This QuickStart Guide is designed to help you quickly get familiar with Versabook. It shows you only the basic features of the product. An explanation of all the Versabook features can be found in Online Help.
In the QuickStart Guide, you will learn how to:
Add books to your Research Desk
Get around the Research Center
Work with books
Search books
Display media items
Organize your research in folders called Binders
Versabooks are electronic books immediately accessible on your computer for viewing, updating and searching whenever you want. Versabooks provide you with powerful search functions, multimedia features and the ability to build you own searchable electronic library. You can work with Versabooks the same way you would with printed books. You can take notes on each article and organize relevant articles in Binders. Books can be put on shelves and arranged according to categories such as author and subject.
Using the Annotation feature you can add notes to the articles in your books. Annotations can also be grouped into Booklets that can then be sent to a local or network drive. The Highlighting feature enables you to mark text you want to emphasize.
When you find articles relevant to your research, you can save them to a Binder so you can access them later. You can create a new Binder for each subject and the contents of each Binder can be printed and exported to HTML, Microsoft Word, and Palm Pilot. You can also import HTML documents to a Binder and conduct searches on the information.
Versabooks can have the following types of Searches that enable you to find information quickly and efficiently:
Full Text
Natural Language Query
Keyword
Title
Topic
Date
Advanced Searches
With the Hypersearch feature, you can search for articles that contain a certain word. You can conduct the search while the original article is displayed in the View pane. You can even go to a new article and then return to the original one. The Hypersearch feature is especially useful when you want additional information. For example, if you have included a dictionary in your hypersearch, you can use it to get definitions for words you donÆt understand in your article.
To enhance your research experience, Versabooks contain media items such as:
Photos
Flags
Maps
Animations
Sounds
Speeches
Musical Excerpts
Videos
You can conduct searches for Media items and they can also be sorted by type.
Note:
Depending on your product and the books in your library, some of the media items may not be available while other books may have special media types.
Using the Library, you can organize your books on shelves according to author, project or any subject relevant to your research. When updates to the books are available, they can be downloaded automatically so you always have access to the latest information.
The Research Center is where your electronic books are displayed and enables you to read, search, and compile sets of relevant items.
To open the Research Center:
The Research Center is where your electronic books are displayed and enables you to:
Read your Versabooks.
Search books for specific information and media.
Compile sets of relevant items.
Add your own notes.
The parts of the Research Center are described in the table below:
| Area | Description |
| Control Pane | Located on the left side of the Research Center, the Control pane enables you to: Choose the books and articles to display Conduct searches on books Search media items Manage Binders
|
| View Pane | Located on the right side of the Research Center, this is the window where the selected article or media item is displayed. |
| Navigation Tree | Located in the Control pane, this window lists media items, search results or the contents of books or Binders. Using the Navigation Tree, you can locate an article in a book or a Binder. |
|
Toolbar |
The toolbar icons provide shortcuts for various Versabook functions. |
| Status Bar | The Status bar is located at the bottom of the screen. It displays information and enables you to perform certain functions. |
The Research Desk is where you keep your active books for fast and easy access. You can only read your Versabooks if you add them to the Research Desk.
To add books to the Research Desk:
After you put your books on the Research Desk, you are ready to begin. You can read your Versabooks the same way you would any printed book, by displaying each article in the order they appear in the Navigation Tree.
To display an article in a book:
You can purchase new books to add to your library by accessing Internet bookstores or buying CD-ROMs/DVDs.
To purchase a new book from an Internet Bookstore:
Publishers often provide updates for their books. You can easily check for updates and download them. Updates to the Versabook program can also be downloaded automatically when they are available.
To check if there are updates available for a specific book:
While reading an article, you can add your own notes using the Annotations feature. You can also highlight sections of an article for greater emphasis. You can access these features on the menu bar in the Research Center.
You can conduct the following types of searches in your Versabook:
Full Text
This search mode enables you to search through the text in all the books on your Research Desk. You can use one or more words.
Natural Language Query
You can conduct a search using a phrase or full sentence of natural English.
Example: You can search for the question "Who is Ronald Reagan?"
Keyword
Some articles have been indexed with one or more related keywords that you can use the same way you would use an index in a printed book.
Title
You can search for titles of articles or media. For example, if you would like to find an article titled Abnormal Psychology, you can conduct a search for this title. The results appear in the Navigation Tree.
Topic
Some of the articles and media items are indexed by topic. You can search for these articles and media items with the Topic search option. This is similar to looking through an index in a printed book.
Date Searches
Using the date search, you can look for information relevant to a time period or a specific date.
Media
When you conduct a Full Text or Title search, you can limit your search results so that only media items will be displayed.
Hypersearch
With the Hypersearch feature, you can search for articles that contain a certain word. You can conduct the search while the original article is displayed in the View pane. You can even go to a new article and then return to the original.
Advanced Search
The Advanced Search functions enable you to narrow your search criteria to make sure the results are accurate. For example, when searching for a group of words, you can choose to search for the words in the order they were written.
Note:
Depending on your product and the books in your library, some of the search functions may not be available.
You can display a list of media items in your books. Media items can also be sorted alphabetically or according to type. You can also search for a particular item.
To display a media item:
After you have researched a subject, you can store any item - article, media or even URL in a Binder for further reference. You can export Binders to HTML, Microsoft Word, Palm Pilot and Windows CE. After you have organized your Binder, you can print it and include a cover page, title and table of contents.
To create a new Binder:
To add an article to an existing Binder:
To print a Binder: