This scheduler contains many features which enable you to manipulate schedules in almost every way imaginable. Using commands in the Juggle menu, you can quickly change the position of an item within a schedule, or move an item from one day's schedule to another.
With the View menu, you can display several schedules at the same time with "Multiple Schedule Windows" or "Week at a Glance". With commands in the Select menu, you can page through schedules a day at a time or a week at a time, or you can look at the schedule for a specific date.
You may create one or more pop-up notebooks in which you can keep names, phone numbers, dates and any other information for quick and easy reference. The notebook contains a built-in auto-dial feature.
There is also a pop-up calendar which you can size and position anywhere on the screen. And a pop-up Timer with which you can time any event; such as telephone calls or any items on your schedule.
With a little practice, you'll soon be inserting, refining, moving and deleting items like a pro; and you'll be delighted with the ease of use and power of this time planning system.
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2.01 Schedule Statistics
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Note: If you are not familiar with this interface standard (that of Microsoft Windows and OS/2 Presentation Manager), please first read the first Guide entitled "Interface Basics."
The first line of each schedule shows schedule displays a convenient summary of the schedule shown in the window. What is displayed is the day and date of the schedule, the number of items in that day's schedule, the amount of time taken up by the items in the schedule, and the amount of time left unscheduled in that day (open or free time).
If the schedule being viewed is the one for the present date, an asterisk (*) will appear after the date in the banner line. This indicates that today's schedule is currently being displayed. An arrow (>) will appear before the title of the item that is scheduled for the current time.
If the schedule being viewed is not the schedule for the present date, a number will appear after the date in the banner line preceded by a plus (+) or a minus (-). A number preceded with a plus indicates that the schedule being displayed is that number of days in advance, or in the future, of the present date. A number preceded by a minus indicates that the schedule shown is that number of days behind, or in the past from, the present date.
Schedule statistcis will change as items are added, deleted from or modified in a schedule or as schedules for different days are selected.
If any items are not marked as completed on a past date's schedule, the number of undone items will also be reported in the banner line.
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2.02 Selecting Schedules
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There are many ways to move between schedule days. You may move ahead or back by days, weeks, months, or years.
The Select menu shows all the different commands for selecting which day to view. Shortcuts are explained on the next few pages. In addition, the F9 shortcut key can be used to view any day back to 1987 or ahead to 2068.
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2.03 Selecting a Day at a Time
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There are shortcuts to selecting the schedule for a date one day earlier or later than the one being displayed:
Press the grey PLUS (+) key on the numeric key pad and the schedules will advance one day.
Press the MINUS (-) key on the numeric key pad and the schedules will roll back one day.
Or with the mouse...
Click on the right-pointing arrow at the far right end of the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the schedule screen, and the schedules will advance one day.
Click on the left-pointing arrow at the far left end of the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the schedule screen, and the schedules will roll back one day.
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2.04 Selecting a Week at a Time
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There are shortcuts to selecting schedules weeks apart:
Press F7 to view the day one week earlier.
Press F8 to view the day one week later.
Or with the mouse...
Click in the gray area on the left half of the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the schedule window to view the day one week later.
Click in the gray area on the right half of the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the schedule window to view the day one week later.
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2.05 Selecting a Month at a Time
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The pop-up calendar with a mouse can be used to quickly move the display by months at a time:
Month to month moves of the pop-up calendar, are directed with the up and down arrow keys when the pop-up calendar has the focus.
Or with the mouse...
Click on the up-facing arrow at the top end of the vertical scroll bar on the right side of the pop-up calendar, and the calendar will advance one month. Then, click on the desired date in the calendar and that schedule will be displayed.
Click on the down-facing arrow at the bottom of the vertical scroll bar at the right side of the pop-up calendar, and the calendar will roll back one month. Then, click on the desired date in the calendar and that schedule will be displayed.
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2.06 Selecting a Year at a Time
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The pop-up calendar with a mouse can be used to quickly move the display by years at a time:
Year to year moves of the pop-up calendar, are directed with the PageUp and PageDn keys when the pop-up calendar has the focus.
Or with the mouse...
Click in the gray area on the top half of the vertical scroll bar at the right side of the pop-up calendar, and the calendar will advance one year. Then, click on the desired date in the calendar and that schedule will be displayed.
Click in the gray area on the bottom half of the vertical scroll bar at the right side of the pop-up calendar, and the calendar will roll back one year. Then, click on the desired date in the calendar and that schedule will be displayed.
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2.07 Returning to Today's Schedule
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No matter how far you go ahead or back in the schedules, you can always return to today's schedule by simply pressing the HOME key.
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2.08 Inserting Items Into a Schedule
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Select the date on which you wish to schedule your desired item, then double-click the mouse on any open space in the schedule screen (not on a existing item). (You can also press the INSERT key, or select the Insert command in the Edit menu and press ENTER). A dialog box will be displayed which will guide you in entering the pertinent information about your item quickly.
