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Stowit! Version 4.5 Database Generator c 1993 by Peter Neuendorffer. I would like to thank Edgar Dworsky and Hoby Cook for their hard work. -------------------------------------------------- | Stowit allows you to create four files for | | a basic database. The files could be for | | an audio collection, a list of Boats, an | | employee file, It could be a list of books, | | a film digest. It could be any collection of | | records that you wish. | | | | Stowit allows up to twenty one lines | | for each record in Stowit and one thousand | | records for each file. Stowit has a variety | | of searching, sorting and printing options. | -------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents Page INTRODUCTION 2 INSTALLATION 4 OVERVIEW and MENUS 5 CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE 10 ADD (record screen) 13 ALL (record list) 14 SEARCH 15 DEFINE MENU 21 NUMERIC DATA 26 PRINTING 27 SORTING 28 BACKUP NOTE 28 Shareware Information: I provide this software as is, with no warranty as to suitability. I welcome your comments on the RIME bbs network. I log on at Channel One bbs (617-354-8873). You must be verified on Channel One to download Stowit copies from their system. Please note that I will not send any disks or media, as the program is complete as is. This evaluation package is not "crippled" in any way. It never writes or reads any files except its own. You are free to distribute this software AS IS. You may use it for one month free of charge. If you continue to use Stowit, please send $25.00 registration fee to Peter Neuendorffer 1399 Commonwealth Ave. #11 Allston MA 02134 INTRODUCTION Introduction and glossary p 2 First I'll describe what Stowit does and does not do, then Installation instructions, a glossary, and then I'll describe briefly the menus. Detailed descriptions about how to use Stowit, and its capabilities follow in the manual sections Creating New Stowit Files, Add, All, Search, and Define Menu. At the end of the manual is a description of how Stowit handles numbers and printing capabilities. Also, a description of how Stowit does sorting of information. Welcome to Stowit database generator, a program that allows you to design your own records for storage. You may press F1 for help screens wherever you are in Stowit. There are twenty seven of these screens. Stowit gives you an easy way to store records in four separate files. When running the program, you get a menu with four file names. After selecting a file, you remain in this file until you exit (escape) back to this menu. Once you choose a file you are in the MAIN menu. It is up to you how you organize the record's structure. You set up the record structure by choosing DEFINE from the main menu. You enter your data, and maintain the four files from the two other MAIN menu areas, which are ADD and ALL. The main menu option SEARCH allows you to search any field in any record for a word or words you choose. To get a clearer view of the program organization, look below at the menu descriptions and examples. For example, in a file of music Albums you could search the Composer field to find "Stravinsky" records. There are other powerful search options as well, include handling of greater than or less than numeric data. Stowit provides easy access to your data. It provides lists that you may page through, and allows you to sort these lists. Printing options include the entire records, selected fields of each record, or table printing of each record across the line, if it fits. This means if you were printing record albums, you could print a report of just the album title and the serial number. Also, printing can be done using the list found in a search. Thus you could print a report of all albums recorded by the Beatles in England, if you had a field "Artist" and another field "Country recorded." Stowit accepts your database data from your keyboard, and requires no knowledge or handling of the files it uses, except as noted at the very end of this manual. Here is what Stowit does not do: It does not format files in dBASE, PARADOX or other formats. It is not a WINDOWS program. Stowit does not work on a network. It does not accept disk file input. INTRODUCTION continued glossary p 3 Here are some computer and Stowit program words used in this manual. They may not be familiar to you. <ENTER> Press the Enter key Enter_______ Type some information and then press the Enter key. Then, you have entered the data. Example: "Enter the name" You type: Jones then, you press Enter Escape or Esc Press the Escape key. Reserved for getting out of a screen and back to another. In menus, pressing Escape always returns you to where you were before. Select In menus, use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the item you wish. Then, press the ENTER key to execute that item. File A database file in Stowit, is a collection of related records. This file might be a "Record Collection" file. Record A collection of related fields in Stowit. This might be a "Record Album" record. Stowit field An item of related data. Say the "Album Title" field in each Stowit record. Field name This is the name or label for each field. This might be "Record album title:" This name is your choice. Field length The maximum length that each field may be. This