Table of Contents
Contents of Odd Job Help

Getting Started

Description

Odd Job Files

Data Entry

Entering and Saving Data

Encryption and Passwords

Title Asscociations

Find Windows Fonts & Colors

Insert / Typeover Modes

Import

Hold

Windows' Cardfiles

Cardfiles to Text

Make Forms

Saving an OLE Object with your Data

Working Directory

Entering Daily Appointments

Finding Data

How To

Search Types

The NOT Search

Wild Cards

Date Search

String Search

Find Windows

Find Windows

Change Find Window Styles

Alphabetize Find Window Data

Find Window Info Menu

Searching for Find Window Text

Dialing with a Modem

Calendar

Described

Print Out Monthly Calendar

Files

Files Selector Window

Files Selector Print Menu

Files Selector View Menu

File Filter

File Utilities

Replace

Utilities

Calculator

Clip Text

Icon Extractor

Timer

Clock

Day Minder

Duplicate Files Finder

Alarms

Today's Appointment

Week at a Glance

Sort Text Box

Drag & Drop

System Resources Monitor

Font Viewer

Snapshot

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Description

Odd Job is a simple Personal Information Manager (PIM) and collection of utilities.  When you run the program, clicking "Cancel" from the Main Window will cause the floating Odd Job icon to appear at the left of your screen.  This icon is 'always on top' (unless you turn off that feature from the "Import" menu of the Main Window).  It will also remember its position from the last time the program was run.  Click on it with the RIGHT mouse button (or press the Enter key) to get the Main Window again.  Left double-click it (or ESC) to end the program.

You can drag the floating icon anywhere with the left mouse button or (when it has the focus) use the cursor keys.  Hold down the Control key with the cursor keys to get a finer movement.

The Main Window of the program remembers its position and size from the last time the program was run.  To re-center and re-size the Main Window to its original form, simply size the window to its smallest dimension.

 (HINT: Hold down the shift key while clicking the Main Window's 'Cancel' to unload everything but the floating icon to conserve system resources.  Any alarms will be cleared by doing this, however.)

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Odd Job Files

Odd Job creates and uses several files.  They are all written to and read from the current Working Directory.

The primary file Odd Job creates and uses is called OJDATA.FIL.  This is the file that contains all the data you normally enter.  It is the largest and most important data file.

Odd Job always makes a backup copy of OJDATA.FIL every time you save new data.  This is called OJDATA.BAK and contains your last entered OJDATA.FIL information (before any changes were made).  Every time you enter new data, OJDATA.FIL and OJDATA.BAK are changed, the first reflecting what you just entered, the other holding the previous version of OJDATA.FIL before you changed it.

All Titles and Subjects you enter when you first enter data are stored in OJSUBJ.FIL.  There is no way to edit this file from Odd Job except to delete an entry.  Since it also contains font and background text color information for any Find Windows' data, if you erase a Subject / Title (do so from the "Import" menu of the Main Window), then you will need to re-enter that information if you want it again for any title/subject.  See Find Window Fonts and Colors

Any forms you create are stored in OJFORMS.FIL.  See Make Forms

Any descriptions for Replace Routines that you enter in Odd Job' Replace are stored in OJ_REPLC.FIL.  Again, the only way to edit this file from Odd Job's Replace is to delete entries.  Of course, like all the rest of these files, it's not hard to figure out, and anyone can edit them with a text editor and a little attention.

Odd Job stores Alarm messages and times in OJ_ALARM.TXT.  It is automatically written to when you set any alarms and erased if you clear all alarms.   See Alarms

Odd Job stores information such as "Always On Top", mono or color background, floating icon position, brief messages or long, etc., in ODDJOB.INI.  It is automatically written to when you select various options and need not concern you at all.

Odd Job's Clip Text stores its data in the file OJCLIP.FIL and may add another file called  OJCLIP##.BAK.

Odd Job's Snapshot stores its descriptions of the various directory snapshots taken in the file SNAPSHOT.FIL and the various snapshots it takes are stored in files with the general format name SNAP0000.DAT where the four zeroes represent various numbers.

 Finally, this Help file you are reading is called OJ_HELP.HLP.

Program Files

In addition to the main program file ODDJOB.EXE, there are 11 other program files included with Odd Job.  They all are separate programs that may be run independently of Odd Job from Program Manager or any other Windows shell.

OJ_CALC.EXE	The Printing Calculator program.

OJCLIPTX.EXE	The Clip Text clipboard utility program.

OJCLOCK.EXE	The Clock program.

OJRESRC.EXE	The System Resources monitor program.

OJTIMER.EXE	The Timer program.

OJ_DAY.EXE	The Day Minder program.

OJ_DUPE.EXE	The Duplicate File Finder program.

OJ_ICONX.EXE	The Icon Extractor program.

OJ_REPL.EXE	The Replace Files program.

OJ_FONTS.EXE	The Fonts Viewer program.

SNAPSHOT.EXE	The Directory Compare program.

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Entering and Saving Data

From the Main Window you may enter any text data you want in the text box.  Click the 'Enter' button (NOT the Enter key), or press F7, and then enter a Title (up to 20 characters) for this data.  Click 'Enter' again and then enter any subject for the data.  Each new title or subject will be added to the list box at the bottom for you to choose from again at other times.  They can help in finding data later.

You must enter a title but needn't enter any subjects.

Click the 'Enter' button (or press F7) with nothing in the text box to save your entry.

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Encryption & Passwords

The "Import" menu in the Main Window allows you to select Encrypt (Ctrl + E) that will encrypt the data you enter using any Password you choose.   A blacked-out letter "E" will appear in the Main Window when Encryption is on.

After entering data with Encrypt on, you will be asked to supply a Password.  You will be asked to enter this twice to ensure that it is the password you intend since it's hidden while being entered.

The Password you enter will be used to encrypt the record's data.  Then, in order to find the encrypted data you entered, you need to have Encryption turned on (Ctrl + E) and after you click Find (F4), you will be asked to enter a Password.  You must use the same Password you used to encrypt the data in order to find it again.

It is therefore highly advisable that you use the same Password  for all your data encryption.  It is perfectly legitimate to use various passwords, but then if you forget the password or forget which password encrypted which data, it will be virtually impossible to get that data back again.

Because data encryption uses significant memory overhead, you are restricted to encrypting data entries that are no longer than 2000 characters (bytes).  Also, the longer your data entry, the longer Encryption / Decryption will take.

You may also elect to encrypt all found records by clicking that under the Info menu of any Find Window to turn it on.  With that on, all found data will be encrypted (using whatever password you enter when prompted for it) when you close the Find Windows.  Be aware, however, that depending on how many records were found and on how long they are, encrypting them this way may take some time- up to a minute or more depending on your computer.

After you have found encrypted data, you may either change the password or un-encrypt it all entirely.  To change the password, when prompted for the password, simply enter another that is different from your original.  To un-encrypt all the found data, press Esc when prompted for the password without entering anything.

You cannot encrypt appointment data and neither can you find appointment data while Encrypt is on.  This wasn't a design decision but merely a practical one since the additional programming code necessary to enable encrypting appointment data was just too excessive.  Sorry, but there are only so many hours in a day.

Passwords may be up to 20 characters long, may contain any character enterable directly from the keyboard (including spaces), and are case-sensitive (the password "Arizona" is not the same as "arizona").

If your life depends on keeping your data secret, then I wouldn't trust it to Odd Job's encryption.  For everything else it will be just fine; quite secure.  Remember: if you forget your password, there is nothing that can be done.  Your data is lost for all practical purposes.  Encyption / Decryption is password dependent and without that password, no one, including this program's author, is going to be able to do much with your encrypted data (well someone can, I guess, but probably no one you know).  DO NOT FORGET YOUR PASSWORD

USE ONLY ONE PASSWORD

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Import

If you click the "Import" menu to turn it on, then any text copied to the Clipboard will be immediately copied to Odd Job's text box in the Main Window.

While a Form is in the Main Window's text box, if import is on, then each line of Clipboard text data will be imported into each "field" of the Form.

See Also:

Hold

Make Form

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Hold

Also in the "Import" menu of the Main Window is "Hold" that toggles on/off.

 When on,  then text copied to the Clipboard will be added to text previously there rather than replacing it.

Don't forget to turn Hold off when you're done to prevent the Clipboard from accumulating text and exhausting memory.

After you copy data to the Clipboard with Hold on, manually insert it anywhere it can go by pressing Shift + Insert ( or Ctrl+V ).

See Also:

Import

Make Form

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Insert / Typeover Modes

While in the Main Window text box, you may toggle between normal insert mode and special typeover mode by pressing your keyboard's Insert key.

 When in typeover mode, the text will turn red to indicate that anything entered will replace text already there.

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Find Window Fonts & Colors
Find Windows Fonts & Colors

The "Window" menu in the Main Window allows you to select a font, font size and background color for the text box of the Find Window of any entry made.

When you choose "Font" you will get a Fonts Selector window with all fonts listed in your system.  Click once to view the font (select its size from the menu) and double-click to select that font.  Select font and size before you save your entry.

Any selection made here will also determine the printer printout font of the Calendar and Week At a Glance.

The Fonts Selector window will also enable you to print out to your printer a sample of all fonts available to your system.

