Help File for Acute Softwares Diary Client

1. Diary Installation

1.1 Install the Client
1.2 Configure the Client
1.3 Starting the Client Software
1.4 Quick Start Checklist

2.1 Viewing Appointments
2.2 Entering Appointments
2.3 Finding Information
2.4 Viewing Other Users Appointments
2.5 Booking Meetings with Other Users
2.6 Change a Meeting with other users
2.7 Cancel a Meeting with other users
2.8 Search for information in all users diaries
2.9 Sending Messages to other users

3. Components of the Diary Client

3.1 InfoLink - Toolbar program for the Client
3.2 Diary Client - the main diary program
3.3 Client Setup - configuration of all Client Programs
3.4 Diary Summary - Timesheet Generator based on actual PC usage
3.5 Meeting Planner - view others appointments and book meetings
3.6 Date Calculator - Free utility included with Network Diary

4. Advanced Topics

4.1 Monitoring Hard drive space with InfoLink
4.2 Configuring the text editor button in InfoLink
4.3 Managing your list of quick launch Programs
4.4 Automatic Event Logging
4.5 Recording Events from the Quick Event Recorder
4.6 Using Batch Files to add events from other programs
4.7 Other components - Netpath, Pim-Util, CollectFilesUsed

5. Support and Troubleshooting

5.1 The Diary Client will not Start
5.2 Cant find the Server
5.3 The Server returns no data
5.4 Client Timed out waiting for Server
5.5 I cant see other users appointments
5.6 I get a 'Server Not responding' message
5.7 General Windows Troubleshooting Procedures

1. Diary Client Installation

System requirements for the Diary Client are a Pentium PC with 32M RAM, running Win95 / 98 / ME / 2000 / XP with at least 10Mbytes of free disk space

1.1 Install the Client

If your system administrator has put the client installation programs onto the server, you can browse via "Network Neighbourhood" to the server PC and run the SETUP.EXE file from the \netServer\tools\ folder.
The alternative method is to Download the client installation program and click 'open this file' to run the SETUP.EXE file from the ZIP file.

When installing the client, it is a good idea to use the default directory of
C:\Program Files\acute\netDiary\

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1.2 Configure the Client

1. run the ClientSetup.exe program - this will configure the clients settings. Screen shot

This program will auto configure with the default settings, and then search for a diary sever.
Note - this can take a long time (1-4 minutes) if there are more that 50 PC's on the network

After a few seconds you will see a "Default Settings have been made" message to indicate that it has finished. If the 'Network Datapath' textbox is not blank, and it contains something like
\\[server_name]\users\[yourname]
it means that the client has automatically connected to the Server - just click 'Save and Exit'

If this textbox is blank, then it has not found the diary server - check with your system administrator that the server is running, and that your diary username is the same as your PC name - if not you need to manually enter the path to your network datapath.
e.g. \\serverName\users\Frank , instead of \\serverName\users\FRANKS_PC

You have now successfully setup your Diary Client to talk to the server

You can also change other options like colours, and screen layouts using the 'Diary' and 'infolink' buttons now, or at a later stage (just run 'Diary Options')

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1.3 Starting the Client Software

Start the InfoLink program by going to the Start Menu -> Program Files -> Acute Software -> InfoLink

Screen shot

It should say "Checking Server..." or "Pinging Server..."
and then the caption will say "InfoLink - Network" once it has connected to the server

If the server is not running, or hasnt been configured, it will say :

InfoLink - No Server - means the client cant find the Network datapath you have chosen (Server may be off), or

InfoLink - Local - means that you are running in stand alone mode - you have ticked the 'run in local mode only' checkbox in the Client Setup program.

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1.4 Quick Start Checklist

This section provides a quick way to check that everything is setup correctly, in case the InfoLink does not 'Network' with the server.

To check that..	How to do the test	What should happen if it works	What will happen if it fails
To check that InfoLink is running, and to make the toolbar visible	go to the Windows Start Menu --> Programs --> Startup --> InfoLink (If there is a 'butler' icon in the system tray this means that Infolink is minimised, so click the icon and choose "View as Toolbar"	The toolbar should appear on the screen	If infolink does not appear in the start menu, then the client software has not been installed. If it does not start, try rebooting and it should start automatically
To check that your user name is correct	a) Using InfoLink, click the 'Network' button [2nd to last button, with a 'talk' icon] b) Choose 'Who Am I'	Your user name is usually the name of your PC, or in larger installations it can be your user name	if the user name is blank, or completely wrong you may be mapped to another persons datapath
To check that your network data path is correct and that the server PC is connected to the Network...	a) Using InfoLink, click the Menu button and choose 'Options' b) Copy the text of the Network Datapath value c) Goto the Windows Start Menu --> Run, and paste the text into the command line and press enter	the data path is correct if an explorer window opens and shows at least the following files (common_locations.txt, common_references.txt)	The datapath is incorrect (or maybe the server is off), if you get an error message saying 'The path cannot be found'
To check that the server software is running	a) Using InfoLink, click the 'Network' button [2nd to last button, with a 'talk' icon] b) Choose 'Ping Server' (do it twice to make sure the cache is flushed)	The InfoLink message area will say '...pinging server' and then the caption will go to "InfoLink - Network"
To check that you can make local appoinments	a) Start the Diary Client (either from InfoLink menu, or from Windows Start menu) b) Go to the Appointments Menu of the client and click 'Add' c) enter some text in the details form ( e.g. 'Test' ) and click 'Ok'	The diary grid should show your appointment in the correct time slot	If the event does not appear, try again and specify the time/date and then browse to that date using the diary client
To check that you can view others appointments Note - make sure you have added an appointment in the above step	a) Start the 'Quick View' program b) click the Display menu and click 'Refresh' [this forces a complete refresh] c) You may need to change the timeslots in the quickview screen to show get the appointment you've just added, if it is outside 9am - 6pm	You can successfully view others appointments if you see at least the white 'busy indicator' for your event. If other users have changed security levels you may see full appointment details, just a busy indicator - or maybe nothing at all	If you get a server error - see the troubleshooting section 'Server Not responding'

2. Using the Diary Client

2.1 Viewing Appointments

The following screen shot shows the main screen for the diary. The events are displayed on the right hand side of the screen, and you can change the day being viewed by clicking on the calendar on the Left hand side, or by using the arrow buttons on the top of the screen.

Timed Grid [F6] (all appointments are displayed in an hourly fashion)

This mode is the easiest way to quickly browse and enter appointments. However if you have multiple appointments in the same timeslot you will find it easier to manage in list mode.

View as Webpage [Ctrl]-[F4] (browse old diary events)

This is a browse mode and simply displays all the months events in a webpage for easy reading - this is a read only mode.

List Mode [F7] (all appointments are displayed in a list)

This is the fastest way to view your appointments - all your days/weeks or months events appear in a list (you choose which fields are shown) for quick viewing and editing.

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2.2 Entering Appointments

Simply double-click in the timeslot (either on the left-hand column, or in the space in the main grid) and start typing your appointment.

You can also click "Add" from the appointment menu, which brings up the following dialog box:
Screen shot

The 'Details' button displays extra fields, which can be used for the event.
For each event you can record the following extra information:
- Contact name
- File or URL
- Length of event in minutes
- Reference - any text or keywords you like
- Job to do ID (reserved)

Each of the extra fields can be any text you like except multiple lines (i.e. you can't insert a text file into a field)

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2.3 Finding Appointments

Using the DiaryClient program, press Ctrl F , or choose Quick find from the search menu and type in any text you want to find. This will retrieve all records for that month containing the text you entered.

You can also do a Power Search, which allows you to choose which dates to looks for.

The results are displayed in a separate form - you can save this form for importing to any word processor.

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2.4 Viewing Other Users Appointments

Start the meeting planner from Infolink menu, or choose 'Book a meeting' from the Appointments menu of the main DiaryClient.

Screen shot

Click the Show Availability button to bring up the following screen:
The screen is similar to the main diary client program, except that it has a list of all users on the bottom left of the screen, and the right hand side shows these peoples appointments.

