Help File for Acute Softwares Network Diary

1. Network Diary Installation

1.1 Step 1 - Preparation
1.2 Step 2 - Install the Client onto the First PC
1.2 Step 3 - Setup the Server with the netDiaryAdmin tool
1.2 Step 4 - Install the Diary onto the remaining PC's

2. Using the Diary for Appointments and Meetings

2.1 Viewing your own Appointments
2.2 Entering your own Appointments
2.3 Viewing Other Users Appointments
2.4 Booking Meetings with Other Users
2.5 Finding Information
2.6 Search for information in all users diaries

3. Other Features

3.1 Tasks - Keep track of tasks
3.2 Notes - Manage random notes
3.2 Importing Data - i.e. Public Holidays

4. Advanced Topics

4.1 Switching Users
4.2 Recording Events from the Quick Event Recorder
4.3 Using Batch Files to add events from other programs
4.4 Other components - InfoLink

5. Support and Troubleshooting

5.1 The Diary Client will not Start
5.2 There are no users listed in Staff view

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 Refresh the screen Ctrl F Search for Information

F6 Timed View (Display as a Grid) Ctrl Z Book a Meeting

F7 List View (Display Events as list) Ctrl M Make a Multiday event

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1. Network Diary Installation
System requirements for the Network Diary are a Pentium PC with 64M RAM, running Win98 / ME / 2000 / XP with at least 10Mbytes of free disk space

Step 1 - Preparation

The first thing is to make a shared folder on your LAN which EVERYONE HAS ACCESS TO. (e.g. N:\shared\diary). You will need to map the server for all users, but this is most likely already done in a typical shared office environment.

Work out a short username for each person who will be using the diary - usernames shouldn't be any longer than 12 letters and they must not contain spaces.

PLEASE NOTE - if you are upgrading from a previous version of the Network Diary, you should follow the instructions here : article-netdiary-convert-v60.pdf

You must now check that each PC which will have the diary installed has a mapped drive to the folder on the server and that they can read and write files to this folder. Try copying a file from each of the PC's to the shared path to make sure.

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Step 2 - Install the Client onto the First PC

Download the latest version from acute softwares website and run the setup program.
Install to the default location (C:\Program Files\acute\netdiary)
Start the diary and you will see a welcome screen - Click 'Yes' to pick a shared folder, and you are then asked for a folder to store the data files.
Drill down to the folder which you created in Step 1 ( e.g. N:\shared\diary) and click OK.

You are then asked for a username - Because this is the first time you have setup the diary, there are no user names configured yet. You need to enter the username which will be using this computer - You will get an error message - but ignore it for now.
Click OK when you get 'Success - you are now running as user '[yourname]'
The first diary has now been installed! Click OK, and the Diary will start normally. Don't bother adding any events yet.
Exit the Diary and go to Step 3

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Step 3 - Setup the Server with the netDiaryAdmin tool

Start the Network Diary Administration Tool from:
Start Menu > Acute Software > Network Diary Administrator

A screen starts showing that nothing is configured yet. Click the Path button , and you are asked for folder where the data files are kept (same as step 2) - browse to N:\shared\diary and click OK.

Now click the Users button and add the users.

Click Save and Close and you are returned to the Server admin screen, this time with green text showing a successful installation.

Click Exit.

To check that the user list is setup correctly for your location, Start the Diary on this first PC now, and click on Staff view to make sure the list of users is there.

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Step 4 - Install the Diary onto the remaining PC's

Go to each PC and run the diary setup program.
When it starts you are asked for the folder to store the shared files as in step 2, but when it gets to the username it shows you the list of users setup to use that shared path.

Enter the username for this computer and click ok.

Note - if you want to add a new user which is not in the list you need to go back to step 3 and add it using the netDiaryAdmin tool

Once the diary has been installed on all the computers, you can test it as follows:

On one PC add an event called 'test'.

Click the Staff icon and make sure you see the list of users down the Left Hand side. The main grid should show all users.

Book a meeting with all users.

Go to anther users PC and open their diary - you should see the meeting booked by the first PC. Try out the features in the diary - you can add events for other users and even *become* other users (only the administrator should do this), via the Options menu > Staff > Switch user button. Tip - don't forget to switch back to you!

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2. Using the Diary for Appointments and Meetings

2.1 Viewing your own 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.

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 your own 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 a form to allow you to enter various details about the event:
- Date of Event
- Time of Event
- Event Details (this is what is shown in the list of the grid)
- Event Location (this is what can be shown in the staff view if you dont want the details shown)
- Category
- Remind Date of Event
- Remind Time of Event

The tabs across the top of the event form, display 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 Viewing Other Users Appointments

Click the 'Staff' view in the Left hand side list.

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.

Clicking on an area in this screen gives the full details, unless that user has made the event private.

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2.4 Booking Meetings with Other Users

Click the 'Staff' view in the Left hand side list, or choose 'Book a meeting' from the New menu.

Enter the time and date you want the meeting

Tick the users you want to attend the meeting

Click 'OK', 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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2.5 Finding Appointments

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 choose to search your local events, tasks, and notes, or all the users events.

You can also click the details button, which allows you to choose which dates to looks for, or which users to search.

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

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2.6 Search for information in all users diaries

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

Choose 'Quick Find' from the Search menu, or click the 'Find' button (3rd button from the left in the toolbar) .
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' button to expand the search screen.

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3. Other Features

3.1 Tasks

Manage your list of things to do.

These are similar to appoinments, except that they are things which you dont have a fixed 'timeslot' to do them in (or perhaps that will take several days).

The best method is to enter all the things you want to do into the tasks list, then plan your day/week by dragging tasks to the diary events grid to make appointments for them.

If you dont get them done, you can simply drag them back to the task list.

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3.2 Notes

Manage your list of notes
- drag and drop multiple text files into the notes screen to automatically create notes

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3.3 Import Data

The File --> Import menu allows you to pick a CSV file to import date information.

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4. Advanced Topics

4.1 Switching Users

You can change users from the Options Screen > Staff tab (click the 'switch user' button) and run the diary as another person.
This should only be used for short periods of time, if for example you want to change events in another users diary (or tasks or notes).

Make sure you remember to switch back to yourself when you have finished.

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4.2 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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4.3 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

4.4 Other Client Programs

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

InfoLink

This is the toolbar program which is started when Windows begins. It will remind you of appointments even if the main diary program is not running.
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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
2. shutdown other programs and restart the Network Diary
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 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 There are no users listed in Staff view

If there are no other users in the staff view, this means that you are either pointing to the wrong directory (check your Options > Data Files > Data path), or that the list of users has not been configured (run the netDiaryAdmin tool from the Start menu)

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