Nik of Time is a reminder software that I created. This was originally designed as a prototype to a Gauge Recalibration Scheduling Software that I'm making for a Diecasting Company. The basic principle was the same so I thought I would make this first and solve any teething problems. It has a pretty simple purpose with a simple user interface. The details and descriptions are below:
You can download it here:
http://www.freewarefiles.com/program_2_238_42566.htmlScreenshot: http://img48.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshotbh7.jpg
FYI, Support is just an email away : nikhil.menon87@gmail.com
1. About
2. Features
3. Usage
4. Important Notifications
5. Common Issues
6. Backup and Restore
7. Future Modifications
8. Errors and Bugs
Section 1 - About
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Nik of Time is a freeware software designed by Nikhil Menon, Bangalore,
India. The software is designed to serve as a reminder system to enable
you to keep track of your appointments or things to do.
Each reminder has three fields - Date of appointment/event, Title and
Description (or Additional Notes).
Section 2 - Features
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Nik of Time can be Summarized as having the following features:
a) The ability to store up to 10000 different reminders
b) Periodic notifications up to a week in advance of the
scheduled date
c) Background service which will popup reminder notifications as and when the time arrives.
d) Notification on system startup of upcoming reminders.
e) Capability to Backup and restore the database should any
unforeseen errors occur.
f) Minimal resource consumption. Doesn't take a toll on the RAM
or CPU.
This is the very FIRST release of Nik of Time. For a list of up-coming
features, please see Section 7.
Section 3 - Usage
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From the Main menu:
You may use the Create Reminder Button to do just that. At the screen
which follows, enter the respective details and click on 'Create' to
create the reminder or 'Close' to cancel the same and return to the
main menu.
You may use the Edit Reminder button to change details of a specific
reminder that has already been created. In the screen which follows,
modify the details by choosing a reminder from the list box and click on
'Edit' to complete the change. You may also click on 'Close' to return
to the Main Menu.
You may use the Remove Reminder button to delete a previously created
reminder. In the screen which follows, select a reminder from the list
and then click on 'Remove Reminder' to remove this reminder from the
database. You may also click on 'Close' to return to the Main Menu.
You may use the View Reminders button to view the reminders that are
scheduled within the next one week. In the screen which follows, You can
cycle through the different reminders by choosing them from the list.
You may also click on 'Close' to return to the Main Menu.
You may use the Search Existing Reminders button to search the database
of reminders for a particular group of entries. You may search either
by Title or by Date and click on 'Close' to return to the main menu.
You may Exit Nik of Time at any time by clicking 'Edit Nik of Time' from
the main menu.
You may view this Readme file at any time by Navigating to 'Help' and
then 'View Readme' or by using the keyboard shortcut 'Ctrl + H'.
You may also backup the existing information by Navigating to 'File' and
then 'Backup Data'. This is discussed in detail in Section 6.
General Usage Information:
At every system boot, the native service of Nik of Time checks for any
approaching reminders and notifies you of the same. This is in the form
of a message box which then directs you to click on the System Tray Icon
if you wish to view these Upcoming appointments/events.
Section 4 - Important Notifications
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NOTE FOR VISTA USERS:
It is recommended that you install Nik of Time on a drive OTHER THAN the
drive containing your Operating System ( Usually C:\ ) Installing on the
same drive as the OS could lead to conflicts and errors due to the
requirement of administrator privileges.
If you have no other option but to install on the same drive as the
Operating System, then please ensure all the ".exe" files, that is
NikOfTime.exe and NikOfTimeSvc.exe, are set to run as Administrator.
You may do this by right clicking on the file, left clicking on
Properties, Left clicking on Compatibilty and then Checking 'Run as
Administrator'.
However, the system boot service of Nik of Time may still be blocked
due to native security constraints in windows vista. In such a case,
I'm afraid the only course of action is to Manually run the program each
time to check for any reminders that are coming up. I am working on a
way to work around this and will try to find something.
Section 5 - Common Issues
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1) The application closes when I hit 'Create' or 'Edit' at the Create
Reminder or Edit Reminder screens.
This is most likely due to the fact that Nik of Time is installed in the
operating system's drive and hence does not have permission to access
files on that partition. Solve this by setting Nik of Time to run as
Administrator. The steps have been mentioned above.
2) The application works fine, but the startup service isn't working.
This again is in all likelihood due to the fact that Nik of Time is
installed in the Operating System's Partition. The only 'fix' for this
is to reinstall the software. PLEASE NOTE - The Startup service only
notifies you if there are reminders scheduled within the next seven days.
If not, there will be no notification at all.
If there are any more problems, please do let me know by sending me an
email at nikhil.menon87@gmail.com I'll be glad to help. There's a
'Backup and Restore' after this which will help you recover from any
unforeseen problems which may occur.
Section 6 - Backup and Restore
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First of all, periodically BACKUP your data by Either pressing 'CTRL+B'
or Clicking on File --> Backup at the main menu. If you haven't done that,
this guide cannot help you.
In the event that the program becomes 'Unusable', you can take the
following steps to restore your data.
1) Inside the program's folder, there is a folder named Backup.
Copy the two files in that folder called "BackupData.jxf" and
"BackupRemdet.jxf". Copy them and put them in any directory of
convenience.
2) Uninstall Nik of Time.
3) Install Nik of Time again.
4) Navigate to the folder that you installed Nik of Time.
5) Delete the file "Data.jxf"
6) Move the two files you copied earlier, that is, "BackupData.jxf"
and "BackupRemdet.jxf", to the folder where you installed Nik of Time.
7) Rename both these files by removing the 'Backup' in the names. That
is, "BackupData.jxf" is renamed to "Data.jxf" and "BackupRemdet.jxf" is
renamed to "Remdet.jxf".
8) Run Nik of Time again.
Section 7 - Future Modifications
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a) Search the reminders for a particular entry/group of entries -- Done
b) Automatic restore on error.
c) Categorization of Reminders.
e) Time based reminders -- Done
And more enhancements. For suggestions, contact me at
nikhil.menon87@gmail.com
Section 8 - Errors and Bugs
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This is the first version of Nik of Time and is hence more prone to Bugs
and errors at the moment. Report any that are not already explained by
sending me an email at nikhil.menon87@gmail.com Thank you.
