Help File for Acute Softwares Diary
1. Diary Installation
1.1 Install the Diary
1.2 Configure the Diary
1.3 Starting the Diary Software
1.4 Quick Start Checklist


2. Using the Diary
2.1 Viewing Appointments
2.2 Entering Appointments
2.3 Finding Information

3. Components of the Diary
3.1 InfoLink - Toolbar program for the Diary
3.2 Diary Client - the main diary program
3.3 Client Setup - configuration of all Programs
3.4 Diary Summary - Timesheet Generator based on actual PC usage


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 - Pim-Util, CollectFilesUsed


5. Support and Troubleshooting
5.1 The Diary will not Start
5.2 General Windows Troubleshooting Procedures



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1. Diary Installation

System requirements for the Diary 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 Diary

Download the client installation program and click 'open this file' to run the SETUP.EXE file from the ZIP file.


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


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1.2 Configure the Diary

1. run the ClientSetup.exe program - this will configure the clients settings. Screen shot
After a few seconds you will see a "Default Settings have been made" message to indicate that it has finished. Make sure the "Run in Local Mode only" checkbox is ticked (otherwise this software tries to connect to a diary Server)

Here you can change 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 Diary Software


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

Screen shot

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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 you can make appoinments
 a) Start the Diary (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



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2. Using the Diary

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2.1 Viewing Appointments

Screen shot 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.

Screen shot 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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3. Components of the Diary

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

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3.1 InfoLink

Infolink is the toolbar program for the client which runs all the time. This provides quick access to your data, and reminds you of appointments.

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

Parts of the Infolink Screen

Infolink Screen shot
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 Diary

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

KeyDescriptionKeyDescription
F1HelpCtrl NAdd new appointment
F2Daily ViewCtrl EEdit Selected Appointment
F3Weekly ViewCtrl DDelete Selected Appointment
F4Monthly ViewCtrl PPrint Current View
F5View File Access in Appointments GridCtrl FQuick Find in current month
F6Timed View (Display as a Grid)Ctrl SPower Search
F7List View (Display Events as list)
F8View Calendar and File List
F9View the List of Tasks to do



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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


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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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4. Advanced Topics



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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

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    4.7 Other Client Programs

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



    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 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 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.








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