TITLE: Technical Paper: Lotus Agenda Release 2.0
LAST UPDATE: 06/30/95

Lotus Agenda is a personal information manager that lets you collect, organise, and work with textual information quickly and efficiently. An Agenda database can help you manage ideas, tasks, people, projects, plans, and goals. It is designed to suit your way of working.

Agenda Building Blocks
Agenda relies on three simple features that allow you to create a variety of powerful applications

Items
An item can be a chunk of textual information from any source. A stock quote, a book title, an observation, are all items.

Notes are a convenient way to keep additional or background information about specific items and categories in your file. E.g. you can add a note listing the best times to reach a contact and then the note is only a keystroke away from an item or category.

Categories
Categories help you define and organise items. You can assign items to categories, or you can tell Agenda to automatically assign items to categories for you. Once you or Agenda assign items to categories, you can organise, retrieve, analyse and consolidate them according to your needs.

Views
A view of your database is a cross-section of the database. In a view, you see only some of the items in the database, those you are interested in. You can view items from different perspectives, all the Stock Market items, for example, or all the items that pertain to Terry. For each database you can have an unlimited number of views.

Networking Agenda
You can retrieve and save Agenda files on a network, making it easier to share information with other Agenda users.

File reservations prevent conflicts when more than one person is working on the same Agenda file on a network. Access to shared files is controlled using file reservations, which allow only one user at a time to save changes to a file. Reservations ensure that users do not inadvertently write over others' changes.

You can print on a network printer as well as your local printer by specifying the correct port (i.e.: LPT2) in Print Setup.

Agenda 2.0 New Features
Date Time and Datebook
Agenda 2.0 includes a substantially expanded date feature and the addition of time and datebook features. You can create customised time-management applications to plan and adjust time commitments.

Dates and date ranges can now include a time element, E.g.: 19/1192 3:00pm. You can display dates and times in a a variety of formats, E.g.: DD/MMM/YY, am or pm or 24 hour clock. You set the different formats using the column properties (F6). You can enter dates and times using such words as today, next Sunday, tomorrow at 10:30, every day at 5:30pm, 18:00. You can now also assign dates using a special pop-up calendar which is accessed by CTRL-C, the Grey + key or F3 (choices) while you are in a date field. While the calendar is active you can assign a time by selecting F6 (SetTime) and entering a time.

As in Agenda 1.0/1.01, Entry, When and Done dates are date categories that are included in every file. With Agenda 2.0 you can create additional date categories E.g.: Due or Review dates.

Agenda now allows you to setup Datebook views which you use to enter and display information that is organised by dates and times. Fore example you can set up a view that displays you schedule by day, week, month or quarter by setting your View Type in the View Properties box to Datebook. Using one datebook view E.g.: "This Week" you can easily scan forwards and backwards through time in Browse mode. To get into browse mode, press ALT-B in the datebook view, then use the left and right arrow keys to move forwards and backwards in time.

You can also set alarms on items to remind you of important meetings or events. To set an alarm on an item: F10 - Item - Alarm. You will need to specify which date category you want the alarm to be based on and how many minutes before that date/time you want the alarm to sound. Agenda will then set the alarm on the item and display the alarm symbol next to the alarmed item.

Printing
Printing has been enhanced with new commands so you can produce presentation-quality printouts on a variety of printers including Postscript. You can print all or part of your file.

The Print Final command gives you control over what parts of your file you want to print, what pages to print, how many copies to print, and so forth. Print Layout lets you specify margins and spacing information, headers and footers, fonts, text attributes, and alignment information for each part of your final printout. You can select printer drivers, ports, and fonts with the Print Setup command.

With Print Preview, you can preview your file on the screen as a formatted document, page-by-page, before you print. When you preview a document, you can check it for page format, page breaks, and so forth.

You can save the print settings for one file and retrieve them into another using the Print Named command. You can also save the print settings for a file and attach these settings to one or more views in other Agenda files. This lets you print a view with print settings specific to that view.

Agenda lets you send output to a printer or to a file in DCA, ASCII, or Lotus Manuscript (.DOC) format.

You can also insert markers in your file to customise your final printout. For example, you can specify local text attributes (such as bold and italic), fonts, or insert the date or a page break. Markers and Print Layout command settings replace the Agenda 1.0/1.01 backslash commands.

Application Macros and Protection
Agenda 2.0 lets application developers build and protect Agenda applications.

There are many new macro commands to give you powerful macro capabilities. For example, you can design your own menu with the {LOTUSMENU} macro command. {LOTUSMENU} works as follows:-

{LOTUSMENU;Number;choice1;string1 ;kabek1;choice2;string2;label2..e tc..} where number is the number of choices you have in the menu, choice1,choice2.. represent the text of the menu choice e.g.: Quit, string1, string2 represent the longer prompt that appears under the menu choice and label1,label2 represent the labels that the macro branches to depending on which option is chosen.

The Macro Properties box lets you specify and display information about a macro in one place. You can attach a macro to a key which lets you customise your Agenda applications and carry out complex tasks with a simple keystroke.