If you want to View all Fonts available to your system then see: Font Viewer

See also:

Change Find Window Styles

Title Asscociations

Find Windows

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Title Associations

Every time you enter a new Title while making an entry, the current font, font size, and background color are associated with that title (the Main Window's text entry box indicates current font and color).

Therefore, first select any desired Font and Color info before you enter a new title (unless the current selections are the ones you want).  See Find Windows Fonts & Colors for how to do this.

The next time you then select that title entry from the List box at the bottom of the Main Window, if you select it as a title (as opposed to as a subject-  See Entering and Saving Data), then the font and color info previously associated with it will become the one in effect.

You may select a Title/Subject from the bottom list box by using the keyboard if you first press the F2 key to toggle the keyboard selection ON.   (Click the Toggle Subject/Title List Search in the Import menu of the Main Window for more info.)

After saving, the entry's Find Window will be in that color and font.

To change this info associated with a title, first select the title from the combo box, enter that as the title in your new entry, then before you save your entry to disk (by clicking the "Enter" button twice), first select any new font and/or color selection (under the "Window" menu in the Main Window).

The new selection(s) will then be the one(s) associated with the title until you again so change it.

You cannot select Find Window styles for entries made for files, however.  They are always made in the default style.  Likewise, Forms  are always in one style.

See also:

Change Find Windows' Styles

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Windows' Cardfiles

In the Main Window's "Import" menu is "Cardfile" which allows you to import any Windows Cardfile into Odd Job.  After clicking "Cardfile" simply double-click on any cardfile from the File Selector window that will pop up (only *.CRD files will list).

If it is a valid Windows cardfile, its contents will be imported (after you confirm) into Odd Job's data file.  Odd Job will give all these imported entries the title WINCRD.

See Also:

Card to Text

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Card to Text

If you don't want to import an entire Cardfile into Odd Job, or you just want to convert a Window's Cardfile into a text file, select "Card to Text" in the Main Window's  "Import" menu instead of "Cardfile".

This will simply copy the text part of your Windows Cardfile to a text file called CARDFILE.TXT in the Working Directory.  You would then have to enter individual records from that file into Odd Job yourself, however.  Load it into Write and use Odd Job's Import feature to make this easier.

See Also:

Windows' Cardfiles

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Make Form

In the Main Window's "Import" menu is "Make Form"  Selecting this will first request you to name your form.  Form here refers to a template on which you can enter data.  For instance, you could create a form with a last and first name, address and phone number categories.  Think of these as prompts on a paper form where you fill in the blanks.  They are refered to here (as in all database structures) as Fields.

After you initially name your form, a window with a text box will appear.  Create your form (see below) in the text box.  When done, click OK.  The form you entered will be saved in a file called OJFORMS.FIL and you will then find it in the Main Window's text box ready to be filled in.

Once you name and create a form, its name appears in the Main Window's bottom combo list along with titles and subjects.  A Form name will have the « symbol after its name to distinguish it.  Then, when you click on the form name in the list to choose it, the form you created will appear in the Main Window's text box for you to fill in with data.

Creating Forms

There are several simple, but necessary procedures you must follow when creating your form in the "Make Forms" text box.

While creating your form in the Make Form text box, you must put a full colon followed by two spaces after any word(s) in your form you intend to define as a field.  Spaces are made by pressing the space bar keyboard key.

Then, when the form is completed and in the Main Window (ready for its blanks to be filled in), pressing the End key  will then jump two spaces past the next full colon found in your form (in other words, down to the next field or blank to be filled in).

In order for this to work, when creating your form you must insert at least two spaces after every colon that defines a field.

While the form is in the Main Window, to go back up the form to the previous field, press the Home key.

If (and only if) you define fields this way in your form, then anything imported into Odd Job's Main Window (when Import is on) will import into each field.  Items in whatever you copy to the clipboard will be fielded line by line (separated by pressing the Enter key).

Thus, the first line of what you copy while "Import" is on and a properly fielded form is in the Main Window will be placed in the first field of your form as defined by a full colon plus at least two spaces.  The second line will be in the second field, etc.  A blank line in what you copy will register as an empty field in your form.

Changing Forms

To change a form, simply click 'Make Form' in the Import menu and enter the name of the form you want to change.  Make any changes to it when it loads and click OK.

Deleting Forms

If, after you call up a form to change it as described above, you erase all the form's text and click OK, that form's entry will be erased in OJFORMS.FIL and the combo list at the bottom of the Main Window.

The first time you enter the name of a form, it is stored in the combo list exactly the way you entered it.  However, when you call it up again to change or delete it, the case of the letters in the name is irrelevant.

When you call up a previously made empty form template into the Main Window's text box, you can do anything you want with it.  Fill in its data fields, change them, delete others, whatever.  It will be saved in Odd Job's main records file (OJDATA.FIL) as it is when you're done.  The original form template remains unchanged in OJFORMS.FIL.

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OLE Object
Saving an OLE Object with Your Data

You may save an object along with the text data you store with Odd Job.  Objects are such things as Paintbrush pictures, Sound objects from .WAV files, or any other object Windows recognizes as linkable via OLE.  Windows determines these through its Registration Database.  You may also use Window's Object Packager to make virtually any file into an object that you can then save and associate with your Odd Job text data (see your Windows manual for information on how to register linkable objects in the Registration Database and how to use the Object Packager).

Later, when you find data in Odd Job, if you saved an object with it, you may call up that object through the 'OLE Object' menu in the Find Window's 'Info' menu.  Thus, along with your data, you can save, for example, a bitmap of a fax or of a map.  Or you could save a .WAV file sound recording with it.  The only restriction is that only one object file can be saved with any one data record.

First call "Insert OLE Object" from the Main Window's "Import" menu.  The OLE Window will then pop up.  You save an object by first placing the object in Odd Job's OLE Window and then simply exiting the OLE Window by calling "Exit / Save" in the OLE window's "File" menu.  You must exit the OLE Window this way, as opposed to exiting through the top left control button, in order to save the object. Otherwise, no object is saved with your text data.

You may place an object in the Odd Job OLE window in any of several ways.  If a recognized object is in the Window's clipboard when you call the Odd Job OLE window, then you may simply paste it into the OLE window by clicking the "Edit Paste" menu.

Or, you may load an *.OLE file already saved in Odd Job by calling the "File Open" menu and selecting an *.OLE file from the file selection dialogue box that will open.

Finally, you may click the "Insert Object" menu in the Odd Job OLE window.  You will then be presented with a dialogue box of all object creating programs that are registered in the Windows Registration Database.  Simply double click on the one you want and that program will become active with a link established to the Odd Job OLE window.  Create or edit your object in its source program.  (Save it there also under its own name if you want to retain it in its normal form.  Odd Job will save it only as an object associated with your data.)   Then simply exit your source program that created the object.  You will be asked if you want to update the object in Odd Job.  Answer yes and the object will be in the Odd Job OLE window.  Then just exit the OLE window by clicking "File Exit / Save".

The object will then be automatically named, based on the date and time (such files will have an initial two letters followed by 6 numbers and the .OLE extension), and saved in the current working directory you set by Odd Job or the working directory Odd Job was given from Window's Program Manager.

This *.OLE file will then be associated with any text data you save in the usual way with Odd Job (by clicking "Enter" in the Main Window).  If you click "Cancel" in Odd Job's Main Window before you have saved your text data, then any object you may have previously loaded to store with the text will be erased.

Whenever Odd Job finds text data that has an object associated with it in this manner, the "OLE Object" menu under the Find Window's Info menu will be enabled (otherwise it will be grayed).

Simply click the "Info" menu's "OLE Object" menu in the Find Window to see the object associated with that data.  You may then, from the OLE window, either edit this object or delete it.  If you delete the object (by confirming that that is what you want to do), then no object will any longer be associated with that data and the *.OLE file that contained that associated object will be erased from the hard drive.  This will also happen if you erase all the text in a Find Window and then close all the Find Windows in the usual way by double clicking the floating icon.

Double clicking on any object showing in Odd Job's OLE window is the same as clicking the "Edit Object" menu.  It will open the source program that created the object with the object loaded, linked to Odd Job's OLE window and ready to be edited.  Closing the source program will update the object in Odd Job's OLE window.

The *.OLE files that Odd Job's OLE Object Inserter creates are only available through Odd Job's OLE window.  Be aware that OLE object files can get quite large.

The Odd Job OLE Object Inserter is really simply a modified version of the OLE demo that came with Visual Basic 2.0.

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Working Directory

Odd Job saves all data, and reads and writes any files it may use, to the current Working Directory.   This is usually established via Windows' Program Manager when you create the icon for a program, or it simply defaults to the ODDJOB directory when Odd Job starts.  However, you may also change the Working Directory from Odd Job itself (it's set under the "Utils" menu in the File Selector window).

This can be useful if you want to work with several Odd Job databases.  You would simply change working directories and create another data file there with Odd Job.  Thus, for example, you could have one data file for work and another for pleasure, or for school or whatever.  There is no limit to how many data files you may create with Odd Job.  However, you may only work with one at a time and you must put each in a separate directory that you must change to (from the "Utils" menu in the File Selector or by pressing Ctrl + G) in order to use it.

If you ever get a message from Odd Job saying that it cannot find its data files, you no doubt have changed the working directory to one that does not contain any Odd Job files.  Simply change the working directory to one that does contain these files and proceed as usual.  Odd Job will tell you when you've changed the working directory to one that lacks certain data files it uses.

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Entering Daily Appointments

Appointment Data

In the Main Window, if you click the "App" button (for appointments), a new window will pop up enabling you to enter any daily schedule events you have.

You then access these appointments through the Today feature in the Main Window's "Utils" menu, or from the Calendar, or via Week At a Glance.

You can also find appointment data in your normal Odd Job Find routine if you click the "Find App't Data Also" menu item under the Main Window's "Import" menu so that it becomes checked.  You will not be able to edit appointment data from the Find Windows however (See Editing below).

How to Enter Appointments

Set the date and time using the scroll buttons under the text window, enter any description for the appointment, and then either press the Enter key or click the Enter button to go to the next one to add.  Click the "Save" button to save them to disk.

You may also set the time by pressing Shift + Right or Left cursor key.  Set the date by pressing Ctrl + the cursor keys.

You may make your appointment one of six different types by selecting a type from the drop down list that defaults at "Single".  (Pressing Ctrl + 1 through 6 also selects one of the appointments types)

If you make your appointment a "Single" or a "Span", then that appointment will be erased by Odd Job after the date has passed (when you choose "Today" from the Main Window's Utils menu).   See Today's Appointments

Single appointments occur on only one day.  They always have a time entered with them.

Span means that the appointment or event continues across several days.  You must enter a start and stop date (which you'll be prompted for) for each span as well as whether or not you want a time of day associated with it.

Span appointments will create a "Span Bar" when you print out your monthly Calendar if while creating them you use the "No Time" feature (click the "No Time" button when prompted to enter the time).  Span appointments made in this way will appear at the top of most appointment lists Odd Job makes, otherwise they appear at their respectively designated times of day.

"To Do's" cannot have times set with them.  To Do's that have passed will be brought into the current day (when you choose "Today" from the Main Window's Utils menu).  Prioritize To Do's by adding a zero prefaced number before them (i.e. '01' '02' '03' etc.).

Weekly, Monthly and Yearly  appointments will never be erased unless you find and erase them yourself.

Weekly and Monthly appointments appear each week on that day of the week or each month on that day of the month.  They both require a time.  The Yearly appointment appears once a year and cannot have a time associated with it.

Set the year of an appointment by pressing the Shift + F1 through Shift + F4 keys.  These set the year for either the current year (Shift + F1) or one of the next three years.  Single, To Do and Span appointments will only show up in the year they were entered.  Thus if you enter a Single appointment with the year set two years from now, it will only show when that year is selected (in either the Calendar or Week at a Glance).  Yearly, Monthly and Weekly appointments show in every year, regardless of what year was chosen when they were entered.

Click on any of the four colored boxes to put an X in that box (or press Ctrl + the first letter of the color- Red / Green / Blue / Yellow ).  Then, when you look at the Calendar, that date will be marked with that color.

Editing Appointment Data

Use the "Edit" menu feature in the Appointments Edit Window to find appointments to change or erase them.

Enter a date in the form 'Jan 2' (or '-Jan-' for a whole month).  When a date is searched for, all entries that would in whatever way fall on that date (or in that month) will be found.

You can also search for any text in your appointment description.  You can find appointment data with the normal search routine in the Find Windows (see above under Appointment Data), but you must use the appointments entry window's "Edit" menu here to change them.  String searches are never case sensitive here and wild cards are not supported.

Also while in "Edit"you may simply select any appointment types from the combo list.  Odd Job will then immediately search for all appointments of that type.

Finally, you cannot make an appointment for February 29 when the current year is not a leap year (even if one of the next three years you can call by using Shift + F1-F4 is), since February 29 will not show in the date scroll bar that is only configured for the current year.

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Finding Data

When you have entered and saved data, you may then find it by entering any string in the Main Window's text box and clicking "Find" or pressing F4.

 If the Case Sensitive box is checked, then only data that matches your entry exactly (case for case) will be found (but your search will be faster).

You may enter up to three text strings to search for.

See also:

Search Types

Wild Cards

NOT Search

Date Search

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Search Types

There are 2 basic types of searches you can do in Find,  a RELATED or a NON-RELATED  search.

These 2 types of searches have meaning only when you search for more than one thing (you can search for up to 3 separate text strings).   You cannot combine these search types.  You must use one or the other.

A RELATED search will find only data that contains ALL your search criteria.  A NON-RELATED search will find any data entry that has ANY of your search criteria (but at least one).

See Also:

Wild Cards

NOT Search

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NOT Search
The "NOT" Search

Clicking the  "NOT"  button will add the  "NOT" search operator [ } ] to the beginning of your search string.  This must go only at the very beginning of the search string and can occur only once in each search string.

The NOT operator will cause the search to find records that do NOT contain the string that follows it.  Be aware that a non-related search using the NOT operator might not work as you may expect due to logic conflicts.  Experiment a little to find out how it works.  Make NOT searches first if you combine them with others.

Because they are special characters, you cannot search for either Wild Card characters or the NOT operator.  Also, using any of these special search characters will slow down your search.

See also:

Search Types

Finding Data

Date Search

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Wild Cards

In addition to the two basic search types from the Main Window (Related and Non-Related), you can also use wild card characters in your search, either question marks [?] that can stand in for any single character, or an asterisk [*] that takes the place of many.  They are like DOS's wild cards with the following provisos.

These wild card characters must be located within your string, not at the beginning or end.

You can have any number of question marks strung together, but only one asterisk in any search string.

You cannot use more than one group of question marks.  Neither can you combine question marks with an asterisk in one search text string.

Because they are special characters, you cannot search for Wild Card characters.

(In the File Selector Window‘s Filter, however, you may use wild cards exactly as you do in DOS.)

Wild Cards in Replace

In addition to DOS's two wild cards, Visual Basic allows several more that are used by Odd Job's Replace.

You may use the number sign (#) to stand for any single numeral.

You may also use square brackets, [ ], to establish a range of letters or numbers that will stand for any single character.  Separate the beginning and end of the range by a dash.

Thus [a-f] means any letter A through F.  If you place an exclamation point (!) before the first character of the range, it will mean anything that is not in that range [!a-f].  You make number ranges the same way, [0-7], or [!0-7] (which would mean numbers 8 and 9 only).

Thus [a-d][1-5]*.txt would allow any file beginning in letter A through D followed by a number between 1 and 5 followed then by anything and ending with the .TXT extension.  So files D2FILE.TXT and A1DOC.TXT and B3.TXT would replace but NOT files E2FILE.TXT or A6STUFF.TXT or A1DOC.WRI.

[a-d]#*.txt would find any file beginning in letters A through D followed by any number, followed by anything (or nothing), ending with the .TXT extension.

See Also:

Search Types

NOT Search

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Date Search

You may also search from the Main Window according to the date entries were made.

Whenever the first character of the search is either the "greater than" sign [>] or the "lesser than" sign [<], then Odd Job expects to find a date following in the form MM/DD/YYYY  (ex. "12/25/1995").

This tells Odd Job to find all data entered either before [<] or after [>] that date.

After the first date, you may skip a space and enter another date in the same form.  This tells Odd Job to find all entries made either before the first and after the second or after the first and before the second, depending on which symbol [< or >] you used before the first date.

If your first search character is a greater or lesser sign and the date(s) following are not in the correct form, Odd Job will give you these instructions again.

You may make these date searches a NOT search but you cannot use Wild Card characters in them.  Also, if two dates are used and they are illogical in order, then the search will be empty.

A date search will be slower since Odd Job must then examine each and every record during the search.

Only the first search can be a date search.

See Also:

Finding Data

Search Types

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Find Windows

From the Main Window, click "Find" (or press F4) without a search entry (or after the third search entry) to begin the search.

Whatever is found will appear in a series of windows, nine of which can show at a time.  If more than 9 entries match, the floating icon will be an open folder to indicate that there are more found entries than those nine showing.

Click the open folder floating icon with the right mouse button to see more found entries (or press Ctrl + Page Down).

Odd Job can find up to 50 entries.

To close the Find Windows, double click on the Odd Job floating icon (or press ESC).

You can switch focus among Find Windows by pressing Ctrl + Right or Left arrow.

You can increase the size of the Find Window with the focus by pressing Ctrl + +  (Ctrl plus the "plus sign" key).  Decrease the size by Ctrl +  -.  (Press the F2 key to immediately maximize the Find Window with the focus.  Press it again to restore the window.)

Whatever is in the Find Window of any found entry when you close them, will be the info that is saved to disk.  Thus you can change or combine info by changing the info in these windows.

If you saved any file descriptions and they turn up in your search, then an additional File Window will appear along with the Find Windows enabling you to do various things with your found files.

Clicking the Update button in the File Window will cause Odd Job to scan your hard drive to see if all found files are where Odd Job's data record says they are.

If not, you will be asked if you want either to update Odd Job's data record to reflect where those found files actually are on your hard drive, or, if they are no longer on your hard drive, if you want their descriptions deleted from Odd Job's record.