If you were to press ENTER, without typing any information into the dialog box, an untitled item would be entered in your schedule for that day at the earliest free space with a duration of 10 minutes.
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2.09 Entering Item Title
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The title (description) of your item can be up to 255 characters long. When you have entered the title of your item, press the TAB key to advance the cursor to the next text box. Note: You may view the entire text of a long item title by selecting the View command button.
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2.10 Entering Item Duration
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Here is where you enter the amount of time you think a task will take. If you are uncertain of how much time the item will take, your best estimate will still be helpful for planning.
You may enter complete times like "2:00" for two hours or "1:45" for 1 hour and 45 minutes, or you enter short forms. Numbers 1 through 4 are interpreted as hours, 5 through 99 are interpreted as minutes, while entering 100 through 2359 will be assumed to be hours and minutes. Therefore, 3 will appear in the text box as "3:00", 23 will appear as ":23" and 93 will be interpreted as 93 minutes, which is 1 hour and 33 minutes. You may enter durations of up to 24 hours. An item with duration zero is called a "note".
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2.11 Entering Notes
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To flag an item as a note, either type "note" or the digit "0" (zero) in the Duration box. When the item is inserted into the schedule, the word "note" will appear on the right side of the description. If you choose to make the note an unscheduled item (as described in the "Scheduled / Unscheduled Items" section below), then the note will appear at the top of the day's schedule with the word "note" on the left, where the begin time would ordinarily be.
A shortcut for entering notes into your schedule is to press ALT+INSERT or select "Insert Note Item" in the Edit menu. This will bring up a definition dialog box for a new unscheduled item with duration zero (i.e. a "note"). As with any unscheduled item, notes will not conflict with scheduled items nor be calculated into the workload by the color utilization calendar.
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2.12 Entering Item Date
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This is the date on which your item is to take place. The date of the schedule which you selected when you called up the definition (insert) dialog box, will automatically appear in this box. If you decide that you'd like your item to be scheduled on another day, enter that date here.
The date may be entered as "month/day/year" with slashes separating the month, day and year or you may use hyphens, periods or blanks as separators. Examples:
6-23-90 6/23/90 6 23 90
You need use only two digits to specify the year. Specifying values between "90" and the "99" are assumed to be years between 1990 and 1999. Specifying values from "00" to "68" are assumed to be years between 2000 and 2068. If you omit the year, (e.g. 6/23) the year will be assumed to be the next occurrence of such date between the current date and the end of next year.
You may alternatively enter the name of a weekday. The date of the closest future weekday will be assumed. You have the option of typing the entire name of the day, such as "Monday", "Thursday", or "Saturday", or typing in an abbreviation , like "Mon", "Th", "F", or "SA".
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2.13 Scheduled / Unscheduled Items
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The "Scheduled" box gives you the option of having your item appear on your schedule with a begin time, or you may elect to have it appear without a time associated with it, thereby making it an "unscheduled" item. Designating your item or items as unscheduled is a convenient way to post notes or comments on your schedule.
When a new item is inserted, the default setting is that it is a "scheduled" item. To designate this item as "unscheduled", click the mouse on the "scheduled" check box. To replace the X, and make this a "scheduled" item, simply click the "scheduled" check box again.
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2.14 Begin Time and Floating / Fixed
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When the "Begin time" text box is empty, the "Floating" option is automatically selected. "Floating" means your item can take place over a range of time during your day. The item will be inserted into the schedule at the earliest open time, taking into account the duration of the item, the bounds you specify, and any other items already scheduled.
The scheduler will not alter the sequencing of items without your direction. Because of this, you can prioritize items by sequencing them, and that sequence will be maintained. YOU can change the sequence of items by simply dragging them with a mouse (or using the commands in the Juggle menu).
The dynamic scheduler will do much of the scheduling work for you. To maximize the power of the dynamic scheduler, omit the begin time for all those tasks which have a flexible start time. Enter a time in the "Begin Time" box only if an item must begin at a specific time, such as a lunch date or meeting. As the begin time is entered, the "Fixed / Floating" option automatically switches to "Fixed".
In 12-hour format, times may be entered as "3:00" for 3 o'clock pm, "9:45" for 9:45 am or "6:3" for 6:30pm. If no "a" (am) or "p" (pm) is typed after your time, it will automatically appear between 8:00am and 7:59pm. Typing "9:30" into the text box will appear as "9:30a" and "6:20" will appear as "6:20p". You may also enter numerals only, leaving out the colon completely. Typing "4" will appear as "4:00p" and "912" will appear as "9:12a".
24-hour time format is also supported. "5:00" for 5am and "17:08" for 5:08pm.
Use the Windows or OS/2 Control Panel to select 12/24-hour and international time formats.
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2.15 Time Bounds
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You may select a time range in which you would like to have an item scheduled. For example, if you need to make a phone call to a colleague who will only be in his office between 9:00 and 11:30am tomorrow, enter these times in the boxes labeled "Earliest" and "Latest". The dynamic scheduler will schedule "floating" items within these specified bounds.
For items with a begin time the "Bounds" boxes will be seen in gray (or red for OS/2 PM), and will be inactive.
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2.16 Setting Alarms
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Click on the Alarm check box or press ALT+A. This will place an X in the check box, to show that the alarm is now on and will also bring up the Alarm dialog box.
In the Alarm dialog box, you have the opportunity to set the alarm to go off either before or after an item is scheduled to begin, or before or after an item is scheduled to end. You can also indicate the amount of time (up to 99 minutes) before or after the item that you would like the alarm to go off.
If the "Begin time" box is marked with an "X", the alarm will sound before (or after) your item is scheduled to begin. Click on the check box to remove the "X". Click a second time to replace it. You may elect to have both the "begin time" and "end time" boxes marked so that the alarm will go off twice, both before the item begins and before the item ends (or after, if "After" is selected).
When the alarm sounds, a message box will appear on the screen alerting you to the starting or ending time of the item. The alarm will chime every 60 seconds until you acknowledge it. You will be asked if you would like the alarm repeated, and if so, when.
Selecting "OK" will set the alarm with the information you have given it and bring you back to the definition dialog box. Select "OK" again and the item will appear on your schedule with "-a" after it. This indicates that the item has an alarm set. An item followed by "-ar" indicates that the alarm has gone off and has been set to repeat again later today. An "-ax" indicates that the alarm has gone off and will not be repeated today.
In the Alarm dialog box pressing ESC will cause the changes just entered to be cancelled, however, the alarm will still be set. Selecting "Cancel" will have the same effect.
To disable the alarm, delete the "X" from the check box to the left of the "Alarm" command button in the main dialog box. Do this either by clicking on the check box or by putting the cursor next to the check box with the TAB key, then pressing the SPACEBAR.
Alarms can be just as easily set on recurring items, and the alarm will go off each day an instance is scheduled.
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2.17 Recurring Items
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"Recurring" box, click on "OK" (or TAB to the OK button and press ENTER). This will return you to the definition dialog box. The "Date" button no longer contains a date but is marked "Recur'ng". On your schedule the item will be followed by "-r" to indicate that it is a recurring item.
Note: While working in the "Recurring" dialog box, you may decide that you don't want your item to be recurring. Press ESCAPE (or TAB to the "Cancel" button and press ENTER).
Unlike most scheduling programs, 1Soft schedulers allow you delete or change all occurrences (instances) of a recurring item in a single operation, so you don't have to delete each and every occurrence one by one. The Delete All Occurrences command is in the Edit menu, and its shortcut is CTRL+DELETE.
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2.18 Recurring: Daily
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When the "Recurring" dialog box first comes to the screen, the "Daily" option button is selected. Click on, or press TAB to move from the "Daily" button to the text box titled "Starting". The date in this box will automatically be the date of the schedule you are presently working with. You can change this date to a later date by entering it as "month/date/year".
Click on, press TAB again to move to the text box titled "Ending". This text box will be blank, and if left blank will cause your item to be inserted into every daily schedule indefinitely. You may type in the date of the last day that you would like your item to take place. Click on "OK," or press TAB to select the "OK" command button and press ENTER. The "Recurring" dialog box will disappear and the definition dialog box will return to the screen.
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2.19 Recurring: Every __ Days
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Your item may not need to take place daily but every so many days. When in the "Recurring" dialog box, click on (or press the DOWN or RIGHT arrow key to select) the button labeled "Every ___ Days". You may chose to keep the default setting (2) or you may enter any number up to 99. Press TAB to bring the cursor to the text box and type in the numerals.
Specify "Starting" and "Ending" dates as with Daily items and press ENTER when you are finished. Remember that leaving the "Ending" text box blank will cause your item to be scheduled into the future indefinitely.
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2.20 Recurring: Weekly
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To schedule a weekly item, in the "Recurring" dialog box, click on the "Weekly" button, then click on the check box for each day on which you want the item to be scheduled.
If you are not using a mouse, press the DOWN arrow key twice to select the button labeled "Weekly", then TAB to the series of seven check boxes labeled for the days of the week. The cursor will appear as a gray vertical line to the right of the check box labeled "M". Press the space bar to fill in this box with an "X." Press the RIGHT (or LEFT) arrow key to move the cursor along the row of boxes.
You may also choose to leave all the day-of-the-week check boxes blank and tab directly to the "Starting" text box. This will cause your item to be scheduled once a week on the week-day that your "Starting" date falls on. For example, if the "Starting" date falls on a Monday, then your item will be scheduled each week on Monday.
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2.21 Recurring: Every __ Weeks
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To schedule an item at an interval of every two or more weeks, click on (or use the DOWN arrow key to select) the button labeled "Every ___ Weeks". The default setting here is 2. You may enter any number up to 99. Note: Entering the number "1" in this text box will cause the button selection to change automatically from "Every _1_ Weeks" to "Weekly".
As with Weekly recurring items, you may check the boxes to indicate on which day(s) of the week the item will occur. As stated earlier, if you chose to leave all of the day-of-the-week boxes unchecked, your item will be scheduled on the day of the week that the "Starting" date falls on.
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2.22 Recurring: Monthly
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Items may be scheduled once, several or many times each month. In the "Recurring" dialog box, click on (or press the DOWN arrow key to select) the button labeled "Monthly on...".
Using a mouse, simply click on "Cardinal Month Days", then click on the check boxes for each of the desired days.
Without a mouse, press TAB to select "Cardinal Month Days". Press TAB to move the cursor down to day "1" in the calendar. The cursor is now a dotted gray outline around the check box. Mark the boxes you wish by pressing the SPACEBAR.
Using "Cardinal Month Days", if all the check boxes are left blank, the item will be scheduled each month on the same day of the month as the "Starting" date.
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2.23 Recurring: Ordinal Month Days
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You may want to schedule your item to take place on a certain day each month; for example, the first Friday and the second Wednesday of every month. To do this, select "Monthly on..." and click on the button labeled "Ordinal Weekdays" (or press ALT+O). You can move around this calendar and mark the boxes in the same way as with "Cardinal Month Days".
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2.24 Recurring: Every __ Months
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To schedule an item at an interval of every two or more months, in the "Recurring" dialog box, select the button marked "Every ___ Months...". The change the default setting of 2, click in, or press TAB to move the cursor inside the text box.
As with Monthly recurring items, select the desired "Cardinal Month Days" or "Ordinal Weekdays".
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2.25 Recurring: Annually
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To schedule an item once a year, in the Recurring dialog box select the button labeled "Annually".
Click on (or press TAB to move the cursor to) the "Starting" and "Ending" text boxes. Fill in the dates of your choosing and click on "OK", or press ENTER. The item will be scheduled each year on the date entered in the "Starting" text box.
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2.26 Recurring to Non-recurring
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To change a recurring item to a single-occurrence item, in the definition dialog box click on (to remove) the "X" from the check box to the left of the "Recurring" button. Without a mouse, TAB to put the cursor on the right side of the check box, and press the SPACEBAR. Each time you click on the check box or press SPACEBAR, the recurring status of the item switches, from recurring to non-recurring and back again. An "X" in the check box indicates that the item is recurring, while an empty check box indicates that the item is a single-occurrence item.
When you change the status of an item to non-recurring this way and then press OK, all occurrences of the item will be deleted with the exception of the one instance that is selected.
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2.27 Delete All Occurrences
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There are two methods you can use to remove all occurrences of a recurring item. The first is to select any occurrence of a recurring item on any schedule, then select "Delete All Occurrences" from the Edit menu.
The second method is to first choose the "Alphabetical Items List" in the View menu (ALT+V, A), select the recurring item on the list, press the DELETE key.
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2.28 Exceptions to Recurring Items
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Perhaps a meeting which is normally scheduled to take place on the first Monday of every month will be moved to the following Tuesday because of a holiday that Monday. Or perhaps your daily lunch, normally at 12:30 needs to be extended next Friday to 90 minutes and moved to 12:00 for an achievement awards luncheon.
There are quick and easy ways to make exceptions.
But first the "scenic" route to help you gain an overview. Simply select any standard instance of the recurring item on any schedule day and bring up the definition dialog box by pressing ENTER or by double-clicking on the item.
Now, click on the Next button (or press ALT+N) to advance the date shown above the Next button to the date of the next occurrence of the item. Similarly, click on the Prior button (or press ALT+P) to display the date of the previous occurrence of the item. When the date of the item occurrence that you wish to modify is showing, you may...
Press ALT+C -- To Cancel (delete) this occurrence of the item, or...
Press ALT+X -- To indicate that this occurrence of the item is different in some way, then...
Make the desired changes in the upper portion of the definition dialog box and select OK. The schedule for the date of the modified occurrence will appear on the screen. To the right of the item title will be an "-rx" to indicate that this is an exception to a standard recurring item.
Note: If you would like the modifications entered to become the new standard for the recurring item press ALT+S (for Standard) while still in the definition dialog box.
To quickly Cancel (Delete) ONE instance of a recurring item, select that item in the schedule on day you want it cancelled. Then press DELETE.
To quickly change the date of one instance of a recurring item, select the instance, and simply move it to another day.
To quickly change the duration (or any other details) of one instance of a recurring item, select the instance, press enter (or double click), when the Refine dialog box appears, press ALT+X (or click on the Exception option). Change the information, and press OK.
When the Standard (ALT+S) option is on, changes in the Refine dialog box affect all standard instances.
Changes in the Recurring dialog box (daily, weekly, etc) affect only the standard instances.
