About This Guide

This QuickStart Guide is designed to help you quickly get familiar with Versabook. It shows you the only the basic features of the product. An explanation of all the Versabook features can be found in Online Help.

In the QuickStart Guide, you will learn how to:

       Add books to your Research Desk
       Get around the Research Center
       Work with books
       Search books
       Display media items
       Organize your research in file folders called Binders

What is Versabook?

Versabooks are electronic books immediately accessible on your computer for viewing, updating and searching whenever you want. Versabooks provide you with powerful search functions and multimedia features. You can work with Versabooks the same way you would with printed books. You can group relevant articles in Binders.

Binders

When you find articles relevant to your research, you can save them to a Binder for easy access later. You can create a new Binder for each subject and the contents of each Binder can be printed.

Searches

Versabooks have the following types of Searches enabling you to find information quickly and efficiently:

      Full Text
      Natural Language Query
      Title
      Using Combinations of Words

Media

To enhance your research experience, Versabooks contain media items such as:

      Photos
      Flags
      Maps
      Animations
      Sounds
      Speeches
      Musical Excerpts
      Videos

Note:

Depending on your product and the books in the Research Desk, some of the media items may not be available while other books may have special media types.

Getting Started

Research Center

The Research Center is where your electronic books are displayed. Here you can read, search, and compile sets of relevant items.

To open the Research Center:

1. Double-click the program icon alias on your Desktop or the program application on your hard disk. The Main Menu is displayed.
2. Click the Books tab. The Books View shows you all the library books on your Research Desk.

Getting Around the Research Center

The Research Center is where your electronic books are displayed, and where you can:

      Read your Versabooks.
      Search books for specific information and media.
      Compile sets of relevant items.

The parts of the Research Center are described in the table below:

Area	Description
Control Pane	Located on the left side of the Research Center, the Control pane enables you to:       Choose the books and articles to display       Conduct searches on books       Search media items       Manage Binders
View Pane	Located on the right side of the Research Center, this is the window where the selected article or media item is displayed.
Navigation Tree	Located in the Control pane, this window lists media items, search results, or the contents of books or Binders. Using the Navigation Tree, you can locate an article in a book or a Binder.
Toolbar	The toolbar icons provide shortcuts for various Versabook functions.
Status Bar	The Status bar is located at the bottom of the screen. It displays information and enables you to perform certain functions.

Research Desk

The Research Desk is where you keep your active books for fast and easy access. You can only read your Versabooks after adding them to the Research Desk.

To add books to the Research Desk:

1. Click Books on the Status bar. A List of Books dialog box appears.
2. Mark the check box next to the book you want to add to your Research Desk.

Working With Books

After you put your books on the Research Desk, you are ready to begin. You can read your Versabooks the same way you would any printed book, by displaying each article in the order it appears in the Navigation Tree.

To display an article in a book:

1. Click the Books tab.
2. Click a book on the Research Desk. A list of article appears in the Control pane on the left.
3. Click an article in the list. The text appears on the View pane on the right.

Purchasing Books

You can purchase new books to add to the Research Desk by accessing the Internet bookstore.

To purchase a new book from the Internet Bookstore:

1. From the Book menu, choose Internet Bookstore.
2. Follow the bookstore's instructions for purchasing and downloading books into the Research Desk.

Updating Books

Publishers often provide updates for their books. You can easily check for updates and download them.

To check if there are updates available for a specific book:

1. From the Book menu, select Update Now. Versabook check for updates.

Searching Your Books

You can conduct the following types of searches in your Versabook:

Full Text

This search mode enables you to search through the text in all the books on your Research Desk. You can use one or more words.

Natural Language Query

You can conduct a search using a phrase or full sentence of natural English.

Example: You can search for the question "Who is Ronald Reagan?"

Title

You can search for titles of articles or media. For example, if you would like to find an article titled Abnormal Psychology, you can conduct a search for this title. The results appear in the Navigation Tree.

Search Using a Combination of Words

You can search for combinations of words using AND, OR or AND NOT in Full Text searches.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search functions enable you to sort your search results alphabetically or by score.

Displaying Media

You can display a list of all the media items in each book. Media items can also be sorted alphabetically or according to type. You can also search for a particular item.

To view a list of media items:

1. Click the Media tab.
2. In the Control pane, mark either the Alphabetic or the Media Type option.

Organizing Your Research in Binders

After you have researched a subject, you can store any item - article, media or even URL in a Binder for further reference. After you have organized your Binder, you can print it.

To create a new Binder:

1. Click the Binders tab. Click New. The New Binders dialog box appears.
2. Enter the name of the Binder and click OK.

To add an article to an existing Binder:

1. Display the article you want to add.
2. Select the Binder where you want to save the item.
3. Click Save.

To print a Binder:

1. Click the Binders tab.
2. Select a Binder from the list.
3. Click the Print button in Binders view. The Print dialog box appears.
4. Mark the appropriate options and enter the appropriate information.
5. Click the OK button.