This is a help file for the visually challenged.  It explains Pam's main
window operation and some general information.

Pam uses a sophisticated speech synthesizer to communicate in a natural way 
with you. As you work with Pam, you will find it easier to understand the
speech.  Improved speech synthesizers are coming, and updates are free with
Pam.
It will work invisibly in the background while you are in
another application. It can function like a simple P I M, an alarm clock,
a reminder program, a file and text reader, a time manager, and a background
music player.
pam's hot keys:
Pause: activate pam's main window.
Shift+Pause: speak any text on the Window's clipboard.
Alt+Pause: speak the time and list any pending appointments.
         These keys should work from any Window's application, but 
          if you run into a conflict, you will have to change the hot key
          in the other application, as pam's hot keys are not modifiable.
The Main window displays a block of your appointments beginning at the
current hour. This display is configured for the time intervals selected
in the configuration window.
To activate Pam's buttons, you press:
A: activates the window for entering appointments.
N: activates the window for entering notes and messages.
R: Runs another application  or reads a text file. 
You can also run another application at a preset time unattended by entering the
name of the program in this window, and then entering the word Run plus a
colon in the
name field for an appointment. Pam will open and read the file at the time
allocated for the appointment.
D: Pam speaks the date shown on the date control button. All other windows
     also use this date, so change it in the main window to effect all windows.
Right Arrow: Changes the date control by one day forward, Pam will announce the date.
Left Arrow: Changes the date control by one day back.
Page Down: Changes the date control by one month forward.
Page Up: Changes the date control by one month back.
Up Arrow: Changes the time slot by one slot back, Pam will announce the time.
Down Arrow: Changes the time slot by one slot forward.
F: This button runs the Windows File Manager Program. 
T: This button runs the trainer application, which is a utility
    that allows you to improve the way pam speaks a word.
C: Runs the configuration window - no verbal assistance is available for this
   window.
S: this button will cause pam to check the system and
    report on Percentage of User Resources Available, total Windows 
    system memory available, and the names of all programs currently running
    in Windows.
X: Closes PAM and returns you to Windows.
Alt + P: this activates the phone button which displays a selection box of 
clients or friends, and their phone numbers. Pressing the up or down arrow keys will change
the entry that is highlighted, and Pam will speak the name. When it says the 
name you want, press the
alt key plus S to select it. Pam will then load the phone number onto the
clipboard and speak the phone number out loud.  If you have clip dial 
installed, you can then press control + shift + P to have Pam dial the number.
    The phone database file is, "phone lst". This is a plain text file that
    you must create and maintain yourself in pams's directory.  
    The required format is a name
    followed by a comma, then the phone number. One client per line. The
    list is not sorted. It is up to you as to how you organize the
    file.

While reading text files, the following hot keys apply:
the Pause key or Q key, aborts the reading.
the P key pauses the reading for 10 seconds.

Using the Verbal Interface.
  Pam can be configured to respond verbally to most selections by setting 
the Full Verbal Interface to "Y" in the Configuration Window.  This setting
will cause Pam to verbally tell you what action is taking place, and it will
tell you what input field the cursor is on if you are entering text. If you
press a key to activate a button, Pam will tell you what is happening.
  With the verbal interface, even more requests are made of the sound card,
so it is important to not rush Pam.  Wait until Pam is finished talking to
select the next action.  Pam will usually ignore action request while it is
talking, but just in case, have patience!. If this interface is on and Pam
does not say anything when you activate a button, it should mean that Pam
is ignoring you because speech is in progress.  In this case, the action is
not taken, and you will have to make the selection again.
  Pam is not designed for a visually challenged user from scratch, so it
should be installed by a sighted person, and the configuration windows should
be set up by a sighted person, as they have no verbal interface. The trainer
application also has no verbal interface, but there are only two input fields
so a visually challenged person should be able to work everthing with the
possible exception of phonetic text modifications. As with all entry fields,
the Tab key is used to move between the fields, and, if text is already in
the field, it will be highlighted. You could then copy this text to the 
clipboard by pressing control + C. Then press shift + pause and Pam will
speak the text.
  I think Pam should be usable by a visually challenged person, and I would
appreciate any comments or suggestions to make it more usable - send EMail
to tslemko@islandnet.com.  
Pam's Other Features and Options.
File Reading.
PAM reads text files one sentence at a time, with no file size limit.
If a file has an outrageously long sentence with no concluding period 
for 5 kilobytes or longer, the speech synthesizer may crash, and
you will need to restart Windows. Long sentences take some time to
process, so if the next sentence is a particularly long one, PAM may
stop speaking for awhile, be patient. Pam will sometimes spell rather than 
try to pronounce an uppercase word as it may think it is an abbreviation. 
If you have text where the author has
used uppercase words to emphasize things, it may be difficult to
follow Pam's reading of the text.
    Another anomally I have found with the
speech synthesizer is that you must have a space after punctuation (such as a 
period) for it to recognize it as punctuation.
 Also, a capitalized word at the end
of a sentence will fool Pam into thinking it is an abbreviation, and the
period will be ignored with no pause. If you are composing text to be 
spoken by Pam, don't bother with paragraphs, as they have no effect on PAM
anyway. Insert multiple commas and spaces for lengthy pauses. You should also
avoid the use of capitalized words.
Reading Clipboard Text:
  From any application that contains an edit window or field, you can
highlight a section of text, press Ctrl+C to put it on the clipboard, and
then press  Shift+Pause to make Pam read this text from the clipboard.
Some applications have an Edit menu item, and you can put the highlighted
text on the clipboard by selecting Copy from this menu.
  This feature may be useful for proof reading a letter you are composing, or reading
a section of text from another document, while you continue doing whatever
other chore you want. You could also use it to read a section of text to
everyone present in your office.  As with most other Pam verbalizations,
Pam does the reading in the background, so you can continue with your work
while it is reading.
  Another text reading ability in PAM is the fact that it is a DDE Server.
This means that another application that can act as a DDE Client, can initiate
a DDE session with PAM by calling the server name: "PAM" with a topic of: SPEAK".
A message of up to 510 bytes can then be sent and PAM will pick it up and
read it out loud.
  With file reading and clipboard reading you will notice a difference
in the quality of speech if you have acquired the high quality 16 bit
Speech Font. With short sentences or single phrases, the lower quality 8 bit
Speech Font included with the shareware version, does a pretty good job of
speaking, but with larger sections of continuous text, the 16 bit voice
is more understandable and clearer, although Pam's pronunciation is the same.
Reading Your Pending Appointments:
  From any application or window, you can press Alt+Pause to make Pam
announce the current time, and then advise you of any appointments remaining
for the day. Pam always displays or speaks appointments from the current
time, so past appointments are not spoken. This message is also spoken in
the background, so you can continue with your work.
Training Pam:
  When you press T, the Trainer module is run.  This module lets you add 
words that Pam mispronounces into an exception dictionary that Pam will
use.  You will probably have to add quite
a few proper names. This dictionary, pam.dic is limited to 64K in size,
so don't add words that Pam says reasonably well. Depending on the size of
the words, you should be able to add an additional 1000 to 2000 words.
While in the trainer module, you
can enter any original word and hear how Pam pronounces it by pressing Alt+o.
 You can then build a sounds-like version of the word and test it by 
pressing Alt+L, until PAM says the sounds-like
word correctly. Move between these two fields with the Tab key, the trainer
will not tell you what field you are in. The sounds-like word does not have 
to be spelled correctly, and does not even have to be one word. When you are 
satisfied, press Alt+I to put it in the dictionary.  Press Alt+S to make
the changes permanent. It may be necessary to restart Pam for the changes
to take effect. 
PAM will say the sounds-like word every
time it encounters the original word in a text string.
 Running Other Applications Unattended:
  You can run another application by pressing R
then the tab key (to get to the run field), and entering a command line sequence that
includes the name of the application you want to run and any command line
parameters that are required. 
You press Alt+R to run the application immediately.
To automatically run an application at a later time or date, in the "Add or
Edit Appointments" window, enter the word "Run" plus a colon plus the 
file name including the path if necessary, in the time slot 
you want to run the application. Pam will find the "Run" command instead
of an appointment name, and run the application that you previously named.
You can also automatically read a text file at a later time, by entering
"read" plus a colon plus the file name and path in the time slot.
PAM's reading priorities:
  To allow Pam to speak more than one message in a time slot, the time's
up and note reading alarms are implemented synchronously, which means that
Windows will be tied up for those few seconds if either or these alarms
are set.  This means that for any time slot, times up, note alarms and
appointment alarms can be spoken.  Time clock announcements will
be superseded if appointment alarms are set.
General:
  To conserve memory and reduce Pam's demand on system resources, a number
of size limitations have been imposed, and the time display  and timer
alarms are only
updated once per minute rather than many times per second like some
monitor applications. This means that the time could be out by as much as
59 seconds.
  Pam checks the date format in your version of Windows and uses this 
format to display dates. Only the following formats are supported at this
time - MM/DD/YY, DD/MM/YY, YY/MM/DD.  If the format in your win ini file
is different than these, Pam will revert to MM/DD/YY format. Pam also
adjusts it's time format to a 12 hour clock or 24 hour clock, depending
on the settings in Windows. The speech font is specifically for a
North American english dialect, so it doesn't speak the 24 hour clock completely
correctly. 
  To register Pam, you need to enter a Registration Password when you
click on the REGISTER PAM button.  This password must be obtained from
JTS Micro Consulting Ltd. by sending us the serial number of your copy of
Pam and arranging for payment. After you have used Pam for sixty days it 
will add new meaning to the word Nag Ware, as the nagging will be verbal. This
intolerable situation can be eliminated by registering, and anyway, it is illegal to use
Pam after thirty days without registering.
  Use your imagination in configuring and operating Pam.  It should help you 
manage your daily activities in a natural way like a real assistant. Use the 
built-in alarms and announcements to help you remember items thoughout the 
day, and to read messages to everyone present in your office at any time.
Pam could reduce the number of photocopies you need as some documents could 
be read out loud to everyone present. There may be occasions when you would 
prefer to have a
document or portion of a document read rather than copied. This may also
solve some Copyright restrictions.
  Upgrades are free with Pam, as new speech synthesizers and speech fonts
become available, you can download them free.
  This software is not warranted in any way, including compatibility with 
other applications. The author will not accept responsibility for any
damage that may arise from the operation of Pam.
  Good Luck!
    
Tom Slemko
EMail: tslemko@islandnet.com

