Programmable telephone/dictation terminal and method of operating same

摘要

A programmable telephone/dictation terminal that can be disposed in any one of several different modes of operation including, but not limited to, dictating information onto a recorder, communicating over a telephone network, recording incoming messages received via a telephone line, preventing a telephone dial out operation and communicating "text" messages with a supervisory console. The terminal is provided with several programmable keys each being assignable by the terminal user with a particular function such that, upon the simple operation of that key, the assigned function is carried out. The user may change the function to which a particular programmed key is assigned, as desired.