Sidekick 98 Memo Files - Little known features 4

Since Sidekick 98 is the only version that Starfish updated for Y2K (with the SK98 patch) and it is available from the Sidreal website everyone should upgrade (yes even for SK99 users SK98 is an upgrade) to SK98. There are a couple of features in SK98's Memos that are not documented and make it the #1 correspondence manager I have ever used.

Everyone knows about the simple system of mail merge used on SK98 memos. The mailmerge codes can be added to the body of the letter and replaced with the individual values from the database. What is not documented is that the merge also works on the title line. A memo template named

"Memo to (First Name) (Last Name) with (Company) about (Current Subject)"

will substitute in the title after merging to produce

"Memo to John Doe with Anycompany about Widgets"

Since SK98 keeps the date of the memo automatically the result is a dated and descriptive record of your correspondence better than anything I have been able to produce with separate word processors and document management programs.

I keep a yearly list (1998 Business,2001 Personal etc.) that contains all of the important correspondence for the year. This correspondence list is contained in only one file, not hundreds, has a descriptive title for each memo, and can be easily searched on numerous criteria using the SK98 Find function.

This title merge method also works with the "Quick Letter" feature by simply naming the template in the templates directory as described above.

"Memo to (First Name) (Last Name) with (Company) about (Current Subject).rtf"

This is the method I use most frequently since I am usually composing a single letter to an individual listed in the database. I keep the "Current Subject" field updated to reflect the last letter/memo produced. A simple way to manage your templates on disk in to keep them in the Template memo file under the correct names and simply export them as RTF files to the Template directory in the SK98 folder.

There are about five or six key features of Sidekick 98 that make it the best PIM in the world, if the P in PIM really means personal. The lack of networking support is a plus for me!

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In addition you can drag text from the body of the memo to the title line. If you are pasting articles into a SK98 memo file you can simply create a new memo, paste the article into the memo body, and then select and drag the title to the title line. All done!

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If you find this tip helpful let me know and I'll proceed to the other four or five areas that make SK98 indispensable for me...

-ronnie-

Dear Ronnie,
Wow!!!
Thank you very much for that piece of information as it was completely unknown to me, please post the other ones too.
I use Sidekick at work for Customer Contacts, Storekeeping, Assignments, ToDos, Calls, Invoicing, Stock ordering(Labels/Memos print to fax) and Receipts and as you can imagine, even though I personalise the Invoices/Receipts, it will be so much quicker to search through the subject line when you want an invoice number rather than the content of the memos.
Thank you very much.

Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort and means that links are more likely to be current. Please 'Comment' on them if they are not!

Glad it helped James...

I will post some of the other tips and tricks after going thru my notes. Some of them require resource editing which is done with the free 'reshack.exe' available online. SK98's resource file is easy to edit but it is a mess, containing all of the strings and icons for about three versions of Sidekick. I could also provide the patched executable as a file on the service. I modified some of the help strings and URL's in the dialog boxes to point to the current resources online. By using this as the "SKPATCH" file you get an 'updated' (of sorts) version of Sidekick.

The first tip I will post will be the production of business cards using a custom SK98 cardfile.

Also indispensable for Sidekick power users is PowerPro, located at "windowspowerpro.com"... a free shell extension for windows that works flawlessly with Sidekick and provides scripting, a keyboard and clipboard extender, macro recorder, scheduler, and multiple desktops. It literally replaces about 5 different windows utilities. Powerpro can have a big learning curve but loading a custom config file is easy and that is all that is required to use it with Sidekick. After I have the time to clean it up I will post the Sidekick 98 configuration for Powerpro that pops up Sidekick, creates instant notes, integrates WordWeb, and runs automatic exports. It will work with any Sidekick 98 system configured with the default installation directories.

-ronnie-

Dear Ronnie,
I was tempted to write "Yeh, way to go!" but decided that was a out of character, so I'll just say: "great to have you here!"
Actually we could differ on our estimation of the best Sidekick ever, as I tend to lean towards Internet Sidekick which actually does merge fields in memo titles/Index lines too (I checked)+ export has more features (the Contact log goes with the cardfile too, as a Field).
I have used resource hacker too and it is amazing (as you say) how much of the OLD versions of Sidekick are in the SK97 / SK98 executables.
The Scripting program I use is ActiveWords ( it is impressive (as you have said too) just how much can be achieved with Sidekick.
Looking forward to seeing the Ongoing development of Sidekick and as I said before, it's great to have you here.

Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort and means that links are more likely to be current. Please 'Comment' on them if they are not!

Checked out the Active Words site and the features are neat but PowerPro has an identical feature built in and it's free. Using any trigger key combination you can type a word and have the program execute any Windows command, clipboard command, snippet paste etc. I will try to post some files this week if I have time to clean them up. One will be a sample PowerPro configuration that places an autohide bar on the top of the screen and handles clipboard, notes, scheduling, and Sidekick functions.

I will also have to write some short notes on how they are used. Powerpro is easy to use with custom configs but has a large learning curve for newbies when learning to program it.

-ronnie-

Thanks to RonRiche for terrific info
on SideKick. It has taken me three years to
first learn the CONTACTS and then the CALENDAR. Now I can move into MEMOS.
A big thanks
Elsa Garcia

Not sure if this is the right thread- however, when trying to extract SK99 from its zipped state to load onto a new IBM Thinkpad, I keep getting the message " This installation has detected that a previous installation or un-installation requires you to restart your computer".
Re-starting does nothing, regrettably. I seem to remember one of our IT people was able to solve this on another note book- but haven't a clue how. Help gratefully accepted.
Peter McW

Dear Peter(ScotchEgg),
It is best to start a new thread rather than to add on to one that is already going (unless the thread specifically addresses the problem you are having).
I'm only suggesting the above, as in this case you will probably only get answers from the people that have already marked the thread for email notification, but if you start a new thread in this forum you will get an answer fairly quickly.
It is also a good idea to check out the Faq pages here (at the Starfish Sidekick Forum) for the answer first and you may find the solution to your question, in this case if you had searched on the string:
"previous installation"
You would have got the following:
faq807-2246
Click on the link above and you will go to the faq.

please accept my remarks in the spirit in which they were made, for informative purposes only.
Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort and means that links are more likely to be current. Please 'Comment' on them if they are not!

Hi- ronriche (TechnicalUser) Dec 23, 2003,
Hi- james33

THIS IS TERRIFIC INFO.
I agree that SK-98 the best PIM for numerous reasons.

James mentioned faxing from Memos.
Is it possible to prepare a Memo and fax-braodcast directly to a SK contacts-list?

We use SuperVoice Pro, but we have to export
the receipient list in .csv, then prepare the memo as a "cover".

Thanks again
Elsa Garcia

Dear Elsa,
You can prepare the Memo and then have one card selected in the Viewport and right-click in the memo and SendTo Fax and it will immediately send it(the Memo) to the fax number in that Card if there is at least one Fax Field (if there is more than one it will fax it to the first one it gets to, starting from the top down).
I have only got this to work with Windows Messaging/Inbox with Windows Fax set up as a service, I believe it resorts to Outlook if Windows Messaging is not present.


Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort and means that links are more likely to be current. Please 'Comment' on them if they are not!

Dear all,

is it possible for anyone to send the manual for sidekick98 as pdf? I would like to get into sidekick fastly, and I can't find it anywhere on the web.

What about the writings in this thread? Anything going on? Any tips to get going with scripting, if there is no experience with things like that? I have an email program (Calypso), which I would like to start automatically by clicking the mailadresses inside sidekick. (Funny enough this works with the newer Truesync.

My girlfriend is casting things at me now. Have to go....

Thanks in advance!

Lars

Oh, sorry, my email is:
lb_mob AT svgm.de

Have finally had some time to clean up the Business Card/Label card file. This can be a demo and template for people who would like to have this feature.

For Elsa... if you get an eFax account (which is cheaper than long distance using a fax modem) you can use the Internet notification feature to send out batch faxes from your address books.

I don't use the forum much so somebody please tell me how to UL this file...

-ronnie-

Dear Ronriche,
There is no repository for files here at tek-tips the only answer is to post it on a website or if you wish send it to me via email but do let me know how big it is as I am only on 56k Dial-up!
Or there is always
but that is for only one person to download.


Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort and means that links are more likely to be current. Please 'Comment' on them if they are not!

Further to my last post the reason I say to email to me is that I can forward it to JtOtoole who can put it on his website.
or see
faq807-3761

Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort and means that links are more likely to be current. Please 'Comment' on them if they are not!

Hi Ronnie,

Interesting stuff. I'd also like to see what else works well for you with SK98.

Gary Britt

(I use Macro Express as my macro program, I looked at powerdesk once, noted it was very all encompassing, It didn't seem like it provided anything that I didn't already have in one form or another, and I didn't want to spend the time reinventing what I already knew. It has gotten a lot of positive comments, so I assume it is an excellent program.)