^C^1MESSAGE CENTER HELP

^C^1Introduction
^C^1------------
Message Center is a handy "pop-up" program that lets you take and
review telephone messages while you are at the DOS prompt or from
within any 80 column text-mode program. This type of memory
resident utility is called a TSR.

^C^1What is a TSR?
^C^1--------------
The acronym "TSR" is short for "terminate and stay resident." In
plain English, this means that once Message Center is loaded into
your computer's memory, it will be available whenever you need
it.

Many TSRs will not run unless they are loaded into memory. When
they are loaded, they "tie up" part of your computer's RAM or
random access memory--memory which is no longer available for use
by your other programs. Therefore, some computer owners avoid
TSRs. There is no reason to avoid Message Center, which gives you
several different "run" options.

^C^1Loading or Installing Message Center
^C^1------------------------------
There are three ways you can use Message Center: (1) as a TSR
that is available upon bootup (add Message Center to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file); (2) as a TSR that you load into memory and
remove from memory on the fly from the DOS command line; and (3)
as an ".EXE" file (run it without making it resident). You must
decide which is best for you and your computer. Then follow the
instructions below that correspond with your choice.

^IHOW TO MAKE MESSAGE CENTER RESIDENT UPON BOOTUP
STEP 1: Copy Message Center into a subdirectory that is in the
        PATH statement of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If you don't
        know which subdirectories are in the file, type "PATH" at
        the DOS prompt and note the list of subdirectories
        following the word "PATH."
STEP 2: At the root directory prompt in DOS (usually C:\), type
        "COPY AUTOEXEC.BAT AUTOEXEC.MC". This will create an
        extra copy of your file so that you can restore it
        (revert) later if necessary. To restore your old
        AUTOEXEC.BAT, type "COPY AUTOEXEC.MC AUTOEXEC.BAT" and
        reboot your system.
STEP 3: Add Message Center to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file by using the
        built-in DOS editor (type "EDIT AUTOEXEC.BAT") or a
        simple text editor such as Edit Meister (issue #72). Add
        the following statement to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
        "MSG".

        NOTE: The DOS EDIT command is available in DOS versions
        5.0 and later. We recommend that you add the statement
        AFTER your "PATH" statement, AFTER any other TSRs, but
        BEFORE any statements that launch "shell" programs such
        as Windows. Also, ALT-M is the default hotkey. If you
        change the hotkey (as explained later in this document),
        you must use that hotkey in your AUTOEXEC.BAT.

STEP 4: Save the updated AUTOEXEC.BAT, exit to DOS and reboot
        your computer. Message Center is now installed as a TSR
        and will be available from DOS or from within any 80
        column text-mode program. NOTE: It will not activate
        while you are running a graphics program.

^IHOW TO LOAD THE PROGRAM INTO MEMORY ON AN INTERIM BASIS
STEP 1: Change to the subdirectory of your hard drive or floppy
        drive where Message Center is located. At the DOS prompt
        (for example, C:\ODM79), type "MSG". Message Center will
        load into your computer's memory, and will remain in
        memory until you remove it (See Removing Message Center
        from memory) or until you re-start your computer.

STEP 2: Press the default hotkey (the Alt and M keys at the same
        time).  Message Center will "pop" onto your screen.
     
        NOTE: It will not be available the next time you boot
        your computer. To load Message Center again, follow these
        two steps again. Also, if you want to use a different
        hotkey, see Command Line Options below for help.

^IHOW TO RUN MESSAGE CENTER WITHOUT MAKING IT MEMORY RESIDENT
STEP 1: Change to the subdirectory of your hard drive or floppy
        drive where Message Center is located. At the DOS prompt,
        type "MSG /N".  Message Center will appear on the screen.
        This command line option, "/N", refers to "non-resident
        mode."
     
        NOTE: You cannot access Message Center in this manner
        while running another program. If you wish to activate
        Message Center only when using certain programs, follow
        the Interim instructions above.

^IREMOVING MESSAGE CENTER FROM YOUR COMPUTER'S MEMORY (De-Installation)
STEP 1: With Message Center active on the screen, press F10, and
        answer "Yes" when asked if you want to remove it.
     
        NOTE: Your computer will not remove a TSR unless it is
        the last TSR that was installed. If you have installed
        other TSRs since installing Message Center, you must
        first de-install them (in an order that is the exact
        reverse of your installation order).


^C^1How to Use Message Center
^C^1-------------------------

When you bring up Message Center, you are placed on a screen
where you can type a telephone message.

Fill in the blanks as prompted, and press F3 to save your message
when you are finished.

To look at other messages that have been entered, press PgDn. 
Doing this will erase the current message you are entering if it
has not already been saved, so you'll be asked if you want to
save it (unless the name fields are blank).  PgDn and PgUp will
page you through all the messages you have entered.  While
viewing a message, you can press Del to delete it (you'll be
asked if you're sure you want to do it).  Also, F5 prints the
current message.

To see a list of all messages, press F8.  If the list takes up
more than one screen, you can page through it with PgUp and PgDn,
as well as using the arrow keys to scroll through it.  From the
list, you can press ENTER to view a message (which returns you to
the browse screen).  You can also select multiple messages for
the purpose of printing or deleting them; to do this, press the
space bar while each desired message is highlighted (this causes
a check mark to appear next to it), and then when you have
selected all desired messages, press F5 to print them or Del to
delete them.

Message printouts are formatted so that up to four messages will
fit on a page, in a rectangular array.  Be sure your printer is
at the top of a sheet when you start the printout.

A small help screen is available by pressing F1 from either the
browse, list, or entry screens.


^C^1Limit to Number of Messages
^C^1---------------------------

There is a limit of 50 messages to be displayed within Message
Center.  You can enter more messages than that, but only the
first 50 will be visible when you list or page through them.
It's a good idea to delete old messages to make room for new
ones.

^C^1Note
^C^1----

Message Center is an upgrade to Message Ready, which appeared on
PC BusinessDisk a few years ago.  If you are using Message Ready,
you can put Message Center in place of it.  Any message data you
have from Message Ready will load correctly into Message Center,
though once you have written to the data file from Message Center
the file will no longer work in the old Message Ready.  The
slightly different syntax of command line options in Message
Ready (with a dash instead of a slash, and "-k" to set a hot key)
is supported for compatibility purposes, so any old batch files
you have that call Message Ready will work with Message Center.


^C^1Command Line Options
^C^1--------------------
At the DOS prompt, type:
MSG /?.....To access this list of command line options
MSG /N.....To run Message Center in non-resident mode
           (like an executable program or .EXE), so that it
           is not installed in your computer's memory
MSG /M.....To run Message Center in monochrome mode
MSG /S.....To run Message Center in silent mode
MSG /VER...To display version information
MSG /KEY=..To load Message Center using a different
           hotkey than the normal one.

           NOTE: The hotkey is composed of two parts: one of the
           following keys--right shift (R), left shift (L), Alt
           (A) or Ctrl (C); plus any single letter, number or
           function key (F1-F10).  Thus, use "MSG /KEY=AT" to set
           the hotkey to Alt-T.


^C^1Credits
^C^1-------

^C^V
^Cby Daniel Tobias and Lewis DeMoss

^CCopyright 1990-1993 Softdisk, Inc.
