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For those users who are unfamiliar with this Text Reader (MuchMore), press the "Help" key for a description of the control keys. To print this documentation, just set up your printer, and simultaneously press <Alt - Shift - O>. These 5 instruction lines should not be printed. bBaseIII Version 1.4 by Robert Bromley August 26, 1993 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................ 2 1.1 What is bBaseIII? ................................. 2 1.2 Feature Summary .................................. 3 1.3 Hardware Requirements ............................. 3 1.4 Software Requirements ............................. 3 1.5 Restrictions ...................................... 3 1.6 Starting bBaseIII ................................. 4 1.7 The bBaseIII Screen ............................... 4 1.8 Copyright ......................................... 4 2 THE REQUESTERS .......................................... 5 2.1 The ARP File Requester ............................ 5 2.2 The Input Requester ............................... 5 2.3 The Choice Requester .............................. 5 3 THE CURSOR KEYS ......................................... 5 3.1 If the Input Requester is NOT Open ................ 5 3.2 If the Input Requester IS Open .................... 6 4 THE SCREEN GADGETS ...................................... 6 5 THE PROGRESS BAR ........................................ 7 6 THE NOTES OPTION ........................................ 7 7 THE MENUS ............................................... 8 7.1 Project Menu ...................................... 8 7.1.1 Create a New Database <F1> .................. 8 7.1.2 Open an Existing Database <F2> .............. 9 7.1.3 Show All Records <A> ........................ 9 7.1.4 Show Tagged Records ........................... 9 7.1.5 Save Database <F3> .......................... 9 7.1.6 Save As ...................................... 9 7.1.7 Save Tagged Records .......................... 10 7.1.8 Encrypt/Decrypt a File ....................... 10 7.1.9 About ........................................ 10 7.1.10 Quit <Esc> .................................. 10 7.2 Sort Menu ......................................... 10 7.2.1 Incremental Sort <F4> ....................... 11 7.2.2 Decremental Sort <F5> ....................... 11 7.3 Search Menu ....................................... 11 7.3.1 Search Fields <F6> .......................... 11 7.3.2 Search Notes ................................. 12 7.3.3 Tag All ...................................... 12 7.3.4 UnTag All <U> ............................... 12 7.3.5 Tag Invert ................................... 12 7.3.6 Next Tagged Record <X> ...................... 12 7.3.7 Goto a Record <G> ........................... 12 7.4 Change Menu ....................................... 13 7.4.1 Field Titles ................................. 13 7.4.2 Swap Position of 2 Fields .................... 13 7.4.3 No. of Lines in Note Area .................... 13 7.4.4 Fast Forward/Reverse ......................... 13 1 7.5 Print Menu ........................................ 13 7.5.1 Displayed Record (to Printer) <F8> .......... 13 7.5.2 Displayed Record (to a File) ................. 14 7.5.3 Select Print Options <F9> ................... 14 7.5.4 Create WordPerfect Mail-Merge Data File ...... 14 7.5.5 Create Final Copy Mail-Merge Data File ....... 14 7.5.6 Create ProWrite Mail-Merge Data File ......... 14 7.6 Add Menu ......................................... 14 7.6.1 A Field ...................................... 14 7.6.2 A Record <F10> .............................. 14 7.6.3 Displayed Record <C> ........................ 14 7.7 Delete Menu ....................................... 15 7.7.1 A Field ...................................... 15 7.7.2 Displayed Record <Del> ...................... 15 7.7.3 All Tagged Records <D> ...................... 15 7.7.4 UNdelete a Record ............................ 15 7.8 Notes Menu ........................................ 15 7.8.1 Enable ....................................... 15 7.8.2 Disable ...................................... 15 7.8.3 View/Edit Notes <N> ......................... 16 8 OTHER FEATURES .......................................... 16 8.1 The "Disable Save" Option ......................... 16 8.2 The Low Memory Warning ............................ 17 8.3 The Print Options Window .......................... 17 8.3.1 Hardcopy Reports ............................. 18 8.3.2 Mailing Labels ............................... 18 9 EXAMPLE DATABASE ........................................ 19 10 THE COMPETITION ......................................... 19 11 A NOTE ON ERROR MESSAGES ................................ 19 12 IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM! .................................. 20 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 What is bBaseIII? bBaseIII is a full-featured, graphically interfaced, reasonably fast and, I think you will agree, quite an easy-to-use database program. Basically, it will sort, search for, display and print out stored information, but there is more! Refer to Section 1.2 - "Feature Summary". Once a database has been loaded from disk, all modifications are done in computer memory, and will NOT be permanently saved until the database is Saved to disk. This can be done using the Menu, the Function Keys, or upon Quiting. Almost all functions of bBase may be accessed from Menus, and many also have keyboard equivalents. It multi-tasks extremely well, as it does not burn up CPU time while not actually performing operations. bBaseIII was written in HiSoft BASIC Version 1.05, and compiled using the HiSoft BASIC Professional compiler. 