Diary: Accessing the diary

Users access an appointments diary from the main menu. Premvet 5 will automatically display the diary that has been set-up as the default for this user. The system will display today's page, and you can then perform the functions outlined later in the chapter.

Problems accessing a diary
In some cases Premvet 5 will not automatically launch a diary - instead a menu will appear and you will be allowed to select the diary you require. You can also press the <ESC> key to enter the initialisation program and create a new diary at this point. The selection menu will appear if:

• There is no default diary associated with the current user.
• In a multi-user environment, the diary requested has been frozen by another user (the other user may be lengthening or re-organizing the diary.) In this case you will see the following message:

  Problem: Requested diary locked at present - press RETURN
  

In unusual circumstances the following messages may appear:

Error: Diary file does not exist - press RETURN or
Error: Diary is corrupted - press RETURN

If you have omitted to allow the archiving process to take place for so long that today's date no longer appears in the diary, you will be taken to the diary reorganisation program and this will prepare a blank diary with current dates in it. If you are approaching the end of the diary as set up, you will be asked whether you wish to expand the diary or not:

Approaching end of diary - extend? (Y/N) [Y]

Unix users
If you have the Unix operating system, then to save time and allow you to work undisturbed at another task, the appointments diary can be run on the virtual screen (Press <Alt> and <F2>). This will allow you to swap screens between the diary and other work. This facility is only available under the Unix operating system and requires additional resources and memory on the system.