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II. Getting Started. A. Creating working copies of the programs The basic set of programs in the Family History System is distributed on three 5 1/4" diskettes or two 3 1/2" diskette. The diskettes should be labeled B1, B2 (and B3) for identification purposes during the installation of the programs. If your diskettes do not have external labels marked in this way, you may identify the diskettes by the following: Place a diskette in the A drive and enter: A>dir A: the B1 diskette will have a file named: FHSDISK.B1 the B2 diskette will have a file named: FHSDISK.B2 and the B3 diskette will have a file named: FHSDISK.B3 The B1 diskette has an "orientation" procedure that may be started by placing the diskette in the "A" drive of your PC and entering: A:GO This 80+ page manual can be printed from files on the diskette by entering the command: A:GO PRINT MANUAL The "GO" procedure requires that the B1 diskette be in the "A" drive of your PC. If you have received the diskettes in a format that is not compatible with your "A" drive, you may still be able to use this procedure by employing the DOS ASSIGN command. For example, suppose you have received the programs on 5 1/4" diskettes but you have a 3 1/2" A drive and a 5 1/4" B drive. If you enter: ASSIGN A B and place the B1 diskette in the B drive, you may use the GO procedure to print the manual and install the programs on a hard disk. After finishing those tasks, you will want to "undo" the reassignment of drives by simply entering: ASSIGN which will return all drive assignments to normal. These "distribution" diskettes contain many files which are not required during the normal operation of the system. For instructions on how to create a working copy of the programs, without those unnecessary files, place the B1 diskette in drive "A" and enter: A:GO INSTALL Instructions are provided for installing the programs on either floppy diskettes or a hard disk. For example, you will be instructed to enter: A:GO INSTALL 2D B to install the programs on 2 360k disks or A:GO INSTALL 1D B to install the programs on 1 diskette with capacity >= 720k or A:GO INSTALL HD C to install the programs on hard disk drive "C" Those running the programs from 360k, 5 1/4" floppy diskettes should note that two program diskettes are now required (a STARTUP and a REPORT Program diskette). During an FHS working session it will be necessary for you to change program diskettes when some options are selected from the Main Menu. If you are installing the programs on a hard disk, they will be placed in a FAMILY sub-directory of the hard disk. If you are reinstalling the programs, they will simply replace the existing programs in the FAMILY sub-directory. 4 After installing the programs on diskette(s), you may start the system by placing the STARTUP program diskette in drive "A" and entering: A>fhs or A>faminit If the programs are installed on a hard disk, you will start the system by entering: C>fhs or by entering: C>cd \family and C>faminit On the PCjr, the BASIC language cartridge must be installed in one of the cartridge slots when using the "interpreted" or uncompiled version of the programs. B. Beginning a Family History System work session When starting the Family History System, the screen will be cleared and reformatted with the system's `introductory panel'. This panel, which shows the `update' of the program diskette that you are using, will only appear for a few seconds, after which the MAIN MENU of system options will appear. 1. MAIN MENU Program Besides being the first functioning panel that you will see when entering the system, the MAIN MENU provides the only `authorized' and `safe' means of exiting the system (by pressing F10). You are never far from the MAIN MENU. It can be reached from any of the programs in the system by pressing the `F9' key. The purpose of the MAIN MENU is to permit you to easily select the system function that you wish to perform. These functions include: 1. F1 - Display/Update/Create Family History System files 2. F2 - Produce Reports 3. F3 - Utility Functions 4. F4 - Set current DATE, TIME and DATE Format 5. F8 - Execute DOS Commands (DOS 3.0 or later) 6. F10- Exit from the system (Return to DOS) The system functions are selected by pressing the indicated `function key'. If any other key is pressed, a soft tone is sounded and nothing else happens. When a `legal' key is pressed, the corresponding func- tion key designator, next to the function description on the screen, will be hilited. If you have selected a function, such as F2, that has several options to choose from, you will be prompted to enter a character corresponding to the one you wish to select. When you have fully described the system function you wish to perform, the program which performs that function will be read from the program diskette and given control. If the program cannot be read from the diskette (for example, if the correct program diskette is not in the `default' drive, or the drive door is open, or the program diskette is for some other reason unreadable), the message: "Put Program diskette in default drive..." 5 will appear on the bottom line of the screen. If you are able to determine the reason for the problem and correct it (for example, by putting the correct program diskette in the appropriate drive), you may press the `space bar' and the system will make another attempt to read the program from the diskette. If for any reason you decide not to continue with the selected option, you may press the `ESC' key and you will be able to reselect any MAIN MENU option. (The ESCape key is recognised by most programs in the set as an operator request to terminate a process that has been started.) The next paragraph discusses the setting of current date and time. The section following that discusses some procedures for "customizing" the system for your configuration. If you are a first time user of the Family History System, I recommend that you review these sections before going into any other area of the system. 