Auspice is a reminder system which will automatically remind you of events at any time the Auspice program is running, even if it is in the "background" while you are using another application. Normally you will make Auspice a "startup" application (see below) allowing it to automatically start and run all of the time your Mac is running. The major "trick" to using Auspice is that you usually never "Quit" -- just leave it running all of the time and use the "Iconize" menu item or the "Iconize" button to keep the windows out of your way. Auspice requires that you use either System 6 with MultiFinder or System 7.
-- Installation Instructions --
Use this paragraph if you are NOT currently using a
previous version of Auspice. Copy Auspice to your
disk and place it anywhere convenient. Under System
7, select Auspice and then choose "Make Alias"
from the Finder's File Menu. Put the alias into the
"Startup items" folder inside the System
folder. Under System 6 with MultiFinder, select Auspice
and then choose "Set Startup" from the Finder
"Special" menu. Use the Set Startup dialog
to automatically open the selected item (Auspice) upon
startup. The first time you run Auspice, you will
get an alert with a "Create" button to create
an empty data file (this file is used to store your
reminders).
-- Upgrading Instructions --
Use this paragraph only if upgrading from an earlier
version. First, make a backup copy of your Auspice
Data file (may be in the System Folder on some old
versions) and the old program (in case you need to
go back). Then, to upgrade from a 3.x version just
replace the old program with the new one and make it
a "startup" item as described above. To
upgrade from version 1.x or 2.x, remove the old "Auspice
Init" from the System Folder (or "Extensions"
folder inside the System Folder) and remove the old
Auspice application. You can leave the "Auspice
Data" file in the System Folder or move it to
another location. The first time you run the new version,
you may see an alert telling you that Auspice can't
find the data file; if this happens, use the "Find"
button in the alert and then select the data file.
-- Preferences --
When you first use Auspice you may wish to set your
own preferences by using the "Preferences"
menu item on the "Reminders" menu. You can
set the following:
Preference 1) The default time that is pre-set each time you enter a new reminder; this can be the current time when the reminder is entered or a fixed time. I have mine set for a fixed time of 5:00 AM as I prefer to get most of my reminders in the morning when I start the Mac; for meetings later in the day I change the time when I set the specific reminder.
Preference 2) Whether or not Auspice should automatically save (write to disk) after any change to a reminder or only when closing a file or quitting. The only time you would have to use the "Save" menu item with Auspice is if you have the auto save preference set to save only when closing or quitting and you would like to save changes without quitting. If you set this preference to auto save after any change you will never need to use the "Save" menu item. Auspice automatically saves when you Quit if there are any changes.
Preference 3) The word processor you prefer to use to access the text file created if you export reminders from Auspice (see "Exporting Reminders" below).
Preference 4) Whether or not you want Auspice to require manual save/delete after notification. If you check this preference, when Auspice sends you a reminder from the background (while you are using another application), an icon in the menu bar will blink until you enter Auspice and the reminder is presented a second time. This allows you greater flexibility in rescheduling the reminder but it is more work. If you run Auspice with this preference not checked, after Auspice sends you a reminder from the background, it will automatically reschedule the reminder if that reminder has a Recurring Interval or delete the reminder if it does not have a Recurring Interval.
-- Entering Reminders --
The easiest way to enter a reminder is to double-click
on the date in the Calendar window. A dialog box will
appear and the date you clicked on will already be
entered. The time entered will be either the current
time or a fixed time depending on how you set the "Default
time" preference from the Preferences menu item.
Enter a short reminder message and then use the tab
key (or the mouse) to move to the time/date entry area.
You can use the up & down arrow keys on your keyboard,
the mouse, or just type in a different date or time.
Hold the shift key and press the tab key to move backwards
to the previous field. The date you enter is the date
of the event for which you will be reminded. At the
left below the event date is a box to enter the number
of minutes, hours, days, weekdays, weeks, or months
in advance of the event date by which you are to be
reminded. For example, for a birthday on Sept.16 you
would enter Sept.16 as the event date, and you might
enter 2 weeks for the Advance Warning in order to be
reminded early enough to have time to shop for a gift.
If you don't enter an Advance Warning, the warning
date/time will be the same as the event date/time.