varies by the field. You set this length. Data This is the information you type into fields. For example "U2 Zooropa." Search field A field in the record that is being or could be searched for a word or words. You could search in the "Artist" field of every record for the word "Beatles." Define Set up the structure of each field. Do this before you start entering data. You can change many things about the structure later. INSTALLATION: p 4 To install Stowit and get it up and running is simple. You don't have to run any special programs. First, here is a description of the system you need to run my program. You need at least an XT with hard drive. This program does not support use on a floppy drive. - This is a DOS program, not a WINDOWS program. - An XT or AT or 386 or 486 IBM (r) compatible computer. - 1 Megabyte of RAM standard. - A Hard Drive. Stowit's data files grow in size. - A Monochrome or color card. A monochrome or color monitor. - A Printer is optional. It must be a parallel printer. - This program does not use a mouse. To install to your hard drive, and run Stowit, follow these steps. 1. Copy the files to a Hard Drive sub directory 2. Run Stowit from its own directory on the hard drive. 3. Run STOWIT.EXE. - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - Here is what you would type from the DOS prompt. Suppose your floppy drive's letter is B. If it is A, substitute the letter A for B in the directions below. C refers to the letter of your hard drive. <ENTER> means to press the enter key following each command. Insert the Stowit disk in the B drive Now type: c: <ENTER> cd\ <ENTER> md stowit <ENTER> b: <ENTER> cd\ <ENTER> copy *.* c:\stowit <ENTER> To go to your hard drive: c: <ENTER> To run Stowit any time: cd\stowit <ENTER> stowit <ENTER> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Here is how to use old Stowit data with the new version. Copy all your new Stowit 4.0 files into your previous Stowit directory. The data files from all Stowit versions are compatible with this version. If you wish to upgrade using old Stowit data, do the copy before you start using the new Stowit. The new numerical sorting will be correct in an upgraded file after you add one record to the file. Note, the old program DEFINE.EXE in Stowit is no longer used. If you do not need your old Stowit data, you do not have to do this special copy. OVERVIEW continued: Menus p 5 (The examples below use a Record Collection example. Your database could be on any subject you wish.) MENUS: There are five major screens in Stowit. Here they are in the order they appear when you use the program. They are the Files Menu, the Main Menu, the Record List, the Record Screen and the Comment Screen. 1 The Files Menu: - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - Files ------------ | File 1 | | File 2 | | File 3 | | File 4 | | Quit | ------------ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is what you see first when you run Stowit. Remember from any screen or option you may press F1 to get help on the screen or option. When you first run Stowit, choose any file. Instructions on how to set up your file are below in the manual section CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE. After you set up the file, the menu will be updated with the name you have given your database file. Each file is separate from the other. To change files, escape back to this menu and select a new file. Quit is the selection to leave the Stowit program. To do a fast exit from most anywhere in Stowit, press the Escape key repeatedly. Then select Quit from the Files Menu. OVERVIEW continued: Menus continued p 6 2 The Main Menu: - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - ---------- | All | | Search | | Add | | Define | ---------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is the menu you get after selecting a file in the Files Menu. The options are ALL, SEARCH, ADD and DEFINE. Selecting All will bring up the Record List shown below. It is how you access all your data records in the current Stowit file. Search allows you to selected data or ideas in the file. By selecting Add you can add new records to the file. Selecting Define allows you to set up or change the organization of records. I describe all of the Define options in the DEFINE MENU part of the manual. OVERVIEW continued: Menus continued p 7 3 The Record List: - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - --------------------------------------------------------------| |Stowit! Record Collection | |Enter Escape etc . . . Alt-P=print Alt-s=sort | |[All] | |Sorted by Album Title | |Boston Cream Stompers I | |Cowboys Zoo Band Rides Away | |Sgt. Peppers | |Surrealistic Pillow | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - When you select ALL from the main menu, the Record list for all the records appears. This shows a list of records by first field. It sorts alphabetically with number fields sorted first. You can sort this list by other fields in each record with the Alt-S key combination (see SORTING below.) This record list also appears after a search. Then, the list has only records found by the search. From the Record List you may print reports on your printer as well. (Alt-P key combination brings up a print menu). Select the record that you wish to view or edit. If the list is more than one