2. Setting CURRENT DATE, TIME and DATE Format The setting of the current date, time and default format for entering dates are the only system functions that are performed within the MAIN MENU program. Unless you have a `clock calendar' board on your computer or have previously set the date and time under the control of DOS or another program, the current DATE will probably be `01-01-1980'. Because the current date is used to determine the ages of living persons that appear on some of the reports and in the file maintenance program, it is important that it be properly set if any reports are to be produced. The time is not used by the system and is only included for your convenience. If you press the F4 key, you will be prompted to: Select: 1) Change DATE and TIME 2) Change DATE Format If you select "2) Change DATE Format", you will be prompted to: Select: 1) MM-DD-YYYY 2) DD.MM.YYYY 3) YYYY.MM.DD 4) SAVE If you press "1", "2" or "3" the format for the current date will be changed accordingly. The format that appears there will be the one that must be used for entering dates in the file update program. After you have selected your preferred format, you may press "4" to SAVE the date format in file FAMILY.DAT so that it will be "remembered" the next time you begin a FHS working session. If you simply press the Enter key, the format will be used only for the remainder of the current working session. If you select "1) Change DATE and TIME", you will be prompted to: Enter the current DATE and TIME and the cursor will appear at the left most character of the displayed date. You must enter the date in the format displayed. Further, it must be a valid date and not be before "Jan 1,1980". After entering the date, the cursor will automatically advance to the first character of the time. The time must be entered in the form HH:MM:SS. You may use the 24 hour convention for denoting AM or PM. If you wish to go back to reenter the date, press the SHIFT+TAB keys at the same time. 6 After you have keyed in the date and time to your liking, you may indicate to the program that you wish to reset the current values by pressing the RETURN or ENTER key. If an error is found in either the date or time, a tone will be sounded and you may correct the error. If for any reason you wish to terminate the option, you may press the ESC key and you will then be able to reselect any of the MAIN MENU options. 3. Setting DEFAULT System Parameters One thing you may wish to do when you first begin a FHS session is to examine the system defaults for the file names, screen attribute table, and printer setup table used by the system (Main Menu options F3-A,B,C). Some reasons for doing this are: a. To customize the default family file names. For example, you may want to change the names of the family file datasets from FAMILY.NAM, FAMILY.ADR and FAMILY.OTH to something like RUSSELL.NAM, RUSSELL.ADR and RUSSELL.OTH. You can of course build multiple family files and it is common to use the primary surname as a dataset prefix to distinguish them. You will also want to make sure that the "drive identifiers", that is, the two characters at the beginning of each dataset name ("A:", "B:", "C:" etc.), are correct for your placement of the datasets. These adjustments can be made using Main Menu option F3-A. b. To choose a more satisfactory set of screen attributes (colors or light/normal/dim brightness) for the display of information on the screen. Although the system, upon first entry, checks to see whether the IBM monochrome or a graphics display adapter is being used and selects a "screen attribute table" accordingly, if you are using a color monitor you may find the colors used to be unappealing or difficult to read. Main Menu option F3-B permits you to adjust these. c. To choose a printer control table more appropriate for your equipment. While the original printer table is based upon a common standard, there are a number of tables for more specific printers selectable under Main Menu option F3-C. You may also create a custom printer setup for printers not formally supported by a prepared setup. (Please see Sections III-H,I,J for more complete discussions of these options). 4. CREATING and UPDATING a set of Family files Data files for the Family History System are initialized and updated in the system's FILE MAINTENANCE Program which is selected by MAIN MENU option F1. This program is distinguished by its use of `seg- mented' displays. Sections III.G and III.F discuss in more detail the design of these displays and the general rules for updating infor- 7 mation on them. In the following discussion I will refer to each of the formatted segments of the screen as a "view". The first `view' you are presented in the file update program shows the Menu of options available in the File Maintenance program. This view provides the only `legal' means for EXITing the file maintenance program (by pressing `F9' to request a return to the system's MAIN MENU display). At that time, all "open" files will be "closed" and all updates which may have been held in memory by DOS will be permanently written to your family files. If the program diskette has been removed from the default drive (for example if a separate data diskette has been placed in that drive) you will be prompted to replace the program diskette at the appropriate time. You should not replace the program diskette before being prompted to do so because the "open" files may not have been completely updated yet. (You are never `far' from this list of primary options while in the file maintenance program. It can be reached from just about any part of the program by pressing the ESCape key enough times.) The first option selected whenever the file update program is being used should be `F1', Open/Close/Create Family Files. (It is automat- ically selected for you when you enter this program.) When a program `opens' a file, it is requesting the operating system to permit it to read information from or write information to the file. Ordinarily this is done automatically by a program without the user's having to do anything. In this program however, because the files remain open for long periods of time to process multiple user requests, and because a file could potentially become `damaged' if the user were to change data diskettes or `illegally' exit from the system (for example, by turning the machine off) while the file is open, I have chosen to require you to explicitly request that the files be opened at the beginning of the program as a reminder of the situation that prevails. All open files will automatically be closed when you return to the MAIN MENU program. (See section II.C for a discussion about protecting yourself from loss of information in damaged files.) When the "Open/Close/Create" option is selected, you will see dis- played in the upper right viewing area a list of the "datasets" used to store your family information as well as the options that may be `function key' selected from this view. You should also note that the `hilited' border moves from the upper left to the upper right viewing area. While in this program, the `active' view (the one from which program options may be selected) is enclosed by a `hilited' border. (NOTE: The term "dataset" is used here to refer to a named area on a diskette or hard disk which contains a program or data. I am told that this term is peculiar to an IBM environment, but it is one that I find natural and will use frequently in this document. Many people will use the term "file" for what I am calling a dataset, however I usually think of a "file" as a collection of logically related infor- mation and as such it may consist of several datasets. When I speak of a "Family File" I will mean the entire collection of information that is stored in the three datasets described here.) Three datasets are used by the system to store your family history 8 information. You might think of these as three card files used to store different types of information. The first dataset, the NAME dataset, is used to store basic information concerning an individual, including the name, sex, birth and death dates of the individual. The second dataset is used to store the various types of ADDRESSes that are permitted in the system. The third dataset of OTHER data contains: birth, death and marriage places; marriage records; health, education, military and work information; and notes or comments. Because you may wish to maintain multiple family files, with different names, or you may wish to place the datasets on one or more separate data diskettes located on a different drive from the program diskette, you are permitted to change the file `specifications' displayed before opening or creating the files. I refer you to your DOS manual for a description of file naming conventions which you should use. (Please note that the "A:" before the dataset name describes the drive on which the program is to look for the dataset. You may change this to "B:", "C:", etc. if you want the program to look for the datasets on a drive other than the "A" drive.) If this is your FIRST time using the system you will want to `CREATE' or initialize the file by selecting option F3. (If the datasets already exist, you will be asked to confirm that it is okay to DELETE the datasets during the process of re-initializing them. Be WARNED that REinitializing a set of family datasets will result in the LOSS of ALL DATA currently stored in them.) After the file has been CREATEd, in future executions of this program you will use F1 to simply OPEN the files. When the datasets are open you may return to the view of main options of the file maintenance program by pressing the ESCape key. (Before continuing with this section, you may want to read Appendix B concerning the recording of information on Family Group Worksheets prior to entry in the system.) In what follows, I will not attempt to fully describe all the options available in the file maintenance program, however I will try to describe the following: a) ADDING a NAME record to the file; b) Recording MARRIAGE information; c) Maintaining ADDRESS information; d) Listing CHILDREN of an individual or `marriage'; e) `Climbing' the ancestor tree through PARENT relationships; f) SEARCHing name records. I hope that you will experiment to become familiar with these and other parts of the file maintenance program so that you may determine which options of the program are appropriate for recording the histor- ical information of your family. a) ADDING a NAME RECORD to the File If you are just beginning to enter data into your family file then, after opening the files and returning to the primary menu of file maintenance options,you will select option "F2 ADD a Name Record". 9 The `current viewing area' will move to the upper right corner of the screen which will be formatted with labels describing the information that you may enter into the name record for the first individual to be added to the system. You will note that the assigned record ID (on the first line of the screen) is `1'. Each NAME record that you create will be assigned an ID number which just indicates the order in which the records have been entered into the file. These ID numbers are used to identify records for the purpose of defining relationships between them (such as parent-child or spousal relationships) but the value of the ID number itself has no special significance. When you start to enter information into a Name record, the blinking cursor appears in the 1st position of the SURNAME field. Pressing the "TAB" key (to the left of the "Q" on most keyboards) causes the cursor to advance successively to other updatable fields on the screen. You will note that pressing the ENTER or RETURN key will move the cursor to the first position of the first updatable field on the NEXT line. You must use the TAB key to move to other fields which are to the right of the cursor on the SAME line. Section III.F.1 describes other rules for entering information into the formatted displays used in this program. Of course the ID # of a parent cannot be entered into a child's record unless a record has previously been created for the parent. If the parent's record is added after the child's, then you may go back and update the child's record with the correct ID number for the parent to establish the parent-child relationship. Although the Birth and Death places appear in the view of the name record information, they are not actually stored in the NAME record. Because this information is not generally known for distant ancestors or relatives, I have made this part of a separate record. If neither location is known, leave the fields blank and no space will be used on the data diskette. Entry of anything in either data item will result in the creation of a single 50 character record for storing the information. I have allowed for recording the times of birth and death in the NAME record. Although this is also information which is not generally known about distant ancestors or relatives, in this case a total of only 4 `characters' are required to store the informa- tion so relatively little space is lost if these times are unknown or you decide not to maintain a record of them. You will note four unlabeled single-character fields to the right of the birth/death dates and father/mother ID's. These are "status" fields whose use is described in Appendix C. Among other things, these may be used to distinguish adoptive parent/child relationships. The "Use:" field to the right of the Surname field was added in February 1987 to handle a "problem" that arises when creating indexes or printing reports using some of the extended options of 10 the system. There you are permitted to request that a woman's surname be replaced with that of her (most recent) husband, which seems more appropriate for things like Birthday or Anniversary lists. However this didn't take into account the situation in which a woman chooses to continue using her own surname after marriage. A value of "Y" entered in the "Surname...Use:" field of a married woman tells those programs that her own surname is always to be used when building indexes or printing reports. After all information has been correctly entered, press F1 to cause a record to be created in the file. The bottom line of the viewing area will then be replaced with a list of standard options available when displaying an individual's information. The displayed Name record information may be modified by pressing function key F1 twice, and making changes as above. Another record may be added by pressing the F1 key, then the F2 key and proceeding as above. Other options will be discussed in the following sections. Please note when adding or updating a NAME record, the action of the F3 key is described as "RESTORE FIELD VALUE". This means that when you press the F3 key, the field that contains the cursor will be restored to the last displayed value. This should simplify the sequential entry of records with repeated values in certain fields. For example birth or death places, or the Surnames of children in the same family. b) Creating a MARRIAGE or FAMILY record. After name records have been created for each of the participants in a marriage, the marriage or family record may be created by pressing the F4 (SPOUSE) key in the view of name record informa- tion for either spouse (a single marriage record is maintained for both spouses). The `current viewing area' will shift to the upper left corner of the screen, which will be formatted with descriptions of the information stored in a marriage record. If a marriage has previously been recorded for the spouse whose name record is displayed, information from the most recent marriage record will be shown. A new record may be created by pressing the F1 key, then the F2 key. If no marriage record currently exists for the displayed spouse, the view will be ready for information to be entered. If you do not want to enter information at that time, you may press the ESCape key to return to the Name record viewing area. When entering marriage information, to describe the other partner in the marriage, press the F2 key, type the record ID for that individual and press the RETURN key. The individual's NAME record will be retrieved and descriptive information displayed to confirm that the correct ID # has been entered. If it is incorrect, you may press the F2 key again to change the value of the spouse ID. To update the marriage STATUS, Date and Place fields, press the F3 key and use the TAB key to move to the fields that need to be updated. Although the beginning status field will normally 11 indicate that a marriage was performed, other types of arrangements may be indicated such as common-law (marriage), communal (living arrangement), etc; the partners in the relationship will still be identified as spouses in all reports. The termination status field may indicate: "wife died", "husband died", "divorced", "annulled", "agreement", etc. If a relationship is known to have terminated but the date is unknown, the year of the ending date should be 9999. Please note that it is necessary for you to manually enter this termination date even when one or both spouses are recorded as deceased. It is not automatically updated with the death date of a spouse because that may represent an incorrect assumption on the part of the program. The report programs will take the death dates of the spouses into consideration when computing the number of years married, however an "*" will appear to the right of that number, if a death date was used to determine it, to call your attention to the fact that the program has made what may be an incorrect assumption in computing it. The PLACE fields that appear after the STATUS/DATE fields are handled similarly to BIRTH/DEATH place fields. If nothing is entered in either of the fields, then no space is taken in the file for them. If any text is entered in either field, then a single 50 character record is created to hold both 22 character fields. Press the F1 key when all status information has been correctly entered. After both spouse ID and status information have been satisfac- torily entered, pressing the F1 key again will cause the record to be written to the family file. If either spouse has other spouse records on file, the record being added will be merged with the others in reverse order of the beginning dates (so that the most recent record occurs first). If there is an earlier marriage record on file for the spouse whose name record is displayed in the NAME record viewing area, there will be a message at the bottom of the screen informing you that you may: Press the PGUP key to display an earlier record You cannot press the PGDN key to display a later record. If you wish to back up in a series of marriages, you must press the ESCape key to return to the NAME record viewing area, then press the F4 key to begin again with the most recent marriage record. Please note that there are three separate steps to creating a marriage record: a. Update the ID for spouse b. Update the status fields, dates and places c. Save the information in a file record No information is placed in the file until the last step is performed. You should also be aware that a marriage record need not be created in order to establish parent/child relationships. Within the FHS family files, there is no forced connection between parenting and marriages. 12 Options available to you after the marriage record has been added are shown on the bottom line of the viewing area and include: F1 UPDATE (Change, Add or Delete); F2 SELECT (the spouse to be displayed in Name record viewing area); F3 List CHILDren having both spouses as parents; F4 List RESidence information; F5 Display/Enter COMments about the family relationship. Pressing the ESCape key in the view of SPOUSE or MARRIAGE informa- tion returns you to the Name record viewing area. c) Maintaining ADDRESS information. Address information may be recorded in a number of places within an individual's total information record. It may indicate the indivi- dual's residence, a family residence (under the spouse record), or an address related to one of the additional records for education, health, work or military information. The information which is stored in an address record includes: Beginning and ending dates during which the address information was current; Address (two 30 character lines); City (15 character field); State (4 character abbreviation); Zip or country (5 character field); Telephone (3 numeric fields; early phone numbers using alphabetic prefixes cannot be recorded here.) Comments may subsequently be recorded concerning information that is particularly relevant to the address record. (This might include a physical description of a home.) Multiple addresses may be recorded of each of the above types. All addresses under a given type record (name, spouse, health, etc.) will be `chained' together in reverse order of beginning date so that the most recent address occurs first. The extended system offers options for producing lists of latest (residence) addresses and for creating a MailMerge format file of address information. The MailMerge file can be used with many database programs for printing mailing labels. It may also be used with many word processors for printing form letters. (NOTE: it has come to my attention that the above described format for address information is not appropriate for many foreign addresses, and some domestic U.S. ones as well. I do plan to make adjustments to this area sometime in the future, but it will not likely be in the very near future because it will require that all users go thru a conversion process for their family files.) d) Listing CHILDREN of an individual or marriage Pressing the F3 key in the display for the individual's Name record or for a SPOUSE record results in the listing of children parented by the individual or by both spouses. The list appears in a viewing area occupying the bottom half of the screen. Up to 9 children may be listed; if there are more, you may continue the 13 list by pressing the PGDN key. You may request to select one of the children for display in the Name record viewing area by pressing the F1 key and using the UP and DOWN cursor control keys to select the ID number of the desired child. Another child may be selected by returning to the child list (as a result of pressing the ESCape key in the view of Name record information) or by pressing the CTRL+PGDN or CTRL+PGUP key combinations in the view of Name record information for the pre- viously selected child. e) Climbing Ancestor Trees through PARENT relationships. The file maintenance program was designed so that the user could easily follow lines of ancestry (or descendancy) from one gene- ration to another. The previous section described how you might start with an individual, list his/her children, select one of the children for display, after which the grandchildren parented by that child may be listed, a grandchild selected for display, etc. The family tree may be examined in the `reverse' direction also. From the display of an individual's Name record information, pressing the F2 key moves the current viewing area to the upper left corner of the screen where information about the parents is displayed. From that view, the parents' children may be displayed (the full brothers and sisters of the original individual) by pressing the F3 key, or the Father or Mother may be selected for display in the Name record viewing area by pressing the F1 or F2 function keys respectively. If a parent is selected for display, then their parents (one set of grandparents of the original indivi- dual) may be displayed using the F2 key. Continuing in this way, a single chain of ancestor relationships may be examined to exhaus- tion. To help you remember how far the ancestor chain has been examined, the `RELATIVE GENERATION LEVEL' of the displayed individual(s) is shown in the upper right corner of the Name record, parent, spouse and child displays. The generation level is reset to 0 whenever an individual is selected for viewing for some reason other than a parent, child or spouse relationship (for example, by selecting from a `search list'...see below). f) SEARCHing the Name Records on file. The file maintenance program contains a procedure for making (limited) searches of the Name records on file. This would ordi- narily be used to determine the record ID for some individual whose information or family relationships were to be examined or modi- fied. The view for initiating searches is displayed by pressing the F4 function key from the view of primary options for the file mainte- nance program. The viewing area in the upper left corner of the screen will be cleared and reformatted with fields describing the criteria for limiting the search. These include: limits on record ID; Surname (or portion of a surname...e.g. the first 2 char); 14 Given name (or portion of a Given name); Range of Birth dates; Range of Death dates. The searches on Surname and Given name are sensitive to upper and lower cases; i.e. neither `brown' nor `BROWN' will match a record with Surname `Brown' (but a search for `Brown' will match). Also the range comparisons on dates make the month-day and Year checks independently. Therefore a search with: 02/00/1930 <= Birth Date <= 02/99/1940 will locate name records with birth dates in the month of February and between the years 1930, 1940 inclusive. After the search criteria have been satisfactorily entered, the search is started by pressing the F1 key. The current viewing area moves to the lower half of the screen and the search begins. A reverse-video display in the lower left corner of the screen shows the record ID for the name record currently being examined. The search process can be interrupted by pressing the space bar, then the search may be continued by pressing the PGDN key or you may select for display one of the record ID's already found by pressing the F1 key and using the UP and DOWN cursor controls to move the reverse-video `box' to the correct ID #, and then pressing the ENTER or RETURN key. After displaying a name record located through a search, other members in the `active search list' may be selected for display by either pressing the ESCape key from the name record viewing area to return to the search list (if it has not been overlain) or by pressing the PGDN or PGUP keys in the Name record viewing area. A search list becomes inactive when another search begins or when the ESCape key is pressed in the search list viewing area. C. Importance of `BACKING UP' your FAMILY Files As with all `dynamic' files whose creation and maintenance represents a considerable investment of time, the importance of keeping multiple backup copies of the files cannot be overemphasized. All of the information you enter is stored in the three datasets that make up a FHS family file. Using the "default" names, these are the FAMILY.NAM, FAMILY.ADR and FAMILY.OTH datasets. These are the only files that you need "backup" to preserve your data. There is one other file that you may consider backing up...the FAMILY.DAT file. That is where any changes that you make to the file name table, the screen colors, the error tone, the printer tables and the date format are kept. The standard DOS COPY utility should be adequate for most users to create these `backup' files. If one of your family file datasets exceeds the capacity of your backup device, then you must use the DOS BACKUP utility (or something equivalent) to create your backup files. The BACKUP utility will prompt you for additional diskettes if they 15 are needed to receive the backup copy of your family information. The DOS RESTORE utility is required to recover a file from a backup created with the BACKUP program. Furthermore, the 'backup' files that you create with the BACKUP utility cannot be used directly by the FHS programs. The backup files MUST be RESTOREd in order to be used by the programs. The usual COPY command is used to recover a file from backups created with the COPY command. The copies created by the COPY command ARE usable by the programs without having to copy them back to their original location. I would recommend always creating a backup copy of the data files before each extended file maintenance session, especially if your area is subject to power fluctuations. I would also recommend that you not reuse a backup diskette until at least two subsequent backups have been taken. If portions of a data file do become unreadable, you are cautioned that when using standard disk utilities to remove the damaged sections, direct file pointers joining information together within the files may become unusable. It is best in this case to return to a backup copy of the files. The "validation" option, Main Menu option F3-E described in Section VI of this manual, may be able to eliminate the "pointer errors" but it will not be able to "correct" them. If it is necessary to restore your family file from a backup copy, you should always restore all three datasets from the same backup copy. Attempting to restore just part of a family file will likely result in some system maintained pointer fields becoming invalid. This can cause abnormal program termination, spurious messages, or "garbage" or invalid information in reports. Again the validaton program may be able to eliminate the problems associated with "bad pointers" if it is necessary to "partially restore" a file, but you will have to carefully examine the resulting file to determine whether any informa- tion will have to be reentered. If you have an extended update session interrupted by a power failure or by inadvertantly turning off your PC, it is possible that some of the updates will not have been written to the file, which could result in incorrect "pointer fields" connecting records in the family file. The "pointer validation option" can locate and help eliminate such file errors as well. 16