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2.29 Changing Item Information
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To change any information for an existing item, first double-click on the item description line on the schedule window (or select the item and press ENTER). Then, click on (or TAB to) the appropriate box and enter the changes. If the desired changes are to the "Recurring" or "Alarm" settings, select these dialog boxes by clicking on "Recurring" or "Alarms".
To save the changes select OK. To return the item to the schedule without any of the changes taking effect, press ESCAPE or click on "Cancel" (or TAB to "Cancel" and press ENTER).
To make changes to a recurring item, select any STANDARD instance of the item. If you select an instance of the item that has been designated as an exception, then the changes will only affect that occurrence of the item.
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2.30 Deleting Items
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Click once on the item in the schedule (or use the arrow keys) to select it, then press the DELETE key (or press ALT+E,D). A message will appear, asking you to confirm the delete command. Click on "Yes" (or TAB to "Yes" then press ENTER) and the item will be removed from the schedule. If you click on "No" (or press ENTER with "No" selected) the item will not be deleted.
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2.31 Toggling Between Two Views
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At the far right end of the Schedules line (just underneath the Menu Titles line) is a maximize button (a small rectangle with an upward pointed triangle in it). Clicking on this triangle will switch to the view mode that was in effect immediately before the current view mode. If there is no previous view mode, the Alphabetical Items List view will be selected.
Using this feature, you can switch back and forth from single window to Week at a Glance or Multiple Windows views and back again easily.
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2.32 Grayed (or Red) Start Times
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On today's schedule, item start times will appear grayed (or red in OS/2 PM) if the start time has already past. Also, if you move an item to a spot where it conflicts with another item or goes outside of the time bounds you designated, the time will appear lighter (or red in OS/2 PM), warning you of the conflict. Keep this in mind when juggling items.
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2.33 Juggling Items
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Once an item is inserted into your schedule, you may move it to a different position within that schedule or move it to the schedule of a different day. If you are not using a mouse, see the section titled "The Juggle Menu" in the Menu Commands Guide, or pull-down the Juggle menu and you'll see the keyboard-equivalent shortcuts.
Using a mouse, click to select the item you wish to move, then simply drag the item up or down within the schedule. When you move a "floating" item up or down on the schedule, the begin time of the item will adjust automatically. Even if you have designated an item to take place at a fixed time, it is possible to move that item up and down in sequence on the schedule, however the time you specified remains the same.
To move a selected item to another schedule, simply click with the right mouse button on the desired target date in the pop-up calendar. This is the quickest and easiest way to reschedule an undone task to another day.
Or, while viewing schedules in multiple windows, drag the selected the item from one schedule window to another.
When two windows automatically appear on the screen: the leftmost schedule contains items that have not been marked as completed and the rightmost schedule is for the present day. This will call your attention to the uncompleted items on the past day so that you may reschedule them if necessary or mark them completed. Having two schedules displayed makes it possible to move items over to the next day by dragging them with a mouse or using the shortcut key-command CTRL+RIGHT arrow. You can also use the Carry Over Undone Items command in the Juggle menu. Better yet for apportioning across other days in the future, click the right mouse button on chosen dates in the pop-up calendar. This is detailed above.
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2.34 Highlighting an Item
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For emphasis, you may wish to highlight certain items on your schedule. Highlighted items appears in the schedule as underlined and will be printed when "Extended Outlook" is selected. See the Print commands in the File menu for more information on the Extended Outlook.
The "Highlight Item" command will underline the currently selected item. A shortcut for this command is to press F3 while in the schedules window. Press F3 again to remove the underline.
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2.35 Printed Schedules
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You may print reports that list your schedule for the present day and beyond; plus a three month calendar. This allows you to see openings for appointments while away from your computer. All highlighted (underlined) events for the next three months also may be listed by choosing the Extended Outlook option. See the Print commands in the File menu for details.
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2.36 Entering Birthdays
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Enter birthdays as annually recurring "notes" (i.e. unscheduled items with a duration of zero).
In the recurring dialog box, specify "Starting Date" as the next ocurrence of the birthday; NOT the actual birthday. The reason for this is that the actual bithday may be outside of the range of Active Life dates.
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2.37 Data Saving and Making Backups
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To minimize data loss from unexpected natural disasters such as power interruptions, schedule information is saved every 60 seconds (in TIMEDATA.PAK eg.). Should a power interruption occur, you would lose only the changes you made within the last minute. As an added precaution, a backup file (TIMEDATA.BAK) is maintained which contains your just previously saved scheduling data.
Notebook files are NOT auto-saved so be sure to save your .NBK files periodically.
There are few things more important than your data. Especially the scheduling data you rely on to plan your future and to track your accomplishments. On a daily basis make backups of all *.PAK files as well as your notebook files (*.NBK) and archived schedules (*.LOG). These backups should be made on reliable media and stored in a safe place.
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2.38 Schedule Archiving
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A schedule will be "archived" when all items are marked as completed. The completed schedule items are archived to monthly files named according to the month and year. For example: "Jan91.Log". These files are ASCII format (text) and may be displayed or printed using the TYPE or PRINT commands of DOS, Windows notepad, or other utility applications, including text editors.
To view archived schedules using the notepad in Windows 3.0, create a program icon for the month with a command line such as:
notepad C:\<dir>\Jan91.Log
where <dir> is the directory where the program is. Now, simply double click on this icon to display the schedule items that have been completed in the month of January 1991. Notepad has editing and text search capability.
To view archived schedules using the notepad in Windows 2.x, select "File: Run" in the MS DOS Executive and enter the above command line.
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2.39 Automatic Launch of Applications
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There may be times when you want to run a program or application at a precise time without having to manually initiate it. This feature is activated by either of the two keywords, EXEC or AUTOEXEC. When either one of these words is included in the item title the feature is enabled. You may specify parameters which will be passed to the program.
If you wish to manually launch an EXEC or AUTOEXEC item earlier in the day for which it is scheduled, simply select the item and issue the Start Item command. For details on the Start Item command see "Edit: Start Item" in the Menu Reference help guide.
Details on EXEC and AUTOEXEC appear on the next four pages.
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2.40 The EXEC Feature
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When the keyword "EXEC" is used in an item title, and the scheduled begin time for that item is reached, a dialog box will be displayed which has the current time and the message, "Ready to EXEC <program-name>." At that time, you may choose the "yes" option to run the program, or choose "no" to cancel the process. If run, the item will automatically be marked as completed in the schedule.
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2.41 The AUTOEXEC Feature
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When the keyword "AUTOEXEC" is used in an item title, and the scheduled begin time for that item is reached, the program will automatically be run without waiting for you to reply to a prompt. As with "EXEC", the item will be marked as done in the schedule.
Both Windows and non Windows programs, plus batch and command files may be run using these commands. If the program is a Windows application, the program window will appear in front of any other active windows and will have the focus. If it is a non Windows program, the system will automatically switch to the DOS environment to run it. When the program ends, the system will switch back into the Windows environment.
Programs and executable files must end in either ".EXE", ".BAT", or ".COM". For programs and executable files with names ending with .BAT or .COM, the .BAT or .COM suffix must be included with the name, otherwise the system will not be able to locate the program or file. For programs with names ending with .EXE, you do not have to include the .EXE when specifying the program name, however .EXE may be included.
Also, the PATH statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file must include the directory in which the program or file is to be found, unless you specify the path explicitly (e.g. EXEC c:\mydir\backup.bat).
<Optional text> is any description you care to put in the item title line. <Keyword> is either EXEC or AUTOEXEC. <Program-Name> is the name of the program or executable file you want Active Life to load and run. <Parameters> are any information that the program needs to perform properly.
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2.42 EXEC Example
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Example Item #1:
Backup manuscript EXEC mybackup.bat /new b:
In this example, the optional text is a brief description of the function you want to accomplish, which is to backup onto diskette the manuscript you have been working on. Then, you chose the keyword EXEC so that Active Life will prompt you before it loads and runs the file. This will give you time to put a blank diskette into the drive. MYBACKUP.BAT is a batch file you created to make backup copies of the manuscript. You wrote the batch file so that it would copy onto any disk drive you specify. Here, you have specified the parameter, "B:", indicating that you want to use drive B: this time.
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2.43 AUTOEXEC Example
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Example Item 2:
AUTOEXEC NOTEPAD
In this example, there is no descriptive text. You chose the keyword AUTOEXEC this time because this is a high priority item and the program must run at the specified time. Notepad is the name of the program you want to run, and it requires no parameters.
The keywords may be typed in upper case, lower case or mixed cases. Everything that follows the keyword is treated as a program name or parameter. The keyword, program name and all parameters must be separated from each other by (only) one space.
The optional text, keywords, program names and parameters are all typed into the Title line in the definition dialog box used to create the item, and they will be displayed on the schedule in the normal fashion.
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2.44 Dynamic Scheduling
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This scheduler provides a most powerful system for planning, managing, and tracking one's active business and personal life. Flexible schedules manage workflow effectively. All types of recurring items need be entered just once. Features include a pop-up calendar, alarms, and week-at-a-glance. Printed schedules provide portable reference and notation.
This system from 1Soft is is designed to organize your life and maximize your productivity; so you can plan time for everything you want to do!
Much of the superior power and flexibility of this system is based on its unique automated scheduling of floating tasks. These schedules are so effective, they render to-do lists obsolete. Floating tasks are items that would otherwise have to appear on a to-do list, but have a duration and suggested begin time. This automated scheduling allows you to plan more precisely and see clearly how your time is being allocated. The benefit of using these, flexible, dynamic schedules is tremendous. The following pages detail some of the advantages.
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2.45 Rewards of Higher Achievement
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Having your workflow streamlined leads directly to much higher achievement every day!
Higher achievement has many benefits. For example...
* A heightened sense of self-worth.
* Bigger commissions, more billable hours and bonuses.
