I didn't write anything for the Test week ending 2014-01-14 because I was spending so much time working a program, TM_Notes (Take Meds – Notes). The reason for “Take Drugs” is it makes me laugh. It seems like every time I've been in or out patient someone will say something about taking their drugs. Every time someone else, patient or staff, has to say “You mean taking you meds?”
2014-02-28 Fri.
This is the Read Tab with it's calendar, it will show dated entries from today until two weeks from today. Farther down I included the text I wrote for a demo which will explain how most of it works.
What's up there is a test run. I'm trying to figure out how to let people have text lines, like the first line, that might start with something like the lines that start with a period “.” but, without the period. I can deal with the first set, the numeric lines. However, the third set still eludes me, the alpha-numeric. So I have the periods at the beginning of the lines while I take a break from that problem and work on some of the other stuff I want it to be able to do.
The second set is for testing date formats, and marking the dates for today and tomorrow, the lines with the asterisk(s). The last two dated lines are year first because I have my computer set up for year, month, day. So if I use a two digit year it has to be first. I do change the date format and geographic location on my system to do test runs for other countries. In most of the world today's short date is 25-02-2014 day, month, year. Also in some countries they us “.” instead of “-” or “/”. The 10 – 6 at the end of the line are because there can be 6 to 10 characters in a short date and I use them when I debug the code because I don't want to have to pay any more attention to how long the beginning is, than I have to.
This is the Edit Tab at the end you can see it has more information than on the Read Tab and, a different font to make it easier to tell which tab you're looking at. The one I run on my desktop has four dated entries on the Read Tab and twenty-one on the Edit Tab and one reoccurring text entry.
I wrote a little demo to show most of how it works. It refers to a Help Tab at the end the demo which isn't included in the pictures above. Within the last week or so I went on a funk about the idea about anyone actually wanting a copy of this and deleted it and some other parts of the program. I've since changed my mind about it again but haven't gotten around to putting them back in yet.
Welcome to TM_Notes.
This is a demo that shows how most of TM_Notes works. This is the Read Tab, it is ONLY for viewing. While you can scroll up and down you can not edit it. It is READ ONLY! The reason for separating the Read and Edit Tabs is to help keep stuff from disappearing. I have at least two hot keyboards in front at all times and as much as I wish i didn't sometimes type on the wrong one. I've also had cats. Keyboards are cat magnets. You can enter and edit data on the Edit Tab ONLY.
The Read Tab shows dated entries for the next two weeks (15 days inclusive). If today were Wed. January 1, 2014 you could see the notes dated from today until Wed, January 15, 2014. It doesn't delete anything, you have to do that yourself. It also shows any undated text you have entered from the beginning until you delete it. Unless the text is after a date more than two weeks from today. There could be a very minor problem with this, anything you entered without date at the beginning of a paragraph, after it is in the two week window, will continue to show up until you delete it.
So that this demo will work I have put periods in front of the of some of the dates in the demo so they will show up. Otherwise they wouldn't ever show up because today is the 21th of January 2014, so we will pretend today is still January 21st. After this I will also pretend this is for real, until you see another line like the following one:
.2014-01-21: You may notice there is a colon after the date. It is necessary! I use it to determine the length of the date. Short dates (dates with only numbers and separators) can have from 6 to 10 characters depending whether you use leading zeros with your month and day, and whether you use a two or four digit year. Also on my system if I were to enter 01-21-14 it wouldn't work because the year is at the end. However, on your system it might work just fine.
.2014-01-30: I do my dates year-month-day but you can type them in how you have your computer set up to show them. Whether you us: Month-Day-Year, Day-Month-Year or Year-Month-Day. Also TM_Notes treats 1 or 01 as January or the first of the month and 14 or 2014 as the year.
.2014-02-04: Will work just fine, because this is a dated paragraph on the 4th. The end of a paragraph is the same as using a word processor or text editor lines keep wrapping until you hit Enter.
Since this is after the 4th but before the 5th this paragraph will also show up. Again it will continue to show up until you delete it.
Please open the Edit Tab to continue.
Editorial Comment: At this point if you were to change to the Edit Tab you would see all of the above plus the following.
2014-01-20: This won't show up on the Read Tab because it has yesterday's date at the beginning of the paragraph without a period in front of the date. So this is outside of the two week window. So if you wanted a reminder that wouldn't be seen at a casual glance you could put it this paragraph. I wouldn't recommend this for anything even as important as a surprise birthday party though. If you put in an undated entry before today's date it would continue to show up until you deleted it.
The text from the Read Tab (above) would be here if this was TM_Notes.
2114-01-21: I doubt this will ever show up because it's a hundred years from now. This could be another place to have one of those casually hidden notes.
I hope you find this program useful. Though I will understand if you don't like or need it.
Please read the Help Tab for more information.
Written by:
Robin E. Douglas
Douglas Computing
End of the demo. Next is what was on the Help Tab.
TM_Notes Help
THE READ TAB: Is for viewing only. While you can scroll up and down to read your notes. The READ Tab is read only! Also I don't need to see events that won't happen until next month. So the Read Tab only shows dates for the next two weeks
.
