Copyright: Copyright 1996 - Idaho State University


Contents

How to Use

Menu Commands

The Main Window

Glossary View

Document View

The Search Window

Glossary Search

Document Search


Using the program
How to Use

Finding what youre looking for in the glossary

There are three basic ways to find a specific term.

1.  Click on the Alphabet button that the term begins with.

You will need to scroll through the list of all of the terms returned, but the list is broad and complete.  This method takes between one and two seconds to respond.

2.  Perform a Starts with... keyword search on the term, or the first few letters of the term.

If you know what the term is or how it starts, this method is extremely fast and highly recommended.  It responds almost instantly.

3.  Perform a Contains... keyword search on a part of the term.

This method will find any term that has the letters you search for within it.  It is a very slow process however, usually taking around four to six seconds to respond.

Making the most of the History

The history list, if active, tracks the last ten glossary terms you looked at.  Clicking on any of them will cause the definition to be displayed again.


Menu Commands

File

Exit:  Ends the program.

Edit

Copy:  This will copy any selected text in the Definition display to the clipboard.

Select All:  This selects all of the text which is currently in the Definition display.

Program

History Active:  If checked, the history list will be created and maintained.  If unchecked, any items currently in the history list remain, but the list is not updated.  It is checked by default.

History List Items:  The last ten terms are stored in here, most recent at the top.  The list cycles down, so past terms will be moved off of the list as you go.  Clicking on any of the terms in the history list cause that terms definition to be displayed in the definition display area.

Help

Contents:  Opens this file at the contents page.

Search For Help On...:  Searches this file by topic.

About:  Displays credits for this program and also displays memory and system resources.  The resources will turn red if they dip too low.


Glossary View

The glossary view is the current view when the toggle button labeled Glossary is depressed.

More/Reload button

Clicking this button will either display the rest of the search results (up to 200 more) or reload the search results from the beginning of the list.

Keyword search button

Clicking this button will display the search window and allow you to perform specialized searches.

Alphabet buttons and Misc. button

Clicking one of these buttons will look up all of the terms beginning with the corresponding letter or all terms that do not begin with a letter in the case of the Misc. button.

Term list

After a search, the found terms (up to 200) are placed in this list box.  You may scroll through the items.  If there were more than 200 terms found, clicking the More button will load them into the Term list.  Clicking on a term displays its definition in the Definition display to the right.

Definition display

The definition for either the selected term in the Term list or a term from the History list.  You are not allowed to edit the definitions in any way, however you can use Ctrl-C to copy selections to the clipboard for use in the Search window or elsewhere.


Document View

The document view is the current view when the toggle button labeled Document is depressed.

Keyword search button

Clicking this button will display the search window and allow you to perform specialized searches on all of the documents on the CD.

Category display list

The documents on the CD can be found by traversing through the category tree structure.  Clicking on an item which has the picture of a piece of paper next to it will cause a list of document titles to appear in the document title list on the right hand side of the program screen.  This tree structure may be navigated by either the mouse or with the keyboard using the arrow keys and the enter key.

Document title list

Clicking on a document title will cause the Adobe Acrobat Viewer to launch with the selected document loaded.  If nothing happens, make sure that the viewer has been correctly installed onto your system.


Glossary Search

Search options

There are two search options:

1.  Starts with...

This method is the faster of the two.  It searches for any terms that begin with the entered search text.

2.  Contains...

This search option searches for any term that contains the entered search text anywhere within it.  The drawback is that it is slow (five to six seconds).

Text entry

The text entry area is white and will be ready to type into as soon as the window appears.  If you have performed pervious searches, you last search text will still be displayed, but highlighted.  If you wish to discard it, simply begin typing your new search text, and the old text will vanish.  Pressing enter starts the search.

Find button

This button starts the search, if there is text typed into the Text entry area.

Cancel button

This button cancels the search operation and returns to the glossary view.


Document Search

Text entry

The text entry area is white and will be ready to type into as soon as the window appears.  If you have performed pervious searches, you last search text will still be displayed, but highlighted.  If you wish to discard it, simply begin typing your new search text, and the old text will vanish.  Pressing enter starts the search.

You may enter single keywords separated by spaces to search all of the documents for specific information.

Find button

This button starts the search, if there is text typed into the Text entry area.

Cancel button

This button cancels the search operation and returns to the document view.