Health-Minder provides you with three kinds of HELP.

Glossary The Glossary has the meaning of terms related to health which are used in the program, such as the "Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion", or basic health terms you should know, such as "cholesterol". You will also find useful information, such as what to include in a home first aid kit, or how to challenge a rejection of an insurance claim. Access this by choosing Glossary from the Help Menu.

References The References include the books, periodicals, and specific articles that were used as research materials for this software, as well as those which you may wish to add to your own home health library. Access this by choosing References from the Help menu.

How to Use Here is where to find a description of how to manipulate the buttons, checkboxes, lists, or text-entering boxes for any Health-Minder window. Access the How To information by choosing the HELP button in each window or by choosing How To Use from the Help menu and then selecting the name of the window.

In addition to these on-line Help sources, Health-Minder will also assist you as you use the program.

Messages from Health-Minder If you make a mistake, such as entering a date the wrong way or omitting an essential item of information, Health-Minder will present a small window with an error message and a tip about what you need to do to correct the problem. While Health-Minder can’t catch you spelling errors, its extensive lists of examples of test name or treatments or types of health care providers can help you prevent many typing or spelling errors. Choose answers from these lists wherever possible.

How to Get Support

Before you contact Health-Minder support, please

1. use the Help button for tips on how to use each window and
2. check the index of this manual to see if your problem is covered here.

There are a few basic things you must learn to operate this, or any program:

Health-Minder for Windows™ requires an IBM-compatible 486 or higher PC™ running Windows 3.1 or later. 4 MB RAM is required, but 8MB RAM or more is much preferred). You will also need 10 MB free storage on your hard disk. To install, follow these steps:

If you edit and change your win.ini file, be sure to restart Windows before you use Health-Minder to have these changes take effect. If this is the first time you are installing Health-Minder, the installation program creates an icon that will appear within the Health-Minder Group window.

When you first install Health-Minder, it is "unregistered", and a notice will appear telling you the date on which access to the unregistered program will end (61 days after you first start the program). You may register at any time by pressing the button REGISTER NOW, following the directions, and sending the form to Kagi.com by mail or e-mail. You will be e-mailed a password to type into the password window. From then on, your use of Health-Minder will never expire. If you re-install Health-Minder, save your database files in the "base" and "dict" directories or you will need to repeat this process.

While using your mouse, position the cursor on the Health-Minder icon, and tap the left mouse button two times, very rapidly. The cursor will change to an hour glass, which means the program is getting ready to display its first window.

This startup process may take tow to three minutes on computers with smaller amounts of RAM. Starting Health-Minder may take a little longer than starting some other programs, such as Solitaire or a word processor. That is because Health-Minder must maintain a database of information sent from us to you (such as the sodium or calcium content of certain foods or names of vaccines and recommended ages for getting vaccinated) as well as any information you have added to the database. Connecting to and opening this database takes about a minute. And, unlike word processors or simple games, Health-Minder has more than 100 dialog windows, each one specially designed to help you enter information about hospital visits or checkups or insurance policies. Setting these up takes about 30 seconds.

Once you are in Health-Minder, accessing the database and different dialog boxes goes very quickly.

The first dialog window you see has illustrations of features of Health-Minder, and a simple menu bar with only two menus: FILE and HELP.

To start the program, use your mouse to move the cursor to the FILE menu, and then press down on the left button on the word FILE and hold it. You will see two choices: Start and Exit. Slide the cursor down to Start and use the left button to tap on the word Start. Very quickly, the first window is hidden behind a larger window.

This larger window is the Family Information Window, as shown below. This window will be the home base from which you will perform all operations in Health-Minder. At first, there will not be any names in the scrolling list. The names of family members are to be added as you use the program. At any time, whenever you can see the FILE menu, you may stop the program, even if you have put no information in the database at all.

Ending a session with Health-Minder requires only a simple mouse click. To stop the program, use your mouse to move the cursor to the FILE menu and then press down on the left button on the word FILE and hold it. You will see two choices: Start and Exit. Slide the cursor down to Exit and use the left button to tap on the word Exit. Health-Minder then asks you to confirm that you want to quit the program. If you say OK, very quickly, all the Health-Minder windows disappear. Your database has been closed with your information stored away inside it.

The left button of the mouse is the only mouse button you can use to give commands to Health-Minder. There are only a few ways to use the mouse:

TAB      The tab left or right key can be used to move from field to field within a window. (A "field" is a place to enter text or push a button or choose a checkbox or radio button item.) This is especially useful when there are several text fields to enter because you can keep typing in names or dates without needing the mouse to move you to the next entry place. The TAB will not advance past a scrolling list item; you must choose an item on the list and use the mouse to move ahead, or skip the list by using the mouse to move to another area on the dialog box. By the way, if you enter a date and then hit the TAB key, Health-Minder will check right away to be sure the date is in the proper format (MM\DD\YY, as in "12\25\94" for December 25, 1994). Similarly, if you are to enter a number, as in a cost ("199.95") or weight (125), Health-Minder will check that you have entered a number and not a word or a date by mistake. These checks will be done whether or not you use the TAB key after entering the information, but the checking will be done later when you press the STORE button saying you are ready to save the information.

DELETE key     The "delete" key can be used to erase characters of text that you have typed in with the keyboard. Use the mouse to drag across the text to be deleted, and hit the DELETE key. Anything highlighted by the mouse, if it is text, will be deleted. If you delete something by mistake, you will have to retype it; unlike word-processing software, Health-Minder has no UNDO or UNDELETE command.

ALT key     Choices from Menu lists can be made by holding down the ALT key and, at the same time, typing the key of the one letter that is underlined in the Menu choice. For example, if you wanted to choose the FILE menu, type the combination ALT F (because the "F" in FILE is the letter that is underlined).

These tools are described in the following paragraphs:

Menus provide a way to move quickly from one data entry window to another, or to execute a program command, such as FILE|Exit. Use the mouse to click on a menu name, such as NUTRITION, or use the keyboard method by holding down the ALT key while pressing the letter underlined in the menu name.

For the example shown here, press ALT plus the N key to access the NUTRITION menu. The NUTRITION menu has several additional choices: Food Pyramid, RDA Table, Weight Charts, and Dietary Info. Choose any of these choices in the same way, using either the mouse to point and click on the item or by typing the ALT key and the underlined letter. Simply slide the mouse to the correct choice and click on it. In this manual, and in the on-line HELP, names of menus are printed in bold uppercase as in FILE, SETUP, MEDICAL, LIFESTYLE, DIARY, NUTRITION, EXERCISE, PHONE, or HELP. Choices from a menu are also shown in bold, but with initial capital letters only, as in FILE|Exit or MEDICAL|Hospital. A vertical bar ( | ) separates the menu name from a choice name. The character ä after a menu item name indicates that if you choose this item, you will be given another menu from which to choose. If you choose Weight charts from the NUTRITION menu, for example, you will see additional choices from which to choose: Adult or Child.

When you see a box such as the one shown after Date in the example below, it means that this is the place where you are to type in some text. The required text could be a date or a name or a telephone number or address. You can tell what is required by reading the label next to the box. (In the example here, the label says Date:). If it is a date, Health-Minder will check to be sure it is a valid date. Enter dates as 11/23/1994 (month number, day number, and year). Other things you enter cannot be checked as easily by Health-Minder. It isn’t possible, for instance, to know if you have misspelled your doctor’s name or mistyped a telephone number. The kinds of things Health-Minder can check are whether a number is actually composed of digits (and not letters), or whether a text is a valid date. Where possible, Health-Minder give you choices of items, or examples, to help you avoid spelling mistakes.

The first thing you need to tell Health-Minder is who are the members of your family. In the Family Information Window, press the ADD button to bring up the Personal Information Window.

At a minimum, type in the person’s name and birth date, and choose MALE or FEMALE. Since Health-Minder will sort the names alphabetically, you may wish to enter the name as Last name, First name. If you have only a few family members, this hardly matters. But for a large number of names, this will make entering and retrieving data easier.

