User's Guide To Talking Classifieds
Overview
The Talking Classifieds program is like a phone-in version of a newspaper's 'Classifieds' section. Instead of each Advertisement appearing in a listing, each Advertisement is a recorded speech in your system. The caller chooses which Advertisement in which group they want to hear. You make the group classifications, then advertise your Talking Classifieds service to the public. You then have the people interested in listing Advertisements pay a fee to become 'Members' of your service, and they call in and place Advertisements on your system. Typically, the Members pay a monthly fee for this privilege.
Your Members place Advertisements that allow a caller to listen to what your members have for sale, as well as what they are looking to buy. You can either record the speeches yourself, or allow your Members to call in and record their own speeches.
It is important that you be aware that the Talking Classifieds application is a two-part application. This manual primarily deals with the first part of the application, the System Editor. This is the part of the application that allows you to design, build, and edit the application.
The second part of the application is the part of the application that callers actually deal with--the 'running' (working) application. While the System Editor allows you to access Talking Classifieds for editing and design, the Business Manager application allows you to run the Talking Classifieds application. For instructions on running your Talking Classifieds application, refer to the "User's Guide To Business Manager" manual.
The purpose of this chapter is to acquaint you with the concepts governing the workings of your Talking Classifieds system, including:
Terms
Listed here are some terms you need to know, as they appear in this chapter:
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Advertisement |
The informative speech recorded by the Members, typically a listing of items for sale or items that your Members are looking to buy. |
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Caller |
Someone calling into the system to use the services the system has to offer. |
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Commit |
In the context of this application, this is a finalizing procedure. To 'Commit' is to finalize and save changes to the system's structure. |
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Icon |
An Icon is a graphic representation of a program or application in Windows. The icon is typically composed of a small picture along with the name of the application below it. |
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Member |
A person who pays you a fee for the privilege of placing Advertisements in your Talking Classifieds application. |
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On-Line Help |
On-Line means that help is accessible at anytime in the application, unless you're already inside the Help function itself. |
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Application |
In this manual, we are referring to Talking Classifieds. |
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Speech |
A verbal message, recorded on a tree object in this application. |
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System |
Your computer, while running the Talking Classifieds application. It's a neat little technical term to impress your clients, and it's also more convenient than saying 'Your computer, while running the Talking Classifieds application.' |
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System Administrator |
You, the Center Owner. You call the shots, decide how much to charge advertisers, decide when the system is operating, etc. This application is your domain. Your word is law here. |
You must first get your Talking Classifieds application up and running, and advertise your service to the public. You will use Talking Classifieds to create a "brokerage", a place where buyers and sellers come together to exchange items. The Advertisements will come from Members that you recruit. The Members will all have a common interest in similar types of items, for example, antique fountain pens. Therefore, a good source of members are collectors of hard to find things. Your members may be local, statewide or even nationwide.
Once you have located a group of interested Members, you will create classifications for things that are for sale or that the members wish to buy. These classifications may be based on age, color, manufacturer, styles or any other way that you might decide that would best serve your Members.
Then you need to decide what kind of system you want to run:
• A Public System--where the number for the system is public and anyone can call in to listen to the listings on your system. This type of system tends to be larger and much more diverse. That means that there is likely to be a great deal of phone traffic in your system, which is good for your members.
While your system is up and running, callers access your system by dialing the number of the phone connected to your computer. There are three types of typical calls into your Talking Classifieds system:
• A call to record an Advertisement.
• A call from the System Administrator to record an Advertisement, modify system, etc.
You access the Talking Classifieds system editor through your Business Manager program. The method used to open Business Manager depends on whether you're using Windows 95 or Windows 3.1.
Using Windows 95 To Open Business Manager
If you have Windows 95, you use the Start button and menu to run most of your programs.
To begin, click on the Start button. When you click on the Start button, you see a list or menu similar to the one in the next figure.
Figure 1--The Start Menu
The Start menu allows you to choose from several different options. As you move the mouse pointer over the options on the menu, you will see that each option becomes highlighted, that is, a bar of color appears over the option. The highlighted option is the one that will be selected when you click with the mouse.
As you can see, the Programs option displays a small arrow on the right edge of the menu. Whenever you see this small arrow next to a menu option, you are being told that another menu displays when the option is selected. You will also notice, that just leaving the mouse pointer on the option will display the next menu without requiring you to click at all. This is a common feature in Windows and program menus.
Now, click on the Programs option.
When you click or just highlight the Programs menu, you will see the next menu as shown in the following figure.
Figure 2--The Programs Menu
Again, you can see that some of the options display more menus. If a menu option does not show the arrow, then clicking on that option will immediately open a window or start a program.
Click on the ECS Business Applications option. You will see another menu as shown in the next figure.
Figure 3--The ECS Business Applications Menu
Notice that none of these options show the arrow. Therefore, selecting one of these options will immediately start that ECS program. This is an example only. Your computer will show the list of ECS programs you currently have installed. The programs will be listed alphabetically, from top to bottom.
Now, click on the Business Manager program option.
Using Windows 3.1 To Open Business Manager
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Business Manager Icon |
If you're using Windows 3.1, you must be in Windows 3.1 before you open Business Manager. To open Business Manager, all you need to do is double click on the Business Manager icon in your ECS Business Applications Program Group. You also may click on the icon just once and then press e. |
Once You're In Business Manager
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• Click on the "Applications" menu heading, and the Application Configuration box appears. Select the "Talking Classifieds*" option by clicking it. A blue bar appears on this option. | |
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• Now click the "Edit" button, or double click the "Talking Classifieds*" option. Either way, you enter the system editor for the Talking Classifieds program. |
The Talking Classifieds system editor window appears as shown in Figure 4:
Figure 4--The Talking Classifieds system editor window
• To get to the main screen of the editor, click on the "File" menu heading on the menu bar. Next, click the "Tree" menu option. The Tree Edit screen appears as shown in Figure 5:
Figure 5--The Tree Edit screen
The Tree Edit Screen displays a 'system tree'. This is a graphical representation of the system. The tree that appears now is an example tree, which you will use to practice the skills you learn in this manual. This is a fully functional system, meaning that you could run the Talking Classifieds system right now using Business Manager. You or other callers could call into the system and move through it. Calling into your own system gives you a good idea of how the system works. Eventually, you will either modify this tree to customize it for your use, or you will make your own system tree.
Program Title Bars
In general, programs that are written for Windows 3.1 and are run under Windows 95 will behave and look the same. Most will run a little faster under Windows 95 though. However, in two areas you will see a different appearance and slightly different operations. The next two figures show, in order, a typical program title bar in Windows 3.1 and the same program in Windows 95.
Figure 6--Windows 3.1 Title Bar And Menu
Figure 7--Windows 95 Title Bar And Menu
Although at first glance they look the same, look closely at the upper right corner. You will see two buttons under Windows 3.1 and three buttons in Windows 95. Also note that in the upper left corner, Windows 3.1 shows a button whereas Windows 95 shows a small picture (icon). The following chart explains the similarities and differences.
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Win 95 |
Win 3.1 |
Function |
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Maximize Window--Increase the window size to fill the desktop. |
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Minimize Window--Remove the window from the desktop but leave the program running |
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NA |
Close Window--Close program |
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Restore from Maximize--Return Window to last size. |
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Control Menu--Display Control Menu or Double Click to Close. In Win 95, a small icon is used |
Program Menus
Another difference you will see is in the menus used in the programs. This is only a visual difference. The menu works the same way in either Windows 95 or Windows 3.1. The menus shown are typical program menus and may not be used in Business Manager.
Figure 8--Windows 95--A Typical Menu
Figure 9--Windows 3.1--A Typical Menu
When you finish editing the system tree, you can exit the system editor so you can do other things. It is a simple procedure to exit the Talking Classifieds system editor, and you can use the following procedure to do so:
Windows 95
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If you're using Windows 9.5, your program and Windows provide several different ways to stop (exit) Talking Classifieds. |
The X Button
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Windows 95 adds the X button on the title bar to all Windows programs. The X button is one way to leave the program. Clicking on this button will close down the program. |
The File Menu
This menu, pictured in Figure 10, provides you with options that allow you to manipulate the Client forms in your Client List. From this menu, you can add, delete, or open Client forms or exit the program. Click on the File menu heading at the left side of the menu bar on the program window. A menu heading is the word you find in the white bar along the top of your program window. Using the a+F key combination also causes the menu to open.
Figure 10--The File Menu
Exit. The Exit option closes the Talking Classifieds window when you click on the option, move the highlight to the option and press e, or press Xwhen this menu is displayed.
The Keyboard
You can also press a + o to exit the program.
The Window Control Bar
You may click on the control bar (the small program icon) at the upper left corner of the program window to display the control menu, pictured in Figure 11. Then choose Close. You may also just double click on the control bar to close the window.
Figure 11--The Control Bar Menu
Windows 3.1
If you're using Windows 3.1, to exit out of the program, you may also use the Exit button, the Exit option in the File menu, the a + o key combination or the Window Control Bar. These methods are described in the previous section of this chapter.
The main difference between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 in exiting the program is that Windows 3.1 doesn't feature an X button on the title bar. Also in Windows 95 the Control Bar is replaced with a small icon, but it works the same way.
Committing Changes
If you made changes to the system tree but did not commit these changes, the following advisory message appears:
Figure 12--The "Commit Changes" Advisory box
• Clicking the "Yes" button commits the system changes, and closes the system editor. You then return to the Business Manager window.
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These features allow you to experiment with your system all you want. You can make all kinds of changes. As long as you don't commit them, you will not have affected anything in your system permanently. |
• Clicking the "No" button allows you to exit the system editor without committing changes to the system tree. This means that the program abandons all of the changes you made during the editing session, and the system tree remains as it did before you entered the system editor. • Clicking the "Cancel" button allows you to return to the system tree without committing any changes. This means that you stay in the system editor, and can continue your editing session. |
If you encounter a problem at any time during the normal operation of your program, all you need to do is ask for Help. The program includes an "On-Line Help" function to answer questions that you might have concerning Talking Classifieds. (On-Line means that it is accessible from anywhere in the program, unless you're already inside the Help Function itself.) The Help function contains the same basic information that you can find in this manual.
Starting Help
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• One way to start the Help function is to click on the Help button. • You can also activate Help by using the "Help" menu heading from the Menu Bar. A 'Menu Heading' is the word you find in the white bar along the top of your program window. • The Help function is also accessible from anywhere in the program by pressing the lkey. |
Once you activate Help, you can select the topic you want help with from the contents table, or use one of the other Help functions like Focused or Selectable Help, and Key Word Search.
The Help Window displays the On-Line-Help screens. The available Help options are:
• Search Selecting this option from the "Help" menu lets you look through the Help index (it's like an index in a book) to find the topic you want Help with. You can enter a 'Key Word' (name of topic) into the dialog box or select an option from the option box. Once you make a selection or entry, the "Show Topics" button lights up. 'Pressing' (clicking on) the "Show Topics" button retrieves and displays a more specific list of topics. You can view a topic by 'selecting' it with your mouse (clicking on the topic) then 'pressing' the "Go To" button.
The Key Word Search is a highly useful function if you know (or have a good idea of) what you're looking for.
• About--Selecting this option from the menu allows you to see the "Credits" of the program. These are like the credits you see at the end of a movie or TV show. Clicking the "OK" button allows you to close the "About" dialog box.
Exiting Help
To exit Help, all you have to do is close the Help Window. You can do this by: double clicking on the icon in the title bar, selecting the "Close" option from the Window Control menu, or selecting the "Exit" option of the "File" menu in the Help Window.
