TIM (Tekline Information Manager) FREEware is entirely FREE and you will find it very useful. It's core features are found in every version of TIM so if you upgrade, there are no compatibility issues. Consequently, you can start with TIM FREEware and if you want to make use of additional features then you can easily upgrade. TIM (Tekline Information Manager) Standard for example is only £10 for a significant enhancement to the program and to upgrade, you don't even have to change your current FREEware version. Simply but the key and enter it in the registration box. Your FREEware version will become the Standard Version automatically.

Whatever TIM version you use, the purpose of the software is to store and manage information. TIM FREEware is built around storing and managing text information, which it does exceedingly well. All TIM versions have a database of Subject Groups, and these can have assigned as many Topics as you like. Each Topic has also attached a Notes box (Quick Notes) where you can either cut and paste text from any other program into it, or you can load any text file. This is the core features that is common to all TIM versions, but of course other versions have other facilities such as a built-in word processor where you can store multi-font text, pictures etc. Other TIM versions can attach common documents of all kinds or video/audio files etc;

TIM FREEware comes with some maintenance tools. You can also change the look and feel of the program by selecting a skin from the "customise menu". However, while the skin will remain active during the program operation, you will not be able to save the scheme so that it loads automatically next time you use the program. This feature applies to other versions of the software and not the FREEware version. It does however give you an opportunity to see one of the enhancements you will get if you purchase other versions of the software.

TIM (Tekline Information Manager), whatever version you have, has has been designed to be easy to use. They all have a common features that are found in TIM FREEware. So what I discuss here, applies to all versions. I am going to create an expert system that will be expanded upon in the other versions of TIM and the subject will be based upon the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Create a Group with Group Manager

Simply click on the Group Manager button and the Group Manager Dialog will appear. You can create any group you like on any subject you like, but for this example I shall create a group called "J.R.R. Tolkien".

Type in the yellow box the group name (J.R.R. Tolkien) and then press the save button. This is the one that has the diskette icon. Once you have saved the group, this will be highlighted. Click on the arrow button to return to the main screen where the new group will now be shown.

The buttons of the Group Manager are:

Create a Topic that is linked to a Group

Topics Editing Console

I have created a group called "J.R.R. Tolkien" and there are many things I would like to record related to this famous author. So let us begin by adding his Biography as a topic. A little tip! Each topic you create is alphabetically sorted, but if you wish to have a particular topic that you wish to have listed first then simply add the number one or a character like "-" to the beginning of the topic name.

The group shows that the topics associated with it is empty. To add a Topic go to the Topics Editing Console to the right of the screen and click on the New button.

At the top of the screen a yellow editing box will be revealed and the Quick Notes box will also enlarged and this covers up the Topics Editing Console.

In the editing box add your Topic name ie; for this example Biography and press the Save button.

Note: You could at this stage add notes to the Quick Notes box by cutting and pasting text from another application such as a webbrowser, or load a text file on your hard disk by clicking on the Open button and importing the text. You can if you prefer add the quick notes later by editing the topic, which is what I shall do here in this tutorial. Once you have got used to the program, the first option is the faster option.

Enter the title of your Topic, either paste from another application you may have opened, for example a webbrowser and paste it into the Quick Notes box, or alternatly use the open file button to load the notes from an external file. Save the Topic and that's it. Easy peasy.

Adding Topic Information to Quick Notes

Having created a Topic I would like to add some notes related to the subject material. There are several ways of doing this. In this example I created a topic called "Biography", and the group is "J.R.R.Tolkien", so I need to get some material for this.
Cut and Paste

The easiest way is to go to my browser, do a Google search and find what I am looking for there. Google brough me to The Tolkien Society website. So I simply cut from the Biography section the material I wanted (CTRL C). (You are not breaking copyright because you are using the informatation for personal use and you are not making any money from what you have downloaded).

Having cut my imformation from the website I need to paste it to Quick Notes. Click on Edit on the Topics Control Console and Quick Notes will enlarge. Place your mouse cursor on Quick Notes (white area) and paste the information you have cut from the browser (CTRL V). Before you save, I like to keep a record where I got the information from so go back to the browser and copy the URL. Now go back to TIM FREEware and insert the URL near to the heading of the notes. Now press the save button, and the notes will be saved, and Quick Notes will return to its Normal size.

At any time you can increase the size of the notes by pressing the shrink button and selecting 100%. Press the button again and choose Normal to restore to normal size, or press the Cancel button.
Importing a Text a file

Another way of adding text to Quick Notes is to load in a text file. Text files of all kinds can be imported into the program although the most common are those that end with the suffix .txt. But you can import programming files, batch files etc. When you create or edit a Topic, instead of cutting and pasting from an open application such as a webbrowser as described above, simply click on the Open button and a file dialog will open up where you will find files that can be loaded in. So if you have already prepared a biography of Tolkien in the example and called it tolkien.txt, simply load it in and Save as before. It is really that simple.

As you can see, using TIM FREEware is easy to do and if you follow this guideline you will be able to manage all kinds of information. Here we started the process of creating an expert system centered upon the author J.R.R. Tolkien, starting with his biography. Now you can add more topics such as details of his books, the films that have been made, his family and so on.... Imagine what you can do?

TIM FREEware is a powerful but easy to use application that can be used to manage all kinds of information, from hobbiest information, programming code, research notes, product details, sales information including contacts and a whole lot more. One can produce some very useful expert systems but what you are experiencing is but the tip of the iceberg as far as the potential for TIM is concerned. There are a number of TIM versions available, but the beauty of TIM FREEware is that you don't have to uninstall what you have already created. You can simply enhance what you have done by entering a key code into the program.

To obtain the key of the version that you wish to purchase, this can be brought online by a secure transaction using any payment card you prefer, or you can send me a cheque and email, and I will provide the key myself.

Once you have purchased the key (it does not matter where you live), the key will be emailed to to you. Then all you have to do is simply click on Help at the top of TIM FREEware and select Register from the menu and then enter the key. TIM FREEware will automatically change itself to the TIM version you have paid for and away you go. It can't get any simpler than that.