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1994-06-06
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Stowit! Version 5.5 Database Generator
c 1994 by Peter Neuendorffer.
I would like to thank Edgar Dworsky and Hoby Cook for their hard work.
Stowit allows you to create four files for
a basic database. The files could be for
an audio collection, a list of Boats, an
employee file, It could be a list of books,
a film digest. It could be any collection of
records that you wish.
Stowit allows up to twenty one lines
for each record in Stowit and one thousand
records for each file. Stowit has a variety
of searching, sorting, text import, text export,
and printing options. A longstanding problem with
files greater than 255 records is finally fixed.
Contents Page
INTRODUCTION 2
INSTALLATION 4
OVERVIEW and MENUS 5
CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE 10
ADD (record screen) 13
ALL (record list) 14
SEARCH 15
PROFILER 22
IMPORT 23
DEFINE MENU 24
NUMERIC DATA 30
PRINTING 31
FILE OUTPUT and MARK SCREENS 32
SORTING 33
BACKUP NOTE 33
Shareware Information:
I provide this software as is, with no warranty as to suitability. I
welcome your comments on the RIME bbs network. I log on at Channel One
bbs (617-354-8873). You must be verified on Channel One to download
Stowit copies from their system. Please note that I will not send any
disks or media, as the program is complete as is. This evaluation
package is not "crippled" in any way.
You are free to distribute this software as is. You
may use it for one month free of charge. If you continue
to use Stowit, send the $20.00 registration fee to
Peter Neuendorffer
1399 Commonwealth Ave. #11
Allston MA 02134
Telephone 617-254-2213 (voice)
INTRODUCTION p 2
First I'll describe what Stowit does and does not do, followed by a
glossary, and then a presentation of Stowit menus. Detailed
descriptions about how to use Stowit, and its capabilities follow in
the manual sections Creating New Stowit Files, Add, All, Search,
Import, and Define Menu. At the end of the manual is a description of
how Stowit handles numbers and printing capabilities.
Also, a description of how Stowit does sorting of information.
Welcome to Stowit database generator, a program that allows
you to design your own records for storage. You may
press F1 for help screens wherever you are in Stowit.
There are twenty seven of these screens.
Stowit gives you an easy way to store records in four separate files.
When running the program, you get a menu with four file names. After
selecting a file, you remain in this file until you exit (escape) back
to this menu. Once you choose a file you are in the MAIN menu.
It is up to you how you organize the record's structure. You set up
the record structure by choosing DEFINE from the main menu. You
enter your data, and maintain the four files from the two other
MAIN menu areas, which are ADD and ALL. The main menu option SEARCH
allows you to search any field in any record for a word or words
you choose. To get a clearer view of the program organization, look
below at the menu descriptions and examples.
For example, in a file of music Albums you could search
the Composer field to find "Stravinsky" records. There are
other powerful search options as well, include handling
of greater than or less than numeric data.
Stowit provides easy access to your data. It provides lists that you
may page through, and allows you to sort these lists. Printing
options include the entire records, selected fields of each record,
or table printing of each record across the line, if it fits.
This means if you were printing record albums, you could print a
report of just the album title and the serial number. Also, printing
can be done using the list found in a search. Thus you could
print a report of all albums recorded by the Beatles in England,
if you had a field "Artist" and another field "Country recorded."
Stowit accepts your database data from your keyboard, and requires
no knowledge or handling of the files it uses, except as noted
at the very end of this manual.
Here is what Stowit does not do: It does not format files in dBASE,
PARADOX or other formats. It is not a WINDOWS program. Stowit does
not work on a network. It does not accept disk file input.
INTRODUCTION glossary p 3
Here are some computer and Stowit program words used in this
manual. They may not be familiar to you.
<ENTER> Press the Enter key
Enter_______ Type some information and then press
the Enter key. Then, you have entered the data.
Example: "Enter the name"
You type: Jones then, you press Enter
Escape or Esc Press the Escape key. Reserved for
getting out of a screen and back to another.
In menus, pressing Escape always returns
you to where you were before.
Select In menus, use the up and down arrow keys
to highlight the item you wish. Then,
press the ENTER key to execute that item.
File A database file in Stowit, is a
collection of related records. This file
might be a "Record Collection" file.
Record A collection of related fields in Stowit.
This might be a "Record Album" record.
Stowit field An item of related data. Say the
"Album Title" field in each Stowit record.
Field name This is the name or label for each field.
This might be "Record album title:" This name
is your choice.
Field length The maximum length that each field may be.
This varies by the field. You set
this length.
Data This is the information you type into
fields. For example "U2 Zooropa."
Search field A field in the record that is being
or could be searched for a word or words.
You could search in the "Artist" field
of every record for the word "Beatles."
Define Set up the structure of each field. Do this
before you start entering data. You can
change many things about the structure later.
INSTALLATION: p 4
To install Stowit and get it up and running is simple.
You don't have to run any special programs. First, here is a
description of the system you need to run my program. You need
at least an XT with hard drive. This program does not
support use on a floppy drive.
- This is a DOS program, not a WINDOWS program.
- An XT or AT or 386 or 486 IBM (r) compatible computer.
- 1 Megabyte of RAM standard.
