[Browsers] [Commercial] [Freeware] [-Games-] [Internet] [Magazine] [-Movies-] [Pictures] [Programming] [Shareware]
This leaflet offers an introduction to Impact2 in the form of a hands-on demonstration of the principal features of the program. If you have a hard disc, you should copy the contents of the floppy disc to a suitable directory. To start Impact2, double click on its icon in the directory display, so that it appears on the iconbar.
All Impact2 features are invoked from the iconbar menu in the first instance. This is invoked by clicking the Menu mouse button over the iconbar icon, in the normal desktop manner.
This menu provides access to all databases, via a sub-menu, and provides for the creation of new databases. It also offers access to the Impact2 set up Choices window and Backup facilities described elsewhere.
To start this demonstration, select the Databases sub-menu, and click on the Videos database. When you do this the Videos database Control Panel will be displayed. You can have many databases open at the same time, and each will have its own control panel.
The Videos database represents the type of database which might be used in a Video tape hire shop, giving details of all videos stocked, and the name of the customer, if any, that currently has the video on hire.
This is an example of a Relational database, where the customer's details are being imported from the Addresses database, which Impact2 has opened automatically.
This control panel provides immediate access to all the facilities available, at the click of a button. First locate the Card option button, and click on it. This will cause the data card for this database to be displayed immediately below the control panel. Selecting the Attach option will cause the card to attach itself to the control panel, a useful feature when you have several databases open at the same time. You can still move the card on its own if required, but it will re-attach itself to the control panel if this is moved.
The display icon and associated arrows at the top left of the control panel allow you to browse through all the entries in the database. The down arrow with a bar may be used to go directly to the first entry, while clicking this with the Adjust mouse button will display the last entry.
In all cases, the entry number will be shown in the writable icon alongside, and you may also type a number directly into this, the Return key causing the required entry to be displayed. The entry number is initially the order in which the data has been entered, but where entries have been deleted new entries will re-use the deleted entry number.
The browsing order may be changed by selecting an index.
An index in Impact2 provides a means of sorting entries into some defined order, either as an aid to finding a particular entry, or to facilitate the production of output lists and reports showing entries in alphabetic or date order, for example. They may also be made to contain only a sub-set of all entries in the database by using a Filter.
Immediately below the entry browser is the Index Selector. This consists of an option button to turn the selected index on and off, a display icon showing the name of the selected index, a Menu icon offering a menu of indexes, and an Edit icon giving access to the Index Edit Window.
If you click the mouse Menu button over the index Menu icon and select the Customers index from the displayed menu, the name Customers will be shown in the display icon. Also, the Index option button will become ticked, indicating that the selected index is active. The index may be de-activated and re-activated by clicking on this option button, without having to re-select it from the menu.
With an active index, all database functions will be dependent on the index, including data export, label printing, etc. If you now browse through the entries, they will be displayed in order, sorted on the customer's surname.
Note that only the videos which are currently on hire are being displayed. This is due to the index having been created with a named Filter, so that only a sub-set of entries is included.
A filter in Impact2 is very much like a filter in real life, in that it lets some entries through while keeping others out, as a coffee filter separates the coffee grounds from the liquid. Using filters allows you to extract the required entries from a database to suit any situation.
The Filter Selector is similar to the Index filter described above, and is situated directly below it.
If you now de-activate the Customers index so that it is un- ticked, and click the mouse Menu button over the Filter Menu icon, you will be presented with the Filter Menu, from which you should now select the On Hire filter. This is the one used in the Customers index to select all videos which are currently on hire.
With this filter active, browsing the entries will display all currently hired videos, but now simply in entry number order, since there is no index active.
It is possible to have both a filter and an index (perhaps created with its own filter) active at the same time. As with indexes, any active filter affects all other database operations.
Having sorted our data entries, and filtered out the ones you don't want, the next thing to do is to decide which individual data items you require from each entry. For example, if you wish to print labels you will probably want a name and address, but not a phone number or other information.
The Item Selector just below the Filter Selector provides the facilities to do this, and works in a similar manner. In addition to allowing the selection of data items from the card, this feature also allows the items to be chosen in any order, a facility useful when exporting data to another application. It is also possible to define which items should be concatenated with (joined to) other items, and this is useful for printing a separate personnel title item (say Mr) on the same line of a label as the forename and surname items.
As with indexes and filters, an active selection affects all other database operations where relevant. They will, of course, have no effect on the card display or entry browsing, but their full effect may be seen by displaying the database in Table format. Before proceeding, use the Item Selector to select the ReportMap2 selection from the Item Selection Menu.
Now close the card, either by clicking the Close icon in its title bar, or by clicking the Card Option button on the control panel.
Then click on the Table Option button to invoke the Table display.
If you still have the On Hire filter active, you will be presented with a list of videos currently on hire, showing only those items defined in the chosen Item selection.
It is important to remember that Impact2 reads and writes data directly from the disc, and does not keep its data in memory, so that very large data files may be created on machines with little memory. For this reason, updating the Table display may appear less than instantaneous, particularly if you are working from floppy disc. There is almost no delay when working from a hard disc.
For this reason, when you change any of the index, filter or item selections, it is necessary to click on the Refresh button in order to update the table display. This avoids unnecessary repeated table redrawing.
If you have the card and the table display open at the same time, you will find that clicking on an entry in the table will cause that entry to be displayed on the card, The selected entry will be displayed in red.
It is also possible to make multiple selections from the table display using the mouse Adjust button, and to create an index containing just the selected entries.
There are two way in which a particular entry may be searched for. The main one allows complex search and replace operations and is available from the Search Tool.
In addition, a quick search facility is provided from the data card. Close the table display, either using the window Close icon, or by clicking the Table Option button on the control panel. Then de-activate any index or filter, and ensure that the card is displayed.
To make a quick search, click the mouse Menu button over the Director item on the card. This will cause the quick search window to be displayed next to the item.
If you now type in 'spiel' followed by the Return key, the first entry containing the director Steven Spielberg will be found. To find further entries, again click the mouse Menu button, but this time click in the search window (over 'spiel') with the Adjust mouse button. The search will then resume where it left off, and a further film directed by the same director will be found.
At any future time, you can again search for the same director simply by clicking Menu over the director item, and then clicking either the Select button to start the search from the start of the database, or the Adjust button to resume the search from the current entry.
Note that the search is case-insensitive, and that it will match any entry containing the test supplied. You may also search on relational data items. Try searching the Customer item for 'smith', which will search the Addresses database remotely.
Now attach the card to its control panel, and move the panel to one sine of the screen. The call up the iconbar menu and the Databases sub-menu. You will see from this that the Addresses database is in fact open, as shown by the ticked menu item. Now select the Addressed database, and display the card for this database by clicking the Card Option button on its control panel.
If you now browse to a video database entry showing a customer, (hint - turn on the Customer index), you will find that clicking the mouse Select button over the Borrowed by data item will cause the customer's entry to be displayed in the Addresses database card. This feature is useful where you need access to customer information not shown on the video data card.
If you have Impression Style or Publisher, you can produce a report of the current video hire situation by selecting the Impression Tool at the top of the control panel. This will display the following window.
If you now click the mouse Menu button over the Document Menu icon, and select the Report menu entry (the only one), the video report document will be loaded into Impression and displayed.
If this does not happen, it may be that the computer system has not 'seen' Impression and does not know where it is on your disc. In this case locate your copy of Impression and install it on the icon bar. The repeat the report selection as described above. With the report document on the screen, click the Test button on the above window to start the data merge operation. The result should show two tables of information extracted directly from the two databases. Note the current date at the top of the report, and the table column totals, etc.
The Print button will tell Impression to print the report, while the Fix button will permanently fix the merged data into the document so that it may be edited before printing if required. If you do this, do not re-save the report so that it overwrites the un-merged version.
The Clear button will return the report to its editable state. Creating report documents may be done using the Document Edit button, but this is not described here.
Label printing from Impact2 is handled by a separate application called LabPrint, but this action is fully automatic and handled entirely from Impact2.
To print some labels, close the Videos database by clicking on the Close icon in its control panel, and then select the Label Tool from the Addresses database control panel.
Click the mouse Menu button over the Label Menu icon in this window. The first time you do this there will be a slight delay while LabPrint is loaded, after which its icon will appear on the iconbar. The menu of label types is displayed by LabPrint, and offers a range of pre-defined Avery laser label formats. Select any of the first few label styles, and its name will be displayed in the Label Window.
Now move to the Addresses control panel and select the AddressLabel item selection (See earlier). This will ensure that only names, addresses and postcodes are printed. It is also set so that the name and title are concatenated and printed on the same line. These items will be separated by whatever character is entered into the Concatenate with icon, which is pre-set to be a space.
When first displayed, the Label window is set to print a single copy of a single data entry. The entry used will be the one displayed in the data card. If the Multiple option is set, all entries from the current one to the end of the database will be printed. You can also force printing to start on a given label on the sheet, when the sheet is already part used.
To do the printing, click the Print button on the Labels Window to display a standard Save as dialogue box. Then drag the icon onto your printer driver. Labels may also be dragged to a directory display and saved for printing later. Actual printing is handled by LabPrint automatically.
You can of course design your own named label formats, and this is fully covered in the manual.
Other facilities not described in this quick tour are the data Import and Export tools, the Report Tool for exporting formatted tables, and the Backup Tool.
Importantly, it is also possible to create sub-cards for a database, containing a sub-set of data items. By providing password protection the Main card, and letting users freely access the sub- cards, sensitive data may be protected from prying eyes.
This has been a very brief tour of some of the features of Impact2. We hope it has given you some feel for the power, and ease of use if this database.
All of the above features are more fully described in the manual.
Impact2 costs £95 + VAT for a single user licence. Please contact Circle Software for details of site licences.
Orders may be placed by phone using MasterCard or Visa on: 01793 770021
[Browsers] [Commercial] [Freeware] [-Games-] [Internet] [Magazine] [-Movies-] [Pictures] [Programming] [Shareware]