You can choose which users to view, by ticking and unticking the names on the user list.

The data is initially refreshed from the server when the program starts, but you can manually refresh using the "Refresh button".
Note that events saved by other users can take 1-3 minutes to appear on your diary

Clicking on an area in this screen gives the full details which that user has chosen to make public. By default, this is just the location of the meeting, but by setting the security level to '3' or greater you can view all the users information.

The 'Show PC Usage' checkbox is used if the users have made public all their PC usage information - which is not not wanted in this screen, as it tends to clutter up the screen, and by its nature is older than the current date, so is irrelevant in terms of meeting planner.

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2.5 Booking Meetings with Other Users

Start the meeting planner from Infolink menu, or choose 'Book a meeting' from the Appointments menu of the main DiaryClient.

Enter the time and date you want the meeting

Tick the users you want to attend the meeting

Click Make Meeting, and the requests will be sent to all ticked users
If they are not online, they will get the request when they turn on their PCs

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2.6 Change a Meeting with other users

If you change the date, time or details of a meeting, the program will ask you if you want to notify others of the change - clicking 'Yes' sends the updated meeting to the other users, while clicking 'no' leaves the users meeting as is, but updates your details.

You can also use the reschedule option to easily pick another time by right clicking the event and choosing 'Reschedule Appointment'

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2.7 Cancel a Meeting with other users

Deleting a meeting from your own diary causes the program to ask if you want the other users notified - say 'yes' and it is deleted on the other users diary as well.

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2.8 Search for information in all users diaries

Searching for other users information is done using the InfoLink program.

Choose 'Quick Find' from the infolink menu, or click the search button (3rd button from the left in the toolbar) to show the 'InfoLink Search' screen.
If you tick the 'Look in local files only' checkbox then it will search your local events database the same as the DiaryClient search

Leaving the 'Look in local files only' checkbox UNTICKED will ask the server to search its database of all events for the word you are looking for (remember that some users may only have date, time and location made public).

You can also specify which users you want to search and what date range by clicking the 'details' buttonm to expand the search screen.

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2.9 Sending Messages to other users

All message sending (in fact any communications with the server) is done through the InfoLink program.

To send a message to another user, you :
1. Make sure you can see the lists on the InfoLink display by resizing the form or, by going to the menu (smiley face), and choosing 'compact display mode'

2. Display the users list, by clicking on the drop down listbox on the left hand side, under the menu toolbar
A list of the users will appear and the status field in the list tells you if they are online or not.

3. Double Click a users name to send a message to them. A small screen will show up - simply type in the message and press enter.

4. If the user responds while your 'chat screen' is left open you can have a 2 way chat.

All messages sent to and from your PC can be viewed later by viewing the messages.log file in the Diary Client directory

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3. Components of the Diary Client

This section describes each of the programs which make up Acute Softwares Network Diary Client :

InfoLink - the toolbar program which communicates with the server
DiaryClient - the main diary program for your own appointments and tasks
QuickView - screen to view others appointments
MeetingPlanner - program to book meetings with other users

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3.1 InfoLink

Infolink is the toolbar program for the client which runs all the time. It is the only application which communicates with the network diary server, and can be minimised to the system tray or shown as a toolbar.

What does InfoLink do?

Infolink starts up when the PC is turned on, and performs the following functions:
1. Reminds you of any appointments during the day, by sounding an alarm and or popping up a message
2. Keeps an eye on free disk space and warns you when you get to your specified limit. (smiley face turns to a sad face)
3. Records what applications you use so that you know exactly what you spent your day doing.
4. Provides a quick and easy way to add and find appointments without having to start the diary
5. Does all communications with the Server (if it is installed as a server) - including request other users appointments, chatting to other users, sending and recieving meetings requests

Parts of the Infolink Screen

Caption - shows the status of the program (Local, Network, server down)

Display - green area showing current date/time but also scrolls reminders when they appear and can show disk space at various intervals.

Toolbar - buttons to access the most commonly used items in infolink

'Mode' combobox - in 'compact mode' the infolink screen shows drop down combo boxes and a list to display current information.