Be aware that if more than 5 found file descriptions need their locations updated, the procedure can begin to take some time.  Consider narrowing your search to find less file descriptions of files that need updating and update in smaller batches.

Whenever you close the Find Windows, all Find Windows' text will then be stored in the Clipboard.

Odd Job always makes a back up record of its main records file (OJDATA.FIL) called OJDATA.BAK.  This file will contain Odd Job's records as they were prior to your last Find session.

Completely erasing the info in a Find Window's text box and then closing all Find windows, will delete that entry completely from Odd Job's record file OJDATA.FIL.

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Change Find Window Style
Change Find Window Styles

Click the "Change" menu item under the "Window" menu of the Main Window to change Find Window fonts and background color.

The window that will then come up will list the current font printed in its current font size in the current background color (select any style you want before you select "Change".   See Find Windows Fonts & Colors )

Then enter any text of any records already entered (either the text of the data entry itself, or its Title or any of its subjects) whose Find Window you want changed to the style as currently displayed in the Change window.  You can also replace that text with anything else you want.

For example, if you have a series of entries labeled "Address" as the title, you can change all those entries so that they will print in their Find Windows with a new font, size and color.  In addition, you could also change all those "Address" titles to any other title you want.

Every record titled "Address" (the search is case sensitive) would be changed.  If the text you search for is not a title, then all records that contain it will be changed.

For file entries, only data in your file description can be changed this way (not fonts & colors) and appointment data cannot be changed at all this way.  You must do that from the Appointments Entry window.

See Also:

Title Associations

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Alphabetize Find Windows
Alphabetize Find Window Data

In the Main Window's "Utils" menu, click Alphabetize to enable you to alphabetize the Find Windows' found data.

You will be asked to enter a number for line and word.  The number must be between one and nine and you must enter a number for both to alphabetize.

These two numbers refer to where alphabetizing will take place in the found data.  For instance, if you enter a 2 in the Line window and a 3 in the Word window, then the data will be sorted alphabetically on the 3rd word of every 2nd line of all found data.  Thus you have some control over how found data is sorted.

The line number refers only to lines with text on them.  Blank lines are ignored.  So if your found data has six lines (remember that Find Windows do a text wrap and thus data may have less actual lines than appear in the Find Windows) and 3 are blank, if you choose to sort on line 3, it will be the third line that contains text.

If there are less words on a line than the number of words you chose (or less lines), then sorting will begin on the last word (or line).  Thus, as long as there are less than ten words on a line (a word is defined by spaces before and/or after it), you can force sorting on the final word (or line) by entering a nine in that selection box.

Alphabetizing defaults ON at line 1 word 1.  You may change this setting or click Cancel in the Alphabetize window, which turns off alphabetizing (resulting in a slightly faster search).

See also:

Sort Text Box

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Find Window Info Menu

The "Info" menu item in each Find Window will allow you to call up the Calendar, or Windows' Notepad, or the Edit window for the Find Window, as well as several enabling other things.

NOTEPAD in Odd Job

(Anywhere in Odd Job where you can call up Windows Notepad, you may, instead, call up any editing program you prefer.  Simply include the name of your preferred editing program after the name ODDJOB.EXE when you run Odd Job, and that program will run instead of Notepad.  In adding your program to Odd Job's run command line, be sure to skip a space after the program name ODDJOB.EXE.  Also, include any necessary path info.)

The "Edit" Window

The Edit window (F5) will show you the date the entry was made and under that, a list containing the window title first followed by all subject entries.  You can add new subjects by entering them in the text box that appears BEFORE you double click on any in the list.  Press the Enter key to save any added subjects.

Double-click on a list entry to change or erase it.  Change an entry to whatever you want when it is in the text box.  It will change as you type it- no need to press the Enter key here.  Erase the text box to erase an entry.  You cannot erase a window title, the first item in the list.  However, you can change or edit it any way you want, as long as something remains there.  Click the "Done" button when done editing Titles and Subjects here.

Restore Original & Undo

Restore Original (Alt + Backspace) will restore the text in the Find Window to whatever it was when the window first opened (the original text, in other words).  It does not undo to the last change, but restores the original text, so be aware of that if you have made many changes.

To simply undo your last change, click Undo which will toggle between your last change and the current state each time you choose it, highlighting the change.

Go To

Go To (Ctrl + T) will allow you to go to any of the up to 50 Find Windows (since only 9 show at any one time).

Relate

Relate (Ctrl + R) allows you to enter a word or phrase that will then become a subject for the entries in every of the up to 50 Find Windows that may be present, in effect relating them all if it is a unique word or phrase.  It will also be added to the Main Window's title/subject list at its bottom.

Erase All Windows

This does just that, it erases every entry in any of the up to 50 Find Windows that may be available during each find.

If you then close the Find Windows (by pressing the ESC key or double-clicking the Floating Icon), all entries that were found will be erased from OJDATA.FIL.

Search Again

Before you select Search Again (F3), first highlight any text in any Find Window.

Odd Job will then perform another search throughout its main data file (OJDATA.FIL) using the text you just highlighted as its search object.

Be aware that all the Find Windows will close when you do this and, if the search finds a match, re-open with new found data.

This is simply a convenient way to conduct cross-referenced searches.

Dial

This enables you to dial a phone number in your find window using your modem.

See Dialing with a Modem

Encrypt All on Close

Choosing this will turn on Encrypt.  With Encryption on, when you close the Find Windows you will be prompted to enter a Password.  Entering the Password and pressing Enter will then encrypt all found data using that Password.  This may take some time, especially with many or lengthy found records.  Be aware also that you cannot encrypt any records longer than 2000 characters due to memory constraints.

See Encryption & Passwords

Enlarge & Decrease Font

(Ctrl + G or Ctrl + S -think of Grow & Shrink) will enlarge or decrease the font size of the text in whose Find Window the cursor is flashing (whatever window has the focus).  This size change is only temporary.  To permanently change the font size of Find Window text, you must do so from the Main Window's "Window" menu and choose Change.

Expand & Shrink Window

Press Ctrl plus + (Ctrl + the plus sign) to expand the size of the Find Window with the focus.  Ctrl plus -  (Ctrl + the minus sign) shrinks the size.

OLE

If you originally entered your data (that is now showing in the Find Window) with an Object associated with it, then this menu item under the Find Window's "Info" menu will be enabled.  Otherwise it is grayed.

See: 	Saving an OLE Object with Your Data

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Search Find Window
Searching for Find Window Text

Click the "Search" menu in the Edit window (that is called from any Find Window by pressing F5) to search for text in the Find Windows.

Click "Replace" (F4) to replace text in the Find Window you were in when you chose Search.

Click "Find" (F2) to simply find text in that window.  If you check the "Search All Data" box, then the search will scan all Find Windows for your search text and give you a list of windows that contain that text.  (A copy of the list remains in the Clipboard)

Once you have chosen text to find, you may click "Find Next" (F3) in the Edit window to find the next occurrence in the Find Window you were in when you chose this.

Press F5 and then F3 to quickly repeat a search.  The search is not case sensitive and unfortunately does not support wildcards.

N.B.  The Search Again menu item under the Find Windows "Info" menu (F3) is not connected with the text search here.  Search Again will conduct another full search of all Odd Job's data record using any highlighted text in the Find Window you were in when you chose it.  It will close all Find Windows and conduct another search as if you had entered search text in the Main Window and clicked "FIND".

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Dialing by Modem
Dialing with a Modem

While in any Find Window, highlight any phone number and then choose "Dial" from the "Info" menu (or press Ctrl+D or simply right-click the mouse) to dial it on your modem..

As long as your modem is Hayes compatible, this will work.

When your modem finishes dialing your number, pick up your phone's receiver and click "OK" to disconnect from the modem.

If you enter phone numbers with no spaces separating any numbers (use hyphens or parenthesis), then all you have to do to highlight a phone number is to double-click the mouse on it.

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Calendar

The Main Window's "Calendar" menu will call up the calendar with the current month showing and today's date in yellow.

Anytime you LEFT-click on the actual calendar itself, the calendar will return to today's month with today indicated.  The calendar can find months for any time between Jan 1, 1753 and Dec 31, 2078, the limits of Visual Basic's function.

To get any date in this range, click "Date" in the menu bar.  First enter a three letter month, then a four digit year.  Press the Enter key after each.

If you check the Show Appointment Marks box, then any appointments you entered with a color marking will be indicated by a mark in that color over the appointment's day on the Calendar.   See Entering Appointments

Right-Click Calendar Selecting

There are three radio buttons at the top of the Calendar.  They control what happens when you RIGHT -click on a calendar date.  By default, using the right mouse button to click on a calendar date will bring up the list of that day's appointments, if any.

Select the 'Week' option button, and right-clicking a date will bring up that week in Week At A Glance.

Select the 'Edit' option and the Appointments Editing window will come up with all entries associated with the date you right clicked, ready to be edited.

Dates before the current year will not allow right-click selecting in this way.

In the Calendar's "Print" menu is "Include" and "Send to Printer".  Each time you click Include, the current calendar will be included in the printout that is printed by clicking Send to Printer.

When you have included as many calendars as you want, click Send to Printer to start actually printing them out on your printer.  The calendars will print in the currently selected font and font size.  See Find Windows Fonts & Colors

The calendars that will print here are basically wallet size, simple calendars.  To see how to print more sophisticated monthly calendar (Ctrl + M) containing all your appointment data, click on Print Out Monthly Calendar below.

If you include more than one calendar to print, then you may change the font and size of each calendar by selecting a new font and size before you include the next calendar in the printout.

See also:

Print Out Monthly Calendar

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Print Out Monthly Calendar

In the Calendar's "Print" menu is "Monthly Calendar".  Selecting this will allow you to print a full page calendar of the currently selected month showing in the Calendar, with all appointment data included.

In the window that comes up, you have the opportunity to arrange your calendar printout somewhat.

A list of all appointment data (if any) will be prominent.  Click once on any line to de-select it and prevent it from being included in the printout.  Click again to re-select it.

Click the "Title" menu to enter a title to your calendar.  Press the Enter key when done.

Click the "Font" menu to select a font for your printout.  Double-click on the font name from the list that comes up to choose it.  Click once views the font.  Font size is pre-set in the Calendar printout, however, so selecting a font size has no effect here.  Some fonts may be too large and thus inappropriate for the Calendar printout.  Experiment to see what works.

Click the "Preview" menu to see a preview of how your Calendar will look on screen.  You can change the font from the preview screen.

ICONS

You may include an icon on any and all days in your calendar.

Click the Add Icon button.  The window will expand to include a file selection dialogue.  First select the day on which you want to include an icon with the left scroll bar window.

Then find the icon you want in the file list (only icon files- *.ICO -will show).  Click once on the icon name to see it.  Right-click on the name and hold down the right mouse key to see the icon in a magnified view.

Double-click on the icon name in the list to select it for that day.  It will appear in the drop-down combo box list.  Click on its name in that drop-down list if you wish to remove it from that day's assignment.

Click the OK button when you are finished assigning icons to days.  Only one icon per day.

Different printers print different size printouts of icon files.  Therefore you may change the size of the icon printout by selecting the "Icon Sz" menu.  First see how the default size prints before you change it.

When you Preview the printout, you must tell the preview to print the icons if you want to see them, since that procedure takes a few moments.

When you are ready, click the Print button to print your calendar.  The more icons you include in the calendar, the longer it will take to print.

See also:

Calendar

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File Selector
File Selector Window

When you click the "Files" check box in the Main Window, the File Selector Window will open.  There are many procedures that can be called from this window.

Entering File Descriptions

If you double-click on a file name in the file list, then its name will appear above the Main Window's entry text box.

You do not enter a Title for file description entries, so simply go ahead and enter a description for the file and click the Enter button (NOT the Enter key) or press F7.  Your description can be as long as you want (up to 10,000 bytes- the limit for all Odd Job entries).

You may also enter up to 20 subjects for the file.  Click the Enter button after each.

When you are done, click the Enter button with nothing entered to save your file description to Odd Job's data file.

Finding File Descriptions

After you have done this, you may press the F5 key while in the File Selector Window that will highlight all files in the directory the file selector is currently in that have been described by you.  If you then drag and drop any file name onto the floppy disk icon at the top of the file selector, it will show you that file's description.

Under the "Described" menu, you may also select either a complete list of all files that have a description in Odd Job's  main data file, or a list of described files in the  directory  showing in the File Selector Window.  Click on any file description in the list to see it's complete description and file data.  Start typing any text to search for and the list will scroll to the next instance in the list of what you type.  Press F3 to repeat a search (the Enter key does the same) - ESC to cancel and begin another.

If you drag and drop a file over the trash can icon, you will be asked if you want to delete that file (or those files if more than one is selected).

CAUTION:   If you turn off Confirmation (Ctrl + O), then dragging and dropping a file (or files) on the trash can will immediately delete them without further confirmation.  A warning flag will show when you drag over the trash can when confirmation is off.

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File Selector Print Menu
File Selector "Print" Menu

In the File Selector Window under the "Print" menu, you may easily print the currently selected file (click on any filename with the mouse so that it has a light dotted outline around it) to your printer.

If the file is anything but a simple text file, however, the results of this may be unexpected (it will print badly).

Also under "Print" is Directories and Dir's + Files.  Directories will print out a list of the current directory the File Selector is in and all its subdirectories.  Dir's + Files will do the same plus printing each directory's file names.  You can print them to your printer or to a file called OJ_DIRS.TXT writen to the current Working Directory.  You may have noticed that you can't do this with Windows' File Manager or with Windows95's Explorer either.

(Under the File Selector's "Util" menu is Attach Floppy.  This allows you to load all the files on a floppy disk into the Main Window's entry box so that you can easily keep track of floppy disks using Odd Job.  You can print the files in either capitals or lowercase.  It only works when you've got a floppy disk selected in the File Selector window.)

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File Selector View Menu
File Selector "View" Menu

Under the File Selector's "View" menu you may view either a complete ANSI equivalent of the file (F11) or a version showing text only (F12).  If the file is a recognized graphic file, then you will see that graphic image (in either view).

The File Viewer looks at 8000 characters (bytes) of the file at a time.  Click the More button in the viewer to see more or select the "Go To" menu and enter any position to go to in a file larger than 8000 bytes.

You may also search the file for text.  You may select a search from the viewer that searches only the 8000 byte section of the file currently showing, or one that searches the entire file.

You may also choose to Alter the file (edit it, in other words) by either selecting "Alter File" or "Replace" under the "Search" menu in the File Viewer.

(You must first have selected to view the "Complete File"  (F11), not Text Only, in order to alter or search / replace a text file)

When you select "Alter File", then any changes you make to the text of the file are saved as is.  Odd Job always makes a back-up copy of the original file in the same directory as the original with its same name plus the .BAK extension (or, if that name is already in use, an numeric extension based on the current time).

If you select  "Replace" from the File Viewer, then you will be asked for text to search for and text to replace it with.  If you enter nothing in the "replace" request, then your search text will be replaced with nothing (in other words, all instances of your search text in the file will be erased).

If Confirmation is on, then you will be asked to confirm all these replacements.  Otherwise, the text will be replaced (rapidly) without further input from you and written to the file.

The search and replace function here is much speedier than loading a large text file in Windows' Write and trying it there.  Write will not even allow a complete search and replace on one pass with very large text files, since it runs out of memory.

Again, a backup copy of the original file is made in the directory in which Odd Job found it.

Odd Job will only allow you to Alter or perform a Search/Replace on files that are truly text only.   Also, be aware that if you alter the file or do a replace on it, and the alteration or replace makes any section (remember, the file is dealt with in 8000 byte sections at a time) longer than 10000 bytes (characters), it will simply truncate that section of the file after the 10000th character.

Finally, you may read Version Information that is often contained in many Windows' EXE files and DLL's, by pressing F9 (Version Info under the "View" menu).

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File Selector Filter

If you click the "Filter" menu in the File Selector Window, then you may enter a file pattern filter so that only certain types of files show in the file list.  See your Windows manual under "File Manager" for information on how to set these file patern filters.

Basically, the asterisk character * stands for any set of characters while the question mark ? stands for any single one.  Thus, *.* recognizes all files, while *.??A only those that have an extension ending in "A".

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Replace

Description

Like DOS's Replace, Odd Job's Replace updates old files with new.  But now you can do it from within Windows and you can do it better.

It allows the 5 options of DOS and adds a couple of tricks of its own.  It is an independent application (it does not need Odd Job to run) and may be run from Window's Program Manager like any other program (Its name is OJ_REPL.EXE).

If you're not familiar with DOS's Replace then you've been missing out on a powerful utility that can help you keep up to date all those copies of files that are located in more than one place.  Here's how to use this Window's version of a great old DOS standby.

Use

1.  First, in the top right text box, enter a file pattern to define the kinds of files you want to replace (it defaults at all files [*.*].  There's more about this below.)

2.  Then select the directory (by clicking on it) that contains the files you want to use as those that will replace like-named files in another directory.    This first directory you select is your Source directory.  Then click the OK button.

3.  Select the directory that contains the files you want replaced with the ones in the source directory you just selected.  This is your Destination directory.  Click OK again and the replacing will begin.

Just remember that only files in your Destination directory will be replaced and only those with the exact same name as their counterpart in the Source directory.  Therefore, if no match can be found in the destination for a file in the source, then no replace will occur.  In that instance, use the first option to add new files (it's explained below).

Read a good DOS manual's explanation of 'Replace' if you're still confused.

Descriptions

If you check the 'Make Desc' box (do this before you do anything else), you'll be asked to describe a script file that will be created in the current working directory.  Enter anything you want to describe your Replace session- you'll use that description to find it later.

This description will then contain all your session's information- both the Source and Destination directories you choose as well as the file pattern and any options.

Your description can be up to 255 characters long.  It is added to a file [OJ_REPLC.FIL] when replacing (or adding) actually begins.  Then, at all times after that, by clicking the 'Get Description' menu, you can call that description which will immediately set the source and destination directories, set the file pattern, and any options you chose when you made it, and begin the operation.

So you only have to set things up once for each type of Replace you do.  Thereafter, just call up that description from the script file.  ('Get Description' will be grayed until you actually make your first description for a session.)

File Patterns

In entering your file pattern, you can use the same wild card characters here as in DOS to define what files will be selected, as well as a few more that aren't available to DOS.  Click on "wild card characters" above to get an explanation.

Thus you're allowed considerably more flexibility in establishing file pattern filters with Odd Job's Replace than with DOS's.

The file list box will contain only files that match the pattern in the top right box.  Also, unless you select the 'Replaces Read-Only's also' option, no hidden, system or read only files will show.

If you Right-click the file list box, it will expand to show file info.  Right-click it again to restore its size.  You may notice a delay when you select a directory containing hundreds of files since it takes VB time to load file info for hundreds of files.

Options

You may also choose up to five options by clicking the buttons to the left of them.  You must select these options BEFORE you select your destination directory.  An X will appear to the left of any selected option.  Click the box again to de-select it.

The 'Add new files to destination' option will leave unaltered any files in your destination matching your file pattern.  But any matching in your source directory that are not in your destination, will then be added there.  Thus this option does not replace any files but only adds new ones to the destination that match your file pattern.  (You can't use either the last option {Replaces only older files} or the 4th {Replaces in sub-directories} with the Add option.)

The 'Prompts for confirmation' option will do just that- prompt you to confirm every replace action.  It will also prompt you to confirm each new file added if you chose the first option 'Add new files'.

'Replaces Read-Only's also' means that even if the file in your destination is a System, Hidden or Read-Only file, if it matches the file pattern and any other option settings, it too will be replaced.  Otherwise, such files will not be altered.

'Replaces in sub-directories' will replace in all sub-directories of the destination directory also.  If you choose the first option, 'Add new files to destination', then, as in DOS, you can't choose this one also.  It seems there would seldom be a time when you would want to add the same new files to a series of sub-directories, and the possibility of adding useless redundent files all over the place is just too great to allow these options joint sway.

Finally, 'Replaces only older files' means that the only destination files that will be replaced are those that are older than their namesake in the source directory.  If this option is not selected, then even if the file in the destination directory is newer than its namesake in the source, it will still be replaced by the older file in the source directory.  So use this option to ensure that only newer files replace older ones.  Obviously, this option makes no sense used with the first, and so you can't select it with the first option.

Just remember, like DOS's version, this is a powerful utility.  Therefore it must be treated with respect.  You can quite easily replace files that you did not intend to if you abuse this program's power.  It doesn't really question you about what you're doing.  So figure out what you're doing before you use it.  It assumes you know.

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File Selector Utilities

Under the "Util" menu of the File Selector Window you may select various file utilities.

You can Run a program file (Ctrl + R), Make and Remove Directories, Rename either a File (Ctrl + F) or a Directory (Ctrl + D), Move a file or selected files (Ctrl + M), and Copy a file or selected files (Ctrl + C).

See File Selector "Print" Menu for an explanation of Attach Floppy.

Find File (Ctrl I), works like Windows' File Manager's Search, but improves on it.  In addition to searching for a file by pattern filtering, you may use Odd Job's File Finder to find files according to date, size, and/or attribute.  By setting the File Finder's size entry to zero, you may use this to find those pesky Zero Length files that clutter your hard drive.

Also, unlike Windows' File Manager's search, you may combine file pattern filters in Odd Job's File Finder to find various kinds of files.  Just separate each with a semi colon.  For example: *.exe;*.dll will find all executive files and DLL's.

The File Finder will list all found files in a window enabling you to Run, Move, Copy, View or Delete them (select which ones you want first the same way you select files in Windows' File Manager).

Just be aware that searching for files throughout large numbers of sub-directories when the search includes date, size or attribute checks can take some time (depending on your computer's speed), so be patient.

Compare (Ctrl P), will compare all selected files (you must have at least two selected) byte for byte and tell you whether or not they are identical files.

Replace calls up a separate application that works like DOS's Replace command, only better and without having to shell to that old DOS window.

Finally under the "Util" menu is Confirmation Off and Working Directory.

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Printing Calculator

How It Works

Odd Job's Printing Calculator works like most other calculators.  There are just a few differences.

First, a running total is not kept.  Click Total when you want that to display.

Enter your number first and then what you want to do with it.  If you click anything other than add (the plus sign) then your number will be entered with either a subtract, multiply, or divide symbol to its left.  When you click total, the number will either be added to all that was above it, or subtracted from it, or it will multiply by itself the total above it so far, or divide it by that number.

Thus, if you want to divide 60 by 6, first enter the number 60 and click Add (+).  Then enter the number 6 and click Divide (/).  Then click Total.

This is the reverse procedure from most calculators which ask you to first enter the operation (add, subtract multiply or divide) and then the number.

However, you'll find that the procedure here allows you to keep a firmer control over what you want done with your numbers.

If a number is in the entry box, clicking Sq Rt will give you the square root of that number which you can then add to, subtract from, multiply or divide the total.

Clicking 1/X will give you the inverse of any number in the number entry box.

The Percent key ( % ) works a bit differently.  Clicking the percent key will take whatever number you have in the number entry box and use that number to find that percent of the last number in the list.  Thus you must have a number already in the list for Percent to work.

Thus, if 40 is the last number in the list and you enter 50 in the number entry box and then click the Perecnt (%) key, the number 20 (which is 50% of 40) will appear in the entry box.  You may then carry out any operation with that number (that is, add, subtract, multiply or divide with it).

Editing Data

Every time you click the add (+), subtract (-), multiply (*) or divide (/) key when a number is in the entry box, you find the number appear at the end of the list above with its operator preceding it if it is other than added.

If you double-click on any number in the list, it will again appear in the number entry box and all other numbers in the list will temporarily disappear.  The list box will also become temporarily disabled.  Edit the number and click on any operator key again (or press Enter) to put it back in its same position in the list, with its operator changed if you desire.

If you erase the number and then press the Enter key, the number will be deleted from the list.  You must press the Enter key to delete a number this way.

Clicking number keys to enter them will only add that number to the end of the number in the entry box.  Therefore, in order to edit a number in the entry box, you must usually use the keyboard number keys.

Whenever a number in the list is highlighted black and by itself with the list box disabled, then that means you are in the edit mode.  Either press Enter or click an operator key to resume normal mode.

If you double-click on a number in the list and then click Percent (%), then, if the number was not the first in the list, in the number entry box you will get that percent of the number that immediately preceded the number you double-clicked in the list.

Other Functions

Clicking 'CE' will clear the number entry box.  Clicking 'C' will clear all data after you confirm that that is what you want to do.

Click 'Print' to print out to your printer the list of numbers and their total.  Click 'Copy' to copy whatever would be printed to the Clipboard.

Click 'Import' to import the contents of the Clipboard (if number data) into the Calculator.  If there is a number on any line of the Clipboard data, the first number found to the left of that line, as well as all other such numbers in any line of Clipboard data, will be added as is to the end of the list or will become the list if the Calculator's list is empty.  If not number data, then it will be ignored.

You will find very large or small numbers rounded as additions get larger or smaller.

Odd Job's Calculator is a separate application that may be run independent of Odd Job from Windows' Program Manager or any other shell.  (Its name is OJ_CALC.EXE)

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Clip Text

What Is It?

Odd Job's Clip Text is a simple utility that while running will continually monitor the Windows' Clipboard for new text data.  Whenever new text data is copied to the Clipboard, Odd Job's Clip Text will then immediately copy it to a text file called OJCLIP.FIL which is made in the working directory.

Clip Text will then display the initial part of each piece of data it has copied to OJCLIP.FIL in Clip Text's list.

You may then view this data in its entirety as well as copy all or part of it again to the Clipboard.  Right-click on the list item to view it and double-click the item to copy it all to the Clipboard.  Or simply click the designated buttons.  Highlight part of it and press Ctrl + Insert (or Ctrl + C) to copy that to the clipboard.

Storing Clipboard Data

OJCLIP.FIL can store up to 100 data items after which, when additional text data is copied to the Clipboard, Clip Text will dump half of OJCLIP.FIL to another file called OJCLIP##.BAK.

Each time OJCLIP.FIL becomes filled, it will dump half itself to OJCLIP##.BAK.

This file is never overwritten but always merely added to.

If some data you know you copied to the clipboard while Clip Text was running is not in Clip Text's list, load OJCLIP##.BAK into Windows WRITE and search for it there.

Everything Clip Text ever copied is periodically added to OJCLIP##.BAK and should be found there if no changes were made to that file.  This means, however, that OJCLIP##.BAK can grow quite large over time and you may want to either trim it (use Windows WRITE) or delete it entirely every now and then.

Dump File

If you click the 'Dump File' check box, you will disable this backup feature.  Whenever the 'Dump File' check box is unchecked, then whenever OJCLIP.FIL reaches one hundred data items, OJCLIP.FIL will be halved, with the oldest first half simply erased rather than saved in the dump file OJCLIP##.BAK.  This will keep that backup dump file small or non-existent (so that it doesn't clutter up your hard drive if you feel it's unnecessary), but be aware that you will then periodically lose half of the main storage file OJCLIP.FIL.  Clip Text will always warn you first before it does this, however.

Clip Text cannot copy Clipboard text data that is larger than 7000 bytes.  Neither will it copy any Clipboard data that is not text.

Finding Data

Use Clip Text's Find routine to find any string in OJCLIP.FIL.  Click the Clip Text Icon (the yellow pad scrap with paper clip) to repeat a find.