Add any of the other information you have, and then push the STORE/OK button to store and return to the Family Information Window. There you will see the person’s name added to the family name list. Continue to use ADD to put in the information for other members of the family, or use the mouse to highlight a person’s name already on the list and press EDIT to modify the Personal Information Window’s data for that person.

Additional information, such as whether or not the person has a living will, may be added at any time by selecting the person’s name from the list in the Family Information Window and pressing the EDIT button. As you might expect, highlighting a person’s name and pressing the DELETE button will remove that person’s information from the database. But Health-Minder first makes sure that is what you want to do. Use you mouse to highlight a person’s name on the list before trying to enter any information about vaccinations, doctor’s visits, and the like; Health-Minder always needs to know which person’s information you are trying to view or enter.

Members of the family who are pets are added in the same way as people. First, push the PETS option near the Family Member List, and then proceed as above. The Pet Information Window will appear.

At minimum, enter the pet’s name, birth date (guess if you are not sure), and type of animal (CAT, DOG, or OTHER). If OTHER, you can also type in what kind of animal (guinea pig, snake, rabbit, etc.). If your pet is a cat or dog, the type of animal information is used to display the vaccinations required in the Pet Vaccination Window, so don’t skip this item. Then, after entering any other information you wish for this pet, press STORE/OK to store it. You will see the pet’s name on the family member list in the Family Information Window. Pet names on this list are sorted alphabetically. Enter as many pets as you wish. To enter vaccinations, office visits, illnesses, or medicines for this pet, be sure to highlight its name from the list in the Family Information Window. You can add or change information, such as Daily Diet, by selecting the pet’s name from the list in the Family Information Window and pressing the EDIT button. The window  will appear, ready for modification. Be sure to press STORE\OK to save the new information.

Remember, though, that menu items for entering health information for a person or pet will not be active until you have highlighted the name of an individual from the Family Member List in the Family Information Window. You will see the menu items, but they will be dim-gray, and nothing will happen if you choose them. Once you choose a name from the Family Member List (using a single click on the name with the left mouse button), then all these menu items will be active, and all information you enter will be stored as part of that selected family member’s health record. For pets, there are some menu items that are never activated because they are inappropriate for pets, such as MEDICAL CARE|Nursing Home or Rehab.

Once you have entered the names, birth dates, gender, and other basic information about each person and pet in the family, you are ready to begin using Health-Minder to enter and organize information about:

Health-Minder provides an easy way to enter, change, or discard all this information. Before we discuss the specific menus and windows involved, here are a few guidelines that apply to all the data-entry windows. In our discussion, and in the on-line HELP information, names of windows are shown in small capital letters, as in Personal Information Window or Prescriptions Window. When a window first appears, you will see a list of items, an ADD button, a DELETE button, and an OK button (some windows, such as the one for Prescriptions, may have additional buttons, such as RENEW or REFILL). In describing the buttons and what they do in this manual and in on-line HELP, the names of the buttons are in UPPERCASE MONOSPACE font, as in STORE, OK, DELETE, and ADD. We shall now discuss each of these basic components of a data entry window:

LIST Items are listed by date, with the most recent one first. If you are entering Checkups, for example, your most recent checkup will be listed as the first one on the list. The date is the first thing on the line, with the Health Care Provider following in the next column. For a checkup, the provider will be the doctor or dentist doing the checkup. For Hospitalization, it will be the name of the hospital, and so on. Use the scroll bar to move down the list in order to view prior events. If you wish to delete an item, highlight the item with your mouse, and then push the DELETE button. If you wish to see all the information about an item (the costs or other details such as the results of a test), highlight the item by double-clicking on it with your mouse. To see all of the items on a list, scroll the list up and down with your mouse on the arrow keys or scroll bar at the right side of the list.

DELETE The DELETE button is used to remove an item from a list, and from the Health-Minder database. To be safe, Health-Minder will ask you to confirm that you really want to delete this particular item. If you find this question more annoying than helpful, you can tell Health-Minder to stop asking it; use the menu option SETUP|Options described below. Some windows may also provide a button to DELETE DATE RANGE; this button is used to remove a series of items from a starting date through an ending date. You will not be asked to confirm the deletion of each of these items, so be very careful. You may want to use this feature every January to dispose of last year’s prescriptions or exercise records, for example. Disposing of unwanted items will help keep your database from getting too large, which slows down any search for database items. A smaller database will also take up less room on your computer’s hard disk. So, deleting obsolete items from your database is a good thing to do, but you should do it with much caution. When using the DELETE DATE RANGE button to remove a series of items, Health-Minder lets you first put the items in a file before deleting them so that you may have a paper record of these deleted items. But, once deleted, they are gone from the Health-Minder database, whether or not you also write them to a file.

ADD The ADD button is used to install a completely new item on the list. Don’t use this button to try to change an item that is already there. If you push the ADD button, Health-Minder ignores any item on the list you may have highlighted. When you push ADD, a data-entry form for all the information you need to answer about an item appears in the bottom portion of the window. In Health-Minder, this form is called the Data Entry Pane. It is the part of the window where you enter information, or "data".

Suppose, for example, you are entering data about being in the hospital. For this hospitalization, you will see places to type in the date you enter the hospital, the date of release, a list of hospitals (choose the one where you were hospitalized this time), a list of doctors (choose the one who supervised your care), a list of illnesses (choose the reason for this hospitalization), a COST\CLAIM button. Pressing this button will bring up another window with cost and insurance information.

Other health care events wil have different items in the Data Entry Pane. For a visit to the dentist, you will enter the date, the name of the dentist, and update the information on dental problems you have had. Thus, each window will ask you to provide information relevant to the kind of event you are entering.

If you wish to change the information about an item you have already entered, this is called "editing". When you are editing an item, select it from the list and double-click on it. The information you have previously entered for this item will be retrieved from the database and displayed in the Data Entry Pane. You can change any piece of information you wish. Whether adding or editing, no information is entered or stored until you press the STORE button.

OK The OK button, near the top right corner of a window, will close this window and return to the previous window (usually the Family Information Window). It does not store information in the database.

For an example of a window with a scrolling list at the top, and a Data Entry Pane at the bottom, see). The Data entry Pane has several more buttons you should know how to use:

STORE The STORE button appears only when you add or edit an item, such as a checkup, vaccination, prescription, or test. STORE is used to save new or changed information in the database. If you have made no changes, or you change your mind and do not wish to keep any of the information you have just typed in, use the CANCEL button instead. When you press STORE, the Data Entry Pane disappears. Any new item you have added to the database will now appear on the scrolling list at the top of the window. Because each item (vaccination, test, etc.) may be saved with the STORE button at the time you add or edit it, Health-Minder does not have a Save option in the FILE menu.

CANCEL Use this button when you do NOT wish to STORE new or changed information in the database. Like the STORE button, the CANCEL button does not appear unless you are adding or editing information. When you press CANCEL, the Data Entry Pane disappears. The items on the list at the top of the window will remain unchanged.

NOTEPAD Use the NOTEPAD button, available in most Data Entry Panes, to add your own comments, concerns, or noteworthy details about a specific health care event. For example, for a Pregnancy, you may wish to jot down notes about what helped you deal with morning sickness. For a Hospitalization, you may want to write down the instructions you were given about care of a surgical wound at home. For a Medicine, you might take note of what other medicines it interacts with, or what the most effective dosage is for you.

COST\CLAIM Use the COST\CLAIM button, available in most Data Entry Panes, to record the fee charged for this specific health care event, that is, the fee for the office visit or the prescription, or the x-ray. Record the amount of payments you have made, any claims you have submitted to an insurance company or managed care plan, and the refunds or rejections of claims you have received. If you have more than one policy or plan, you may record submissions, refunds, and rejections for each of these. Or record the amount paid to your provider by a policy, plan, or Medicare or Medicaid. Recording fees, payments, and claims’ submissions and refunds are optional. You don’t have to do it to use Health-Minder, but doing so may help you keep track of outstanding claims or to know when annual deductibles or maximums have been met, or to assist you in computing your health deduction for tax forms.