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Frequently Asked Questions
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This document is intended to answer frequently asked questions about Mentor.
To ask a question, please send an email to
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This FAQ is intended to supplement the manual.
Some sections may be removed from the FAQ and integrated into the manual at a later date.
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Where can I start when looking at Mentor?
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The Mentor manual is available on-line, for download as a ZIP file.
Put the contents of the ZIP file into a folder, and launch "toc.htm" to access the
table of contents. The Quick Start section deals with the progress of "Joe" when
using Mentor. To show what this file looks like within Mentor, Joe's Mentor database
can be obtained from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wuli in the "files" area.
Put this file onto your EPOC device and launch it to experiment with a populated Mentor file.
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Mentor is based on an approach to task management which I have been developing since the
mid 1990s. Development of this method was inspired by the book "the Art of Time"
which pointed out how freezers and video recorders have freed us to choose when we eat or
watch television - the impact of technology on time management.
I felt that a PDA could make a more direct impact by automating time management processes
which were very cumbersome to do "by hand" on paper.
In order for this to be successful, many parameters would have to be defined for each task
(importance, urgency, size etc.), but at the same time task entry needed to be quick and easy.
The approach on which Mentor is based was developed in order to address this problem.
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A task manager using this method was first developed on a Series 3a around three years ago,
but this proved too slow to be practical. With the new database model on the Series 5,
an OPL solution became practical, and Mentor development started. A testing programme
was set up, which grew to over 250 testers before Mentor was released on 23Jul99.
Since then, development has continued, with many new features being released.
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A freeware application "CleanMe" is available from the web site.
Several other products are planned for future release.
Some Series3 freeware is also available from the web site.
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Roadmaps released in the past have tended to be unreliable, creating "a rod for our own backs".
General ideas of timescales are now provided under our future plans.
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Mentor will continue to be developed as long as I am using it. Major developments will probably finish
around mid 2001, with minor improvements continuing over time. After this, Mentor will be ported to
other environments - OPL won't last forever!
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Write down the details of the error. If there is a "retry" button displayed, and the problem relates
to memory usage, close some other applications or clear out some data, then press "Retry".
Otherwise, accept the error (press "Abort"), and then restart Mentor.
The database will automatically be checked for errors and any problems with the database will be repaired.
At the end of this process, a dialog is displayed summarising any problems found - write down these details too.
Check that the database is OK - see instructions below.
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If Mentor gives an error every time that it restarts, press the "Rebuild" button.
This aborts, but marks the file so that the database is rebuilt (rather than checked and repaired)
when Mentor starts again. This rebuild is followed by the standard check and repair process to ensure
that the database is OK.
If you still have no luck, email
support@wulisoft.com
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Before assuming that something is wrong, consider these questions.
Is a filter hiding tasks that you expect to see? Has Mentor rescheduled or is the date still set in the past?
If there seems to be a problem, use CTRL+SHIFT+J to check the database - if there are "No database problems found"
then everything is OK.
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Press CTRL+SHIFT+J to check the database and repair any problems.
If problems are found, these are reported at the end of the process, otherwise "No database problems found"
is reported. If there are problems, run the check again until Mentor confirms that there are no further problems.
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To report a bug, send an email to support@wulisoft.com,
including the contents of the error dialog, what Mentor did on restart
(e.g. the contents of the database repair dialog), the system that you are using (e.g. Series 5mx),
the Mentor version, and any other information about what you were doing (e.g. tidying a file).
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The rebuild process makes a copy of the Mentor database without indexes, and then rebuilds all the indexes.
The original file is renamed with the extension ".bak". This feature was added to work around an EPOC bug
where indexes can become corrupt if the system runs out of memory while updating them.
Mentor does no explicit manipulation of indexes - they are all updated automatically by the operating system.
If the data itself becomes corrupt, the file is not currently recoverable (but no such incident has yet been reported).
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The database check and repair process ensures that the Mentor database is self consistent, for example that
the time used in a time slot equals the sum of the task sizes allocated to that slot.
This feature was added to work around any bugs in Mentor where the database is not kept in step.
Whenever Mentor starts, it checks to see whether the database is consistent with the header record.
If not, the check and repair process runs automatically.
It also runs on restart if Mentor traps an error and aborts, and after the rebuild process.
The process can be run manually using CTRL+SHIFT+J.
If problems are reported as fixed, it is always a good idea to run the check again until the
"No database problems found" dialog appears. This will be automated in a future release.
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When Mentor schedules a task, it checks for a time slot in the appropriate context on the scheduled date set.
If there is such a slot with enough time available, the task is allocated to that slot.
Otherwise, Mentor searches between today and the due date for a suitable time slot,
staying as close to the scheduled date as possible. If no slot is available before the due date,
Mentor searches for an appropriate time slot beyond the due date or, if there are none, the day with
the least time scheduled, and brings up the "No time slot available as scheduled" dialog, with this date suggested.
