AUTHOR	nbauers@samphire.demon.co.uk

		
		USING CAT,  COMPUTER  AIDED  TIMETABLE
				

TO SAVE THE TIMETABLE


Choose FILE | SAVE from the main menu or use the F2 short cut key.


TO CLOSE THE TIMETABLE


Choose FILE | CLOSE from the main menu or use the Alt-F3 short cut key.


TO QUIT


Choose FILE | EXIT from the main menu or use the Alt-X short cut key.


TO BOOK - Alt-B


To make a booking,  use the left mouse button or arrow and tab keys to select 
the time,  room,  class, teacher and subject.  Then press Alt-B or click the 
mouse on the <Book> button at the bottom of the screen.  Double bookings are 
not permitted.  

#### NOTE ####  Use the TAB key or mouse to move between the different 
		areas on the screen.


TO UN-BOOK - Alt-U


To un-book a booking,  select the booking to be deleted using the mouse or
arrow keys in the large bookings display area.  Then press Alt-U or click 
the mouse on the <Un-Book> button at the bottom of the screen.  

>>>>>>> Un-book will not work unless a booking in the large display area is 
	selected.  This reduces the chances of accidental un-booking.

If you un-book by mistake,  you can immediately re-create the lost booking 
using <Book> as long as you have not moved any of the display areas.  


RED BLOBS  - Booked rooms, classes and teachers.


Booked rooms, classes and so on are marked by a red blob.  Red is for booked
items.  CAT does not permit double bookings.  If you need to double book,
record it manually.  If you need many double bookings,  CAT is probably the
wrong software tool for you.  On black and white screens a booking is marked
with a '' (Greek beta) for a booking.


TO EXPORT  Alt-O


This program does not re-invent printer drivers and text formatting tools.
To get fancy looking printed timetables,  a word processor or DTP program 
should be used.  CAT will only export ascii files that can be imported into 
word processors or other programs.  The ascii files can be printed from the 
MS DOS prompt.  (Explained soon)

To get printable timetables,  use the menu option EXPORT (Alt-O) and choose 
one of the options.

ASCII EXPORT
    produces three ascii files with extensions

    .ROO for room bookings
    .CLA for class bookings
    .TEA for teacher bookings

    These files are in alphabetical order of rooms, classes or teachers and
    they are further sorted by time,  period and day of the week.

    These print outs can be photocopied and posted in rooms,  given to
    classes or given to teachers.

    The file name will be the same as the one in use for the timetable.
    For example,  1993-4.TIM will give you 1993-4.ROO,  1993-4.CLA and
    1993-4.TEA.

CURRENT WINDOW
    can only be used when a timetable grid window is open.  This appends
    the view in the window to ROOMS.TXT,  CLASSES.TXT or TEACHERS.TXT
    depending which window you are looking at.

ALL ROOMS,  CLASSES,  TEACHERS
    These three commands create the files ROOMS.TXT,  CLASSES.TXT or
    TEACHERS.TXT depending which one you select.  Timetable grids are
    exported for all the rooms,  classes or teachers.  
    
    #### NOTE #### The display will work overtime while using the above 
                   option. Buy a more expensive program if you don't like it!

    All these files can be imported into a word processor or DTP program and
    made to conform to your house style.

To print the timetable files without first word processing them,  at the
DOS prompt type ...

COPY  ROOMS.TXT     PRN
COPY  CLASSES.TXT   PRN
COPY  TEACHERS.TXT  PRN

The .CLA .ROO and .TEA files can be printed in the same way.  For example

COPY  1993-4.CLA    PRN

If you select ALL rooms, classes or teachers,  any existing data is deleted
and a complete set of new data is recorded.  If you select ...

PRINT | CURRENT WINDOW

... the currently displayed timetable grid is appended to existing data.

This option only works if you have displayed a room, class or teacher
timetable grid on the screen.


The .TIM and .BKG files can be printed as follows ...

COPY mytable.tim prn		(Your description of the timetable)
COPY mytable.bkg prn            (This contains your bookings)

Note : Instead of 'mytable',  use the name you gave to your timetable.

It is a good idea to print these files because all the timetable information
is then available in hard copy. (The safest backup medium.)  These are the 
least verbose printouts.

Alternatively these files can be imported into a word processor to customize
the layout of the information.

The <PRINT SCREEN> button can be used to get a quick and nasty print of the
Room, Class and Teacher views of the timetable described below.  A better 
method was described above.


.BKG and .TIM FILE


It is possible to alter the .BKG booking file using a text editor although
this is not recommended.  The .BKG file can be imported into other programs
such as databases.  This feature can be used to derive statistics not
provided by CAT.  If you intend to do this,  make sure you choose names that
do not violate the rules of the package you plan to import into.  BACKUP
your data before experimenting.

The .TIM file-name must be the same as the .BKG file-name apart from the
extension.


Re-naming Items


If you want to rename a room, teacher or subject,  this can be done by
making identical edits in the .TIM and .BKG files.  Make backups before you
try this ! ! !


SELECTING - Point and click left mouse button.


If you press the left mouse button,  the item you are pointing at is
selected.


AUTOREPEAT


You can auto-repeat by holding the left button down.  This is
used to scan through the lists to look for free or booked items.


SYNCHRONISE FIELDS - Alt-Y


If you press the right mouse button while pointing at a booked item,
(red highlight),  the display will synchronise to show what the item is 
booked with.  The 'Alt-Y' key synchronises the display to show what
(if anything) is booked with the selected item.


SEARCHING


In all the timetable screen areas,  if you type text,  a search will be 
made to locate the text.  For example if the times are selected, you could 
type "<Esc> MON 5" and the time will be found.  Press the Esc (Escape) key
first to clear any earlier search you made and then when you type the "M",  
the first M is found.  When you type the "O",  the first "MO" is found and 
so on.  To cancel this process,  press the Esc (Escape) key.  You can then 
start a new search.  This can be a great time saver!  Searches are not
case sensitive.


REPEAT SEARCHING - Alt-S


It is possible to repeat the last search for times,  rooms,  classes, 
teachers but not subjects.  Press Alt-S and the last item you searched for
will be located.  The item will be displayed if found.  If you search for a 
class,  the display in both the class and subject areas will update if the 
item is found.


ROOM, CLASS AND TEACHER GRID TIMETABLES - Alt-R,  Alt-C, Alt-T


If you double click the right button,  the room,  class and teacher timetable
will be displayed for whichever item you are pointing at.

Using the keyboard,  the Alt-R,  Alt-C, Alt-T  keys also give the room,
class and teacher timetable grid displays.

If you point the mouse at a booking in these displays and press the right
hand button,  the window will close and the selected booking will be
displayed.  There is no keyboard equivalent for this.

The <Esc> key or the left mouse button both close the window learving the 
displays unchanged.

When you view a room,  class or teacher timetable, you initially see the one
you asked for.  By pressing the Alt-N or clicking on Next,  you can step
quickly through the three displays.  This makes it easier to find a
free slot.

If these views are too big to fit the screen,  use the mouse or arrow keys
to scroll horizontally or vertically to see the whole display.

The <PRINT SCREEN> button can be used to get a quick dirty print of these 
views of the timetable.


HORIZONTAL SCROLLING


If a subject entry is too long to fit the available display space,  use the 
left or right arrow keys or the horizontal scroll bar to scroll to the hidden
information.  This enables brief comments to be included in the timetable.


AVAILABLE MEMORY


This is indicated on the left edge of the timetable window.  The vertical bar
shows what fraction of 640K is free.  If you have 640 K of memory,  for a 
small timetable,  about half the available RAM is used ( Mostly by the CAT 
program ).

The E and F characters signify Empty and Full like a petrol gauge.


ANSI.SYS -- Advanced techniques.


IMPORTANT : Before trying this,  make sure you can boot your system from a
	    floppy disk.  Do not alter this floppy disk.  If you get the
	    next steps wrong,  you will still be able to boot your machine
	    from the floppy disk you kept safe.

If ansi.sys is available on your system, you may be able to alter your 
display to see more information.  Some screens can be set up to display 
43 or 50 lines.  Add this line to your CONFIG.SYS file and then re-boot your 
computer ...

DEVICE=ANSI.SYS

Before running CAT type one of these two lines ...

MODE CON LINES=43
MODE CON LINES=50

Alternatively put one of these lines into the batch file used to start CAT.

This feature gives CAT a 43 or 50 line display instead of the normal 25 
lines.  CAT needs more memory to display the extra lines so don't use this 
feature if memory is limited.
