Software Club 210: Light Red/Club_Software_210_Light_Red_Micro_Star_1997.iso/homeinv/ehi.hlp

Text File | 1993-08-29 | 20KB | 649 lines

***1
INTRODUCTION

Essential Home Inventory is the premier
software available for intelligently managing
personal and household inventory. This
program uses the same data management engine
as Collect!, which was nominated for a 1993
Shareware Industry Award. Not only is
Essential Home Inventory flexible, it is
blindingly fast and simple to use. You'll be
surprised just how much you don't know about
what you own until you've worked with it.

You can not only properly catalogue and
manage the data, you can also use the
financial capabilities for insurance reports
and to determine which items you own that
deserve special attention. You can also use
it for estate planning.

***2
USES

Essential Home Inventory is usable for
any custom inventory you can imagine. This
is accomplished by using templates that you
create to tailor Essential Home Inventory to
work with any particular data. You can
create and use as many templates as you like.

You can also use Essential Home Inventory
for  maintaining mailing lists and employee
records. ESSENTIALLY, the program can be
tailored by you for a wide variety of uses.

***3
MULTIPLE COPIES

Essential Home Inventory uses the Windows
environment to the maximum, supporting
graphics (pictures) and text. The registered
version supports drag and drop techniques.
Supported in all versions is the ability to
run more than one copy at the same time. Do
you run a small business? With Essential Home
Inventory you can put a copy on screen with
customer names, a copy of used inventory, a
copy of new inventory -- and so on... And
with Essential Home Inventory being lightning
fast you never have to wait to find things. No
doubt you'll find uses for Essential Home
Inventory we didn't think of!

***5
RECOMMENDATIONS

The graphics/picture addenda doesn't have
to hold pictures -- if you have a scanner
you can use it for a variety of purposes.
For instance, you can scan in images of
receipts, drawings, or closeup photos of
special markings.

***6
SPECIFICATIONS

Number of data files -- unlimited
Number of Templates -- unlimited
Number of User Defined Fields -- 10
Number of User Defined Lists -- 1
Field Definitions -- TEXT or NUMERIC
Number of instances -- Defined by Win3
Number of records / file -- 5000
Graphics data types -- *.WMF, *.BMP
Graphics supported colors -- 256
Text Addenda Size Limit -- 30k
Pick List data entries -- 5000
Export Format -- comma delimited *.CSV

***7
WHAT'S A TEMPLATE?

A template allows you to tailor the data
you work with for a particular purpose.

Each template has a series of fields that
are user defined: you can set each one to
accept text or numeric data and give it a
meaningful name, such as "YEAR BOUGHT."
In any given inventory there is also at
least one categorisation that is used above
all others. You also have a pick list  that
you can set up to use for a category
definition as a part of the template. The
pick list allows you to create a built in
list so that it is not necessary to type in
redundant data (such as "electronics
equipment") for each field.

***8
EDITING/CREATING TEMPLATES

To edit a template, choose the OPTIONS
menu item and then CREATE a new one or
EDIT an existing one. You may wish to
EDIT first so that you can see how we
created some of the Collect! examples.
Essentially, the text boxes for each of
the user-defined fields allow you to name
the field, and the option buttons allow
you to specify the type of data for the
field. To edit the main category pick
list, enter text in the box above the
list and click the ADD button. Clicking
the DELETE button deletes the item seen
in the dropdown list window. You may name
any field a name that is up to 35
characters. If you choose to SAVE the
template and a data field is over 35
characters in length, you will be warned
that you have an invalid field name. Any
field that does not have a name will not
be seen on the main screen or be part of
the data set.

***11
CHOOSING FIELDS

Each valid field for the current template
will have a checkbox next to it. Checking
the checkbox will cause a data entry
window to appear. If the data field is
numeric, you can choose the relationship
you want to search for: Matching, Less
Than, Greater Than, or Range. Just enter
the criteria in the appropriate box(es)
and choose OK. For instance, if you want
to look for all items that cost over $55
you would check the PRICE PAID checkbox,
choose GREATER THAN, and enter 55 in the
text box. Text data fields are searched
as MATCH only, and you can check the CASE
IGNORE box to avoid problems with not
remembering if you capitalised letters in
each data field you're searching in.
Choosing a checkbox that has already been
checked will uncheck it and clear it.

***12
DECIDING HOW TO SEARCH

All searches use an inferred AND. You can
search for seemingly impossible criteria:
you can look for all ELECTRONICS items
bought (WHEN BOUGHT) before 1987 with a
PRICE of more than $50 and so on, and that
is an example from the supplied template.
You can also create your own templates and
searches are just as fast.

***14
WHY TEXT IS "MATCH" ONLY

When a text search is intiated, the program
checks for the existence of the specified
text at any place in the field that is
being searched, not just at the beginning
of the field. For instance, if you were
looking for LABS in a field that had
ALSTON SOFTWARE LABS in it, it would be
deemed as a match. This is a very clean
and efficient way to search through text,
and is especially useful when you cannot
remember remember ALL of the text that
you placed in EACH data field. Searching
for LESS THAN or GREATER THAN would not
produce usable results, therefore text is
searched as a match only.

***15
CLEAR BUTTON

When you choose this, any checked data
fields are unchecked, all data that has
been accumulated to do a search with is
also cleared (i.e. you'd need to re-enter
any search parameters), and the menu
items related to search-found data are
disabled. Basically, you are removing any
references to data you have already found
or were about to look for.

***16
DONE BUTTON

This selection simply hides the Search
Window and removes it from view. If you
choose to open the window again from the
main menu, it will appear in the same
state as when you saw it last. You can
also minimize the search window and put
it on your desktop.

***17
SEARCH BUTTON

This button is what actually initiates a
search. Each data field is tested to see
if it is checked and contains valid data
to search for. When the search finishes,
the scroll bar is enabled and the number
of records found is shown. If no records
are found, the scroll bar is disabled and
you'll see "None" listed where it shows
how many records were found. Assuming
that there were found records, the scroll
bar can be manipulated and the found
records are presented in the main window.
The main window scroll bar also changes
with each record. You have the option of
switching between the two windows to do
any work you need. It's best to overlay
the two windows so that the data fields
are uncovered; you can watch the chnages
this way. Certain Menu items (mostly in
the FIND menu) are also enabled for file
level manipulation of the found data.

***18
FILE MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW

Not only are searches flexible, there are a
number of options you have as to what to do
with the data. Sometimes things happen that
are unexpected and the job of Essential Home
Inventory is to help you prepare for this.
For example, a local newspaper article had a
story in it about a lady who awoke at 3 AM
to find a wrecked car in her living room. In
another story a family had a tree fall onto
the garage in a storm, ruining everything
in the garage.

To this end Essential Home Inventory is
equipped to handle most any need. Once
you have found data by searching, you can
take it out of the present file and put
it into a completely separate file