- A Hard Drive. Stowit's data files grow in size.
- A Monochrome or color card. A monochrome or color monitor.
- A Printer is optional. It must be a parallel printer.
- This program does not use a mouse.
To install to your hard drive,
and run Stowit, follow these steps.
1. Copy the files to a Hard Drive sub directory
2. Run Stowit from its own directory on the hard drive.
3. Run STOWIT.EXE.
- - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - -
Here is what you would type from the DOS prompt. Suppose your
floppy drive's letter is B. If it is A, substitute the letter A
for B in the directions below. C refers to the letter of your
hard drive. <ENTER> means to press the enter key following each
command.
Insert the Stowit disk in the B drive
Now type: c: <ENTER>
cd\ <ENTER>
md stowit <ENTER>
b: <ENTER>
cd\ <ENTER>
copy *.* c:\stowit <ENTER>
To go to your hard drive: c: <ENTER>
To run Stowit any time: cd\stowit <ENTER>
stowit <ENTER>
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Here is how to use old Stowit data with the new version.
Copy all your new Stowit 4.0 files into your previous Stowit directory.
The data files from all Stowit versions are compatible with this
version. If you wish to upgrade using old Stowit data, do the
copy before you start using the new Stowit. The new numerical
sorting will be correct in an upgraded file after you add one
record to the file. Note, the old program DEFINE.EXE in Stowit is
no longer used. If you do not need your old Stowit data, you do not
have to do this special copy.
OVERVIEW Menus p 5
(The examples below use a Record Collection example. Your
database could be on any subject you wish.)
MENUS:
There are five major screens in Stowit. Here they are in the
order they appear when you use the program. They are the Files Menu,
the Main Menu, the Record List, the Record Screen and the
Comment Screen.
1 The Files Menu:
- - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - -
Files
------------
| File 1 |
| File 2 |
| File 3 |
| File 4 |
| Quit |
------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This is what you see first when you run Stowit. Remember from
any screen or option you may press F1 to get help on the screen
or option. When you first run Stowit, choose any file.
Instructions on how to set up your file are below in the
manual section CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE. After you set up
the file, the menu will be updated with the name you have given
your database file. Each file is separate from the other. To
change files, escape back to this menu and select a new file.
Quit is the selection to leave the Stowit program. To do a fast exit
from most anywhere in Stowit, press the Escape key repeatedly.
Then select Quit from the Files Menu.
OVERVIEW Menus continued p 6
2 The Main Menu:
- - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - -
----------
| All |
| Search |
| Add |
| Import |
| Define |
----------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This is the menu you get after selecting a file in the Files
Menu. The options are ALL, SEARCH, ADD, IMPORT and DEFINE.
Selecting All will bring up the Record List shown below. It is how
you access all your data records in the current Stowit file. Search
allows you to selected data or ideas in the file. By selecting Add
you can add new records to the file. Selecting Define allows you to
set up or change the organization of records. Select Import to read
an external text file. There are two types of import: you may import
lines from a file into a clipboard- to be pasted in a record's
Comments. The second type of Import involves importing data directly
from a text file to record fields. By selecting Add you can add new
records to the file. Selecting Define allows you to set up or change
the organization of records. I describe all of the Define options
in the DEFINE MENU part of the manual.
OVERVIEW Menus continued p 7
3 The Record List:
- - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - -
--------------------------------------------------------------|
|Stowit! Record Collection |
|Enter Escape etc . . . Alt-P=print Alt-s=sort |
|[All] |
|Sorted by Album Title |
|Boston Cream Stompers I |
|Cowboys Zoo Band Rides Away |
|Sgt. Peppers |
|Surrealistic Pillow |
| |
| |
| |
--------------------------------------------------------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
When you select ALL from the main menu, the Record list for all
the records appears. This shows a list of records by first field.
It sorts alphabetically with number fields sorted first. You can
sort this list by other fields in each record with the Alt-S key
combination (see SORTING below.)
This record list also appears after a search. That list has only
records found by the search. You may select the record that you wish
to view or edit with the up/down arrow keys and Enter.
If the list is more than one screen large, use PgeUp and PgDn keys.
Press Escape to return to the last menu. Use the Ctrl-PgUp or
Ctrl-PageDn to move to the first or last pages.
You can set up two additional fields to display for every line
in the record list. These fields are set by pressing the
Alt-D combination. Choose two fields from the pop-up menus, Those
fields will be displayed from now on in the Record List with the
key field.
The Left and Right Arrow keys from the Record List allow you to
change the width of additional fields on the screen. You may add
these additional fields from the Main Menu/Define/Display Fields
option. Pressing a letter from a to z will bring you to a record
with that first letter.
Printing of whole records, selected fields, or comments may be
done from the record list (press Alt-P). The same information
can be saved on a disk file (press Alt-F).
