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             A few tips on getting the most out of BIBL...

  o  If you have several databases, give the one you use most often
     a name that sorts first in the list of your databases...that
     will cause that database to display first in your selection
     pick-list and can be activated by simply pressing RETURN
     (or hitting escape). You can specify a database on the
     command line, if desired: e.g., C:\BIBL>BIBL DEMO [return]
     would load the demo database as the program started.

  o  Be sure to put a hyphen between terms used in your keyword
     field.  BIBL considers anything with a space on either side
     of it a 'word' when indexing. BIBL will index up to 9 'words'
     in the keyword field.

  o  If you need to vary the order of fields in a particular
     report, use User-Selects option under export. With this
     option you specify which fields are included in a report,
     the order in which they appear within a given entry, and
     the order in which entries are sorted.

  o  If you're running BIBL under Microsoft Windows (3.1),
     the SAVE option (enabling you to dump to disk any
     individual record that's displaying) changes to
     the CLIP option.  Clicking on CLIP (or pressing C)
     will copy the record to the Windows clipboard...where
     you can paste it into any other Windows application.
     The author, title, publisher and notes fields
     are copied.  Should you lose the PIF file included
     with BIBL, enter 460 in the RAM required field when
     creating a new one.

  o  You can link text files to BIBL records (just put
     the full path name for the file in the LINK: field).
     When a record displays, if there is a linked text
     file, a [ T ] appears on the record. Press L and
     BIBL will show you the file.  BIBL defaults to using
     its built-in ASCII viewer (capable of browsing files
     of any size). If your linked file isn't ASCII, be
     sure to install an external editor (under Maintenance)
     so the files will appear in their proper form. Note
     that using an external editor for linked files
     requires that you store the full path name in the
     record's LINK: field (so the external program can
     find it!).

     If you are using the registered version of BIBL, you
     can link IMAGE files to records in your database. If
     you want to use PCX image files (we recommend them),
     you can use the utility program BIBLPCX as your
     viewer.  Just add the path to BIBLPCX.EXE in your
     BIBL.INI file....you'll have a seamless way to display
     PCX files.  Any viewer can be used but it must accept
     a file name on the command line--since BIBL will call
     the program and pass along the name of the linked
     image file.

     When a record has an image file attached, a [I]
     marker appears in the lower left corner of the
     record display.  When a text file is attached,
     a [T] appears.  BIBL bases the file type on its
     extension (PCX,GIF,TIF,IMG, or WPG yield an [I],
     any other extension, a [T]).

  o  Note that when you search without using an indexed
     field (that is, you search by publisher, location,
     full record or boolean), BIBL will first scan the
     entire database and note the matching records. You will
     then see the matches and be able to move quickly
     between them.

  o  If you want to sort your database by author (and within
     author, by title):

     (1) run the BIX output option from the Export menu

     (2) use 'make a database' under the Maintenance and
         create a new (empty) database.

     (3) via ASCII import under Maintenance, import the
         BIX file created in step (1) into your new database.

     Database is now sorted. You can delete your original database
     if desired.

  o  Enter data into your records just as you'd like it to appear
     in subsequent export files (e.g., enter Smith, John A. for the
     author, not John A. Smith).

  o  Data is stored in UPPER CASE in the various BIBL index files,
     but you may use any case when entering search requests. Your
     input is converted to upper case before comparison with the
     index is made.

  o  If you should experience a problem with a particular database,
     run the BRX program to rebuild the file.

  o  If you're using the REGISTERED version of BIBL, you might
     want to experiment with various HEAP= settings in BIBL.INI.
     The default is HEAP=20000.  If you have sufficient free
     RAM, you can increase this number and improve BIBL's
     performance.  Here's are the results of a benchmark we
     ran on index rebuilding (386/25 PC w/ 600K free RAM at
     the DOS prompt) with 1043 records in the test database.

     HEAP=20000   4 minutes 20 seconds to rebuild the index
     HEAP=45000   2 minutes 15 seconds
     HEAP=110000  1 minute 25 seconds
     HEAP=200000  55 seconds

     If you have sufficent EMS memory available, you can ignore
     the HEAP= entry in BIBL.INI.  With 600K EMS memory, BIBL
     completes the same rebuild shown above in 1 minute 7 seconds
     (pretty close to the HEAP=110000 value).

     If you want to use conventional memory instead of
     EMS (for example, perhaps you only have 250K of
     EMS available), enter the line EMS=No in your
     BIBL.INI file.  Then set the HEAP= line to control
     conventional RAM usage.

  o  If you find you need to make massive changes to a particular
     database (more than you can easily handle with BIBL's find
     & replace function), remember you can dump a database to a
     BIX file (option J under Export) and then process the
     resulting ASCII (BIX) file with a word processor. Be
     sure to save the BIX file as an ASCII file (see note
     about WordPefect below). When you've finished, just import
     the data back into a NEW database and when you're sure it
     went well, delete the original.

     WordPerfect Users: If you use WordPerfect to make your
     changes, be sure to save the BIX file using CTRL-F5 not F7!
     BIBL won't import a BIX file that's saved via the F7 key
     (since F7 saves the file as a WordPerfect (extended Ascii)
     document!

  o  You can use the LABELLED OUTPUT option (under EXPORT) to backup
     your database and the ASCII Import function to read it back
     into your database. Since the labelled output file contains
     only the data in each field (not the extra spaces or the empty
     fields), the file is often 50% smaller than your *.DAT file.

  o  You can also back up your database with any of three
     third-party archiving programs: PKZIP.EXE, LHA.EXE or
     ARJ.EXE.  If you have one of these packages, just
     put the program in your BIBL subdirectory (or in a
     subdirectory that's in your DOS path). BIBL will use
     the program to create an archive backup of your
     active database and index files (Maintenance menu).

  o  When you want to transfer records from one database to
     another you can use the 'T' (for Transfer) option when
     the record you want to move displays. This writes a
     copy of the record to the ASCII file, TRANSFER.BIX.
     (the BIX extension stands for BIBL Import/eXport).
     Each time you press 'T' the record displaying is
     ADDED to the TRANSFER.BIX file.  When you have put all
     the things you want to move into TRANSFER.BIX, use
     ASCII Import to read these records into another database.

     Tip: If you want to move a lot of records that have
     something in common, use the [F]ull search option on the
     search menu. Then you can move through the matches by
     pressing F or B and transfer the desired records by
     pressing T when they display.

  o  Registered Version:  You can select a group of records
     to transfer to another database by using the BIBLIOGRAPHY
     export option and choosing Labelled (BIX) output.  If
     desired, BIBL will also delete records from the original
     file after creating the BIX transfer file.

  o  You may modify field labels and field names if desired.
     Registered version allows you to rename Author, Title,
     Publisher, Location and Subject fields. Shareware version
     allows modification of Location field only. BIBL.DOC
     gives complete details...

  o  Registered version: If you want to create a bibliography
     but select the fields to be included in the export file
     (as you can do with the User-Selects option under the
     Export menu), try this:

     1. Run BIBLIOGRAPHY under Export Menu and select DATABASE
        Output.
     2. Once that finishes, select your 'new' database
        (containing matches from your bibliography search)
        from BIBL's main menu.
     3. Now go to Export menu and pick User-Selects.

     You final report will contain only those records that
     'matched' the search text you used to create the
     bibliography file in step 1.

  o  Don't use a $ in your entries for the value field. Just
     enter the value as a decimal number (e.g., 29.95 for
     $ 29.95). BIBL will attempt to convert strings that
     contain $'s into numbers but why introduce a problem?

     Note that the value field is included in a BIX file.
     If you need a printout with value (for example, for
     insurance purposes), print the BIX file out with a
     word processor.  You may also ask BIBL to put the
     value field in an export file created under the
     User-Selects option (option M under Export).

  o  GMUtant OnLine BBS (703) 993-2219 is your source for updates.

     You may also obtain BIBL updates via 'anonymous' ftp from
              gmuvax2.gmu.edu (in the library directory).

  o  Other BIBL related products:

     BIBL286 -  a version of BIBL compiled expressely for
                80286/80386/80486 processors. Included with
                registered version of BIBL.

     MAKEBIX -  Convert ERIC, PsycInfo, MEDLINE, AGRICOLA,
                ABI-INFORM downloads into BIBL records. Also
                processes NOTIS OPAC (5.x or later) screen
                dump files. Creates a BIX file suitable
                for import into BIBL. Included with
                registered version of BIBL.

     BIBLPCX  - utility program for viewing PCX files when
                linked to a BIBL record. BIBLPCX supports
                scrolling the image file and uses conventional,
                XMS, EMS, or disk memory to provide a
                virtual buffer for fast operation.  Included
                with registered version of BIBL. Shareware
                version of BIBL does not support image files.

     BIBL/NET - A multiuser version of BIBL (for NOVELL or
                NETBIOS networks (please specify)).

                Supports full locking security during operation
                and offers other network-specific features.
                Databases created by single-user version
                of BIBL are compatible with BIBL/NET.

                Two versions:  50 simultaneous users.
                              100 simultaneous users.


  o  Any ASCII file named BIBL.HLP can be displayed in place of
     this file.  Just be sure to create the file using an ASCII
     word processor (e.g., a programming editor like QEDIT).

                            ====== * =======
