MEMBANK README FILE (program for the pc type computer) rpsoft_2000 Thank you for acquiring rpsoft_2000's membank program! Basic Help Note that many instructions are available on the program itself under help. LOADING THE PROGRAM The program file will be provided as a single zip file. It would be best to store a copy of the downloaded file in a second place in case a second computer load is needed. If the file name ends in ".exe" then the file is self extracting, and one just needs to run and execute the file. If the original downloaded file ends in ".zip" then one must unzip the file. If you are not sure if you have a program that unzips files or not try starting a file program such as that one available under "My computer" and double click on the downloaded file name. Many programs will associate with file endings and such a program may automatically start when you click on it. If you have no program to unzip files, please accept our apologies, however this is still fixable with a little more work. A zip / unzip utility can prove useful since many people use that property. Such a file can be obtained from winzip at http://www.winzip.com on the net or from many download sites. Therefore, one should not be lost, but would unfortunately have another step to take. Winzip at times has had an exploratory version. During the program setup of course it is best as always to exit all other programs and then respond to the questions asked during setup. Answer YES if asked if it is okay to write over Windows temporary files. You will be asked where to store the program in the computer and what group to place the startup icon in. Of course one should remember these locations for starting the program later. Important - if System file changes are needed, the file may prompt and a computer restart may be needed. If this happens or if the program does not load the first time, execute it a second time. A system file update or another program operating in the background can potentially stop a load. In extreme cases, restart your computer before trying the load again afterwards to ensure all others programs are not running. Our apologies for any inconvenience during load. If not changed during load, the program files will be stored under C:\Program Files\(program name). Program start will be under Programs under the start key (computer left bottom) and will be located under rpsoft_2000\(program name). STARTING THE PROGRAM To begin the program, go to the windows start button on the lower left of the computer screen and click it. Put your mouse on "programs" and a list of programs and program file locations will show. Move the mouse rightward and up and down as necessary to find the location where the program startup is stored. This should be the same location as indicated during the program load. If you have not modified the load location, the program should be under the program name or under rpsoft_2000. Click the program icon to start the load. MORE ICONS If you wish an icon on the computer screen for this program startup, locate the program as indicated above and then right mouse click on the program and select "Create Shortcut". After the copy is created, use your mouse to drag (hold down the left mouse button) this startup copy onto your screen with your mouse. Note that once you have an icon startup on the desktop, that you can also if you wish simply drag that icon to the lower left of the computer screen icons for fast program startup later with a single click. Note also, that right clicking on icons also will allow one to rename them, among other things. General Program Usage Caution: When entering data, do not use two $ in a row as $$ - as this will be interpreted as a control character. Please always have multiple backups of your data files saved - preferably under different file names - to help prevent data loss from this or other issues. The membank program can really be used as a general data storage program that has 160 items at easy reach. Each of those 160 items can have 3 large fields - three data items each plus the file name itself being the fourth. As such the program could be used to store world wide web addresses and their password names and passwords where needed. Note that internet bank downloads, shopping, and other web sites often require passwords. It could also be used to store bank check common names and expense categories to help balance checking accounts or other. Still more inventive people may decide to have it store phone numbers or addresses if they wish. Now that multi-line capability is here for membank, it can also do signatures, addresses, cover letters, or even short resumes or CVs if you wish. How it works The program does not automatically send data to the right location on your computer. There are too many possible locations for that to happen. The program does send data, one data item at a time to the computer clipboard as you press the right button on the program. The program sends the data singled out to the computer clipboard. Then one can use their mouse to locate the right text area for the data to be sent and then press the shift key plus the insert key at the same time to paste the data to that location. After pressing the right one of the 160 buttons, all four items of data are sent to the right text boxes at the top of the program form. The primary data at the top box, the largest box, will also be sent right away to the computer keyboard if you select that option under the pull down option menu. If this data was a www address for example, one can right away point their mouse at the browser address field and then press shift and insert to paste the www address there. Then clicking the enter key should sent the browser to that location specified by you. The other items of data at the top can be sent to the computer clipboard also by clicking either the button (in three cases) at the left of the data, or the label in the case of the button name itself. Once on the clipboard, they also may be pasted the right location on your windows pc after pointing your mouse in the right text area (and using the left button to select the area) and then pressing shift and insert at the same time. Clearing Data There are at least two ways to clear data. One can go to the edit pull down menu and select clear, and it will clear all of the data. If you do this accidentally and are concerned, press the undo function also under the edit pull down menu. One can also clear buttons a little faster than the above if one first clears all four data items at the top of the form. This can sometimes be done quickly if one has stored blanks under the reset button function - then one only needs to press reset to clear the top data. Once the top data is cleared in all four places, then changing the PLAY/record button to RECORD will allow one to continue clicking as many buttons one at a time to clear them as you wish. Reset Button Note that the reset button is really a storage area for a 141st item of data. Perhaps it is best to store blanks in it, but one can also store a starting setup if one wishes. One records to the reset button in the normal manner - by first modifying the four text boxes at the form top as you wish, then changing the "PLAY/record" button to RECORD, and then pressing the reset button to store the data there. Program Value To be sure, most browsers will store favorite worldwide web locations. However, most browsers will not store password names or passwords if required. Use of this membank program keeps all of that data together in one place for easy reference and usage. Likewise, for bank balancing, some check storage programs will store information. However, some of those programs just simply are not as friendly as this program - at least in my opinion. Also, since these data files are now your own, you might be less likely to lose the data stored in web browsers or other programs. Again, that might be up to the users experience. Files The user is not limited to 160 items of data - just 160 items of data at a time. Files can be stored under different names and therefore one could use the program as world wide web address storage AND bank categories AND whatever else. The most used file however, should be named "membank.txt" and should be in the same file on your computer that the program resides. This file will be loaded automatically at the start. Of course, if you wish to use a lesser-used data file instead, simply use the Load feature in the pull down menu. A sample www type file is stored for startup usage and viewing. If you modify this file, note that there is another copy of this file with the program called "start_www.txt" or something similar. Note that there also should be a sample bank type start up file with the program called "start_bank.txt" or similar. You can of course store files under different names. Please ensure that files are stored, however, simply with the ".txt" extension denoting a simple text file. Safety Making these data files can take time to enter the data, preserving this work should be very important. Please be sure to save the data at times, perhaps even under different files names or in different file areas while making the file. This technique can help prevent loss. Of course, once the file is together and you have extra safety backups of it, then it is easier to just update it going forward. Of course backups are important at all times. Multi-Line Membank is now capable of multi-line text - for signatures, addresses, cover letters, or even short resumes! The "v" symbol at the left of the three large data areas will expand the screens for each to view the multi-line text. Personalized Membank now also allows custom data button names. This is covered under help - but basically, when in "record", if one selects ANY of the leftmost three data buttons, a screen will pop up that allows setting of either the program default data names, or custom names for just that single data button. Style As one increases the data in a file, one may wish to rearrange the data into a different style. If desired, under the pull down menu, there are sort routines under the edit function. Note that to see these, place your mouse on the edit pull down menu, hold down your left mouse button and go down to "sort" and then move the mouse to the right to see the sort options. These sort options are alphabetical. One can also simply move things wherever they want. There is a move enable button right under the PLAY /record button. If you click this button once, it will allow you to exchange and move areas, by clicking on the are title that you wish to move, and dragging it (holding down the left mouse button) over another area title. The two areas complete with their 5 buttons should interchange. Likewise, clicking the move enable button again will cause it to now allow button movements. Buttons can then be dragged over each other and interchanged, even if they are in different areas of 5 buttons each. If using the move command, be sure to turn it off by clicking it off when done. The move function being on can restrict other functions. Alphabetical Sort Note that for alphabetical sort, that capital letters have priority over lower case letters. Sort is therefore "case sensitive". This can be used as a feature if one uses capital starting letters for high priority items and small case letters for items to be in the back. QIF files For the adventurous, the program will also work with one type of bank download file - the qif files for Quicken 1999 data files. Instructions are in the help files. For those doing personal bank check downloads and also using Quicken, trying this function may be very worthwhile and a real time saver. Note that one loads the data file first for the program, and that will be a text file ending in ".txt". Then one loads the qif file which ends in ".qif". Remember of course to save the qif file after operating on it. Files consistent with your Quicken program can then be loaded into quicken, and they will then have the added information. Test out usability first on a quick example. SUPPORT / MORE INFO Support and more info is provided at rpsoft 2000's website. This site is at: www.rpsoft2000.com