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Software Vault: The Gold Collection
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Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
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COMICS.DOC
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1993-05-31
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╔════════════════════════╗
║ComicMinder Version 1.21║
║ComicsCataloging System ║
╚════════════════════════╝
Copyright 1993 by Mark R. Myers
DKTB Enterprises
2411 Ocean Street #C
Oceano, CA 93445
Page 1
Comic Minder
Comic Book Cataloging System
Version 1.21
Table of Contents
Table of Contents.................................... 1
Hardware Requirements.................................2
Installing The Software...............................2
Getting Started.......................................2
Entering New Data.....................................3
Editing Existing Data.................................4
Deleting Existing Data................................4
Searching for Data....................................5
Printing Reports......................................6
Getting Help..........................................6
Minor Notes...........................................7
Page 2
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
ComicMinder requires an IBM PC/XT/AT or Compatible, a hard
drive, EGA/VGA (will work in Monochrome but is not recomended)
and at least 512K of free memory. A printer capable of printing
the IBM extended character set is recommended, but not
necessary.
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE
Boot your system and make directory to hold the ComicMinder
system. Dearchive the ComicMinder files to the newly created
directory. Make sure that your CONFIG.SYS file contains the line
FILES=20. A value of greater than 20 is ok.
GETTING STARTED
Getting started is easy enough. After getting the program
installed, CD into the directory that the comic program is in
and type COMIC. The comic program will create all data and
keyfiles that it needs to get itself up and running. Once all
the files are created, then it is ready to begin entering data.
Page 3
ENTERING NEW DATA
If you have just started the program for the first time, you
will note that a Data Entry form is on the screen for you to
fill out. All comic book data is entered on this form. To navigate
on the form, use the following keys:
ENTER Advance cursor one field.
ESC Backup cursor one field.
CTRL-ENTER Accept/Save the entire entry.
CTRL-ESC Abort the current record without saving.
There are eight fields on the data entry form, each geared to
comic books specifically. The fields are:
ISSUE NUMBER Most comics are released with an issue
number to assist in keeping ones collection in order. If
the book you are entering has no issue number, then
press Enter to accept the default of Zero.
HERO'S NAME Should be self explanitory. That is
going to be the name of the main character of the story.
This could be Batman, Superman, Etc.
STORY TITLE The name of the story.
SUBTITLE Some comics have a second title, or the
main title is just too long for the story title field.
This provides you a place for the overflow!
WRITER The author of the story.
PENCILLER The person that does all the pencil art
for the publication. Can be left blank of unknown.
INKER The person that inks over all the pencil
work of the penciller. Most comic art is done with a
team of people, with the Writer/Inker/Penciller getting
the top billing.
FREE-FORMAT This is a special area for making
limited notes about the comic, like maybe a holographic
cover, or that it is part of a limited printing, or
anything that you might want to take notes on.
Page 4
ENTERING NEW DATA (continued)
A data form is saved to disk when you press ENTER at the
free-format field, or by pressing CTRL-ENTER at any point while
filling out the data form. You can also use the INSERT,
BACKSPACE, DELETE and the cursor (arrow) keys to correct
mistakes. If you decide that you do not want to save the data
form, press CTRL-ESC at any time to abort the form.
When the data form is saved, it is written to disk, and
displayed in issue number order on the screen. To continue
entering comics into the database, press INSERT to call a new,
blank data form.
EDITING EXISTING DATA
You will notice that existing data is displayed on the screen,
with the issue numbers, hero name, and title(s) showing. You
will also notice that there is a highlight bar on the screen.
This bar can be moved up and down with the cursor (arrow) keys.
Move the highlight bar to the record that you wish to edit, then
press the ENTER Key. Records can also be located using the
various search functions (See SEARCHING FOR DATA). When you
press ENTER, you will see a data form on the screen with the
data for the selected record inside. Press ENTER to move forward
fields, press ESC to move back fields. Make whatever changes you
wish, then press CTRL-ENTER to save them, or press CTRL-ESC to
abort all the changes.
DELETING EXISTING DATA
To delete an existing record, use the highlight bar to select
the record that you wish to delete. Press the DELETE key. You
will be given one chance to abort the delete. Make sure that you
really want to delete the record, as deletion is permenant, and
the only way to recover a deleted record is to reenter it.
Page 5
SEARCHING FOR DATA
Press F2 to search for data. This will bring up the search menu.
Use the arrow keys to highlight the option that you wish, then
press enter. You can also press the first letter of the item
that you want, and teh highlight bar will move to that option.
There are four criteria that you can use to search for, Issue
Number, Hero Name, Title/Subtitle and Author/Artist. The procedure
for searching for data via Hero Name, Titles and Author/Artist
is the same. Searching by Issue Number is different, so
I will cover it first.
When you search by issue number, you will be looking for a
high/low range of numbers. If you are looking for a single
number, then use the number that you are looking for as both the
high and low value. Otherwise, enter a high and a low value to
search for. Results of the search will be displayed on the
screen. The results of the search may be printed by pressing F3.
Press press ESC to back up and edit the high/low values or press
CTRL-ESC to exit back to the search menu.
The procedure for for the other search modes are as follows. At
the bottom of the screen will be a place to enter the item that
you are searching for. You can enter a partial name for any of
the searchs. For example, if your are looking for Superman, you
can type Super, Man. uper, an, su, up, or any portion of the
name. The system will return all records that contain that
combination of letters, in that order. So realize that that if
you type MAN as a search string, you may wind up with Aquaman,
Superman, and Batman as returned records. But you get the idea
of searching.
PRINTING REPORTS
The procedure for printing reports is the same no matter where
you do it from. Press the F3 key and you will get a printed
report. Simple!
Page 6
GETTING HELP
There is help available at all screens in the program by
pressing F1. Help is a scaled down version of this manual, and
can be quite valuable. For the most part, the program can be
mostly run without the manual. (So why am I writing this?
<grin>)
SOME MINOR NOTES
So far, after extensive testing of the program, there are no
bugs that I have found. But if any are found, please feel free
to write me and report them. Or bug reports can be sent via the
support BBS as a comment to the sysop.
This program arose out of the need to catalog my own large
collection of Batman comics. Having been an avid collector for
nearly 10 years, my collection had gotten rather cumbersome and
in need of a good cataloging system. So ComicMinder was born.
Number two in the Minder series of programs, it is another of
the programs written with the philosphy that programming should
be friendly, and not be laden down with features that will never
be used. I hope that you will find ComicMinder to be as helpful
to you as it has been to me.
ComicMinder is uncrippled shareware. If you have registered this
program, thank you! If not, please take the time to register,
and support the shareware concept. Shareware means good
software, for not a whole lot of money. Please be sure to print
out the registration.doc file for information on how to register
this software, and where to get support. Once again, if you have
registered this software, thanks for your support!