Private Secretary™ is a copyrighted product of Integrated Support Technology. It has been released on a limited basis as shareware, only under the following terms:
A single decompressed copy may be used on a trial basis for a period not to exceed 30 days. At the end of the trial period, please register or discontinue its use and destroy all decompressed copies in your possession.
Any unauthorized modification or duplication of the program or its documentation, in whole or in part, except as specified herein, is strictly prohibited.
Distribution of Private Secretary™ is permitted only in its original compressed format or as specifically described in the "Read Me" file included with the file package. This is to insure the recipient receives; a complete and unmodified copy of the program, the accompanying files and documents and the appropriate default settings.
This documentation is intentionally brief to minimize the print out and provide step by step instructions to get Private Secretary™ up and running as quickly as possible. It is not intended to replace the illustrated manual that comes with registration and therefore does not explore the details of each function and feature.
The basic function of Private Secretary™ is to monitor the phone via a Hayes™ compatible auto dial modem and notify you on your pager and/or phone at another location that a call came in. This allows you the freedom to be away from your phone and still respond quickly to incoming calls.
In addition, Private Secretary™ can send routine reminders to you, dispatch calls to small groups and report to you when power has been restored after a power failure. (Note: Due to the user input required to start unregistered copies, the power restoration reporting feature will not operate until the program is registered.)
When used with a standard remote call pick up answering machine connected to the same line, it can provide a powerful and inexpensive voice mail system which can be linked to your pager, used for screening your cellular phone calls, or for contacting you at another location.
This ability saves you the cost of leasing voice mail services and allows you to restrict your pager or cellular phone numbers. It also means you are free to change your pager or cellular services at any time without having to notify your callers or change your business cards and stationary. You simply change the numbers in Private Secretary™.
The timing of Private Secretary™ is initially set up to send call notification to most pager services. If you wish to use it to call you at another phone, some changes in the dial timing and digital message will be required. To test your settings, you can use the "Simulate Call" feature of Private Secretary™ to force Private Secretary™ to dial out.
Hardware Requirements
The minimum configuration is a MAC plus or greater and a Hayes™ compatible modem connected to the MODEM port of the Mac. An answering machine connected to the same line as the modem is required for voice mail capability and a digital pager is highly recommended.
If a FAX machine is installed on the same line, it should be the type that allows an answering machine to be connected, or be connected through a FAX/Data/Voice switch and the modem should be connected to the answering machine or phone side of the FAX machine or FAX switch. Depending on the hardware configuration and the capabilities of the FAX unit, Private Secretary™ may dispatch a notification call or page when FAXes are received as well as phone calls.
Software Configuration
Private Secretary™ will run under the system 6 Finder, MultiFinder and system 7. Private Secretary will perform in the foreground or background. However, when in the background, other processes may appear sluggish as Private Secretary is constantly monitoring the port. Private Secretary™ will also allow data communication sessions and "outbound" FAX sessions to be initiated in the background. (See Background Processing)
NOTE: On the Quadra, the 040 cache must be off. Some configurations may require the memory configuration to be set to 16 bit addressing.
IMPORTANT
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The files Private Secretary™ uses are: PS Settings, PS Numbers, PS Reminder and PS Log. These files are created by the program the first time it starts, setting them to the standard defaults. These files must remain in the same folder as the program. If you are using system 6, and you wish to run the program from the desktop, place these files at the top level of the disk, not in a folder. If you are using system 7, you can launch Private Secretary using an alias in; the startup items folder, the menu items folder, or the desktop. If you received the file package with the above files included, please DELETE them prior to running the program for the first time as they may contain someone else's, settings, phone numbers and other possible erroneous data. The program will create a new set for you.
Initial Startup
If you have a registered copy of Private Secretary, place the new version in the same folder as the old one. Private Secretary will use your existing setup files and append the new features to them automatically. Do not remove your existing copy until you perform the initial startup below.