After a find locates a string, view the data to then see the found text highlighted.  Right-clicking on the Clip Text Icon will also view the currently selected data.  While viewing the data containing a found string, press F3 to see the next occurrence of that string in the currently selected data item.

Click 'Refresh' to add any newly copied Clipboard data to the list.  Click 'Down' to immediately select the last item in the list.

Thus Clip Text allows you to keep a permanent record of all text data that you copied to the Clipboard in case you decide that you want that data again later.  In effect, by using Clip Text, you give yourself an unrestricted Undo feature for use in any application.

Although it is in no way his program, Clip Text is based on the idea and description of Richard Hale Shaw's program 'CLIPSTAC' in the Aug 92 issue of PC Magazine.

Clip Text is an independent application that may be run separately from Odd Job from Windows' Program Manager or any other Windows shell.  (Its name is OJCLIPTX.EXE)

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Icon Extractor

Odd Job's Icon Extractor is a separate utility that can be run independently of Odd Job from Windows' Program Manager or any other Windows shell.  (Its name is OJ_ICONX.EXE)

It enables you to either view all icon files in a directory or view icons that are often embedded in Windows .EXE or .DLL files.

Additionally, it will allow you to save any embedded icons in .EXE's and .DLL's as normal icon files (.ICO).

Click on any file in the file list that the Icon Extractor begins with to see if there are any icons embedded in it.

Or, if you check the "View All Icons in Directory" button, then all icon files in the directory will list.

Double-Click on the file or click the Enter button to then view all those icons, embedded or actual.

Viewing and Saving Icons

If you right-click on an icon view, it will magnify and give you file info.  If you double-click on it, you may then save it as an icon file.

If you initially click the "Opaque" box in the initial window, then you will be presented with a window containing 16 colored boxes.  Double-click on any color to select it.

Then, when you save any icons, whether embedded or actual, any color in the icon that matches the color you selected will become transparent in your saved icon file (in other words, it will be clear).

Unfortunately, the Icon Extractor will only extract and save icons while the color depth is no greater than 256 colors.  If you have a higher color depth, you can still view icons but you can't save them.  Sorry, but I haven't yet figured out how to save in a 32K + color environment.

The Icon Extractor was written using significantly modified code from the Icon Editor program that came with Visual Basic.

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Timer

The Timer is a separate utility that can be run independently of Odd Job from Windows' Program Manager or any other Windows shell.   (Its name is OJTIMER.EXE)

It can be set to count off either elapsed time or to count down (decrementally) like a kitchen timer.

To count elapsed time, just click the "Go" button.  Click "Stop" to pause it.  "X" to clear it.  "X" again to exit.

To count down, first set a time with the two scroll bars.  The left one sets hours, the right minutes.  Then click the "Start" button.

With elapsed time, you may set a rate that will accumulate with each passing minute by that rate.

You may also make the Timer "Always On Top" and make it so that only the Countdown window shows.  When reduced to an icon, it still displays the time below the icon.

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Clock

The Clock is a less obtrusive version of the one that came with Windows.  It isn't nearly as sophisticated, but maybe that's its virtue.  Just set it and forget it.  No temptation to fool with all those fonts that don't look good anyway.

If you right-click on the Clock, you can control whether or not it is "Always On Top".

Drag it anywhere with the mouse (or with the cursor keys when it has the focus.  Ctrl + Cursor keys give a finer movement).

Double-click on it to close it.

The Clock is a separate utility that can be run independently of Odd Job from Windows' Program Manager or any other Windows shell.   (Its name is OJCLOCK.EXE)

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Day Minder
Odd Job Day Minder

The Day Minder is a separate application  (Its name is OJ_DAY.EXE) that is designed to be placed in your Windows' Program Manager's "Start-Up" group or in the "RUN=" line of your WIN.INI file.

Then, every time Windows starts, Day Minder will show you a list of any appointments you have for the day that you made with Odd Job.

To close this window, either click on it anywhere to close it, or right-click to minimize it to an icon.  It may also be closed, when it has the focus, by pressing either the Enter or the Space Bar key.

If you have more than twenty appointments for the day, Day Minder will only print 20 of them.  You're too busy anyway.

If nothing is scheduled for a day, then Day Minder greets you with its own message.  If you would rather be greeted with one of your own, you can easily do so.  Create two files using Windows' Notepad.  Name one OJDAY.DAY and another OJDAY.END.  The first is for weekday messages and the second for weekend messages.  Fill them with as many messages as you want, one per line.  Then put them in the same directory as Odd Job.  After that, when Day Minder is run and nothing is scheduled, it will use one of those files (depending on whether it's a weekday or a weekend) to randomly select a message there as its greeting.

  Just remember that only so many words will fit in Day Minder's window, so don't make your messages too long.  Also, if you start having hundreds of messages in these files, then you're going to notice a significant startup delay in Day Minder.

If you run Day Minder from the WIN.INI file's "RUN=" line, then be aware that Odd Job's data file, OJDATA.FIL, and Day Minder itself (OJ_DAY.EXE) must reside together in the directory that Windows establishes as the default (usually the WINDOWS directory unless you re-named it) in order for Day Minder to be able to find its data file.  See your Windows Manual for info on how to establish a directory as the default directory on startup.

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Duplicate File Finder
Duplicate Files Finder

Odd Job's Duplicate Files Finder will find duplicate files on any and all drives you select.

Simply select the drives you want checked and click 'Search.'  (You can drag the mouse over drives to select them or hold down Ctrl and click to select individual non-adjacent drives.)

In a few moments (the time depends on the size of your drives and the speed of your computer) you will be presented with a listing of all duplicate files grouped according to duplicate names.  Scroll through the groups with the bottom scroll bar that appears.

[During the search, if at any time you want to abort the entire procedure, click the top button, which says 'Cancel' during the search.]

The program will search only entire drives, not portions of them, and only for duplicate file names.  This seemed to be what a program such as this is most used for and therefore other alternatives (such as restricting the search to sub-directories or file patterns, or finding duplicates by size rather than name) were not included in the interest of simplicity.

When duplicates are found, use the scroll bar to go through them (or press the Left or Right cursor control key).  Drag the mouse cursor over their names in the list to select them.  You may also select by holding down the Control key while you click on file selections, or by holding down the Shift key while you use the cursor control (arrow) keys.

After selecting files, click 'File Info' to see complete file information.  You may also just right-click on selected file names to get this info.

If you click 'Compare (F2)' (whether or not any files are selected), the program compares the currently listed files byte for byte.  If any files are different from any others in the list, you will be told that not all the files are the same.  See also: 'Compare' in File Utilities

If you double-click on a file name, you may view the ANSI equivalent of the file.  If it is a graphic file Visual Basic's image control recognizes (bitmaps and icons for the most part), then you will view its image.

You can close the view window of an image file by clicking anywhere on the image.  Close the ANSI text view with the Exit button.

You can search the ANSI text equivalent of any file you're viewing by clicking the Search menu in the viewer or pressing F2.  Press F3 to repeat a search.

Click 'Erase Select' to delete any selected files from your hard or floppy drives.  You will be asked to confirm each file's deletion.  Be careful when you do this, since you will have to use a file recovery program to retrieve any files you delete this way.

The Dupe Files Finder is a separate utility that can be run independently of Odd Job from Windows' Program Manager or any other Windows shell.   (Its name is OJ_DUPE.EXE)

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Resources

Click this under the Main Window' "Utils" menu to get current Windows' System Resources.

Right-click anywhere on this window to reduce it to an icon that continues to monitor Windows' System Resources graphically.

Resources is a separate application that may be run independently from Odd Job from Windows' Program Manager or other shell.  (Its name is OJRESRC.EXE)

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Alarm
Alarms

The Alarm feature in the Main Window's "Util" menu allows you to enter up to 20 times of day that display whatever message you include in the alarm when you set it.

As long as at least one alarm time is set, then the alarm will be on.  Clear all alarms with the ‘Clear' button.  The 'Last' button in the 'Set-Alarm' window, will position you at the last alarm setting which will immediately enable you to add the next one.

You can erase any alarm by erasing its time and pressing the Enter key.  If you edit or erase any  previous alarm entries, you must actually press the Enter key to register the change.

Remember, if you set an appointment time to alarm by double-clicking a line in the 'Today's Appointments' window, it will automatically alarm 10 minutes before the actual time.  When an alarm goes off, you can 'snooze' it for seven minutes.

Alarm times and messages are stored in a file called OJ_ALARM.TXT.  Unless you actually delete alarms (or clear them all), then Odd Job will continue to sound them every time the program is run.  In addition, if any alarms were set for a time before you started Odd Job, then upon starting Odd Job, the program will tell you that those alarms have already passed.  In other words, as long as you run the program, you'll be told about any alarms you've set until you actually delete them.

If you check the Alarm All Appointments box at the bottom of the Alarms window, then the next time you run Odd Job, all appointments you made for the current date will automatically be alarmed (provided they have a time).  Any that have passed before you started Odd Job will also be flagged as having already occurred.

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Sort Text Box

The Main Window's text box will alphabetize any list of text in it either A-Z or Z-A.  Therefore, you must have more than one line of text in the text box for this to  work.  The sort will alphabetize on the first word of each line by default (see below).

A line of text is defined by a carriage return (the Enter key on the keyboard).

If in Alphabetize you chose a Word value greater than one, then the text will sort on that word of every line rather than on the default first word.

Any blank lines in the Main Window's text box will retain their position in the sorted list.

Be aware that most non-alphabetic characters, including numbers, sort before letters.

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Week At a Glance

Click "Week" in the Main Window‘s "Utils" menu (or press Ctrl+W) to call up the Week At a Glance feature.  This will show you all your appointment data for the week.

Double-click on any day window there to see it full screened (click just about anywhere else to close that).

A printout to the printer uses the currently selected font and font size.   See Find Windows Fonts & Colors

If you choose 'Set Week' then all you have to do is enter a month and day number (i.e. 'apr 30'  -It's not case sensitive).

See also:

Entering Daily Appointments

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Today
Today's Appointments

To get a list of today's appointments (if any), open the "Utils" menu in the Main Window and click "Today" (or press Ctrl+T).  A window with any daily appointments you saved with today's date (the current date your computer is set on) will then pop up.

Whenever you do this, the appointment data will be updated, erasing any 'Single' or 'Span' appointments that occurred before today's date, and bringing any 'To Do's forward into today.  This is the only way that appointment data is updated.

To see another day's appointment schedule, click "Set Today" in the Main Window's "Utils" menu (or press Ctrl+S) and set another date.  Then press the Enter key.  Or you can simply open the Calendar and RIGHT click a date to see appointments for that day, or select "Week" under the Main Window's "Utils" menu to see the Week at a Glance.

In the list of a day's appointments that comes up when you do either of the above, you can set any appointment time to alarm by double-clicking on any word in the line that contains a time of day.  The alarm set this way will always be 10 minutes before the time as listed.  If you click the 'Alarm All' button in the daily appointments window, then you will set all appointments (with a time) to alarm but not 10 minutes early.

See also:

Entering Daily Appointments

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Drag / Drop
Drag & Drop

The Odd Job Floating Icon is able to accept dragged and dropped files from Windows' File Manager.  You may control what happens to files dropped on the Floating Icon through the "Drag/Drop" menu under the Main Window's "Import" menu.

The default is Select.  When File Manager's files are dropped on the Floating Icon with Select as the default, then you will be asked what you want Odd Job to do with those files.

View will view the file or the first file if more than one was dropped.

File Data will show you your description of the file or of the first file if more than one was dropped.

Write will load the file(s) into Windows' Write.

Notepad will load the file(s) into Windows' Notepad.

Compare will compare two or more files dragged and dropped from File Manager.  If they are identical, it will tell you so.  Compare is also available under the Util menu of the File Selector.

Delete will delete the file(s) from the disk.

Zero Delete will first write over the file with nulls (ASCII 0) and then delete the file.  It will be very very difficult to undelete the information in a file you Zero Delete this way.

The Floating Icon will indicate what function it will perform by a letter (V,D,W,N, or C respectively), a trash can picture (in Delete), or a bomb (in Zero Delete).

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String Search

While in the Main Window , you may click the "String" box to search for any text string (in other words, any text) in files.

You will be asked to first enter whatever text you wish to search for (wildcards are unfortunately not supported- it's just too hard to program!)

Be aware that the search is Case Sensitive ("Arizona" will not find "arizona"), and that if what you are searching through is not completely text data, then you had better restrict your search to one word, since word processor programs insert many control characters between words.

For instance, if you search for "When in the course" in a document that was saved in Word Perfect, then a control character that defines spaces in Word Perfect would have been inserted between every word in that document.  This is not the same character as a normal space in a text document and thus it would not be found by entering "When in the course"  in your search.

When your search string is entered, select the directory you want to search through.  Click the "Sub-Dir" box to also search all sub-directories of the directory you are in.  If the directory you're in is the root directory (C:\) then all directories on your logical hard drive will be searched.

Every file in the directory (sub-directory) will be searched to see if it contains your text string.  If any do, their names and locations will all appear in a list which you can view, delete, copy, move or (if they're a program) run.

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Font Viewer

From the Main Window's "Utils" menu you may select "Font Viewer" to launch a utility that will enable you to view all the fonts available to your system.

When you drag the scroll bar of the Fonts Viewer, it will tell you in the title bar what range of fonts will be viewed when you release the scroll bar button.  You can also enter the first letter of any font name and the viewer will begin a listing that includes the first instance of any fonts beginning with that letter.

The Font Viewer can also make a printout of fonts viewed.  It is a separate application that can be run independently from Odd Job from Windows' Program Manager or any other shell.  (Its name is OJ_FONT.EXE)

Initially, the Viewer may take some time to view fonts while it loads each font.  Once they have all been loaded, however (after you scroll through them all), they will quickly print to screen.

While viewing fonts, click on any line previewing a font and you'll get a view of all characters in that font.  You may zoom them larger or smaller or print out the entire font set in whatever size you're in.

Right-click on this viewer to get font information.

Be sure to read Help in the window that comes up when you choose the Font Viewer's Print menu.

See Also:

Find Windows Fonts and Colors

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Snapshot

From the "Util" menu of the File Selector Window select "Snapshot" to launch a utility that compares directory contents as they currently are with their contents previously, allowing you to see any changes made to a directory or any group of directories on your hard drive.  For instance, now you can tell what those big new programs you installed have done to your Windows and System directories (since they almost never have the grace to tell you).

Snapshot is a separate application that can be run independently from Odd Job from Windows' Program Manager or any other shell.  (Its name is SNAPSHOT.EXE)

You use Snapshot by first recording the contents of the directory or directories you want to check later.  That's the "snapshot."  Simply select whatever directory you want in the directory list on the left and then right-click there to add it to the list on the right.

 When you have placed all the directories you want to check in the list on the right, click the Take button to record their contents or "take" their snapshot, if you will (is that metaphor wearing thin?).  You will be asked to describe or name the directory snapshot (it defaults with a list of the directory names but you can describe it anyway you like).  Double-click on any directory on the right to remove it from the list.  Right-click to see its full path name if it doesn't all appear in the list.

You can also open an existing snapshot (you must have taken at least one before in order to do this) by pressing Ctrl+O.  A list of all snapshots taken will appear listed by the description you gave each.  Select any by clicking on it once with the mouse.  Right-click on it to see what directories are included in the snapshot.  You can delete any snapshot in the list by first selecting it and then pressing the Del key.

When you double-click on any description name in the list, that snapshot will then load and be ready to compare to its current directory contents. If you want to take a new snapshot of the directories you loaded, just click "Re-Take" and then click "Take" again. You can either name the re-take with the same name as before (in which case it will replace the old one) or you can give it a new descriptive name and have another snapshot while keeping the earlier one.

After you know or suspect that changes have been made to any of those directories you recorded in a snapshot, run Snapshot again and load the snapshot of the directories you want to compare (by pressing Ctrl+O) and then clicking "Compare."  In a few moments you'll have a report telling you what files have been changed in those directories, what files have been added, as well as any that may have been deleted since you first took the snapshot.  If nothing has changed, it will tell you so.  Copy the report to the Clipboard and save it using Notebook to keep it if you desire.

Snapshot's record of all descriptions is stored in a file called SNAPSHOT.FIL (written to the Working Directory).  Each snapshot is then stored in various files that all have the same format name of SNAP0000.DAT where the four zeroes represent various numbers.  You needn't concern yourself with these files since they're taken care of through the Snapshot program.

SNAPSHOT.FIL and the various SNAP0000.DAT are normally written to the ODDJOB directory unless you first change the Working Directory before you take the snapshot.

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About
 About Odd Job

Odd Job   ver. 2.2

was written by

Steve Pugliese, S.J.

1101 Carroll Street

Brooklyn NY  11225

Fax 718-774-5821

© 1997

in glorious

Visual Basic 3.0

It is completely freeware

so enjoy without guilt.

AMDG


Confirmation On / Off

Confirmation is toggled on/off from the File Selector Window's Utils menu (Ctrl + O).  When OFF, you are not warned about such things as file deletions, text replacement, or moving and copying files when you choose such functions whereas when ON you are.


Select File

To Select a file, first click on it once with the mouse to outline it, then press the space bar.  Do the same to De-Select it.


File Selector Window

Called from the Main Window by clicking the "File" box, this window enables all file utilities in Odd Job.


Main Window

The window that the program initially opens with and from which all other areas of the program are called.


Find Window

Find Windows appear after you search for data you previously entered.  Up to nine may show at any one time, each displaying an individual data record you may then use or edit.


Floating Icon

Called by canceling the Main Window, this is the small square that can be dragged around the screen and kept "always on top".  It may be used to perform various "Drag & Drop" routines with Windows' File Manager files.


Form

You create forms yourself (from the "Import" menu of the Main Window).  Think of them as paper forms you fill out for applications, for instance.  Except here, you create your own categories (fields) whose blanks can then be filled in with any data.

Form templates are then saved for future use.  See Make Forms for more info.


Title

Every entry you make to Odd Job (except File Descriptions) must have a title.  Titles are entered after the entry itself.  They are added to the list at the bottom of the Main Window and the current Font and Background Color are saved with the title.