screen large, use PgeUp and PgDn keys. Press Escape to return to the last menu. Use the Ctrl-PgUp or Ctrl-PageDn to move to the first or last pages. You can set up two additional fields to display for every line in the record list. These fields are set by pressing the Alt-D combination. Choose two fields from the pop-up menus, Those fields will be displayed from now on in the Record List with the key field. The Left and Right Arrow keys from the Record List allow you to change the width of additional fields on the screen. You may add these additional fields from the Main Menu/Define/Display Fields option. Pressing a letter from a to z will bring you to a record with that first letter. OVERVIEW continued: Menus continued p 8 4 The Record Screen: - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - --------------------------------------------------------------------- | Stowit! Record Albums Home = last record End = next record| | F6 = Delete F10 = Accept PgDn = Comments | | | |_______________________[F10 Accept]_________________________________| | Album Title: Cowboys Zoo Band Rides Away | | Artist: Bob Bob | | Number: 12343212 | | Price: ____ | | Notes: I like it a lot. Great. | | Not only that but I like country funk music. | | | Rating: 9 | | | | | | | | | |--------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is Record Screen for each Stowit record. You get to it from the list of records. So your path to your data could be ALL to Record List to the Record Screen. Or it could be SEARCH to Record List to the Record Screen. Or, for a new record, selecting ADD takes you directly to a fresh Record Screen. To see the next record as it appeared in the record list, you can press the END key from the Record Screen. To go the previous record on the record list, press the HOME key from this screen. Choose a field to edit with the up and down arrow keys. The field will be highlighted. Type in the new data. The old field will blank out, so press the right arrow first if you want to keep part of the old field. When you have finished with your changes, if any, press the F10 function key to save. If you don't want to save the recent changes, just press escape without pressing F10. From the Record Screen, press F6 to delete the record entirely, then answer "Y" to the question "Delete Record?" The record, once deleted, cannot be retrieved. This has no effect on the file structure however. To access the Comment Screens, press page down from a record screen (see below). OVERVIEW continued: Menus continued p 9 5 The Comment Screens: - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | Stowit! Record Albums Comments: Cowboys Zoo Band . . . P 1.| | PgUp = Exit PgDn=next page AltN= AltY= | |____________________________________________________________________| | My comments on the album Cowboys Zoo band. Has a certain | | ambience that is not seen here or in Europe, etc. | | Anything I type here will not be searched by rest of the | | program. And I can page down to another page like this one. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |--------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is the Comment Screen. Two of these come with every record. It is like having two pages of comments attached to every card in a Rolodex. You get to a record's comment pages by using the Page Down key from any Record Screen. Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to access pages one and two. Enter lines of text, using the enter key or down arrow at the end of each line. To delete a line, put the cursor on the line to delete and press the Alt-Y key combination. To insert a blank line, position the cursor on the line before which you want a blank line. Then, press Alt-N. Please note: To save new or changed comments, you must page up to the record screen and press F10. Otherwise, the recent changes will be ignored. CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE p 10 How to create a new Stowit file: This is for when you start Stowit for the first time. Also, you need to define each new Stowit file. The reason for the set up is so that you may tailor the records of a file to your needs. You will set up the record structure for your file, field by field. You answer questions in the ADD FIELD area, located from the MAIN MENU/ DEFINE selection. This will decide how your Stowit record appears laid out on the record screen, and how searches and sorting will be done. By dividing each record into named fields, the information in your database can be accessed in many different ways. Even after you enter data, you may return to the MAIN MENU/DEFINE menu to add, insert, or delete fields in your record's structure. Other options are available. I describe these below in the DEFINE MENU section. For now, you will only need the ADD FIELD option in the MAIN MENU/DEFINE menu. Although initially confusing, it is easier to understand if you review these terms: Example of a field: - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Field name The actual title of your field. Ex. "Last Name" Field length The maximum length of the entry area for the field. Ex. 15 Last Name: ______________ ^ ^ | |-----------Entry part is 15 characters long | This is the "field length" | --"field name" is Last Name. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CREATING A STOWIT FILE continued. p 11 - - - - - - - [ INSTRUCTIONS ] - - - - - - - Select the File slot you wish (File1, File2, File3, or File4) from the main menu. Then, select Define from the main menu. From the DEFINE menu select Add Field. Then, enter the name of the file. Example, BOOKS. Do this for each field in your record: 1. Enter the field name. Example, ALBUM TITLE or SERIAL NUMBER This name can be changed later. The record title means the first field. Entering the word "same" (WITHOUT QUOTES) will create a field having no title just like the field before it. This new "same" field follows along with the field before it for searches. This is useful for having a group of fields to be searched under one field name by the Stowit program. 2. Enter a number for the length of the field. Example, 20. The length for the first field must be two to fifty characters in length. All other fields can be one to two-hundred-fifty-five characters long. 3. "Same Line?" Is this field to be on the same line in the record screen as the field name? (type Y for Yes, N for No). "No" means the field will start in the first column of the next line. "Yes" means the field will display on the same line as the name, starting at display column 19. 4. "Search Field?" Answer Y for yes, if you want this to be a field to be searched in the main part of the program. If not, answer N for no. This can be changed later. 5. "Add a Field?". If you are finished, press N for no, otherwise press Y for yes to continue adding other fields to your record. Pressing C will cancel all your changes. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE continued. p 12 Here is an example of a sample record you could create: - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - File title------> RECORDINGS Record title----> Name of album: ________________________ Field-----------> Artist: ------------------- Field-----------> Songs: ------------------------ (same) field----> ------------------------ (The number of dashes is the field length.) (same) field----> ________________________ The Artist field starts on the next line after its name (the word artist.) When defining it, answered "N" to "Same Line?". The Songs field has two "same" fields attached to it. When Stowit searches for Songs it will check these fields as well. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Other Notes: Sometimes the software will say "Too many lines." You can then Redo the last field, Save the record before the last field, or Cancel your additions altogether. When entering field lengths, keep in mind that the screen is eighty characters wide. The Same Line field starts at column nineteen. The NOT same line field starts at column one. A field titled "same" looks just like the field before it. Later, you can make fields longer or shorter. If you are defining numeric fields, you may wish to restrict the field length for them to eleven or so characters. This will allow printing of tabular reports (see the manual's section on PRINTING). You do not have to answer any special questions for fields that will have numeric data. Stowit handles numbers as described below in the section NUMERIC DATA. ADD (main menu) p 13 Add: From the Main Menu, you select the ADD option to add new records to your file. If a box pops up saying "File not Defined" then you must follow the instructions in the above section called CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE. You have to have at least one record added in a file for the search and all options to work as well. After selecting Add, you are in the Record Screen for your new record. Move the highlight bar up and down with the up or down arrow keys This chooses a field to edit. The enter key also moves to the next field. Type in information to this field. You may use the Ctrl-cursor-right or Ctrl-cursor-left to move to the next word or the last word shown in your record's field. To change text in a field, make sure you press the right arrow key first. Then, type the INSERT key to type over. Or just press your first new letter at the start of the field, and the entire field will wipe. To escape without saving your record, press Escape. To save your new record, press F10 BEFORE pressing Escape to get out. When in the Add option, a blank record will appear after every F10 save. Then, you can either start another record, or press Escape to get out, returning you to the previous menu. You must have something in the first field to save the record. To add Comment Screens to your record, press page down from the new Record Screen that you are editing. You can type in two pages of text. Page down to the second screen, and page up back to the Record Screen. Don't forget to press F10 to save both the record and the Comment screens. In the Comment screens, press Enter, or the down arrow to get to each new line. To delete a line, position the cursor on the line to delete and press the Alt-Y key combination. To insert a line, press the Alt-N combination. ALL (main menu) p 14 All: From the main menu, selecting ALL allows you to get to the Record List. The list then shows you a list of all the records in the file so far. If the list is longer than one page, you may page through it by pressing the Page-Down or Page-Up keys. The list contains the first 50 characters of the first field of each record. Numbers sort first, then