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pg. 1 Stowit! Ver. 2.1 Database Generator August 5, 1993 c 1993 by Peter Neuendorffer _____ Now has F1 HELP SYSTEM _______ MANUAL -------------------------------------------------| | Stowit! allows you to set up four files for | | a basic database. The files could be for your | | audio collection, a list of Boats, or an | | employee file, or a list of ideas, or a file | | of books, or a film digest, or | | whatever list you choose. | |------------------------------------------------| Table of Contents page SHAREWARE INFORMATION and INSTALLATION 2 OVERVIEW 3 DEFINE.EXE PROGRAM 4 === what it does === === file menu === === defining your file === === the rest of the fields === STOWIT.EXE MAIN PROGRAM 8 === General information === === "ALL" === === SEARCH" === === "ADD" === TIPS 11 GLOSSARY 12 WHATS NEW 13 === Help System === === Printing === === Boolean Search === SHAREWARE INFORMATION pg. 2 --------------------- This software is presented as is, with no warranty as to suitability. I welcome your comments on RIME, or Interlink bbs networks. I am logged on at Channel One bbs (617-354-8873). Please note that you need to be verified on Channel One in order to download Stowit! copies. You are free to distribute this software AS IS, and you may use it for say a month or so. If you continue to use Stowit!, please send $25.00 registration fee to Peter Neuendorffer 1399 Commonwealth Ave #11 Allston MA 02134 Important: I will not send any disks or media, as the program is complete as is. To install and run this software: 1. Copy the files to a Hard Drive sub directory 2. Read this manual 3. use this software from it's own directory. 4. Run DEFINE.EXE 5. Run STOWIT.EXE To utilize your Stowit10.ZIP or Stowit11.ZIP data, you can copy all Stowit20.ZIP files herein directly into your previous Stowit directory. In other words, the files from the first two versions are compatible with this version 2.1! NOTE: version 2.1 A has fixed a bug in the printed output and a bug in the help screen colors. Otherise it is identical to STOWIT version 2.0. OVERVIEW pg. 3 -------- "A file is a collection of related records" "A record is a collection of related fields" "A field is an item of data" Welcome to Stowit! database generator, a program that allows you to design your own records for storage. New! Now you may press F1 for help wherever you are in Stowit! What Stowit! is: a way to file away records in four separate files. The way the records are formed is up to you. You set up the record structure in DEFINE.EXE. You enter in data, and maintain the four files from STOWIT.EXE You can search any field in any record for a word or words you choose. For example in a file of music Albums, you could search on Composer to find "Stravinsky" records. It accepts your database data from your keyboard. What it is not: It is not an e-mail reader. It is not a program to change one type of a file to another (file formatter). It is not a file compression program. You use the DEFINE.EXE program to set up the structure of a record to be used in one of the four files of STOWIT.EXE. The fields in a record fit on one screen, so define.exe will allow only so many fields, depending on how they fit on one screen. Here is a typical record structure you might define using DEFINE.EXE: file title------> RECORDINGS record title----> Name of album: ________________________ field-----------> Artist: ------------------- field-----------> Songs: ------------------------ (same) field----> ------------------------ (number of dashes is the field length) (same) field----> ________________________ The Record Title is your "key field" The actual data you enter there from Stowit! should be, but need not be different for each record. The records are sorted for you alphabetically by this key field. Two nearly full screen Comment pages are attached to each record in Stowit!. Once you set up your record structure or "define the record" in DEFINE.EXE, you may execute STOWIT.EXE to "ADD" records- after all, even though there is a record structure, you still haven't entered in any Albums information. Once records are added, you may view them using "ALL" or "SEARCH". One term that may be confusing, that is used in the Define.exe program is "field length". The field name is what the field (a line for you to enter data) is called, such as the words "Name of album". The "field length" is how many letters you can enter in for a field- the longest the data can be. This will be apparent by a highlighted bar in a STOWIT.EXE record as displayed on the screen. DEFINE.EXE PROGRAM pge. 4 ------------------ === What it does === You can build a record structure for any of the four files. This must be done before entering in information into Stowit.exe. The program expects answers to a list of questions about the record structure. The questions are by and large repeated for each field. The field names are your choosing. The field length, or maximum number of characters allowed for each field are your choice. You can mark which fields are to be searched on, and whether the search is for an exact match or not. You can attach more than one data entry field to each field, and you may decide where the data entry part of the field should start on the Stowit! screen. On pages 5 and 6 is a breakdown of the questions you are asked within DEFINE.EXE. Creating these record definitions is a once-through experience. That is you can not add on to a definition later- especially if data is entered to this file in STOWIT.EXE. However if you press Enter on the Field Name prompt (not the first one) you are given the option to save the record structure as far as you got. Otherwise, answer no ("N") when you see the "Add a field?" prompt if you are done then. ===Files menu=== File1 File2 File3 Employees <----this would be a Stowit! file that already exists And may contain data. Take caution not to erase named files, if it contains information already. Press enter after selecting a File slot. There are a total of 4 files allowed at any one time in Stowit!. Therefore, if you chose Employees (a file you had already created, lets say), you would get this screen: File exists Overwrite it? <Y>es <N>o Choosing <Y> will throw the existing file, and data into oblivion (delete them). So that slot should be used only if you do not care about your previous "Employees" file. Choosing <N> will throw you back to the file menu. The <Y> choice will allow you to continue. Choosing File1, File2 etc. is no problem. DEFINE.EXE PROGRAM continued: pg. 5 === Defining your file === Define program:RECORD DESCRIPTION In the top left corner of the window, "Lines Left 21" "Field #1" are there for your information. Lines left refers to the lines on a full screen record that you are building , and not to the lines in the Define.exe program. QUESTION ASKED WHAT IT MEANS ============== ============= File Title The name of your file, say "Dentists" or "MOVIE" Record Title A name for the first field of your record. This is the "key" field Field Length How many characters the user of Stowit! can enter for this field. This first field is limited to a number up to 50, to allow sorting of the records. =======> note: if you press Enter without giving a number, the file structure will not be saved. Search Field: Yes These two items are automatically Exact Match: Yes filled in for the first field of your record. Redo field? <Y>es <N>o You can redo the field by choosing "Y". To continue choose "N". Add a field? <Y>es <N>o (finished) <C>ancel Do you want to add more fields to this file's record structure? If you are done, press <N> if you want more, press <Y>, otherwise scrub the file with <C>ancel. Note any overwritten files as mentioned above will NOT be restored. DEFINE.EXE continued pg. 6 === The rest of the fields === QUESTION ASKED WHAT IT MEANS ============== ============= Field Name Choose the name for this field, as you wish. It could be "experience" for an employee file, or "Tuba" for a music file Field Length (1 to 255) The maximum length of text the user of the database can type in Note a 1 here will make the field a Yes/No field. =========> Note: If you press enter without a number entered, the file structure will not be saved. Field on Same Line? If you answer yes to this the data entry part of this field will be on the same line as the field name. (starting at column 19) If you answer No, the data entry part will start on the next line, at column one. Search on this Field? A "Y" answer here makes this field searchable from within Stowit. Up to 10 fields may be so marked as search fields. Exact Search? This will pop up only if you answered "Y" (yes) to the last question. An exact search means to find record fields containing only the word(s) your request. Redo field? <Y>es <N>o You can redo the field by choosing "Y". To continue choose "N". Add a field? so this whole page has been setting up one line in the record. Now, do you want to add another field to the record structure you are building? DEFINE.EXE program continued: pg. 7 A couple of added features of this program. On any field description other that the Record Title, you may have a "hidden name" , so as to make the field data entry bar part of the previous field. This is useful for extending the data entry on a field beyond 255 characters, and for searching the field. You accomplish this by entering the word "same" (no quotes) instead of a field name. A clone of the last field will be made on the next available line in the record. The "same" cannot be used after a Search/Search Exact field. To make a Yes/No field, simply specify a field length of 1. The name of the field might be "Has a car?" Some other prompts you may encounter in your defining a file record in DEFINE.EXE: "Too many lines!" "<R>edo field <S>ave record <C>ancel" Your last field goes over the size of the screen display of Stowit.exe, So. You are given the option to redo the last field, making it less lines, or saving the record up to the last field, or cancelling out altogether on this record. At other times, you may have just squeezed in the limit of lines for a record, and the record will be saved up to where you are in defining it. STOWIT.EXE MAIN PROGRAM pg. 8 ----------------------- === general information === This is the program where you enter in data and retrieve it. Once your record structures are set, you need not start with DEFINE.EXE. You may have discovered that when you first ran Stowit! it didn't let you get very far in the program. You may have gotten the error message "File not defined". This is because the record structure of each of the four