2 1.2 Feature Summary Some of the features of bBaseIII are: - Very straightforward and EASY to use. - Complete Graphical User Interface. - Incremental or decremental sort, on any field. - Uses a fast (for a BASIC program) shell-sort algorithm. - Add or delete a field at any time. - Restore deleted records. - Copy a record to a "clip", ie. an ASCII text file, that may be imported into another program. - Save records in a format which can be (mail) merged into form letters created by popular word processors. - Optionally display entire database, or a filtered list, a screenful at a time. - Print out a record, a filtered list, or the whole database, in many different formats. - Print mailing labels. - Databases may be scrambled for security, and then restored. - A "Note" may be optionally attached to each record, independant of the sorting fields, which will store over 1K of data. - Search in any (or all) field(s), or the "Note" Area if active. - Range Search, (less than or greater than) in any (or all) field(s). - Any record may be quickly accessed with just a few mouse-clicks. - Optionally disable the "Save to Disk" option to prevent accidental alteration of the database. - Well behaved in a multi-tasking environment. - See "Revision History" for a more complete list. 1.3 Hardware Requirements Database programs tend to gobble up large amounts of memory. bBaseIII is no exception. Since bBaseIII opens on it's own screen, and reserves memory to hold the database, it requires about 800K of available memory to run properly with a 300K+ database. bBaseIII_600 and the Demo version require about 550K. Therefore, bBaseIII will not run on a basic 512 Kb machine. I have personally only tested bBase on unaccelerated A500 and A2000 computers using WB1.2, WB1.3 and WB2.04, but users have told me that it also works "great" with a 40 mhz 68030 processor, some 32-bit SRAM, and an A4000 with WB 3.0, so I think it will work on any Amiga. 1.4 Software Requirements The arp.library must be present in your Libs: directory for bBase to run. Also, if you want to print a file, the appropriate printer driver must be in the "SYS:devs/printers" directory. (Refer to Section 11 - "A NOTE ON ERROR MESSAGES). 1.5 Restrictions - 9 fields per record, plus, optionally, a 1K+ area for "Notes". - 1250 records, or a database of approximately 310K, whichever comes first. (600 records and 125K for bBaseIII_600). 3 1.6 Starting bBaseIII From the Workbench; just click on the icon. From the CLI; usage is: Run bBaseIII [-i] [-s] [-fFilename!] Including the -i switch will start bBase on an interlaced screen, but it will be stuck in the top half. It's there if you want it! Including the -s switch will start bBase with Saves Disabled. Including the -f switch will automatically load the requested database file. If using this switch, do not leave a space between "-f" and the filename, and be sure to add an exclamation point (!) immediately after the filename. Also, do not include the ".bbase" extension. EG. : Run bBaseIII -s -fDF0:Files/Recipes! NOTE Naturally, when using the -f switch, no exclamation points should be used in the filename path. When bBase is initially run, all of the Menu items, except five items in the Project Menu, will be ghosted until a database file is loaded. The exception, of course, is if the "-f" switch is used. In that case a file will already be loaded. 1.7 The bBaseIII Screen The bBaseIII screen is a full size, high resolution, non-interlaced, borderless screen using 8 colors. It will auto-load the Topaz 8 font if it is not already being used. To date, my compiler does not allow gadgets to be put on the screen itself, so bBase does not have a back or front gadget. This means that some users may be unable to access any other screens, with the exception of using <Left Amiga - N> to return to the Workbench screen. A "screen shuffler" program, of course, will solve this problem. To anyone who still does not have one of these programs, I highly recommend that you get one - they generally make life easier. There are a variety of shufflers available in Fred Fish's collection: AutoCLI, Mach (II, III, IV) and MouseAide to name just three, or if space is at a premium, try QMouse. There are two flavors of QMouse, one for WB1 and one for WB2. Both of these tiny little wonders do a lot in under 4K. As an aid to those who may have this problem, QMice will be included on the Registered disk. QMouse V1.6 is a shareware program by Lyman Epp. QMouse V2.02, by Dan Babcock, is PD. On computers running AmigaDos Release 2, the <Left Amiga - M> combination seems to do the job well. 1.8 Copyright bBaseIII is Copyright © 1992 by Robert Bromley. All rights reserved. This program, and its documentation, is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Use this program at your own risk and discretion. 4 bBaseIII is shareware, and NOT Public Domain. The Demo version ONLY may be distributed, providing: 1. This file is included, unaltered, with ALL distribution copies. 2. If bBaseIII is included with other programs in a compilation disk or set of disks, then one copy of each of these disk(s) is sent to me at the address shown in the shareware message which appears immediately after the program starts. This message identifies the version as being a Demo version. The Demo version is identical to the Registered version in all respects, except that it will not Load databases of larger than about 125K, or Save databases of larger than 30 records. This is enough to give you the "flavor" of the program. 2 THE REQUESTERS 2.1 The ARP File Requester The requester used when asking for a file to Load or Save is the standard ARP file requester. 2.2 The Input Requester This requester is used for general input. It has full editing capabilities. It may be blanked at any time by pressing <Alt - X>. Any time this requester is open, pressing <Esc> will close it. 2.3 The Choice Requester This requester will pop up at the top left corner, and advise you of some impending action. Typically, it will give you the option to Proceed, or Cancel that action. 3 THE CURSOR KEYS 3.1 If the Input Requester is NOT Open: Pressing the Cursor Up key will take you directly to the First Record. The Cursor Down key displays the Last Record. The Cursor Left key shows the Previous numerical Record, and the Cursor Right key will show the Next numerical Record. You can also move through the records using the mouse. (Refer to Section 4 - "THE SCREEN GADGETS"). Please note that for "browsing" through the database, the Left/Right Cursor keys are the slowest way to do it. If you are looking for a particular record, I would encourage users to either Search for it, or use the Alphabetic Jump Bar. This will be much faster. (Refer to Section 4 - "THE SCREEN GADGETS", SubSection 3). 5 3.2 If the Input Requester IS Open: Whenever you are in Edit Mode (when the input requester is open, so that you may Enter or Change data), Cursor Left/Right moves the cursor within the gadget, while Cursor Up/Down moves through the fields. You may also position the cursor by clicking in the requester. 4 THE SCREEN GADGETS At the top left corner of the screen, there is a gadget labeled "Esc". Clicking on this gadget is the same as pressing the <Esc> key. The action performed when this gadget is clicked depends on your present situation, and is explained in the relevant sections, but generally it will Cancel some action. This gadget is available only when a database is loaded. Just above the upper-right corner of the Data Area is the Tag Box. Any records which are currently on the Tag List will be identified by a check-mark in this box. Clicking in this gadget will act as a toggle. If the currently displayed record is not on the Tag List, ie. not "tagged", then clicking here will add it to the list. If the displayed record is tagged, then clicking here will remove it from the list. Pressing <T> is the keyboard equivalent of this feature. (Refer to Sections 7.3.3 and 4 - "Search - Tag/UnTag All"). The number of records currently on the Tag List, if any, will be displayed just to the left of the Tag Box. The Information Box at the bottom of the screen contains / \ a gadget that looks something like that shown at the | | right. This gadget represents the Cursor Keys, and << <== G ==> >> you can move about the database using these gadgets and | | the mouse instead of the Cursor Keys, if you so desire. \ / Clicking on the Up Arrow will take you directly to the First Record. Clicking on the Down Arrow will take you to the Last Record. The inner Left Arrow will show the Previous numerical Record, and the inner Right Arrow will show the Next numerical Record. There are several other gadgets which will be helpful to those who have large databases. They will help you to position yourself in the database more easily. These are: 1. The outer horizontal arrow gadgets are Fast Forward (or Reverse) gadgets. Clicking on either of these will send you forward (or backward) through the database 10 records at a time. This number is user configurable. (Refer to Section 7.4.4 - "Change - Fast Forward/Reverse"). The keyboard equivalents of these "fast" gadgets are the "<" and ">" keys. 2. Clicking on the "G" in the center of the arrows (or pressing <G> on the keyboard) will bring up the input requester, asking for the number of a record to "Go to". After entering a legal number, the requested record will be displayed. Press <Esc> to cancel. 6 3. There is an "Alphabetic Jump Bar" located just below the Record Number, consisting of the letters a to z. Clicking on one of these letters will open a window showing all of the records that begin with the selected letter, in the field that the database is sorted on. EG, if your first two fields are First Name and Last Name, and the database is sorted on the second field, then clicking on "h" will show all records of persons whose LAST name begins with "h". If no last name begins with "h", you will be informed. The keyboard equivalents to clicking on these letters are the <Shift - Letter> keys - eg, <Shift - H> would do the same as described above. To help you remember which field the database is sorted on, after a sort has been done, an "s" will be displayed between the Title and Data Screens next to the sorted field. I have reluctantly extended this feature to include the fields which are sorted numerically. Pressing one of the UNshifted number keys, from 1 to 0, will show you all records begining with that number, IF the database was sorted on a field containing numbers. Otherwise, you will informed that there are no records begining with the selected number in the sort field. The problem with this is that if you are aligning your numeric entries, (Refer to the bottom of Section 7.3.1 - "Search Fields", for a discussion on aligning numeric entries), you will not be able to use this feature to go to these records. At any rate, this restriction only applies to databases which are sorted on fields with numeric data that must be aligned for sorting or searching purposes, which I suspect will not be too many. If the word "Note" appears on the screen, just below the Data Area, it is also a gadget. Clicking on this word (or pressing <N> on the keyboard), will display the Note Area for that record. 5 The PROGRESS BAR When time consuming actions are being performed, eg. Loading, Searching, Saving, Sorting, etc., a Progress Bar will appear, in place of the Jump Bar, to assure you that "something is happening", and visually display to you just how the job is progressing. 6 THE NOTES OPTION bBase may be run with, or without the Notes option active. When a database is first created, you will be asked if you want to activate this option. When a database is loaded, bBase will determine if this option should be activated, and react accordingly. Without the Notes option, the record storage is limited to 9 fields, for a total capacity of 414 characters. This will result in faster searches, sorts, saves, etc., as there is less information to process. With the Notes option, each record has available an additional Note Area of up to 1152 characters, which can be searched, but not sorted. This increases each record's capacity by up to 378%, but slows down program processing somewhat. The choice is yours. The Notes option may be activated or de-activated, and the number of Note Lines set, at any time from within the program. (Refer to Section 7.4.3 - "Change - No. of Lines in Note Area" and Sections 7.8.1 and 2 - "Notes - Enable/Disable"). 7 7 THE MENUS The most logical way to describe the operation of bBaseIII is probably by describing the Menu operations. The keyboard equivalents, where applicable, are shown along with the Menu Titles. 7.1 Project Menu 7.1.1 Create a New Database <F1> (If you are working on an existing database, and it has been altered, you will be asked if you want to Save it before creating a new one). This will bring up the ARP file requester, asking for a name for your new database. Any filename of 20 characters or less will do. The input requester will then ask if you want to activate the Notes option. If you respond <Y>es, you will be asked how many Lines the Note Area will have. The maximum is 16 lines of 72 characters each, for a total capacity of 1152 bytes. The number of Note Area lines may be altered at any time. (Refer to Section 7.4.3 - "Change - No. of Lines in Note Area"). Next you are asked how many fields the new database will require. There may be up to 9 fields in each database. Fields may be added or deleted at any time. You are then asked for the TITLES of each field of the database. Each field title may be a maximum of 19 characters long, and may be changed at will. (Refer to Section 7.4.1 - "Change - Field Titles"). A "(1)" will appear, along with the input requester. Enter the title of your first field, eg. Last Name, First Name, Company, Address, or anything else. When it is correct, hit <Return>, and a "(2)" will appear on the next line with the requester. Enter the title of the second, and all other fields, in this manner. The screen will now show all the field titles, an Instruction Box, the File Name as first entered, a blank Data Area, and the Record Number, which at this point will be "1". The total number of records is continuously displayed beside the record number. It will now also show "of 1". The input requester will now appear in the first field of the first record, ready for you to enter data. Enter the data. NOTE Double quotes are not accepted in any data field, as that would mess up the alignment of all the following fields. Single quotes are OK. A data entry may be a maximum of 46 characters long. When it is correct, hit <Return>, and the requester will move to the second field. When all fields are complete, (or you press <F10>), the requester will close. To add more records, select "Add - A Record" from the Menu, or press <F10> again. Complete all records in this manner. In this version there is a limitation of 1250 records. 8 7.1.2 Open an Existing Database <F2> If you have previously created a database, and the ".bbase" file for that database is stored on a disk, then use this item to access it. If you are working on an existing database, and it has been altered, you will be asked if you want to Save it before loading another. Select the database file in the requester, and that database will be retrieved and shown on screen. Refer to Sections 3 - "THE CURSOR KEYS", and 4 - "THE SCREEN GADGETS", for instructions on moving about the database. While a record is displayed, the Information Box will instruct you to press "<Return> to Change Data". Do so, and the requester will appear in the first field, with that field's data. <Return> or <Cursor Up/ Cursor Down> to the field you want to change, and make the changes. At this point, you may either <Return> through all fields, or press <F10> to exit Edit Mode. The altered record is now displayed. NOTE ANY time you are in Edit Mode, whether Entering, Changing or Searching for data, pressing <F10> will exit Edit Mode, and use the data shown when you exited. 7.1.3 Show All Records <A> If you want to quickly glance at more than one record at a time, this will open a full-sized window, and display the first 70 or so characters of ALL records, one record to a line. The display will pause after each 23 records - click on "Next Page" or press any key to see the next screenful, or click on "Prev Page" to see the preceding page. Click on "Cancel", or Press <Esc> to leave this function. If you see a record you want to examine in detail, just click on it. You will then exit the Display window, and return to the Main Screen, with the requested record displayed. 7.1.4 Show Tagged Records This works the same as the previous item, except that ONLY the tagged records are displayed. (Refer to Section 7.3.1 - "Search Fields"). 7.1.5 Save Database <F3> If the database has been altered since last saved, it will be Saved to disk under the current filename, after confirmation. The file will have the extension ".bbase" automatically appended. If it has NOT been altered, you will be so informed, and given the oportunity to abort the Save. NOTE Saving a large database may be a slow process. If you find that this is the case, I suggest you save it to RAM: first, then use the AmigaDOS Copy command to copy it to disk. 7.1.6 Save As You will be prompted for a name to Save the database. It is not necessary include the ".bbase" extension at this time - it will be appended automatically. 9 7.1.7 Save Tagged Records The tagged records may be Saved as a separate .bbase file. It may be useful to use just some records as the seed of a new database. 7.1.8 Encrypt/Decrypt a File For people who have databases with "sensitive" data, (or for people who are just plain secretive), bBase offers the capability of "scrambling" a database - or any other file, for that matter. The file requester will appear. Select the file to be scrambled. You are then asked for a password. After confirmation, the file will then be read in, scrambled, and written back to disk under the same name. Examination of the file will now show that the file characters have all been changed, many of them are now gibberish. To restore the file, you need only select this Menu item again. Select the same file, and enter the same password. The file will then be read in, and written back to disk in its original form. For what it is worth, executable programs, as well as data files, may be scrambled and restored - try it with a copy of bBase! It should go without saying that it is essential that the same password be entered to unscramble the file as was used to scramble it. If the wrong password is entered, the scrambled file will be re-scrambled. The only way to get it back now is to select this item again, and enter the last password. This will restore the file to the first scrambled state. Now, if you can still remember the first password, run this file through once more using it to restore the file to its original state. Please note that this is a time-consuming operation on large files, and it does not utilize the Progress Bar. 7.1.9 About The usual stuff. 7.1.10 Quit <Esc> If the database has been altered, you will be asked if you want to Save before Quiting. The <Q> key can also be used for this function. 7.2 Sort Menu You may sort the records in the database based on the data in any field. The Sort algorithm is designed to be most efficient when sorting a database which is already mostly sorted, as will be the case with databases over 90% of the time. Initial sorts will take a little bit longer. Naturally, the larger the database, the longer it takes. After the database has been sorted, an "s" will be displayed between the Title and Data areas, so that you will always know at a glance which field the database has been sorted on. NOTE Any time that the database is sorted, the Tag List will be lost, (ie. all records become "UnTagged"), since sorting the database scrambles the list, and renders it meaningless. 10 7.2.1 Incremental Sort <F4> The requester will ask which field you want to sort on. The records will be incrementally sorted on that field, and Record Number 1 of the new list will be shown. 7.2.2 Decremental Sort <F5> Same as above, but records are sorted and displayed from Z-A, or 9-0. 7.3 Search Menu 7.3.1 Search Fields <F6> The input requester will appear in the first field of a blank record. <Return> or <Cursor Up/Down> to the field that contains the data you want to search for, and enter it. A search string may be entered in more than one field. When all the criteria has been entered, <Return> through all the fields, or press <F10>. All records that match ALL the search criteria become the Tag List, and the first match is displayed. When a match is found, you may Print it, Cancel the search, Display the "Notes" for that record, UnTag (or ReTag) the record, Delete the record, or Review all the records on the Tag List. (Refer to Section 7.1.4 - "Show Tagged Records"). Pressing <Any Other Key> will display the next matching record in the list. Searches are NOT case dependent. If a match cannot be found, you will be advised "No Matching Records". Range search is also available. EG., if you want to search an address database for all names before Jones, or after Smith, simply add a "<" or a ">" immediately before the name, with no intervening space. Or, if you had a field containing birth years, you could find all those born before (or after), for example, 1965, by entering "<1965". You could also combine the two, and find all those entries before (alphabetically) "Jones", and who were born after 1965. Equal-or-less-than and equal-or-greater-than may also be used by preceeding the search string with "=<" or "=>" respectively. Note that the equals sign must come first; "<=" will not work. Bear in mind that in a search for entries "<p", (which will be treated as "<P", because search is case independent), bBase will find all entries up to and including all of the "O" entries, as you would expect. But, if you search for ">p", the found entries will not start with the Qs, as you might expect, but will show the Ps as well. This is because, to a computer, "pa", or "pill", or "pasquale" are all greater than just "p". So, if you want to search for Qs and above, you should enter ">pzz", or better still, ">q". Note also that bBase does not employ the concept of field types, ie, there are no numeric fields - all fields are of the string type. Therefore, if you are storing numbers in a field, (eg. 9, 60, & 500), and you search for all records "<500", bBase will report "No Matching Records". This is because all strings are compared on a character-by- character basis. So, when the first character is examined, all other first characters are compared to "5". All we find is a "9" and a "6", so bBase deduces that there are no records less than 500. 11 When entering numeric data that you may wish to Search or Sort, therefore, you must ensure that the data is properly aligned. If you will be entering numeric data with three digits, they must all be entered with three digits. So, when entering "9", it must be entered as "009" or " 9", and the "60" entered as "060" or " 60". You will then find that Searches and Sorts operate as expected. Searching for entries of "<70" must now, of course, be entered as "< 70" or "<070". 7.3.2 Search Notes The requester will appear in the first field of a blank record. Enter the string you want to search the Note Area for. Once the string has been entered, the search will begin, and the first record which contains the entered string in the Note Area will be displayed. You now have the same options as described above - Print the Record, (the Notes may be optionally included, if all fields of the record are to be printed), Cancel, Delete, Display the Notes, Review the Tagged Records, or Display the Next Tagged Record. NOTE Although the string is entered a field, the fields have nothing to do with this search. It is just a handy place to enter it. 7.3.3 Tag All All of the records in the database are "Tagged", ie. added to the Tag List. (Refer to Section 4 - "THE SCREEN GADGETS"). 7.3.4 UnTag All <U> All records are "UnTagged". The Tag Record List is discarded, and all references to Tagged Records in the Menus are ghosted. This may be handy if you want to create a new Tag List by clicking in the Tag Box of some individual records. Otherwise, the tagged records would be added to the current Tag List. 7.3.5 Tag Invert Inverts the Tag List. All Tagged records become UnTagged, and all records that were UnTagged become Tagged. 7.3.6 Next Tagged Record <X> If you interrupt your "Display the Next Tagged Record" sequence, bBase will remember where you were in the sequence. Selecting this item will immediately display the Next Tagged Record after the last one you have already looked at. As mentioned above, if you should sort the database, this item will become inoperable. When the last record on the list has been displayed, you will be advised, "End of Tag List". Selecting this item now, will skip through the tagged records again, starting at the top of the list. 7.3.7 Goto a Record <G> Activates the Goto a Record requester - the same as pressing <G>. (Refer to Section 4 - "THE SCREEN GADGETS"). 12 7.4 Change Menu 7.4.1 Field Titles Use this item to change the Titles of your fields. The data itself is unaffected by this procedure. 7.4.2 Swap Position of 2 Fields Exchanges the position of two fields and their titles in the database. EG, move field 3 to where field 7 was, and visa versa. 7.4.3 No. of Lines in Note Area The number of lines in the Note Area may be changed at any time. No loss of data will occur except if the number of lines is reduced. Then, naturally, data contained in lines greater than the new number of lines will be lost. In this instance, you will be notified that data will be lost if you proceed, and how many records will be affected. You then have the option to Abort, Proceed, or View a list of the affected records, (which will also abort the procedure). NOTE If the number of lines is reduced, and later increased before leaving the database, the lost data will be recovered. Fewer lines result in slightly faster searches, sorts, etc. 7.4.4 Fast Forward/Reverse The "Fast Forward" arrow gadgets will skip through the database a default 10 records per click, but this is user-configurable. Use this item to set your own number (maximum 999). 7.5 Print Menu 7.5.1 Displayed Record (to Printer) <F8> This item will first ask how many fields are to be printed, and then in which column position, from 1 to 80, to start printing (in case you want to print onto a mailing label, or directly onto an envelope). If you elect to print all of the fields, you will then be asked if you want the Notes printed as well (if this option is active). If you elect to have the Notes printed, you will then be asked if you also want the blank lines printed. Some people may want this to make a more symmetrical report. Otherwise, only those lines containing data will be printed. (If you want the odd blank line to be included as a "spacer", then just put 1 blank space on that line, and the space will be printed). It will then send all characters of the requested number of fields (and Notes) of the currently displayed record to the PRT: device. NOTE If the alignment of the print-out is not correct, switch the printer Off, then On, just prior to using this item. 13 7.5.2 Displayed Record (to a File) The File Requester will appear, asking for the name of the file you want to create, holding all of the data in this record, (including the Notes). The default is "RAM:bBase_clip". Once the data, eg. an address, has been copied to this "clip", it may then be edited, and imported into another program, such as a word processor, if desired. 7.5.3 Select Print Options <F9> Opens the Print Options Window from which various formats of hardcopy reports and mailing labels may be chosen. (Refer to Section 8.3 - "The Print Options Window"). 7.5.4 Create WordPerfect Mail-Merge Data File 7.5.5 Create Final Copy Mail-Merge Data File 7.5.6 Create ProWrite Mail-Merge Data File This will save all of the tagged records in a format that will be accepted by the selected word processor as a secondary, or data file in a Mail Merge operation. You will be asked how many fields of the records to use, and then the file requester will ask for a filename to save the data file. The default is "RAM:bBase_merge". I hope to eventually make this feature compatible with other word processors, but so far I do not have the information on the format required by others. If your word processor is not listed, try one that is - the format just might be the same. 7.6 Add Menu 7.6.1 A Field If you do not already have the full complement of 9 fields, this item will add a blank field, in a designated location, with a title consisting of 20 dots. The title may be modified at any time. (Refer to Section 7.4.1 - "Change - Field Titles"). 7.6.2 A Record <F10> Positions you at an empty record, with the input requester open, ready for you to enter data into the first field of the new record. Use the <Esc> key to abort if you arrived here by mistake. 7.6.3 Displayed Record <C> This item will copy the record which is presently being displayed, and Add it as the last record. bBase will then move to this new, last record, display it, and open the input requester. It assumes that you will not want two identical records, and will be wanting to make some changes to it. If this is not the case, just hit <Esc>. This will be very handy if you are entering similar records - it will be easier to make some corrections to an existing record, than enter the whole new record in from scratch. 14 7.7 Delete Menu 7.7.1 A Field You will be asked which field you want to delete. As usual, press <Esc> to abort. The requested field, and all information contained in that field in all records will be deleted. 7.7.2 Displayed Record <Del> After confirmation, the record currently displayed is deleted. 7.7.3 All Tagged Records <D> After confirmation, all of the tagged records are deleted. To preview exactly which records will be deleted, refer to Section 7.1.4 - "Show Tagged Records". 7.7.4 UNdelete a Record This item is active when a record is UnDeletable. When a record is deleted, it is first copied to the file "RAM:bBase_deleted". If UNdelete is selected, a full-size window will open, showing the first 23 records that were deleted. Simply click on the record you want to restore, and it will be added as the last record in the database. If the database structure is altered after a record has been deleted, by adding or deleting fields or note lines, or swapping fields, this item will be unavailable, as the recovered data would be meaningless. The file "RAM:bBase_deleted" is itself deleted when a new database is loaded, or when bBaseIII is Quit. 7.8 Notes Menu 7.8.1 Enable If the Notes option is currently disabled, this will enable notes. The database structure will be re-writen to allow a default number of four note lines per record. As mentiond above, this number can be changed anytime. (Refer to Section 7.4.3 - "Change - No. of Lines in the Note Area"). If this feature is used, the database must be Saved, and then Re-Opened before being used further, or it will become corrupted. You will be reminded of this fact. 7.8.2 Disable If the Notes option is currently enabled, this will disable notes. All data in the Note Area will be lost, if the action is not aborted at the next requester. Again, the database must now be Saved, and then Re-Opened prior to further use. 15 7.8.3 View/Edit Notes <N> If there is a note attached to a record, even as much as one blank space, the word "Note" (how original) will appear on the Main Screen, at the bottom-right corner of the Data Area. If there is no note, the word will not appear. To view the