Next to the Advance Warning is a box for the Recurring
Interval. That is the frequency that the event reoccurs
(if it does reoccur). For a birthday, enter 1 year.
By entering 1 year, after you are reminded of the
birthday, Auspice will automatically reset the reminder
for the following year (if you have the "Require
manual save/delete after notification" preference
off) or the Save dialog will automatically increase
the event date by 1 year. Pop-up menus are used to
set the Advance Warning and Recurring Intervals to
minutes, hours, days, weekdays, weeks, months, or years.
To use the pop-up menus simply hold the mouse down
on the current setting of minutes, hours, etc. and
then move the mouse to the desired choice while holding
down the mouse button.
-- Propagating Reminders --
The "Propagate Reminders" menu item on the
"Reminders" menu allows you to generate multiple
reminders from one entry. For example, if you have
a weekly meeting every Tuesday at 10:00 AM, you could
enter the date and time of the next meeting and have
Auspice create 52 (or some other number) of reminders
1 week apart. Personally, I would prefer to handle
the same situation by just entering one reminder with
the "New Reminder" command and give it a
one week recurring interval; that way I always have
only the next week's meeting on my schedule and each
week it advances one week. If the meeting schedule
changes, I don't have to find and change or delete
52 reminders. On the other hand, my calendar only
shows the next week's meeting. It's a matter of personal
preference.
-- Changing or Deleting Reminders --
In the Listing window, double-click on the reminder
which you want to change or delete. This will bring
up the change dialog. A slower way is to single-click
and then choose "Change Reminder" or "Delete
Reminder" from the "Reminders" menu.
-- Responding to Reminders --
While Auspice is running it will notify you whenever
a reminder is due (i.e., when the Advance Warning date/time
is reached.) If Auspice happens to be the "foreground"
application at that time it will bring up the reminder
and allow you to change or delete it. If you are running
another application and Auspice is in the background,
it will send you a notification with the message.
After you've read the message and clicked the "OK"
button on the notification, if you have not checked
the "Require manual save/delete after notification"
preference, Auspice will automatically delete the reminder
or reset it for the next Recurring Interval. However,
if you have checked the "Require manual save/delete
after notification" preference, the menu (the
Apple Menu if System 6, the Application Menu at the
right of the screen if System 7) will continue to blink
with the Auspice Icon. Whenever it's convenient you
can return to the Auspice application. When you do,
Auspice will immediately display the reminder again
so you can indicate whether you want to delete it or
save it for a future time (if you set a recurring interval
when you first created the reminder, that date/time
will already be inserted into the reminder.) "Defer"
is like a "snooze" feature in that it leaves
the reminder unchanged except for the warning date/time.
-- Sounds --
The "Sounds" item on the "Reminders"
menu allows you to select the sound you prefer to hear
when a reminder is due. You also have the option of
telling Auspice to replay the sound every 1 to 60 minutes
until you respond -- in case you are away from the
computer when the sound first plays. Auspice will
play any "snd " resource from an open file.
No new sounds are included with Auspice but it will
allow you to choose any "snd " resources
you have installed in your System file.
-- Exporting Reminders --
The "Export Reminders..." menu choice exists
primarily because I've had requests to add an option
to print reminders. Since I haven't found the time
to do that, exporting at least allows you to send the
reminders to a text file which you can print from your
word processor or spreadsheet. I know that's not very
convenient and will try to add printing in a future
release.
-- Calendar --
The calendar window shows the number of "Advance
Warnings" set for a date as a small number to
the left of that date and the number of "Events"
for a date are shown to the right of the date. Double
click on any date to enter a reminder for that date
(this is a shortcut to using "New Reminder"
on the menu). If you hold the Option, Shift, or Command
key and double click on a date on the calendar, the
list of reminders in the listing window will scroll
to the first reminder with that warning date. The
month and year displayed on the calendar can be changed
by using the popup menus (click on the month or year
at the top of the calendar) or by using the arrow buttons
or arrow keys.
-- Auspice History option --
If History if turned on via the "History"
menu item, Auspice will write a record of each reminder
issued. This record is written into a TEXT file which
you create or select via the "History" menu
item. The TEXT file can be located in any folder you
desire. If you use the "History" menu item
to create the text file, first use the popup menu to
select the application (e.g. Microsoft Word) which
you want to use to read/print the history. This makes
it possible for you to later double-click on the history
text file and have the application of your choice open
it. When you use your word processor to read or print
the history file, if you make any changes to the file
be sure to save it as a TEXT file (this is an option
under the "Save As" menu item in many word
processors). If the file is saved in the word processor's
normal format rather than in the TEXT format, Auspice
will NOT open it (since I'm not intelligent enough
to deal with all the possible formats). If this happens,
you can simply double-click on the history file to
open it and then do a SAVE AS in the TEXT format.
-- Multiple data files --
Normally Auspice is used with only one data file - "Auspice
Data" However, via the File Menu, the application
can open or create additional data files. Be aware
that Auspice can only have one file open at a time
and that is the only file from which you will receive
reminders. When you start Auspice it will automatically
open the file which was open when you last quit.
-- Windows --
The position and size of the windows are saved when
you quit so that the new position and size will be
used the next time you run Auspice. Auspice also remembers
which windows were open when you quit. I normally
use the "Iconize" windows option to keep
Auspice out of the way.
-- Find --
The "Find..." menu item allows you to search
your reminders for any part of a date, time, or message.
The search starts with the first reminder. If a match
if found, the listing window is scrolled to the reminder
which matched and the "Find" button changes
to "Find Next" so you can continue searching
for other matches. The search is not case sensitive.
-- Credits --
Developed by:
Wayne K. Meyers
1283 Mary Lee Way
San Jose, CA 95118
U.S.A.
Telephone: 408-264-5847
CompuServe 70771,3574
Internet 70771.3574@CompuServe.COM
Auspice was developed for my own use and as an exercise in Macintosh C programming (Symantec's THINK C is outstanding!). Auspice is "postcardware" and you are welcome to distribute copies with this notice included. The official list price is one postcard (preferably a picture postcard from your area or associated with your interests or business). If you find it useful or if you find an annoying creature or feature, let me know. Please send me a postcard to let me know someone out there is getting some benefit from this (if you are) ! I will attempt to notify everyone who has sent a postcard of any future updates.
History of changes from previous versions:
Version 3.5.1 (August 1994)
* Auspice will now recognize when an unreadable (uninitialized)
disk is inserted while it is the foreground application.
Version 3.5 (August 1994)
* Fixed a bug which could cause a crash if Auspice only
contained one reminder and the Preference to "Require
manual save/deletes" was not checked.
* Auspice will now display an alert message if a custom
holiday name which is too long is entered.
Version 3.4 (May 1994)
* Fixed a bug which could cause Auspice to go into a
loop and keep presenting the same reminder when running
in the background. (Sorry about that!)
* Auspice will now save the most recent settings in
the Defer Dialog (thanks for the many people who suggested
this).
* If left on over midnight, the current date inverted
on the calendar will now change (although no attempt
has been made to change the month/year).
* Screens will now refresh if any data changes while
Auspice is in the background.
Version 3.3 (February 1994)
* Added an "Iconize" button to the calendar
and list windows.
* Added left and right arrows to the calendar window
to move the calendar ahead or back one month at a time
without using the popup menu. The arrow keys on the
keyboard also accomplish the same task.
* New reminders with the same reminder date and time
are now sorted by event date and time within reminder
date and time.
* The "Save" button in the Reminder Dialog
is now dimmed (inactive) if there is no message entered
or if the reminder date is invalid.
* The popup menu on the Calendar window is now gray
when the calendar window is not the active window.
* Fixed a bug that caused a cosmetic problem with ClarisWorks
(System 6 only).
* Previous versions required a second entry of the Finder
Shutdown command if there were any outstanding reminders
to be saved or deleted when Auspice was in the background
and the Shutdown command was chosen. Auspice now handles
the Shutdown command correctly.
* The ability to "propagate" multiple reminders
from one entry was added.
* Added the ability to have recurring intervals for
some less usual intervals such as the 3rd Tuesday of
each month or in accordance with a 4/4/5 fiscal schedule.
* Changed the "Help" window to a scrolling
window.
* Changed the "About Auspice" window to a
postcard format.
* Fixed a bug (unlocked Handle) which could cause a
cosmetic problem in the text in the list window.
* Added the ability to choose the Reminder sound and
the option to have Auspice play the sound every minute
until there is a response.
* Added the option to have Auspice automatically delete
or reset and save reminders which are presented while
Auspice is in the background without the user needing
to re-enter Auspice and deal with the reminder a second
time.
Version 3.2 (January 1994)
* A beta test version including the features outlined
in version 3.3 above.
Version 3.1 (May 5, 1993)
* Added an option when "Defer" is applied
to a reminder to defer either from the current time
or from the time the reminder was previously scheduled
for. For example, if a reminder is set for 5:00 AM
but isn't presented until 8:00 AM (because that's when
you started the Mac), if you deferred one day from
"now", the reminder wouldn't be presented
until 8:00 AM the next day but deferring one day from
the original time would schedule the reminder for 5:00
AM the next day. Whichever option is chosen automatically
becomes the default for the future until changed again.
* Command-W (and the "Close" menu item) will
now close the front window rather than closing the
data file and all windows. To close the data file,
select either "New" or "Open" on
the file menu. A warning will advise that the current
file will be closed before proceeding to create/select
another file. (Most people only use one file and never
need to close it anyway.)
* Fixed (I think) a bug that caused variable date (e.g.
3rd Tuesday of the month) custom holidays to sometimes
(more often than not) display on the wrong date on
the calendar.
* Fixed another minor cosmetic problem which occurred
if a reminder was highlighted to select it for change
or deletion and the change or deletion was then canceled.
Version 3.0.2:
* In the previous version, some dialog buttons were
active when they shouldn't have been; for example,
while creating a "New Reminder", the Delete
button was active (not gray). If this button was used,
it could cause a crash because the new reminder had
not yet been saved and therefore couldn't be deleted.
Version 3.0.2 makes the appropriate dialog buttons
inactive when they should not be used.
* In the previous version, if a reminder was selected
(highlighted) in the listing window, then scrolled
past the top or bottom of the window, and another window
was then selected, a cosmetic problem occurred with
the highlighting. This had no effect other than on
the appearance of the window. Version 3.0.2 fixes
this.
New features in version 3.0.1:
* Version 3.0.1 is a major rewrite eliminating the
Auspice init and allowing each Auspice reminder to
be displayed at a specific time rather than just at
startup as in previous versions. This requires the
use of MultiFinder with System 6 or the use of System
7.
* Custom Holidays - you can now add "custom holidays"
for holidays outside of the USA or to display additional
holidays, anniversaries etc. The standard USA holidays
can be turned on or off. The holidays are stored in
the Auspice Preferences file along with other preference
information.
* There is now an option to automatically save (write
to disk) after every change to a reminder.
* Auspice can now be "iconized", closing
all open windows and displaying one small window.
It can be "deiconized" by clicking on the
small icon window.
* Improved the reminder entry dialog, allowing better
use of "tab" to move to next field, "shift
tab" to move backwards, and "up" and
"down" arrow keys to change dates and times.
* A "Find" feature was added to allow searching
for a reminder containing a specified message, date,
or time or portion thereof.
* An "Export" feature was added to allow
all reminders to be copied to a text file. This was
added primarily to allow the reminders to be printed
from the exported text file since Auspice does not
yet have printing capability.
New features in version 3.0:
* This version, with extremely limited release, contains
a bug in the pop up menus.
New features in version 2.6:
* Weekday names and month names now obtained from System
resource to get the names in correct language if a
non USA System is in use.
* New international version created with Netherlands
holidays.
New features in version 2.5:
* An option to have the Auspice Init automatically
write a record of each reminder issued. This record
is written into a TEXT file. The TEXT file is selected
via the "History" menu item in the Auspice
application.
New features in version 2.4:
* An option to have the Auspice application access
data files other than the primary data file located
in the startup System folder. This was primarily designed
to allow access across a network to see the calendars
of others in a work group.
* Automatic handling of international dates in Day/Month/Year
order if appropriate for the country.
* New international version created with New Zealand
holidays.
New features in version 2.1:
* Added a "Calendar" window to display calendar
for selected month/year and to show the number of warnings
and events scheduled for each date.
This page was created using TextToHTML. TextToHTML is a free software for Macintosh and is (c) 1995,1996 by Kris Coppieters