Archived 2013-12-08
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.
Back in 2004 I started a mailing list for people who wanted to learn usage of PIM/PE, the great freeware PIM (Personal Information Management) software for HP Palmtops by Andreas Garzotto (D&A Software).
On that list, I published four lessons of a tutorial ("course") which should enable people to effectively use PIM/PE on their Palmtops. These four lessons are shown below. The mailing list does not exist anymore. It was a temporary list for posting and discussing the lessons.
PIM/PE (i.e. the combination of PIM/LX and PE/LX) is a great alternative to the HP Palmtops' built-in appointment book, phone book and, for some users, even for the general database and notes database applications. PIM/PE is text file based. A GUI is there only for graphical presentation of appointments and as a general viewing / editing interface to the text files. This makes PIM/PE incredibly flexible and compatible.
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 14:34:23 +0200 (MEST) From: "Daniel Hertrich" To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject: [PIMcourse] PIM COURSE LESSON 1 +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | PIM / PE COURSE | | by Daniel Hertrich | | | | Lesson 1: Installing PE | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ 0. Preconditions: In this and all following lessons I assume that each participant has basic knowledge of MS-DOS. This involves file handling (copying, renaming, editing, deleting), usage of the DOS command line, basic knowledge of what memory is and how it is handled by the palmtop and so on. Also for these participants who want to install PIM and PE under Application Manager as an icon, they should know how to do that and how to solve SysMgr- / AppMgr- related problems. However, it is possible to use PIM / PE entirely independently from System Manager, so it can also be used on a 1000CX palmtop. I will explain in one of the lessons how to export PIM data from the built-in databases to PIM/PE compatible files. Everything explained in the PIM/PE course can be done on HP palmtops 100LX, 200LX, 1000CX and Omnigo 700LX. It is not possible to install and use PIM/PE on a 95LX. Additionally, it MAY be possible to use PIM/PE under a palmtop emulator, such as PALRUN, PALMPC or CG.COM, on a regular MS-DOS / Windows PC. However, this course will not explain how to do this and it will not resolve any problems related to that. So let's begin now! 1. Download PE: We need the new version of PE (Version 3.0) for the PIM/PE setup used in this course. Download PE 3.0 from ftp://ftp.dasoft.com/pub/PE/pe.zip 2. Preparation (skip this if you don't have a prior version of PE installed already) If you have a version of PE installed already, delete or deactivate it for the lessons. Don't simply replace it with the new version, because we want to install PE 3.0 all into the same directory. This makes it easier for the lessons, as CFG files will contain path information and so we can simply cut'n'paste from the emails without caring about different paths. E.g. if you have installed PE 2.x in c:\PE, either delete it and make all software use the new version of PE, or remove C:\PE from your PATH variable in autoexec.bat. If you delete the old PE version, keep a copy of PE.CFG so you can later adjust the new PE.CFG to the old values you are used to use. 3. Installation You need about 80 kB of free C: drive space for PE. We want to keep all program data in C:\BIN and later all PIM data files in C:\_DAT\PIM. So now we install PE 3.0 into C:\BIN: Create C:\BIN. From the PE 3.0 ZIP archive, install the files PE.EXE, PE.MAC, PE.HLP and PE.CFG in C:\BIN. If you're going to run PE / PIM from Systemmanager, you also need NOFIDDLE.COM and PE.ICN in C:\BIN. If you have the space, also copy PE.DOC into C:\BIN so you always have it available for reference. Now you need to modify the autoexec.bat of your system. If you boot form C: or A:, modify the autoexec.bat there. If you currently use the default autoexec.bat and config.sys from D:, you first need to copy BOTH to C:\ and modify autoexec.bat on C:, as D: is a ROM drive. Add C:\BIN to the PATH variable of your system. Add C:\BIN\NOFIDDLE.COM as the last command before the system manager is called (command "100" or "200", if you want to use PE and PIM under System Manager. If you use Software Carousel, make sure C:\BIN is available in the path variable of each SC session you want to use PE in (check after reboot with command "path"). If you want to launch PE from Application Manager, create a new icon with title PE, program path C:\BIN\PE.EXE | (the | at the end reserves all available memory to PE. This is useful for PIM.EXE later. If it causes problems, you can later trim down the amount of reserved memory). Put an upside-down question mark into the note field of the new entry (Fn-3 creates that character). This is to prevent the annoying mesage "Press any key..." after PE has been closed. If you go forther to the icon field, the PE icon should appear automatically. Then press F10 to save the new entry. Please do NOT modify PE.CFG yet, except for the modification I ask you to do. Reboot your palmtop. 4. First configuration and PE exercise: Now PE should be ready. Try to invoke PE from Application Manager using the icon and from a DOS prompt using the command PE. This should now always work, regardless "where" in the system you are, thanks to the PATH entry. Check if the correct verswion of PE is running: Shift-F1 shows an info window. It should say: PE 3.0 / Sun, 25 Jul 2004 09:54:00 MET. Configure PE, editing C:\BIN\PE.CFG now (Press F9 in PE to load a file, enter c:\bin\pe.cfg in the dialog, press enter): First comment out all entries in the [PIM] section of PE.CFG. We will add them later again. Save PE.CFG and restart PE (comments are preceded by a semicolon). On restart, you are now asked for a file to open. This is OK. Choose one or create a new one to play with. For example, open c:\bin\pe.doc Play around with PE to learn the basics. PE.DOC will help you and you can view PE.HLP at any time within PE by pressing F1. - Edit some files, save them, - open several files in one PE session - jump around between them with F7 and Shift-F7 (new hotkey to view a list of open fies). - Search something in the file with the F4 search feature - Create a list of your personal most-often used files which you often edit. Put that list into C:\BIN\PE.CFG in the section [Menu] like this, replacing the examples in PE.CFG: [Menu] &email=c:\www\postlx\post.adr &autoexec.bat=c:\autoexec.bat ¬es=c:\_dat\notes.txt Use some real files you have on your system, the above ones are only examples. On the left side of the equal sign give a short description of the file, which will appear in the menu. & sets the hotkey. Then use F6 in PE to choose a file from the list and open it. This is the first step in the direction of PIM. In fact, this _is_ already a kind of PIM ("Personal Information Management"). You have a list of often used files in your editor, so you can access these personally often used files with only a few keystrokes. This [Menu] section will later contain all your PIM files. - Read PE.DOC and make yourself familiar with the features of PE. Especially the search feature, the feature of using external programs ("filters") and using keyboard shortcuts for moving around in a file will be good to know. 5. Reconfigure your software if necessary: To make all programs on your palmtop, which used PE for editing data, work flawlessly again, please reconfigure them to use the new c:\bin\pe.exe. Such programs may be: * PNS200, check c:\_dat\pns200.ini * Post/LX for editing messages, check also the "Externals"! * MM/LX, check MM.CFG * Norton Commander * Volkov Commander * Built-in Filer, check c:\_dat\filer.ini Check also, if existent: * Programming environments * Your batch files So much for today. I hope everything works as expected. If not, don't hesitate to ask questions to the pimcourse mailing list. Others may of course reply to them as well, if I don't do it in time. Maybe I'll collect important questions and their answers, and if I publish the PIM course on the internet, put together a Q&A page for each lesson. I'll wait for some time to see if there are questions, and if there are, clear everything up before proceeding to the next lesson. I expect to continue with lesson 2 in about one week. In lesson 2 we will install and configure PIM/LX and reconfigure PE to provide PIM features. Have fun! Daniel Hertrich, 2004-08-19 ============================================================== Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 15:00:33 +0200 (MEST) From: "Daniel Hertrich" To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject: [PIMcourse] PIM COURSE LESSON 2 +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | PIM / PE COURSE | | by Daniel Hertrich | | | | Lesson 2: Installing PIM | | And first steps with PIM | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ 0. Disclaimer: Using a PIM application means dealing a lot with date and time values. I am aware that in different countries different date and time formats are used. For simplicity reasons I ask you for the duration of this course to use the formats I also use. I'll give advice in one of the last lessons how to switch to other date / time formats, so once you are familiar with PIM / PE you can then switch over to your preferred formats (and unfortunately you'll have to rewrite some PIM items, if you want to preserve them for your actual use of PIM / PE). But I hope you understand it would make this course a mess if every member would use her/his own preferred time/date formats. The formats used here are as follows: Date: DD-MMM-YYYY, i.e. 13-OCT-2004 02-FEB-2022 Time: military time, i.e. 08:15 (=8.15am) 16:55 (=4.55pm) The calendar week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday. It is possible to switch to am/pm time format and to ISO date format (YYYY-MM-DD) later. It is also possible to switch to Sunday as the beginning of a week displayed in calendar views. 1. Download PIM: We need the new version of PIM (Version 2.2) for the PIM/PE setup used in this course. Download PIM 2.2 from ftp://ftp.dasoft.com/pub/PE/pim22.zip 2. Preparation (skip this if you don't have a prior version of PIM installed already) If you have a version of PIM installed already, delete or deactivate it for the lessons. Don't simply replace it with the new version, because we want to install PIM 2.2 all into the same directory. This makes it easier for the lessons, as CFG files will contain path information and so we can simply cut'n'paste from the emails without caring about different paths. E.g. if you have installed PIM 1.0 in c:\PIM, please delete thje entire directory, but keep a copy of PIM.CFG so you can later adjust the new PIM.CFG to the old values you are used to use. 3. Installation You need about 100 kB of free C: drive space for PIM. Additional space of at least 300kB is recommended for PIM data and index files. Fewer space may be sufficient for the beginning. We want to keep all program data in C:\BIN and all PIM data files in C:\_DAT\PIM. So now we install PIM 2.2 into C:\BIN, where PE already resides. From the PIM 2.2 ZIP archive, install the files PIM.EXE, PIM.CFG and ALAPIM.COM in C:\BIN. The PIM.DOC file contains some information about installation of PIM, which is covered as well by this course lesson, so you won't need PIM.DOC. The actual PIM documentation is in HELP.PIM, which we will install now: Create the directories C:\_DAT\PIM C:\_DAT\PIM\DATA and C:\_DAT\PIM\INDEX From the PIM 2.2 ZIP archive, install the files HELP.PIM and HISTORY.PIM in C:\_DAT\PIM\DATA Please do NOT modify PIM.CFG yet, except for the modification I ask you to do. 4. Configuration of PIM features in PE: In order to use PIM and PE's PIM features, you need to enable the PIM features of PE first. This is done by editing C:\BIN\PE.CFG: You have commented out all entries in the [PIM] section in lesson 1. Now we need some of these entries again. Edit the section [PIM] so that it looks a follows: [PIM] ; parameters for PIM functions (see PIM.DOC) Data=c:\_dat\pim\data Index=c:\_dat\pim\index Cur=c:\_dat\pim\data\priv.pim Prog=c:\bin\pim.exe ; Find=c:\bin\find.exe In lesson 1, you have created entries in the [Menu] section. We need that section now also for PIM. This section allows you to quickly access your PIM files (along with other often used files). So, if you have added files to [Menu] which you need often, keep them, but please add the following line as the first (!) line of the [Menu] section: &Private=!c:\_dat\pim\data\priv.pim (note the exclamation mark on front of the path - it is essential!) PRIV.PIM will be our first PIM file, holding private data. Later we will add more files for other purposes (a business file, a holidays file, a contacts file...) Save PE.CFG and, if you used PE to edit it, quit PE. 5. Configuration of PIM: PIM's central configuration file is C:\BIN\PIM.CFG. Please take the file as supplied with PIM.ZIP; apply no other modifications than I ask you to apply. The only modification we need so far is this: There is a [Choice] section containing two line. Please comment out the entire section (i.e. prepend a semicolon to each line, including [Choice]). Then save PIM.CFG. 6. Principles of PIM / PE: Please read PIM.DOC, supplied with PIM.ZIP, to understand the principles of PIM / PE. Especially it is important that you understand the principle of writing "journals" in PE and use the PIM application to manage these journals, i.e. to extract the actual PIM data and display it in a calendar or in a list, evaluate links to other PIM items in other PIM files and follow them etc. A journal is basically a text file containing notes of the day. If you write something down, it may contain PIM information. You mark that PIM information with a special token, so that PIM.EXE can evaluate it. Think of it as simple writing of a diary with inserting some tags making the written stuff understandable for a non-intelligent machine. E.g. assume you write down the experiences from this lesson. You may want to set yourself goals and you may want to set an appointment so you know when to work on the next lesson (and this one, too). Your notes could look like this: "I have worked on lesson 2 on 04-SEP-2004 17:00-19:00 Experiences: Have installed PIM, have configured PE. PE works nicely, but I have not yet tried PIM. I'm interested in how it looks like! But Daniel didn't let me have a glance at it yet. Todo until next lesson: - Understand PIM principles, - enter first PIM items myself - explore the PIM GUI - Skim HELP.PIM to be amazed by the variaty of features Next lesson (3) will be on Thursday, 9th September, 17:00." This is of course not a format which is understood by PIM. But keep that journal in mind. We will use it later and "convert" it to PIM format. 7. Preparing the first PIM file for usage: Start PE (either via SysMgr icon or via the command "PE" on the command line). Unlike before, PE should now not come up with a file open dialog, but with an empty file. If you look closer, you see in the top line that the open file is the priv.pim file. Why is this? Because you have given it as "Cur" (which means "current") in PE.CFG / [PIM]. PE now opens that file each time it is started. (Pressing F9 will always let you open any other file, as you may be used to). Press Fn-Date. You would expect that the current date is inserted now. But instead a little calendar is displayed which lets you choose a date. --> Fn-Date in PE's PIM mode lets you enter a date stamp of your choice. (Fn-Time would add a combined date / time stamp instead) In the calendar, let the cursor reside on the current date and press enter. A line, beginning with two dots, and the current date is inserted at the top of the file. But PE only _displays_ a line and the two dots. In reality, the entry looks like this (you see it when opening the file in another editor, e.g. MEMO): +. 03-SEP-2004 The tag "+." means to PE and PIM "a date / time stamp follows!". You could also have written "+." instead of pressing Fn-Date. It would have the same effect, PE would have presented you the calendar to choose a date from. It is necessary that each PIM file has a +. line as its first line. Otherwise it is not recognized as a PIM file. NOTE: When giving lines beginning with + in this course, they are always INDENTED. This is because if you read the course IN PE, PE would think you read a PIM file, if it would see these + lines beginning at the left edge. If they are indented, they are not recognized as PIM tags by PIM or PE. Also in HELP.PIM this method is used to show + lines without letting PIM/PE think these are actual PIM lines. If you look closer, you even see that the current day of the week is displayed. This is calculated by PE on the fly, it is NOT written to the PIM file. The cursor should be at the beginning of the weekday now. Press enter. The cursor jumps into the next line, the weekday stays where it was. Now save the file with F10. You have created a very basic PIM file! 8. The PIM GUI (basics) You are in PE, the priv.pim file is open, the cursor is placed on an empty line, NOT on the date stamp line. Press Ctrl-Enter. Ctrl-Enter is the hotkey for starting the PIM GUI. If everything is configured correctly, you will see a few messages flashing by in text mode, then the GUI is started and you are in a view of the current week. The cursor is placed on the current date and time. Let's explore this weekly view: - In the top line you see: - The PIM version - The month and year wihch we are viewing currently - The calendar week number we currently see (wXX) - the type of items currently displayed ("Appointments") - on the right side: The current date and time in the format you have specified in the palmtop's setup application under System Manager. - In the main screen you see: - On the left side (y axis): The time - On top (x axis): The day of the week - the grid: Here appointments will be shown graphically - footer line: data of the item where the cursor is (i.e. currently only week number, date and time) So what can you do now in the GUI? A lot! In this lesson, we will only explore how to navigate and how to switch to other views. Please do the following and see what happens: a) Use Alt-M to switch to monthly view b) Use Alt-D to switch to daily view c) Use Alt-W to switch to weekly view again d) Play with the cursor keys, with Home, End, PgUp, PgDn in all of these views. e) Press F5. A dialog appears which les you enter a date to jump to (independently from the kind of view). Press F5 again to jump back to today --> So, if you want to turn back to today in the current view, simply fress F5 twice. The Goto dialog is very flexible. It lets you enter dates in many various formats. E.g.: 1.2 jumps to the 1st Feb of the following year 1.2.2004 jumps to the 1st Feb of 2004 1.2.4 also jumps to 1st Feb 2004 1.feb jumps to 1st Feb of following year w33 jumps to calendar week 33 of current year w33/5 jumps to week 33 of 2005 +5 jumps forward 5 days -7 jumps backwards 7 days 6 jumps to the next 6th Due to that great flexibility, it may happen during your first steps that PIM interprets the date you entered in another way than you intended. Simply try again with another syntax and you will succeed. With time you will get used to what is valid and what isn't. PIM tells you if the date you've entered isn't valid. f) finally, use Alt-L to switch to list view. This kind of view will mainly be useful for todo lists, but depending on your usage pattern later, it may also be useful for appointments or other type of data. Currently, list view shows no items. g) Use ESC to leave the GUI and return to PIM. 9. The first PIM entries Remember that journal we wrote in step 6 above? We now want to convert that to a format understandable by PIM and put it into the priv.pim file. Then use the PIM GUI to see how it is processed and what can be done with it. Note that we will not yet use all the aids to enter PIM data, but rather enter the raw PIM data in PE, so you get a feeling on how the PIM data look like to understand what special tokens PIM relies on to process data. You should know the following: Each line which has a plus ("+") as the very first character, is a special line for PIM and also for PE if it is in PIM mode. Such a plus is displayed as a dot by PE, if PE is in PIM mode. You can see that PE is in PIM mode because in the black top line there is a "+" displayed behind the version info of PE. Please follow the guide and don't be afraid of the complicated data entry. It will become easier later! a) You just left the PIM GUI with ESC and you are in PE. The cursor is positioned in the line below the date spamp in priv.pim. b) press Enter to create an empty line. This makes things more convenient to read. c) We want to set an appointment for "I have worked on lesson 2 on 04-SEP-2004 17:00-19:00" An apointment is a PIM file entry with the following format: +( Start date and time +a name of the appointment +) End (date and) time So, please enter the following manually: +( A calendar window appears. Choose 4-Sep, press enter. PE converts the line view and appends the day of the week as you know it already from the date stamp (+.). The cursor is positioned behind the date where you now please enter the start time: 17:00. After that, press enter. On the next line, write +a PIM course 2nd lesson and on the following line, write +) 19:00 Press enter twice. PE now displays the appointment nicely as an item included in a kind of "frame". The raw data (which you entered) look like this: +( 04-SEP-2004 17:00 +a PIM course 2nd lesson +) 19:00 Save the PIM file by pressing F10. Hit Ctrl-Enter to start the GUI. You should see the new appointment in the graphical overview. Move around, change views etc. to see what happens. Leave the GUI with ESC, which takes you back into PE with priv.pim. d) We now want to "translate" the remaining journal to PIM syntax. What does it contain? Some free-form text (notes), some todos and another appointment. So let's begin with the notes. NOTES: Simply write them into the PIM file. They are not treated by PIM, so they do not have to have a + tag. The important thing about notes its that they are ordered chronologically by the +. timestamps. We'll see later how to find a note entered on a certain date. So, simply write below the appointment: Experiences: Have installed PIM, have configured PE. PE works nicely, but I have not yet tried PIM. I'm interested in how it looks like! But Daniel didn't let me have a glance at it yet. (Actually, this isn't true anymore, but let's assume it is, just for simplicity. ) Now, we enter the todos. Todos are similar to appoinments in syntax, but they have a +t tag instead of +a. Additionally, they usually have only a start date, maybe a due date and no time. They can also have priorities, bue that will be explained later. So, now please enter the todos as follows: +( 04-SEP-2004 +t Understand PIM principles, +) 06-SEP-2004 +( 04-SEP-2004 +t Enter first PIM items myself +) 06-SEP-2004 +( 04-SEP-2004 +t Explore the PIM GUI +) 06-SEP-2004 +( 04-SEP-2004 +t Skim HELP.PIM to be amazed by the variaty of features +) 09-SEP-2004 You see I have se the due date for the first three todos to two days after the start date. The last todo as the date of the next PIM lesson as the due date. Some aids for entry: To enter the due dates, you can either use manual entry, or, after entering +), press Fn-Date and choose the date. Now, we enter the last appointment of our journal: +( 09-SEP-2004 17:00 +a PIM course 3rd lesson +) 19:00 Press F10 to save the file. e) Explore the new entries in the GUI: Press Ctrl-Enter ON AN EMPTY LINE in the priv.pim file. In monthly view, you should now see both appointments. In list view (Alt-L) you see the two appointments listed. Now, press Menu / T(ype) / T(asks'n'Appts). PIM shows you a list of all the items you have just entered. Menu / T / A returns to Appointments-only view. Menu / T / U shows only the todos. Press ESC to leave the GUI, Press ESC-ESC to leave PE. 10. PIM help Whenever you need help with PIM, you can consult HELP.PIM. Either open it manually in PE, or hit F1 when the PIM GUI is running (then hit Ctrl-Fn-Home to get to the beginning of the file. Seems to be a bug that it jumps to the end. I will fix that soon.) You can use the search frature of PE to find topics, and you may also use the table of contents of the HELP.PIM file: This is another feature of PIM you'll encounter during the lessons: Links. The table of contents lists the headings of the sections. Each line is prepended with a +>. Each heading in the text is prepended with a +. (just as a time stamp). If you place the cursor on a +> line and press Ctrl-Enter, PE will not call PIM in the GUI mode, but instead it lets PIM search for the corresponding +. line. That means, if you place the cursor in HELP.PIM on the line "+> Completed Tasks" (this is line 16) and press Ctrl-Enter, PIM takes you to the section "Completed Tasks". This is called "following a link". Consider what you can use that for: If in PIM course lesson 24 you take a note such as "I forgot how to write a time stamp, but I have learned that in lesson 2 already", just add a +. Lesson 2 in front of the notes of today, and rewrite the notes of lesson 24 this way: I forgot how to write a time stamp, but I have learned that in +> Lesson 2 A Ctrl-Enter on the "+> Lesson 2" line then takes you directly to the notes of lesson 2. Summary: You have done a full installation of PIM. You know the paradigm of this kind of PIM application. You have learned the basics of PIM entries. You know how to enter appointments, todos and notes and how to set date / time stamps. You have learned the basics of the PIM GUI (navigation, view types, item types). I admit that the ways to enter and view data described so far are a bit complicated and take more time and keystrokes than in the built-in PIM apps. This is due to the fact that we work with a text editor and use text files exclusively. But there are ways built into PE and PIM to make data entry and data viewing MUCH easier. Even easier and more convenient as inthe built-in applications. The reason I did not introduce these ways yet is that you see the basics: The file and tag format of PIM files, the menu structure of PIM etc. In the next lesson we will use PE's ways to help you with data entry, use advanced ways to let PIM present data and some more interesting things. In the meantime, you can play around with the features known so far, add more entries to priv.pim and play with them. To be on the same level again for the next lesson, I'll save the current version of our priv.pim and send it to all of you before the next lesson. If there are questions regarding this lesson, now is the time to ask. Have fun! Daniel Hertrich, 2004-09-03 ============================================================== Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 23:43:40 +0200 From: Daniel Hertrich To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject: [PIMcourse] PIM COURSE LESSON 3 +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | PIM / PE COURSE | | by Daniel Hertrich | | | | Lesson 3: Outlines in PE | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ John brought up the idea to make a little lesson about outlines in PE. Here it goes: Think of an outline as a hierarchy (or a tree). Level one is the first level of the hiearchy, level two is the second level of the hiearchy and so on. BTW, a very good way to learn about hierarchies is to use Mindmap/LX. MindMap/LX and PE use the same file format for their hiearchies / outlines. If you ask PE to create an outline of the file which is loaded, it declares certain lines as top-level (1st level) items. Which lines that are, depends on the criteria you gave (e.g. a delimiter, a special string "Contact" or whatever). Everything below a top-level item is lower in the hierarchy. PE can display items "only up to a certain level" and hide the remaining parts of the file. If you want to create a file in PE which is meant to be structured in a hiearchical way, you can give the hiearchiy level of a line by preceding the line with n*3 spaces (n being the level). E.g.: 1st level item a 2nd level item a 2nd level item b 1st level item b 2nd level item c 3rd level item a 2nd level item d and so on. You can then use PE's outline feature to only display lines "up to level X" and hide all other lines. Lines with text beginning at column 0 is notes text belonging to the item above it. I.e. 1st level item a 2nd level item a 2nd level item b 1st level item b 2nd level item c This is a note belonging to 2nd level item c. This is the second line of the note. 3rd level item a 2nd level item d So if you load the above lines into PE, then hit ESC and O to switch to outline mode, you see some inverted "-" behind some items. If you put the cursor into such a line and press ESC - (which means, hit ESC and release it, then press minus and release it), PE hides the "contents" of that "record", or, in other words, it hides the "subtree" of the marked item. Or, in other words, it hides all items which "belong" to that item in the hiearchy. E.g. go to the second level item c and press Esc -. The notes of that item, along with its 3rd level item are hidden and the minus turns into a plus, meaning with ESC + you can let the contents appear again. BTW: To make it easier to create such files, it is recommended to set the parameter TabSize = 3 in the [Display] section of PE.CFG. This makes PE substitute 3 spaces for each entered TAB, so you only need to press the TAB key to create a hiearchy level. -------- Using n*3 spaces in one way to declare item levels. Another way is to let PE decide which level an items has by using search criteria. E.g. a line containing a special record delimiter or string can be made a level 1 item. The typical way to use this is explained below: Load this into PE: +p Miller, Jack Tel +1 234 56789 Address: 44, ABC street +p Smith, Freddy Tel +1 987 65423 Address: 55, XYZ street +p Wolf, John Tel +1 951 753695 Address: 99, bush road Hit Ctrl-C, enter "+p" and hit enter. You have declared the +p lines 1st level items, all other things are hidden. You can view a record by hitting ESC + on a name line now and hide the record using ESC - on a name line again. Hit Esc O or Ctrl-C to switch off outline mode. The entire file will be shown again. Now press Ctrl-C once more. This time, enter "Tel" at the prompt, then Alt-R (using records) and enter "+p". Then hit enter. PE now shows you only the Tel line of each record, and the record title, e.g. the name line, and again you can expand / collapse records with ESC + and ESC -. You can later also use this technique to view excerpts of your PIM files. E.g. if you hit Crtl-C, enter "Freddy", Alt-R, then enter "+." and hit enter, PE will present you all date / time stamps and show you all lines containing "Freddy". So you see at one glance on which date you entered notes, appointments or anything else containing "Freddy" I hope this clears up all problems with outlines. If not, please ask. Daniel Hertrich, 2004-09-08 ============================================================== Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 20:58:50 +0200 From: Daniel Hertrich To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject: [PIMcourse] PIM COURSE LESSON 4 +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | PIM / PE COURSE | | by Daniel Hertrich | | | | Lesson 4: PIM/PE data entry aids | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ 1. Introduction: So far we have seen that data entry in PE for PIM is rather complicated and requires many keystrokes to get a valid and working PIM entry. There are meny ways to make this easier, faster, simpler. At least for the basic kinds of entries. For more complex ones (e.g. appointments with repetition data) it is still required to use manual entry methods. 2. A PE macro for new appointments and todos: We will now enable the F3 key in PE to add the frame for a new appointment or todo. In fact, the macro is already there and active (defined in C:\BIN\PE.MAC, have a look at the last line of PE.MAC! A macro line in PE.MAC assigned a sequence of key strokes to a single key. A key is specified as its hexadecimal scan code preceded by a hash. So the line in PE.MAC which reads #3d00=#0d2b#0a28#011b#1c0d#0d2b#0b29#4800#d100 "translates" to the following: F3 = + ( [ESC] [ENTER] + ) [ArrowUp] [DATE] i.e. it first generates an empty +( +) frame (omitting the automatically opened calendar with ESC), then goes up into the +( line and lets you choose a beginning date. Close PE.MAC, we don't need to edit it. Open C:\BIN\PE.CFG and go to the [Labels] section. You see an entry which is commented out reading "3=AddPIM". Remove the comment character in front of it to activate that entry. It means that the label "AddPIM" is added to the F3 key label in PE. That is for you to remember which key to press to generate a PIM entry when in PE. Save PE.CFG and restart PE. You will now see the AddPIM label on top of the F3 key. You should be at the end of priv.pim now so you can test F3 right now. Press F3! A calendar will be displayed. Choose today's date by pressing enter. You'll see a PIM entry frame with today's date with the cursor right behind the date ready to enter the start time. Create an appointment by adding the time "20:00", pressing enter and adding +a PIM/PE Lesson 4 Then press the down arrow to get into the +) line and enter the stop time 22:00. Press enter twice to get into a new line with an empty line in between, then save (F10) and press Ctrl-Enter. PIM is started and the new appointment should be visible. Do not exit the GUI! 3. Adding a PIM entry using the GUI You may have noticed that in the PIM GUI the F3 label also shows "Add". You can also add an entry directly from within the PIM GUI. However, this will bring you back to PE, so it is not possible to add an entry without leaving the GUI. Let's now create an appointment for Lesson 5. Let's assume it will take place next week (I am optimistic! ;-) at the same time as Lesson 4. So, press F5 F5 to go to today if you are not there already. Then press F5, enter "+7" and confirm with Enter. You are taken to exactly one week later (+7 days). Now, move the cursor to 20:00 (observe the bottom status line) and press Shift-F3. This defines the Start time of the new entry. ***START TIME SET*** will be displayed in the lower right corner of PIM. Now, move to 22:00 and finally press F3. This takes you back to PE and you see a new +a entry for one week in the future 20:00-23:00 for which you can now enter the title. Enter "PIM/PE Lesson 5". Save (F10), go to an empty line and press Ctrl-Enter. When in PIM, press Alt-M. You will now see both new entries in the monthly view. It is also possible to add an entry without defining the start time first: Press Alt-W for weekly view, F5 F5 (go to today), ArrowRight to go to tomorrow, move cursor to 18:00, then press F3. Back in PE, you now see a new entry beginning at 18:00 and ending at 19:00 (Duration 1 hour, as defined in PIM.CFG section [PIM] entry DefDur=60). Don't change that for now. You can change that later if needed. Delete the new PIM entry frame, we don't need it. It was only to show this alternative of entry creation. Daniel Hertrich, 2004-10-14 _______________________________________________ PIMcourse mailing list This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. http://fred.eberl.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pimcourse