Note Window, just select this Menu item, press the <N> key, or click on the word "Note". The Note Window consists of up to 16 lines of data, each of which may hold a maximum of 72 characters, for a total storage of 1152 bytes of data per record. To Edit the data in the Note Window, just press <Return> while the window is open. From there, it works identically to the Data Area of the Main Screen, except that the keyboard combinations of <Alt - I>, <Alt - D> and <Alt - U> are used to Insert, Delete or UNdelete a line. <Alt - I> will Insert a blank line at the active line, and all following lines move down 1 position. <Alt - D> will Delete the active line, and all following lines move up 1 position. <Alt - U> will UNdelete, or restore the previously Deleted line to the active line, and all following lines move down 1 position. In the Insert and UNdelete cases, if there is data in the last line, you will be advised that it will be lost, and given the chance to abort. As in the Main Data Screen, <Alt - X> will blank the line, and no other lines will move. Pressing <Esc> will exit Edit Mode, and any changes made to the active line since it became active, will be ignored. Pressing <F10> will exit Edit Mode with all changes intact. While not in Editing Mode, press <Del> to Delete the entire note attached to that record. To return to the Main Screen, press <Esc>, <F10>, or the <Space Bar>. 8 OTHER FEATURES 8.1 The "Disable Save" Option As a simple security device, mainly as a guard against someone accidentally altering or erasing data, I have added an option which will disable the ability to save database changes to disk. To disable Saves, simply press <Alt - S> simultaneously. The titlebar will briefly inform you that Saves are disabled, and now any attempt to Save the database to disk will be circumvented. In this case, upon Quiting, a requester will ask if you want to Save the database (as usual). If you select "Save", a second requester will inform you that the Save option has been disabled. To Save the database, at the next requester, "Do you Really want to Quit?", select "Cancel", re-enable Saves, and Quit again. If you are running bBase from the CLI, using the "-s" switch on the command line will start bBase with the Saves already disabled. The <Alt - S> combination will toggle between Save Enabled and Save Disabled. A message will appear briefly in the titlebar to keep you informed of the current status as it changes. 16 8.2 The Low Memory Warning When bBaseIII is run, it reserves about 600K of memory to use for database storage in RAM, arrays, etc. No matter how much RAM your computer has, this is all that is available to bBase! When a database is first loaded (and only then), bBase will check the available memory left in the program pool. If the memory available to bBase is less than 2K, this means that you have a humungous database of over 300K, and very few more records may be added before the program will generate an error message. You will be advised if this Low Memory situation exists. Press any key to cancel the warning. The recommended action is: 1. Trim down the size of your database by deleting some old records, or some of the record notes. 2. Drop me a line. It's possible that a custom version of bBase that will set aside more memory (if you have it), will solve the problem. For a $5 fee, I will attempt to create a "customized" version. Tell me what you need. 3. If these are not feasable, you may have to consider a different database program. NOTE If you are loading a new database after having just finished work on another, it is possible get get a false warning here. If you know your database size is within limits, I think you can safely disregard the warning in this circumstance. 8.3 The Print Options Window Choosing "Select Print Options" (from either the Print Menu, or by pressing <F9>) opens the Print Options Window. Select from this window using the mouse, keyboard, or the Up/Down cursor keys. The keyboard equivalents are the underlined letters of each label. At the top, there are toggle gadgets to select "Print All Records" or "Print Tagged Records"; "Bold On" or "Bold Off"; and "Print to PRT:" or "Print to File". Print All Records will do just that. Print Tagged Records will print all currently tagged records. Note that this toggle is inoperative if there are no tagged records. Bold allows you to select either Bold or Normal print styles. Note that, although you may select Bold On at any time, it is only effective, on my printer, at least, if the Pitch is set to Pica (80 characters per line). Other printers may not have this restriction. PRT: or File determines whether the requested records will be Printed, or Copied to a File. In the latter case, the File Requester will appear, and you may specify the filename to copy the records to. The default is "RAM:bBase_report". At the bottom are gadgets labeled "Cancel", "Help" and "Print!". "Cancel" is self-explanatory. "Help" opens a Help Window which explains the terms used in the Print Options Window, so this information is not included here. "Print!" will print (or copy) the selected records using the selected format. The <Return> key is another keyboard equivalent for "Print!". 17 8.3.1 Hardcopy Reports Database reports can be obtained in these formats: Adjacent Single Line (Pica, Elite or Condensed). The "Notes" attached to your records may optionally be also printed out using this format. Follow the prompts. Aligned Single Line (Pica, Elite or Condensed). Block, 2 across Block, 3 across Super Space Saver These are explained in the Help Window, but try them all, and see which one (or more) best suits your needs. With each report there will be a Title Line, containing the name of the database, and, if your system is showing a current date, the date of the printing. You will also be given the oportunity of inserting a (maximum) 26 character comment on the Title Line, between the title and the date. Just type it in when prompted. Along the top of the Data Area are 4 white pixels. These pixels will align with the data entry cursor at the 24, 25, 38 and 43 character positions. As some of the above reports are truncated to these number of characters (Refer to the Help Window), they are a guide to indicate that the data beyond will not be printed when some print options are selected. 