files is set up by running DEFINE.EXE first. The whole point of this package is that I the programmer do not decide what types of records you will have, you decide that. So after defining a record in DEFINE.EXE as described above, you are ready to run STOWIT.EXE. Stowit! allows you to enter in data to records for four files. When you run it, you get a FILES menu which could read File 1 File 2 Record Albums File 4 Quit Move the arrow keys up and down to select. Quit leaves the program. After running the program and going deep into the menus, press Escape to get you out to this first menu. The Record Albums file is our example, and would contain records according to a set up in DEFINE.EXE. The others are undefined. Upon selecting Record Albums, you will get the main menu for the Record Albums file. All: shows you a list by the first field of every record in this file. Search: you can search for information in the file. Add: allows you to add new information to the file. This is the first option you choose with a new file. Exit: exit back to the files menu. If you are just getting started, and have already defined your file in DEFINE.EXE, then start out with the "ADD" option. This is described below, on page 10 of this manual. STOWIT.EXE MAIN PROGRAM continued pg. 9 === "All" === By selecting the All option, if there have been records entered in already (SEE "ADD" below), you would get a list of all these records by the record titles. for ex: Beethoven Brahms Chopin Jagger If this list is bigger than the current screen, you can use the Page Up and Page Down keys to move through the list. Once you have the one you want, press Enter. Alt-P (press the Alt and P keys both at once) will allow you to print the list. Additional Print options are listed on Page 13 here under "WHATS NEW". Upon selecting one of these names, you are into the actual record for that name. This record screen might look something like this: Composer: Beethoven Famous works: Fifth Symphony Recordings: Angel release No. 2138 You can edit these fields, by moving the arrow key to the field you wish and typing. Note the field will be blank if you start typing on the first letter of the field. To save your changes, press F10, or Escape if you don't want your changes in the record to be saved. To Delete the record data entirely, press F6. To print the record, press Alt-P. There are two near-full screen pages for your comments attached to each and every record. Just press Page Down to get to them, and Page Up to return to the main part of the record. STOWIT.EXE MAIN PROGRAM cont. pg. 10 === "SEARCH" === The Search menu selection will allow you to search for information in the current file. To enter SEARCH, you must have already entered in data under the ADD option. Otherwise the error message "NO RECORDS IN BASE" will pop up. Now, to Search, you are presented with a list of fields to search as set up in the DEFINE.EXE program. You cannot go back to the define.exe program for this, after you have entered in data in STOWIT.EXE. Press enter on one of these menu fields, and you will be asked to enter in the word(s) to be searched for. They may be in upper case or lower case, it doesn't matter. If you choose Whole Record, the entire records will be searched, but NOT the comment screens attached. If records are found for your request, a record list will appear, just as in ALL, but probably much shorter. Move the arrow keys to select a record, and press ENTER. Note, as in ALL, and ADD, you may print this list as well with Alt-P. Going back to the Search menu, you may have some stars (*) next to certain fields. This indicates that those searches must be an exact match. Thus a * Composer search for Stravinsky will only find a Composer field that is entirely made up of the word Stravinsky. See "WHATS NEW" Page 13 of this manual for an explanation of the new Boolean Search option. === "ADD" === This is where you initially enter in new records to your Stowit! file. This is different from DEFINE.EXE where you designed the structure of the files. Here you are entering in items of information. field title-----| |--------------data (preset by you) | | (your information) v v Composer: Donald Duck Move the arrow key up and down to select a field to enter. Also, the Enter key here will move to the next field. When you are done (you can always return to it later, from ALL, SEARCH, or ADD), press F10 to save your changes. To Cancel the recent changes (since the last time you have moved to this screen), press the Escape key instead. F6 will delete the record entirely. Gone. To get to the comment screens for this record, use the Page Down and Page Up keys. PLEASE REMEMBER, if you enter in comments in those comment screens, you must, must press Pgup back to the main record and press F10 to save your changes. In comment screens, Alt-N will insert a blank line, Alt-Y will delete the current line. TIPS pg. 11 ---- This section may not tell you how much to give the wait person at the World of Pancakes on route 1, but it may help you avoid certain pratfalls while using this software. Stowit! allows at most 1000 records for each file. If you get a "Cannot Access Disk" error message, nine times out of ten the files are not damaged. Make sure your drive door is closed, and that you are not out of disk space, before