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!Index
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1995-04-22
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• Acorn Computing Index (V1.30 March 1995) !Help Manual •
• System © 1995 Tim Boughton •
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1. What is !Index?
!Index is a database containing 11 years worth of articles,
reviews and features from Acorn Computing between April 1984 to
March 1995. You can use it to locate any article or review,
simply by asking the program to search for a keyword you enter.
You can view all the matching articles on screen, or you can save
or print a list for reference.
This manual will help you to use !Index to its full potential and
can be printed out for reference using a suitable wordprocessor.
!Index is fully multi-tasking and Risc OS 3.10+ compatible, so if
you know the basics of using Risc OS then using it will be easy.
It will automatically claim about 400k of application memory when
loading.
Had Acorn Computing magazine not been so mercilessly and
prematurely terminated then this Index would have appeared on the
March 1995 MegaDisc, and would have been automatically updated
each month from a unique file on the subscription disc. However,
it was not to be. This version is a standalone, complete index of
the magazine as it ended.
2. Loading & Startup
To load the application simply double-click as normal on the icon
!Index and wait for the program to install itself onto the icon
bar. The hourglass appears on screen during this process.
Clicking Select or Adjust on the iconbar icon will display the
main window. Clicking Menu will bring up a short menu.
The program supports !Help so if you require "on-line" help just
load this up (from the Apps directory) and move the pointer over
the icon you want more information about.
3. The Main Window
The main window is where all searching and viewing takes place.
It may be resized, scrolled, closed and put to the back as
normal.
There are a number of icons displayed which allow you to interact
with the program :
• At the top, the toolbar contains a number of icons which let
you control the way the program works.
• Towards the right hand side, are the start and finish years of
the search which can be altered using the arrows on either side
or alternatively by typing into the boxes.
• Below, the number of records currently available is displayed.
• In the middle of the window is an area where each record is
displayed - containing areas for the article, author, date and
page.
• Finally at the bottom, is a panel containing the search word -
which is initially empty - and three operators for the advanced
search.
The menu can be used to alter the configuration, gain output from
the program or see what data is available. This can be activated
by clicking Menu in the main window. The options available are
listed in section 12. Most of the facilities on the menu are
duplicated on the toolbar.
4. Performing a search
To make a search of the data, click on the uppermost white text
box (in the lower half of the main window) and the red caret will
appear. Type a search-word (for example, SCROLL - see below for
some guidelines) into this box. Now move up to the large Search
icon in the top right and click Select or alternatively, just
press Return after typing in the word.
The search will now begin. After a few seconds you will see the
information area displaying some data. At the top, the record
number and how many records were found to match are displayed.
If the search does not return any matched records, try using a
different or more general search-word.
All of the records which matched your search-word are now
available for you to look through. Use the arrow icons at the top
to move through the records.
The inner, opposite facing pair move through the records one at a
time in each direction. The outer pair move through faster in
each direction by jumping a certain number of records each time.
The size of this jump can be set using the options box (see
below).
5. Search Word
The search-word can be a single word or a phrase and will
obviously reflect the article or item you are searching for.
However, a few guidelines will make finding a reference easier.
You should try to be fairly general with your phrase. For example
if you are looking for references to Scrolling, enter SCROLL as
the search-word. This will pick out SCROLL, SCROLLer and
SCROLLing.
A record will be matched if the search-word is contained within
the description of the article or in the author of the article.
This means that authors' names can be searched for as well -
entering MIKE COOK will display all the articles written by him.
Sometimes a search will bring up an irrelevant article amongst
the ones you want. For example if you are looking for articles on
memory and enter RAM as a search word, you will get all
references to RAM but also references to progRAMming and other
words which include RAM. This is no problem because you can view
the records at leisure and quickly pick out the relevant ones.
It is possible to exclude words like this from the search by
typing in the search-word as ' RAM '. That is, with a single
space either side. This will then only pick out records in which
the search-word occurs as a separate word.
The general format used for the wording of records is described
in the section on Wording. The search-word can be up to 80
characters long and include spaces and punctuation, but note that
the longer and more full of spaces it is, the less likely it is
that a direct match will be found.
Obviously it is impossible to fit every conceivable relevant word
into each reference. However, in practice, by choosing a suitable
word and experimenting, it is always possible to find the record
you want - provided that it has occurred in the magazine between
the dates set.
The case of the search phrase is not important - whatever you
type is automatically converted into upper case by the program.
6. Advanced Search
The advanced searching facilities allow the use of two search
phrases and three operators (AND, OR and NOT) to link them
together, this is often useful for more detailed searches.
For example,
• A search for MIKE NOT MIKE COOK would give all the articles
written by a Mike, but not those written by Mike Cook.
• A search for GRAPHICS OR SPRITES would give all those articles
containing the word GRAPHICS as well as all those articles
containing the word SPRITES.
• A search for RAM AND DISC would give all the articles which
contain both the word RAM and the word DISC.
(Note that for AND, a record will match only if both words are
present in the same record whereas for OR a record with either
word in will match.)
The advanced search facility can be switched on using the icon
represented by a waving wand.
When you perform a search, you must enter your second search-word
into the lower white text box and choose the operator by
selecting it's button.
If no operator is selected or the second search word is blank,
the search is treated as an ordinary search for the first word.
The advanced search facilities are invaluable in a situation
where the exact format, spacing or punctuation of a record is
unknown.
7. Setting the dates
The length of the search can be set using the Start and End years
at the top right of the window. It is useful to set the search
dates to different values because sometimes you know that a
particular article will not appear before or after a certain date
and thus can avoid matching up unwanted records.
The date itself can be set either by clicking on the arrows at
either side (for up/down) or by clicking on the box and typing a
new date in. The date can obviously not go below 1984 or above
the most recent year available.
8. View
This is separate from the search facility and is simply a means
of viewing all of the data between the dates specified. This can
be useful if you know a particular article occurred, but don't
know what it's title was.
When the icon (represented by an eye) is clicked on, the first
item within the t