Information Please On-Screen Help Menu @1,Files Menu Options @2, Help, New Database, Open Database, Delete Database @3, Edit Description, Print Database, Choose Options @4, Shell To Dos, Quit @5,Edit Menu Options @6, Add New Entry @7, Delete/Restore and Entry @8, Edit an Entry @9, Import Text From a File @10, Compressing the Database @11,View Menu Options @12, Choose Record by Number @13, Choose Record by Keyword Search @16, Choose Record by Searching Entire Record @17,Editor Commands ##1 ~FILESMENU USING THE INFORMATION PLEASE FILES MENU The File menu allows you to use and manipulate Information Please files and also contains some options that deal with program setup and operation. The Files menu options are: Help New Database Open a Database Delete a Database Edit Database Description Print a Database About Information Please Choose Program Options Shell to DOS Quit, Return to DOS To choose one of these options, you may use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the desired option and then press the Enter key. Optionally, you can press the first letter of the option. For example, to choose the "About Information Please" option, press the A key. Following is a brief description of each of these options. ##2 OPTIONS ON THE FILE MENU The HELP OPTION displays a series of help screens that summarize the contents of the manual. When Help is chosen, a menu of items will appear. You can then choose a topic to examine or return to the main menu. The NEW DATABASE OPTION allows you to name a new database. Before entering information into a database you must either open an existing database or create a new database. The OPEN DATABASE option allows you to choose which Information Please database on disk you will be using. A list of the available databases will be displayed on the screen from which you can choose one to open. The DELETE A DATABASE option allows you to delete database files from your disk. It will delete the currently open database -- but will ask for a confirmation to make sure you really want to delete the database files. continued... ##3 OPTIONS ON THE FILE MENU continued The EDIT A DATABASE DESCRIPTION option allows you to enter or edit the 40 character description of the currently open database. This database description is displayed in the list of databases when you choose the Open Database or Delete Database options. The PRINT DATABASE option allows you to print the contents of the database to a printer or to a file. The About PC-Database option gives copyright information about the program. The SORT DATABASE option allows you to sort the keyword lists. You will asked to enter a key range to sort on. For example 1-5 would mean to use the first five characters in the keyword list to sort on. If you are going sort, you need to plan your keyword list to allow you to specify a meaningful sort range. continued... ##4 OPTIONS FOR THE FILES MENU Continued The CHOOSE PROGRAM OPTIONS item allows you to choose the disk drive and path to use for Information Please and to indicate what kind of monitor you are using. If no path is specified, Information Please will use information in the current default directory on your disk. You may choose from monitor types Color, LCD or Monochrome. The color option refers to CGA, EGA, PGA, VGA or other monitor types that display color. The LCD option displays only black and white. The Monochrome option displays black, white and bright white. The GO TO DOS option allows you to temporarily return to the DOS prompt. You may enter DOS commands or run another program. When you type EXIT at the DOS prompt, Information Please will resume. The QUIT, RETURN TO DOS option ends the Information Please program and returns you to the DOS prompt. ##5 ~EDITMENU THE INFORMATION PLEASE EDIT MENU The Edit menu is used to edit or manipulate individual records in the database. Before using the Edit menu, you must have an open database. If a database is open, the database name will be located at the bottom left of the screen. The options on the Edit menu are: Add New Entry Delete an Entry Restore a Deleted Entry Edit and Entry Import from a File Compress the Database These options are described below . . . ##6 ADD NEW ENTRY The Add New Entry option allows you to enter a new record into the database. This record consists of a description and a keyword list. When you choose to enter a record, the Information Please Editor will display with a mostly blank screen. On this screen, you will enter the description that you want to appear in the record. Also, you must enter a keyword description. To display the keyword entry box, press the F2 function key. A dialog box will appear in which you can enter the keywords for this record. Press enter to return to the editor. When you have finished entering the description and keywords, press the F7 function key to save the information. If you decide to abandon this entry and not save the information, press the Esc key. ##7 DELETE AN ENTRY The Delete an Entry option allows you to delete a record from the database. You will be asked to enter the record number of the entry to delete. This process does not actually permanently get rid of the entry - you can restore a deleted entry. If a record is deleted, you cannot read it or display its contents. To permanently get rid of all deleted record, use the Compress option. RESTORE A DELETED ENTRY If you have deleted an entry, you can get it back by using the Restore a Deleted Entry option. You will be prompted to enter the number of the entry to restore. ##8 EDIT AN ENTRY The Edit an Entry option allows you to edit the keywords and description of an entry. The entry will be displayed in the Information Please editor, where you can change, add to, or delete information in the description. Use the F2 key to edit the keyword list. If your resulting description is longer than the original description, the edited entry will become the last entry in the database, and the old entry will be marked for delete. For example, if you have 50 records and edit record number 5, making the new description 10 lines longer, this record will be saved as record number 51 and the old record 5 will be marked for delete. You must run the Compress option to free up the deleted space in the database. ##9 IMPORT FROM A FILE You may already have information on your computer that you want to place in a Information Please database. To import information in to Information Please, your information should be in a standard ASCII text file with lines less than 75 characters long. Most word processors will save information in this manner as an option. Your text file should have keyword lists before each description. This keyword list must begin with KEY: followed by up to 65 characters for the key list. For example: KEY:HARD DISK WILL NOT BOOT After the key list place the text of the description. You may have any number of entries in your text file. When you import them into Information Please, the "KEY:" statement will signal the beginning of a new entry. Once you have created the file containing the entries you may choose the Import From a File option. You will be asked the name of the file to import, and Information Please will read the file and add those entries to the record of the currently opened database. If you are beginning with a blank database, choose Create a Database from the Files menu, then choose Import from the Edit menu. ##10 COMPRESS THE DATABASE When you have deleted records from a database, they are not physically removed, and they may be restored. To permanently get rid of these records, use the Compress the Database option. This will free up space on your disk and make searching the database more efficient. ##11 ~VIEWMENU THE INFORMATION PLEASE VIEW MENU The View menu is where you search and view the information in the Information Please database. You may choose to view a record by number, by searching for a keyword in the keyword list, by searching for one or more words in the record description or by looking at a list of the keywords. The items on the View Menu are: Number Choice Keyword Choice In-Text Search View Keyword List You must have a currently open database to choose one of these options. Choose an option by highlighting the option and pressing the Enter key, or press the first letter of the option. These menu options are described below . . . ##12 NUMBER CHOICE When you choose the Number Choice option, you will be asked to enter the number of the record to view. This record will then be displayed on the screen. You may use the F9 key to view the previous record, the F10 key to view the next record. Deleted records will not be displayed. Press the F2 key if you wish to edit this record. Press the Esc key to end the viewing. ##13 KEYWORD CHOICE When you choose the Keyword Choice option, you will see another menu giving you the following options: Single Keyword Search AND - Multiple AND Search OR - Multiple OR Search Quit A single keyword search allows you to enter a single keyword (such as DISK). Information Please will then display the first record that matches the search. You may use the F9 key to view the previous matching record, the F10 key to view the next matching record. Deleted records will not be displayed. Press the F2 key if you wish to edit this record. Press the Esc key to end the viewing. continued... ##14 KEYWORD CHOICE continued A Multiple AND search allows you to specify 2 to 10 words to match. For example, you might want to match on the words DISK and BOOT. The match criteria means that the keyword must contain BOTH the word DISK and the word BOOT. You will be prompted to enter a list of match words with the AND sign (&) between each word. In this case you would enter DISK&BOOT Information Please will display the first record that matches the search criteria. You may use the F9 key to view the previous matching record, the F10 key to view the next matching record. Deleted records will not be displayed. Press the F2 key if you wish to edit this record. Press the Esc key to end the viewing. continued... ##15 KEYWORD CHOICE continued A Multiple OR search allows you to specify 2 to 10 words to match. For example, you might want to match on the words DISK or BOOT. The match criteria means that the keyword must contain EITHER the word DISK or the word BOOT. You will be prompted to enter a list of match words with a ~ (tilde) between each word. In this case you would enter DISK~BOOT Information Please will display the first record that matches the search criteria. You may use the F9 key to view the previous matching record, the F10 key to view the next matching record. Deleted records will not be displayed. Press the F2 key if you wish to edit this record. Press the Esc key to end the viewing. ##16 IN-TEXT SEARCH An In-text search searches the contents of the entry, not just the keyword list. This search tends to be slower than a keyword search. When you choose the In-Text Search option, you are give the same options as in the Keyword search - a single keyword search, multiple AND matches and multiple OR matches. VIEW KEYWORD LIST The View Keyword List option displays a list of the keyword descriptions of all of the entries in the currently opened database. If there are more entries than the screen can display, you may press the down arrow key of PgDn to view additional keyword lists. To move back up the list, press the up arrow key or PgUp. To view the contents of a record, highlight the keyword list and press the Enter key. Press the Esc key to end the View Keyword List option. ##17 ~EDITOR Information Please EDITOR The Information Please editor allows you to enter new record descriptions or to modify descriptions already in a database. The following commands are available in the editor. Commands are accessed by pressing a function key or by entering a CTRL (control) command. The function keys command are: EDIT Function Keys Esc-End - Exit without saving modifications F1-Help: Help screens. F2-Keyword - Enter or Modify Keyword list F3-Top: Move to the top of the record F4-Bottom: Move to the bottom of the record F5-Files: List files or get file from disk. F6-Center a line F7-Save Record and any modifications F8-Clear: Clears editor (Does not clear copy buffer). F9-Mark: Mark block for copy. F10-Copy: Copy text. See also Ctrl-C. ##18 EDITOR CONTROL COMMANDS The following list of commands are Control commands. Control commands are issued by pressing the CTRL key like a shift key, and then simultaneously pressing a single command key. CTRL A - Makes characters UPPER CASE. CTRL C - Is similar to the F10 function key. However, instead of first inserting blank lines before making a copy, CTRL C will place the copied text in the position specified by the cursor, directly over any text that may happen to exist there. CTRL D - Deletes all characters on the current line which are to the right of the cursor. If the cursor is in column one, the entire line will be deleted. continued... ##19 EDITOR CONTROL COMMANDS continued CTRL F - "Fills" the text from the current line to the next blank line which starts with a dot "." Each line is filled with as many words as will fit while observing the current line length specifications. CTRL J - Justifies line to right line length in editor. CTRL L - Reset the line length specifications within EDIT. After pressing CTRL L, you will be prompted to enter the new line length. CTRL S - Will search for a specified text. You will be prompted to enter the text to be located. Each time this text is matched, it will be highlighted on the screen. CTRL W - Deletes text from the position of the cursor to the next blank. This is usually used to delete a word. CTRL Y - Delete a line. CTRL Z - Makes characters lower case.