alphabetic or mixed alphabetic-numbers fields, then all first fields that are blank. Blank fields show up marked as "(blank)," and refer to real records. To access a given record, just select it. You can reedit the record now if you wish. Escape from the record list brings you back to the main menu. I describe other record screen sort and printing options in the sections PRINTING and SORTING. From the Record List you can sort the list by different fields, or print reports of whole records. Also, you can print reports of selected fields in records, or print table reports. - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - Main Menu <--------> Record List <--------> Record Screen + Comments ALL <--------> [select record] <----> [edit record] [Printing] F10 to save. [Sorting ] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SEARCH (main menu) p 15 SEARCH allows you to find data in Stowit. It finds data in your file. It organizes lists of records for viewing, editing or printing. Select Search from the MAIN MENU, and then select the type of search you wish. Then, enter your search request, which will differ in form depending on the type of search you are doing. After Stowit finds records, it will display them in a Record List. From there, as in ALL, you may select individual records for viewing or editing. When you select a record, Stowit highlights data that matches words from your search request. Whenever Stowit searches a field, it also searches the "same" fields attached to it. There are three types of searches in Stowit: simple field searches, whole record searches, and regular conditional searches. I'll explain them below. - - - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Menu ----------------- | Album Title | | Artist | 1. Simple fields ---> | Label | | Serial Number | | Criticism | 2. Whole record ----> | Whole Record | 3. Regular condition-->| Regular | ----------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1. Simple Field Searching: You can search a given field for the presence of a word or phrase. Select a field on the menu. Now, enter a word or phrase to search for. First, here is a note about exact and non-exact type searches. From the Search menu, you may toggle off and on the ability to search for exact matches. Move the highlight bar up and down to a field name. Then, toggle the EXACT feature on and off with the space bar. If there is a star next to a name, then that field will be searched exactly. For example, if the star is present, a search in "Album Title" for the word California will only find records with Album titles of "California" exactly. A non-exact search would find "California Dreaming" as well. For a single field search, select a field from the search menu. Enter a word or words to search for. The request does not have to be in capital or lower-case letters. A request for California finds a field with "california." It finds "CALIFORNIA." This "non case sensitive" feature applies to other types of searching as well. When the search is over, records may be found satisfying your request. A list of only those records appears as a Record List, just as in the ALL option. This list may be sorted or printed (Alt-S to sort, Alt-P to print.) As always, you may view or edit records by selecting them from the list. SEARCH (main menu) Whole Record Searching p 16 2. Whole Record Searching: You can search each entire record for the presence of a word or phrase. Select Whole Record from the search the menu. Now you enter a word or phrase or special condition phrase to search for. There are two major differences between the Whole Record search type and the Single Field type. First, each entire record will be searched for the word (or phrase) you request. Second, the Whole Record search allows special conditional requests. Whole Record search requests: All simple field requests to search for a word or phrase apply to Whole Record searching. In addition, a special format allows powerful searching of your file. This involves setting up a condition to search for. The words AND OR NOT are special words, or operators, which you use to make your search request. Also, you may use the left parentheses ( and right parentheses ) to structure the request. You may search for word1 AND word2. This means search for records that have both "word1" and "word2." You can search for "word1 or word2." This means to find all records that either contain "word1," or may contain "word2." Various combinations of the word "and" and the word "or" and the word "not" may be used. To make clear what you mean, use parentheses around parts of the condition. The quotation marks above are not part of a search request. On the next page are some examples of Whole Record search requests. The table shows what you type, and what the search request means. SEARCH continued. Whole Record Searching cont. p 17 Here are some examples of search requests in Whole Record Searching: -- - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Your request What it Means ____________ __________________________________ Bobby Searches each whole record for the word "bobby" (capitals don't matter.) bobby and Teddy Searches for any record containing both the word "bobby" and the word "teddy." symphony or opera Searches for any record containing either the word "symphony" or the word "opera". Either one will do. not costly Searches for any record that does not contain the word "costly." not (costly or expensive) Every record that contains neither "costly" or "expensive." ford and (station wagon or van) Every record must contain the word "ford". The record also must contain either "station wagon" or "van." boston or new york or chicago Every record contains at least one of "boston," "new york" or "chicago." (ford and station wagon) or van Can contain both "ford" and "station wagon." Otherwise it can contain the word "van." (red and green) or (blue and black) Has to contain both "red" and "green." Or it could contain both "blue" and "black." (ted ) Has to contain the word "Ted." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- There may be as many spaces as you wish between parentheses and words. Also, as many spaces as you wish on both sides of the reserved words OR AND NOT. If the condition is not logically correct, the software will let you know. SEARCH continued Regular Conditional p 18 3. Regular Conditional Searching: Select Regular on the search menu. Note the list of fields that appears at the top of the screen. You refer to this list when creating a condition to search for. Now enter a word or phrase or special conditional phrase to search for. You may use Whole Record requests to search in Regular Conditional Searching. Regular searching also introduces several new operators. They allow searching in multiple fields, and numeric searching. This is an extension of both the Simple Field, and Whole Record search types. New Operators < Less than > Greater than == Equal to 1 = word Field "1" contains "word" Operators less than, greater than, or double equals sign allow you to search for numbers in your data. The single equals sign operator allows you to search in a specific field for a specific word. If you wish, you may enter special conditions for your search request. The simplest form is "field number," followed by a new operator, followed by what you are searching for. More Examples follow on the next page. -- - - - - - - - - - - -{EXAMPLE}- - - - - - - - - - Search Fields 1 Last Name 2 First Name 3 Salary 4 State Regular Search Request: (4 = MASS) and (3 > 10000) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You are requesting records that have "MASS" in the state field (field 4), and with salaries greater than 10000. You refer to the list at the top of the screen to get the number of the field. Then, put the number followed by the equals sign, followed by the word(s) you wish to find in that field. SEARCH continued Regular Conditional cont. p 19 Here are some examples of search conditions in Regular Conditional Searching. Given the list of search fields at the top of the screen: Search Fields 1 Last Name 2 First Name 3 Salary 4 State - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE}- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Your request What it Means ____________ __________________________________ bobby Search for "bobby." bobby and teddy Search for "bobby" and "teddy" both in the same record. 1=Jones Search for all records with "Jones" in the last name field (field 1 in list at top of the screen). 4 = CA All records with "CA" in the State field (field 4.) 3<6001 All records with numbers less than 6000 in the salary field (field 3.) 3 > 5000 All records with numbers greater than 5000 in the salary field (field 3.) 3 == 20 All records with the number 20 in the salary field. Note this finds "20" (not "200" or "2000".) 4 = (CA or MA) All records with "CA" or "MA" in the state field (field 4). (4 = WM) and (1 = Jones) All records with "WM" in the state field, but must contain "Jones" in the Last Name field. (4 = (MA or CA)) and (3>20000) All records showing people from MA or CA who earn over 20000. (3<10000) and (3>999) Salary fields containing numbers between 1000 and 9999. SEARCH continued. Regular Conditional cont. p 20 Here is a technical note on Regular conditional search requests. This is a chart for engineers who are familiar with conditional expressions. Order of Evaluation from Top to Bottom --------------------------------------- Parts in parentheses (inside parentheses first) evaluate first. Literal word or phrase or field number. < > == NOT (unary) AND OR = (right to left binary) Field at left contains the expression on the right. DEFINE MENU p 21 You get to Define menu from the Main Menu. Select Define from the Main menu. Define allows you to change the structure of your Stowit file's records even if there is data in the file. Define menu: - - - - - - - - - -{EXAMPLE}- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Define File Menu for IDEAS ----------------- | Titles | | Add Field | | Insert Field | | Longer Field | | Shorter Field | | Delete Field | | Searches | | Remove Base | | Display Fields| | Set Color | ----------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Titles: You can change the field name of any field in any file. Select the Titles option from the Define menu. A menu will pop up listing all the fields, excluding "same" fields. You may change the name of any field by selecting the field name from this menu. Then, enter the new name. The new name will show up for that field from then on, and will be written to disk for the next run of Stowit. You cannot change the file title, except