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PERSONAL  INVENTORY  is  an  interactive filing system
that keeps track of your personal inventory.

A sort/selection  criteria  in  the  ITEM  REPORTS  is
provided  so that you can select specific items within
a room.  Items  can  also  be  split  up  by  cost  or
purchase date.

To  use  the  inventory  system  successfully you will
want to first delete the sample items present  in  the
database  by  pressing  "d"  followed  by ENTER at the
INVENTORY MENU.  Start off by entering  the  name  and
room of   each  item.    Do  not  worry  about  serial
numbers, model numbers, purchase prices, etc.

After entering the items, print out a  worksheet  that
you  can now carry around to record the serial numbers
and other  information.      Now   enter   the   extra
information and reprint an item list.

A  contextual  help system is available throughout the
program to aid you in using the system.  Press the  F1
key  (FUNCTION  1  KEY)  and a help window will appear
upon the screen similar to the  one  you  are  viewing
now.   It will give you brief and informative messages
about the screen currently being viewed.

The ESC key can be used to exit  menus  and  stop  re-
ports  at  any  time.  This  indicates  that  you  are
finished looking at the display on the screen.    This
key  is  used GLOBALLY through the system as an escape
hatch. It is ALWAYS available.  The  TAB  key  behaves
like the ESC key.

The  LEFT ARROW Key will move left one field while you
are updating a record.

The RIGHT ARROW Key will move right  one  field  while
you are updating a record.

The  UP  ARROW Key is used to move up one field if you
are  in  an  update  mode  or  the  menu  options  are
showing.

If  you  are in the INVENTORY MENU it will move to the
prior record.

The DOWN ARROW Key is used to move down one  field  if
you  are  in  an  update  mode or the menu options are
showing.  If you are in the  inventory  main  menu  it
will move to the next record.

The  F2 Key (FUNCTION 2) is used to make a copy of the
screen. Each time F2 is pressed,  the  current  screen
is  appended  to  the file "screen.sav" in the current
directory.   This  has  the  advantage  over  pressing
SHIFT   PRTSCRN   in   that   screens   are  paginated
correctly.

The F10 Key (FUNCTION 10)  is  an  information  screen
which  displays  where you can contact the author (me)
about enhancements or updates.

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It is  from  this  page  that  you  can  add,  delete,
change, or search for items.

Enter:
    a - add a new item
    d - delete an old item
    i - change the index
    ENTER - change/modify the item

Press  the  UP  or  DOWN arrow to view the previous or
next item.  Enter the  first  few  characters  of  the
item  name  you  are searching for if the INDEX is set
to "item name".  Enter the first  few  characters  off
the room if the index is set to "room name".

For example:  to find the camera item enter "ca".

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Enter  'y'  to  save  the  changed information on this
page.  Enter 'n' to discard changes.

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Press "y" if you wish to add this item permanently  to
the database.    Otherwise  press  "n" - the item will
not be added to the database.

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Press "y" if you wish to permanently DELETE this  item
from the  database.    Otherwise  press "n" - the item
will remain in the database.

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Enter the full name of  the  item.    If  there  is  a
quantity of items enter :

    shirts - 20

Enter ESC, to get out of the update mode.

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Enter the serial number.

Law   enforcement  officers  will  often  not  release
recovered items unless the owner can identify them  by
a serial number.

Enter ESC, to get out of the update mode.

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Enter the model number.

Enter ESC, to get out of the update mode.

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Enter the purchase date.

Examples:

   To select a date of Nov 23, 1987
   simply enter:  "23Nov87", or "112387".
   other examples:
      "23JAN87"
      "23 Jan 87"
      "23 jan 87"
      "012387"
      "01 23 87"

SHORTCUT FORMAT EXAMPLES
    "." - today
    "+1" - tomorrow
    "-1" - yesterday
    "+1w" - one week from today
    "-1w" - today last week
    "+1m" - this day next month
    "1+1m" - first day of next month
    "+thu" - next thursday from today
    "-wed" - last wednesday
    "+1w" - next week
    "-1w" - last week
    "+2m" - 2 months from today
    "1+1m+fri" - 1st friday of next month
    "+wed" - next wednesday
    "-tue" - last tuesday
    "-1y" - last year

All   date  arithmetic  expressions  are  relative  to
today,  unless  the  date  expression  starts  with  a
number (i.e.    5)  which stands for the fifth of this
month.  So 5+2w is equivalent to 2 weeks from the  5th
day of the current month.

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Enter the room where the item is currently stored.

