Automate™ is not particularly user friendly. However, when you manage to get it up and running, it can save you a lot of time. It lets you automate almost anything you can do in Windows. In Automate™ There are two different types of tasks: Procedures and Reminders. An "Automated Procedure" is a set of commands that will direct your computer to perform a certain action or set of actions at a given time, frequency and interval. A "Reminder Message" is a detailed message you can set up to remind you of any event; as trivial as an oil change, or as important as an anniversary….(Don’t forget that). They can even be set up to play a designated sound file when they are launched.

Programs that can be used without a mouse are easy to automate. You simply tell Automate™which keystroke(s) to send. The programs will work exactly as if you were controlling them from your keyboard… well, Automate™ is a little faster than most humans. Mouse controlled applications can also be automated, but that doesn't always work very well.

There are several ways to automate tasks. You can simply record something and play it back later. With this method, everything you do while recording will be saved, and it is easy, but has many limitations. A few things simply cannot be automated this way, and the procedures won't be very reliable. If something is different from the original environment, when you play the procedures back later there's a chance they won't work. A better method is telling Automate™exactly what to do. For example, type in the path to a program to launch, keystrokes like Ctrl-x, Shift-End, ordinary characters etc. You will be able to do a lot this way, but not everything. Say you want Automate™ to dial up the Internet. Usually this won't be a problem. But, what happens if it gets a busy signal? Not very much... Automate™ doesn't understand it should try again, well, unless you write a script (some pre-made scripts are included).

Automate™ comes with a BASIC-like scripting language. With it, you should be able to do what you want, including using "if-then-else programming logic", user dialogs, OLE automation and much more. The drawback is that for those who are not familiar with programming, this is not easy.

Want Automate™ to run your procedures or set up reminders, at given times? No problem. This, in fact, is what it does best. Schedule a procedure to run, say 2:00 a.m. every day, and Automate™ will automatically launch it at that time.

Have some routine jobs? Why not let Automate™ take care of them, and spend your time on something else? It's difficult to set up the automation processes, but once you do, you will be glad you did.