Educational Software Cooperative 4/Educational Software Cooperative 4.iso/mxdb/mxnet/netuse.doc

Text File | 1996-01-19 | 15.7 KB | 401 lines

                 NET Resources Documentation

If this program was acquired from an online service, you
should have completed the installation described by the
INSTALL.DOC file which appeared after the first UNZIP.

If it is running off a CD-ROM now, it must be installed to
the hard disk before it will be of much use.

Select H from the menu below to produce a printout.  You'll
need to read this while working with the program.  Nearly
300 pages of printed documentation is available for $26
which includes shipping.  Run the BUYER.EXE program to
order.


               ------Getting Started-------

If you are running from a CD-ROM you wouldn't be here
useless the program was already running.  For those running
from a hard disk, see file INSTALL.DOC.  The means of
starting the program is a function of how the install
program set things up.

This program will store what you find on the Internet either
on the hard disk or floppies.  To get you started it comes
with a database of Internet search engines and a few other
things.

Perfect Recall must be launched from under Windows since the
program must interact with your Web browser.  If the install
program did not provide a group Window, then press Alt-1 to
activate Winkey and click on the PR button.

If the install program linked the NET Resource database to
an existing installation of Perfect Recall then start the
existing copy and find the new category on the main menu
called NET Resources.

The following list will appear upon starting the program.
Perfect Recall permits any organizational structure. This
one was provided to help you understand what the program is
about.

(1) Web Sites
(2) Graphics
(3) Documents
(4) Address
(5) E-mail
(6) Threads
(7) Imported records

Let's look at the search engines.  Select (1) Web Sites.
From the next list select (1) Jump Stations.  This brings up
a list of database entries.  Press 1 to view information on
the WebCrawler.

Now load the WebCrawler's URL into your Web Browser.  Press
the up arrow key to move the highlight off (1) and onto the
URL.  This places the URL in memory where Winkey can fetch
it.  Press ALT-ESC to switch back to the Windows Program
Manager.  Press ALT-1 to activate Winkey and click on the
text line starting with "LOAD".  Your Web browser will
start.  Now highlight the text in the URL box.  Press the
End key followed by the Backspace key to clear it.  With the
cursor at the beginning of the URL box, press Shift-Ins to
paste in the new Net site URL.  Press ENTER to load.

At any time you may return to Perfect Recall and fetch
another Net address. Leave the browser now and return to
Perfect Recall by holding down the ALT key and pressing TAB
until Perfect Recall cycles up.

Perfect Recall will load any application, DOS or Windows.



                -----Graphic files-----

The whole point of this program is to store things found on
the Web.  Graphic files are a good place to start for seeing
how this works.

The Net Resource database came setup for Internet In A Box. The
installation program would have attempted to substitute another
application if you did not have Internet In a Box. If no other suitable
application existed at the time, then Spry's ImageView is still
installed and must be replaced with some other viewer program.  See
Install New Graphics app text file in the README library before
continuing if you do not have Internet In a Box.

Highlight (3) Graphics and press ENTER.  A single entry is
provided as a demonstration.  Let's make sure Perfect Recall
is working right with your graphics file viewer.

Press the up arrow key to highlight file G4.JPG.
Again, press ALT-ESC to switch back to the Program Manager.
Press ALT-1 and click on "Load".
Your graphics file viewer will start with G4.JPG loaded.

Return to Perfect Recall.  Press ALT-TAB until Perfect
Recall shows up.

One of the significant differences between Perfect Recall
and other file management programs is its range of services.
It not practical to cover them all here, its documentation
is almost 300 pages long, but we can explore a few items.

You should still be in the Record for Hajime Sorayama's work.  We just
finished loading file G4.JPG with the description, "Full metal love".
There are other graphic files attached to this record.  Each Perfect
Recall record, can hold any number of filenames, each with its own
description.

Let's go to Sorayama's Web page and fetch additional
graphics.  I'm going throw you for a loop here just to
demonstarte Perhect Recall's flexibility.  Sorayama's Web
page address would be found under (1) Web Sites/ (4) Art
work.  This would normally require nagivating to another
location in the category tree structure.  Instead, we'll
jump straight to it.  Highlight, (3) and press ALT-L.
Bingo!  You are in the category for art work Web pages now.

This record has both the Sorayama URL and the entire Web
page stored as a file.  Let's take a look at the saved Web
page for fun.  File A4.htm should be already highlighted. If
not, use the left/right arrow keys to move the highlight.

Loading an html file if the browser is NOT already running:
-----------------------------------------------------------
With A4.htm highlighted, press G.
Switch to Windows by pressing ALT-ESC.
Activate Winkey with ALT-1.
Click on the text line that starts with LOAD.

Your Web browser will start and load the Web page from the
hard disk.  We'll cover how to save Web pages like this a
little later.

Loading an html file if the browser is already running:
-------------------------------------------------------
When the browser is running it will not accept a DOS file.
You can't even pasted it in the URL box.  The DOS filename
must be rewritten.

With A4.htm highlighted, press G.
Press C to run the filename converter.
Press ALT-TAB until the browser appears.
Click at the end of the browser's URL box.
Press backspace to clear existing text.
Activate Winkey with ALT-1.
Click on the filename (last line)
Click on the browser's URL box.
Press Shift-Ins to paste in filename URL.
Press ENTER to load.


Note: Web browsers are notorious for locking up if a graphic
is missing.  Reducing the browser to an icon and restoring
it will unfreeze it.

Now let's load the real Web page on the Net.  Hold down  ALT
key and press TAB until Perfect Recall cycles up.
Press the left arrow key to highlight the http URL.  Press G
or moving the highlight off the numbers and onto the URL
with the up arrow key.  Switch to Windows using ALT-ESC or
ALT-TAB.  Start Winkey by pressing ALT-1.  Click on the line
displaying the URL.  Go back to the browser, click at the
end of the URL box and press backspace to clear it.  Use
Shift-Ins to paste the new URL in.  Press ENTER to launch.

From this Web page of Sorayama's work you can access
graphics.  Suppose you did all this and were now viewing a
new graphic with Internet In A Box ImageView.  What now ?
Remember the basic process - let Perfect Recall create the
filename, return to the Windows app, select Save As and use
Shift-Ins to paste in the new filename.

In this case we've twisted things up a bit.  Press ALT-TAB
until Perfect Recall shows up.  Let's return to the Graphic
file database rather than add a file there.  Press ESC. This
will put you back in the Graphics category.   Select EDIT
FILENAME/ADD or just press A.  The filename menu box appears
with a suggested path in (1) but no filename.  Highlight (1)
and press ENTER.  Press the END key.  Type in G4-2.JPG.  G4
is unique to this record so it's good to use that as a base
filename.  Press ENTER to save.  Before leaving you should
add a description under (2).  Press S to save.

The filename has been recorded under Perfect Recall but the
acutual graphic is still waiting to be saved.  Select GET
FILE & APP to place the filename in Winkey.  Press ALT-TAB
and cycle to ImageView or whatever graphics viewer you are
using.  Upon returning, select Save/As, press ALT-1 to call
Winkey, click on filename, use Shift-Ins to paste filename
into the Save as box. Press ENTER to save file to new name.

It does take a few steps to complete this process but a
perminent record now exists for this graphic.



       ----Saving things off the hard disk----

Now for a very important feature.  Over time you may want to
move files off the hard disk.  Perfect Recall provides a
means to do this without throwing away files or losing them
on floppies.

If you are still following along on the previous exercise
it's time to flip flop back to Perfect Recall.  Press ALT-
TAB.

The process of moving a file to or from a floppy is very
easy.  Select the filename to operate on using the left and
right arrow keys then use Edit/Edit.  Now just change the
path associated with the filename in (1).  Perfect Recall
will offer several options upon recongizing the path has
changed.  Select (3) to move the file.

At this point you have performed most of the basic
opertations necessary to use Perfect Recall.  Of course,
there is a quite bit more to know over all about making new
categories to store things or new databases to store
different types of information but that is only available in
the full documentation.  Full documentation can be ordered
from MicroExcel's Web page by credit card at
http://www.garlic.com/mxsoft/mxweb.htm.
Mail to: [e-mail].



          ------Documents, E-mail, Threads-------

These three services are farely similar and not
significantly different from saving graphic images.  A
record is added to Perfect Recall, new filename is passed to
Winkey and lastly the clipboard is used to pass filename to
Save/As in what ever application is running.

The files saved in E-mail and Threads categories are used to
maintain text files that are continuously added to over
time.  Thereby, creating a single file containing all
communication on a particular subject.



                   ------Address------

The address category has no relationship to the Internet.
It's just an ordinary database like any other although it
does have label printing capabilities you may find useful.

If you should get the printed documentation, you will learn
a number of ways to connect, say, a Web page entry to an address
entry.  This is helps make a very large set of information
more manageable.



                   ----Saving WEB Pages----

Web browsers can capture Web pages and save them intact to a
file.  This is handy for developing a library for future
reference or just reading off line.  Perfect Recall can then
load these these Web pages into the browser from the hard
disk or into an editor to study their construction.

The process is different for Mosiac and Netscape.

For Mosiac, while viewing a Web page, select File/Document
Source. Then select File/Save as.

For Netscape, while viewing a Web page, select File/Save as.

At this point either progarm is waiting for a proposed path
and filename to be supplied by Perfect Recall.  Go to (1)
Web sites/ (6) Saved Web pages.  The program will suggest
something like C:\PR\WEB\N32.htm.  Here you have a decision
to make.  If you intend to save only this page and not the
graphics or other related pages when it makes sense to use
the suggested filename.  If you will be saving more than
this you might consider using the page's own filename and
creating a new directory just for it.  For example change
the suggested path/filename to C:\PR\WEB\PAGE1\HOME.htm.
Prefect Recall will offer to create the new directory does
not exist.  Now enter other descriptive information in;

(1) Site name
(2) Description
(3) Keywords
(4) E-mail

Now the new filename must be passed to the Web browser.
Load the filename into Winkey by pressing G or using the
arrow key to move the highlight up onto the filename.
Press ALT-TAB to switch back to Windows.
Press ALT-1 to call Winkey.
Click on the filename (last line).
Use Shift-Ins to paste it into the Save as filename box.
Press ENTER to save.
If you go on to save other pages referenced by the home page
then save these other pages to their existing filenames.

While viewing the Web page you might want to save the
graphics in the page as well. Click the right mouse button
on top of a graphic.  Graphics should always be saved to the
existing filename and to the same directory as the Web
pages.

The newly saved Web page may lock up the browser software.
This is because the graphic filenames are in a Unix or Mac
format.  The Web page file must be translated.  Return to
Perfect Recall using ALT-TAB.  The Web page filename created
by Perfect Recall should still be highlighted. If not, press
the up arrow key until it is.  The box at the bottom of the
screen should say, "Press ALT-ESC to execute-->....".  Now
press S to load the file into another program.  Move the
hightlight down to MX Web file converter.  Press ENTER.  Now
press ENTER again to execute.  The converter will load and
re-write the Web page file.  It can now be loaded into the
browser without difficulty.



           -----Loading a saved Web page-----

If the browser is not running;
Go to a record in Perfect Recall of interest.
Select GET FILE & APP or highlight the filename.
Press ALT-ESC to switch back to Windows.
Press ALT-1 to activate Winkey.
Click on the text line that says "Load".
The browser will start and load the Web page.

If the browser is already running;
Go to a record in Perfect Recall of interest.
Select GET FILE & APP or highlight the filename.
Press ALT-ESC to switch back to Windows.
Press ALT-1 to activate Winkey.
Click on the line with the filename (last line).
From the browser select Open Local File or Open File.
Press Backspace key to clear the box.
Press Shift-Ins to paste in path and filename.
Press ENTER to load.



              -----Importing Records------

The remaining category, Imported Records, serves to receive
new records from someone else or even MicroExcel.  It is not
intended as a place to add work you create.  In coming
records should have there own place to go so they can be
reviewed before moving them to a perminent location.
Instructions on how to do this will accompany material sent
from MicroExcel.  You must not import material until after
Perfect Recall has been registered.  You must have a unique
ID to prevent incoming work from writing over any new work
added by you.



                ------Registration------

Perfect Recall will allow you to create 25 new records.
After that it will display a message saying the program must
be registered by the time it reaches 50 new records.  If the
program is not registered by the time 50 records is reached,
you will not be able to add new records although existing
ones will still function.  You do not need to register the
program if 50 new records is never reached.

Registration at 50 records is $35 dollars.  A second $45
registration will occur at 200 new records.  Alternatively,
a single $80 double registration may be done at 50 records.

Documentation is sold separately for $26.  You do not need
to register the program to buy the documentation.  The 300
pages of documentation contains everything you need to apply
Perfect Recall to any need imaginable.

Registration and documentation is performed by the BUYER.EXE
program.  This will create a file which must be snail mailed
or e-mail in to:

73364,[e-mail]
[e-mail]

Support is available with the purchase of documentation,
with or without registration.

If you acquire a large number of files off the Net, you will
probably want to create more places (categories) to put
things.  You will need the documentation for this.