                 Super Alarm

   Have you ever been working in Windows and
suddenly realized that you had gotten so involved
with what you were doing that you lost track of
time and missed an important appointment or a TV
show you had wanted to watch? Have you ever
gotten so involved that you forgot to take a
break and suddenly realized your eyes were
hurting or your body was all stiff and sore? Do
you sometimes forget important dates, such as
your anniversary, and end up in hot water later?
If the answer to any of these questions is YES,
Super Alarm can help you.
   Super Alarm is a program that lets you store
messages and have the computer pop up these
messages at any given time and date. The date can
be the same day you create the message if you
want to remember to do something later, or it can
be years in the future. When the appointed day
and time arrives, Super Alarm will pop up the
message. Of course, you must be running Windows
and Super Alarm for this to happen, but Super
Alarm can be minimized to an icon and you can be
running other Windows programs at the same time.
If you are not running Super Alarm when the
appointed date and time arrives, Super Alarm will
inform you that you missed the appointment the
next time you run it.

Installing Super Alarm

   To install Super Alarm in Windows, move all
the files that come with Super Alarm
(SUPALARM.EXE, SUPALARM.TXT, SUPALREG.TXT,
SUPALARM.GRP, etc.) to your Windows directory. DO
NOT create a separate directory for this program.
Run Windows. Click on Program Manager's Files
option, then click on New. When it asks if you
want to install a program item or group, select
group. On the next form, ignore the Description
box. Put SUPALARM into the Group File box and
click on the Ok button. The Super Alarm Group
will then be installed in Windows. This group
contains the Super Alarm program, the Super Alarm
Instructions, and the Super Alarm registration
form.
   Note: This program requires that you have
VBRUN200.DLL in your Windows SYSTEM directory.
This is a general purpose file required to run
any program created with Visual Basic 2.0, and
can be found anywhere that Windows shareware
programs are sold or distributed. Because most
people already have it and because it would
substantially increase the size of the Super
Alarm archive, it probably is not included with
Super Alarm.
   Once you have installed Super Alarm, you may
want it to come up every time you run Windows.
You can accomplish this by moving Super Alarm
into the StartUp group. Just open both the Super
Alarm and StartUp group boxes and drag the Super
Alarm program icon from the Super Alarm group to
the StartUp group box. You may want to set Super
Alarm to run minimized when it first comes up by
checking the Run Minimized box in Program
Manager's Files/Properties option.

Using Super Alarm

   When you run Super Alarm, you will first see a
title page. Press ENTER or click on the Ok button
to clear this page. (When you register you will
learn how to get rid of this title page
completely.) You will then see the main form,
which has a menu at the top. The main menu
consists of Options and Help, which are explained
below.

Options

Set Alarms - This option allows you to set a new
alarm. If you select this option from the Options
menu, Super Alarm will display a window with
boxes for the time, date, and message for the
alarm you are creating. The time and date boxes
will contain the current time and date as the
default. You will certainly want to change at
least the time for the alarm. You can input the
date in either 12 hour or 24 hour formats. You
can also input the date in just about any
recognizable format, such as 12/1/1995, 12-1-95,
or Dec. 1, 1995.
   The large box is for you to input a message to
yourself remind you of what the alarm is for.
Although the box is large, it is generally best
to keep the message short and simple. A typical
message might be "Dentist appointment at 3 PM" or
"Today is your anniversary."
   If you are setting an alarm for another day
and you want the alarm to come on as soon as you
run Super Alarm, just set the time for a time
before you expect to run Super Alarm. The
simplest thing is to set the alarm for 1 AM.
   When the alarm goes off, it will display the
time and the message. At the bottom of this
window there will be three buttons. The Delete
button deletes the alarm so it will not pop up
again. The Snooze button will cause the alarm to
disappear and pop up again soon. (The snooze 
button is not available if the alarm was set for 
a previous day and is activated now because you 
did not run Super Alarm on the day the alarm was 
set for.) You can set the amount of time you want 
the alarm to snooze, as will be explained later.
The third button is the Year Snooze, which causes 
the alarm to go off same time next year. This is
for annual alarms, such as anniversaries or
birthdays.

Delete Alarm - This option allows you to delete
an alarm you have set. When you select this
option, you will see a list box containing a list
of the dates and times of all your alarms, and at
least part of the message for each alarm (some
messages may be too long to list). Simply click
on the one you wish to delete and click on the Ok
button, or double click on the one you wish to
delete. If necessary you can scroll the list box.
If you decide that you do not want to delete an
alarm after all, just click on the Cancel button
or press the Esc key.

View Alarms - This option allows you to see a
list of your alarms. It shows a list box
containing the time and date of each alarm and at
least part of the message for each alarm. This
window looks a lot like the Delete Alarm windows,
except that there is no Cancel button and
clicking on the Ok button does not delete an
alarm.