You can set protection to prevent users from changing all or specific categories, views, and/or macros in a file. You can also seal a file to make permanent the protection settings you specify.

Starter Applications
Activities Planner
The Activities Planner is a personal management tool for tracking day-to-day business activities, planning schedules, making contact lists and noting ideas. The Planner can be used for scheduling, listing phone calls to make, meetings to attend, priorities and daily expenses.

Account Manager
The Account Manager is a sales/support tool for tracking clients and accounts, and reporting on issues and progress. Sales and support organisations need to have up-to-date information about each client. Account Manager helps to maintain client and prospect information, as well as calls, meetings, and expenses. With Account Manager, the information can then be shared with peers, or used to create a status report.

People Manager
The People Manager is a resource-management tool for setting goals and tracking the progress of people in a group or organisation. For managers responsible for hiring and managing a work group, People Manager helps to establish and maintain records for people.

Information Sifter
The Information Sifter is an information management tool for analysing information imported into Agenda from external sources. Information Sifter demonstrates how to use Agenda to organise large amounts of external data and tailor it for a specific project or need. 
Questions & Answers

Q:The computer locks up when attempting to print or exit from Agenda 2.0. Why?
A:The DOS command: APPEND/X was present in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The APPEND/X command sets a search path for data files and executable files (e.g. EXE, COM, BAT). The APPEND/X command is used as an alternative to the PATH command. Removing the APPEND/X statement resolved the problem.

Q: Is it possible to print in compressed mode on a HP Laserjet Series II with no cartridge?
A: Follow these steps to print in compressed mode on an HP Laserjet Series II with no cartridge:
1. Select /Print Setup.
2. Move to the Portrait and/or Landscape Font List and press SPACE.
3. Move to the Typeface option and press SPACE.
4. Specify the Line Printer option and press RETURN. The corresponding font will change from 12.0 pt. (Courier) to 8.5 pt.
5. Press RETURN twice to accept the print settings.
If the Line Printer option is specified as Font 1, all text will be printed in an 8.5 pt. font unless otherwise specified under /Print Layout or with Special Markers.
The above procedure can be used to change the available fonts with other printer drivers.

Q: What steps can be taken to improve the performance of Agenda 2.0?
A: Performance improvements are classed into two main categories: Memory and File considerations.

I. MEMORY CONSIDERATIONS
Using expanded memory (EMS) will provide the most dramatic performance improvement in Agenda 2.0. If expanded memory is not available, configuring memory above 640K for a disk cache or a RAM disk will also increase performance. To summarise, the order of preference for memory configuration when using Agenda 2.0 is:
1. Expanded memory
2. Disk cache
3. RAM disk
NOTE: Agenda 2.0 does not recognise extended memory.
To improve performance on a machine that has only 640K of RAM, free up as much memory for Agenda as possible. For example, remove RAM-resident programs (TSRs), network drivers, terminal emulators and any unrequired DEVICE statements. 

II. FILE CONSIDERATIONS
In addition to memory configuration options, there are also performance guidelines for individual database files. These include:
1. Avoid creating very long views. Although Agenda 2.0 recalculates portions of the view that are off-screen in the background, the recalculation may interfere with processing keystrokes.
Create smaller views that contain only 2 or 3 sections currently being worked on. To work with another section, insert that section into the view, and to keep the view small, remove one of the other current sections. Adding sections in this manner is much more efficient than building a very large view. If the view contains at least one section, the column arrangement will stay intact.

2. Filtering and sorting views are time-consuming operations. Use these guidelines when filtering or sorting:
a. Create the filter using the smallest possible number of categories. If a complex filter is necessary, create a category with a complex condition, then filter on only that category.
b. In sort settings, specify "On leaving a section" or "On demand".
c. Avoid using filters and/or sorting on very long views.

3. Avoid sections that are headed by categories with many descendants. For example, a database contains the category Parent which has numerous child categories, and it is necessary to use Parent as a section in the view.
As a workaround, create a new, childless category, (i.e., Parent2), and use a condition on the new category to pull all items assigned to Parent to the new category (Parent2). The new category (Parent2) can then be used as a section head. The condition will be re-evaluated as items are entered or edited, but the performance will not be affected every time the display is scrolled or rebuilt.

Never use MAIN as a section head in a view, since all of the categories in the database are descendants of MAIN. To see all the items in the database, select Utility Show Every.

4. Turn conditions (or text matching) off for portions of the category hierarchy that don't need them. To disable conditions for a category, in the Category Manager:
1. Move to the category.
2. Select: Category Properties.
3. Move to Advanced Settings and press the SPACE BAR.
4. Move to Apply Conditions and press CHOICES.
5. Specify either On demand or Never.
6. Press RETURN 3 times to accept the settings.

This setting will apply to all descendant categories of the category. To disable conditions on other parent categories, repeat the above steps.

