Apart from bug-fixes, the following changes have been made since v.6.60 for
which the printed manual was written
v.6.70 - Sep 14, 1995
=====================
Record design
-------------
The field creation dialogue box now has a new menu button which displays a
menu of the defined fields. The data for a field chosen from this menu is
displayed in the dialogue box just as if you had clicked MENU over the
field. There is also a 'Fit' button which adjusts the width of a field icon
to fit the defined data length.
CSV export/import
-----------------
CSV files can now be exported with the record number as the first item on
every line. This feature was added to meet a specific requirement of mine,
namely to be able to have several people updating records from the same
database on different machines and then combine all the edited data into one
copy of the database. Others may have similar requirements but the feature
must be used with great care. It resembles the existing feature whereby you
can export a CSV file with the primary key at the start of each line. On
import the latter looks up the key and, if found, loads and modifies the
record. If not found it creates a new record as in a normal CSV import. The
new feature loads and modifies the record whose number appears in the CSV
record. Since the two features should not be used together they are selected
by a pair of radio buttons on the CSV options window.
Searching for records
---------------------
The index to be searched may be changed, using a pair of "bump" icons
WITHOUT changing the currently selected key as determined by the keypad
buttons. If you find the preceding sentence unclear try the following:-
(a) Load !Elements and use the "key" button(s) on the keypad to make
Atomic number the active key. (Its descriptor should turn red.)
(b) Click the Search button and use the bump icons to make Search box show
"in PrimaryKey index".
(c) Enter SULP and type <Return>. The record for SULPHUR, element 16, will
be displayed.
(d) Click the "next record" arrow button on the keypad. The record which
comes up will be that for element 17, CHLORINE. i.e. the current key
is still the Atomic number, even though you performed the search on
the primary key.
Selecting fields for printing
-----------------------------
You may select a range of contiguous fields by clicking with SELECT to place
the caret in the first field, then double-clicking with ADJUST in the last
field. A switch has been added to the Print window to include the current key
of each printed record in a report.
Formula entry for calculated/composite fields
---------------------------------------------
The dialogue box for this is now of the "persistent" type, rather than a
leaf of a menu tree. It is therefore possible to enter tags into the formula
by clicking SELECT on the relevant field while holding Ctrl down. (Earlier
documentation stated, erroneously, that this was possible.) The tag, both
here and in the query panel, is now inserted at the caret instead of always
at the right-hand end of ths string as previously.
Abandon database
----------------
This menu choice has been removed. It confused many users and could, under
some circumstances, lead to a database containing records which did not
correspond to their keys. The situation now is that closing a database
(either with Close database or Quit) causes no writing back to the database
unless a change has been made, in which case write-back is automatic as
before. An asterisk appears in the title bar when the database is altered
but this is for information only since the user need do nothing to ensure
that the disc is updated. Clicking on Force update does exactly the same
writing to the disc as closing the database so, if you use this button when
the asterisk is showing, the asterisk will disappear again.
Key structure
-------------
The Case sensitive and Pad with spaces buttons now work as they should. A
further option switch has been added to allow you to skip nulls when
creating an index. The switch is greyed out when creating the Primary key
since nulls aren't allowed there anyway. Note that using this option will
mean that the Info window off the main menu could show different numbers of
records when different keys are selected.
The structure of the current key can be displayed with Ctrl K.
Fast forward/rewind
-------------------
Once started this used to continue - uselessly - after closing the record
window. It now stops when you do that.
Print selections
----------------
These, when saved, now include the settings in the Numeric fields box.
Indices directory
-----------------
The Indices directory of an open database can be displayed with Ctrl I.
Sequence numbers
----------------
Problems have been reported of sequence numbers not working as expected
during CSV-import and database-merging. A new option switch has now been
added to each of the relevant dialogue boxes allowing the user to either
accept the sequence numbers already in the imported records or to assign new
ones according to the field's current sequence counter.
Old search formula
------------------
Ctrl O will retrieve the last-used search formula whenever the Query panel
is visible. If the Query panel is NOT visible the usual effect of Ctrl O
will be to open the Print window with the last search formula displayed. If,
however, a filter is in force and the Filter window has been closed the
latter will be re-opened with the search formula displayed.
This is a small increase in functionality but one which will, we believe, be
appreciated by many users.
v. 6.90 - Jan 28, 1996
======================
This is a substantially cleaned-up version, many bugs (major and minor) having been eliminated. A particularly nasty example was the way a new record would occasionally be assigned the number of an existing record, overwriting the latter. This resulted from deleting one or more records (DELETING, not simply MOVING to another subfile) and then rebuilding the primary key before enough new records had been entered to replace all the deleted ones. Users will be very glad to see the end of this one!
A change to the way colours are assigned to selected and unselected primary and secondary keys means that the 'Colours' file of old databases is no longer valid and that a new file called 'Cols' is needed instead. v. 6.90 will do the file replacement for you but you might have to reset some or all of the colours from the Colours dialogue box if you aren't using the defaults.