The Mode combo box can switch the InfoLink to display the following between Screens:

Users - shows list of users and whether they are online or not

Events - shows list of todays events, or for any date (by day, week or month)

Programs - a list of commonly used files and folders is shown here. Double Click one to launch it

Messages - this is a list of messages which you have sent and recieved. Double click a receive message to reply to it. The list can be shown for today, this month or this year

The Toolbar Buttons (from Left to Right)

Menu (Smiley Face / Sad Face) - this calls the main Infolink menu
Quickly Add Note (clock) - allows you to jot down notes as you work without having to open the main diary program
Quick Find (clock) - search the diary data files for any text. Note - this menu command does NOT search 'file accesses'
Calendar (Calendar icon) - shows a full screen calendar for any year
Scrap Paper (Pin) - this calls the main scrap paper function which allows quick jotting / saving of notes without having to save them to directories
Text Editor (double Page icon) - this calls the text editor [notepad by default, but can be customised]
Server Menu (talk icon) - shows the server menu which allows you to ping the server, chat to other users or plan a meeting
Lock Screen (key icon) launches the screen saver menu which allows you to lock the screen or suspend PC Usage logging.

The Popup Menu

When you click the 'smiley face' icon, the following menu is displayed.
About: shows version information and copyright message
View as Toolbar: restores the default view
View in System Tray: hides toolbar and runs itself as a small toolbar icon
Show Disk Space: displays current free disk space in the scrolling message area
Options: brings up the options window
Launch the Diary: starts the main program 'diary'
Acute Software's Catalog: shows other software available from Acute Software
Quickly Add Note: allows you to jot down notes as you work without having to open the main diary program
Quick Find: search the diary data files for any text. Note - this menu command does NOT search 'file accesses'
Display Calendar: shows an annual calendar, which can display any year from 1900 to 2999
Text Editor: launch your favorite text editor here
Activate Screen Saver: launches the 'blank screen saver'.

The above menu also appears when you click the system tray icon. If you right click the button or system tray icon a small menu appears which can exit the server, or view as a toolbar

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3.2 DiaryClient

This is the main program for the client. It manages all diary events and tasks and can display the appointments in either Grid Mode or List Mode

Parts of the Diary Screen

You will see a screen similar to the one below appear. There are 3 main areas on the screen: Diary Screen shot

Calendar: (Top Left)
Click on any date to show the appointments and PC usage for that day

File Accesses (Mid Left - not shown)
This shows you what you have been using your PC for, if you have File Logging enabled (on by default)

Tasks (Bottom Left)
Current list of tasks. You can choose which fields to display, and tasks can be dragged and dropped between appointments.

The Appointments (Right Hand Side)
This is where your appointments, notes and general events are displayed. You can choose to show a single day, or week, or month

Shortcut Keys for the DiaryClient

Key	Description	Key	Description
F1	Help	Ctrl N	Add new appointment
F2	Daily View	Ctrl E	Edit Selected Appointment
F3	Weekly View	Ctrl D	Delete Selected Appointment
F4	Monthly View	Ctrl P	Print Current View
F5	View File Access in Appointments Grid	Ctrl F	Quick Find in current month
F6	Timed View (Display as a Grid)	Ctrl S	Power Search
F7	List View (Display Events as list)
F8	View Calendar and File List
F9	View the List of Tasks to do

3.3 ClientSetup

This is the configuration program for all the client programs. It is called automatically if the netDiary.ini file is deleted.

For information on setting up the client, see 1.2 Configuring the Diary Client
Infolink Screen shot

3.4 Diary Summary

This is the Timesheet generator, which summarises the PC Usage collected by the InfoLink program.
On a monthly basis it creates basic CSV timesheets showing accurate start and stop times that you were working at your PC.
You can also filter the timesheet to show total time spent using certain programs. For example, enter 'Microsoft Word' into the Filter Text to see how long you spent using Word in the last month.

Note - InfoLink PC usage works by taking a sample of the active window caption once a minute, so the 'total time' may be inaccurate if you constantly switch between programs.

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3.5 Meeting Planner

This program allows a user to book meetings, or add events to other users databases.

Click here to see more information on how to book meetings, and view other users appointments

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3.6 Date Calculator

Simple utility to calculate the number of days, weeks, months or years between any 2 dates.

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4. Advanced Topics

4.1 Monitoring Hard Drive Space with Infolink

By default, every hour infolink checks the available hard drive space on your computer and reports it to you by scrolling the numbers across the green display area.

When the available hard drive space is lower than the threshold, the menu button (smiley face), turns into a sad face.

If you have more than 2 drives or partitions, you need to edit the INI file to allow infolink to check them.

Example netDiary.ini File showing 'general' section

[general]
; The general section includes disk space warings, EXE files to launch, etc
;

NumberOfDisks=3
Disk_1=C:
Disk_2=D:
Disk_3=E:
LowSpaceWarningInMb_1=750
LowSpaceWarningInMb_2=400
LowSpaceWarningInMb_3=400

NumberOfDisks - this should show how many disks/partitions you are checking. You need to make sure that this number has the correct LowSpaceWarnings and Disk_ entries.

Disk_n - this is the label of the disk to check. This must be the partition label including the colon (ie C:, D:, N:)

LowSpaceWarningInMb_n - this is the threshold limit in megabytes which changes the smiley face to a sad face. If any one of the partitions are less than their assigned threshold the face will change to sad.

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4.2 Configuring the InfoLink Text Editor button

On the Infolink screen, the 5th button from the left hand side (looks similar to 2 pages of notes) is to quickly launch a text editor.
This can be configured to launch any program by changing the following setting in the netDiary.ini file:

texteditorEXE=notepad.exe <-- this is the default setting
texteditorEXE=C:\PROGRAM FILES\ACUTE\DNOTE\dnote.exe <-- change this entry to any program (include path)

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4.3 Managing your list of quick launch Programs

1. Make sure you can see the lists on the InfoLink display by resizing the form or, by going to the menu (smiley face), and choosing 'compact display mode'

2. Display the Programs list, by clicking on the drop down listbox on the left hand side, under the menu toolbar
This is your 'quick launch' list of programs , it will initially be empty., but all you need to do is drag and drop a file or folder to this area to have it added to the list.
You can edit this list with any text editor by changing the file PROGRAMS.LIS Double Click one to launch a file or folder.

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4.4 Automatic Event Logging

This feature is very useful in order to :

see how long you spend on various computing tasks

create accurate invoices for people who bill hourly

create employee timesheets down to 1 minute intervals

Assists Network administrators to identify which files where modified and when

Diary entries can be automatically created from a number of sources:

Recording PC Usage from InfoLink
Every minute, InfoLink records which application you are using to a logfile ( diary.raw ). At the specified interval ( 1 - 60 minutes ) the pim-util.exe program runs which summarizes the logfile into events for the diary.

Recording Files Modified from 'Autobackup'
Autobackup is a free utility from Acute Software. At the start of each day it makes a copy of all the files you have modified into a separate directory. It can also create diary entries for each file modified, showing the file size and full pathname. It cannot show how long you spent editing the file unless dserver is running and has recorded the events.

Recording "Tasks" from Acute Software's Timer
If you have purchased the Timer program from Acute Software, you can also use it to generate events when you time certain tasks - either in stop watch mode or alarm clock mode.

Recording Events from the Quick Event Recorder
You can create batch files or scripts to add events to the diary using the the EventRecorder (see section 4.5 below for more information)

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4.5 Recording Events from the Quick Event Recorder

The EventRecorder.exe program is a small program which can be setup to quickly add commonly occurring events such as : taking phone calls, booking routine meetings.
You setup an event, such as the length of the event, references, etc and with a single click it can be added when ever you want - It can also run from the command line

Command Line Usage is :

"C:\Program Files\acute\netdiary\EventRecorder.exe" hi there

The above line run from the Start --> Run menu , or from a batch file will add a diary event with the details "hi there" and the date/time that it was entered

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4.6 Using Batch Files to add events from other programs

Say you want to keep track of when a program is run.
There are several options, many programs keep their own logfiles but most don't. Using the event recorder you can have a batch file call the program you need logged and use it to also make an automatic entry in the diary.