OVERVIEW Menus continued p 8
4 The Record Screen:
- - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - -
---------------------------------------------------------------------
| Stowit! Record Albums Home = last record End = next record|
| F6 = Delete F10 = Accept F4 = Paste PgDn = Comments |
| |
|_______________________[F10 Accept]_________________________________|
| Album Title: Cowboys Zoo Band Rides Away |
| Artist: Bob Bob |
| Number: 12343212 |
| Price: ____ |
| Notes: I like it a lot. Great. |
| Not only that but I like country funk music. | |
| Rating: 9 |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This is Record Screen for each Stowit record. You get to it from
the list of records. So your path to your data could be
ALL to Record List to the Record Screen. Or it could be
SEARCH to Record List to the Record Screen. Or, for a new record,
selecting ADD takes you directly to a fresh Record Screen.
To see the next record as it appeared in the record list,
you can press the END key from the Record Screen. To go the previous
record on the record list, press the HOME key from this screen.
Choose a field to edit with up and down arrow keys. The field will be
highlighted. Type in the new data. The old field will blank out, so
press the right arrow first if you want to keep part of the old field.
When you have finished with changes, press the F10 function key to
save. Or, you may press escape and answer "Y" for yes to the question
that pops up, "Save changes?" . If you don't want to save the
recent changes, press Escape and "N".
Press F6 to delete the record entirely, then answer "Y" to the
question "Delete Record?" The record, once deleted, cannot be
retrieved. This has no effect on the file structure however. To
access the Comment Screens, press page down from a record screen. If
there is text in the comments, the word "COMMENTS" will appear in
capital letters and a different color. You can copy any field into
a clipboard by highlighting the field, and pressing Alt-C. Then you
can add the clipped field elsewhere with Alt-A.
You can import text from an external file with F4 See the section
on Import below for more information on this.
OVERVIEW Menus continued p 9
5 The Comment Screens:
- - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Stowit! Record Albums Comments: Cowboys Zoo Band . . . P 1.|
| Esc= Exit PgDn=next page AltN= AltY= |
|____________________________________________________________________|
| My comments on the album Cowboys Zoo band. Has a certain |
| ambience that is not seen here or in Europe, etc. |
| These pages can be searched and printed. |
| And I can page down to another page like this one. |
| Each page is 21 lines long, and 80 characters wide. |
| Text can be imported from an external file. |
| (see the section on Import below) |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This is the Comment Screen. Two of these come with every record.
It is like having two pages of comments attached to every card in
a Rolodex. You get to a record's comment pages by using the
Page Down key from any Record Screen. Use the Page Up and Page
Down keys to access pages one and two. Enter lines of text, using
the enter key or down arrow at the end of each line.
To delete a line, put the cursor on the line to delete and press
the Alt-Y key combination. To insert a blank line, position
the cursor on the line before which you want a blank line.
Then, press Alt-N.
Please note: To save new or changed comments, you must
page up to the record screen and press F10. Otherwise, the
recent changes will be ignored.
CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE p 10
How to create a new Stowit file:
This is for when you start Stowit for the first time. Also,
you need to define each new Stowit file. The reason for
the set up is so that you may tailor the records of a file
to your needs. You will set up the record structure for
your file, field by field.
You answer questions in the ADD FIELD area, located from the
MAIN MENU/ DEFINE selection. This will decide how your Stowit
record appears laid out on the record screen, and how
searches and sorting will be done. By dividing each record
into named fields, the information in your database can
be accessed in many different ways.
Even after you enter data, you may return to the
MAIN MENU/DEFINE menu to add, insert, or delete fields in your
record's structure. Other options are available. I describe these
below in the DEFINE MENU section. For now, you will only need the
ADD FIELD option in the MAIN MENU/DEFINE menu. Although initially
confusing, it is easier to understand if you review these terms:
Example of a field:
- - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Field name The actual title of your field. Ex. "Last Name"
Field length The maximum length of the entry
area for the field. Ex. 15
Last Name: ______________
^ ^
| |-----------Entry part is 15 characters long
| This is the "field length"
|
--"field name" is Last Name.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CREATING A STOWIT FILE p 11
- - - - - - - [ INSTRUCTIONS ] - - - - - - -
Select the File slot you wish (File1, File2, File3, or File4) from
the main menu. Then, select Define from the main menu. From the
DEFINE menu select Add Field.
Then, enter the name of the file. Example, BOOKS.
Do this for each field in your record:
1. Enter the field name. Example, ALBUM TITLE or SERIAL NUMBER
This name can be changed later.
Entering the word "same" (WITHOUT QUOTES) will create
a field having no title just like the field before it.
This new "same" field follows along with the field
before it for searches. This is useful
for having a group of fields to be searched under one
field name by the Stowit program.
2. Enter a number for the length of the field.
Example, 20.
The length for the first field must be two to fifty
characters in length. All other fields can be one to
two-hundred-fifty-five characters long.
3. "Same Line?"
Is this field to be on the same line
in the record screen as the field name?
(type Y for Yes, N for No). "No" means the field will
start in the first column of the next line.
"Yes" means the field will display on the same line as
the name, starting at display column 19.
4. "Search Field?"
Answer Y for yes, if you want this to be a field
to be searched in the main part of the program. If
not, answer N for no. This can be changed later.
5. "Add a Field?". If you are finished, press N for no,
otherwise press Y for yes to continue adding other
fields to your record. Pressing C will
cancel all your changes.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE p 12
Here is an example of a sample record you could create:
- - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
File title------> RECORDINGS
Field ----> Name of album: ________________________
Field-----------> Artist:
-------------------
Field-----------> Songs: ------------------------
(same) field----> ------------------------
(The number of dashes is the field length.)
(same) field----> ________________________
The Artist field starts on the next line after its name (the word
artist.) When defining it, answered "N" to "Same Line?". The Songs
field has two "same" fields attached to it. When Stowit searches
for Songs it will check these fields as well.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Other Notes: Sometimes the software will say "Too many lines."
You can then Redo the last field, Save the
record before the last field, or Cancel your
additions altogether. When entering field
lengths, keep in mind that the screen is eighty
characters wide. The Same Line field starts
at column nineteen. The NOT same line field
starts at column one. A field titled "same"
looks just like the field before it. Later,
you can make fields longer or shorter.
If you are defining numeric fields, you may wish
to restrict the field length for them to eleven or
so characters. This will allow printing of tabular
reports (see the manual's section on PRINTING).
You do not have to answer any special questions
for fields that will have numeric data.
Stowit handles numbers as described below in the
section NUMERIC DATA.
ADD p 13
Add:
From the Main Menu, you select the ADD option to add new records
to your file. If a box pops up saying "File not Defined" then
you must follow the instructions in the above section called
CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE. You have to have at least one
record added in a file for the search and all options to
work as well.
After selecting Add, you are in the Record Screen for your new record.
Move the highlight bar up and down with the up or down arrow keys
This chooses a field to edit. The enter key also moves to the
next field. Type in information to this field. You may use the
Ctrl-cursor-right or Ctrl-cursor-left to move to the next word or
the last word shown in your record's field.
To change text in a field, make sure you press the right arrow
key first. Then, type the INSERT key to type over. Or just press your
first new letter at the start of the field, and the entire field will
wipe. To escape without saving your record, press Escape.
To save your new record, press F10 BEFORE pressing Escape to get
out. When in the Add option, a blank record will appear after
every F10 save. Then, you can either start another record, or
press Escape to get out, returning you to the previous menu.
You must have something in the first field to save the record.
To add Comment Screens to your record, press page down from
the new Record Screen that you are editing. You can type in
two pages of text. Page down to the second screen, and page up
back to the Record Screen. Don't forget to press F10 to save
both the record and the Comment screens.
In the Comment screens, press Enter, or the down arrow to get
to each new line. To delete a line, position the cursor on the
line to delete and press the Alt-Y key combination. To insert
a line, press the Alt-N combination.
ALL p 14
All:
From the main menu, selecting ALL allows you to get to the
Record List. The list then shows you a list of all
the records in the file so far. If the list is longer than
one page, you may page through it by pressing the Page-Down
or Page-Up keys.
The list contains the first 50 characters of the first
field of each record. Numbers sort first, then alphabetic
or mixed alphabetic-numbers fields, then all first fields that
are blank. Blank fields show up marked as "(blank)," and refer
to real records.
To access a given record, just select it. You can reedit the
record now if you wish. Escape from the record list brings you
back to the main menu. I describe other record screen sort and
printing options in the sections PRINTING and SORTING.
From the Record List you can sort the list by different fields,
or print reports of whole records. Also, you can print reports
of selected fields in records, or print table reports.
- - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - -
Main Menu <--------> Record List <--------> Record Screen + Comments
ALL <--------> [select record] <----> [edit record]
[Printing] F10 to save.
[Sorting ]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SEARCH p 15
SEARCH allows you to find data in Stowit. It finds data in your
file. It organizes lists of records for viewing, editing or printing.
Select Search from the MAIN MENU, and then select the type of
search you wish. Then, enter your search request, which will
differ in form depending on the type of search you are doing.
After Stowit finds records, it will display them in a Record
List. From there, as in ALL, you may select individual records
for viewing or editing. When you select a record, Stowit
highlights data that matches words from your search request.
Whenever Stowit searches a field, it also searches the "same"
fields attached to it.
There are three types of searches in Stowit:
record, field searches. I'll explain them below, starting with
field searches.
1. Simple Field Searching:
You can search a given field for the presence of a word or phrase.
Select a field on the menu. Now, enter a word or phrase to search for.
First, here is a note about exact and non-exact type searches. From the
Single Filed Search menu, you may toggle off and on the ability to
search for exact matches. Move the highlight bar up and down to a field
name. Then, toggle the EXACT feature on and off with the space bar. If
there is a star next to a name, then that field will be searched exactly.
For example, if the star is present, a search in "Album Title" for the
word California will only find records with Album titles of "California"
exactly. A non-exact search would find "California Dreaming" as well.
For a single field search, select a field from the field menu. Enter
a word or words to search for. The request does not have to be in
capital or lower-case letters. A request for California finds a field
with "california." It finds "CALIFORNIA." This "non case sensitive"
feature applies to other types of searching as well. When the search
is over, records may be found satisfying your request. A list of only
those records appears as a Record List, just as in the ALL option. This
list may be sorted or printed (Alt-S to sort, Alt-P to print.) As
always, you may view or edit records by selecting them from the list.
SEARCH Single Field cont. p 16
Here are some examples of Single Field search requests in Record
Searching:
-- - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Your request What it Means
____________ __________________________________
Bobby Searches the selected field for
the word "bobby" (capitals don't
matter.)
bobby and Teddy Searches for the selected field
with both the word "bobby" and the
word "teddy."
symphony or opera Searches the slected field with
either the word "symphony" or the
word "opera". Either one will do.
not costly Searches the selected field that
does not contain the word "costly."
not (costly or expensive) The selected field contains neither
"costly" or "expensive."
ford and (station wagon or van) The seleced field contains
the word "ford". The record also
must contain either "station wagon"
or "van."
boston or new york or chicago The selected field contains at least
one of "boston," "new york" or
"chicago."
(ford and station wagon) or van Can contain both "ford" and
"station wagon." Otherwise it
can contain the word "van."
(red and green) or (blue and black) Has to contain both
"red" and "green." Or it could
contain both "blue" and "black."
(ted ) Has to contain the word
"Ted."
<100 The selected field contains
a number less than 100.
>100 The selected field contains
a number greater than 100.
==100 The selected field contains 100.
SEARCH Record Searching p 17
2. Record Searching:
You can search each entire record for the presence of a word or phrase.
Select Record from the search the menu. Now you enter a word or
phrase or special condition phrase to search for.
The major difference between the Record search type and the Single
Field type is that in a Record Search, each entire record will
be searched for the word (or phrase) you request.
Record search requests:
All simple field requests to search for a word or phrase apply to
Record searching. In addition, a special format allows
powerful searching of your file. This involves setting up
a condition to search for. The words AND OR NOT are special
words, or operators, which you use to make your search request.
Also, you may use the left parentheses ( and right parentheses ) to
structure the request. You may search for word1 AND word2.
This means search for records that have both "word1" and "word2."
You can search for "word1 or word2." This means to find
all records that either contain "word1," or may contain "word2."
Various combinations of the word "and" and the word "or" and
the word "not" may be used. To make clear what you mean,
use parentheses around parts of the condition. The quotation marks
above are not part of a search request.
On the next page are some examples of Record search requests.
The table shows what you type, and what the search request means.
SEARCH Record cont. p 18
Here are some examples of search requests in Record
Searching:
-- - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Your request What it Means
____________ __________________________________
Bobby Searches each whole record for
the word "bobby" (capitals don't
matter.)
bobby and Teddy Searches for any record containing
both the word "bobby" and the
word "teddy."
symphony or opera Searches for any record containing
either the word "symphony" or the
word "opera". Either one will do.
not costly Searches for any record that
does not contain the word "costly."
not (costly or expensive) Every record that contains neither
"costly" or "expensive."
ford and (station wagon or van) Every record must contain
the word "ford". The record also must
contain either "station wagon"
or "van."
boston or new york or chicago Every record contains at least
one of "boston," "new york" or
"chicago."
(ford and station wagon) or van Can contain both "ford" and
"station wagon." Otherwise it
can contain the word "van."
(red and green) or (blue and black) Has to contain both
"red" and "green." Or it could
contain both "blue" and "black."
(ted ) Has to contain the word
"Ted."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
There may be as many spaces as you wish between parentheses
and words. Also, as many spaces as you wish on both sides
of the reserved words OR AND NOT. If the condition
is not logically correct, the software will let you know.
SEARCH Record cont. p 19
Other Record search requests:
Note the list of fields that appears at the top of the screen.
You may also refer to this list when creating a condition to search
for. Several operators allow searching in multiple fields, and
numeric searching.
Operators
< Less than
> Greater than
== Equal to
1 = word Field "1" contains "word"
Operators less than, greater than, or double equals sign allow
you to search for numbers in your data. The single equals
sign operator allows you to search in a specific field for a
specific word.
-- - - - - - - - - - - -{EXAMPLE}- - - - - - - - - -
Search Fields
1 Last Name
2 First Name
3 Salary
4 State
A Regular Search Request:
(4 = MASS) and (3 > 10000)
You are requesting records that have "MASS" in the state
field (field 4), and with salaries greater than 10000.
You refer to the list at the top of the screen to get the
number of the field. Then, put the number followed by
the equals sign, followed by the word(s) you wish to
find in that field.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Some examples of Record search requests using these
new operators follow on the next page.
SEARCH Record Searching cont. p 20
Here are some more examples of search conditions in Record
Searching. Given the list of search fields at the top of the screen:
Search Fields
1 Last Name
2 First Name
3 Salary
4 State
- - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE}- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Your request What it Means
____________ __________________________________
bobby Search for "bobby."
bobby and teddy Search for "bobby" and "teddy"
both in the same record.
1=Jones Search for all records with
"Jones" in the last name
field (field 1 in list
at top of the screen).
4 = CA All records with "CA" in
the State field (field 4.)
3<6001 All records with numbers
less than 6000 in the
salary field (field 3.)
3 > 5000 All records with numbers
greater than 5000 in the
salary field (field 3.)
3 == 20 All records with the number 20
in the salary field. Note this
finds "20" (not "200" or "2000".)
4 = (CA or MA) All records with "CA" or
"MA" in the state field (field 4).
(4 = WM) and (1 = Jones) All records with "WM" in the
state field, but must
contain "Jones" in the Last
Name field.
(4 = (MA or CA)) and (3>20000) All records showing people from
MA or CA who earn over 20000.
(3<10000) and (3>999) Salary fields containing
numbers between 1000 and 9999.
SEARCH Record Searching cont. p 21
Comment Searching
Here is a technical note on Record search requests.
This is a chart for engineers who are familiar with conditional
expressions.
Order of Evaluation from Top to Bottom
---------------------------------------
Parts in parentheses (inside parentheses first)
evaluate first.
Literal word or phrase or field number.
< > ==
NOT (unary)
AND
OR
= (right to left binary)
Field at left contains the
expression on the right.
.........................................................
3. Comment Searching
You may search the comments by choosing Comments from
the Search menu. You requests for search can use the
conditions with AND OR NOT, but cannot use special
operators < > == =
..........................................................
PROFILER p 22
The Profiler is off of the Search Menu. It is great for
Searches on data when you are not sure exactly what you
are looking for.
The Profiler allows you to select a search field to profile.
For example, a "Subject" field in the "Books" file.
By profile, I mean obtain a list of every single word
that is currently in the data for that field in the entire
file. The profiler actually only looks at words (not numbers)
of four letters or more. The exception to this, is if the
chosen field has fewer than 15 characters for it's length,
then smaller words will be included as well.
A word list is generated. Once this list is displayed, a page
at a time, you may select one of the words to search by.
How to use the profiler:
1. Select your file, and select Search.
2. Select "Profile" from the search menu.
3. Select a field to profile from the pop-up menu
4. Once the first page is displayed you may move between
the pages of words with the page up or page down keys.
You may search on a word by highlighting it with the
arrow keys Then, press Enter. Press Escape to
exit without seareching.
Sometimes, although rarely, the profiler will have encountered
more than 2000 words. Thus the list will not be complete.
A prompt will appear to that effect.
Remember, the Profiler does not deal with numbers, and
for long fields (16 or more) only looks at words greater
that three letters long. The maximum length of a word that
it will look at is 15 characters.
IMPORT p 23
You can read external DOS files, and import text into a Stowit record.
Select Import from the Main Menu. You may see a list of files in a
given directory by selecting Show Filenames. Enter a directory name,
such as C:\DOC, and press any key to proceed with the listing. There
are two types of import: TEXT TO COMMENT and STRUCTURED TEXT.
TEXT FILE TO COMMENT:
To read an external file, select Display File, and enter a complete
filename, such as c:\doc\hello.doc. The file will be displayed,
if found. Use the page up and page down keys to read the file.
To clip a line of text into the clipboard, press Enter on the
line to clip. You may also easily clip a block of text by pressing
the Tab key, which clips each line and moves the cursor down. Tab at
the bottom line will also clip the bottom line. You may clip up to 42
lines. Exit from the file reader with Escape. By selecting any given
record in Stowit, you may paste the clipboard into that record. From
the record (the main screen of the record, not the comments screens),
press the F4 key. This will add the current clipboard to the comments
for that record. The previous comments will be erased. You still must
save the record on the way out to save the change.
STRUCTURED TEXT FILE TO RECORD: This use of text file import is quite
different. Your text file must be ordered in to blocks of text. Each
block must have the same number of lines. The data is represented in the
text file as one line per field. For example a text file might be:
Jones, Robert
carpenter
Boston MA
Miller, Sally
executive
New York NY
Atkinson, Bart
cartoonist
Topeka, KA
To import the file, select IMPORT/ STRUCTURED TEXT, and give a file
name,and how many lines in each block. In this case, it would be 3.
Then how many divider lines between each block, in this case, 1. If
no divider between blocks, answer 0. When your data is imported, the
first line of a block will be imported to a NEW Stowit record, in the
first field. If a field is too short, the data will be clipped.
Likewise, the second line of the block will be imported into the SECOND
field. And the third line to the third field. "Same" fields are not
skipped. This option is useful as when you have quantities of data
stored in text form- for example a parts list. Because of Stowit's
flexible field capabilities, you could go in later and add new fields.
However, data is always imported into a NEW blank record with this
option, and the fields must be pre-defined in the DEFINE section before
you do the importing of the text data. Each "block" in the text file
is put into a single record. The record may have more fields than
the text block, but the block may not have more fields than the record.
DEFINE MENU p 24
You get to Define menu from the Main Menu. Select Define
from the Main menu. Define allows you to change the structure of
your Stowit file's records even if there is data in the file.
Define menu:
- - - - - - - - - -{EXAMPLE}- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Define File Menu for IDEAS
-----------------
| Titles |
| Add Field |
| Insert Field |
| Longer Field |
| Shorter Field |
| Delete Field |
| Move Field |
| Searches |
| Remove Base |
| Display Fields|
| Set Color |
-----------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Titles:
You can change the field name of any field in any file.
Select the Titles option from the Define menu. A menu will
pop up listing all the fields, excluding "same" fields.
You may change the name of any field by selecting the
field name from this menu. Then, enter the new name.
The new name will show up for that field from then on,
and will be written to disk for the next run of Stowit.
You cannot change the file title, except with a new file.
Define the file title for a new file in the Add Field option.
DEFINE MENU Add field p 25
Add Field:
Here is where you can add new fields to the bottom of any record in
Stowit. After you add a field, the record will now contain this new
field. Your other data will not be effected. Use this option
to create a new file as described above in CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE.
If you are creating a new file over an old one, you must first
erase the old file structure from Remove Base in the Define Menu.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -{INSTRUCTIONS}- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Select Add Field from the Define menu.
Press the "Y" key to answer "Add a field?"
Do this for each field in your record:
1. Enter the field name. Example, ALBUM TITLE or SERIAL NUMBER
This name can be changed later.
Entering the word "same" (WITHOUT QUOTES) will
create a field having no title just like the field before it.
This new "same" field follows along with the field before it
for searches. This is useful for having a group of fields to
be searched under one field name by the Stowit program.
2. Enter a number for the length of the field. Example, 20.
The length for the first field must be two to fifty
characters in length. All other fields can be one to
two-hundred-fifty-five characters long.
3. "Same Line?"
Is this field to be on the same line
in the record screen as the field name?
(type Y for Yes, N for No). "No" means the field will
start in the first column of the next line.
"Yes" means the field will display on the same line as
the name, always on display column 19.
4. "Search Field?"
Answer Y for yes, if you want this to be a field
to be searched in the main part of the program. If
not, answer N for no. This can be changed later.
5. "Add a Field?". If you are finished, press N for no,
otherwise press Y for yes to continue adding other
fields to your record. Pressing C will
cancel all your changes.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Additional explanation may be found in the manual section
CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE, above.
DEFINE MENU Insert Field / Longer Field / Shorter Field p 26
Insert Field;
This allows you to insert a new field before any other field
in the record. After selecting Insert Field from the Define
Menu, you get a pop up menu of the fields. Select a field
to insert your new field before. Then, answer the questions
for the new field the same way as in the description in
Add Field above. The change will not effect your present data
in other fields.
Note if you insert a "same" field, it will be attached to
the field above it in the record. If you insert a titled
field before a same field, you will carry along the data
in that same field with the new field. As this is a bit confusing,
it is easiest not to insert a new field before a "same" field.
{ FOR EXAMPLE, SEE ADD FIELD ABOVE}
Longer Field:
You can make any field length larger. This makes the
number of characters allowed for any field greater. Select
Longer Field from the Define Menu. Then, select a field
to make longer from the pop up list of fields. Enter
the new length of the field. The information of the old length
is there to help you. Also, Stowit tells you the column that the
old field ENDS at. This change will not effect
any data in the field or other fields. As with all
Define options, Stowit writes the results to disk for next
time.
Shorter Field:
Warning! This option can lead to loss of data. You will
be making an existing field shorter.
You can make any field length shorter. This makes the
number of characters allowed for the field less. Select
Shorter Field from the Define Menu. Then select a field to
make shorter from the pop up list of fields. Enter
the new length of the field. The information of the old
length is there to help you. This change will not affect data
in other fields, but it could cut off data in the current field,
as the field will now be shorter.
DEFINE MENU cont. Delete Field / Move Field p 27
Delete Field:
Warning: This option can cause loss of your data. You can
can delete a field in the record. If this field contains data,
the data will be lost. This will not affect other fields.
To delete a field, make sure that you do not need the data
if any, in this field. Then, select Delete Field from the
Define Menu. Next, Select the field to delete. If you
are sure you want to delete the field, press "Y" for "yes."
The field will be deleted from the record structure. Any
data in the field will be deleted as well. The data cannot
be recovered.
Move Field:
You can move a field block to another place in the record.
The data will be copied, as well was the actual structure of
the record. A "field block" means that when you select a
named field to move (like "last name") any "same" fields attached
to this field will also be moved.
To move a field, select Move Field from the Define menu. Then
select the field to move and press Enter. Then move the name
up and down the record field list using the up and down arrow
keys. When the field is in the desired place, press Enter.
DEFINE MENU cont. Searches / Remove Base p 28
Searches:
You can decide the fields that can be searched in the Search Menu.
Select Searches from the Define Menu. To make a field a
search field, move the highlight bar to the field name, and
then press the space bar. If a star appears beside the name,
the field is a Search field. You can return to this later.
You may have up to ten Search Fields in a file at once.
Remove Base:
Warning: Once you remove a base, Stowit has erased that file slot.
This includes all data for the file and the file structure.
Take care when using this option. Once you remove a file,
it cannot be reclaimed.
Check to make sure you are in the right file to remove. Then,
select Remove Base from the Define Menu. Answer "Y" for yes twice
and the file will be removed. Answer "N" for no, and the file
will not be removed.
To create a new file in an old file slot, select the old file,
and move to the Define Menu. Select Remove Base and remove
the old file. You have to do this before moving to Add Field
to set up your new file. Otherwise, Add Field will just add new
fields to the unwanted old file.
DEFINE MENU cont. Display Fields / Set Color p 29
Display Fields:
This option allows you to set up two additional fields to
display in a Record List screen. The fields will remain
effect until one or both of the fields is deleted from the
structure.
Choose a field to add to the Record List with the up and down
arrow keys, and press Enter. Now select the second field
in the same manner.
