IMPORTANT INFORMATION ===================== !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! Before unzipping the application files in PRODUCT.ZIP ! ! please read LICENS.TXT. ! ! You must not unzip PRODUCT.ZIP only if you do not ! ! agree with the contents of LICENS.TXT ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ordering -------- Please see ORDER.TXT Installation ------------ Please see INSTALL.TXT. Features and Performance ------------------------ Please see FEATURES.TXT Registration ------------ The registration fee is A$29.95 for the shareware version + A$6.00 for postage and handling. We send you a registration number by email and send you the printed manual and a floppy with all of our shareware by mail. Please use the ORDER.TXT. Post it via mail or email or FAX. Berthold Daum lichtbild p/l LPO Box 6011 Cromer, Vic. 3193 Australia CompuServe 100026,3365 INTERNET: 100026.3365@compuserve.com Alternatively, you can register via CompuServe (GO SWREG): Author: Berthold Daum Program title: PROPOC ONE V1.4 S3/S3a Registration ID: 3841 Fee: US$ 24.95 plus postage and handling Entering the registration number: Press MENU, / , ENTER then enter first name and the registration number. ----------------------------------------------------------- | Warning!!!!!!! | | This program has been "crippled". | | When used without a registration number the following | | restrictions apply: | | 1. Number of activities in one file restricted to 15 | | 2. Number of milestones in one file restricted to 4 | ----------------------------------------------------------- ProPoc ONE Version 1.49 - Release Notes =================================== Note: With the release of ProPoc Version 2 we have re-released ProPoc V1.49 as ProPoc ONE as a entry level product at a lower price. We hope that this offer is attractive to customers who do not need the full power of ProPoc V2 or are restricted in disk space. ProPoc ONE is frozen at version 1.49 and is sold AS IS. Ongoing development is based on ProPoc V2, so new features will only appear in V2. You can upgrade from ProPoc ONE to ProPoc 2 at any time. Upgrade fees: ProPoc ONE to ProPoc 2 LITE A$40.00 ProPoc ONE to ProPoc 2 PROF A$80.00 Program Description ------------------- ProPoc can handle multiple projects, activities, milestones, and resources. Activities and milestones can depend on the completion of other activities. Activities can share resources, even between different projects. ProPoc determines the StartDate and EndDate of each activity, the ActualDate of each Milestone, the number of slack days, and if a activity or milestone is critical. The results are displayed in graphical or table form on screen or can be printed in ASCII- or WORD-form (tables). Platforms --------- The program runs on PSION S3 and S3a, and Acorn PocketBook I & II in native mode. Requirements ------------ The disk space requirements are 71-100k depending on the options. When active, the system requires a minimum of about 33k main memory. Some functions can require considerable more memory. We recommend to install the system on flash SSD, the PROJ folder (data drive) on the internal disk or on RAM SSD. Compatibility ------------- ProPoc files from earlier versions are converted to V1.4 format. ProPoc V1.4 files can be read with ProPoc V2. New features in Version V1.4 ---------------------------- - National holiday calendars added - Lead and lag days for activities and milestones - Budgets for activities and projects - cumulated resource schedule Printer: table form Screen graphic mode: graphical form, use CNTRL-cursor keys to scroll. Screen table mode: table form - TAB/Shift-TAB switches resources in resource schedule. - Up to 15 resources (instead of 7) - S3a support: - Support of big screen and all 13 system fonts - Zoom in both directions - Support of diamond key for display mode switching - Show and hide links from menu - Currency symbol for new project files taken from systems setting - Navigation in graphical mode: To move from critical activity to critical activity switch CAPS on. Don't forget to switch it off thereafter. - Reorder indicator: If automatic reorder is switched off, a little indicator (+/-) in the top right corner of the screen (bottom right corner in table mode) will indicate when a reorder is required. - Flashing cursor - Table mode: Milestones are now underlined, critical items are bulleted - Progress report: In addition to "Open,delayed,closed" the status of an activity can be set to 10%,20%,30%,...,90% completion, if all prerequisites are closed. This will be reflected in the graphical display. The project statistics will show the completion value for the whole project. - Diagram-WordFiles can now be printed in landscape orientation (provided your printer can) - Show function does not longer interrupt link mode - PSION-Shift-Cursor up/down in table mode leads to project begin/end ProPoc ONE Description ====================== This short description does not intend to replace the printed manual that is shipped on registration. Explanation of terms: File: ----- Each file can contain: 7 projects 224 activities 56 milestones 7 resources 1 set of preferences(alarm, mode, holidays) Files are totally independent from each other. It is possible to copy activities and milestones from one file to another by using the Copy function, closing the first file, opening the second file, and using the Insert function. Project: -------- Name: a unique name Description: up to 255 characters of text Priority: 1 for high, 7 for low Priorities are unique! If you specify for instance priority 3 the other projects in the file are pushed upwards or downwards. High priorities wins in resource conflicts. Start Date: Official project start date. Alarm advance days: How many days before the event you want to have the alarm Alarm for: Type of events generating alarms End date: Computed end date for project. Total duration: Difference between end date and start date Critical: List of critical activities Hot milestones: List of milestones where the actual date is higher or equal the planned date. Total costs: Accumulated fix costs and resource costs. Budget: Planned total costs for project. Two figures will be shown in the project statistics: 1. Budget as entered for project 2. Budget computed from activity budgets. Item: ----- Can be both an activity or a milestone. Project: to which project it belongs Name: unique name Description: up to 255 characters of text Lead: A number of workdays before the activity actually begins or the milestone is actually due. No resources are allocated during the lead time. A negative lead value can be used to overlap depending activities. Earliest date: Activities may depend on external influences, e.g. suppliers. This may define an earliest date for activity start. Duration: Duration of Activity in days. Lag: A number of workdays after the activity by which depending activities are delayed. No resources are allocated during the lag time. A negative lag value can be used to overlap depending activities. Usage of: Percentage (0-100) of how much the resource is used. Most important resource: Yourself. If some activities must be done in business hours, create a resource business hours - or split yourself into a business you and a home you. Fix Costs: Setup costs for activity. Budget: Planned total costs for activity. Planned date: Planned date for milestone. If the actual date exceeds the planned date, the activities causing this will go critical and the milestone will go hot. Links: List of activities the current activity or milestone is depending on. Start date: Computed start date for an activity. Activites in other projects with higher priority can influence the start date when they compete for the same resources. End date: Start date + duration Float days: Number of days, the activity is allowed to float. Activites in other projects with higher and lower priority can influence the float days when they compete for the same resources. An activity with null float days is called critical. Actual date: Computed actual date for a milestone Links: ------ Milestones and Activities can depend on other activities in the same project. To define such a link, use the Link function. Then navigate to the desired activity and press Enter. ESC will cancel the link mode. To remove links, use the Unlink function. Associated documents: --------------------- Items (activities and milestones) can have associated WORD documents. These can be quite complex documents containing very detailed descriptions. When you press PSION-A or Shift-ENTER, the WORD processor is activated and the associated document is opened (or created if it did not exist). Then you edit the document in the usual way (you may even print it). When you leave the WORD processor with PSION-X you are back in ProPoc. You can delete an associated document with PSION-H out of ProPoc. Associated documents are deleted, too, when the item or the whole project is deleted (PSION-D or PSION-V). Associated documents are stored under the following pathname: project_folder\project_file\itmname.WRD for instance, an associated document for item REGIST in project PROPOC would be stored in LOC::M:\PROJ\PROPOC\REGIST.WRD. Restrictions: The hardest restriction is memory. Each WORD document uses at least 700 byte, so 20 documents would use a minimum of 14k. So use associated documents sparingly. Use the item description entry for short descriptions. The ProPoc print functions will not print associated documents. Associated documents must be printed out of the WORD processor. Preferences: ============ The preferences are file specific and can be modified with the Preferences function. Mode ---- Reorder: For small projects choose "automatic". For big projects it is better to use "manual" and to call the Reorder function from time to time. Font: Different screen fonts to be selected small/normal/big (S3), 13 system fonts (S3a) Statuswindow: on/off (S3), off/big/small (S3a) Display: normal (1 day = 1 character) condensed (1 day = 2 pixels) table (spreadsheet like mode) Show Links: Yes/no When set to "yes", links are shown as a line from the end of a requisite activity to the beginning of the linked item. If one of both is not contained in the current screen, the link as only shown as a short dotted line. Show Grid: Yes/no Shows gridlines at weekstart when set to "yes" Holidays -------- By default the system workdays/weekends are used and the custom holidays are disabled. You may, however, change weekend and custom public holidays. Resources --------- Resources are created and edited with the preference function. When no resources are defined the project planning process is straight forward. However, when resources are defined, the planning becomes a tricky optimisation process. We use a heuristic strategy (otherwise computation times would be enormous). This strategy may sometimes not lead to the shortest possible project duration. You can, however, use "Earliest date", dummy links, dummy activities, to make manual adjustments. You can print or display a resource schedule for the current project or for all projects with PSION-Z. Name: Unique resource name Cost per workday: Resource costs rated: - full time (100% during usage) - shared in project (100% but shared between activities) - shared overall (100% but shared between activities) - part time (as defined in Resource usage) For further details see manual. Public holiday file: -------------------- Use this function to edit the global holiday file. You may disable or enable a holiday, set it to "Custom" or choose "Modify" to edit it. A holiday can be based on EasterSunday in which case a delay can be entered (e.g. -2 for Good Friday). Otherwise you simply specify a base date which can be modified. Example: Base date: 31Oct Modification: Sat Direction: before Result: the last Saturday in October. Holidays set to "Always" are enforced through all project files. Holidays set to "Never" are disabled for all project files. Holidays set to "Custom" depend on the Calendar setting in each project file. Display: ======== The screen shows a window to the current project. Switch projects with PSION-T or the TAB key. Switch the Statuswindow on or off with CONTROL-MENU. Switch the Display mode (normal/condensed/table) with CONTROL-MENU. If an item has an associated document the cursor is displayed as a rectangle, otherwise as a triangle. Graphic mode (normal/condensened): ---------------------------------- Navigate along the time axis with the forward/backward cursor keys. The PSION key accelerates. Little arrows in the bottom left corner indicate if there are more activity lines. Scroll with the upward/downward cursor keys. The project name is found in the botton right corner of the main window. Activities are displayed as horizontal solid 1-pixel lines, if critical as solid 2-pixel lines. The name of the activity is found below the line. Milestones are displayed as vertical dotted 1-pixel lines, if critical as solid 1-pixel lines, if overdue as solid 2-pixel lines. In this case a dotted line to the left at the bottom of the vertical line indicates the delay. The name of the milestone is found to the right at the bottom of the vertical line. A calendar is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Saturdays and Sundays are marked with a dash, Week start is marked with a dot. The date displayed above refers to that date. Holidays (weekends and public holidays) have a dash at the very bottom of the screen. Activities appear dotted in holiday areas. During link mode a line is drawn from the origin item to the target item. If the cursor is set on an activity you can use the <> keys to modify the activity duration. Table mode ---------- Navigate along the time axis with the up/down cursor keys. Scroll with the Left/right cursor keys. The PSION key accelerates. If a value appears in a lupe (extra window) it can be modified. Numeric key: Add digit DEL key: Remove digit ESC key: Restore old value Alpha key: Select value <> keys: Decrease/increase value or rotate values Troubleshooting --------------- Alarms are not ringing or are ringing at the wrong time: Alarms are only updated when ProPoc is exitted, or when a new project file is opened. Please exit ProPoc and restart. Removing all alarms: We recommend not to delete file ALRM.$$$. This would also delete alarms set with other ...Poc applications such as HyperPoc. ProPoc would also recreate the file in the next session. Instead, edit each project (PSION-M) and set "Alarms for" to "none". Then exit ProPoc. ProPoc will remove all alarm entries from ALRM.$$$. Acknowledgements ---------------- Thanks to Gary Barr, Frederic Caussarieu, Lonnie Dworkin, Tony Jeffrey, Wolfgang Schmid for help and creative input.