Appendix C: Setting Up Automatic Reminders

Softfile includes a program called remind.exe which checks the reminder dates and adds to the list of reminders any record whose reminder date is equal to or earlier than the current date.

Of course, it isn't very convenient to have to remember to run a program in order to be reminded of something. To get the computer to make the reminder list automatically, you can use the Windows 98 Task Scheduler. This is a program which runs all the time, and can be used to run other programs at scheduled times.

Double-click My Computer, double-click Scheduled Tasks, and double-click Add Scheduled Task. The Scheduled Task Wizard will guide you. Use the Browse button to find remind.exe in the Softfile folder, c:\Program Files\soft.

You should run remind.exe at any time when the Softfile database is not in use. However, you should use a time after midnight and before the day's work begins, because the reminder dates are checked against the system date. Of course, your computer must be on at the time you choose.

One thing you cannot change is the fact that the "remind" program writes the list of reminders into file REMINDER.LST in the current directory, and Softfile looks for this file name. For this reason you should not put two Softfile databases in the same directory if you want to use the reminder dates, because you can't have two different reminder lists with the same name.