           * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
           *   MEETING MINUTES MANAGER   *
           *        Version 1.04         *
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1. 	WHAT MEETING MINUTES MANAGER DOES

Meeting Minutes Manager streamlines the preparation of agendas, minutes, and 
action lists for meetings involving any number of people, on any number of 
projects. Project, meeting, actioner, and item details are entered through 
easy-to-use forms. From this data, Meeting Minutes Manager produces 
fully-formatted agendas, minutes, and action statements, which can be viewed 
on screen, sent to a printer, or stored as Microsoft Word documents for later 
annotation and emailing. 



2.	INSTALLATION

Meeting Minutes Manager is a 16-bit program which will on computers 
running Windows 3.1, 95, or 98. It has not been tested under Windows ME
or XP. It has been extensively tested with real project data 
on computers running Windows 3.1 and Windows 98 SE. It started 
life as a DOS program in the early 1990's, and although it still reflects  
a modal style of programming, it now uses windows forms for data entry  
and reporting.

Using Windows Explorer (Win 95 and above) or File Manager (Win 3.1), go to 
the directory containing the Meeting Minutes Manager files (this will be the 
directory you unzipped the archive file MinWin16.zip into if you downloaded 
this application from a web site, or the root directory of the Meeting 
Minutes Manager CD). Double-click on setup.exe and InstallShield will launch  
and install the program.

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IMPORTANT: ACCEPT THE DEFAULT DESTINATION DIRECTORY C:\MINWIN16 
for installing Meeting Minutes Manager - even though 
InstallShield Setup allows you to change the destination 
directory, doing so will render the program unusable.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Installing Meeting Minutes Manager does not change the Windows Registry or 
any Windows system files, or add any files to Windows system directories. All 
the required files to run the program are in the directory C:\MINWIN16. Data 
for each project is kept in separate subdirectories. Two sample projects are 
provided in the subdirectories C:\MINWIN16\ZPROJ001 and C:\MINWIN16\ZPROJ002. 
(Note: there must always be at least one project in the project table for the 
program to work. Meeting Minutes Manager will not allow you to delete the 
last remaining project from the project table.)

A program group or folder named "Meeting Minutes Manager" is created by Setup. 
You may wish to associate one of the icons supplied in the main directory 
C:\MINWIN16 with the main program MINWIN16.EXE. Double-click on this to launch 
the application.

INSTALL FILE LIST: 
BAMGR.DL_, DISK1.DSK, INSTRUN.EX_, BDE.PAK, BDECFG.PAK, BIVBX11.PAK, CRP1.PAK, 
CRWRE2.PAK, CRYSTA7.PAK, DB550002.PAK, DB550003.PAK, DB55COMM.PAK,
DB55OLE4.PAK, DB55RU1.PAK, INST1.PAK, INST2.PAK, INST3.PAK, INST4.PAK,
INST5.PAK, INSTALL.INI, INSTXTRA.PAK, LANGDRV.PAK, MINWIN16.PAK, PDQQB3.PAK,
QPWIM5.PAK, README.TXT, RESOURC6.PAK, SETUP.EXE, UXDDIS4.PAK, UXFRT5.PAK,
UXFWORD6.PAK



3.	UNINSTALLING

The program can be completely removed from your system simply by deleting the 
directory C:\MINWIN16 and its subdirectories.



4.	USER'S MANUAL and SAMPLE DOCUMENTS

A 16 page User's Manual is supplied in the form of the Word document file 
MANUAL.DOC. It can be found in the subdirectory C:\MINWIN16\ZZMANUAL. It will 
take you step-by-step through the process of creating an agenda and minutes 
of a meeting, producing action statements for meeting participants, and
setting up new projects. Screenshots are used to illustrate each step of the
process. Word document sample agendas, minutes of meetings, and action
statements can be found in the subdirectory C:\MINWIN16\ZSAMPLES.



5.	SUPPORT, FURTHER DEVELOPMENT, & USAGE RIGHTS

This program is freeware. You are free to use it and distribute it to others
in its entirety, so long as you do not charge for it.

No support is provided for Meeting Minutes Manager. It has been extensively 
tested and used for the documentation of meetings on real-life projects,
during which programming bugs were discovered and ironed out. It is possible
you might find more bugs, as it is difficult for a developer to foresee every possible 
way an end-user might use the program. If this happens, you will have to come
up with work-arounds for yourself. However I am fairly confident the program
is bug free if used as intended.

I come from a management consulting background, in which I gained experience
of the meeting documentation process. I am not a professional programmer.
For this application to be a commercial proposition, it would need to be
reprogrammed to have full windows functionality using an event-driven,
object-oriented approach. That is beyond my capability. However, I would be
interested in working with someone who is willing to develop this application
for release as a commercial package. The potential volume is huge, as
documenting meetings is part and parcel of all organisational life, and
keeping track of the actions that arise from meetings is a key to successful
project and business management.

There are obvious extensions to the functionality of this application. For example:
- providing an automatic email facility to actioners of the generated reports,
- providing an audit trail of changes to items and items arising from them, 
- recording the date actions are completed,
- reporting an actioner's action history, including time overdue on actioning,
- recording and reporting on attendance history of actioners at meetings,
- providing a search facility for item headings and details.

The application could be developed to become a full contract item management
system, and made multi-user for implementation in a networked environment.

If you are interested in pursuing the development of this application to take
it to the commercial marketplace, please email me at:

tim.mcmahon@tiscali.co.uk 



6.	LEGAL STUFF

This software is released and distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.  It is used at your own risk.

The intellectual property in this program is copyright. Specifically:
- the item numbering system tied to mmeting numbers, 
- the item rollover system to carry over items to a new year or project,
- item grouping and sub-grouping (called "agenda" and "group" items),
- the interchangeability of agenda and group items when producing reports, 
- the automatic generation of action statements from each meeting. 





I hope Meeting Minutes Manager is of use to you.

Tim McMahon
August, 2002
