Software of the Month Club 1996 May

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CHAPTER 3 THE FOLDER AREA Operations on a Closed Folder Opening a Folder INTRODUCING THE FOLDER AREA... The first screen you see when GIM starts up is a thing called the "folder screen", or more often, the "Folder Area". (Well, okay, strictly speaking, the VERY first screen you see is a title screen which includes a copyright notice, the date that your copy of GIM was compiled, and a lot of startup notices and a note about EMS memory usage. That's not the Folder Area; it's just some introductory stuff that doesn't apply to this chapter. Ignore it for now.) The folder screen consists of: - a menu bar across the top, - a list of drives that are valid on your machine in a box on the upper left; the currently selected drive has an arrow next to it, - a report of the total size of the current drive, and the space available, in a box on the lower left, - a partial list of directories on the current drive in a box in the center; the current directory has an arrow next to it, and - a list of GIM folders in the current directory in a box on the right; if you're new to GIM, there won't be any GIM folders listed in this box (except for the Lincoln folders if you are in the directory where they reside). Get a good look at this screen. Throughout the rest of the chapter, we'll be referring to it as the "Folder Area". In fact, we'll be referring to the "Folder Area" throughout the entire GIM documentation, because everything you do in GIM starts in the Folder Area. First, let's briefly discuss "areas" in GIM, so you know what we mean by the "Folder Area", and how it differs from the other "areas" that GIM has to offer. Then, we'll discuss the parts of the Folder Area in more detail, including the functions that are available from the menu bar, and including the meanings for the different boxes. Finally, we'll take you step-by-step through the process of opening an existing folder, which will lead you into the next chapter, which discusses the "Multi Area". INTRODUCING OTHER GIM AREAS... Each of GIM's functions takes place in its own particular "area". So for example: - adding a new person to your family tree, or making changes to an existing person, is done in the "Person Area"; for details, see chapter 7. - adding or changing a family is done from the "Family Area"; see chapter 8. - setting preferences, choosing a printer, enabling or disabling mouse support, and other configuration tasks are done from the "Setup Area"; see chapter 6. - printing pedigree charts and family group records is done from the "Forms Area"; see chapter 10. In other words, when this documentation speaks of "areas", it's referring to visual environments that are set up to perform a particular function or set of functions. Each of the different areas is entered by pressing some function key from an area above it. For example, to get to the Forms Area, you first run GIM, where you start in the Folder Area; next, you enter a folder (more on this in a moment); and lastly, you press F3 to enter the Forms Area. Most areas reside beneath the Multi Area, and these will be listed in the next chapter; several others reside beneath the Folder Area, and will be discussed below. All of the major areas have their own mini-areas beneath them; for example, the Forms Area has a Styles area, a Typesetting area, a Pedigree Chart area and two Family Group Record areas beneath it. (These are discussed in detail in chapter 10.) INTRODUCING FOLDERS: JUST WHAT IS A FOLDER, ANYWAY?... If you're like me, you have a lot of genealogical records and other papers stored in hanging file folders, with each folder representing a different ancestral line, or family name, or geographical area. In the same way, a GIM folder is a collection of persons, families, and notes, gathered and linked together into one family tree, and kept in a single place. When you get to the end of this chapter, you'll open a folder, and see what one looks like on the inside, and lot of things will make more sense. Until then, just trust us; a folder is a collection of related persons, families, and notes. As we go through this documentation, you'll see that this folder approach is simple, yet elegant -- and not just a little innovative. We are unaware of any other software product which handles collections of genealogical data in such an organized fashion. The folder approach offers a great deal of orderliness, and yet is flexible enough to accommodate any genealogical task. Folders can hold over 2,000,000,000 persons, and over 2,000,000,000 families, and there can be as many folders as your disk drives can hold. Folders can be split apart (see pruning in chapter 12), joined together (see grafting in chapter 13), and shared between PAF, FamilySearch, Brother's Keeper, and many other software packages (see information about GEDCOM in chapter 14). For DOS experts, a folder is a group of five DOS files, kept in a single DOS directory. For example, a file called SMITH consists of the following files: SMITH.GD, SMITH.GI, SMITH.GF, SMITH.GN, and SMITH.GP. THE PARTS OF THE FOLDER AREA: THE MENU BAR... A multilayered menu of things to do is presented at the top of the screen in a two line format. Specifically, the menu bar for the Folder Area looks a little like this: F1 OPEN F3 F5 GEDCOM F7 SETUP F9 HELP F2 RENAME F4 BACKUP F6 F8 (Ctl-F8 COLORS) 10 EXIT GIM Actually, it looks a little better than this, because it's in color, and it's spread out a little more. We scrunched it up here so that it would fit within the margins! What it means is that by pressing each of the function keys, you can activate a different function. Specifically: F1 opens an existing folder, or creates a new one F2 renames an existing folder F3 doesn't do anything F4 does a consistency check and a backup of your folder (see the discussion of folder backups below) F5 enters the GEDCOM Area (see chapter 14) F6 doesn't do anything F7 enters the Setup Area (see chapter 6) F8 doesn't do anything, but this menu item reminds you that control-F8 edits colors for this area F9 brings up context-sensitive help (see chapter 5) F10 exits GIM; the escape key does this also This type of menu is available in almost all areas of the program. Access to additional menus choices are displayed by pressing and holding either the <SHIFT>, <CTRL>, or <ALT> keys. These keys in combination with a function key will activate the corresponding sublayered menu item. In other words, when you hold down the <SHIFT> key, the menu bar changes to look like this: F1 F3 DOS SHELL F5 F7 GIM SETUP F9 NEW USERS F2 F4 F6 F8 10 Again, we've scrunched this up a little to get it to fit into the margins. The point is, this menu bar reminds you of what the shifted function keys do. Specifically: shift-F3 invokes a DOS shell shift-F7 lets you pick first-time global color settings shift-F9 is some introductory help for new users Holding down the <CTRL> key shows other functions: control-F2 deletes the current folder -- be careful!! control-F4 restores a folder from a backup control-F8 changes colors, as discussed later on control-F9 brings up the "Full Menu", a verbose list of the commands associated with each function key; the Full Menu is available for any GIM Area control-F10 selects novice/expert mode; see chapter 17, "Advanced Techniques", for details. What you'll notice is that the more common functions are assigned to the unshifted function keys, while the less common are assigned to the shifted, control, and alternate function keys. We've tried to maintain that approach in all areas of GIM. Play with this a little, not just here but in all GIM areas, and you'll see what we mean. Hold down the shift, control, and alt keys and notice what it does to the menu bar. Note that in most, if not all areas, the following keys have an almost universal function: <F8> Repaint/redraw the current display. <CTRL>+<F8> Change the color palette for the current area. <F9> Help! <F10> Exit (and save changes) from the current area to the previous area. Usually, but not always, the escape key does this too. BOXES IN THE FOLDER AREA... The folder area is divided into four windows. Two windows on the left show the available disk drives, and the space available on the current drive. The center window displays some or all of the directories of the currently selected disk drive. The right window lists the GIM folders within the selected directory. To switch between these windows, use the right and left arrow keys, or the mouse if you have one. Note that the current window is highlighted with a double box. When a window is highlighted, use the up and down arrow keys or the mouse to select items in that window. For example, to change the selected drive from C: to D:, use the left arrow key to move to the leftmost window. Assuming that the arrow in that box is pointing to the C: drive, use the down arrow to select D: drive. Try it, and you'll see what we mean. This sort of thing works for all the windows in the Folder Area. When you first start up GIM, all of the directories are not displayed. Only the last directory used from the previous session of GIM is displayed. This will speed the selection of a folder and entrance into the Multi Area. Any vertical movement within the directory window will initiate a search for all directories on the selected disk drive and then will display all of the directories/subdirectories on that disk drive. When you select a floppy diskette drive, be sure there is a diskette in the drive. In the event that GIM doesn't find a diskette there, you will be asked for verification. In the folder box, there will be zero or more folders listed. If you're new to GIM, there won't be any, unless you have put the LINCOLN sample folders in the current directory. However, one thing you will always see in that box is an entry called "«new file»". If you want to create a folder from scratch, select this entry. Doing so will create a brand new, empty folder, and will place you inside it. For now, however, if you're new to GIM, start by experimenting with the sample LINCOLN folders, and come back to the "«new file»" entry when you're ready to use GIM for real. MORE ABOUT MENU BAR FUNCTIONS... Most of the functions that are available from the Folder Area are either pretty self-explanatory (rename, delete, exit), or they are discussed in later chapters of this documentation (GEDCOM, Setup, Help). Three exceptions to this statement are: - folder backups - setting and changing colors - opening a folder Each of these will be discussed below in turn. FOLDER BACKUPS... A folder backup is duplicate copy of folder data that is made so that, in the event of the destruction of the original data, a restoration from the duplicated data is available. Of course, no one plans on losing data, but it happens, and the folder backup provides a security blanket just in case. Before performing the backup, GIM does a very thorough consistency check on your data. If the folder check shows that the folder is not clean, the backup copy is not created. This assures that the backup copy is always sound, so that if for some reason your folder becomes corrupted, and if you should need to restore your folder from a backup, you know you'll get back to a clean set of data. If the consistency check reveals that your folder has become corrupted, there are three things you can do. The first is to restore a previous backup and re-enter any changes you've made since then. The second is to use the "Fix Folder" function that is described in chapter 16. The third, if neither of these other approaches works, is to send your folder to us and let us fix it and send it back. How often should you do a backup? GIM will begin to nag you after you've made a number of changes to your folder, and you can change that threshold from the Setup Area; see chapter 6. As a rule of thumb, we recommend that you back up your folder after you've entered the equivalent of a family or two worth of new information. This is discussed in more detail in chapter 6. To initiate the backup process: - start from the Folder Area - select the folder you wish to back up; be sure that it is highlighted - press the <F4> key - if your folder is large, be patient.... SETTING AND CHANGING COLORS... Like all of the other GIM areas, the colors in the Folder Area can be changed to suit your personality. First of all, if you haven't done so already, pick some global colors by pressing shift-F7 from the Folder Area. That will take you to the global color selection area. Currently, there are five choices there. You'll want to experiment with each of them until you find one that's acceptable. Don't worry; you don't have to like any of them, because you will be able to change any or all of them any time you like. At any time, in any GIM area, you can press control-F8 to change the colors that are in use for that area. Please note that any changes you make to colors in (say) the Forms Area will ONLY apply to the Forms Area, and will have no effect on any other area. For each area, there are ten color sets to choose from. They are called: Normal, Bold, Reverse, Select, Prompt, Response, MenuFKey, MenuName, Footnote, and Mouse. Broadly speaking, they are used for the following purposes: Normal -- for ordinary text Bold -- for important text Reverse -- for very important text Select -- for highlighted items Prompt -- for asking questions Response -- for answering questions MenuFKey -- for the function key numbers in the menu bar MenuName -- for the function key names in the menu bar Footnote -- for footnotes Mouse -- for the mouse character Use up and down arrows to select a color to change; then use the F1 through F4 keys to change the fore- and background for that color. Do this as much as you like, and when you press F10 to exit the color edit menu, your color selections will be applied to the area you're in. These color changes will remain in effect forever, or until you change them again, whichever comes first. OPENING A FOLDER... For the purposes of this discussion, you'll need a folder to open. You should have received two sample folders, called LINCOLN1 and LINCOLN2, with this documentation. Put them somewhere, and we'll use them to practice opening a folder. Use the arrow keys or the mouse to move to the drive window on the folder screen. Select the drive where the LINCOLN folders are found. Then move to the center window, and use the arrow keys or the mouse to move to the directory where the LINCOLN folders are found. Now move to the folder window on the right hand side. LINCOLN1 and LINCOLN2 should be displayed in that window. Pick one -- either one -- using the up and down arrow keys or the mouse until the one you want is highlighted. Now, press the F1 key, or simply press the enter key. The area you are looking at now is called the "Multi Area". You are now ready to move on to chapter 4.