and the "record x of y" indicator will tell you how many records were retrieved. The records are retrieved in chronological order, oldest first, newest (or newest modified) last. They will appear one at a time on the screen. Viewing additional records is explained below. FIND COMMAND DETAILS Your "query" can be as simple as a single word or number (FIND budget), several contiguous words (FIND paper clip), or combinations of words with "and" and "or" between them: Query: Matches records with: FIND paper clip "paper" followed by "clip" FIND paper and clip "paper" and "clip" anywhere in record FIND paper or clip "paper" or "clip" anywhere in record You can make more complicated searches like: Query: Matches records with: FIND july sales or august sales "july sales" or "august sales" FIND (july or august) sales same as above Parentheses let you group things to make them more clear and work just like in the English language. If we had left out the parentheses in the above example, this would happen: Query: Matches records with: FIND july or august sales "july" or "august sales" Also, you sometimes need parentheses when you mix "and" and "or" in a 16 Instant Recall Manual single query, because "and" is evaluated before "or" (just like multiplication is evaluated before addition in arithmetic): Query: Matches records with: FIND (july or august) and sales "july " or "august" and also "sa FIND july or august and sales "july" or both "august" and "sal If this seems complicated to you, relax. Most of the time you'll be doing simpler queries. If you need more complex queries a little experimentation will help: we've included sample records in the database so you can try the above queries. DATE SEARCHES There are two kinds of dates in Instant Recall: dates in the record, and the dates of the record. You search for dates in a record just exactly the same way you search for words. Note that you must search for a date in the same format you typed it in, so if the date was typed as 3/5/65, search for "3/5" or "3/5/65", etc., not as "March 5". This is easy if you are consistent about typing dates. You can also search for records that were created, modified, or reminded on particular dates, or ranges of dates. This is very useful to recall a record you know you stored in a certain week, etc. To search this way, choose the dates between which the information you want was stored. If you stored the information in May but you don't remember the exact date, you can specify a wide range -- a whole month, a whole year, or even more if you like. Press FIND, then type in the word "created" and the range of dates you want records searched for using the month/day/year format (you can skip the year if you want the current year). So if you wanted to FIND all records pertaining to May of 1983, for example, you would type in FIND created>4/30/83 and created<6/1/83 This will enable you to retrieve records created after ("greater than") April 30th and before ("less than") June 1st. If you know the record was created on 5/6/83, you would type FIND created=5/6/83 You can also look for records modified on certain dates in the same fashion, so if you happen to know that you modified those May 1983 records just last month, you'd type in FIND modified>6/30/85 and modifed<8/1/85 This function can be used very narrowly or very broadly. As we've said, you can search for all records created or modified in a day, week, or whatever period you want. Or you can search for only certain types of information stored during a given time period by combining the "created' and "modified" date command with subjects. For example, if you want information from May 1983 that pertains only to imports, you would type in: 17 Instant Recall Manual FIND imports and created>=5/1/83 and created<=5/31/83 The rules are: 1. Use "created" for record creation dates 2. Use "modified" for record modified dates 3. Use "reminder" for record reminder dates 4. Use a date comparison symbol: "<" for before a particular date "<=" for before or on a particular date "=" for on a particular date ">=" for on or aftera particular date ">" for after a particular date 5. You can combine date searches with "and", "or", and words, etc FIND NOTES Instant Recall ignores distinctions between upper and lower case letters, so you don't have to worry about remembering whether you typed something in upper or lower case in order to retrieve it. You should be careful about word endings such as plurals; "window" and "windows" are not the same words to Instant Recall. Instant Recall's indexing technique is approximate, for speed. What this means to you is that occasionally a record may be retrieved that doesn't match your search query. This is a minor nuisance but doesn't cause any real problems. You can usually avoid this with good queries (more on this later). 18 Instant Recall Manual VI. LOOKING AT A GROUP OF RECORDS Sometimes more than one record will match your query. The indicator under the command line will let you know. In that case, you have two choices. You can look through every record that contains your "retrieval word". But if you used a word that appears in many of your records (like "sold" if you're in merchandising), you might have dozens of records to wade through before you find the right one. A quicker way to find the appropriate record is to use NARROW. We explain both methods next. Moving Among Retrieved Records Instant Recall displays one record at a time on the screen. Of course, if more than one record matched your query you'll want to see the others. The matched records are organized into a circular list starting with the oldest matched record, then the next oldest,..., then the newest, and finally the working record. You can display the records, one at a time, using the following keys: Key Result [+] displays the next record matched (you must use the grey plus key in the numeric pad at the right of the keyboard) [-] displays the previous record matched (you must use t grey minus key in the numeric pad at the right of th keyboard) [Ctrl-Home] displays the first record retrieved [Ctrl-End] displays the working record Going past either end of the list starts you back at the other end (i.e., pressing + while the last matched record is displayed gives you the working record; pressing + again displays the first matched record). You will find that you often flip through a set of retrieved records repeatedly, getting information from one, modifiying another, etc. If a small number of records were matched this is easily accomplished using the record movement keys just defined. This is usually the case. Occasionally, however, more than a few records will match and it becomes tedious to move among them one record at a time. Note the position of a record (look at the "record xx of yy display"... xx is the record's position in the matched record list); if you expect to be jumping back and forth from a particular record you can use the JUMP command to make it faster. Press JUMP and type in the number of the desired record. It will be displayed. Sometimes a record will be matched that you are not interested in. You can drop it from the retrieved list by pressing REJECT. REJECT is used when you are looking at a series of retrieved records, or you're about to print a series of records, and there's one or more you don't want 19 Instant Recall Manual included. When you use REJECT to drop a record from a list, Instant Recall will automatically display the next record in the list (the working record if you're at the end of the list). REJECT does not delete material (see KILL); it only temporarily drops it. Next time you do a search for the record you temporarily dropped using REJECT, it will appear. REJECT performs a second function as well. If you're typing in information and you haven't saved it, REJECT will restore the record to its unmodified condition. In the working record this means clearing the screen. In a retrieved record you've modified but not yet re-saved, it means undoing the modifications. Narrowing A Search When you do a FIND and retrieve more records than you really wanted to look at, NARROW helps you narrow down the number of records Instant Recall calls up for you. All NARROW does is repeat the FIND function within the limits of the records you've already identified. For instance, if you've done FIND sales and 35 records are retrieved, you clearly used too general a search query. If you are really only interested in sales of widgets, you can now type NARROW widgets which will retrieve only those records which mention both "sales" and "widgets". You can use NARROW as many times as you need to narrow down your search. 20 Instant Recall Manual VII. GETTING HELP Whenever you need help you can get it by typing "FIND helpfile", or by pressing the HELP command (exception: if you are in the middle of a command, cancel the command first by pressing ESC). The Help information is just a set of records on various Instant Recall topics. Getting help records is just like getting any other records; you can use all of the Instant Recall commands to help you. Because help records are just like your own records, don't modify or delete them unless you really want to. On the other hand, you can specialize or add to the help records for your own purposes. 21 Instant Recall Manual VIII. MODIFYING A RECORD CUT, DITTO, and PASTE You can copy, move or delete whole sections of records using the CUT, DITTO and PASTE commands. CUT and PASTE let you move information around within a record you've retrieved (for example, if you decide to change the order of paragraphs). These commands also let you move information from the records of Instant Recall into another program such as a word processor, move information from another program into Instant Recall, and move information from one Instant Recall record into another. For example, you are writing a memo using a word processor. You need to insert a fact that you know is filed in your Instant Recall database. You call up Instant Recall over your working document. You find the needed record using the FIND command. Then you CUT the information you want out of the database and PASTE it into your working document, right into your memo. DITTO is used to copy something from the record on the screen to another place. It doesn't cut the information out of the source, it copies it so that you'll have the same information in two places. Put the cursor at the beginning of the data you want to copy. Press DITTO, and then move the cursor to the end of the data to copy, and press ENTER. The data has been copied into a holding location. Now use the PASTE command to put the data in additional places. CUT is similar to DITTO except that it "cuts" the data out of the record and into the holding location. It is deleted from where it was cut from. After using either CUT or DITTO to select some data, use PASTE to "paste" it down in a new location. Move the cursor to the place you want to put the data (you can use all of the cursor movement keys, and Instant Recall commands to get to the right place in the right record). Press PASTE and the data will be inserted into the record at that point. You can use the PASTE command any number of times to make multiple copies of the data. By the way, CUT is also useful for deleting data from a record. Just CUT it out and don't PASTE it anywhere. Windows When Instant Recall starts, it puts itself over the other program's screen; you can't see the other program. But it is still there. You can see the other program's screen by using the WINDOW command. A "window" is used when you're using Instant Recall along with another program. For example, you might be working on a memo using a word processor, and you need a fact you stored in Instant Recall. When you call up Instant Recall your "underlying" document will disappear from 22 Instant Recall Manual the screen, to be replaced with the Instant Recall framework. If you want to see the underlying document, all you do is type the WINDOW command and your screen will suddenly appear to split in two, with Instant Recall at the top of your screen and your other document at the bottom. If Instant Recall is blocking the part of the memo that you need to see just then, you can move the "window" that Instant Recall is occupying to some other part of the screen -- to the top of the screen, the bottom, or temporarily completely hidden so you can see a whole screen of your underlying document. Each time you press WINDOW the window size and location changes, in the following order: 1. Instant Recall in top window, underlying application in bottom of screen 2. Instant Recall in bottom window, underlying application in top 3. Application in full-screen window, Instant Recall hidden 4. Back to Instant Recall in full-screen window, application hidden (NOTE: Instant Recall cannot display the screen of a program running in graphics mode; such program's window will be blank. When you EXIT back to your graphics mode program the screen will be properly redrawn.) Transferring Information Between Programs You can use the CUT, DITTO, and PASTE commands to transfer information back and forth between Instant Recall and other programs. To copy (or move) data from Instant Recall to an underlying application program, do the following: CUT or DITTO the information you want, and EXIT Instant Recall. Prepare the other program to receive the data (i.e., move the cursor to where you want the data, etc.). Press PASTE. The data is "typed" into the other program, just as if you had typed it. You can only copy the same data to the other program once using the PASTE command; this is because sometimes CTRL-P means something to your other program, and we want to allow you to do that "something" when you want to. Therefore, when you type CTRL-P to your other program, it only means PASTE to Instant Recall the first time you type CTRL-P after doing a CUT or DITTO. To copy data from the underlying program to Instant Recall, do the following: get the data you want onto the screen and call up Instant Recall. Use WINDOW to show the entire application program's screen. You must be displaying the whole screen. Use the CUT or DITTO command to select the data you want to copy to Instant Recall. It doesn't matter which you use, because Instant Recall never deletes data from the other application, it only copies it. Press WINDOW to get Instant Recall's window back on the screen. Move to the place you want to put the data, and press PASTE. In short, CUT, DITTO, and PASTE still work as you'd expect them to. 23 Instant Recall Manual IX. PRINTING RECORDS To print out all of the records in the retrieved list, press TYPE. Today's date will be printed, and then all of the records. Each record will be printed with its creation, modified, and reminder dates. As many records will be printed on one page as will properly fit. Before using TYPE, use REJECT on records in the retrieved list that you don't want to print. To print just what is on the screen you can use the PrtSc key of the computer (type shift-PrtSc). 24 Instant Recall Manual X. AUTOMATIC REMINDERS We've mentioned a couple of times that records have a reminder date associated with them. Now we're going to be a little more explicit about that. When you SAVE a record you are asked for a reminder date. If you press ENTER the record will have no reminder date. But if you type in a date, when that day arrives (or as soon as possible afterwards) Instant Recall will recall that record for you automatically and display it for you. You can then examine the record, modify it, delete it, or whatever. Instant Recall looks for active reminder records each time you activate it. If there are no active reminder records you will enter Instant Recall in the same state as when you left (as if you hadn't left). If there are active reminder records these will be displayed instead, and the "Remind" indicator comes on in the status line to tell you that what you are looking at are remindered records. When you are done looking at the remindered records you can go on and do whatever else you want. If you don't want to be reminded again (each time you re-enter Instant Recall) you should reSAVE the records with a new reminder date or none at all. Since you must do this explicitly, if you don't happen to look at all of the reminder records when they come up (because you're busy, or whatever), they'll automatically show up again later. The reminder function is useful for a number of things. Its most obvious use is to remind you of meetings, information you need at a meeting, a due date or other deadline, and so forth. But you can also use it to remind you to delete information that you know will be "stale" past a certain date, or to jog your mind about some idea you had that needed to percolate, etc. In short, you can use it to help you with anything that is calendar related. 25 Instant Recall Manual XI. SEARCH STRATEGY You now have all of the tools you need to easily find your information. A couple of notes are in order. If your search query is too general you're going to get many records which match, but in which you are not interested in. You may also get a few records that don't match at all, but were retrieved because of Instant Recall's approximate retrieval function. This probably happened to you when you tried a previous example query, above. Minimize both of these problems by being reasonably specific. If you want sales information on watermelons, don't use just "watermelons" or "sales"; that's usually too general. Try "watermelon and sales". Of course, being too specific may not get you what you want. Being excessively specific runs the risk of using words not specifically in the records you want, or missing information a little more loosely related but nevertheless useful. Remember also that Instant Recall looks for exact matches. If you specify "watermelons" it isn't going to match "watermelon". The general rule is, if you don't get the information you're looking for, try another query. FINDING FORGOTTEN INFORMATION Even given how simple it is to FIND information you've stored, it is possible to forget you have some information stored in Instant Recall. There is probably a lot of information in your filing cabinet, right now, that you don't remember is in there. Now and then you go through the cabinet to refresh your memory and to throw out the garbage. You can do a similar thing with Instant Recall, only it's easier. To look at all of the information in the database, use FIND created>=mm/dd/yy and created<mm/dd/yy to retrieve, period by period, all of the information in the database. For instance, you might do: FIND created>1/1/85 and created<2/1/85 FIND created>=2/1/85 and created<3/1/85, You would get one month's work with each FIND. It's necessary to break up the FIND in this way because Instant Recall can only handle a retrieved list of records up to 64 records long. If you ever do a query and see the records indicator say "XX of 64+ Records" you need to make more specific queries, because some records matched but will not be displayed. This shouldn't happen too often; usually when this happens your query was too general to be useful anyway. (NOTE: some programs have a bug in which they look at the B: drive at startup, and cause an error if there is no disk in drive B:. Instant Recall will not work with these programs unless you do have a disk (any 26 Instant Recall Manual disk) in drive B: when you start these programs.) 27 Instant Recall Manual XII. FILE INPUT AND OUTPUT So far we've talked about two ways of entering data into Instant Recall's database: typing it in directly, using the built-in database, or using CUT and PASTE to transfer it from another program's screen. You can also input data directly from another file, or output directly to a file. This means that you can easily transfer larger amounts of data with other programs. OUTPUTTING DATA TO A FILE To output data from Instant Recall to a file, you use OUTPUT. This command will output all of the records on the retrieved list into a file you specify. The file will be ASCII formatted. Most other programs can read an ASCII file (some programs require you to tell them it is ASCII - see your other program's manual). When you press OUTPUT you are asked for a file name. Type in the name (including the path, if you want it stored in a different directory than the current one you're in). The records on the retrieved list will be output to the file. If the file exists already the records will be added to it. Each record will be ended with the ~ (tilde) character. This line is needed since Instant Recall records are variably-sized, and otherwise it wouldn't be obvious where one record ended and another began. If you are going to use this file to input data to another program, you may need to modify the file to follow the other program's file conventions. For instance, you may need to convert the variably-sized records into fixed-size records without the record-termination character ("~"). Or you may need to change the record termination character to suit the other program. In any case, it's usually easy to do this using a word processor. INPUTTING DATA FROM A FILE To get data from a file into Instant Recall, you use INPUT. The file must be an ASCII file. Some other programs do not save their data in ASCII-formatted files, so you cannot directly get that data. However, most of these same programs have a command for saving their data in an ASCII file, if they don't automatically. Also, there are a number of utility programs available (many free) that convert non-ASCII files of various types to ASCII. When you press INPUT you will be asked for a filename. Type in the DOS-formatted filename, including the path information, if it isn't in the current directory. You will then be asked for the maximum lines per Instant Recall record. Remember that Instant Recall records are variable-sized, up to a fixed maximum size of up to 60 lines. If the file you want to input is broken up into logical records of a certain number of lines (for instance, a database file where each record has 10 lines), enter its size (as long as it is not larger than the Instant Recall maximu m). 28 Instant Recall Manual If the input file has variable-sized records enter 60. If the input file is not broken up into records, but is just one piece of data (for instance, a word-processor file), specify the number of lines you want it to be broken into per record. You need to do this because of the Instant Recall limitation on maximum lines per record. After you specfy the maximum lines per record, you are asked what character you'd like to use as a record terminator. This allows you to tell Instant Recall to end a record when it encounters a certain character in the file. For instance, if you are inputting a database file, and the database program separates each record with an @ character, type in the @ character to tell Instant Recall to separate records at that point. If you are inputting a file that you had previously output from Instant Recall, type the ~ character, because that is the character Instant Recall uses to separate records when it outputs them. If there is no record-termination character (for instance, in many word-processor files), just type ENTER and Instant Recall won't look for a termination character in the input file. 29 Instant Recall Manual XIII. HINTS * Put a good title line at the beginning of each record; not only will it make it easier to quickly recognize the record, the words in a title line are often those you'll happen to use when you search for the record. * Sometimes a record could have several keywords you might want to use to later search for it, but these words don't happen to be in the text of the record (for instance, synonyms). You may want to type these words at the bottom of the record so that you'll more easily find it ( e.g.: keywords: sold, sales, purchase). * Sometimes you'll have a number of records with essentially the same layout, such as address records. You may want to make a "template" record with the layout and DITTO it when you make a new record, and then fill it out. In other words, you can design your own "fields", "forms" and "boilerplate" documents using Instant Recall. You can even print out blank ones for use when you're away from the computer, such as at an inspection or doing an interview. * If you can't remember the way you expressed the "main" point of a record, try searching for other things you know to be in it. For instance, if you're looking for a supplier's address, but you can't remember the exact name of the supplier, try searching for the city they're in, or a part or service you know is described in the record, etc. * When you modify a record which has a reminder date, and you want to keep the reminder date, use any form of implicit SAVE rather than the SAVE command (e.g., use + or any other command that looks at another record). The SAVE command asks you for a reminder date, and is less convenient. * You can use Instant Recall to organize your file cabinet. Make file folders which are numbered 1-100 (or whatever). Each time you put something in the cabinet, make a record describing that item and the folder# you put it in. When you need to get something from the cabinet, search for the item, and Instant Recall will tell you where it is. Alternatively, just make a record describing the item and where you put it. * You can also use Instant Recall to keep track of where other things are. If you've loaned a book, make a record with that information, and put a reminder date on it, so six months later you won't have completely forgotten that you loaned the item. * Your Instant Recall database is just like other disk files: if the disk crashes, and you don't have a backup, you've lost the data. Make periodic backups. Also, don't turn off the computer when you are in Instant Recall. EXIT first. 30 Instant Recall Manual XIV. COMMAND AND KEY REFERENCE This section lists each command and cursor key, gives a brief description, and lists the possible options. COMMANDS CUT Cuts text starting at the current cursor position through the final cursor position. Put the cursor at the starting position, press CUT, move the cursor to the final position, and press ENTER. The text is removed from the record and can be PASTEd elsewhere. DITTO Copies text starting at the current cursor position through the final cursor position. Put the cursor at the starting position, press DITTO, move the cursor to the final position, and press ENTER. The text is copied from the record and can be PASTEd to additional locations. EXIT Exits Instant Recall, restores the underlying application's screen, and continues where the underlying program left off. If you are asked, be sure to put back the underlying program's disk, if you had removed it when you started Instant Recall. Then press ENTER. Re-entering Instant Recall again (using ALT-Z) will continue Instant Recall from where it was left, except when nreminder records are activated. FIND Searches the database for records matching the query you type in. Queries can include: words and numbers the "and" and "or" operators parentheses juxtaposed words (like paper clip) date operations created date-symbol date modified date-symbol date reminder date-symbol date date-symbol can be one of: < <= = > >= > date is in mm/dd/yy format combinations of the above Examples: FIND tennessee FIND tennessee and williams FIND tennessee williams FIND plays of and (tennessee williams or shakespeare) FIND created=9/20/85 FIND shakespeare and created>8/15/84 HELP Displays the message: Find: helpfile (press ENTER when ready). 31 Instant Recall Manual This is to remind you that to get help, you should do a FIND with the word "helpfile". INPUT Inputs information from an ASCII-formatted file. After pressing INPUT, enter the filename of the file you want to input. Specify a DOS path if the file is not in the current directory. Then type in the maximum lines per Instant Recall record for the file you are inputting. This can be between one and the maximum allowed by Instant Recall (60). The input file will be broken up into records no larger than this. Then specify what character ends each record in the input file. Files previously output by Instant Recall use the "~" character. Other programs may use another character or none at all. If there is none, press ENTER. JUMP Moves you quickly to a particular record in the retrieved list of records. After typing JUMP, type the record number and then press ENTER. The record number is the relative position of the record you want, from the start of the list. KILL Deletes the record from the database, and displays the next record in the retrieved list. You can often undelete a mistakenly deleted record using the UNDO and SAVE commands. NARROW Like FIND, except that only records already on the retrieved list are eligible for matching the new query. In other words, you narrow down the search more particularly. OUTPUT Outputs the records on the retrieved list to a file you specify. The file will be ASCII-formatted. After pressing OUTPUT, type in the filename of the file you want to output to. If you want the file to be in other than the current directory, also specify the DOS path to use. If the file exists already, the new data will be appended to it. PASTE Puts text that you've previously CUT or DITTOed at the current cursor location, either into Instant Recall or the other running program. REJECT If you REJECT changes you've made to a record but not yet SAVEd, restores the record to its prior condition (blank if in the working record). If you REJECT a record in the retrieved list it is dropped from the retrieved list, but is still in the database. SAVE Saves the record into the database. You are asked for a reminder date. Either type a date (mm/dd/yy format) on which you want the record to be automatically brought to your attention, or press ENTER if you don't want to be reminded. If you make changes to a record and then view any other, the 32 Instant Recall Manual changes are automatically saved for you, and you don't need to use SAVE. TYPE Prints the records in the retrieved list on the printer. UNDO Puts the records on the deleted list on the retrieved list. You can then examine these records and determine if you want to reSAVE any of them. If you don't reSAVE them they will eventually be permanently deleted. WINDOW Changes the display format. Each time you press WINDOW the format changes, in the following (circular) order: Instant Recall in top window, application in lower window Instant Recall in lower window, application in upper window Application in full-screen window, Instant Recall hidden Instant Recall in full-screen window, application hidden KEYS BACKSPACE Deletes the character to the left of the cursor. CTRL-END Displays the working record. CTRL-HOME Displays the first record in the retrieved list. DELETE Deletes the character under the cursor. DOWN-ARROW Moves the cursor down one line in the record. END Moves the cursor to the end of the line. If typed again, moves the cursor to the end of the record. ENTER Used to put a "carriage return" in a record you are typing. Also tells Instant Recall you are done typing something into a command, like the search query you type for the FIND command. ESC Most often used to cancel a command. Typing ESC when a command is waiting for more information (like the DITTO command waiting for you to position the cursor to the end of the data) cancels that command. Also used to display the rest of the Instant Recall commands which can't fit on the command-list line near the top of the Instant Recall window. 33 Instant Recall Manual HOME Moves the cursor to the beginning of the line. If typed again, moves the cursor to the beginning of the record. INSERT Switches between "insert" and "overwrite" modes. In "insert" mode, characters you type are inserted in front of the cursor, and text following it is moved to the right. In "overwrite" mode, characters you type overwrite whatever characters fall under the cursor. LEFT-ARROW Moves the cursor one position to the left. MINUS (-) Displays the previous record in the retrieved list. If typed when the first record is being displayed, the working record will be displayed, because it is considered the last record. You must use the grey minus key in the numeric keypad. PgDn Moves the cursor down one page in the record. Used when the record is too large for all of it to be displayed at once. PgUp Moves the cursor up one page in the record. Used when the record is too large for all of it to be displayed at once. PLUS (+) Displays the next record in the retrieved list. Since the working record is considered the last record in the list, if you are at the last retrieved record, PLUS will display the working record. Pressing PLUS again will then display the first record in the retrieved list. You must use the grey plus key in the numeric keypad. PrtSc Prints the screen to the printer. RIGHT-ARROW Moves the cursor one position to the right. TAB Moves the cursor to the next tab position. Tab positions are in columns 0, 4, 8, 12, etc. (every fourth column). UP-ARROW Moves the cursor up one line in the record. 34 Instant Recall Manual XV. PROGRAM LIMITS AND ERROR MESSAGES Instant Recall has the following limits: * Records may have up to 60 lines of text. * A line of text is up to 80 characters. * The database may be up to 2Mbytes total size (80kbytes in free version * There is no practical limit to the number of records in the database. * A search query may have up to 7 'and's. * A search query may have up to 7 'or's. * You cannot search for and, or, created, modified, reminder. These are reserved words. * Up to 64 records may be matched in a single retrieval. * Instant Recall occupies approximately 70K of memory. Following is a list of error messages. To continue working after you get an error message, press ENTER. Instant Recall has the following error messages: "Sorry, but I expected another search word after AND or OR"... In FIND or NARROW, you have an AND or OR but no search word after it. AND and OR cannot themselves be search words. "Sorry, but you need to have the same number of left and right parentheses"... In FIND or NARROW you either had differing numbers of left and right parentheses in the search query, or you had too many right parentheses before matching left parentheses. "Sorry, your search query is too complicated for me..." In FIND or NARROW you had an exceptionally complicated search query, too complicated for Instant Recall to understand (see Limits, above). Break up your query into two simpler ones, using NARROW for the second one. "Sorry, but I don't understand your date..." In FIND or NARROW you tried to do a record date search but your date (which should be in MM/DD/YY format) or date operator (which can be < , <=, =, <>, >=, or >) was not properly formed . "Sorry, but there wasn't a number where I expected one..." In JUMP, etc., you didn't type a reasonable number where Instant Recall expected one. "Sorry, but I couldn't open a file by that name..." In INPUT or OUTPUT the filename you specified couldn't be opened. Possibly the path was missing, the form of the name was not DOS-compatible, or the file doesn't exist. 35 Instant Recall Manual "Sorry, but that length is longer than the allowed maximum"...In INPUT, the maximum record length you specified is too long. The maximum length for an Instant Recall record is 60 lines. "Sorry, but your record already has the most lines allowed"...While typing in data or using PASTE, you tried to make the record have more than 60 lines, the Instant Recall maximum. Break your data into two or more records, or compact it into 60 lines. "Your database is almost full!..." The free version of Instant Recall (version # ends with the letter "F") is limited to a database of approximately 80Kbytes. The registered version (version # ends with the letter "R") is limited to a database of approximately 2Mbytes. If you are using the free version, you may want to upgrade to the registered version. See the "Because You Like This Program" section in the front of the manual. If you are using the registered version, call Precept to inquire about larger data storage capability. In any case, when you get this warning there is very little space left in the database. Unless you free up space by deleting other records you run the risk of running out of space and not being able to save the last record entered. "Your database is full. I can't save this..." Your database is too full to save the record, it will be lost. See the previous error message. "Error occurred during save to disk..." While Instant Recall was trying to save your record, a disk error occurred. It is likely the error was caused because your disk is full; it is also possible there may be a hardware problem. Your record is lost. "Sorry, but this version of Instant Recall can't access this version of the database"...The free version of Instant Recall (version # ends with the letter "F") is limited to a database of approximately 80Kbytes. The database you've tried to access is a 2Mbyte maximum database, and can only be used with the registered version of Instant Recall (version # ends with the letter "R"). See the "If You Like This Program" section near the front of the manual. "Can't find database..." Instant Recall can't find the database files. If they are on a floppy disk, insert the disk into any drive and press ENTER, otherwise press ESC. Make sure the database files are in the \instant subdirectory. 36 Instant Recall Manual XVI. Glossary COMMAND LINE. The command line is the line on which the Instant Recall commands are listed. It is at the top of the Instant Recall framework. Since there are more commands than can fit on the line, you must press ESC to view the others. You do not have to be displaying a command on the command line to use it. CURSOR. The cursor is the small blinking line on the screen that indicates where text you type will go (the insertion point). DELETED LIST. The deleted list is a list of the last ten records which have been deleted (including records deleted because they have been replaced by newer versions). Records on the deleted list are on their way to being permanently eliminated. Records on the deleted list are not retrieved when you do a search; however, you can view them after using UNDO. When an eleventh record is deleted, the oldest record on the deleted list is permanently discarded and can no longer be recovered. DISTRIBUTION DISK. The distribution disk is the disk you received when you bought the program. You should use the distribution disk as an archival copy only; daily use should be of a copy you've made of the distribution disk. ENTER KEY. The ENTER key is the key just left of the numeric keypad with the down/left arrow. It is also called the RETURN key. FRAMEWORK. The framework is the boundary around the typing area on the screen. It includes the command line, status line, and so forth. QUERY. The query is the search specification you give to the FIND or NARROW command. For instance, "apples or oranges" is a query which means, "Find all records which mention either apples or oranges in them". RETRIEVED LIST. The retrieved list is the set of records which matched the last search you performed. The records are on the retrieved list in order of creation and last modification date. You can view the records one at a time using the PLUS and MINUS keys, for instance. RETURN KEY. 37 Instant Recall Manual The RETURN key is the key just left of the numeric keypad with the down/left arrow. It is also called the ENTER key. STATUS LINE. The status line shows most of the current status, such as the dates of the record being displayed, whether you are in insert or overwrite mode, etc. It is at the bottom of the Instant Recall framework. UNDERLYING PROGRAM. The underlying program is the program that was running before you started Instant Recall. It is temporarily stopped while you are in Instant Recall and is restarted when you leave Instant Recall. You can transfer data between your underlying program and Instant Recall using CUT, DITTO, and PASTE. WINDOW. Windows are subsections of the screen, and are used to display data from different sources. In Instant Recall, you can display an Instant Recall record in one window and part of the screen from your other running program at the same time. WORKING RECORD. The working record is the place where you type in data to a new record, akin to a blank slate. The working record is always located at the end of the list of retrieved records; you can display the working record at any time by pressing CTRL-END.