Example Batch File to run an intensive data processing job and record it:

@echo off
echo Recording Diary Event ...
cd "c:\Program Files\acute\netdiary"
EventRecorder Running Data processing job
cd "d:\apps\dataProc\"
d:\apps\dataProc\run.exe

4.7 Other Client Programs

This section describes the other 'silent' programs and misc. utilities that come with the diary client.

NetPath

Used to map network drives in earlier versions, but now used silently to autofind a server path to map to, based on the users PC name.

Can also be used to assist users who dont have experience mapping drives.

PIM-UTIL

Silently running utility which runs every hour in the background to process the logged PC usage events to diary records.

You can run this program to view the data file contents and basic statistics on the types of diary events you have in each months file.

Collect Files Used

This utility scans your entire hard disk and gets a list of all recently modified files. It then creates diary entries for each of these files into your current diary datapath.
This allows you to not only view your appointments and PC usage, but also ALL the files modified, and when they were modified.
The list can be displayed in the middle left window of the Diary (View Menu --> File List ), so you can simply double click a file entry to load it.

Note - If you use Autobackup, or Autobackup-Pro you should not have to use this program, as your file usage is done by these utilities

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5. Support and Troubleshooting

If you have any problems at all with this product, please email us for FREE support
or visit the support website at http://www.acutesoftware.com.au/cont_support.html

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5.1 The Diary Client will not Start

1. try rebooting your PC (it may have locked up)
2. shutdown other programs and restart the Diary Client
3. try other programs - does Explorer, Word, Internet Explorer, etc work. If they don't then you have a problem with your PC not related to the diary. If they DO work, read below.
4. Try deleting your netDiary.ini file and running the ClientSetup program again. There may be a corrupted setting.
5. Write down any error message you get and email it to support@acutesoftware.com.au
6. You can also try re-installing the network diary client (some of your DLLs may have been overwritten by another programs installation.

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5.2 Cannot find the Server

1. Go to the Network Neighbourhood and see if you can see the server. If NOT then you have a problem with your networking which is not related to Acute Software. If you can see the Server which has the Diary server program installed, then read below
2. Make sure the server is running
3. Make sure the servers datapath is shared ( \public )

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5.3 The Server returns no data

Check the search criteria - try ticking all months or all users.

There may be no data available - that is, the user may not have entered any events

Also, the clients may have elected not to save ANY data

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5.4 Client Timed out waiting for Server

1. Make sure the server is still running
2. Make sure the clients network path is pointing to the correct path
3. Make sure you are running the correct version
4. Check for excessive load on the server - try just getting records for 1 month
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5.5 I cant see other users appointments

1. Check that you can see your own public appointments in the Quick View program
2. Make sure that the other users have not turned down their security level

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5.6 I get a 'Server Not responding' message

If this is the first time you have connected this client to the server :

1. Check with your administrator that the server is running and that you have been added as a user (either your name or, most likely - your PC name)

2. Make sure your name (InfoLink-->Server Menu-->WhoAmI) is in the above list of folders in the \user directory and is spelled correctly [contact your administrator if it is incorrect or missing]

3. Go through the Checklist of Tests in section 1.4

If your installation was previously working correctly

1. Browse Network Neighbourhood to prove that the Network is still working (browse in to your Server PC name, \NetServer\users\[your name]

2. Try Pinging the server, using InfoLink Server Menu --> Ping Server

3. Delete any *.OK files in your Network datapath above

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5.7 General Windows Troubleshooting Procedures

This section gives a very basic method of troubleshooting windows

1. Have you changed any hardware
2. Have you installed any software recently
3. Do other applications still work
4. Run the Windows 'Help Troubleshooter' to assist in finding any problems on your PC (Start Menu --> Help ---> 'Troubleshooting' )
5. Did you change any settings in control panel.
6. Make sure you have the latest version of the program you are having problems with. This may involve downloading the latest patch from the authors website.

� Copyright 2001-2003 Acute Software
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