DOCUMENTATION FOR HANDY+ PERSONAL WORKSTATION Version 1.0 Peter C. Hawxhurst 15 October, 1984 HANDY+ PERSONAL WORK STATION Version 1.0 NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER Copyright (C) 1984 by Peter C. Hawxhurst, all rights reserved. HANDY+ may be freely copied and distributed as long as this notice and documentation accompany all copies, and as long as all distributed copies are in the original form as may be revised by the author. No sale or merchandising of HANDY+ is permitted without the consent of its author. The Author of HANDY+, Peter C. Hawxhurst, makes no warranties, either expressed or implied with respect to this documentation or to the software described herein, its quality, performance or fitness for any particular purpose. The entire risk as to HANDY+ quality or performance is with the user. The user assumes any incidental or consequential damages resulting from their use of the HANDY+ Personal Work Station System. In no event will the system's author be liable for direct, indirect incidental or consequential damages, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. If you are using this system and find it of value, your contribution ($25 suggested) for its continued maintenance, updating and support by the author will be appreciated. Peter C. Hawxhurst 705 Bayside Court Wheeling, Illinois 60090 312-398-6184 Regardless of whether you make a contribution, you are encouraged to copy and share this system. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Osborne Executive is a trademark of the Osborne Computer Corporation. dBASE II is a trademark owned by Ashton-Tate CP/M Plus and CBASIC are registered trademarks of Digital Research, Inc. IBM Personal Computer is a trademark of the IBM Corporation. SuperCalc is a registered trademark of Sorcim Corporation. WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro International Corporation. HANDY+ PERSONAL WORK STATION Version 1.0 DOCUMENTATION TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction....................................................1 Installing and Invoking HANDY+..................................5 The Main System Menu............................................7 Subsystem Menus.................................................8 Commands from within Applications...............................8 Input Screens / Entry Panels....................................9 Entry Errors...................................................10 The Calculator.................................................10 Applications in General........................................11 Expense Account................................................11 Time Management................................................12 Action Planning................................................13 Note Book/Log..................................................13 Filing Cabinet.................................................14 Address and Phone Book.........................................14 Decision Support Tool..........................................15 Special Reports and Utilities..................................16 Appendices: A. Modifying HANDY+ for Other Computers.................17 B. Using HANDY+ on an IBM PC............................18 C. Some Handy PC tools..................................19 D. Combining files with VDO.............................20 E. List of HANDY+ Files.................................21 F. Updating of HANDY+...................................22.pn INTRODUCTION HANDY+ is an advanced version of the HANDY System, a personal time management system written by the same author several years ago. The original HANDY was written in CBASIC. This version is written in dBASE II to be more portable between computers, provide a more versatile, accessable time management database and to facilitate distribution of source code for user modification according to their own needs. Although HANDY+ was written on an Osborne Executive Computer with a CP/M Plus Operating System and uses many of the features of each, including available licensed and public domain software, it should be readily adaptable to other computers that can run dBASE II. Users need only be able to modify a dBASE II command file and be familiar with a few nuances of their computer system (like getting the date and time from memory) in order to make HANDY+ operate effectively for them in their computing environment. This broadened version of the HANDY System is intended to be the corner stone for the development of a personal work station. With but a very few modifications to the main HANDY+ command file (WORKMENU.CMD) users can configure a work station that fulfills their own productivity needs. The more powerful their computer system, especially in regard to disk capacity, the more efficient a work station can be developed. The concept of a computer work station is a single tool with which creative professionals and administrators can directly produce most of their daily output moving smoothly and freely from one type of application to another often combining the data from a few into one. Studies at major corporations indicate a potential productivity improvement in the direct generation of documentation as opposed to turnaround required with clerical and other technical support personnel. For example, a design engineer could produce a brief report combined with some spreadsheet analysis and graphics generated from spreadsheet data possibly on one sheet of paper individually all on one work station. This would be in lieu of drafting a document for a secretary to type and a sketch for a drafter to draw up, passing them back and forth for revision and correction then cutting and pasting to produce the final document. Even with "hunt and peck" typists the former has been shown to have a faster turnaround time than the latter. I will not go into all the reasons for this as a part of this documentation, however. I should point out, though, that this phenomenon is even more pronounced when electronic mail potential is included as a part of the workstation.Suffice it to say there is the potential to work more efficiently with a number of applications packages bundled together that can be moved between with a few key strokes and a minimum of disk changes. HANDY+ with its built in "desk top" utilities is designed to be the control point for this movement. Some "workstation" software commercially available now allows the use of multiple applications on the computer screen concurrently in "windows" with the ability to move data from one window to another and create a combined document. The best employ a "mouse" along with the keyboard. HANDY+ will not do this, nor will it readily facilitate document combination (see Appendix D, however), but it is free and can act as a traffic cop for multiple applications on a single floppy disk. As indicated above, the more disk capacity, the greater potential multiple applications along side HANDY+ and greater potential productivity improvement. INSTALLING AND INVOKING HANDY+ HANDY+ is designed to operate as a two disk system. Most of the HANDY+ program (command) files reside on a disk in drive B of the computer along with database files and their respective indexes. dBASE II and other commercial or public domain productivity programs are intended to reside on a disk in drive A of the computer. The disk capacity of the OSBORNE (double density) computers does not allow space for the dBASE II version 2.4X ".MSG" file if all the features designed into HANDY+ are to be employed to the maximum. This does not affect the operation of dBASE II, only the ability to use the HELP feature in this later version. Computers with greater disk capacity may be able to include this file and, as stated in the Introduction, alternate productivity programs or files. To install HANDY+ one should first format a blank diskette and copy their computer's operating system onto this diskette if it is to be used for cold or warm booting. Such is recommended, although eliminating this file may add significant disk space on the drive A program disk for other purposes. The dBASE II program files and other files desired for maximum productivity should also be copied to this diskette. Some of these may have to be renamed for HANDY+ to recognize them or command lines in the HANDY+ routines may have to be changed (see the Modifying HANDY+ section in the Appendices of this documentation). The HANDY+ routine WSTATION.CMD should also be copied to the drive A program diskette along with the routine GETXTIME for an Osborne EXECUTIVE computer. All other HANDY+ routines, report form, database and index files should be copied to a blank formatted diskette for drive B.A typical configuration of HANDY+ on the Osborne EXECUTIVE computer would be as follows: DRIVE A DISKETTE: CP/M+ Operating System. Osborne Executive DATE.COM program dBASE II program files. SuperCalc2 program files HANDY+ WSTATION.CMD and GETXTIME.CMD files. Public domain programs as follows: VDO text editor renamed TEXTEDIT.COM. EX-FNKEY.COM renamed SETFKEYS. EX-KEYS.COM renamed SHOWKEYS.COM. EXCLOCK.COM. DRIVE B DISKETTE: HANDY+ .DBF, .NDX, .FRM and .TXT files. HANDY+ .CMD files other than WSTATION.CMD & GETXTIME The above is as HANDY+ is configured to run as distributed in this version. Invoking HANDY+ is merely accomplished by typing "dBASE WSTATION" from the "A>" prompt (quotation marks not included). Alternatively a special function key may of course be set to do this. The HANDY+ Copyright Notice will follow the dBASE II notice and the user will be asked to insert their data/work station in drive B then press RETURN to begin. It is advisable to set the system clock with the DATE program before invoking HANDY+ as the date and time will be displayed after the Copyright Notice. However, such can also be done from within HANDY+ if desired. The HANDY+ screens have been designed to allow the date and time to be displayed continuously in the upper right hand corner of the CRT display if the user has a program to create such a window (like EXCLOCK). If not, the user can have the current date and time displayed from within HANDY+ as requested. THE MAIN SYSTEM MENU Once the user has inserted their data/work station diskette in drive B and pressed RETURN following the sign-on message, HANDY+ will display its Main System Menu: HANDY+ PERSONAL WORK STATION SYSTEM MAIN MENU Exit System.......................0 Calculator........................1 Expense Account...................2 Time Management...................3 Action Planning...................4 Notebook/Log......................5 Filing Cabinet....................6 Address & Phone Book..............7 Decision Support Tool.............8 Special Reports & Utilities.......9 Please enter an option number (0-9) The user may select an activity from this menu by simply pressing the number next to the desired activity. Each activity selection has its own submenu, including the "Exit System" selection. This selection is of particular importance: From the "Exit System" selection (option 0) the user may exit not only to the computer's operating system but to other programs, utilities, dBASE II direct command mode and to set the system date and time or display it. It is from within the routine that controls this activity that users will make most of their personal/computer modifications of HANDY+. The Exit Work subsystem menu is as shown below: EXIT SYSTEM A - Exit to the operating system B - Exit to the database manager C - Exit to text editor & return D - Exit to spreadsheet & return E - Exit to another work station F - Exit to function key resetup G - Exit to disk control utility H - Exit to set the system clock R - Exit to the main system menu Option (0-9; A-H or R)? Another selection of importance is Option 9 - "Special Reports and Utilities." Nothing is included in HANDY+ for this selection. This is an area for the user to create their own applications and access them from the HANDY+ main routine.The other selections from the main menu should be self explanitory except for Option 8 - "Decision Support Tool" which will be discussed at length in a subsequent section of this documentation. SUBSYSTEM MENUS As mentioned in the previous section, a Main System Menu selection will, with the exception of the calculator and decision support tool options, bring up a subsystem menu for selection of a specific, related function. Subsystem option selections are single letters. Subsystem menus appear to the right of the Main System Menu with a blinking title. The purpose of having both menus appear on the screen at the same time is to permit the user to select a subsystem option or select an option from the Main System Menu instead. Either a Main System Menu option or a subsystem option may selected while viewing a subsystem menu. If the user simply wishes to return to the Main System Menu, the "R" option which appears on all subsystem menus may be selected. Selection of an option other than "R" from a subsystem menu starts an application function in HANDY+. When quitting a selected application the user is in most cases returned to the Main System Menu rather than the subsystem menu from which the application function was selected. COMMANDS FROM WITHIN APPLICATIONS Most subsystem applications have a command line at the bottom of the CRT display indicating to the user functions that may be performed respective to the application selected. Most of the command lines are identical and a typical one is as follows: ___________________________________________________ A)dd E)dit F)uture N)ext P)ast R)estart Q)uit WAITING The "WAITING" below the command information line indicates that the selected application is awaiting a command entry by the user. A command is the single letter to the left of the ")" inserted in the command word and may be entered in upper or lower case. The command information line above is typical of a time management application. Note: A or Add Will allow the user to make a new entry or addition appropriate to the application at hand. E or Edit Will allow the user to browse or edit previous application entries. F or Future Will allow the user to enter a future date and display application information for that date. N or Next Will take the user to the next day in a similar way as the F (Future) function. P or Past Does the opposite of the F (Future) function. R or Restart Takes the user back to the system's date (note the importance of setting this date). Q or Quit Takes the user out of the application at hand back to the Main System Menu. Other functions that may appear on command information lines are P (Page) to go to the next page of an application; S (Select) to choose an application entry for more information/manipulation; and C (Change) to modify something in an application. INPUT SCREENS / ENTRY PANELS With but a few exceptions, fancy input screens or entry panels have not been designed into HANDY+. It is felt this would be redundant to dBASE II and its powerful features. Most data input and editing is done within standard dBASE II Append, Edit or Browse screen formats. Such speeds HANDY+ execution. It is further required that the dBASE II control commands be used to "on-screen" edit or manipulate data. For example, ^W (CTRL and W pressed simultaneously) will write new or edited data to an applications database file. Likewise, ^Q will leave an editing or browsing mode without writing new data to a database file. ^U will delete or undelete a database record and so on. While HANDY+ is very, very user friendly, it is important that users become intimately familiar with the dBASE II control functions for full screen editing. A word of caution on entering dates and times: In most cases the "/" for a date entry or the ":" for time entries will appear within the area designated for the particular type of input. Do not include them when making such entries. Dates should be entered in their complete form - MM/DD/YY (i.e. Month Month/Day Day/Year Year). January 1st, 1984 would be entered 01/01/84 with zeroes included for months or days less than 10. Similarly, times should be entered completely as HH:MM (i.e. Hour Hour:Minute Minute) with zeroes included for hours or minutes less than 10. One a.m. would be entered 01:01. ENTRY ERRORS In the original CBASIC HANDY System version the author went to great lengths to protect the user from bombing out of an application by entering a letter instead of a number, entering an erroneous date or formatting an entry incorrectly. This required many lengthy subroutines taking up perhaps 75-80% of the program code. Such is not the case in this version of HANDY; the author's philosophy has changed! The input required by HANDY+ while important to the user, is anything but complicated. It is believed users sophisticated enough to use dBASE II will soon learn how to avoid errors in using this system, and that it would be an insult to their intellegence to waste disk space with redundant program code. In any case dBASE II has many error checking features built into it, and employing its standard input screens as much as possible enhances entry error elimination. THE CALCULATOR A very simple calculator routine has been included in HANDY+ for simple mathmatical functions from the user's "desk top." It may take some getting used to. The top of the calculator picture displays two entry screens, one marked "fcn" to the right and a numeric entry screen to its left. "fcn" stands for "function" and one of the functions listed on the calculator itself is entered here. First a number must be entered in the left entry area. Then the RETURN or ENTER key must be pressed to move the cursor to the fcn input area. Any function entry will cause the cursor to jump back to the numeric entry area. The user may simply press RETURN or ENTER when the cursor is in the numeric entry area without entering a number to jump to the function input area. A number entered in the function input area will cause one of the options on the Main System Menu to be selected. This is why this menu remains on the screen with the calculator. The calculator has been designed for the potential of two hand operation. The functions selectable ore in a small area of the left hand side of the computer's keyboard. The right hand can operate the numeric key pad and ENTER key while the left hand selects calculator functions. If something is placed into the calculator's single memory, a blinking "M" will appear above the function entry area to indicate such. The memory may of course be added to, subtracted from or cleared. The memory may also be recalled to the numeric entry area as input.dBASE II's full screen editing functions are usable with the calculator. APPLICATIONS IN GENERAL Most of the other HANDY+ applications are straight forward and require little explination. The menus for the various subsystems will be listed in following sections with a few notes as to particular nuances important to keep in mind relative to the applications in each subsystem. Additional notes/documentation will be entered in these sections as users identify needs or problems in using applications. EXPENSE ACCOUNT The subsystem menu for the Expense Account subsystem is as follows: EXPENSE ACCOUNT SUBSYSTEM A - Add/update an expense record B - Edit/browse expense database C - Expenses report per a period D - Summary of expenses for year E - Enter an auto mileage record F - Edit/browse mileage database G - Mileage expenses by a period H - Auto mileage expense summary R - Exit to the main system menu Option (0-9; A-G or R)? Notes: o Very simple and straight forward subsystem with standard dBASE II data entry, data entry and report form formats. o Essentially two databases: General expenses and mileage expenses are kept separately. TIME MANAGEMENT The subsystem menu for the Time Management subsystem is as follows: TIME MANAGEMENT SUBSYSTEM A - Daily appointment calendar B - Daily action planning list C - Monthly planning calendars D - Six month calendar display E - Monthly reminder notations R - Return to main system menu Option (0-9; A-E or R)? Notes: o The heart of the original HANDY system as those who used it will recognize. o Most applications very straight forward and easy to use. o The Monthly Planning Calendars allows blocking out of days for an activity in a standard calendar format. Activities may be up to seven days in duration (longer activities require multiple entries), and any day or series of days can only display one activity. o The Six Month Calendar Display does not require a database or user input other than than commands to move forward or backward in time. o Some of the routines driving these applications may seem to operate slowly, but it is expected that one will remain within the a particular application at length and operation within the application itself is speedy. ACTION PLANNING The subsystem menu for the Action Planning subsystem is as follows: ACTION PLANNING SUBSYSTEM A - Display action plan topics B - Make planning item entries C - Scan the planning database D - Display/edit a action plan E - Go to general action plans R - Return to main system menu Option (0-9; A-D or R)? Notes: o Action plans are kept in the form of 3x5 note cards. This subsystem does make use of an input screen in that format, and dBASE II editing features are usable. o The "Go to general action plans" option takes the user to their text editor for free form or listing action plan entries. NOTEBOOK/LOG The subsystem menu for the Notebook/Log subsystem is as follows: NOTEBOOK/LOG SUBSYSTEM A - List notebook/log subjects B - Make notebook/log entries C - Scan the notebook database D - Display or edit a notation E - Go to the general notebook R - Return to main system menu Option (0-9; A-D or R)? Notes: o This subsystem operates identically to the Action Planning subsystem. o The "Go to general notebook" option again takes the user to their text editor for free form note or log entries. FILING CABINET The subsystem menu for the Filing Cabinet subsystem is as follows: FILING CABINET SUBSYSTEM A - Log alternate disk/cabinet B - Display folders in cabinet C - Browse/edit files database D - Display the disk directory E - Delete file from directory R - Return to main system menu Option (0-9; A-E or R)? Notes: o This is a very simple system to organize disk files into file folders as documents. o Some basic utilities for disk file management are also included. ADDRESS AND PHONE BOOK The subsystem menu for the Phone Book subsystem is as follows: PHONE BOOK SUBSYSTEM A - Family telephone number list B - Acquaintances telephone list C - Office/co-workers phone list D - Business firm telephone list E - Shop/services telephone list F - Emergency phone numbers list G - Other telephone numbers list R - Exit to the main system menu Option (0-9; A-G or R)? Notes: o Selecting one of the options from this subsystem menu will display names and phone numbers respective of the category selected. o This subsystem acts as an address book as well. Selecting the "S" option from the command information line allows the user to see the entire entry for a particular name when the record number next to the name is entered on request. o Additionally, if the user wishes to edit an entry they may do so after going through the Select (S) process. o The "P" option allows the user to page through the phone book for the particular category they are in. The "R" or restart option takes the user back to the first "Page" of the category. DECISION SUPPORT TOOL Decision Support Tool does not have a subsystem menu and deserves some special explination. The general concept of this application is for the user to enter a number of considerations bearing on some decision the user is making. As an example, lets say the user is contemplating the purchase of an automobile. A few considerations one might enter are as follows: Cost Mileage Manufacturer Maintainability Style Model Power or engine size etc. When the user is done entering considerations they are asked to rate the importance of each. This is done on a one on one basis, one consideration against each of the others individually. For example: Which is more important - COST or MILEAGE. Which is more important - COST or MANUFACTURER Which is more important - COST or MAINTAINABILITY and so forth down to POWER OR ENGINE SIZE Then the query process starts again: Which is more important - MILEAGE or MANUFACTURER Which is more important - MILEAGE or MAINTAINABILITY and so on down the list. During the query process a priority matrix is developed. At the end of this process the considerations are listed in order of their relative importance to the user, highest priority at the top. Its a simple tool but helpful. SPECIAL REPORTS AND UTILITIES As mentioned previously, there is no subsystem menu for the Special Reports and Utilities subsystem. In fact there is no Special Reports and Utilities subsystem. This is an area for the user to create their own handy utilities, etc., along with their own menu. Examples may be: A routine to setup the users printer in different operating modes. Routines to print out data from the HANDY+ databases in particular formats. No print out features have been included in the HANDY+ system. Routines to drive other software than HANDY+ has been designed to access. Appendix A MODIFYING HANDY+ FOR OTHER COMPUTERS Remember, HANDY+ was created on an Osborne Executive Computer in a CPM+ operating environment. Most modifications necessary to permit HANDY+ to operate well on other computers will be made in the command file WORKMENU.CMD. With the exception of the command file WSTATION.CMD, all HANDY+ command files as distributed are in short form dBASE II code without comments. This may make it more difficult for the less experienced dBASE II user to modify HANDY+. The original, long form code, again without comments, may be obtained from the author for the suggested $25 contribution. Also, the author will make modifications for other computers or for particular needs on request for an estimated cost ($25 minimum). This depends on the availability to the author of other computers and software. The more complex modifications to HANDY+ will be in the subsystem menu command files which are generally named according to the subsystem name. The only code in those files the author forsees needing modification are the escape character sequences necessary to make subsystem menu titles blink on the Osborne Executive. These are: @ LINE,COLUMN SAY CHR(27)+CHR(94) to start blinking, and @ LINE,COLUMN SAY CHR(27)+CHR(113) to stop blinking. The file GETXTIME.CMD will have to be changed for computers with clocks in different memory locations or eliminated for computers without clocks. For computers without clocks, users should create some means of entering the date in dBASE II while in HANDY+. In the command file EXITWORK.CMD users may wany to change the TEXTEDITOR title to some other software as well as changing SC2 (SuperCalc2) to another spreadsheet. The user may want to add (or use) other software in this routine as well or in their own SPECIAL REPORTS AND UTILITIES routine. Other than these few considerations and the special needs of users, HANDY+ should be quite portable. IBM PC and comaptible users will have difficulty in a dBASE II environment because the "QUIT TO program name" feature does not work in that version. It is recommended that those with such computers upgrade to dBASE III where this feature works very well, and modify the command files and databases, etc., with the "CONVERT" utility that comes with it. For those that do not wish to upgrade, the following appendix section will be of help. Appendix B USING HANDY+ ON AN IBM PC SPECIAL NOTE TO IBM PC USERS Remember all HANDY+ command files will have to be renamed with a PRG (i.e. .PRG) extension in order to work with dBASE II on the IBM PC. For example, rename the file WSTATION.CMD to WSTATION.PRG. ------------------------- dBASE II does not make use of its "QUIT TO program name" on an IBM PC computer. It is therefor necessary to create a batch file to exit HANDY+ to other software and re-enter it. Also, some program modifications are necessary in the HANDY+ command files other than those mentioned in Appendix A. An example batch file (.BAT extension) is shown below. This may be the users AUTOEXEC.BAT file for automatically running HANDY+ on a cold or warm boot of computer, or some other name with the BAT extension that the user can enter from the operating system command prompt ( A> ). Example program - ________.BAT DBASE WSTATION NEXTPROG ________.BAT Notice this batch file calls itself at the end. This will return the user to HANDY+ after entering and exiting some other software like a text editor, word processor or spreadsheet. The "________" block is the name the users chooses for their BAT file. The (.BAT) extension does not have to be used in the BAT file. NEXTPROG in the above example is a program created by HANDY+. It is in effect a one record database named NEXTPROG.DBF that gets renamed to NEXTPROG.BAT before HANDY+ is exited. In the HANDY+ command file EXITWORK.CMD the lines using the "QUIT TO" feature of dBASE II should be changed to lines as follows (using SuperCalc as an example to exit to): DELETE FILE NEXTPROG.BAT USE NEXTPROG DELETE ALL PACK APPEND BLANK REPLACE PROGRAM WITH 'SUPERCALC' COPY TO NEXTPROG.BAT SDF USE QUIT Notice that the user will have to create a database file with one 8 character field named PROGRAM. Its a bit of a kludge but it works. Appendix C SOME HANDY PC TOOLS Another method of circularly moving from dBASE II to another program other than that described in Appendix B, or, for that matter, moving around from any language like BASIC on the PC is to "plug" the PC's keyboard buffer. Below is a sample portion of a program. It has been tested in BASIC but not in other languages or dBASE II (note, however, you can "PEEK" and "POKE" in dBASE II as well as "CALL" an assembly language routine). This example assumes the user is selecting some program or software from a menu driven by a BASIC program. Via the user's selection a program name is stored to a string variable, PLUG$. The following subroutine or inline portion of the menu program is invoked: 1000 DEF SEG=0 1010 PLUG$=PLUG$+CHR$(13) 1020 X=LEN(PLUG$) 1030 POKE 1050,30 1040 POKE 1052,30+(X*2) 1050 FOR I=1 TO X*2 STEP 2 1060 POKE 1053+I,ASC(MID$(PLUG$,(I+1)/2,1)) 1070 NEXT I 1080 SYSTEM In the above example, the word "SC" for SuperCalc could be stored to the string variable PLUG$: 0100 PLUG$="SC" A carriage return is added to PLUG$ in line 1010. Then PLUG$ is poked into the memory locations for the keyboard buffer of the PC defined by lines 1030 and 1040 one letter at a time in line 1060. This is the equivalent of the user typing in "SC" at the keyboard and pressing the RETURN or ENTER key. Then BASIC is exited in line 1080 and the program "plugged" into the keyboard is executed. Similarly "plugging" the PC keyboard buffer can be employed to set the PC's date and time. The following routine canbe used to set the dBASE II date in a dBASE II command/program file ON THE IBM PC: STORE ' ' TO DUMMY POKE 61440,180,42,205,33,137,22,13,240,137,14,15,240,195 SET CALL TO 61440 CALL DUMMY STORE PEEK(61454) TO MM STORE PEEK(61453) TO DD STORE PEEK(61456)*256+PEEK(61455)-1900 TO YY STORE STR(MM,2)+'/'+STR(DD,2)+'/'+STR(YY,2) TO MDATE SET DATE TO &MDATE Appendix D COMBINING FILES WITH VDO VDO is the text editor recommended for use along side HANDY+ on a CP/M operating system computer. This public domain program has been renamed TEXTEDIT in HANDY+. One of the nice features of VDO is the ability to combine ASCII text files quickly, including spreadsheet and graphics files printed to a disk file rather than a printer (a feature standard in most such software packages). To execute this simple but powerful procedure one simply has to load their master text file, say for example a report, from within VDO. Then they press the ESC key to access the VDO command menu. Selecting the N or Name option the can select the file name of another ASCII text/graphics file. Pressing ESC again and selecting the I or insert option inserts that file in the master file (in memory) where ever the cursor was positioned before the insert command was invoked. The user must remember to select the N option again and re-enter the name of the master document before selecting to "save" (ESC & S or ESC & X) it OR IT WILL BE SAVED IN THE NAME OF THE INSERTED DOCUMENT! Users should be aware that VDO stores a hard carrage return at the end of each line it saves unlike many word processors. If one is to re-edit the saveddocument using the word processor, they may encounter difficulty in realining paragraphs. It is a good idea to perform your "cut-and-paste" work after each document has been fully edited and finalized. This is an excellent way to prepare truely spiffy reports! Appendix E HANDY+ FILES The command files included in HANDY+ and included under the Copyright for this system are as follows: ACTPLANS.CMD AGGENDAS.CMD CALCULAT.CMD CHANGEOP.CMD DECISION.CMD ERASTIME.CMD EXITWORK.CMD EXPENSES.CMD FILECABS.CMD FONEBOOK.CMD GETXTIME.CMD LIFETIME.CMD MILEAGES.CMD NEXTDATE.CMD NOTEBOOK.CMD NOTECARD.CMD PLANNING.CMD PRINTIME.CMD REMINDER.CMD SAYMONTH.CMD SAYTODAY.CMD SIXMONTH.CMD TODOLIST.CMD WORKMENU.CMD WSTATION.CMD Appendix F UPDATING OF HANDY+ In order to avoid confusion and encumbering remote public domain software systems with numerous update files with criptic names, a master update library will be maintained for HANDY+. This file will be called HANDY+UP.LBR. Users should look for it periodically. Only author improvements and bug fixes will be included in this file. Customization of HANDY+ for particular users will not be included in updates. Dates of HANDY+ updates will be listed below with a general discription of the nature of the update. Only extensively revised issues of HANDY+ will be renumbered to different versions. DATE: NATURE OF REVISION: