readme file for ol2bp

written and developed by: peter torpey

contact: centerline@googlegroups.com discussion list

the ol2bp program is designed to facilitate saving of a user's

contacts, appointments, and mail-notes from ms outlook to the bookport.
the bookport is a portable reading device for the blind which is
available from aph (see: www.aph.org).

the program can be run either from the shortcut to ol2bp which is
placed on the user's startup menu during installation or from the
folder in which it was installed.

instructions

1. when the program is run, a dialog box appears in which the user is
prompted for a folder in which to save the outlook data. after
selecting the desired location for saving the data, the user should
press the enter key or hit the ok button to move to the next dialog box.

2. next, the user is prompted to specify time periods of interest for

mail-notes from the user's inbox and appointment items from the user's
calendar. only items within these time periods will be saved.

the "save prior weeks of mail" field specifies the number of weeks
prior to the current time during which mail items will be saved.

the "save future weeks of appointments" field specifies the number of

weeks from the current time during which appointment items will be
saved.

the values in both fields can be modified by either using the up/down
arrow keys to select an integer or by directly editing the values in
these fields. the maximum value for either field is 52.

3. after selecting ok or pressing the enter key on any item, the

program proceeds to log onto the user's outlook account and save the
appropriate items.

4. note: in order to save the contact and mail-note items, the user
must allow access to these items. outlook will automatically produce a
pop-up window asking the user for permission to access the outlook
data. the user should allow access by clicking the "yes" button and
specifying a period of time for which access to the outlook data is
allowed.

5. when the ol2bp program is finished, 3 data files are produced in

the location specified by the user. these are:

- contacts.txt
- appointments.txt
- mail.txt

6. the 3 output data files can then be sent to the bookport in the
usual manner (see the bookport manual for transferring files).

7. once the files are transferred to the bookport, they can be

navigated by using the standard bookport navigation commands. in
addition, the user can quickly move from one item to the next within a
file on the bookport by using the section movement keystrokes c+f to
move forward by one item at a time or a+d to move backward by one item
at a time.

8. the user selections which are made to specify the location in

which to save the outlook data and time periods over which to
save outlook data are all saved after each time ol2bp is run.
thus, the user does not need to specify these items the next
time ol2bp is run if the user desires to use the same settings
from session to session.