Q: A special marker containing the printer control code for bold print on an HP LaserJet II \027(s3B was entered in an item. The printout was missing a character directly after the marker, and none of the text was printed in bold. Why?
A: In Agenda 2.0, special markers are used to customise printing information. Special markers can be inserted in item, note, header and footer text to change the text attributes. To insert a special marker in an item and enter a setup string, follow the steps below.
1. Press EDIT.
2. Use the directional keys to move to the area where the marker will be inserted.
3. Select MARKER to bring up the Marker box.
4. Move to the Special setting.
5. Press CHOICES and select Printer Code. Agenda will display a Sequence setting.
6. Enter the printer control code at the Sequence setting.
An Agenda 2.0 setup string must be entered in decimal format, and each segment of the code must be separated by a backslash. Using the example above, the decimal equivalent for \027(s3B is: \027\040\115\051\066
All text following the marker will be printed in bold. To turn the bold type off, another marker must be added containing a reset setup string. The setup string to reset the text is \027(s0B; the decimal equivalent of this string is: \027\040\115\048\066. 
For more information on special markers, refer to the Agenda 2.0 User's Guide, pages 14-21 - 14-27.

Q: Is it possible for two users to access the same Agenda database from a network drive
A: Agenda 2.0 uses the Lotus File Reservation system. The first user to retrieve the database by default gets full read/write access i.e.: the 'Reservation'. Subsequent users who try to retrieve the same file get the following message: Can't get reservation, OK to continue Yes/No. If you choose Yes you will then be able to view the file and make changes but you will not be able to save the file under the same name. You will also have a [READ ONLY] indicator in the status panel. If the first user doesn't need to save the file they can release the File Reservation so that other users can get it.

To release the reservation:- File Maintenance Reservation. You will get the following message:- "OK to Release the Reservation Yes/No". Select Yes.
Now subsequent users who do want to edit and save the database can get the reservation.
To get the reservation :- File Maintenance Reservation. You will get the following message:- "OK to Get the Reservation Yes/No". Select Yes.

Q: Will Agenda 2.0 run in the Windows 3.0 environment?
A: Agenda 2.0 was tested in the Windows 3.0 environment using the guidelines listed below.

Agenda 2.0 runs as a "non-Windows application" under Windows 3.0. It will run in any of the three modes of Windows 3.0 (Real, Standard, or 386 Enhanced). It is recommended that Agenda be run in 386 Enhanced Mode on a 386 machine; this will allow Agenda to access EMS memory, which will enhance its performance.

Windows creates PIF files for non-Windows applications which can be edited with the PIF Editor. The PIF files establish settings for running the application under Windows. There are two groups of PIF file settings; one for 386 Enhanced Mode, and one for Real or Standard modes.

For Real or Standard mode, the Windows PIF file default settings should be used.

For 386 Enhanced Mode, there are two settings on the Advanced page that should be modified. For the Display Options - Video Memory setting, the default setting is High Graphics. Selecting Text instead will minimise the memory requirement.

In the Priority settings section, the Foreground Priority number should be increased from its default of 100 to a higher number, such as 5,000. This increases Agenda's performance when other applications are present. This allows a small amount of time for other applications to execute in the background, but reserves the majority of cycles for Agenda while it is the foreground application. The Foreground Priority setting does not affect Agenda's performance when Agenda is the only application running.

Q: Are there any EMM's (Expanded Memory Managers) and Expanded Memory Boards that Lotus has tested and certified as compatible for use with Agenda 2.0?
A: The Expanded Memory boards and EMM's that Lotus has tested with Agenda 2.0 are listed below.

 EXPANDED MEMORY BOARDS:
AT&T Enhanced Memory Expansion board AST Six-Pak Plus AST Rampage Plus 286 AST Advantage/2 286 - MC AST Advantage Plus - MC AST Rampage 286 AST Rampage AT AST Six Pak 286 Intel Above Board/PC Intel Above Board/AT Intel Above Board 286 Intel Above Board Plus Intel Above Board/2 Intel Above Board/2 Plus Intel Above Board MC 32

EXPANDED MEMORY MANAGERS:
AT&T Enhanced memory driver AST REMM Compaq CEMM IBM Expanded memory drivers Intel EMM 3.2 Intel EMM 4.0 Qualitas 386MAX Quarterdeck QEMM 386

For more information on Agenda 2.0 and expanded memory, refer to the Memory Management section in Appendix E of the User's Guide.

Q: In Agenda 1.0 and 1.01 the number of views that could be displayed in the View Manager was affected only by the size of the combined AGA and AGB files. In Agenda 2.0 only 100 views are displayed in the View Manager.
A: In Agenda 2.0 the number of views that can be displayed in the View Manager is limited to 100. In a view, ALT-N NEXT can be used to go to the next view in a series; however, only the first 100 views in the database will be displayed in the View Manager.

Q: In Agenda 1.0 / 1.01, an item could be associated with many entries in an unindexed category. For example, if the unindexed category "Phone" existed in a database, an item could have many phone numbers associated with it. However, when the database is imported into Agenda 2.0, only the first phone number is retained.
A: Items assigned to Agenda 2.0 unindexed categories can have only one value in that unindexed category. This feature is documented on page 3-10 of the User's Guide. As a workaround, use a standard category instead of an unindexed category; or use a category note to store the multiple entries.

(c) 1996 Copyright Lotus Development, an IBM subsidiary
