FINDEX <<< Database program from George Knight >>> INTRODUCTION Findex is an easy-to-use database program that will satisfy most of your needs in this application area. If you want a catalogue of programs, LP's, CD's, tapes, books, stamps, etc., or if you have a business and wish to store staff or stock records, this is for you! Findex helps you find what you want easily. A very useful feature of this program is its flexibility. You select your own layout but, if need be, you may diverge from it at any time if circumstances demand it. GENERAL Effectively, Findex operates on the basis of a two-dimensional array. Each item of data is regarded as belonging to a particular class, e.g., a program (item) on a disk (class), a book by an author, a CD recording by an artist, etc. The class is always stored and displayed in alphabetical order; each item is stored in order of entry. To find any item of data, either (a) find the class and then examine the items belonging to it or (b) use the search facility provided to find the item directly. You define display headings to suit your own needs. A DEMO Click the left mouse button on the Findex icon and a largely blank window opens. Choose OPEN from the FILE menu and select the file "Disks.fx", a small file created for demonstration purposes. In the top box, you will see a list of disk titles. Click on any one of these and several lines will appear in the lower box giving the names of programs stored on the selected disk. Repeat as often as you wish ! Choose SEARCH from the SPECIAL menu and type a name into the string requester without caring about upper/lower case. You might, for example, type in "text" if searching for a text editor. If the search is successful, i.e., if the string is contained in any individual item, the first of these will be displayed and highlighted in the lower box. In the upper box, the disk which has this item will be highlighted. Choose CONTINUE from the SPECIAL menu if you want to proceed with the search through the remaining items. You will notice that there are keyboard equivalents for the menu items. FILE CREATION To create your own database file, follow the procedure below. 1. Select NEW from the FILE menu 2. Choose HEADINGS from the SPECIAL menu and a requester appears in front of the upper box. Type in a heading of no more than 50 characters. Usually you will want columns of data beneath each word in the heading and so allow sufficient space for this. Click on OK when satisfied. 3. Another requester appears giving you the opportunity to enter item headings for the lower box. (Follow steps 2 & 3 at any time to change a heading.) 4. Click on the NEW button for the top box and enter all of the data for a class using the requester. Place the data to suit your own taste inserting spaces wherever you want them. It looks a lot better if you can align your data in columns beneath the appropriate heading. When satisfied click on OK. 5. Repeat the above procedure to add other classes to your database. 6. To enter an item of data, its class must previously have been stored. Firstly, find the class in the top box and click on it. Follow this with a click on the NEW button by the item box and enter your data through the requester. 7. To change a class or item, first select the appropriate line and then click on the CHANGE button. Type any changes through the requester and press OK. 8. To remove a line, select that line and click on the relevant DELETE button. You may delete a class only if it void of items. 9. When you have finished data entry, you must save your data to a file because the data entered is held only in memory while you are entering. To save, select SAVE from the FILE menu. A requester appears, allowing a file name to be typed. If you have been entering data for an existing file loaded at the start of the run, the name of this file is already displayed and you need only press . To exit either choose QUIT from the FILE menu or click on the close window button in the top left hand corner of your screen. MEMORY ALLOCATION When you run Findex, memory areas are set aside to store your data. For a new database, enough memory is allocated to handle 500 items, 250 classes and a maximum of 250 items in any one particular class. The number of classes and the total number of items in a database is displayed, at all times, in the window title bar. If you reach the limit of allocated capacity, a message will request you to save your data and increase memory capacity. An alternative would be to delete some of the existing data. To increase capacity, choose one of the alternatives offered in the CAPACITY menu and then SAVE. You must QUIT and then reload your data because memory is allocated only at the start of a run. Try to anticipate your needs in this regard to avoid any confusion that could arise if you find yourself out of memory in the middle of the run. George Knight 1 Audie Pde Berkeley Vale 2259 Australia