Star Trek Omnipedia (Premier Edition)/Star Trek Omnipedia Premier Edition (0-671-56784-5)(Simon & Schuster Interactive)(1995).iso/pc/hints.txt

Text File | 1995-07-19 | 8KB | 191 lines

CONTENTS
    I.  How To Use Omnipedia
    II. More Search Help
    III.How A Word Search Works
    IV. Hyperlinks

I.HOW TO USE OMNIPEDIA
----------------------
Click on a MODE button to select an index group to inspect.
Each of the three primary Modes (Encyclopedia, Chronology,
Episodes) has a special Selector Strip which allows you to
jump to a part of its index. For example, in Encyclopedia
Mode if you click on "K" you will be jumped to the K portion
of the Encyclopedia. Once there, you can scroll through the
index in either direction.

Click on an Entry Name in the index field to display its
text and any media. As the entry displays, the program
interprets its hyperlinks and other styling, and transforms
the text on-screen.

Click on NEXT or PREVIOUS to see the next or previous entry
in the index of the Mode you are currently viewing. Click on
BACK to re-trace your steps entry-by-entry, regardless of
mode. (You can also re-visit the most-recently-viewed entry
in a mode by clicking on that MODE button.)

You may also click on words in the text display field to
jump to related information:
> Bold text are hyperlinks to Encyclopedia entries.
> Episode names (inside quotes) or movie names are
hyperlinks to Episode entries.
> Dates (the 4-digit Gregorian kind OR Stardates) are
hyperlinks to Chronology entries.
> Most any other word, if a noun: triggers an automatic
full-text search of whatever Mode you are currently viewing.
If you have the Find Strip open, you can see the Input Field
update with whatever word(s) you have clicked.

Click on FIND to open the Find Strip. Type into the Input
Field any word you wish. If the Selector to the right of the
Input Field says ENTRY...
> ...if you begin typing with letters of the alphabet,
Omnipedia assumes you are typing an Encyclopedia-style entry.
>...if you begin typing with numbers, and you type 4 of them,
Omnipedia assumes you are typing a Chronology year.
> ...if you begin typing with a double-quote ( " ),
Omnipedia assumes you are typing an Episode name.
Anytime you pause typing for one second, the index will jump
to a location that nearly matches what you have typed. Then
you can use the index to select the exact entry you were
looking for; or you can continue typing and click SEARCH.

In the Find Strip, if the Selector to the right of the
Input Field says WORD, you may also choose in which Mode to
perform the full-text search by using the additional Selector
to indicate Encyclopedia, Chronology, Episode, or All. Type
a word into the field and click SEARCH.



II.MORE SEARCH HELP
-------------------
If you wish to search for primary information about a
subject, do an ENTRY search. That will find a single
entry on the given subject.

About Entries
The Omnipedia contains three primary types of entries:
     Encyclopedia entries (names, places, things, events)
     Episode entries (Star Trek television programs and
              motion pictures)
     Chronology entries (dates, using the Gregorian
                         calendar convention)
(These entry groups are referred to as "modes", since they each have
individual behaviors and features.)

There are also special entries in Resources and Topics modes.
Entries which appear in Found Entries mode are special
collections of entries selected from any of the three
primary modes. Thus, any entries you may see in
Found Entries also exist elsewhere in the Omnipedia, but
are merely grouped together for convenience.

What You Can Do
1. Browse: Click a MODE button to select a mode, then
browse through the index you see using the scroll bar,
arrow keys, or NEXT or PREVIOUS buttons.
or...
2. Look for a particular entry: Open the Find Strip.
Select ENTRY. Begin typing the beginning of the entry
name you are looking for. Pause for a second.
Omnipedia will automatically set the mode appropriate to
what you typed, and jump to a point in the index as close
as it can get to what you typed. (Only up to the first four
of the letters you type are used for this automatic search.) If you see the entry you want, you can then just
click on it in the index. You can also click SEARCH or hit
<return> even without finishing your typing.

HINT: If you start typing a letter of the alphabet, the
program will start looking in the Encyclopedia. If you
start typing a quote ("), the program will start looking
in the Episodes. If you type a 4-digit year which falls
within the range of years in the Chronology, the program
will look there.

ANOTHER HINT: The Omnipedia knows the difference between
capitals and lower-case letters, so if you land in an
unexpected place in the index, it may be because the first
letter you typed doesn't match the case of the
letter in the index.



If you wish to search for any reference to a particular word,
do a WORD search.

III.HOW A WORD SEARCH WORKS
---------------------------
A WORD search automatically creates a collection of entries
which contain that word anywhere in their text. It then
takes you to FOUND ENTRIES mode, where that collection is
displayed.

What You Can Do
1. Click on almost any noun in the text of an entry.
(If the word is part of a hyperlink, however, you
will initiate an Entry search instead.) The
program will try to find other entries within the mode
you are currently viewing which contain that word.

2. Type a specific word into the Find Strip.
(Select WORD, rather than Entry, before you start typing,
or the program will think you are looking for an Entry.)
You may at this time also select any or all of the indexes
within which to search. Type the entire word and click
SEARCH or hit <return>.

In either case, the search begins.  Almost all nouns
contained in two or more entries will be found. The
collection of entries is automatically displayed in
FOUND ENTRIES mode for you to browse.

This collection of found entries will be remembered by
the program until you do another word search.


IV.HYPERLINKS
-------------
You may jump around freely among the different modes in
Omnipedia. As you are reading you may encounter a name or
an episode reference which sparks your curiosity. Very
often you can simply click on the text you are reading to
link to additional information. Then click BACK to return
to the screen you had been reading.

Any word or phrase in bold text in the Omnipedia is a
hyperlink to an individual encyclopedia entry.
(The program is smart enough to adjust certain hyperlink
phrases, such as names, to make an exact match with the
index. Most of the time it is successful at this, sometimes
it isn't.)

Any Episode name in quotes followed by an episode code
(such as TNG or DS9) or any movie name is a hyperlink to
an individual Episode entry.

Almost any date, either a 4-digit Gregorian year, or the
number following the word "stardate" is a hyperlink into
the Chronology.

HINT: Some 4-digit years will not be found in the
Chronology if they are not present as an entry there.
Hyperlink searches are absolute, so if the exact entry
isn't there, the link won't work. (BUT, since any text
that gets clicked is automatically placed into the
Search Text Field in the Find Strip, you can still click
the SEARCH button. That will activate a normal entry
search for that date, which should "get close" to what
you are looking for if it cannot make an exact match.)
Stardates are linked to specific episode entries in the
Chronology. In Episode mode, you can link to a more
thorough description by clicking on the number after the
word "stardate". However, some episodes do not have
stardate references, although they do appear in the
Chronology.

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