To Start Private Secretary™ simply double click on the Private Secretary™ application icon.
The first screen will be the "Auto Registration" screen.
If you have a previously registered version of Private Secretary™ then click "YES". Private Secretary™ will then ask you to locate your old version using the standard file locator interface. Once you have located it, either double click on the file name or click the "OPEN" button. The New Version will magically become registered and you can skip the next paragraph.
If you don't have a registered version of Private Secretary™, click "NO". Private Secretary™ will then create the file set, assign your copy a unique serial number and bring up the Registration Screen. You will need to click on the "Later" button to proceed from here each time you run the program, until it is registered. The registration information button will bring up the screen which tells you about the benefits of registration and the option to create a “Teach Text” compatible order form.
After setting up the files, Private Secretary™ will attempt to establish communications with the modem. If the modem does not respond, or the default settings are not supported by your modem, it will direct you to the settings menu or allow you to turn on the modem and try again. Private Secretary™ will not allow you to proceed unless it can find a Hayes™ compatible modem to communicate with.
The most common reasons for not being able to establish the modem communication link are that the modem is powered off, disconnected, connected to other than the modem port or the Baud Rate is set to something not supported by the modem.
Initial Set Up
Step 1
Pull down the settings menu, select phone numbers and put in a phone or pager number. The phone numbers can be entered using numbers, spaces and dashes (-). Examples: 800-555-1234, 800 555 1234 or 8005551234
Entering a "/" character will cause a brief 1/8 second delay in the dialing sequence (on some modems) and can be used to set a delay for an outside line required by some phone systems. Example: 9/800-555-1234
A longer delay of approximately 3 seconds can be achieved by using a comma (,) instead of the "/".
The "assigned to" field is not used by the program and can contain anything or can be left blank.
To activate a number, simply click on the select box next to the desired number. An X in the select box, indicates that number is selected.
Whenever there is a change to the selection boxes, the OK button will change to SET MODE. This links you directly to the Call Pick Up Mode screen for adjustment or verification of the correct call pick up and group settings.
Step 2
Set the Call Pickup Modes. This tells Private Secretary™ how you want it to recognize you are picking up (or retrieving) your messages since you may not want it to dial out for this call.
Dial out for Every Call (Confirm Call Pick Ups)
This option is available only when there is one number selected. It will dial the number selected for each call that comes in regardless if it is you retrieving your messages or not. When set to this setting, do not respond to the first call you get from Private Secretary after you pick up your messages or you will be caught in an endless loop calling in to pick up messages that don’t exist.
Assume "N" Pick Ups per Call
This option will assume that for each call there will be "N" message pick up calls following it. If the program has reported only one message and you call in and there are two messages waiting, Private Secretary is waiting to report the second call so you should ignore the next page/call.
Use Pick Up Code - (1 Ring, Hang Up, Call Back)
When this mode is selected, you effectively tell Private Secretary™ that this call is a pick up call by dialing in, hanging up as soon as you hear the first ring, wait 8 seconds, then call back (within 25 seconds) to retrieve your message. Private Secretary™ will then ignore your call allowing as long as is necessary for you to listen to the messages.
The above Pick Up Code mode is usually the best for all applications.
Toll Saver Mode - Ignore Calls Less Than 4 Rings
This mode is designed for use with answering machines that have a "Toll Saver" mode. For the first call, Private Secretary™ will dial out regardless of the number of rings (just in case you forgot to reset previous messages on the answering machine). It will then ignore all subsequent calls of less than 4 rings until you call in and reset the answering machine toll saver function to 4 rings. When you retrieve your messages, be sure to reset your answering machine to 4 rings if it does not do it automatically.
Group Dialing Modes:
When there is more than one phone number selection, the group dialing modes are enabled and the Dial Out for Every Call option is unavailable. When the group options are first selected or activated, Private Secretary™ defaults to the Dial All Numbers (group) mode and assumes there will be a pick up call made by each member of the group. Set the number of pick ups to 1 if you are the only user or select one of the other pick up options.
There are 2 group options to select from:
Dial Selected Numbers in Rotation - 1 per Call (Rotation mode)
When this option is selected, Private Secretary™ will report the first incoming call to the first phone number selected, allow for a pick up call according to one of the 3 available options previously set and report the next call to the next number, and so on. It will always start at the top of the phone list. Once a call has been sent to each number in the group, it will start over with the number at the top.
NOTE
When rotation mode is selected, the Reminder Service is DISABLED.
Generally, the best pickup mode for rotation is using the pick up code.
When set in the rotation mode, if a call comes in before Private Secretary™ has a chance to dial out, it will dispatch the second call when the first pickup call is received, indicating a "Make Up Call" was sent.
Dial All Selected Numbers After Each Call (Group mode):
When this option is selected, Private Secretary™ will dial every number selected to report each call, allow for message pick up according to one of the 3 available options selected and then report the next call to all numbers and so on.
NOTE
When group mode is selected, the Reminder Service is ENABLED.
If Reminders are set to ON, all selected Reminders will be sent to all numbers selected.
The best pickup mode for this group selection is using the "pick up code" 1 ring, call back sequence.
The toll saver mode is available under this group option but is only practical for single user/multiple number applications or where only one member of the group is responsible for picking up the messages and resetting the toll saver. For these applications, toll saver is a good pick up option.
Step 3
If you are using Private Secretary™ to dial phones or access secondary pager numbers or codes, you will want to change the Digital Message.
Setting up the Digital Message:
The digital message is the secondary set of tones or digits that Private Secretary™ sends after dialing the phone number. The purpose of the digital message is to provide limited information about the call it received.
To set the digital message parameters, pull down the Settings menu and select "Digital Message...".
Initially the digital message settings are preset to dial pagers that do not require an ID or PIN number, sending the call number, time and number of rings to the pager, digitally.
Some pagers do not support using an * in the number string to generate a dash and may use it as a clear or other custom function. If you do not get the digital message in the format you expect when Private Secretary dials, turn off the "Supports dash" check box.
If your pager requires an ID number, you can put the ID number in the Private Code field surrounded by the correct number of leading and trailing commas to get the remainder of the digital message in the timing window expected by the pager service, or append the ID number to the phone number, again with the proper number of leading and trailing commas. Each comma will produce a 2 to 3 second delay. In addition, if your pager service has a voice prompt, you may need to change the Xmode timing in the Modem Settings dialog to X2 to keep the modem from reporting a false busy.
To use Private Secretary to dial phones, turn on the Private Code, set the call number to tones, with a code of 3, set pause for 2 seconds, set number of rings to tones with a code of 9.
When set this way Private Secretary™ will dial out, then play the private code (tune) followed by the digit (tone) 3, repeated equal to the call number and then the digit (tone) 9, repeated equal to the number of rings.
See the section on Dial Timing below to set up the proper dial timing for calling phones.
A more detailed explanation of these settings can be found in the users manual.
Step 4
If you are using Private Secretary™ to dial phones, or it has trouble sending the Digital Message to your pager you will need to adjust the Dial Timing.
Setting Up Dial Timing:
To access the timing set up, select "Dial Timing..." under the Settings menu.
Begin Dialing:
This setting tells Private Secretary™ how long to wait after a call is received before it dials out to notify you of the call. It can be set to report each call or queue up calls and only report them on a regular time schedule.
After Any Call
This option should be selected when you want each new call to be reported as soon as practical after it is received. When used with an answering machine, the time specified should be enough to allow for your outgoing message and the caller to leave his or her message plus some overhead for answering machine tape positioning (if applicable).
If you find that your callers leave excessively long messages or are getting disconnected when leaving a message, or you have trouble getting all your messages remotely, increase the Begin Dialing time accordingly or install a "line check module" discussed in the last section of this document.
After 1st Call - (Call Queuing)
If you do not wish to be called after each call, but would rather be called only periodically, choose the "After 1st Call" option. In this mode, normally you would set the Begin Dialing time to be 10, 15, or 30 minutes. When this option is selected, you will receive a call from Private Secretary™ (the number of minutes set) after the first call is received, ignoring any other calls that come in in that time frame.
Send the Message Codes:
This setting tells Private Secretary™ how long to wait after the phone or pager service was dialed to begin sending the secondary "Digital Message".
After 5 seconds of Silence
In this mode, the modem waits for 5 seconds of silence before sending the digital message. The modem decides when the time is up and therefore will only work with modems that support this option. Normally this mode should not be used when dialing phones. However, this mode may be the best choice when combining calls to pagers and phones but you must remember the modem needs 5 seconds of silence before it will send the message codes. If it hears voice such as repeated "Hello, Hello" it may interpret this as a busy signal and hang up and dial again. In this case you may need to change the Xmode parameter in the Modem Settings.
__ Secs. After Dialing
If you find that the "After 5 Seconds" option does not work well in your application, set the "__ Secs. After Dialing" option and load in the appropriate number of seconds. In this case there is no way for Private Secretary™ to determine when the phone or pager service answers and it will "blind dial" the digital message the number of seconds set, after it dialed the number. To determine the best setting for this number, take into account the time your phone service normally takes to process a call and add 6 seconds for each full ring you expect to occur when the call is placed. Some pager services may hang up before 5 seconds of silence and therefore you may want to use this option to set the time manually, anywhere from 3 to 8 seconds.
Send Mark-Time Tones
The "Mark Time" option is enabled only when the "__ Secs. After Dialing" option is selected. It tells Private Secretary™ to send tones repeatedly after dialing so if the call is picked up before the time set, there will be something on the line besides silence (which might cause the person receiving the call to hang up before the digital message is sent). If the "Private Code" is selected in the digital message, the tones sent will be the private code sent repeatedly , otherwise, it will send a single "1", about every second.
Give Up after _____ retries _____ seconds apart.
This setting tells Private Secretary how many times, and how often you want it to retry if it can't get through to you on the the first try. Use small values if you are using it with a pager and larger values, if you are using it to dial another phone.
Force modem to hang up____Seconds after dialing
This setting tells the modem the maximum time to wait after dialing before hanging up. Normally, this should be set to 30 seconds or more as Private Secretary™ will tell the modem to hang up as soon as it has sent the last digit.
Testing Your Settings:
To test your settings, pull down the "Simulate a Call" function under the settings menu. Private Secretary™ will immediately report a call of 2 rings (incrementing the rings for each simulation), by-passing the "Begin Dialing" timing to save time. Note, if you have the call pick up mode set to toll saver, this function will dial out the first time, and report “Pick Up Call Pending” on the second, because the simulated call is less than 4 rings. If you need to play with the timing, you may want to set the call pick up mode to "Dial Out for Every Call", until you are satisfied with your timing set up and then change it back to toll saver or other preferred call pick up mode.
Step 5 - Setting Up other Options
Call Log
Private Secretary™ keeps a log of each call received. Each call is assigned a number (call number), starting with 1 each time Private Secretary™ is loaded. Private Secretary™ also logs the time the call was received, the number of times the phone rang (ring count) and the result when Private Secretary™ tried to dial out to report the call. This information is presented in the log window after start up and can also be sent to a log file for later analysis by most spreadsheet and word processing programs.
When the information is sent to a log file, the date is also included for each call.
Log Window:
Private Secretary™ records the log information in memory, even if the log window is closed. If you close the log window, it can be reopened by selecting the Open Log Window option in the Call Log menu or using command-W. To clear the log window, select Clear Log Window or command-Z. This does not affect the log files on the disk.
Log File ON:
To have Private Secretary™ send the log information to a log file, select the Log File ON item from the Call Log menu. The log file function is on when a check mark appears next to this option.
When the log file is on, Private Secretary™ makes a log entry at the completion of each call, indicating the date, the call number, time (in 24 hour format), ring count and result. This information can be retrieved by many spreadsheet programs and most word processors for producing reports or analyzing activity.
The log file is closed between each call to avoid any damage that might occur to the file system if the system is powered down or the power fails while Private Secretary™ is running.
Append:
The append function tells Private Secretary™ to append call information to the currently selected log file, rather than overwrite the previous log each time Private Secretary™ starts up. Append is active when a check mark appears next to it in the menu.
If append is not selected, Private Secretary™ will open or create the log file each time it is started and overwrite any previous data in any log file with the same name currently on the disk in the same folder.
Set File Name:
This function allows you to set the file name for the call log. When shipped, the call log is set to "PS Log".
To set the file name, select the "Set File Name..." item under the Call Log menu.
To set the file name, simply enter the name and click on O.K. or press return on the keyboard.
If you want Private Secretary™ to create a new log file each day, click on the Append Date check box. When an X appears in the Append Date option, a new log file using the name you select plus the date, will be created for each day Private Secretary™ is used.
Note: when this option is turned on, if Private Secretary™ is used daily, 365 files a year will be created.
Reminder Service
Private Secretary™ can be set to dial out as a reminder of an important meeting or event. It can handle up to 5 reminders each day. In addition, registered copies can be set to report restoration of a power failure if Private Secretary™ is set as a start-up application under MultiFinder or placed in the "Start Up" items folder (with it’s files or as an alias) in the system folder of system 7.
Set Times:
To set the reminder times, select the "Set Times" function under the Reminder menu.
The "CALL AT" field should be loaded with the actual time you want Private Secretary™ to make the reminder call. The time should be entered in the AM/PM format such as 2:00 PM.
The send message can be any number sequence except "#". The numbers will appear as numbers to a pager and as tones to a phone.
Reminder ON:
This is the "Master" switch for the reminder service. When it has a check mark next to it, all of the reminders selected will be sent. When no check mark is next to it, none of the reminders will be sent except the Power Fail if selected.
Background Processing
In order to monitor the phone line, Private Secretary™ keeps a channel open to the modem at all times. Any program that accesses the modem after Private Secretary™ is loaded will disrupt the link between Private Secretary™ and the modem. When this occurs, Private Secretary™ will ignore further input from the modem and will reestablish the modem link after the interrupting program has properly closed the modem driver. This feature together with the background process scheduling capabilities of Private Secretary™ are designed to allow electronic data communication sessions and outbound FAX sessions to be initiated in the background while Private Secretary™ is running.
Random "Inbound" FAXes and data communications are not possible since the handlers for those operations generally must have control of the modem. However, if these processes can be scheduled, it is possible for Private Secretary™ to accommodate them as well.
By default as mentioned above, Private Secretary™ will sense another program attempting to access the modem. When this happens Private Secretary™ will begin polling the driver every "N" seconds as set in the "Set Background" dialog, ignoring further input from the modem until the interrupting program properly closes the modem driver. To use this feature, no set up is necessary, unless you wish to change the polling frequency. Private Secretary™ will yield even if the Enable Background option is not checked. However, the reliability of this method depends on the interrupting program to deal with a potential "break" error that may occur when it first accesses the modem and relies on the background program to fully close the modem driver when it is finished processing. If problems occur using this method, the background task can be scheduled as discussed below.
Background Task Settings:
To schedule a background task that uses the modem or change the polling frequency, pull down the settings menu and select "Set Background...".
The default polling frequency is 8 seconds. This time is based on the frequency of the phone ring signal to help insure a call is not missed after the background program is finished. The polling frequency can be increased to a maximum of 999 seconds (approx. 16.5 mins.). Increasing the polling frequency will allow the background task to run faster but increases the chance for missed calls.
The "Yield At" time is the time you want Private Secretary™ to begin ignoring the modem. Between the "Yield At" and "Return At" times, Private Secretary™ sits in an idle loop.
The "Return At" time is when you want Private Secretary™ to start polling the modem driver if the polling check mark next to it is set. If the polling check mark is not set the program will reinitialize and establish the modem link regardless of whether or not the background program has closed the modem driver.
To schedule a background task, tab to the first available "Yield At:" field. Put in the time the background task will begin (or a minute sooner to add a margin of safety) using the same format as the Reminder Service discussed above. Tab to the "Return At:" field and enter the time you want Private Secretary™ to start polling the modem driver or retake the modem regardless.
Click the select box to the left of the times you want Private Secretary™ to yield and always have an X in the poll box to the right, unless you find your program leaves the driver open when it is done. In which case you should make certain that the Return At time is set to insure that the background program has plenty of time to complete.
To activate the tasks, pull down the Settings menu and select the "Enable Background" item to place a check mark by it. This is the "Master" switch for the background times but has no effect on unscheduled interruptions.
GENERAL NOTES:
Private Secretary’s only link to your telephone is the modem. It relies on the modem to detect the phone ringing for incoming calls and to check for dial tone, busy and no answer when attempting dial out to alert you of incoming calls. Therefore, the overall reliability of Private Secretary™ depends largely on how well your modem does it’s job.
Because the modem does not report when the outgoing call is answered, Private Secretary™ can not detect when the phone is answered and must rely on the timing set up by you to be proper for the way you use it. Also, most modems only detect and reports no answer when the "5 seconds of silence" option is selected in the Dial Timing dialog. If this option is not set, Private Secretary™ will send the tones in the time frame set and will report that the call was sent successfully even if the call was not answered. If the modem "call progress protocol" mode is set properly, Private Secretary™ will report when the modem senses no dial tone, busy and no answer, and will execute a retry as set in the Dial Timing dialog.
When an answering machine is used with Private Secretary™, it is important to remember that Private Secretary™ has no connection with it. When you choose the call pick up modes and dial timing you are essentially programming Private Secretary™ "around" the way your answering machine works, not programing "how" the answering machine works. Private Secretary™ has no way of knowing if the caller left a message and will report all calls that are not interpreted as message pick up calls. By setting Private Secretary™ to report the number of rings, it may be possible for you to determine if the caller hung up before leaving a message.
Increasing Response and Preventing Call Cut Off.
If you find that Private Secretary™ is cutting off your callers messages or not allowing sufficient time for you to pick them up, this can usually be remedied by increasing the begin dial timing in the Dial Timing dialog box and using the "Pick Up Code" message pick up mode. If however, you want calls reported as soon as possible after they come in, an inexpensive "line check" module can be placed on the modem which will prevent Private Secretary™ from interrupting a call in process, and report the call as soon as the phone IS available. With this device installed, Private Secretary™ can be set to report calls very shortly after the call is received (such as 30 seconds) without worry that it will interrupt the caller or message pick up calls.
The line check module (which installs simply by plugging into the modular phone jack) is available from Integrated Support Technology for $12.95 each plus applicable CA tax. Shipping and handling are included when ordered with registration, otherwise, add $4.55.
To Register Private Secretary™, please send your program serial number, mailing address and cash, check or money order for $30.00 (US$) plus applicable CA sales tax to:
Integrated Support Technology
478 W. Hamilton Blvd. • Suite 191
Campbell, CA 95008
To receive the latest version on diskette, add $5.00
If you have questions or require assistance you may contact Integrated Support Technology via:
FAX (408) 379-0516
AOL:IntSptTech
CompuServe: 72225,1577
Internet: IntSptTech @ AOL.com
If these methods of communication are unavailable to you, you may call my office directly (the best time is between the hours of 9AM and 11AM pacific time), Mon-Sat at (408) 370-1773.