re-running. Right after you set up a file with DEFINE.EXE, it is a good idea to enter a few test records to your file from STOWIT.EXE. This way, if you are unhappy with the structure, you may go back to Define.exe and redo the structure. Once you have volumes of data in a file, you cannot change the record structure without losing the data. In other words, you cannot make changes in a file's record structure without starting fresh with the data for that file. Quirks of DEFINE.EXE: The program will not allow you to use a "same" field immediately after a field you defined as Search AND Exact Search. The idea is if you wanted an exact search on a field, why would you then add more lines to it? As mentioned above, if you define a field length as only 1, it automatically becomes a Yes No field, so a name for such a field as "ZIP CODE" (Yes No) would make no sense, whereas a field as "Own Transportation" (Yes No) would. Since fields normally begin at column 19, choose a field length that will not dangle into part of the next line. This is precisely why the question "Field on same line? <Y>es <N>o" is there. If you say <N> (no) to this, you could have a field length of 160, taking up exactly two lines. NOTE: When you name each file, avoid "File1", "File2", File3", or "File4" for names, as these are used by this software to indicate empty files. Quirks of STOWIT.EXE: (not to be confused with Captain Quirks). Lets say you only have one record entered in under your "Record Albums" file. When you choose ALL, you still get a list of records, but now it is only one. Just press enter on this to get to the record. Do not forget when you enter in Comment pages to Page up to the record screen and press F10 to save. The comments will not be saved automatically. This applies to any changes you make to the Record. Press escape cancels them, so you have to press F10 to save any changes. During a Stowit search, you may view a record, and decide to change the search field data. When you escape, this record will still be in the list of search records. Once you press escape again, if necessary, the list will be updated. When printing, many printers will buffer the printing. This means that you may be unable to stop the print job in the middle. You will have to turn the printer off, then on. GLOSSARY pg. 12 ________ boolean search Search for more than one word(s) at once data Items of information data entry Where the user types in information to the record define a record Set up the structure of a record for a file exact search The user has to enter in a search word(s) to look in the file for exact matches on the field data. field A named item of information in a record, that the user types in from Stowit! field length How many characters user can type in a field field name That portion of a field that gives a title to the data. file A named collection of records key field The first field of each record. The records will be listed by this field, say "Last Name". record A collection of fields or items of data record list The screen in STOWIT.EXE that shows a list of records, listed by their first field, or "Record title". record structure The named fields and their length as set up in a record (by using DEFINE.EXE) search The user types in a word(s) to search for in the database Yes/No field A field that only excepts "Y" or "N" for data, indicating a yes or no answer to the field name === WHATS NEW ===== pg 13. --- HELP--- STOWIT.EXE and the DEFINE.EXE programs both now have a help system to help you understand what to do and when to do it. Just press the F1 key from almost anywhere in both programs. When you are done reading the help, press any key to get back to the program. ---Printing--- To print a single Record Screen, move to the record screen desired, make sure your printer is ready, and press Alt-P to print. Other printer options are now available: From the List Screen, choose Alt-P (The Alt and P keys pressed together) to print the following types of reports: Whole records? Answer with the "Y" key to print a report of all the records listed in your current List Screen. This will be entire records printed. Selected fields? Answer with the "Y" key to print just certain fields of each record, say the Employee's Last Name, and Phone. Once you have selected this option, you will be asked which fields of the Company or Employee record to include in your printed report. List only? Answer with the "Y" key to print just the key fields as listed in the List Screen. ----------Boolean Search---------- When choosing Search, you may now select "Whole Record" to search each entire record in your current Stowit! file. This search allows you to enter not only a word or words to search for; you may now request a Boolean Condition for your search. As with other searches, you choose Search. Now choose Whole records from the searech menu. Now ,instead of entering in a single word, you can enter in a text condition. Here are some examples of ayour request to search Whole Records for a condition. Examples for search: You enter finds --------- ----- car and table any record that mentions both "car" AND "table" car or table any record that mentions EITHER "car" OR "table" car and (Chrysler or Ford) any mention that mentions "car". It also mentions "Chrysler" OR "Ford", but not neccessarily both.