Inhalt der Hilfe
Content

Build your individual IRD database
Searching in the Internet Resources Database
Actualizing your IRD database
Using the IRD Notebook features
Troubleshooting
Contributing information to IRD
How to become a IRD Moderator
Free listing in the IRD "Private Homepages" database
Free listing in the IRD "Classified Links" database

Help spreading the information about the Internet Resources Database:

Upload the IRD Program (Shareware version only!) and the database files to places where you think people might be interested and will benefit from IRD.

Link to the IRD homepage and/or to the download-sites from your Web page

Refer people to IRD when you are asked for a Internet Resources Guide

Help improving IRD:

Contribute information.

Give us feedback for improvements, new topic's you would like to become available as IRD datafiles etc.

Register your IRD program. Your registration fee will help us to further improve our service for all IRD users.Check the Registration info

Thank you!


How to contribute Informations's to IRD
How to contribute information to IRD

The Internet is changing rapidly.

A book about the resources available on the Internet is outdated to a great extend before it is finally printed. Each month there are hundreds of new Mailing lists and Newsgroups, addresses are changing, new interesting services are added and so on.

Your Internet Resources Database won't outdate. You can expand your database with additional information or you can actualize your database with the most current inforamtion whenever you want.

Maintaining a database like this, with the goal to be as actual and complete as possible is a huge amount of work for the IRD Moderators and for us.

Please accept: nothing is perfect and especially a Internet Resources Guide never will be.

IRD is improving from day to day, from week to week based on the work and contribution of a lot of people. Eventually we are coming close to perfect in near future.

YOUR FEEDBACK IS NEEDED and appreciated!

PLEASE HELP the moderators and us to improve your Internet database by contributing:

* Information about new interesting sites you find on the Internet

* Notes on addresses changed or no longer alive but still in the IRD database.

* Notes on wrong information you eventually found in IRD. This can be information under a wrong topic, wrong or misspelled URL, incomplete or wrong information about a side ....... simply anything you think can be improved.

*Additional information about a site. Perhaps you can contribute a description for a newsgroup  or a Mailing list you have subscribed. Or you can summarize the valuable content of a FTP site you have visited. Other users can benefit from your input when searching this kind of information.

DON'T BE UPSET, IF YOU FIND WRONG OR OUTDATED INFORMATION.

GIVE US THE FEEDBACK AND WE PROMISE, THAT IT'S CORRECTED IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE DATAFILE.

 How to contribute:

A) Use the "Submit" function of your program.

B) Use the online submission form available on the IRD Web site http://www.mbmarktcons.com/mbmarkt/irdfeedb.htm

Information contributed with the "Submit" function should always be send to "IIRD-USERINPUT@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net.

Questions, suggestions etc. regarding a moderated topic should be directed to the moderator. The name of the moderator and his IRD-Mail address can be found under the index point "Moderator of this topic..." if a topic is moderated.

If you can't find the moderator or if you are unsure, please mail your suggestions, questions etc. to: IRD-Feedback@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net.

For all comments on the program, suggestions not related to a specific topic, wishes for improvements etc. also send email to IRD-Feedback@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net

Thank you in the name of all IRD users for your help!


How to become a IRD Moderator

To increase the value of IRD for our users, we are always looking for new members for the IRD moderator team.

If you like to contribute your knowledge about a specific topic and the respective resources available on the Internet to IRD, and, by doing so, help thousands of users finding those information more easily, we would be very happy to welcome you in the IRD moderator team.

Share your knowledge with others as a IRD moderator.

Pick a topic you are interested in moderating and contact us or the moderator, if there is already one for this topic, and let us know that you are interested to help.

Suggest a new topic or subtopic!

If you have a special topic you would like to moderate for IRD, but it isn't part of the current IRD index, please suggest it either as a new topic or a new subtopic.

The IRD index is designed to grow, and certainly there are thousands of people world wide, who share your interest and will appreciate a comprehensive guide summarizing the Internet resources available for them.

Check the "IRD - Info about moderating" page at :

http://www.mbmarktcons.com/mbmarkt/modinfo.htm

for more information, or just send a email to our InfoServer:

IRD-Moderator-info@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net

to receive our information for moderators.


Free entry in the IRD "Classified Links" database

You can get a free listing of your commercial Internet site in the "Classified Links" database of IRD.

Use the online form at:

http://www.mbmarktcons.com/mbmarkt/irdclink.htm

to submit your site,

or request information and the submission form from our InfoServer by sending a email to:

IRD-Classified-Links@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net

You can also request information about a sponsor entry in IRD by sending a email to:

IRD-Sponsor-Info@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net


Free entry in the IRD "Private Homepages" database

You can get a free listing of your private homepage in the "Private Homepages" database of IRD.

Use the online form at:

http://www.mbmarktcons.com/mbmarkt/irdphpfo.htm

to submit your homepage,

or request information and the submission form from our InfoServer by sending a email to:

IRD-Private-Homepages@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net


Build your individual Internet Resources Database

The IRD Reader and Notebook program can be used in different ways:

As your "Internet Notebook", for keeping and maintaining all kind of information you want to save for future reference. The IRD Notebook is a really powerful database where you can store in a well organized way everything for easy and quick retrieval.
Site addresses, notes, complete documents and if you like complete World Wide Web pages as text or as HTML source code. See: Using the IRD Notebook features

As your "E-mail addressbook"

It allows you to create a very easy to use addressbook which can hold beside the email address any kind of information you want to save. See: Build and maintain a easy to use and quickly searchable E-mail addressbook

and, last but not least,

for building a Internet Resources Database on your PC, as your comprehensive guide to all the information available on the Internet. You can build this database to your requirements and update it easily with actual and new files from the various download sides, whenever you want

How to build your Internet Resources Database:

You build your Internet Resources Database by appending all those files you are interested in to the database on your PC.

You can build the database principally in three ways:

Using the Resource files. Each resource file contains comprehensive information about one type of Internet Resource. I.e. Mailing lists, Newsgroups, FTP sites ....
Appending all the Resource files gives you the complete Internet Resources database.

Using the Subject files. Each subject files consist Internet resources related to on subject. I. e. Medicine, Computer, Music ..... and covers all the Internet resource types.

Mixing Subject and Resource files in any combination you like.

3.) Connect to a download side.
You can access all download sites from the IRD Home Page at
http://www.mbmarktcons.com/mbmarkt/irdhome.htm.
If you do not have access to the World Wide Web you can request the most current list by sending a email ( no subject and no text required ) to the autoresponder
IRD-Sites@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net

2.) Download all files you want to add to your Database into the /IRD/APPEND directory on your PC.
If you download from a Worldwide Web site it is very easy to pick the files.
If you connect to a FTP site you will find two subdirectories under /ird/:
ird-by-topic  containing all the Subject files and
ird-by-resource containing the Resource Files

All IRD datafiles have the extension .ird

3.) Append all the files you have downloaded to your database

See also:

What does append?

Actualizing your IRD database


Add new information to the database
Add new information to your Internet Notebook

With the Notebook function " Add new info " you can easily add information to the database and build your own Internet Resources Database.

	All your information in the Notebook is held separate from the information provided with the IRD database files! To make visible that the Notebook is a separate part of the database this part appears blue in the index. Your Notebook entries will not be affected by appending new and actualized database files. Compare: Actualizing your IRD database
How to add new information i.e. a new site to the database:

1. Select "New sites - Notes - Email addresses" under "Notebook:" in the Main Index List.

2. Select the topic under "New sites...", under which you want to save the new entry.

Note: You have to do this selection first. You can not move a entry to a other topic later

3. Click on the button "Add new info".

This will open the window "Add new Notebook entry under: [name of selected topic]. This window is very similar to the "Found list".
The list will show all entries you have already made under the selected topic.

In the caption (title) of the window you see the topic that you have selected for this entry. You can close the window and select an other topic if you like.

4. Click on "Enter new info"

This will open the "Description" window with all fields blank.

All the information in the upper part will be displayed in the "Foundlist" window when this entry is selected. We recommend to fill out at least the following fields:

Name/Shortdescription: The Keyword search will use this information and you select a entry based on this information in the "Found List"

URL: Sure, you need it. We recommend the URL format if you want to use the address with your Web browser.

Keywords: you may want to add a few keywords that describe the major content of this site. You do not have to duplicate informations from the Name/Shortdescription line, because the Name/Shortdescription field is part of the keyword search.

Resource type: You can sort the "Found list" by this field. This is helpful when you search by keyword to group the resources found. We use: Mailing list; Newsgroup; Newsgroup (alt.); Gopher; FTP site; WWW page and some other in this field. You may want to use the same type
descriptions.

5. Close the window.

You are asked to confirm saving the info under that topic. If you select "NO" your entries will be discarded. "Yes" saves the new information and returns to the "Foundlist".

Press "Enter new info" again to add a other information under the same topic or click "Close" again, to return to the search index.

Delete a "Notebook" entry from the database with the "Delete" button in the "Description" window.

Note: If you call a entry with the "Show" function and open the "Description" window you can edit the information but you cannot delete the entry.

You can only delete entries from your "Notebook", means entries you have initiated.

You must access a entry you want to delete with the "Add new info" function.

See also:

Build and maintain a easy to use and quickly searchable E-mail addressbook

Build a "hotlist" with your favorite sites

Save .html documents (Web pages) in the database

Save your entries, notes and changes to disk.


Build and maintain a easy to use and quickly searchable E-mail addressbook

May be your Mail program offers you everything you need for maintaining a email addressbook. Fine, you should not bother handling a second one in your IRD database.

If your Mail program is not offering what you are looking, for you might want to use the IRD program to maintain your e-mail addressbook.

The advantage is, that you base your addressbook on a very powerful database, and you have the flexibility to store all kind of information together with the email address and you can use the keywords for searching your addressbook.

Using the IRD as E-mail addressbook is exactly the same as entering a New Site.

The only difference is, that you have to select the topic "E-mail addressbook" before clicking on the "Add new info" button. To categorize your addresses by alphabet for a quick access with the topic index you should further select the letter under which this entry should be saved.

Suggested use of the input fields:

Name / Shortdescription: for the name of the person / organization.
I.e. Martin Bohnet  Markt Consulting KG

URL: for the mail address.
I.e. mbohnet@mbmarkt.f.eunet.de.

Keywords: for anything you may want to use for searching or further categorizing your addresses
I.e. Marketing - Webpage - IRD - nice guy - ........

Country: for the country if you like
I.e. "D" for Germany

Infos: for any other information you would like to show up in the "Found-list" window if this entry is selected.
I.e. The web page of the person or company:  http://www.mbmarktcons.com/mbmarkt/

Type:  enter E-mail or something similar. You can sort the "Foundlist" by this type entry. This may be helpful if you do a keyword search across the whole database with for example Marketing, you can see at one glance what belongs to your email addressbook.

Description:   everything else you want to save: Street address, Tel. Fax etc. , part of the last message you got from this address. Notes .......

Remember saving your entries from time to time in case something happens to the database or to your harddisk. See: Save your entries, notes and changes to disk

See also:

Add new sites to the database


Edit information in the database

All data's and information in the IRD database can be edited.

You can:

-  Correct the URL's if you find one that has changed. (Please let us know! see: How to contribute information to IRD )

-  Take notes for sites you have visited, add descriptions if you like etc.

-  Add your own keywords for a quick reference.

I.e. adding the keyword "subscribed" to all the Mailing lists and/or newsgroups you have subscribed, allows you to easily search for just this lists or newsgroups.

-  Delete entries (only New sites you have added to the database. See: Add new sites to the database)

How to edit information in the database:

1. Open the "Additional info's" window for the entry you want to edit

2. Select with your Mouse or with the Tab- and the arrow keys of your keyboard, the field where you want to add, edit or delete information

3. Do your changes

4. Close the Window or use the < > buttons to scroll to the next information.

Whenever you have made a change to a dataset, you are asked to confirm saving of your changes to the database before you can leave the window or scroll to the next or previous information.

You can redo all your changes on the displayed dataset if you answer: NO

See also:

Adding new sites to the database

Build and maintain a easy to use and quickly searchable E-mail addressbook

Build a "hotlist" with your favorite sites

Save .html documents (Web pages) in the database

Save your entries, notes and changes to disk


Delete topics from your database

There is currently no function in the program that allows to delete a whole topic from your database i.e. delete all Mailing lists or delete all Private Home Pages etc.

However, there are two ways to do it.

1. Rebuild the whole database from scratch using the empty database provided with the program. You may want to actualize your database from time to time anyway so why not build it new with the most current files.
You can find the empty database in the /installationpath/emptydb directory ( usually C:/ird/emptydb/). The filename is emptydb.exe. This is a selfextracting archive which hold's the empty database.
After extracting, move the files IRD.DB and IRDEXP.DB to your installation directory (C:/IRD) and overwrite the existing files with this empty database.

or

2. Append a properly named empty database file to your database. Using this trick you can delete a specific part of the database i.e. all Gopher sites.

To do this you have to know the naming convention we use for the database files:

Here are a few names you may want to use:

02.db	all FTP sites

03.db	all Gopher sites

05.db	all Mailing lists

07.db	all Newsgroups

08.db	all Telnet sites

09.db	all WWW sites

11.db	all Classified Links

14.db	all Private Homepages

.....

Use a empty IRDEXP.DB file ( see under 1. ) and copy it to the /Installationpath/append directory using the filename depending on what data you want to delete.

Compress this file into a selfextracting archive using your favorite Compression tools (LHA, ARJ, PKZIP (Zipexe) ...)

Rename this file from name.exe to name.ird

Use the Append a IRD database file function and append this empty file to your database and it will delete all entries determined by the filename you have chosen.

We know it is a little bit tricky. But it works and is not as complicated as it might look at the moment.

You can selectively delete anything from the database using this approach.

To get the proper filename you have to now the code identifying the topic in the index.

You can determine the code using the keyword search function and do a topic index search.

Example: You want to delete all Sex (alt.sex.) from the Newsgroups.

1. Select Newsgroups in the Topic Index

2. Search for keyword "Sex" and reduce the search to Newsgroups.

3. You see the code for this topic is 7.115

4. Convert it to a hex code This is 0773 in this example.

5. This is the filename you may want to use. (0773.db)

Want to delete a topic in all resource categories?

1. Determine the code for the topic see above.

2. Example "Travel": The code is 7.139. in the Newsgroups.

3. Replace the first digit with D (for digest) and convert the rest of the code to hex. Here D8B.db is the filename to delete all entries under "Travel" in all categories.


Import your Data

With the "Import your data" command in the Data Im-/Export menu you can restore your Notebook when you have to rebuild a database (compare: Troubleshooting ) or if you want to install IRD on a other computer.

Before you can use the Import your Data command you have to save your Data using the "Save your entries/changes" command. Compare: Save your entries, notes and changes to disk .

To import the data:

1. Select "Data Im-/Export" from the Main menu.

2. Select "Import your data"

3.) Select the drive and the path for the File: Personal.dat.

The Filename must be Personal.dat, if you have changed the filename, rename it to Personal.dat before trying to import.

4.) Press OK


Save your entries, notes and changes to disk.

You should save your entries, notes etc. to a separate file for two reasons:

1.)	To save the notes, changes etc. you have made to the database before you append a actualized or new data file to your database. You can then restore all the changes you have made with the Import your Data command.

2.)	To save your "New Sites" entries and your "Favorite Sites" list for the case that your database gets damaged and you have to rebuild it ( see: Troubleshooting) or, because you decide to rebuild it from scratch, to get rid of some parts of the database. ( see: Delete topics from your Database)

To save the data:

1. Select "Data Im-/Export" from the Main menu.

2. Select "Save entries/changes"

3. Press "OK" in the message window to continue or "Cancel" to abort.

4. Select the drive and the path for the File: Personal.dat. Do not change the Filename.

5. Press OK


Save .html documents (Web pages) in the database

If you surf through the Net, you may want to save a part of a interesting Web page or the whole page for later retrieval without having to reconnect to this site.

You can save pages using the "Save as" function of your Web Browser. This is very convenient and easy.

However, it will become difficult to refer back to the information especially if you save more pages.
The 8 digit filename isn't very descriptive.

As you already know, you can save any text based information in your Internet Resources Database. This makes IRD a universal tool to maintain all the information you want to save, including parts of Web pages or even whole Web pages.

Saving the information of a Web page can be done in two ways:

A:) As normal Text.

Just select the text you want to save from a Web page by dragging over the text with the left mouse button held down. Copy the marked text into the Windows clipboard with Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert.
Go to the IRD program (using Alt + Tab or the Taskmanager) and paste the text into the description field with: Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert.

(Not all Web Browsers may support marking up and copying text this way).

B.) As Hypertext source code.

This is the method of choice if you want to save the complete page and the links of a page for later use.

You can save for ex. the result of a search you have done using a search engine, a interesting home page you have found ....

How to do it.

Open the View source window of your browser to display the html code for this page.
Mark up the whole page. This is usually done very quick by using the tab key to select the text field.
Copy the text to the clipboard and from there into the description field of the entry, where you want to store the information.

To look at this html document you have to open it with your html reader or Web browser.

Press the "Save as HTML file" button and the description field will be saved as a file named "Selected.htm" in the directory /ird/htmlfile.
Open this file with the Open local file function of your Browser and you can view the page (without the graphics) and you can use the links of this document.
Note: If your Browser has the "Autoload Images" feature switched on, than opening a document will cause the Browser to connect to the site and load the images in the document.
This may not be wanted, so turn this feature off for reading local files.

Every time you select "Save as HTML file" the file "Selected.htm" is overwritten with the new document.

	After you have opened the file "selected.htm" in your browser the first time, you can view other documents you have "Copied as .htm file" by just pressing the "Reload" button of your browser!


Build a "hotlist" with your favorite sites

The "Favorite sites" function allows you to create a list of your favorite places on the Internet.

You can retrieve this places very quick from the database by just selecting "Favorite Sites" in the index under "Notebook:" and click on "Show". Connecting to this sites is easy too, using the "Copy URL to Clipboard" function.

How to include a site or resource into your favorite list:

Select the site in the "Found list" and open the "Description" window for the site you want to include into your "Favorite list"

Click on "Mark favorite" to mark this site as one of your favorite places. The description of the button will change to "Delete from favorite list" to indicate that this site has been added to your favorite list.

	You can also use the Keywords to "build special lists". Examples: Add "Subscribed" as keyword to all the Mailing lists / Newsgroups you have subscribed. Add "nomail" to lists you have set to "nomail. Add "To go" to sites you want to visit next time you are online etc. etc... You can combine keyword labeling with the "Mark favorite" function. Then you can do a keyword for example a search for "nomail" under the Topic "Favorite sites" which will give you very fast the lists you want to reset to normal mail after returning from vacation. (Just searching for "nomail" in the complete database or in all the Mailing lists will take longer, depending on the size of your database.).


Using the IRD Notebook features

Content:

Edit information in the database

Add new sites to the database

Build and maintain a easy to use and quickly searchable E-mail addressbook

Build a "hotlist" with your favorite sites

Save .html documents (Web pages) in the database

Save your entries, notes and changes to disk.


Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting:

For the most current information about possible problems and their solutions request the IRD-Software-FAQ.

Send a blank Email to:

IRD-Software-FAQ@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net.

The document will be in your mailbox a minute later.

Check always if you have the most current version of the software.

Content:

I.   Program hangs when connecting to the database

II.  Program can not be started

I. Program hangs when connecting to the database.

This problem happens when there are not enough resources available for

starting the database. Unfortunately the 32 bit database engine does not get

the correct information from "Windows" about the available resources and

hangs the system when started.

This happens when not enough memory is available for:

- the cache reserved for the database  plus

- the cache reserved by Windows  (Smartdrive , 32bit File access cache..)  plus

- the memory used by other active applications.

To circumvent this problem

* close applications not needed before starting IRD

* start IRD before you start other applications you want to run together with IRD

* reduce the cache size used by the database.

Open the file "ODBC.INI" which can be found in your Windows directory with a text editor. Look for the [IRD] entry and edit the value for the cache size in the line:

Start=C:\IRD\rt32w -c 4096 %d

to a smaller value. Do not use less than 2048 bytes as cache size.

Note that reducing the cache size will result in a smaller performance, because more data has to be read from the harddrive.

* use the 16 bit database engine.

This should be the last measure, when you even with 2048 setting experience problems. The 16 bit engine is significantly slower. The 16bit engine plus instructions how to replace the 32bit engine is available as a file from:

ftp://ftp.mbmarktcons.com/pub/mbmarkt/ird/ird-updates&tools.

The filename is: 16biteng.exe

II.  Program can not be started:

1. Terminate all other programs and try again.

Still not running?

2. Check if all this files are in this IRD installation directory?
If not, see 3.

By default the directory is:   ( or what ever you named it during installation)

IRD.EXE

IRD.DB

IRDEXP.DB

ODBC.DLL Vers. 10.11.1993

ODBCCURS.DLL

WSQLEN.DLL

WSQLODBC.DLL

DBLIBW.DLL

RT32w.exe

Program still cannot be started

3. Try reinstalling the program. First: Save your database by copying the files IRD.DB and IRDEXP.DB to a other directory.

Still a problem:

4. Contact IRD-Support see below.

Program starts OK but can not connect to the database:

1. Delete the file IRD.LOG if there is such a file and try again.

Still unable to connect to the database

2.Try the empty database file which can be found in the
C:/installationpath/emptydb directory

1.) Rename the database files IRD.DB and IRDEXP.DB to IRD.BAK and IRDEXP.BAK

2.) Execute the file emptydb.ird to unpack this self extracting archive.

3.) MOVE the files IRD.DB and IRDEXP.DB into the directory where the files are that you have renamed.

4.) Try again starting the IRD program. If everything is OK now, your database got damaged somehow. You have to rebuild the IRD database by appending the all the Information files you want to include into your database and by importing your Notebook data and the notes you have made on the other database entries .

(Hopefully you have saved your Notebook.)

Problem still persists:

3. Reinstall the whole program.

Still not OK?

4. Contact IRD-Support (registered users only): Send a email to: IRD-Support@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net

Remember to describe your System: PC type, Processor and RAM, Operating system(s) etc.

Describe exactly what has caused the problem, what other programs you have installed since the
last time the IRD program was running, what other program(s) has been active when running IRD and so on. The more information you can give the more likely is it, that the problem can be solved quick.


What does append?

The "Append" function allows you:

Building your customized Internet Resources Database with all those file that are interesting for you.

Actualize your database with the most current files.

Expand your database with additional files as needed, or with new subject files becoming available.

There are basically two types of files available for append.

A: Resource Files: Files containing all the information available for a certain Resource type i.e. Mailing lists, Newsgroups or Classified links etc. Other files will be available in the future.

B: Subject Files: containing information about a certain subject. I.e. Computer; Hobby, Medicine etc.
This files contain information resources on a certain subject, covering all resource types (i.e. Mailing lists , FTP, Gopher etc. but no Classified links and no Private Home pages etc.).

Appending a Resource file, i. e. the file "Maillist.ird", first deletes all information about Mailing lists from your database. Then the topic index for Mailing lists and all the Mailing lists available in IRD are added to your database.

If you append all available Resource files to your database you have included all the available information into your database.

Subject files are subsets of the information contained in the Resources Files.
Appending a Subject File to a database containing all current Resource Files will not add any further informations.

Appending a Subject file, i. e. Medicine, first deletes all information related to this topic.
Then the topic index for Medicine for all the resource types will be added . Finally all informations available in IRD under the topic Medicine will be added to your database.

After append you have always the most current topic index and the most current set of information for the resource type or subject you appended in your database.

	After append all the notes you might have made to certain information are deleted. You can restore your notes with the command Import your data if you have saved them before the append


Actualizing your IRD database

The Internet is growing rapidly. With the Internet nothing is as constant as change.

To keep all IRD users up to date with the information resources available on the Internet,

a team of qualified moderators is constantly updating the information in the database.

Every three to six month, the database is actualized and you can load the most current file and append it to your database. All your additions, notes, favorite marks etc. can be preserved by exporting them to a file and re import your data after actualizing your database.

All registered users will be automatically subscribed to the IRD Mailing list and will be informed on a regular basis about new database files, new software versions, new download sites and other interesting news regarding IRD.

Actualizing your IRD database is a quick and easy 4 step procedure:

1. Load the database file you want to add to your Internet Resources Database either from the IRD Home page or from the IRD download site next to you.

Refer to the document "How to actualize and add files to the database" for the current list of download sites. The most current list of sites also always available from our Info-Server and can be retrieved by sending a e-mail message to:

IRD-Sites@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net.

No text is required. You will immediately get the list with the current download sites.

2. Appending a database file will overwrite all the information in the database with the information in the appended file. If you have made changes to the information in the database and want to save them, save all the edited database entries by selecting "Save entries/changes" in the "Data Im-/Export" Menu.

3. Append the new database file by using the "Append a IRD database" command in the "Data Im-/Export" Menu
For a detailed explanation what happens when you append a IRD database file see: What does append?

4. If you have saved your changes, you can reload them into the database with the "Import your data" command.

Note:

All your Notebook entries (New sites, Favorite list) will not be affected by appending a database file. Only sites which have been deleted from the database for whatever reason will disappear also from your favorite list.

Notebook entries however can be lost if the whole database gets damaged. Therefore it is a good idea to save your Notebook entries and changes form time to time preferably to a floppy disk.

Compare: Troubleshooting


The Main Menu

From the Main menu you can select all the program functions.

Click with your mouse on the corresponding icon,

or,

if you don't have a pointing tool select the function from the menu bar.

Press the alt key to select the menu bar.
Use the arrow keys to select a menu command and then press Enter.

Index

opens the Internet Index window where you can search for Internet sites or add entries to your notebook.

Data Im-/Export

Append a IRD database

Save your entries/changes

Import your data

Exit

leaves the program

Help

"Content" opens the content index of IRD's on-line help.

"How to use help" gives instructions about how to use the Windows Help system.

"about IRD" opens the information window of this program. Here you can check what's the date of the last file you have appended


Uninstall the IRD program

If you want to remove the Internet Resources Database from your harddisk you can do this with the "Uninstall" program provided with IRD..

Uninstall deletes all those files and directories from your harddisk, which has been created during installation. If you have added files to those directories after Installation this files will not be deleted automatically.

Uninstall will also undo all the changes made to your system files as far as this is possible (see below).

To start the uninstall program click on the icon for uninstall in the program group "Internet Resources Database" in the Windows program manager.

In the current version of the "Uninstall" program the following files and changes will remain on your PC:

If not already on your system, IRD adds the file ODBC.INI to your Windows directory. You can delete this program if you are hundred percent sure, that no other programs on your PC are using ODBC. ( Check with your editor if the program is empty before you delete it).

In the file "ODBC.INI" will remain a line [IRD]. This has no effect at your system. If you like you can delete this entry with your text editor.

In the file DOSAPP.INI a line C:\IRD\...\IRD.PIF= ...... will remain. This has also no effect at your system and you can delete this entry with your text editor if you like.

The program "Irduninst.exe" will remain in your Windows directory. Delete it manually if you like.

Installation of the IRD program will add or update (if they are older version)  the following DDL's:

CTL3DV2.DLL Vers.: 14.10.1993

This DLL´s will be used from other programs as well. You should not delete this files. You can find this files in the \Windows\System directory.


Welcome

Welcome to the Internet Resources Database.

The Internet Resources Database (IRD) is the most comprehensive guide to the information on the Internet available for your PC

To proceed to the main menu:

 click on the IRD graphic

or

press the Spacebar, Enter or ESC.


Additional info's

The "Description" window shows additional information (if available) for a Internet resource (or a Notebook entry)  you have selected in the "Foundlist"

Function keys:

< and >

Scroll back and forth to scan through all the sites in the current "Foundlist"

Print

Prints the site information on your printer

Mark as favorite / Delete from favorite list

Mark favorite adds this site to your favorite list. Delete from favorite list removes this site from the list. When a site is marked as favorite it can be found very quick by selecting "Favorite sites" in the Index list. See also: Build a "hotlist" with your favorite sites

Copy the URL to clipboard

Copies the URL-address to the Windows clipboard. This function allows you to copy the URL conveniently to your Windows based Web client or E-Mail program.

Copy as HTML file

This function makes a copy of the text in the description field and saves it under the filename: SELECTED.HTM in the directory: Drive:\Installationpath\HTMLFile (usually C:\IRD\HTMLFile)
See Notebook features for a detailed explanation of this feature.

Close

Close the window and return to the "Foundlist". If the data has been changed you have to confirm saving this changes when pressing "Close".

Submit

This function allows you, to contribute changes and new entries you want suggest for being included into the IRD database very convenient.
"Submit" copies the displayed dataset with some additional information into the Windows clipboard. You can easily copy it into a email message and send it to us. The data is saved in a preformated textblock, which allows us to import your information more easily into the central database for reviewing.

See also: Submit


Viewing the informations found.
Viewing the information found

To view the information found with your topic search just click on "Show".

Show opens the window "Foundlist". (If you search for a information with a keyword, the search result is automatically displayed in the "Foundlist" window.

The "Foundlist" shows all those Internet resources that match your search criteria (topic and/or keyword).

Use the scrollbar or the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through the list.

The other window elements and function keys:

In the display area under the listbox you see additional information for the resource you have selected in the list. There is always the Name/Shortdescription of the information resource, the address in the URL format (Uniform Resource Locator) and the type of the resource. The other information displayed here varies depending on the type resource.

Show/Edit additional info's. If there is more information available for the selected site or resource, this is indicated by the "Show/Edit additional info's" button. Click on it to open the "Additional info's window".

Add info's. If the button reads "Add info's" there is currently no further information available for this resource. However you can take notes about this resource or add your own description if you like. To do this click on the button to open the "Description" window.
Compare: Edit information in the database

With Sortoptions you can select, what should be the alphabetical sortkey for the listbox:

You can select as sortkey: the Shortdescription/Title (the default), the Resourcetype or the Country

The "Sortoption" dialogbox is open by default. You can close the dialogbox with a "double-click" on the system menu field in the upper left corner, or with Alt + F4 when the box is selected.
The "Sortoptions" button opens the Sortoption dialogbox when it is closed

Copy URL to clipboard, not hard to guess, copies the URL into the Windows clipboard. Instead of typing in rather lengthy addresses, you can easily copy the URL to your Windows Web client or to other Windows based programs. To insert the URL into the other Windows application switch to this Windows application with the shift + tab key or with the Task manager, select the insertion field and either press "Ctrl+ V" or "Shift+ ins".

Close closes the window and returns to the "Topic Index window".


Search by keyword

In addition to the "Topic Index", which allows you to quickly narrow down the huge amount of information available in the Internet to your current interests, you can use the Keyword Search function to find a specific information in three ways:

*	Topic Index Search: helps to find quickly a topic in the Topic Index.
Note: A Topic Index Search should be reduced to a certain resource category ( see below). Otherwise you will get multiple hits, one from every resource category. See also: Result of Index Search

*	Searching in the whole database for matching keywords comparing the "Name/Shortdescription" fields and the field "Keywords" with the searchstring. This is recommended if you want to get an overview on all the information regardless of the type of the resource.

*	Searching by keyword in a preselected category/topic.
I. e. search for all Mailing list with the keyword "Windows 95" or search in the Notebook under "New sites - Notes - Email addresses" for your entry "Bobs email address " using the keyword "Bob" (combined keyword and index search).

Note: Keyword search might find resources you will not see with a topic search. This is because some resources are currently not categorized for two reasons:
- It is difficult to categorize some resources meaningful in the current index.
- The currently available information about a resource makes categorizing difficult.
A keyword search under a certain resource type i.e. Mailing list encompasses all Mailing lists, because every resource is at least categorized by type.

How to search for a Topic or a Resource by keyword:

1.	Click on the button

to open the "Keyword Search" dialogbox.

2.	Select if you want to search for a:

Topic in the [image] Topic Index

Resource by [image] Shortdescriptions and Searchkeywords

3.	Select if the search should encompass:

The complete Index / Database

Only the Cursor selected Topic / Resource type

4.	Enter the searchstring. Most times a shortcut will work best

Note: Search looks for string everywhere in the searched fields. You do not have to enter wildcards like *string* or %string%.
However you can use wildcards, for example if you want to look for two words appearing in a given order, but with a variable text between them, you can use expressions like: String1*String2.

5.	Click on "Start Search", to start your search.

The result of your search is shown in two different ways, depending of the selected search type:

Results of a keyword search in "Shortdescriptions and Searchkeywords"

are shown in the found list, listing all the resources matching your search criteria. See Foundlist for help on using the "Foundlist"

Results of a keyword search in the Topic Index

are shown in the "Result of Index Search" dialogbox.

Result of Index Search dialog box

This dialog box lists all the Topic Index entries matching your searchcode.
"Double clicking" on a topic in the list or selecting and pressing "Enter" goes directly to this topic in the Main Topic Index list.

There can be multiple entries, only different in the index code number given in the list, if you haven't narrowed your search to a certain category/topic.
The reason for this is, that all resource categories are using the same basic topic index.
The code gives you the information to which category the topic belongs.

I. e. 9. any numbers is a topic under WWW pages, 5. any numbers is a topic under Mailing lists,
245. any numbers is a topic in the Notebook, 245.9.  is a topic under "WWW pages" in your "New Sites" Notebook.

See the legend under the listbox for more information.

Function Keys

Click on:

Go to, to jump directly to the topic selected in the list. Same as "double click" or "enter"

New Search to close the dialogbox and show again the Keyword Search dialog.

Close to close and leave the Keyword Search dialog.

Searchspeed

The search speed is dependent on:

The processor speed of your PC. We do not recommend using the IRD program on 386 machines. The searches can be very slow (up to several minutes) with huge databases.

The available RAM on your PC. If a search has to be done mostly on the harddisk of your PC, speed is significantly slower than a search that can be done in RAM.

The size of the cache memory assigned for the database engine. The standard setting is to reserve 2.0 Mbytes (3.0Mbytes if 8 Mbytes and 4.0 Mbytes for 12Mbytes and more RAM ) of RAM as cache to store information. After you start using the database more and more information is held in this memory and search speed is significantly faster. A keyword search may take up to a minute at a certain PC for the first search. But only a few seconds when you search the second time. The bigger the cache size the better is usually the performance.

You may want to check the cache used and increase it if not optimal.

If you have 8 Mbytes of RAM or more you should increase the cache that can be used by the database to 4 Mbytes or 6 Mbytes if you have 12 Mbytes or more Ram.

You can change the size of the Ram allocated as cache for the database engine in the Database start command line.

To do so, open the file ODBC.INI which can be found in your /Windows directory with a text editor.

Look for the [IRD] entry in the list. (There may be only one database entry if you don't use other databases with ODBC,)

Look for the database start command line: Start=C:\IRD\rt32w -c 2560 %d

Change the value "2560" to "4096" if you want to use 4 Mbytes of Ram or any other value you might want to try.

A to big value might cause problems to start up the database.

The speed of your harddisk: If you experience a bad performance, your harddisk may be excessively fragmented. Defragment your harddisk to improve the performance. Consult your Operating systems manual for instructions. On a DOS system the command is : Defrag /f

Type of search:

A keyword search across the entire database might be faster than a search narrowed to a certain resource type i. e. search only Mailing lists. This is true, when the topic selected contains a comparably large number of entries (7000 Mailing lists).

If you do a keyword search narrowed to a topic with just a couple of hundred entries, this will be faster than a search across the whole database.


The Subtopic Preview List

To make the orientation in the Topic Index easier and skimming to the topic you are looking for faster, you can use the "Subtopic Preview List".

Open this listbox by clicking on the button  [image].

To close the preview list click on the button

In the Subtopic Preview List you see the subtopics for the topic currently selected in the Main Topic Index List.

Moving through the Index using the Subtopic Preview List is identical as when using the Main Topic List. Compare: How to move through the topics in the topic index


How to move through the topics in the topic index

See also:

Build a 'hotlist with your favorite sites	Add new information to the database
The Subtopic Preview List	Search by keyword
Viewing the informations found
There are three lists that help you navigating through the topic index:

- Header / History List. This is the topmost list and shows all the topics you have selected to arrive at a certain subtopic in the index.

- Main Topic Index List. This list shows all the topics on the current level of the topic index.

- Subtopic Preview List. This list can be opened to get a preview of the subtopics for the topic selected in the "Main Topic Index". This list allows a faster orientation and a faster skimming through the index

How to move in the Index lists:

   With the keyboard:

1.	Position the cursor in the "Main Topic Index List" or in the "Subtopic Preview List".
Use the TAB key [image] to position the cursor in a list.

2.	Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to skim through the index.

The keys arrow up and arrow down move the cursor up and down in the selected list

The keys arrow left and arrow right scroll forward to the subtopics of the currently selected topic, or back to the maintopic of the shown list. The ENTER key has the same function as the arrow left key.

   With your mouse:

1.	Point on the topic and click on it with the left button of your mouse.

Use the scrollbar to view all the topic in a longer list.
All topics are in a alphabetic order.

2.	Click on the ">" button.

or

"double click" on a topic to move to the subtopics.

3.	Use the "<" to scroll one level back.

4.	With the "<<" button you can jump back to the first level of the Topic Index.

	TIP: The "Header/ History List" shows all the topics you have selected to move to the current position in the index. You can use this list to jump directly to any of the previous levels in the topic index.
See also:

The Subtopic Preview List

Search by keyword

Viewing the informations found


Problems with the screen display

If you have selected "large fonts" (8514/A fonts) this will cause a incomplete display of all windows if you use a smaller screen resolution setting or to a incomplete display of the main menu if you have a resolution setting of 1024 x 768 or above.
Some text will also be shown in a wrong size if "large fonts" is selected.

To prevent those "cosmetic" problems, change your screen settings to the for a VGA display common "small fonts". Please refer to the manual of your graphic card for instructions.


Searching Informations in the Internet Resources Database
Searching information in the Internet Resources Database

There are three ways to search for certain information in the IRD database.

A.)  By Resource and subject using the detailed Topic Index

B.)   Global search in the whole database by keyword

C.)   Keywordsearch narrowed to a certain resource type and subject

See:

How to Move through the topics in the topic index

Search by keyword

The Subtopic Preview List

Viewing the informations found


Submit

"Submit" allows you to contribute changes regarding the information in the IRD database and new interesting information.

We encourage you to share information. Your contribution is valuable to all other users and every contribution from fellow users of the IRD program is improving the content and value of your Internet Resources Database.

How to...

Contribute changes:

1. Edit the information to reflect the change. I.e. update the URL, add or edit a description or edit any other field that needs to be updated.

2 .Press "Submit" and confirm with "OK" to copy the displayed data to the Windows clipboard.

3. Open your mail program and copy (Ctrl + V or  Shift + Ins) the content of the clipboard to the body of a email. Address the mail to:

IRD-USERINPUT@mbmarkt.entrepreneurs.net.

You can add a comment if you like, but do not change  the textblock you copied from the clipboard. The formatting of this textblock allows us to import your data more easily for reviewing.

Contribute a new entry:

1. Confirm with a "Keyword search" that the entry is not already in the database.

2. Enter the new information into your "Notebook" and make sure that you have selected the correct topic under which this entry should be indexed.
See also: Adding new information to the database

3. Proceed as above.

Suggest to delete a information,

because the resources is no longer available, means the site is closed, the Mailing list canceled etc.

1. Open the information to be deleted in the description window

2. Add DELETE at the beginning of the URL field
I. e. Delete http://www.nolongerexcisting.com/...

3. Proceed as above to submit the information.

Suggest a information to be indexed under a other topic:

1. Copy the URL of the incorrect indexed information to the clipboard.

2. Select the correct topic you want to suggest for this information in the index under "Notebook New sites...".

3. Press "Add new info" and "Enter new info"

4. Copy the URL to the URL field and add the word TOPIC at the beginning of the URL:

i. e. Topic ftp://ftp.here-please.edu/pub/....

5. Proceed as above to submit the change

6. "Close" the window and select "NO" when asked "Enter new Notebook entry ...."

Suggest new topics to be added to the index:

1. Select the topic in the index under "Notebook New sites..." under which you want suggest a new subtopic.

2. Press "Add new info" and "Enter new info"

3. Enter in the URL field: New Topic

4. Use the description field to write down the topic name(s) you are suggesting for being added to the topic index. Add a comment if you like

5. Proceed as above to submit your suggestion.

	Of course you can submit more than one entry / change with one email message!
Compare also: Contributing information to IRD