Zodiac Super OZ/MEDIADEPOT.ISO/FILES/11/MM803RU.ZIP/README!

Text File | 1996-07-01 | 26KB | 571 lines

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                MEAL-MASTER README! File  --- Version 8.03
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  This file contains important information to help you get the most from
  Meal-Master. Please review this information before using the program.

  If you have already registered Meal-Master, then THANK YOU!  If not, we
  hope you will enjoy evaluating the program and find it worth
  registration.

  A NOTE ABOUT SHAREWARE
  ----------------------
  Meal-Master is distributed as "Shareware."  Shareware is not free
  software.  It is a distribution concept that allows a "try before you
  buy" evaluation period of the software.

  Any fee you may have paid to a shareware distribution service was for
  their service and materials only, and does not provide any compensation
  to the author.  After evaluation, you are legally required to either
  register the software you have with the author or discontinue using it.
  If you continue using the software then registration is not optional;
  it is payment for the software you have already received on a "try
  before you buy" basis.

  When registering Meal-Master, you will receive the latest program
  version, several additional utility programs, and a professionally
  typeset and bound 120+ page User's Manual with full descriptions and
  examples of all Meal-Master features, including a complete index.  You
  will also receive a personal serial number for the program, which will
  record your registration, allow access to the additional Registered
  User features, extend the program's database capacity, eliminate the
  request for registration from the title screen, and eliminate the
  closing screen and associated delay countdown.

  There are three ways to register:

       Select the "R-Registration" option from Meal-Master's main menu,
       then "O-Order form".  Fill in the blanks, use your Print Screen
       key (or Shift-PrintScreen if you are running within Windows) to
       print the filled-in form, and mail with check or money order for
       the amount indicated to Episoft Systems at the address shown on
       the program's initial title screen.

       Print (or use your word processor to edit) the file ORDER.TXT,
       fill in the blanks, and mail it to Episoft.

       If you have a Compuserve account, use Compuserve's "GO SWREG"
       service to register electronically (SWREG #11237) This is the
       fastest way to register, and has special advantages for overseas
       customers as currency conversion is taken care of automatically.

                    THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING SHAREWARE!


                                       Page 1


  INSTALLATION - REGISTERED VERSION
  ---------------------------------
  The Registered Master disk includes a program named "INSTALL".  Simply
  place the disk in your floppy drive, and type "A:INSTALL" (or
  "B:INSTALL" if using drive B:) at the DOS prompt and follow the on-
  screen prompts to install the program.  All existing recipe files will
  be preserved for use with the new software.


  INSTALLATION - EVALUATION VERSION
  ---------------------------------
  The evaluation version as prepared by Episoft is a single, self-
  extracting archive file, "MM803.EXE".  Simply type "MM803" at the DOS
  prompt and follow the on-screen instructions.  A different procedure
  may be necessary if you received your copy from a shareware
  distributor, time share service, or BBS system rather than Episoft.


  ENTERING YOUR REGISTRATION NUMBER
  ---------------------------------
  When registering Meal-Master, you receive a personal serial number
  which must be entered into the program to activate its registered user
  features.  To enter your serial number, start on Meal-Master's main
  menu and select "R Registration Menu".  Then select "E Enter
  Registration Number", and enter your name and serial number EXACTLY as
  provided on the Registration Sticker in your Registered User's Package.
  The capitalization, spacing, and symbols must all be entered EXACTLY as
  shown on your Registration Sticker.

  Your registration information is recorded in a file named "MMREG.MMF".
  If you distribute copies of Meal-Master to other users, be sure NOT to
  include this file!  Your registration information is for your personal
  use only!  If you pass on a copy of Meal-Master for someone else to
  evaluate, be sure NOT to include your MMREG.MMF file.

  Record the information from your Registration Sticker in a safe place,
  like inside the cover of your User's Manual.  Should you wish to
  reinstall Meal-Master on a new machine, or if your program should ever
  need to be reloaded from the master disk, you will need this
  information to again enter your registration information.  (However,
  should you lose your registration number, Episoft can replace it.)


  THE SAMPLE DATABASE
  -------------------
  If you are using Meal-Master for the first time, and want to try it out
  without having to type in recipes, you can use the sample database
  provided.  From the Main menu, select "U Utilities" then "I Import" and
  specify "SAMPLE.TXT" for the file name.  On the next menu, select "M
  Mode: Automatic" then "S Start Importing".  The sample database of 35
  recipes will be loaded into the program, and you can immediately begin
  trying the search, shopping list, index, and other features of Meal-
  Master.

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  CAUTIONS/COMMON PROBLEMS
  ------------------------
  If you use the EMM386.SYS memory manager with its NOEMS option, and run
  Meal-Master under Microsoft Windows, and specify the "/EMS" switch when
  starting MM.EXE, then you may receive a "violated system integrity"
  message.  There are three ways to correct this problem:  1) Do not
  specify the /EMS switch when starting Meal-Master, OR 2) Remove the
  NOEMS option from the EMM386.SYS line in your CONFIG.SYS file, OR 3)
  Create a PIF file for MM and specify zero for the "EMS Limit" and "XMS
  Limit" entries.

  Some monochrome displays driven by color adapter circuitry
  (particularly prevalent on laptop machines) often do not provide
  sufficient gray scale contrast to differentiate between the text colors
  used by the unregistered version of Meal-Master.  If you encounter this
  problem with the unregistered version, try using the DOS command "Mode
  BW80" before running Meal-Master (the MODE command is found in the DOS
  directory).  Registered users can use the MMCOLOR program to set the
  specific color combinations that work best on their machine.

  You must have the file CONFIG.SYS in the root directory of your boot
  disk, and it must contain the statement FILES=xx, where xx is a number
  that is at least 30 (at least 50 if you are using Windows, Desqview, or
  another environment that allows multiple applications running at once).
  If this file is missing, does not contain the FILES= statement, or
  specifies a value less than recommended, Meal-Master may not perform
  all functions.

  The PARM.MMF and CATFILE.MMF files created by some very old versions of
  Meal-Master are occasionally incompatible with a newer version.  If you
  receive a "runtime error" when trying to start MM, try deleting these
  files and then restarting the program.  This will initialize new files
  that are compatible with the current version.

  Sight-impaired users with speech-synthesis equipment should start MM
  with the "/C", "/T", and /NOCLOCK switches.  The "/C" switch will route
  screen output through BIOS services, where speech synthesis software
  can intercept them.  The "/T" switch (or "D" option on the
  Maintenance/Setup menu) will cause unit of measure "t" (teaspoon) to be
  displayed as "ts", and "T" (tablespoon) to be displayed as "tb".  This
  eliminates the ambiguity that exists when using "T" and "t" with a
  speech synthesis device.  Lastly, the /NOCLOCK switch inhibits
  continuous, second-by-second updating of the clock on the main menu.
  Instead, the clock is only updated when returning to the menu from a
  sub-menu, or when pressing a key (like space bar) on the main menu.


  FILES PROVIDED TO ALL USERS
  ---------------------------
  These files are distributed to users of both the Evaluation version and
  the Registered version of Meal-Master.



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  MMQUICK.DOC For unregistered users, the MMQUICK.DOC file contains a
              short manual with enough information to get you started
              trying out Meal-Master.  Registered Users do not need to
              review this file, as this information is surpassed by the
              120+ page printed user's manual.

  IMPORTF.DOC Provides a specification of how a file must be formatted to
              Import into Meal-Master.

  MM.EXE      The main Meal-Master program file.

  README!     The file you are now reading.

  FILE_ID.DIZ A short description file used when posting Meal-Master on
              electronic bulletin board systems for distribution.

  CONVERT.EXE Utility program to convert CompuChef (tm), Micro Cookbook
              (tm), Micro Kitchen Companion (tm), Chef's Accountant, and
              MasterCook (tm) files for Import into Meal-Master.
              (CompuChef is a registered trademark of Hillstepper
              Software, Micro Cookbook is a reg. trademark of Virtual
              Combinatics, Micro Kitchen Companion is a registered
              trademark of Craftsbury Software, Inc., and MasterCook is a
              registered trademark of Arion Software, Inc.)

  SAMPLE.TXT  Sample Meal-Master Database, in Meal-Master Export format.
              (See instructions above for installation)

  *.MMP       Assorted printer driver files.


  FILES PROVIDED TO REGISTERED USERS ONLY
  ---------------------------------------
  The following files are "bonus" programs for Registered Users only.
  They will not execute without a personal registration code provided by
  Episoft to Registered Users, so are not distributed to unregistered
  users.

  CHGCAT.EXE  Utility program to manipulate category names in the
              database.  This program will scan all recipes, collecting
              and organizing all category names.  Each unique category is
              listed, along with information about how many recipes
              contain that category and whether it is on your personal
              category table or not.  A new category name can be
              specified for any of the existing categories, and the
              update will be applied throughout the database.  Also
              identifies "empty" categories and allows easier maintenance
              of the "valid category table" than is possible from within
              the main Meal-Master program.

  MMSTAT.EXE  Utility program to analyze database usage.  This program
              reports statistics about how many recipes are in the
              database, maximums and averages of ingredient and direction


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              usage per recipe, and remaining capacity based on current
              averages and available disk space.

  MMCOLOR.EXE Utility program to set custom colors.  Meal-Master allows
              background and foreground colors to be selected for Normal,
              Medium Intensity, High Intensity, and reverse video.

  TITLES.EXE  Utility program to mass update the format of recipe titles
              throughout the database.  Especially when importing recipes
              from multiple sources, some titles will be in all capital
              letters, some in all lower case letters, and some in a
              mixture.  This utility lets you pick the way you want your
              titles to be stored, and updates the entire database using
              that style.

  MMM.EXE     Menu "shell" program.  This program provides an integrated
              menu from which the Meal-Master main program and all the
              utility programs can be accessed with a single keystroke,
              rather than exiting and starting each program from the DOS
              prompt.


  DIRECTORY OF THE REGISTERED MASTER DISK
  ---------------------------------------
  The registered master disk contains an installation program, two
  archive files containing all the Meal-Master files, and a small utility
  used by the installation program.  Each file is described below.

  INSTALL.EXE Meal-Master installation program.  Place the master disk in
              drive "A:" and type "A:Install" (or "B:Install" if using
              your B: drive) at the DOS prompt to start installation.

  MMDC.UTL    Decompression utility used by the INSTALL program.

  MM8P.ZIP    Archive containing "MM.EXE", "README!", and assorted
              printer driver files.

  MM8U.ZIP    Archive containing Meal-Master utility, documentation, and
              sample database files.

              Note: The two ZIP files will be automatically expanded by
              the INSTALL program, or you may expand them manually if you
              have a utility program for ZIP format files.



  VERSION 8 RELEASE HISTORY
  -------------------------

  8.03  Maintenance Release.  Provides various bug fixes and minor
        enhancements as follows:

        Fix: The Title and Category index would sometimes incorrectly
             report the database as empty.  This has been corrected.

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        Fix: When the database became full (65,534 recipes), the program
             could not be started, and instead reported a "database full"
             message and returned to DOS.  This has been corrected in MM
             itself and the registered utility programs.

        Fix: Previous versions allowed leading blanks in recipe titles.
             Leading blanks will now be automatically eliminated when
             adding, revising, or importing recipes.

        Fix: Import sometimes exited to DOS with an error while
             processing large (about 3,000 recipes) import files. This
             has been corrected.

        Fix: When searching for ingredients or directions, a recipe with
             exactly 100 ingredients or exactly 100 directions could
             cause a lockup or exit to DOS.  This has been corrected.

        Fix: When starting MM in a new directory, or changing the
             Filepath to a new directory, the Catfile.mme file was
             created even if the database creation was canceled.  Now the
             program will not create any files if the database creation
             is canceled.

        Fix: When rebuilding a database where a large number of recipes
             have been "flagged for deletion", the summary at the end of
             rebuild displayed incorrect numbers due to arithmetic
             overflow.  This has been corrected.

        Fix: The file view option (U-Utilities, V-View File) incorrectly
             displayed files which contained sequences of multiple
             linefeed characters.  This has been corrected.

        Fix: Entering (6) category names into the Category Search
             criteria could cause a run-time error and exit to DOS.  This
             has been corrected.

        New: The first character of the "yield unit" field is now
             automatically capitalized.

        New: A "/NOCLOCK" command line switch has been added.  When used,
             this will prevent the main menu clock from being constantly
             updated, which can cause problems with the speech synthesis
             programs typically used by customers with impaired vision.

        New: A "/?" command line switch has been added.  When used, this
             will display a list of all available command line switches.

        New: Searching for a category of "none" (without the quote marks)
             will now find recipes which have no categories.

        New: Searching for an ingredient of "none" (without the quote
             marks) will now find recipes which have no ingredient lines.


                                       Page 6

        New: Searching for a direction of "none" (without the quote
             marks) will now find recipes which have no direction lines.

        New: Importing of ingredient lines has been enhanced.  Previous
             versions required that the quantity, unit of measure, and
             name fields of an ingredient be in specific columns.  MM
             will now attempt to automatically align the columns.  In
             addition, the program works harder to determine exactly
             where the ingredients section ends and the directions
             section begins, thus eliminating most of the "ingredient
             after direction" errors caused by direction lines containing
             numbers and spacing similar to an ingredient line.

        New: Support has been added to the Convert utility for conversion
             of recipes in Chef's Accountant format.

        New: During Import, the Import screen now includes a "percent
             complete" indicator to show how much of the import file has
             been processed.

        New: The CHGCAT utility can now add and delete categories from
             the "Valid Category Table" by using the "Alt-T" (Table)
             command.  Previously, this table could only be maintained
             from within the main Meal-Master program.

        New: The CHGCAT utility now includes "empty" categories from the
             valid category table.  Previously, categories on the table
             but not found on any recipe were not displayed in CHGCAT.

        New: Recipes which do not contain at least one body line (i.e.,
             either an ingredient or directions line) are now identified
             as an error during import.  In other words, a recipe must
             have at least one valid ingredient line OR at least one
             valid direction line.

        New: The Rebuild function can now continue under most corrupted
             file conditions.  If parts of a recipe cannot be retrieved
             because of damaged files, the program still attempts to
             recover any undamaged portions.  An error message providing
             the number of errors and an explanation of how to locate the
             problem recipes is displayed at the end of the Rebuild
             process.

        New: The Search and List functions can now continue under most
             corrupted file conditions.  When errors are encountered, an
             attention beep is issued, and the words "Disk Error" are
             displayed in place of ingredient or directions information
             which cannot be retrieved.

        New: The "Find Flagged" and "Undefined Category" searches can now
             be interrupted, then continued or exited, by pressing any
             key during the search.  Previously these functions continued
             to the end of the database and could not be stopped.


                                       Page 7

        New: The Install program now automatically lists the "readme!"
             file at the end of the installation process.  Also, for
             users of 360k disk drives, the Install program can now
             automatically handle multiple source diskettes.

        New: In the CHGCAT program, pressing the Delete key in an empty
             "replace with" field will automatically emit the "Delete"
             tag so that it does not have to be typed.

        New: Convert is now able to handle more mis-formatted MC-II
             recipes, enabling it to continue processing where previous
             versions simply stopped and advised of an error in the MC-II
             file.  Also, long ingredient names are now converted into
             continuation lines rather than being truncated.

        New: A new option on the Maintenance menu (L-LPTn) allows
             selecting LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3 as the printer port.  (Using
             serial ports is still possible using the DOS Mode command to
             redirect LPT output).

        New: The default export format is now "MMMMM" rather than
             "Normal" when Meal-Master is first installed.  Most
             import/export seems to be done in conjunction with
             electronic transmission over on-line services and bulletin
             board systems, and the MMMMM format is more compatible with
             such systems.  (This will not affect existing settings, only
             new users installing the program for the first time.)  Note
             that since the MMMMM format shortens direction lines during
             export, setting the "Reformat Directions" option to "YES" is
             recommended when Importing so that the lines will be
             returned to their original lengths.

        New: A batch import feature has been added, which allows
             operators of BBS and Internet list servers to import recipes
             in an automated process.  Batch import mode is selected by
             starting MM with the /BI command line switch.  Batch import
             always imports from a file named Batch.imp, o the recipes to
             be imported must be in this file prior to starting a batch
             import.  Type "MM /?" to see a full list of batch import
             options and their default values.  (Note that batch import
             cannot be fully utilized in an unregistered copy of MM,
             because keyboard intervention is required to clear the
             initial title screen.  In a registered copy, the /BI switch
             will allow the program to start, import recipes, and then
             exit, all without any keyboard input.)

        New: When using Manual Import, pressing Alt-U or Alt-C while
             editing the import file will display the table of valid
             units or table of valid category names, respectively.

  8.02  Maintenance Release.  Adds leading title on "BB" export format
        for compatibility with Prodigy(tm)'s "note preview" function.
        Further relaxes import rules.  Adds Directions Search to the
        Search menu!

                                       Page 8


  8.01  Maintenance Release.  Corrects memory consumption problem in
        CHGCAT utility, enables searching by fifth category name, relaxes
        import rules in directions section, eliminates cursor "ghosts" in
        view/list modes.

  8.00  Initial Release.  Major new features include:  Capacity expansion
        to 65,535 recipes per database (registered version), with
        continued support for multiple databases; Improved handling of
        recipes 'flagged' for delete; "Whole-word" title search
        capability; Multiple category search, with "and" and "or"
        connectors; New "Yield" field to replace the "servings" field and
        a new "Yield Units" field allow entering recipe yields like
        "3 pints" or "2 loaves"; Expanded category file that allows 150
        categories; Search option to find recipes which contain
        categories not in your personal category list; Ability to mark up
        to 1,000 recipes for batch operations, A directory "pick list" to
        easily switch between multiple databases; The ability to create a
        new database without leaving the program;  A command-line switch
        to set the current database directory; Improved accuracy in
        quantity storage;  Selection of Export format on Export menu, in
        addition to the Maintenance menu; File viewer capacity increased
        to handle very large files; Revision to "MMMMM" format to provide
        better line length compatibility with more BBS systems;  Improved
        handling of Import Errors; New super-fast duplicate search to
        speed Imports; Automatic deletion of old import files, and
        conversion support for MasterCook-PC and MasterCook-II export
        files.


  CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE!
  ---------------------------
  Many thanks to everyone who contributed ideas for improving Meal-
  Master.  The program keeps improving thanks to you!


  LEGAL STUFF and LIMITED WARRANTY
  --------------------------------
  Meal-Master (tm) is a trademark of Episoft Systems and Scott Welliver.
  All rights are reserved.  Copying of the Evaluation version (without
  registered user utilities or a registration serial number) is allowed
  by not-for-profit organizations such as user groups.  ANYONE WISHING TO
  DISTRIBUTE MEAL-MASTER IN A FOR-PROFIT ENTERPRISE MUST CONTACT EPISOFT
  SYSTEMS FOR PERMISSION.

  Episoft and Scott Welliver disclaim all warranties, either express or
  implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of
  merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, with respect to
  this software and any accompanying written materials.  This limited
  warranty gives you specific legal rights.  You may have others, which
  vary from state to state.

  In no event will Episoft or its suppliers be liable for any damages
  whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business

                                       Page 9

  profits, business reputation, business interruption, loss of business
  information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or
  inability to use this Episoft product, even if Episoft has been advised
  of the possibility of such damages.  Because some states do not allow
  the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or
  incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you.

                        *** END OF README! FILE ***















































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