8.3.2 Mailing Labels Mailing labels of 15/16 inch, and 1 7/16 inch, in 1-across roll type, and 2 or 3-across sheet type are all supported. If you have selected a mailing label option in the Print Options Window, when you click on "Print!" you will be asked whether your labels are 1, 2 or 3-across, how many fields of your database you want printed on the label, and in which column you want the printing to start. The column defaults work for me, but your paper may be aligned a bit differently. Once this information is received, the printing (or copying) operation will start. If you tell bBase you want, for example, 4 fields printed, then the first 4 fields will be printed, in numerical order. Make sure that these are the ones you want printed. You can temporarily move the fields around, if desired, to get the alignment you want. (Refer to Section 7.4.2 - "Swap Position of 2 Fields"). Due to the size constraints of the labels, there are limits on the number of characters of each field, and the number of fields, that this function will print. This information is in the Help Window. There is a problem in this area that I have been unable to solve. If you are printing mailing labels, and you have selected "Bold On", the printer will generate one carriage return before the printing starts. This will disrupt your label vertical alignment by one line. As a kludge, I have inserted a five second pause here, before the printing will start. This will give you time to re-align the labels. Another answer, of course, is to not use bold with the mailing label option. Sorry, all - I'm still working on it. 18 9 EXAMPLE DATABASE There is an example database included in this package. Everyone uses the Name and Address example, so I opted for something different. The file "Recipes.bbase" is a sample database showing one way of keeping track of recipes, without having to re-type them all. It merely shows where they can be found when needed. With this database you can Sort the recipes by Name, Catagory, or anything else. You can Search for all recipes containing a listed ingredient, recipes you have already served to given people, or just the location of the recipe if you have forgotten which of your 647 recipe books it is in. I have found this to be very useful. 10 THE COMPETITION I have put literally thousands of hours of work into bBase, and I am quite proud of the result. For various reasons, though, there are limitations in the program, (primarily the number of fields and the number of records), which may make it unsuitable for some purposes. There are other fine non-comercial database programs available, and I would encourage you to try them and compare. I have looked at most of them, and frankly, I prefer bBase, (could I possibly be biased?). But, some may have features that bBase does not have, which could make them more suitable for you. Following is a list of the programs I have noticed. Most of them are in the Fred Fish collection, and so are readily available. DataEasy - Fred Fish 526 WBase - Fred Fish 653 DataFiler - Fred Fish 721 VCRFiler - Fred Fish 721 AmigaBase - Fred Fish 792 ProData - Amiga Format Coverdisk, Feb 93 Addresser - Fred Fish 767 11 A NOTE ON ERROR MESSAGES Listed below are a some of the error messages that could be encountered while using bBase, and a possible solution. - "Insufficient memory". This is pretty self-explanitory - bBase is requesting more memory than is available. Free memory can be increased by deleting items from the T: directory, or quitting other background programs (perhaps a memory cache program?). - "Device Unavailable at line xx in module LIBRARY". (This error will Abort the program before it even gets running). bBase can't find the arp.library in your Libs: directory. To correct, just copy the library (available almost anywhere) to Libs:. - "DEVICE UNAVAILABLE!" Every time I have received this message, it was due to trying to open a window (Show All Records, Show Tagged Records, View Notes, or even About), when the system had insufficient Chip RAM to do so. Closing the windows of other multi-tasking programs might help. 19 - "CAN'T FIND PRINTER DRIVER!". There were three reported cases of this error occurring in bBaseII. All were from England, and all occcurred when trying to print a database. The error was caused by independent companies putting bBase on a self-booting disk that contained a Release 1.x "devs/system-configuration" file which assumed a printer driver that was not available. To prevent the error: a) Copy the "system-configuration" file from your normal boot disk to the bBaseIII self-booting disk, or, b) Examine the "system-configuration" file on the bBaseIII disk to determine what driver it is looking for, and ensure that driver is located in your "devs/printers" directory. 12 IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM! If you find that either the Demo or Registered versions of bBase do not perform according to the information found in this documentation, please let me know. This is your program - you paid for it, and it should work for you. Descriptions of problems are difficult, at best. To assure a satisfactory solution to your problem, please do the following: 1. Re-read this documentation. The answer could be right here. If not ... 2. Copy your version of bBase onto a disk, along with a copy of one of the databases that you are having trouble with, and mail it to me, along with a detailed description of the problem, and the steps you must take to make the problem recur. This will accomplish two things. First, it will confirm that this is your legitimate, unaltered copy, (refering, of course, to Registered versions), and second, with the problem right in front of me, I will almost certainly be able to ascertain, and perhaps correct, the problem. In any case, I will naturally return your disk, hopefully with the problem corrected. Any reported bugs will, if possible, be fixed in the next release. Thank you for your interest in bBaseIII. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this program, I would be pleased to hear from you. All correspondance will be answered. __ /_/ __ /_ _ /_/ /_/ /_/ _ Robert Bromley 1168 Timber Lane Victoria, B.C. CANADA V8Y 1E4 20