THE EDIT TAB: Is where you write and edit the text and dated reminders you wish to keep. If you have text without a date at the beginning of the paragraph it will show up when the dated text paragraph before it shows up. This means if you have a dated note that has two or more paragraphs, they will all show up at the same time but only the dated paragraphs will disappear after today's date.
When you switch to another tab any changes you've made will automatically be saved.
THE HELP TAB: Is also read only.
THE MENU CONTROLS:
FILE Menu:
(TM_Notes only opens and saves one file so there is no Open menu option. You can however edit this file (TM_Notes.txt found in the directory where you put TM_Notes.exe) with any text editor i.e., Microsoft Notepad.
SAVE (Ctrl+S): Saves the text on the Edit Tab.
CLOSE (Alt+F4): Closes TM_Notes. If you have not saved any changes you have made on the Edit Tab you will be prompted with a pop-up message box with the following options:
Yes: Saves any changes you've made on the Edit Tab and closes TM_Notes.
No: Closes TM_Notes without saving changes.
Cancel: Saves any changes but returns you to the program.
CALENDAR Menu: (Only effects the Edit Tab Calendar):
REFERENCE (Ctrl+Shift+C): Opens the calendar for viewing only.
ADD SINGLE DATE (Ctrl+Shift+S): Allows you to click on a date and have it appear in the Edit Tab at the end of any text in the text box. You can only make one entry for each time you open the calendar and you have to close the calendar manually. (I will be trying to change this.)
ADD RANGE OF DATES (Ctrl+Shift+R): Allows you to select up to a week at a time showing up as "date1: - date2" (with out quotes). You can only make one entry for each time you open the calendar and you have to close the calendar manually. (Again I will be making changes to this.)
THE BUTTONS ON THE READ TAB:
CALENDAR: Opens and closes the calendar in Reference mode only.
CLOSE: Closes TM_Notes the same way the CLOSE menu works
.
THE BUTTONS ON THE EDIT TAB:
CALENDAR: Opens and closes the calendar in Reference mode and will close the calendar in either of the other modes.
CLOSE: Closes TM_Notes the same way the CLOSE menu works.
CLOSE: Closes TM_Notes the same way the CLOSE menu works.
Robin E. Douglas
End of the Help file.
Right now the calendar option doesn't work very well especially for a range of dates. So I need to fix it or just drop the calendar except as reference. And you still need to have a “:” after the first date for a range of dates i.e.:
2014-02-28: - 2014-03-06
For some reason after I tore it apart when it starts up the Read Tab is highlighted.
Eventually I would like to have a user Options Tab. With things like:
- Switch the “Take Drugs” for their own graphic or type in their own text with their choice of font.
- Change the fonts on the Read and Edit Tabs.
- Change the color scheme.
- Change the length time that dated entries will show up on the Read Tab from two weeks to a month say.
- Have it minimize to the system tray on the desktop. Sorry I don't care if it doesn't work in Windows 8 Metro. (That ugly big icon thing.)
- Right now I use Windows Task Scheduler to have it open. It wakes up computer and opens TM_Notes at 7:00 and whenever I (re)start my computer. So maybe add a timer of it's own that the user could set. (A little beyond my programming abilities right now.)
- And maybe more.
I have no illusions about it ever becoming popular. Though I would be tickled (happy, proud, maybe even blush) if some people found it useful.
Back in 2001 I had written a program I call Color Compair (a pun from a friend) that allowed you to compare a font color with a background color. Useful for making web pages, setting up a desktop theme, or a presentation. It's still on a freeware website called NoNags. It got 5 out of 6 “Rubber Ducks.”
Date Listed or Updated: 10/28/2001
Statistics: Views: 35,542 / Downloads: 1,269
Until I give them a new web address for my site you have to be a member to download it. If you want to see it and/or download it you can go to web.newsguy.com/redwdc/ my very old unattended website.
Back to TM_Notes. If you're interested I'll send you a copy with illustrated instruction on how to tie it in with Task Scheduler. Once I solve the problem with the Read Tab being highlighted. Or not if it wouldn't bother you, all you have to do is click on it to get the highlighting to go away. It'd drive me crazy. If you don't want “Take Drugs” I could put in a picture of your choice. I could send it out so you could type in your own text header, you'd be stuck with the font you told me to set it to for now. You could even have the source code if you wanted, such as it is.
I know this sounds like I'm desperate for someone to try it, and while desperate might be to strong a word, kinda I am. It'd be nice to know someone else found my work useful. Also it's Little rearing her ugly little head saying look at me. See what I did. Isn't it great?
By “ Little rearing her ugly little head” all I mean is sometimes little kids can be a pain when they've done something new and wonderful. Little doesn't really remember what it was like when I wrote Color ComPair.
Credit writing this should also go to Jeanne Creekmore, my therapist, who helped with the editing. I had asked her to use an editorial eye while she read it. I'm very picky about my technical writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment