Welcome to infoHandler. We've got a lot of great tips for getting the most out of this program, so leave Tip of the Day turned on for a while. If you turn Tip of the Day off, it is available from the Help menu. Please read now at least the next two tips.
'INTRODUCING CHAPTERS' on the ?-menu is a good place to start using infoHandler.
In subfolder 'SAMPLES' of the installation folder (usually 'C:\Program Files\mdeSoft\infoHandler') you find demo Infobases that are intended as a tutorial for infoHandler. If you are quite new to infoHandler begin with opening 'Example.0..TheBasics'. The other examples introduce more advanced features.
For almost all items that you see in the infoHandler window you can get helpful information. First click with the left mouse button on the button with the '?' on the tool bar, or in the case of dialog windows on the title bar, and then on the spot you would like info for.
You can adjust the layout of the Infobase Window in many ways (and persistently) to the varying demands of the Infobases and your current task. To do this click on the small bars between the areas or on the joins between the headers of the Category Lists and the Infolist, and then drag them in the desired direction.
You can customize the standard tool bar to your personal requirements. To customize just click with the right mouse button on the toolbar.
You can also move the buttons of the standard tool bar by simply dragging them. To do this hold down the shift key, click left on the button, and drag to the new position.
You can position the tool bars freely inside the main window. To do this click on a space between two buttons and drag to the new position. The position of the format toolbar is stored between sessions so you will find it at the same place where you left it last time when you start infoHandler.
When you create a new Infobase for a new topic an initial Category Group is created automatically. Often this is enough for a beginning. Collect in this all needed Categories for a while, you can group them more meaningfully later on gaining experience. Of course you also may rename this group and/or define other groups right away if you know what to do.
Clicking with the right mouse button often brings up a menu of local options.
Typing F2 creates new Info, Shift+F2 creates new Info and a new document additionally.
Clicking onto the header of one of the Info Category Lists creates a new Category for this group. If at the same time info is active and in edit mode (eg while creating new info), this new Category is attached automatically to this info.
F3 toggles the edit mode for the currently active Info. Shift+F3 makes this mode persistent for all activated Info Records (until switched off by typing F3 again).
F4 opens an object linked to the active Info. If this object is a text file the respective text editor is launched; if it is an internet address the internet object is loaded; if it is an e-mail address an e-mail message is created.
F5 activated the first Infobase Window in the list of open windows (see menu Window). This is useful if you manage your Infobases in a special dedicated infobase and then load this always first after starting infoHandler.
With F6 and Shift+F6 you can jump between the Infolist, the Infotitle, the Infotext, and the Info Category Lists.
Changing something in the Infobase Category Lists (top-left in the window) affects the choice of records in the Infolist (top-right) only after some delay. You can set this delay time according to your preferences using 'Options' in menu 'Extras'. Preset is one second and you can it set to zero if you like.
If you have set the delay time for updating the Infolist to a high value - such avoiding disturbances during setting up a Category filter - you can start the immediate update by pressing F7 or selecting command 'Update Infolist'.
F8 toggles the Card View. In the Card View mode you see more of the Infotext.
If you copy large portions of text as Infotext (perhaps from the Internet) you might want to structure this for quick access to parts of it. A good means for this purpose is to bracket some headers or keywords with '{' and '}' and then jump there using the Page-up or Page-down keys. You'll find a special command for bracketing in Menu 'Infotext'.
Pressing F9 and F10 sets the Infotime of the active Info. F9 sets it to the current date and F10 sets it to the previously set date.
Pressinf F12 defines a new alarm for the active Info, Shift+F12 defines a "free" alarm without referring to any info.
You can initialize the text of new Info in a simple way. To do this just create an Info Rrecord with the special title '***' and enter the initial text as its Infotext. This text is then copied as Infotext automatically to every new info.
If you have marked some text in the Infotext or the Reference of the active Info the command 'Open' becomes a special meaning. It then tries to interpret the selected text as identifying an object (folder, file, URL, or e-mail address) and tries to "open" that object.
You can drag the button bars around using the mouse on the grey border around the buttons. They can be docked on any side of the main window or left floating.
If you double-click in the Infolist on the right of a column header the width of this column is adjusted exactly to the widest entry in this column.
End of tips - thanks for your interest in infoHandler. If you click again on Next Tip you'll find you once more being at the beginning of this list.
