Getting Started

This chapter will get you up and running with CatFinder and cover some of the basic features of the product.  If you register CatFinder you will be sent complete documentation on all of CatFinders features.  Enjoy.

Installation

Installation of CatFinder is easy.  Create a folder on your hard disk and drag the CatFinder application into the folder.  That's it.

Running CatFinder

Double-click on the CatFinder icon to launch the application.  The first time you launch CatFinder you will not have any existing catalogs so the CatFinder main window will be empty.

Depending on the system software you are running, CatFinder will display three or four menu items.  The first three are File, Catalog, and View.  If you are running System 7, CatFinder offers a fourth menu called Finder.   The menus are described in more detail later.

Cataloging a Disk

Before you can do anything useful with CatFinder you must first catalog some disks.  Creating a catalog is easy.  Launch CatFinder and select New from the File menu and the following dialog will appear.

 

Any disk you have currently mounted will appear in the selection list.  You can eject or insert disks to modify the selection list.  Once you have a disk mounted that you want to catalog, select the disks name and click the OK button.  

Once you have selected a disk, CatFinder will display a message while it reads the disk.  The larger the disk the longer this process will take.  Diskettes will usually only take a couple seconds, CDs can take 5 to 10 minutes because of the number of files and the slow access time of CD ROM drives.

When CatFinder has completed cataloging the disk, it will return to the main window and a new icon representing the disk will appear as shown below.

Browsing Catalogs

One of the important features of CatFinder is how easily and quickly it allows you to browse a disk's catalog.  The interface is similar to that of the Macintosh Finder and therefore intuitive to Macintosh users.  

To browse a catalog, either double-click on the disk icon or click on the triangle next to the disk icon.  A double-click on a disk icon will open a new window that contains the disk contents.  Clicking on the triangle will cause the main window list to expand to include the disk contents.

In this way, you can quickly browse the contents of any disks you have cataloged with CatFinder.  

Finder Launch and Select

CatFinder is System 7 aware and supports sending Open Events to the Finder.  If you are running System 7, CatFinder allows you to select files from its windows to be launched under the Finder or brought forward in a Finder window.  

For example, you are browsing a catalog in CatFinder for a file.  You find the file and wish to launch it.  You could insert the disk, go to the Finder and browse through the disk to find the file then double-click on it to launch it.  Or you could use CatFinder's Launch option under the Finder menu.  CatFinder will prompt you to insert the disk that contains the file and tell the Finder to launch it for you.  If the disk happened to already be mounted, CatFinder would detect this and launch the file without prompting you for the disk.

The Select option under the Finder menu works the same way, except that instead of launching the file CatFinder  tells the Finder to open the folder that contains the file and bring it to the foreground.

Disk Reports

A report of the contents of a disk can be generated by selecting a disk from the main window and then selecting the Report option from the Catalog menu.  Disk reports can be printed or exported to files by selecting Print or Export from the File menu.

Searching Catalogs 

A catalog can be searched by selecting it in the CatFinder main window then selecting the Search option under the Catalog menu.  The search dialog is pictured below.

You can use the Search radio buttons either to restrict the search to the disks you selected or to all disks.  

Name Search

To search for file(s)/folder(s) by name, click on the Name box.  First enter the name you want to search for in the field next to the Name box.  Then check the Case Sensitive Name box to search for names with cases that match the search names.  Use the Exact match on Name radio button to restrict matches to names that are the same as the search name.  You can use the Contains Name radio button to match names that contain the search name.

Creator Search

To Search for a file(s)/folder(s) that was created by a specific application, check the Creator box.  

In order to find applications created by a specific application, you need to supply CatFinder with the application's creator signature.  This is done by clicking on the Creator button.  A standard open dialog will appear.  Find the application that created the file(s) that you wish to find and select it.  This provides CatFinder with the applications signature which will be displayed in the Creator field of the Search dialog.

You can search by name or creator or both as described above.  Once the search information is entered, click the Search button.  When the search is completed, a Search Results window will appear.    

The Search Results window has a top and bottom list.  The top list contains the files and folders that were found in the search.  The bottom list is used to display the path to an item in the top list.  Simply click on an item in the top list and its location on a disk will be displayed in the bottom window.  Double-clicking on a file will cause CatFinder to attempt to launch the file (if you are running System 7).  See section "Finder Launch and Select" for more details.  

A report of the search results can be generated by selecting Report from the Catalog menu.  This report can be printed or exported to a file.

Printing Labels

CatFinder can print disk labels for the disks you have cataloged.  CatFinder's default label size is set to work with standard Avery 5196 (2 3/4" X 2 3/4") labels.

CatFinder allows you to customize the label layout so you can print on different types of labels. 

If you are printing on a Postscript capable printer, such as a LaserWriter NT, you should set the print area to be as large as possible.  This is done via the Options button on Page Setup.  If this is not done, CatFinder labels will be clipped by the page margins.

Organizing Your Catalogs

CatFinder creates a separate file for each catalog it creates.  This allows you to easily manage the catalogs as you would any document created by an application.  You can copy and delete catalogs from the finder without running CatFinder.  

By default, CatFinder stores the catalogs in the folder that the application was launched from.  However, you can make CatFinder store the catalogs in any folder by modifying the Startup Catalog Folder under the Preferences.  This allows you to store catalogs in different folders to cut down on the clutter that can occur when you have cataloged many disks.

When launched, CatFinder will load all the catalogs in the Startup Catalog Folder.  If you split your catalogs across multiple folders you can access catalogs in folders other than the Startup Catalog Folder by using the Get Catalog option under the File menu.  

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