Set Color:
The Set Color option allows you to decide what colors Stowit will
display. It has no effect on the printer output, which is always
black and white (plain ascii) text. The next time you run
Stowit, the new colors will still be in effect.
NUMERIC DATA p 30
When Defining your Stowit records, you do not have to worry
about defining special numeric fields. Although you are
free to enter decimal or "real" numbers, Stowit only searches
and sorts long integer numbers. These are numbers between
-2147483648 and +2147483647. This easily includes any numbers
up to nine digits in length with a sign.
In the Record or Field Search options of the Search Menu, you can
search for fields with numbers less than, greater than
or equal to your search request. For data to be considered
in such a numeric search, the field of a record must contain
ONLY numbers. The numeric search would ignore an entry like "35X25"
because it contains the letter X. The numeric search also ignores
"20.00," because it contains a decimal point.
Each "same" field searches separately. This allows you to have
a number in the main field, and a word in the "same" field.
In a Record search, searching for 3>1000 means that
field three (as it appears in the Regular Search menu) must
contain a number greater than 1000.
In a Field search, searching for >1000 also means that the
selected field contains a number greater than 1000. Note you
do not include the field number in a field search.
A simple field or record search for a number such as
20 finds instances of 20. It also finds 200, or 2000.
Thus the Regular Search for numbers is more exact.
When sorting numbers, the record list will show numbers first.
then it shows mixed alphabetic/or number fields, then "blank" fields
at the end.
When printing tabular reports, the numbers justify to the
right. Thus, they line up in a business like way.
Single Field and Record Searches for numbers may be mixed with text.
See the examples above.
PRINTING p 31
Printing reports in Stowit:
Most printing is done from the Record List. Select ALL, or
do a Search. The records in the resulting Record List can be
printed in various ways.
To get to the Print Menu, select a Record List. Then, press the
Alt-P key combination.
- - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Printing Options
--------------------
| Whole Records |
| Selected Fields |
| Tabular Report |
| List only |
--------------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Make sure your printer is on line. Then select the type of
printing you wish.
Whole Records will print every whole record, fitting
more than record on a page if possible. It works from
the active list on the Record List.
Selected Fields will give you a menu to choose the fields to include.
Only those fields from the records on your list will be printed.
In that menu, choose fields by moving the up and down arrows to
highlight the field name, then toggle the field with the space
bar. When done, press ENTER. To cancel, press Escape.
Tabular report will allow you to select fields to print in table
form, one line for each record. If the fields are too wide, the
software will say so, and the print job will not be done.
Comments will print just the comment pages from your current list.
You will be prompted in both Whole Record and Selected Fields
printing if you wish to include the Comments pages in your printed
report as well.
Additionally, from any Record Screen you may print the current
record by pressing the Alt-P combination. Make sure your printer
is on line first.
FILE OUTPUT p 32
From the Record List, you may output a report exactly
like the printed output described above. However,
the output is sent to a DOS text file. You supply
the name of this file, which must be in the same
drive as the current drive. (The drive you run Stowit
from). Thus you should not use a drive letter for the
file name. Examples are \DOC\hello.txt or
output.doc. You will be prevented from using filenames
that are Stowit data file names.
MARK SCREENS
From a record list, you can group together records of
your choosing, so that you may print those records, or
output them to a text file. The mark list only applies
from a record list, and will be cancelled when you exit
the record list with escape.
To Mark a record: Choose the record with the arrow keys
and then press the space bar. This record is now added to
the marked list.
To move to the Marked List: Press the Alt-M key combination.
now the list is replaced by the marked list. On a color system,
a green bar will appear at the top of the screen to indicate it
is a partial or Marked list.
SORTING and BACKUP NOTE p 33
You may sort any record list by a different field in the
record. Once you do this, any printing or displaying will
present the records in the new order. Each time you enter a
record list, the records sort by the first field. In a
records albums file, for example, they might be sorted by
"Album title." After sorting, the records might be sorted
alphabetically by "Artist." When you sort, the highlight bar
follows the highlighted record in the list.
To sort a Record List, press the Alt-S key combination from the
record list. Then, select the field to sort by. Records
sorted alphabetically. They sort by the first 50 characters
of the field only.
Use Ctrl-Page-Up to get to the first page. Use Ctrl-Page-Down
to get to the last page of the list.
Numeric data (integers from -2147483648 to +2147483647)
sort first, smallest to largest. Mixed alphabetic or
other numeric data sorts next, followed by "blank" fields. These
are fields that have nothing entered.
BACKUP NOTE:
- - - - - - - - - {INSTRUCTIONS}- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Follow this Only if you are backing up an entire Stowit directory.
TO BACK UP AN ENTIRE STOWIT DIRECTORY TO RESTORE LATER, COPY ALL
FILES IN THE STOWIT DIRECTORY INCLUDING THE PROGRAM FILES TO
A BLANK FLOPPY.
THEN, WHEN RESTORING THE FILES, WORK WITH AN EMPTY SUB DIRECTORY.
THE FILES DO NOT MIX AND MATCH, AND SO IT IS BEST TO RESTORE A
BACKED UP STOWIT PACKAGE TO AN EMPTY SUBDIRECTORY. THIS DOES NOT
APPLY TO NORMAL USE OF STOWIT.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