Break Reminder - This option allows you to turn
off and on the break reminder. The break reminder
will pop up a small window that says "Stop. Time
to take a break" at set intervals. You can then
click on the Ok button or press ENTER to erase
the box. This option is designed to remind you to
take a break every once in a while to prevent eye
strain, muscle fatigue, and carpel tunnel
syndrome. You can set the time intervals for
these breaks, as explained below.
   The Break Reminder option is a toggle switch.
It turns on if you click on it when it is turned
off and it turns off if you click on it when it
is turned on. A check mark appears beside this
option when it is turned on. Like all the options
in Super Alarm, if you set this option, the new
setting is stored in SUPALARM.INI. This means
that you do not need to reset it every time you
run Super Alarm.

Set Break Times - This option allows you to set
the length of time between break reminders. When
you select this option, it will show you an input
box. You can input the number of minutes you want
between break reminders. The default is the
current setting. The setting if you have never
set it (the factory setting, so to speak) is 60
minutes.

Set Snooze Time - This option allows you to set
the amount of time an alarm snoozes if you click
on the Snooze button when Super Alarm pops up an
alarm message. The amount of time is expressed in
minutes. The "factory setting" is 5 minutes.

Set Correct Date/Time - This option allows you to
set the computer's internal date and time so the
alarms will go off at the right times. On most
systems, this sets the clock so it will be right
even if you turn the computer off and then on
again. (This feature alone can make Super Alarm
worth the price of registration is your computer
clock gains or loses time and you want it to be
correct.) When you choose this option, you will
first see an input box to allow you to input the
correct date. The current date is the default.
You can input the date in any reasonable format,
such as 12/1/95, 12-1-1995, or Dec. 1, 1995. You
will then see an input box for the correct time.
Input the time in a reasonable format such as
3:30 PM or 15:30. The clock will be reset and
start running as soon as you click on the Ok
button.

Exit - This function in the Options menu exits
Super Alarm. Remember that Super Alarm cannot
cause other programs to move to the front of the
screen once you have exited the program.

Help

   There is also a Help item in the menu at the
top of the Super Alarm main form. This has the
following items:

Instructions - This option displays this
instruction manual using Windows NotePad. You can
stop viewing this manual using NotePad's
File/Exit option.

Register - This function displays the handy
registration form using Windows NotePad. You can
use NotePad's File/Print function to print the
form and send it in with your registration (hint,
hint). This option will disappear from the Help
menu when you register (see registration
instructions below).

About - This Help option displays the Super Alarm
title page again.

Registering Super Alarm

   Super Alarm is a shareware program, not a free
program. You may use it for a one month trial
period. After that, you are required to either
pay for it (register it) or stop using it. Super
Alarm will start displaying reminder notices
(also called nag screens) after one month to help
you remember to register the program. When you do
register, you will receive a letter telling you
how to turn off these reminder notices. Turning
off the reminder notices will also cause Super
Alarm not to display the title page when it is
run and remove the Register option from the Help
Menu.
   You register Super Alarm by filling out the
registration form and sending it along with
$15.00 to:

              David Leithauser
            Leithauser Research
           4649 Van Kleeck Drive
      New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169-4205

   Payment should be made in US dollars drawn on
a US bank. If this is not possible, the next best
alternative is a US postal money order or an
American Express money order in US funds. As a
last resort, a check drawn on a foreign bank in
US funds MUST have the proper routing numbers at
the bottom.
   When you register Super Alarm (or any other
shareware program by Leithauser Research) you are
automatically registered for all future upgrades,
even if the new-and-improved version has a higher
registration fee than the version you registered.
You are therefore free to obtain (download from
BBS's, buy from shareware vendors, etc.) and use
future versions of this program without paying
any further registration fees once you have
registered this program.
   When you register, in addition to the letter
telling you how to turn off the title page and
reminder screens (and a clear conscience), you
will receive a disk full of other shareware
programs by Leithauser Research. You are free to
try any of these programs to see if you wish to
register these programs too.

Distribution

   Because Super Alarm is a shareware program,
you may distribute it freely. This means that you
may give it to friends, pass it around at
computer club meetings, post it on BBS's, and so
on. The only conditions or restrictions are that
you include all the files that were in the
original archive (SUPALARM.TXT, SUPALARM.EXE,
SUPALREG.TXT, etc.) and that you not modify or
edit these files. You especially may not leave
out or modify the references to how to register
this program. The only exception to this
restriction on modifying or editing the files is
that you may translate the documentation into
other languages if you want to distribute this
program in countries where English is not the
primary language. The translation, however, must
still contain the information on how to register
this program.

Bug reports, suggestions, comments, etc.

   If you have any problems with Super Alarm or
wish to suggest any improvements, you can send
your comments to the above address. You also can
send EMAIL to the following addresses:

      Compuserve: 74046, 1556
           GEnie: D.LEITHAUSER
  America Online: Leithauser
        InterNet: 74046.1556@compuserve.com

Custom software

   The primary function of Leithauser Research is
developing custom software to customer
specifications. If you need a program you cannot
find anywhere, or you have an idea for a program
that you want to sell but do not have the
programming skilled to write the program
yourself, contact Leithauser Research at any of
the above addresses (postal or EMAIL) with a
description of the program you have in mind for a
price quote.
