PBase Lite Campaign Software {.ob}Overview{.oe} Pbase Lite is a political campaign database for tracking voters, their issues and demographics. From this information you can produce walk lists, call lists, mailing labels, and other reports. {.ob}Versions{.oe} The demo version of Pbase Lite limits you to a maximum of 250 people in your database, the full version is unlimited. A Microsoft Windows version is now being produced, and a full version that tracks contributions and prints FEC/state reports is being planned. If you would like to order the full version of Pbase Lite, please see Appendix B. If you would like your state to be supported by a future version of Pbase, let us know. {.ob}Requirements{.oe} Since small campaigns don't have millions of dollars to throw around like large campaigns, Pbase Lite will run even on simple systems. The minimum requirements are an IBM-PC compatible with 640K RAM, 20 megabyte hard disk drive, and an Epson/IBM compatible printer. A tape drive to backup your databases is recommended, but not required. {.ob}Installing{.oe} {.ob}Starting{.oe} Change to the PBlite directory and type pblite. {.ch} {.ob}Basics{.oe} Help Help is available at any time by pressing the F1 key. Pressing F1 from inside a Help screen will bring up the Online Manual. Online Manual This manual is can be seen from Pbase by hitting F1 in any help screen. Hitting F1 again will show you how to bring up the index and table of contents. Saving {.ib}Saving{.ie} When you are done editing a record, hit F10 to save the record. Fields Tab Move to the next field Enter Save the information to the field ">" Fields {.ib}Fields,lookup{.ie} Fields with a ">" sign after them are lookup fields. You can either type in the value, or hit the down arrow on your cursor keys and you will be provided a list of possible values. In some cases if what you want is not in this list, hit "Esc" and you will be allowed to enter a new value. Other fields like Honr, have their choices fixed. If you added a new value to the list you must then choose it from the list again for it to be entered into the field. If you want to change a value in a field, enter spaces to clear it and the program will bring up the choose list again. Short Cuts {.ib}Keys, moving{.ie} Use "Pg Up" and "Pg Dwn" keys to move through the different screens. Use "Cntrl ->" and "Cntrl <- " keys to move though the records. {.ch} The {.ob}Menu{.oe} File{.ib}Menu, File{.ie} Next Screen View the next screen of the application (Comments, etc.) Previous Screen View the previous screen of the application. Screen Saver You can turn on a screen saver if you are to be able from your computer for a while. Exit Leave the program. Record{.ib}Menu, Record{.ie} Next Record Get the next record (as entered) from the database. Previous Record Get the previous record from the database. First Go to the first record. Last Go to the last record. Search Search for a record. Search brings up a search screen that lets you search on number of fields from the screen. Select the field, then type in your search term and hit enter. If you do type in a search term, you get a list of values in the database that you can browse. Edit{.ib}Menu, Edit{.ie} Add Add a new record to the database. F-10 to save. Edit Edit an existing record in the database. Copy Copy the current record. F-10 to save. Delete Delete the current record. More{.ib}Menu, More{.ie} View the others screens, in the Contact Manager you have: Comments Free form window for comments associated with the person. Groups Groups or descriptions to associate with people. Voter Information Social/Demographic/Political data. Volunteers Schedules for volunteers. {.ch} The {.ob}Contact Manager{.oe} Person Record This is the main screen of PBase Lite. Enter names, addresses, phone numbers, and other contact information here. The record is extensive enough to use not only for voters, but your own personal contacts. Special Fields: "Last Contact" The last date this person was spoken or written to. This defaults to the date on which this record was recreated. "Email" If your contact has an electronic mailing address, enter it here. "Status" Status of this record or person. The status can be Active, Inactive, or Unknown. You may want to use this if the database is being used mainly for supporters or volunteers. "Account" If you do business with this person, you may have an account number which you can track here. "P" Notice the P field in the upper right hand corner. This is the last field you mark. This allows you to enter any character (a-Z,0-9) to mark this for printing at a later time (see the PMark field in the Reports section). Comments The Comments screen lets you enter free-form information about a person. You can enter up 15 lines of information. Groups Groups lets you add any number of descriptions or groupings to a person. This could be used to track answer from a poll for instance by making each answer a group. You can enter values here in the demo system, but there are not any reports in the demo system provided to take advantage of it. Voter Info The Voter information screen tracks very specific information about voters, including what political subdivision they are a part of, sociological information,and issue interests. The County, City, Precinct, Cong Dst, and Sch Dist, all apply to where the voter is registered. Use these fields for Walk/Call listings. County, Origin, Sex, Party and Issues are required if you use this screen. If you do not known, or do no wish to enter this information, select "NA" or "A-NA" for the value. Since there can only be one of the screens for each person, you can not use "Add" more than once. If you try to add two voter records for one person you will get an error saying "the key already exists". Always remember to hit F-10 to save this record when you are through editing. Volunteer Info If the person is a volunteer, use this screen to record the day of the week, date, time and amount of hour the person volunteering. If you use the Search feature, then it Alt-B for the Brief view. This will allow you to browse all the information. Always remember to hit F-10 to save this record when you are through editing. {.ch} {.ob}Reports{.oe} {.ib}Reports{.ie} Reports allow you to print out, save to disk or view a search. Two fields are common to all reports: Output This field lets you select where you want the report printed. The default is PRN. You can chose PRN (default printer), LPT1,LPT2,CON (screen), DSK (disk). If you choose DSK, you must specify a file name in the File field. File See above. Full Report This report prints all of the available information about a person. The filter (entry fields) allow you to select persons of a particular Name, Party, Precinct, School District, Issue, or a person whose record was marked for printing. If you do not specify a value for a field, that field will be ignored with the following exceptions: Party You must enter a party name or select "NA" if you want it ignored. Issue You must enter an issue, or select "A-NA" if you want it ignored. Walk/Call This report prints either a walk or a call list of people who match one or more of the following: City, State, Precinct, Cong. Dist, School Dist, Party, Street, or between a high and low street address. The following fields are required: Party You must enter a party name or select "NA" if you want it ignored. Walk/Call If you select walk (W) it will give you an address but no phone number. Call (C) will give you a phone number but no address. By selecting a starting and ending address for a particular street, you can make individual walk or call lists for you volunteers. Label This report print a mailing label, selected by the following: Cong. Dist, School Dist, Precinct, Party, or Print Mark (PMark). Any of the fields can be left blank with the following exception: Party You must enter a party name or select "NA" if you want it ignored. The report is designed to print on one-accross, tractor fed labels, on a Epson/IBM compatible printer. LasLabel This report print labels on a HP compatible laser printer using Avery labels. This report is not available with the demo version. {.ch} {.ob}Utilities{.oe}{.ib}Utilities{.ie} Occupation Data The job list you used for the "Occup" field of the contact manager. The description field is not necessary, but it is recommended. County Data The county list used for the "County" field of Voter Information screen. Sizes and County seat are not required. Issue Data Your Issue list used for the Issues fields of the Voter information screen. The "Code" field is not used now, you can use it if you wish. Zip Data The Zip code list used by the contact manager. Enter the Post Office in the description to help users associate a zip code number with a location. Group Data The Group database allows you to associate any number of descriptions with a person. This program allows you to maintain the group names and their descriptions. Fix Programs If you a power loss, computer virus or other computer problem, your database could become damaged. First you should always backup your database after use. But if you haven't or have done lots of work since the last backup you can try the database fix programs. We recommend you backup your data before running this in case you change your mind. After backup choose the database you want to fix. When the screen appears, hit F10 twice and it will start. Hit "Esc" to exit at any time. The fix programs will also purge deleted, or lost records. If you deleted a lot of records you may want to run this program. {.ch} {.ob}Setup{.oe} Printer Setup{.ib}Setup, printer{.ie} Run the printer install program to select your printer. The default is Epson FX If you printer does not appear on the list you can add your printer if you known the codes your printer uses for underline, boldface, etc. Otherwise Epson for a dot matrix, and HP Laserjet for a laser or ink-jet printer should work. To add a printer driver for a printer not in the list, select Add, type in the printer name and hit F-10 to save. Then hit Item and a box will appear with fields for ID, Print Style, and fields for activating and deactivating codes. PBLite uses these IDs and Print Styles: ID Style B Bold I Italic N Normal U Underline Use these ids and put the code to activate the style for your printer in the activate field, then put the code to turn it off in the deactivate field. Hit F-10 and this setting will be saved. Screen Setup{.ib}Setup,screen{.ie} This will allow you to change the color of the background and displayed fields as well as turn on "snow" checking (usually not needed). Use "Esc" to save and exit this program. Backup{.ib}Backup{.ie} This program will store the current copy of your database and indexes to the SAVdirectory. You can then backup these files up using your tape drive, disks or other backup method. Restore{.ib}Restore{.ie} This program will restore the version of the database you saved with the Backup command. Warning: doing this will overwrite the current database, destroying any new data you enter since you used the Backup command. If you want to restore a database that you saved on tape or elsewhere, simply restore into the SAV directory, run PBase Lite and select the restore command. {.ch} {.ob}Appendix A: Computers and Campaigns{.oe} {.ch} {.ob}Appendix B: Ordering Information{.oe} {.ch} {.ob}Appendix C: Database Fields{.oe} {.ch} {.ob}Index{.oe}