It is possible that this date could be the same date that was originally suggested.
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When Mentor reschedules, it identifies the tasks to schedule, "unschedules" them, and then reschedules them.
The identification process scans the database for all tasks from today onwards which are not marked as
"done" or "dropped". These tasks are marked for further processing. "Unscheduling" then removes these
tasks from their current time slot, and sets their time slot to "null".
"Rescheduling" then finds the most appropriate time slot for each task.
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The rescheduling process makes three passes through the database.
In the first pass committed tasks ("core" or "step") are scheduled, followed by tasks whose importance
is "undefined", with the last pass scheduling "bonus" tasks. Within each pass, tasks are scheduled in due
date order, with the most urgent first.
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When rescheduling, Mentor first checks to see whether a task can be scheduled to its current
scheduled date - i.e. whether enough time remains in an existing time slot.
If so, Mentor allocates the task to this date, so tasks which can be left where they are do not get moved.
This is to ensure that tasks stay where you put them as much as possible, even when floating.
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If the task must be moved, it is scheduled as for a single task, described above.
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Time slots have both an allocated size and a total size for all tasks scheduled to that slot.
Mentor also remembers the original allocated size so that the allocated size can be reduced if it is increased
temporarily. If the scheduled size is greater than that allocated, an alert is shown in the calendar,
and the usage bar extends beyond the slot, using a lighter colour.
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When tasks are forced into a slot, the allocated size remains the same, while the scheduled size is increased.
If "Today" is chosen from the "No time available as scheduled" dialog, both the allocated and scheduled sizes
are increased, although the original size remains the same. This prevents an alert being created, but allows
the slot to shrink back to its previous size when tasks are moved out of it.
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When there are no tasks left in a time slot, it is removed.
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To switch to Task, Schedule or Role view, press CTRL+SHIFT plus T, S or R respectively.
CTRL+Q and CTRL+SHIFT+Q cycle forwards and backwards around the views.
Escape toggles between Schedule and Role view for the same date.
To bring up the list of open documents without the toolbar, hold down CTRL and tap the on-screen "System" button.
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The speed of most operations in Mentor is proportional to the number of tasks in the database.
Regular archiving to an archive database will ensure that performance levels are maintained.
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Mentor can take a long time to search for free time slots if none are present (checking each day and finding none),
so ensuring that repeating time slots are configured, and maintaining a realistic schedule with some spare time
available will make scheduling and rescheduling faster, and Mentor's suggestions more appropriate.
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Running Mentor on the internal C: drive will be faster than on a compact flash card.
ER5 systems (Series5mx, Revo/Revo Plus, Series7, Diamond Mako and MC218) are significantly faster than ER3 systems
(Series5, Geofox) due to improvements in the database code within EPOC as well as the increase in raw
processor speed.
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Avoid being "surprised" by the need to reschedule. If you tend to be busy in the morning,
using "schedule ahead" at the end of the day is an option that can save time. Avoid an over-full schedule
with alerts showing in Role view. Keeping your schedule realistic and ensuring that some free time is
available makes adding in new tasks quicker and easier. The more work Mentor has to do, the longer it will take!
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Not yet, but a development is planned to allow you to do this.
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Tap on a header button for a column which can be filtered, or press CTRL+SHIFT+F, or use the menus
to bring up the filter dialog. This dialog allows you to choose from a number of pre-set filters, or
to define new ones.
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To add a new filter, select "Add" and enter a name for the filter. This dialog allows you to set context filtering.
A context to be filtered can be specified, whether tasks of that context are to be excluded or included by the filter,
and whether a role filter is to include its goals as well. To filter on other criteria, tap the filter button.
Tasks showing the symbols displayed in black will be shown, while those displaying any symbol shown in grey will
be filtered. Symbols can be toggled by tapping on them, or by pressing the space bar.
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Once the filter is defined, you can select it from the list to apply it at any time.
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Define a filter called "Custom", and edit it for the filter that you currently require.
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Sorting cannot be configured. It is performed on the columns whose header buttons are shown "depressed" in left to right
order. This limitation is due to the fact that indexes must be maintained for each pattern of sort -
lots of patterns would slow the database down and make the system less reliable.
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There is a preference to display task hierarchy for each of task and schedule views.
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The tree view displays the contents of a small database held in the Mentor application folder.
Whenever this changes (due to using a different Mentor database, or changing the composite task hierarchy),
the database must be repopulated which takes a little time (depending on the number of composite tasks).
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The due date column shows the number of days until the task is due (the day shown being the scheduled date).
The "ASAP" icon is used for tasks due on the scheduled date (which will also be core), while the "sometime"
icon is used for tasks due more than nine days later. There is a preference to use larger numbers in this
column rather than numbers within circles, if you find that more readable.
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If you have a lot of information in Role view, setting a preference to display 1 week per view and using
medium zoom is probably the clearest display. Turning the toolbar off also gives more room
(see switching views without the toolbar above).
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