with a new file. Define the file title for a new file in the Add Field option. DEFINE MENU Add field p 22 Add Field: Here is where you can add new fields to the bottom of any record in Stowit. After you add a field, the record will now contain this new field. Your other data will not be effected. Use this option to create a new file as described above in CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE. If you are creating a new file over an old one, you must first erase the old file structure from Remove Base in the Define Menu. - - - - - - - - - - - - - -{INSTRUCTIONS}- - - - - - - - - - - - - Select Add Field from the Define menu. Press the "Y" key to answer "Add a field?" Do this for each field in your record: 1. Enter the field name. Example, ALBUM TITLE or SERIAL NUMBER This name can be changed later. The record title means the first field. Entering the word "same" (WITHOUT QUOTES) will create a field having no title just like the field before it. This new "same" field follows along with the field before it for searches. This is useful for having a group of fields to be searched under one field name by the Stowit program. 2. Enter a number for the length of the field. Example, 20. The length for the first field must be two to fifty characters in length. All other fields can be one to two-hundred-fifty-five characters long. 3. "Same Line?" Is this field to be on the same line in the record screen as the field name? (type Y for Yes, N for No). "No" means the field will start in the first column of the next line. "Yes" means the field will display on the same line as the name, always on display column 19. 4. "Search Field?" Answer Y for yes, if you want this to be a field to be searched in the main part of the program. If not, answer N for no. This can be changed later. 5. "Add a Field?". If you are finished, press N for no, otherwise press Y for yes to continue adding other fields to your record. Pressing C will cancel all your changes. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Additional explanation may be found in the manual section CREATING A NEW STOWIT FILE, above. DEFINE MENU Insert Field / Longer Field / Shorter Field p 23 Insert Field; This allows you to insert a new field before any other field in the record. After selecting Insert Field from the Define Menu, you get a pop up menu of the fields. Select a field to insert your new field before. Then, answer the questions for the new field the same way as in the description in Add Field above. The change will not effect your present data in other fields. Note if you insert a "same" field, it will be attached to the field above it in the record. If you insert a titled field before a same field, you will carry along the data in that same field with the new field. As this is a bit confusing, it is easiest not to insert a new field before a "same" field. { FOR EXAMPLE, SEE ADD FIELD ABOVE} Longer Field: You can make any field length larger. This makes the number of characters allowed for any field greater. Select Longer Field from the Define Menu. Then, select a field to make longer from the pop up list of fields. Enter the new length of the field. The information of the old length is there to help you. Also, Stowit tells you the column that the old field ENDS at. This change will not effect any data in the field or other fields. As with all Define options, Stowit writes the results to disk for next time. Shorter Field: Warning! This option can lead to loss of data. You will be making an existing field shorter. You can make any field length shorter. This makes the number of characters allowed for the field less. Select Shorter Field from the Define Menu. Then select a field to make shorter from the pop up list of fields. Enter the new length of the field. The information of the old length is there to help you. This change will not affect data in other fields, but it could cut off data in the current field, as the field will now be shorter. DEFINE MENU cont. Delete Field / Searches / Remove Base p 24 Delete Field: Warning: This option can cause loss of your data. You can can delete a field in the record. If this field contains data, the data will be lost. This will not affect other fields. To delete a field, make sure that you do not need the data if any, in this field. Then, select Delete Field from the Define Menu. Next, Select the field to delete. If you are sure you want to delete the field, press "Y" for "yes." The field will be deleted from the record structure. Any data in the field will be deleted as well. The data cannot be recovered. Searches: You can decide the fields that can be searched in the Search Menu. Select Searches from the Define Menu. To make a field a search field, move the highlight bar to the field name, and then press the space bar. If a star appears beside the name, the field is a Search field. You can return to this later. You may have up to ten Search Fields in a file at once. Remove Base: Warning: Once you remove a base, Stowit has erased that file slot. This includes all data for the file and the file structure. Take care when using this option. Once you remove a file, it cannot be reclaimed. Check to make sure you are in the right file to remove. Then, select Remove Base from the Define Menu. Answer "Y" for yes twice and the file will be removed. Answer "N" for