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Enter the  price  of  the  item.   Do not enter dollar
signs or commas.  For example:  to enter  a  price  of
twenty five dollars and 18 cents - enter 25.18

To input $1,232.33 - enter 1232.33

To input $100.00 - enter 100

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Enter  a  short  comment, perhaps a description of the
item.

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Inventory Menu - Add, delete, update  and  search  for
items from  this menu.  Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys
to  change  the  selection  bar  or  enter  an  option
number.

Also, you  can  change  the index from this menu.  The
default index is the item name, you can change  it  to
room  name,  which  effectively  sorts  the entries by
room name.

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Inventory Reports - Print listings of items from  this
menu.

The  items  will  be  sorted  by the current index set
from the Inventory Menu.

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Press 'y' to finish this session.  All files  will  be
flushed and closed.

Press ESC or 'n' to continue working.

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Print  screens  that have been saved using the F2 save
screen function.  The screens have  been  saved  in  a
file called  "screen.sav".    Each time F2 is pressed,
the current screen is appended to this file.

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Discard screens that have  been  saved  using  the  F2
save screen  function.    The file "screen.sav" in the
current directory will be cleared.

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Change the printer setup  string,  printer  codes  for
use  with  the  custom  forms, printer port and margin
set- tings.

Use your printer manual to change some of  these  set-
tings.

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Change  system  parameters  -  error  bells on or off,
file system SYNC frequency,  defaults  for  room  name
when adding new items

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Enter  "m"  if  you  have  a monochrome screen and the
shades are not acceptable.

Enter "c" if you have a color screen.

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Type "y" to turn on the error bell - it will  beep  at
you if you make an input error.

Type "n" to turn off this bell.

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This  field allows you to specify how often you desire
to "sync"  the  file  system.    The   internal   file
structure    needs    to    be    physically   updated
occasionally.  The smaller this number  is,  the  more
often the  file  system  will  be  SYNCED.  Of course,
small values for the sync will slow the  program  down
when adding  many  entries to the system.  This may be
intolerable on a floppy based system.

When entering many items into the  database,  you  may
wish to  set  it to 10.  After entering the items, for
maximum file  integrity,  set  it  to  1.     Personal
Inventory automatically sync's its files on exit.

Be  sure  to  exit the program by pressing the ESC key
and answering "y" to the exit prompts.

DO NOT exit the program by turning  off  the  computer
or pressing  CTRL-ALT-DELETE.    This  may destroy the
index files in which case you  would  have  to  reload
all your data from scratch.

It  is  advisable  to make backups of the system after
making significant changes.

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If you experience a snow effect on the screen.   Enter
"y" to  this  question.    The screen will be drawn to
minimize this effect.

This may occur on some CGA monitors.


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The "printer  end-of-line"  is  used  to  control  the
printer output  at the end of the printed line.  There
are 4 options to  set  depending  upon  your  printer.
You  may  have  to  do a little bit of experimentation
with this to get it right.  Once it is set  correctly,
it  will not have to be changed (as long as the switch
settings on the printer do not change).

Option 1 newline character
       2 carriage return character
       3 newline then carriage-return character
       4 carriage-return  then  newline  character  1)
Output  is  double  spaced  -  try  setting  option to
"cr".

2) Output is overprinting or printing on  one  line  -
try  setting  the  option  first  to  "nl" and if that
doesn't  work,  try  out  the   options   "nl/cr"   or
"cr/nl".

3) Output is jagged like:  This is
       an example of
                     a jagged   line.    Try  changing
option to "nl/cr" or "cr/nl".

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Press any key to continue to the next page of the  re-
port, press ESC to stop the listing.

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Press ENTER to see all reports on the screen.

Select  the "printer" to send the reports to a printer
- directly.

Select "capturefile" to send the output  to  an  ASCII
file.   The  output  will  be  appended to an existing
file.

While the report/form is printing you may press  SPACE
which  will pause the printer, or ESC which will abort
the printout.

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Type "y" and the changes made to  the  parameter  page
will be saved into the data files.

Type  "n"  and  the  changes will be discarded and the
old values will be retained.

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Enter the full name of the file you want to  save  the
output of the report to.

Examples:  report1.out
             a:reportsmar.87

If  the  file  exists and is ASCII, Personal Inventory
will APPEND to it.  If it isn't ASCII, you  must  make
another selection.

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Personal  Inventory  cannot  make  contact  with  your
printer.

Make sure that the printer is online and has paper.

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The output file "screen.sav" has been printed.   Press
any key to continue.

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The output  file "screen.sav" has been cleared.  Press
any key to continue.

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Enter "y" to delete the screens  previously  saved  in
the file "screen.sav".  Otherwise, enter "n".

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Enter "1"  - for LPT1:, "2" for LPT2:  or "3" for LPT3
as a printer port.

Personal Inventory doesn't currently support a  serial
printer  port,  however,  you can direct the output of
the report using the "capturefile"  option  and  print
the report from DOS upon exiting.

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Enter  the number of columns that you want the printer
to start printing.  I.e.  if  you  enter  5,  Personal
Inventory  will  advance  5  spaces  on  each  printed
line.

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The end of the report/form has been reached.

Press any key to continue.

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Set this field if you want to speed up the process  of
adding new  entries.    When  you  type  in "a" at the
Inventory Menu, the ROOM field will  automatically  be
set to the default.

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This  report  lists  all items present in the database
allowing different selection criteria.

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The attributes that aren't  present  in  the  database
for each item:
    cost
    date purchased
    model
    serial number

will be  printed  using underlines.  Print a worksheet
off and use it to update items.

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Enter "i" for item name and "r" for room name.

The index will be changed so that you will be able  to
recall the items by name or by room name.

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Enter  the  sequence  of decimal codes that will place
the printer into the mode desired (e.g.  16  pitch  or
"NLQ"  -  Near Letter Quality) See your printer manual
for ASCII control codes.

For example:  sending 'ESC F' to  the  IBM  Proprinter
will turn  EMPHASIZED PRINT ON.  This would correspond
to entering decimal 27 then 70 into the printer  setup
string.

  printer setup :  [ 27] [ 70] [ ] [ ]

What  follows  is  a  short, incomplete list of common
ASCII decimal codes.

COMMON DECIMAL ASCII CODES:
   27 - ESC 32 - SPACE 8 - BACKSPACE
    9 - HORZ TAB 10 - LN FEED 12 - FORMFEED
   13 - CAR RET 14 - SO 15 - SI
   33 - '!' 34 - '"' 35 - '#'
   36 - '$' 37 - '%' 38 - '&'
   40 - '(' 41 - ')' 42 - '*'
   43 - '+' 44 - ',' 45 - '-'
   46 - '.' 47 - '/' 60 - '<'
   61 - '=' 62 - '>' 63 - '?'

  1 - 'CTRL-A' 65 - 'A' 97 - 'a' 48 - '0'
  2 - 'CTRL-B' 66 - 'B' 98 - 'b' 49 - '1'
  3 - 'CTRL-C' 67 - 'C' 99 - 'c' 50 - '2'
  4 - 'CTRL-D' 68 - 'D' 100 - 'd' 51 - '3'
     ...  ...  ...  ...
 25 - 'CTRL-Y' 89 - 'Y' 121 - 'y' 56 - '8'
 26 - 'CTRL-Z' 90 - 'Z' 122 - 'z' 57 - '9'

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If you wish to send an initialization  string  to  the
printer  every  time a report is printed answer "y" to
the question.

If you answer "n", Personal Inventory will not send  a
printer string.

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To print  out  the  report now, enter "y".  Otherwise,
press ESC or "n" to quit.

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This page allows the selection  of  items  based  upon
your personal  criteria.   For example, we may wish to
select all items purchased with a value  of  at  least
$1000 stored in the garage.

Enter  "i" to sort by item name or "r" to sort by room
name.

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If you wish to print out the items in  a  single  room
or a group of rooms enter "y" at the prompt.

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Enter  the  first  few  characters  of the name of the
room you want to select.  For example, if we  wish  to
view all items stored in the garage enter -

   From:  gar Thru:  gar

The  room can be truncated to the first few characters
of the name.

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Enter the first few  characters  of  the  room  to  be
selected.   For  example,  if  we  wanted  to view the
contents of the bedrooms we would enter:

    From:  bedroom Thru:  bedroom

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To select those items purchased between two  different
dates, enter "y" at the prompt.

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Enter  the  first date range in which to select items.
Items  purchased  on  or  after  this  date  will   be
printed.

Enter  dates  in  the  following format (excluding the
quotes):
      "23JAN87"
      "23 Jan 87"
      "23 jan 87"
      "012387"
      "01 23 87"

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Enter the last date range in which  to  select  items.
Items  purchased  on  or  before  this  date  will  be
printed.

Enter dates in the  following  format  (excluding  the
quotes):
      "23JAN87"
      "23 Jan 87"
      "23 jan 87"
      "012387"
      "01 23 87"

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Enter a  price  in which to select items.  For example
if you wish to view those  items  purchased  for  over
$500,  enter  500  at  the prompt and enter "g" at the
relation prompt.  To view those items with a value  of
less  than  $1,000  enter  1000  here  and  "l" at the
relation prompt.

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Enter "l" for "less than" or "g" for  "greater  than".
This field is tied to the Purchase Price field.