* Larger salary raises and more frequent promotions.
* Higher Academic Rewards
* Better performance in all pursuits. And more time for leisure pursuits!
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2.46 Dependability
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Being able to follow-through on promises and commitments you make to others will strengthen your reputation. People trust individuals that have a history of doing what they say they'll do. With this system, you can plan with confidence, knowing you can follow through on what you plan to do.
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2.47 Greatest Return
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You'll use daily schedules to eliminate time wasters, planning on doing only what will bring you the greatest return.
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2.48 Knowing When You'll Get to It
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Workload cycles from lulls to hurricanes can be trimmed.
Like most people, you probably feel very busy most of the time. But once in a while things slow down. Sometimes suddenly. Maybe you can recall a day when you thought at one point "what should I do next?" and nothing especially urgent came to mind. So the rest of your day wasn't fully utilized.. Lack of challenge can lead to boredom. Often after lulls pass, a period of the being too busy comes surprisingly soon: a crisis of not enough time.
Few of us have a life which naturally delivers opportunities to act in a steady flow. We can even exacerbate the ups and downs unwittingly. We may react to a period of too little to do, by taking on more and more. Then during a crisis of extreme busy-ness, we may refrain from accepting any new challenges, and wind up with a lull of nothing interesting to do, when the storm passes.
With this scheduler, you can see light periods in advance, and plan accordingly. And you can see when future days are filling too rapidly and not take on quite so much before a crisis of deadlines occurs.
When a lull can be anticipated weeks ahead it can be prepared for and not be dull. Knowing you'll be ahead of your workload a few weeks from now could mean planning for a delightful vacation!
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2.49 Reasonable Expectations
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Being able to look ahead and plan reduces stress, and allows you to inform others. Once you have entered your pending tasks you will notice a marked decrease in stress. Because all of your tasks are now in a place where they can be managed effectively, you don't have to depend on less reliable methods to jog your memory. It's all covered. You can relax.
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2.50 Schedule Pacing
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Daily schedules enable you to quickly gauge whether you are behind or ahead of schedule based on how much you have completed.
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2.51 Productivity Push
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When you know you have a schedule of many vital tasks planned for accomplishment, you're more likely to use your time effectively. You know what's next and you know that the time you've planned for the current task is finite. Without a planned schedule, there's a tendency to merely continue with the comfort of the current task much longer, realizing diminishing marginal returns for the extra time spent. With a schedule, you're much more likely to move on to the next item.
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2.52 Transition Time
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No more scanning long to-do lists, plus wall calendars, and appointment books. Smoother transitions boost productivity and effectiveness.
With a to-do list, and no schedule, you know what you have to do, but don't have a plan of when to do it. And you don't know what length of time the workload represents. So you select one task, and work on it for a while. Then you go back to your list and select the next thing, and begin doing it. This creates stress, because you know that if you could anticipate what was coming next, you'd be better ready to attack it. One of the big advantages of a schedule is that you know what's next. While you're working on task A, you can be preparing to do task B subconsciously. You know in advance what tasks you'll encounter throughout the day, and in what order. If you've ever watched the Olympic track and field athletes, you know that the winning sprinter doesn't stop between hurdles. Running fast and not slowing between hurdles is the key to winning times. Imagine if the hurdles are all different heights, such as the events in your day. Then anticipating each successive hurdle becomes even more crucial. There is a natural desire to look forward to things. To know what's coming, and prepare for it. Schedules allow us to do so.
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2.53 Window of Opportunity
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People rarely forget; they just miss the window. Many tasks you seek to accomplish can be done only between certain hours. To-do lists hide this fact. If it's a phone call to return between certain hours, or an errand that needs to be accomplished within a two-hour time frame, then it's a task that cannot be done anytime. Think of all the times you've heard yourself say "Ooops I forgot to...." You remembered the task, but only after the opportunity was missed. A schedule provides the means to plan time-frame sensitive tasks.
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2.54 Log Files
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Recall exactly what was done and when, with confidence.
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2.55 Relief from Office Clutter
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Another benefit is helping to keep your desktop and office less cluttered. A device often used to remember tasks, is to leave something related to the task in a conspicuous place that will be noticed. Unfortunately, for an active person with much to remember, this can lead to an office in complete disarray. This scheduler allows you to file or store away task materials with the confidence that the schedules will show pertinent tasks at the appropriate time.
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2.56 Day-tight Compartments
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You can focus mentally without the distraction of thinking about other tasks: trying not to forget them, or wondering whether they should be worked on now instead of your current task.
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2.57 Increased Productivity
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While you may grow accustomed to having less time-pressure stress in your life, another major benefit will be a dramatic boost in productivity. You'll be amazed at how much you accomplish. You'll get more done in less time.
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2.58 Breaking New Ground
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We are introducing a new way of helping you manage your time. Instead of having tasks merely listed in a to-do list, they can be scheduled in the available time between the appointments on your calendar. There are several advantages to this approach: a unified view, time budgeting, time-frame targeting, transition smoothing, and more.
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2.59 Integration: a Unified View
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Having a unified view means that you don't have to split your attention between your appointment calendar and to-do list. Everything you have planned is arranged in the day's schedule. No longer do you have to split your attention; you can focus.
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2.60 Time Budgeting
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Tasks will be scheduled automatically. At a glance, you can see how much can be accomplished and how much space remains in a given day. This minimizes the number of surprises and crises that arise when insufficient time remains to accomplish high priority tasks before a deadline. And since a schedule is much more precise than a to-do list, you can more easily make and keep your commitments to others. You can tell them in advance exactly when you plan to have something done.
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2.61 Doing it All
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One of the most frequent causes of stress we have all experienced is the feeling of having too much to do. More specifically, we have a lot to do, and aren't sure if we'll get it done in time. It's this doubt and worry that brings on stress. Now you can see exactly what you have to do and how long it's going to take. Then if it cannot be accommodated before deadlines, you can defer lower priority tasks. A renewed sense of confidence in knowing what you can get done, and when, will greatly lower your stress level.
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2.62 Forget it Not
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Another source of stress is worry over forgetting to do certain things before they must be done. We all use methods to combat this threat. Unfortunately the methods are not always reliable, and result in a certain amount of stress. The key to reducing this stress is simply finding a more reliable means to keep track what has to get done, and being reminded of it when there's time to do it (before it is too late).
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2.63 A More Exciting LIfe
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You will naturally feel more excited about life as you put this time planning system to use. With a greater potential for higher productivity you can accomplish all the things you need to do, and find time for more of the things you want to do.
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2.64 Daily Use
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You can gain most of the above benefits even if you use a PC only about twenty minutes each day.
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2.65 The Morning Planning Session
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Check-off the items you completed yesterday and reschedule the tasks you didn't get to. To make it easier to reschedule, open the pop-up monthly calendar. Click the right mouse button and the selected item will be moved to the calendar day you're pointing to. This is the fastest way to reschedule items. You merely click the right mouse button. Be sure to reschedule all undone items.
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2.66 Add New Items
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Add any new items. These might be items you're carrying in your head or those you jotted down on yesterday's printed schedule page.
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2.67 Arrange Your Schedule
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Using the keyboard or mouse, move the items in today's schedule around so that today's schedule best suits you. Often today's schedule will be overloaded, but you can defer items by rescheduling them to future days. And you can adjust today's sequence so there are no conflicts, and items are in the order you desire, bringing related items together, for example. As you make changes, you'll notice that the schedule will adjust automatically.
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2.68 Print a Schedule Report
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You'll want to print off today's schedule, and normally also the extended outlook. The extended outlook includes a 3 month calendar, and any highlightedl events for up to 90 days.
It's possible to print your schedule on one-side of the sheet of paper, and turn it over and send it through the printer for the extended outlook on the back. This means that you only have to carry a single sheet of paper with you throughout the day, which is much easier than a bulky appointment book, not to mention easier to update.
Jot notes on your schedule report during the day; cross-off items you complete. Use the extended outlook to pin-point what times are committed so you can schedule appointments even while away from your PC.
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2.69 Suggestions and Tips
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Enter the items you plan to do, including regular (recurring) items. This can be done very quickly. In the span of about 15 minutes you can probably enter 50 items. Don't forget to include the many things you do everyday, such as lunch. These need be entered only once; time each day will be reserved for them. There will be additional tasks that you'll think of later, and you can enter them anytime.
Then plan today. If today's tasks are not already in a sequence that suits you, arrange them and make adjustments, and then print your schedule for the day. If you have a printer, you can make a printed schedule to carry through the day, crossing-off items that you complete. New items can be noted on this same page, and entered the next morning. If you're using the printed schedules and only running the software once daily, you'll spend about 10 to 20 inutes updating information by marking completed events, entering new schedule items, and adjusting your plans according to your latest
priorities.
Tasks that you want to reschedule you'll move to future days. The pop-up calendar is handy for rescheduling, since you just click the right mouse-button when over a calendar day and the current event will be moved to that day. The updating process is finished when only crossed-off items remain on yesterday's schedule. You can edit any of the crossed-off events to alter the begin time, duration, or other attributes. Yesterday's schedule will later be archived to log what you've accomplished.
Uncompleted tasks are not automatically moved to the present day. This is so you have an opportunity to reschedule yesterday's missed tasks on a future day of your choice. Having everything deferred to the very next day would soon cause an excessive build-up of tasks in the near-term, while many tasks could best be deferred to the more sparsely scheduled days farther in the future. Also, there may be tasks on your Friday schedule that you want to move to Monday, rather than having them dumped onto Saturday.
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2.70 International Time & Date Formats
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1Soft Windows and OS/2 PM products support world-wide date and time formats. Use the Control Panel of Windows or OS/2 PM to select your local time and date format.
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