no, and the file will not be removed. To create a new file in an old file slot, select the old file, and move to the Define Menu. Select Remove Base and remove the old file. You have to do this before moving to Add Field to set up your new file. Otherwise, Add Field will just add new fields to the unwanted old file. DEFINE MENU cont. Display Fields / Set Color p 25 Display Fields: This option allows you to set up two additional fields to display in a Record List screen. The fields will remain effect until one or both of the fields is deleted from the structure. Choose a field to add to the Record List with the up and down arrow keys, and press Enter. Now select the second field in the same manner. Set Color: The Set Color option allows you to decide what colors Stowit will display. It has no effect on the printer output, which is always black and white (plain ascii) text. The next time you run Stowit, the new colors will still be in effect. NUMERIC DATA p 26 When Defining your Stowit records, you do not have to worry about defining special numeric fields. Although you are free to enter decimal or "real" numbers, Stowit only searches and sorts long integer numbers. These are numbers between -2147483648 and +2147483647. This easily includes any numbers up to nine digits in length with a sign. In the Regular Search option of the Search Menu, you can search for fields with numbers less than, greater than or equal to your search request. For data to be considered in such a numeric search, the field of a record must contain ONLY numbers. The numeric search would ignore an entry like "35X25" because it contains the letter X. The numeric search also ignores "20.00," because it contains a decimal point. Each "same" field searches separately. This allows you to have a number in the main field, and a word in the "same" field. In a regular search, searching for 3>1000 means that field three (as it appears in the Regular Search menu) must contain a number greater than 1000. A simple field or whole record search for a number such as 20 finds instances of 20. It also finds 200, or 2000. Thus the Regular Search for numbers is more exact. When sorting numbers, the record list will show numbers first. then it shows mixed alphabetic/or number fields, then "blank" fields at the end. When printing tabular reports, the numbers justify to the right. Thus, they line up in a business like way. Regular Searches for numbers may be mixed with text. See the examples in the SEARCH/Regular Conditional Search section above. PRINTING p 27 Printing reports in Stowit: Most printing is done from the Record List. Select ALL, or do a Search. The records in the resulting Record List can be printed in various ways. To get to the Print Menu, select a Record List. Then, press the Alt-P key combination. - - - - - - - - - - - {EXAMPLE} - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Printing Options -------------------- | Whole Records | | Selected Fields | | Tabular Report | | List only | -------------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Make sure your printer is on line. Then select the type of printing you wish. Whole Records will print every whole record, fitting more than record on a page if possible. It works from the active list on the Record List. Selected Fields will ask you which fields you wish to include. Only those fields from the records on your list will be printed. Tabular report will allow you to select fields to print in table form, one line for each record. If the fields are too wide, the software will say so, and the print job will not be done. Additionally, from any Record Screen you may print the current record by pressing the Alt-P combination. Make sure your printer is on line first. SORTING and BACKUP NOTE p 28 You may sort any record list by a different field in the record. Once you do this, any printing or displaying will present the records in the new order. Each time you enter a record list, the records sort by the first field. In a records albums file, for example, they might be sorted by "Album title." After sorting, the records might be sorted alphabetically by "Artist." When you sort, the highlight bar follows the highlighted record in the list. To sort a Record List, press the Alt-S key combination from the record list. Then, select the field to sort by. Records sorted alphabetically. They sort by the first 50 characters of the field only. Use Ctrl-Page-Up to get to the first page. Use Ctrl-Page-Down to get to the last page of the list. Numeric data (integers from -2147483648 to +2147483647) sort first, smallest to largest. Mixed alphabetic or other numeric data sorts next, followed by "blank" fields. These are fields that have nothing entered. BACKUP NOTE: - - - - - - - - - {INSTRUCTIONS}- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Follow this Only if you are backing up an entire Stowit directory. TO BACK UP AN ENTIRE STOWIT DIRECTORY TO RESTORE LATER, COPY ALL FILES IN THE STOWIT DIRECTORY INCLUDING THE PROGRAM FILES TO A BLANK FLOPPY. THEN, WHEN RESTORING THE FILES, WORK WITH AN EMPTY SUB DIRECTORY. THE FILES DO NOT MIX AND MATCH, AND SO IT IS BEST TO RESTORE A BACKED UP STOWIT PACKAGE TO AN EMPTY SUBDIRECTORY. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO NORMAL USE OF STOWIT. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -